Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "Why is the Russian Economy Not Being Destroyed? | Richard D. Wolff" video.

  1. ​ @lawrieyoutube4375  You are 100% on topic the real debate now is unregulated versus regulated capital. I was on the Steve Keen and Friends podcast last night and the guest brought up the subject of Good and Bad regulations. I agree with him that we must get rid of bad regulations, but he's also a CATO Institute guy and people like Charles Koch want to completely dismantle all regulatory systems so they can do whatever they like however they like without any consideration of the consequences to the rest of us. As an engineer who works within regulatory frameworks all the time I get this concept. They work well when they are sound and are a hassle when they aren't. Case in point the Boeing Max-8. I would actually re-phrase your remark to. The current conflict is between 2 ideologies where one side believes in sound regulatory frameworks that need to be flexible so they can adjust to changes in society and/or technology VERSUS those who would destroy all regulatory frameworks because they see any restrictions on their desires as inherently evil. They aren't wrong when they claim bad regulations hurt society, but their answer means anarchy and they'd happily let chaos decide the fate of humanity. You can quote me on that if you like. Just give me credit
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  2. Long comment but it reads just like a few other comments I have written and others have written in recent years. If you go back and look for an interview Yanis Varoufakis did on the David Pakman Show (here on YouTube) he makes a really interesting point at one stage. Yanis (paraphrasing) said that Capitalism worked while Social Democracy worked because SD kept capitalism civilised and kept it in check. With no outside threat America lost its mission which was to beat Russia and because there was no "what do we do when its over" plan its ended up in this mess where the oligarchs are out of control and those oligarchs like funding the populist clowns like Trump, Marjorie TG, Lauren "happy hands" Boebert and Mike "chosen by God" Johnson and others because they keep everyone DISTRACTED. I think Richard is right about a lot of things, BUT ALSO he's so into his Marxism GOOD Capitalism BAD thing, that he occasionally blinds himself to certain realities. Like BRICS being a solution - its NOT because BRICS is a NOT a real thing. Its a term invented by an American economist/banker to describe those countries. They might be forming a lose organisation now but they simply wont go far because all of those countries have massive structural issues. Both Russia and China have massive demographics problems (see Peter Zeihan on that). India unfortunately has a number of major cultural issues that makes a lot of development difficult and also quite destructive because they also want a coal based energy economy. Brasil and South Africa are both rife with corruption and structural issues as well. The Middle Eastern Oil States that are joining in are also rife with corruption. On Marxism Richard also ignore the following 2 points. 1) Some of the worst human rights abuses in all of human history happened in the Marxist regimes of Soviet Russia and Maoist China. He never talks about that. 2) Some of the worst environmental disasters like the destruction of the Aral Sea, the toxic waste dumps of Eastern Europe and the destruction of the Chinese water ways did not involve a single capitalist. He never talks about that. A lot of Richards analysis and criticism of capitalism are VALID and its why I listen to him BUT he rarely puts his alternative Marxist systems to the same scrutiny and the few times I have heard him do it he's been dismissive of the reality and just criticised the leaders of various nations.
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  3.  Jose-hs4vk  Yeah sure I'll agree with you any day of the week America and the West are in decline with serious structural issues. BUT if you think that handing control of the planet to China and Russia and the rest of the BRICS will be good THEN YOU'RE INSANE. Both Russia and China are ruthless dictatorships with horrendous human rights records. Both Russia and China have caused some of the worst environmental disasters in human history like the destruction of the Aral Sea and the destruction of Chinese waterways. As for Brasil, India and South Africa they are all rife with issues and corruption. Then there's the Arabian oil states who believe that anyone questioning their rule gets there head removed in public. YES America and the West are in decline but BRICS is NOT a solution.
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