An Educational Service for Those Interested in Capitalist Economics

[Adele Edisen]

The following is a mini-course in economics taught by Dr. Richard Wolff, economist, and it consists of four lessons, each 1-1/2 to 2 hours long.

The title of the course is "Introduction to Marxian Economics," an analysis of Capitalism, the life work of Karl Marx.

Dr. Wolff, a graduate of Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, spent most of his adult life teaching neoclassical (capitalist) and marxian economics
at the University of Massachusetts. He is currently at the New School in New York City. An experienced teacher who knows his subject matter
very well, as you will see.

1) http://www.youtube.com./watch?v=GniC6SUVUJk


2) http://www.youtube.com./watch?v=K1oAfex09Q8


3) http://www.youtube.com./watch?v=CbbImIh6Eok


4) http://www.youtube.com./watch?v=HFOCdIwNFks

Adele

[Adele Edisen]

More Lesson Videos by Dr. Richard Wolff:

(Note: The URL for Lesson 1 has been corrected.)

Advanced and Applied Marxian Economics

1. http://www.youtube.com./watch?v=WGYdZo3mw00

2. http://www.youtube.com./watch?v=0zc1bI8ZOnM

3. http://www.youtube.com./watch?v=fN86CkP04-0

4. http://www.youtube.com./watch?v=Fgkzhq3-vlA


Adele

[Magda Hassan]

Thanks for all these links Adele. Prof Wolff has an easy colloquial manner to introduce and make accessible this excellent analytical tool to the non-academics amongst us.

[Adele Edisen]

Thanks for all these links Adele. Prof Wolff has an easy colloquial manner to introduce and make accessible this excellent analytical tool to the non-academics amongst us.

Magda,

You are most welcome. He has the most understandable explanation for the Labor Theory of Value. When I was in collage at the U of Chicago, Karl Marx was required reading in some of our courses, but my professors had only
a superficial idea of this important concept of Marx's, which is key to understadiong his systemic analysis of capitalist economics. I had to dig it out for myself, but it really would have helped to have had a professor like Richard Wolff.

I should give full credit to Dr. Robert Hutchins, Chancellor of the University of Chicago at that time who, with other scholars designed the curriculum of the College and based it on the Great Books of the Western World.
Karl Marx's work is the last volume (#54) of the original set of Great Books. The University of Chicago was among the very few US institutions of higher learning where Karl Marx's writings were being studied at the college
and the graduate levels at that time. Dr. Richard Wolff studied economics at Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, but never was taught even the basic ideas of Marx. He had to learn Marxian economics on his own.

Adele

[Magda Hassan]

It is reassuring to hear that something of real value is (or was?) taught at Chicago University which is more associated in my mind with the Milton Friedman's shock therapy Chicago School of Economics or voodoo economics as I think of it. It seems quite pathetic that the state of education in the US is so poor that one cannot learn Marx as a matter of course because it is a fundamental classic of Western philosophy and this is especially so in economics. How could any one study economics, especially at any higher level, and not study Marx's Capital? What poverty of mind is that? I also find Marx excellent on the social sciences and history in general for understanding all sorts of things that have happened and ways to see the future. Dialectics (yes, Hegel too but Marx takes it to another level with Dialectical Materialism) Labor Theory of Value, Historical Materialism, Surplus Value, class analysis and more. Understanding any of these concepts immeasurably enhances ones understanding of the world and how it works. Which possibbly explains some of why it is absent from many US educational institutions.... :bolt:

[Adele Edisen]

Magda wrote:

It is reassuring to hear that something of real value is (or was?) taught at Chicago University which is more associated in my mind with the Milton Friedman's shcok therapy Chicago School of Economics or voodoo economics as I think of it. It seems quite pathetic that the state of education in the US is so poor that one cannot learn Marx as a matter of course because it is a fundamental classic of Western philosophy and this is especially so in economics. How could any one study economics, especially at any higher level, and not study Marx's Capital? What poverty of mind is that? I also find Marx excellent on the social sciences and history in general for understanding all sorts of things that have happened and ways to see the future. Dialectics (yes, Hegel too but Marx takes it to another level with Dialectical Materialism) Labor Theory of Value, Historical Materialism, Surplus Value, class analysis and more. Understanding any of these concepts immeasurably enhances ones understanding of the world and how it works. Which possibbly explains some of why it is absent from many US educational institutions.

Magda.

Yes, Milton Friedman gave lectures to us in the College. It was at a time of the Cold War and McCarthy Period, so there was fear on campus for our professors. Dr. Anton J.Carrlson, Professor of Physiology, and the Dean of the Social Sciences Division, Dean Birgess, were both called before the US House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities. These two elderly highly respected gentlemen protested outside of the meetings and called for open hearings so that the Ameican people could see what this Committee was doing to the Freedom of Speech and Thought. Carlson was strong advocate of Free Speech and he had volunteered to be the Faculty Sponsor of the Student Marxist Club and the Student Fascist Club because no other faculty member was willing to take that responsibility. I don't recall why Dean Burgress was called, maybe for the progressive views of some of his faculty.

Colonel McCormick's newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, was always writing nasty editorials and articles about the University, attacking it as a pro-comminist "little red schoolhouse." He was the "Rupert Mudoch" of that day. After Robert Hutchins left the next President of the University was incapable of maintaining the high educational standards held by Hutchins.

The educational levels in this country have really gone way down. And the worst part is that important economic concepts and philosophical ideas are suppressed and lacking in the curriculums ofs so may sdcools. Even education has become "politicized", as you point out..

One thng I can say about the Hutchins program is that the Socratic method which was used tauight people how to think, and that seems to be missing at Harvard, Yale, and other elite schools. It was never used there, actually, and it is a very powerful teaching method because it demands participation of the students in the learniong process. It motivates students to want learn more.

Thank you for your comments.

Adele

[Magda Hassan]

You were so lucky to have had such great teachers at that time. Pricipled men and with a talent for inspiring their students. Many have the knowledge but not the ability to pass it along or engage others with it. We need much more of this.

[Jim Hackett II]

How in the hell can anyone get to a 3rd year of a Big 10 University but still not possess rudimentary working knowledge of the English language or US History?

By being a future first round draft pick for the NBA and a starter on an NCAA Final Four contender.... PU is ashamed or should be.

For every great teacher I was given gifts from, I had to tolerate 10 people that should never have been teachers.
Some I paid for the junk, some my parents' taxes paid for.

As example: One teacher encouraged me to read anything and everything I desired.
Grades were up and extra credit was free as I was gonna read things anyhow, I'll take the gravy for free.
I was reading funny papers long before K thru 1.
Other teachers forbid extra reading insisting on adherence to a syllabus I guess. What the heck?

More could be conveyed in a hour from the gifted teachers than from a semester of the quasi-fascist instructors.
The most brilliant person I have ever known taught college level astro-physics and had the gift to teach and convey his knowledge to even dummies like me. It is rare and memorable to have known teachers like that.

Others passed the love of History and Poly/Sci.
Today after Bu$h's 'all poor children left out', public "education" in the US consists of teaching to the tests.
Teachers hate this crap as I hear it.
Steal the money from public schools, public works programs and give it to the DOD and Intell houses.
That's the USGovernment way now.
And some wonder why Johnny can't read.

Seemingly the parents fumbled the handoff too.
Because he didn't know he had to educate himself,
his instructors left that out and the teachers had already quit for better pay.

Sometimes to teach at the taxpayer subsidized "charter school" scam, or at the private school down the road where the wealthy live behind guarded gates.
The public school system and TV child-sitters as they stand now are not capable of the task of education of the public.

Education should never be a class issue, but it is in America.
Education is the excuse tool used to separate the classes.
Jim
Me? I liked working outdoors with my hands and my mind.
But I still didn't sleep in class very often.
In effect I chose the life, not being a ghost.

[Adele Edisen]

You were so lucky to have had such great teachers at that time. Pricipled men and with a talent for inspiring their students. Many have the knowledge but not the ability to pass it along or engage others with it. We need much more of this.

Magda,

Yes, it was pure luck because the war veterans of WW2 were given priority over civilian student applicants. The University of Chicago was the only school which accepted me; the other three universities I had applied to were all state universities and they rejected me because I was a civilian, not military, applicant, and I was female. There was a lot of sex discrimination in those days. Also, military applicants had the GI Bill, and the schools were required to accept them.
The male to female ratio on our campus was 2 to 1 at that time.

And Jim, who said:

As example: One teacher encouraged me to read anything and everything I desired.

That was one very smart teacher, giving you the freedom to read and to enjoy it. I can't tell how much I have learned on my own by just reading. And I have met a number of self-taught people who have become experts in their fields of interest. I think it was Aristotle who said that everyone has an overwhelming desire "to know".

Adele

[David Guyatt]

You were so lucky to have had such great teachers at that time. Pricipled men and with a talent for inspiring their students. Many have the knowledge but not the ability to pass it along or engage others with it. We need much more of this.

Magda,

Yes, it was pure luck because the war veterans of WW2 were given priority over civilian student applicants. The University of Chicago was the only school which accepted me; the other three universities I had applied to were all state universities and they rejected me because I was a civilian, not military, applicant, and I was female. There was a lot of sex discrimination in those days. Also, military applicants had the GI Bill, and the schools were required to accept them.
The male to female ratio on our campus was 2 to 1 at that time.

And Jim, who said:

As example: One teacher encouraged me to read anything and everything I desired.

That was one very smart teacher, giving you the freedom to read and to enjoy it. I can't tell how much I have learned on my own by just reading. And I have met a number of self-taught people who have become experts in their fields of interest. I think it was Aristotle who said that everyone has an overwhelming desire "to know".

Adele

The love of reading IS the definition of self education, I think.