Class description: In this class we get at the first definitions of capital, labor-power, and surplus-value. Picking up on the introduction of money into the exchange process and the contradictions between use-value and...
capitalism
What is the capitalist class? An introduction
A 2020 report by the Institute for Policy Studies found that “Between 1990 and 2020, U.S. billionaire wealth soared 1,130 percent in 2020 dollars, an increase more than 200 times greater than the 5.37 percent growth of U.S. median wealth over this same period" [1]. In...
The rise of public education and why we're losing it today
In January 2002, President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind. NCLB requires states to develop assessments (standardized testing) to measure skills in order to receive federal funding. No Child Left Behind began the hysteria of “high stakes testing.” The...
The UN Climate Summit—words versus deeds
“At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production. ... From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social...
Welcome to ‘average prosperity’
According to the most recent data released by the Federal Reserve, U.S. industrial production as measured by the Fed's manufacturing index (see chart), reached 101.2 in May, finally surpassing the previous peak of 101.0, reached in December 2007. Following that peak,...