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Title: Cornel West: How Intellectuals Betrayed the Poor
Added: Jun 3, 2011
Author: bigthink
Duration: 6:39
Description:
http://bigthink.comFor 40 years academics were duped into idolizing the idea of unfettered markets, says Cornel West, and now our society is paying a terrible price.
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Videos related to 'Cornel West: How Intellectuals Betrayed the Poor'
Channel: Tech
Tags: bigthink big think bigthink.com cornel west intellectuals poor working class professor princeton african american wealth distribution welfare inequality obama change demonizing democracy demos
bigthink big think bigthink.com cornel west intellectuals poor working class professor princeton african american wealth distribution welfare inequality obama change demonizing democracy demos
Youtube Comments: 1232
jaegergud Says:
May 12, 2012 - The federal reserev and the push to get off the gold standard are precisely why we have up such drastic up/down swings bone head! Rich and wealthy create jobs. Those same people at $250,000 are the ones that grow economies and hire people bone head. My small business is over regulated and over taxed. I could have hired two people this year but cannot because of the regulations and taxes that financial possibility. Your are extremely disillusioned if you use the exception as the rule.
jaegergud Says:
May 12, 2012 - oh and all the great accomplishments in history were achieved without government bureaucracy . You think stalin or lenin truly cared about people? They were motivated by self interest much like the Al Sharptons of the world. Sorry I do not think government can better "govern" people than people.
jaegergud Says:
May 12, 2012 - Look at recent events where government prevents children from performing tasks on farms they have been for decades. Even though they bundled statistics from accidents not related to farming into the forums so as to make people believe children were being harmed. Listen pal you cannot save everybody . There will always be poor. Capitalism minimized there numbers . Not everyone can be a millionaire. If you make minimum wage work to change your status . DO NOT BLAME THE RICH .
Debonair73 Says:
May 12, 2012 - @jaegergud,using the example of child labor on farms isn't the best way to make your point about the good of capitalism. LOL!!! Also, I know you're commenting back and forward with a number of people but I'm not some big lefty but your DO NOT BLAME THE RICH mantra is too board. It should be DON'T BLAME ALL THE RICH BUT THESE RICH BANKERS and WALL STREET TRADERS YOU CAN BLAME THE FUCK OUT OF THEM.
jaegergud Says:
May 13, 2012 - they do not see it as child labor nor should they. It is part of their culture and families have been using children on farms for generations. They work as a family and as a team. Nothing wrong with it. My grandfather grew up on a farm. Greed exists in socialism as well and frankly is is much easier to hide in socialized government than in capital markets.
creamone Says:
May 14, 2012 - Put all the blame on the 99%, the banks had no problems giving out loans to people that couldn't afford these homes, plus issuing adjustable rates on top of that. Look we are going in circles, they are people out here in the world with new ideas for a better sustainable way of living instead of this game we play, of the everyday grind chasing money to buy resources. There is a better way check out The Free World Charter, The Venus Project, The Zeitgeist Movement. Let's upgrade our social system
jaegergud Says:
May 14, 2012 - what you fail to realize is the socialist agenda put in place where instead of requiring the normal 20% down because "everyone should own a home" the banks were acting within the laws/regulations. Secondary to the lack of a gold standard played havoc with interest rates further destabilizing the market. No system works better than capitalism . Capitalism puts destiny in your own hands and does not rely upon what others feel is in your best interest.
jaegergud Says:
May 14, 2012 - Shavez was elected but then so wasn't Gorbachev. Do you know what happens in those countries if you do not vote for the chosen candidates? He is being intellectually dishonest. Funny how men like him put communist/socialist countries up on a pedestal . These same countries qualify votes have laws that make Jim Crow LAws look tame and yet socialists love them. Could it be that there is no choice (as in Capitalism) and their agendas can be forced upon the people without any real dissent ?
truthtofind Says:
May 14, 2012 - I agree with his points about the asymetrical relation between employers and employees and that the demonization of the working poor is unfair. It's not solely personal characteristics that are directly determinative of an individual's situation. A person can't get a job that isn't there.But I don't know that it's unfettered markets that lead to the degree of assymetry. Career paths and business undertakings are both controlled through government licensing, making it difficult for the...
truthtofind Says:
May 14, 2012 - ...little guy to get a competitive foothold in an economy dominated by established entities. Simultaneously, this drives up the cost of essential goods and services for that same little guy. He gets squeezed on both ends.In this way, the absence of true unfettered markets may itself be what brings about the asymetry through licensing and regulations that protect established enterprises from competition from upstarts.
truthtofind Says:
May 14, 2012 - He also makes very good points about marches and such. I don't know why anyone bothers with such symbolic gestures. You have to have leverage or power of some sort to change anything, and individuals that don't have it would do better concentrate on their personal lot so that they do rather than engage in these ineffective collective political actions.Finally, I think it's not in the interests of the poor to point out that what affects them disproportionately involves minorities. That...
truthtofind Says:
May 14, 2012 - may be true, but it complicates the focus by mixing two separate issues. Individuals in the working poor demographic of any race, I believe, have their lives considerably more impacted by this economic issue than by racial issues, and would serve themselves better not to sidetrack into the racial issue at the expense of the economic one.
truthtofind Says:
May 14, 2012 - "The test of your rule of law is how the most vulnerable are being treated."Applying this strictly to law and justice, I agree completely. The legal system is so expensive to utilize that it often does not secure justice for the vulnerable. Rather it protects the empowered.
GraysonDean1990 Says:
May 18, 2012 - Well, American workers demand higher wages, more rights. Productions costs are much higher in US than most of the world. That's why jobs are gone. Whether you like it or not, that's how the capitalistic society operates.
rickbar123 Says:
May 18, 2012 - Higher than Germany or Demark ? Our cost are lower than lots of countrys in the EU. I am so sorry I will not sleep on the factory lawn like the people in Veit Nam. Or sleep in a factory dorm like the workers in China. The day is comming when the door will slam shut on imports and price controls will be the norm. Thats how capitalistic societys end when the 99% have had enough bullshit from the 1%.
bosshog7169 Says:
May 19, 2012 - I wish there was another successful black professor who actually knew what he was talking about so all the black celebrities could suck his dick instead.
GraysonDean1990 Says:
May 20, 2012 - I agree with u on "1%ers" deceiving general public. And, 99%ers are not against capitalistic society, but rather against corrupt corporations and ineffective government. Plus, American economy is a capitalistic society and will always remain one.
rickbar123 Says:
May 20, 2012 - If the masses hit the streets, it will be seen what comes of it. Look at what France just did.
GTMElliot Says:
May 24, 2012 - Our problem lies not in Capitalism, but in Capitalists.
TinySissyCheater Says:
May 24, 2012 - I think it is only a matter of time until the little people realise that there is a great deal more of them than there is big people. Power only stems from the illusion of control.
loveisamistake Says:
May 24, 2012 - This guy is a nutjob. How is he even allowed to teach anything? Scary that this man is teaching our children.
MamonMuch Says:
May 24, 2012 - This guy is a nutjob? Because saying makes it true, right! How is he allowed to teach? We live in a free society. Where intellectuals, regardless of their ideology, are allowed and encouraged to put forth their ideas freely. You can not prohibit anyone from teaching anything in a civil society. Scary that this man is teaching OUR children? He might be teaching some children. Clearly not your children, someone smart enough to go to Princeton could not have come from an ignoramus fool.
JustAManFromThePast Says:
May 25, 2012 - Power stems from the barrel of a gun.
PlainIntricacy Says:
May 25, 2012 - That's like saying AIDS is not the problem, but the people carrying the virus.
jaegergud Says:
May 12, 2012 - No capitalism did not "fail" . You probably believe the stick market crash was the trigger and not the symptom to right ? Did you know that a majority of teh middle class survived all be it by tightening their belts? Did you know same people you would probably indite for collusion in capitalisms failure dumps pre-copious amounts of money into the situation because they cared?