Response to Larry Elder on the Breakfast Club and Rattlesnake TV
This is my response to the video HERE
Even as a leftist myself i can see some good points to what Larry Elder is saying. But, the solution to much of this is to widen beyond the exclusively anti-racism focus that so many people have now towards greater focus on changing the economic system. That is the key thing, and we are not focusing on it nearly enough.
What we also have as a difference between Larry's youth and now is the change from Keynesian economics to neo-liberal economics. Various studies from respected agencies show that even white middle class people are less well off now than they were until the mid 1970s, when neo-liberalism took over. Larry Elder mentions the time that black people's economic situation expanded the most: during the Keynesian economics period. He says it was because black kids normally had fathers at home. But that was not the only or key reason for black people's economic situation getting better then, it was because of the TYPE of economic system we organised ourselves in then.
He mentions entrepreneurship...but it is under the neo-liberalism of what we might call crazy unbalanced entrepreneurship that our level of well being and economic stability has got worse (yes, it has, check the stats from a wide variety of mainstream agencies). Keynesian economics from WW11 to mid 1970s had more balanced control over capitalism, and as he himself notes, that's when things saw the greatest improvement. So why is he not mentioning that things have got worse since neo-liberal economics became the norm? Presumably he knows that, since he is clearly a smart guy. But it goes against his philosophy. He also mentions the local community rebuilding Tulsa after the riots. That local activism could easily be seen as a left approach, since the very central aim of the left is that local communities (of any colour) run things for themselves.
Not the central govt - which is not actually what the left is aiming at despite 90% of people thinking it is. Larry here says "socialism means when govt owns the means of production". That is not true. Or, to be fair, we might say there may be a temporary stage when some govt authority takes that over from rich owners. BUT, govt owning the means of production is NOT the central or final aim of socialism (or communism or anarchism). The central aim of anarchism and socialism is that people run their own workplaces and communities, help each other, pool together.... So, isn't THAT collective effort how the people in Tulsa rebuilt their areas? Plus the people there received help from the Red Cross, which far from being a capitalist entrepreneurial organisation is a non-profit volunteer agency (again, a key left principle). He does not mention it from these quite reasonable points of view.
Host says "dont have a good credit score you wont get a loan, that is how the world works" - to be exact, its how capitalism works. If we move beyond capitalism towards a better and different system this issue will also be far less of a problem. In that system, there will be no capitalist banks with such massive power over our lives, holding us back. We would get funding from the same local groups that we are an equal part of, regardless of colour, based just on having a good idea that benefits the area and being prepared to work hard at it.
Real and deep economic system change is what we need.
Even as a leftist myself i can see some good points to what Larry Elder is saying. But, the solution to much of this is to widen beyond the exclusively anti-racism focus that so many people have now towards greater focus on changing the economic system. That is the key thing, and we are not focusing on it nearly enough.
What we also have as a difference between Larry's youth and now is the change from Keynesian economics to neo-liberal economics. Various studies from respected agencies show that even white middle class people are less well off now than they were until the mid 1970s, when neo-liberalism took over. Larry Elder mentions the time that black people's economic situation expanded the most: during the Keynesian economics period. He says it was because black kids normally had fathers at home. But that was not the only or key reason for black people's economic situation getting better then, it was because of the TYPE of economic system we organised ourselves in then.
He mentions entrepreneurship...but it is under the neo-liberalism of what we might call crazy unbalanced entrepreneurship that our level of well being and economic stability has got worse (yes, it has, check the stats from a wide variety of mainstream agencies). Keynesian economics from WW11 to mid 1970s had more balanced control over capitalism, and as he himself notes, that's when things saw the greatest improvement. So why is he not mentioning that things have got worse since neo-liberal economics became the norm? Presumably he knows that, since he is clearly a smart guy. But it goes against his philosophy. He also mentions the local community rebuilding Tulsa after the riots. That local activism could easily be seen as a left approach, since the very central aim of the left is that local communities (of any colour) run things for themselves.
Not the central govt - which is not actually what the left is aiming at despite 90% of people thinking it is. Larry here says "socialism means when govt owns the means of production". That is not true. Or, to be fair, we might say there may be a temporary stage when some govt authority takes that over from rich owners. BUT, govt owning the means of production is NOT the central or final aim of socialism (or communism or anarchism). The central aim of anarchism and socialism is that people run their own workplaces and communities, help each other, pool together.... So, isn't THAT collective effort how the people in Tulsa rebuilt their areas? Plus the people there received help from the Red Cross, which far from being a capitalist entrepreneurial organisation is a non-profit volunteer agency (again, a key left principle). He does not mention it from these quite reasonable points of view.
Host says "dont have a good credit score you wont get a loan, that is how the world works" - to be exact, its how capitalism works. If we move beyond capitalism towards a better and different system this issue will also be far less of a problem. In that system, there will be no capitalist banks with such massive power over our lives, holding us back. We would get funding from the same local groups that we are an equal part of, regardless of colour, based just on having a good idea that benefits the area and being prepared to work hard at it.
Real and deep economic system change is what we need.