Capitalism’s Worst Nightmare

On this week’s show, Prof. Wolff explores what major social changes will flow from today’s combination of major economic crash and the viral pandemic (capitalism’s worst nightmare). To answer, we consider how European feudalism changed after its 14th century combination of economic decline and the bubonic plague. The two big changes then were (1) switching from a decentralized to a strong state, monarchical feudalism and (2) transition from feudalism to capitalism. The two big parallel changes now are also (1) switching to a strong state capitalism and (2) transition from capitalism to a worker-coop based economy.