0:02 Please try and build up this message in
0:03 the countries that you're in. It's a
0:05 very simple message. The reason for
0:06 falling living standards is growing
0:08 wealth inequality.
0:10 Governments and the middle class are
0:12 being squeezed out.
0:14 That inequality is continuing to grow
0:16 rapidly. If you don't do anything about
0:18 it, then living standards and the
0:21 economy will continue to collapse. Um,
0:22 you need to understand that in your
0:25 country as well as in my country. If we
0:28 build this message up, we can stop it.
0:31 Hello, my name is Ted Ree. If you're not
0:32 familiar with this channel, I'm a
0:36 Marxist based in Britain. Today I'm
0:39 going to talk about Gary Stevenson, his
0:41 YouTube channel, Gary's Economics, and
0:45 his call for a wealth tax, his call to
0:48 tax wealth, not work. I'm going to try
0:52 and explain why unfortunately this is
0:56 not a sustainable solution to falling
0:58 living standards
1:02 and a economic crisis that is getting
1:04 worse and worse. Let's take a look at
1:06 his last video. We are getting closer
1:09 and closer to actually getting some kind
1:11 of implementation of a fair tax system.
1:14 What I would like you to do is just
1:17 stick to the message. one simple clear
1:19 economic message. The reason for growing
1:21 poverty, the reason for falling living
1:23 standards is growing wealth inequality.
1:25 That is worsening rapidly. If we don't
1:28 deal with it, things get worse. We can
1:30 deal with it. It's possible. Tax the
1:33 rich more. Tax wealth not work. So like
1:35 Gary, I'm concerned with collapsing
1:39 living standards and I do agree with him
1:42 that politically we need a simple
1:45 message and as a Marxist that is quite a
1:47 difficult thing to convey but I will
1:49 give it a go.
1:53 Gary says that collapsing living
1:57 standards are caused by one core thing
2:02 which is growing wealth inequality. the
2:04 rich getting richer at the expense of
2:07 everybody else. And of course that's
2:10 true, but he doesn't explain what's
2:12 causing wealth inequality. And
2:15 unfortunately, the problem is not greed
2:17 or ideology
2:20 or anything like that. Those things are
2:22 part of it. Don't get me wrong. They
2:25 play a role. But
2:29 the real core cause is just the nature
2:31 of capitalism. by which I mean the
2:34 private ownership of capital and mass
2:37 commodity production. So I'll explain
2:40 this as simply as possible. Commodities
2:44 are use values. You have a utility with
2:47 a specific purpose, but it's also an
2:49 exchange value. So there's a dual
2:52 character to the commodity. The more you
2:56 produce use values, the more exchange
2:59 value tends to wither away. So the
3:01 quicker we make commodities and in
3:03 greater quantities,
3:06 the more commodities, the average
3:10 commodity is devalued. So you make more
3:11 commodities in less time. You're
3:13 automating production. There's less
3:15 labor time, less production time
3:18 required per commodity. So there's less profit
3:20 profit
3:24 per commodity. And so you this unfolds
3:27 in a process that produces an
3:29 underproduction of profit, an
3:32 underproduction of exchange value, which
3:34 results in stagnating capital accumulation
3:37 accumulation
3:39 and money capital that cannot be
3:43 reinvested profitably. And for example,
3:44 we can see this, I'll bring it up on the
3:49 screen. Money market funds in in the US
3:52 grow ever more steeply before every
3:55 recession, peak during a recession
3:57 because of the collapse in prices, which
3:59 enables some of that money to be
4:02 reinvested. But then the process starts
4:06 again and and intensifies and and the
4:11 money stored in money market funds rises
4:13 ever steeper before every recession. And
4:14 this was what Markx called over
4:16 acccumulated capital. It's just surplus
4:20 capital that cannot be reinvested
4:22 profitably. So we have the empirical
4:26 data backing up Marx's theory. So very
4:28 simple. More commodities in less time,
4:31 less profit per commodity,
4:34 underprouction of profit, stagnating
4:37 capital accumulation, economic crisis.
4:39 Capitalists have to offset this
4:43 underprouction of profit to get capital
4:45 accumulation going again. So they do
4:48 mergers and acquisitions. They combine
4:52 companies into one which is a kind of a
4:54 shortcut to accumulation but also
4:57 creates economies of scale and therefore
4:59 more productive efficiency which then
5:01 goes on to cheapen commodities and
5:03 production. Again, the other thing they
5:06 do is privatize public wealth and public
5:09 funds. So that offsets by transferring
5:12 that public wealth into private hands,
5:15 they're offsetting the underprouction of
5:19 profit. So what a wealth tax were to do
5:23 would eat into profit margins, make
5:26 profit rates lower, and they're already
5:27 profit margins are already tending to
5:32 thin. profit rates are tending to fall
5:34 ever closer to zero as commodity
5:37 production expands historically. This is
5:39 the core problem capitalism's got. So
5:41 any redistribution
5:45 of wealth away from capital to labor is
5:48 unfortunately going to make the problem
5:51 more severe which means more capitalists
5:54 go bust which means you actually get job
5:57 losses as a result. So the only actual
6:00 solution is a publiclyowned
6:03 economy in its entirety because
6:06 automation is making production so fast
6:08 and so efficient
6:11 with so little labor time required per
6:13 commodity. Capitalism is becoming
6:15 obsolete. This is the actual reality of
6:17 what we're facing. We can't have a mixed
6:20 economy. That option is not possible
6:22 anymore. We had a we had a mixed economy
6:25 in the 70s, but this contradiction led
6:28 to neoliberalism
6:30 whereby more and more of the economy has
6:32 been privatized over the last 50 years
6:34 leading to the crisis that we're in
6:36 today, which is only going to get worse
6:39 so long as we have privately owned
6:42 production. So, we need to take the
6:44 economy under public ownership. you know
6:48 the factories, the land, the services.
6:51 And this is going to happen. It has to
6:53 happen because more and more capitalists
6:56 are going to go bust whether we have a
6:59 wealth tax or not. But of course, the
7:01 blame will be pinned on a wealth tax and
7:04 a wealth tax might even be used by
7:07 billionaires to redistribute value
7:10 upwards from millionaires and and so on
7:13 and so forth. So that is essentially the
7:17 problem that we face and why a wealth
7:20 tax won't address it.
7:22 >> So at this point I would like to send
7:25 the message out to the Labour party. If
7:27 you do not deal with this rapidly
7:28 growing inequality of wealth, the
7:30 economy will collapse and you guys will
7:31 get absolutely smashed at the next
7:33 election. But more importantly than
7:35 that, this country will collapse into
7:37 desperate, desperate poverty. I don't
7:39 want that to happen and I'm hoping that
7:40 you don't want that to happen. This
7:42 week, I've sent a few emails out to guys
7:43 in Labor. I've tried to set up a few
7:46 meetings so we can go and speak to them
7:47 to see if they're interested in fixing
7:49 this problem. I've got to be honest, I'm
7:52 not super confident that the guys I've
7:55 spoken to are going to be able or
7:57 willing to seriously think about fixing
7:59 this problem. And for whatever you or I
8:00 might think, uh, because of the
8:01 political system we have in this
8:04 country, I don't see any realistic way
8:06 of fixing the economy without going
8:07 through labor. And that doesn't mean I
8:09 won't talk to the Greens or anyone else
8:10 who who or the Liberal Democrats or or
8:12 even Conservatives or reform, but I
8:14 think our best chance is to try to get
8:16 Labour to not be so aggressively [ __ ]
8:18 So, I'm here if you want to talk to me.
8:20 >> Obviously, Gary contradicts himself
8:23 here. He says he's not confident that
8:25 Labour's going to do anything to address
8:27 the situation.
8:29 And then he says Labour's the only
8:32 solution. So, it's pretty obvious that
8:35 Labor are not the solution now. They
8:37 have always been a party that protects
8:40 capital and serves the needs of capital
8:42 accumulation. Even after World War II,
8:45 that was the role Labor played. Yes,
8:47 they did things that
8:49 made life better for a lot of
8:53 working-class people for a while, but at
8:55 the same time, capital actually needed a
8:58 lot of help from the state at that point
9:00 in time to get accumulation going again
9:03 after World War II. But every time
9:05 Labour gets reelected, it's more
9:06 right-wing than it was the time before
9:08 it got elected. And it only ever gets
9:12 elected when when the Tory party is in a
9:14 deep crisis
9:17 uh with deep factional infighting. The
9:18 people funding Labor are the same as a
9:21 lot of them are the same as were funding
9:23 the Tory government. You know,
9:25 millionaires, billionaires, Black
9:28 Rockck. And again, even parties to the
9:30 left of Labor won't be able to fix the problem.
9:31 problem.
9:34 because because again they just want a
9:36 mixed economy but it's it's just not
9:39 possible at this stage in history when
9:41 we're so close to having fully automated
9:43 production. Uh I wanted to send a
9:45 message out to people that are voting or
9:47 considering voting for the farright
9:52 party. Um reform Donald Trump whatever
9:55 she in Portugal they're all over the
9:57 place and I know it's a lot of ordinary
9:58 poor people that are voting for these
10:01 guys. Um, but before you consider voting
10:03 for farright parties, I want you to
10:06 always ask yourself two questions. Who
10:08 funds these guys? And what are they
10:10 going to do to billionaire taxes?
10:13 Because in almost every case, you will
10:15 find that these guys are funded by
10:17 billionaires and are trying to cut
10:20 billionaire taxes. These billionaires
10:21 are the guys who are going to own the
10:24 houses that your kids need. They are the
10:25 guys that are taking the wealth that
10:27 your government used to have. They are
10:29 the guys that are bankrupting your
10:31 countries and your welfare state. Please
10:32 don't vote for billionaires who are
10:34 going to bankrupt you.
10:36 >> Look, I agree with Gary. Don't vote for
10:39 right-wing parties. We've had 50 odd
10:42 years of right-wing parties and all
10:44 they've done really is privatized more
10:46 and more. Whether it's been the Tories
10:48 or Labor in the US, it's been the
10:49 Democrats and the Republicans. They
10:51 privatized more and more of the economy
10:53 and it's led us to where we are today.
10:56 So every problem that you every problem
10:58 that's affecting you is symptomatic of
11:00 this process of privatization. But it's
11:03 not just privatization. Capitalism needs
11:06 the privatization. There's no two ways
11:08 about it.
11:10 So, you know, if you can't like if you
11:12 don't want to make a big leap into
11:16 joining a socialist organization because
11:17 that's a bit too much to process
11:20 straight off the bat, okay, vote for a
11:22 social democratic
11:26 party that will at least champion
11:29 the reationalization of core industries.
11:31 But try and do it with the understanding
11:35 that any progress, any gains made by the
11:38 left will only be consumated and secured
11:43 with a move that pushes that onwards to
11:46 a to an economy that's more and more
11:48 publicly owned until we get all the way
11:49 to having a fully publicly owned economy.
11:51 economy.
11:53 >> If you are rich or if you are super
11:56 rich, you have a nice life, right? You
11:58 know, I've seen how you guys live and I
11:59 know you know how you live, right? It's
12:01 nice. You know, you guys get a lot of
12:04 luxury and it's cool. Um,
12:06 by pushing this further and further and
12:09 further and taking more and more and
12:12 more, you are aggressively destabilizing
12:15 the economies and political systems of
12:17 the countries which you live in and
12:20 which give you extreme luxury.
12:22 What the [ __ ] are you doing?
12:26 It's enough. It's enough. You've got
12:29 enough. If you keep pushing, you will
12:31 destabilize the countries that give you
12:34 these enormous amounts of wealth. Look
12:36 at what happened in history. Look at
12:38 what happened in the 20th century. I'm
12:40 not trying to redistribute wealth away
12:43 from the rich. I am trying to stop the
12:45 redistribution that is bankrupting
12:49 ordinary people. Listen, I'm out here
12:51 with my white flag up. I would accept a
12:53 peace treaty. Let's stop it now. If you
12:55 keep pushing under this system where you
12:58 don't pay tax and the poor pay tax and
12:59 you increasingly take everything and
13:01 bankrupt everybody else, you will
13:03 destroy the political stabilities of
13:04 this country.
13:06 >> Look, a lot of old-fashioned Marxists
13:07 are probably going to say that it's it's
13:11 very silly of Gary to make an appeal to
13:14 the super rich, but
13:16 I think that could have some impact. I
13:19 mean there there are millionaire groups
13:23 that do call for higher taxes because
13:25 that they can see that the
13:27 infrastructure they need to
13:31 transport their goods is falling apart
13:34 for example and they also do need a
13:36 working class
13:39 in healthy enough condition to work. So
13:43 he he's he's not wrong wrong to do that
13:46 and I don't think
13:50 any movement should write off talking to
13:52 their enemies.
13:53 It's going to be part of the process.
13:55 There are going to be negotiations.
13:58 There are going to be talks.
14:01 There are going to be offers. And
14:03 this is the second part of my simple
14:05 message. What is socialism? Well, it's
14:08 it's a process of building a system that
14:11 can provide abundant material wealth for
14:13 all. So,
14:17 nobody has anything to lose from moving
14:20 into a socialist system because it can
14:23 it will have the ability without
14:27 the worry of having to make a profit
14:30 without surplus capital that becomes
14:32 uninvestable, unprofitable.
14:35 those problems will be gone and we'll be
14:37 able to move into a system that doesn't
14:39 have recessions, that doesn't suffer ma
14:42 massive job losses, that can retrain
14:46 people free of charge when technology
14:49 displaces them, that sort of thing. So,
14:51 because socialism is a higher mode of
14:54 production compared to capitalism, it
14:57 will be productive enough easily to be
15:00 able to compensate the last capitalists.
15:01 A lot of capitalists are going to go
15:04 bust anyway. Unfortunately, they're
15:06 going to find that out the hard way. The
15:08 system that they defend is going to
15:12 bankrupt them. But we will offer
15:14 compensation deals to the last
15:17 capitalists to smooth over the process,
15:19 make it as peaceful as possible cuz
15:21 obviously at the moment this this system
15:23 is sinking
15:27 into into wars that could amount to to
15:30 anything imaginable.
15:33 So yeah, that's those are the simple
15:35 messages I have. And
15:37 obviously Gary's doing a lot better than
15:40 than me at the moment in terms of
15:42 getting his message out there, promoting
15:46 it on a big platform. So Marxists need
15:48 to try and emulate him, his success in
15:50 terms of changing the conversation. He
15:52 has moved the dial. Credit to him for
15:57 that. But the solution on offer is is
16:01 unsustainable. It might sort of it might
16:04 gain some traction. It might work for a
16:08 while, but it will rebound and it will
16:10 make the capitalist class even more
16:12 aggressive towards the left than they
16:14 already are because they will be trying
16:16 to reprivatize that wealth essentially
16:19 in order to get capital accumulation
16:22 going again to stave off their own
16:24 economic downfall. So those are the
16:26 simple messages. Capitalist crisis is
16:28 inevitable because of the nature of
16:30 commodity production and there's nothing
16:33 to lose by moving into a socialist
16:35 system of production for anyone because
16:37 it will be capable of producing abundant
16:40 material wealth for all and we will
16:44 compensate the last capitalists.
16:45 Obviously not all capitalists are going
16:48 to go for that offer and not all of them
16:50 are the ones that do are going to all do
16:53 it in one big go. It will be a process,
16:55 but it will be a bit like rats on a
16:58 sinking ship and we should make offers
17:02 that can help that process of defection
17:05 effectively. Markx does say in the
17:07 communist manifesto that that will
17:10 happen that um portions of the ruling
17:13 capitalist class will end up defecting
17:15 to the working class and the socialist
17:19 movement. So I think we should be smart
17:22 and foster that process. And you know,
17:24 obviously it's it's not going to be the
17:27 case that we can convince people to stop
17:30 pursuing a wealth tax and just join a
17:31 socialist movement that's going to
17:33 compensate the capitalist class, which
17:35 would therefore make the capitalist
17:38 class less aggressive. In theory, that
17:41 would happen, but like we're not going
17:43 to be able to stop the movement for a
17:46 wealth tax because the Marxist movement
17:48 is a lot smaller at the moment. So we
17:50 have to relate to the movements of
17:52 social democracy and the movements
17:55 calling for a wealth tax and try and
17:56 convince more and more people along the
18:00 way as that you know fails for one
18:02 reason or another either because
18:04 governments just refuse to do it because
18:06 they're representatives of capital
18:08 because they refuse to allow social
18:13 democratic parties to to take power
18:17 or because it does happen and the wealth
18:19 of tax backs fires because profit rates
18:21 fall and companies go bust and jobs are
18:24 lost because of it. However it pans out.
18:26 We need to be relating to all of that
18:29 and trying to move the needle again in
18:33 the direction of the masses. We need as
18:35 many many people as possible to
18:38 understand that basically automation is
18:42 making capitalism historically obsolete
18:44 and that is the stark truth that we are
18:47 dealing with now. If you like this
18:50 video, you want to see more of me trying
18:54 to take on social democratic and liberal
18:56 and capitalist economists and trying to
18:59 get this message heard more widely.
19:01 Please support the channel. Please
19:03 donate what you can either through Kofi
19:06 or join my Patreon and make a regular
19:08 donation. And yeah, please like,
19:10 subscribe, and all that stuff. And thank
19:12 you for watching and I'll see you in the
