Chapo Trap House - 713 Teaser - It’s So Over

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

Prof. Richard Wolff uses a historical analogy to analyze America’s future role in the world. Subscribe today for access to the full episode and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/chapotraphouse

All right, I guess like so like based on your previous comments like or what we're talking about if you think about America finally facing a serious economic competitor or the right like the in China and the overall the BRICS nations as they're referred to but like I mean it's clear from your comments that like the era of the Unipolar world is over like the era like that that's coming to that's very the writing is on the wall in terms of America as the manager of a global economic system um but then we get it like I want to ask like you know back to a theme in this conversation what would a rational a rationally run country like how would it respond to the like economic competition from a nation like China and then like in order to rationally address these concerns of

anything that we're talking about here and and the example of France that we just talked about is front in my mind is labor struggle like the only grounds on which the economic rule of the upper classes can be fought and like isn't all of this necessary to have the kind of society that could rationally deal with what a major economic competitor from well economic competition from China will look like in the coming century or so well while I am very happy that you bring up the whole labor capital struggle because that's another absent item on the discourse of this country that shouldn't be absent because it's going to play a major role it already is I would not want to say that's the only or the most important I wouldn't say that there's too many levels here

that have to be dealt with so let me offer a different way to think about how rational an alternative we could construct I'm going to use American history the war of the war of independence 1776 and all of that was a war in which the colonial power Britain George the third king is telling Americans what to do organizing and manipulating the economy using taxes and so forth to advantage the British Empire which is at that point at its height or nearly so and the American colonists mostly British or British of by origin fight back and to the surprise of everybody David beats Goliath it happens and it happened then and we're very proud as a nation that we were able to pull that off Britain was pissed off they didn't understand how this could

happen either wasn't supposed to a few years later in 1812 they tried again and they were the British and they were beaten again at that point they realized and I hope I'm not being overly generous here but I think they realized they couldn't do it they could not with military force despite having the greatest navy in the world despite being a much larger country than the United States the new country and despite all that they knew having been the colonial power remember they knew where the harbors were there they know everything they couldn't do it and they made a decision which they worried about it wasn't like they decided it then it was done I'm not suggesting that but they basically made a decision we can't beat them so what we're going to have to do is work something out it has

to allow the British economy to flourish and but it has to allow them also otherwise we're going to be having a war every three years five years to ten years doesn't matter and they're getting worse and worse and they did it you know I'm condensing a lot of complicated history but they did it and for the next hundred years the the colony changed places with the colonizer Britain I'm sure you understand for the last century the one ending now has been our colony it's role reversal almost to the detail not in the in the imagination the British are masters at denial they still think that they matter it's amazing you know but they've been the colony of the United States they worked it out Britain went on to be a a fairly successful economic entity in the world it couldn't hold

on to its empire and had to give that up and the United States not only didn't help them the United States undercut them and replace them but they held on that's the model the United States has to understand it's over and I don't mean I don't mean to be dramatic the drama ain't me the drama is in the situation I just because of my particular role in this in this country at this time you know I'm the messenger you can shoot me ain't going to make the message go away