Ask Prof Wolff: How Anti-Capitalists Defeat 'Capital Flight'

A patron of Economic Update asks: "How can a progressive anti-capitalist movement survive 'capital flight'?"

This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

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“A magnificent source of hope and insight.” Yanis Varoufakis, Greek economist, academic, philosopher, politician, author of Talking to my daughter about the economy.
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[lucfrombelgium]

right
which proves that GOVERNEMENTS are
ALWAYS COMPLICIT and not NEUTRAL in a national social situation.
thanks professor

[normtrooper]

It would take a backbone in the government to fight against capital flight. But you're totally right; capital flight can be beaten!

[johnnymcnoodle]

The thing is, corporations have already relocated production to China, Mexico, India etc ? They do it all the time, the problem is corrupt government in bed with corporations, governments are not working in our interests but in the interests of business.

[liasonlee]

They are not dangerous as long as you don't let them dig in for too long, kick them out when you notice them.
If corruption sets upon the government, it's the end of your country.

[robertrstevens]

*
Thank you, Prof Wolff. We are in awe of your Knowledge and Eloquence. Your many talks and speeches inform, inspire and Galvanize us. We are so fortunate in having you for letting us understand, and to work toward, a future - free from ignorance and corruption - that IS possible.

[santiagoramos-collado]

I sort of like the Cuban model: «You want to leave? Fine. You may take with you whatever clothes you have on.»

[williamlim]

Professor Wolff, you are absolutely the best spokesman for the ordinary working class people. Every episode of your talk is for the working class to reduce exploitation by the ruthless wealthy 1 %..I really hope you will be around for a long long time.

[PoliticalEconomy]

Which would you rather have? corporate control over democracy or democratic control over corporations?

[eliyahubenysrael]

This is a beautiful thing Professor. ✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿

[pachho]

iirc, the third option was used by Geneva, Switzerland, when they raised the minimum wage to about $17, and companies threatened to leave

[Ronology_]

This is an all-time video from Professor Wolff.

[DanA-nluo]

Richard Wolf people's party 2024 the president we need

[magnusm]

The third one sounds the most promising. With how much a simple ECO logo can garner sales and good revenue, a new sticker for the internal restructured management would tell people this brand is in the country and the non sticker version, is being placed and done outside and is not home made.
A good way to start an economy like the Japanese after ww2. Loyal to their car manufacturing despite being worse in every way, and over time became better than the us brands thanks to local dedication from the people.

[rararabblerouser]

I brought up option #3 in a political economy class a few months ago. I backed it with a point made by Randall Wray. It fell flat. My prof completely dismissed it. Very disappointing. I love the idea.

[andreasbyczkowski]

Thanx for providing hopeful perspectives that clarify the efficacy of capitalist flight threats.

[ruiclaudino]

The problem is profit shifting, license-back and other practices, that´s to say, moving the headquarters to a mail-box in a offshore (or Wilmington, Delaware) and keeping the business in place. Jobs won´t go but profits will

[patrickholt]

Capital controls require international implementation to be fully effective. This is something I've had to think about a lot since the Brexit referendum in 2016. I'm also indebted to Philip Cunliffe and his account _(Lenin Lives!)_ of what might have come about if the Russian revolution had spread across Europe and the world as expected by Marxists of the 2nd International before WW1 broke out. He describes a history in which capital was progressively denied places to flee to by spreading socialist transformation, until there was nowhere left but isolated small islands with no significant investment opportunities, where the last big financiers ended their days overdrinking and dreaming of their past power. Absent socialist governments denying capital the where to flee to, you have to have capital controls limiting the movement of capital out of the country, as we had in the 1970s under the Breton Woods arrangements. The establishment of neoliberal international institutions since then, like the WTO, and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) before it, and of neoliberal inspired free trade zones like ASEAN, the EU, NAFTA and so on require the dismantling of capital controls as well as tariffs. Capital controls cannot be re-imposed unilaterally while adhering to the many treaties involved. Treaties are legally binding unless or until a country revokes a treaty it has ratified. The US is in a special position historically, in being able to flout all of the treaties it has ever signed at will and get away with it, as with the many treaties made with Native American peoples during the settlement of the continent. But for everyone else, it is much harder to disobey or break out of the binding neoliberal treaties defining free trade zones like the EU which enforce free movement of capital and businesses, enabling them to can flee from strong unions, proper taxation and regulations to protect consumers, workers, the environment and the rights of local communities. This is why socialists have traditionally been against EU membership and old school socialists voted to leave the EU. Capital flight is what broke the Ppular Front government in France which tried to revive the French economy with New Deal type policies of raising wages and increasing public services. French businesses refused to invest and French banks sent their money abroad creating stagnation and a massive trade deficit, so that the Popular Front government was forced to begin abandoning its policies, which disillusioned the voters and broke its coalition. Consequently the right won the next general election and re-imposed full austerity just in time to lose the war to Germany partly because the French military had been underfunded while other countries were breaking with austerity to commence rearmament. The Popular Front government failed to impose sufficient capital controls, and tried to implement a New Deal without international partnership in doing so, as became the case after 1945 with US participation. So it's necessary both to revoke the treaties which create neoliberal free trade zones like the EU, and to establish new international trade associations like the socialist led ALBA association created by the Latin American pink tide.

[abqmalenurse]

I'll add a few more.
Seize the copyright, in other words, the company name and reassign it to the worker coop.
Levey a heavy government fee for any and all advertising by that company starting the moment they make that decision.
Charge the departing company for the cost of refitting or demolishing their buildings and any environmental recovery expenses.
If employees must relocate for similar or living wage work, charge the company for the full amount.
If employees have to go through job retraining, charge the company the full amount for each employee.
Plus wages which would have been earned during retraining or relocating, until that employee is back at full comparable income.

[elnegrobembon]

Would the threat to disallow a company from selling it's products be effective in a country that is a small consumer market?
For example, in a country that supplies low wage workers to a company, I'd assume that the expectation for that country to be an important consumer market is low, so threatening to disallow selling products there might not be a significant threat.
I do like the option of using eminent domain to seize the capital and give it to the workers.

[ronedwards]

Great video. Wish this guy was president