How Capitalism Makes You LESS Free | Grace Blakeley Meets Aaron Bastani

Common sense tells us that free-market economies maximise freedom and that planned economies, typically found under socialist governments, curtail it. But what if this is completely the wrong way around?

On this episode of Downstream Aaron is joined by economist and author Grace Blakeley to discuss Henry Ford, Boeing and the nature of democracy.

You can buy Grace’s latest book ‘Vulture Capitalism’ here:

00:00 Intro
03:43 Why I Wrote ‘Vulture Capitalism’
07:47 Myths About the State and Where They Come From
15.48 The Problem With Monopolies & Boeing
25:53 Henry Ford
38:36 Innovation Myths, Workers & Hierarchy
55:06 How do you Build a Democratic Society?
1:01:03 What Is ‘Unfreedom’?

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[Wasim]

They want you broke, fearful, helpless, fighting, dumb and ignorant. The system takes from hard working people and gives to the greedy, corrupt liars. Stand up, find your voice and fight back.

[waynekerr]

‘Workers in a sector, that have expertise in that sector, do not need to be managed’. I completely agree. I started work at a large media organisation in the late ‘80s and had one person between me and director level. When I left there were seven people. Managers managing managers made no sense and made my job a ball ache.

[kitburns]

Boeing made $60 Billion in stock buy backs rather than develop safety, better pay, or a new plane. . . ..

[willboler]

I've worked in engineering and research, and often times the projects I worked on were disrupted or sabotaged by management. Management was always the disruption in progress.

[algfourty]

Not sure I've ever disagreed more with Aaron's points than I have during this episode. Chiefly on managers: my brother, you're giving managers far too much credit, particularly middle management if you think this isn't an easily replaced group; most of these people take a business course that detaches them from reality and fluffs their ego until they simply make bad decisions confidently. Agree wholeheartedly with Grace's final point: power and autonomy for everyone is in and of itself a positive for the individual and society.

[theredboneking]

Mark Twain — 'If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.'

[EmmaSolomano]

Grace is so fantastic, I could listen to her all day. She speaks about complex topics in an understandable way and does a good job at joining separate concepts and logical arguments together. I've put her book on my reading list!

[T-rt]

"When injustice becomes law, Resistance becomes duty"

[StephenGreen-wi]

Grace is brilliant. I agree in any working place the shop floor will always be the place where innovation and improvements can be found. But it is also true that a good manager is vital and extremely rare and is always recognised by the shop floor workers .

[zoo-xibbitjayne]

Good someone else is finally saying this; ive been marginalized all my life as socially maladapted for voicing these realities.

[Midland_Wolf_]

BIG fan of Grace, looking forward to this… Go on girl….

[rmboyd]

Ex workers will not fly on a Boeing plan.

That's a staggering piece of information

[ahguitar]

Aaron went down a really weird hole in the 2nd half of this. Essentially claiming that there are individuals so brilliant they have single handedly created their own billion dollar companies.

But they haven't. The innovations within those companies, the manufacturing power, the systems and processes - they are all created by hundreds of people. The owner/ceo just had the money to pay to find those solutions.

The owner/ceo doesn't have any of the intelligence or knowledge to do that. They're just the owner. They just have the money to pay someone else to be intelligent.

Sure. Management is a thing. But it's no more skilled than a social worker. And CEO's/shareholders don't manage. They pay other people to manage. They pay other people to understand aspects of the company and to report their recommendations.

[sophiejohere]

Grace always has an amazing view point

[redmondo]

Privatise the gains, socialise the losses: Capitalism in a nutshell.

[Kestral]

Unfreedom... Good concept to capture contemporary illusory senses of freedom

[chriswills]

A debate between Grace and Liz Truss would be cruel. Grace´s perspective on history is illuminating. Great guest.

[wannabepolyglott]

Ah I love Grace. We’re so lucky to have this smart woman fighting for us 🫶🏻

[carpediemcotidiem]

00:03 Individualism hampers collective organization
02:13 Exploring the impact of capitalism on freedom
06:12 Capitalism is a hybrid system with centralized planning
08:09 Debate between state command economy and free market capitalism
12:06 Neoliberal ideology fails to address concentration of power in big monopolistic institutions.
14:09 Capitalism promotes monopolies and concentrates economic power
17:55 Boeing's lack of regulation and corporate welfare showcase the flawed competitive market
19:42 Corruption and lobbying in American state intertwines with big corporations.
23:19 Boeing's cultural shift under Harry Stonecipher's leadership
25:20 Corporate Titans mismanagement and destruction of iconic American companies
28:46 Henry Ford's authoritarian control over workers and expansion into the Brazilian Amazon
30:32 Ford's Imperial Ambitions and the shift in power dynamics
34:04 Neoliberalism empowers capitalists in planning decisions
35:56 Capitalism promotes planned economies for business success
39:34 Capitalism creates a false dichotomy between entrepreneurs and workers.
41:17 Lucas plan transformed manufacturing towards socially useful technologies
44:38 Workers with expertise can self-manage under Democratic control.
46:17 Democratic socialism decentralizes and democratizes power.
49:41 Qualified individuals should have more power in budget allocation.
51:16 Trade unions can prioritize self-interest over members' interests
54:32 Empower society to make collective decisions on technology
56:08 Democratization of the international economy through policy shifts
59:39 Capitalism's impact on cultural decline and potential critique of China
1:01:22 Capitalism constrains freedom by imposing external constraints on individuals
1:04:43 Losing political agency to enlightened bureaucrats can lead to resentment and push towards far-right ideologies.
1:06:19 Decentralized decision-making leads to more progressive policy outcomes.
Crafted by Merlin AI.

[stevenredpath]

The UK has a top heavy government model with the office of the PM being at the top of the hierarchy. We need to take power from the establishment and into our communities.