Ask Prof Wolff: High Costs of Restaurant Dinners

This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

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“Marxism always was the critical shadow of capitalism. Their interactions changed them both. Now Marxism is once again stepping into the light as capitalism shakes from its own excesses and confronts decline.”

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[helengarrett]

Who can eat out anymore? I have had to eat every single meal at home for years because social security doeas not provide enough for even McDonald's burgers.

Now, with inflation even with food stamps I don't get three meals a day. I am down to a morning meal and an evening meal and in the past I have had periods when I was eating once daily at noon and dinner was tea. I am not a special case. Conditions for seniors on fixed incomes get ever more difficult. The elite billionnairs aren't done with us yet. They have squeezed the middle class so so hard many cannot put all their children through college, and they are having trouble purchasing homes and keeping them during hard times. The working class has been totally squeezed out of the housing market and live at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords. When working people find themselves unhoused living in tents many housed folks think they are losers and addicts. Nope, it's the system the billionnairs have built. Now that even middle class people are losing their homes too people are realizing that the elite billionnaires have hijacked our economy. Come on, people, you know what the problem is. Get off the sofa and fix this mess. Where is the roar? Where is the demand? Make some noise!

[darioleon]

Se podría hacer algo para que sea subtitulada en español? No todos podemos leer en inglés y esto es muy importante. No se necesita ser ateo o comunista para contribuir a la ayuda de la humanidad, al contrario. Muchísimas gracias maestro.

[flabbergasted]

I'm in Ontario, Canada. same happening here. a breakfast at a Diner is 20 dollars. a haircut 30. rent for a 1 bedroom apt in Guelph Ontario is 1650 dollars. a lot of people have to work two jobs and do food deliveries . less and less time for family. people are too tired to revolt. no energy left. our unions are in with the companies, very little solidarity with rest of workers. i dont know how long people will take it. but my grandfather used to say that when people get hungry they will go out on the streets with a bat. it is a very dangerous thing for a system to have more and more people with nothing to lose.

[guidocasero]

For many years I used to blame myself for job insecurity not having a normal life thinking it was all my fault not knowing the country was on the decline since the 70s that is messed -up just thinking out loud here

[joeows]

During Occupy Wall Street we use the analogy of a capitalist a socialist and an immigrant walk into a bakery there are 12 loaves of bread the capitalist buys 11 loaves and turns to the socialist and says watch that guy behind you he wants your loaf of bread!

[dorianphilotheates]

The fact is that the very wealthy live far more cheaply than the destitute. They pay for nothing, while the poorest among us must pay for everything. And it isn’t just about money — there’s also the sociopathic element: as an obscenely rich (and equally obscene) guy I once knew said to me, “what’s the point of being rich if everyone has a fairly decent life; one of the perqs of ‘having made it’ is the comforting assurance that those who haven’t are suffering...”. Nice, eh?

[GhostOnTheHalfShell]

I think situation in the US is most dire. The authoritarian minded billionaires won’t so easily let the 1930s social movements rise. The history of the over throw of the 1st, of political freedom, of the crushing of unions for a leashed two party system needs to be spread.

[srjp]

Give tips so the restaurant owners can pay workers less. Smh.

[dandylandpuffplaysminecraf]

The banquet department at a Ritz Carlton in the Bay Area did this 15 years ago. Corporate training of a Australia Corporation flew them to SFO for a week of golf and pampering offed as training. One meal alone was 1500 dollars. The wine selection took it over the top. The consultant organizer is probably still running the scam. I worked in that department. The company usually hired banquet staff from Central America because they were used to corruption.

[mjnyc]

Comes the revolution, we'll all enjoy 200 pound dinners.

[jeremiahhuckleberry]

200 UK pounds is equal to $264 USD. The current conversion rate is $1.32 US to 1 UK pound sterling.

[reverenceforall]

The vampire class is tenacious but even with their billions, they can't fight 7 billion people around the world.

[ojso]

My favorite local place is going up faster than inflation. It’s gone from roughly 9 dollars a plate to 15 for the same meal in under two years. That is gross price gouging to be honest, it’s just chicken rice and beans. I bet they’re paying their workers not even 11 an hour.

[Domi_]

In Germany, for me going to a restaurant is unaffordable. I have to pay for one meal what i buy to eat to stay alive for a week. Same as ordering a pizza. 1/4 of Germans have precarious jobs, not by choice but by pressure. I'm a student and having a roof over your head is nearly unaffordable. What a great system we live in. I wish sometimes the GDR was still around.

[waitaminute]

My grandfather came to the US in the 1940s and spoke a little English, got a factory job at GE, and stayed at that job until retirement. He was able to support his stay at home wife and 3 children, and buy a modest home. They weren't well off, but lived a respectable life with dignity and my grandfather had a decent pension, enough to not burden his children with finances. There will always be rich and poor, but where has the middle class gone?

[dorianphilotheates]

Pfftt!...£200? — that’s nothing: When the vast majority of the Roman plebeians were dependent on the monthly State dole for their bread the wealthiest patricians would spend millions of sestertii on a single banquet. Similarly, just before the French Revolution; ditto prior to the Russian Revolution. So, please very rich folks, don’t fret: look how well all of that turned out...

[nickclashvids]

Our middle class is still living too well for any major changes. The bottom will need to really fight back. There's no help from the top or middle now.

[EricaNernie]

I've given up eating out in Australia because I can eat better at home. What oil do they use? How hygienic is the kitchen? Why is the food so unhealthy? Why do they have 'chips" (aka French fries) with everything? Best is Sydney which offers great lunchtime offerings and has some, select restaurants, but you have to know where to go.

[bungkusi]

Extreme inequality will lead to social unrest

[frenchfree]

200 pound for dinner, that's what you would pay for a bottle of wine, if you were trying to impress someone, and I bet Bezos couldn't tell the difference from a $10 bottle. What they don't know is that the servers or cooks spit on the food.