Week VII · 21 plates
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Capital, Labor, and Why Pure Capitalism Is Not Stable

The win-lose cycle of mutual exploitation

The big idea

Adam Smith's invisible hand assumed enlightened self-interest. What the last half-century produced instead is a repeated game in which capital and labor each extract from the other — a Prisoner's Dilemma neither side is winning.

By the end of this week you can
  • —Describe the feedback loop between wage suppression and demand.
  • —Explain capital's mobility advantage over labor.
  • —State the diagnosis the Ownership Society is proposed to cure.
Opening the lecture hall…