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@humanstew8866
September 29, 2026 at 7:38 pm
So you’re telling me that the Chinese central banking is controlled by the government, but that’s pretty obviously not true. The money is, always, what controls the government, not the other way around.
@katfromdenver
September 29, 2026 at 7:40 pm
Automation still exploits people, just not as laborers.
@irishsailor4238
September 29, 2026 at 7:40 pm
Thank you, Wired.
@hamedal-khateeb7360
September 29, 2026 at 7:45 pm
This one is huge! he said it in the nicest of ways, but couldn’t hide his true feelings. Great Man and educator.
@ErnlMoontyPawnoeh
September 29, 2026 at 7:45 pm
Yeah. Politicians and law-makers are their guard dawgs.
@alexsolosm
September 29, 2026 at 7:55 pm
This guy is a “professor” who’s grown up on propaganda. Not the most well-informed guy for educational role.
@RyanBaruth
September 29, 2026 at 7:58 pm
Yeah that definition of communism was just not right. This ur expert?
@nicholasanselment1431
September 29, 2026 at 8:00 pm
Insulin is expensive because subsidized medicine,insurance companies and patent laws that overly protect intellectual rights and sure you could simplify that to “late stage capitalism” but I feel that really is an understatement intentionally putting more blame on capitalism and less on currupt governments
@jamescrow370
September 29, 2026 at 8:03 pm
“Late Stage Capitalism” = Corporatism = Market Corruption = Government Over-Regulation = Early Stage Socialism.
Actual Capitalism is just Private Property Rights combined with Free Trade and minimal regulations.
Saved you 20 minutes.
@ZapRivet
September 29, 2026 at 8:03 pm
It is complicated and intertwined. There are obvious forces such as a glutton demanding more before they die of over consumption. Let’s not give up.
@ncromos
September 29, 2026 at 8:11 pm
‘Western Europe, Scandinavia’??? I know this isn’t about geography, but stil…
@holycrapchris
September 29, 2026 at 8:12 pm
The professor seems to equate capitalism with an oligarchy here. Nothing about capitalism requires a few rich owners at the top. All participants in the market can be owners, with participant able to be a consumer, producer, and owner. And some producers are owners at the same time: sole proprietorships, partnerships, and co-ops are owned by their employees.
@TheOnlyName
September 29, 2026 at 8:14 pm
The hope is that by the time companies can rely on only machines, the supply of goods and services available by and being produced by machines is so great that the everyday person is not left behind and in fact doing better than ever. As for some people who say you will be able to ask for anything you want, time will tell, I think the new (was once old) currency will be land, though underground development could happen as much as ever.
@TheBoredPhysicist
September 29, 2026 at 8:17 pm
He’s so bouncy.
@yesyes1842
September 29, 2026 at 8:18 pm
I don’t think he answered what communism actually is. There is no true communist state today, so the answer should be we don’t know. It technically means equal distribution of wealth, which no country has truly attained.
@anathardayaldar
September 29, 2026 at 8:35 pm
Yes the future does look bleak as capitalism grows beyond control.
But on the upside, I have no children and I’ll be dead soon. So I won’t be around to see that happen.
@sirjonsmithiii992
September 29, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Unregulated corporations are inherently evil.
@VichaDorenaBrTarigan
September 29, 2026 at 8:51 pm
8:40 VOC 😂.
@ds4nn
September 29, 2026 at 8:55 pm
5:05 I see we’re just making up our own definitions of communism based on interpretations of history, instead of really defining it…
@beanie-dog
September 29, 2026 at 8:59 pm
what is the rabbit hole?
@Jasia_
September 29, 2026 at 9:06 pm
20:12 I get the feeling this was sarcasm in disguise lol
@marslightsnoise
September 29, 2026 at 9:17 pm
How about capitalism, but only for pure private goods, and firms are required to be employee-owned?
@mazraku
September 29, 2026 at 9:22 pm
Government handouts to corporations is theft.
@jackbreuhaus6244
September 29, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Shockingly unrigorous for a man who’s devoted his life to this topic
@孙德胜-2025
September 29, 2026 at 9:23 pm
For the majority of the eminent men of every past generation held many opinions now known to be erroneous, and did or approved numerous things which no one will now justify.
@edwardboe7290
September 30, 2026 at 3:56 pm
Oil companies receive huge tax breaks and incentives. It’s the equivalent of $2000 per citizen in the United States. And they get to keep all their profits.
@leonardosalazar-grande3510
September 30, 2026 at 4:18 pm
This guy does not know what communism is
@MartijnterHaar
September 30, 2026 at 4:26 pm
Very weird way to define communism for a historian. He could have something like: “Communism is an utopian end point of socialism, where everybody is cooperating so well on a totally voluntary basis, the state can be abolished. However, attempts to put this utopian ideal in practice led in most cases to the opposite: a very strong, very repressive state that tells everyone what to do.”
@KennyboyGM
September 30, 2026 at 4:40 pm
No. You need to ask a economics professor what capitalism is. It is producing a product or a service that society needs and wants.
@flownaway2856
September 30, 2026 at 4:41 pm
I have yet to hear an accurate definition of communism given by anyone not a sociologist, not least because it seems no other field has Marx and Engels as required reading, and this guy is no exception.
@sugaryhull9688
September 30, 2026 at 4:43 pm
We don’t have Keynesian economics anymore because it stagnated, giving way for neoliberalism
@BarbaraDragon
September 30, 2026 at 4:44 pm
China’s electric cars burn on the ground. Do your research.
@sugaryhull9688
September 30, 2026 at 4:44 pm
Homie needs to read Marx
@KennyboyGM
September 30, 2026 at 4:45 pm
Dude injecting his personal beliefs
@MrBobhsg
September 30, 2026 at 4:59 pm
Isn’t “Trickle Down” today the same thing as “Pump Priming” was just before the Great Depression?
@rodrigothompson2375
September 30, 2026 at 5:15 pm
When a History professor doesn’t know what communism is.
That’s actually really sad.
@AccountAccounty
September 30, 2026 at 5:34 pm
Why is it giving me two ads every ten seconds
@harryrabbit2870
September 30, 2026 at 5:45 pm
Props to Professor Cook. Great presenation.
@luizadame7382
September 30, 2026 at 5:45 pm
Didn’t Adam smith invented capitalism? Put it on theory the Western world put it in practice?
@uouou
September 30, 2026 at 6:28 pm
No Brasil a insulina é distribuída gratuitamente pelo SUS, assim como o aparelho necessário para medir a glicose. 100% gratuito e pago com nossos impostos.
@roballister5269
September 30, 2026 at 6:30 pm
well goodluck to ya’ll but i’m playing spain in eu5 and i’m sending conquistadors to take over the natives lmao. so, goodluck to you all capitalists
@thiago4santos
September 30, 2026 at 6:47 pm
Bring a historian of law, I’m sure people will be really frightened.
@Dankflamio
September 30, 2026 at 7:01 pm
It annoys me so much that most of the people that need this video wont see it
@danieloakley6416
September 30, 2026 at 7:02 pm
Nobody paid those exorbitant tax rates in the post war era, that is a huge myth. The reason the U.S. boomed post war was mostly because it was the only large industrialized country not bombed into oblivion, rapid population growth, and technological advances.
@RenaudDumouchel
September 30, 2026 at 7:04 pm
“Communism is a centralized state” mfer is a “capitalism historian” and has never read Marx?
@noahboy2882
September 30, 2026 at 8:59 pm
i was thinking that too! when he mentioned “state” i rolled my eyes
@patmcgee4250
September 30, 2026 at 7:14 pm
Well I didn’t like this one. Yikes we’re doomed
@michaelsalmon9832
September 30, 2026 at 7:47 pm
I am sorry but if you don’t have a Marxist doing this then you’re wasting everybody’s time. This is slopulist nonsense
@michaelsalmon9832
September 30, 2026 at 7:50 pm
Get David Harvey
@mg65536
September 30, 2026 at 8:29 pm
1:32 Who invented capitalism? The first person who ever sold or traded anything — probably a fisherman, farmer, hunter, or prostitute.
@dbonechis
September 30, 2026 at 9:05 pm
$20 says this guy’s never read Marx.
@RJ420NL
October 1, 2026 at 7:54 am
The priests in the Temple of Mammon do not care about people.
@JetJeb5648
October 1, 2026 at 9:18 am
4:53 I hate to sound like a broken record but communism is a classless, moneyless and STATELESS society, so things like DPRK aren’t communist
@StephieBshort
October 1, 2026 at 9:23 am
I would rather have no vitamin water and a small tv if it meant everyone had fair healthcare
@uhDonnie-77
October 1, 2026 at 10:11 am
Funny how studying and learning kind of forces you to not be a conservative.
@ForaNakit
October 1, 2026 at 10:35 am
I have to make a small correction when it comes to the explanation of socialism ( at least in Yugoslavia, where I grew up). Yugoslavia was socialist, and companies were run by a “workers’ council”. At the end of the year, all the gains were divided into 3 categories: Growth and modernization, Collective Welfare Fund ( for new apartments, subsidized vacations etc.), and the rest was divided among the workers in the form of bonuses, so workers were very motivated to be more productive. Some companies ended up bankrupt; some companies thrived. There is a bunch of reasons why, but the system itself was not one of them.
@bryantandres7505
October 1, 2026 at 11:12 am
I love and appreciate the candor you gave. I, too, want to move to one of the Scandinavian countries like Norway because of how they treat its citizens. I hate how Americans have been brainwashed into thinking that capitalism is superior and that socialism is bad. Ironically, it’s the top 0.1% that spread that propaganda around, and it’s the people who are the least educated who believe it without question.
@frostbyte12
October 1, 2026 at 12:09 pm
When he says socialist systems usually consists of the public owning means of production, collective ownership, etc he just means the government. Source? Any socialist country tha exists. 😂😂 😂
@menelaus2000
October 1, 2026 at 12:23 pm
Fuxk off. China funded by US. Stupid
@EugeniaMosk
October 1, 2026 at 12:35 pm
Bro is a little biased. 😂
@grungegamingguitargeek
October 1, 2026 at 1:32 pm
We should all thank @squirtstain for their insightful question.
@skie_h
October 1, 2026 at 1:38 pm
This guy flat out lied about the definition of communism
@mckenziewoyak9638
October 1, 2026 at 1:51 pm
and the downfall of america can be linked directly to ronald reagan’s capitalism
@CBW98
October 1, 2026 at 3:04 pm
Hm. Some climate experts are gonna detabe him on his take on the clima issue.
@ottoguy82
October 1, 2026 at 3:17 pm
Too many ads on this video. I gave up and quit watching.
@Masque1262
October 1, 2026 at 3:29 pm
An Amazon commercial literally interrupted the first question before he could even finish!!! 🙄
@Miloo_117
October 1, 2026 at 3:44 pm
“Describes capitalism.. kinda describes Socialism.. Communism bad bad, dictatorship, corruption” As a historian you should know that no country has ever reached communism. Not even real socialism for that matter.
@Avaredmoon
October 1, 2026 at 3:45 pm
ha…yea…
@torenatkinson5708
October 1, 2026 at 4:17 pm
I can’t help but notice that a large proportion of the questions do not use proper grammar. I wonder if it’s because the inquirers are young, or uneducated, or ESL, or just because it’s a standard way to write on social media these days. Probably a combination of all of these things.
@nikos1492
October 1, 2026 at 4:41 pm
This is such a wasp centred perspective omg….
@IgnitionSeeker
October 1, 2026 at 4:53 pm
“Tax them out of existence” yes, please.
@michaelfearns4085
October 1, 2026 at 5:24 pm
The concentration of power within modern US capitalism seems eerily similar to the Soviet politburo, except the US version has tech bro’s and billionaires in control instead of bureaucrats, either way the rest of society is kept at arms length…
@rhythmjones
October 1, 2026 at 6:15 pm
Your definition of communism is 100% wrong
@Doblef99
October 1, 2026 at 6:32 pm
My man can’t even define capitalism properly
@getthemost-notthelesser
October 1, 2026 at 7:21 pm
Depressing.
@safeontalk
October 1, 2026 at 11:56 pm
omg he said china. Well done wired. You got someone actually telling the truth
@essirockarmen9799
October 2, 2026 at 12:51 am
Wrong on the definition of communism though
@essirockarmen9799
October 2, 2026 at 12:57 am
In Sweden, the people with lowest income has about 8.5 to 10.5 years shorter life expectancy than the people with the highest income. Capitalism in the Nordic countries is definitely eating away at people’s lives and it is going the wrong way.
@bedd444
October 2, 2026 at 2:53 am
America is basically a Communist country with freedom of expression.
@ercercercsaw
October 2, 2026 at 4:18 am
Simplest definition of capitalism is exploitation of others for profit.
@dayaantheena3447
October 2, 2026 at 4:38 am
This video is super super biased. The explanation of capitalism in this video is extremely unfair and clearly he has a political agenda or ideology hes trying to push in this video. He purely focused on the historical faults of capitalism and only viewed it through a negative lens it was not an unbiased historical view of what capitalism really is.
@AllmondISP
October 2, 2026 at 5:29 am
I have a feeling this expert is not a fan of Capitalism.
@sunflowerbadger
October 2, 2026 at 6:44 am
17 kinds of vitamin water and big TVs are terrible examples of what we would miss. If they vanished off the face of the earth this second, I would throw a party.
@bigearl4753
October 2, 2026 at 8:23 am
F**k capitalism
@mistercohaagen
October 2, 2026 at 9:20 am
Ooh, do one on “Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency”!!! It’s VERY related to Capitalism.
@PilsburysDinger
October 2, 2026 at 9:34 am
Trickle down economics actually just made to rich richer as it gave political incentive to create policy which benefited the rich 🤔
@thetruthissimple1
October 2, 2026 at 10:19 am
I did not know people were this ignorant about capitalism. Sure the video was good but could’ve been more esoteric as it progressed.
@mohammadhossein663
October 2, 2026 at 10:50 am
This professor talks what he believes and not what there actually is. Not a good person to be here as a neutral speaker
@Josh-ig7dg
October 2, 2026 at 12:26 pm
We can’t act like Late Capitalism is a thing and not recognize that early capitalism is also a concept.
Early capitalism – Pre Industrial Revolution.
Middle Capitalism- Industrial to 2000s
Late Capitalism- 2000s to present
@ethanjacques585
October 2, 2026 at 1:12 pm
I looove wired, I am always so impressed with the people they select with these videos. But this is the first time I was really disappointed. This professor makes some good points but then just turns to American propaganda and American centrism. He talks about both capitalism and socialism very plainly without opinion. Just facts and definitions. But then doesn’t define communism just states some fears and uncritical talking points about it. He also talks about China like it’s under totalitarianism. Saying China lacks human rights is somewhat subjective. Maybe to the American standard, but why does the American standard have to be the universal standard when most of our freedoms have to be bought because of capitalism. 90% of China owns their homes. Sure there are restrictions on other rights like public freedom of speech against the government, but also the government takes better care of their people than America. So which is more humanitarian. It’s debatable, which is the path I was hoping he would take, not anti-China American propaganda. I don’t think China should go uncritiqued nor should communism, but a general negation rooted in fear mongering is kinda blatant propaganda. In this conversation, it should be more neutral and factual.
@royeyk
October 2, 2026 at 1:47 pm
I suppose this is true in the US but much of the world runs on a range of socialism with varying degrees of capitalism incorporated. Capitalist health care seems a particularly brutal reality for many Americans that isn’t prevalent in most developed countries.
@Gregg-i4o
October 2, 2026 at 2:29 pm
Just excellence. Love the way he explained things in a nonbiased way and left the rest between the lines.
@YananoBere
October 2, 2026 at 2:38 pm
1:21 “Meaner and more extreme?” 🤣🤣🤣Capitalism took shape alongside chattel slavery as its perfect complement. You get maximal profits when you treat human beings like animals. WTF are we saying here?
@CPubi
October 2, 2026 at 3:10 pm
all these ‘capitalism experts’ are just socialists. incredible
@mrglib231
October 2, 2026 at 4:46 pm
Another Keynesian imbecile, how do these people still exist I fail to understand. Also more proof that historians have no clue on economics.
@leshikcom
October 2, 2026 at 6:11 pm
For a history professor this guy is amazingly bad at defining socialism.
@Ilendir
October 2, 2026 at 7:26 pm
Big investments are missing. That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking the last decade or so.
Just looking at the movie industry or even the gaming industry, they are mostly looking into “safe” investments, how can they safely make money. Milk the customers so to say. The products don’t necessarily become better or more affordable.
Shareholder value is what’s being maximised and the money companies COULD invest (or pay their employees more -> more money back to the markets) is now funneled away so the big CEOs can stroke their egos about how much their stocks are worth and how much in bonuses they are getting
@LukeK813
October 2, 2026 at 7:59 pm
This guy definitely isn’t an economist. Almost every economy on earth is some form of a mixed economy.
@killingfield
October 2, 2026 at 8:09 pm
What do you mean? We’re literally living in a purely Capitalist society now. Corps own everything. The POTUS is giving more wealth to the wealthy.
@hannahdevens6288
October 2, 2026 at 9:15 pm
Crazy bias in these answers just FYI!!!!
@travishunter8573
October 2, 2026 at 9:52 pm
Actually inceasing taxes incentivize investment since reinvestment isnt taxed
@zezinharias
October 2, 2026 at 11:35 pm
Oh yeah, technology journalism will certainly thrive after the end of capitalism
@Gnug215
October 3, 2026 at 1:20 am
Vote for someone who wants to regulate industry.
It’s boring, it’s unsexy, but it’s needed.
Be wary of anyone that talks about deregulation.
@TomislavPatarčić
October 3, 2026 at 1:42 am
Funny stuff: New Deal and Keynes are like Newton and Leibniz. We do not really know who was the first to come up with the idea of pushing money to consumers in order to make the blood of the economy start flowing again. They seem to have come to the same conclusion independently. Another funny thing: Roosevelt did not like Keynes. He expected a wizard, but he got some quirky mathematician.
@mantaedmond9705
October 3, 2026 at 6:58 am
Honestly…who tf is this guy..america saved the world…dude..read again the history books. You only enterd due to japan .before that you were proffiting…
@ParthaSarathiBehera-w5k
October 3, 2026 at 7:18 am
We can’t hate Reagan enough.
@redsanders8754
October 3, 2026 at 7:35 am
Stumbled onto your site, and after hearing your definition of socialism, stumbled right back off again. You are a socialist in conservative clothing. Bye!
@aj_2914
October 3, 2026 at 8:37 am
The only problem is, capitalism doesn’t create more jobs especially in this ai age.
@nuss6910
October 3, 2026 at 8:53 am
“whats the definition of communism?” starts describing capitalism and fascism. if you dont know what communism is, you dont know what capitalism is. we can tell you got your degree in israel
@JohnMamdani
October 3, 2026 at 9:05 am
this guy sounds like a social democrat
@jordanb2432
October 3, 2026 at 10:39 am
Capitalism is having 5 ad breaks in the first 10 minutes of a video on capitalism
@riog4113
October 3, 2026 at 10:43 am
Norway has (or had as a prerequisite) a very homogeneous population.. People often overlook the importance of assimilation to the quality of a society.
@protoclown4717
October 3, 2026 at 10:50 am
Capitalism is an economic system where private individuals and businesses own the tools, factories, and resources used to make goods, rather than the government.
Core Features
• Private Ownership: People can own property and businesses.
• Profit Motive: Companies operate to make money for their owners.
• Free Markets: Prices and production are set by supply and demand.
• Competition: Businesses rival each other for customers, which can lower prices and improve quality
@GMAR-Music
October 3, 2026 at 11:06 am
The way he explains what socialism is supposed to be in theory and not what socialism has been historically been in practice seems wildly irresponsible.
@JohnnyOU08
October 3, 2026 at 11:25 am
This guy is an idiot. He probably thinks he is smart because he lectures to 19 year olds all day. He has a Reddit-tier understanding of economics and political philosophy.
@marshallgrey2159
October 3, 2026 at 1:15 pm
Dengist😮💨
State capitalism was tried in the beginning of 20th century, you can check how well it escaped capitalist tendencies
@2ctvlive646
October 3, 2026 at 1:57 pm
5:05 is saying “corrupt people exist in an otherwise perfect system,” while the others all just have fundamental flaws lmao
@2ctvlive646
October 3, 2026 at 2:09 pm
capitalists cannot exist without money, money when attached to nothing obviously means nothing, but without a system to pay fairly and regulate using an “everyone pitches in so we can do what we want, although it may or may not benefit you(taxes,existence of unions even to stop price gouging which is only possible in capitalist econs etc)” is communism in a nutshell, just one is much more apparent with its use of helping the bottom instead of the top to raise the podium higher with stone not trying to stand on their tip toes to make their egos a little bit bigger before everyone in congress eventually leaves it to a younger much more capable generation hopefully
@ythings
October 3, 2026 at 2:41 pm
not in china or russia, the gov has the power to
@Maybe-qi9ms
October 3, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Wired is owned by Condé Nast Publications. Condé Nast Publications is owned by Advance Publications. Advance Publications is owned by the Newhouse family. The Newhouse family is worth 28 billion dollars and is the 13th richest family in America.
@NickRB3
October 3, 2026 at 5:46 pm
5:15 he’s wrong about communism. Communist society is moneyless and classless. That’s all. There is no ruling class.
@mrisx6
October 3, 2026 at 5:52 pm
5:14 wtf communism is literally stateless form of organisation by definition 😭😭 marx defined it as self-governance by proletariat with no enforcement and centralised rule
@zukinimaneh
October 3, 2026 at 6:29 pm
Exactly. Many serious historians consider places like the USSR and Maoist China to be state-capitalist, while these countries themselves considered the system to be some form of transitory socialism. He’s specifically a historian of capitalism and he cannot define communism? Utterly embarrassing. Do not trust this channel.
@PrepSchoolGangster
October 3, 2026 at 7:50 pm
This guy should be less annoying and more cool. Wired. Can you put him in costumes or something? Force an accent? Did you watch this before publishing it? If so fire yourself
@Irdanwen
October 3, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Automise is not a word. It’s automate.
@Chimezie
October 5, 2026 at 9:31 am
This bozo doesn’t know the definition of communism lol
@MiiUTheFirst
October 5, 2026 at 9:13 pm
Don’t gotta call him a bozo. He’s pretty articulate and gives a decent historical perspective to these things.
@RyanStarcraftProtoss
October 5, 2026 at 9:31 am
I’m sure this comment section won’t be filled with a bunch of tankies lol
@CrazeeFy
October 5, 2026 at 11:13 am
Only chronically online people use this term
@formerbabyfutureghost
October 5, 2026 at 10:22 am
Re: With automation, they won’t need us anymore. This always worried me a lot, but now I’m wondering: without the workers having income to spend, how are these companies making any revenue at all?? I guess they’ll just stockpile and hide in their bunkers or on mars and let society collapse, but seems like a miserable existence to me
@Interesting_times_enjoyer
October 5, 2026 at 11:09 am
No, corporations don’t have more power than governments. That’s a very convenient myth.
@CrazeeFy
October 5, 2026 at 11:11 am
But economical power translates to political power
@CrazeeFy
October 5, 2026 at 11:10 am
04:55 hes so wrong there, but he’s american so it’s understandable lol
@stab329
October 5, 2026 at 11:53 am
8:44 it’s really poorly understood that what became the United States was created by a corporation (The Virginia Company of London). The US began as a profit-seeking venture and in fact it was that corporation that created the “democratic” institutions that evolved into the modern-day United States. The “democratic” government was created ultimately to serve the purpose of the corporation. The idea that the government and the corporation are wholly separate is an illusion.
@JasminaSin35
October 5, 2026 at 12:29 pm
That communism definition is wrong.
@idontevenknowmyname1359
October 5, 2026 at 12:50 pm
While it might seem surprising given their modern reputation for peace, equality, and high foreign aid, historical and economic connections link Nordic countries to global structural inequalities between the Global North and Global South.
@qwetwyyiahsysuzuzuzxuzuzuuzuzu
October 5, 2026 at 12:58 pm
Communist is the exact opposit of what you’ve described. For short, no mony, no class, no countries. Otherwise cool video
@olpporsetty
October 5, 2026 at 1:14 pm
Having a sovereign wealth fund doesn’t make a country non-capitalist. Even the analysis on China makes no sense – banks are not the primary driver of what the means of production are, not in the west nor in China. Banks don’t invest in plenty of up and coming industries, hence why venture capital is huge in the west. If your logic was accurate, there would be no stock markets. China is extremely capitalist, they just have a lot of government regulation on which industries to support or not. Government regulation and intervention is not incompatible with capitalism. China literally only “took 800m out of poverty” when they liberalized their economy towards a more capitalist system
@clangerism
October 5, 2026 at 1:16 pm
I’m just over five minutes into this and it’s been interrupted by adverts for a second time. On top of the ads at the beginning. Oh, the f***ing irony.
@gp2917
October 5, 2026 at 1:42 pm
Unregulated capitalism is antihuman
@krishna2555
October 5, 2026 at 2:01 pm
20:17 sarcsm? 😂
@rocketpit101
October 5, 2026 at 2:05 pm
The anticommunist propaganda is EVERYWHERE now. It’s really weird to see.
@rdblk9710
October 5, 2026 at 2:45 pm
I gotta disagree on the communism definition. What you described is the society Marxist-Leninists of the USSR et al created as a transitional phase, with the stated goal of creating the conditions necessary for “full” communism, which is the abolition of money, social class, and even the state, in other words, the maximally democratic form of your definition of socialism. Anarchists like myself definitely doubt that this approach will actually produce the desired society. But we do acknowledge that what the USSR was _isn’t_ the end goal of any communist.
@realname2566
October 5, 2026 at 3:38 pm
I’d trade 17 flavors of vitamin water and my big TV for everyone here to have healthcare
@brendanfishh2576
October 5, 2026 at 8:12 pm
sounds kinda WOKE to me lol
@rimoll
October 5, 2026 at 4:09 pm
Are we going to get an economist for the history Q&A.
@TheOriginalKazooMaster
October 5, 2026 at 4:10 pm
Wild to lie about the definition of something on the internet in 2026 though
@smoothusun
October 5, 2026 at 5:19 pm
The problem with keynesian form of capitalism is that it inevitably leads to late stage capitalism.
@MiiUTheFirst
October 5, 2026 at 9:08 pm
True, mostly because it’s still just capitalism.
@janinesmith178
October 5, 2026 at 5:27 pm
Like since this country was founded. It’s who has the money who makes the rules
@B_Estes_Undegöetz
October 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Capitalist corporations and bourgeois democratic governments are all part of the same economic ruling class’s institutions. Functionally and materially they form one ruling class whole. Asking this question “which is stronger” is like asking whether an arm or a leg is more important for a human whole.
@MiiUTheFirst
October 5, 2026 at 9:07 pm
Along with this, I think the question is a bit misguided. It’s more about which force has more fundamental power and thus a stronger grasp on how things go about, which in this case is the forces of those who own the means of production and are driven mostly by profit.
@katb.3293
October 5, 2026 at 6:20 pm
I’ll just say that he sees omens of a bleak future because, being a historian, the future isn’t his thing.
@FishRoy0
October 5, 2026 at 6:48 pm
All these fake commies in the comments crying about his definition of communism because they can’t face reality😂
@Gowst99
October 5, 2026 at 8:49 pm
I remember in wired history…the timestamps were labeled properly
@MiiUTheFirst
October 5, 2026 at 8:50 pm
15:00 So, he didn’t actually answer this question. You can’t really “regulate” capitalism, you have to turn it into a different system with different incentives, like Allende did with Chilé in the early 1970s. The problem even there was that capitalists and pro-capitalist governments (namely the States) interfered, leading to the dictatorship thereafter. In the states, if you could somehow get enough people in Congress to pass socialist or equitable reforms, you’d have it. Unfortunately, what it requires is the kind of conditions seen right before the rise of each communist or Marxist government in history, even with electoralism.
@xuanxuan3497
October 5, 2026 at 9:34 pm
The video ended on such a sad note
@Makaylash
October 5, 2026 at 9:48 pm
13:38 AI? lol
@Lombwolf
October 5, 2026 at 9:57 pm
So called capitalism historian can’t even correctly define capitalism… he has clearly not read Kapital.
@clashwithwords
October 6, 2026 at 4:53 pm
And you, a random online wolfboy surely knows better!
@FranciscoGarcia-xm9ck
October 5, 2026 at 10:47 pm
Did you say communism is centralized power? Idiot detected.
@whatitmeans
October 5, 2026 at 11:34 pm
Capitalism is based in competition, not in freedom. Probably in the future historian will label +2010 USA policies as a Market Imperialism and not as a Capitalist country.
@faupsy1012
October 6, 2026 at 12:03 am
Commie.
@杨江辞
October 6, 2026 at 5:11 am
NPC predetermined dialogue
@clashwithwords
October 6, 2026 at 4:53 pm
Love to see it
@jamenrossi5078
October 6, 2026 at 3:08 am
Idiot where do they find people like this.
@V1nc3B
October 6, 2026 at 3:28 am
14:20 “Squirtstain asked” hahaha
@AndreiDinTheHouse
October 6, 2026 at 5:09 am
The initial definition is very important to underline the lack of capitalism of the digital markets where people don’t own things. When you license something you rent it, which is a quality of feudal systems.
@robinse12
October 6, 2026 at 5:37 am
Bias is showing very clearly when he’s asked to define communism and basically says “it’s a dictatorship”. That is not the definition, it’s something that happened in for example USSR. But not the definition. I’d be very weary of a guy that puts something like this up on the internet for millions of people without doing his research.
@robinse12
October 6, 2026 at 5:40 am
For anyone wondering, the definition is pretty much a classless society with common ownership of the means of production.
@bananadragonfromjupiter
October 6, 2026 at 10:16 am
@robinse12wrong, there very much are different classes in communism, the ones at the top, their enforcers, and the rabble
@robinse12
October 6, 2026 at 10:28 am
@bananadragonfromjupiterthe question was regarding the definition. I gave you the definition.
The definition of capitalism, for example, isn’t “when a billion poor people starve despite that we have enough food to feed them”. The definition is rather something like private ownership of the means of production where workers sell their labour to a capital owner.
@kevreka
October 6, 2026 at 6:45 am
14:11 ok but who will buy the sh*t robots made, and how then? Oh wait robots will produce for robots, or humans will produce for them, then robots will make the top richer. Oh it doesn’t get better
@Mr.Abreu.76
October 6, 2026 at 9:40 am
Great, now I’m depressed again
@JuanitaAyala-f6z
October 6, 2026 at 10:18 am
Billionaires are a policy decision
Wow. Mind blowing. Never though of it like that
@phiiphaa
October 6, 2026 at 11:50 am
cool vid but the example with oil and renewables is wrong. the price of 1MWh of green energy vs fossils shifted over 3 years ago. there are more investments and innovation in renewables now (partly because it isn’t held by monopolies yet)
@Crystofer-x5b
October 6, 2026 at 1:11 pm
Kind of sounds like the more billionaires abuse this system, the worse it gets, and will inevitably lead to collapse of everything they have and hold dear…or am I missing something.
@mkraven4665
October 6, 2026 at 2:15 pm
For anyone interested in a “purely capitalist” society and what it looks like u can read atlas shrugged or play bioshock.
@JasonHitzert
October 6, 2026 at 3:34 pm
William Jennings Bryan referred to it in 1889 in his Cross of Gold Speech.
@ExistentialWolf-d1w
October 6, 2026 at 4:58 pm
No. Now ask the bank. Now ask me 😀 hahaha – and fun!
@Bluffle
October 6, 2026 at 5:04 pm
7:17 bro described our current situation
@LVL69-m7b
October 6, 2026 at 5:29 pm
i ask elon musk in twitter, will ai solve income inequality? why do you think he didn’t answer he didn’t know or he didn’t care?
@thomasfisher4833
October 6, 2026 at 8:47 pm
“Communism is when authoritarianism” 🙄
@yeyewe_
October 6, 2026 at 10:12 pm
Save the world
@JayOhhTheKing
October 6, 2026 at 10:13 pm
Man CALL IT OUT! Stop tip toeing around the bad stuff we’re dealing with today. Capitalism is cooked! Time to move on.
@taylorism7787
October 7, 2026 at 12:17 am
He completely mishandled the last question since capitalism could be in harmony with stopping global warming if governments imposed pollution taxes, especially a carbon tax. Capitalist countries still need revenue, so why not raise it through taxing bad things rather than good things. It’s better to tax pollution than it is to tax wages and investment. Pigovian taxes like this are sensible but perhaps politically impossible because people are dumb, not because of capitalism.
@ds6914
October 7, 2026 at 2:01 am
China – can only take all these people out of poverty with western technology and markets….
@NgwenyaTM
October 7, 2026 at 7:26 am
that communism description was sus…
@aduck128
October 7, 2026 at 7:49 am
The radical is the best podcast!!!
@1201910000
October 7, 2026 at 9:17 am
West European Norway sends it regards
@fustian
October 7, 2026 at 10:00 am
trickle-down was being discussed in even earlier decades as a policy orientation, if not an economic theory. LBJ referred to it in 1968 in this quotation
“The ‘trickle-down’ theory argued that all America needed was prosperity for the business community and the money would eventually find its way down to the people at the bottom of the economic ladder… By the time the money got down to the poor people, it was nothing more than a trickle—a drip.”
@dmitrynesterov123
October 7, 2026 at 11:13 am
This guy definitely doesn’t know what communism is. I guess he considers the late USSR as communism, but it wasn’t.
@woutthysens1870
October 7, 2026 at 12:23 pm
Communism is a political and economic ideology that aims to create a classless society with common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange
@woutthysens1870
October 7, 2026 at 12:24 pm
critical man still influenced by western propaganda! Stay curious
@woutthysens1870
October 7, 2026 at 12:37 pm
Why we wouldnt want capitalism: 17 vitamin waters and bigger screen tv’s both as useless as can be
@middleagebrotips3454
October 7, 2026 at 12:56 pm
late stage capitalism is when nearly every aspect of our lives are commodified. First the physical stuff like food, fuel, etc. Late stage is when your purchase habits, your whereabouts, aka your data, is also commodified, bought and sold. It’s the stage when profit seeking has nowhere else to go and it starts to “get creative”.
@DavidLindes
October 7, 2026 at 1:00 pm
Sorta strange[0] to see a video that’s so critical of capitalism, in some ways, still be anti-communist propaganda. 😭
[0] except it’s not, really, given that (if I understand correctly) Wired is owned by Condé Nast, which is owned by Advance Publications, which is owned by the families of some dead billionaires. Sigh.
@killtonyofficial
October 7, 2026 at 1:21 pm
WHY WOULD YOU GET A LYING COMMUNIST LOVING HISTORY PROFESSOR TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT ECONOMICS?
HE IS A MORON
@CreamyBear123
October 7, 2026 at 1:57 pm
He lost credibility when he said China. China is successful…. if you decide to ignore the decades before the economic reforms when govt policies killed millions of people
@chrisjohnson5581
October 8, 2026 at 4:35 pm
People dying during maoist reforms doesn’t negate the fact that their modern government and society is broadly successful all while not being subjugated by capital.
@sugaryhull9688
October 7, 2026 at 1:57 pm
Just FYI, this guy teaches American History at Haifa University in Israel, one of the largest and most aggressive allies of the US and capitalism in general
@sugaryhull9688
October 7, 2026 at 1:59 pm
This is the most shameless repackaging of the Standard American Myth I’ve ever seen. You’re an American History professor, not Capitalism History professor
@uwubakagirlowo
October 7, 2026 at 2:29 pm
i liked the explanation of socialism a lot but communism was explained in a very authoritarian realisation, i wish it wasn’t portrayed in such a black-and-white manner.
@9sheri9
October 7, 2026 at 4:24 pm
2:58 trickle down economics was the opening grift that set the stage for why we’re so broken & broke today
@petermacinerney1909
October 7, 2026 at 7:17 pm
imprecise inarticulate like you know annoying pushy loud
@MoreBollocks-ui2zs
October 7, 2026 at 7:25 pm
Clearly a history professor and not an economics professor.
@r-nunes
October 7, 2026 at 7:28 pm
He was doing great until he fell in the “communism = dictatorship” side of the conversation. Communism is a mode of production, just like capitalism. One where the State turns obsolete and there are no more social classes. And socialism is the process that starts in the revolution and the goal is to transform the society until the State is no longer need. There are many communists that believe we’ll only get to this stage when most of the world has already adhered to socialism (and when we defeat imperialism)
@JoeyIngles
October 7, 2026 at 8:55 pm
A history professor explains economics?
Of course you get credit moneys non sense.
@Secondone-l9x
October 7, 2026 at 9:25 pm
@Wired Can we get an anti-capitalist take on US history as a follow up?
Essentially the cycle of oppressing/exploiting labor followed revolution, government suppression, and eventual labor victory?
Considering how much is left out of text books, just the basics of OSHA, minimum wage, social security, medicare, and Glass-Steagall should cover it.
@XenoStrata
October 8, 2026 at 12:07 am
A well balanced, informative video.
@Napkinatorz
October 8, 2026 at 12:49 am
This guy is a libtard
@Svstrauser
October 8, 2026 at 6:57 am
This video is wonderful.
(Despite calling USians “Americans”)
Thank you for that.
@j.c.maxena5352
October 8, 2026 at 10:55 am
I think we should all explore what capitalism and a market economy has done with a open mind. Even people with health insurance are struggling to afford their medicine. Basic neccessaities like food have become so expensive that the average family is cutting back on buying fresh produce. We have entered dark times, but people really need to educate themselves. Thank you, Wired and Professor Eli Cook for this candid and much needed discussion.
@Zaithez
October 8, 2026 at 11:40 am
communism = what americans think when they hear socialism
@serfmcserfington
October 8, 2026 at 1:17 pm
Communism is not the nonsense this guy said. Communism is a classless, stateless society where the means of production are held in common by the people. It has yet to be achieved even by the most advanced socialist powers, and is functionally the same as anarchism.
@Sashowindfeather
October 8, 2026 at 1:26 pm
Why are you having a history professor with obvious bias answer questions on capitalism instead of an economic professor? All his answers have a huge slant toward one side of the political spectrum instead of actual information.
@chrisjohnson5581
October 8, 2026 at 4:33 pm
Everything he said for the most part was pretty spot on, except for maybe his definition on a communist socioeconomic system.
@ZombieCast115
October 8, 2026 at 1:45 pm
This professor who teaches in Israel lying about what Late Stage Capitalism is and saying it isn’t a well-defined academic term (it is)…
@drholidayinn5810
October 8, 2026 at 4:54 pm
And corruption is spreading. Corporations bought politicians and now politicians are buying voters, creating a loop of endless greed and incompetence