In this conversation…
It’s the best system we’ve tried so far! It’s just human nature! It’s the force that drives innovation! …or is it? What if capitalism isn’t pushing us forward anymore, but holding us back from the future that we could have? Diabolical Lies investigates.
References in the Episode
“Russian Revolution” from History.com (2024), a chain of events that started with an impoverished peasant society overthrowing the Russian monarchy and ended with the Soviet Union beating the United States to space *checks notes* 40 years later
The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx by Matt Vidal, Tony Smith, Tomás Rotta, and Paul Prew (2019), a book that could alternatively be titled, “Karl Marx: I Never Said That”
“How the West got rich and modern capitalism was born” by Sven Beckert for PBS News (2015), an adapted excerpt from a book by a historian who writes about the critical role slavery played in the industrialization of the West (spoiler alert: we have not yet kicked the habit!)
Vulture Capitalism by
(2024), a book we will continue to recommend monthly until the end of time“Aristotle’s1 Defense of Slavery” by Dan Lowe for 1000-Word Philosophy (2019), which illustrates how exploitation has been excused as “natural” since the earliest economic systems on record
“The Wright Brothers, Government Support for Aeronautical Research, and the Progress of Flight” by Roger D. Launius for Wright State University, a fun little paper that clarifies no, actually, long-term investment in open-ended research with uncertain economic payoffs is not an organic byproduct of a system that prioritizes the bottom line
But what about the internet, you ask? Surely Bill Gates & Co. were motivated to invent Computer Stuff For Profit? Not according to Michael Moyer in “Yes, Government Researchers Really Did Invent the Internet” for Scientific American (2012)2
“How the Government Created Your Cell Phone” by Rana Foroohar for Time Magazine (2015)—because it turns out even AT&T had to be pressured by outside forces to invest in innovation
Well maybe aerospace and the internet weren’t products of capitalism, but surely the richest man in human history and his band of ruthless fuckwads are leading the world in electric vehicle innovation, right? Wrong! “China makes cheap electric vehicles. Why can’t American shoppers buy them?” by Camila Domonoske for NPR (2024) reveals the uncomfortable fact that China is out-innovating us at breakneck speed (more in “What the US is getting right—and wrong—about the move to electric vehicles” by Rachel Reed for Harvard Law Today, 2023)
Okay, okay, sure—but capitalism still assigns resources according to which problems are most important to solve, doesn’t it?3 “Electric Vehicles Are Not the Solution. Sustainable Transit Is.” by Mehul Gupta for Chicago Policy Review (2023) would suggest not, since we currently have *checks notes* $400,000 electric Rolls Royces, but only old cities have robust public transit systems
At least capitalism isn’t violent and doesn’t plunge people into poverty like Communism, though, argues Matthew Lesh in “Marxism vs. Capitalism | Aaron Bastani and Matthew Lesh” from The Institute of Art and Ideas (2024)—but wait! The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins (2020) has entered the chat and would like a word, Matthew.
So when the CIA planted Soviet weapons in Guatemala to justify intervention because the Guatemalan government was doing Communist shit like *survey says* attempting to redistribute its land from American multinational corporations to its own people, don’t worry, The New York Times covered the story of the “Communist menace” in “RED DEFEAT IN GUATEMALA” (1954) with the same good faith commitment they use to investigate the overindulgent rights of trans folks
But all that aside, we’re pretty sure that socialist societies are incapable of technological innovation, so there’s absolutely nothing to learn from Allende’s Chilean developments in “How the U.S. Destroyed More than Just Socialism in Chile | Project Cybersyn” by overzealots
Okay, so maybe the US did some #lite economic interference throughout the 20th century with sanctions and tariffs; big deal! It’s not like they secretly installed dictators all over the world then hand-delivered lists of leftists to be tortured and murdered on patriotic stationery! Oh, wait, hold on, this just in: “What the United States Did in Indonesia” by Vincent Bevins for The Atlantic (2017)
It turns out when capitalism really shits the bed, people start to think twice about whether an economic system defined by boom and bust is the best way to structure a society, which meant the influence of the socialist party forced everyone’s favorite American president to show a passing interest in a social safety nets: “How FDR Saved Capitalism” by Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks for The Hoover Institution (2001)
And it’s a good thing those economic implosions don’t happen very often, right? And by “not very often,” of course we mean every six years (“What is a Recession? 10 Facts You Need to Know” by Dan Burrows from Kiplinger, 2025), and by “implosions,” of course we mean the Lehman Brothers eating your house for a light snack before going under (“Capitalism’s worst crisis since the 1930s” by Joel Geier for International Socialist Review)
But when it’s working well, boy, is it working! And by working, we mean 42 million Americans can’t afford food: “What the data says about food stamps in the U.S.” by Drew Desilver for Pew Research Center (2023)
realtimeinequality.org, a website that should be called “Charts That Will Ruin Your Life”
The weird thing about all of this, you’ll come to see, is that capitalists put a lot of faith in people’s “rational self-interest”—but if you look at the average life of a person living under capitalism, you’ll quickly notice the thing they’d be most rationally self-interested in, is socialism (more in “Socialism or Democracy?” by Justin Evans for The Point Magazine, 2020)
“Seven Contradictions of Capitalism: A Modern-Day Perspective” by Leon Damian for Baku Research Institute (2023), an article that was so useful for outlining all the tensions inherent to capitalism that I basically read it word for word (sorry)
Would it surprise you to know that the person we casually reference as the stereotypical “genius” penned an essay called “Why Socialism?” in 1949 in which he clocked, beat by beat, how American democracy would crumble from the dynamics of wealth concentration?4
“Give Us Fully Automated Luxury Communism” by Annie Lowrey for The Atlantic (2019), the woman who’s putting her entire shoulder into dragging Ezra Klein two millimeters left, reviewing Aaron Bastani’s book Fully Automated Luxury Communism
Bonus Reading & Listening
“What is Capitalism? Pt. 1 Erik Olin Wright’s But At Least Capitalism is Free and Democratic, Right?” by Class (2022)
“The Young Marx on Feudalism as the Democracy of Unfreedom” by Dimitrios Halikias for Cambridge University Press (2023)
“The Last Taboo” by Patrick Blanchfield for N+1 about how “we used to make real national security psychopaths in this country!”
“Capitalism vs. Socialism: A Soho Forum Debate” from ReasonTV, in which Richard Wolff debates a libertarian economist (which is interesting, because they seem to agree that centralized power structures are dangerous and American capitalism sucks but disagree about the solution)
“Richard Wolff: Marxism and Communism | Lex Fridman Podcast #295” from Lex Fridman (2023)
“Capitalism Has Failed—What Next?” by John Bellamy Foster for Monthly Review (2019)
“The Homeownership Society Was a Mistake” by Jerusalem Demsas for The Atlantic (2022)
Corrections & Clarifications
In the episode, I (Katie) mistakenly said Che Guevara was Guatemalan, but that was an incorrect recitation of my notes—he was Argentinian.
this article was a petty little clapback to the most cursed of sources, the Heritage Foundation blog I mean Wall Street Journal op-ed section
somewhere on a melting ice cap, a polar bear is clearing his throat and tapping the mic
(Albert Einstein. It’s Albert Einstein.)
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