Yanis Varoufakis: Capitalism will eat democracy -- unless we speak up
יאניס ורופקיס: קפיטליזם יבלע את הדמוקרטיה--אם לא נרים את קולנו
Yanis Varoufakis thinks we need a radically new way of thinking about the economy, finance and capitalism. Full bio
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taking it for granted.
של לקבל אותה כמובן מאליו.
of flowers that it really is,
of our society's furniture.
as an intransigent given.
begets inevitably democracy.
מוביל באופן בלתי נמנע לדמוקרטיה.
and his great imitators in Beijing
וחקייניו הגדולים מביג'ין
to have a flourishing capitalism,
in our neck of the woods,
while I was representing Greece --
that our nation's democratic process --
שלתהליך הדמוקרטי של מדינתנו--
that were being implemented in Greece.
vindication of Lee Kuan Yew,
הצדקה יותר גדולה ללי קוואן יו,
friends of mine who kept telling me
if it ever threatened to change anything.
אי פעם תאיים לשנות משהו.
for an authentic democracy.
to join me in believing again
that we can dispense with democracy --
להפטר מדמוקרטיה--
boisterous democracy.
an interesting paradox
our economies as we speak.
that has been casting a long shadow
Europe, the whole world.
and to corporations,
that can generate the incomes
the mountain of debts
that humanity desperately needs,
אותם האנושות צריכה בדחיפות,
in Britain and in the Eurozone,
3.4 trillion dollars
and so on and so forth.
in the same countries,
during the same period
and bidding up house prices.
ולהעלות את מחירי הבתים.
and a mountain of idle cash
failing to cancel each other out
שאינן מבטלות אחת את השניה
operation of the markets.
in America, in Japan and in Europe
יפן ואירופה
reproduce it by not investing --
בזה אינם משקיעים--
by the prophecy of the oracle
his son, would kill him.
all these technologies,
for saving planet Earth.
that democracy might be the answer?
שהדמוקרטיה היא התשובה?
כשאנו אומרים דמוקרטיה?
in which the free and the poor,
excluded too many.
of course, the slaves.
of ancient Athenian democracy
about ancient Athenian democracy,
לדמוקרטיה האתונאית העתיקה,
the right to free speech,
to political judgments
concerning matters of state.
democracy didn't last long.
לא החזיקה מעמד זמן רב.
it burned out quickly.
do not have their roots in ancient Athens.
לא מבוססות על אתונה העתיקה.
was focusing on the masterless citizen
התמקדה באזרחים ללא אדונים
on the Magna Carta tradition,
מושתתות על מסורת המגנה כרטה,
a charter for masters.
only surfaced when it was possible
קמה רק כאשר התאפשר
from the economic sphere,
מהספירה הכלכלית,
fully in the political sphere,
בתוך הספירה הפוליטית,
from the political sphere,
epic struggle between the two,
colonizing the political sphere,
על הספירה הפוליטית,
are not what they used to be?
אינם כפי שהיו פעם?
has degenerated.
in government today and not in power,
בממשלה אבל לא במוקד הכח,
from the political to the economic sphere,
לספירה הכלכלית,
with capitalism.
a population of predators,
the prey that they must feed on,
את הקורבן שממנו הם ניזונים,
and cannibalizing the political sphere
את הספירה הפוליטית
that it is undermining itself,
to invest the cash of their corporations.
את המזומנים של חברותיהם.
in taking the demos out of democracy,
את הדמוס מהדמוקרטיה,
of human resources
and economic spheres
with a demos being in control,
except without the slaves
had that idea 100 years ago
לפני 100 שנה
from the Soviet debacle
will the working poor be reempowered,
of brutality and waste.
with automata, androids, robots.
ברובוטים,אנדרואידים.
and the political spheres are separate,
הכלכליות והפוליטיות הן נפרדות,
and the political spheres,
by democratizing the reunified sphere,
על ידי דמוקרטיזציה של הספירה המאוחדת,
a surveillance-mad hyperautocracy
עם אוטוקרטיה של השגחה ומעקבים
look like a documentary.
נראה כמו סרט דוקומנטרי.
whether capitalism will survive
it is spawning.
by something resembling a Matrix dystopia
שדומה לדיסטופיה של ה'מטריקס'
to a Star Trek-like society,
כמו במסע בין כוכבים,
exploring the universe
about the meaning of life
high tech agora.
בסיגנון אתונאי.
להיות אופטימיים.
instead of the Matrix-like dystopia?
במקום דיסטופייה בסגנון ה'מטריקס'?
from one job to another,
to work at at that time --
to work in it at that moment.
של אלו שעובדים בה באותו רגע.
from capital, from profits,
of wage labor becomes obsolete.
who own but do not work in the company
but do not own the company;
between capital and labor;
investment and saving;
political economy,
have a free-floating exchange rate,
יש שער חליפין נייד חופשי,
global, digital currency,
by the International Monetary Fund,
is denominated in this currency --
to be paying into a common fund
to the country's trade deficit,
בהתאם לגירעון המסחרי של אותה מדינה,
to invest in green technologies,
להשקעה בטכנולוגיות ירוקות,
where investment funding is scarce.
שבהם חסר מימון להשקעות.
John Maynard Keynes proposed
the technology to implement it.
of a reunified political-economic sphere.
מאוחדת מחדש.
empowered individuals,
to the dustbin of history
to imagine an authentic democracy.
into a Matrix-like dystopia?
that we shall be making collectively.
in your bios as a libertarian Marxist.
בביוגרפיה כמרקסיסט ליברטיאני.
of Marx's analysis today?
any relevance in what I just said,
איזו שהיא רלוונטיות במה שאמרתי פה,
the political and economic is --
של הפוליטיקה והכלכלה הוא--
is going to create
refers to as secular stagnation.
from one part of the world,
not only our democracies,
לא רק של הדמוקרטיות שלנו,
that keen on liberal democracy.
שלא מתלהב מדמוקרטיה ליברלית.
then Marx is absolutely relevant.
אז מרקס הוא לגמרי רלוונטי.
you are not thinking, OK?
philosopher kind of thing to say --
לפילוסוף יווני--
you mentioned Singapore and China,
about how the West looks at China.
שבה המערב רואה את סין.
degree of hypocrisy.
we have a semblance of democracy.
יש מראית עין של דמוקרטיה.
as I was saying in my talk,
where all the action is --
בה קורים כל הדברים--
in the 19th century.
של המאה ה-19.
liberalism with democracy --
it's like John Stuart Mill.
skeptical about the democratic process.
בנוגע להליך הדמוקרטי.
is a very similar process
הוא תהליך מאד דומה
during the Industrial Revolution,
בזמן המהפכה התעשייתית,
from the first to the second.
in the 19th century,
את מה שהמערב עשה במאה ה-19,
are wondering about your experience
תוהים על נסיונך
earlier this year.
at the first half of the year?
from a personal point of view,
to reboot the Eurozone.
that there was a massive --
architectural fault line
the whole of the European Union process.
on the basis of the Greek program --
to manifest that denial --
את ההכחשה הזו--
of the Soviet Union.
that architecturally cannot survive,
לשרוד ארכטיקטוראלית,
and through authoritarianism,
and catastrophically.
are you foreseeing?
the architecture of the Eurozone,
when you were Finance Minister?
YV: Anybody who looks back --
י.ו.: כל מי שמביט אחורה--
or of anything else for that matter,
או כל שר לצורך העניין,
they're dangerous people.
was to sign the application
on the side of the creditors
in crushing our government,
the architectural fault lines
a catastrophic program in Greece.
הם יישמו תכנית קטסטרופלית ביוון.
(GDP) הנומינלי שלנו.
that have been imposing this policy
of the discussion,
quite pro-European.
of the European Union and the Eurozone
של האיחוד האירופאי והיורוזון
who lives and breathes Europe.
the Eurozone will not survive.
הוא שהיורוזון לא ישרוד.
that will be unleashed
not just for Europe
economy in the world.
of the postmodern 1930's,
and non-Europeans alike.
you are wrong on that point.
שאתה טועה בנקודה זו.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Yanis Varoufakis - Economist and professorYanis Varoufakis thinks we need a radically new way of thinking about the economy, finance and capitalism.
Why you should listen
Yanis Varoufakis describes himself as a "libertarian Marxist," although, he says, "It is not something that I volunteer to talk about much, because the very mention of Marx switches audiences off." He teaches economic theory at the University of Athens, where he challenges mainstream notions -- arguing that after the financial crash of 2008 we need a radically new way of thinking about the economy, finance and capitalism.
He became widely known in the first half of 2015 when, as Minister of Finance of the newly formed Greek government, he was a leading, outspoken and much-discussed figure in the renegotiations of Greece's debt.
In May 2017, Varoufakis released Adults in The Room: My Battle With Europe’s Deep Establishment, a personal account of Europe's hidden agenda and an urgent wake-up call to renew European democracy.
Yanis Varoufakis | Speaker | TED.com