Michael Parenti: Wealth and Poverty

[MichaelParenti]

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, please move it if it is.

I just made this short video from a lecture by Michael Parenti gave on the prosperity myth and how wealth creates poverty. It is my first production of the sort and I'm looking for constructive feedback. Would the quoted spoken word be instructive to the lay person who hasn't encountered such ideas before? Any and all other feedback is welcome.

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Thanks

[Ocean Seal]

I liked the video for the most part, informative, catchy and good use of images (didn't overdo it). But at 2:00 the graph that you used I would use a square curve rather than a linear one, I feel as if this would get the point that much poverty needs to be created in order for little wealth to be created. Good job.

[A.J.]

Parenti's conception of imperialism (http://www.michaelparenti.org/Imperialism101.html) is revisionist, at odds with the Leninist theory.

[Zoster]

in what way?

[Proletarian Ultra]

Parenti's conception of imperialism (http://www.michaelparenti.org/Imperialism101.html) is revisionist, at odds with the Leninist theory.

tl;dr. How so?

[A.J.]

tl;dr. How so?

Well, Parenti says that imperialism, in the article I linked to, is "older than capitalism". Yet Lenin defined imperialism as a specific stage of [mature]capitalism when, as a result of the concentration of production in the most developed capitalist countries, monopolies(e.g. cartels and trusts) had emerged.

Furthermore, Parenti states that "Capitalist imperialism differs from these earlier forms in the way it systematically accumulates capital through the organized exploitation of labor and the penetration of overseas markets." With regard to the latter point, the "penetration of overseas markets", the export of commodities to undeveloped countries was already a feature of 'free competition' capitalism prior to the existence of imperialism. According to the Leninist theory imperialism's defining aspects isn't the export of commodities but the export of capital to undeveloped countries.


I would have replied to this earlier, however, I was a little bit ....tied up. ;)