Aaron Benanav
@abenanav.bsky.social
Asst Professor of Global development at Cornell University, book: Automation and the Future of Work with Verso, currently: fellow at the New Institute in Hamburg. http://www.aaronbenanav.com
I really feel like this—wartime level government spending—plus the continuation of out and out elite plunder, is the main thing going on in the US economy these days.
August 17, 2025 at 12:19 PM
I really feel like this—wartime level government spending—plus the continuation of out and out elite plunder, is the main thing going on in the US economy these days.
The taco trade is winning big: “Trump always chickens out.” What a loser! Sad.
May 17, 2025 at 9:31 AM
The taco trade is winning big: “Trump always chickens out.” What a loser! Sad.
This is an achievement for any country but a truly incredible one for the workshop of the world.
If only we could unleash these capacities to electrify the whole world! It is so much more possible today than ever before.
If only we could unleash these capacities to electrify the whole world! It is so much more possible today than ever before.
May 12, 2025 at 6:19 AM
This is an achievement for any country but a truly incredible one for the workshop of the world.
If only we could unleash these capacities to electrify the whole world! It is so much more possible today than ever before.
If only we could unleash these capacities to electrify the whole world! It is so much more possible today than ever before.
This is all I have to say.
April 11, 2025 at 6:13 PM
This is all I have to say.
“The Germans can’t sell their cars, so they will make tanks.” There’s never any money for the green transitions but there’s always money for war.
March 11, 2025 at 2:30 AM
“The Germans can’t sell their cars, so they will make tanks.” There’s never any money for the green transitions but there’s always money for war.
*Chef’s kiss* 10/10 no notes.
February 25, 2025 at 10:23 PM
*Chef’s kiss* 10/10 no notes.
Telling kids they should achieve what Arthur Lewis achieved —kind of a high bar, no? Wow.
January 29, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Telling kids they should achieve what Arthur Lewis achieved —kind of a high bar, no? Wow.
Giving some talks and doing a small book workshop (for my new book!) at the University of Manchester.
January 28, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Giving some talks and doing a small book workshop (for my new book!) at the University of Manchester.
These diagnoses in the FT are misleading—that the Eurozone is falling behind because of red tape and bureaucracy. No, the EU is losing to China because of ineffective bureaucracy and inadequate industrial policy.
December 31, 2024 at 8:07 AM
These diagnoses in the FT are misleading—that the Eurozone is falling behind because of red tape and bureaucracy. No, the EU is losing to China because of ineffective bureaucracy and inadequate industrial policy.
Isn’t this simply true? A world where there is less economic growth _is_ a more zero sum world. We can’t avoid distributional struggles when the pie isn’t growing. The already rich and wealthy have been winning these struggles for 45 years.
December 30, 2024 at 8:32 AM
Isn’t this simply true? A world where there is less economic growth _is_ a more zero sum world. We can’t avoid distributional struggles when the pie isn’t growing. The already rich and wealthy have been winning these struggles for 45 years.
Great line from a favorite play of the chartist movement: “when Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?”
December 7, 2024 at 1:37 PM
Great line from a favorite play of the chartist movement: “when Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?”
Zelazny, Lord of Light (1967). Changing social structures, to bring about a better world for all, takes a long time—even hundreds of years. This book depicts that process. Revolutionaries fail to see that, in a long enough time frame, they can lose the decisive battles and still win the war.
November 30, 2024 at 10:41 AM
Zelazny, Lord of Light (1967). Changing social structures, to bring about a better world for all, takes a long time—even hundreds of years. This book depicts that process. Revolutionaries fail to see that, in a long enough time frame, they can lose the decisive battles and still win the war.
Debord, Society of the Spectacle (1967). This book and the tradition it both came out of and furthered, councilism, had a huge impact on my views about social change: filling out Marx’s claim: “the emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself.”
November 30, 2024 at 10:38 AM
Debord, Society of the Spectacle (1967). This book and the tradition it both came out of and furthered, councilism, had a huge impact on my views about social change: filling out Marx’s claim: “the emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself.”
Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963). The only way [the white man] can be released from the Negro’s tyrannical power over him is … to become black himself … a part of that suffering and dancing country that he now watches wistfully from the heights of his lonely power and … visits … after dark.”
November 30, 2024 at 10:30 AM
Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963). The only way [the white man] can be released from the Negro’s tyrannical power over him is … to become black himself … a part of that suffering and dancing country that he now watches wistfully from the heights of his lonely power and … visits … after dark.”
Serge, Memoirs of a Revolutionary (1951). Read this book if you haven’t! The best guide to the terrible first half of the 20th century.
November 30, 2024 at 10:26 AM
Serge, Memoirs of a Revolutionary (1951). Read this book if you haven’t! The best guide to the terrible first half of the 20th century.
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (1930). The socialist project promises a greater sharing out of goods. Yet, to be successful, Freud says, socialists must abandon their fantasy of what the Erfurt Program called “universal harmonious perfection,” social harmony beyond class-society.
November 30, 2024 at 10:23 AM
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (1930). The socialist project promises a greater sharing out of goods. Yet, to be successful, Freud says, socialists must abandon their fantasy of what the Erfurt Program called “universal harmonious perfection,” social harmony beyond class-society.
Du Bois, Darkwater (1920). “What I had to show was that no real reorganization of industry could be permanently made with the majority of mankind left out. These disinherited darker peoples must either share in the future industrial democracy or overturn the world.”
November 30, 2024 at 10:19 AM
Du Bois, Darkwater (1920). “What I had to show was that no real reorganization of industry could be permanently made with the majority of mankind left out. These disinherited darker peoples must either share in the future industrial democracy or overturn the world.”
Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882). “we must become the best learners and discoverers of everything that is lawful and necessary in the world: we must become physicists in order to be able to be creators”
November 30, 2024 at 10:18 AM
Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882). “we must become the best learners and discoverers of everything that is lawful and necessary in the world: we must become physicists in order to be able to be creators”
Marx, Capital, Vol. 1 (1867). This is probably the book that had the biggest influence on me. I read it when I was 21 and I never looked back.
November 30, 2024 at 10:15 AM
Marx, Capital, Vol. 1 (1867). This is probably the book that had the biggest influence on me. I read it when I was 21 and I never looked back.
Hobbes, Leviathan (1651). People think Hobbes says people are evil, but he actually says people are rational. My favorite line: “words are wise men’s counters, they do but reckon with them, but they are the money of fools”.
November 30, 2024 at 10:12 AM
Hobbes, Leviathan (1651). People think Hobbes says people are evil, but he actually says people are rational. My favorite line: “words are wise men’s counters, they do but reckon with them, but they are the money of fools”.
Thomas More, Utopia (1516). I read this book when I was in my early 30s and it changed my life. It’s so much more fascinating than people say, especially the first book, which is not about utopia but rather about the enclosures in England.
November 30, 2024 at 9:59 AM
Thomas More, Utopia (1516). I read this book when I was in my early 30s and it changed my life. It’s so much more fascinating than people say, especially the first book, which is not about utopia but rather about the enclosures in England.
Here I am presenting about 15 books that shaped my life!
November 30, 2024 at 8:49 AM
Here I am presenting about 15 books that shaped my life!