Dr Richard Wolff says the U.S. cannot compete with state-led models like China’s, citing decades of strategic disadvantage.
Richard David Wolff, a prominent American Marxian economist, has warned that the United States is no longer equipped to compete in the global economy, arguing that its structural flaws leave it at a strategic disadvantage compared to state-led models like China’s.
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“The American empire is over,” Wolff said, pointing to an economy that peaked more than a decade ago and is now in decline, with leaders unwilling to face the reality.
Wolff, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and visiting professor at The New School in New York, is known for his work on economic methodology and class analysis. He co-founded the non-profit Democracy at Work and hosts the nationally syndicated programme Economic Update.
Comparing the U.S. to China, Wolff noted that Beijing’s state-led model allows long-term investment in strategic sectors, even if they run at a loss. At the same time, short-term shareholder demands drive Washington’s corporate system.
He highlighted China’s decades-long dominance in rare earth minerals, which began in the 1960s and was reinforced by state controls in the 1990s. That strategy, Wolff said, ensured China’s grip on critical resources for technology, defence, and renewable energy, while the U.S. failed to match such strategic planning.
According to Wolff, the result is clear: future growth and job creation will increasingly take place in rising economies such as China and Brazil, leaving the United States further behind.
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