The global pandemic and the varied responses among nations to the global economic crisis it sparked has served to intensify debates over economic self-governance. While the right argues that market economies proved resilient to the shocks dealt them, and indeed should be even freer to innovate in the face of new challenges, the left points to unprecedented government interventions that not only prevented economic collapse but even helped ease poverty. In this context, Yaron Brook and Marxian economist Richard Wolff debate the merits and perils of Capitalism and Socialism as models for our economic future.

This hybrid debate was hosted by the Andrea Mitchell Center and the Penn Political Union at UPenn on October 12, 2021.  Co-sponsored by Penn Government and Politics Association, Penn Justice Democrats, Penn for Liberty, and University of Pennsylvania College Republicans.