Joining host Dennis McCuistion, Thomas E. Woods, Jr. (Ludwig von Mises Institute) and Steve Forbes (President and CEO, “Forbes Magazine”) comment on the financial crisis, speculation in real estate, and artificial stimulus. This video was made available by Dr. Woods, and is posted with permission from McCuistion TV. Copyrighted McCuistion Productions, Inc. McCuistionTV.com
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@stracinsrt4 I agree with you 110% !! That is the same argument that I try to explain to people too..
@revengeofBatman the gold standard is a scam. Money should be left to the market…not with politicians foolishy hoping that they won’t default on a gold standard (oh…which they’ve only done 100% of the time thruout history).
@Jaycephus01 Are you sure? I wonder how many choices a decently educated person has when he is living in an economy which only values “experts” or “university graduates” or “those who have relations with the boss”.
@ajnako12 Are you sure that under the capitalist economy you may “voluntarily” work for a company? From what I understand about capitalism, the capitalist decides whether he wants you, it is not you who will decide who to work for.
@eydos
Well, someone is delusional. There is nothing about capitalism or free market enterprise that forces one to work at a specific job.
If eydos begins to feel that his job at the Dept of Transportation as a crash test dummy is no longer resonating with his inner Marxist, he is FREE to seek employment elsewhere. I hear there is an opening for a Green Jobs Czar.
Q: Why is it that Marxists always want to become czars?
@eydos “Work should not be a chore”. So there are people who resonate with cleaning toilets? Picking strawberries? Paving the roads? Digging up coal? Baking bread in a factory? This stuff has to get done. Ironically, it is CAPITALISM that has improved all these jobs, increasing the standard of living of ALL in the process. Machines help in cleaning, harvesting, paving and mining. Fewer people have to work at these jobs due to capitalization (machines, automation), and CONSEQUENTLY earn more.
@stracinsrt4
Exactly. People don’t understand that interest rate is a price, & the Fed controls & influences ‘prices’ for money. That ain’t free-markets, folks! The Fed/Treasury also inflate our money. That is essentially a regressive tax, given the working poor see their wage evaporate over time. Yes, the money holdings of everyone is ‘taxed’ through inflation, but the working poor & middle class spend all-most of their income. But under inflation, those who get the money 1st benefit the most
If you wanted to unwind captialism and industry then the majority of humans would die. The nice thing about the free market is that when we finally got one after the american and french revolutions, we had the industrial revolution, where the standard of living for the masses was finally lifted out of grinding poverty.
One last thing about industrialized nations, they have never experienced famine, an otherwise frequent and normal event in the past and present with agrarian societies.
Again, what the hell is this gibberish? First, you cannot be a slave if you voluntarily work for a company. Second, do you want to go back to feudalism and serfdom where you were forced to live on the substinence level?
and who’s going to value people. This insanity sounds like slavery. If you don’t have a free market with a free price system you cannot measure value. It’s impossible. What if some “benevolent” over lords decided that subsistence leaving was good enough for most of the masses but because civilization would crumble w/o them they reaped in the profits. Then were back to serfdom.
WTF are you trying to say in #2. It’s jibberish, I cannot understand it.
Yes Forbes is a sound money guy. When he ran for president in 2000. He said that we should have stayed on the gold standard. As well as a anti-federal reserve platform.
it sounds like it
is Forbes a sound money guy?
@eydos Read “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, there you have all these issues discussed and explained. Capitalism IS the value based society, where being yourself is the quintessence of being happy.
Any other system must rely on force, on coercion to prod human cattle so they can serve the needs of their enlightened overlords from central planning board. You would probably like to be one of them. Power-hunger is disguised by good intentions.
@eydos That’s a complete myth. It is the free choice of people to decide what they need. People aren’t THAT stupid to believe everything the ads say – and we can see that everyday. Besides, what you deem “unnecessary needs” is not an absolute right, as some people may consider these needs very necessary to their happiness. But you would deny them their right to pursue happiness, wouldn’t you, dirty fascist?
@eydos Only capitalism allows that, as it is the only system where rational economic calculation is possible thanks to the price mechanism.
@eydos Capitalism is the only system where vertical social mobility is possible, as proven by the 19th century in USA, from rags to riches and back to rags. The system you are talking about, is corporatism, which has engulfed USA and other Western countries, and due to governmental regulations, licences, patents and other obstacles, the social mobility is very hampered and resembles that of Middle Ages.
The most devious of all the inventions of capitalism is the manufacture of needs themselves as a tool for providing new economic niches and thus enslaving people once again with the low-value, easy-going, plastic existence they gain in return for their grudging slave-labor. Having your very needs manufactured then turned against yourself in order to generate profit is in principle an anti-human act Late time capitalism does not function according need and demand but creates artificial needs.
3. some of what makes you what you are should be recognized as something inherently valuable without being quantified. If basic subsistential needs would be granted within a resource-based social order, than the sole measure of the quality of your humanity would be the amount of VALUE you would freely provide for others in science, art, or thinking or any other area— the very contribution of the best in you should be the aim, the social measure and reward free from failure
OK.
1. I do not refuse to “work” but I would love to have the possibility to work within what resonates with my core humanity, work should not be a chore, while if it is, its a kind of slavery
2. the basic injustice of capitalism is that it keeps the vertical social mobility intact, it strives to sustain itself and do not strive to become something more than it is, its a practical unfalsifiability! and it keeps luck and a priori social status a part of the hoped for succes
You are also quite vague in your definition of greed. Is wanting more stuff necessarily “greed”? Who defines when legitimate desire ends and “greed” begins by what authority, and by what standard? I think if you are going to use “greed” as a central argument against capitalism, you’ll need a good definition.
I would suggest finding here on YouTube a short segment of a talk between Milton Freedman and Phil Donahue about greed. Simply search for “Milton Freedman greed” and you will find it.
You haven’t answered 3 important questions (which would help your argument):
1. If you refuse to work for a living because the jobs accessible to you are not in sync with your “core humanity”, who must work to feed you and why?
2. Define the “basic injustice of capitalism” in a coherent and logical way
3. If you want to replace capitalism with “true meritocracy”, what is the standard of “merit” that you want to use to compensate people? Who will determine & measure this “merit” and how exactly?
True merit is the one that relates to the best within yourself. In capitalism you have no equality of possibilities. Many personal qualities and interests are simply unvalued because there is no demand for those qualities. If you love philosophy and you are good in it, you may still die if you can not SELL YOURSELF.
As for the problem of feeding: basic things should be granted in a resource-and value based society, is inhuman to keep people slaves to their subsistence.
Our current socio-economic arrangement engraved itself s a basic constant of our universe into our minds. It is hard to argue against something that appears to be the materialization of the best way to organize large masses. Yet I do think and “feel” that something is wrong with it.
Not always the smartest, the most versed, the most talented are successful within capitalism. Too often the most greedy and the most unprincipled and lucky ones do.