This site uses cookies for analytics and to improve your experience. By clicking Accept, you consent to our use of cookies. Learn more in our privacy policy.

Milton Friedman: 5 Myths About the History of Capitalism

Nov 5, 2019 | Culture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNc-xhH8kkkFive myths cloud our perception of both the past and the present:
(1) The "robber baron" myth, which holds that in late nineteenth-century America there were powerful men who became rich at the expense of the poor. The reality is that they became wealthy by being productive, and that there is no other period in history which saw such a rapid and widespread improvement in the well-being of the average individual;
(2) The myth that the Great Depression was caused by a failure of business, when it was, in fact, produced by a failure of government and specifically by the Federal Reserve System;
(3) The myth that government in the economy has expanded in response to public demand, when, actually, the public has had to be sold "hard" for politicians to enact every major social program;
(4) The "free lunch" myth, which forces the individual to pay more, no matter how the government raises money - by taxing individuals, by taxing businesses, or by printing more money; and
(5) The myth that government, like Robin Hood, transfers wealth from the rich to the poor, when the reality is that the government usually transfers wealth and income from both the very rich and the very poor to those in the middle.

George Friedman: “Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe”

Oct 30, 2019 | Culture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-8KV_GurLYFlashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe.A major new book by New York Times bestselling author and geopolitical forecaster George Friedman (The Next 100 Years) with a bold thesis about coming events in Europe, this provocative work examines ‘flashpoints’—unique geopolitical hotspots where tensions have erupted throughout history—and why conflict is due to emerge again.“There is a temptation, when you are around George Friedman, to treat him like a Magic 8-Ball.” —The New York Times MagazineWith uncanny accuracy, George Friedman has forecasted coming trends in global politics, technology, population, and culture. Now, in Flashpoints, he focuses on the continent that was the cultural and power nexus of the world for five-hundred years: Europe. Analyzing the historical fault lines that have existed for centuries within the borderlands of Europe and Russia--which have been the hotbed of numerous catastrophic wars--Friedman walks readers through the flashpoints that are smoldering once again. The modern-day European Union was crafted in large part to minimize these built-in geopolitical tensions, but as Friedman shows with a mix of fascinating history and provocative cultural analysis, that design is failing. Flashpoints is George Friedman’s most timely book, delivering an unflinching forecast for the coming years.About the author:George Friedman is the Chairman and founder of Stratfor, the world's leading private intelligence company. He is frequently called upon as a media expert in intelligence and international geopolitics, and is the author of six books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Next Decade and The Next 100 Years. He lives in Austin, Texas.

When Ideas Have Sex: Matt Ridley on Innovation

Oct 28, 2019 | Culture

Author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It's not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how the meeting and mating of ideas.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLHh9E5ilZ4

Margaret Thatcher: Freedom is Indivisible

Oct 8, 2019 | Culture

Margaret Thatcher's speech launching "Free Enterprise Week" (1975 July 1).Recently you have changed your name from Aims of Industry to Aims for Freedom and Enterprise. I welcome that change—it is timely and it is vital.Free Enterprise is an essential part of Britain's future. Free Enterprise provides the jobs—nearly three quarters of all employment—and my goodness we need those jobs. Free Enterprise provides the exports—nearly 95%; of all we sell abroad—and my goodness we need those exports. Free Enterprise creates the wealth—nearly three thousand million pounds were paid in taxation last year—and my goodness this Government needs money. Free Enterprise provides the inventiveness—there would be no North Sea Oil without Free Enterprise who found it and developed it. (What a curious fact it is that it was Tony Benn who turned on the first drop of free enterprise oil. His appointment is the only known example of pouring trouble on oily waters.)Yes—jobs, exports, wealth and inventiveness. These four—they are the basis of our prosperity. They depend on Free Enterprise.All you need now is a Government that believes in it. A Government that would encourage a flourishing, profitable free enterprise which produces the goods. Jobs, exports, wealth and inventiveness. Certainly important enough matters to be celebrated on a special day.Free Enterprise Day is dedicated to the destruction of one of the most dangerous of modern myths. There is an increasing belief that freedom is divisible. That you can have political freedom and economic slavery. That you can preserve intellectual freedom and destroy commercial independence. That you can fight for freedom of speech and yet overthrow freedom of enterprise.No myth is more dangerous. Freedom is indivisible. Once the State controls the means of production, distribution and exchange, all of us become dependent upon it. The whole nation becomes dependent upon the decisions of the bureaucracy and the politicians. And it is obviously so. If the State is the only source of capital, then only those ideas, those people, and those aims which are approved by the State can get the money for development.If the State is the only source of patronage, then only those causes, those ideals and those charities which commend themselves to the State can raise the money that they need.If the State is the only employer, where is the real freedom to choose of the employer?If the State is the only provider of housing, where can the tenant look for alternative accommodation?If the State is the only shareholder, where can the director the manager or shop-floor worker look for independent support?But, they say, you are putting forward an extreme choice. You are talking about total state takeover. That could not happen here. Couldn't it?.Is not the real fact that this Government is taking the country faster towards the centralised state than any previous Government?Month by month, almost day by day, the freedom of free enterprise is curtailed and the power of the State enhanced.That is why we have a two-fold purpose today.First, to say “STOP” to the extension of State control, and second, to start the extension of freedom.But, say the opponents of free enterprise you have to restrict economic freedom to gain political freedom.You have to control private enterprise in order to give more power to the people. What nonsense.Not one single measure produced by any Socialist Government has extended power to the people.They have given much more power to bureaucrats, much more power to extremists, much more power to Socialist Ministers.But it is power to the people which only free enterprise can provide.Power is primarily the power of choice.Choice in small things, and in big things—the food you buy, the house you rent or the home you own; the clothes you wear or the holidays you choose. Where you invest—the risks you take.All these individual choices are a fundamental part of freedom, and free enterprise makes them possible.The ideal of freedom has been part of our history since history began.That of enterprise has been with us as long.Free enterprise has been the engine which created the wealth which freed hundreds of millions of people from the day-long struggle; every day a battle merely to keep body and soul together.It has enabled the arts to flourish. And to become, not just the preserve of the rich, but to be enjoyed by men and women from every walk of life.It has created the wealth to finance science and technology; to continue the struggle to overcome the scourges of poverty and disease (not least in the third world).Beyond these benefits, priceless in themselves, free enterprise has enabled the creative and aquisitive urges of man to be given expression in a way which benefits all members of society. [end p4]Any man may test his skill, his capacity and his will to work, his tenacity and his vision against the demands of the market place and the customer.The captains of industry and the stall-holders in the market place are both parts of the free enterprise system. They both exist to serve their customers, you and me, and those like us overseas.They each know that success or failure depends upon how well they serve us.So free enterprise benefits the customer in satisfying his demands.It benefits the entrepreneur, in giving him an outlet for his skills and drive.It benefits the worker, not only as a consumer, but by creating profitable firms and well paid jobs.It benefits Britain by creating that surplus of wealth which improves not only material standards but the cultural and artistic standards of life too.It benefits the poor, the old, and the handicapped by creating that wealth which alone can pay for their care.Who then, opposes free enterprise—who wishes it ill and works for its destruction.Those who hate free enterprise and those who have no patience with ideas of individual freedom.Those who would end freedom of choice for the customer—and freedom of choice of employer, for the employee too.Once the customer is dependent on the State for all his needs;Once the worker can turn only to the State for work;Once there is no possibility of the promotion of the Arts except by patronage of the State;Then, not only Enterprise, but freedom itself is destroyed.The trouble is the first steps down that road are tempting.It is so easy to believe that freedom means giving greater power to politicians and officials of the State.It is so easy to believe that by punishing the creators of wealth, the pains of poverty can be eased.Britain has been tempted too far down that path.So let free enterprise fight back now, not for itself but for all those who value freedom itself.That is why today is a day of such significance.Free Enterprise Day—July 1st 1975 marks the beginning of the fight back for freedom.It is a battle we dare not lose.

Video: Thomas Sowell on Economic Inquality, Reparations

Oct 6, 2019 | Culture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdHEbOAQFmYIs discrimination the reason behind economic inequality in the United States? Thomas Sowell dismisses that question with a newly revised edition of his book Discrimination and Disparities.He sits down with Peter Robinson to discuss the long history of disparities among humans around the world and throughout time. He argues that discrimination has significantly less of a role to play in inequality than contemporary politicians give it credit for, and that something as incontrovertible as birth order of children has a more significant and statistically higher impact on success than discrimination. He discusses why parental attention is the most important aspect of a child’s intellectual development.Sowell goes on to break down different minority groups around the world who went on to have more economic and political success than their majority counterparts, such as the Indians in East Africa, Jewish people in Eastern Europe, Cubans in the United States, and the Chinese in Malaysia. He argues that there is an underlying assumption that if discrimination was absent equality would prevail, which historically has been proven wrong.Sowell goes on to discuss changes in crime rates and poverty since the expansion of US welfare programs in the 1960s and how this has had a huge impact on the success of African Americans. He talks about his own experience growing up in New York, how housing projects used to be considered a positive place to live, and his experience as the first member of his family to enter the seventh grade. Robinson asks Sowell his thoughts on the case for reparations currently being made in Congress, and Sowell presents an argument about why a plan for reparations is not only illogical but also impossible to implement, with so many US citizens’ ancestors arriving long after the Civil War. He also explains that slavery was common throughout the known world for thousands of years and that abolition movements didn’t begin anywhere in the world until the late 18th century. He reminds us that the United States was not the only country guilty of participating in slavery and yet is the only country debating reparations.

Video: What is Money?

Jun 13, 2019 | Culture

In Money We Trust? explains how, 2,500 years ago, the invention of money provided a shared measure of value that facilitated trade and cooperation between strangers. Sound, trustworthy money has throughout history fueled great human achievement—from the emergence of philosophy to the high-tech revolution. The program also explores the destructive consequences that ensue when inflation or other forms of instability cause money not to be trusted. In the most extreme instances, such as in Weimar Germany or present-day Venezuela, the economy—and social order—collapses.Official website: In Money We Trust.

Voice of Capitalism

Capitalism news delivered every Monday to your email inbox.

Subscribed. Check your email box for confirmation.

Pin It on Pinterest