“Opium and morphine are certainly dangerous, habit-forming drugs. But once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments. Is not the harm a man can inflict on his mind and soul even more disastrous than any bodily evils? Why not prevent him from reading bad books and bad plays, from looking at bad paintings and statues and from hearing bad music? The mischief done by bad ideologies, surely, is much more pernicious both for the individual and for the whole society, than that done by narcotic drugs.” ~ Ludwig von Mises
Not one person in a thousand understands this. But when you come to understand that freedom is what has driven virtually all human progress, you’ll also understand the perniciousness of government, and the essential feature that separates them from everyone else in society…and why it is critical to define the proper role of government…
“It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. The funds that a government spends for whatever purposes are levied by taxation. And taxes are paid because the taxpayers are afraid of offering resistance to the tax gatherers. They know that any disobedience or resistance is hopeless. As long as this is the state of affairs, the government is able to collect the money that it wants to spend. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.”
Here are three intelligent people discussing the problem of inequality and universal basic income. It’s difficult to watch in the sense that they hit on so many ideas that are correct, for instance, that people don’t so much resent the inequality as they resent the perception that the game is rigged and that that’s not fair. I think they’re also correct in saying that what people care about more than the inequality is that their children will be able to close the gap to some extent.
But what blows me away is that they cannot seem to see the elephant in the room…government power rigging the game. Peterson even mentions the housing bust and subsequent bailouts and how that seems unfair…uhhh, yeah! That is very unfair. And this is an obvious example of the totally unfair nature of government intervention. This example is a stunningly obvious example of unfairness. The fact that they can’t immediately identify this and explain it speaks volumes about why people can’t identify the far more subtle interventions that government is engaged in constantly. These interventions combine to create massive disparities in wealth and it’s no wonder that people are disgusted with the economic system.
So you have three very intelligent people who for whatever reason cannot come to the obvious conclusion that the solution to the inequality problem is to minimize the size of government.
Imagine if they actually understood the role that the Federal Reserve has in creating this massive inequality. It is stunning that something this obvious is completely unrecognized by otherwise very intelligent people. Imagine the conversation the three of them could have and the impact it could have if the actually understood this and explained it to their audience.
This is a really fascinating discussion between two very intelligent men. If this doesn’t impact your perspective on investing, I’m not sure what will..
It’s almost like there’s an awareness slowly seeping into the public mind hive that maybe easy money is somehow partially responsible for some of the problems we’re seeing in the world. Do tell…
Here’s a fascinating lecture given by a fascinating character, Andrew Galambos, about the real ideas behind the American Revolution and the key person behind the Revolution…Thomas Paine.
It's A Learning Problem 