Transcripts For CSPAN2 A Capitalist Manifesto 20161203 : vim

Economy, and defending liberty and, professor, in your book, you write that the roots of capitalismen ancient. So ancient in fact they likely predate language in the development of civilization . Yes, i mean, people have been exchanging goods and services for a long time. And people have been making things that theyve then exchange for other things that other people have and so thats really what market capitalism is about. Its really about voluntary exchange between two individuals, or a group of individuals, and so, i would say that market caps is a fundamentalal aspect of it, a system of voluntary exchange where everybody is better off, predates the many roots of anything else. Certainly, perhaps government as well. Would you say its innate . I would say, certainly. All youve got to do is look at a couple of two year olds and see if they trade stuff. And they will. And it might be theyre trading to another twoyearold and they shouldnt be trading. A 50 book, theyre trading it for a 3 pokemon. But, yeah, people exchange. I think they have that innate ability and instinct to do that. On a purist level, where are we in the capitalist system today . Well, we have been moving in different directions. And we, for example, if you look at the index of Economic Freedom the United States is on, moved from used to be four and now its 12. And if you look at how many things the government comes in and tells you, you cant make this trade. You cant make this exchange. Were going to tell you how youre going to produce, weve really moved . The wrong direction for a long time. I think part of that is base people dont understanded how the system works. They dont realize why theyre so wealthy. And adam looked at capitalism when it was first starting, wow, why is it that were so wealthy. He doesnt even have indoor plumbing, but knows were wealthier than we ever were. He writes how the system works and part of the problem is, i dont think we covered that very well in school and i think people just dont get why theyre so wealthy. I mean, the occupy wall street was an example of that. If you really thought about how the system worked or understood how it worked, then you wouldnt be out there saying, oh, my gosh, we should have the government tell us what insurance we have . A student mentioned about this and explain. The student said, well, we have a lot of austrian theory here at hillsdale and you write about the austrian economics. Well, the austrian theory is to look at how marke markets wo and vote a book in 1920 and said, look it, this thing is not going to work out for you in. 1920, the bolshevik revolution and he said there will be a problem, is central planner cant know all the that they need to know to make sure that resources went to consumers. And thats what the austrians focus on, how does the market work and how it works to please consumers and what sort of political philosophy you need to be consistent with that. And that political philosophy is going to be government how to protect life, liberty and property. And thats what the focus should be and let the market allocate resources among people and across nations or whatever. There is no real freedom other than the kind a market system provides, you write. Yes, thats correct. Because if you started looking through okay, lets look at the lets look at the bill of rights, okay . Say oh, my gosh, weve got to have the right to peacefully assembly . If the government obese the land. That could only if we even if. You have to be really be able to own that weapon, on cant fight free speech. How does that work if the department of the owns the media. And some of the audience might remember the soviet union. What happened, they controlled all the media. There was a Government Agency that controlled the media. And they had the iron curtain to keep people from finding out about other things. You cant have any of the liberti liberties, to a system with are you own the property or the right to use the property. Inles it conflicts with others, the government should protect those rights. Why do you call it a manifesto . This is why markets are beneficial to the poor, this is why markets are the only way that you can have individual freedom. This is why were so wealthy this has not been discussed much. Certainly in the k12 Education System and its not even discussed that much in the political arena. How does it really work . I mean, for example, suppose i was running for president and i said, gee, i want to make it so that no one who that no one could get a job in america unless they can produce 15 an hour worth of product. If you can only produce 10 a product. You cant work in america. I want to shir that thats what happened. Frankly, agree, i want a 15 hour minimum wage, well, that sounds good. Well, thats i tell my students, look, this isnt rocket surgery. Right . Its not hard. Its making the connections. Its receiving and observing. And i love sherlock holmes, he sees watson at the start of the stairs and he walks and sherlock has him in and says watson how many steps was it coming up from the ground floor. I dont know. And he said how many times have you come up. Hundreds much times. There are 17 steps, the apartment is what you see and do not observe. Thats what the book is about, trying to get people to observe. If someone tells you, that they need 15 an hour minimum wage, you should observe that many people wont get a job in america. I dont remember if you remember a service station, you drove in, and they checked your oil, and pumped your gas. Who was it . That was the young person, and those jobs arent there anymore, theyre not there because weve asked for Public Policy that give us results that no one had expected. Who is this book targeted to . This book is targeted to the average person that wants to learn a little bit about how the system operates that theyre living within. Its not designed to be an academic piece that people are going to read and publish in economic review. This is about somebody is that maybe had an economics class in college said, oh, my gosh, this is boring, drawing some curves around. Or if youre a home schooler or if you are a, you know, a teacher in a k12 system and you want a secondary book. Thats what its for, for the average person thats interested and its not its not off i mean, you read it, you can see it. Its not complicated. You know . And things are kated its not a matter to be complicated. I can spend a few minutes a day just looking at this thing. And i want to list two political statements made during this election and get your reaction as an economist. Quote, and this is a headline on cnn. Hillary clinton promises to remedy excessive drug prices. Well, yes, thats a question of how can she possibly do that . Does she know what the price of a drug should be . What we really ought to be doing is looking at why drug prices are the way they are and one of the reasons drug prices are the way they are, because you have a Government Agency, the food and Drug Administration that requires all sorts of things to happen before you can sell a drug and cost billions of dollars and so, you, if youre going to make a drug, you have a very high cost, youve got to spend 4 billion before they sell the first one. Youve got to recover the 4 billion. If its a system that says, gee, weve done this much study and you can sell this product, but you have to know it hasnt been completely tested. You decide, gee, im willing to try that and take on the risk. Went a lot more invocation in drugs and the reason that you get prices the way you did, there is a he a theres a barrier to entry. You cant tell them youre going to get this, but if you say hey, this is what it is, then let them decide the risk. For her to somehow think she can know what the price is going to be and affect the innovation to new drugs, how can they know that. Donald trump, quote, we will renegotiate nafta and tpp. Yeah, i mean, the problem with the position that donald trump takes on trade, is he acts as if trade is between countries. Trade is not between countries. Trade is between individuals, just as we were talking about the twoyearold swapping with another twoyearold. If i want to trade with someone in china, with brazil, with germany, i should be able to do that. The government shouldnt come along and say, oh, no, no, no, you cant trade. Although we tend to act that traed is between countries and we might say, well, agree, if youre going to trade with us and you have to do, the amount of trade that happensments if the trade is going on. Both no one forced me to buy the noodles that i have or the german car im better off giving the money and the german car maker says were better off, and once its individuals it will affect how we do our Public Policy with regard to trade. Gary wolfram teaches at hillsdale. Thank you for having me. This book tv on cspan tv for readers. A debate on the economy. At 8 45, heather hendershott provides a history of William F Buckleys long Running Program firing line. On book tvs afterwords program, former senator majority leader talks about a path for peace between israel al palestine and wrap up at 11 15, the relationship between the United States and saudi arabia. That happens tonight on cspan 2s book tv. Welcome to tempe, on book tv. The suburb of phoenix with a population of 160,000 is home to Arizona State university, one of the largest public universities in the country. With the help of our Cox Communications cable partners, for the next 90 minutes well explore the areas history and culture with local authors. For 50 years this country after the great fires of 1910 was r which traumatized the u. S. Forest service tried to take fire out of the landscape. The problem is we took good fires as well as bad fires out. The last 50 years, half the history of our engagement we tried to put good fire back in. Its tricky, too, because once youve taken fire out, restoring it is like trying to put an endangered species back in. We also spoke with civil war and president ial historian brook simpson. I make the past come to life, all right . Its like the musical hamilton, who lives or dies and who tells the story . Im the one who tells the story and make it as on as i