Episode Transcript
Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.
Use Ctrl + F to search
0:00
Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. At Mint Mobile, we
0:03
like to do the opposite of what Big
0:05
Wireless does. They charge you a lot, we
0:07
charge you a little. So naturally, when they
0:09
announced they'd be raising their prices due to
0:11
inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due
0:13
to not hating you. That's right! We're cutting
0:15
the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a
0:17
month to just $15 a month. Give
0:21
it a try at mintmobile.com. $45
0:25
up front for 3 months plus taxes and fees. Promote it for new
0:27
customers for a limited time. Unlimited more than 40GB per month. Mint Slows.
0:29
Full terms at mintmobile.com. Hello
0:43
my name's David Grossman and this
0:46
is past present future. Today's episode
0:48
in our series about the history
0:50
of Freedom with the writer and
0:52
philosopher let it Be is about
0:54
the idea of the Free Market.
0:57
What is it about buying and
0:59
selling stuff that makes human beings
1:02
free? What Does the Free market?
1:04
Free. Us from. Or
1:07
what does it mean to live in a
1:09
world of credit and debt? for the possibilities
1:12
of human beings ever being. Free. We.
1:22
Haven't talked this point about what
1:24
I think a lot of people
1:26
in the Twenty first century would
1:29
think of as a starting point
1:31
for defining freedom. And that's the
1:33
Free Market. But. It's not
1:35
just the twenty first century, there is
1:37
a very twentieth century. The it's also
1:39
a nineteenth, an eighteenth century idea. Let's.
1:43
Move across those centuries because the arguments
1:45
for the free market weirdly in some
1:47
respects the quite consistent over time some
1:49
of the things that the defenders of
1:51
the free Market say. They. Have
1:53
been saying for a couple of century.
1:55
some of them are a little bit
1:57
more contemporary. I just wanna run through.
2:00
The arguments and get your response to them. And.
2:02
I generally don't know what your response to
2:04
some of them may too often as I
2:06
say and. In there are passionate
2:08
defenders of the free Market people who
2:10
are absolutely convinced that there isn't really
2:13
a plausible account of modern freedom. That.
2:15
Doesn't start with the idea
2:17
that free exchange is the
2:19
basis of it. To
2:22
some of these ideas from people Adam
2:24
Smith's some from economists site Friedrich Kayak.
2:27
It. Doesn't matter that much where they
2:29
come from. What I want knows what
2:32
you think to his one. this is
2:34
a i think classic defense. the free
2:36
Market in relation to freedom. And that
2:38
is that. The greatest single enemy to
2:41
human freedom is extreme poverty. Because.
2:44
If you are very poor, you
2:46
are extremely vulnerable. Not just vulnerable
2:49
to fate and circumstance and disease,
2:51
but vulnerable to other human beings.
2:54
Much easier to coerce people who
2:56
like almost all resources, and also
2:58
you are incredibly constrained imaginatively because
3:01
a subsistence existence. Is. A
3:03
real grind Them It just is
3:05
very hard work to be thinking
3:08
day to day about survival and
3:10
from the eighteenth century on. But
3:12
I'd say these arguments really gather
3:15
pace in the twentieth century. The
3:17
idea is that the market liberal
3:19
market economies are the great emancipate
3:22
as of human beings from poverty.
3:25
Say. Thought is your starting point. Maybe.
3:28
It's not sufficient for freedom, but is
3:30
necessary for freedom not to be extremely
3:32
poor. The Market is the great liberator.
3:35
I want to say something positive and
3:38
something negative about the market. I guess
3:40
what I would start with is not
3:42
this argument to highlight the positive self
3:44
the market Because it seems to me
3:46
that yes, it's true that the market
3:48
has historically performed this emancipatory let's call
3:50
it function or listen, keep up on
3:52
poverty. But there has also been extreme
3:54
violence that has gone hand in hand
3:56
with the assertion of the free market
3:58
and with it's expense and outside the
4:00
uplift our net core core commercial societies
4:02
that we know off in. Western Europe
4:05
and the cost of that has been the
4:07
destruction of alternative forms of life, and this
4:09
is a well known narrative which is in
4:11
some ways in bed. It's also in. The
4:13
Free Market story and it's ideal
4:15
person. So the idea that you have
4:17
progress is accounts of how human being,
4:20
social economic relations developed. Starting with steaks,
4:22
it's formed in different forms of societal
4:24
differences. So you start with and the
4:27
gathering i'm adding society than you have
4:29
agricultural societies and you have commercial societies
4:31
as the higher states that social relations,
4:34
steaks and so in the ideal merson,
4:36
it's. The. Concepts and then all the
4:38
senses of the Free Market. You sign this
4:40
account of. The. Superiority of commercial
4:42
society over these alternative forms of
4:44
life which in then the. Reality in
4:47
the kind of assertion of the Free
4:49
Market has gone hand in hand with
4:51
the suppression of the Delta the Forms
4:53
of Life Because exactly if you have
4:55
come up with a superior model of
4:57
social organization, economic and political, why would
4:59
you then want to retain these alternative
5:01
forms when you can get rid of
5:03
hunter gathering? Or when you get rid
5:05
of Buster our agricultural. Societies. So it
5:07
seems to me that yes, you
5:09
can make the argument historically that
5:12
the Commercial Society free Market has
5:14
listed people from poverty, but. You
5:16
also need to understand that it has lifted
5:19
the survivors in a way. Those that haven't
5:21
been any collated by the expansion of these
5:23
forms of social organization and so costs about
5:26
have been the loss of alternate forms of
5:28
those organizers. Now you might say, well maybe
5:30
these alternative forms of those organization didn't do
5:32
as well with poverty, but then maybe there
5:35
were other values that they were sustaining and
5:37
but we are now indifferent to or that
5:39
we don't. Panic. Think I must say
5:41
if I were to start with the
5:43
Defense of the Free Market, I wouldn't
5:45
necessarily start. With the one that says
5:48
well this is a superior form of
5:50
socio economic organizations because it seems to
5:52
me that the violence on which that
5:54
is premised historically doesn't quite make up
5:56
for it to the cost of it
5:59
is so high. That in the and yeah
6:01
you can say a lot about the benefits, but
6:03
it still. says. Is fundamental original
6:05
sin in a way. To
6:07
just before We come to your defense.
6:09
So on that argument, that's the long
6:11
term view. It can be an account
6:13
of human development through these various stages.
6:15
There's also a contemporary version of it
6:17
which is much, much more condensed, which
6:19
is the great emancipation of human beings
6:21
from poverty has taken place in the
6:23
last thirty four years, and it's remarkable.
6:25
And we talking about billions of people.
6:27
And yes, we are talking about the
6:29
eradication of said ways of life because
6:31
there is a uniformity to the market
6:33
is it spreads around the world and
6:35
we are living in a. Globalized
6:37
world which is also in
6:39
some respects a more uniform
6:41
world. but the dramatic. Condensed
6:44
version of that in our
6:46
lifetimes. Literally, In our lifetimes,
6:48
In places like Africa, but
6:50
particularly in India and in
6:52
China may be particularly in
6:54
India because it's been so
6:56
recent. Do you still feel the
6:59
same argument holes? In the
7:01
last thirty years, we seen
7:03
the eradication of the diversity
7:05
of the human experience. As.
7:07
I accept that that I then we would have
7:09
to have. A more specific argument made the
7:11
What it is about India and China that
7:13
has accent lifted people from poverty because it
7:15
seems to me that we are not, they're
7:17
confronted with a purist market farm and that
7:20
we're not them fronted with free markets society
7:22
that in fact these are models that's to
7:24
some extent departs from this textbook idea of
7:26
what it means to have a free market
7:28
that is deregulated with outs political institutions without
7:30
control from above and that it seems to
7:32
me that what you have historically something very
7:34
very different. And that if you look
7:36
at us that this is and then you take
7:39
away India and sign up as these hybrid models
7:41
then you are left with a much more. Ambiguous
7:43
Records on. Poverty. Developments that's
7:45
one aspect of it's the second one I
7:48
guess up one also need to talk about
7:50
when thinking about the advantages of the free
7:52
Market is not just poverty but also inequality
7:54
and on that front humanity. If even when
7:57
this kind of large scale things modelings is
7:59
on improving. And you might say
8:01
yes, absolute poverty is a concern, but in
8:03
the times in which we live. Where the
8:05
world is very interconnected, relative deprivation and
8:07
comparisons and inequality is also very high
8:09
concern as well. And on that front,
8:11
it doesn't seem that the free market
8:13
is kind. Of helping of but this is
8:15
now getting on the pathologies under criticism. I
8:18
were to say what is it about the Free
8:20
Market? The what is it about commercial societies? That.
8:23
Is. To. Some extent of benefit them
8:25
and you start frumps and it seems
8:27
to me that it's the kind of
8:29
emancipation from traditional forms of social organizations
8:31
that are genuinely suppressing of upon a
8:33
me. Ends with the rise of
8:36
commercial societies. It goes hand in hand.
8:38
And seems to me with the assertion
8:40
of a certain kind of subjects and
8:42
certain understanding of. Who. The human
8:45
is and how you account for the
8:47
human, what kind of planes they have
8:49
against others, how do they relate to
8:51
other people's that is to me. Then
8:53
we leave promising when it comes to
8:55
freedom because it's a departure from of
8:57
type of understanding of the subject as
8:59
defined by the community, by the families,
9:01
by social norms, by other kind of
9:03
collective rules. And it seems to me
9:05
that's commercial society goes hand in hand
9:07
with the assertion of for better or
9:09
worse. But it seems to me that
9:11
it is a step forward in the
9:13
sensible departure from. These forms of authoritarian
9:15
social organization or not is no
9:17
human The was made in the
9:19
eighties and Trim in the Mountains
9:21
and she's a they're sort of
9:24
phrases associated with it. From status
9:26
to contract is one stay to
9:28
space. Relationships are potentially at least
9:30
more domineering than contract based relationships
9:32
and other words associated with the
9:34
his ability. So the thing about
9:36
the market is these or. Other.
9:39
There's a better word from this them
9:41
anonymous relationships It there is a new
9:43
trauma see in the ideal market but
9:45
also in practice I think in many
9:47
sets of market relationships in which in
9:49
seeking out the best price or the
9:51
best service or whatever it is you
9:53
don't have to start with the question
9:55
who am I allowed to do this
9:57
with nor the even more difficult question
9:59
which is. Will the person I
10:01
have to do it with, Let me
10:03
do it.is civility a kind of. Being.
10:05
A kind of servants and most
10:07
human relationships pre what we might
10:10
cool. Modern commercial societies were based
10:12
on understandings that someone was in
10:14
that relationship relative someone else within
10:16
the family. the children, the weiss,
10:18
the servants. Literally no seventeenth eighteenth
10:20
century families included the servants. If
10:22
you were a servant and you
10:24
want to the seek out a
10:26
particular good for your life, you
10:28
had to pass through a whole
10:30
host of barriers of permission before
10:32
you can do it. A
10:35
free market is the great leveller
10:37
of those barriers. Else.
10:39
Or something else which oddly goes I
10:42
think against what is the received commonsense
10:44
about the type of individual that free
10:46
market. Relies upon which is often seem
10:48
to be profit maximizing. South is interested
10:50
only in themselves and and it seems
10:52
to me that the most interesting arguments
10:55
for the free Market or let's call
10:57
commercial societies because it's a more expansive.
10:59
Stamps are the ones that say
11:01
that through by entering into commerce
11:03
into commercial interactions with other individuals
11:05
actually expand their circle of sympathy
11:08
so they are able to move
11:10
away from the family. He from the
11:12
people they sarah religion with our this are
11:14
certain. Types of belief and because they
11:16
have is kind of expensive nature
11:18
then you understand that the human
11:20
is actually not someone who is
11:22
stance against. Others, but who is potentially
11:24
a pauper? They events I think it's
11:26
really interesting to the somewhere like Adam
11:29
Smith for examples, makes these kinds of
11:31
arguments around sympathy and around expanding circles.
11:33
Of sympathy and he's usually seen as it's sort
11:35
of power that math example folks, but the sense
11:37
of the free markets. But I think with a
11:40
nelson of the subject at. The center that
11:42
is very very different from what. Now.
11:44
It the stereotypical understanding of the contents of the
11:46
Free Market is with his attempts to be indifferent
11:48
that you have a not care and thoughts. I
11:51
think for people like sleep to some
11:53
extent for pants as well. With all
11:55
his arguments in the eighteenth century around
11:57
commercial societies I really interesting precisely because
11:59
they're highlights. The corporate the of nature
12:01
a few months rather than be antagonistic nature.
12:03
I mean it starts with antagonism, but the
12:05
idea is that you enter in these relations
12:07
and they somehow emancipate to they make him
12:10
more forward looking and more as from estate
12:12
and morning and are disposed towards others. And
12:14
I really like that. What? Are the
12:16
things that people noticed about the commercial
12:18
societies? a thing particularly in the nineteenth
12:21
century, particular places like Great Britain? The
12:23
people who weren't the radical critics of
12:25
them. Is they allowed for
12:27
flourishing of varieties of human associations? are
12:29
actually earlier forms of society for quite
12:32
constrained in the imagination of what it
12:34
is to do something as a group
12:36
of family, a tribes, a clan, whatever.
12:39
it is based on the land tied
12:41
in various ways. And in
12:43
the nineteenth century, in the early twentieth
12:45
century, get this incredible flourishing of the
12:48
varieties of human association under the law.
12:51
You. Can join with other human beings
12:53
in incredible ways if you share. Not
12:55
relations of civility or power, but a
12:57
common purpose. something that you want to
12:59
do. Not purely selfish because he wants
13:02
to with other people, but you might
13:04
want to. Then. Draw the
13:06
people in by offering them a service. whatever
13:08
it is, A mass I
13:10
think one of things that has
13:12
been lost. So he moved through
13:14
the story into the late twentieth
13:16
century, into the twenty first century.
13:19
It's certain kinds of economic forms
13:21
of association have come to dominate,
13:23
particularly corporate forms in the Economic
13:25
and Financial fair, and there was
13:27
a dream that lie somewhere between
13:29
sort of Adam Smith and Now
13:31
which is maybe a hundred years
13:33
old, But it's still has some
13:35
drop, which is this is the
13:38
way this kind of free association.
13:40
And free exchange is the way for
13:42
human beings. Like you said to find
13:44
other human beings and then outside of
13:47
the family, outside of the church, a
13:49
religious setting, and an extraordinary experimental ways.
13:52
Discover. What they're capable of. Yeah,
13:54
I think that's rather than I wonder whether that's how
13:56
it was because it was the beginning and because of
13:59
these were the origins. And then as
14:01
this model takes over and becomes more
14:03
in France and more consolidated, the types
14:05
of pathologies. Become more and more prominent
14:07
and then you begin to feel for the
14:09
downside of this spontaneity and this forms of
14:12
those organization that are in some ways against
14:14
the fourth and against her the sun and
14:16
define themselves against. Them And I think
14:18
you also begin to see them the
14:20
impact that they have on places and.
14:23
Parts of even minutes with the world
14:25
will even Europe which are not run.
14:27
Courting to those models at which then suddenly
14:29
feel the impact. I mean I come from
14:31
Albania was was under the Ottoman Empire for.
14:34
Many centuries and for me the history. Of
14:36
the Ottoman Empire, for example, begins to decline.
14:39
partly. Under the pressure of commercial society
14:41
and of alternative forms of social organizations
14:43
which by virtue of how it was
14:45
a rains it couldn't withstand the couldn't
14:47
withstand this press or it couldn't compete.
14:49
With and then the suburbs to some extent
14:52
or that was similar. The yes, I think
14:54
you get the flourishing in some parts of
14:56
Europe, but you get the destruction. In other
14:58
parts of Europe. Of. Those models of
15:00
society that are not really able,
15:02
and lawmaking and institutional organizations that
15:05
I think aren't quite able to
15:07
compete with those commercials societies. Another
15:09
arguments and say this is what
15:11
I just described as not actually
15:13
a distinctive feature of free market
15:15
or commercial societies. The reviews that
15:18
the by the untied empire or
15:20
the Ottoman Empire. That's very simple,
15:22
her periods of a credible flourishing
15:24
of varieties of human so and
15:26
but then it becomes ossified and
15:28
style and power relations assert themselves
15:30
and certain types of human association
15:32
come to dominate. and then it's
15:34
very, very hard to break free.
15:36
And the history of free market
15:38
capitalism may be. Just another version of
15:40
that so you can find the periods where
15:42
it looks like it's the answer to the
15:44
question of the diversity of human flourishing which
15:47
is what the depends. The free Market have
15:49
always said. When. You look
15:51
at the twenty first century version, it's not
15:53
clear that that is true. There's an awful
15:55
lot of diversity, but there's also an awful
15:57
lot of uniform as an angry been made.
16:00
That is part of the trajectory of
16:02
all of these forms of social organization.
16:04
Right? and all stories of freedom? maybe?
16:06
So. Many give you another argument that again. You.
16:09
Hear is in different forms from
16:12
the eighteenth century onwards about the
16:14
free market. One of the challenges
16:16
for human freedom is it all
16:18
human societies going have within them,
16:20
people who have an awful lot
16:22
of power of and money and
16:24
power and have no real incentive
16:26
to obey the rules and. They.
16:28
Will behave like bandits. that's where the sofa
16:31
nice of them. the powerful bandits the robbers.
16:33
he will get rich by taking what they
16:35
can take goes bit back to play. say
16:37
what people will get away with they get
16:39
away with what they will get away with.
16:42
And the great advantage of a
16:44
free market society is it's organizing
16:46
principle is the rule of law,
16:49
which is broadly speaking, Very.
16:51
Broadly speaking, Neutral. And.
16:54
There's. A moral argument for that. It
16:56
treats people Sally's in, agree or disagree,
16:58
and I suspect there are lots of
17:01
reasons to disagree with that. but as
17:03
a pragmatic argument, prudential argument. Which.
17:05
Is. It encourages the
17:07
people who might otherwise be bandits to
17:10
play by the rules. Why to entice
17:12
them Because they spot they'll get richer
17:14
playing by the rules and even if
17:16
the rules and get walks by that
17:18
power, it's still better to have them
17:20
inside the tent to you can at
17:22
least try and hold them to the
17:24
more. Than. A genuine band
17:27
is economy where when they come feel
17:29
goods, does nothing that you can do
17:31
and that is an eighteenth century argument
17:33
is also twenty first century argument in
17:35
a way that there are rubber band,
17:37
it's out the other our he's in
17:39
which the oligarchs more or less take
17:42
what they want not quite that almost.
17:44
And then there are societies. may be
17:46
like. Someone. Like Great Personal
17:48
whether a very wealthy powerful people, but
17:50
there is a plausible case. they are
17:52
constrained by rules that they have signed
17:54
up to because those rules are the
17:56
basis of that wealth. That. Seems
17:58
to need to the. Kind. Of ideology
18:01
in a way to so narrative of
18:03
how everyone is equal in the market.
18:05
It's premised on the idea that individuals
18:07
all have equal bargaining power. That they're
18:10
all positions equal in front. Of the
18:12
law and therefore any one of them who
18:14
takes risks does these things, engages with other
18:16
people. In the way with some of the. Rules of
18:19
Commercial Society prescribe will then potentially
18:21
benefit and therefore you can then
18:23
see this. Story of advancement.
18:25
And so on. But that's the bit of free
18:27
market thinking that strikes. Me as pure ideology
18:29
in a way because if you are
18:31
excellent and biology doing frenzy and. No,
18:34
no, not south of the a kind
18:36
of narrative that justifies the model and
18:38
that then takes hold on people's minds
18:40
who then buy into the model and
18:42
then will absorb the costs and are
18:44
willing to justify the excesses because they
18:46
think will. The narrative seems like the
18:48
right one. It's. A little bit like the
18:51
story of a we're all equal in front of
18:53
the law and the state. Well, that's not the
18:55
case, right? So some of us have more mean
18:57
than others. And so in the case of the
18:59
Free Market if you are someone who has capital
19:01
and has resources or has land or have. Basically
19:04
owns a lot. Of stuff,
19:06
they don't have the same bargaining.
19:08
Power in the market with someone who doesn't doesn't
19:10
have anything else and so's up and says here's
19:12
what I can do on that. Me and us
19:15
or. Have is myself. So in a
19:17
way, these asymmetries of wealth and property
19:19
and capital and thoughts. It seems to
19:21
me that undermined his narrative that in
19:23
the markets everyone is equal Yes, they
19:25
are equal in the Us drugs, and
19:27
yes, for the contract to the eyes
19:29
of the law and for all intents
19:31
and purposes when it comes to making
19:34
contracts. They're equal, but actually the
19:36
agents who are signing a contract.
19:38
The fact are not equal and
19:40
indeed often. Contracts and Up Advantage
19:42
and those who have more resources and
19:44
who can drive the agenda. And sauce
19:47
to simply that's that's the bit of acts
19:49
of the I've always. Found really perplexing them.
19:51
I'm surprised that more people don't seeds
19:53
in generally and a free markets oriented
19:55
society that this is just a narrative
19:58
that takes hold on the. One
20:00
believes in it and then therefore they
20:02
somehow suspend their criticism of the law
20:04
of these doctors of the wayne was
20:06
contracts are signs. So. I think the
20:08
argument I was making there is an ideal those moves
20:10
is close to the one you describe is I think
20:12
is pretty implausible. Equal bargaining power and
20:15
then the pragmatic one which is a
20:17
much much more modest argument. Which.
20:19
Is There are lots of scenarios in which
20:21
if you have rule structures of power and
20:23
hierarchy and massive in the causes of wealth,
20:25
there is no bargaining power. To the band
20:27
It version of it, your money or your
20:30
life version of it. That's not your money
20:32
or your life is not a bargaining position
20:34
for the person on the other side of
20:36
the table. It's a threat. It's
20:38
extraction the word sometimes uses. These
20:40
are extracted societies in which the
20:42
people with the power use that
20:44
power. To. Augment their wealth.
20:46
And then these. that wealth movement, that
20:49
power. And yes, you're not gonna get
20:51
equality under the law, except in the
20:53
ideal, idealized version of this. But there
20:55
is some bargaining power within this, or
20:57
even in the very unequal societies like
20:59
the ones that we live in. It's
21:01
not just banditry. what it is is
21:04
a structure organized around rules in which
21:06
you will need resources to know how
21:08
to navigate those rules. and it's gonna
21:10
be very unequal. The people with the
21:12
money can buy the lawyers and the
21:14
people without the money. Can't have an
21:17
A for the Lloyds and so on,
21:19
and so on. Says nothing idealized about
21:21
it, but it's better than banditry, and
21:23
banditry is often the default condition of
21:25
very unequal societies. And then again, For
21:28
cells heard of random I mean and anything
21:30
from in a different it in a state
21:32
and the bandits organization is just how we
21:34
justify the state. And how he does if I
21:36
the bandit organization right. But it seems to me
21:38
that if you think that the state is basically tests
21:40
that. Strong and powerful will have
21:43
managed to. Accumulates and concentrates
21:45
our and now holds monopoly over violence
21:47
and then can impose their will on
21:49
others. Well that's just like a form
21:51
of bandit organization right? our larger scale.
21:53
In some ways it's a it's even
21:55
worse than a bandit organization that my
21:58
be smaller and might be less. Devastating
22:00
and. Bandits. Plus Rules
22:03
is worse than bandits without rules.
22:05
A mania. Imagine a kind of bandit organization
22:07
with nuclear weapons right? There are some the
22:09
most of them are if you think of
22:12
the said incidents way. So this is why
22:14
I say ideologies important because on the base
22:16
of that ideologies than you than justify the
22:18
state and think about how it's made acceptable
22:20
and how people subscribed to the rules own
22:22
to come on to another defense of remote
22:24
it But just on this. Faced.
22:27
With the argument that the rule of
22:29
law which has. At. It's heart
22:31
an idea that it will treat people
22:34
equally or neutrally it doesn't in practice,
22:36
but that I do is there. And
22:38
so when you live. In
22:40
an organization that has an ideal to which does
22:42
not live up. There. Are
22:44
some advantages to that to
22:46
even ruthless brutal dictators can
22:48
be held to account in
22:50
part by their hypocrisy. Hypocrisy
22:52
is one of the things
22:55
that lets people be reined
22:57
in because. You're the
22:59
victim of your own pretends. If.
23:01
You think of the rule of law in that light.
23:04
It is the hypocrisy of free market societies to talk
23:06
about the rule of law. Just. As
23:08
they classic example of this was during
23:10
the Cold War when the Soviet regime
23:12
signed up to arms treaty said it
23:15
had no intention of up holdings. Nonetheless,
23:17
there is something that you can do
23:19
with people by saying this paper papers
23:21
got your signature on it you can
23:24
same hypocrites, Do. Not
23:26
see any of the pool of that. Year.
23:28
But then this idea that we have treaties and
23:30
we have laws and we subscribed. This is
23:32
a very old idea so I don't
23:34
really see that we credit them free
23:37
markets where this. It seems to me
23:39
that this has been going on principle
23:41
of backed us on servanda. It's precedes
23:43
the emergence of kind of free market
23:45
capitalism or side of commercial societies. So
23:47
I'd say yes there is something and
23:49
but it might work the other way
23:51
around as well that that because to
23:53
have this idea that events in for
23:55
certain types of market interactions but doesn't
23:57
democratize it to the extent that. Yes,
24:00
There's always been the thought that treaties can be
24:02
binding. even the people he signed them don't. Mean.
24:05
To abide by them. but that's
24:07
an elite practice. It's not the
24:09
case in most societies that ordinary
24:11
people can hold a piece of
24:13
paper and say you sign this,
24:15
but that is true and of
24:17
various versions of free exchange in
24:19
the rule of law it isn't.
24:21
is a very contract oriented set
24:23
of arrangements and so you have
24:25
kind of past. The. Opportunities
24:27
to hold people out by the sailing
24:29
to meet their own hypocritical stand As
24:31
down the chain. I can
24:33
see that. but then I guess there you
24:36
have to narratives of what accounts for the
24:38
emergence of this type of principles that expands.
24:40
Somehow the range of who you can make certain that
24:42
mans on sauce. And while I think it's true
24:44
that the emergence of these commercials aside is this
24:47
play a role in the rule of law and
24:49
thoughts, I don't think it was necessarily. What accounted
24:51
for democracy? It seems to me that that
24:53
movements that democratize a try to open up
24:55
the public fears were often author movement that
24:58
weren't necessarily free market movements of the democratizing
25:00
movements of the eighteenth nineteenth century in particular
25:02
were also movement the try to resist the
25:05
free market. Them indeed were doing so on
25:07
the basis of the idea that it wasn't
25:09
as for the property holders and it wasn't
25:11
for people who are on the assets on
25:14
stilts. I wouldn't credits the
25:16
descendants of commercial society with
25:18
also. Having come up with. Mechanism.
25:21
For holding it's other, holding people accountable that
25:23
actually works say is another argument for the
25:26
free market and you to run by. Use
25:28
this one. I would associate particularly with Friedrich
25:30
Hayek, the the twentieth century Nobel prize winning.
25:32
Everyone should say it's economists to their when
25:35
he won the Nobel Prize alongside Murtha alongside
25:37
all sorts of people, his Nobel prize winning
25:39
acceptance speech is worth reading Diseases or have
25:42
Id say is price but my God Economists
25:44
think they're more important than they really are.
25:46
And part of the reason he thought that
25:48
was he believed his view of the Free
25:51
Market. Was a theory of knowledge. Essentially.
25:54
And the great threat to human
25:56
freedom. He believed and and he
25:59
thought He took this. The From Monkeys entry
26:01
liberals like Tocqueville and others is he
26:03
needs to be emancipated from false profits,
26:05
people who have forced prophecies of the
26:08
future I mean, or prophecies in the
26:10
center of the future, but specifically secular
26:12
ones. Around how
26:14
the economy could be structured, politicians particularly
26:16
in democratic societies who are going to
26:19
try and present in order to secure
26:21
their power. A version of the future
26:23
is a vote because he can emancipate
26:25
you in some ways. I
26:27
believed. Prophecy. Traps He because
26:30
all of us all human beings we'll
26:32
do it by you, make a prediction
26:34
and then even if it's not coming
26:36
true, you kind of doubled down on
26:38
it in order to try and save
26:40
face. And he genuinely believed that the
26:42
way power to months as hotties, the
26:44
real risk was politicians who it. Off
26:47
A plans for the Economy offer
26:50
a prospectus of full employment whatever
26:52
it is, control prices. Mid twentieth
26:54
century political office That these were
26:57
the things that would ultimately trap
26:59
human beings in patterns of behavior
27:01
from which they couldn't escape because
27:04
the people with power would be
27:06
committed to saving face by. Pushing.
27:09
Further and further and further you push
27:11
on these plans, the less human freedom
27:13
there will be because more and constraint
27:16
is needed. The market is the emancipated
27:18
because the market is the thing that
27:20
exposes the fools prophecies. Because the market
27:22
knows things that no human beings and
27:25
know group of human beings know which
27:27
is the value of goods, set the
27:29
price and the price mechanism is the
27:32
vehicle of human freedom because the enemy
27:34
of human freedom other all the different
27:36
human beings who think they can set.
27:38
The price accident. That is quite a
27:41
plausible argument. Fails think it's a very
27:43
important than very strong arguments of have a
27:45
lot of time for it. Also as part
27:47
of a kind of theorists knowledge and how
27:49
are their farms and science. I guess for
27:51
me when you're thinking about that and the
27:53
alternatives. Or that That and the criticisms. The
27:55
question is a question of how do you reckon
27:58
with the costs. Of it's we, the cost of
28:00
that view, visibly, the costs. Of the let's call
28:02
it the planning do for want of a
28:04
better distinction and it seems to me that
28:06
head doesn't deny that there is a costs
28:08
to the free market view. And
28:11
he just doesn't think that
28:13
once needs. Despair.
28:15
Poverty. Are also then when
28:17
impediments the freedom. So somehow he has
28:19
conception of freedoms that is not broad
28:21
enough that it can allow for us
28:23
to understand that if someone is desperate,
28:25
someone is homeless. If want someone it's
28:28
hungry, they are unfree. He his conception
28:30
of freedom doesn't enable him to do.
28:32
That and therefore he can say, Well, you
28:34
know markets. Free markets enable us to innovate
28:36
and we don't have control over the direction
28:39
of society. It's and if there are the
28:41
victims along the way, Well, Tom P, You
28:43
know that so be it does what happens.
28:45
And indeed, you know he thinks of social
28:48
justice as a result of that. Is a
28:50
mere, it's a gold the myriad of social justice
28:52
he doesn't thing. But any as the to some
28:54
is or should be in the business of trying
28:56
to. Somehow do something about the victims
28:58
of the markets. What I really like about
29:00
how you can. View as the honesty about
29:02
all of this was his not honestly that you'd
29:05
find in any other I think are you not
29:07
find it very often named a lot of free
29:09
markets advocates the cooking easily prevented the know you
29:11
and do something about at Worth when I like
29:13
about my high as it gives a this kind
29:16
of stark choice okay the one of the the
29:18
free market Ruth you will understand that there will
29:20
be losers and there's nothing you can do about
29:22
the losers. It's just a cost that we have
29:24
to absorb if we want flourishing societies of this
29:27
type. Now I'm not someone who is happy to
29:29
absorb the costs because I thing to the person
29:31
who. Left behind to the poor to
29:33
the homeless to booths. It. Matters
29:35
is is there one life? And it matters
29:37
what happens to them, depending on what kind
29:40
of choices we make and how we design.
29:42
Institutions and said it's so if I am
29:44
going to lose a little bit. Of innovation
29:46
are a little bit of the direct
29:48
some because I'm planning more. And
29:51
saves. More. Of the
29:53
victims of the Free Markets than I
29:55
am prepared to drive on that's motorway
29:57
rather than on this one and absorb.
30:00
I'm not one rather than this one not die again once,
30:02
but I find the argument global and I think it is
30:04
a kind of then when. An
30:06
interesting debate how you think about it's
30:08
the second thing, but that I also
30:10
really like. That I've spent a lot of
30:13
time thinking about is the argument around prices
30:15
and planning and which is obviously having lived
30:17
in communist Albania you could really experience it's
30:19
you could really see what is the cost
30:21
of central planning economy where you don't have
30:24
signaling and you can you deceive to was
30:26
forming because you don't have been adequate supply
30:28
and demand. Mechanism and because it's
30:30
doesn't works in the right. Way. What?
30:33
I'm really interested in recently is all
30:35
the arguments for that. Not utopians will
30:38
say that it actually the age of
30:40
a I and digital revolution. There are
30:42
now ways in which we can have
30:45
much better within control or more controlled
30:47
economies. You have much better signaling and
30:49
you have a much faster communication between
30:51
the kind of things of. Economic
30:54
with distribution of enables you to then
30:56
have a better oversight than you might
30:58
have had when I was writing and
31:00
so I'm really into since arguments as
31:02
a okay this was a genuine issue
31:05
but now they're our technological possibilities to
31:07
overcome some of the of Texans that
31:09
are made to the planet or Molson.
31:11
just not without your mouth and probably.
31:14
Most. Suspicious of who Because the argument
31:16
for the market is that the market
31:18
knows things that no human being. Those
31:21
new group of human being know. The.
31:24
Market has it's own knowledge, which
31:26
comes from this accumulation of all
31:28
of the interactions of human beings.
31:30
And you see this repeated across.
31:33
The. Internet and different forms. Google Most things that
31:35
no human beings a know group of human beings
31:37
and the people who run Google don't know. In
31:39
the people who designed Google Dinner and these new
31:42
eyes of the have this a black box quality
31:44
to them that the market has. The market is
31:46
a black box. To. Design the roof
31:48
of the market, but it'll produce answers to
31:50
the question. What is the value of this
31:53
good? but not any. Can their one
31:55
predict that no one actually quite knows how
31:57
it does it? House and notice undies? Really
31:59
sophisticated. The eyes of doing things and. Coming.
32:02
Up with answers that no one can know. But.
32:04
Then I want to know who owns
32:07
those things cause it's an extraordinary power
32:09
and a key to say the same
32:11
classroom at the market who owns the
32:13
market But it seems to me it's
32:16
a more acute question in the age
32:18
of a Ice that actually you have
32:20
these corporate forms these winners in a
32:22
market system that a now acquiring a
32:25
whole extra level of power which is
32:27
they control, they build, they own. The.
32:29
Machines which ah the new know
32:32
as of the things that no
32:34
human being knows. It's more threatening
32:36
than the market version because the
32:38
powers more concentrated. Now
32:40
that of as it's an event in the market versa
32:42
in the development. Of the market. So historically
32:44
we have gone towards more and more
32:47
monopolization of capital and more and more
32:49
concentrations of power. And so in that
32:51
sense, I wouldn't say that the again
32:53
the time digital innovations are responsible for
32:56
the concentration of power and concentration of
32:58
ownership over around it's digital platforms. They
33:00
are just. The form that capital
33:02
takes at this. Particular state and
33:04
this case it happens to be digital
33:06
and so that's why Google and whatever
33:09
Microsoft and all his picked up on.
33:11
But it's a general. Seats are of
33:13
the way in which wealth as accumulated
33:15
and concentrated in deciding which we live
33:17
for their more thinking of the concentration
33:19
of knowledge of the knowledge of the
33:22
things the signals that human beings can't
33:24
access for themselves. There is that concentration
33:26
now to within these systems. But
33:28
yeah, but that's because we live in societies where
33:30
everything is commodity fights and so knowledge of the
33:32
commodity. As well and that's why it's not surprising
33:34
that you have this concentrations. So then the question
33:37
is that you kind of take it back and
33:39
say okay, it's what than we do I. Agree
33:41
with you, it's very concerning that there
33:43
is this degree of control over knowledge,
33:45
but what can we do to distribute
33:47
control more widely And then you go
33:49
back to the dilemma of is the
33:51
markets really as open and as inclusive
33:53
as it's set to be? Or is
33:55
it in fact just a few elites
33:57
that end up concentrate in wealth and.
34:00
Therefore, controlling more of the economy and
34:02
how can you then opened that up
34:04
and then it becomes wasn't very democratize
34:06
the economy more widely. I would also
34:08
say against the higher cume view. So
34:10
this is the critique of the fools
34:12
prophecies of those politicians who claim to
34:14
know the future. I think. Face.
34:17
In the Free Market is itself a fool's prophecy.
34:19
and actually, we know that now. So.
34:22
We know that there are circumstances in
34:24
modern societies in which you do need
34:26
to radically restrain the power of the
34:28
market because you've hit a problem, particularly
34:30
within a specific timeframe where you do
34:32
not have the time to allow the
34:35
market to work. It's magic. and if
34:37
you do allow the market to work
34:39
his magic in that short timeframe, there
34:41
will be so many loses that politics
34:43
will take over in a different way
34:46
and in a bit, so that gets.
34:48
The Nineteen Thirties might be an example
34:50
of this. The the Great Depression. Yes
34:52
in the long run let the banks fails and
34:54
in the end of price mechanism will let us
34:57
know what the future really holds. but in the
34:59
short run you're going to get fascism and all
35:01
the rest of it. A
35:03
chance at climate change seems to me similar.
35:05
There are lots of hierarchy and see say
35:07
that clearly the solution to or human problems
35:09
is to let the market price mechanism signal
35:11
to ask what will work and if we
35:13
try guess now what we need and thirty
35:16
is time we're going to get it wrong
35:18
will be trapped with our guess is we
35:20
will end up wasting a fourteen trying to
35:22
prove we were right and the world will
35:24
get warmer. But you can
35:26
imagine circumstances in a warming world in
35:28
which the political consequences of letting the
35:30
market work it's magic actually produce a
35:32
vicious circle effect in which we start
35:35
reacting to the losses that we suffer
35:37
while we're waiting for the market to
35:39
work his magic and we find political
35:41
solutions that a far worse so I
35:43
actually thing and his face. All of
35:46
these things are fight. There is a
35:48
a free market religion out that Hyuk
35:50
is, it's high priest and given that
35:52
he's they the critic of fools profits.
35:55
I think it's dangerous. I suppose
35:57
let's say it would say there's a.
36:00
Difference between the impersonal and the personal
36:02
And so if I were to defend
36:04
a exposition. I would say well
36:06
yes it is a safe and it
36:08
is a religions But there is a
36:10
difference between putting your faith in people
36:13
and putting your faith in process is
36:15
and in processes that are impersonal. Now.
36:17
My objects into that would be the peace process,
36:19
their exit not impersonal, and the end because the
36:21
Wayne Was Markets have developed the way in which
36:24
the types of society. We live
36:26
in, there are always. Personal.
36:28
Forces also behind what seems
36:30
like impersonal. Forces maybe more complicated.
36:32
It's more widely spread the it's not
36:34
vertical, it's horizontal. But there is a
36:37
type of a press on that. There
36:39
is a type of indices that these
36:41
structural what we'd call structural which is
36:43
not personnel and so. I
36:45
guess this is where the debate would be
36:47
to say okay, but is. An oppressed
36:50
and are the type of industries where you
36:52
can put a face and where you can
36:54
say it's politicians is the technocrats. it's the
36:56
decision makers the same as a type of
36:58
oppression where it be oppression is created. By
37:00
the little contributions of all these people who are
37:02
actually just going about their business and. Might
37:05
also do something. Good and so that's I
37:07
think where the interesting debate is and I think
37:09
I would say. The. Belief that
37:11
you should put your trust in
37:13
processes over people cannot be a
37:15
universal principal because they're all clear
37:18
moments in history where it's better
37:20
to put your trust in people
37:22
than processes. So America in the
37:24
Nineteen thirties, which could have gone
37:26
been many different paths. It
37:28
by. Lot more than by design
37:30
Guess President Franklin Roosevelt who is.
37:33
In. No way. A systematize it doesn't
37:35
really understand economics reads. a bit of
37:38
planes flew me to deploy a bit
37:40
of this to the that's constantly feeding
37:42
his way. has the right temperament to
37:44
experiment in ways where the signal for
37:46
he's trying to pick up at the
37:49
political signals. what will people tolerate? Because
37:51
it was a real risk that American
37:53
democracy would collapse into some version of.
37:56
Dictatorial. Reason: Fascistic
37:58
Politics and. It.
38:01
Does make sense to me that there are points
38:03
in human history Were. Facing.
38:05
Impersonal processes because people are fallible is
38:07
a mistake. This is my firm with
38:10
crypto. currency is madness. Rights To think
38:12
that what you want is a money
38:14
that's completely incorruptible by human input. I
38:17
want to money that corruptible by human
38:19
input. When we need money to be
38:21
corrupted by human input, Otherwise, we're all
38:24
gonna die. You're.
38:26
Nothing to say that I've found that. I
38:29
want for the first time in
38:31
the say this effect of have
38:33
filed suit against two more things.
38:40
Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. With the
38:42
price of just about everything going up during
38:44
inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down.
38:47
So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which
38:49
is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium Wireless. Ready to
38:51
get 30, ready to get 30, ready to get 20, 20,
38:54
20, ready to get 20, 20, ready to
38:57
get 15, 15, 15, 15, just 15
38:59
bucks a month. Sold! Give it
39:01
a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45
39:04
up front for 3 months plus taxes and fees. Promote for new
39:06
customers for a limited time. Unlimited more than 40GB per month.
39:08
Slows. mintmobile.com. O
39:12
that? What was that? Oh, reign over
39:14
that was as bad as old leftovers
39:16
you ate. All we do you Bama
39:18
here and it's time to say hello
39:21
to something. Fresh and guilt free.
39:23
Hello Fresh! Jazz up dinner
39:25
with T can cause the chicken
39:27
a garlic butter shrimp scampi. Now
39:29
that's music to my mom. Hello
39:31
for me! Get this dinner party
39:33
started! Discover all the delicious positively
39:36
hello fresh. That com. One.
39:42
Other feature of. Market
39:44
economies, commercial societies and we talked
39:46
about this a bit last time
39:48
in relation to Can't and camps few
39:50
about what we needed to be emancipated
39:53
from to achieve perpetual piece is that
39:55
the. Medium. Of exchange is money.
39:58
This. Is a moneyed world? Know the world? The
40:00
money dwells the ancient world and lots respects Was
40:02
not really a money world. The.
40:05
World of Money, particularly. The.
40:07
Most recent versions of it Basically what we're
40:09
talking by his credit and debt and the
40:12
money is just a legend of heroes. what
40:14
home and indeed crypto currencies are ledger of
40:16
who is what to whom. Many.
40:19
Critics in different ways of commercial
40:21
societies have thought that in emancipating
40:23
people from relations of civility, what
40:25
you create a new kinds of
40:27
relations sensibility. Because the credits a
40:29
debtor relations is a power in
40:31
a sense it can go both
40:33
ways and that's that old argument
40:35
that if if you a someone's
40:37
fifty thousand pounds that person controls
40:39
even if you a than fifty
40:42
million pounds he control them because
40:44
they really need you to be
40:46
good. Feel that and then. On
40:48
the international scale, a bit
40:50
modern. Finance Modern. Banking.
40:53
It's beyond human imagining how much
40:55
the United States of America owes
40:57
to it's creditors. and as no
41:00
escape from it steals that. There's
41:02
no escape from a world which
41:04
is entirely mediated by credit. That
41:06
relationships person that is massive across
41:08
the developed world, particularly government that
41:11
is massive across the developed world.
41:13
This huge power in the banks.
41:15
Who are that? the creditors but
41:17
also some of the banks are
41:20
extremely vulnerable because they've learnt so
41:22
much. And that feels
41:24
like to me like it puts a
41:26
real damp now on the argument that
41:28
this is the vehicle of human freedom
41:31
we have as a result of embracing
41:33
a free market where of existence created
41:35
a mind boggling network of credits. Odetta
41:38
Relations. Which. Do.
41:40
Not make human freedom easily visible
41:42
in this. Yeah. And for
41:44
me that I completely agree with that and
41:47
that there isn't even son of an added
41:49
time which is the harm the floor and.
41:51
Then. You know, and some of those theories of
41:53
why are there wars between states in the world?
41:56
That's all to deal with this type of dynamic
41:58
of credit or and that released. I'm
42:00
not a kind of all traditional account
42:02
of imperialism, For example, stem from this
42:04
argument that there was a belief that
42:06
the credit and debit system Woods Supply.
42:08
The money that is needed to cater to
42:11
the demands of workers. In particular, states are
42:13
too great, a kind of welfare, subsidies and
42:15
science. All of that comes to haunt you,
42:17
because in fact, it's premised on the exploitation
42:19
and the plundering of other parts of the
42:21
world's. To make up to create a
42:23
base that pencil same these types of relations.
42:26
That dominating relations in the International fear.
42:28
And so what? Seems last an
42:30
escape falls. Within. Particular
42:32
society with in particular economy that gives
42:35
you know the states can borrow. And
42:37
therefore they can then. The have
42:39
also certain social expenditures will always
42:41
come to haunt the most. Vulnerable states
42:43
in the world economy where someone will always
42:45
have to pay the price of both kinds
42:48
of credit or and that relations weather in
42:50
the form of olds, imperialism and Old conquest
42:52
and so on or in the form. Of
42:54
now that dependency. And neo
42:57
colonial dynamics of conditioning other more
42:59
for more vulnerable countries where you
43:01
really see the that operating in
43:03
the international institutions in the way
43:06
in which. Countries for
43:08
go bankrupt are not. The
43:10
United States become effectively dominated
43:12
by more stronger by more
43:14
powerful states and exploited and
43:16
been used. For. The advancement
43:18
of those companies that are based in
43:20
these kind of stronger states. So for
43:22
me what's really it's in a way
43:24
even more depressing about it is that
43:26
going back to your argument about perpetual
43:28
peace and the world of for free
43:31
republican states that said rates with each
43:33
other and becomes call operates ends on
43:35
a peaceful. Relations exactly this credit or
43:37
and and better dynamic. So that
43:39
explains why that can't be the
43:41
case for as long as these
43:43
societies. Are run on free market
43:45
principles and hike is one of
43:48
those people who himself was very
43:50
worried but one post books his
43:52
version of freedom could take was
43:54
towards and excessive reliance on these
43:57
some cheap remedies for the challenges
43:59
that. Those in the twentieth century.
44:01
He was a nineteenth century liberals
44:03
who believed in really strict constitutional
44:06
restraints on the capacity of governments
44:08
to borrow because he knew it
44:10
was the path of least resistance.
44:12
It is the path of least
44:14
resistance. We know you can tax,
44:16
he can steal where you can
44:18
borrow, and we know that boring
44:21
is the easiest particular parts of
44:23
the obligation, and partly just because
44:25
it causes less fast And therefore
44:27
he thought actually. Freedom.
44:29
And his sense required strict liberal constraints
44:32
on government so strong separation of powers,
44:34
budget limits, and will. rest of the
44:36
kind of arguments was going on in
44:39
the United States now which is at.
44:41
Which is kind of. And it's all of this is bad
44:43
enough if you're. Of Britain's imagine how much worse
44:45
it is it your Albania act and the
44:48
now are sung. Yeah no it's is it
44:50
because if you're in the periphery of them
44:52
are of these. Economies than you are
44:54
much more. Vulnerable. To the press
44:56
or something. International markets, and thence even
44:58
the mechanisms that the wealthy countries have
45:01
to actually look after their own vulnerable
45:03
citizens are really not available to these
45:05
other states. I would say the other
45:07
problem with being a nineteenth century liberal
45:09
in the twentieth of friends for centuries,
45:11
it's not the nineteenth century right to
45:13
say it's and mean, I say so
45:15
American. You want to introduce these strict
45:17
constraints which limit the power of politicians
45:20
to inflate the currency or to borrow
45:22
more to get over this crisis or
45:24
that crisis you demand. In a highest
45:26
in way to go back to the gold
45:28
standard or two in she's bitcoin the currency
45:30
so the politicians can't interfere with it's and
45:32
therefore you bind the hands of the politicians
45:35
by be a binding them under conditions that
45:37
are far more dangerous because of them weight
45:39
of obligations that a built up over time.
45:41
So America goes bust and we're all screwed.
45:44
Now. Certainly may not been truths to
45:46
and describe. It is certainly true. Now to
45:48
your really playing with fire. I think if
45:50
you do that kind of nineteenth century liberalism
45:52
in the twenty first century because the stakes
45:55
are too high, Yeah no that's right
45:57
although I also I mean I'm more all but I
45:59
guess the the footprint. Rob Sir John the
46:01
debt ceiling to be breached in America To
46:03
renege on it's that. Married
46:05
guy goes bankrupt, says come up and
46:07
services for doctors, an area that might
46:09
unfold as a result of that. Last.
46:13
Thing which is another bird cruises with the
46:15
free market in you've touched on their of
46:17
commercial society. You've. More as just made
46:19
this case for one's really drew that. It
46:22
is always easy to identify the places
46:24
where it from really seems to have
46:27
worked. So for instance, there was talk
46:29
about this. Take nineteenth century Britain, some
46:31
terrible south happened to nineteenth century Britain
46:33
and some of the. Result.
46:36
Sober, a more liberalized market
46:38
economy were terrible working conditions
46:40
for people in it required
46:43
politics, the rescue children and
46:45
other people from disco exploitation.
46:47
But nonetheless of the nineteenth
46:49
century into the twentieth century,
46:51
it's incredible advances in life
46:53
expectancy, eventually in health outcomes,
46:55
in education, In.
46:57
General well being including basic measures
47:00
of gdp becomes a rich country.
47:02
These rich is off more widely
47:04
distributed. Terrible stuff but good stuff
47:06
too. But all of it is
47:08
happening because as an empire underneath
47:10
it and instances so a not
47:12
not a radical marxist by enemies,
47:14
but someone is an illusion in
47:17
his ways to do well. One.
47:19
Of his arguments about Britain. Was.
47:22
That it was just completely in
47:24
denial about the basis of it's
47:26
own wealth and much of what
47:28
it's politics was, which was a
47:30
set of playing around with the
47:33
structures of distribution within its own
47:35
borders was a kind of fantasy
47:37
based on the fact that no
47:39
one wants to talk about the
47:41
empire that underpinned it. And maybe
47:44
you see that repeated in all
47:46
of the success stories of the
47:48
Free Market. There is always ends,
47:50
an external factor. Which is
47:52
the thing? Outside were some version
47:55
of banditry is taking play. absolute.
47:57
And you see that both at the macro level with the
47:59
nation's and. They and you also see that the
48:01
micro level with the idea of the kind of
48:03
successful entrepreneur or the person who made his and
48:05
where you actually go and look at the case
48:08
is it's very. Rarely that the person who
48:10
made really started from nothing and in
48:12
fact often it is your thoughts on
48:14
family wealth. And then you look at the
48:16
roots and how this family wealth will have
48:18
accumulated. And there's always also not always clean
48:21
money at the bottom of it all. So
48:23
it seems to me that this is going
48:25
back to where we started about a sex
48:27
of ideology. So all of these. Factors
48:29
are suppressed in our accounts of
48:31
the rewards of free. Individual initiative
48:33
and creativity and innovation. And in
48:35
fact, when you kind of scratched
48:38
the surface, you realize that in
48:40
every process of accumulation, the basis
48:42
of it's both. It individual
48:44
process of accumulation and collected. Bros
48:46
of Accumulations The basis of it really
48:48
is violence. And so the question is,
48:50
how much violence are you willing to
48:52
justify to than uphold the benefits of?
48:54
Follow have another version. the arguments. The
48:57
strongest defenders of the Free Market in
48:59
the world. They live in Silicon Valley
49:01
in California and they have imbibed. Fire.
49:04
And. Other
49:06
Twenty Cents: Economists and Ayn
49:08
Rand and the novelists of
49:10
the Emancipated Market man. And
49:13
it is always a man.
49:15
And these people are almost
49:17
always men. And they have.
49:19
Not. Just an ideology but of miss
49:22
about themselves which is that they are
49:24
self made and. Some.
49:26
Of them have advantage backgrounds, but
49:28
really what they are building their
49:31
wealth on is the violence of
49:33
the state. Because these are this
49:35
technology we know now and that
49:38
this has been so well documented
49:40
is almost have become a cliche.
49:42
This technology is the product of
49:45
the American Military Industrial State bureaucratic
49:47
complex. and it's the Second World
49:49
War in a Cold War set
49:52
of imperatives and spending on a
49:54
mind boggling scale of public. Money.
49:57
The. Created the platform on which.
50:00
The wealth of the Apostles of the Free Market has
50:02
been built. Yeah. I think What's
50:04
also really interesting there is that we never
50:06
talons what's the foundations of private property are
50:09
because all of these models are premised on
50:11
the acceptance of a certain way of relating.
50:14
The individual to the external resources that
50:16
they are they happen to be to
50:18
find themselves and and all of that
50:20
requires a good story. Of what's justifies
50:23
accumulation, what justifies that. You know
50:25
this is not yours and then
50:27
it becomes the ours. I
50:29
think one of the ways in which
50:31
one can really, fundamentally. Talents.
50:33
The models and center on balance on
50:36
his disaster. What makes this course? And
50:38
there's so many different accounts there and
50:40
I think most of them are implausible,
50:43
but maybe Abbotsford other to. Our
50:51
Foot might Be newsletter comes out tomorrow
50:53
and tomorrow as addition accompanies the series.
50:55
It's full of writing clips links about
50:57
some of the ideas of freedom that
51:00
we been talking about. To get it
51:02
you just need to click on the
51:04
link in the show description. You can
51:06
also find out there had to sign
51:08
up to keep your fluff famous episodes
51:11
and out free Listening. As
51:14
we mentioned before the last his letter
51:16
we discovered did end up in some
51:18
subscribers junk was from folders. We
51:21
have been working to try make sure
51:23
that doesn't happen again but just to
51:25
be safe. If you nice as it
51:27
doesn't arrive do check junk spam and
51:29
if you can do my newsletter feel
51:31
main in books. Joseph
51:34
follow us on Twitter and Instagram up
51:36
Ppf I do is wait and see
51:38
video clips from the series. Or
51:41
next episode is about anarchism.
51:43
A neat of isn't. What
51:46
does that mean? to believe in freedom? If
51:49
you don't really believe in anything else, This
51:53
has been past present, future brought to you
51:55
in partnership with the London Review of Books.
52:12
Oh god What was that? More rain?
52:14
So flavor that was as bad as
52:16
have left overs you ate all week.
52:18
Do you? Bama here and it's time
52:20
to say hello to something fresh and
52:22
guilt free. Hello fresh jazz Have dinner
52:25
with he can cause the chicken a
52:27
garlic butter shrimp scampi. Now that's music
52:29
to my mouth. Hello for me. Blessed
52:31
is the the body. And
52:35
hello fresh. That can. Do
52:39
ever feel like your brain is on
52:41
overdrive in your mind is constantly racing.
52:43
The plans were reason to do this
52:46
to never ending. Com can help your
52:48
mind take a break from the noise
52:50
by softening anxiety symptoms in the moment
52:52
and helping you cope with dated a
52:54
stressors. Com is a number one app
52:56
for sweeping meditation, giving you the power
52:58
to com your mind and seems your
53:01
life for the sins of the show.
53:03
Com is offering an exclusive offer a
53:05
forty percent off a com premium subscription
53:07
a com.com/stress Less go to clm.com/ Stress
53:10
Less Forty Percent off
53:12
unlimited access to coms
53:14
entire library that's com.com/stress.
53:17
Less.
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More