Capitalism Myths: Part 2 — Transcript

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1. 0:00Now, part 2 of our myths about capitalism,
2. 0:04starting with myth 4.
3. 0:05Free markets create unsafe workplaces.
4. 0:09Only government, through agencies like OSHA
5. 0:12can stop that.
6. 0:13Economist Dan Mitchell explains
7. 0:15why that’s a myth.
8. 0:16I've had some show me charts,
9. 0:18showing, oh, look at how workplace fatalities
10. 0:21have come down ever since OSHA was created.
11. 0:24Well, I actually went to that same data source
12. 0:27and I looked at the decades before OSHA was created.
13. 0:30No wonder the bureaucrats don’t show us that.
14. 0:33Fatality rates were already going down just as fast…
15. 0:37Why?
16. 0:38As we become richer,
17. 0:39we become safer.
18. 0:41The wealth capitalism creates
19. 0:43lets us afford safety devices, and
20. 0:46build machines to do the most dangerous work.
21. 0:49In capitalist societies,
22. 0:51we have cleaner water,
23. 0:53cleaner air, better lifestyles.
24. 0:56We need more capitalism because
25. 0:58when people get rich,
26. 0:59they can afford more safety.
27. 1:01But before government protected us,
28. 1:03I’m told unfettered capitalism
29. 1:05created evil “robber barons.”
30. 1:08Collecting great riches at the expense
31. 1:10of workers who toiled,
32. 1:11often in dangerous conditions for little pay.
33. 1:14But little pay compared to what?
34. 1:16When we look back upon factory life
35. 1:18a hundred years ago, we think,
36. 1:20oh my God, that's terrible.
37. 1:21Because by our standards today,
38. 1:23it is terrible.
39. 1:24But compared to toiling for 14 hours a day
40. 1:26on a farm for half has much money,
41. 1:29that stage of our economic development
42. 1:31was practically nirvana.
43. 1:33Still, most people were poor while
44. 1:36The robber barons amassed
45. 1:37a huge amount of wealth.
46. 1:39Folks like John D. Rockefeller
47. 1:40who created the oil industry.
48. 1:42People still call Rockefeller a robber baron, but
49. 1:45he wasn’t born rich,
50. 1:46and he didn’t rob,
51. 1:48Rockefeller got rich by inventing
52. 1:50ways to deliver oil for less.
53. 1:53John D. Rockefeller kept lowering the price,
54. 1:55that's why he got more market share.
55. 1:57No one was forced to buy his oil.
56. 1:59And although the media implied
57. 2:00people suffered to support the fat cats,
58. 2:05the entrepreneurs’ innovations actually
59. 2:06made almost everyone better off.
60. 2:09In the 1800s, the era of the so-called "robber barons,"
61. 2:13we went from agricultural poverty
62. 2:16to a country characterized by middle-class prosperity.
63. 2:20Cornelius Vanderbilt was another tycoon the
64. 2:22anti-capitalist media called a “robber baron.”
65. 2:26But he too was no baron, he was born poor.
66. 2:29At age 11, he quit school to work on boats.
67. 2:32[Ship horn]
68. 2:33Then he invented ways to make travel cheaper.
69. 2:36He cut the New York/Hartford fare
70. 2:38from $5 to $1.
71. 2:40His competitors didn’t bother
72. 2:42because they were used to friendly politicians
73. 2:45giving them subsidies.
74. 2:47That’s not capitalism,
75. 2:48that’s corporatism.
76. 2:50Only when politicians leave capitalism
77. 2:52largely alone does it create wealth.
78. 2:56Still, I hear that capitalism just isn’t good for us.
79. 2:59Capitalism is not designed to optimize our well-being.
80. 3:02Does anybody still believe cheaper iPhones,
81. 3:05or more Amazon deliveries of plastic garbage from China
82. 3:08are going to make us happy?
83. 3:09We're not buying iPhones and plastic garbage,
84. 3:12unless we think it's better for us than the dollars
85. 3:15that we have in our bank accounts.
86. 3:16Capitalism is the only system
87. 3:19that gives people the
88. 3:21liberty to make their own choices.
89. 3:23I want liberty.
90. 3:24However, now I’m told
91. 3:26A robot is probably going to take your job.
92. 3:29That’s our last myth:
93. 3:30capitalism will take away everyone’s job.
94. 3:3350% of the workforce being completely eliminated,
95. 3:37as in no more jobs for them.
96. 3:39For years, experts predicted that employment will decline.
97. 3:43But so far, it’s never happened.
98. 3:45When markets are free,
99. 3:46some people do lose jobs,
100. 3:48and that’s hard on them and their families.
101. 3:51If I was a typewriter builder 30 years ago,
102. 3:54the personal computer probably destroyed my job.
103. 3:57If I was a candle maker,
104. 3:59electricity destroyed my job.
105. 4:01[lightbulb]
106. 4:02It’s upsetting when any person loses a job,
107. 4:05but overall, capitalism creates millions more jobs.
108. 4:10When America began,
109. 4:1190% percent of workers worked on farms.
110. 4:13Now fewer than 2% do.
111. 4:16Farm workers found better jobs.
112. 4:18As long as our economy has the dynamism
113. 4:20that free markets allow,
114. 4:22we're going to see more job creation
115. 4:24and higher income levels and that's what
116. 4:26makes the children and grandchildren
117. 4:28of typewriter makers so much better off.
118. 4:33Now truck drivers rightly fear self-driving trucks.
119. 4:36Would you, Tucker Carlson,
120. 4:37be in favor of restrictions to use this sort of technology?
121. 4:41Are you joking?
122. 4:42In a second.
123. 4:44In a second!
124. 4:45In other words if I were President,
125. 4:47we’re not letting driverless trucks on the road, period.
126. 4:50Support the coalition of obsolete industries.
127. 4:52But what would happen if politicians did block innovation?
128. 4:56This parody lays it out pretty well.
129. 4:58I used to have to clean people’s toilets.
130. 5:00Empty them from the alleyway
131. 5:01behind their house and now flushing toilets
132. 5:03and plumbing have taken away my job.
133. 5:04Electricity has taken over my profession.
134. 5:07Well that sounds like Tucker being worried
135. 5:09about driverless trucks.
136. 5:10If we don’t stop progress
137. 5:11how will anyone ever have jobs?
138. 5:13[Music]
139. 5:15Creative destruction does destroy,
140. 5:17but what it creates is so much bigger,
141. 5:20so much richer and so much better for us.
142. 5:23Better for most everyone, rich, and poor.
143. 5:27That’s capitalism.
144. 5:28That's something that we should be celebrating.
145. 5:30No other system anywhere in the world
146. 5:32has ever come close to capitalism’s
147. 5:34ability to generate mass prosperity.
148. 5:37[Swoosh]
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