Capitalism Wins | 5 Minute Video — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02There are many in the West — including many who should know better — who find it difficult,
2. 0:06unpopular, or just plain embarrassing to defend capitalism.
3. 0:11I take the opposite view.
4. 0:13We should double down on it.
5. 0:15For a very simple reason:
6. 0:17It remains not just the best, but the only, chance for the least fortunate in the world
7. 0:22to make life better for themselves and their children.
8. 0:25And the more we see of capitalism’s rival, socialism, the more proof we have that capitalism
9. 0:31is the way we want to go.
10. 0:33I’ve seen this over and over again: from my own childhood, to my time as governor of
11. 0:38South Carolina, to most recently – and most dramatically – during my tenure as US Ambassador
12. 0:44to the United Nations.
13. 0:46I grew up in South Carolina as the daughter of Indian immigrants.
14. 0:49My mom started a small shop selling clothes and gifts that grew into a successful business.
15. 0:55She showed my brothers, my sister, and me what it meant to live the American dream.
16. 1:01As my mother’s story so vividly illustrates, America is a country where people can find
17. 1:06jobs that match their talents and passions.
18. 1:10Some Americans take this for granted.
19. 1:12The rest of the world envies it.
20. 1:15As governor of South Carolina, I marveled at capitalism’s power to improve lives.
21. 1:21Our pro free-market policies helped bring in more than $20 billion in investment and
22. 1:26created jobs in every county of the state.
23. 1:29Those jobs provide dignity and purpose.
24. 1:33And as I often say, when you give a person a job, you take care of a family.
25. 1:39During my time as the US ambassador to the U.N., I was reminded that not every country
26. 1:44enjoys the same freedom and prosperity as America.
27. 1:48More than 1 and a half billion people still suffer under socialist regimes.
28. 1:54In 2018, I stood on the Simón Bolívar Bridge at the border of Venezuela and Colombia.
29. 2:00I watched thousands of Venezuelans cross into Colombia for the only meal they might have
30. 2:05that day.
31. 2:06I held a beautiful baby girl.
32. 2:09Her mother told me all she wanted for her daughter was a future of freedom.
33. 2:14They were one of millions of Venezuelan families whose lives have been destroyed by the country’s
34. 2:19socialist policies.
35. 2:21So, imagine my dismay to find that socialism has become trendy here in America.
36. 2:27American socialists claim they seek a more enlightened socialism, like those found
37. 2:32in Scandinavian countries.
38. 2:34But those countries are not socialist.
39. 2:37They are capitalist and offer large welfare benefits.
40. 2:40But, ironically, to make their system work they’ve had to repeatedly slash their corporate
41. 2:46tax rates.
42. 2:47Denmark has cut its corporate rate by more than half since the 1990s.
43. 2:53Other democracies, including Israel, India, and the U.K., experimented with socialism,
44. 2:59only to abandon it — and only then did they thrive.
45. 3:03The results are in: socialism — however you want to define it — has failed everywhere
46. 3:09it’s been tried.
47. 3:10A handful of elites sitting in a government office can never outthink millions of business
48. 3:15owners and consumers making millions of individual choices every moment of every day.
49. 3:21You’d think we’d have gotten the message by now.
50. 3:23An entire generation of American adults are too young to remember the suffering socialism
51. 3:29caused during the last century.
52. 3:32Instead of teaching students to reject our country’s history and founding ideals, schools
53. 3:37should have a required class on the history and collapse of the Soviet Union.
54. 3:43Young people at least have the excuse of being miseducated, but what does one say about corporate
55. 3:49CEOs who give in to social trends rather than standing up for a system that their own businesses
56. 3:55and workers depend on?
57. 3:58I’m talking about advocates of so-called stakeholder capitalism — a philosophy that
58. 4:03retains the word “capitalism” but abandons its meaning.
59. 4:08Recently the chief executives of some of America’s largest companies changed their self-definition.
60. 4:15They said companies should focus on customers, workers, and communities.
61. 4:19This is just politically correct nonsense.
62. 4:22These CEOs know that’s what successful businesses already do.
63. 4:26It’s what they have to do to survive in our capitalist system.
64. 4:31A company that cheats its customers, mistreats its workers, and abuses its community won’t
65. 4:36be around long.
66. 4:38Profits are what keep a business going and allow it to thrive.
67. 4:42They generate the funds needed for more job creation.
68. 4:45You don’t need an advanced economics degree to understand this.
69. 4:49So why are these CEOs so anxious to embrace this “in name only” capitalism?
70. 4:55Probably because they think they need to placate the noisemakers on the socialist Left.
71. 5:00But that’s a fool’s game.
72. 5:01The Left is never satisfied.
73. 5:04So, let’s defend what works.
74. 5:06And what works is capitalism.
75. 5:09Until the unforeseeable shutdown of the economy as a response to the coronavirus, it was working
76. 5:14better than ever.
77. 5:16Unemployment was at a 50-year low.
78. 5:19Wages were rising at the fastest rate in a decade.
79. 5:22More women and minorities were working than ever before.
80. 5:26Poverty was at a record low in America.
81. 5:28Let’s get back to that as quickly as possible.
82. 5:31There’s only one way to do it.
83. 5:34Capitalism.
84. 5:35I’m Nikki Haley for Prager University.