Economía para el 99% de la población — Transcript

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1. 0:08I try my best to dispel this widespread
2. 0:12perception that economics is too
3. 0:14complicated for
4. 0:16non-economist and actually it's very
5. 0:18strange because people have very strong
6. 0:19opinions about everything Iraq war gay
7. 0:22marriage does God exist you know global
8. 0:25warming you all have very strong views
9. 0:27on these things despite not having a
10. 0:30degree in theology not having a degree
11. 0:32in energy economics not having a degree
12. 0:34in internship relations but when it
13. 0:36comes to economics people say oh yeah
14. 0:38it's for specialist you know I don't
15. 0:40know but why I mean if you can have a
16. 0:43very strong view on Iraq or Afghanistan
17. 0:46without a degree in international
18. 0:47relations you should have a strong view
19. 0:49on government economic policy without a
20. 0:51degree in economy you know I say that
21. 0:54this is only because the economist have
22. 0:55been fantastically successful in making
23. 0:58people believe that it is actually a lot
24. 1:01more difficult than what it really is so
25. 1:04they'll tell you oh you know I could
26. 1:05explain it to you but then you don't
27. 1:07understand
28. 1:08yeah 95% of Economics says common sense
29. 1:12of course made to look difficult with
30. 1:14the use of jagon and
31. 1:17Mathematics and even the remaining 5%
32. 1:19can be understood at least in its
33. 1:22Essence if not in all technical details
34. 1:25if someone bothers to explain it to you
35. 1:27in an accessible way for example what is
36. 1:30economics you know the ethical
37. 1:32foundations of Economics whether you can
38. 1:34separate economics and politics and how
39. 1:37different ways of conceptualizing the
40. 1:39economy affects the way we see the world
41. 1:42you know for example people think that
42. 1:44today's free market economics is a
43. 1:46direct descendant of Adam Smith but this
44. 1:49is not true you know in Adam Smith and
45. 1:52other so-called classical Economist the
46. 1:55society the economy was conceptualized
47. 1:57as being made up of classes not
48. 2:00individuals and the whole Theory evolved
49. 2:02around how the way these different
50. 2:05classes with different material
51. 2:07interests behave affect the way capital
52. 2:10is accumulated the economic growth
53. 2:12income is distributed and so on today in
54. 2:16free market economics that there's only
55. 2:17individual you know when you tell people
56. 2:20out you know isn't there class they say
57. 2:23no I mean that that's a old Marxist
58. 2:25concept but if that's the case why do
59. 2:27the marketing companies have all this CL
60. 2:30categories when they do marketing
61. 2:32campaign strategy they'll look at you
62. 2:35groups ABC C1 C2 yeah Target advertising
63. 2:39according to the type of people now many
64. 2:43economists will tell you that economics
65. 2:45is a science in which there's only one
66. 2:47Right theory there are at least nine
67. 2:51different major schools of economics and
68. 2:53in these several more if you count minor
69. 2:56schools or split the major ones into sof
70. 2:58schools each with its own unique
71. 3:01strength and weaknesses and for free
72. 3:04market economics alone you have three
73. 3:06different kinds classical economics
74. 3:08neoclassical economics Austrian
75. 3:10economics so actually there isn't one
76. 3:13Right theory and my contingent is that
77. 3:16we need all this diverse approach to
78. 3:18economics in order to fully understand
79. 3:21our economy because they all make
80. 3:22certain assumptions they all have
81. 3:24different underlying political and
82. 3:26ethical values they have all sorts of
83. 3:28different theories about how the economy
84. 3:30grows and so
85. 3:32on and to make this point I give you the
86. 3:36Singapore problem or what I call life is
87. 3:39Stranger Than Fiction you know if you
88. 3:41read only the financial newspapers like
89. 3:44the Wall Street Journal or The Economist
90. 3:46magazine you'll be only told that
91. 3:48Singapore succeeded because of uh his
92. 3:50free trade policy and his welcoming
93. 3:52attitude towards foreign investors this
94. 3:55is partly true I mean they did have
95. 3:57those things but you will never be told
96. 3:59that Singapore government owns nearly
97. 4:0290% of all the land 85% of housing is
98. 4:06provided by government owned housing
99. 4:08Corporation and a staggering 22% of GDP
100. 4:12is produced by state owned Enterprises
101. 4:15so in talking about Singapore I always
102. 4:17tell my student look give me one
103. 4:19economic theory doesn't matter what it
104. 4:21is neoclassical Marxist Austrian
105. 4:24sharian give me one economic theory that
106. 4:27can explain Singapore
107. 4:30well there isn't so you need to know
108. 4:32these different theories to fully
109. 4:34understand how a country like Singapore
110. 4:36could succeed so in this regard my
111. 4:39advice is that you should not be a man
112. 4:42or a woman with a hammer by learning
113. 4:44only one kind of eonic theory because
114. 4:47whatever that theory is that once you
115. 4:50believe that one theory is true like the
116. 4:52man with a hammer you will start to see
117. 4:55everything as a nail so I say that you
118. 4:57should get a Swiss knife yeah
119. 5:00in this dominant economic theory that is
120. 5:02uh of today that is neoc classical
121. 5:04Theory people are mainly conceptualized
122. 5:07as
123. 5:07consumers and work is considered as what
124. 5:11these economies called this utility that
125. 5:13you have to put up with so that you can
126. 5:15own money with which you consume goods
127. 5:19and services and then derive pleasure or
128. 5:22what they call utility that's your aim
129. 5:25deriving pleasure from consumption but
130. 5:28what happens in a workplace of
131. 5:29fundamentally affects us not just our
132. 5:31immediate physical and psychological
133. 5:34well-being but also our identity and our
134. 5:37sense of self-worth and our
135. 5:39self-fulfillment this is why these days
136. 5:42in many rich countries a lot of people
137. 5:45are very unhappy compared to say a
138. 5:47couple of decades ago despite the fact
139. 5:49that they have higher income why because
140. 5:52the work has become more stressful but
141. 5:55then you know Economist tell you no you
142. 5:57should be happy you know Britain today
143. 5:59has at 20% higher income than say 1975
144. 6:03you why aren't you
145. 6:06happy you know my Fook is not just an
146. 6:09explanation of economic theories and
147. 6:11facts it's also a discussion about the
148. 6:14role of economics in public life and in
149. 6:17this regard I have three sets of
150. 6:20observations to
151. 6:21make the first one is Never Trust an
152. 6:25economist and that includes me yeah
153. 6:29you know professional economists that
154. 6:31like to say ah we know what is correct
155. 6:34you know no they don't have a monopoly
156. 6:37of a truth I already told you that there
157. 6:39are nine different kinds of economic
158. 6:42theory so the right the conclusion
159. 6:45depends on which Economist you talk to
160. 6:47you and I argue that it is entirely
161. 6:50possible for people who are not
162. 6:51professional economists to have sound
163. 6:53judgments on economic issues I even
164. 6:56argue that sometimes their judgments may
165. 6:59even be better than those of
166. 7:00professional Economist because they may
167. 7:02be more rooted in reality and less
168. 7:05narrowly focused and I argue that indeed
169. 7:09the willingness on the part of the
170. 7:11ordinary citizens to challenge
171. 7:13professional Economist and other experts
172. 7:16is a foundation of democracy you know if
173. 7:18you really believe that all we have to
174. 7:20do is to listen to The Experts to listen
175. 7:23to the professional consensus of the
176. 7:25experts why do you need
177. 7:26democracy yeah let self-elected Elites
178. 7:30that appoint each other and run the
179. 7:33world you know this is why a lot of
180. 7:34people are unhappy with the European
181. 7:36Union the second point is the Latin
182. 7:40phrase that is apparently written on the
183. 7:42walls of the city hall of guda the city
184. 7:46in the Netherlands which is famous for
185. 7:48the
186. 7:49chief and he says that yeah I'm not even
187. 7:52going to pretend to speak Latin so it
188. 7:55basically says listen even to the other
189. 7:57side and I argue that this is the
190. 7:59attitude you have have to have in
191. 8:01debating on economic issues I'm not
192. 8:04suggesting that you should have no
193. 8:06opinion of your own but what I'm trying
194. 8:09to tell you is that given the complexity
195. 8:10of the world and given the necessarily
196. 8:13partial nature of all economic theories
197. 8:16you should be humble about the validity
198. 8:18of your own favorite Theory and should
199. 8:21keep an open mind about it finally even
200. 8:25while I constantly make reform proposals
201. 8:27I emphasize how difficult it is to
202. 8:30change the economic reality well
203. 8:33sometimes uh the reason is obvious I
204. 8:35mean people who benefit from this status
205. 8:37quo want to throw change by any means
206. 8:40you lobbing bribery media propaganda and
207. 8:43even violence but the status quo often
208. 8:46gets defended even without some people
209. 8:48actively being evil because that the
210. 8:52thing about the market system is that
211. 8:55the rule is $1 one vot you so this means
212. 8:59that the ability of those with less
213. 9:01money to refuse undesirable options
214. 9:04given to them is highly constrained also
215. 9:08we can be Su susceptible to beliefs that
216. 9:11are against our own interest you know
217. 9:12the best example is that what happened
218. 9:16when Barack Obama tried to reform the
219. 9:18American medical insurance system and
220. 9:20there were all these pictures of all
221. 9:22pensioners demonstrating against what
222. 9:24they call Obamacare with plaque hearts
223. 9:27that uh saying things like government
224. 9:30hands of my
225. 9:32medicare well except that Medicare is a
226. 9:35government
227. 9:37program well this is what the Marxist
228. 9:40used to call false
229. 9:42consciousness or also known as The
230. 9:44Matrix you the
231. 9:47movie but acknowledging the difficulties
232. 9:50involved in changing the economic status
233. 9:52quo should not make us give up the fight
234. 9:55to create a better economy and better
235. 9:58society yet yes changes are difficult
236. 10:00but in the long run if enough people
237. 10:02fight for something hard enough many
238. 10:06impossible things can happen and don't
239. 10:09forget I mean 200 years ago if you
240. 10:10suggested America should abolish slavery
241. 10:13You' have been branded at least
242. 10:16unrealistic and that probably the Looney
243. 10:19100 years ago the the the British
244. 10:21government put women in prison for
245. 10:23asking for vote a lot of women actually
246. 10:26said why do we need votes we have our
247. 10:28husbands and brothers to represent our
248. 10:31views well this is why I quot Antonio
249. 10:34gramy the Italian Marxist who once said
250. 10:37that we need to have pessimism of the
251. 10:39intellect but optimism of the will yeah
252. 10:42you have to accept the difficulties of
253. 10:45changing this status quo but you have to
254. 10:48believe that this can be
255. 10:49done and finally as uh Nelson Mandela
256. 10:53used to say it always seems impossible
257. 10:55until it is
258. 10:58done for