The Left Is LYING To You About Socialism — Transcript

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1. 0:00today's topic is capitalism in the first
2. 0:02amendment and unfortunately capitalism
3. 0:04has gotten a really bad rap particularly
4. 0:06among people of our generation i'm
5. 0:07barely still of your generation all
6. 0:09right so i'm going to hold on to that
7. 0:11that
8. 0:12signifier as long as i possibly can too
9. 0:14many young americans don't know anything
10. 0:15about capitalism they don't know why
11. 0:16it's good they think socialism is good
12. 0:18there's a harvard institute of politics
13. 0:20poll in spring 2016 and it found that
14. 0:22bernie sanders that loon bag was the
15. 0:24only major candidate
16. 0:25with a net positive rating among 18 to
17. 0:2829 year olds 54
18. 0:30viewed him favorably compared with just
19. 0:3231
20. 0:33who viewed him unfavorably and now
21. 0:35they're making the argument we should
22. 0:36lower the voting age to 16. i can't see
23. 0:38how that goes wrong the same poll showed
24. 0:40that only 42 percent of young americans
25. 0:41supported capitalism 33 said they
26. 0:44supported socialism as in full-scale
27. 0:46socialism like one in three young
28. 0:48americans supports full-scale socialism
29. 0:51fully 50 percent of all democratic
30. 0:53voters said they favored socialism over
31. 0:55capitalism one in two
32. 0:57you know that's probably because young
33. 0:59people are too young to remember when
34. 1:01socialist nations like the ussr actually
35. 1:04threatened nuclear destruction when they
36. 1:06murdered tens of millions of people i
37. 1:08mean there still are some soviet there
38. 1:09there's still some soviet style
39. 1:10dictatorships right the communist
40. 1:12chinese are still
41. 1:14imprisoning millions and billions of
42. 1:16people uh under repressive harsh rule
43. 1:18north korea obviously is still a
44. 1:20communist paradise where people are
45. 1:21shipped off to gulags but the the idea
46. 1:23of socialism has become very popular
47. 1:25among young people and the reason that
48. 1:27it's become popular among young people
49. 1:28is because they've been told that it is
50. 1:30moral not that it works not that it's
51. 1:32great but that it's moral it's fair and
52. 1:34we all like things that are fair if
53. 1:35we're in a room and somebody has more
54. 1:36money and somebody has less money
55. 1:37wouldn't it be more fair if we just
56. 1:39pooled the money and then we split it up
57. 1:40evenly among the participants you know
58. 1:42just like the cookies in kindergarten
59. 1:44except of course that's not the way the
60. 1:46world works and that's not actually
61. 1:47moral because in a free country
62. 1:49wealth and the capacity to gain it is
63. 1:51largely contingent on the decisions that
64. 1:53you make
65. 1:54it doesn't just fall upon you most
66. 1:56wealth in the united states is not
67. 1:57inherited most wealth in the united
68. 1:59states is created over the course of
69. 2:00lifetimes by people who engage in
70. 2:02economic activity and commerce
71. 2:04capitalism is good because capitalism is
72. 2:06freedom socialism is bad because
73. 2:08socialism is tyranny not it's an aspect
74. 2:10of tyranny socialism itself is tyranny
75. 2:13the statement of socialism is that your
76. 2:15labor is owed to the society
77. 2:17the notion of socialism is that you do
78. 2:18not own your own freedom you do not own
79. 2:20your own time you do not own your own
80. 2:22labor you do not own your own work you
81. 2:24do not own the products of your own work
82. 2:25the basic notion of capitalism is you
83. 2:27own all of those things and now you have
84. 2:29to engage in free exchange with someone
85. 2:30else who does not owe you anything
86. 2:33if you want to thrive if you want to
87. 2:34succeed you are going to have to make
88. 2:36something somebody else wants
89. 2:38people think capitalism is selfishness
90. 2:40now socialism is selfishness the notion
91. 2:42that i have to somehow supply you the
92. 2:44money so you can sit in your basement
93. 2:46and paint with watercolors
94. 2:47socialism the idea that i'm supposed to
95. 2:49fulfill all your dreams by paying you
96. 2:51for something i don't want and have no
97. 2:53need for
98. 2:54but capitalism is precisely the opposite
99. 2:56we all do stuff in our daily jobs that
100. 2:58we don't like why because there's a
101. 2:59group for it who want to consume it how
102. 3:02many people love their daily job every
103. 3:03day i'm lucky i get to go to a job that
104. 3:05i really enjoy every day but a lot of
105. 3:06people don't and you know why they do it
106. 3:08they do it because they understand that
107. 3:10in a free society they're going to have
108. 3:12to produce something that is not
109. 3:13entertaining and interesting only to
110. 3:14them if my podcast had one listener i
111. 3:16would have to quit podcasting
112. 3:19and if you're if whatever business you
113. 3:20go into has no customers your business
114. 3:22will go out of business
115. 3:23as i'm fond of saying capitalism is
116. 3:25forced altruism it forces you to do
117. 3:27something that somebody else wants if
118. 3:29you want to live
119. 3:30socialism is forced altruism in a
120. 3:33different way it's forcing your altruism
121. 3:34to me
122. 3:36right capitalism is about i have to be
123. 3:38forced to do something good for you in
124. 3:39order for me to live and socialism is
125. 3:42about the idea that i have to be forced
126. 3:43to do something for you so that you can
127. 3:45live that's not the same thing at all
128. 3:47capitalism also happens to be the most
129. 3:48efficient system for the distribution of
130. 3:50wealth in the history of mankind it is
131. 3:52the greatest capital it is the greatest
132. 3:53engine for growth in the history of
133. 3:55mankind it is the single greatest force
134. 3:56for the empowerment of individual human
135. 3:58beings in the history of mankind
136. 4:00so
137. 4:01why is it unpopular after all this is
138. 4:03said it's unpopular because it's very
139. 4:04easy to demagogue capitalism any policy
140. 4:07that has diffuse
141. 4:09costs and concentrated benefits is a
142. 4:11popular policy by nature
143. 4:13any policy that is diffuse costs and
144. 4:15concentrated benefits is going to be
145. 4:16popular so subsidies for example to
146. 4:18farmers in iowa those are popular
147. 4:20because farmers in iowa get a big chunk
148. 4:22of cash and you only lost one cent off
149. 4:24your paycheck so you didn't even see it
150. 4:25you didn't even notice it well socialism
151. 4:26is sort of the same idea if you don't
152. 4:28notice the money coming off your
153. 4:29paycheck then you're not going to notice
154. 4:31that that one person is getting a bunch
155. 4:32of money
156. 4:33so that person benefits and that person
157. 4:35feels good about the benefits they just
158. 4:36received but you don't even notice the
159. 4:38money coming off except that in a
160. 4:39socialist system you have to take so
161. 4:40much money off the top that everybody
162. 4:42notices of course
163. 4:44now socialism in and of itself as i say
164. 4:46is tyrannical it is evil socialism
165. 4:48violates at least three of the ten
166. 4:49commandments and it puts government
167. 4:51before god
168. 4:52it says that theft is fine uh theft is
169. 4:55is no longer a problem so long as you
170. 4:57and your friends vote for it
171. 4:58and of course petty jealousy is
172. 5:00something that is necessary it's good to
173. 5:01be jealous workers of the world must
174. 5:03unite not because they're necessarily
175. 5:05being grinded down by the boot heel of
176. 5:08capitalism but simply because they are
177. 5:09jealous of the achievements of others so
178. 5:12much of america's discussion right now
179. 5:13but income inequality is not about the
180. 5:15suffering poor so much of it is about
181. 5:17the so-called thriving rich the one
182. 5:18percent at the top it's about tearing
183. 5:20down the people who succeed not about
184. 5:22empowering the people who are failing if
185. 5:24we were really talking about helping the
186. 5:25poor we'd be talking about helping the
187. 5:27poor not income inequality
188. 5:29income inequality itself does nothing
189. 5:30that discussion does nothing to help the
190. 5:32poor what we have to talk about is ways
191. 5:34that we can help people who are poor
192. 5:35rise out of current circumstance through
193. 5:37better decision-making and better
194. 5:39opportunity
195. 5:40how about socialism in europe you know
196. 5:42while people so people have who are
197. 5:43defenders of socialism and say okay well
198. 5:45you know you guys always mention cuba
199. 5:46you always mention north korea you
200. 5:48always mention the ussr you always
201. 5:50mention china but well they say china is
202. 5:52growing china's growing because they
203. 5:53loosened up their economy and now it's
204. 5:54basically state capitalism but
205. 5:56then they say well what about the
206. 5:57socialistic countries of europe so this
207. 5:59is bernie sanders play and what about
208. 6:00denmark what about switzerland what
209. 6:02about sweden those are not socialist
210. 6:04countries those are capitalist countries
211. 6:06with a high tax system okay that's not
212. 6:09the same thing a socialist country is
213. 6:11government owns the means of production
214. 6:13it is about heavy regulation of all
215. 6:15parts of the economy
216. 6:17denmark is actually a better climate to
217. 6:18do business than the united states is
218. 6:19according to the heritage foundation
219. 6:22significantly better there's a lot of
220. 6:23foreign investment in denmark what makes
221. 6:25denmark a so-called socialist country is
222. 6:27the fact that it has 60 tax rates that's
223. 6:29also the reason their economy stagnated
224. 6:30so much that they just had to radically
225. 6:32cut their tax rates the same thing is
226. 6:33true in sweden sweden gained riches only
227. 6:36after embracing capitalism in the mid
228. 6:3819th century from 1975 to 1993 when they
229. 6:41put in place all of these social
230. 6:43programs with high levels of spending
231. 6:44and high levels of taxation the country
232. 6:46dropped from fourth in the world wealth
233. 6:47like ranking to 14th swedish scholar
234. 6:50nima sandanji called the country's
235. 6:52embrace of redistributionism a colossal
236. 6:54failure which is why they had to
237. 6:56liberalize their markets again
238. 6:58okay again back to income inequality for
239. 6:59a second what about this idea that
240. 7:01socialism cures the evils of income
241. 7:03inequality first of all every country on
242. 7:04earth has some level of income
243. 7:05inequality in fact some of the places
244. 7:07with the least income inequality are
245. 7:09also some of the poorest places on earth
246. 7:11there are places where everybody is
247. 7:12destitute if you go over to certain
248. 7:14countries in africa or asia everyone is
249. 7:16poor and there's no income inequality
250. 7:18does that mean that these are great
251. 7:19places to live no it means these are
252. 7:20horrible places to live because nobody
253. 7:22has any wealth
254. 7:23america has high levels of income
255. 7:25inequality but our poor are richer than
256. 7:27everybody else is poor which is the
257. 7:28thing that matters
258. 7:29in the united states even the poor
259. 7:31people are rich by global standards
260. 7:32according to pew research quote almost
261. 7:34nine in ten americans had a standard of
262. 7:36living that was above the global middle
263. 7:38income standard
264. 7:39and by the way the notion that the upper
265. 7:41middle cla the middle class has been
266. 7:43just taking it on the chin in the past
267. 7:45few decades in the united states this is
268. 7:46not true the upper middle class has been
269. 7:48picking up all the people who used to be
270. 7:49in the middle class it's not that the
271. 7:51middle class evolved into poverty it's
272. 7:52the middle class split and most of the
273. 7:54middle class became upper middle class
274. 7:56the upper middle class was just 12
275. 7:57percent of americans in 1979. as of 2014
276. 8:0130 percent of americans were now upper
277. 8:02middle class
278. 8:04and it's also worth noting that all of
279. 8:06our schemes to end income inequality
280. 8:08have been an enormous fail we've spent
281. 8:0922 trillion dollars in the war on
282. 8:11poverty to no avail we spend 30 000 per
283. 8:14year on poor non-elderly families
284. 8:17and that's paid for by the rich for all
285. 8:19the talk about income inequality and the
286. 8:20rich not paying their fair share the
287. 8:22rich are paying pretty much everything
288. 8:23statistically speaking people who are
289. 8:25high earners in this country are paying
290. 8:27virtually all net cost that the federal
291. 8:30government incurs
292. 8:31according to the cbo report on
293. 8:33distribution of taxes in 2013 the top 1
294. 8:35percent of households paid 34 of their
295. 8:37income to federal taxes the middle 20
296. 8:40paid just 13
297. 8:41according to the american enterprise
298. 8:42institute the highest income quintile is
299. 8:44financing 96
300. 8:47of the entire system of transfer
301. 8:48payments to the bottom 60 percent and
302. 8:50funding the functioning of the federal
303. 8:51government as well we actually have the
304. 8:53most progressive tax system among all
305. 8:55oecd 24 countries
306. 8:58for all the talk about how all the rich
307. 8:59people are getting rich in the united
308. 9:00states and the poor people are getting
309. 9:01poor we have the most progressive tax
310. 9:03system in all the ocd oecd
311. 9:05and income mobility has not declined
312. 9:07either this is another myth that's
313. 9:08pushed out there that if you're poor you
314. 9:10can never become rich in the united
315. 9:11states this is not true at all when
316. 9:12people talk about the people in the one
317. 9:13percent getting richer they forget you
318. 9:15will be in the one percent one day and
319. 9:16you may not be in the one percent one
320. 9:18day i've been not in the one percent
321. 9:19i've been in the one percent i assume at
322. 9:20some point in the future i won't be in
323. 9:21the one percent by income earning
324. 9:23anymore if people move in and out of
325. 9:25percentiles of income it's not the same
326. 9:26person it's not that you were born into
327. 9:28the one percent and then you stayed in
328. 9:29the one percent your entire life just
329. 9:31getting more wealthy in fact
330. 9:33statistically speaking if you were in
331. 9:34the one percent there's a pretty good
332. 9:36shot that you're gonna regress to the
333. 9:37mean
334. 9:38for those who are in the top one percent
335. 9:39in 1996 we're not talking about
336. 9:42the one percent bracket we're talking
337. 9:43about the actual people in the one
338. 9:45percent in 1996. by 2005 their income
339. 9:47had decreased on average by 26 percent
340. 9:50and income mobility works the other way
341. 9:52too according to thomas sowell a
342. 9:54university of michigan study showed most
343. 9:56of the working people who were in the
344. 9:57bottom 20 percent of income earners in
345. 9:591975 were also in the top 40
346. 10:02at some point by 1994 and by 1991. only
347. 10:05five percent of those in the bottom
348. 10:06quintile in 1975 were still there in
349. 10:081991 29 of them were now in the top
350. 10:11quintile that makes a lot of sense right
351. 10:13now there are a lot of people in this
352. 10:14room who are in the bottom or middle
353. 10:15income quintile because you're in
354. 10:17college you're not making money in 10
355. 10:19years you will be making money
356. 10:20presumably and when that happens you
357. 10:22will have moved up in the world as you
358. 10:23age you gain more wealth this is why
359. 10:25your grandmother owns a house but you
360. 10:26presumably do not yet
361. 10:28okay this will happen to all of you so
362. 10:30don't pay attention to the false
363. 10:31statistics that are being put out there
364. 10:33about how in america it's impossible to
365. 10:35get ahead that's just not true
366. 10:37also worth noting all the talk about the
367. 10:39united states sucking up all the wealth
368. 10:41of the world it is because of a
369. 10:42capitalist global system that has become
370. 10:44more and more prominent free markets
371. 10:46that have become more and more prominent
372. 10:47that literally half the world has been
373. 10:48lifted out of abject poverty since 1980.
374. 10:51that's because of the force and power of
375. 10:53the us free market economy that has been
376. 10:55driving all of that growth
377. 10:57the countries by the way that are poor
378. 10:59in in the world those countries are not
379. 11:01the ones that are that are being hurt by
380. 11:03free trade they're the ones that aren't
381. 11:04even participating in free trade
382. 11:06two-thirds of the global poor on planet
383. 11:08earth live in just five countries india
384. 11:10china nigeria bangladesh and congo
385. 11:12according to the heritage foundation
386. 11:14index of economic freedom every single
387. 11:16one of those countries ranks 120th or
388. 11:18below in terms of free markets this is
389. 11:20not a coincidence freer markets means
390. 11:22more wealth freer markets mean more
391. 11:24growth