The Big Myth of Market Fundamentalism

[MrRay]

It depresses me immensely that this video has been out for over a month and has less than 20K views. It speaks to how effective these free market extremists have been in this country, as well as a bit of how far Americans’ attention span has sunk. We are suffering from an epidemic of intellectual laziness. Reversing that troubling trend is our only way out of the corporate authoritarianism we’ve been living under for 40+ years. I’m so grateful for the unparalleled research these authors have done for us, I just desperately wish the knowledge they’ve provided would be far more widely distributed.

[ernststravoblofeld]

"Too many markets" is a powerful idea. It really ties together things we already know individually.

[geoffreynhill]

A fascinating and eloquent account of Ronald Reagan's PR career and the importance of research in the Universities from Naomi Oreskes; Rob Johnson quotes FDR and Bob Dylan and questions the domination of the Internet by commercial platforms; and Erik Conway recalls how 20th Century "free enterprise" acquired recommendations from church pulpits. Many thanks from Green Fire, UK! 🌈🦉

[Sarah-recg]

God, THANK YOU! Thank you for writing this book and compiling this information. Ugh! We’re living in this unbridled capitalist hellscape!!

[alanhehe]

We treat the elderly, the disabled, and even veterans like shit in this country. I'm disabled and on a fixed income and getting killed by this inflation. And whenever I get a slight raise in my SSDI benefit, they in turn cut my food stamps!! Understanding MMT, this is infuriating, as the austerity is completely unnecessary and just imposed for reasons of control. They want to keep a majority of people poor and desperate because that way they are easier to control. They do everything to suppress the power of labor.
People need to stop thinking there's an electoral solution to this mess. Our government has been completely captured by corporate interests. We're not gonna vote our way out of this mess. I despise hero worship and partisan cheerleading. Congress is a corporate duopoly and all the rest is theater. Divide and conquer over social issues.
The fact that the SCOTUS has determined that corporations deserve both the special protections and resources of a corporation AND all the rights of a citizen, and that money equals free speech, makes any attempt to reform the system pointless.
There is practically zero regulation of these corporations. The ordinary citizens (like those in East Palestine) have no recourse to law. The corporate lobbyists write the damn laws!! They're heartless, sociopathic oligarchs that deserve anything that happens to them. We need direct action. But I can't even get people to sacrifice a little convenience by boycotting the evil corporation Anazon!!
People seem to be spineless, and that tree of liberty is parched.
#learnMMT
#AusterityIsMurder
Universal jobs guarantee!!

[Sarah-recg]

The term “Market Fundamentalism” is so perfect

[GhostOnTheHalfShell]

Democracy in the workplace (coops) and non market ventures in housing and the like are complementary and “regulatory” on private companies. One of the deficiencies of market fundamentalism is it ignores common good like prosperity and as a result is subject a tragedy of the commons phenomena. Corporations know that a higher min wage will raise profits in a region but none will abide raising theirs, to the detriment of all. This is why labor unions or coops are necessary.

[LambentIchor]

As a European who has often been confused when trying to understand 'the market' and how often when you try to get a handle on it it seemed to boil down to beliefs and faith, this whole episode has clarified a lot. As an English speaker who grew up on American media I've still always struggled with how religious Americans are, and how there seems to be such a religious framing on what is so secular in Europe. I've come across Americans saying Capitalism is god-given but I get it now that it was actually taught almost as Christian doctrine in churches.

[andreduncan]

The goods and services accessible in markets are wonderful. The affordability or cost of living is another constraints. Livable wages are rarely paid and the continuing struggle to earn a surplus.

[adeadgirl]

Nice and important talk. Just one thing, you older people are really living in a bubble if you think media refuses to take sides. All they do is take sides. It's hard to find a single mainstream or alternate media source that's trully impartial. They just don't take sides when it's about money in poitics because they're corporations too. Don't want to upset the apple cart.

[johnmaisonneuve]

I’m reading the book and it is super great! A must read. It’s amazing how these myths are prevalent for so long. Hopefully this hook will be read widely.

[gregederer]

Hey, Rob. Great program. For your son: Intel, Apple, Hewlett Packard and many, many other supremely innovative companies were founded pre-Reagan. It was a lot more fun, too! Cheers.

[scpatlnow]

The "market" fails in the absence of regulation. The government should support the creation of small businesses and protect them from the predatory large companies that destroy competition by buying political influence and access to the tax code to benefit themselves. The sell off of public assets to the private sector has been such a failure yet we continue to do it. Capitalism only has one goal. Profit. Any aspect of the economy where profit should not be the only goal...such as healthcare, electricity, broadband, and many others should be managed by the government without a profit motive.

[norman_]

The Big Myth was reviewed in Science magazine, by Science's editor, H. Holden Thorp. Best line: "Astoundingly, although [Milton] Friedman's ideas have never been rigorously verified by experiment, they remain prominent in the field of economics."

[marc-andreperron]

A question for Naomi Oreskes; if market failure is so pervasive a risk, a reality, and a detriment to economic prosperity, is socialism the answer promised and why hasn't it delivered the harmonious utopia that has been promised by Marx and others? Why have socialist countries like the Soviet Union and Venezuela failed in delivering prosperity to its citizens? I even think of the socialist economy of Tommy Douglas in my native Canada, from the province of Saskatchewan. During his 17 years as premier, the provincial government delivered welfare, economic growth, and paid off debt, but... several of the industries nationalised (e.g., lumber, oil), which generated most of the revenue that allowed this prosperity, has to be sold back to the private market, because it was losing revenue in the end.

This points to two things: one is that the government administers poorly, otherwise the utility sector would still generate revenue. Second, is the pattern seen often enough with socialism; "you always run out of other peoples' money" Margaret Thatcher.

[miguel]

Natural monopolies, pandemics, ecological catastrophes... there is no way market fundamentalism can survive. And despite the few talking zombies, most are already past that bullshit. But we still have to figure out how to ensure our wellbeing sustainably.

[mionanik]

Phenomenal conversation. Very insightful

[SolidAir]

Thanks! Very good, informative episode.
I'd be curious to see how seriously New Economic Thinking might take something like the ideas that Yanis Varoufakis put forth in his book Another Now. Would it be considered just fantasy and not something to talk about seriously? Is it too drastic a change from what we have today to take seriously? What about "one person, one share, one vote"? How to get there?

[nash]

As I have said at my job at GE in 1970, where my long hair, protesting of things, the many groups, from Brotherhood, to anti-racism, to Pro-Feminism, to anti-war, that lost the job at GE, later electing Reagan and ever since actually predicted how the current debacle began with Reagan, since I described what was about to happen. Iran Contra S&L and USSR wasn't exactly the details I would've said, but China was a big accurate prediction.

[menudobucket]

Capitalism can be a hindrance to wide ranging innovation because it restricts innovation to the small group of people who have the venture CAPITAL to do the research and development of an innovative idea. There are probably many people who have innovative ideas but lack the financial resources to develop them; and in a capitalistic structure, they’re not about to share their idea with someone who’s probably going to CAPITALIZE on it at their expense.