Toward a Truly Free Market | John C. Médaille | Talks at Google

"Toward a Truly Free Market: A Distributist Perspective on the Role of Government, Taxes, Health Care, Deficits, and More"

Taking "free markets" from rhetoric to reality

For three decades free-market leaders have tried to reverse longstanding Keynesian economic policies, but have only produced larger government, greater debt, and more centralized economic power. So how can we achieve a truly free-market system, especially at this historical moment when capitalism seems to be in crisis?

The answer, says John C. Médaille, is to stop pretending that economics is something on the order of the physical sciences; it must be a humane science, taking into account crucial social contexts. Toward a Truly Free Market argues that any attempt to divorce economic equilibrium from economic equity will lead to an unbalanced economy—one that falls either to ruin or to ruinous government attempts to redress the balance.

Médaille makes a refreshingly clear case for the economic theory—and practice—known as distributism. Unlike many of his fellow distributists, who argue primarily from moral terms, Médaille enters the economic debate on purely economic terms. Toward a Truly Free Market shows exactly how to end the bailouts, reduce government budgets, reform the tax code, fix the health-care system, and much more.

About the Author

John C. Médaille is the author of The Vocation of Business: Social Justice in the Marketplace and an instructor at the University of Dallas. He writes and lectures frequently on economics. Médaille has more than thirty years' experience in management at large corporations and as a small businessman, and he served five terms as a city councilman in his hometown of Irving, Texas.

[MarkoKraguljac]

Absolutely brilliant. Finally someone is openly talking about obvious things that are intentionally thrown under carpet 24/7. And talking at Google is giving this lecture a very promising note.
If Mr Médaille needs any sort of assistant who works for free, I am applying.

[nthperson]

I have read some of John Medaille's articles over the years. He is an insightful analyst. Much of what he calls for in terms of systemic reforms meets with the principles of cooperative individualism I came to embrace some thirty years ago. Yes, we desperately need distributive justice. This does require a legal distinction between income derived from passive investment, speculation and rent-seeking privileges and income earned by producing goods and providing needed services. The optimum systemic structure was described in the writings of many political economists and moral philosophers but nowhere with more logic and reason than in the works of Henry George. Rents are returns to the factor of production we refer to as "land"; and, critically, rents occur out of advantage derived because of nature (e.g., locations never avenues of communication, endowed with natural resources, or excellent climate, etc.) and because of the aggregate investment by society in public goods and services that make locations in a community valuable and yielding a range of rents based on such locational advantages. The failure of communities to collect these rents results in a gross injustice, an immediate redistribution of wealth from producers to non-producing rentier interests (recognizing that an individual or entity can be both a rentier and a producer). Changing the way government raises its revenue is the key. As Henry George argued, collect the rents and tax nothing.

Edward J. Dodson
Director, School of Cooperative Individualism

[cherubinth]

1:30 great guy :)
22:20 reminds me that the gigantic spending in ww2 of the government turned the economy from depression to super power.
38:00 I think we can also modify laws so that concentration of property becomes much harder. So that competition can much easier catch up and business produce more independent businesses instead of growing.

[DanielLieuwen]

It was a pleasure and an honor to host him.

[scipioafricanus]

such a learned and wise economist and social philosopher. so edifying. life-changing perspectives gained.

[ALLHEART_]

The fact that this speech on this topic was given at Google is highly ironic

[scipioafricanus]

things have only gotten exponentially worse economically in the 13 years since this was given. how prescient. more unemployment, even greater inequality of wealth, home prices even more exorbitant, the markets even more monopolistic and oligopolistic and less competitive. depression and despair at all time highs.

[AminCad]

It should be noted that America became the world's super power during the late 19th century, and the greatest percentage increase in standard of living, median wages, and total production occurred during this supposedly terrible free market era. The Keynesian/interventionist post-1970s era meanwhile has seen real hourly median wages actually stagnate. The inflation has masked the stagnation in economic growth by increasing metrics that measure rate of development, so the problem is not addressed

[ferreus]

I watched this to get an idea of what distributism is exactly, but it didn't work. :)

[PatrickSweeney]

Mr Medaille, when you are the only with a microphone, you need to repeat the question before you answer it.

[strannikcom]

FIrst problem: The railroad monopoly was a government granted one, that was not questioned in the first example.

[AminCad]

John is wrong about the late 19th century. New research by George Selgin has shown that the recessions during that era were much less severe than previously believed. Economic historians had previously equated nominal decreases in GDP with a recession, but in reality, real GDP, meaning GDP adjusted for inflation (deflation), was increasing during many of these deflationary periods, due to the increasing value of dollars.

The adjusted statistics show that recessions have worsened since 1913.

[scipioafricanus]

ahh in the good old days before google had become hyperwoke and cultural marxist.

[RadicalRC]

30:45 "Equity in Two Kinds" "neither by working or investing could you earn very much more". So, we are to remove all incentive to invest or take risks? The one who risks his prior savings does not deserve the opportunity "to earn very much more". ??

[RadicalRC]

About 27 minutes: Average consumer credit "usually at interest rates around 30%" in 1973? I smell bullshit. I'd like to see the data that back up that statement.