Amity Shlaes | Great Society: A New History

Amity Shlaes is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, The Forgotten Man Graphic Edition, Coolidge, and The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy. She chairs the board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and the Manhattan Institute's Hayek Book Prize, and serves as a scholar at The King's College. A former member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board, she published a weekly syndicated column for more than a decade, appearing first in the Financial Times, then in Bloomberg.

[Stephen]

Refer to David Horowitz, who points out from an insiders perspective, that the American Communist party was instructed by the KGB to stop using the words Socialism and Communism. They were instructed to start using the word progressive. We all know how clever they have been at that.

[harrymills]

Good to hear some of the scholarship behind some of my gut intuitions about how government intervention destroys community and community support systems. Yes, some towns will always do a better job than others. But it's organic and self-sustaining. And the overall quality of those LOCAL "Tocqueville" institutions rises with the general prosperity, as the people see to actualize higher values.

[m.burgesszbikowski]

It was not pointed out to the man from Detroit, FDR did not want his programs to benefit the Black communities. Thus, more or less being left alone, they created their own Movie businesses, baseball teams, small communities with Black doctors and Lawyers, and small businesses. The 1930's in some ways was a blossoming of Black Society. However, the Radio brought the FDR message into all homes, and the propaganda that Black People were benefiting from FDR programs was assumed to be true, by all. Unions began the minimum wage laws at this time to keep Black workers from being hired, with their willingness to work for less! Thank you for the Amity Shales interview.

[harrymills]

We keep hearing "unintended consequences, " but after decades of the same failures, you have to be willfully ignorant to call the consequences "unintended."

[traddad]

Republican Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan supports bringing thousands of poor immigrants and their children from Muslim Nations to our State.
That action goes directly against the prosperity, happiness and safety of our children.

[harrymills]

Hi! I'm from the government and I'm here to help!

[kirkbowyer]

FANTASTIC BOOK! GOD BLESS AMITY SHLAES

[robertyoung]

I would have liked the hear Amity Shlaes talk about:
1. Big money in political elections and how it has destroyed democracy in the USA.
2. Populace anger in America and how it has influenced political leadership.
3. Environmental destruction and sprawl in the USA.
4. Fundamentalist religions causing conflict worldwide.
5. Polarization of the US population into ultra rich and the rest.
6. Culture clash of educated and uneducated in the USA.
7. The risk of nuclear conflict worldwide.

[texaspatriot]

Lyndon Johnson was ALWAYS a liar —- just FYI

[mmille]

Interesting what Shlaes said about the morality of market economics. I remember coming up with a similar analogy when talking about government workers, and how they interact with the public vs. private sector workers, and how they do it. I referred to a scene from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979), where Spock was describing an alien intelligence to Capt. Kirk, called "V'ger." Spock was recovering in sick bay, and Kirk was standing next to his bed. The key part that felt relevant was where Spock grabbed Kirk's hand in a sign of deep friendship, and told him, "This simple feeling is beyond V'ger's comprehension."


This isn't a perfect analogy, since I don't typically get a sense of friendship from my interactions with businesses (though I do with a few), but I definitely have felt a difference in how businesses try to help me vs. my dealings with government officials (my experience is the former is more helpful), and I feel a sense of warmth about that.

[nancyling]

You are the best speaker. Really interesting!

[laurac]

Just coming here because I see the comments were turned off at Hoover Institute...gotta grab some popcorn for comments section

[kennenhaas]

For the purpose of YouTube, an interview including the charts would be favored.

[michaelnickerson]

History is about learning cause and effect. So, yes, chronologically.

[Individual_Lives_Matter]

I like Matt Ridley’s version of the knowledge problem. Expertise is diffuse amongst individuals. To me this means, the larger the population a central decision making authority has jurisdiction over, the more necessarily arbitrary their decision making must become or at least they start to play favorites. The point is they become idiots and tyrants to some portion of the population. If the area governed is large enough, you can’t even vote with your feet.

Minimal boundary conditions (natural rights) and voluntary exchange seems to be the system that most closely mirrors natural selection. If central planners think they can do better than natural selection, they are suffering from a potentially terminal case of hubris.

[stevenwiederholt]

Ah Yes...The 70's, I remember them well. Lost a war, A President quit, gas lines, Gerald Ford, 55 MPH, Jimmy Carter, and (possibly) worst of all Disco.

[liper]

Anybody know the book she references at about the 29 minute mark about the book she gives to kids from David Beto or David Vito. I can’t find it via google. Anybody?

[kirkbowyer]

Ecclesiasticus 10:08
A Kingdom is translated from one people to another, because of injustices and wrongs and injuries and divers deceits.

[anthonysimon]

The more complex and technological our Culture becomes, the less you can expect from the 10% of the population with an IQ of 83 and below and many of them would love to have meaningful work and a little self-respect, and the hyper competent at the top produce such a huge and scalable surplus we can afford to keep people from starving, after that is when the trouble begins.

[patrickdoyle]

Well done for pronouncing "Toronto" like a native Torontonian.