Leo D.M.J. Aurini - December 06, 2012


How to Govern Through a Depression

Topics
economic collapses today economic collapse governance government bloat during depression regulation in depression governance establishing leadership depressions call for top notch excellent leadership
Hosted by
Leo D.M.J. Aurini
Mentioned
C.S. Lewis Peter Schiff Aaron Clary Britons
Planned Fallibility The Difference Between Science and Religion

Episode Stats


Length

23 minutes

Words per minute

129.24

Word count

3,087

Sentence count

270

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

What should a ruler do when the economy collapses? How to govern through a depression? - How to deal with an economic collapse? What should a government try to do in the event of a Great Depression? In this video, we discuss what a ruler should do if they find themselves in the midst of a financial collapse.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 How to govern through a depression. That's the topic of this video. This is
00:00:08.440 not going to be cheap armchair quarterbacking on Monday morning. This
00:00:14.280 is actually going to be a valid strategy for what somebody in charge of a
00:00:19.920 government should try and do when an economic collapse hits. Now this is
00:00:26.580 certainly going to be using Austrian economic theory and we all know that
00:00:31.700 that's been discredited many a time. And yet the only people who saw the
00:00:37.680 housing collapse coming, Aaron Clary, Peter Schiff, they were all Austrian 1.00
00:00:44.340 economists and the Keynesians never even heard of it. Never thought the economy
00:00:50.200 was doing absolutely fine right before the collapse. So I tend to go
00:00:55.920 with the scientific theories that are backed up by evidence. So I'm going
00:01:02.160 with the Austrians on this one. And of course there's that rumor that Keynes
00:01:07.740 only intended his theories to be applied during the Great Depression and not
00:01:12.840 afterwards. Supposedly he died before he could correct the students that were
00:01:19.200 getting obsessed with his theories. The other theoretical basis for this video is the
00:01:28.380 following. And I've never seen any evidence against it, so I have a very high
00:01:34.140 probability that's true, plus it's internally coherent, but not necessarily
00:01:39.440 absolutely positive. Around the 97% positivity on it.
00:01:45.680 And it's this. Economic collapses are nothing new. We've had inflationary spirals before,
00:01:53.680 we've had, well, certainly wars and disruptions before. We've had economic
00:01:58.800 problems before. They're nothing new. But there is something new in the modern era.
00:02:04.160 There's a reason that the Great Depression is something we all remember, while other
00:02:10.900 depressions in earlier periods of times have been forgotten. And it's simply the
00:02:18.100 number of people living in major cities divorced from the land. During earlier
00:02:23.700 times, earlier periods of history, if you have an economic depression, you can't
00:02:28.700 afford new clothes, you can't afford anything nice, but most people live on a farm, so
00:02:33.980 most people are still eating. Most people can batten down the hatches and weather it
00:02:38.540 out. Whereas today, and in the 1940s, or the 1930s, we are too divorced from that. Most
00:02:48.900 people, if the power gets shut off, if they lose their job tomorrow, if they won't be
00:02:56.300 able to afford food. If we can't get the food at the grocery stores, people will be starving
00:03:00.040 in the streets. And so as a consequence, there is a far, far greater demand for action during
00:03:08.600 an economic apocalypse than there would have been in other eras.
00:03:19.960 So with that in mind, let's discuss the strategy of what a ruler should do if they encounter
00:03:28.240 an economic collapse. Well, the very first thing is that you need to take stock of what
00:03:36.480 actually matters. And the most important thing to recover from this collapse is property law.
00:03:46.960 See, the solution is not going to come from government. Government creates the environment
00:03:55.520 that business can flourish in. You know, whether we're talking about a monarchy, a democracy,
00:04:02.420 or an anarcho-capitalist utopia, you're going to have some organization in charge of the roads,
00:04:08.700 in charge of the military, in charge of the police. You know, maybe you'll have multiple
00:04:13.080 organizations competing. But ultimately, all of those organizations are there to provide
00:04:19.320 the environment in which business thrives. They're not there to create the thrive. Business does
00:04:26.620 that. People do that. You leave people alone. You make sure there's no murderers and rapists
00:04:32.660 wandering all over the place. People will figure things out for themselves.
00:04:35.140 So, the very, very number one priority is property. People need to be able to know that they can sell
00:04:47.100 goods at the store without having a gang of thieves come in and rob them. They need to know that you're
00:04:53.920 not going to seize their property. People aren't going to invest in a new venture if the government
00:05:00.160 is going to come and seize their property. Oh, we need to distribute these goods to the people out
00:05:05.400 there. You know, you're saving up some seeds because you're going to grow a farm, and all of a sudden,
00:05:10.100 you know, the government comes and seizes them and boils them and, you know, gives people the rice
00:05:15.400 pudding or whatever they make out of the seeds, and you no longer have a farm.
00:05:19.360 The other aspect of property, of course, is currency, because currency is a form of property.
00:05:31.380 It's accrued wages. You can invest it in a full tank of gasoline for your car. You can invest it
00:05:38.640 in whatever, or you can keep it in a monetary form. Now, chances are, during this depression,
00:05:46.220 you're going to have an inflationary currency, which, you know, leads to a whole other video,
00:05:53.540 why do we have these depressions in the first place, but let's just focus on how we respond
00:05:57.780 to them, because it's too late to stop this one. So, currency is going to be inflating. People are
00:06:05.480 going to be fleeing the currency, and the knee-jerk reaction is to try and stabilize the currency by
00:06:14.980 forcing people to use it, by banning gold and silver. That's what happened in the United States,
00:06:20.400 by requiring that bills be paid in the legal tender, whatever. The thing is, when you start
00:06:29.720 changing the rules on people, when people don't know what you're going to do, what your plans are,
00:06:35.820 will I still have my property in a month? Will I still have my money in a month? Am I allowed to
00:06:41.740 spend my money the way I want? That's when they stop investing. That's when they freeze,
00:06:49.660 because they don't know what you're going to do as the governor. So, you need to keep things
00:06:55.640 standard. You need to protect private property and protect the currency. If people want to switch to
00:07:00.920 gold, let them do it. If they want to start swapping chickens for cows, let them do it. Even though it 1.00
00:07:07.400 violates the tax code, you can't tax a chicken when you buy a chicken with a cow. Leave it be.
00:07:15.060 People need security in their property if they're ever going to recover from the depression.
00:07:22.480 That's your number one priority. Maintain the regularity of property and currency.
00:07:33.960 Number two, maintain critical services and infrastructure. Primarily, this is water, food,
00:07:45.360 and power. Water and power are generally a private-public partnership. So, that one should take care of
00:08:00.500 itself. You're already doing that. So, of all your departments and services, that should be your
00:08:07.700 number one priority. Water and power. As for food, thank God the Soviets taught us not to nationalize 0.94
00:08:17.600 food. Do not nationalize food, okay? This is not what you should be doing. You should not be
00:08:22.100 nationalizing all of these things so you have direct control of them. What you want to ensure
00:08:29.040 is that the farmers have water, the farmers are safe from bandits and roaming mobs,
00:08:37.700 and that the highways work so that food can be delivered. You should not take over the trucking
00:08:43.980 companies. You should just make sure that the highways are working for food. One thing that might be
00:08:51.680 valid if the highways are deteriorating, for instance, ban civilian transport on the highways. Allow only
00:09:05.100 the semi-trucks to drive on them. This is your infrastructure. You don't want to control
00:09:11.380 it precisely, but you want to make sure that it doesn't fall apart.
00:09:18.160 And the third thing, after you've enshrined private property rights, you're not going to be stealing
00:09:27.820 things from people. You've made sure that the people providing critical services can continue to do
00:09:34.580 so. That's when you get to criminal law.
00:09:46.580 We're talking about rape and murder here. Quite frankly, if it's not property related, it's not your highest priority.
00:09:58.580 You want to ensure that the hard-working, productive citizens can walk down the street to work without being molested.
00:10:05.580 You want to be able to draw a line between them. You want to make sure your cops should be protecting the good people.
00:10:15.580 And if the good people are breaking a couple of laws, if they're, you know, violating a couple of statutes,
00:10:22.580 that's not a concern right now. You want to be protecting citizens.
00:10:30.580 So if somebody steals a car, hunt down the scumbag. If somebody breaks into a store, if somebody mugs somebody, 0.99
00:10:39.580 or if they're breaking into property, stealing things, raping people, then deal with them.
00:10:43.580 So that's your three main priorities. Make sure people can trust the property law.
00:10:52.580 Make sure they can, that the critical service providers can keep doing what they're doing.
00:11:00.580 And make sure that people are safe.
00:11:07.580 Now what shouldn't you worry about?
00:11:11.580 Because this is where the big mistakes happen.
00:11:14.580 Because here we have a depression. People in the cities are out of work and starving.
00:11:20.580 They have no access to food. And you have this huge, human cry to take some action.
00:11:28.580 These are the actions you should not be taking.
00:11:34.580 As I mentioned with the security, you're trying to maintain security for law-abiding people.
00:11:41.580 If somebody gets murdered in a theft, prosecute that person.
00:11:47.580 If somebody gets murdered in a bar fight, leave it alone.
00:11:52.580 You do not have the resources to pursue this right now.
00:11:55.580 If you have revenge killings, if you have, quite frankly, and this is horrible,
00:12:01.580 but if you have random rapes unconnected to property crime, date rapes, murder of prostitutes, all that,
00:12:10.580 you cannot afford to enforce this right now.
00:12:13.580 Somebody that's going to a bar during a major depression and getting into a knife fight,
00:12:19.580 they're making that choice for themselves to do that.
00:12:25.580 If there is a thief that gets shotgun blasted to the face, best to sweep that under the rug.
00:12:35.580 And certainly, certainly all the petty crimes, the graffiti, the drug dealing, the ordinance violations,
00:12:47.580 you do not have the resources to waste your cops on these things.
00:12:52.580 Maintain the cops and the military for critical services.
00:12:58.580 Have them escort petroleum and food shipments.
00:13:04.580 Don't send them out because there's a noise complaint.
00:13:07.580 What else? You certainly have the social workers. 0.91
00:13:13.580 All of our governments are completely bloated right now.
00:13:18.580 And you're going to hear all these screaming and crying from the government employees about their contracts
00:13:26.580 and how they, you can't let them, you can't fire them during a depression, they'll starve.
00:13:30.580 Well, nobody deserves a government job.
00:13:37.580 If the government doesn't have the money to employ these people, it should not be employing them.
00:13:45.580 Social workers, the guys patrol for cars that are parked somewhere too long, you know, bureaucrats, teachers.
00:14:00.580 You don't need teachers during a depression.
00:14:02.580 If people need to learn a skill, they will learn the skill on the job.
00:14:07.580 We do not have the luxury for teachers right now. We are in a depression.
00:14:12.580 Rome is burning. We need to rebuild it right freaking now.
00:14:17.580 We don't need to spend four years in school learning about poetry.
00:14:20.580 Poetry is wonderful, but we don't have time for that right now.
00:14:26.580 All unnecessary services should be cut.
00:14:31.580 And, of course, you have major projects.
00:14:36.580 This is the worst time to start a major project.
00:14:41.580 And there's going to be such an urge for it.
00:14:44.580 So many people are going to be demanding work and it'll be so tempting.
00:14:47.580 We're going to build a bridge to nowhere and, you know, that will solve all our problems.
00:14:52.580 Well, let's put it this way.
00:14:59.580 When times are good, when economic times are good, you have some money in the bank, that's when you build a veranda on your house.
00:15:05.580 That's when you install a new heater.
00:15:09.580 When things are going poorly, you ride out the stuff as long as possible.
00:15:16.580 When you're in debt, you don't pull out the credit card and buy a new furnace because it increases the value of your home.
00:15:27.580 It doesn't matter. You're now more in debt.
00:15:30.580 Building a bridge might be wonderful for your country, but it's going to put you deeper in debt.
00:15:35.580 The people working on that bridge could have been satisfying more immediate wants.
00:15:40.580 They could have been working for lower wages on a farm making food.
00:15:44.580 Yes, it sucks, but this is how you get out of it.
00:15:51.580 And eventually, one of your priorities is going to be regulation. 0.93
00:15:57.580 And now, people misunderstand this word now.
00:15:59.580 They hear regulation, they think ordinance. 1.00
00:16:01.580 They think this stupid rule that everybody's supposed to follow, 0.97
00:16:05.580 as opposed to the original root meaning of the word, which is to make business regular. 0.97
00:16:12.580 Having a universal set of measurements is a form of regulation.
00:16:17.580 So ignore all the fun stuff that we love to do with society and government,
00:16:24.580 major projects, social work, education, and focus on the fundamentals.
00:16:31.580 Make sure people can predict what you're going to be doing with their property in the future.
00:16:38.580 Protect their private property.
00:16:40.580 Allow them to switch to a different currency if they want to.
00:16:43.580 Gold, silver, mules. Let them do that. 1.00
00:16:46.580 Next, ensure that the critical services, power, water, and food, are able to operate.
00:16:57.580 And finally, make sure that people are able to operate.
00:17:02.580 That they are not afraid of leaving their apartment.
00:17:06.580 That they can get to work.
00:17:08.580 And eventually, allow some regulation, some normalization of business, so people know what to expect.
00:17:16.580 So that's the first step. Get your priorities in order.
00:17:27.580 Too many politicians. Typically, what does a politician do? 0.52
00:17:30.580 Do they worry about the roads? No. The roads take care of themselves.
00:17:32.580 Do they worry about the cops? The cops take care of themselves.
00:17:34.580 They worry about big projects. About ambition. About moving towards the future.
00:17:39.580 And so they double down and try and do more and more of that during a depression.
00:17:44.580 That is the exactly wrong thing to do.
00:17:49.580 They're worrying about the cart when the horse is sick.
00:17:52.580 Normally the horse is healthy. You don't worry about the horse.
00:17:55.580 It just keeps trotting along and the cart follows it.
00:17:59.580 Now the cart stops moving. You don't build a fancier cart.
00:18:03.580 You find a new horse. You help the horse get healthy again.
00:18:09.580 So once you've got your priorities straight, next you need to establish leadership.
00:18:15.580 Because everybody is going to be desperate and screaming for their piece of the pie.
00:18:23.580 Things are falling apart. People want to rip out the wires out of the wall.
00:18:29.580 The copper from the wall. Try and celebrate. They're scared.
00:18:33.580 They want to grab a piece as quickly as they can.
00:18:35.580 You need a strong leader.
00:18:37.580 You as governor need to be a strong leader.
00:18:41.580 And you need to...
00:18:43.580 This goes into the whole theory of leadership.
00:18:45.580 Put your foot down. Do not accept any BS from these people.
00:18:47.580 If the teachers union comes in and is complaining that they're getting a pay cut and it's illegal and it's...
00:18:53.580 Kick them out of your office.
00:18:55.580 We don't have time to pay people to babysit children, whatever they're getting a year.
00:19:01.580 Establish that there is...
00:19:05.580 This is going to be no BS.
00:19:07.580 This is not going to be some huge long debate where everybody is trying to rip a piece out of the pie.
00:19:11.580 No. We are going to work at rebuilding these things.
00:19:15.580 Make contacts with industry.
00:19:17.580 Presumably you already have good contacts.
00:19:19.580 Talk to them.
00:19:21.580 Get them into a room and explain what you're going to do.
00:19:25.580 What the big things to worry about are in your area and how you're going to fix them.
00:19:32.580 Get these people behind you and community leaders.
00:19:37.580 Let's not forget about the churches.
00:19:39.580 You need to get all of the leaders in the community and get them on board with you.
00:19:45.580 You need to work in tandem on this.
00:19:50.580 And finally, the last thing you need to do.
00:19:57.580 And I'm going to use C.S. Lewis as a metaphor here.
00:20:02.580 C.S. Lewis in Near Christianity talked about how he hears all these Britons saying that,
00:20:09.580 well, won't the church take some leadership on this issue?
00:20:14.580 He mentioned, for instance, credit banking.
00:20:19.580 Is that usury or not, according to a Christian opinion?
00:20:22.580 And he said, you know, technically these people are right.
00:20:26.580 But they're asking the priests to take leadership.
00:20:31.580 Priests are not experts on medical science.
00:20:34.580 They're not experts on banking.
00:20:37.580 They're not experts on a lot of things.
00:20:40.580 Experts on theology is what they're experts at.
00:20:43.580 And so C.S. Lewis said that what we need is the church to take leadership.
00:20:49.580 And the church is the people sitting in the pews.
00:20:52.580 That's who's going to get us out of it, is not a messianic government figure.
00:21:05.580 It's going to be the people that get us out of this.
00:21:11.580 So yes, we have people starving in the streets during this depression.
00:21:16.580 What do we do?
00:21:18.580 Do we confiscate all the farms, rip up all the crops and feed the people for six months 0.94
00:21:23.580 and then have nothing in the future?
00:21:26.580 Or, do you start help organizing the people that do have resources?
00:21:36.580 Organizing charity.
00:21:38.580 Building civic virtue.
00:21:41.580 Instead of having everybody try and rip the furniture and the furnishings off the walls
00:21:48.580 and run away to the countryside, develop civic virtue.
00:21:55.580 Get the people that do have resources to start helping others.
00:21:59.580 Put pleas on television that if you can help out a guy that's down on his luck,
00:22:07.580 if you can offer them a job, do that.
00:22:11.580 Get people involved through their local communities, their churches, their whatever.
00:22:21.580 Civic virtue is going to get us out of this.
00:22:24.580 And if you as governor can engender the civic virtue,
00:22:30.580 that will kill the depression faster than anything else.
00:22:35.580 It will enable people to be great, to help one another.
00:22:40.580 The funny thing about leadership is that you don't really do anything as a leader.
00:22:50.580 And a good leader knows that.
00:22:53.580 A good leader enables his subordinates to work to the best of their ability.
00:23:00.580 You give them the confidence that there is a structure and a sense to everything in the society.
00:23:07.580 To the whole organization.
00:23:09.580 That yes, we will actually get through it by these messes.
00:23:13.580 But I'm not going to do it for you.
00:23:16.580 You're going to do it for yourselves.
00:23:20.580 That's what leadership is.
00:23:21.580 That's what leadership is.
00:23:25.580 And depressions call for top notch excellent leadership.
00:23:35.580 And then help them go.
00:23:36.580 For yourself, let's get your priorities in order.
00:23:37.580 For yourself, let's get your priorities in order.
00:23:39.580 Establish a support base, from all the important people in society.
00:23:44.580 And then, help the public help themselves.