Leo D.M.J. Aurini - March 01, 2015


The Free Market, Regulation, and Societal Virtue


Episode Stats


Length

18 minutes

Words per minute

136.66014

Word count

2,514

Sentence count

161

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

12

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

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

This is a continuation of the post-Net neutrality rant I did on the topic of the free market, and how it can be improved. I talk about the problems we have in the current financial markets, and why a return to a gold standard is not the answer.

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 .
00:00:00.000 All right guys, thank you so much for listening today.
00:00:27.860 Now, this is going to be a follow-up to my last video on net neutrality,
00:00:33.500 and how the FCC regulating our freedom for us is no sort of victory for anybody except the ISPs.
00:00:43.700 Now, a lot of the comments I got on that video were suggesting that I had some sort of undue faith in the free market,
00:00:52.920 or that this was somehow necessary to protect consumers.
00:00:58.360 And all of this, I think it speaks to a terrible ignorance of how the free market actually operates,
00:01:06.420 why it is that people advocate free market solutions rather than government expansions,
00:01:12.120 and also misses the core issue of all of this, which really is morality.
00:01:20.700 And to try and explain what I mean by that, there's a video posted by Anne Bardhart a couple of years ago.
00:01:29.900 I'll link to it down below.
00:01:31.960 And to describe this woman, if there is a single paladin left on the planet, it is her. 0.57
00:01:38.860 She was discussing the current issues that we're having in financial markets,
00:01:45.740 and particularly targeting the gold bugs, the libertarians who want to return to a gold standard.
00:01:52.740 Now, while I'm not the biggest fan of fractional reserve lending,
00:01:56.820 she correctly points out that a gold standard is not going to correct all the problems we have in the current marketplace.
00:02:04.620 We've had gold standards in the past, and when the governments wanted to behave immorally,
00:02:10.700 and wanted to start playing fast and loose with the way money works,
00:02:14.460 back then, instead of printing dollars, all they did was add less valuable metal to the coins.
00:02:22.280 You know, minting coins that weren't 100% silver or gold.
00:02:26.160 And the exact same thing happens.
00:02:28.980 And in fact, that's happening right now.
00:02:31.400 A lot of the gold out there is nothing but gold leaf around a tungsten core.
00:02:37.340 As she points out, all of this is about morality.
00:02:42.680 All of this is about 1 plus 1 equals 2, about not playing shell games with the way money works.
00:02:48.340 And the exact same thing goes for excesses and abuses of the free market.
00:02:57.940 Now, the free market has two big ways that it tends to go wrong.
00:03:05.340 You know, monopolies and externalities.
00:03:09.380 These are the things that get the most criticism.
00:03:12.320 And correct criticism.
00:03:13.940 You see, the thing about the free market is that you enter the free market with the assumption
00:03:20.540 that everybody's trying to screw you.
00:03:24.000 Every company wants to charge the most they can,
00:03:26.940 while providing the least that they can get away with.
00:03:31.060 And one of the best ways to do that is to achieve a monopoly.
00:03:35.420 Now, every business, to a certain degree, is a monopoly.
00:03:39.320 For instance, if you go to a convenience store, they have a local monopoly.
00:03:42.640 Nobody else can come into that convenience store and try and sell Gatorade at a lower price than them.
00:03:49.560 They have a local monopoly there.
00:03:53.820 You'd have to walk two blocks out of your way to go to a cheaper convenience store,
00:03:57.280 and they're gambling that you won't.
00:03:59.820 Now, the problem with monopoly run excessively,
00:04:05.400 the sort of monopoly that upsets people, that people complain about,
00:04:08.600 is when one particular company captures the entire market,
00:04:12.880 and thus can charge whatever they want,
00:04:15.640 because there's no longer any competition keeping them in check.
00:04:21.160 And yes, this is quite problematic,
00:04:23.860 bad for the consumer, and bad for the society as a whole,
00:04:26.860 because it decreases any need for innovation, 0.74
00:04:29.520 and it just helps a bunch of fat cats get even fatter.
00:04:32.820 The other big problem with the free market is externalities.
00:04:39.880 Externalities are anything, any negatives,
00:04:43.000 specifically negative externalities,
00:04:44.600 anything that isn't accounted for in the balance books.
00:04:49.440 And the typical example given is a company that pollutes a whole lot,
00:04:53.440 but doesn't have to pay for the pollution.
00:04:55.560 You know, they take all of their toxic waste and just dump it in the river,
00:04:59.640 and it's the people downstream that have to deal with it.
00:05:01.720 So the company makes all the profit without paying for the cleanup.
00:05:05.980 You know, both just absolutely terrible things.
00:05:10.040 So what do we do about these?
00:05:12.860 Well, the current solution is bring in government regulation.
00:05:18.320 So we have antitrust laws to break up large corporations and say,
00:05:22.960 no, you can't do that, you're limiting competition,
00:05:26.380 we're going to chop you up and prevent you from doing that, 0.93
00:05:28.700 and find you money to ensure that the consumer is protected.
00:05:34.720 The other solution is regulation for environmentalism, etc.,
00:05:40.700 to make sure there are no negative externalities.
00:05:43.480 And don't these seem like great things on the surface?
00:05:47.940 You know, any time some fat cat, some wealthy multi-billionaire
00:05:52.940 gets out of line and starts telling us, the consumer, what we have to buy,
00:05:57.320 we're going to get the government to protect us.
00:05:59.900 You know, and hey, I'm the first one to say it.
00:06:02.900 The free market is full of people that just want your money.
00:06:07.920 They want to charge as much as they can and provide as little as possible.
00:06:14.400 That's just how the free market works.
00:06:16.220 Everybody's out to get you.
00:06:18.720 But what happens when we start asking the government to protect us from these people?
00:06:25.960 Well, the first thing is that the government expands.
00:06:30.600 And the government gains power.
00:06:32.080 All of a sudden, these regulatory bodies,
00:06:36.160 the ones enforcing the antitrust laws,
00:06:38.360 or the ones enforcing environmental regulations,
00:06:41.780 these expand.
00:06:43.540 They gain power.
00:06:46.420 And when they gain power,
00:06:49.040 the billionaire CEOs notice it.
00:06:53.500 See, the government is really just in the business of power.
00:06:56.720 When you expand the government as much as we have now,
00:07:00.740 we've gone from historically a 3% of GDP state
00:07:04.820 to a 40% to 60% GDP state,
00:07:08.440 based upon which numbers you want to look at,
00:07:11.100 suddenly there's a lot of power being held by these government ministers.
00:07:16.680 And so, these very organizations that were supposed to protect you
00:07:20.780 become the very organizations
00:07:23.420 that the corporations now hire lobbyists to go address.
00:07:27.520 In other words, all you've done
00:07:30.260 is remove the problem by one level.
00:07:34.420 And furthermore, you've put it at a level
00:07:36.580 which is far less accountable than the free market.
00:07:43.040 And so, now that might surprise some of you.
00:07:45.940 Am I arguing that the government,
00:07:48.140 which we all vote for,
00:07:49.700 is less accountable than a private company
00:07:52.400 that can do whatever it wants?
00:07:54.180 Well, that's because there's no accountability mechanism
00:07:58.540 with the government,
00:07:59.560 and there is with the private corporation.
00:08:03.720 You see, private corporations ultimately have a bottom line.
00:08:08.100 They need to respond to the market.
00:08:10.880 And if their product is terrible enough,
00:08:13.440 nobody is going to buy it.
00:08:16.460 Private corporations have an incentive to trim the fat.
00:08:20.740 The government, on the other hand,
00:08:24.660 does not have any checks or balances, ultimately.
00:08:30.140 The votes are largely determined by demographics,
00:08:34.040 by marketing,
00:08:35.020 and you only have two choices anyway.
00:08:37.380 For instance, if you live anywhere in the Midwest,
00:08:40.020 both sides, both the Democrats and Republicans,
00:08:42.300 are going to support the corn lobby
00:08:44.000 because most of their demographic makes money
00:08:46.840 off of the corn lobby,
00:08:48.200 and outside of those states,
00:08:50.700 nobody cares about that.
00:08:52.600 So we have tons of government money
00:08:54.640 being fueled in to growing corn
00:08:56.780 that nobody wants,
00:08:58.480 and a few farmers are making a profit.
00:09:02.760 And it's completely messing with the price of food
00:09:05.820 all over the world.
00:09:06.900 It can be indirectly pointed to
00:09:09.600 for a lot of the starvation that happens
00:09:11.160 in different countries.
00:09:12.440 It's certainly not good for your average American,
00:09:15.080 and it's not even good for the average farmer.
00:09:16.880 But some people are making a lot of money off of it,
00:09:19.440 and it's not going anywhere.
00:09:23.740 The same thing goes for all these regulatory agencies.
00:09:27.360 You see, a corporation has a bottom line.
00:09:30.020 A corporation can go out of business,
00:09:32.380 you know, if we allowed them to.
00:09:33.800 We don't, you know,
00:09:34.640 now they're all too big to fail.
00:09:35.960 But, you know, in theory,
00:09:37.320 a company can go out of business.
00:09:39.060 They need to trim the fat. 0.90
00:09:40.120 But, a regulatory agency
00:09:42.580 never does anything but get bigger.
00:09:47.660 So the regulatory agency can get
00:09:49.800 more and more rules
00:09:51.740 that are harder and harder to interpret,
00:09:54.060 giving all sorts of jobs for lawyers.
00:09:56.400 And the companies start hiring
00:09:57.740 more and more lobbyists
00:09:59.020 to influence these laws.
00:10:02.080 And what do you think happens?
00:10:03.580 This is when you truly
00:10:08.420 start getting monopolies
00:10:10.420 and negative externalities.
00:10:13.740 See, monopolies,
00:10:14.980 historically speaking,
00:10:15.860 monopolies
00:10:16.500 almost never happen.
00:10:19.200 What's far more common
00:10:20.300 is a cartel,
00:10:21.560 where a bunch of people
00:10:23.320 in the same business
00:10:24.960 all agree to set prices.
00:10:26.900 Now, because these are
00:10:29.220 a bunch of greedy businessmen,
00:10:32.220 eventually somebody is tempted
00:10:34.280 to break the cartel
00:10:36.000 and sell at a lower price
00:10:37.680 and outcompete the rest of them.
00:10:39.740 Cartels are inherently unstable
00:10:41.600 because there's no ideology
00:10:43.680 holding them together.
00:10:45.500 It's always tempting
00:10:47.520 to break the cartel
00:10:49.020 and that's exactly what happens.
00:10:50.760 Yes, you do occasionally
00:10:51.900 have these cartels
00:10:52.860 and it's not good,
00:10:54.120 but natural human greed
00:10:55.280 breaks them up.
00:10:56.900 The same thing goes
00:10:58.460 for externalities,
00:11:00.100 where people
00:11:02.000 do not like externalities.
00:11:04.580 They do not like coal dust
00:11:06.640 all over their houses
00:11:08.000 and people complain.
00:11:09.940 And in fact,
00:11:10.460 there is a market
00:11:11.980 for running a decent business,
00:11:15.900 for running a business
00:11:16.980 that is environmentally sound.
00:11:19.580 You just need to sell it
00:11:20.800 in the correct way.
00:11:22.240 Whereas when you have
00:11:23.240 the government regulating things
00:11:24.780 and you have a whole bunch
00:11:25.920 of people that are
00:11:26.620 unaccountable
00:11:27.620 to anybody
00:11:28.800 and it's all run
00:11:30.340 by the lobbyists,
00:11:31.940 then guess what?
00:11:34.040 That's where you get monopolies. 0.98
00:11:36.300 Whenever you find
00:11:37.140 a monopoly in history,
00:11:38.640 you find a whole bunch
00:11:40.180 of regulatory agencies
00:11:41.360 of the government
00:11:41.960 backing it up.
00:11:43.640 And the same thing
00:11:44.660 goes for the externalities.
00:11:46.340 You lobby the government
00:11:47.940 to make sure
00:11:48.440 that these things
00:11:48.980 aren't externalities.
00:11:50.560 that you can build
00:11:51.680 completely toxic
00:11:53.380 and destructive
00:11:54.180 solar cells
00:11:55.380 without ever having
00:11:56.400 to pay the cleaning costs
00:11:58.220 of your mining operation
00:11:59.940 because you're environmental
00:12:01.840 even though you are
00:12:03.500 strip mining
00:12:04.300 the third world.
00:12:09.080 Regulatory agencies.
00:12:10.120 The government
00:12:10.600 is nothing but power.
00:12:13.300 See, corporations
00:12:13.920 are power with money
00:12:15.160 and so they have
00:12:16.780 limits set on them.
00:12:18.020 Ultimately, corporations
00:12:18.940 have to exist
00:12:19.660 in the real world
00:12:20.620 and as bad as they are, 0.98
00:12:22.480 as greedy and selfish 0.99
00:12:23.420 as they are, 0.99
00:12:24.360 they have to deal
00:12:25.120 with reality.
00:12:26.960 Governments,
00:12:27.540 on the other hand,
00:12:28.260 do not.
00:12:30.020 Governments can
00:12:30.880 spend
00:12:31.720 profligately.
00:12:33.540 They can
00:12:34.300 do whatever
00:12:35.240 they want
00:12:35.740 until, of course,
00:12:36.540 they bankrupt
00:12:37.160 the entire nation
00:12:38.100 and the foreign army
00:12:39.300 invades
00:12:39.980 and, you know,
00:12:40.920 executes everybody 0.94
00:12:41.860 and slaves 0.99
00:12:42.460 everybody else.
00:12:43.960 Governments are not
00:12:44.720 ultimately accountable.
00:12:48.580 So, all you are doing
00:12:50.400 when you regulate
00:12:52.260 an industry,
00:12:53.240 when you demand
00:12:54.100 that the government
00:12:54.820 come in
00:12:55.720 and save you,
00:12:57.880 you are just
00:12:58.900 removing that power
00:13:00.140 to somewhere
00:13:00.680 even harder
00:13:01.880 to access,
00:13:02.640 even harder
00:13:03.420 to hold accountable.
00:13:04.960 You're making it
00:13:05.940 more complex,
00:13:07.220 more direct,
00:13:08.660 harder to understand,
00:13:09.980 and less accountable.
00:13:15.860 And morality.
00:13:17.860 Let's talk about
00:13:18.700 the morality
00:13:19.220 at the beginning
00:13:19.760 of this.
00:13:22.540 All of this
00:13:23.560 has to do
00:13:24.920 with individual morality.
00:13:27.460 Quite frankly,
00:13:28.160 you,
00:13:28.480 when you beg
00:13:29.280 the government
00:13:29.820 to go
00:13:31.020 defend your morality,
00:13:33.600 you're not being
00:13:34.240 a moral person,
00:13:35.100 you're being 0.87
00:13:35.600 a lazy person.
00:13:37.620 You are no longer 0.98
00:13:39.040 standing up
00:13:39.600 for what's right
00:13:40.360 and what should
00:13:41.220 be done.
00:13:41.840 You are begging
00:13:42.460 somebody else
00:13:43.540 to do it for you.
00:13:44.880 You're begging
00:13:45.300 somebody else
00:13:46.340 to take care of you.
00:13:48.420 If you don't like
00:13:49.280 the way a corporation
00:13:50.140 is run,
00:13:51.100 if you think
00:13:51.660 they have
00:13:51.980 monopolistic practices,
00:13:53.800 if you just don't
00:13:54.840 like the way
00:13:55.240 they treat their workers,
00:13:56.820 then boycott them
00:13:58.140 and buy an alternative
00:13:59.360 product for more.
00:14:00.800 I don't buy Apple
00:14:04.280 products because
00:14:05.220 I do not like
00:14:06.160 the way that
00:14:06.600 company is run.
00:14:07.620 I do not like
00:14:08.340 the infrastructure
00:14:09.080 that they are
00:14:09.820 creating in their
00:14:10.900 computers or in
00:14:11.900 the whole software
00:14:13.040 environment.
00:14:13.660 I dislike it,
00:14:14.760 which is my opinion.
00:14:16.580 And so I will
00:14:17.300 forego a good
00:14:18.540 quality MP3 player
00:14:19.880 and they do have
00:14:20.700 the best MP3
00:14:21.500 players on the
00:14:22.180 planet
00:14:22.480 because I don't
00:14:24.560 like them
00:14:25.080 on principle.
00:14:26.680 I'm not begging
00:14:27.560 anybody else
00:14:28.220 to do this.
00:14:29.600 You know,
00:14:29.940 if I will
00:14:30.780 tell other people
00:14:31.820 my opinion,
00:14:32.580 I will spread this
00:14:33.460 and hopefully
00:14:33.860 I can get the
00:14:34.420 company to change.
00:14:35.880 If a company
00:14:36.620 upsets me
00:14:37.460 with their practices,
00:14:38.580 I will write them
00:14:39.520 and tell them
00:14:40.260 why.
00:14:41.060 I will tell
00:14:41.640 other people.
00:14:42.700 This is what
00:14:43.140 the media is
00:14:43.780 supposed to do,
00:14:44.580 but of course,
00:14:45.880 we don't want
00:14:46.560 to take responsibility
00:14:47.360 for ourselves.
00:14:48.800 We want somebody
00:14:49.780 else to do it.
00:14:50.820 Daddy government
00:14:51.460 will take care of us
00:14:52.680 because we are
00:14:53.780 too weak
00:14:54.520 and childlike
00:14:55.980 to take care
00:14:56.920 of ourselves.
00:14:58.220 demanding that
00:15:00.420 the government
00:15:00.960 regulate businesses
00:15:02.240 is no different
00:15:03.980 than demanding
00:15:04.860 that the government
00:15:05.860 pay for your
00:15:07.980 socialism
00:15:08.680 or give you
00:15:09.520 welfare because
00:15:10.340 you can't keep
00:15:10.940 a job
00:15:11.480 or any of this.
00:15:13.480 It is refusing
00:15:14.340 to take responsibility
00:15:15.260 for yourself
00:15:16.120 and when you
00:15:18.280 refuse that
00:15:18.820 responsibility,
00:15:19.700 you hand the
00:15:20.800 power over
00:15:21.560 to somebody else.
00:15:23.340 You want a parent.
00:15:25.860 You want to be
00:15:26.280 a perpetual child.
00:15:28.220 And unlike
00:15:31.140 the parents
00:15:31.980 that we grew
00:15:32.560 up with,
00:15:33.300 the government
00:15:34.000 has no innate
00:15:35.020 love for any
00:15:36.620 of us.
00:15:38.080 These are a bunch 1.00
00:15:39.020 of psychopaths 0.99
00:15:40.280 purely seeking
00:15:42.020 after power.
00:15:43.420 And so with this
00:15:44.240 net neutrality
00:15:45.020 stuff,
00:15:45.860 all we did
00:15:46.940 was take away
00:15:48.180 power from
00:15:49.280 the evil
00:15:49.720 corporations
00:15:50.360 who ultimately
00:15:51.560 have to make
00:15:52.680 a buck
00:15:53.100 and giving
00:15:55.000 it to a bunch
00:15:56.420 of bureaucrats
00:15:57.260 that only
00:15:58.340 have their
00:15:58.980 best interests
00:15:59.920 in mind.
00:16:05.720 Now,
00:16:06.380 if that doesn't
00:16:06.980 convince you
00:16:07.760 that this
00:16:08.540 net neutrality
00:16:09.400 thing is not
00:16:11.000 what it's being
00:16:12.060 made out to be,
00:16:14.080 let's just go
00:16:15.320 back to the facts
00:16:16.040 quickly.
00:16:17.860 Net neutrality
00:16:18.920 was a term
00:16:20.480 invented by
00:16:21.640 the FCC
00:16:22.500 about 15
00:16:23.420 years ago.
00:16:26.180 The problems
00:16:27.500 that it's
00:16:28.560 supposed to
00:16:29.120 address
00:16:29.660 don't really
00:16:31.580 exist.
00:16:33.300 You can point
00:16:34.020 to a few
00:16:34.500 ISPs
00:16:35.260 acting like 1.00
00:16:36.040 jerks, 0.99
00:16:36.680 but we
00:16:38.380 already have
00:16:38.780 a solution
00:16:39.280 there.
00:16:40.060 Google Wire
00:16:40.740 was going
00:16:41.140 to be coming
00:16:41.560 in and
00:16:42.360 undermining
00:16:43.020 them and
00:16:43.420 forcing them
00:16:43.940 to treat
00:16:44.260 their customers
00:16:44.740 better.
00:16:45.200 In other
00:16:45.460 words,
00:16:45.660 the free
00:16:46.060 market was
00:16:46.580 working.
00:16:49.620 And third,
00:16:51.620 this legislation
00:16:53.480 is 332
00:16:56.240 pages long,
00:16:57.640 it's been
00:16:58.420 passed,
00:16:59.500 and they
00:17:00.080 still haven't
00:17:01.520 shown us
00:17:02.060 what's in
00:17:02.780 it.
00:17:04.580 And you're
00:17:05.380 telling me
00:17:05.920 that these
00:17:06.320 guys have
00:17:06.900 our best
00:17:07.480 interests at
00:17:08.120 heart.
00:17:09.160 And that
00:17:09.540 all of this
00:17:10.080 is going
00:17:10.340 to work
00:17:10.700 out just
00:17:11.320 swimmingly
00:17:12.440 for us.
00:17:13.460 It's not
00:17:13.880 going to
00:17:14.060 be websites
00:17:15.680 requiring to
00:17:16.480 register with
00:17:17.280 the FCC
00:17:17.940 and getting
00:17:19.040 shut down
00:17:19.760 if they have
00:17:20.120 the wrong
00:17:20.460 sort of
00:17:20.880 content.
00:17:21.880 No,
00:17:22.200 this is just
00:17:23.120 about making
00:17:23.840 sure we can
00:17:24.480 get access
00:17:25.040 to Netflix
00:17:25.820 without having
00:17:26.780 to pay an
00:17:27.260 extra 20
00:17:27.940 bucks a
00:17:28.400 month.
00:17:29.080 Right.
00:17:31.900 Quite frankly,
00:17:32.840 if you think
00:17:33.320 you can pay
00:17:34.960 somebody else
00:17:35.640 to be moral
00:17:36.260 for you,
00:17:37.560 you're out
00:17:38.800 to lunch.
00:17:40.460 And that's
00:17:40.840 exactly what
00:17:41.480 this is.
00:17:41.880 When you beg
00:17:42.280 the government
00:17:42.760 to do what
00:17:43.840 you should be
00:17:44.500 doing,
00:17:45.560 you're paying
00:17:46.740 somebody else
00:17:47.340 to be moral.
00:17:48.300 And you
00:17:48.760 are the only
00:17:49.860 person that
00:17:50.960 can live with
00:17:51.580 your own
00:17:51.920 virtue.
00:17:53.940 Irini out,
00:17:54.500 folks.
00:17:55.400 take
00:17:55.940 once moreish to
00:17:57.120 go.
00:17:57.580 Take
00:17:59.780 together,
00:18:01.040 KS.
00:18:01.440 Thank you.
00:18:07.180 Bye-bye,
00:18:10.400 you're there.
00:18:12.740 Bye-bye.
00:18:13.200 Bye-bye.
00:18:13.600 Bye-bye.
00:18:14.140 Bye-bye.
00:18:15.040 Bye-bye.
00:18:15.600 Bye-bye.
00:18:16.060 Bye-bye.
00:18:18.320 Bye-bye.