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Professor Friedman explodes the myth that America's 19th century industrialists exploited the ordinary man.
So much of our modern problems arise from the false belief in the myth of the robber barons. Free market capitalism is not the problem we suffer from. Free trade leads to prosperity. Of course we also need morals and a culture based in faith but neither of these come from the state. They come from our faith traditions and our cultural history.
I kinda wanna read some books on this topic. I have read some books that back this presentation up but nothing specific to it. I believe Rothbard wrote something on it and there's a good talk by Tom Woods on this subject as well.
For those who don't buy this I will add something. We often get a cartoon version of history in school, and even in university history courses. Its laughable how bad our info can be. Of course there are always greedy people that do terrible things but over and over again the more deeply I read on a topic the more I find that there is often much more to the subject that gets ignored. Usually due to an agenda.
Lies of omission are all over the traditional history we are all taught. When I started broadening my reading on history I began to understand why our world is so screwed up. History is not very kind to statism, central planning, and the current world order.
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This might be a good jumping off point.
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I wasn't aware of Friedman's take on this. These guys radically reduced the cost of living for regular people and greatly expanded the variety of goods available.
If only we could get a new wave of Robber Barons today.
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I wasn't either. I listened to the president of the Mises Institute on the Bitcoin Standard Podcast and he mentioned this era. I went to YouTube and was really disappointed in the lack of content on this topic. It was pretty much Tom Woods and this video. Wood's talks are good but long. This video was nice and short :)
More needs to be done to destroy this myth. It comes up so often in my talks with people interested in the issues of our time. Far to many right wingers don't get it either. I think the vast majority of the population has no clue just how ill-informed they are on history.
I don't mean to say I'm enlightened. The contrary, the more I have read the more angry I get about how I was deceived by both public and private education as well as the culture.
The misunderstanding of our own history is a huge factor in our decline as a people and nation(not government).
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Tom DiLorenzo, the Mises Institute president, has written and spoken a lot on the subject.
He's the one who demolished the predatory pricing myth, in particular, and the general myth of widespread monopolies. Shockingly, all it took to do this was just looking at the publicly available records on prices and existing companies.
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Yeah, I've read one of his books on Lincoln. We are drowning in ignorance and lies of omission.
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If only we could get a new wave of Robber Barons today.
Yeah... I don't see it happening. Some think that is basically the Paypal Mafia. I don't agree but not because I just think those guys are evil. Its because the state is so massive you literally can't do what those guys did any more. You have to buy or control parts of the state in order to accomplish things at the scale of the Robber Barons. The state during that period was tiny by today's standards.
I think some of our fellow travelers don't really get this. They don't really get that the free market is the path. There is an anti-rich attitude that comes from the left and envy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Elon and the Palantir guys but they are about as close to the Robber Barons we are gonna get.
People should really read Atlas Shrugged once. Its stupid long but it is crazy how it mirrors the attitudes we see today. Of course Rand was not a Libertarian let alone an anarchist(as many falsely believe), but she did get the types of people that are drawn to "public service". The leaches that populate DC and our state capitals.
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Far to many bitcoiners do not get the state IMO. They do not get just how central it is to our economy and how much socialist ideals have taken hold.
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Totally agree.
If there are going to be new Robber Barons, they'll come from the permissionless Bitcoin and digital space, and they'll be openly flaunting government attempts to shut them down.
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How did I miss this one???
Thanks for sharing
I have seen it before
Glad Friedman is spreading
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I think he's well known and respected in bitcoin circles as well as liberty movement circles. Its the conservatives that seem to ignore him most IMO.
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I think he is under appreciated and recognized in bitcoin circles and conferences.
Definitely ignored by conservatives especially today
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He's not an Austrian and his views on monetary policy don't align with bitcoin as well as someone like Mises, Hayek, or Rothbard. If you are a big fan I can see that but from where I'm sitting that's not the case. I mean, I think all of these guys should be getting more attention in general but the bitcoin world is far better equipped economically than the rest of the world.
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I NEVER hear anyone outside of our circles talk about monetary inflation for example. They only talk about prices and complain. They talk about interest rates. Its maddening when like me you are around people that talk about things that are impacted by monetary policy weekly. I'm not even expecting them to agree with me, but its like its completely invisible to them.
I think this is VERY intentional from the position of the elites. They have done a great job mal-educating the masses on economics. The problem isn't that they don't teach people about supply and demand. Its the invisible nature of the FED and the unit of account being a moving target.
I bring this up sometimes and its like people have antibodies to questioning money supply's affects. They shut it down. Closed minds fully on the topic. Its rather absurd to witness. Its why I don't think information is the solution to our problems. Its gotta be real. Bitcoin making people rich is the ONLY way the system is changed. People are intellectually handi-capped.
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Friedman was not a fan of the gold standard or central banks. In fact he supported abolishing the federal reserve bank
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There's common ground for sure. I like him, and he had some great talking points and his way of debating people was fun to watch.