People like ContraPoints do not want to accept
the fact that what they live under today is
not capitalism but are living under corporatism
and yes, I have pointed out so many times
before that individualism is all about the
freedom of the economy from government control,
from any state control. That's what a capitalist
system is; a capitalist system is a free market
economy. It's not the mixed economy that America's
living under today where they try to combine
capitalism and socialism together and you
end up with this corporatist system. "and
this would be a grim state of affairs in any
circumstances, but it's especially egregious
in a country where many of the basic needs
are not met. On the one hand we 40 million
people living in this country with medical
debt; spiralling tuition costs leading college
students to take out loans they may never
escape; more than half a million homeless
people and 13 million children who have to
go to school hungry." When you look at American
healthcare costs of the late nineteenth century
or even the education costs in the late nineteenth
century, education and healthcare was dirt
cheap. The American healthcare system got
so out of control because of the American
Medical Association monopoly, granted by the
United States government, it was the U.S.
government's fault. Trying to blame that on
capitalism when it's the fault of government
is unreal and saying that "oh well, government
has something to do with capitalism" is absolutely
nonsense and then going on to say that the
over regulation of the private sector by the
U.S. government is somehow capitalist, is
nonsense, because, again, capitalism is about
the market that regulates itself. It's not
about government regulation. It's about the
market that regulates itself, it's about the
free market, for example; interest rates in
the marketplace being left to freely regulate
itself in the marketplace through the laws
of supply and demand, the same with the ratio
of money, or, for example, under capitalism;
prices in the marketplace are regulated freely
by the laws of supply and demand. That is
what capitalism is about. Capitalism is not
about governments setting down that of quantity
and quality controls, etc and all the rest
of this nonsense and yes, the U.S. government
over regulated the private sector and there's
about 50 or sorry, 49 percent private sector
in the United States healthcare system. And
last but not least on that issue, you have
the Third Party-Payer system. I've explained
all of that and I'm not going to go into it
but a Third Party-Payer system is anti-capitalist.
Capitalism was about having the consumer free
in the marketplace to freely shop around for
the cheapest provider with strong fierce competition
of private providers providing a service where
the consumer can choose who they go to. That's
not how the American healthcare system operates,
the American healthcare system operates on
that of a Third Party-Payer system whereby
a Third Party in the background is the one
with a monopoly over cost. It's a Third Party
in the background that is the one driving
the cost, they've got a monopoly over it and
who created that problem? Government and what
did that lead to? A collusion between private
pharmaceutical companies because you're living
in the absence of a capitalist system. If
you take away government intervention, if
you take away the Third Party-Payer system,
the collusion disappears, it's destroyed because
competition destroys it because you've got
consumer choice then. And then you've got
the same argument, even with regards to education,
it's the same principle, it's all down to
the laws of supply and demand, that's what
determines the cost. The higher cost was a
signal to tell you there's a shortage, that's
because you've got a far greater demand of
pupils wanting to get into those schools and
the demand is far greater than the placements
available. Whose fault was that? That was
the fault of the United States government,
that's why the education soared through the
roof in terms of the costs because of government.
So, it's no surprise why they've racked up
all that student debt and then on top of all
of that, they're encouraging these students
to go and study subjects that are worthless,
subjects like 'women's studies,' how's that
even going to get you a job? That's not even
going to get you a job, all you've done is
racked up student debt through studying something
that's not even worth that to the marketplace.
So they wasted money going to University when
they don't need to, they could have easily
have went and done an apprenticeship and done
something that pays far more. And yes, there's
a serious problem with how things are today,
I agree there's a serious problem, but the
problem is not the fault of capitalism, the
problem is the very fault of wanting more
government, that is the problem, that was
the problem to begin with. "And on the other
hand, we apparently have the resources to
mass produce $400 juice packet squeezing machines
and $300 luxury ice cubes and there are apparently
Americans who are willing to spend $50 million
on Barnett Newman paintings, I mean, it's
a fine painting and its got a lot of great
red on it, but is it really worth the cost
of feeding every homeless person in America
for 2-weeks?" ContraPoints doesn't seem to
understand individual liberty and individual
choice. You know something? It's a bit like
that argument they come up with and they basically
says that "Oh, look at all those starving
African people out there, all those poor starving
African's and, you know, they're dying of
starvation, meanwhile, you've got these fat
American's sitting there in McDonald's stuffing
their face with burgers and stuff like that."
As if to blame the obese American for the
cause of why the African people are dying
of starvation. As if it's the American people's
fault. That's the arguments that you'll honestly
get. That's the problem with these arguments.
How's it the fault of somebody going out and
spending $300 on a particular item or going
out and spending, you know, a lot of money
on, you know, something that they personally
value. That's their free choice what they
want to do with their own money. This is what
I don't understand about the mindset of these
socialists because that's their free choice.
If they worked hard for their own money, that's
their own choice what they want to do with
it. However, that does not mean to say they
do not care about people who are less fortunate.
How do you know that the person who went and
spent $1,000 on a painting didn't the previous
week go and put money into charity in some
other form, how do you know that? You don't
know that, you've got no way of reading that,
you don't know what they're doing. I know
people who go out and spend money all the
time and guess what? They actually invest
money into charities to help people who are
less fortunate, I know people who do that.
So this is the inherent contradiction and
the problem is, as a result of the mixed economy,
as a result of the destruction of capitalism
(because let's face it, you've already destroyed
capitalism, right, because you don't live
under a capitalist system today,) you've basically
created the very problems that you're pissing
and moaning about, for example; your extremely
high costs of living, an extremely high costs
of the private sector and the problem with
social security and the welfare state, that's
right, as a result of the welfare state and
social security, you basically destroyed the
community spirit, that's what you destroyed.
Do you know what the community spirit was?
The community spirit was basically people
banding together to go out of their way to
provide for people charitably, that's what
the community spirit was. See as a result
of government stepping in with the strong
social security and all the big welfare statism,
do you know what that did? It created a mentality
in society where people now thought to themselves:
"Oh, I don't need to, you know, hand money
to this homeless person because the government
will do it for me." There you go. So basically,
that was a result of the welfare statism and
the social security which has got nothing
at all to do with that of the capitalist system
because the capitalist system is all about
that of voluntary action through charitable
operations. "Is this what an efficient economy
looks like? If GDP is your only measure of
efficiency, then maybe, but shouldn't the
economy serve humanity rather than the other
way around." ContraPoints assumption is that
GDP determines the efficiency of an economy.
I don't know who out there has said that.
If someone has said that, they just don't
understand economics. Maybe this person is
thinking of Richard Spencer or someone similar
to that and the alt-right but that's not capitalism
and I'll explain to you the very reason why:
first and foremost, Norway has got a very
high GDP and it got it off the back of the
energy sector because they were the 5th largest
oil exporter in Western Europe. That's the
sign of an economy that is economically inefficient,
not efficient, it's inefficient, why? Because
it's tearing the arse out of natural resources
and natural resources are scarce, meaning,
they are finite, they don't last forever,
they're not infinite, they're finite. So what's
the purpose of the study of economics? We
as human beings live on a planet with scarce
natural resources and the purpose of economics
is to find the most efficient system possible,
right, so it's a question of: how do we better
improve the material standards of living of
the masses whilst using the FEWEST resources
as possible. That's efficiency! Efficiency
isn't doing a Norway and tearing the backside
out of North Sea Oil, that's not efficiency.
You take for example the Soviet Union under
socialism, where the Soviet Union had a high
GDP, that doesn't necessarily mean to say
that you've got an efficient economy just
because you've got a high GDP, the high GDP
could be a signal to say that you've been
overproducing surplus waste. And it was no
different to that of Nazi Germany, that's
why Nazism and fascism was such a failure.
All those fascists out there who, you know,
have a go at the communists, they're just
as bad, Nazi Germany was just as inefficient
as that of the Soviet Union, it was overproducing,
it was producing what consumers were not in
demand of. "Canto 4 Message to the Rich. Alright,
you filthy Goddamned reptiles, listen up!
I've got a pretty good barometer for internet
politics which is to say, politics, I mean,
I noticed the alt-right thing pretty early
and you can assign as much or as little significance
to that as you choose, but what I'm picking
up at the moment is that people are getting
fucking mad and they are starting to get mad
specifically at you, the rich. Recent polling
data shows that a majority of adults under
the age of 30 do not support capitalism and
almost a third support socialism. This is
not the eighties anymore, you can't continue
to get richer and richer while the rest of
the country is underemployed, in debt and
unable to afford healthcare and judging by
the mood I'm picking up on social media right
now, if you don't fix some shit and make life
better for the masses, they are going to cut
your fucking heads off." There are a lot of
people who just don't understand economics,
history and politics and ContraPoints doesn't
understand the late nineteenth century of
American history, in fact, here's the special
part: the rich people like that of John Davison
Rockefeller was the one who was actually greatly
benefiting the poorest of society the most,
it was through that kerosine that enabled
people to light their homes at a far cheaper
cost and it was through capitalism, the competition,
through the innovation of, you know, the production
and selling of the electric lightbulb that
enabled people to improve their material standards
of living, to move away from the dangerous
lighting of kerosine in their homes, replacing
it with the electric lightbulb. And the rich
people in those days were continuously driving
down the costs, so much so, that between 1840
to 1900 the consumer price index continuously
fell. The consumers of society, not only were
their wages continuously increasing, the purchasing
power of the money was continuously increasing
because of the Gold standard and most importantly,
the whole of society was becoming richer.
That was, of course, until the socialists
got their hands on the economy hahaha "and
none of them so far has ended capitalism and
capitalism needs the state to maintain its
power." So, there you have it, a complete
misunderstanding of capitalism from ContraPoints
and sadly a lot of people buy into it. What
this person is speaking about is economic
fascism, they're speaking about corporatism,
they're not speaking about capitalism. "Shouldn't
we focus on protecting abortion and getting
affordable healthcare and education and ending
mass incarceration and other achievable goals?"
"Why not just be honest about your political
stance, are you a democratic socialist or
would you actually support a revolution?"
Mentions something about democratic socialism
and all the rest of this nonsense, well, I've
explained many times before, there's no such
thing as democratic socialism because the
fact of the matter is, socialism is defined
by central planning of the economy and when
you're faced with the knowledge problem and
the economic calculation problem, you're screwed.
Once the government destroys the information
of prices through price controls, you land
in a position where you no longer hold the
needs and wants of people's needs and wants
and it leads to that of a self-serving government.
So, it's a choice of whether they give up
on socialism or, of course, they continue
down the road kind of like that of your kind
of Stalinesque, which is the only socialism
that you'll ever have; you either have the
flavour of fascism or the flavour of, you
know, Marxism, take your pick of tyranny.
Anyway folk, I hope you've enjoyed the video,
I know it's been a bit of a long rant, but,
you know something, I thought I would go through
the main arguments, bit by bit and I hope
its been informative for yourself. If you've
got any questions that you would like to ask
me, feel free to comment in the comments section
below and I'll be sure to get back to you,
thank you for watching my video and I shall
talk to you's later, cheers!
