Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream | Christopher Whalen

[currymakersuperfly]

It's lovely to see free-market capitalists running their mouths about the benefits of capitalism, but none of them seem to look at how capitalism came to be in the first place.

Specifically, how was the "capital"" in "capitalism" first gathered? It ain't a pretty picture, i'll tell you that much.

[jacopman]

a superb insight of what has happened and where we need to go..........

[WGS669]

33:50

[AndyMH182]

I can't get enough of this guy, all of his interviews are so illuminating.

[gta405421]

Christopher Whalen is correct! Centrally planned economies are inefficient and more importantly immoral because of forced taxation.

[umrmecheman]

@dfjpr how about this. a walmart floor worker in today's age can afford a flat screen tv, plenty of food to eat, air conditioning, etc. this is because our economy has become so productive that even low scale workers can afford "expensive" goods that only the super rich in other countries can afford.

that is how everyone can be rich. a "poor person" in america lives better than a middle class person in tons of dictatorial and socialist regimes in Africa, Middle East, South America, etc

[playon51]

@umrmecheman

Actually Walmart workers would probably have to take on debt or another job, or their partner would have to be working, (or both) to be able to afford these things. Walmart employess typically also have to depend on public social services to make ends meet.

[Cryptocowboi]

@umrmecheman When was your last shift at Walmart almighty omniscient one? You are full of it. Perhaps you watch too much Fox news. You should be ashamed disrespecting poor Americans who work their ass off for 8 bucks an hour. Flat screens? What other kind do they make now? Go home and re-think before you embarass yourself again.

[motelcalifornia]

What Chris says at 11:30 is something most people find out the hard way.

[blackdogleg]

that announcer is a corpse.

[TheRedCapitalist]

@blackdogleg

christopher whalen is about the most boring corpse ever.

[dikkydoo1]

@TheRedCapitalist thats it ? thats your contribution to this discussion ? 

[TheRedCapitalist]

@dikkydoo1

why, is it relevant to discuss anything deeper with cretins like you? and on a platform like youtube?

[dikkydoo1]

@TheRedCapitalist lol - i noticed that you just troll around youtube leaving abusive comments to people - what a disgusting, pathetic, little man you are.

[TheRedCapitalist]

@dikkydoo1

i leave abusive comments to ignorant assholes like you -- now, what exactly is the matter with that?

[blackdogleg]

@dikkydoo1 man ,,,,,,,change your handle. dikky doo? you can't be serious.

[dikkydoo1]

@blackdogleg re-read my handle but read it as 3 seperate words...dikky. doo. 1..... get it ?

[Th3Wab3]

you really can't have a free market system as long as their are nations... the very things that nations justify as necessary like armies policing institutions will fail to exist... nations in principle are mercantile... govt must tax something in order to exist..

[Hanksand]

@Th3Wab3 well you cant have a free market system with out a body upholding the law...

[Th3Wab3]

@Hanksand free market principles would affirm that private regional securities corps would be able to service the aforementioned need... however states will not suffice

this is only plausible in a rational educated world though and humanity is far from that ideal...

[TheRedCapitalist]

@Th3Wab3

the free market is a pipe dream just like the venus project. sounds nice in theory but will never be implementable in the real world.

the US has been for the past 50 years and even more so today is one of the most controlled markets in the world.

[Th3Wab3]

@TheRedCapitalist that's true

[TheBullionBull]

@TheRedCapitalist The free market is just a concept. The "it can never be implemented" argument doesn't fly, since the free market can be partially applied or mostly applied or totally applied - the more the merrier but it doesn't stop working just because you don't go to the extreme. The free market is just the absence of gov't coercion combined with enough gov't to enforce lawful contracts. The alternative is government control and that always ends in piles of bodies and dire poverty.

[TheRedCapitalist]

@TheBullionBull

no, it (may) end in piles of bodies but not necessarily dire poverty -- it just means wealth distribution is (highly) imbalanced, which is exactly the case in the US. the only thing wrong with that is that the US system has too much welfare to cater for the poor - take away all the welfare, make the poor leave the US and the imbalances will start correcting. this white man's idea of catering for the needy is hindering social darwinism and mankind's progression.

[TheBullionBull]

@TheRedCapitalist Obviously the US system has some major structural problems. It will not be politically possible to fix them until absolutely necessary because all of those poor people vote and no politician wants to be the one that takes their free money. Plus, US politicians are spoiled because they get all the money they want from the Federal Reserve and foreign creditors.

[TheRedCapitalist]

@TheBullionBull

no, politicians are just there as "middlemen" right now. they are basically subsidized agents of corporations, banks and military suppliers. as in any complex, layered distribution network, usually taking out the middleman is the restructuring solution. let the corporations and banks run the nation directly. any businessman taking control of the US will first get rid of the fat -- and that is the 150m+ unproductive consumerists who can't compete with labor elsewhere in the world

[TheBullionBull]

@TheRedCapitalist

And the "white man's idea of catering for the needy" is just Christianity perverted by the left and applied to government (Christianity requires helping the poor, but does NOT condone stealing from one person to help another like government welfare). Of course there is some Marxist thought that has infiltrated the US, but mostly our social programs go back to a faux-Christian morality on the left.

[dfjpr]

@TheRedCapitalist

"make the poor leave the US and the imbalances will start correcting"

- what on earth??

So you believe that the way to eliminate poverty is to eradicate poor ppl? I'm glad that China disagrees with you and actually managed to grow by focusing on building up its indutrial base, instead of letting industry decline and then just getting rid of poor ppl to balance the books.

So what do you want to do, send all the poor ppl of the world into refugee camps?

[dfjpr]

@TheRedCapitalist

surely the presence of poor people has some relation to the structure of the economy. If you believe everyone can be rich in a society - then it has to be asked - how? If everyone was a director, then who would operate the shop floor? If everyone was a banker, who wud be left to lend to? Deport WalMart staff and Walmart fails.

"can't compete with labor elsewhere"

this is because labour elsewhere earns poverty wages and lives in shanty towns eg dubai construction workers

[MrILoveYeshua]

@umrmecheman agree on that

[dfjpr]

@TheRedCapitalist

"white man's idea of catering for the needy"

How about if income distribution wasn't so shocking in the first place, then "catering for the needy" would be unnecessary. Free-markets create Pareto distribution no matter where you look. Poverty is a natural component of free markets - even if you expel all the poor, you will find that the economy rebalances so those low-wage jobs get filled again just the same. This is why a mixed economy makes sense to soften the hard edge.

[TheRedCapitalist]

@dfjpr

in the past, you had slaves.

in the future, you will have clones.

no need for a mixed economy or peasants any more.

[dfjpr]

@TheRedCapitalist

good idea. So long as the clones are not conscious entities, but essentially more or less like computers. Then this could be a wonderful idea.

I suspect unfortunately that the pareto distribution of commodities wud persist, since if a farmer no longer needs ur labour, then you no longer have anything to offer him in exchange for food.

[TheRedCapitalist]

@dfjpr

the clones would be programmed. crudely put, we would cut out parts of their brain a la hannibal lecter, that govern human cognizance. they are just there to provide happiness, comfort, warmth, sexual gratification etc. all the good stuff we want from the female species w/o the hassle and resource commitment.

as for farming, it will likely be obsolete by then since we could organically grow food.

[dfjpr]

@TheBullionBull

"The alternative is government control and that always ends in piles of bodies and dire poverty."

- You mean like free market Nigeria or Victorian UK?

I'm not sure that these things are so black and white dude.

[dfjpr]

To be clear, I'm not advocating gov command economy, I advocate mixed economy. Combining Free market to meet demand, with rising marginal taxation to mitigate pareto wealth distribution pattern, some public services, (police, fire, judicial, roads, hospitals, education), and some *limited* welfare to insure against personal catastrophe.

Helping one another works, if students in a class discuss the material/encourage each other in revision, all grades can benefit and morale rise. Its +ve sum.

[dfjpr]

@TheBullionBull ... eg. gov control of roads does not "end in piles of bodies and dire poverty."

Additionally, it avoids necessity to pay toll to step out ur house, and also overcomes lack of incentive to build a road/sewage systems connecting residential areas.

I believe certain gov functions make sense.

Even privatised college education wud be inefficient. Ppl wud depend on parents' to pay, so intelligence in poor background wud prevent meritocracy, selecting on parents wealth, not ability.

[dfjpr]

"wud prevent meritocracy" the reason I bring this up & advocate pooling resources for this type activity is fee-market income is not 100% efficient. If it were, then distribution wud correlate to effort in society. Which it does, but probably more like 70% correlation. eg Income consistently creates pareto distribution, and no matter how hard you work as a janitor, this doesn't develop manageral/director/entrepreneu­rial skills.

I suggest mixed economy has best mix of freedom and responsibility.

[CurtHowland]

Why would anyone give up pornography, of whatever style?

.

Pointless self flagellation. Must be a Catholic.

[megawavez]

Great stuff !

[MRSketch09]

I wish the questions that were asked by the people at the convention there at the end, would be listed in the comments section in order.

[pinegrove33]

Excellent speech. Thanks, I never heard of the guy until now.

[zxcvbnmjhgfdsa1]

Also what is the point of free trade if the prices are determained by the central bank, wheres the benefit. You either need Americans buying goods at 1st world prices from 1st world workers or 3rd world prices from 3rd world workers the "cheap" chinese goods haven't lowered prices like they have lowered wages.

[zxcvbnmjhgfdsa1]

I have a question outside bankrupt California what industries in the United States make money from around the world without government subsidy. Can US make income the honest way?

[strongbadXCP]

Awesome - thanks for posting.

[ThunderAppeal]

I think Americans addiction to 'cheap' and 'plentiful' goods from china will prevent America from entering that 'nationalist/protectionist' phase.

[davematherly]

@ThunderAppeal depends on how bad it gets.

My dad would rail on about buying American in the 70s, on and on, as a teen I would tell him its now a global economy and he needed to get used to it.

When we speak now I can help but repeat how correct he was.

He feels vindicated.

[ThunderAppeal]

@davematherly Your father is a smart man, if I may be so bold.

Not to be snotty, but my family is from eastern europe, I'm sort of 1st generation American. But even my grandfather favors American cars over imports, regardless of where they came from. He laments at how TV's, appliances, trinkets are mostly from china.

But I would say its pretty bad its just that Americans dont feel it yet because we have been cushioned by a loose fiscal policy. If the Fed actually valued the productivity of

[ThunderAppeal]

actually valued the productivity of Americans, there would be a much higher interest rate. For starters.

Thats all just my opinion based on my observations.

[ThunderAppeal]

His definition of 'random chance' in the context of American liberties is superb.

[rsobies]

there are flies on the screen all the time. it is annoying

[lilbromarky1]

Great video

[cooperbry]

This was good!

[cpgone]

It works past there. As usual the questions cant be heard.

Thanks for positng

[cpgone]

It freezes at 15.41 :(

[PandoraLeigh]

@cpgone not for me my friend!