Power of the Market - Unfair Competiton

[mba2ceo]

@diilijethro ... only a FOOL thinks all men are created equal. The GOVT should equal the playing field NO MAN should be born to serve another.

[mba2ceo]

Unfair Competition = INHERITANCE

[mites7]

@mba2ceo because the money that you earn and leave for your children should be taken away from you as well, correct?

[chokkan7]

I realize that these remarks by Dr. Friedman were made prior to our current economic woes, but if they are based on sound economic theory, then why do they miss the mark so? Chinese industry is certainly government sponsored and subsidized, and it has largely supplanted the US version. The same could have been said of the Japanese before them. Argentina has vast economic potential, yet the WTO has them in limbo until they acquiesce - how does this represent fair competition?

[nagasnharpes]

Corporatism is created by Gov't so in the end gov't ends up fucking up most things, The Government is useful for protecting us against one another, and foreign threats, and that's about it

[2dum2getsocialism]

@nagasnharpes haha

new cliff notes version of the us constitution preamble:

"The Government is useful for protecting us against one another, and foreign threats, and that's about it."

[CMLovejoy]

15% unemployment

1 in 5 Americans live in poverty

National debt is bankrupting the country

Half the world hates the US because of their foreign policy

1 in 25 Americans live without health care

All as a result of these same principles that he discuses.

Capitalism is NOT the answer. Socialism is NOT the answer. I don't know what the answer is, but whatever it is it has to work for EVERYONE.

[fwanksajerk]

@CMLovejoy

Hold on, hold on. Do you know about other Capitalist schools of thought?

The foreign policy is a joke. However, none of these are a "result" of say, Capitalism, but a tandem of things.

Health care was never privatized or "free market". Poverty thanks to economic barriers; tariffs, minimum wage, etc. (and unemployment). It's a clusterfuck of events, such as the merging of business and government (entry barriers, legalized monopoly status), inflation ("Quantitive Easing" lol), etc.

[CMLovejoy]

@fwanksajerk our current economic system is the product of most of Friedman's theories. Most of them are now failing. The only reason why we've been able to live the standard of living, is because we've exploited other poor countries.

If company's didn't merge with the government then they wouldn't grow to be as large as they are and dominate the world. Our society only exists today because we dominate the world.

[fwanksajerk]

@CMLovejoy

"our current economic system is the product of most of Friedman's theories."

LOL ever heard of an economist named "John Maynard Keynes"?

[WSWarthog]

@CMLovejoy

What's wrong with socialism?

[CMLovejoy]

@WSWarthog It's simple Socialism doesn't work because you can't build wealth.

[WSWarthog]

@CMLovejoy

Then how did the Soviets become a superpower?

[CMLovejoy]

@WSWarthog Soviets weren't socialist. The soviets were communist, when most of their wealth was owned by their government. Notice it didn't last very long. The US isn't a capitalist country, its corporatist. That's why it is failing now. Capitalism revolves around small business.

[CMLovejoy]

@WSWarthog Soviets weren't socialist. The soviets were communist, when most of their wealth was owned by their government. Notice it didn't last very long. The US isn't a capitalist country, its corporatist. That's why it is failing now. Capitalism revolves around small business.

[WSWarthog]

@CMLovejoy

That's a fair position and you're not the first person to tell me this, but I don't agree with those who say that the USSR was communist and not socialist. Every time they referenced "communism" in party speeches for instance it was in the context of trying to achieve some future goal of classlessness. The Russians never made any claim to actually having achieved that.

[CMLovejoy]

@WSWarthog The main difference between socialism and communism is that the government controls productivity. Communism fails because it enslaves its own people.  In both systems the government owns all of wealth and that's why it fails. Capitalism works because the people own the wealth and the people control productivity. The reason why we are failing now is because the wealth is controlled, and owned by corporations. Thats corporatism.

[CMLovejoy]

His theory's aren't working now are they?

[uninterestingentity]

@CMLovejoy Not a single nation in the world has any active economic policy anything to do with Friedman.

The financial crisis of today was largely caused by government meddling with the market.

[CMLovejoy]

@uninterestingentity Can you be more specific and name policy that was implemented by the government and then made it fail? Thanks.

[uninterestingentity]

@CMLovejoy It's not a single policy, rather then years of incompetence.

The continuing bailouts to banks and other large corporations have established the government as an emergency fund for when a corporation or individual within that corporation takes a gigantic risk.

The bailouts of the 90's procured short term wealth, growth and prosperity, but made sure that similar events were to occur in the future again.

Consistent government failings are a large part of the current crisis.

[fwanksajerk]

@CMLovejoy

FDIC (which guarantees bailout for banks that fail), also, the amount given to a failed bank was "upped" in the 80's under Reagan administration, further providing incentive for the banks to fail.

Community Reinvestment Act, which involved banks loan to people that could well not afford what they were getting in to.

[CMLovejoy]

@fwanksajerk T.A.R.P. Funds are mostly all paid back, and most of those company's are profitable now. So the question is why are we still such high debt?

[fwanksajerk]

@CMLovejoy

Because the government keeps spending. I hate to over-simplify it but it literally works out that way. War is a massive expenditure, we're still spending an unbelievable amount on funding the wars.

[CMLovejoy]

@fwanksajerk Yea but the truth is that every dollar invested into yields 3 dollars in GDP. That's why countries love to build up their military's.

[jayjasonbird]

No that is a lie because if a country is protecting its companies then it is also protecting its workers. Free trade equals slave labor because companies will move jobs from one country to another always searching for low cost labor. Then when they take all the jobs away from country and give them to another they will create large unemployment and lower the standard of living. Who will they sell their new cheap products to if there is are no jobs? Freetrade+slavery=Depressions

[studentofsmith]

@jayjasonbird Friedman addresses your concerns in this clip: watch?v=j0pl_FXt0eM

[maurpine]

what i understand for unfair competition is when a monopoly corners the market for certain good/s and thus there's not a chance for a mom-n-pop shop to prosper. The price for the good/s would be controlled by the monopoly since they usually controls the production line to make the good/s.

[th3gr8juan]

@maurpine So if the mom-n-pops can't compete on price, they need to find something else to compete on. I am in sales, and if my price is higher, I need to stress better equipment, better customer service, or uniqueness of my product. Also, the consumers win. They buy things at a cheaper price which means they have more money in their pocket. Maybe they spend some of that at a specialty mom-n-pop that they wouldn't have been able to do so before the big box store came along.

[MinGophers]

song at the end??

[cooperbry]

I'm thinking GM.

[AroundSun]

i like this beginning song

[itscalledfootball]

Great job uploading the whole series! Thanks bro.

[ICONICFREEDOM]

When anyone decries "unfair" ANYTHING, listener beware - for the man seeks favor and protectionism

[Nintendomanwill]

And law should prevent actual unfair competition, the idea of capitalism is that if competition is won through greater might in undistorted survival of the fittest, then it is fair. Truly unfair competition is something that distorts the survival of the fittest, fair competition, and must be redressed.

[FletchforFreedom]

What IS "unfair competition"? If another country chooses to subsidize the purchasing power of US consumers, we all benefit (and MORE jobs are created) until ultimately either the economic consequences of such a policy or that country's taxpayers bring it to a halt (see Japan's deficits now far larger than their whole economy) allowing competition back in (while we keep the interim benefits).

Monopolies cannot ordinarily be maintained in a free market and predatory pricing is a myth.

[CmdrTobs]

@Nintendomanwill exactly, its amazing how many people don't get that.

[Nintendomanwill]

Friedman was a genius but he's missed the point about competition. Allowing the market to cause the strongest to survive, market meritocracy, is fair compeition, "unfair" competition is where that meritocracy is distorted to monopolies can stop better or more efficient companies doing well. That may keep prices low because the big companies win-but monopolies prevent price competition and innovation, so unfair compeition is bad fro the consumer.

[heymrnickerbocker]

"the government protected industries come out second best" LMAO

In China all the industries are government protected. And we owe them how much? Just begging them please help us our free market has fucked us!!

[fzqlcs]

Hardly a failure of the free market. We owe China because the idiots in Washington spent $10 trillion more than they had. Voluntary exchange was not the problem.

[BOZ11]

@fzqlcs Capitalism depends on a feeder class and a subjugated class beneath it. Capitalism is economic cannibalism.

[mpc91]

@BOZ11 - Capitalism is based on voluntary exchange of goods and services. It is not about class, though the fact that you think so gives a great deal of evidence as to your slant. I am not subjugated by my employer, nor am I subjugated by any business. Only the gov't is doing that. The rest of my associations are voluntary.

You cannot describe capitalism in the language of socialism. To do so makes you incapable of understanding the system.

It is not a zero sum game.

[BOZ11]

@mpc91 How voluntary is wage slavery? How voluntary is the option to be employed by capitalist businesses that all effectively prioritise the profit margin above all else? There is no real option and therefore voluntarism is moot where your choices are between a rock and a hard place. You are subjugated in one sense. The discrepancy between the value of your work and your pay is called profit. You're short changed. Inflation is also stealing from us all.

[mpc91]

@BOZ11 - Your assumptions completely blur your ability to see the motive of the employer to do right by the employee. The business needs the best employees in order to be successful, and will pay for quality employees at their value. It's not slavery. It's absolutely voluntary. Businesses must profit to survive. That's not a bad thing. If they mistreat their employees or customers, they will not profit, and will fail.

Gov't creates inflation, and gov't does steal from us all.

[Offatwork]

NickerBocker is pretty quick to say, "China is awesome!" When in fact, they have a severely lower living standard than we do in the states. At it's core, this is because of government involvement within their economic system. Thank God Freidman was there to put at least SOME level of free market within their system. It is a well known fact that the reason why we don't see products going to china from the states is because they think they can't compete with our prices; tarrifs are in place.

[Questfortruth86]

China has 24%-27% unemployment, and its people have not been able to accumulate the wealth that the businesses have generated. China produces for Americans, and the Chinese people simply wont stand up for their rights. If the Chinese market was completely liberalized, it would grow at around 20-25%, with much lower unemployment.

[CaesarTheSalad]

According to the CIA Factbook, you are wrong. Their unemployment was 4% as of December last year. If you factor in rural workers, their unemployment would be 9% which is still lower than the USA. Once the US defaults on its debt and China decouples from the Dollar, you will see the value of the RMB rise up to where it should be. It is being kept artificially low to increase exports.

[Questfortruth86]

You can't trust the #'s coming from the CCP, or any other organization attempting to measure unemployment figures. Besides the fact that the CCP purposely manipulates numbers, their population is over one billion. Furthermore, there are millions upon millions of farmers in both China and India who simply don't work, and cannot work.

[psugeog11]

0:44-1:00 is the perfect answer to anyone who complains about 'dumping' or foreign subsidies.

[BelieveIt1051]

Yeah but that only works if the taxpayers have the freedom to complain. The Chinese don't have that freedom, therefore the situation stays the same. They continue dumping and American companies can't compete because they can't pay their people less than a living wage, which is higher in America.

Friedman is wrong about one thing though; 0:35 Lower prices are a result, but not always better quality. What if the products we get are tainted with lead paint? America needs tarrifs on China.

[psugeog11]

How does a tarrif prevent lead from being in paint?

First of all, that's a big assumption that Chinese goods are inherently lower quality. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. In the long run, information will get out and people will wise up to it.

And with the subsidies issue: what happens to the dollars that the American consumer saves by being able to purchase cheaper goods? They won't hoard the dollars, they'll either spend or invest. Thus GDP grows.

[BelieveIt1051]

That wasn't the answer to lead paint. Tarrifs are the answer to dumping.

They are of lesser quality, but there's almost nowhere else to go for the workers. We have Japan for some things, Tiwan, South Korea, and maybe Bangaladesh for others. We'll keep buying crap because it would cost too much to buy quality goods made by well paid Americans.

And so what if the consumer can save or invest more? Buy American and the money goes to Americans. Sell American and money comes to America.

[lakedawg]

If people don't want items with lead paint, don't buy them, and then they will stop making them. That doesn't seem too difficult.

The main reason the "living wage" is higher in America is because of government intervention. i.e. minimum wage laws, "affordable housing", green space laws, permits, licenses, taxes, welfare, social security, Endangered species laws, and on and on.

[BelieveIt1051]

Yeah, except we don't know what has lead paint or other chemicals until people have been poisoned by them.

No question that the cost of living is higher because of the government. That's why we need conservatives in the government who will work for the people. But my point is that our products and goods have tarriffs placed on them by other countries. Therefore we should place tarriffs on theirs. If they want free trade on the other hand, then let's give them free trade.

[Aanthanur]

lakedawg

yeah its so good Companys label their products with the "Attention leadpaint" label......

[twanablevins]

Great watch!!! Thanks for making and posting this video!