George Lakoff - Does Capitalism Always Lead to Democracy?

Complete program at: http://fora.tv/fora/showthread.php?t=258

Liberal author and academic George Lakoff discusses a neoconservative concept he calls "Free Market Freedom," and describes its application to the current War in Iraq.

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George Lakoff talks about "Whose Freedom: How the Right is Stealing Our Most Precious Idea and What We Can Do About It." An advisor to the Democratic party, Lakoff states that the conservative revolution has remade freedom in its own image and deployed it as a central weapon on the front lines of everything from the war on terror to the battles over religion in the classroom and abortion.

Lakoff is Professor of Linguistics at U.C. Berkeley.

Category:

News & Politics

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• Berkeley
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• Iraq
• war
• Free
• Market
• Freedom
• neocon
• liberal
• lecture
• democracy
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• fora
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• fora.tv
• foratv

[successfulbuild]

"'free market' doesn't exist. There is no such thing. All markets are constructed. Think of the stock exchange. It has rules. The WTO [World Trade Organization] has 900 pages of regulations. The bond market has all kinds of regulations and commissions to make sure those regulations carried out. Every market has rules. " --George Lakoff

[sagitarian000028]

I love it when people say corporations are a great thing to democracy and they say corporations are privately owned and should and should not be owned by the government.To me corporations are like tumor growths to national democracy they spread and take controle of a system and establish their own rule. killing the concept of the country and they themselves become kings. If we are concerned about big government beconcerned about the ones that are not democratically elected

[510AWOL]

is he not just talking about Locke's idea's on private property

[sgtmcwallace]

great distillation of the issue and debate, especially the reference to freedom form want and fear

[sgtmcwallace]

great distillation of the issue and debate, especially the reference to freedom form want and fear

[Scientisticsoviet]

@TheOldGrady "I had no Idea that I was corresponding with a deity." Where do I say I am a deity? I don't even believe in the supernatural.

"You seem to have rated yourself, and you’ve been extremely generous in the area of high regard."

What rating? Is there a way to rate oneself on youtube? What?

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In any event, stop with this red herring, bordering on ad-hominem. Or... Do you know what those terms mean?

[TheOldGrady]

@Scientisticsoviet OK. This is in response to your “What are you talking about?” question: I took a stab at levity, you responded with glaring arrogant condescension. Then I read your profile. Wow. I had no Idea that I was corresponding with a deity. You seem to have rated yourself, and you’ve been extremely generous in the area of high regard. Seems like you just committed "missed the obvious point". Please make a better attempt at understanding my comments. Have a fine day!

[Scientisticsoviet]

@TheOldGrady What? Overrated? Who has rated me? What are you talking about?

Seems like you just committed red herring. Please actually respond to my comments.

[TheOldGrady]

@Scientisticsoviet ...duh. I'll bet you wonder about a lot of things.

Now go get over yourself, you're highly overrated.

[Scientisticsoviet]

@TheOldGrady Or at all; Examples include the previously mentioned capital intensity, but could also refer to things like high economies of scale, natural monopoly, government regulations, etc.

[Scientisticsoviet]

@TheOldGrady The way you responded makes me wonder whether you understand what is meant by the terms "capital intensive industry" and "barriers to entry" (both are economics jargon).

For your education: A capital intensive industry refers to industry which requires large initial investment sums in order to begin operation (eg. Mining, Power Production, Oil Refining, etc.) A barrier to entry refers to conditions which reduces the probability of firms from entering the market succesfully,

[TheOldGrady]

@Scientisticsoviet Yet those street vendors are still there in abundance -- exactly where so many of those capital intensive industries started. The whole thing gets perverted when the government gets involved or decides that one is "too big to fail" or something. Barriers to entry? "Argue for your limitations and you shall have them". -Richard Bach-

Cheers!