The Story of Broke Response

Prof. Art Carden responds to "The Story of Broke" (http://bit.ly/LLStoryOfBroke), a recent video by the creators of "The Story of Stuff." In "The Story of Broke," Annie Leonard claims that the government isn't actually broke. Rather, the government just wastes resources on the wrong things like subsidies to the dinosaur economy and war. She claims that the government should change its ways, and instead, subsidize firms that will bring us the future we really want.

Art Carden agrees with Leonard that war and subsidies are wasteful, but is skeptical of notion that there is one unified vision for the future. To Carden, everyone has a different vision for the future. Our path to the future, he argues, is determined by the interactions of billions of unique individuals pursuing their own objectives.

Additionally, Carden questions Leonard's distinction between bad subsidies and good subsidies. Every subsidy, deemed good or bad, must be allocated through the political process. Lobbyists and special interests exert a large degree of influence on political decisions, and they use this power to direct subsidies in their own favor at everyone else's expense.

Carden concludes that government spending won't buy a brighter future. A brighter future will emerge when people are allowed to spend money on things they care about. Put another way, positive change will come from billions of people cooperating freely and voluntarily with one another, not from pushing trillions of dollars through a broken political process.

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[xxcrysad3000xx]

Requiring zero work? I guess noone has to manufacture those productivity-saving mechanical innovations, nobody has to maintain them, water doesn't have to find its way to its sources, food products don't have to be shipped across the globe, it doesn't take farmers to oversee the operation, nobody had to design and engineer the machinery, and if someone did they don't expect to be compensated... nope, comes out of thin air by robots, okay, and this surely applies to all sectors of the economy.

[zaidster111]

Well many people are disadvantaged in that regards. Imagine if you were born to an alcoholic who abuses his family and hits you frequently. You live in a violent environment and in school you are bullied because of that. You do not get proper home nor school education, and you grow with likeminded aggressive friends and end up doing drugs.

Compare this child with a child whos parents have cared for, properly educated him, and got him into college.

Who's getting a job?

[Antigonus Monophtalmos]

There are plenty of exceptions to the rule. Sometimes people born in the mire rise above those who are born on pedestals. Why?

Because they work to improve their lives while the bored upper class children play video games and get high.

Respect is never earned from the aprioric environment, it is earned from the empirical achievements of that individual.

[Alexander Gosselin]

How is power distributed in government decision-making? Certainly even less fairly than in market decisions.

[Rafael Serrano]

Free market is not perfect, there are mistakes and Government is the one that has to correct them. Free market is not a solution at all because not everyone comes from the same position in social pyramid. If government assured the same REAL opportunities for everyone free markets would work more correctly but even in that case, interventions by the government should be done.

[Charles Hammond Jr]

To further explain what I mean... /watch?&v=gSgUENZ9O94

[Charles Hammond Jr]

Never underestimate the difficulty of correcting lies and ignorance with truth.

You're more likely to have a lot less liberal friends after the attempt than you are of convincing them of this truth.

That said... your intentions are noble... applaudable in fact. Just don't be too surprised when the effort falls flat on it's face.

[Charles Hammond Jr]

Yep. Take the government's powers of choosing winners and losers away and we will have an accurate and fair (and free) market again.

[Wookierabbit]

Let me get this straight, the point is to eliminate subsidies all together? 100% of it?

[bagelzzzzzallday]

I love these videos. Maybe if I show these lectures to my dumb liberal friends they will get a clue.

[UnluckyGambler]

u would agree with me had u kept up with the current state of technology.

[capitalism420]

MORRRR!!!!! ONNNNN!!!!! :)