 Yeah, and just to give some credibility to this idea that they drank their way through these countries You know, we attend many conferences together whether it's Montpalavan or API Which is the Association of Private Enterprise Educators, which is a free market academic conference You know Ben and Bob are always among the last to leave the bar and you know, I don't drink much and these guys just It's amazing their capacity to drink so and and the book documents that geographically So you literally, you know traveled around the world and went to these Socialists and not so socialist countries and and and went to bars and experienced kind of day-to-day The way life is in these countries not you know I I noticed that when you went to Cuba that you didn't go to the touristy That's right. You know a high-end kind of resort hotels. You went to to Cuban real Cuban hotels Yeah, yeah, we didn't want to well we weren't sandbagging it We weren't like living in in the streets, but but there's no point in going to Cuba And and and going and staying in the Hotel Nacional I mean the Hotel Nacional was a five-star international hotel that diplomats stay in and And I'm sure we didn't even bother to go over I'm sure it's glorious all everyone says it's nice. We stayed our first night in Havana. We stayed at the Hotel Caribbean which is described as a three-star hotel and Well, let's just say Cuban three stars are different than your than American three stars We did have three of the four elevators didn't work. It was mold all over the shower We had water one of the two days. We were there. That was nice It was it was literally one of the worst places they've ever stayed in it's a government-run hotel and and you know This is no surprise to you or most of your your viewers or listeners You know, if you try to operate a hotel that shabbily in the United States, you'd be out of business in a week No one would stay there, but you know that that's a government-run hotel They're not going out of business if they don't if they don't make ends meet the government will cover any losses And it's a powerful disincentive to do a good job So I mean it was actually a better hotel than the other government hotel, which was Another night there. They were kind enough to give us soap. Although it was the soap left over from the previous guests. So So it's So let's let's define the terms because you do this in the book and and so many I do debates all the time capitalism socialism debates with socialists and the one thing they never do Is define what they're talking about because they want to they want to hide what the real meaning of it plus They want to take credit for Sweden, which we'll get to in a minute. So what when you talk about socialism What is it you're talking about? Yeah, so we actually use Sweden as our our exemplar there and the title of that chapter It's the first chapter is not socialism and One of the one of the tells in fact we used beer became kind of a running man It's not just that Ben and I like beer beer became kind of a running metaphor through the book For for the entire economy and the first tell that Sweden is not socialist is that the beer is good There's a picture of us in drinking at Duval cafe drinking Belgian Duval beer And it was good and cold now it was very very expensive And that's a tell that you're not in a free market country because that beer shouldn't be that expensive But it but it's that that bar we were drinking in with a private bar There are no central planners deciding what Swedish companies produce and how they produce them They're not allocating labor and capital and raw materials to businesses There's no central plan Volvo is a private firm. They sell their cars all over the world at you know market prices So Sweden is not a socialist country the way we define it we define it as As collective and that de facto means state Control of the means of production that the state is going to make the decisions about what gets produced How those things get produced and and ultimately even for whom How we will consume them and that's not the way the Swedish economy works. It's a market economy Now they nail you on tax days, you know Yep, their taxes are 50 at least higher than the united states and that's why that beer was so expensive But that was good privately made capitalist beer That was very highly taxed and we want to distinguish sort of high tax welfare states From socialism and I and a lot of people do confuse those things today On both the left and the right friends of ours on on what we sometimes call the right. I hate that term, but there is But you know friends of ours will sometimes call sweet and socialist and that's not accurate And then you have bernie sanders on the left today calling them socialist too and Some people are just misinformed and maybe we can talk about how some of the young people today are misinformed about what socialism is but But some people are also lying. I mean bernie sanders. I think is a liar liar I mean, he knows what socialism is. He went to the soviet union for his honeymoon Also, who does that? But anyway, um, my wife would have murdered me. Hey, honey, we're going to the soviet union for our honeymoon It takes real dedication He got a hard comrade to do that But I mean, so bernie knows what socialism is. He went there. He saw it up close and personal and he liked it So for him today to say well, what I really mean is denmarker sweden is is more than just in general but Leaving him aside most young people today when they say they want to be socialists like sweden It's not that they're lying cheats like bernie. They're just they just they just think that that socialism means High taxes and some more government spending and we wanted to distinguish that in the book And so we're talking about real socialism the kind of socialism that was practiced in the soviet union Malus china that is currently practiced in north korea Cuba and Venezuela That's what we're talking about You don't go for altruism and charity and do good and liberal and No And conservative you might as well edit all you don't like the conservatives either. No Well, that's so there's conservatives I want to help people I want to do good for other people. What's so bad about that? Nothing If you do it by your own choice, and if it's not your primary aim in life And if you don't regard it as a moral virtue on those conditions, it's fine to help people if you want to Why isn't why can't I think of it as a moral virtue? I mean, can I take some bows for myself for doing all these good things? Because that would be cannibalism because that would mean that you preach altruism which means not merely kindness But self-sacrifice it means that you place the welfare of others above your own That you live for others for the sake of helping them and that justifies your life That's immoral according to my morality Uh I don't understand why you have to be so harsh in your death in your evaluation of those people Why why call it immoral? Why don't you just say? Why why don't you say it's a waste of time? Why why pass judgment on me? Because look at the state of the world today. Yeah, and You cannot be harsh enough on those who created it and those who created it are the philosophers of altruism It's those who preach self-sacrifice selflessness self-abnegation All the anti self Theories which means anti man all those who demand men's sacrifice They have succeeded and look at the results in the world That's a that's a theory or a way of life or a philosophic idea, which is which is advanced by religions That we should sacrifice for others. That's right. All right. I want to make sure I understand you miss ran Why is it so? I still not quite sure why you're so harsh on those who would sacrifice for other people Because I look at them Just look at them Because they are They don't hesitate to sacrifice whole nations Look at russia Communism is based on altruism. Look at nazi germany the nazis were more explicit than even the russians in preaching self-sacrifice and altruism and self-sacrifice for the state For the folk the people Every dictatorship is based on altruism Now you can't Fight it by mirroring saying it's a difference of opinion. It's a difference of life and death Your so your view is then with if we all Became more comfortable which with our natural Tendencies that is to say selfishness There would be less horror less war less hitler. There wouldn't be any So with the more selfish we are the more kind the the the more tranquil and peaceful the world in which we live and more benevolent toward other people If we're rationally selfish by that I mean a selfishness Which can justify once every action rationally Not the kind of win worship as I call it which consists of just indulging your own desires And but urges of the moment and there is no innate Natural idea, you know, there isn't no well. I have an innate I have a lot of innate tendencies You think they're innate. You know what I would say Check your premises Check my premises. Yeah check the basic ideas behind Any feelings that you might feel at the moment and you'll see that your feeling comes from your premises Good or bad, but they'll help subconsciously They will direct your feelings and you will think it's an innate but it isn't how do you think the super chat and I noticed Yesterday when I appealed for support for the show, many of you step forward and actually Supported the show for the first time. So I'll do it again. Maybe we'll get some more today Um, if you like what you're hearing if you appreciate what I'm doing Then I appreciate your support Those of you who don't yet support the show, please take this opportunity. Go to uranbrookshow.com Slash support or go to subscribe star dot com uranbrookshow And and and make a kind of a monthly contribution to keep this to keep this going. I'm not showing the next