 This is a day tomorrow. You can start tonight though to really appreciate The life that you have to appreciate the standard of living we all have and to appreciate where all comes from and we know it Doesn't come from any From the from the state doesn't come from any mystical being it doesn't come from it comes from the human mind It comes from reason and it comes from great great producers So today we're gonna talk about production today show is sponsored By Adam Campbell. I think Adam is here. Yes, he is Adam Campbell's here. So Adam sponsored today's show you too can sponsor show I've got a bunch of questions and and in good topics that we're gonna cover That that Adam has sent me that he'd like he'd like to hear my point of view on so but it's it's a it's a great topic I've talked about someone in the past but But this time in the context of today's giving and in the context of just just the context of Adam's questions and the context of Just what a fabulous world we live in and what a rich world we live in This should be fun. So I'm really looking forward to talking about this something important to important to everybody's life all of our lives and After all productiveness is one of the seven virtues of objectivism. It is a key Essential element we'll talk about that in self-esteem. It's a requirement. I think for having a Real self-esteem a self a You know the kind of sense of life and self-esteem that one needs in order to achieve happiness So productiveness is not optional being productive is not optional. It's something that is necessary in human life so Let's first talk about The need to produce the need to produce and The need is is is very fundamental and very in a sense primordial primitive basic And that is the fact that as we've talked about many times on the Iran book show Nature just doesn't provide us with the means by which we survive We don't get mana from heaven. We cannot survive on berries and nuts We actually have to act we actually have to think we actually have to create the values that are necessary for us to survive at the very very Most basic level Never mind the more advanced levels of the modern world So we have to produce hunting. We have to produce agriculture. We have to produce clothing animals don't wear clothes they Can only live in an environment whose climate is Appropriate to the skin that they have the fur that they have They go out of that climate. They can't survive This way climate change is really really bad for some animals Not so bad for human beings. We can wear clothes. We can take them off. We can load up layers We've got lots of options because we create our own foe, but we create it which requires production it requires changing Nature taking elements from nature and restructuring them reconfiguring them To fit human needs and that's what production is fundamentally It's changing the world around us taking the elements that exist in the world around us in nature and reshaping them we restructuring them to fit our Basic needs as human beings That's what production is and production is Necessary for human life again because we are not born with the tools. We're not born with the knowledge. We're not born With everything we need in order to survive we're born with a mind We're born with the capacity to think to reason and therefore the capacity to produce But not with production itself So to produce requires effort requires will requires Reason requires thinking and how and what and it requires effort it requires engagement it requires a Focus and and and and and being motivated to do it now At an individual level At the most again at the most basic survival level We as individuals produce the things that we need in order to survive for ourselves But that is very limited There's very limited things that you can produce on a desert island or by yourself It's just so time-consuming. It's time-consuming to build a hut. It's time-consuming to fish It's time-consuming to do agriculture. It's time-consuming to hunt There's not enough time to invent electronics and build a microchip and and and build yourself a computer. You just can't do it But very early on human beings figured out that What they can do is specialize Very early on even in tribal societies There was the beginnings of primitive and basic specialization Some people were physically strong and fast and and and they would go out maybe to hunt Maybe somebody else was very good with their hands and had great ideas on how to build weapons and somebody else Maybe strategized about the hunt and somebody else ultimately specialized in agriculture and and and women were very good at Taking the the the skins of the animals that the hunters brought back and turning them into clothes and maybe You know using the meat that they brought back To cook or to produce food, but and then basically there was a trade going on. I Hunt you weapons. I give you food. You give me the weapon There was concentrate and as we become more and more and more specialized human survival and human production is Fundamentally guided by trade By our ability to trade. We no longer produce our own food on clothes own things not even in small groups But today the clothes that you wear is made probably in Vietnam or in Bangladesh The computer is made in a million different places. It's maybe assembled in China The iPhone is assembled in China But has bits and pieces that are produced in I think 50 60 different countries So the essential characteristic of production today is that we must produce in order to trade and Therefore the values we produce the values our companies produce Must be tradable values. There must be values that are appropriate for trade and what makes something appropriate for trade that somebody else Wants it That it is a value to others That is a value to other people that is Production today is about producing not just anything you wish not whim not Whatever you feel like Not work for the sake of work But not even anymore Producing the things that you actually are going to use in that in that sense your values No, you are gonna trade for your values and you are going to produce values for the people Which links us all and creates I mean, it's a it's a truly truly truly Beautiful thing production is production and trade because It creates a harmony among human beings. It creates this beautiful you know Symbiotic not symbiotic is the wrong word this beautiful relationship among human beings where we are basically Producing for one another now, it's ultimately for ourselves But the way in which I take care of ourselves of the way which I accumulate wealth Is by producing for you It's by figuring out what I think you know Steve Jobs figuring out what he thinks My values are what he thinks I would value will value What I am willing to pay for and he produces it for me now as I say in my talks, it's ultimately for him But if I don't value it if he's wrong about the value the iPhone represents for me He doesn't get any benefits from it indeed. It's a net loss net loss So production means production of something of value To someone whether it's yourself other people There is no production for the sake of production I mean, this is the the mythology or the the the fallacy of so much of Keynesian economics You know all we need is to have people you know to reduce unemployment we can hire them to Dig holes and fill them back in Dig holes and fill them back in will pay them we'll put the money to pay them But that's not production It's not trade doesn't add anything the people who fill the hole dig the holes and fill the holes back in Just moochers. They're just looters that you know, where does the money come from? How do they get paid because? Only by taking from those who actually do produce only by those who actually do create build make one has to produce something that is of value to oneself or to somebody else and If we're talking about mass production Then it has to be to other people because you can consume more than X amount of any product and indeed when we go to work as You know when we go to work and work right? Then we are producing a value to the for the company that we're working for who is producing values to their customers and The customers are providing the business with a value money Which we get a portion of as employees which then gives us the financial ability to go out and Purchase the things that we value and again, this is why there's such a harmony of interest This is why it's such a beautiful integration all of our interests that integrated all of our interests in a sense are consistent There's no clash. There's no war. There's no conflict So production whether it's producing a good by reshaping the environment or producing a service Which is providing somebody with a value That might not be purely material in all of those cases Our interest are harmonized I'm doing it to make a living. I'm doing it. Hopefully because I enjoyed I love doing what I'm doing and You're getting something in return. Otherwise, you wouldn't pay the money. Otherwise, you wouldn't accept what it is that I'm doing so You know again Production and trade. I mean one of the great evils in the world is this notion of Exploitation this notion of quote consumerism this notion of a world of exploited and exploited exploited and exploiters of of people just you know women worshipping and and And that the great CEOs are meaningless the great the great producers are meaningless the great Entrepreneurs are meaningless. They just you know, they're just Paper shufflers they produce nothing they create nothing they build nothing When our whole life depends on what they are building what they are creating what they are making and that we trade off of it This idea that we should envy other people that we should resent other people's success when their success can only be achieved by making our lives better so Production Whether it's a product or service is Is for trade and therefore inherently harmonizing so Kind of that's what it is. It's it's a reshaping of our world around us Creation of something new a creation of a value that is valuable to somebody there's no such thing This is an important objective as point There's no such thing as a value divorced from the question of for whom and for what Inland talks about this for whom is the value a Value might be for me for you. You might have different values and for what? There has to be purpose Purpose remembers a cardinal value in Iron Man's ethics. What is the purpose? What do I need the value for what is it there to achieve? So produce something something there always has to be if a room and For what? What is the purpose? so That is what production is and We as individuals in a sense must be productive and We must be productive because I think nature has wired us and we are wired in particular ways Why add us to a word? Survival seems kind of obvious and production is necessary survival So even though today in the world in which we live today there are many people who live off of the state who Much off of the state or who kids who? Never go to work and stay with their parents until late adulthood playing video games in the basement Even though technically you can survive without producing You're missing something you're missing something fundamental to what it means to be human because to be human means To take care of yourself at some level to to contribute something To the trades that are going on to contribute something to your own survival And therefore people who sit in their basement playing video games people who do not work people who live off of welfare Can never attain? proper self-esteem They can never attain the proper sense of themselves what they never attain if you will is the confidence the knowledge That they can take care of themselves That they are suited for this world That they are one With both their biological nature and the environment in which they live They grow up completely dependent on other people Whether it's other people vis-a-vis the people who pay their welfare checks other people vis-a-vis their parents who pay for them to sit in the basement So they grow up inherently almost second-handers Not dependent on their own mind not dependent on their own reason not dependent on their own effort not dependent on their own work But depending on others for everything and we're just I Mean they might be a being somewhere in the universe where that is okay with it's not with us because We know We don't fit in the world We know we couldn't survive We know we're not living consistently with our nature and That is destructive to our happiness to our self-esteem to our self-confidence To our ability to our sense of life to just our sense of I'm okay in this world. This is a world for me. I can take care of myself in this world. So it's It is Working is not I mean a producing But at whatever it is that you do however it is I've a much you Whatever activity you choose to be productive it could be art It could be taking care of kids. It could be taking care of a household. It could be Going out there into the world and starting a company It could be any one of those things could be just going to a job that you love and are excited about Any one of those things are going to enhance your confidence. Yes I can participate and while I'm not producing the things that I wear I'm not producing the things that I surround myself with My production makes all these things possible so Production in that sense. So even though you're producing values for other people you're working for other people You're producing goods that other people will buy. You're not doing it as a sacrifice You're doing it as a trade. You're doing it within the context of a win-win relationship And again, this is why altruism breeds resentment Sacrifice breeds resentment Sitting in the basement of your parents playing video games breeds resentment being unwell fair breeds resentment Working producing creating and then trading Breeds love respect harmony self-esteem now So we live in an advanced society in which production is all geared around Around trade You know, it is true that about 300 years ago. It was still true about 300 years ago that a vast majority of human beings Grew their own food Often produced their own tools Often produced their own weapons Although there was some trade and and certainly in the Western world. There was already quite a bit of trade But it is it is Shocking how many people still think that Self-sufficiency is somehow noble That growing your own stuff is somehow noble and good that Countries building walls around themselves and are trading with anybody else is somehow a virtue is somehow good because You know the insularity of the tribe When what you're giving up is the ability to produce and to trade with eight billion people Openness globalization global trade Is one of the most beautiful things in all of human history and The results of a staggering in terms of the benefits to mankind that compared to living on a subsistive farm Where you're never gonna be rich you're stuck your dirt poor and again It's such a tragedy that we're living right now in a in a time where Globalization is found upon trade is found upon a buy local buy From your you know grow your own food whatever that is noble in some way it's also a tragedy of course that in this release the Enfimeles movement the whole other topic but that The means by which human beings survive which is fundamentally going out and changing nature fundamentally going out and taking The stuff from nature and reconfiguring it to suit our needs that Is being condemned has been condemned as viewed as evil and destructive and horrible and something that we as human beings should Stop well if we stop we die if we stop we no longer survive now of course One of the great things about the way, you know free people evolve is That we constantly seek to make our ability to produce and trade more efficient And of course one of the great innovations in all of human history to do exactly that is money Now we today think of money and I think 99% of people think of money is just something the government gives us The government creates it's just there. It's just always been there But money had to be produced Money had to be created Money is a product of innovation It's a product of people trying to figure out how to do things more efficiently Barter is not efficient Trading your cow for chickens your cow for cheese not efficient How do you how do you how do you provide change half a cow quarter of a cow? You can't do it. So Money is this great innovation that Facilitates production and trade it Facilitates ability to produce efficiently effectively and then it facilitates ability to trade with eight billion other people across Oceans anyway Once money is accepted and money today is accepted pretty much everywhere so money is this amazing innovation amazing product that is Necessary for us and is linked directly to production You know money historically evolved to be gold Gold had to be produced Gold production was directly linked to the technology of every other thing that was produced It was very difficult to mine for gold in days where the economy didn't grow the stock of gold barely grew Once we had machines stock of gold grew faster once we got even better machines stock of gold grew even faster as The economy grew faster. This is the beauty of a Money that actually has to be produced one of the great tragedies of the last hundred 50 years or so is That well not 150 years. Sorry one of the great tragedies of the last 3,000 years or so is that Because of its importance Because of how crucial money is to both production and to trade because money Facilitates I mean think about money facilitating the ability of me to produce values for you and to be compensated for So that I can go and get my values. That is only really made possible by money I produce stuff for you. I get money from you. I go out and buy the things I need for me That's a beautiful thing But money is so important so crucial that really from the beginning Governments couldn't keep their hands off of it Try belittas kings Whatever the regime the authoritarian regime of whatever period of time couldn't keep their hands off of it and they dominated and they monopolized And they took it over and in spite of the fact that time and time again It is the market that innovated about money paper money is a market innovation Electronic money is a market innovation government always swoops in and Nationalizes and takes it and by nationalizing it take it it taking it It diminishes the effectivity of money and therefore diminishes production and trade It centralizes control and centralizing the planning of money and money is the most important good We have because it facilitates all the other goods So all of it diminishes Our production our trade our standard living a quality of life the more government dominates the money supply The more it diminishes our quality of life in our standard of living The more it manipulates it the harder it is to produce the harder It is to know am I getting a fair price for what I'm producing am I paying a fair price for what I'm getting How do we even come up with a fair price? Market signals are gone Supply and demand is gone Money is just what the arbitrary group at the Federal Reserve decides it is All right So Production is necessary for human life Production is necessary for human flourishing To produce is necessary for individual happiness to produce is Necessary for individual self-esteem to produce is necessary for individual life producers Other people who make the world a better place to live in for all of us To the extent that we produce we are making the better the world a better place to live and to say that to say I'm making the world a better place. It's not altruistic It doesn't mean I care more about you than I care about me on the contrary. I need to produce For my own self-esteem and happiness, but I also need to produce in order to get the money So that I can pursue My values I can create a beautiful environment around me so I can go on wonderful trips so I can Buy the equipment that makes it possible for me to produce more So again, the idea that you're making the world a better place to live is not an altruistic phrase it is a fact of reality it is a fact of reality that is Necessary it's necessary to make the world a better place to live In a world in which Production and trade of the way, you know the way in which we live it doesn't it's it's there's no meaning to the concept of trade Where you're losing right trade is by its very essence win-win Trade is by its very essence making the world a better place to live Both parties because it's a win-win transaction So production means making the world a better place That's from a completely egoistic perspective what I care about is my ability to produce to produce what to produce values For use I can trade for them all right, so You know again, it's not altruistic to talk about it in those terms In a true free market in a market in which People are free to pursue their values and to trade with anybody and and and to to produce and create and build and make and trade freely You know our quality of life our standard of living grows constantly because the human mind human reason is Endless there is no limit To ability to think and produce and create new better wonderful things better most traps constantly We're constantly raising our own standard of living. We're constantly raising the standard of living of those who trade with us and The people who I think are particularly valued in a capitalist society are the people who are the most productive that is create the most values Whether those values of spiritual values of material values. It is the value creation and The trading of values that make those values accessible to all of us and enhance our life our lives and To see the geniuses of production the genius of production in the arts the geniuses was a production in In business the genius of production in any realm They are the real heroes because they are the people who really change the world They're the people who make the world a better place for all of us so to me The Steve Jobs is of the world the the the You know a lawn musks potentially, but certainly the Jeff Bezos of the world They're the people who we should be tomorrow celebrating And it's not just them It's the amazing developers who build the real estate projects that we all live in and enjoy and thrive in It's the people who are out there in Agriculture making better and better and better food for us all to eat that is less expensive and more nutritious and more delicious It's the great chefs at the great restaurants that We go to that that enhance our lives That are really good at what they do And that's what differentiates them from everybody else. They're really good at what they do. They're the real heroes of our life They go Unthought about primarily because we tend to think that yeah, we paid them You know, I paid Bezos. I've used Amazon. I paid the check. I pay with the credit card. He gets the money What mode does he need? Well, it's not what he needs. It's what you need what you need is an understanding of How much value you're getting relative to how much value you're paying you're getting much more than you're paying and that's true of any Great achievement out there Thank you for listening or watching the Iran book show if you'd like to support the show We make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening. You get value from watching Show your appreciation. 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