 Last time on Common Sense Soapbox! Bob was being an idiot and anarchicon then he fell through the ice and was frozen for hundreds of years to awaken the future and I guess there's a paying one as well. Basically, now for episode 2 of Common Sense Soapbox! Bob to the future! Ugh, I could swear I just saw a 30 foot tall statue of Seamus. Well yeah, you did. What? Why does he get a statue? Oh, uh, I think he made a bunch of educational cartoons for some group in the 21st century and managed to squeeze the statue into his contract. Oh my gosh, this is my worst nightmare. Actually... Don't think I don't know what's going on here. The only way you can have a future of this utopian is if there's some kind of catch. Soiling green is paper! He's delirious. Come on Bob, let's get you into the medical center. Soiling green is paper! Bob, shh, turning people into food sounds like something a more primitive society would do. It's not like we have a utopia, but the reason we're so well off is just because we figured out how to treat each other better. Human and mutant. Yeah. For example, this is going to sound pretty simple, but here's one thing we realized. Only individual people act. What? I mean, think about it. Groups are just a bunch of people acting side by side toward the same goal. Look at everyone around us. They're part of a group. Oh, so what you're saying is it's not the hospital that's about to take care of me? It's the doctors and nurses themselves. Right. They're all still making their own decisions, even though they share the goal of healing people and making them feel better. Exam room 6. We're all individuals, Bob. We all make decisions based on our own preferences and values. And when we act, we're all looking to improve our lives and get more of what we value based entirely on our own preferences. You're saying we're all just selfish? I knew this wasn't a utopia! I keep telling you, it's not. But think about it this way. Imagine feeling dissatisfied by something in your life. Like when you got sick of hearing Sheamus talk about economics. Don't get me started. Well, when that happens, you start imagining a better alternative to whatever you're currently dealing with, right? Ah, a life without economics lectures. Yeah, so you took action in order to change conditions you weren't happy with and hopefully replace them with a situation you wanted more. Was that selfish? No. I don't think so either. And look, people make mistakes and their choices don't always work out the way they hope. Like going ice fishing in Antarctica and not telling anybody about it. What kind of idiot would do that? They're still the only ones who can make those decisions. Back in your time, governments would just ignore individual people's values and try to make decisions for everybody. But that didn't work at all. Well, did it work a little? Nope. That's why we don't do it anymore. Now we spend our efforts just making sure people don't hurt each other or steal or do anything like that. I guess I give what you're... Hey, what are you doing? Hey! Whoa, I look so high-tech. That's because you are. We found all kinds of new and awesome technologies to improve art. You sound like a higher-pitched shameless, but not that much higher-pitched to be honest. Yeah, but Bob, our society learned a long time ago that these ideas are super important and getting a better understanding of economics is what allowed us to get to where we are today. What do you mean? The whole thing is about millions of individual people acting to better their own lives, not just abstract numbers like GDP. If we start there, we get a much better understanding of how economies actually work, and that way we can make everyone better off. Wait a second. I thought this was the future. You mean we still have to pay for healthcare? Of course we do. How else would you deal with scarcity? What?! Next time on a very special episode of Common Sense Soapbox... Scarcity also means we have to deal with trade-offs. The materials that go into making a robot dog can't also be used to make a spaceship at the same time. A spaceship? You mean you finally invented space? Uh... sure, Bob. Subscribe and hit the bell icon to be notified for the next episode of Common Sense Soapbox. Bob to the future!