 All right, welcome everybody. Welcome to Iran Book Show on this, what is it? Here in Korea at least. It is Monday I know where you are. It is Sunday night There we go So, yes, I am in Korea where it's What is it 9 a.m. in the morning? I know in on the East Coast it is What is it 8 p.m. in the evening, it's it's a little weird getting used to this Dramatic difference in in time zones, but Anyway, I am as I said, I am in Just trying to get everything on the screen up and running and Right it's functioning. So yes, I am in Korea I am I've been in Japan and Korea for the last almost a week I left Puerto Rico Tuesday of last week as you guys probably know as we speak a Hurricane force wins hurricane is is is hit Puerto Rico Last I heard all the power is out in Puerto Rico Unfortunately, my wife did not come with me. So she is she is stuck in Puerto Rico I am Hoping power gets restored soon the the winds and the rains should be Should be coming down quite a bit in the next few hours from What I've been talking to her most of the day on and off kind of during the day and It sounds like it just rain non-stop rain rain rain rain and a lot of significant wind and So not a particular pleasant not a political not a pleasant experience at all for my wife to be alone Dealing with a hurricane in Puerto Rico But she is surviving she is she's doing okay and Now it's just a question of when do we get a when do we get electricity when the Services come back the building we're in does have a generator so As long as this power outage is not too long As long as they can get power back up in the next few days Hopefully in a few hours Then it won't be it won't be as bad As bad so we'll see we'll see so far It's pretty disruptive and no fun at all to be in Puerto Rico right now. So this is this is the price of Living in a Caribbean island is once in a while and the last time this happened was Maria You get clobbered. Hopefully this won't be as bad as Maria. This is a category one hurricane Maria was a category four or five depending on when exactly you measure it and Hopefully those differences those differences work. I'll generate is working. We do electricity internet is working You know the internet that we always complain about because it always Inflicts the Iran book show and shuts us down whenever it rains Well, the internet is holding up pretty well in spite of the fact that there's no power. I don't know how long that'll last we'll see But so far I think I think my wife has internet access so yep as I said the the challenges the challenges of Living on a Caribbean island. We'll have to find solutions for not certainly from a wife Not being there alone During hurricane season and then maybe neither of us being there in hurricane season. We'll have to figure that out Let's see what else. Yeah, how we can seem to be following me around because I was in Tokyo Until yesterday and I don't know if you've seen the news, but there's a category for hurricane hitting south of Japan the south of Japan so It's brutal luckily it is not coming to Korea. It is kind of gonna veer off towards the north right in between Japan and Korea so So it's It is it seems like Weather is following me around luckily. I have not been hood from it, but others have So yes, there's a category for hurricane right now over the south part of Japan All right, so that's kind of I am in Korea To give talks. I was I just I was invited to Korea by the world Knowledge forum, so this is the world the world knowledge Conference is being held it's It's Tomorrow, it's not tomorrow and it goes through Thursday You've got some Pretty amazing speakers on the and here I say amazing Only by the standard of the famous, right? We've got the crown prince of Denmark we've got Let's see who do we know here 37th prime minister of Finland We've got a bunch of CEOs of different companies. We've got Big big important guy from Abu Dhabi. We've got CNP from McKinsey We've got the CEO of the X price Foundation We've got I mean, you'll be happy to know that we've got Paul Krugman here We've got let's see who else would you know? I'm going through the list. I mean, it's it's it's a it they're all big shots not necessarily John Bolton we all know John Bolton. I'll try to go and say hello to John But I know there's there's you're on Brooke Listed on this on this this David Cameron former prime minister of the United Kingdom I've got a bunch of different professors from US from Europe from Asia We have let's see who else do we have here that you would know I said Paul Krugman But a lot of these a lot of these are prominent Asian Entrepreneurs businessmen Tyler Cowan is here. Wow, I didn't know Tyler was here Tyler Cowan is here Tyler and I was seemed to bump into each other. It's similar Ray Dalio. You know Ray Dalio the CEO so anyway Hundreds of speakers it looks like there's a this is a long list Hundreds of speakers Thousands of people are going to be attending this thing Francis Fukuyama for those of you who know history Fukuyama you know very very prominent public intellectual in in the West and So this is a a huge conference of of Very very influential people And I mean if I did so I thought that was cool I'm not on the billboards the billboards have Paul Krugman's face and and John Bolton's face They don't have my face on them, but it's still cool to be at this conference in such a prestigious company hopefully this gives voice to some of our some of our ideas and Promotes some of the ideas of freedom and liberty in Korea and in Asia more broadly and more broadly globally, so It's great to be invited. It's great to be I'm on a panel. Yeah, I'm listed as the Ironman Institute chairman of the board, so It's great. All right, so So that is the world knowledge forum I was invited to speak to be a panelist on one of the panels at the forum and I will be doing that on Wednesday. I figured if I was coming to Asia Inspired the fact that they're paying my way and and they're paying me to speak. I would try to make a trip of it Unfortunately, of course that bumped into the the whole hurricane thing, but so I arranged a trip to Japan where I gave a talk at Tokyo University on Kind of iron man's conception of individual rights as primarily as applied to foreign policy We talked a lot about Russia and China and and why you should care and and what it all has to do with individual rights and the danger of Generally the danger of a country that violates the rights of its own people and what that means about its willingness to violate the rights of its The people in its neighborhood and why the neighborhood should be worried about the violation of individual rights in its own neighborhood so so that was that was fun Tokyo University, of course a very prestigious university in Japan may be the most prestigious university in Japan Although scores out of session, so we didn't get a lot of students But we got we got a nice audience and then I gave two seminars one seminar on We talked about the challenges with climate change with a Japanese professor and it was amazing I mean the Japanese professor was really really good Was amazing was half of the time when he was speaking He sounded like he had just read Alex Epstein's book on climate change and And fossil fuels and was reciting facts and figures and arguments that Alex has made So I would not be surprised at all if that is the source of much of what he does But it's great to see it's great to see this attitude towards climate change This attitude towards human progress this attitude towards fossil fuels and all of that It's it's fantastic to see that In a place in Japan, you know and last year I did an event in Israel and there was a professor there in Israel who is fantastic on climate change and There is definitely this under the surface. There is a movement of people Who have the right approach to climate change have the right approach to fossil fuels and have been inspired I think by Alex and the work that he's done have read his books and and these ideas are spreading that that they haven't achieved It's a critical mass in any particular country in any particular place yet Although there's some good signs in the United States, but they haven't ever achieved enough critical mass yet, but The beauty of it is that it's a it's a global phenomena and then in the afternoon we did a session on We did a session on kind of the state of the world and as they hope that was over three hours and So that so all those sessions It was it was a lot of fun the I think the talk I did at the university Will probably be able to post because that was just straight English and and that was great There are the other talks the seminars I would speak and then there would be translation and when the other professor spoke That was all Japanese and translated to my ear next to me so Those will probably won't post on my channel, but they will be posted in Japan for Japanese audience. So Thank you again from our hosts in Japan You know that I've been going to Japan for many many years and they they'd be doing a fantastic job organizing events for me and raising the profile I think right now Among the people that I that I interacted with in Japan One of them is is just finished translating capitalism not known ideal into Japanese and another one is Is finishing the translation of the romantic manifesto into Japanese just recently about a year ago The virtue of selfishness was a translated Japanese. So we are seeing a real Uptick in the availability of Iron Man's books in Japanese at the shrugged sells quite well in Japan And I think the found heads also in Japanese, but the woman who translated Alas shrugged into Japanese is is one of the organizers of all these events and has been You know, I've known her for many years now and and she's been very engaged and Yeah, it's it's it's it's exciting to see so much objectivism in Japan So now I'm Korea and Korea arrived in Korea yesterday Tonight, I'll be doing a talk at a local think tank that has actually That has is publishing. I think it published it last week or is publishing it Anyway, the books hopefully will be there tonight that is publishing my book equal is unfair. So That they in the past have published a number of iron rands nonfiction and And equal is unfair will be available tonight. I'm particularly excited I'm particularly excited about that and I'm looking forward to holding a copy and mailing one of them to Don Watkins of Equal and unfair in Korean And and hopefully I'll be able to bring it to this big conference as well knowledge conference and hopefully hand it to a few influential Koreans to have Then I do on Wednesday morning. I do my session at the conference and then Wednesday Afternoon, I'm going to a local university here to a program at foreign affairs Graduate students. I'll be talking to I think 50 graduate students that I'm not sure exactly what the topic is but that evening so Full schedule the crazy thing is that once this conference ends on Thursday a fly on Thursday from Seoul to New York and from New York to Sao Paulo, I've ever Sao Paulo at 5 a.m. On Friday morning I then give three talks on Friday on egos and on capitalism and some kind of debate with libertarians in Brazil and then I'll spend a week in in In South America. I've got two more talks in Brazil one in Curibita Curitiba Curitiba and then one in Porta Alegre and then I go to Buenos Aires where again Events interviews talks. There's a lot going on a bonus. I was at the end of that week and then home finally So not only am I not there When the how we can hit but I'm not gonna be home for another couple of weeks. So My wife is unfortunately gonna have to tough it out alone, which is not good. No, I'm not happy about but That's exactly what What? Yeah, we're gonna have to we're gonna have to figure this out How to prevent it from happening in the future. All right, let's see Where are we so I thought given that I am in in Asia that I would Do a little talk about my thoughts about Asia about kind of its more recent history About the present state of Asian societies and about the future. I plan to cover here both Japan, Korea and In China and in other other parts of Eastern Asia So this would really be focused on Eastern Asia and not I don't know much about India I don't know much about Western Asia. No, actually, I know a lot about Western Asia But we're not gonna talk about it. Western Asia is Israel in the Middle East So we're not gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about Eastern Asia the situation here Russia of course is a big part of Eastern Asia So that's that's all part of Part of what What we will talk about You know one of the striking things when you go right now in Japan and in in Korea is that In both places, but in both places. Yeah in both places Everybody is wearing masks. I mean Everybody is wearing a mask and I'm not just talking about indoors. I'm talking about outdoors now This is more common in Japan But even in Korea at 80 80% plus of the people are wearing masks outdoors Everybody is masked up in in in Korea The there is a law I guess that requires you to wear a mask indoors still But there was no mask requiring you to wear a mask. There's no law requiring you wear a mask outdoors But everybody is In Japan, I'm not sure about the law, but everybody's wearing it I have to say in Japan myself and a couple of couple of my hosts. We didn't wear masks indoor or outdoors People left us alone so so nobody commented nobody made a big deal out of it But but that just made it even more striking That everybody else was wearing a mask So I think that the big four is particularly in Korea and Japan You know a certain cultural cat clash that That is prevalent in in much of eastern much of eastern Asia, and that is a a clash between A real clash between Kind of a real Rise in individualism and a real rise in ambition and a real rise in entrepreneurship in in I think Both Korea and Japan a young generation very much dedicated to their own lives to their own well-being That has in many many ways a You know in many many ways kind of Western American-style individualism people Who speak out who have different points of view who dress differently who who exhibit the kind of external characteristics of individuals and yet a certain level of real social pressure and and and a real Effect of social pressure And a real sense of conformity and these two are clashing and you can see it right now I think maybe more than ever because of because of covert Both countries are very restrictive and with us know about China China is I mean the funny thing about China and covert is You remember all the conspiracy theories about China China doing this on purpose China You know doing it a week in the west and all that and yet covert is weak in China more than any other country Maybe and China's still having to deal with it and dealing with it in the most authoritarian Nasty way, but also in a way that is most destructive to its own I Think to its own economy destructive to its own culture destructive to Everything to day-to-day life to the people's ability to live so Covert the way we have responded to covert has been more destructive in In in China than anywhere else. So if they put it out there on purpose Man, they certainly screwed themselves more than anyone else It's also interesting to me that you know countries like Japan and Korea and In in China are not dominated by a woke kind of leftist attempt to dominate every aspect of society as as Many critics accused the West and and you know in the West supposedly every single government use use covert is as a way to To control us which they did but it what's interesting is the extent to which it's a global phenomenon And and maybe there's something else that explains it other than woke leftism because I don't think that's what's dominating Certainly not dominating in Japan and in Korea and yet their response to covert is still crippling. The fact is that it's The airports are empty There's very little travel in and out of certainly Japan, but even Korea There's a lot of bureaucracy covert related bureaucracy necessary to get into Korea and to get into Japan To getting to Korea. You still need a PCR test in the morning, which reminds me I did not get my results. I don't know what happened, but they never emailed me the results from my covert test yesterday So they really is this really has had profound consequences on all of Asia all of and all of the Western world and all of us and it's it's interesting the extent to which this is a Global phenomena. It's interesting the sense in which the response is a similar and it's interesting the sense in which It's been more crippling in Asia than anywhere else Japan is slowly opening up for travel I needed a visa which is which is you never in the past as an American needed a visa to get into Japan I needed all kinds of apps and codes and all kinds of stuff to fill out forms and all kinds of stuff all As a consequence of covert Japan. Supposedly is opening up to tourism soon and And it is Yeah, it is it's gonna be interesting to see the The long-term long-term Consequences of of covert to these economies and to these cultures All right, that's just kind of being you up to speed You know, what's interesting about Asia is How poor Asia was Very very recently You know Asia is a eastern Asia is a place that up until certainly It's if you think about it coming out of World War two China went communist by Mao and and kind of solidified its its poverty at least until the 1980s Japan Was basically flattened. It was completely destroyed and people don't know this but You know before he was human a gisaki every single major Japanese city had been firebombed In in in Tokyo, there were at least a million people who are homeless The the the the Japanese Industrial base the Japanese economy was completely destroyed when you go today to Tokyo Almost every building that you see not every building But almost every building that you see was built after World War two There are few places of me that the the the Empress palace and the Imperial area which was preserved purposefully by the Americans, but Pretty much the rest of Tokyo was flattened As were every single major city in Japan, so Japan had nothing At the end of World War two Korea of course it had always been a poor place it had been colonized by the Japanese and made a part of the Japanese Empire in 1910 and had Then after World War two and it achieved its it was independence. It kind of was split into two a northern part which was controlled by the Soviet Union a southern part that was controlled by the West or by the US and You know ultimately that led to a war in 1950 when the North Koreans invaded South Korea Award the last of three years or were the completely devastated the Korean Peninsula. So Korea South Korea, which was poorer Than North Korea at the end of the war was again completely devastated. There was nothing there Nothing, I mean these were some of the poorest people on planet Earth were living in in in Korea Japan less so could Japan of course had had a real civilization and industrialized and many respect Westernized But it had been destroyed had nothing And then if you go to Taiwan, which was a brand-new country if you will of refugees from mainland China And ruled by North Korean again devastatingly poor Hong Kong I've often described as a fishing village I mean that you'd have to go further back for it to be a fishing village But by the end of World War two was still a very small place ruled by the British Singapore was nothing I mean the whole area was I mean Asia Asia was synonymous with with adjunct poverty was with with with the horrors of poverty and yet all these countries in a matter of 70 80 years, but really in a shorter matter we'll get to that in a minute have achieved Fantastic levels of wealth as compared to most of the rest of the world have definitely achieved levels of wealth comparable to Europe and and You know have today Korea has Korea and Japan have some of the highest life expectancies in the world they It's stunning it's stunning to visit a city like Seoul and see just The level of development the amount of development in Tokyo is just amazing I mean Tokyo has no one downtown. There's several downtown skyscrapers everywhere office buildings condo beautiful condo buildings just a just a whole array of Construction that is that is relatively modern and if you think about it for both Japan and the rest Japan of course Coming out of World War two immediately Reindustrialized, you know, they unleashed by unleashing freedom in Japan And taking the entrepreneur the entrepreneurial spirit that the Japanese I think to some extent have had for a long time and And allowing for political freedom Japan just started flourishing right out of the gate and started building what today are these You know some of the greatest corporations and in history, you know Honda and Toyota and Mitsubishi and and and on and on and on, you know these massive Successful businesses that were created during the 19 many of them were created during the 1950s and then flourished during the 1960s primarily Originally by both copying American designs, but also innovating on American designs and making them more efficient and making them more productive So by the 1970s Japan was kicking American butt in terms of in terms of automobiles in terms of TVs in terms of VCRs video players In terms of almost every enterprise Japan was on a roll Steel production and and that really lasted into 1980. So Japan From 1945 until 1989 achieve unprecedented economic growth just stunning amounts of Stunning amounts of What do you call it? Wealth creation and production and efficiency and innovation and cameras. Yes, Thomas has cameras as well Absolutely, and of course Sony had it on how did I not mention Sony one of the most innovative companies for many many decades in the world and You know, it's just it's just stunning to visit Tokyo and to realize how much of that, you know, and and of course, I think there would be They could have been even more successful and competitive if now for some of the protectionist policies of the United States which which sustained An auto industry in the United States that really probably shouldn't exist But the Japanese that Japanese model of growth and economic prosperity and and wealth creation Sustained itself until 1989 and again the Japanese economy grew at unprecedented rates during that time. So it took it what 40? 44 years to attain Just an almost a Western-like level of economic prosperity And then if you look at Korea, Korea didn't start really developing until maybe the 70s Really the 80s Korea did not become a politically free place until I think 1987 When when presidents were finally elected And it is it is just exploded in terms of economic growth. And again, you know that period of about 40 years 40 years as sustained massive economic growth in Korea and today Samsung and Kia and you know on Samsung both in in electronics Kia and Hyundai in automobiles, but but in many other industries Korea has become a dominant player and again the quality of life the standard of living the The wealth creation of Korea is truly stunning and Korea of course was joined in that by Taiwan and by Hong Kong and by Singapore the Asian Tigers and all of that in a span of 50 years they attained the same wealth levels as The United States so it's it's truly stunning that the energy the hard work the work ethic of the the entrepreneurship that at least some within these societies have and and and and the success that all these economies attained so quickly is Fantastic and it's not just economic success. They these countries, you know Taiwan was a dictatorship for a long time and it is today a free country a free politically Singapore is still You know this mixture of a lot of freedom and and a lot of authoritarianism Hong Kong unfortunately Has been taken over China but North South Korea Japan and in Taiwan remain free countries remain countries with with amazing Amazing Anasing quantities of wealth and amazing amazing standard of quality at standard living and quality of life And the other thing about Japan and Korea, and I don't know if this is true of Taiwan, but certainly of Japan and Korea is that they are both Just unbelievably safe. I mean a number of people have told me you could leave anything You believe your computer can leave your phone you could and you could walk away and for hours and come back and I'll still be there People don't steal stuff violent crime in Japan and Korea's is almost non-existent It is it is some of the it is I think the safest places on planet earth in terms of violent crime So the quality of life if you consider the toll the the crime and Generally and violent crime taken people If you take that onto account into the quality of life the quality of life here is very high and Inspiring I mean wouldn't it be fantastic if we could live anyway And and be able to not worry about about crime particularly This is kind of in your face at a time where violent crime in the United States is is increasing increasing substantially So that's kind of the history a little bit of the history economic history in terms of development Japan hit a wall in 1989 that stock market collapsed it it it created you in the 1980s While there was real production and real-wealth creation. They'd also created this massive bubble Because of government intervention because of the behavior of the Japanese central bank Bubble in real estate and bubble in the stock market a bubble in real estate and stock market like we'd never seen I don't think anywhere in the world ever The stock market really hasn't I don't think recovered its levels from back then even today so There was a massive collapse Since 1989 the Japanese economy has been growing but growing very tepidly very slowly Troy Thank you for the support really appreciate the five hundred Australian dollars. That is fantastic. Thank you So the Japanese economy has been growing at one percent a year Sometimes less sometimes a little more but but not significantly Which is which is a shame. I think standard of living quality of life of risen in You know with with the rise of technology and improving the technology I don't think GDP as we've talked about many times on the show GDP doesn't really capture the true Growth rate if you will the true progress that is being made But it does capture something so the Japanese economies hit a wall the Korean economy I'd say during the financial crisis hit a somewhat wall and again Growth in Korea has been quite tepid over the last decade or so With very little signs of dramatic recovery Again, COVID has really taken a toll. I think on all the economies of eastern Asia And I don't know about Taiwan. I know less about the economy of Taiwan. I haven't visited Taiwan, but the the There is this dramatic economic Slowdown so there is an Asian economic development model Which is to free up the economy somewhat the government to control The banking sector and to incentivize exports over imports that worked in Japan or worked in Korea but in all those cases That limited level of economic freedom and that government involvement particularly in banking and particularly in the government in cronyism in the government preferring certain businesses and particularly prefer large businesses that Hults limits The level of growth and the level of sustained economic growth that is possible In these economies and and that certainly happened during the end of the 1980s in Japan If you think about the Japanese model You had the government controlling the banks the banks then very involved in businesses the government basically telling banks which businesses Should be supported which not but generally the the the government Encouraging the banks never to allow for bankruptcy. So bankruptcy happens in Japan, but it was relatively rare a Japanese banks prop up Japanese businesses supported by the Japanese Government the same to some extent happens in Korea And you have these models of very very very diversified businesses that in every single business possible in in Korea In Korea Samsung is in everything it builds cars It builds obviously TVs and electronics and phones and things like that But it also owns I think Real estate and it it's in every business possible Steel and other things. So and that is the model the model is to build these massive conglomerates even though It's been proven over and over and again that it's not an efficient economic model That is the model that the Asians have adopted to build these massive Glomerates and then for those conglomerates to basically be protected from competition by government and to be to to be encouraged to It's primarily export that business model that governance model can work Up to a point and I think there's no question Japan hit that point in The early 1990s Korea probably hit that point about 10 years ago Taiwan has hit that point although Taiwan I suspect has a free economy in many respects than South Korea or or Japan so You know all of these economies are now just floundering they're kind of slow growth they're kind of just Holding their own, but they're not growing. They're not creating wealth They're not increasing quality of life and standard of living in anywhere close to the rates a that they're capable of and be That I think that that they have generated in the past and as a consequence is a certain Sense of stagnation. There's a certain sense of pessimism. There's a certain sense of of this is it We've reached we've peaked we're not going to get any better than this You know add to that what I definitely sense Across this entire region is real fear and a rising fear of China We've talked a lot about China's I'm not going to go through the Chinese history, but China has also hit a growth barrier China has turned into much more authoritarian much more statist and much more And much less economic growth and economic prosperity so China is is is struggling China struggling with COVID China struggling with economic growth China is struggling in every dimension and A lot of these countries here looking at Russia and seeing what happened to Russia when it struggled how it started diverting attention Over seas and how it became much more aggressive in its overseas plans and they're really a fate They're really afraid of Chinese aggression. They're really afraid of Chinese aggression against Taiwan But if if the Chinese aggress against Taiwan that gives them a lot of control over The the the sea lanes that are necessary for both Korea and Japan in terms of trade it gives them control of a much of the This part of the Pacific If they go to Taiwan, I think particularly in Japan, but I think also in Korea What is to stop them? from going to From expanding into Japan There's also a lot of angst can the Koreans and the Japanese trust Americans I think they were literally encouraged by the support that the United States is providing Ukraine but Post-Trump administration they're not convinced that That support will be there in the future Now I fall and don't think they should get that support. I you know, they should not get American direct military support I think we should leave Korea. We should leave Japan But What do they do then so there's real discussion in Japan about changing its constitution its constitution written by MacArthur Limits the scale of the Japanese military Makes it a defensive force and and and limits the the scale and scope of it While Japan has one of the best navies in the world today It doesn't have much of a military beyond that. Of course, it doesn't have nuclear weapons And and the Japanese are now talking about changing that constitution in order to build up a military I think the South Koreans I Would encourage them if they're not already thinking about doing this is Significantly increasing the amount of spending they have on military so as to reduce their dependence on the United States and ultimately To be in a position that when the United States leave Korea, which I think is inevitable at some point that they can Defend themselves defend themselves not only against the North Korean threat, but also ultimately against China I think both Japan and Korea are what position to fight China I think they are quite competent and kind able. They're more technologically advanced than China is They are smaller in terms of population smaller in terms of total wealth But they're free and as we can see in Ukraine free countries have an enormous advantage over authoritarian governments And I think both these countries should be investing heavily in their militaries to face off to face the the potential Chinese threat in the future and I for one Don't think China. I think China's learning lessons from Russia and one of the lessons is You know beware about these invasions They don't quite happen as easily and as quickly as you might think they will I think if Russia is defeated in Ukraine, which I think will ultimately happen China will be very hesitant to go after Taiwan I think the other thing that the war in Ukraine has done is that it's it's At least given an indication that the West Can have a united front and and supports in supporting Ukraine and maybe supporting Taiwan if it came to that so I Don't think China is going to be aggressive anytime soon. I don't think they can afford to be I think they've got too many internal problems right now But it is a real threat to these countries Of course what Japan and South Korea really need is they really need a A boost of their economic prospects a boost of the economic growth and they really need to find ways to break a System that encourages conformity because at whatever level the conformity is level of masks or level of Opinions about certain things level of fear That conformity spills over into life and that means conformity means less entrepreneurs It means less innovation less in Ingenuity it means less progress and it means a dollar more boring simpler Life culture What both countries need is to reinvigorate the individualistic spirit that got them to where they are now. It was never It was never totally It was never totally individualistic but whatever Allowed for the great economic progress was the individualism of some people Thank you for themselves innovating creating building organizing that takes Real thought real effort and real individualism So What these countries need to do is both break A culture of conformity conformism Break a cycle of fear and I think you can see that with covid is is the fear Which is debilitating And Encourage, you know, or at least get out of the way to sustain economic growth and all those things are tied together So like everywhere, I would say that the first The first thing you have to reform The first reform you should engage in Is educational reform? It's the educational it's the schools Where conformity is encouraged conformity is taught Conformity is sustained. Now again, I think Japan in particular has made a lot of strides away from that conformity but I'm disheartened by the mask wearing in Japan right now And and the extent to which that is that is prevalent But You know, it's it's Japan has such potential There's so much beauty in Japanese culture In the design in the attention to detail in the caring about aesthetics Caring about beauty I mean, I've talked a lot about on the show right about create your own space make it beautiful And the Japanese are very good at that and Japanese culture very much emphasizes that and and draws on it I mean, some of the most beautiful hotel rooms I have stayed in in the world to being certainly in Asia Asia has the best hotel rooms in the world But but but many of them have been in Japan. I mean the hotel I stayed at just now in Japan was fantastic I mean the room was gorgeous. It was beautiful. There's just the little static touches And and just the the combination of modern with a certain level of kind of Japanese aesthetic just just fantastic, so What we need in all of the world and and certainly what Japan and Korea need is they need educational form and the best way to achieve educational reform is by privatizing education by creating some kind of system of vouchers or education saving accounts or some kind of way in which the Japanese can Can liberate entrepreneurship liberate innovation in education bring Montessori to Japan and Korea and and and encourage a Encourage competition and and and let's see. Let's see how we can foster both knowledge knowledge and thinking skills as well as individualism as well as initiative as well as You know entrepreneurial thinking entrepreneur ingenuous thinking so it's It's what we all need everywhere and I think more than anybody the Japanese and the Koreans need and then of course They need to get rid of the system of cronyism. They need the government to step back from In a sense running the banking system again. We in the United States need the same thing, but it's it's worse here They need to allow for real competition. You know, there's no uber really Here and and and the reason is again to protect the taxi drivers. They need to allow For for real competition. They need to allow new entrance to to challenge To challenge the the the large businesses the large corporations the diversification They need to allow financial innovation to allow the breakup of of some of these conglomerates Conglomerates are not healthy businesses. They're not efficient. They're not productive Uh, they would run a lot better as individual companies focused on different things rather than one entity focused on everything Focus is important in life in every aspect of life including in business so, uh, uh, there are some basic simple reforms that these countries have to Engage in if they would like if they want to continue their economic progress if they want to continue their economic growth and and continue their path towards You know, they've got such a great foundation of a society with no crime a society with huge level trust a society that is, uh, hard workers um People who value education they've got the basics and you know, they've got the basics At some level, but then what they need is the the underlying the and they've got the beginnings of this individualism I mean, you can see it in in in the fact that they want to be they're trying they're making an effort in in the way they dress and in the way they You know in the things they like and and they're passionate and they have emotions You can see that in the Korean dramas And they value us and you can you definitely see it in Japan as well And all the things that they enjoy and they love and they like they've got the basics of individualism And what they need now is the intellectual foundations of it And they need now Is it economic freedom to allow that to translate into real dramatic significant sustainable economic progress? And I think all of that is possible and all of that Can't can happen, you know, I mean courage by the fact that there is an active objectors group in japan and the books are being translated I'm encouraged by the fact that they are Objectors here in in korea, although it seems at least like most of the Objectors in korea are american expats But the books are in korea and there is definitely a free market movement in korea That's why I've been invited to this conference. I wouldn't have been invited otherwise So, uh, there's definitely forces trying to Bring about these changes in both japan And korea and of course, I think both countries need to build up their militaries To provide them with the kind of defense and do it now Um before you've got your back against the wall with with a with a more aggressive china if you build up your military now Maybe you'll discourage china from ever engaging in In military adventurism as they they sometimes call it All right, um One other aspect I want to talk about that I think is important for both cultures Both the japanese and the korean culture certainly, but it's also a problem in china and a problem in much of eastern asia and that is Dramatically declining birth rates. I think That korea has the lowest birth rates in the world They're well under one So I think it's 0.85 something like that That is population collapse kind of levels That is real decline And it would be it is kind of sad And it is reflective of the fact that I think that There is real angst You know actually in in japan. I think it's 1.2. It's a little higher than than In korea, but remember that replacement is just over two 2.1. I think so You need 2.1 For replacement both japan and korea way way below that so they're both shrinking populations very Much older populations what you're getting now is the real injustice of Older people massive numbers of old people retiring I'm placing and because of the government pension system because the government support healthcare system Putting a massive massive financial burden just a massive financial burden on younger generations. So you've got a huge and growing transfer of wealth From young asians to old asians This is bad in the united states now with the baby boomers retiring But this is even worse here partially you know Much worse here partially because This population is they have fewer young people to share the burden, right? That's also a real drag and economic activity and Another reason why just from purely economic perspective They have to liberalize the economies if they want to keep up If they want to be able to sustain the quality of life and standard of living As the population decreases, but also I am a strong believer That if these countries boost their military spending and they gain a certain confidence In their sustainability and their ability to resist Chinese aggression in their ability to to sustain themselves long term If they liberalize their economies and increase and increase the prospects of economic growth People start get feeling like they can get richer. They can create more wealth. They can sustain themselves economically I think if you get that and on top of that You know you you you gain That sense of individualism that sense that their life is their own and their pursuit of happiness is okay Which I think you have in asia I think both rates will go up I think these things are not deterministic I don't think populations have to collapse. I don't think population growth Population has to go to below one I think that populations can recover and what you need to recover is a belief in the future What you need is that sense of optimism What you need is that sense of confidence in the sustainability of your culture your sustainability of your country and the the Prospects for a better freer More successful future than than the present so I think these economies I think these cultures can recover from very very low both rates but only only If they if they adopt a more positive optimistic view and and and both japan and south korea desperately need this because If you go to somebody Could daba says japanese fertility rate is 1.37. I think that's up a little bit But yes 1.37 is still very very low. It's it's it's You know russia's in the same ballpark Italy's in the same ballpark spain is in the same ballpark much of europe is in the same ballpark and and it is uh I think devastating to the future Given the burden that we have placed on young people to support old people And you know, maybe Maybe that'll be part of the spur towards more individualism Maybe there will be a rebellion of the young against You know rebellion of the young against This massive redistribution of wealth and and a rebellion of the young In favor of more freedom and more liberty from an economic perspective So I think again, both countries have hope in that respect and then finally The other aspect of the demographics is both countries need immigrants Both countries Need immigrants should allow for immigration I think both countries have strong cultures that would allow for assimilating those immigrants I think you see that to the extent that you see immigrants in In japan and korea They love it here. They enjoy it here. They assimilate. They adopt the culture. They adopt many of of of the cultural norms but You know, if they are going to If they are going to Be successful If they are going to go to grow if they are going to be innovative dynamic cultures then They should allow for For immigration. There are plenty of people In asia who would love to who would love to come to Where it would be relatively cheap for them to move to japan or to Or to korea where it's from a place like kimbodi and tailandi than asia malaysia There's no shortage of relatively poor poor countries than Then japan and korea who would like to come here. Many of them would just like to come and work and and go back home Um after they make some money some of them would like to integrate into the japanese or korean cultures so No question whether they like it or not. That is the solution. You know a 0.8 five Both rates will ultimately lead south korea to become this tiny little country of insignificance To be sweeped away by history by some other culture that all dominated um Much better to bring in uh to to allow for immigration and to allow for large-scale immigration While you are strong while you have a culture that you can You know assimilate people into so Hopefully that will happen. It's already starting in japan. They're slowly opening up um paths For foreigners to come into the country and uh, they're dramatically expand or have dramatically expanded the uh The opportunities for people to come into work in japan. They just they don't have enough people working. It's just the reality of it so They need more young people. They need more young people partially So that they can subsidize all the old people And uh, both countries realize that in both countries. I think Suddenly japan has already started on the process of importing uh of uh of uh increasing Immigrants, uh, I wouldn't be surprised if korea followed suit. All right. Um Let's see. We've got a bunch of super chat questions. Thanks you guys really appreciate it So let's start with, um Stuff with jeff hundred dollars. Thank you jeff Take your wife out for a fancy dinner when you get back to one of your five-star restaurants This might pay for dessert. Hope all is well. Thank you jeff. I really appreciate that But yes, my i'm gonna have to find a way to compensate my wife for the horrors of uh of being through uh this hurricane alone It does seem like somebody just wrote in the chat the eye of the storm has um left kind of the um the uh Western side of the island sits off the coast Uh, there's still a lot of still a lot of rain falling and there's still going to be a lot of wind Um through tomorrow, uh, the governor's basically Asked everybody to stay home tomorrow while uh emergency personnel go out there and try to fix the electricity and fix the fix the power lines and and fix the essential services and And uh, hopefully get the the city and the island back up on its feet So it's going to be it's going to be difficult. Um, it's going to be difficult, uh To uh to be on the island in the next few days, but hopefully they'll hopefully they've learned something from Maria Hopefully right only five years ago, but hopefully they've learned something And and things have improved and they'll be able to get the infrastructure back up and running faster, but um It's tough. It's hard to tell all right. Um, let me see Yeah, let me just do this question. It's relevant that just came in from navine He says in most schools in asia and west altruistic values are crammed down people's throats Simply by repetition. Can you talk about how the right educational approach can help students discover the right values and virtues? I mean, yes, but let me let me just say something about altruism. I meant to I meant to talk about this I've talked about it in the past But it's real and maybe this relates to hopper collins this question Asian cultures might not have christian altruism But they don't have individualistic standout from the crown bone in their bodies, which is why I don't think Objectivism would take hold there. Uh, so I I disagree with both of you. Um, so first I think that, um Asia doesn't have I agree with hopper in this sense And maybe disagree with navine a little bit The altruism is not the same as in the west It's not as deep It's not as part of the culture It's not an altruism that basically says Your life your purpose in life is to die and suffer for them over there for anybody It's not as grounded um In the religion as it is in the culture and the religion as it is in the united states now there is There is altruism in asia. So don't don't get me wrong. It's not that there's no altruism But there isn't a jesus on a cross looking down at everybody and saying who have you sacrificed for today? I mean it is hard It is hard to overstate how destructive christianity is For the ability of people the ability of individuals to actually pursue their happiness and and to rid themselves of guilt and everything else What's taught in asia Is a certain commitment to family a certain commitment to state A certain commitment to culture But it's not deeply rooted in This is everything. This is what morality is all about and indeed. I think most asians Uh, or a lot of asians are skeptical about Morality, so they they've got a certain set of duties around family around state around following Convention about being conformist about following the crowd But there's not this constant tug in the back of the head That to be good they must sacrifice themselves And in that sense, I think it's a much weaker Uh a form of altruism a much weaker hold on them. And that's why I think indeed there is a much greater um potential for Individualism in asia than I think most people believe I you know, you see this in china. Maybe better than any other place in the world I have never seen more people standing up uh How did how did uh, how did uh hopper say it? Standing out from the crowd. I mean china When I was there from 2005 to 2019 people stood out from the crowd all the time people Unbelievably entrepreneurial people unbelievably focused on on their own family on their own wealth and their own Prosperity on on making a better life for themselves on pushing it. They couldn't give a damn about the poor I'll give you one of the example and this is it struck me while I was doing the seminar in japan So I've done a lot of seminars in japan including a seminar on On egoism on on selfishness when the virtue of selfishness when was being translated And this is 2018 or 19 And one of the things that struck me about doing talks in japan broadly and capitalism on selfishness and You know, there's things I talked about individual rights and other things Is what you don't get in japan Is when the talk is over what you don't get is all the hands going up asking But what about the poor and what about those poor and what about these poor and what about the poor over there And what about the the handicapped and what about the miserable and what about You almost don't get any questions about the poor I mentioned in japan about the idea of privatizing education And in america if I say that the immediate responses, but what about poor people even more conservatives? What about poor people? Nobody raised that in japan. I I raised it ultimately saying well, the government could could could fund it It's better than controlling the schools and so on So there isn't this instinctual altruistic response around the poor There is a caring overly dutiful caring for family And there's way too much nationalism And that's the way manifest collectivism and and altruism manifest themselves But there isn't the same level of this of of altruism manifest and as a consequence When I spoke of china the same thing in china, you didn't get the same responses. What about the poor? What you got in japan and china and I think in korea what you get is much more thoughtful questions But how do I apply egoism in this kind of way? How do I apply it here? But what about these situations and what about those and what about other people and what about the the society but not What about the weakest what about the the people who are most suffering that's not where their mind goes not where their mind goes so Um That gives me real hope It gives me real hope that I think the barrier to the the the growth in objectivism in the west is christianity And and in europe it's secularized christianity. It's altruism that is Deep because of christianity, but they've abandoned christianity, but they've held on to the altruism and in the united states is christianity Altruistic and religious I mean secular and religious Asia doesn't have that and that's a massive advantage massive advantage. I don't know how you leverage that. I don't know how you You know access it You know if if people didn't want to stand out from the crowd, how did sony establish sony? How did honda start honda? How did the millions and millions and millions of entrepreneurs in in china get a start? It's obviously not universal. It's not obviously not that way. I mean the japanese I was with a number of japanese in japan the strip You know granted it's inspired by iran japanese They didn't wear masks even in crowded trains where everybody everybody wore masks. They didn't wear masks um I think there's huge potentials in these cultures. I really do To really shake things up and change them what you need though the problem I have Is that they don't They don't speak english or or English speaking percentage of the population is relatively low even among educated um So it has to be a growth of objectivists local objectivists Um Who can speak the language ultimately it will have to be intellectuals Uh, who are japanese who are korean who are chinese That bring these ideas in more in more Spend these ideas more systematically in their cultures, but If we had that if we had that I don't think there's any uh, there's any barriers to um To the upside potential of these countries. All right, let's see All right, um Are we so that is navian and it also really did hopper cambell is hopper cambell's question Oh, we've got a lot of questions. Okay. Um, let's see what other 20 dollar questions you we have All right, let's just do the 20 dollar questions and then we'll we'll go to the others James Taylor says mixed economies who have gone through industrialization have seen a To take a lot of abuse Infants you literally cannot fire an employee or evict a tenant yet the lights turn on and there's food in supermarkets Yes, I mean, it's it's amazing how much a little bit of freedom goes a long way and there is some work to be done in terms of analyzing Why it is that mixed economies can be as successful as they are in spite of the lack of freedom Infants you literally cannot find an employee. You can't do that in japan And I suspect you can't do that in korea one of the biggest problems In japan and korea from an economic perspective Is labor laws that that basically place employment as You know employment as the most important thing unemployment is unacceptable politically In a country like japan and that is unbelievably damaging. It's why it's what motivates The government to force the banks to to to not allow companies to go bankrupt to keep funding what you call zombie companies and yet Japan You know is is the lights as you said the lights goes on this supermarket. There's food in the supermarket There's technology being produced. There's there's stuff happening Of course What you don't see And and this is the real I mean, I wish I had an alternative universe it it would show us what you don't see is uh that What could be how rich france could be how rich South korea and japan could be I mean japan on a per capita gdp basis is still a relatively poor Relatively poor european country. It shouldn't be it should be one of the richest countries in the world Korea on a per capita gdp. They stand of living quality of life And fans should be a lot richer than it is all these countries should be super rich And you know the only reason they're not Is because of the limited economic freedom that is allowed So yes the mixed economy Can produce the goods of course for how long also is it forever, you know, uh You always think that The Whatever time is passed You know, we think in terms of decades or a few decades because that's kind of within the scope of Human life and what we can think about But can the mixed economy survive a hundred years? How long Can the mixed economy survive It survived much longer than I think I man thought it would But how long can it survive? And at the end of the day, I don't think it can survive And and ultimately it has to collapse into some form of authoritarianism and In the meantime Enjoy the fact that the lights are still on and you have food in the supermarket But it's not guaranteed none of that is guaranteed it's it's It's unguaranteed how long that will sustain itself in a mixed economy Shazba says I think your lectures would greatly benefit for visual aids. Some audience seem to be unable to register your Pro free market words is anything real in their minds. It's like language barrier even with English speakers You know, I'm gonna disagree shazba. I think I think visual aids are distracting Um, I I don't think it helps people actually register You know, I have some experience at powerpoint to do powerpoint presentations To do good powerpoint presentations. I have to be very very sophisticated in terms of the visual aids I I'm not I'm not impressed By the ability of people to comprehend stuff because of visual aids over just listening if You're a good speaker and if you deliver it right I mean some content requires visual aids like when I did my Art talk you have to show art. Otherwise it's meaningless But there's nothing to show about morality or to show about capitalism That that's that significant. You can you know, what I try to do in my talks is Invite people to use their imagination or bring up stuff from memory Um, I don't think that is what is preventing People from embracing these ideas more fully Tom asks Asian Americans raised in the u.s. Are culturally quite different from Asians Much more open to individualism, right? Yeah, I mean, there's no question. Look look at the Look at the level of entrepreneurship the the level of just dynamism within the asian-american community They have maintained They focus on education and the importance of education. They maintain the value That I think their culture is promoted hard work And And and yet at the same time they've embraced Kind of the individualistic spirit of america you go to places that that have a lot of asians like southern california or northern california And yeah, I mean in in every respect they seem like americans But they're also more serious in some respects than americans You know native americans in the sense that they That they Have a much higher regard for work and for education So I have a lot of respect for for asians generally and for for asian-americans You know, it's it's uh It's just the fact that they care so much about education says a lot and look how how well they're succeeding in america I mean they're blowing away everybody else in america in terms of Any other kind of grouping any other group of immigrants in terms of their success rates and in terms of their education achievements and And everything else again, not everybody The communities the more collectivist they are the more they have, you know The more you have to be with people exactly like you the more they live in their own neighborhoods And they don't branch out the more difficult it is for them But um, you're seeing particularly I'd say in the last 40 years More and more of that branching out more than that going out and one of the real Sad things in america today is that many asians feel like they're being They're discriminated against some places like harvard to discriminate against because of their ability other places where they feel like they are harassed because of xenophobia and and uh There seems to have been a rise in xenophobia against asians over the last Few years in the united states and many asians you find many many asians complaining about that and resisting it. So That that causes them to To stain california which is relatively immune from that when I think they would like to get out of california But they're afraid that in other parts of the united states There is less tolerance. Um, and and more xenophobia against them Um Thomas says all the youth orchestras around here are basically the asian american youth orchestra. Yeah, I mean They love classical music. They play music. They view music as an important part of their life They they embrace it engage it and they're very good at it. Um, you know, if you go to math clubs If you go to science if you go to it's dominated by asians, uh, if you go to Berkeley and stanford and the top universities in california If you look at the composition particularly in stem It's asian. So they they don't buy into their woke bs um of of uh of american universities and and the left they they, um, they vote democratic primarily because They don't feel like they have a home in the republican party Uh, not because they're woke at all. They're the ones who reject woke They're the ones who got rid of the the school board members in san francisco Asians overwhelmingly voted to get rid of the school board members in san francisco because they were too woke so, um Again a a constituency within america that should not be voting democratic and that the republicans just blow it in terms of not appealing to them because they don't know How to communicate and they don't emphasize the right things they turn everything into a cultural war And a minority group is afraid of the cultural war because they feel like they're going to be suppressed in such a cultural war all right, um adam asks polish economists blogs Celebrating the influx of russian exiles and ukrainian refugees. Do economists have influence especially re immigration in japan and korea? You know, i don't know if if if they how much influence they have but there's no question The japan has already started to open up its borders Uh to uh immigrants. There's a lot more fallen labor in japan than they used to be How far they're willing to take it how much they'll do is hard to tell In korea i'll ask around i'll ask my korea economist friends What the attitude towards immigration is here both among economists and then how much influence they have on the politics We will see the current president of korea Claims to be and i think a lot of people here believe him to be quite friendly to free markets and and Likely to engage in significant pro-market reforms That is all good news And that means my free market economists friends here will have more influence on this government than they've had On the past government, which was quite leftist. You see Yeah, navine navine follows up and says you're right. It's not altruism They're in the same way, but a lot of collectivism. Yes, it's it's collectivism It's a coordination of family elders nation, which is crippling even in private schools if you start a school How would you structure it? Well, I would just structure it without those elements. I mean, uh, I would structure it as a I would definitely promote amount of soviet education for the young ages because that That inculcates a certain approach and a certain mentality and a certain attitude which is very individualistic Which is very about using your own mind Uh Promoting your own Your own Engaging in your own activities Are building your concepts Yourselves are seeing how you know, so it's it's it's a it's a system that develops intellectual independence And then I would structure private schools You know to basically Teach to teach content and teach, uh, teach, uh skills and to teach them in integrated fashion I would structure curriculum that is integrated. I I would You know find areas in which you can encourage students to be Uh more independent and more individual and and and you know More take initiative Um, but I'm not an education special. You'd have to ask educational specialists But but but basically you would structure an education that both taught content and skill and embraced, um A proper understanding of individualism so not win worship not arbitraryness but um So it's um, you know, but you yeah, you'd have to think about how to do it Given given the students and given their parents and given what they're hearing at home How do you do it in in the most helpful way? All right, um But look if you teach people to think That means thinking for themselves. That's what thinking means. There is no thinking for others If you teach people not just to memorize not just a mouth What they'd be told not just a mimic but to actually think and actually present their thoughts And to actually engage in thinking then you will get people who are independent Look, Europeans with super conformist pre-renaissance You have to break that and you break that by Encouraging reason encouraging thinking encouraging rationality Colt says I've always admired traditional hard work and productivity in Asian cultures But I've never liked the collectivism and conformity. How long do you think it will until the fully embrace individualism? Well, I mean it depends it completely depends um You know it completely depends on Whether the right ideas get promoted in uh in uh In in in these countries if they don't get the right ideas, they could very well refer to more collectivism Indeed, that's what's happening in China. China was on a path to individualism and note that one of the things that she did last year was ban private tutorial companies because private education is anathema to collectivism private education is is is the opposite of what of the controls that the authoritarians want so China in a sense is is is sliding backwards towards collectivism and away from individualism And so it really depends on the ideas propagated in the culture So I don't have a timeline if you had good ideas and if we had a real concerted effort You had a significant number of intellectuals promoting good ideas. It could happen very quickly Without it, I don't know I don't know I think it will happen. I think they're moving there slowly There's less of a Kind of leftist woke Nonsensical push from the left So so that really doesn't exist So they these these economies and these cultures can survive without the destructiveness of leftist politics in the u.s and europe They can survive for longer Maybe that time will give them the time to embrace individualistic ideas But of course the enemy there is going to be other forms of collectivism Maybe it's not leftist, but it's other forms of collectivism nationalism being one potential route Bree says I don't see how young people today can have any hope with the current media school The more gloomy the news the more viewers So we have a self-reinforcing circle of doom optimistic iran has 34 subs Doomsday peter schiff has 510 000 subs Yeah, I mean we live in a culture of doom, but but of doom and gloom, but There's a sense of which that's always been true. I mean humanity Look at the bible. Look at look at the a lot of the writings during the last 2000 years There's always doom and gloom and it always sells always sells uh and The challenges to break You know to break through in spite of that and and to infuse people with the kind of optimism about their own life that iran provides And I think the way to get to young people is is by getting them exposure to iran I think that's still the best way to change the culture. I don't see an alternative so It's uh, you know, I I think that the only way we can become optimistic is when we come more egoistic More selfish more focused on self And the only way these asian cultures will have more kids is when they become more egoistic More selfish more focused on self, but in a rational way not in a kind of whim worshiping fear uh Dominated way uh enric As an unrelated question are they books and resources you recommend to understand personal finance stocks, mutual funds, etc How best to deploy them to your goals? Yeah, but I I don't have it off the top of my head. I'm sorry enric. Um I'll do another personal finance show and I'll include recommendations for books. I'll do that soon Um, I'll do that soon. Maybe I'll interview somebody. We'll see um All right Let's take some of the non 20 dollar questions Mr. Vomorsless, uh, you want to do you find it hard to justify animal cruelty cruelty in this world Causing pain to another creature as part of a job must be demoralizing um You know, I don't know I I uh Cruelty in and of itself. I think is is bad, but Uh, you know depends what you mean by cruelty is is it cool to slaughter animals for food? Is it from from the perspective of the animal? I guess it is but Um, it's part of how we survive. We kill animals in order to eat Does the lion worry about the pain? It's inflicting on the gazelle as they choose into it No, and and I you know, it's not clear to me that we should be overly concerned with um With what I'll call necessary cruelty to animals now unnecessary cruelty to animals is horrible It's it's uh, it's immoral, but All right um So I don't have a problem justifying animal cruelty When it's necessary for example when we're in a slaughterhouse where you need where we're producing food to feed the world as You know, maybe technology advances as you know, we produce artificial meat or or we find ways to kill The animals easy and quicker and more painlessly then that's great But I don't see for example butchers or people who are in the business of killing animals for food I don't think they have a hard time. I don't think it's a hard. I don't think it's a hard part of the job I'm not I don't think they demoralize because they know what they're doing is is virtuous. They're providing for food And part of the process is to kill the animals now again torturing animals for the sake of torturing animals is immoral and bad, but There is always going to be some pain involved in killing for food pain is pain It's something that exists in the world I don't believe morality is about minimizing pain Michael asked do you think uh, europe was the past america's the present and asia's the future I still believe the objective of evolution can only happen in the states um Yeah, I'm not sure that asia is the future. I think it certainly can be the future But I think that the the current trends in uh The current trend in uh, china The current trend in China to not vote well for asia Long run the the plummeting both rates in asia do not vote well for asia long run I certainly think asia can be the future and I think in a sense 20 years ago was the future there was no question about it most the economic growth most economic development was happening in asia Whether it going if that's going to happen from here into the future We will see you know and again, it's going to be dependent on whether they can shift Away from conformity and collectivism to individualism and and how quickly they can make that shift And whether china can shrug off Get eliminate its authoritarian regime As long as china's authoritarian and a threat and and moving in the direction it's moving right now China's such a dominant part of this part of the world That it cannot be that asia is the future And I don't know if the chinese can do that if they can get rid of qi if they can get it rid of the chinese communist party and and you know Move on to thriving without them Liam says what's a properly selfish reason for having children? so I encourage you to watch The o-contact that greek salamere did about this topic um And I also encourage you to watch my interview with um Gina gaulin And rebecca gunne that I did I don't know few months ago about this But but the selfish reason is the the fun and the the excitement and the joy of Watching and and being a part of The growth of another human being um, that's just It it's stunningly beautiful and inspiring and and and crazy and and and brings huge amount of Huge amount of uh joy to a person So I'd say that's that's the the the primary Reason, but I encourage you to watch those shows where other other reasons are giving Um, stewart. Thank you. $50 really appreciate that. I appreciate the support Let's see that doodle bunny Um, how were the nazis able to put up such a good fight against so many armies so long? Well, it wasn't that long. I mean it was it was uh It was five years And they could put up a fight to a large extent because The rest of europe believed its own rhetoric That world war one was the war to end all wars. They did not invest in uh armies The the british in particular Saw a dramatic decline through the 1930s in their Preparedness for war um France was france and had just horrible strategy And again was not really Thought that the germans would have attack um Russia was of course communist So it wasn't that hard for the nazis the nazis were committed. They had an ideology. They were they were motivated at least in the beginning around Some kind of notion of the grandeur of germany and the uh Yeah, 39 to 45 it's four and a half years really right Uh, is it 40 is it? It's five years. Sorry five years not it's five and a half years. Um But You know five and a half years is in the big picture is not and as soon as the united states got involved It was just a question of time before They would lose um, this was a time in which um Weapon systems were a lot less technologically sophisticated So being a free country gave you less of an advantage gave you an advantage but less of an advantage Because weapon systems were pretty similar You know good countries had better weapon systems, but their margins were small today the margins are much bigger because Weapon systems are much more dependent on technology and uh and then they then they wore back then so Yeah, I think they put up the fight because they were They had ideals that they were committed to at least up into a point And because they had been the only real military In the 1930s particularly in the late 1930s to basically embrace militarization and to devote massive amounts of resources to building up a military James says well racism and anti-semitism ever go mainstream in the united states like they did in germany Or will those ugly ideas always be bullied out of the mainstream? I don't know I I Would I be shocked if somewhere down the road? If america takes the turn towards authoritarianism if anti-semitism and different forms of racism return to the mainstream I would not I I think I think they're there under the surface and they could Under the right circumstances Be used to motivate authoritarianism and the fact that you're seeing racism on both the left and the right Suggests that the people are open to that open to the idea that we are somehow determined by race and therefore To the idea that racism or certain races are causing our problems causing our declines and therefore Should be treated differently Hopper camber have you been watching bill ma lately? Is he helping to bring the left back to sanity? I've not been watching bill ma lately at all Is he helping to bring the left back to sanity? Maybe some people at the margin. I think they're really committed leftists are truly committed leftist I think there's a lot of people on the left. I think the majority of the left who rejects The crazy left You see that in many elections Bill ma is a voice for them And I think maybe at the margin he's helping to convince some people to to move to the center Rather than to move further out to the crazy Dean asks what do you think about the muslim brotherhood? Should they be banned in countries around the world? um I think they should be banned in countries around the world only as part of a campaign a self-defense Campaign including that includes a military component to eradicate islamic totalitarianism from the world and that that would engage That would necessitate military engagement with a country like iran. It would necessitate Engagement with south urabia It would military otherwise it would necessitate. So there's a lot You can't just single out the muslim brotherhood But the muslim brotherhood hopefully are being watched monitored they are the source of many of of the ultimately the terrorist organizations that That are still committing terrorism against the west and will commit terrorism in the future and and they need to be they need to be watched and controlled and and And certainly to the extent that they preach violence in the west they need to be shut down If they incite violence they need to be shut down. There's no right to incite violence all right, so muslim communities in which the muslim brotherhood dominate Those those kind of mosques that preach violence in the west should be shut down And if those muslim brotherhood mosques and that's what should be shut down And if you could catch muslim brotherhoods Members in the west preaching violence, then they should be deported or they should be arrested for preaching violence for inciting violence So it's it's it's tricky because we want to respect free speech So you have to be careful that it truly is inciting violence But again, if we had a systematic campaign globally To eradicate islamic totalitarianism eradicate jihadism then muslim brotherhood would be part of that and it would be part of that elimination But just banning them out of context Would really do nothing what you need is to you know, if you don't short of a war what you need is to is to Be very very tough on anybody who incites violence in the name of islam In the name of anything, but certainly it's more prevalent in islam Is israel an emotionalist irrationalist culture? No not at all I mean israel is israel is one of the more individualistic cultures in the world It's a entrepreneurial culture. It's a culture that respects reason and respects debate discussion argumentation But it does have a a layer of collectivism So it's individualistic in certain dimensions But there's an overlaying layer of of collectivism of You are jewish first and foremost you are israeli first and foremost those are overlays and there is there is a definitely an A sense of altruism that comes from kind of the judo-christian tradition But you know that I don't think that israel has Is particularly irrational as compared to other cultures or emotionalist It wouldn't be as successful as it is if it had those elements Those were elements are dominant Michael says what's wrong with high ex-phase spontaneous order and john lock's phase self-ownership Well spontaneous order the problem with it is it's not spontaneous That is spontaneous order is an order that's ultimately guided by entrepreneurs. It's guided by Individuals maybe they don't have the full picture and they're not guiding the full picture But the problem with spontaneous order is is the is the False notion that this just happens by itself and it doesn't happens by itself It happens because specific individuals take specific actions in pursuit of specific goals and You know, it's it's the fact that they are doing that So what is missing in the invisible hand what is missing in spontaneous order is the entrepreneur. It's the entrepreneur doing Which creates the order? Um, and and and it doesn't happen by itself. You you need a lot of things So the focus should not be creating Spontaneity if you will the focus should be on on how do we encourage entrepreneurship? So it it distracts and self-ownership is problematic because What does it mean ownership is a concept of property? and and and and property is attained through effort and There's no effort in self and Property is a concept that comes after self right property is a concept that I own something So there's a self first But it doesn't mean much to say I own myself. I am myself. There is nothing else I am me But what is it to use the term property on yourself? Property is something you do in the world out there. That's something you do internally Now the sentiment of self-ownership is good But it's it's it's just a confusing concept and I don't think it does us It helps us in in make our case Liam asked the clarity we have after iron rand is unbelievable Is an unbelievable tool? Absolutely That exponential growth takeoff point might be sooner than we think I hope so hope you're right Liam says I think an articulate likable object to us could become governor of a state I doubt it. I doubt it. It's it's I don't think people are ready for our ideas yet James says do you believe everyone's actions can be explained solely by their ideas zero genetic component? No, of course not. I mean Your actions can be explained to some extent by by By a genetic component. Some people are more athletic than others. Some people are more, you know, have I don't know. Maybe have an efo music. Maybe that's that's genetic. Some people don't But but it's not even just ideas, right? I mean accidents happen That can determine You know what you can and cannot do in life um So it's it's not a it's not like okay. You got objectivism. Yes, there's one path and nothing can take you away from that path and your genes are relevant in your in your uh, uh, uh, you know The context of your life is relevant and accidents are relevant and what you learned in school is irrelevant. No I mean your idea is a one component. They are the component that can help you shape the others and help you Be the best that you can be within the context of everything else, but it's not like You eradicate You know luck if you will or accidents from your life you eradicate your childhood from your life You eradicate your genes from your life. You can't do that It gives you the power to use your genes the best of your ability It gives you the power to reevaluate your childhood. It gives you the power to overcome accidents, but it doesn't Make them not happen or irrelevant Anonymous user says what do you think about the simon index? I don't know that I know what the simon index is Is that julian simon? Which simon is that? Maybe you can tell us in the in the chat So I don't know Frank asks Is there a problem in general with taking an oath? Rand was against Kant's view of duty, but is she Talking about taking an oath for dubious cause. Yeah, it's a dubious. It depends on the cause And it depends on the nature of the oath to take an oath for example for That's unlimited. That's it does not depend on context. It's not depend on on That has no tiny limitation is absurd and ridiculous So oaths should be taken Given a particular context given the limitations given your values given A time limit things change over time. So there's nothing wrong with taking an oath Kind of making a commitment to something Michael says, what do you make of ronda santis marthas vignette stunt? So petty and childish playing with people's lives in order to be a troll. Yeah, it's petty and childish and stupid And comes from a complete misunderstanding of The whole issue of immigration and comes from Not wanting to have to deal with immigration not wanting to have to deal with the actual issue Of immigration and and resolving the challenge we have with immigration and and The resolution of all of that the resolution of illegal immigration is to legalize it It's a massively increased amount of allowed immigration into the united states legalize it And allow people to come to the country from all over the world from anywhere where they can find a job Bash bandigan says I just arrived having discussed how japan accumulated such a huge debt I haven't I mean japan accumulated that debt Because it believed that it had this belief that debt stimulates consumption which stimulates Uh, which stimulates economic growth turns out that doesn't work that way It turns out that all the all the Consumption stimulated is more and more debt which more consumption which more debt with more consumption And it didn't really cause the japanese economy to grow much It's it's very destructive This is part of the burden on young people is going to be to pay back this debt or to or to not continue to grow the debt That is an ever-growing burden. It slows down economic growth. It slows down the ability to be ambitious, so it's these levels of debt are very very very They're very very very Destructive Okay, colt saris says I will take an oath uphold individualism capitalism for the rest of my life I used to my days would this be reasonable oath since we're talking about it. Yeah, sure. That would be a reasonable oath You know and you make an oath and you're wedding you wedding vows are kind of an oath, right? But there's a recognition there that if things don't pan out there isn't up. Let's see All right. Thanks everybody. This has been great. I'm glad I managed to get a show From asia. We'll see if I'll be able to do any shows in the next couple of days Unlikely at least unlikely at reasonable times for you or for me But we'll see I might be able to squeeze one in otherwise the next shows will be from uh, south america probably saturday and sunday From, uh, brazil All right, everybody. I will see you all Whenever the next show is thank you for all the superchatters. You were very generous today. I really appreciate that Thank you for all of you for listening and I will see you soon Um, I won't say pray for porto rico because I don't believe in prayers, but You know, let's hope that uh This thing moves away from porto rico as quickly as possible And that the damage is limited. Thanks everybody. Bye