 Somebody says there you go again Donald Trump. What can I do? He became president if he hadn't become president I'd never mentioned his name, but he's in the middle of any story any story. That's gonna tell the the the what happened in the in in in this part of the 21st century is gonna include Donald Trump as a symptom of A much wider phenomena, and I think the first real consequence beyond Barack Obama's presidency the real long-term consequence the real damaging long-term consequence of the misdiagnosis of the financial crisis and the adoption of the idea of Inequality is a real problem the adoption of the idea that the middle class has stagnated The first real consequence is the election of Donald Trump. I think the second big political consequence is the rise and the the the adoption of moral confidence By the progressive or regressive left by Not just the the identity politics the the the the crap that goes on in campuses the the kind of left that Complaints about gender and about race and all of that but now the socialist left The status left the left that an economic policy wants to regulate control and tax capitalism to death They have become emboldened. They have become stronger. They have become popular and Now there's no real disagreement Between them and many on the right take again Tucker Carlson Who just expresses vicious hatred For people like Jeff Bezos hatred for companies like Walmart hatred for the idea of Billionaires the failure to defend capitalism the failure to identify what capitalism is in 2008 the failure to morally condemn the Occupy Wall Street movement the failure to morally condemn and factually condemn the inequality Fanatics the inequality purveyors of fear Has led not only to the disaster that is the Trump presidency But it's ultimately gonna lead us It's gonna lead us to Elizabeth Warren or to some future nutty crazy leftist Presidency and there's no opposition no real opposition Just as there was no opposition To the idea that capitalism caused the 2008 Great recession. So what? Would we have had to say back then? What would we have to say today? If we are gonna defend ourselves against AOC if we're gonna defend ourselves against Elizabeth Warren and at the end of the day if we're gonna defend ourselves against Tucker Carlson well first We must unequivocally state That we have no capitalism in the world today 2008 couldn't have been caused by capitalism because there was no capitalism not if capitalism means free market If capitalism means freedom from coercion freedom from regulations freedom from control freedom from the government running the economy There was no capitalism Before the financial crisis the financial crisis could not have we can argue about what exactly did cause the financial crisis But it could not have been caused by free markets Because it is exactly those areas that when bust mortgages housing rating agencies That are most controlled most regulated least Capitalistic, but that we don't have capitalism at all when you're taxing wealthy people at 37.6% that is not capitalism When you've got thousands and thousands and thousands of pages of regulations that is not capitalism when a hundred and fifty Government employees government bureaucrats government regulators go to work every single day a JP Morgan Signing off on every decision one of the great American banks makes that is not capitalism so Over and over and over again We have to make the case Yeah, they're problems today The economy screwed up people a being Left behind There is a lot of unfairness in the economy today. There's a lot That should be different and the reason for the problems It's not capitalism because we don't have it indeed. We have to make the case that the reason for the problems is Statism government intervention government control That that's what caused the financial crisis And that's what makes things worse and that's what to the extent that the middle class has held back That's what's holding them back To the extent that they're people who are struggling in America today to make a living While working full-time jobs That's not capitalism that's statism which Constrains our ability to raise the productivity of labor and therefore raise wages appropriately Capital is it's it's statism that restricts ability to distribute capital to its most productive uses and That limits the availability of capital by taxing. It is regulations that restrict the ability of innovations and and and progress on a large scale on a large scale That hold wages down it's not capitalism Capitalism is a system in which productivity explodes and as a consequence Wages explode with it and you can see it You can see it in the regulated segments of the economy versus the unregulated segments in the economy You can see it in there how how productivity? How fast it goes up? How much it improves? How much changes there in the various sectors? So the first case that has to be made is capitalism We don't have it and That to the extent that we move towards capitalism many of the so-called problems that exist go away and to the extent That we move away from them. We only only reinforce those problems The second argument we have to make is That indeed inequality is not a problem It's not a problem economically. There's no theory that suggests that it is and Importantly, it's not a problem morally and here the key point We have to make throughout all the time non-stop is that somebody's need is not a claim against everybody else Somebody's need is not a claim against those who have it's not a claim against those who are productive somebody's need is not Does not create a moral necessity on you to satisfy that need We have to advocate From the position of a morality of self-interest We cannot accept the need as a claim once you accept that it's over They win and of course, this is why Republicans must lose because they've accepted That need is a standard of value again. Look at Tucker Carlson