 Mark meets in which I speak to the biggest names in the world of politics sports show biz and beyond tonight's legendary us talk show host Yaron Brooke a man who has energetically used his platform to speak up for freedom democracy economic liberty and small governments Yaron is the best-selling author of in pursuit of wealth the moral case for finance as well as free market revolution Equal is unfair America's misguided fight against income inequality Yaron has also been a columnist at the Wall Street Journal USA Today Investors Business Daily and many other publications And he has since hit the headlines with his hugely popular online talk show The Aaron Brooks Show which has amassed a huge global audience I'm delighted to say that all the way from the United States Yaron Brooke joins us now. Hi Yaron, welcome back to GB News Thanks for having me on. It's a pleasure to be here. Very good to see you. Listen inflation is like out of control in the United States And across the Western world. You predicted this months ago. We did. I mean it's obvious that when you send people checks on the one hand So you increase the amount of money people have to spend. On the other hand you keep them home so they can't produce anything Then you get a mismatch between supply and demand. We know when demand is high supply is low prices go up That's almost a lot of physics. So yes inflation was predictable It's shocking that the largest employer PhDs in the world in economics the Federal Reserve missed it But here we are. We've got inflation and it's going to be a struggle to get rid of it Why have Western governments responded to the pandemic with socialism? Well because I think they panicked because I think that they saw China locked down. China is socialist So it makes sense that they locked down. They don't care about individual rights. They don't care about individual freedom They locked down. I think then when the pandemic started appearing Italy, Italy just panicked. They didn't know what to do They looked at China. Hey China is adored by many politicians in the West. They get stuff done They have great infrastructure. They produce stuff. So why not mimic them when it comes to the pandemic? Once Italy locked down then it was just a spiral. It's also the case that in the United States for example For months really they pretended it didn't exist. So for February Donald Trump was telling us Oh this is not an issue. No problem. Nothing will happen here. The CDC developed a test that was useless And didn't allow anybody else to use a test. So the American government completely blew this completely screwed it up And then once the pandemic hit New York, they panicked. They didn't know what to do. They locked down. Lockdown is the solution of ignorance and panic. No document written before the pandemic that describes What a government should do during a pandemic ever suggested locking people down. That's right. I mean these are the policies of the Chinese Communist Party. It's ultimately tyranny And similarly economic policies which have been very much to the left Essentially paying people money to stay at home. Well yes and it's more than that. Look we've been mimicking China for a long time You know in both on the right and on the left in the United States There's increased appetite for central planning. There's increased appetite for industrial policy Increased appetite for having a national policy around I don't know semiconductor manufacturing Other kind of manufacturing. Things that they look at China and China has done And they assume that is why China has been successful. That's a completely wrong analysis It's not the source of Chinese success. And many people in the West are copying that Look politicians their instinct is always towards more power. They might have a great platform They might give great speeches. They might promote free markets and individual freedom. Once they get the power they're almost always increased the size of government They almost always increase its controls over the economy and control over the individuals And it doesn't matter in the United States whether it's the left or the right Look at Boris Johnson. A lot of promise there and yet he's governing from the left He's governing from the perspective of government intervention from the perspective of Much bigger government involvement in the economy and in our lives And do you think that the West will ever recalibrate back to its original values For which so many gave their lives you know economic and personal freedom Well ever is a long time so hard to tell. I don't see it in the short run I just don't see the politicians. I don't see the intellectual movement That will drive politicians in that direction You know during the 1970s when we got Margaret Thatcher and we got Ronald Reagan That inched us a little bit in that direction. Not enough in my view Some of your views here will be shocked that I think Margaret Thatcher was too moderate But in economic policies there was a whole intellectual movement There were giants, intellectual giants where there was Hayekin in the UK Where there was people like Milton Friedman, Mises Einrand Advocating for these ideas in the US. Today the movement around liberty Liberty, individual liberty, economic liberty It's just thin. It's not It's considered a luxury. I mean what did Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie star and former governor of California say Screw your freedom. Absolutely. And look, Schwarzenegger should speak Schwarzenegger came into power as a Milton Friedman-like Pro-market, pro-capitalism governor and very As soon as he discovered that that wasn't very popular in California Shifted and ruled from, and governed from the left He was no different than a Democrat when it comes to California politics And he was very successful from an electoral perspective So we could blame the politicians all we like, but at the end it's not their fault It's our fault. We get the politicians we deserve We get the ideology we deserve. If we want to change, we have to change That requires education. So back to your question of will we ever return? Yes, but it's going to take a while It's going to take new intellectual giants, educating the public Educating us about the core values, the core principles At the foundation of liberty, at the foundation of freedom And until we do that, we can tinker with tax rates, we can tinker with policies That's not going to do it. We have to change the whole way we think about government We have to limit its scope, we have to resurrect the concept The lock-in concept of individual rights and think about individual rights And the government's sole job is protecting those rights That's going to take a massive program of education every year But there will be a backlash against this big state A, because of the economic pain we're now feeling Because you see, I've fought against these COVID measures since the beginning And I've always said, look, the bill hasn't come in yet And here we are and the press are calling today, awful April Because we've seen fuel prices, well basically energy So to heat your home, that's going up by in some cases 50% Fuel pump prices have gone through the roof So now the bill is coming in. I wonder if there will be a backlash But the only issue is, is the state now so big That we can't row back on its enormous footprint I don't see where the backlash is coming anytime soon Look, gas bills are easy. Why aren't you fracking? There's plenty of gas, hue, on the island But we have two to three decades worth of shale gas beneath our feet A well-known to be clean fossil fuel Yes, and we have the technology to get it It's an easy technology, it's a safe technology It's a technology you use all over the United States, all over the world You won't use it here, you won't accept it So first we have to be willing to do the necessary things In order to provide for energy in this country and in the western world But then, you know, the state is huge You're talking about national insurance, you're talking about NHS You're talking about all these institutions that are so ingrained Who's going to challenge those institutions? If I mention on a British campus The idea of privatizing the NHS Or getting rid of the NHS It's like, you know, I don't know It's like I called for genocide or something You know, you could argue against any religion But you can't argue against the NHS, it's become a religion here So until we educate people about their rights And the fact that the NHS is a massive violation of individual rights And the fact that it is indeed killing people It is not providing the care that is possible You're referring to its focus on Covid over the last two years Not treating other illnesses Not treating other illnesses, but more than that Even before Covid Look, you have long lines, you have waiting You know, people in this country die waiting for an MRI They die waiting for treatment It's a government program We don't trust the government to run a business Well, anything, I often ask audiences Here's an iPhone, a beautiful iPhone Look at this iPhone What do you think this would look like If a government committee designed it And everybody laughs Because everybody gets it, right But healthcare, which is much more complicated And much more important than an iPhone That we let the bureaucrats Who can't run anything That we let them run it Why do we expect better results? But that kind of thinking is so foreign In our culture today We expect the government to provide us We expect the government to solve our problems But look at Covid Instead of treating British, Americans, westerners as adults Telling them the risks Telling them what was involved And letting individuals make choices If I have pre-existing conditions Maybe I stay home Maybe I should isolate myself Maybe I should lock myself down If I'm young, if I'm 20 years old And I'm healthy And I'm like, why shouldn't I go out? If I'm 85, yeah, probably stay home But perhaps that young person will go out And generate a national income for the country Which will pay for the care of that older, vulnerable relative I mean, think about Covid Covid was this disease in a sense we were lucky Because it afflicted the old So it shouldn't have had any economic consequences Because the fact is who produces, who works Who actually generates income, the young Who were not afflicted that badly by Covid So it shouldn't have been a disease And if they were afflicted badly Then the government could easily have had The economic largesse to protect them If we'd spent a fraction of what was spent Protecting the vulnerable And letting the healthy get on with it Absolutely, we could have cocooned the elderly Protected them from getting the virus And letting the rest of us live And we could have provided them with food We could have provided them with aid There's a lot of ways in which the bill Would have been a fraction of what it Landed up being And people would have continued working So there would be no supply chain bottlenecks Because production would have continued The reason we have supply chain bottlenecks The primary reason is because we stop production We stop producing We thought stuff just appears magically And it doesn't Somebody actually has to go to work And when you prevent people from going to work You prevent stuff from being created And you create shortages Now I'm all for the principle that We receive healthcare at the point of need We don't want a situation where you've got to Produce your credit card after you've been In a road traffic accident So the principle of free healthcare As such even though of course it's not free I think is sacred to most Brits myself included But I'm all for delivering it in the most Efficient way The NHS employs over a million people In this country It's the biggest employer in Europe I'm sure it could be a leaner fighting machine But we don't want an American model do we Because the Americans pay about twice the amount That we pay through taxes for A service that's half as good Well I don't know that it's half as good I think it's actually better I won't replace the healthcare I get In the United States with anybody's healthcare I get the best service in the world I get the best treatment in the world And if it costs me a little bit more That's fine Because I live better and I live a little longer The American healthcare system is not fit for purpose It doesn't protect all Americans does it I mean it's hardly the model to aspire to No it's not the model to aspire to It has too much government involvement Over 50% of all government Of all expenditures on healthcare in the United States Are paid by the government If you're over 65 you have socialized healthcare In the United States called Medicare If you're poor you have socialized healthcare It's called Medicaid The idea that the American model Is a private model is absurd It's far from private If a country, America or any other country Had a purely private model A real insurance market And a real healthcare market that was private And regulated and controlled You know it's only in my imagination Unfortunately but prices would be a lot lower And efficiency which you discussed Would be far higher Quality would be through the roof You can't even imagine how good it could be I mean look take laser surgery Which is surgery in your eyes to improve Not in the United States Not covered by any health insurance Not provided by the government What happens to price of that Comes down every single year Quality goes up every single year Take healthcare for pets Which is a big industry in the United States Probably in the UK as well Not covered by Medicare Does not get involved in funding anything Regarding healthcare for pets And yet again price of insurance has gone down Quality has gone down No trouble getting an appointment No trouble getting an appointment And I bet you that if a pet is dying They're always treated Even when you don't show that insurance card So no I think you should question The possibility of having an NHS more efficient Unless it's much more private You need the price mechanism You need prices in order to achieve efficiency That's how every private market works And it's a wonder that all these other markets We get these beautiful amazing products In the private sector And yet healthcare somehow that's different No it's not It's the same as any other service We just need to trust the market Understand how it works Put in if you want Put in some safeguards To protect the most vulnerable Checks and balances the market Provides beautiful checks and balances It's called bankruptcy And going bust And it's caused lawsuits And stuff like that Guarantees that the poorest Will still be cared for Yes I actually think The poorest a kid for best In a free market Let me last point You know in a free market under capitalism There are a lot less poor people Because so much wealth is created I told you this man's not boring No wonder he's one of America's Most watched US political commentators He is the star of the Aaron Brook show