Economic Freedom of the World

Do you prefer the world of Adam Smith or the world of Karl Marx? Prof. Robert Lawson tells the story of his numerous discussions about this very question with his friends in college. Even after years of theoretical discussion with his friends, a conclusion was never reached between them. Prof. Robert Lawson now works on the Economic Freedom of the World project, which is an empirical study that attempts to answer this same question. In order to do this, the study compares data related to economic freedom and quality of life. It finds that countries with institutions resembling those advocated by Adam Smith tend to provide the highest quality of life to its citizens.
The latest edition of the Economic Freedom of the World report can be found here: www.freetheworl...
Credits: This lecture was delivered in 2009 at the Metropolitan State College of Denver School of Business, as part of the Exploring Economic Freedom Lecture Series, directed by Prof. Alexandre Padilla. This video was produced and directed by Scott Houck, and edited by Adrienne Christy. Video production provided by the Educational Technology Center at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Video used by LearnLiberty.org with permission.
Watch more videos: lrnlbty.co/y5tTcY

[@zacharybrooks9053]

I am so grateful to have discovered Learn Liberty. I would kill to see an updated version of this content!

[@jmcoelho7]

The speaker with the pink shirt that spoke of "emotional" made me think of a Margaret Thatcher quote.... “Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas.”

[@artaniskim2120]

its like seeing people saying that EQ is more important than IQ...

[@queenstreetsystems]

you realise you made that comment when the video itself was around 7 years old? This video needs an update to reflect right now ( every 6 months) a great deal of this video is now completely inaccurate

[@artaniskim2120]

@@queenstreetsystems you need to elaborate what has been changed....

[@TECHN01200]

I think Sargon's Law applies to her...

[@minihunt4093]

Why is IQ more important than EQ? Is the ability to memorized what you were told dictate intelligence better than being able to use information and creativety from the emotional animal in us? However that woman was spot on. Not only are the numbers and data extremely misleading, the reason liers love graphs and surveys, but it doesnt into account the human being. Just the corporation. Which have more rights than a human being in todays world. Not to mention history isnt taken into account. The very fact alot of these places struggle is because of empire. Anglo-saxon empire. European empire. American empire. Most are a direct result of our rape. Thank you. I love you all.

[@sdozer1990]

"That's not just dollar and cents, that's not whether you have a car in the driveway, that's whether you get to watch your granddaughter get married..."

[@sgtwisky]

Wish this info was standard fair in High School economics classes here in the U.S.

[@applekarma]

Keep wishing LOL

[@jy9291]

Standard 'fare'. And, fair.

[@andrecorreia4301]

And everywhere else too

[@Nazar33]

It was taught in my high-school

[@Fogaata]

I can't believe the number of views on this awesome video. I will use it to educate my two young boys. Thank you!

[@Junokaii]

I know... and this was released almost a decade ago :/

[@elharbingero]

re Friedman: Milton advised the countries in question on economic policy. He did NOT advise them on how to be totalitarian! That is such a complete myth and anyone who spouts it has discredited themselves. He didn't boycott Chile over their dictatorship, but his hope was to make the people freer economically, and thus freer overall. What's wrong with that? As opposed to many of his contemporaries who unabashedly praised communism...

[@sjwarialaw8155]

I don't know much about Milton Friedman, but all I know is that Chile is by far the best country in South America, and by "coincidence", is also the most economically free.

[@debasishraychawdhuri]

You have to use PPP rates for comparison and calculations. Someone in India making an exchange rate equivalent of $12000 is not really poor, he has access to all the basic amenities and a little bit of luxury as well.

[@jackesioto]

It largely depends on the cost of living in an area. In most of India for example, an annual income of $12,000 is middle class, in Hong Kong on the other hand, even an annual income of $120,000 is poor. Heck, even within a country, what income determines poverty varies. Rather than raw income as the metric used in defining poverty (or anything else economic class related), we should instead look at how far the given income goes in an area.

[@EqualToBen]

I really like this guy; there's not an ounce of bullshit in him and its refreshing

[@minihunt4093]

Huge amounts of bullshit. Liers love surveys and charts. Extremely easy to manipulate them.

[@fastestdino2]

@@minihunt4093 prove it.

[@frankbellend3273]

@@fastestdino2 without finding every data point they used you can use reference to reinforce the point. Gerrymandering is a way to skew data to achieve a specific goal. If you ask 20 rich people and 5 poor people how they feel about welfare policy, your "data" will show disdain for welfare policies. Easy stuff.

[@darrenwalker3986]

@@fastestdino2 kzbin.info/www/bejne/mIeqY4KHpZude7M

[@HidekiShinichi]

"venezuela almost last" :D Yeah, but you know, they just didnt understeand marx properly

[@goldennuke2]

"It wasn't real communism"

[@minihunt4093]

They were also and still are under economic attack from American empire. So yeah. Kind of hard to say it doesnt work when the most powerful nation in the world refuses to let it even have a chance. Would be nice to see what would happen if it was not being bombarded and attack in the worse way imaginable.

[@genli5603]

Idiocy. They’re sitting in the largest proved oil reserves in the world with a hundred happy buyers. They should be rolling in money.

[@HidekiShinichi]

@@krystal5887 yeah. killing a lot of people and disincentivising them from working does seem to be a result of oil prices drops.

[@indobalkanizer6557]

@@minihunt4093 first you nationalise the oil in your country, second you make ur country progress apparently alongwith healthy global oil prices and ur nationalised economy is dependent on it then THIRD, when price falls ur country goes hyperinflation, FOURTH now ur country has failed so whine abt Western imperialism hahaha this is the story of every Socialist country

[@murdockhancock1660]

36:00 "if goods don't cross borders soldiers will cross borders"

[@elharbingero]

re: the guy who's SO MAD about Oprah making a boatload of money... I pity people like that. What has Oprah done wrong *relative to earning a living*? Who has she disadvantaged? In an age of cable TV and the internet, she's hung onto a substantial number of viewers. And the overwhelming majority of them haven't sent her any money directly! They chose her show, and there's a value she created in millions of lives. She deserves her riches. Shame on the outraged gentleman.

[@hzuiel]

I agree, though I dispute the value aspect, perceived value and actual value are not necessarily the same. One is beneficial to society, one is not. I encourage anyone to try and look at what they do to make money and hopefully it is something that creates value. I mean right now the easiest way for people to make more money than they could make if they went to law school or med school, is to get internet famous, instagram modeling, youtube channels, etc. That seems like a dangerous dynamic to enforce. Some big youtubers have said they dropped out of college. Markiplier I believe was an engineering student. Entertainment has some value, but unfortunately it doesn't have the value that engineering does to society. If people choose to make easier money and more money from something that contributes less to society, that can be bad. Wealth is stuff, and a lot of jobs don't create stuff, or support others in creating stuff. Education prepares people to go create. Preparing food to feed people that are creating stuff is participation in that structure. A certain amount of entertainment is necessary for people's happiness and can boost productivity, but it's also possible to over value a product, or strive too much after it.

[@PeopleHealthTru]

Oprah is fraud. Fascist Feminism is fraud and socialist dictatorship.

[@frankbellend3273]

The way capitalism works is the more one has, the less someone else has. There is o ly a certain amount of money. And people like oprah, Bill Gates, bezos, boards of investment banks etc. have so much that it decreases the amount those in the lower end have. Trickle down sure as hell doesnt work.

[@davidditch3287]

@@frankbellend3273 In a healthy economy, wealth is created over time. The rapid increase in standards of living over the last few centuries is proof of this. Zero-sum thinking often leads to bad policies that prevent additional growth and improvements.

[@frankbellend3273]

@@davidditch3287 creating wealth leads to inflation. And still a zero sum game.

[@sdozer1990]

Because the national income of freer countries is so much larger, the 2 - 3% approximate share of income means a larger income level for the poorest 10% in those countries. There's a difference between 'American poor' and 'Venezuelan poor' and it's a distinction we need to ask about, as in "Do you mean American poor or Venezuelan poor?". If you're American poor, boohoo. You must have like no food in that refrigerator and no games for that game console and no shows for that television. Buf if you're Venezuelan poor, you have no food in the supermarket, no game shops, no game consoles, and probably all propaganda on TV. Thank Chavez and Maduro.

[@sjwarialaw8155]

Venezuela was bad before Chavez and Maduro. Some say it was even worse, some say its worse now. In the end, the Venezuelan people voted for this, elections were free and there is no evidence of tampering, and in fact, when coup detat was made on Chavez, the people rose up and brought him back pretty much on their own, which is quite rare. Also, Chavez is only a thing because the liberal system they had before was awful, otherwise people wouldn't want a change. But the people are for the most part extremely dumb in political matters, so they vote for the other extremes, instead of voting for someone who would fix the shortcomings of the current system.

[@banger107]

In my class the discussion is not about Smith Vs. Marx, is about Smith Vs. Keynes. Sadly, i'm the only one to the defend economic freedom... I want a job at the Economic Freedom of the World too!!!

[@rekindlefitness]

Superb video. This should be taught in school. Data doesn't lie.

[@Nazar33]

Wasn't it taught in your high school? It was in mine.

[@TheSupersayin2]

"It's rude dude" lol

[@manor1730]

It's true, each idea is a personal preference that we each need to make. Both choices are valid and solve the problem of how to life in different ways. I wish every person could choose for themselves which group to join instead of each group trying to force their ideas on the other.

[@darrenwalker3986]

Absolutely, well said.

[@vidard9863]

that is the benefit and weakness of capitalism. in a capitalist system socialists and communists are welcome to have their co-ops and communes. neither socialism nor communism can tolerate the existence of capitalism. unfortunately because capitalists can not only tolerate but accept both communists and socialists they allow them to have voices, and become subverted due to the higher voting interest in those seeking to reject capitalism than in those who cannot be bothered to reject socialism or communism. it is only reality that will provide the impetus to re assert capitalism.

[@darrenwalker3986]

@@vidard9863 that's in your brainwashed mind. For example, China is governed by communism yet they are the most capitalist people on the planet. The Chinese embraced capitalism. Not as a way to govern, that would be psychopathic, but as a way to develop. They are now masters of capitalism on a strong communist foundation. You are thinking of fascist rulers that have used the socialist or communist platform to gain power. They are not true socialists or communists. Just fascists. Without capitalism a society can not develop; that is what true capitalism means. Capitalist countries are not true capitalists they are pirates. And they use capitalism as a way to enslave. Capitalism, socialism or communism alone are a not way of governing. This is just for the ignorant uneducated fools to believe. Just law is. One could say that common law is communism. But true freedom and liberty for all can only be achieved by just common law not the West's corrupt corporate legal system that enslaves to debt and restricting access to resources. The US lives to sanction the socialists and communists. So who are the real tyrants?!? The US, and partners, are frantically trying to crush all people power in the world to rule with their corrupt enslaving corporate legal system that binds everyone to debt.

[@jeremiahsnyder9262]

People get really upset when dude tries to tell a joke. Go watch some comedians and learn to laugh a little.

[@generalshepherd457]

Some of the bluest countries have the most draconian governments when it comes to covid reactions, such as passes and mandates.

[@sjwarialaw8155]

Its true, but that is because they are the only countries that have a stable 'not-totally-dumb' middle class that their own leaders want to destroy. Their economies are so strong that they can afford the consequences without collapsing. The consequences are: 1. Small businesses will go out of business (middle class destruction). 2. Big corporations are mostly unafected as they have the capital to hold and then move in into where small business were. 3. Inflation, which basically hurts mostly the lower economic classes (middle class destruction) 4. Dependency on government economic grants In the end, middle class is brough to their knees, big corporations consolidate their monopolies, more people are dependent on government and therefore inclined to grant more power to government, and that is the whole goal.

[@YadiAnyankah]

We would have loved to see the board as he spoke. It makes us feel like we are part of the class.

[@rgaleny]

WITHOUT THE STATE THERE ARE MAFIAS, WITH THE STATE THERE ARE MAFIAS

[@chadjones4255]

And, if we are being honest, most of the activity of the state is that of an outsized mafia.

[@BinaryVision]

Iceland Scoring high in freedom? Fuck yeah! Now to get it up to top 5.

[@Zuron]

Ouch.

[@PathfinderHistoryTravel]

32:21 Example of the old “you offended me” ploy. Student uses it to boost his ego and assert power. Teacher didn’t say anything offensive. Just an attempt at humor to bring levity to lecture. Student is in the wrong and should have been called on it.

[@worsethanjoerogan8061]

Lol student was triggered by a mild mannered economics prof. That's when you know you're a snowflake

[@SL2797]

"uR uSiNg eMoTiOnAl LaNgUaGe" Looks who's talking lmao

[@jessejuell9833]

I like the balls to make fun of hippies and commies in front of a college audience.

[@drsch]

Aaaaand the lady in pink doesn't know how Q&As work.

[@NyalBurns]

They need to do this again because it’s changed a lot

[@Peter-wp5vb]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGKzgYmtiL12irc

[@2496mastering]

@pawqmasta00 opinion and personal preference was self-admitted by the speaker himself. Seems fair to me. The question is whether any data referred to or trend concluded from it is biased/false/spun. If so, please elaborate.

[@forwardpaunganwa4135]

If an American ever debates for socialism and can never be convinced by the appeals of America's capitalism, bring him to Africa (Zimbabwe would be the best example of socialist rule, that's where I live) and let him live here for just three months! These are very spoiled people, in my opinion.

[@marcorc5167]

How can people still choose socialism/communism when the raw data shows it's the absolute worst option in almost every outcome??

[@lisbonapartments7203]

They are too young and too emotional. That generally changes after their first paycheck.

[@shamgar001]

@SOSTacoJohnson The meltdown was caused by Federal Reserve policy. The regulations on the banks are all written by the banks themselves, anyway. The best regulation for banks is non-interventionism.

[@spldrong]

Great stuff

[@eggory]

@pawqmasta00 The way he presents the data is surely biased, but what is your criticism of the data itself, and his emperical conclusions?

[@kristintheartist]

What makes you say he’s biased?

[@GETJUSTICE4U]

The GDP per capita of Sweden ranks 20th in the worlds ranking. Qutar, a Monarchy (dictator ship) is no. 1. The US is 13th. Switzerland is higher than Sweden. Half of the American population are living on the breadline or poverty stricken. This is not so in Sweden. Sweden used to be top of the well being list per capita. The change in position coincides with the massive intake of immigrants from third world countries that increased Swedens tiny population by 20%.

[@kristintheartist]

Also Sweden depends on the American military for their defense instead of funding their own national defense. A huge savings that allows them to steal from the productive and give to the moochers without going broke.

[@sjwarialaw8155]

@@kristintheartist and I heard from a swedish economist that their economy is on dire conditions. He claims that the reason why Sweden didn't implement measures against COVID is because the economy couldn't afford it.

[@noahwiggs9380]

I want to see an updated version of this

[@seattleseahawks11]

cold hard facts

[@KayamaTakeru]

@nickdeb2 Funny, how one big complaint with economists is that they prefer to state things with math.

[@chadjones4255]

The fringe left (and sometimes the fringe right) want to make a religion out of politics -- it's all moral indignation all the way down.

[@spec24]

The defense budget is not the largest. Welfare spending dwarfs defense spending.

[@robert23497]

The lady with the pink shirt apparently didn't hear the speakers lecture. The speaker used data to support his statements.

[@danielavelasco4036]

Hi, greeting from Colombia

[@MarkCensky]

Knowledgeable dude but lacks polish when speaking off script...um, um

[@TheTariqibnziyad]

Who cares ? We can understand him

[@MegaBanne]

Taxes are not only loss of freedom, it can allso be used to build roads, railways, invest in seamingly economically hopeless science (but which might become prominent in the future), to increase your freedom in ways you couldn't do by your self.

[@Sfidt1]

No it is not. Economic calculation is always done bad when done by the government and bureaucrats who do not participate in the losses and profits (sometimes they participate in profit but not the loss)

[@Barskor1]

Indegogo Kickstarter and so on we don't need government to fund large projects. Roads are paid for with gas tax why couldn't the fuel companies just pay the same portion to make roads? They can and would and they would do it better as the roads would represent their companies.

[@awhodothey]

Well it is a loss of freedom, but every loss of freedom is not bad (the freedom to punch random people for example). Only some losses of freedom are bad.

[@vidyanandbapat8032]

Agreed.

[@vidyanandbapat8032]

@@awhodothey That's right. The socalled "Loss of Freedom" which does not adhere to the non-aggression principle is not a true loss of freedom since the same person who claims so would not be okay if it happens with him/her.

[@donnieroserock]

I prefer the world of RON PAUL !!! r3VOLution !!

[@skippy5712]

Yes! This guy has made the Data fit his own biases to a large degree.

[@frankbellend3273]

Bro your barbecue smoke made my eyes sting, I'm gonna molotov your house. NAP for the win.

[@dsgio7254]

So why Guatemala who is more " free" than Cuba is so much worse than Cuba in terms of poverty , health care education ? It shounld not be .. correct ? Other countries as well have the same problem ( freer but much worse than Cuba)

[@troyezell5841]

There is nothing negative said about Karl Marx that can be considered "unfair". If you read Marx's poems you will find that he was an evil person by nature. Even if you put Marx's poems aside, his political beliefs were an ideology of serving government like a god. His entire belief system is that humanity's hope is only in government. If you look back at history, such a belief is insanity. Lasty though, this guy says, regarding the war, he is "embarrassed to be an American", that is the joke of the century. With that statement he is channeling Marx. I am embarrassed to know he is an American! We are not a waring nation, we are a nation that defends freedom. We have defended the freedoms of every nation from the perils and tyranny of communism and fascism.

[@CarlAlex2]

I dont think taxation level is a good metric for economic freedom as long as you are allowed to leave. 1. You need to consider what level of service you get in return for those taxes - eg. how is it less free to get universal health care paid for by taxes than to pay a lot more just to get health care for yourself ? Its not like health care is something less universally needed than the public roads, police, courts, schools etc. that most USAmericans dont seem to considder making them less free to pay for via taxes. As the video says: "Adam Smith wasnt an anarchist". 2. You forget the freedom the current generation takes away from the next in the US by severe deficit spending - shouldnt the huge chronic public deficit spendings at all levels in the US be considered some sort of tax ? I mean if you get free by not paying the taxes to fund the public spending you demand, then you are taking a larger amount of freedom away from those who will be left holding the bag after the party is over, thus reducing the total amount of freedom.

[@GETJUSTICE4U]

The problem with capitalism is that it has become obscenely far too extreme. Consequently half the worlds wealth is owned by about 600 eye watering mega wealthy multi billionaires and over three billion people (half the world population) have less than two dollars a day to survive on. The only places on earth where one may find something that looks like a truly socialist society may be some small tribe in the Amazon cut off from civilisation. Communism, like all philosophical ideologies, comes in many versions most of which would not be recognised by Karl Marx. Castro did not adopt any principles of Marx until sometime after he grabbed control of Cuba. The main reason no political ideologies are perfect, meaning equally good and fair for all, is greed driven corruption and corrupt driven greed and innate selfishness. Consequently, we live in a world in which medics are imprisoned for successfully curing people of terminal cancers with natural based drugs (GcMAS). Millions die from the consumption of legal drugs, tobacco, alcohol, etc. In 2004 the cost of one submerine would could instead provide 80 million people, that don't have it with clean water for a year. Why are there 100s of submarines whose only use is military. So many millions of people without clean water? Making submarines for rich countries or any that can get the money to buy them is extremely profitable. Providing clean water for impoverished peoples who have no money is not profitable. War is only ever waged to gain more wealth of some kind. War is for a few a very profitable business. This is why contrary to what the speaker said the US has been waging "proxy" wars all over the planet where ever it can against inferior nations with impunity in order to install corrupt dictators and exploit their countries natural resources.

[@sjwarialaw8155]

Capitalism is becoming milder by the day, especially since the 70's or so... not sure what you are talking about... Inequality isn't a consequence of Capitalism. You are making a confusion between Corporativism and Capitalism, one isn't the other. Corporativism is a problem for both left and right politics, its promoted by both systems because it creates concentration of power, which makes it easier for rulers to rule. Most, if not all, the problems you list, have absolutely nothing to do with Capitalism, but are rather a human problem, that neither socialism or capitalism managed to solve. And all the indicators show that at least under Capitalism those problems are less proeminent, less wars, high living span, higher quality of living and so on.

[@sumdumbmick]

'civilized' is just a way of saying that you're willing to accommodate the demands of cowards. if somebody says something stupid and I point it out as such, that's 'uncivilized'. so the result is that the 'civil' way of saying it has absolutely no impact because the meaning becomes ambiguous. and thus completely fucking stupid arguments wind up being very disproportionately tolerated and promoted in 'civilized' forums. if instead, you were allowed to just say, 'what the fuck are you talking about, Jane?' and leverage the peer pressure that brings to force Jane to say shit that actually makes sense, well now you're getting somewhere.

[@sumdumbmick]

I'll bet you that the debates you reference from the '80s that went nowhere were of a form where things like profanity was banned, but also nobody had any data. so you're walking this weird tightrope where the stupidest ideas are promoted the most, because you're not allowed to cause people to feel the wrongness of their ideas, AND you have no evidence to back up your own position, so regardless of whether your ideas are correct or fucking lunacy they look exactly the same to anyone you're attempting to articulate them to. this is simply a bullshit way to do business.

[@stevendv8487]

great talk though he should have been able to answer the first question...

[@parrotboss785]

where can i check this data myself to see the rate of my country?

[@RealJokerx7]

www.fraserinstitute.org/economic-freedom/dataset?geozone=world&year=2015&page=dataset&min-year=2&max-year=0&filter=0 That's the one. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom This one is similar, but from the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal.

[@ebertbeeman4382]

H ow does Ghana rate?

[@aburr518]

I'm legally blind and I literally build rocket engines. I'm also terrible at catching typos so I really disagree with your statements here

[@SOSTacoJohnson]

@Chaos511 He cut taxes to extravagantly wealthy ppl. I'm almost dumbfounded, how do you not know this? His entire 8 year career was heavily focused on cutting banking regulation. In fact it was his deregulation that caused the 2008 CDO fraud and housing collapse. He pushed for not 1 regulation, and was assisted by 6 years of an anti-regulation congress. Provided that the conversation we are having is your actual belief, and not propaganda, then you should begin shopping for a helmet.

[@bogdanbogdanovich140]

Sorry but how is post soviet eastern Europe more free than the United States? Shitload of regulations and pretty much no one has any money.

[@darrenwalker3986]

Are sanctions imposed by the the US considered in these calculations. Such as the sanctions on Venezuela, Russia, etc. Economic warfare. There is a lot of fuzziness being ignored here.

[@kristintheartist]

What sanctions?

[@darrenwalker3986]

@@kristintheartist how do you not know? The US has been imposing sanctions on Venezuela for some years now. Making it very expensive to get food and medicine imported. And they get very little for their oil. There US is punishing them because the state (the Venezuelan people) own their oil. The US wants their private companies to profit from their oil. These criminal economic acts of war has caused the humanitarian crisis there; with mass poverty, hunger and illness. But the Venezuelan people have strong social democracy and choose to resist US aggression and takeover. How do you not know the immense cruelty imposed by the US, ironically in the name of freedom and democracy they attack they poor people of Venezuela's freedom and democracy. *Fear and greed governs fools.*

[@SOSTacoJohnson]

@Chaos511 sources?

[@MrDiagorasofmelos]

0.53: "Smith would be considered a libertarian" Really? Have you read him?

[@MRBIMF]

14:15 2020 strikes once again

[@ScottCorbitt]

@Banmuyuan Because if the rich are richer, that's also better. We want everyone to be richer.

[@svenhuber6533]

Socialism comes in 2 forms, based on free market and based on a planed economy. The planed economies (Cuba, East Germany, North Korea, etc) failed miserably even with a huge wealth of resources (Venezuela, Russia), because they never could satisfy the basic needs of the people. Free market socialism is actually very successful (China, Nazi Germany) because the state controls the outcome of the economy, but these have to expand in order to stay successful. A side effect is the national socialism (Nazi Germany, China is almost there) which then combined with expansion leads to war. Now Democracy comes also in two forms, with no control and with control of the economy. The US is without control, the life of the people suffer and the state is very aggressive to defend the economy (wars to maintain the control over recourses). With control, like Germany (social market economy) is probably the best what we have right now. Side effects are imperialism, colonialism (USA, GB).

[@sjwarialaw8155]

I don't entirely agree with everything you just said, but its certainly refreshing to read someone calling China for what it is, a National Socialist system. So tired of people creating this rididulous notions, like "China merges Capitalism with Communism", its so ridiculous it hurts my mind.

[@jmcrop8610]

Nicely colored map of the world. Intresting to see Oman in blue. But unfortunately this makes no sense whatsoever considering thia guy's fav country Georgia is still in deep shit economically...

[@koolhanddavey]

Where the heck is Auburn University?

[@Puppynutter123]

koolhanddavey try Alabama

[@daPlumber702]

@eagleeye1975 thumbs up sir.thumbs up

[@skippy5712]

I would consider your opinion if you gave a few more details of your criteria and the data you rely on. I would have thought growth rates are a better way of determining ease of doing business. Production increases in a nation also are a good indication of the ease of doing business. Your list paints a very different picture compared to the above stats. e.g. China has achieved enormous growth. Why does it rate so low on your scale if it is so hard to set up Business there? Sounds to me like another bullshit Accounting Exercise. As an Australian I would argue Australia should rate as high as you rate it. There are many many places in the World I have visited where it is much easier to start up Businesses that you rate well down the list.

[@Castle3179]

As for Chinas high growth. It is a product of how much easier it is to play catch up. The growth spurt from changing systems eventually slows down as your economy approaches the maximum productivity. China is not yet at the top of the S-shaped growth curve.

[@darrenwalker3986]

Can we grow infinitely?!?

[@kristintheartist]

By your question framing it’s apparent you look to nature as inspiration. So yes, by your own ideology we can grow infinitely. Name one thing in nature that doesn’t.

[@darrenwalker3986]

@@kristintheartist 😂🤣😂 OMG! _Do you think you are being clever?_ Your comment is *totally irrational.* Do as your mummy tells you. And don't talk back. Edit: name one thing that does grow infinitely. It is believed that not even the universe does.

[@kristintheartist]

@@darrenwalker3986 Why did you ask the question if you're just going to be butt-hurt by someone answering?

[@darrenwalker3986]

@@kristintheartist I am not butt-hurt. I am astonished at the ridiculous stupidity.

[@trevtall1094]

Hate that women "feels over facts"

[@Mastervitro]

Natural Law Resource Based Economy

[@kristintheartist]

You’re going to grow 2000 calories a day and give half to your landlord who controls the majority of resources on the earth? No more human rights or labor rights? The elite stripping property away from the common man and dividing it up among themselves? Should go well!

[@Mastervitro]

​@@kristintheartist No landlords, collective ownership of resources, rights are built into the system. No more classes. It's like you never looked the term up.

[@kristintheartist]

@@Mastervitro Collective ownership? Who doles it out? And who pays the down payments, property taxes, maintenance, insurance, utilities, and permits? The landlord who you turned into a slave. Getting something for nothing is called stealing or slavery and the ones taking and not giving are called moochers, leeches, commies, thieves, dictators, swindlers, or robbers.

[@wurzel9671]

34:33

[@buysideprussian]

@pawqmasta00 so is all speech, there is no such thing as speech free of some sort of viewpoint. (except math perhaps)

[@michaelpetras1613]

11 y

[@EqualToBen]

RONPAUL2012

[@nguyenhuynh9007]

🆗

[@poetmaggie1]

I prefer a would that adheres to the Catholic Church, not the one being run by our Marxis Bishops the one that Peter helped run.

[@Jopacob]

Until we all can accept that there are no working economies that are “pure” isms and admit that they are all hybrid systems, we cannot decide what mix to apply to move forward.

[@genli5603]

And the more socialistic, the less well it works.

[@kingsqueensrecordsbarbados9746]

Disingenuous speaker. State Owned Banks (the peoples bank) don't all have financial crisis, most State Owned Banks are simply sold to Banking Cartels. Watch, The End of Poverty on KZbin, then look at your Country, research why your Bank was sold, you will find out for the most part, that what your rep says, was a lie, or misleading. The USA is the HQ for such operatives. It s not me that say these things, I am repeating the research that is online.

[@afreestate8466]

"My goal is to study it so that I can subvert it." Are you even really listening then? Sounds like you've already made up your mind, pink shirt.

[@darrenwalker3986]

Interesting how income value is never being compared to cost of living. Also, how much rubbish is being produced and damage to environment being done by economic freedom.

[@sjwarialaw8155]

Cost of living sure is a factor, but you can use empirical common sense to analyze it. Blue countries have a much much higher standard of living, despite the cost of living being higher. Its widely known, that's why there's an overuse and overconsumption of everything in this countries. I've lived in the US, Mexico, Argentina and Europe, and its not even funny how much better the standard of living is in the blue countries despite the higher cost of living. And you clearly have no idea of what you are talking about when it comes to environmental damage. Economic free countries are usually the cleanest of them all, with more recycling, more water treatment and so on. My country doesn't have a single polluted river, all companies have to channel their water to a water treatment plant, or they have to build a water treatment module before dumping the water into a river, all closerly regulated by government entities. That happens because our somewhat free economic system generated enough wealth for that to be possible. Meanwhile in China or India, or any of the socialist dumpsters all over the world, you have to wear masks because of industrial polution, and rivers are multicolored poison.

[@frankolivetree2480]

Very smug, especially on income equality. Everything is in dollars. The inequality of one country as compared to other countries based on dollars is not accurate. The poor in one country might consider themselves middle class in another.

[@sjwarialaw8155]

I don't think you understand what you are talking about... dollars are a convertible fiat currency, nothing more, he could have used Yens, Euros, or even any commodities you can think off... Numbers don't care about what people consider themselves. The world is globalized, most products share the same prices globally. I've lived in the US, Mexico, Argentina and two European countries. Prices of everything are pretty much the same, with exceptions of course. In fact I could give you a ton of anecdotal examples where things are expensier in the poorest countries than in the rich countries.

[@MegaBanne]

The problem with todays liberalists is that they think it is as simple as to just ask "Big or small government?". Politics should not be ruled by theories, it should be ruled by ideoligies.

[@SOSTacoJohnson]

@shamgar001 IE letting them go bankrupt. Nonetheless, you still have fucked up the what caused the meltdown. That was the institution of nina loans, made possible b/c of deregulating the criteria for what qualifies as acceptable loan practices. Act like u know.

[@allaboutmusicmovies9606]

It seems like the speaker is misleading alot. He also confuse Socialism with Communism.

[@SOSTacoJohnson]

@Chaos511 Re-read the middle of your passage. Now either you are delusional, or you are trying to pass off propaganda. This conversation is over.

[@eagleeye1975]

I love how at 32:22 or so, he gets called out for being rude.

[@sjwarialaw8155]

yeah he went a little bit over the top, I also thought it was slightly rude, and I'm a libertarian.

[@tylerdurden4080]

Karl Marx deserves everything he gets.

[@TheTariqibnziyad]

Like rolling on his grave ?

[@tylerdurden4080]

@@TheTariqibnziyad like rolling on his grave or in his grave?

[@TheTariqibnziyad]

@@tylerdurden4080 maybe both xD

[@emcada134]

@elysianfury lmao dude. That is funny.

[@abuhnerkemper]

Sweden's quality of life, personal happiness, and healthiness is way higher than America despite higher taxes. So if you ask someone from Sweden, I'm sure they'll complain a whole lot less about high taxes than an American. That's not to say that the same taxation would work in the US, but when people say any socialism and high taxation is evil, they really throw the baby out with the bath water. You need a mix of socialism and free markets to be a successful economic country.

[@hzuiel]

There are different social dynamics and culture in sweden and other politically similar countries that may make those policies more effective, but it can take many decades to see the eventual results of changes. There are many things in America that contribute to our problems, which are decades in the making. The federal reserve system had it's 100th birthday not too long ago, which is a life sucking system if there ever was one. It took decades to successfully take the gold out of the US dollar, turning it 100% fiat currency. A lot of america's success is attributable to the success of the american dollar as a reserve currency for many nations, actively traded and used around the world. However the value of the dollar is wholly dependent on the perceived value, and some degree of faith in the USA. As we saw in 2008, financial instability shakes faith in the USA real fast. We're top heavy and one good financial meltdown could flip the ship upside down. A mess many decades in the making. If you rewound the clock to 1950, many people might have been positive about cultural changes, they might have spoken favorably about the federal reserve act. It's not as if we don't have social programs in the USA, we do, but they see rampant abuse. People demonstrably live worse lives when they rely on the government, yet they do it in droves, and often make little effort to get out of that system. People who need assistance sometimes struggle to get it, people who don't need it very much if at all, somehow get it. The Swedish culture probably forstalls a lot of that kind of abusive behavior, very different way of viewing government programs, but that doesn't mean it couldn't change. The USA i feel is in full cultural meltdown, we've lost most of the values that allowed us to be successful in the first place, and some of them involve switching form self reliance to reliance on the government. In another 50 years, Swedish values may degrade as low and the high taxes and big government programs begin to backfire. Somehow I think with the migrant crisis it will bring that to a head faster than it might have otherwise.

[@benjaminmyers5299]

Swedish happiness is explained by the exceptionally high suicide rate, including assisted suicide. Surely if more disaffected Americans killed themselves, we'd be happier, too.

[@SL2797]

Wrong. A mixed, "enlightened centrist" economy is an stagnant economy. If you want prosperity and progress, you advocate for MORE economic freedom.

[@sjwarialaw8155]

No you don't. I don't think you understand what socialism is. You are probably using socialism as a synonym for something else. Because that's how socialists ideologues convince people that we need socialism. We don't. Socialism is a complete failure. Socialism was a complete failure as far back as 1920, which is why alternative socialist ideas started to rise, like fascism and national socialism.

[@AMAO13]

الرأس مالية كفر حكم بغير ما انزل الله

[@notyourdad361]

allah akbart

[@TheTariqibnziyad]

Skout al9lawi

[@mitch2192]

Somebody not to be taken seriously. Flawed, biased, and metric insufficient study. Hongkong, btw, is not a country. It was once a British administered territory and is now just a province of China.

[@MrAbzu]

Yeah, Adam Smith, The Vile Maxim, "Everything for me, nothing for anyone else". Check, 150 million living in poverty in the USA, by Republican standards that would be half way there.

[@SL2797]

No, the maxim would be "You have NO right to take what is mine, by force." Also, the freer the economy, the better off EVERYONE is.

[@MrAbzu]

@@SL2797 The vile maxim is a direct quote from Adam Smith. Feudal Capitalism is what we are currently practicing here in the USA. We have a more enlightened form of serfdom in that we are not bound to the land and are able to move about freely to try and find a good master where we may with our job applications. There is no democracy in the workplace, it is actually very similar to Soviet Communism. How much of what is yours was stolen by taking advantage of a rigged system to under pay your employees. No one said anything about taking anything from anyone but the rich feel free to do that with impunity through their little weasel bills cooked up by their lobbyists. Adam Smith was pointing out that unregulated capitalism leads to the rich creating the kind of wealth disparity we are currently experiencing. So, welcome to the sick joke, parody of itself that the USA has become. "The reason it is called the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it" George Carlin. History will look back on Reagan and Thatcher as the beginning of the end of the "Middle Class".

[@MegaBanne]

You can't talk about different systems, because there is no different systems. There is only one system, and that is the global economy. Ok, perhaps you could count north korea as allmost a individual system, but it is ruled in a way far from marxism. ... Not that I think this society, wher the state is super powerfull, is the optimal goal of socialism, un less that state does exactly what the people want, from a fully democratic perspective. Communism and Liberalism are theories, but not socialism. Communism and Liberalism both share the inevitble goal of having a state which is large, strong and ruled like a dictatorship.

[@Puppynutter123]

Spineless presenter, and sadly inadequately informed to then state he’s embarrassed to be American along war issues. The USA has not profited from any war, especially when considering the cost of war to the country and its people. Furthermore, there would be much greater ill in the world without American support/intervention, depending how one wants to look at it. War is an ugly business. Imagine Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar taking America’s place.... has not given Islamic financial practices any thought.... but gives a talk on finances, market types....

[@Spamlure]

Do I prefer the world of Adam Smith or the world of Karl Marx? That's like asking: Do I prefer ONE person who owns EVERYTHING (the rest have nothing), or EVERYONE owns EVERYTHING(no individual ownership). I'd rather have a world with a little bit of both Adam Smith and Karl Marx.

[@asonofAbba2]

False dichotomy

[@chadjones4255]

I believe he conclusively demonstrated that less freedom does not mean less uneven distribution as a total share --just 15 times more wealth represented by that share. Also, it should be pointed out that in unfree economies, the people do not "own everything." They own nothing. Ownership only means control, and when the government owns everything, it really means the elite political class owns everything in every meaningful sense. "Everyone owns everything" is just a rhetorical device used to steal everything from everyone else.

[@SL2797]

*Communism* Expectation: "Everyone owns everything!" Reality: The politicians own EVERYONE.

[@sjwarialaw8155]

that was one of the most ridiculous assesments I ever heard... you don't understand even basic economies.

[@Spamlure]

@@sjwarialaw8155 Anyone who did would run the planet. Hasn't happened yet.

[@kingofallclergy]

The problem with this lecture is you are trying to explain something that is in flux right now. Social society clashing with Political cultures. Religious cultures and secular law. Economist and realist. The idea that you can explain this is insane. I admire your try but we are in the middle of figuring this out. Best thing you can do from here forward is get involved-don't get sidelined by the details-you have a job great-open your mind and jump in we are changing the world now!

[@pawqmasta00]

biased