The Economics of a Stateless Society | Robert P. Murphy

Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 18, 2018.
Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

[@horaciojuarez124]

Who would build the roads? Me, I actually work in road construction.

[@TheHyde8875]

Who would pay you to build the roads? The manpower isn't the issue. Raising the capital is.

[@mistersharpe4375]

​@@TheHyde8875 The answer to that would be anyone who both has the capital and requires working roads. For example, every large company to have ever existed. Supplying goods to consumers is the core of every business, and working roads are entirely essential for that. It's hard to imagine Amazon, for example, closing down business just because the road leading out from their warehouse is in disrepair.

[@TheHyde8875]

@@mistersharpe4375 lol what an adorable "answer".

[@mistersharpe4375]

@@TheHyde8875 Not as adorable as your "rebuttal".

[@OneTribe.Community]

@@ericjardine8210 I’m on board with pulling money out of federal government and putting it back in to the local level.

[@magnus4g63]

Great lecture, this should have millions of views.

[@DrProgNerd]

Such a great teacher. I read his book 'The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal'. I'm reading his book 'Understanding Money Mechanics' right now. He makes complex ideas easy to understand.

[@DoctorMandible]

This might be the greatest video on the internet.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

at 31:30 "Say hello to my little firend" - That's really shows Bob Murphy' great sense of humour.

[@Rob-fx2dw]

Excellent observation about the price of road access being too low. That's the type of imaginative thinking that is sadly missing from most politicians' brains (if they have any).

[@remsee1608]

The vaccine talk at the end is now very relevant

[@laurensrodi4264]

for the first part of the lecture: there is a better book/documentary on where money came from its called 'the ascent of money' by prof Niall Ferguson (for the BBC even!) its about 3 hours and should be up on youtube

[@ReallyGoodBadBoy]

BUT WHO WILL BUILD THE ROADS?!?!?

[@billfargo9616]

The same people who build them now. Only the source of finance will be different.

[@thinkngskeptic]

@@billfargo9616 But what about the children?

[@k4yser]

@@billfargo9616 enjoy paying a toll every cpl of miles/kilometers.

[@ur9640]

The roads would be dirt and good enough for horses. Just think 1750 era.

[@horaciojuarez124]

I actually work in road construction, not that difficult.

[@puremusicdaz]

superb lecture on why the state has no business in, er, business. tiny government also means tiny taxes. common sense that of course will never happen until Jesus gets back.

[@mosesjoe7050]

The world is too complex for a tiny state. Lots of problems need to be addressed by government. It is a child's fantasy to believe that every need of society has a profit mechanism waiting to be found for it.

[@ruvoactactvoru6879]

Yes. But we should also never forget that Jesus's views were very left-wing, he preached race tolerance and equality. If we will try to apply modern terms, he was more of a socialist rather than a pro-capitalism person. For example, here is how the believers should give eny their personal material possessions for the good of society as a whole. Acts 4: 32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. 33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. 34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, 35 And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. 36 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, 37 Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

[@ivanalukic1612]

​@@mosesjoe7050 Name any industry or service and I can promise you I can find an example of the private market doing it better

[@telfordpenfold18]

What about the kina stones of New Guinea?

[@emZee1994]

0:55 lol when you've watched this channel enough times to know who that is 😂

[@mandatorial]

43:50 especially relevant after COVID19.

[@The_Schizoid_Man]

Listening to Murphy is like listening to your favorite nerdy funny uncle

[@elkinjohn]

David Graeber in "Debt: the first 5000 years" and many anthropologists disagree with Murphy on the beginning of money.

[@janmarkvanschuppen]

Thanks, this was a great lecture . And listen to the libertarian view on vaccines & years later the way of the state enforcing the 100% safe & effective gentherapy .Look how that turned out.

[@svenlindberg5940]

Nice Video

[@b4u334]

Your points on vaccination are so relevant today.

[@NobleMarcos]

Is he giving the exact same lecture or is this a reupload?

[@GM-hl5gg]

the mises institute has yearly lecture cycles

[@wownoyoudont861]

Why is there not already a private school in the areas that are so bad? Because there is no money. They will be left behind because they cannot afford to pay for private school, AND the state is antagonistic.

[@ManuelBTC21]

Wow, Bob is really pulling the wagon this year isn't he.

[@ProlificThreadworm]

Yeah, his speaking was great

[@MBarberfan4life]

Another point on vaccines: with advances in vaccine technology, like mRNA vaccines, immunocompromised people can get vaccines.

[@NathanFerYou]

Man, in a post-COVID world, that vaccine portion hits too close to home

[@andreasfilis9001]

History provides the answer to the problems of theory, not the opposite. And sociopolitical organisation precedes markets.

[@ProlificThreadworm]

Markets emerged during monarchies and we haven't had a period of purposeful voluntaryiem since

[@andreasfilis9001]

@@ProlificThreadworm Depends how long you look back. A form of market may have existed in early steps of civilisation when tribal leadership rests with the assembly of all members of the tribe. Yet, the evidence are a few and open to interpetation.

[@ItsMeChillTyme]

Trade precedes all organisation, in fact organisation membership is a type of trade. Organised markets come after but the free market is no one place.

[@andreasfilis9001]

@@ItsMeChillTyme "organisation membership is a type of trade ". interesting but since even animals form a herd with hierarcy, is hard to accept it. It seems that you include every kind of exchange in the term "trade", but the concept of exchange is α generic concept thus wider than trade.

[@ItsMeChillTyme]

@@andreasfilis9001 A subjectively mutually beneficial exchange is trade. Yes, in the animal kingdom there is rudementary elements from what we see in human society. Care, defense, etc. We are just more complex, far more for that matter. There is also territory defense in the animal kingdom and a rudementary version of homesteading even! We have just made all these things more complex by putting into view past knowledge and stuff, intelligence basically.

[@Trunks9Thousand]

How would you privatize the roads when deconstructing government? Who decides which road is now whos property?

[@ProlificThreadworm]

Good question. When we get there I'm sure we can figure it out, same as all assets, probably auctioned

[@TheHyde8875]

@@ProlificThreadworm it's an excellent question. The partial answer is whoever ends up buying/maintaining the roads will eventually become the government in some fashion. Trust me. The company won't stop at just being an entity that maintains a stretch of road/bridges for a reasonable toll. Just human nature.

[@jonwiersma4225]

Rothbardian homesteading and legitimate provable claim.

[@gregoryw4662]

Cows use the bathroom?? 14:30

[@shaneowen4177]

Good speech but you have completely misunderstood the herd immunity argument you mentioned at the end, what you presented is nothing to do with herd immunity or what it implies

[@carterjackson8033]

What about having an elected government that is subordinate to the people's will?

[@leenasawdekar9339]

Democracy I believe is theoretically that

[@jaredprince4772]

Unfortunately, elected officials are beholden to those that finance their election campaigns rather than to those that vote for them. That problem will cease to exist only when campaigns are financed by a general fund and special interest groups stop interfering and corruption is no longer tolerated.

[@carterjackson8033]

@@gordonthefreeman Gordon, Not to disrespect you, but you don't seem to be thinking things through. You don't have a choice in the matter. You either take what you inherited, or you improve on it. You can't go backwards. Not unless you lose about 75% of the people in the world and have no infrastructure to deal with. People don't just agree to be nice to each other without some sort of set of rules (government). If you are some sort of libertarian please explain how your utopia works? I'm all ears.

[@carterjackson8033]

@@gordonthefreeman So you consider yourself a free market anarchist? I'll look that one up. Which natural laws are we talking about? The ones I like or the ones you like or the ones everyone else prefer? Just give me something I can debate you on. If we are talking about laws of physics and science, than those are rules that we all must follow. Everything else is a debate. Do you consider the US Government to be some detached power that controls everyone without any feedback from the people?

[@DoritoWorldOrder]

Note to Robert Murphy: Control+F, Replace "Duh Duh Duh" with "ertc, etc."

[@brianbob7514]

Pointing out that the state didn’t invent something that it now manages does not undermine the state. Pointing out that thing are not perfect in the world doesn’t undermine the state. Pointing out corruption in the world does not undermine the state. You still have all of your work to do.

[@mosesjoe7050]

Yep yep, non-government folks are delusional.

[@chrisbr1969]

Brian Bob Pointing our those facts on KZbin doesn’t undermine the State.

[@brianbob7514]

I like your smart ass meta comment

[@jaredprince4772]

A stateless society is an impossibility in the long term. The capitalists become the state. The capitalists, then use their fascist hierarchy to enforce their agendas. They don't reduce scarcity but thrive in creating the illusion of scarcity.

[@Isochest]

Monopolists

[@leenasawdekar9339]

Well said. Modern states are an evolution of pre-modem states

[@adityasawdekar8147]

Thesis, antitheses and synthesis?

[@adriandeangelis2211]

I wonder if the professor and his audience believe anything said in the lecture. Peddlers of abuse. Perhaps they deeply believe they will be in the winning side. Incredible disappointing where Academia expend funds...

[@interactparty6629]

You should study Warren Mosler and #MMT

[@bungeebones]

15:05 'You can "just" melt gold down". Yeah, sure, like I've done that hundreds of times in my lifetime! And then what? Recast it into "foogabuggy ingots" that I just made up the name for and have IMMEDIATE resale value. Oh, yeah, sounds like a plan.

[@doughtymqan]

Robert Lefebvre Don’t you have any imagination at all?

[@bungeebones]

Certainly, it takes a ton of imagination to correctly determine the validity of his claim and see that it couldn't obviously work! They didn't ever "just" melt gold down to make change and that is a ludicrous proposition even if totally imaginary.

[@ProlificThreadworm]

Robert Lefebvre you sound like you're commenting out of frustration for not understanding a vid you watched the first 1/3rd of

[@bungeebones]

Hell, the entire fiat fraud system is built on using words for smoke and mirrors. Holding "enlightened teachers" to higher standards than the crooks hasn't frustrated me a bit so far. Gold's BIGGEST problem is the difficulty in dividing it and shipping it so when someone trivializes those very major issues and I "trivialize" them too much then perhaps if they get serious I would be too.

[@josephmeyer6979]

Robert Lefebvre funny thing about commenting on the difficulty of doing something done for the past 2 millennia, on youtube, might indicate that there are videos explaining every single mode of action for melting down gold for the cheapest ways possible. kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZoO3g6aeosuNna8

[@interactparty6629]

Menger is wrong, money clearly originally emerges as debt!

[@dwayneorubor5322]

InterAct Party what’s your problem prove ?

[@OneTribe.Community]

I thought this vid was coming from an Anarchistic perspective, but instead; Libertarian. OMG this guy sounds far smarter than he actually is. The segment on roads just about killed me kzbin.info/www/bejne/baPJnKKFhpl8pqc "The reason we have so many automobile fatalities is because government runs them, people will say it's because of drunk driving..." YES YOU FOOL! The majority of accidents are due to driver error, including intoxication, and has nothing to do with highway design or the way highways are constructed or because of mechanical(auto) error. He then goes on to suggest that the way to reduce traffic jams during rush hour or to limit congestion on subways is to simply BUILD MORE STREETS/SUBWAYCARS. Are you daft man??? His comparison to "movie theaters don't have that problem, they may sell out but...." YEAH! See? That's called reaching max capacity (which subways also have) and in both scenarios you have to wait longer!! Back to street traffic: There's a limitation imposed by available physical space... by reality! I lived in Portland, OR and the only way down the hill was to take the highway or Burnside blvd... both were fairly steep. Elevation gain of 900ft in 2 miles. And both routes were dictated by geography. To suggest "a free market competitor would just build another road or add another subway car" is idiotic at best, because all that extra cost & resource is not worth alleviating a few hours worth of congestion. Besides the "lost time equating to billions of dollars" is foolish as well, because travel to and from a job is an externality that employees have to pay with their time. The companies and economy don't lose a penny. In fact, more money towards auto repairs and gasoline/electric power. And now this is dated anyway, seeing as Covid has created a massive push towards telecommuting. AND AGAIN! "Whenever there's a plane crash, apologists say thank goodness for govt regulation" - Last year 2019, there were 257 airline fatalities in the Entire World!! And that number is half what it was in 2018. Auto fatalities in 2018? (2019's aren't yet available) 36,560 As for the libertarian border concept... Pam gets bought off or killed by MS13, as does every next neighbor until they get to where they want to go. Mr. Murphy... Bob, Dude... you need a different job. I can't stand revolutionary theorists/philosophers. Stop talking and get to work making your "big ideas" a reality, then you'll understand their limitations right quick, man.

[@SimGunther]

🙌👏👏👏 Thank goodness there's someone who knows the difference between libertarianism and anarchism. In addition, if public transit were better and we increased sidewalk size while decreasing road size to emphasize local economies and better walkability instead of highways that point to big box stores, we'd have a much better economy and thousands of lives will be saved each year.

[@OneTribe.Community]

@@SimGunther Yes!! Local communities are the future. ❤️

[@OneTribe.Community]

@@gordonthefreeman your response is too broad to grab on to anything worth discussing. Of course companies (and to a limited degree, governments) are organizations through which human willpower creates stuff. Of course they solve problems to make money, while also creating externalities which are usually ignored (resulting in lawsuits, which force corporations to clean up their mess). Companies & the Market are not Magic wands which solve all problems however… it’s an ongoing challenge to evolve both systems without one system taking over the other. Btw why bother adding the insults? No need.

[@OneTribe.Community]

@@gordonthefreeman dude relax, this isn’t a fight, it’s just a discussion… on the internet. And no way am I a communist in the slightest, nor am I a statist… I’m a big fan of Nassim Taleb’s quote; “on the federal level I’m a libertarian, on the state level I’m a republican, on the level of the city I’m a democrat, and with my family and friends I’m a socialist” … that’s a far more nuanced “Integral” approach to the vast problems we’re facing, there’s no single system that can fix every problem at every level… each system has its place.

[@jonwiersma4225]

For all your ranting and raving you still assume the government and the political leaders in power are doing everything the best way.

[@occonnerwilderness8923]

I’m pretty sure Sweden has the right to travel 😂😂 you can even walk into people’s land just not their houses and buildings

[@totocaca7035]

This guy is just pulling his lecture out of his arse!! I noticed that Mises lectures often sound like some stoner's out-loud imagination.

[@ProlificThreadworm]

He's talking like he hasn't planned every sentence, not like he's making up the logic. Also he has written and published tons of it

[@chrisbr1969]

toto caca Move on then. Do you really want to listen to somebody read off a paper for an hour?

[@josephmeyer6979]

toto caca how is this not a decent lecture?

[@lowersaxon]

Logan: everything said in the vid is absurd. But their arguments on money are naive, wishful thinking and absolutely nonsensical if not to say antisocial. I’m a friend of somehow regulated non-chaotic capitalism. Just said.