Yesterday, my wife and I attended a lecture hosted by the Charlotte chapter of the Bastiat Society. I was thrilled to learn there was a local chapter in Charlotte and even more excited to learn there was a free lecture being given on Capitalism. Those who don’t know, Claude Frédéric Bastiat was a 19th century French economist who wrote revolutionary, pro-liberty works such as The Law. This book was responsible for my first step into the philosophy of Liberty. If you haven’t read it, download a free copy of it here on audio or pdf at Mises.org.
Seriously, it’s like 50 tiny pages and will take you less than half an hour. Go learn something.
The speaker for the evening was Clemson University Professor of Economics Dr. Bradley Hobbs. He was very entertaining and informative, engaged the audience well, and gave a lot of excellent, historical and contemporary data about the benefits of Capitalism, why Socialists and the Left seem to be gaining popularity, particularly among the young and senior-aged cohorts, and gave some perspective on many of the common debates often heard on social and traditional media around the evils of Capitalism. Dr. Hobbs will be sharing some of his presentation notes and references with us soon, so I hope to pass them on when I get them.
One interesting exchange took place between me and an older, self-proclaimed Crony Capitalist (I’m 90% sure he doesn’t know what that means. Pretty sure he thinks because he’s an entrepreneur and aged, that makes him one.) Anyway, the exchange went something like this:
CC: The problem with Capitalism is that people aren’t concerned about all these larger, global issues. They’re selfish and only want to think about themselves. They don’t think about what’s best for society. That’s just human nature.
Me: And so you are making an argument that because Human Beings are selfish and short-sighted, we should put Human Beings in charge of determining what’s best for everyone to deal with these issues? Milton Friedman once asked “Who are these angels that are going to come down and organize society? Where do we find them?”
He didn’t like me tone, I guess, because that got him going.
Somehow, we got to the topic of Public Safety and Motorcycle Helmet Laws.
CC: Someone has to take responsibility for protecting us and keeping us safe. The government enforces things like motorcycle helmet laws. . . .
Me: So if I want to ride my motorcycle without a helmet, breaking the law, and I get into a crash, who is the victim?
CC: Society is when my money has to take care of your family and loved ones because of your selfishness.
Me: So you are protecting Me from Myself [on behalf of my family]?
CC: Yes because when you’re in the hospital and don’t have the money for emergency care, my money is going to pay for your care.
Me: No, I do not want any of your money.
CC: You will someday. When you’re laid up and have nowhere to turn.
It’s like a broken record, but I have this same exchange almost everywhere I go (physically and virtually) to talk about Free Markets, Choice, and Liberty. I even had a similar exchange with a co-worker the other day. The idea that elected officials, people who were slick enough to convince 50.1% of the voting population to put them into power, know what is best for the hundreds of millions of people in our country is beyond my tiny brain to comprehend.
Invariably, Statists proclaim that the reason why Free Markets and Liberty fails is because people can’t be trusted. Thus, People need to be placed in charge of everyone. They also arrogantly claim responsibility and authority over my own free will to make choices about my life. Because somehow they know what’s best for me.
Updated edit – The organizer of the Charlotte chapter said I should lead one of the next lectures. Hmmmm. . . .
txfatherofseven 