2020/11/03/Should We End Capitalism

• when: 2020/11/03
• author: Douglas Murray & Bret Weinstein
• source: YouTube DarkHorse Podcast Clips
• topics: capitalism
• keywords: video podcast speech
• link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoFI6nxzKVY
• title: Should We End Capitalism? (Douglas Murray & Bret Weinstein)
• summary: “You have a society that generates a huge amount of wellbeing. That wellbeing is not well-distributed. I do not mean to say it should be evenly distributed... but it's not well-distributed. It's not efficiently distributed with respect to producing the kind of incentive that you would want -- you know, a dyed-in-the-wool libertarian ought to want opportunity better distributed because it results in more people discovering more things that serve us collectively. [...] The revolution that we are watching begin has misunderstood the difference between the noise in the way [...] they've misunderstood the basic fact that their lives will get much, much worse if the engine that creates the wellbeing that is unfairly distributed is turned off.–

Transcription (partial)

introductory claims

Weinstein: You have a society that generates a huge amount of wellbeing. That wellbeing is not well-distributed. I do not mean to say it should be evenly distributed... but it's not well-distributed. It's not efficiently distributed with respect to producing the kind of incentive that you would want -- you know, a dyed-in-the-wool libertarian ought to want opportunity better distributed because it results in more people discovering more things that serve us collectively. [...] The revolution that we are watching begin has misunderstood the difference between the noise in the way [...] they've misunderstood the basic fact that their lives will get much, much worse if the engine that creates the wellbeing that is unfairly distributed is turned off.

this part was transcribed in a rush

Douglas: So I wouldn't want to live in a society where only the right existed and I wouldn't want to live in a society where only the left existed; where the restraining impulse seems to be one of the things that you have here and it ends in this urine stenched history-less pathetic people wasteland where you know look at the arrest photos every night in Portland. The photos of the people in those mugshots show the consequence of an unrestrained life that is a life where you think you are free and you are ...and where you are living in total chaos where you live in a disordered life with a disordered brain with a disordered ideas of your society and disordered ideas of yourself

Weinstein: Totally agree. This is great so far. I think we are getting to the heart of the matter.

Analyses

Woozle

The host makes a basic mistake of giving capitalism credit for our current wealth as a society. There are many arguments for why this claim is quite wrong, but among the clearest and most compelling is the fact that that worker co-ops – a fundamentally anti-capitalist form of enterprise – generally do much better at creating wealth (not to mention distributing it fairly). They are more efficient at producing products that work well and they handle recessions more robustly.

All that capitalism is good for is concentrating wealth created by others into privately-held (and therefore unaccountable) hoards.

Anna Staddon

I found this passage to be an offensive way to talk about the people who were protesting. I don't know much about Weinstein's background other than a vague memory of the Evergreen College scandal but based off of what I have heard from him it sounds as though he is a progressive in name only. I was shocked and disappointed he said "I agree" without any pushback against Douglas' crude, pretentious and dehumanizing descriptions or even further discourse.

I have not been following the protests in Portland closely enough to offer my own characterization but I would be interested to know how one would suggest trying to affect change (in general) in a "restrained" manner when we (all citizens) currently do not have the political power to strengthen/restore our democracy (ban gerrymandering, end the filibuster, make the Supreme Court independent and bipartisan, re-examine the electoral college, and many other lower case "d" democratic reforms that would eliminate minoritarianism).

It seems the minority are ruling the majority, under the guise that what is best for the few is best for all... when really all it is, is reinforcing the existing power structures. Did you know the KKK used to endorse universal healthcare? This was because they believed immigrants are dirty and they didn't want them getting everyone else sick. Conservatism in America has never been about big vs. small government, just whatever social or economic policy will concentrate and maintain power.