Welcome everyone to another regularly scheduled rerun.

Twice each month I release a classic episode that I think is still relevant and worth your time

while we do some catch up work or you know some behind the scenes stuff.

Today it just happens to be the holidays so we're taking some time off.

So today's rerun is going out at the same time as our most recent bonus episode for members

in which Amanda and I discuss the illusion that is this debate in our country

between individualism and collectivism.

Conservatives recognize rightly the benefits of taking care of oneself

and then they just can't help but take that idea to the extreme coming to believe

that providing any kind of social safety net for everyone actually hurts people

or at least that's what they like to claim they believe.

And to be clear I'm not even talking about all conservatives just the ones who managed to get themselves elected.

Progressives on the other hand recognize the benefits of social benefits so thoroughly

that some might even become suspicious of any mention of personal action for fear,

sometimes rightly to be fair, that the conversation will ultimately lead to the decimation of social programs.

So we discuss that in a lot of detail from a variety of angles

and even looked at some of the ways that that essential debate individualism versus collectivism

may actually change the way people in different societies, societies that see this debate differently,

come to see themselves and how they then approach the various challenges in their life.

So I think that's pretty interesting.

And as part of that conversation I mentioned that I much prefer the idea of a co-op focused economy

as opposed to the current hierarchical corporation ownership structures that we primarily have today.

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