Capitalism: What Makes Us Free? (2021)

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NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What's the role of government in society? What do we mean when we talk about individual responsibility? What makes us free? 'Neoliberalism' might feel like a squishy term that's hard to define and understand. But this ideology, founded by a group of men in the Swiss Alps, is a political project that has dominated our economic system for decades. In the name of free-market fundamentals, the forces behind neoliberalism act like an invisible hand, shaping almost every aspect of our lives.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Rund.
0:01.8	And like all of you, I'm reading headlines about COVID-era government protections expiring,
0:07.2	things like eviction moratoriums and emergency financial aid.
0:11.3	The past two years have offered us a moment to think about why we do things the way we do
0:15.3	them in the US, and maybe to change them.
0:19.6	So today we're bringing you an episode from last year's capitalism series about an economic
0:24.4	model and worldview that's had a profound effect on how we do things.
0:29.3	I think it's worth thinking about right now.
0:31.7	I hope you enjoy it.
0:49.4	Look at this lead pencil.
0:53.7	Literally thousands of people cooperated to make this pencil.
0:59.5	These people who have cooperated with one another don't speak the same language.
1:04.2	They're people of all different religions.
1:07.3	They may hate one another.
1:09.9	When you get down the store and buy this pencil, you are in effect trading a few minutes of
1:15.7	your time for a few seconds of the time of all those thousands of people.
1:23.3	That's the miracle of the crisis.
1:26.0	Everybody is benefit.
1:30.5	There's been no central direction.
1:31.5	It was a magic of the price system that brought them together and got them to cooperate
1:36.7	to make this pencil so that you could have it for a trifling sum.
1:41.2	It worked so well that ordinarily we're not aware of it.
	...

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