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Naval

Free Markets Are Intrinsic to Humans

Naval

Naval Ravikant

Business, Technology

4.82.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2019

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We're the only animals who cooperate across genetic boundaries, because we can track credits and debits in voluntary exchanges.

• Free markets are intrinsic to the human species 0:00

• Too many takers and not enough makers will plunge a society into ruin 1:48 

Transcript: http://nav.al/capitalism-intrinsic

Transcript

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0:00.0

Overall, capitalism is intrinsic to the human species. Capitalism is not something we invented.

0:05.5

Capitalism is not even something we discovered. It is innate to us in every exchange that we have.

0:11.0

When you and I exchange information, I want some information back from you. I give you information.

0:16.4

You give me information. If we weren't having a good information exchange, you'd go talk to

0:20.3

somebody else. So the notion of exchange and keeping track of credits and deadets, this is built

0:25.1

into us as flexible social animals. We are the only animals in the animal kingdom that

0:29.6

cooperate across genetic boundaries. Most animals don't incorporate, but when they do, they

0:34.4

cooperate only in packs where they co-evolved together and they share blood. So they have some shared

0:39.5

interest. Humans don't have that. I can cooperate with you guys. One of you is a Serbian. The other

0:44.0

one is a Persian by origin. I'm Indian by origin. We have very little blood in common, basically none.

0:50.3

But we still cooperate. What lets us cooperate? It's because we can keep track of

0:55.3

debits and credits. Who put in how much work? Who contributed how much? That's all free market

0:59.9

capitalism is. So I strongly believe that it is innate to the human species and we are going to

1:07.2

create more and more wealth and abundance for everybody. Everybody can be wealthy. Everybody

1:12.2

can be retired. Everybody can be successful. It is merely a question of education and desire.

1:17.7

You have to want it. If you don't want it, that's fine. Then you opt out of the game. But don't

1:21.8

try and put down the people who are playing the game because that's the game that keeps you in a

1:26.8

comfortable warm bed at night. That's the game that keeps a roof over your head. That's a game that

1:31.7

keeps your supermarket stock. That's the game that keeps the iPhone buzzing in your pocket. So it is

1:36.6

a beautiful game that is worth playing ethically, rationally, morally, socially for the human race.

1:42.2

And it's going to continue to make us all richer and richer until we have massive wealth creation

1:46.6

for anybody who wants it. And it's not just individual, secretly despising wealth, right? There's

...

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