WEBVTT NOTE 12. The Peaceful Resistance 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.760 The Peaceful Resistance 2 00:00:03.760 --> 00:00:10.840 Whenever I'm feeling blue about domestic politics, there is plenty about which to despair. 3 00:00:10.840 --> 00:00:15.320 Something great happens that reminds me of the long-term case for optimism, which is 4 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:19.740 all about the astonishing expansion of the division of labour globally – and in ways 5 00:00:19.740 --> 00:00:23.760 that weren't even possible just a few years ago. 6 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:28.240 The world has changed to permit ever more people in all corners of the globe to cooperate 7 00:00:28.240 --> 00:00:30.620 to their Mutual Betterment. 8 00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:35.520 The very prospect is inspiring people to claim their freedom and use it to make their lives 9 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:37.220 better. 10 00:00:37.220 --> 00:00:42.280 By comparison to this activity, the disgusting behavior of nation-states appears like a ridiculous 11 00:00:42.280 --> 00:00:47.460 anachronism that will be steamrolled by the forces of history. 12 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:51.120 And when these examples hit home, it is all the better. 13 00:00:51.120 --> 00:00:56.320 So, for example, I was preparing dinner two nights ago, and the Skype plug-in on my iPhone 14 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:01.800 Everyone rang, and it was a young man from some far-flung rural area of Australia. 15 00:01:01.800 --> 00:01:05.280 He had a charming accent that I could barely understand, but he was full of smiles and 16 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:06.560 exuberance. 17 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:11.600 I showed him around my house, and he showed me his rather barren room, full of computer 18 00:01:11.600 --> 00:01:13.640 stuff. 19 00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:15.640 After pleasantries we got down to business. 20 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:20.240 I was contracting with him to fix one small module on our Mises Academy software – the 21 00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:23.400 one that generates certificates of completion. 22 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:26.140 He had already answered an email requesting an expert. 23 00:01:26.140 --> 00:01:30.880 He was the last person I would have expected to be on this job. 24 00:01:30.880 --> 00:01:35.500 Just ten minutes ago he delivered his repaired module, and it is beautifully done, with elegant 25 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:39.300 code along with an invoice for his work. 26 00:01:39.300 --> 00:01:43.280 I never would have imagined this possible – and the truth is that it would not have 27 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:46.180 been possible – even a few years ago. 28 00:01:46.180 --> 00:01:50.800 But with communication technology dramatically improving, the possibilities for international 29 00:01:50.800 --> 00:01:55.860 collaboration, in surprising ways, are more readily at hand. 30 00:01:55.860 --> 00:02:00.260 I don't have to move there, and he doesn't have to move here. 31 00:02:00.260 --> 00:02:05.300 We found each other through a tiny mansion on a social networking site, and like magic, 32 00:02:05.300 --> 00:02:07.940 he had an opportunity for exchange. 33 00:02:07.940 --> 00:02:12.880 Everyone is better off – the world is a more beautiful place. 34 00:02:12.880 --> 00:02:16.820 The same happened with some developers in India, who are now doing the Mises Institute's 35 00:02:16.820 --> 00:02:21.000 e-books at a very low price, and with great expertise. 36 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:27.560 This would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, but technology is making it happen. 37 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:32.100 Never underestimate the implications of global economic relationships. 38 00:02:32.100 --> 00:02:35.740 This is the stuff that makes the world go round. 39 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:40.480 It is the engine of progress and the producer of peace and understanding. 40 00:02:40.480 --> 00:02:44.520 Together we can cooperate to make the world a better place. 41 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:50.660 Expand this model a hundredfold, a thousandfold, a millionfold, and we create a glorious force 42 00:02:50.660 --> 00:02:53.660 for the Betterment of the Whole Human Race. 43 00:02:53.660 --> 00:02:58.140 It is mankind's method of peaceful resistance. 44 00:02:58.140 --> 00:03:03.340 How can some stupid government program or regulation compare to this? 45 00:03:03.340 --> 00:03:08.420 All the activities of the nation-state pale by comparison to the significance of the globalization 46 00:03:08.420 --> 00:03:11.820 of communication and commerce. 47 00:03:11.820 --> 00:03:15.540 In the digital age, we are discovering that all people of the world have more in common 48 00:03:15.540 --> 00:03:40.820 are the most significant since the Industrial Revolution, and our grandchildren will look 49 00:03:40.820 --> 00:03:44.980 back in history books on these times as the turning point. 50 00:03:44.980 --> 00:03:51.060 We are truly blessed to be living in them and experiencing them. 51 00:03:51.060 --> 00:03:54.220 And it is not only the digital world at work here. 52 00:03:54.220 --> 00:04:00.760 Hyundai is a Korean car company that opened a plant in Montgomery, Alabama in 1986. 53 00:04:00.760 --> 00:04:05.340 The plant cost $1.4 billion to build. 54 00:04:05.340 --> 00:04:10.100 That Montgomery plant now employs 2,650 people. 55 00:04:10.100 --> 00:04:14.620 It operates around the clock, on weekdays and during the day, on Saturday. 56 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:19.700 It has a sister company, Kia, that opened another plant in Georgia in 2010, and it employs 57 00:04:19.700 --> 00:04:21.900 even more. 58 00:04:21.900 --> 00:04:26.940 As a result of these factories, parts suppliers are opening doors every few weeks. 59 00:04:26.940 --> 00:04:32.900 Today, 138 businesses have been founded just to support these companies, and thousands 60 00:04:32.900 --> 00:04:37.260 of other businesses owe their revenue stream to their presence. 61 00:04:37.260 --> 00:04:42.700 During the Great Recession, Hyundai hired, while Detroit fired. 62 00:04:42.700 --> 00:04:49.380 Hyundai and Kia are now ahead of Ford Motor Company, and the fourth largest carmaker worldwide. 63 00:04:49.380 --> 00:04:55.400 Hyundai alone built 300,000 cars in Montgomery last year, and for this reason, the jobless 64 00:04:55.400 --> 00:05:01.220 rate is very low in Alabama, even though the textiles are gone. 65 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:06.000 Ten Korean restaurants have opened in Montgomery, and many thousands of Koreans have moved here. 66 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.320 They are supporting churches, symphonies and theatres. 67 00:05:09.320 --> 00:05:13.480 The kids are taking violin lessons and playing in orchestras, bringing classical music to 68 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:17.080 a land where it has never taken root. 69 00:05:17.080 --> 00:05:21.920 Consider the ways in which this story runs contrary to government plans. 70 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:25.300 Americans were supposed to make cars for Americans forever. 71 00:05:25.300 --> 00:05:29.960 The great threat to this idea was imported cars, and hardly anyone expected the importation 72 00:05:29.960 --> 00:05:33.280 of car manufacturing itself. 73 00:05:33.280 --> 00:05:37.800 Americans were supposed to be patriotic and buy American-made cars forever. 74 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:42.700 Montgomery has had terrible economic times for some 50 years, and every mayor and every 75 00:05:42.700 --> 00:05:45.680 governor has had a plan for recovery. 76 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:50.740 No one expected it would come from abroad. 77 00:05:50.740 --> 00:05:55.580 Koreans haven't ruined Alabama culture, but rather refurbished it and revitalized it. 78 00:05:55.580 --> 00:06:00.160 The spin-offs are widespread, helping to provide not only jobs in manufacturing cars, but in 79 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:06.180 manufacturing everything, plus improving retail and restaurants, and even the arts. 80 00:06:06.180 --> 00:06:10.460 This recovery was not the result of any government plan, or the carrying out of any centrally 81 00:06:10.460 --> 00:06:12.540 organized idea. 82 00:06:12.540 --> 00:06:17.260 It was never subjected to a political debate or vote. 83 00:06:17.260 --> 00:06:21.480 This is the market at work. 84 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:25.700 The State does not plan it, and cannot anticipate its actions and shape. 85 00:06:25.700 --> 00:06:31.400 But one thing is for sure – it is consistent with human choice. 86 00:06:31.400 --> 00:06:36.320 It is us who makes or breaks these entrepreneurial plans. 87 00:06:36.320 --> 00:06:40.240 The market has the model for social organization. 88 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:45.000 The law of association, first discovered by David Ricardo and elaborated upon by Ludwig 89 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:48.360 von Mises, is the energy here. 90 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:53.220 It pointed to the advantages that came to all parties when they trade, even when a more 91 00:06:53.220 --> 00:06:57.320 efficient supplier is trading with a much less efficient supplier. 92 00:06:57.320 --> 00:07:04.160 Both are more efficient together than they would otherwise be producing in isolation. 93 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:08.920 Mises said that this law of association was responsible for a dramatic change in the outlook 94 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:11.040 of humanity. 95 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:15.120 People began to consider themselves not as rivals in a struggle for the appropriation 96 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:20.160 of the limited means of subsistence – instead we discovered that we can consort with one 97 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:24.680 another for the sake of cooperative production. 98 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:26.740 And how does this come about? 99 00:07:26.740 --> 00:07:32.260 Not through compulsion, not through social contract – it comes about because we recognize 100 00:07:32.260 --> 00:07:36.740 that it is in our interest to come together by mutual agreement. 101 00:07:36.740 --> 00:07:42.240 And this coming together comes about through differences among us, because of the realization 102 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:46.300 that we each have something to contribute to a relationship. 103 00:07:46.300 --> 00:07:52.320 We are not sacrificing our well-being by doing this, but exactly the opposite. 104 00:07:52.320 --> 00:08:01.560 – and not force – this is what will save us and continue to build civilisation.