WEBVTT NOTE Preface to 'It's a Jetsons World' 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 It's a Jetson's World, Private Miracles and Public Crimes by Jeffrey Tucker 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.160 Preface 3 00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:14.900 One morning I was reading about how, in the past, many thousands of people died from scurvy 4 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:19.640 and solely because travelers on the high seas had such limited access to fruit and vitamin 5 00:00:19.640 --> 00:00:26.860 C. Scurvy was documented in the ancient world and in the 300 years after 1500 may have killed 6 00:00:26.860 --> 00:00:42.860 The Fear of Scurvy has been one of millions of terrifying fears that have consumed the human psyche for all of human history, until very recently. Now we know and care nearly nothing about it. 7 00:00:42.860 --> 00:00:54.860 That same morning I visited a hotel breakfast buffet and there was a display of seemingly unlimited fruit and juice available for everyone, fruit of all types and from all over the world. 8 00:00:54.860 --> 00:01:01.140 They were in large carafts with no limit on how much people could pour. 9 00:01:01.140 --> 00:01:06.340 My eyes popped out in amazement and I stood thinking of the miracle and its implications, 10 00:01:06.340 --> 00:01:09.940 even as everyone else poured up glass after glass of whatever they wanted from the juice 11 00:01:09.940 --> 00:01:10.940 bar. 12 00:01:10.940 --> 00:01:15.340 I'm quite sure that no one thought anything of it. 13 00:01:15.340 --> 00:01:19.700 What's more, should I find myself with a hankering for fruit wherever I might be traveling, 14 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:23.980 I can pull out my digital device and search for a local store. 15 00:01:23.980 --> 00:01:27.820 The navigation tools can get me there from wherever I happen to be. 16 00:01:27.820 --> 00:01:31.220 When I get there, I can compare prices with all the other stores to make sure that I get 17 00:01:31.220 --> 00:01:36.100 the best deal, and then initiate a video call anywhere in the world and talk about how great 18 00:01:36.100 --> 00:01:39.340 the orange I just ate was. 19 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:43.480 Then I can quickly discover the nutritional properties with a search, and even make a 20 00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:48.240 video of my feast and post it with a wireless device, and that video can be hosted on an 21 00:01:48.240 --> 00:01:52.100 external site in minutes to be watched by all my friends when I link it on a Facebook 22 00:01:52.100 --> 00:01:57.640 Book Account, again, from a wireless device in my hand, and then this same video can become 23 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:02.200 oddly popular and elicit a million views over the course of a few days. 24 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:05.660 The whole thing is new. 25 00:02:05.660 --> 00:02:12.700 None of this would have been possible even five years ago, or even 12 months ago. 26 00:02:12.700 --> 00:02:18.740 Yes, there is a revolution afoot, one that is happening much more quickly than the Industrial 27 00:02:18.740 --> 00:02:20.640 Revolution. 28 00:02:20.640 --> 00:02:22.760 We are living in the middle of it. 29 00:02:22.760 --> 00:02:26.960 And yet, there is a strange lack of consciousness about it. 30 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:30.660 To the extent that we are conscious of it, we complain about it. 31 00:02:30.660 --> 00:02:34.760 We complain that there is too much food available and this tempts us to get fat. 32 00:02:34.760 --> 00:02:38.400 We complain about the digitization of society. 33 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:41.800 We watch movies about the hidden evils of the grocery stores and wonder if the fruit 34 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:48.000 was somehow sprayed with evil chemicals that are going to give us autism or cancer or something. 35 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:52.880 The market economy is delivering miracles by the minute, and yet we hardly notice or 36 00:02:52.880 --> 00:02:53.880 care. 37 00:02:53.880 --> 00:02:58.940 Worse, we denounce the realization of this dream of all of history, this coming of heaven 38 00:02:58.940 --> 00:03:03.680 on earth, and call it decadent and dangerous. 39 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:08.160 This is a tragedy, in my own view. 40 00:03:08.160 --> 00:03:12.120 We should be conscious of the cause and effect relationships operating in the world of human 41 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:17.800 action that give rise to the globally extended order we call the market economy. 42 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:23.200 – in order fueled by human choices, entrepreneurship and relentless learning and copying, and kept 43 00:03:23.200 --> 00:03:29.200 together by pricing signals, private property and the freedom to trade. 44 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:33.560 These institutions are what are bestowing miracles on us every day – the Jetsons' 45 00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:38.400 world that amazes me every day. 46 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:44.640 We also need to be aware of its opposite – the gargantuan apparatus of compulsion and coercion 47 00:03:44.640 --> 00:03:51.120 called The State that operates on principles that are anachronistic to the core. 48 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:57.480 Its principle is violence, and its contributions to the social order are prisons, economic 49 00:03:57.480 --> 00:03:59.960 upheaval and war. 50 00:03:59.960 --> 00:04:07.960 It is lumbering, stupid and angry as hell, and it is the main drag on the world today. 51 00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:12.240 The contrast with The Market is overwhelming. 52 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:16.320 An underlying assumption in this book is no different from that found in innumerable books 53 00:04:16.320 --> 00:04:20.420 of the spent, that there is nothing that the state does that either needs to be done or 54 00:04:20.420 --> 00:04:25.240 cannot be done better within the matrix of voluntary action and exchange. 55 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:32.840 I hope my examples herein provide a compelling elucidation of this idea at work in our times. 56 00:04:32.840 --> 00:04:35.800 Why is this message important? 57 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:40.080 Knowledge in human history is easily lost. 58 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:44.960 He variously knew the cause and cure of scurvy, and then the wisdom disappeared, and then 59 00:04:44.960 --> 00:04:47.600 it had to be rediscovered again. 60 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:51.360 This happened several times, and the last time the cure for scurvy was found again was 61 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:54.400 as late as the 20th century. 62 00:04:54.400 --> 00:04:57.480 So it is with human liberty. 63 00:04:57.480 --> 00:05:01.880 The truth of its organizing and productive power was known in the ancient world, but the 64 00:05:01.880 --> 00:05:05.520 truth keeps having to be rediscovered. 65 00:05:05.520 --> 00:05:11.880 This book is a contribution to the hope that the knowledge won't be lost. 66 00:05:11.880 --> 00:05:15.320 Most of these essays appeared on Mises.org in their original form and many were given 67 00:05:15.320 --> 00:05:19.620 great exposure from appearances on LewRockwell.com. 68 00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:23.960 This causes people to write and comment and then the article is revised and finally integrated 69 00:05:23.960 --> 00:05:26.880 into this final release. 70 00:05:26.880 --> 00:05:32.180 Once again, I owe an incalculable debt to co-workers at the Mises Institute, legions 71 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:37.860 Friends of bloggers, friends, family and especially Briggs Armstrong, Lauren Barlow, Aristotle 72 00:05:37.860 --> 00:05:44.860 Escurera, Doug French, Brandon Hill, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, David Hughes, Stefan Kinsella, Eric 73 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:51.060 Larson, Stephanie Long, B.K. Marcus, Mary Olsen, Arlene Ust-Zinner, Lew Rockwell, Judy 74 00:05:51.060 --> 00:05:57.260 Thomason, Mark Thornton, Hilary Tucker, David Wexler, The Kids, and among many others I've 75 00:05:57.260 --> 00:05:59.700 left off the list. 76 00:05:59.700 --> 00:06:04.900 Then there's an endless debt to those who have gone before, but mainly Ludwig von Mises, 77 00:06:04.900 --> 00:06:11.180 Murray Rothbard, F. A. Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Garrett Garrett, Albert J. Nock and Frederic 78 00:06:11.180 --> 00:06:13.180 Bastiat. 79 00:06:13.180 --> 00:06:17.300 They are all responsible for helping me think clearly. 80 00:06:17.300 --> 00:06:21.140 Many of these people suffered for the cause of human liberty much more than I will in 81 00:06:21.140 --> 00:06:24.980 in my life and all humanity is in their debt.