WEBVTT NOTE Socialism versus Free Market Exchange 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:25.000 Ladies and gentlemen, it is a difficult problem for me to address this group that had already so many excellent speakers and will probably in the future have still more of them. 2 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:38.000 But I don't want to stop at nice words of introduction. 3 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:43.000 I want to enter in the middle of the thing, into media stress, 4 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:54.000 in order to use the limited time that is given to us in the best possible way. 5 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:15.560 Human beings are not only a biological class, that means a class of people who are connected 6 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:32.280 and Related to One Another by Biological Facts, Human Beings are not only Relatives to One 7 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:44.280 Another, Human Beings are first of all also Collaborators, they are first of all not only 8 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:51.640 Biological, Identical and Biological were very closely related. 9 00:01:51.640 --> 00:02:06.920 They are also a praxeological class, using this term, which was unknown only a few decades ago. 10 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:15.720 They are not only spiritually and intellectually close together, 11 00:02:15.720 --> 00:02:23.720 they are also close together in the way in which they are living and working. 12 00:02:23.720 --> 00:02:28.020 They are collaborators. 13 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:39.060 Collaborators are not only people who cooperate with one another, 14 00:02:39.060 --> 00:02:46.740 they are also people who, before they start cooperation, 15 00:02:46.740 --> 00:02:54.940 are thinking in the same way and are bringing about a state of affairs 16 00:02:54.940 --> 00:03:00.940 in which we could speak of a unity of a group or of a class. 17 00:03:02.940 --> 00:03:06.940 There are several patterns of collaboration. 18 00:03:10.940 --> 00:03:23.940 One pattern which alone is known to people who see only how the small groups in which people are collaborating with one another 19 00:03:24.940 --> 00:03:52.940 This only group is the organized collaboration, the collaboration which is led by people who are giving the direction and consists of people who are following their leaders. 20 00:03:52.940 --> 00:04:12.940 This organized system of collaboration is extremely popular, is extremely well known, especially from the political point of view. 21 00:04:12.940 --> 00:04:26.940 but it is a system in which the individuals are integrated into which the individuals are integrated in a different way. 22 00:04:26.940 --> 00:04:40.940 It is an organized system, the system which we can very easily describe and we say it is a system today known under the term of socialism. 23 00:04:40.940 --> 00:04:50.940 Socialism is a cooperation of people, but a special kind of this cooperation. 24 00:04:50.940 --> 00:05:07.940 There is one individual or one group or class of individuals that gives the direction for the whole way of cooperation to all other members of the group. 25 00:05:07.940 --> 00:05:15.940 In the socialist system, or in the way that the socialist system is depicted by the individuals, 26 00:05:15.940 --> 00:05:25.940 in the socialist system there is one will that determines everything. 27 00:05:25.940 --> 00:05:50.940 And all the people, all the members of the system have to comply with the orders and provisions made by a small group or even only by an individual that is leading the whole organization. 28 00:05:55.940 --> 00:06:20.940 The way in which this furor was called or signified in the most elaborated social system that the world has now up to know and theoretically best elaborated is the furor. 29 00:06:20.940 --> 00:06:36.940 Under the Führer principle, Führer means the head, the guide, the man who alone determines where the whole system has to walk. 30 00:06:36.940 --> 00:06:43.940 In this system there is only one will that determines everything. 31 00:06:43.940 --> 00:06:57.940 There are no controversies, there is only the leader at the head, the führer at the head and the others have to obey and to follow. 32 00:06:57.940 --> 00:07:12.940 This system is very well known, it can very well easily be described, 33 00:07:12.940 --> 00:07:29.020 But it is a system whose consequences and effects are known to very few people, if to any people at all. 34 00:07:29.020 --> 00:07:42.380 Under the few principle, under the kind of collaboration which we call socialism or organized society, 35 00:07:42.380 --> 00:07:48.780 Under this system, there is one central way that determines everything, 36 00:07:48.780 --> 00:07:56.540 and all the other people have to follow, have to obey, they are our followers. 37 00:07:56.540 --> 00:08:09.340 There is certainly, under such a system, no waste of actions and of powers. 38 00:08:09.340 --> 00:08:13.860 But this alone doesn't mean anything. 39 00:08:13.860 --> 00:08:22.620 It means only what we have to say is that all the other people have no will of their own, 40 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:32.420 have no possibility, no opportunity, no power to influence the direction of the whole system, 41 00:08:32.420 --> 00:08:37.340 the direction of the cooperation and collaboration of the people. 42 00:08:37.340 --> 00:08:51.180 It is a wonderful system, wonderful, very good, excellent, if we accept the ideas of the Fuhrer, 43 00:08:51.180 --> 00:08:59.820 if we accept the only idea that leads the whole thing today. 44 00:08:59.820 --> 00:09:10.140 But it is a very different thing if we look at it from the point of view of reality. 45 00:09:10.140 --> 00:09:16.260 In real life, we realize that there are different ideas and different wishes 46 00:09:16.260 --> 00:09:20.340 and different plans of different individuals. 47 00:09:20.340 --> 00:09:27.380 And that these individuals, the immense majority of people, 48 00:09:27.380 --> 00:09:40.780 would be extremely unhappy if they had to abandon their own vicious plans and ways, 49 00:09:40.780 --> 00:09:49.100 and would have to obey only to the orders of other people. 50 00:09:49.100 --> 00:10:05.260 We would call this system a present system, a system of lack of freedom of all the individuals 51 00:10:05.260 --> 00:10:13.860 if we were not committed to a fundamental mistake, 52 00:10:13.860 --> 00:10:19.860 which is practically or in fact the fundamental reason 53 00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:27.260 why so many people accept the ideas of socialism 54 00:10:27.260 --> 00:10:34.580 and the general direction of all human affairs. 55 00:10:35.780 --> 00:10:47.980 People accept socialism from the point of view of their own ideas. 56 00:10:48.300 --> 00:10:53.580 They are fully convinced that a socialist system 57 00:10:53.580 --> 00:11:20.580 will precisely proceed in the way in which they themselves would like to proceed and that all other people would be forced to adopt themselves to this system, which of course they themselves consider as the best and the only possible system. 58 00:11:20.580 --> 00:11:43.580 When we are talking about socialism, we assume, if we are in favor of it, that the socialist system will precisely work in the way in which the individual socialist wants it to work. 59 00:11:43.580 --> 00:11:53.580 and this system, this method, will precisely bring about those effects and those situations 60 00:11:53.580 --> 00:12:01.580 which this individual supporter of the socialist idea wants to have attained. 61 00:12:01.580 --> 00:12:29.580 If we assume that this system will also have the power to determine everything that an individual does with regard to problems commonly called religious problems, 62 00:12:29.580 --> 00:12:45.020 We must assume that such a system of socialism would adopt one specific religious system 63 00:12:45.020 --> 00:13:00.940 and what all other religious systems mean, made systems of minorities, persecuted minorities. 64 00:13:00.940 --> 00:13:13.700 We never think, in speaking of socialist conditions, 65 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:21.260 that this socialist system could do and force people to do 66 00:13:21.260 --> 00:13:28.700 something which they consider as the worst of all possible things. 67 00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:43.100 We have, therefore, a state of affairs which we can simply only qualify as a state of bad thinking. 68 00:13:43.100 --> 00:13:54.940 People believe, people say, I am in favor of socialists or, they may use some other terms, 69 00:13:54.940 --> 00:13:58.420 which are synonyms of the world of socialism. 70 00:13:58.420 --> 00:14:06.140 But they assume that this system of socialism 71 00:14:06.140 --> 00:14:12.820 will be precisely the system which they themselves consider in every regard 72 00:14:12.820 --> 00:14:19.180 as the only good system, as the only system that ought to exist 73 00:14:19.180 --> 00:14:39.180 and that all other systems or other methods of doing things, whatever, the good, the great things, the noble things and the common things of every day, in a way which they do not want to tolerate. 74 00:14:39.180 --> 00:14:50.580 The idea of socialism may be considered, by some people, as a wonderful and great idea. 75 00:14:50.580 --> 00:14:59.780 If people may assume that it would be a wonderful thing if the whole world would be dedicated, 76 00:14:59.780 --> 00:15:18.780 is fully dedicated to only one definite method of working, thinking and living and would reject all other methods as bad, let us say. 77 00:15:18.780 --> 00:15:26.780 But the question is always, and this question is not always considered sufficiently, 78 00:15:26.780 --> 00:15:32.780 The question is, will this system be precisely a system 79 00:15:32.780 --> 00:15:38.780 which I can support, will support, may support? 80 00:15:40.780 --> 00:15:45.780 The idea of socialism was always connected 81 00:15:45.780 --> 00:15:51.780 with a firm conviction that there is only one good plan possible 82 00:15:51.780 --> 00:16:00.780 and as only one plan ought to be put into practice. 83 00:16:00.780 --> 00:16:20.780 And all the other things should be left to the decision to the state of affairs which is considered as illegal, as forbidden, 84 00:16:20.780 --> 00:16:38.980 The Great Popularity that Socialism enjoys in broad spheres of the world, this great 85 00:16:38.980 --> 00:16:48.700 popularity is due to the fact that people always believe that of course Socialism will 86 00:16:48.700 --> 00:16:55.700 can only support the right things and not the bad things, 87 00:16:55.700 --> 00:16:58.700 and that the bad things would be prohibited. 88 00:16:58.700 --> 00:17:02.700 And of course, what is good and what is bad, 89 00:17:02.700 --> 00:17:05.700 what is right and what is wrong, 90 00:17:05.700 --> 00:17:10.700 this is decided by my wishes, by my feelings, 91 00:17:10.700 --> 00:17:13.700 by what I have in mind. 92 00:17:13.700 --> 00:17:16.700 And the great popularity of socialism 93 00:17:16.700 --> 00:17:29.700 consists precisely in the fact that people always consider themselves as members of the ruling majority, 94 00:17:29.700 --> 00:17:44.700 of the ruling power of the socialist system, and never as members of a group whose feelings, thinking, teachings 95 00:17:44.700 --> 00:17:54.700 are not permitted, not tolerated, not accepted by the majority. 96 00:17:58.700 --> 00:18:06.700 Therefore, when we are talking about socialism, 97 00:18:06.700 --> 00:18:12.700 we are always forgetting that it could happen, 98 00:18:12.700 --> 00:18:42.100 That under socialism, I will not belong to the members of the majority, or of the group, that also a minority with various technical methods has got the rule of the whole world and the power to persecute all dissenters. 99 00:18:42.100 --> 00:18:55.500 that people are fully convinced that in this system it will be wonderful for me, just for me. 100 00:18:55.500 --> 00:19:02.180 I don't care whether it will also be wonderful for other people. 101 00:19:02.180 --> 00:19:10.620 The sort of great popularity of all such systems consists precisely in the fact 102 00:19:10.620 --> 00:19:30.140 that people are convinced that their own ideas, their own plans and their own situations will be the right ones, considered as the only one permitted. 103 00:19:30.140 --> 00:19:40.220 When we compare with this system of rigid monocracy, 104 00:19:40.220 --> 00:19:48.980 When we compare with this system, the system which is called the system of the market economy 105 00:19:48.980 --> 00:19:54.580 or the system of liberalism or many other terms which we know, 106 00:19:54.580 --> 00:20:09.660 the system in which everybody or every group is free to choose certain fields of conviction 107 00:20:09.660 --> 00:20:17.660 and Action, which are different from other people, from those chosen by other people, 108 00:20:17.660 --> 00:20:25.660 then we see there is certainly an inferior state of affairs, people say, because why 109 00:20:25.660 --> 00:20:30.660 should so many people, so many good people not accept it? 110 00:20:30.660 --> 00:20:38.660 What these people do not see is, they see from the point of view of human cooperation, 111 00:20:38.660 --> 00:20:53.500 of human co-existence, we have only one way to bring about full unanimity in every regard of thinking and acting, 112 00:20:53.500 --> 00:21:12.060 And this is by prohibiting the deviation, by persecuting the people who are deviating from the generally accepted, 113 00:21:12.060 --> 00:21:26.260 or that is safe from what is accepted by the majority, by those who have the power to force the dissenters to subjection. 114 00:21:26.260 --> 00:21:38.060 We have therefore to realize that human conditions would have developed in a very different way 115 00:21:38.060 --> 00:21:58.060 If there had been always only the attempts of people to make their own ideas, their own methods of acting and living supreme in the whole world and to prohibit everything else. 116 00:21:58.060 --> 00:22:10.060 We had a way out of it. 117 00:22:10.060 --> 00:22:21.060 We had to think to say it could be that in one part of the world, among one group of the people, 118 00:22:21.060 --> 00:22:26.060 there should be one system and among other people another system. 119 00:22:26.060 --> 00:22:56.060 system, that means they are sketching the state of affairs in a world in which there will be many, what we call, independent states, and in each of these independent states an other system of strict socialism, of strict determination by the ruling group of all 120 00:22:56.060 --> 00:23:01.260 All and every thing would prevail. 121 00:23:01.260 --> 00:23:11.960 This would have brought about a world of many groups, 122 00:23:11.960 --> 00:23:15.460 probably fighting one another, 123 00:23:15.460 --> 00:23:20.460 fighting one another because if you consider these things as absolutely necessary, 124 00:23:20.460 --> 00:23:31.260 You will not tolerate the development of other groups also beyond the borders of your own country. 125 00:23:31.260 --> 00:23:49.820 That we have human civilization, that we have what we call certain, let us say, improvements realized in the course of the centuries, 126 00:23:49.820 --> 00:24:04.820 is due to the fact that, first of all, such a general system that rules the whole world has never been realized and never been accepted. 127 00:24:04.820 --> 00:24:13.820 Also, there were many groups in the course of history who tried to bring this about. 128 00:24:13.820 --> 00:24:31.820 There were groups who thought that it is their right, their duty and their power to force all other people to submit. 129 00:24:31.820 --> 00:24:50.820 There were wars of this type, for instance religious wars, in which people tried to force a group of people of different religions to submit to their own religion and to accept it. 130 00:24:50.820 --> 00:24:57.820 There were hundreds and hundreds of years of struggles concerning such problems. 131 00:24:57.820 --> 00:25:11.820 But finally, out of these fights and wars, there emerged the idea that people are different 132 00:25:11.820 --> 00:25:18.820 and that it is not necessary, not absolutely necessary to have a state of affairs 133 00:25:18.820 --> 00:25:35.940 in which all other people are forced to behave precisely in the way in which a certain dictator wants them to behave. 134 00:25:35.940 --> 00:25:42.260 They have developed the system of cooperation, 135 00:25:42.260 --> 00:25:48.740 of cooperation in a state of affairs 136 00:25:48.740 --> 00:25:52.500 in which people can cooperate 137 00:25:52.500 --> 00:25:56.260 because they are committed to the same ideas. 138 00:25:56.260 --> 00:26:03.860 It is not necessary that people 139 00:26:03.860 --> 00:26:09.620 are acting precisely in the same way, 140 00:26:09.620 --> 00:26:14.220 behaving in the same way, thinking in the same way in which other people do. 141 00:26:14.220 --> 00:26:17.260 But what is needed and what is brought about 142 00:26:17.260 --> 00:26:22.700 and what has really started human civilization as we know it 143 00:26:22.700 --> 00:26:29.260 is the system of cooperation in those fields 144 00:26:29.260 --> 00:26:41.020 in which cooperation is accepted by greater or smaller groups. 145 00:26:41.020 --> 00:26:47.340 We have, therefore, in the course of the centuries, 146 00:26:47.340 --> 00:26:53.700 we have, therefore, the development of systems 147 00:26:53.700 --> 00:26:59.740 that are based on what is called the exchange. 148 00:26:59.740 --> 00:27:06.940 The exchange, which in Latin words, 149 00:27:06.940 --> 00:27:10.940 which were so often used in order to describe 150 00:27:10.940 --> 00:27:15.540 in the most simple way the conditions, 151 00:27:15.540 --> 00:27:17.900 are characterized as, 152 00:27:17.900 --> 00:27:24.700 Don't death. I give in order that you should give. 153 00:27:24.700 --> 00:27:29.740 I mean, I give in order to exchange with you. 154 00:27:29.740 --> 00:27:34.020 And we have brought, and this brought about in the course of the centuries, 155 00:27:34.020 --> 00:27:40.740 all those conditions which we consider as conditions of modern civilized life. 156 00:27:40.740 --> 00:27:47.100 We may say, of course, under some other conditions, 157 00:27:47.100 --> 00:27:49.460 it would be better. 158 00:27:49.460 --> 00:27:54.420 There, under the system of market economy, 159 00:27:54.420 --> 00:27:57.140 under the system of the exchange of goods, 160 00:27:57.140 --> 00:28:00.700 there prevailed still many things 161 00:28:00.700 --> 00:28:03.140 which would have disappeared 162 00:28:03.140 --> 00:28:09.460 if a superhuman being, 163 00:28:09.460 --> 00:28:12.980 not limited in any way, 164 00:28:12.980 --> 00:28:15.980 would have had the power to organize 165 00:28:15.980 --> 00:28:18.980 and to order all human affairs. 166 00:28:21.980 --> 00:28:30.980 We have a system and this system alone has in the thousands of years of human history developed to have a system 167 00:28:30.980 --> 00:28:38.980 in which people who are prepared to cooperate with one another 168 00:28:38.980 --> 00:28:51.980 are cooperating and even enter into a restricted kind of cooperation 169 00:28:51.980 --> 00:28:59.480 with other groups in which other ideas are prevailing. 170 00:28:59.480 --> 00:29:05.980 We have a system in which I can do something 171 00:29:05.980 --> 00:29:14.500 in order to satisfy another man from whom I expected something to end. 172 00:29:14.500 --> 00:29:18.180 We have a system of exchange of actions 173 00:29:18.180 --> 00:29:23.260 and the exchange of the product of these actions, 174 00:29:23.260 --> 00:29:35.740 and we have this system based on the exchange of services. 175 00:29:35.740 --> 00:29:52.240 One man renders a service in the expectation to receive another service from those people to whom he has rendered his service. 176 00:29:52.240 --> 00:30:14.640 One man renders a service in the expectation to receive another service from those people to whom he has rendered his service. 177 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:22.280 And we have elaborated this system of exchange of workings, 178 00:30:22.320 --> 00:30:24.880 we have elaborated this system 179 00:30:24.920 --> 00:30:33.520 with the technical help of mediums of exchange. 180 00:30:33.560 --> 00:30:40.320 It is not necessary that one man should find precisely 181 00:30:40.320 --> 00:30:49.320 and other men who is able to give something to him for that what he gives to these other men. 182 00:30:49.320 --> 00:30:57.320 It is enough if we can elaborate such a system as it has been done and as everybody knows 183 00:30:57.320 --> 00:31:02.320 by the system of so-called media of exchange. 184 00:31:02.320 --> 00:31:08.320 And you have our, this human system as it exists today in the world, 185 00:31:08.320 --> 00:31:26.320 consistent with the fact that people are doing something in order to receive something for what they have done as a premium for their own services. 186 00:31:26.320 --> 00:31:36.320 And this system has been elaborated by the use of medium of exchange. 187 00:31:36.320 --> 00:31:46.320 That means that people are not giving away always necessarily what they have produced or what they are serving to do 188 00:31:46.320 --> 00:31:52.320 against the thing which they themselves want to consume or want to have. 189 00:31:52.320 --> 00:32:06.320 What to have? It is possible to use some medium of exchange that enters into the working of the boom, 190 00:32:06.320 --> 00:32:17.320 and we have in this way elaborated a complete system of civilization and human action that works satisfactorily. 191 00:32:17.320 --> 00:32:31.000 We have the system of the money economy and people are saying how dirty, how bad is to do something only for somebody else 192 00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:38.320 because you are expecting something from him. But it is not so bad. 193 00:32:38.320 --> 00:32:43.800 It is the condition in which human life can exist. 194 00:32:43.800 --> 00:32:51.120 And it is necessary in this situation, in this vein, 195 00:32:51.120 --> 00:32:59.920 to have some media of exchange because a man who wants to receive something 196 00:32:59.920 --> 00:33:05.760 does not always have what the other man from whom he wants to receive it 197 00:33:05.760 --> 00:33:08.160 would accept as a compensation. 198 00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:11.680 And we have therefore a system of the media of exchange, 199 00:33:11.680 --> 00:33:33.680 developed a system of money which makes it possible for the individual to do something in exchange for an action made by somebody else who is very different in every regard. 200 00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:39.000 We have developed in the years, in several thousand years, 201 00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:47.800 we have developed a system in which practically the people can use 202 00:33:47.800 --> 00:33:58.600 their different qualities, their different knowledge, their different abilities, 203 00:33:58.600 --> 00:34:10.360 and the various things which they are finding or can do in their geographical environment 204 00:34:10.360 --> 00:34:17.200 in order to receive from other people other things which they want to do. 205 00:34:17.200 --> 00:34:23.880 We have in this way a system of markets. 206 00:34:23.880 --> 00:34:30.480 might that people say, this is something very common, you know. 207 00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:35.880 Why only do something to another man, 208 00:34:35.880 --> 00:34:38.520 something, to give something to another man 209 00:34:38.520 --> 00:34:42.960 when you are expecting to get something from him? 210 00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:51.200 This may be a stupid objection or not, 211 00:34:51.200 --> 00:35:00.960 But the fact is that it brought about this development of human civilization of which we are proud today 212 00:35:00.960 --> 00:35:10.880 because we have made enormous progress against the conditions as they existed in the past ages. 213 00:35:10.880 --> 00:35:31.600 We say how common to give to another man to drink only because you are angry and want to receive something from him. 214 00:35:31.600 --> 00:35:38.320 I don't want to say whether this is very noble or common or not. 215 00:35:38.320 --> 00:35:47.520 But it is the basis of our civilization, the exchange of commodities and services. 216 00:35:47.520 --> 00:35:54.880 And this exchange of commodities and services, which brought about a civilization, as we know it, 217 00:35:54.880 --> 00:36:04.160 this system has only one alternative, and this alternative is the Fuhrer principle, the Fuhrer tool, 218 00:36:04.160 --> 00:36:21.880 The system of the central dictator who brings about everything by punishing people and by rewarding people. 219 00:36:21.880 --> 00:36:29.680 The alternative to our system of common marketing, these people say, 220 00:36:29.680 --> 00:36:36.200 or a system in which people always want to get something better 221 00:36:36.200 --> 00:36:41.800 by giving away something and receiving a payment for it. 222 00:36:41.800 --> 00:36:45.040 The alternative for this system, which is so common, 223 00:36:45.040 --> 00:36:53.920 you should be free to render services as far as you can render them 224 00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:58.800 and you will receive a premium for it. 225 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:01.640 This system, which we have, 226 00:37:01.680 --> 00:37:07.320 may not be so noble from the point of view of a theoretical nobility, 227 00:37:07.360 --> 00:37:13.040 but it is a system that brought about all those things which we know today, 228 00:37:13.080 --> 00:37:19.040 and which we have today succeeded in doing away with many diseases 229 00:37:19.080 --> 00:37:25.320 and with finding for the sick people and for the people who are, 230 00:37:25.360 --> 00:37:28.640 for some other reasons, prevented from doing something 231 00:37:28.640 --> 00:37:33.840 a system in which they too can live and enjoy life, 232 00:37:33.880 --> 00:37:36.160 then this is due to the fact 233 00:37:36.200 --> 00:37:40.400 that we have created this wonderful system of marketing, 234 00:37:40.440 --> 00:37:42.800 that we have created this world market 235 00:37:42.840 --> 00:37:52.880 that makes it possible that somebody who gets some disease 236 00:37:52.880 --> 00:38:03.040 In Europe can find the cure, the only available cure which we know against it. 237 00:38:03.040 --> 00:38:13.280 Also, in order to get this, it is necessary to travel thousands and thousands of miles 238 00:38:13.280 --> 00:38:19.760 and establish many establishments 239 00:38:19.800 --> 00:38:23.760 which for their building and construction 240 00:38:23.800 --> 00:38:27.280 require years or even decades. 241 00:38:28.360 --> 00:38:32.920 We have established this wonderful system 242 00:38:32.960 --> 00:38:35.520 in which, of course, 243 00:38:36.200 --> 00:38:43.000 only the people 244 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:51.880 who are healthy and have the power to work, can actively participate. 245 00:38:51.880 --> 00:38:56.960 But we cannot, but we have this system connected with another system 246 00:38:56.960 --> 00:39:01.000 which makes it also possible to give and to provide for those 247 00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:07.720 who are not in a position to provide for themselves. 248 00:39:07.720 --> 00:39:12.040 We have therefore a system in which we have to say 249 00:39:12.040 --> 00:39:21.440 The centre of our activities is the do-good-ness 250 00:39:21.480 --> 00:39:26.160 that I give in order to receive something. 251 00:39:26.200 --> 00:39:34.520 And in this system we have established the medium of exchange 252 00:39:34.560 --> 00:39:41.120 for technical reasons, because it makes the exchange possible. 253 00:39:41.120 --> 00:40:00.880 And this system of the medium of exchange of money requires certain special rules in order not to lose the goals which it has to attain. 254 00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:06.280 We can therefore say, in thousands and thousands of years, 255 00:40:06.280 --> 00:40:14.280 that mankind started with very low standards of living, 256 00:40:14.280 --> 00:40:17.480 with very simple things, 257 00:40:17.480 --> 00:40:21.480 with absolute ignorance of all those things, 258 00:40:21.480 --> 00:40:24.880 which we consider the highest things of life. 259 00:40:24.880 --> 00:40:29.680 In these thousands and thousands of years have they developed this system 260 00:40:29.680 --> 00:40:36.480 in which there are so many things 261 00:40:36.520 --> 00:40:41.920 which can be considered as fully satisfactory. 262 00:40:41.960 --> 00:40:45.800 And at the site of these many things, fully satisfactory, 263 00:40:45.840 --> 00:40:51.280 there prevail many things which are even today very unsatisfactory. 264 00:40:51.320 --> 00:40:59.320 But we have seen that this system developed step by step 265 00:40:59.320 --> 00:41:14.160 by the fact that individuals try to bring about some method of doing away with unsatisfactory conditions 266 00:41:14.160 --> 00:41:25.960 and making even very unsatisfactory conditions, in many cases, much less satisfactory, if not fully satisfactory. 267 00:41:25.960 --> 00:41:35.960 And this system is based on the market. 268 00:41:35.960 --> 00:41:42.960 And it is based on the exchange, on the market, against media of exchange. 269 00:41:42.960 --> 00:41:48.960 And such media of exchange are what we need 270 00:41:48.960 --> 00:41:56.760 in order to bring about a system in which people can do those things 271 00:41:56.760 --> 00:42:01.160 which we consider today, after thousands of years of development, 272 00:42:01.160 --> 00:42:07.280 as absolutely necessary, absolutely satisfactory, and so on. 273 00:42:07.280 --> 00:42:16.520 It is therefore not justified 274 00:42:16.560 --> 00:42:23.120 to look upon the conditions of the market exchange, 275 00:42:23.160 --> 00:42:27.560 of money, of selling things 276 00:42:27.600 --> 00:42:31.120 at the highest possible price that can be received, 277 00:42:31.160 --> 00:42:33.720 and of all these things, 278 00:42:33.720 --> 00:42:41.120 as things which belong just to the lower things of life, 279 00:42:41.160 --> 00:42:45.680 to the things which are absolutely necessary 280 00:42:45.720 --> 00:42:49.200 because the conditions are not satisfactory at the world 281 00:42:49.240 --> 00:42:53.400 and to make them more satisfactory requires such things 282 00:42:53.440 --> 00:42:57.640 as being selfish in many cases, 283 00:42:57.680 --> 00:43:03.520 selfish in acting in a way in which one tries 284 00:43:03.520 --> 00:43:08.920 to get the best what can be received in exchange ratios, and so on. 285 00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:15.800 We have certainly not reached an ideal state of affairs. 286 00:43:15.880 --> 00:43:18.760 We cannot reach such an ideal state of affairs 287 00:43:18.840 --> 00:43:22.320 because conditions in the world are such 288 00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:30.760 that men must work in order to feed themselves 289 00:43:30.760 --> 00:43:38.160 and that this is less, let us say, pleasant 290 00:43:38.200 --> 00:43:45.160 than just enjoying life without any necessity to work. 291 00:43:45.200 --> 00:43:49.080 But we have brought about such a system, 292 00:43:49.120 --> 00:43:53.120 and in this system there is the medium of exchange, 293 00:43:53.160 --> 00:43:59.320 money plays an important role, 294 00:43:59.320 --> 00:44:06.120 It plays a role that cannot, as far as we can see, be substituted by anything else. 295 00:44:06.120 --> 00:44:17.000 And therefore, if we say that the conditions in the world are not very satisfactory 296 00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:26.760 because you must try to bargain, you must try to exchange what you have against other things 297 00:44:26.760 --> 00:44:29.560 which you want to acquire, and so on. 298 00:44:29.600 --> 00:44:32.560 This is not very pleasant. 299 00:44:32.600 --> 00:44:38.840 This belongs to the lower strata of human life and human activities. 300 00:44:38.880 --> 00:44:40.280 This is not true. 301 00:44:40.320 --> 00:44:46.320 All the great things which men have brought about, 302 00:44:46.360 --> 00:44:48.320 the arts, 303 00:44:48.360 --> 00:44:54.280 and all the noble things which men have done, 304 00:44:54.280 --> 00:45:03.640 help to people who need help, help to people who are in bad conditions. 305 00:45:03.640 --> 00:45:09.000 All these things would be impossible if we had not developed 306 00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:13.080 in the course of the centuries and centuries, 307 00:45:13.080 --> 00:45:19.880 systems in which we are improving more and more 308 00:45:19.880 --> 00:45:23.800 the methods of preserving our human life 309 00:45:23.800 --> 00:45:28.320 and of making it purer 310 00:45:28.320 --> 00:45:33.240 and of making it more satisfactory from the point of view 311 00:45:33.240 --> 00:45:38.120 of ethical and artistic points of view. 312 00:45:38.120 --> 00:45:43.640 Therefore, if we are, say, if we are contrasting 313 00:45:43.640 --> 00:45:49.520 the bad conditions of the world with the ideas 314 00:45:49.520 --> 00:45:54.360 which we have in our minds about a finer and higher world. 315 00:45:54.400 --> 00:46:02.560 We must say such comparisons and such conditions have no value at all. 316 00:46:02.600 --> 00:46:06.720 What has made people better, 317 00:46:06.760 --> 00:46:09.600 what has given to people better conditions 318 00:46:09.640 --> 00:46:13.800 and what has created all those things 319 00:46:13.840 --> 00:46:18.880 which we consider today as the pride of women 320 00:46:18.880 --> 00:46:41.520 was not some declamations, some talks, some dreams about a better world or some attempts to realize by the power of arms a better world, 321 00:46:41.520 --> 00:46:50.080 But what it wrote about all these things was the daily fine works of people, 322 00:46:50.080 --> 00:46:56.400 the attempt of people to improve their own conditions 323 00:46:56.400 --> 00:47:03.360 by hard working and by doing things 324 00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:07.280 which were unknown to previous ages 325 00:47:07.320 --> 00:47:12.120 and to themselves in their previous times. 326 00:47:12.160 --> 00:47:22.200 And therefore we must say the market system, 327 00:47:22.240 --> 00:47:27.320 the system of producing something 328 00:47:27.360 --> 00:47:31.880 for the sake of giving it away, 329 00:47:31.880 --> 00:47:35.280 but only for giving it away to people 330 00:47:35.320 --> 00:47:40.360 whose themselves are giving something away to us for our improvement. 331 00:47:40.400 --> 00:47:47.960 This system may be considered as a very common system, 332 00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:54.600 as a system that does not compare 333 00:47:54.640 --> 00:47:58.480 with certain manifestations of human life 334 00:47:58.480 --> 00:48:03.280 in art, in religion, in philosophy, and so on. 335 00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:07.840 But it is the system that has improved everything. 336 00:48:07.920 --> 00:48:12.520 It is the system that has converted people 337 00:48:12.600 --> 00:48:18.960 whose ancestors were living on the scale of life 338 00:48:19.040 --> 00:48:22.960 which we consider as extremely unsatisfactory 339 00:48:23.040 --> 00:48:27.680 in conditions, in descendants 340 00:48:27.680 --> 00:48:31.920 who are continually committed to the idea 341 00:48:31.960 --> 00:48:38.840 that improving conditions by working more and more, 342 00:48:38.880 --> 00:48:45.920 and improving conditions by studying the conditions of nature more and more, 343 00:48:45.960 --> 00:48:50.040 and finding out better methods to fight all those things 344 00:48:50.080 --> 00:48:52.880 which we consider as unsatisfactory, 345 00:48:52.920 --> 00:48:56.080 that this is the right way for men to live. 346 00:48:56.080 --> 00:49:14.080 And therefore, if some people say everything on this earth is bad and the only thing which is satisfactory from the point of view of a higher philosophy 347 00:49:14.080 --> 00:49:22.080 is to retire from active duty and to live as anachorets used to live and so on. 348 00:49:22.080 --> 00:49:26.040 We can answer to say, no. Look around. 349 00:49:26.080 --> 00:49:32.240 And where you see even the smallest improvement of conditions, 350 00:49:32.280 --> 00:49:41.000 you may say, this is the effect of the intentions 351 00:49:41.040 --> 00:49:43.800 and of the works of our ancestors, 352 00:49:43.840 --> 00:49:49.640 and we have only one method of improving conditions. 353 00:49:49.640 --> 00:50:00.640 This is to do the same as said it, also to try to attain, to improve the conditions more and more. 354 00:50:19.640 --> 00:50:24.640 The Theory of Money and Credit 355 00:50:26.640 --> 00:50:30.640 Is it possible for a system to... 356 00:50:34.640 --> 00:50:38.640 Yes, I want to answer the first question, 357 00:50:38.640 --> 00:50:43.640 because I consider this also as a general question, 358 00:50:43.640 --> 00:50:47.640 as the most important problem we have to deal with. 359 00:50:47.640 --> 00:50:55.440 It is possible for a system of a socialist democracy to exist. 360 00:50:55.440 --> 00:51:08.840 That means, if there were people who were prepared to work so hard 361 00:51:08.840 --> 00:51:17.040 as the great people who brought about all great things did work, 362 00:51:17.040 --> 00:51:22.880 merely in order to improve something, 363 00:51:22.880 --> 00:51:28.880 perhaps to improve something, merely to bring about some change 364 00:51:28.880 --> 00:51:32.800 in other conditions somewhere in the world, 365 00:51:32.800 --> 00:51:36.800 then I would say, yes, it is possible. 366 00:51:36.800 --> 00:51:40.880 But if we take into account 367 00:51:40.880 --> 00:51:51.720 that the question is not to do something great that never existed before, 368 00:51:51.720 --> 00:51:59.280 but that the question is to improve step by step, small changes, 369 00:51:59.280 --> 00:52:06.400 to break up, to do somewhere, everywhere in the world, 370 00:52:06.400 --> 00:52:17.160 to avoid the waste of power and opportunities, then we must say no. 371 00:52:17.160 --> 00:52:22.160 We must say no, it is not possible, because what is here in the world, 372 00:52:22.160 --> 00:52:26.720 we have clear what has to be done. 373 00:52:26.720 --> 00:52:35.640 There is something, there is some apparatus that is very important and useful. 374 00:52:35.640 --> 00:52:42.600 But it could not serve in the same way in which it could serve 375 00:52:42.640 --> 00:52:50.000 if some deficiency, which is still connected with it, is to avoid it. 376 00:52:50.040 --> 00:52:52.720 And to avoid such a small deficiency, 377 00:52:52.760 --> 00:52:57.160 people must work and work hard and harder, 378 00:52:57.200 --> 00:53:02.040 and this they must be able to measure, 379 00:53:02.040 --> 00:53:07.040 And this measurement is precisely the system of market economy, which we have. 380 00:53:09.040 --> 00:53:14.040 Can this system of medium of exchange continue among this medium of exchange, 381 00:53:14.040 --> 00:53:18.040 is not backed by gold in order to strong? 382 00:53:18.040 --> 00:53:21.040 Now this is the problem of world. 383 00:53:23.040 --> 00:53:28.040 The question of money is, 384 00:53:28.040 --> 00:53:38.040 We have exchanged something which we have produced, 385 00:53:38.040 --> 00:53:42.040 not against the thing which we really need, 386 00:53:42.040 --> 00:53:47.040 but against something which will make it easier for us 387 00:53:47.040 --> 00:53:55.040 to attain in the next exchange this other thing. 388 00:53:55.040 --> 00:54:04.040 We are getting something as a medium of exchange 389 00:54:04.040 --> 00:54:07.040 which has some value, 390 00:54:07.040 --> 00:54:11.040 which somebody else will want to get 391 00:54:11.040 --> 00:54:15.040 because it serves some purpose. 392 00:54:15.040 --> 00:54:21.040 What we sought was 393 00:54:21.040 --> 00:54:29.040 that this can be done by, let us say, a kind of deception. 394 00:54:29.040 --> 00:54:38.040 We are giving away things, people say, against paper money. 395 00:54:38.040 --> 00:54:45.040 This paper money was not created as paper money. 396 00:54:45.040 --> 00:54:51.440 It was created as a title to get something 397 00:54:51.440 --> 00:54:56.840 which has value on account of the fact that people are asking for it, 398 00:54:56.840 --> 00:55:04.640 in the case of gold, for certain valuables, 399 00:55:04.640 --> 00:55:08.040 and for the medium of exchange. 400 00:55:08.040 --> 00:55:12.840 The great advantage of gold is a medium of exchange consistent with the fact 401 00:55:12.840 --> 00:55:16.800 that in order to increase the quantity of gold, 402 00:55:16.800 --> 00:55:24.400 you have to spend as much as the purchasing power of the gold unit. 403 00:55:24.400 --> 00:55:33.080 Therefore, we have to save 404 00:55:33.080 --> 00:55:40.400 what we need in order to have a system 405 00:55:40.400 --> 00:55:49.600 of Money is something that cannot be produced 406 00:55:49.640 --> 00:55:52.360 neither by the government nor by individuals 407 00:55:52.400 --> 00:55:56.840 at lower cost than the purchasing power of the monetary unit. 408 00:55:56.880 --> 00:56:03.440 If it were possible for the government 409 00:56:04.160 --> 00:56:07.880 to increase the quantity of money, 410 00:56:07.880 --> 00:56:17.880 as it is today the case, without any effects, then the use of money would disappear immediately. 411 00:56:22.880 --> 00:56:36.880 Where is the weakness in our system that has allowed an inferior ideology to undermine our free enterprise economy? 412 00:56:36.880 --> 00:56:39.880 Can our system survive? 413 00:56:39.920 --> 00:56:44.680 The weakness in our system is that 414 00:56:44.720 --> 00:56:51.240 we do not think the things up to the ultimate end. 415 00:56:51.280 --> 00:57:03.520 We say the paper money issued by a bank 416 00:57:03.520 --> 00:57:11.000 who redeems this paper immediately if we want it into gold, 417 00:57:11.000 --> 00:57:20.480 such a paper is not the same as a paper that does not make this redemption. 418 00:57:20.480 --> 00:57:33.720 And therefore, we did not make a difference between writing books, 419 00:57:33.720 --> 00:57:40.920 we didn't make a difference between a piece of paper money that is redeemed in gold 420 00:57:40.920 --> 00:57:44.120 and such a paper money which is not redeemed in gold. 421 00:57:44.120 --> 00:57:49.520 If we do not make this difference, then of course the whole thing disappears. 422 00:57:50.480 --> 00:58:15.480 Are the concepts of cooperation and competition really antithetical, as asserted by those who ascribe the form of socialism in the wake of capitalism? 423 00:58:15.480 --> 00:58:28.480 If not, at what level are these concepts reconcilable and indeed mutually complementary? 424 00:58:28.480 --> 00:58:36.480 There is no conflict between cooperation and competition. 425 00:58:36.480 --> 00:58:42.200 Cooperation is in the... 426 00:58:45.200 --> 00:58:51.680 I could say, cooperating in competition means 427 00:58:51.680 --> 00:59:03.560 that when something has to be exchanged against something else, 428 00:59:03.560 --> 00:59:10.400 Then the individual will try to get the best possible solution, 429 00:59:10.440 --> 00:59:13.800 the greatest quantity available. 430 00:59:13.840 --> 00:59:19.480 And those who are not in a position to provide this 431 00:59:19.520 --> 00:59:26.240 are not, practically, not competing. 432 00:59:26.240 --> 00:59:38.240 And therefore, we can say that the two things belong to the same idea and to the same group of affairs. 433 00:59:42.240 --> 00:59:46.240 Is inflation inevitable with full employment? 434 00:59:46.240 --> 00:59:49.240 More. 435 00:59:49.240 --> 00:59:54.240 It is simply to say that full employment 436 00:59:54.240 --> 01:00:01.240 does not mean anything else than full sale of commodities. 437 01:00:01.240 --> 01:00:04.240 If there is not full employment, 438 01:00:04.240 --> 01:00:07.240 this means that there are people 439 01:00:07.240 --> 01:00:12.240 who are asking too much for their employment. 440 01:00:12.240 --> 01:00:21.240 unemployment. That means people who overrate themselves, and this is not something very rare. 441 01:00:21.240 --> 01:00:35.240 Most people have the tendency to overrate themselves and to ask for money, and then if they realize how reality is, then they accept it. 442 01:00:35.240 --> 01:00:56.240 If we have unemployment as a great problem, it is due to the fact that the government interferes or the union interferes by raising the price of certain kinds of labour. 443 01:00:56.240 --> 01:01:25.240 And of course, if you raise the price of something above the value which the prospective buyers could get in some other field by spending this amount of money, then of course you will remain without these things. 444 01:01:26.240 --> 01:01:33.240 I have heard many people lately during economic problems in the state claim they think the 445 01:01:33.240 --> 01:01:38.240 government should freeze wages and prices. Where is the false thinking here? 446 01:01:38.240 --> 01:01:47.240 When you... I have heard many people lately during our economic problems in the state 447 01:01:47.240 --> 01:01:55.240 claim they think that the government should freeze wages and prices, etc. 448 01:01:55.240 --> 01:01:58.040 The government cannot freeze something. 449 01:01:58.040 --> 01:02:04.640 The government can make it illegal to sell at a higher price, for instance. 450 01:02:04.640 --> 01:02:15.440 Then those people who are not satisfied with the lower price ordered by the government will not sell. 451 01:02:15.440 --> 01:02:23.440 That means the government forbids practically certain methods of operation. 452 01:02:23.440 --> 01:02:28.080 The fact that the government says the price ought to be higher 453 01:02:28.080 --> 01:02:32.440 or that the government says the price ought to be lower 454 01:02:32.440 --> 01:02:36.960 is not different practically from my declaration 455 01:02:36.960 --> 01:02:39.200 this price should be lower or higher. 456 01:02:39.200 --> 01:02:42.320 Nobody cares what I am saying about it. 457 01:02:45.680 --> 01:02:50.000 Do you think our monetary system will collapse? 458 01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:57.000 Or are we going to continue with our present form of money? 459 01:02:58.000 --> 01:03:06.000 Our system will collapse when we are printing quantities of money 460 01:03:06.000 --> 01:03:12.000 without any economic reason for it, you know. 461 01:03:12.000 --> 01:03:22.920 There is no such thing as the possibility of increasing the quantity of paper money. 462 01:03:22.920 --> 01:03:30.480 We could imagine a state of affairs in which once in the past a certain quantity of paper 463 01:03:30.480 --> 01:03:38.720 money was printed and that in the future never again any addition to this quantity will be made. 464 01:03:38.720 --> 01:03:44.200 This would be a nonsensical system, but it would be a system that can work. 465 01:03:44.200 --> 01:03:49.240 But what cannot work is the system which we have, and it is this. 466 01:03:49.240 --> 01:03:53.120 The government wants to spend. 467 01:03:53.120 --> 01:03:57.560 The government wants to spend because it is very popular, 468 01:03:57.560 --> 01:04:00.320 if the government spends. 469 01:04:00.320 --> 01:04:03.480 The government wants the vote of certain people, 470 01:04:03.480 --> 01:04:09.840 and it will give them some money, not directly saying, I pay you for your voting, 471 01:04:09.840 --> 01:04:17.880 but they will give them some subsidies in order to become popular. 472 01:04:17.880 --> 01:04:23.120 Now, what does this mean? 473 01:04:23.120 --> 01:04:29.080 Any increase in the quantity of paper money, money on the part of the government means 474 01:04:29.080 --> 01:04:39.480 that there are now people who are offering more in buying than they could yesterday. 475 01:04:39.480 --> 01:04:44.240 And therefore that there is an upward movement of prices. 476 01:04:44.240 --> 01:04:52.280 That means inflation is the increase in the quantity of money 477 01:04:52.280 --> 01:04:56.120 in the hands of some people, of course, not of everybody. 478 01:04:56.120 --> 01:05:00.480 But if it were also at the hands of everybody, it would have the same need, you know. 479 01:05:00.480 --> 01:05:09.680 If the quantity of money increases, then people will be able to spend more, 480 01:05:09.680 --> 01:05:14.000 and people who are selling will receive more. 481 01:05:14.000 --> 01:05:16.120 But this must come to an end. 482 01:05:16.120 --> 01:05:25.800 If it goes on without an end, then ask the historians what happened a hundred times in various countries. 483 01:05:25.800 --> 01:05:33.300 Ask, for instance, the American historian what happened in the war of revolution 484 01:05:33.300 --> 01:05:41.300 and what happened with the currency of the Confederate states at the end of the civil war. 485 01:05:41.300 --> 01:05:46.300 And then you will have the answer. 486 01:05:46.300 --> 01:05:49.300 Can socialism survive without the help of capitalism? 487 01:05:49.300 --> 01:05:54.300 Can socialism survive without the help of capitalism? 488 01:05:54.300 --> 01:05:56.420 What does it mean, survive? 489 01:05:56.420 --> 01:05:59.860 For a man, I know what it means, survive. 490 01:05:59.860 --> 01:06:08.860 What for socialism it means is what will socialism... 491 01:06:08.860 --> 01:06:13.020 You mean socialism in one country can survive 492 01:06:13.020 --> 01:06:15.860 if there is capitalism in other countries. 493 01:06:15.860 --> 01:06:21.140 Socialism could survive, could exist. 494 01:06:21.140 --> 01:06:22.940 It exists in Russia. 495 01:06:22.940 --> 01:06:29.740 But the question is, how do those people who are living there survive? 496 01:06:29.740 --> 01:06:31.540 This is the question. 497 01:06:31.540 --> 01:06:36.540 It is not a question of survival of a system. 498 01:06:39.540 --> 01:06:44.040 Isn't all human action directed by selfishness? 499 01:06:44.040 --> 01:06:48.040 Of course everybody is selfish. 500 01:06:48.040 --> 01:06:53.200 He wants to eat, to eat himself, you know. 501 01:06:53.240 --> 01:06:58.280 And if you call this selfishness, then you must say everybody is selfish. 502 01:06:58.320 --> 01:07:04.960 But if we use the term selfish in order to describe the condition, 503 01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:11.160 the situation of a man who is not prepared 504 01:07:11.200 --> 01:07:17.400 to render his fellow citizens those services 505 01:07:17.400 --> 01:07:29.680 How is the rational man to react to the Führer system if conditions necessitate his remaining 506 01:07:29.680 --> 01:07:30.680 with its control? 507 01:07:30.680 --> 01:07:40.680 How is the rational man to react to the Fuhrer system if conditions necessitate his remaining with its control? 508 01:07:40.680 --> 01:07:47.680 The Fuhrer system means that there is an absolute monarch. 509 01:07:47.680 --> 01:07:51.680 He alone determines everything. 510 01:07:51.680 --> 01:07:57.680 It is of course supposed or self-understood that the Fuhrer is a wonderful man. 511 01:07:57.680 --> 01:08:17.680 A man who does everything only in order to satisfy the masses and is gifted enough to know what they need and is clever enough to produce these things. 512 01:08:17.680 --> 01:08:31.680 The theory principle was, in fact, merely the exclusion of the influence of all other people upon the direction of action. 513 01:08:31.680 --> 01:08:34.680 The theory alone determines everything. 514 01:08:34.680 --> 01:08:42.680 And what you other people do doesn't count whether you like it or you don't like it. 515 01:08:42.680 --> 01:08:52.680 The Führer has said that you have to dig holes in the earth somewhere, and then you have to be quiet. 516 01:08:54.680 --> 01:09:00.680 Would you care to answer this? In a communist controlled country, how much of their production is accomplished by slave labor? 517 01:09:00.680 --> 01:09:03.680 Does this method produce quality goods? 518 01:09:03.680 --> 01:09:12.680 In communist controlled countries, how much of their production is accomplished by slave labor? 519 01:09:12.680 --> 01:09:15.680 Does this method produce quality goods? 520 01:09:15.680 --> 01:09:27.680 Now, I would not criticize the use of slave labor for the work in a communist state. 521 01:09:27.680 --> 01:09:47.680 The characteristic of slave labor is that what the slave produces is not consumed by people whose consumption he has an influence. 522 01:09:47.680 --> 01:10:10.680 The labor of a freeman consists of the fact that he enjoys directly or indirectly the products of his labor. Indirectly, that means by selling them, by getting the wages for his work and so on. 523 01:10:10.680 --> 01:10:20.680 Slave labor means that the slave is forced to produce by the owner. 524 01:10:20.680 --> 01:10:26.680 And slave labor was extremely unproductive 525 01:10:26.680 --> 01:10:33.680 because the slaves were not interested in the quality of their own labor. 526 01:10:33.680 --> 01:10:35.680 This should be the last one, Professor. 527 01:10:35.680 --> 01:10:45.680 What book would you recommend as a basic beginner's course in economics for a college student who has a professor who is a Keynesian economist? 528 01:10:52.680 --> 01:11:03.680 You see, today the great difficulty with recommending books consists in the fact that people are different 529 01:11:03.680 --> 01:11:21.680 And that for some people, a certain book may be very useful, while the book for other people is less useful because its mind is a little bit different. 530 01:11:21.680 --> 01:11:27.680 Fortunately, people are different from one another. 531 01:11:27.680 --> 01:11:34.680 Fortunately, we are not a group of people 532 01:11:34.680 --> 01:11:42.680 who have always the same ideas and the same mental capacities. 533 01:11:42.680 --> 01:12:10.680 I would therefore say read not only books which are saying what you like and developing the theories with which you are already familiar, read also other books and read these books critically. 534 01:12:10.680 --> 01:12:17.680 The most important thing in human life as far as it is scientifically important, 535 01:12:17.680 --> 01:12:24.680 the most important thing is a critical mind to think over the things. 536 01:12:24.680 --> 01:12:28.680 Many people are lacking this quality, 537 01:12:28.680 --> 01:12:34.680 but many more people who believe that they are lacking this quality 538 01:12:34.680 --> 01:12:38.680 and therefore abstain from reading good books 539 01:12:38.680 --> 01:13:02.680 should be a little bit less modest and have the courage to read difficult books and to read books also which say those things which they consider as very disagreeable and very bad. 540 01:13:02.680 --> 01:13:12.480 And you should read these books which you consider as bad, written, intentioned, 541 01:13:12.480 --> 01:13:16.840 to answer the question, why is this book bad? 542 01:13:16.840 --> 01:13:22.400 In what consists the badness, the poverty of this book? 543 01:13:22.400 --> 01:13:31.840 There is no medicine for people who are lacking this quality. 544 01:13:31.840 --> 01:13:37.880 There are no books which you can say, read these books, 545 01:13:37.880 --> 01:13:43.000 and then you will be an excellent economist, 546 01:13:43.000 --> 01:13:48.400 an excellent philosopher, an excellent mathematician. 547 01:13:48.400 --> 01:13:51.200 This is precisely not the case. 548 01:13:51.200 --> 01:13:55.320 It is very difficult, and there are even people 549 01:13:55.320 --> 01:14:02.120 whose mental capacities are not sufficient for such a thing. 550 01:14:02.200 --> 01:14:07.000 But what can you do? What can these people do? 551 01:14:07.080 --> 01:14:13.320 I can only give the advice, study, read, think over. 552 01:14:13.400 --> 01:14:17.560 Do not accept what you hear, 553 01:14:17.640 --> 01:14:21.800 do not believe what people once told you, 554 01:14:21.800 --> 01:14:37.800 And don't forget that nothing is more difficult than to think correct.