WEBVTT NOTE Selling Liberty: National Delusions and the Madness of Crowds 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.600 Yes, I have quite a bizarre background. I worked for the Soviet government. What worked 2 00:00:04.600 --> 00:00:11.600 was a serious overstatement of my activities there. And I was one of economic advisors nobody 3 00:00:11.600 --> 00:00:17.680 listened to. And we had meetings, for example, with Gorbachev and Prime Minister Ryzhkov, 4 00:00:17.680 --> 00:00:21.760 and we will do all the writing and they will do all the talking, so advice would go all 5 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:28.040 the way around. So I wouldn't take the blame for what happened in the Soviet Union when 6 00:00:28.040 --> 00:00:32.740 Definitely too big a place to fail, failed miserably. 7 00:00:32.740 --> 00:00:34.560 Failed miserably, was completely destroyed 8 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:36.400 by its own government. 9 00:00:36.400 --> 00:00:40.200 Government essentially is what a socialist government 10 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:45.200 or government say in a so-called market economy 11 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:47.160 is a socialist institution. 12 00:00:47.160 --> 00:00:50.440 It's just not the matter of quality, 13 00:00:50.440 --> 00:00:52.040 it's a matter of quantity. 14 00:00:52.040 --> 00:00:54.160 If you have the big government, 15 00:00:54.160 --> 00:00:57.240 then you have more social, you have small government, 16 00:00:57.240 --> 00:00:59.400 You have less socialism, you have no government, 17 00:00:59.400 --> 00:01:01.520 you have no socialism. 18 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:04.360 So that's kind of, I think, as simple as that. 19 00:01:04.360 --> 00:01:07.840 In economics, we do not have zero-sum game in exchanges 20 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:11.100 because exchanges are voluntary and benefit both parties. 21 00:01:11.100 --> 00:01:13.560 In politics, we have zero-sum game. 22 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:16.360 Either you have all your rights, 23 00:01:16.360 --> 00:01:19.280 or the government has all rights to repress you, 24 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:22.280 to maim you, to kill you, to put you in, 25 00:01:22.280 --> 00:01:25.920 I was reading recently Michael Moore's book, 26 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:29.600 downsize this, yes, and on page 27 he's writing 27 00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:31.280 that people like William Sapphire, 28 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:34.360 who was kind of a neocon, whatever, 29 00:01:34.360 --> 00:01:36.480 not big deal kind of person, but even he, 30 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:40.280 according to Michael Moore, deserved to spread manure 31 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:43.260 in a collective farm on North Dakota. 32 00:01:43.260 --> 00:01:47.920 So that's exactly what I think our future would be 33 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.560 if we would not defend liberty, 34 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:52.360 we would not defend in the short run 35 00:01:52.360 --> 00:01:54.300 and in the long run as well. 36 00:01:54.300 --> 00:01:58.180 So I am kind of very thankful for Jacob 37 00:01:58.180 --> 00:02:00.820 and I already didn't have any dessert. 38 00:02:02.260 --> 00:02:05.220 I want to increase my life expectancy 39 00:02:05.220 --> 00:02:09.300 and be more attractive to my audiences. 40 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:12.660 But from another hand, I think that if we would not 41 00:02:12.660 --> 00:02:14.980 take care of today's business as well, 42 00:02:14.980 --> 00:02:17.420 then they will come after you. 43 00:02:17.420 --> 00:02:19.220 They can knock on the door. 44 00:02:19.220 --> 00:02:23.500 So I am for both short run and long run kind of thing. 45 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:31.300 Speaking about working with political parties, well, Samuel Francis, he had this pretty, 46 00:02:31.300 --> 00:02:34.420 I would say, open kind of statement when he met me. 47 00:02:34.420 --> 00:02:36.460 He said, Yuri, we have two party systems. 48 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:40.660 One is evil, another is stupid. 49 00:02:40.660 --> 00:02:46.300 And the worst thing is bipartisanship, which is both evil and stupid. 50 00:02:46.300 --> 00:02:50.060 I would say bipartisanship is already, it's just one party system. 51 00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:55.180 System, yes, we have, that's the last thing I want from them to be, to work together. 52 00:02:55.180 --> 00:03:00.060 Then you will have one party system, and sure enough bipartisanism won. 53 00:03:00.060 --> 00:03:04.720 I would like to congratulate you ladies and gentlemen that our government is still working. 54 00:03:04.720 --> 00:03:10.500 They reached a compromise, they reached a surprise, surprise, a compromise, and the 55 00:03:10.500 --> 00:03:19.500 compromise they reached, they cut $38 billion, which is exactly 1% of our budget, of our 56 00:03:19.500 --> 00:03:25.160 in 1938, so Republicans gave in, they gave in on their social issues and they gave in 57 00:03:25.160 --> 00:03:30.580 on the size of the cuts, on the size of the cuts, however both parties definitely as following 58 00:03:30.580 --> 00:03:37.500 their famous Napoleonic dictum, now they're turning their defeats into great victories, 59 00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:45.460 into great victories, so now you still can go to Yellowstone Park, watch PBS and all 60 00:03:45.460 --> 00:03:49.140 other non-essential functions of the government. 61 00:03:49.140 --> 00:03:52.220 I would say if I would like to see government shut down, 62 00:03:52.220 --> 00:03:54.700 I would like to see the most essential parts 63 00:03:54.700 --> 00:03:56.340 to be shut down first. 64 00:03:56.340 --> 00:04:01.340 That would be, I think, the most important thing. 65 00:04:05.580 --> 00:04:09.540 Then also, I remember that, and still today, 66 00:04:09.540 --> 00:04:13.420 from many Republican delegates we hear 67 00:04:13.420 --> 00:04:15.180 that the government can be fixed, 68 00:04:15.180 --> 00:04:17.700 that we can make government more efficient. 69 00:04:17.700 --> 00:04:22.820 Donald Trump was talking quite recently, I think, with Hannity about making government 70 00:04:22.820 --> 00:04:23.820 more efficient. 71 00:04:23.820 --> 00:04:31.500 It reminds me of Ross Perot, if you remember Ross Perot, I had his big ears, with not much 72 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:40.180 in between, and he was telling us that we should open the hood of government and fix 73 00:04:40.180 --> 00:04:41.180 it. 74 00:04:41.180 --> 00:04:47.100 And no such thing as fixing the hood of the government, no, the government should be kept 75 00:04:47.100 --> 00:04:51.180 small, as miniscule as possible, and if no government, 76 00:04:51.180 --> 00:04:55.200 then we would be even better off, better off. 77 00:04:55.200 --> 00:04:58.060 Now we have, now we're kind of, I'm wondering what is, 78 00:04:58.060 --> 00:05:01.220 what is below that nice haircut of Mr. Trump? 79 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:03.220 So what does he think about that? 80 00:05:03.220 --> 00:05:04.280 Yes, so that's, 81 00:05:07.980 --> 00:05:10.140 from another hand, I believe that we are kind of 82 00:05:10.140 --> 00:05:13.580 in a very pivotal crossroads of our history, 83 00:05:13.580 --> 00:05:14.980 crossroads of our history. 84 00:05:17.100 --> 00:05:23.100 I am speaking a lot with tea parties in the Midwest and Texas right now almost every week 85 00:05:23.100 --> 00:05:29.100 because I am trying to talk to anybody who is open to listen, who is listening, who is listening. 86 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:35.100 And I would say that most people are really concerned with our liberty, with the fate of our liberty. 87 00:05:35.100 --> 00:05:42.100 And speaking about this polls, public opinion polls, what comes to mind, Lenin once said, 88 00:05:42.100 --> 00:05:48.100 public opinion polls is not about what people think, they're about what you should think. 89 00:05:48.100 --> 00:05:55.120 And I think to some extent this is true, this is true. Pew and CBS were lying us for ages 90 00:05:55.120 --> 00:06:01.960 and ages, for ages and ages. Today in Economist they have this that less and less people believe 91 00:06:01.960 --> 00:06:07.620 in market economy throughout the world, that socialism is coming. I think that people still 92 00:06:07.620 --> 00:06:12.500 People believe in market economy, it's almost twice less people today in the United States 93 00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:16.100 believe in market economy than two years ago for some reason, two years ago they elected 94 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:21.220 Obama who definitely doesn't believe in anything. 95 00:06:21.220 --> 00:06:28.700 So this is the mass delusions I would say, what are the problems that we have, I think 96 00:06:28.700 --> 00:06:35.700 the government is deliberately destroying civil society and market relations and I think 97 00:06:35.700 --> 00:06:41.260 and that is the systemic damage which would be very difficult to undo. 98 00:06:41.260 --> 00:06:48.260 Today, half of Americans, half of all American families do not pay any taxes. 99 00:06:48.260 --> 00:06:51.180 Sounds like a very libertarian kind of thing. 100 00:06:51.180 --> 00:06:58.180 From another hand, from another hand, these people are tax eaters, tax eaters. 101 00:06:58.180 --> 00:07:03.460 When tax eaters would outnumber taxpayers, I think that would be the end of what we have. 102 00:07:03.460 --> 00:07:08.580 and they would elect and elect and elect people who would promise them more and more and more. 103 00:07:08.580 --> 00:07:15.700 When quite close from here, Rod Blagojevich was tried, the crook we had here in Illinois 104 00:07:15.700 --> 00:07:21.460 as a governor, and there was a huge demonstration in support of Rod Blagojevich, and so they 105 00:07:21.460 --> 00:07:24.500 asked one gentleman, why is he supporting Rod Blagojevich? 106 00:07:24.500 --> 00:07:29.500 He said he gave me a free bus ticket, he gave free bus ticket to seniors, so you can buy 107 00:07:29.500 --> 00:07:31.600 by a person who went with a bus ticket. 108 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:34.040 And these people don't realize 109 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:36.900 that buses would not come at certain point. 110 00:07:36.900 --> 00:07:40.700 That would be a worthless ticket, a worthless ticket. 111 00:07:40.700 --> 00:07:43.260 So if you're creating a nation of clients, 112 00:07:43.260 --> 00:07:46.200 a nation of people who are not independent, 113 00:07:46.200 --> 00:07:50.600 who do not self-own themselves, but the government own them, 114 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:53.460 you're creating a new system of public slavery. 115 00:07:54.500 --> 00:07:57.420 The public slavery was the most, I think, 116 00:07:57.420 --> 00:08:15.420 The most awful, when it was promoted under the aegis of this person, who right now I think is winning, as bad as it sounds, is winning the minds of Americans, minds of people in the Western world. 117 00:08:15.420 --> 00:08:21.420 I said that recently in one college in Ohio, and I was told, you came here to scare us. 118 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:32.420 came here to scare us, said yes I did, I would like to scare you royally, I wish somebody would come to Russia in 1917 and scare them, 119 00:08:32.420 --> 00:08:40.420 I wish somebody would come to Cuba in 1959 and scare that people, or China in 1948. 120 00:08:40.420 --> 00:08:48.420 Yes, I think we should be scared, we should be scared that we are losing war for the minds of people 121 00:08:48.420 --> 00:08:55.420 and that's why I am so proud to be associated with the Von Mises Institute which is on the forefront of this fight. 122 00:08:55.420 --> 00:09:00.420 So this is on the forefront of the fight for liberty. 123 00:09:00.420 --> 00:09:05.420 For me, attendance of these events is great, it's kind of a fresh air. 124 00:09:05.420 --> 00:09:12.420 I am resuscitated again because after the stale atmosphere of American academia, 125 00:09:12.420 --> 00:09:16.420 it's really sometimes you think maybe something wrong with me. 126 00:09:16.420 --> 00:09:28.020 Looks like it's wrong with them. Well, today I think a lot of people don't really understand 127 00:09:28.020 --> 00:09:33.020 what is socialism. Is it socialism that we're moving in? And why socialism is bad? Some people 128 00:09:33.020 --> 00:09:38.920 would say socialism is actually good. Socialism is very good. It's communism which is bad. 129 00:09:38.920 --> 00:09:45.520 Communists killed all these people. Not socialists. No, communism is utopia. Utopia. It's socialism. 130 00:09:45.520 --> 00:09:51.520 It was socialism in Soviet Union, in Communist Chinese, North Vietnam, in Cuba, in North 131 00:09:51.520 --> 00:09:59.400 Korea. It is socialism, pure and simple. Communism, I can show you what communism is. That's what 132 00:09:59.400 --> 00:10:07.080 Marx description of communist society and communist manifesto. Just read it. The communist 133 00:10:07.080 --> 00:10:13.160 society, nobody has an exclusive sphere of activity, but each can become accomplished 134 00:10:13.160 --> 00:10:15.000 in any branch he wishes. 135 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:17.560 To hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, 136 00:10:17.560 --> 00:10:20.480 rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner 137 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:24.400 without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman, or critic. 138 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:26.920 So what is this? 139 00:10:26.920 --> 00:10:29.960 This is religion, faith, blind faith. 140 00:10:29.960 --> 00:10:32.080 This is secular religion. 141 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:34.400 That's the hook, they hooked the masses. 142 00:10:34.400 --> 00:10:37.480 They brainwashed people into believing into this crap 143 00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:41.900 and that's why they had this huge following at first. 144 00:10:41.900 --> 00:10:46.900 and people were extremely eager to sell their liberty 145 00:10:48.540 --> 00:10:51.220 for a bus ticket or something else. 146 00:10:51.220 --> 00:10:54.140 And that's, I think, what we should be aware of. 147 00:10:54.140 --> 00:10:57.900 And then, they realized that this kind of society 148 00:10:57.900 --> 00:10:59.260 cannot work. 149 00:10:59.260 --> 00:11:01.740 Can you imagine of this wonderful person to hunt 150 00:11:01.740 --> 00:11:05.980 and they realized that this person would not become 151 00:11:05.980 --> 00:11:08.380 hunter, fisherman, curbsman or critic 152 00:11:08.380 --> 00:11:11.700 because he should be shot to make others 153 00:11:11.700 --> 00:11:14.060 to work for them as slaves. 154 00:11:14.060 --> 00:11:16.020 Because socialism at certain point, 155 00:11:16.020 --> 00:11:18.340 the big government, which is socialism, 156 00:11:18.340 --> 00:11:22.220 I think it's just absolute equality between that, 157 00:11:22.220 --> 00:11:26.500 the big government is making everybody slave, public slave. 158 00:11:26.500 --> 00:11:31.500 And under socialism in countries, 35 countries, 159 00:11:33.180 --> 00:11:36.540 they experimented this deadly system on themselves. 160 00:11:36.540 --> 00:11:38.180 35 countries. 161 00:11:38.180 --> 00:11:42.560 The human toll of social is 172 million people. 162 00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:45.340 Rudy Rommel, a famous demographer 163 00:11:45.340 --> 00:11:48.980 from University of Hawaii, he wrote 11 books about that. 164 00:11:48.980 --> 00:11:51.140 They are not very well known, but... 165 00:11:55.260 --> 00:11:56.420 What do I think I have? 166 00:11:58.340 --> 00:12:00.020 I'll show you everything. 167 00:12:00.020 --> 00:12:01.820 I don't have the, well, just trust me. 168 00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:03.780 If not, I can email you. 169 00:12:03.780 --> 00:12:04.620 I can email you. 170 00:12:04.620 --> 00:12:12.620 Just said that, he said that it's 172 million, 172 million, including 61 million in Russia. 171 00:12:12.620 --> 00:12:18.620 KGB admitted 43 million dead, so 43 or 61, it's irrelevant for me. 172 00:12:18.620 --> 00:12:26.620 It's just such a staggering numbers that whether it's 43 or 61, this is a lot. 173 00:12:26.620 --> 00:12:31.620 Stalin, however, used to say death of one person, death of one person is a tragedy. 174 00:12:31.620 --> 00:12:36.420 Death of millions is just statistic, nothing else, nothing else. 175 00:12:36.420 --> 00:12:40.740 So that's the, he killed that one also. 176 00:12:40.740 --> 00:12:45.220 They were like, at a certain point, the good thing about socialists is that at a certain 177 00:12:45.220 --> 00:12:52.500 point they began to shoot each other, they began to be killed like spiders in a jar. 178 00:12:52.500 --> 00:12:56.900 He killed, Stalin at first killed all these other ones. 179 00:12:56.900 --> 00:13:13.900 He looked like Boehm, he looked pretty funny, but he was deadly, he was deadly, he killed more people, and people practice it, practice it. 180 00:13:13.900 --> 00:13:19.900 This is a picture I took in a Cuban store, in a Cuban store, wherever they go, everything disappears. 181 00:13:19.900 --> 00:13:25.900 There was a joke that what would happen if in Sahara they would establish socialism. 182 00:13:25.900 --> 00:13:34.300 Well, the first 10 years, nothing. Then sand would expire. And that's exactly what Cuba 183 00:13:34.300 --> 00:13:41.500 was the second most prosperous country in Latin America. Now, nothing there. I was intrigued 184 00:13:41.500 --> 00:13:49.180 when I came, what is there that you can buy without line? And this is baking soda. Baking 185 00:13:49.180 --> 00:13:55.620 soda can keep you alive. You can brush teeth, you can wash with baking soda, you can use 186 00:13:55.620 --> 00:14:02.620 I would use it if you have a heartburn, but not many Cubans have heartburn because nothing to eat. 187 00:14:02.620 --> 00:14:10.620 That's really the case. This is how the kind of housing looks like in Cuba. 188 00:14:10.620 --> 00:14:15.620 And the most, I think, propelled myth in the United States. 189 00:14:15.620 --> 00:14:22.620 Again, Mike Moore, who is a great kind of socialist propaganda person, he made this movie, Seco. 190 00:14:22.620 --> 00:14:28.900 Yeah, I almost got sick watching it, and they should put a disclaimer. 191 00:14:28.900 --> 00:14:34.740 Yes, he was writing about the wonderful, and he was making a movie about the wonderful 192 00:14:34.740 --> 00:14:37.500 health care in Cuba, health care in Cuba. 193 00:14:37.500 --> 00:14:44.420 I've been to Cuba many times, and I can attest the only health care is to swim to Miami right away. 194 00:14:44.420 --> 00:14:50.020 This is ambulance, this is ambulance. 195 00:14:50.020 --> 00:14:54.340 Yes, yes, not making it up, yeah, it's ambulance. 196 00:14:54.340 --> 00:14:59.340 Then, I think there's a, it's a hospital, yeah. 197 00:14:59.820 --> 00:15:02.620 Those little dots are not kind of chocolate chips, 198 00:15:02.620 --> 00:15:06.180 but these are flies, flies. 199 00:15:06.180 --> 00:15:07.660 So are we getting there? 200 00:15:07.660 --> 00:15:09.140 Yes, we do. 201 00:15:09.140 --> 00:15:11.460 Government is inflating right now. 202 00:15:12.500 --> 00:15:17.500 That's undermining freedom, undermining our freedom to choose, 203 00:15:17.500 --> 00:15:21.540 and mining of freedom to choose, freedom to choose. 204 00:15:21.540 --> 00:15:23.740 Back in the Soviet Union, for example, 205 00:15:23.740 --> 00:15:28.260 one of the most, I would say, greatest delusions 206 00:15:28.260 --> 00:15:31.340 of Gorbachev and other so-called reformers 207 00:15:31.340 --> 00:15:34.300 was that you can design, I'm a labor economist myself, 208 00:15:34.300 --> 00:15:37.980 and so they were asking me to design systems of pay 209 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:41.340 which would provide people with incentives to work. 210 00:15:41.340 --> 00:15:43.780 It means that you are paid more if you work well 211 00:15:43.780 --> 00:15:44.940 or something like that. 212 00:15:44.940 --> 00:15:47.140 And they didn't realize that because the money 213 00:15:47.140 --> 00:15:49.220 were so inflated and worthless, 214 00:15:49.220 --> 00:15:52.420 nobody would care to get more of them. 215 00:15:52.420 --> 00:15:53.260 You see what I mean? 216 00:15:53.260 --> 00:15:55.100 At a certain point, you destroy everything. 217 00:15:55.100 --> 00:15:59.100 The whole societal mechanism is very much related 218 00:15:59.100 --> 00:16:01.340 to the monetary system that you have. 219 00:16:01.340 --> 00:16:03.340 And if you don't have free money, 220 00:16:03.340 --> 00:16:07.460 they have money based on the concepts of freedom, 221 00:16:07.460 --> 00:16:11.100 market money, then you end up like in Germany. 222 00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:13.940 It's cheaper to burn money rather than to chirp 223 00:16:13.940 --> 00:16:18.940 Firewood, this is a kind of a funny story. 224 00:16:20.460 --> 00:16:24.200 Lenin hated gold, Lenin also just hate gold 225 00:16:24.200 --> 00:16:27.900 with great passion and there's one of his followers 226 00:16:27.900 --> 00:16:30.760 who became a billionaire in present day China 227 00:16:30.760 --> 00:16:33.320 and Lenin was writing that gold is good only 228 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:36.120 to make toilet commodes because it's kind of, 229 00:16:38.340 --> 00:16:41.900 the germs do not live on gold and easy to clean 230 00:16:41.900 --> 00:16:43.740 and it doesn't corrode or whatever 231 00:16:43.740 --> 00:16:45.140 and he built that. 232 00:16:45.140 --> 00:16:47.660 He built that just kind of like for fun of it 233 00:16:47.660 --> 00:16:50.100 but recently I read an article about him. 234 00:16:50.100 --> 00:16:52.340 He built it for four million dollars 235 00:16:52.340 --> 00:16:54.060 and now it's worth 28. 236 00:16:54.060 --> 00:16:59.060 So that was one of the best investments he made, one of the. 237 00:17:00.260 --> 00:17:03.240 So it looks like some leadingists are still smart. 238 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:12.080 Yes, even he admitted, look, even John Maynard Keynes, 239 00:17:12.080 --> 00:17:17.960 He had, I think, some moments of truth, very short, but yes, by a continuing process of inflation, 240 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:23.280 government can confiscate secretly and observe an important part of the wealth of their citizens. 241 00:17:23.280 --> 00:17:25.760 That is what's happening right now. 242 00:17:25.760 --> 00:17:30.200 That is why you are paying so much when you're filling your gas tank. 243 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:33.000 That's why we're paying so much when you go overseas. 244 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:40.320 That's one of the reasons that we have this inflation, which people do ignore, ignore. 245 00:17:40.320 --> 00:17:42.920 not the people the government does ignore. 246 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:45.760 So I would say that the government, 247 00:17:45.760 --> 00:17:48.440 some people would say government is confused. 248 00:17:49.640 --> 00:17:54.480 I would say this is great on the World Wide Web. 249 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:56.520 It's public domain, right? 250 00:17:56.520 --> 00:17:58.240 Some people would say he is confused. 251 00:17:58.240 --> 00:17:59.560 I would think he is not. 252 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:04.560 I think he is just ignores everything, ignores everything. 253 00:18:04.560 --> 00:18:06.660 And this is the only Marx I like. 254 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:10.120 He said politics is the art of looking for trouble, 255 00:18:10.120 --> 00:18:15.880 of Finding it Everywhere, Diagnosing it Incorrectly and Applying the Wrong Remedies. 256 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:20.920 That's the kind of, I wish that, that's the previous Marx would think this way. 257 00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:26.320 Because previous Marx, he made a very, very important point that socialism is nothing 258 00:18:26.320 --> 00:18:29.540 but replacement of economics with politics. 259 00:18:29.540 --> 00:18:33.680 His point is that all decisions are political under socialism. 260 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:36.400 And that's where we're getting to ourselves. 261 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:38.280 if you will look at the government motors, 262 00:18:38.280 --> 00:18:40.120 if you will look at the financial sector, 263 00:18:40.120 --> 00:18:43.640 almost nationalized and over-regulated by government, 264 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:46.280 if you look about everything else, pharmaceuticals, 265 00:18:46.280 --> 00:18:49.840 whomever else, now they're exiting United States, 266 00:18:49.840 --> 00:18:52.660 we are losing our comparative advantage in freedom, 267 00:18:52.660 --> 00:18:54.520 we are losing our comparative advantage 268 00:18:54.520 --> 00:18:58.600 in being entrepreneurial, inventive and creative people, 269 00:18:58.600 --> 00:19:01.760 because we are kind of, in many cases, we are, 270 00:19:02.800 --> 00:19:06.040 this is a Russian kind of thing. 271 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:19.080 Well, another strategy I would like to suggest, I would like definitely, I speak with sometimes 272 00:19:19.080 --> 00:19:25.000 some confused Democrats, so confused that they would invite me to speak to them, and 273 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:31.320 I would do, sometimes I believe that they are stupid party, not Republicans, which is 274 00:19:31.320 --> 00:19:36.240 sometimes evil, but this I think is pretty good. 275 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:42.120 However, I came from, I mean, I am presented everywhere as a kind of like a Russian person, 276 00:19:42.120 --> 00:19:43.120 a Russian person. 277 00:19:43.120 --> 00:19:46.280 However, I am a US citizen and I live in Wisconsin. 278 00:19:46.280 --> 00:19:52.240 And People's Republic of Wisconsin, as you know, right now is a center of the civil war 279 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:58.840 between public unions and Republicans, some of them pretty meek people, but they kind 280 00:19:58.840 --> 00:20:02.560 have decided that because they thought they got a mandate 281 00:20:02.560 --> 00:20:07.560 and the state is becoming broke. 282 00:20:07.600 --> 00:20:12.040 And Walter, in the morning, he said that making death threats 283 00:20:12.040 --> 00:20:16.160 is illegal in the United States, not in Wisconsin, however. 284 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:20.440 This kind of threats was very, very common 285 00:20:20.440 --> 00:20:24.080 when we had this trade union mob in Madison. 286 00:20:24.080 --> 00:20:29.280 in Medicine. That's what kind of emails they were sending. 287 00:20:29.280 --> 00:20:34.080 Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed 288 00:20:34.080 --> 00:20:39.680 due to your actions in the last eight weeks. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below 289 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:44.880 for more information possible scenarios in which you will die. There's plenty of these scenarios 290 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:53.280 and that was sent to 18 Republican senators in, can't imagine if any kind of right-wing nut 291 00:20:53.280 --> 00:20:55.480 that would send something like this. 292 00:20:55.480 --> 00:20:57.400 They would lock him up forever. 293 00:20:58.360 --> 00:21:02.120 Now the prosecutor of the Dane County of Wisconsin 294 00:21:02.120 --> 00:21:04.120 does not want to prosecute that. 295 00:21:04.120 --> 00:21:06.800 Yeah, that's kind of why. 296 00:21:06.800 --> 00:21:09.800 Maybe it's a good idea, he would think. 297 00:21:09.800 --> 00:21:10.900 He would think. 298 00:21:10.900 --> 00:21:15.900 So this is definitely not democracy is the way 299 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:17.360 for us to win. 300 00:21:18.360 --> 00:21:22.060 I would say that H.L. Mencken was absolutely right, 301 00:21:22.060 --> 00:21:28.620 I say, democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. 302 00:21:28.620 --> 00:21:35.300 But even individual ignorance would be replaced by the deadly government, who can rule only 303 00:21:35.300 --> 00:21:40.620 at certain point, can rule only with force, with crude force. 304 00:21:40.620 --> 00:21:46.460 And we should keep in mind that this millions of innocent people, 172 millions of them according 305 00:21:46.460 --> 00:21:54.540 to Rudi Rammel, who were killed just to prove that socialism can work, and you can see that 306 00:21:54.540 --> 00:21:57.780 the proof was not there, was not there. 307 00:21:57.780 --> 00:22:04.260 In Soviet Union alone, every fifth person was murdered, every fifth person, 20%. 308 00:22:04.260 --> 00:22:09.940 In most other communist countries, anywhere between 10 and 15% would be killed right away. 309 00:22:09.940 --> 00:22:10.940 For what reason? 310 00:22:10.940 --> 00:22:14.380 Just to show that they're serious, just to show they're serious. 311 00:22:14.380 --> 00:22:16.060 and Social Engineering. 312 00:22:16.060 --> 00:22:18.920 So the same thing, if you kill rich people, 313 00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:22.420 I think rich people were the group which suffered more 314 00:22:22.420 --> 00:22:25.220 than any other group during the 20th century 315 00:22:25.220 --> 00:22:28.220 and is suffering even today, in 21st century. 316 00:22:28.220 --> 00:22:32.660 So we have a class war and I believe that our leaders 317 00:22:32.660 --> 00:22:36.060 right now in Washington, D.C., they share these ideas. 318 00:22:36.060 --> 00:22:36.940 They share these ideas. 319 00:22:36.940 --> 00:22:40.580 They just cannot do what they want to do. 320 00:22:40.580 --> 00:22:43.620 We still have a lot of checks and balances of them, 321 00:22:43.620 --> 00:22:53.620 The Founding Fathers left a mechanism kind of of control, a mechanism of safety valves for us that we cannot be killed the way Russians were killed. 322 00:22:53.620 --> 00:23:04.620 And sure enough, I would say we should remember our liberties. And I would say the Second Amendment is one of the most important ones. 323 00:23:04.620 --> 00:23:21.120 because at first they disarm you, then they destroy the church because they have their own religion, they cannot share kind of any mental deviations with anybody, 324 00:23:21.120 --> 00:23:29.120 then they destroy families, and then you are naked before the supreme state, you are naked before big government, 325 00:23:29.120 --> 00:23:59.120 and then after that they send people in millions to Gulag or to any other mid grinders in perfect killer states that were working, remember it was a super power number two, just because they killed a lot of people, killed a lot of people and just to remind you why for example Gorbachev is considered to be a savior from communism, why many people respect very much John Paul II or Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan, 326 00:23:59.120 --> 00:24:07.320 Because Gorbachev erroneously thought that socialism is a very humanistic society, so 327 00:24:07.320 --> 00:24:11.400 he was talking about socialism with human face, like a parrot, everywhere. 328 00:24:11.400 --> 00:24:16.960 I was surprised, I was really thinking what's behind that birthmark, maybe he just, he should 329 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:23.000 have his head examined, because it looks like he didn't understand genuinely what he was 330 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:28.760 doing, but he removed fear out of the system which was glued together only by fear and 331 00:24:28.760 --> 00:24:31.840 the whole system fell like a courthouse. 332 00:24:31.840 --> 00:24:35.360 And I will end up with a joke about the CIA, 333 00:24:35.360 --> 00:24:37.760 CIA is already funny, I think. 334 00:24:37.760 --> 00:24:42.760 But, that's right, that's kind of a dog that doesn't bark. 335 00:24:43.600 --> 00:24:46.240 You know, doesn't have teeth, doesn't have anything. 336 00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:48.160 It's like, right, it's unbelievable. 337 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:51.720 They've read about the collapse of socialism 338 00:24:51.720 --> 00:24:54.600 in Soviet Union from in Washington Post. 339 00:24:54.600 --> 00:24:57.560 Yeah, that's what our intelligence is, 340 00:24:57.560 --> 00:24:59.760 It doesn't have much of intelligence, definitely. 341 00:25:02.360 --> 00:25:05.880 But they send the CIA agent, the joke is the CIA agent, 342 00:25:05.880 --> 00:25:09.000 to Moscow to find out what is going on under Perestroika, 343 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:10.280 what is happening there. 344 00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:14.880 And this agent is going to butcher shop 345 00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:19.600 and he has a little notebook and he writes there, no meat. 346 00:25:19.600 --> 00:25:23.920 He goes to the bakery and the bakery writes there, no bread. 347 00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:27.200 Goes to a shoe store and is writing there, no shoes. 348 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:30.480 and there is a KGB guy looking over his shoulder and he said, 349 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:32.880 10 years ago you would be shot for doing that. 350 00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:34.760 He writes there, no bullets. 351 00:25:34.760 --> 00:25:38.680 And then, and that's exactly what happened, 352 00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:41.460 that when people realized they ran out of bullets, 353 00:25:41.460 --> 00:25:44.620 then that was the end of that regime, 354 00:25:44.620 --> 00:25:46.000 that was the end of that regime. 355 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:47.480 When people realized that, 356 00:25:47.480 --> 00:25:51.460 that they would not kill anybody then anymore. 357 00:25:51.460 --> 00:25:55.240 But 172 million people is more than enough. 358 00:25:55.240 --> 00:25:58.280 and I hate to repeat a very cynical Russian saying 359 00:25:58.280 --> 00:26:00.280 that the only lesson of history 360 00:26:00.280 --> 00:26:02.560 is that it does not teach us anything. 361 00:26:03.660 --> 00:26:08.000 And we go on and on and on in our kind of, I would say, 362 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:10.880 aspiring to get a free bus ticket 363 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:14.040 or to get some other government program 364 00:26:14.040 --> 00:26:18.440 and definitely everybody except us is greedy 365 00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:22.160 and this support for big government, 366 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:43.160 I think that some of it, some of it is people are disappointed, many people are kind of joining the movement of Austrian economics, is more and more popular, but from another hand I think we should double our efforts to spread the word of liberty, to warn people, to scare people about what is coming our way. 367 00:26:43.160 --> 00:26:46.080 in last week in Financial Times. 368 00:26:46.080 --> 00:26:48.560 It was a little article, a little article. 369 00:26:48.560 --> 00:26:50.560 I think everybody should read that article. 370 00:26:50.560 --> 00:26:55.560 That federal government officials from Federal Reserve 371 00:26:56.640 --> 00:27:00.640 and Department of the Treasury, they and sure enough, 372 00:27:00.640 --> 00:27:02.680 Goldman Sachs and other representatives 373 00:27:02.680 --> 00:27:06.240 of the big financial institutions, 374 00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:11.240 they met to discuss the perspectives of issuing bonds, 375 00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:15.240 Government bonds, government bonds with 100 year maturity. 376 00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:21.240 100 year, I'm not making it up, it's, I mean, if I would read that in Pravda, I wouldn't believe that. 377 00:27:21.240 --> 00:27:25.240 But it's Financial Times, Financial Times of London, 100 years. 378 00:27:25.240 --> 00:27:31.240 That means they want to mortgage not only your children's future, but their children's future. 379 00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:36.240 Their grand, grand, grandchildren's future, because all the generations to come do not vote for them. 380 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:38.240 They don't care about them. 381 00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:40.360 and they want to mortgage our future 382 00:27:40.360 --> 00:27:43.320 and give everybody more free bus tickets 383 00:27:43.320 --> 00:27:47.640 for them to vote for them, it's unbelievable. 384 00:27:47.640 --> 00:27:49.080 So foreigners and children, 385 00:27:49.080 --> 00:27:50.560 they do not vote for the government, 386 00:27:50.560 --> 00:27:52.940 so that's why we can disregard them. 387 00:27:52.940 --> 00:27:54.960 We can sell them worthless government paper 388 00:27:54.960 --> 00:27:56.880 and see what will happen. 389 00:27:56.880 --> 00:27:59.560 It definitely will backfire, backfire. 390 00:27:59.560 --> 00:28:03.680 So in the long run, as Lord Cain said, we're all dead. 391 00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:07.000 But in the short run, I think we should fight 392 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:07.840 for the cause of liberty. 393 00:28:07.840 --> 00:28:13.280 In the long run, socialism would fail everywhere because it's not a working system. 394 00:28:13.280 --> 00:28:19.920 But I think I would be happy not to see it within my life expectancy, which I would definitely 395 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:27.080 improve by maybe going on the Atkins diet. 396 00:28:27.080 --> 00:28:34.880 I think I kind of scared you enough, that was my intention to do, and please stay in 397 00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:35.880 in touch.