Liberal Democrat

Liberal Democrat
Individual Freedom For Everyone

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Thom Hartmann: 'Arthur Brooks - Free Enterprise'


Source:Thom Hartmann- AEI President Arthur Brooks.

"Thom Hartmann debates Arthur Brooks, President, American Enterprise Institute
Website: www.aei.org, over Brook's defense of free enterprise in his new book, THE ROAD TO FREEDOM.
If you liked this clip of The Thom Hartmann Program, please do us a big favor and share it with your friends... and hit that "like" button!" 


Unless you are talking about an economy and economic system where government is completely out of the economy, no regulators, no regulations, no public safety net, no subsidies, no corporate welfare, etc, then you are not talking about a free market and free enterprise.  

Every developed country in the world has a combination of private enterprise, capitalism, that's part of a private market, that has even a national government there to protect consumers and workers from predators in the economy(which is what regulations is supposed to be about) and some type of public safety net for people who fall on hard times. 

I believe what Arthur Brooks is talking about here (and I don't even know the man personally) is an American economy where taxes and regulations on individuals and businesses are low, but they are there to pay for the government that we actually need, to protect us against monopolies, slave labor, perhaps even some environmental regulations. Which is actually very different from saying that there's no government role whatsoever in the economy at all. Which is what Libertarians tend to believe.