Ralph welcomes activist, George Lakey, to discuss “Viking Economics,” about what the U.S. can learn from the Scandinavian economies and “How To Win” social progress with direct action, non-violent campaigning. Then, Ian Barlow from the Federal Trade Commission, tells us how to stop robo-calls. Plus, Ralph weighs in on Trump’s State of the Union.
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Thank you Ralph Nader for your honest efforts and dedication to accountability. Please view and share this evidence of unaccountable State & County Officials Who continue this course of defrauding Taxpayers Of Honest Government Services by refusing to admit the evidence they concealed from jurors. You Tube: Iowa Corrupt Judges Courts Police http://www.youtube.com/user/KornKobIowa
Ralph, Do you think Moral Capitalism is a thing and is it an answer to Socialism that is practiced in the Nordic Countries?
The Nordic countries do not practice socialism. What they have can be described as Keynesian social democracy. It’s capitalism with social programs that attempt to dampen capitalism’s inherent tendency towards periodic crisis. Socialism is not “when the government does stuff”. Socialism is the negation of capitalism. Socialism and capitalism both refer to ways that production is arranged. Rather than economies dominated by production for profit-driven exchange in top-down totalitarian workplaces (capitalism), socialism is democratic control of the means of production.
Another great episode! I had a conversation with a friend the other day and he characterized the “left” as being primarily concerned with the distribution of wealth and the “right” as being primarily concerned with the creation of wealth. While there may be some merit to that characterization, I think it largely underestimates the “intangible” wealth that is created when viking economics are implemented. This episode illustrates how universal pension, healthcare, etc. leads to increased cultural and creative wealth, which is a point all too often left out of our calculations (perhaps people think it’s too “soft” and not quantitative enough; in that case, give them statistics like hours spent learning an instrument or number of concerts seen per month). This also allows a society to address social and environmental injustices (see post-materialism; once the material needs of a society are met, priorities shift towards individual improvement, citizen engagement, humanism, environmentalism; in contrast, when material needs are not met, priorities shift towards authoritarianism, safety, strong and large military, economic growth over the environment, etc.). Thanks Ralph, Steve, Dave, and guests.
I am not sure why anyone worries about the health insurance industry who profit over the misery and death of people instead of saying that the whole industry is an immoral economic enclave?
These people need to find retraining in a Green New Deal. And it should be a real Green New Deal like the Greens but attained by using MMT economic principles