đ
Stossel's Stocking Stuffers - YouTube
Channel: John Stossel
[0]
Itâs that time of year!
[1]
Weâre buying gifts!
[2]
So, what should I give a person
[4]
who might want to learn about liberty?
[7]
How about a book?
[9]
Here are six that expanded my brain.
[11]
First, Road to Serfdom.
[14]
In this book,
[14]
Friedrich Hayek explains why
[16]
government intervention in the economy,
[18]
leads to serfdom.
[20]
For writing that, Hayek was trashed.
[23]
Dismissed,
[24]
ridiculed, and ignored.
[26]
Yet in the end,
[28]
even defenders of socialism
[30]
came to concede that he was right.
[32]
Government doesnât need to intervene,
[34]
wrote Hayek,
[35]
because a free market,
[36]
like a school of fish or a flock of birds
[39]
creates a spontaneous order.
[43]
No central planner can allocate resources
[45]
as well as the individual birds,
[48]
or people.
[50]
The economy is us.
[51]
Recently, an economist made this rap video
[54]
about Hayekâs ideas.
[55]
We donât need a mechanic, put away the wrenches,
[58]
the economy is organic.
[60]
But now socialism is popular again,
[62]
and celebrities say things like this:
[64]
We have to say yes to socialism
[66]
to the word and everything.
[68]
So a Road to Serfdom is a great book to
[70]
give to your socialist friends.
[72]
If only theyâd read this.
[75]
Still, itâs old-fashioned language
[77]
can be tough going.
[78]
Hereâs a gift that explains economics
[81]
in modern language.
[83]
In his many books,
[84]
Thomas Sowell makes economics simpler.
[87]
No charts,
[88]
no equations,
[90]
all words,
[91]
plain English.
[92]
No graphs.
[93]
No graphs.
[94]
In Basic Economics, he explains things like
[97]
why President Trump is wrong about trade.
[100]
How much should people really worry
[103]
about the balance of trade?
[106]
Somewhat less than you worry
[107]
about being struck by lightning.
[108]
Maybe someone will give this to the President?
[112]
An even simpler book that tells the story
[114]
of how a clueless lefty reporter
[116]
finally woke up to the benefits of free markets
[119]
is this book.
[121]
But it would be self-serving
[123]
of me to promote Give Me a Break,
[125]
so I wonât mention it.
[127]
Atlas Shrugged is another great introduction to
[130]
creeping government intervention.
[132]
In this novel, Ayn Rand
[134]
predicted todayâs America.
[136]
Predicted high society parties
[138]
where rich people would vilify profits
[141]
and other things
[142]
that made them rich.
[144]
Our ideals are higher than profit.
[147]
Rand saw, long before I did,
[149]
how that kind of ignorance
[151]
and the size of government would increase,
[153]
despite her charactersâ
[155]
efforts to fight it.
[156]
If you believe you may seize my property
[158]
simply because you need it,
[160]
well then so does any burglar.
[162]
Government's the burglar, said Rand
[164]
and this book,
[165]
The Myth of the Robber Barons,
[167]
takes the point further.
[168]
It explains why capitalists like John D. Rockefeller,
[172]
people who were called robber barons,
[173]
were in fact not robbers, or barons.
[176]
They were not born rich,
[177]
and they didnât get rich by robbing people.
[180]
They got rich by creating better things.
[182]
Rockefellerâs affordable kerosene,
[185]
processed crude oil,
[186]
made the world brighter, warmer, cleaner.
[190]
Likewise, Cornelius Vanderbilt got rich
[192]
not by ârobbingâ,
[193]
but by making travel faster
[195]
and cheaper.
[197]
Vanderbilt cut the cost of travel,
[199]
filled his ships with eager passengers.
[202]
It was Vanderbilt's competitors
[204]
who called him a ârobber baronâ
[205]
and the ignorant media picked that up.
[208]
The competitors who hated Vanderbilt
[210]
didnât feel much need to improve
[212]
because they were backed by politicians.
[215]
When they failed, there was always
[216]
another politician to appeal to.
[218]
Vanderbilt in contrast,
[220]
had to serve his customers
[222]
or he wouldâve lost his company.
[225]
Exactly, because the so-called robber barons
[227]
had their own money at stake,
[229]
so they spent it carefully.
[231]
Two more books left. Consider Animal Farm.
[235]
Novelist George Orwell describes farm animals
[238]
who revolt against their human master,
[240]
only to be ruled by new tyrants, the pigs.
[243]
Iâll make your decisions.
[246]
In Orwellâs book,
[248]
All animals are equal.
[253]
With the exception of the pigs.
[258]
Finally, another great introduction to freedom
[260]
is this book, Free to Choose.
[263]
Milton and Rose Friedman
[264]
explain in plain English here,
[267]
how limiting government creates prosperity.
[270]
The free market enables people
[271]
to go into any industry they want.
[273]
The Nobel Prize-winning economist once said,
[275]
âput the federal government in charge of
[277]
the Sahara Desert,
[279]
in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.â
[282]
We somehow or other have to find a way
[286]
to prevent government from continuing to grow
[289]
and continuing to take over
[290]
more and more control over our lives.
[293]
Well, weâve failed at that!
[295]
But here at Stossel TV, we wonât quit trying.
[298]
And these books will help.
[300]
Happy Holidays.
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage