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Milton Friedman - The Pencil

Milton Friedman on the production chain of a pencil and the importance of global cooperation in the free market.

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15 Comments

Current View: 15 / Show all Comments

truth-is-the-nemesis : LVL 32: VP 4.1: said:

truth-is-the-nemesis

Hidden (Show Comment) -22 votes

694 days 1 hour ago...

lame point, we can make a pencil so there-fore global cooperation in the free market is a good idea.

bet he also believes in creationism, `this building had to have a designer!!!`.

if its got the word lead in any product odds are its from china.

so what does he think about corporations cutting costs by outsourcing jobs to 3rd world countries for minimum wage to make these products???

businesses have vested interests and screw workers on a daily basis, this only works if your high-up in the process (do you think that children sowing up your nike`s in china give a shit that their part of a global network to serve people better off than themselves?)

its funny how a man who is obvious nowhere close to understanding how the poor feel can justify a system like this, and advocate how great it works so we can have things of great importance like PENCILS-

ayastona : LVL 23: VP 3.2: said:

ayastona

10 votes NegativePositive

694 days ago...

this man is profound

Mr.Clean : LVL 33: VP 4.2: said:

Mr.Clean

8 votes NegativePositive

693 days 23 hours ago...

ur mom is profound

fattirefury : LVL 35: VP 4.3: said:

fattirefury

1 votes NegativePositive

693 days 20 hours ago...

theres that trifle word again

Uber sven : LVL 32: VP 4.1: said:

Uber sven

1 votes NegativePositive

693 days 18 hours ago...

vale Milton Friedman

Mark333 : LVL 27: VP 3.6: said:

Mark333

13 votes NegativePositive

693 days 17 hours ago...

@truth-is-nemesis

"(do you think that children sowing up your nike`s in china give a shit that their part of a global network to serve people better off than themselves?)"

Didn`t you listen to the video? People who made the pencil would`ve probably hated each other if they met each other. YES of course the children don`t give a shit.

One of the points (and there`s more than one) is people who don`t give a shit about each other can still cooperate and be productive thanks to a free market. Rather than say, waging Jihad against each other.

Please listen carefully before you criticize. Half the time I`m correcting you anti-free-marketeers for misunderstanding free markets and capitalism (ie putting words in my mouth).

Levelord : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

Levelord

10 votes NegativePositive

693 days 10 hours ago...

I can make the same point by describing a nuke. Hundreds of thousands of people cooperating to make a weapon capable of killing millions. The Plutonium came from Russia, the steel came from USA, the electronics from Japan, and the insanity from Korea.

Gh0st4lifE : LVL 17: VP 2.6: said:

Gh0st4lifE

2 votes NegativePositive

693 days 1 hour ago...

Cooperatively made pencil = "harmony and peace among the people of the world" ?

He is a hippy in a suit !!!

exploder : LVL 47: VP 5: said:

exploder

0 votes NegativePositive

693 days 1 hour ago...

Good point Levelord. All of these people cooperating under the free market system to make things for money, and in a truly free market that includes things that SHOULD NOT BE.

Like child prostitution, many people cooperate, many people benefit, money moves productively. And would you support it?

My point is that we must have governments EFFECTIVELY making laws to govern trade and markets, or these markets will (history proves it) do very bad things. Things we cannot live with.

What we really need is not "free markets", it is balanced and UN-CORRUPTED governments. This is apparently an unimaginable concept for many Americans, and certainly not a desirable goal for the kind of capitalist pigs that include the likes of Friedman here. I can`t bother to find his net worth, but you can be sure it`s more than 99% of us here on Spiked, and he earned it by saying exactly what the corrupt rich powerholders of the day wanted to hear to justify THEIR economic interests, not ours.

I am sure that Fiedman was a wise and learned man, but that doesn`t mean he was all seeing, or even right about everything. He represents a form of idealism that just happens to also suite the rich and powerful these days, and so he gets alot of airplay.

I want to ask a question: I can buy a pencil for $0.16. $0.03 of that goes to all the `thousands` of people who made it, $0.05 goes to the Dollarama where I bought it, and $0.08 goes to the shareholders of the company (all 10 of them) who inherited most of their net worth from thier rich parents. They live in mansions, and generally offer nothing to world but prime examples of unmitigated greed and callousness. The thousands who made the pencil live in shacks and struggle to make ends meet, and have no say.

Should I like free market economics if this is what is created? So far, I don`t.

Gh0st4lifE : LVL 17: VP 2.6: said:

Gh0st4lifE

2 votes NegativePositive

693 days 1 hour ago...

He is saying a free market is where actors cooperate to obtain better price/quality value.

As argued above a free market can sell anything, from children to weapons. That doesn`t seem to bother Milton.

But what Milton intentionally avoids is that the free market unavoidably produces cooperation without prices. Just see how companies that began by producing steel became also manufacturers and investors, absorbing vertically and horizontally to avoid cooperating through prices. The bigger a fish gets the bigger his interest is securing the market by eating others.

Free market theory specifies a company is the result of a market, of what some need and others have to offer.

We see that on the contrary merging companies shaped the market to the point that markets are the result of economical interests.

Now they are absorbing media and political parties. There is nothing "free" about the market anymore.

thrasymacus2000 : LVL 3: VP 1.2: said:

thrasymacus2000

0 votes NegativePositive

693 days ago...

Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics advocates a simple black and white picture of economics and government. Appealing in it`s simplicity, especially to the small minded. Too bad we don`t live in a black and white world.

"The theories of Milton Friedman gave him the Nobel Prize; they gave Chile General Pinochet." -Edwardo Galeano, 1983

dmens : LVL 25: VP 3.4: said:

dmens

4 votes NegativePositive

693 days ago...

^^

typical leftist desperation is to slander capitalism by linking it to dictators who happen to be anti-communist. doesn`t change the fact that the left`s preferred economic theories have all turned out to be murderous disasters.

Miles : LVL 34: VP 4.2: said:

Miles

2 votes NegativePositive

693 days ago...

Even Vladimir Lenin was an adamant adherent of the principles of laissez-faire economic philosophy, otherwise known as free market capitalism, The Big Red Machine.

mdmkolbe : LVL 11: VP 2: said:

mdmkolbe

4 votes NegativePositive

692 days 23 hours ago...

What many misunderstand is that the free-market is only one part of "capitalist" economic theory. The error that right-wing libertarians and left-wing anti-capitalists usually make is, first, to assume that one market type fits all, and second, assume "capitalists" also think one market type fits all. (Usually, but not always.) Much of "capitalist" economic theory is about identifying what kinds of markets work best in what situations and how they can be modified to bring about better results. (In the above the term "market" means any form of social exchange, not just free-markets.)

Seriously, unless you`ve taken a course in economics, odds are that your beliefs about economics and what "capitalist" economists believe are incorrect by half. Taking such a course was eye-opening for me and I would highly recommend it. To debate economics without having taken at least one course in it, is like debating physics without having taken even third-grade physics. (Of course, self-training can substitute for taking courses, but most people don`t bother.)

jimmyT : LVL 19: VP 2.8: said:

jimmyT

4 votes NegativePositive

692 days 21 hours ago...

Have some respect for Milton Friedman you guys. He advocates practice of free market, less regulation.... currently practiced by most developed countries.

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