1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:04,360 The Tom Wood Show. Hey everybody, Welcome back to 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:08,119 the Tom Wood Show. This is episode 24136. 3 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:12,600 I'm delighted to be joined by our old friend, the great Keith 4 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:16,800 Knight, who is Managing Editor at the Libertarian Institute, 5 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:20,720 which is a great organization. He hosts the Don't Tread on 6 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:24,840 Anyone podcast, which does not have quite as many episodes as 7 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:28,240 the old man's podcast here, but it's doing very well and has a 8 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:32,920 whole darn bunch of them. And he is the author and this is 9 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:36,480 what brings him on to the program this particular time of 10 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:40,840 the brand new book, Domestic Imperialism 9 Reasons I Left 11 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:43,920 Progressivism. Keith, welcome back my friend. 12 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:46,440 Tom Mutz, thank you so much for having me. 13 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,480 Keith was a guest at my Christmas party a couple of 14 00:00:50,480 --> 00:00:54,880 weeks ago here in Florida, a few weeks ago here in Florida, and 15 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:58,280 he came all the way across the country. 16 00:00:58,280 --> 00:00:59,280 I don't. I don't know that if you would 17 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:03,240 necessarily give away where you live, but you came a long way to 18 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:05,519 to visit Old Woods on Christmas and I appreciate. 19 00:01:05,519 --> 00:01:08,080 That Oh yes, Scott and I had a blast. 20 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,760 We wanted to get together and celebrate both Christmas and 21 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,400 Diary of a Psychosis along with this new book. 22 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:19,520 So I I had an absolute blast. Every one of your Tom Woods 23 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:22,560 Elite show members was really pleasant to be around. 24 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:25,760 Thank you, thank you, thank you. So all you supporting listeners 25 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:27,280 out there. You can come to my Christmas 26 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:29,520 party every year supportinglisteners.com. 27 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:31,040 I don't even list it as a benefit. 28 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:32,840 There's so many benefits of being at the Tom Wood show. 29 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:34,560 Supporting listener can't even list them all. 30 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:37,160 But you can check out some of it supportinglisteners.com. 31 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:39,320 Anyway, Keith, we're going to talk about your book. 32 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:42,480 And of course, with a title like that, Nine Reasons I Left 33 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,880 Progressivism, I'd like you to give me a few reasons you joined 34 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:50,120 it. Probably the initial reason was 35 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:52,000 there was a dichotomy in front of me. 36 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:54,840 We have two groups of people, people who want to give you 37 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:57,960 food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education. 38 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:01,360 And then there's another group of people who want to charge you 39 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:04,880 for these things. They just create costs out of 40 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:09,479 the thin, you know, blue sky. They they want you to have to 41 00:02:09,479 --> 00:02:12,160 work to achieve something where's other people want to 42 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:13,680 give it to you. When you're facing this 43 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,680 dichotomy, obviously it seems like, well, am IA nice person 44 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:20,160 who's compassionate or am I somewhat of a jerk? 45 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:23,600 So you can almost say how is it maybe, you know, the billionaire 46 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:25,840 class could believe something because they could easily buy 47 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,280 the stuff. But how if so many millions of 48 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:31,480 people have the country more or less been duped into thinking 49 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:34,080 you should have to buy things instead of getting them for 50 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:35,760 free? So when I was faced with that, I 51 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:39,400 said, well, one, it seems like it's, you know, much more 52 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,160 economically efficient to give people something instead of 53 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:45,000 always having to work. That seems pardonsome and it 54 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:48,560 seems much more compassionate to help or not to help. 55 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:52,680 So that was the dichotomy I was faced with and that's why I 56 00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:56,800 probably joined. I also have to say growing up in 57 00:02:57,200 --> 00:02:59,400 I was in Phoenix, AZ my whole life. 58 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:02,960 I went to school here and often thought of as a red or purple 59 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:06,320 state, but the the schools that I went to were extremely blue. 60 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:10,360 So I was always having in the back of my mind that America 61 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:15,360 good place now, however uniquely bad because of slavery and 62 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:18,800 because of things like Jim Crow. So when we saw this name on the 63 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,320 ballot, Barack Obama, we were all excited that this has to be 64 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:25,040 the guy we support. This is the major hurdle that 65 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:27,960 we're finally getting over this terrible, racist, sexist, 66 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:30,920 xenophobic past of ours by electing this this guy. 67 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:34,760 So it was both the thought of, you know, we're really achieving 68 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:36,640 something. I'm really part of something 69 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:40,880 unique in the rearview mirror of history as it'll be seen by 70 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:43,280 getting this guy elected. And it's the compassionate 71 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:45,240 philosophy. Those are the main reasons I was 72 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:48,760 attracted. To it now I would have more or 73 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:51,040 less guessed that because I think that's why basically 74 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:54,000 anybody joins it for the most part in in the beginning. 75 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,280 I think people innocently become part of it because it just seems 76 00:03:57,800 --> 00:03:59,760 as you say. It just seems like common sense 77 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:04,200 why if we have problem X and we have resources Y, we just apply 78 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:06,360 resources Y to problem XI mean come on, what? 79 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:07,040 What? What? 80 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:08,760 Who? Who would object to that? 81 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:11,640 So you you do talk about that a bit in your introduction. 82 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:16,640 I would like to ask you though, I mean yes, I know that your 83 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:19,240 book is it is about, you know, reason, things that challenge 84 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:22,079 progressivism. But I want to know, in your life 85 00:04:22,079 --> 00:04:27,080 specifically, what? Was there a particular moment 86 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:31,120 when suddenly you thought I might not just be wrong about 87 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:34,760 one particular thing, but my whole world view might be wrong? 88 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,360 Was there a particular moment or particular event that caused you 89 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:42,320 to have a thought like that? Well, one of the moments was 90 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:46,360 watching the Glenn Beck show, where he brought up the portion 91 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:48,960 of the Affordable Care Act. Another great thing. 92 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:51,320 They're making it affordable, just more generosity. 93 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,280 And he said that there's something called the individual 94 00:04:54,280 --> 00:04:56,640 mandate. This is where people, whether 95 00:04:56,640 --> 00:04:59,280 they want to or not, are required to purchase health 96 00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:03,880 insurance for themselves. Now I remember thinking, well, 97 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:06,240 people probably should do that day, and they probably should 98 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:09,920 eat healthy, exercise, be good neighbors, dress nice. 99 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:12,920 Well, just because someone should do something, I don't 100 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:15,760 think they should be forced. So this was the first time I 101 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:20,080 ever considered that here is the difference between civilization 102 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:24,240 and some sort of barbarism or tyranny where you have the right 103 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:26,200 to claim ownership over other people. 104 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:29,960 So that was the first time that it really occurred to me. 105 00:05:30,280 --> 00:05:33,760 I got to say, getting that first paycheck and seeing the 106 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:37,600 involuntary deductions, that was pretty surprising. 107 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:40,960 But also when I was 14, I started my own landscaping 108 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:44,440 business and the more we grew, the more difficult it was. 109 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:48,400 I was 14 and the other guy was 16, and we would just go around 110 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:54,120 and basically offer our services to mostly parents of the people 111 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:57,080 who we went to school with. We're earning very little 112 00:05:57,080 --> 00:05:59,640 amounts of money, and every time we try to do something 113 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:02,680 legitimate, the amount of bureaucracy was staggering. 114 00:06:02,680 --> 00:06:06,960 We'd have to go to this place with my Co worker's mother. 115 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:08,360 We had to start filling out things. 116 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:10,800 We had to start declaring our income and then I had to lie 117 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:13,440 about my age, which I got caught and that ended up blowing up the 118 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:16,640 whole thing and then we basically had to stop and do 119 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:18,520 nothing. So stopping of the 120 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:22,880 entrepreneurial spirit was just so crushing at the age of 14. 121 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:25,920 But I also saw it as well. Far from the government being 122 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:28,680 something here that's there to assist me and bring about 123 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:31,000 flourishing, it seems like they're putting far more 124 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:34,640 involuntary hurdles in my way of achieving what I want than they 125 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:38,360 are at at assisting me. So I think those were the 126 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,280 initial things that I personally came into contact with, which 127 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:44,200 really made me start questioning things that I had supported. 128 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:50,280 I was very taken aback by an example you give early on in the 129 00:06:50,280 --> 00:06:54,840 book that you talked about at oh geez, now I can't remember. 130 00:06:54,840 --> 00:06:57,000 Was it, was it actually at the house? 131 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,520 Was it an event recently? But it was about the the attack 132 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:06,120 on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016, and you talked 133 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:09,640 about the motives of the person who did it, who did not actually 134 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,840 realize that it was a gay nightclub. 135 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:15,800 He didn't realize that. But of course it was immediately 136 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:18,400 portrayed as well. This is an attack on homosexuals 137 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:21,080 and all that. But what I think most people 138 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:25,200 don't know is that he contacted the police and he was very, very 139 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:27,280 explicit about what his motivations were. 140 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:31,040 Now there's no need, there's no reason if you're a guy like that 141 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:34,000 who's going to engage in an atrocity. 142 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:36,920 I mean why would you be shy about your motives? 143 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:40,080 I guess sometimes when we when we quote what people's motives 144 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:43,200 are, everybody's skeptical. But why would you, Why would 145 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:45,080 that be the one thing you chicken out on? 146 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:47,920 But you actually go ahead with the shooting people plan. 147 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:52,720 I I rather take him at at his word and he's very, very blunt 148 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:54,480 about exactly what his motivation is. 149 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:57,800 And it has nothing to do with well in the US you have the Bill 150 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:02,480 of Rights and you have homosexual people, whatever it 151 00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:05,840 is, if that wasn't it at all. So can you tell the actual 152 00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:08,160 story? Because to me, this story and 153 00:08:08,160 --> 00:08:12,600 then how the US government spun it, says an awful lot about the 154 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:14,320 nature, at least of the US regime. 155 00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:20,240 So this was June 12th of 2016. You had Donald Trump leading in 156 00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:23,080 the polls and Barack Obama was the sitting president. 157 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:26,640 So to show the reader how much progressivism is sort of 158 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:29,960 entrenched, both the leading Republican, Donald Trump and 159 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:33,000 Barack Obama more or less said the same thing that the Pulse 160 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,960 nightclub murder which killed 49 people, injured 53. 161 00:08:38,159 --> 00:08:41,440 Here is how Barack Obama summarized the events. 162 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:44,680 He said this was an attack on the LGBT community. 163 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:48,400 Americans were targeted because we're a country that has learned 164 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:51,520 to welcome everyone, no matter who you are or who you love. 165 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:54,880 And hatred towards people because of sexual orientation, 166 00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:57,880 regardless of where it comes from, is a betrayal of what's 167 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:01,000 best in us. So that was the sitting 168 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:03,680 president who has access to the director of National 169 00:09:03,680 --> 00:09:07,640 Intelligence, the FBI, the CIA. This was his take away that the 170 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:10,760 lesson we learned from this massacre is don't hate 171 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:14,280 homosexuals, nor should we be fearful of homosexuals. 172 00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:18,800 Well, the goal of terrorism is not to conceal your motives. 173 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:22,240 The goal of terrorism is to bring attention to something 174 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:24,920 that otherwise you thought wasn't getting attention because 175 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:27,880 it's sort of like a shortcut to fame for a number of people. 176 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:32,480 So he calls 911 while he's holding the survivors hostage 177 00:09:32,680 --> 00:09:35,960 and explicitly says you have to tell America to stop bombing 178 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:37,880 Syria and Iraq. They're killing a lot of 179 00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:40,120 innocent people. What am I to do here when my 180 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:41,480 people are getting killed over there? 181 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:43,600 You need to stop the US air strikes. 182 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:46,160 You have to tell the US government to stop bombing. 183 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:47,920 They are killing too many children. 184 00:09:48,040 --> 00:09:50,840 They are killing too many women. I feel the pain of people 185 00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:52,320 getting killed in Syria and Iraq. 186 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:55,280 They need to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. 187 00:09:55,560 --> 00:09:59,160 So this actually is something that was happening in 2016. 188 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:03,280 People might not have really known that Syria was on the hit 189 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:05,440 list. According to the Council on 190 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:10,880 Foreign Relations, the US government dropped 24,287 bombs 191 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:14,320 on Iraq and Syria that year, in 2016 alone. 192 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:19,000 So here we have an explicit example of violence being 193 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:22,920 perpetrated in response to the federal government initiating 194 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:26,600 violence against other people. And The Intercept actually did 195 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:30,760 some research on this and it turns out that 90% of those 196 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:33,920 killed in these drone striking operations under Barack Obama 197 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:36,480 were people who were not the intended target. 198 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:39,760 Also to qualify to be an intended target, they usually 199 00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:43,880 say any military age male, so that's any male 16 years or 200 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:46,040 older. So instead of saying this is a 201 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:49,760 genuine divide that we have in the world, people who achieve 202 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:51,960 their ends violently and people who achieve their ends 203 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:56,400 peacefully, they made it about sexual orientation or who you're 204 00:10:56,560 --> 00:10:59,760 attracted to and just completely blowing it. 205 00:10:59,960 --> 00:11:03,320 This is the guy who ran on closing Guantanamo Bay, getting 206 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:06,920 out of these wars that evil George Bush started so he can 207 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:09,960 carry on his father's evil legacy and only caring about the 208 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:12,960 military industrial interests. They gave this progressive guide 209 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:15,760 the platform to really, you know, stand up for the people. 210 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:17,920 And this is exactly what happened. 211 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:21,440 So this really to me, I didn't know about this till years 212 00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:23,360 later. It had just come across my 213 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:26,480 screen and I said, well, I'm so sick of following everything 214 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:28,040 that the news media tells me too. 215 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:30,960 It wasn't years later until I actually found out the truth 216 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:34,360 about this situation. But yeah, coming across this, it 217 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:37,320 was just shocking that this evidence was right here. 218 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:39,600 There was a primary source, but it never occurred to me. 219 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:44,920 I found one clip of a woman who was inside the club and this was 220 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:48,280 a local news in Florida where she had said, yeah, he kept 221 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,040 saying that America's bombing, his country and he was really 222 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:53,680 upset about that. And then, you know, the SWAT 223 00:11:53,680 --> 00:11:57,080 team came in and killed him. And other than that, we didn't 224 00:11:57,080 --> 00:11:58,240 get the truth from anyone on this. 225 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:00,960 So this is the classic progressive false divide when 226 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:02,680 there really is a true divide to be had. 227 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:07,120 Yeah. So that to me speaks volumes 228 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:11,080 because it's typical of the regime that it does something 229 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:14,560 that then leads to negative consequences. 230 00:12:15,200 --> 00:12:20,280 But rather than ever come clean about this, it always finds some 231 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:23,240 fall guy. It always finds some distract 232 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:25,280 you with something else. So instead of saying, well look 233 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:28,240 you know we really need to have this overseas empire, but you 234 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:30,480 all have to understand that it is going to come with the 235 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:32,320 occasional cost. I mean some people going to get 236 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:33,960 angry about it. They're going to do crazy things 237 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:35,640 we're never going to have. They're not going to have that 238 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:38,160 conversation with us. Instead it was Oh my goodness, 239 00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:42,960 look he didn't like homosexuals like, but so, so that diverts 240 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:45,400 attention from the issue at hand. 241 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:48,720 But it's not just there obviously we've we continue to 242 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:52,720 see right with rising prices people saying that has nothing 243 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:55,240 to do with us, with the the government or the central bank 244 00:12:55,240 --> 00:13:00,200 that's that's greedy companies. In 2008 it was predatory 245 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:01,720 lenders. It's always somebody is it's 246 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:04,840 always somebody. It's always somebody unpopular. 247 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:07,680 It's already it's always somebody the public views as 248 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:10,360 wicked they're responsible for this. 249 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:12,840 We were merely innocent bystanders. 250 00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:15,960 Oh, and by the way, that institution that monopolizes the 251 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:19,200 creation of legal tender money had absolutely nothing to do 252 00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:22,800 with the with an economic downturn, you know, that's 253 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:25,640 that's the that's it. And if if those types of 254 00:13:25,640 --> 00:13:28,880 explanations satisfy you, then you're probably not going to be 255 00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:30,400 prompted to look into libertarians. 256 00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:34,600 Well, yeah, it seems like no matter what happens, if you 257 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:37,280 know, we're kept safe, well, that just proves that we need a 258 00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:39,000 heavy footprint in the Middle East. 259 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,240 Ben Shapiro's words, heavy footprint in the Middle East. 260 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:45,160 And if things are bad, well, that proves that we need to 261 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:47,480 really get serious about this war on terrorism. 262 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:51,000 So no matter what happens, COVID numbers go up. 263 00:13:51,160 --> 00:13:53,720 Well, we need to have lockdowns. COVID numbers go down. 264 00:13:53,880 --> 00:13:56,200 Well, see, this is the importance of having lockdowns 265 00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:58,280 and mandates. There's no way to actually 266 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:00,880 falsify this. And it's very classic that the 267 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:03,800 elephant in the brain, so to speak, will attempt to 268 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:07,680 rationalize almost everything that's in yourself interest. 269 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:11,080 So it's not like we have this, well, we need to elect the right 270 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,600 people or, you know, just erect a new party. 271 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:17,360 Well, that could be, you know, great in the short run as people 272 00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:20,200 like Javier Malay have shown us, that there can be tremendous 273 00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:22,880 benefits to that as far as long term solutions goes. 274 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:26,360 It is a bit of a fool's errand to give people a monopoly on 275 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,080 money creation, The right to conscript, the right to tax, the 276 00:14:29,080 --> 00:14:33,400 right to have a compulsory education and say these people 277 00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:36,360 need to be regulated because once every four years people are 278 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:39,440 going to get a one in a million vote between, you know, two 279 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,400 lying psychopaths. That's just not going to happen. 280 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:45,320 So progressivism in and of itself is a bit of a fool's 281 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:47,080 errand. And it's exactly what we should 282 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:49,040 expect. Just as corporations always want 283 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:52,440 more power, at least they have the genuine check and balance of 284 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:55,040 allowing people to disassociate with them when they stop 285 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,880 creating value. Politicians face no such check 286 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:01,400 and balance in society. So that's why progressivism was 287 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:04,160 just so vitally important that I stopped having that as part of 288 00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:06,720 my life. All right, let's move on. 289 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:10,560 You have a lot of material in here and I like that you you 290 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:16,000 kind of write the way I do in that there's no fluff in a Keith 291 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:18,560 Knight book. There is no waste of your time. 292 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:24,040 There are no pages and pages of of of ranting with without facts 293 00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:27,960 or statistics. You feel like every single 294 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:30,240 sentence has to be worth the reader's while. 295 00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:33,320 That's the impression I get reading your book, that you 296 00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:34,880 don't want to waste anybody's time. 297 00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:37,160 Let's, let's get the information out there. 298 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:41,640 So what you learn in a Keith Knight book, which will not take 299 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:44,120 you that long to read. I mean, honestly, you're going 300 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:46,320 to learn 10 times what you would you would learn from a, you 301 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:50,840 know, from a book by almost anybody to be honest with you, 302 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:54,840 by almost anybody and especially Oh my gosh, these I think about 303 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:56,720 the book Sean Hannity used to write. 304 00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:01,040 You know, I like it when he was a big radio guy and all the 305 00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:04,440 right wing radio people, they all had to write books and Oh my 306 00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:07,320 gosh, what a waste of time. It was just platitudes from 307 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:09,880 start to finish with three statistics thrown in. 308 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:13,040 OK And I would get that. That's what I would get in two 309 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:14,720 sentences of a Keith Knight book. 310 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:17,600 So. So I want to talk about the your 311 00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:20,400 section on government failure because that's obviously meant 312 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:26,320 to be a a, a playful reworking of the concerns about alleged 313 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:28,640 market failure. We're supposed to work again. 314 00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:31,400 Notice that we're supposed to worry about the the failure of 315 00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:34,320 markets. And markets I know are boogeyman 316 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:38,720 that we're all supposed to hate. But markets that just means, you 317 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:41,440 know, a network of individuals cooperating with each other is 318 00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:43,200 what a market is. People buying and selling, 319 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:46,360 making offers, people accepting or declining offers. 320 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:49,400 That's really all a marketplace is. 321 00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:52,720 A market is just you and me. And so to be concerned about 322 00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:57,280 market failure, to be concerned that voluntary interaction, you 323 00:16:57,280 --> 00:16:58,880 know, boy, there's a lot of failure there. 324 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:02,600 But not to have a corresponding concept of government failure. 325 00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:07,560 Failure of an institution that is inherently coercive shows 326 00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:12,520 there's a bias in in in the way economics is taught to begin 327 00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:14,520 with. Yes. 328 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:18,040 So thank you for saying that. There's a lot of information 329 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:20,960 condensed in this. I remember AJP Taylor once 330 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:25,599 saying most history that people learn is 90% true and 100% 331 00:17:25,599 --> 00:17:29,000 useless. And I go that is exactly what I 332 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:32,720 want to be the antidote to. I want everything to be, you 333 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:35,240 know, generally useful to what? To the reader. 334 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:39,360 So Tom Hartman is a pretty popular progressive and he said 335 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:43,320 there was 1 fatal flaw in libertarianism which just takes 336 00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:45,720 the whole thing down and that's why it's barely even worth 337 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:48,640 mentioning. And this would be the existence 338 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:52,680 of imperfect knowledge and competition, which can be 339 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:54,960 generally summarized as market failure. 340 00:17:55,160 --> 00:18:00,280 So, because when you go to buy a car, the car salesman and the 341 00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:03,240 owner of the company have a lot more knowledge than the 342 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:08,400 consumer, this asymmetry exists. Therefore, a state is justified 343 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:12,680 in coercively intervening on behalf of the customer and 344 00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:15,440 sometimes the producer, if the producer has to face foreign 345 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:20,040 competition for car sales. OK, so the question is, does 346 00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:22,160 this exist? One Of course. 347 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:24,840 Experts in the field have more knowledge than the average 348 00:18:24,840 --> 00:18:27,640 person, but does it uniquely apply? 349 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:31,360 This is a constant propaganda tactic of progressives. 350 00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:36,320 They say There's profit seekers in the private sector, as if 351 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:39,280 politicians and cops and soldiers and teachers are just 352 00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:41,960 unpaid volunteers. Yet there's always profit 353 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:44,040 seeking everywhere, under anything. 354 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:46,560 Or they'll say, well, there's imperfect knowledge. 355 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:51,200 So the question is, can we take this example and apply it to the 356 00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:55,080 coercive sector? Obviously, not all voters are 357 00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:57,320 informed. We have a great amount of 358 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:00,800 knowledge asymmetry when it comes to the people who have 359 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:04,600 access to confidential documents that we're not even allowed to 360 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:06,240 see. And if you try to show it to us 361 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:09,440 like Edward Snowden or Julian Assange, did they end up putting 362 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:12,480 you in a cage or making you run for your life so you can run 363 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:15,760 away from the land of the free, which they love to constantly 364 00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:19,080 brag about When it comes to something like greed. 365 00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:21,240 They also say that this is market failure, 'cause you don't 366 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:23,840 have people, you know, sort of acting both on goodwill. 367 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:27,280 You have people in the sort of doggy dog mentality, greed 368 00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:31,480 greedily going at each other. Well, there is an election going 369 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:33,120 on right now. Pretty greedy. 370 00:19:33,120 --> 00:19:37,080 You have politicians constantly slandering each other trying to 371 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:39,320 figure out who can get the most votes. 372 00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:42,080 One person wins, one person loses. 373 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:44,600 That is just about as greedy as it gets. 374 00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:47,800 Somehow, some way. I don't know when this happened, 375 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:52,440 but the voluntary sector got the name gritty and the coercive 376 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:57,160 sector, which you can't opt out of funding, got the idea that it 377 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,640 has something to do with social cooperation and dealing with the 378 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:04,000 greater good. They also say that, well, 379 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,520 government, it needs to step in just in case there are 380 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:09,680 externalities within the free market. 381 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:13,400 This is where you purchase a car from me And then. 382 00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:16,240 You drive the car, which pollutes the air that other 383 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:18,280 people breathe. Those people did not consent to 384 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:19,800 it. Therefore the state has to 385 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:22,720 intervene. Notice that the existence of a 386 00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,480 state doesn't make this externality go away. 387 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,880 Also, the state itself is a great externality. 388 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:32,840 We constantly have politicians doing things without the consent 389 00:20:32,840 --> 00:20:36,360 of hundreds of millions of their alleged constituents and 390 00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:39,440 coercively imposing it. That in and of itself is the 391 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:42,920 greatest externality. The final one that we get is the 392 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:46,000 short sightedness. You go in the free market, you 393 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,000 just want to make a ton of money and you don't care what's left 394 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,840 behind you. This was Hans Hoppa's great 395 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,960 contribution to the idea of democracy, where much for the 396 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:59,640 same reason, people don't take the time to change in oil, in 397 00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:04,440 change the oil in a rent a car. Very few politicians make sure 398 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:09,920 that the state is kept in such a way that it's going to be 399 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:11,840 beneficial for future generations. 400 00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:13,200 They're only there for a few years. 401 00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:16,480 They have to extract all the wealth, power, social status and 402 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,440 influence they can get until they're kicked out or until they 403 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:21,840 can get a permanent job in the deep state. 404 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:26,080 So we constantly see this short sightedness all around us. 405 00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:29,360 You have Woodrow Wilson declaring war against Germany in 406 00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:33,920 1917 hundred and 16,000 American deaths of 2.8 million 407 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:36,000 conscripts. You know, getting shot at, 408 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,160 getting PTSD, getting their limbs blown off. 409 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:42,520 And it was very beneficial for him at the time, along with 410 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,800 Colonel Edward House to gain that amount of social status and 411 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:49,760 have that amount of influence in the Treaty of Versailles. 412 00:21:50,120 --> 00:21:53,400 He never had to face consequences for anything that 413 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:55,160 that he did. This basically applies to any 414 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:59,560 politicians who advocate Boris Lyndon Johnson basically pushed 415 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:03,080 and fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the August 4th 416 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:07,240 incident of 1964, which never happened, justifying a further 417 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,840 intervention into Vietnam, leaving the things like 418 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:14,320 Operation Rolling Thunder, Operation Bail Roll, the mass 419 00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:17,480 bombing and murder of millions of people in Vietnam, Laos in 420 00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:19,800 Cambodia. And because of the short 421 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:23,000 sightedness of politicians, they never had to pay a price and 422 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,120 actually they're seen as heroes by by many people. 423 00:22:26,360 --> 00:22:29,880 So all of these things do apply to the state as well as the 424 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:36,200 market, But as Mike Munger points out, voters are way worse 425 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:38,680 than consumers, even though they're the same people. 426 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:42,680 But the consumer has to bear the cost of his bad decision making. 427 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:46,640 That's why you're much more it's much more beneficial to have 428 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:49,760 people acting as consumers where they have to bear the price, 429 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:52,800 where they get the reward, as opposed to being voters where 430 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:55,360 they never feel the pain and seldom will apologize for 431 00:22:55,360 --> 00:22:58,320 advocating policies that ruin the lives of millions of people. 432 00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:02,960 I'm glad you know, I was sitting here as you were giving your 433 00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:06,600 answer, thinking, well, I'll point out certain aspects of 434 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:08,480 this problem, then you cover them all. 435 00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:10,880 So, all right, well, on to the next thing. 436 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:18,240 You have a, a, a, a discussion in here on the minimum wage. 437 00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:21,640 And people might think, oh, this is such a tiresome libertarian 438 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:26,120 concern because after all, the the real value of a of the 439 00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:28,960 minimum wage has been eroded by inflation over the years. 440 00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:32,400 It's not really a big deal. And who cares if the minimum 441 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:36,280 minimum wage goes up? And for me, the main, the main 442 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:39,880 problem with it is that it just shows a a lack of understanding 443 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:43,160 of what makes wages rise. Like the people who think that 444 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,640 the key is we need to force people at gunpoint to pay 445 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,640 workers more. I think don't understand wages 446 00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:54,880 are not just arbitrarily set. So that that that drives me 447 00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:57,640 crazy. But also, I I don't think people 448 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:02,080 realize a point that you make in the book, which is frankly just 449 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:05,320 how few Americans actually work for the minimum wage. 450 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:08,840 Yes, it turns out I don't have the number off the top of my 451 00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,400 head, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a 452 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,880 very small percentage one. .4% I got it from your book. 453 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:16,960 OK, yes, thank you. I promise. 454 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:21,080 I got the citation there. When it comes to things like 455 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:24,440 full time work, it's important to define what counts as work 456 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:28,240 because as I say in the title, college essentially for me. 457 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:31,760 Well, and it's actually misleading because I was kicked 458 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:34,320 out of college on three different occasions. 459 00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:38,120 But College in general for someone could be four years of 460 00:24:38,120 --> 00:24:41,560 work for $0.00 an hour. So if we start with the 461 00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:45,880 progressive claim that all work should demand $15.00 an hour 462 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:48,120 because you're exploiting the person, you're benefiting from 463 00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:50,320 them. Well, the universities are 464 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:54,400 getting money from the student, and the student does tons of 465 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:56,760 work both in school and tons of homework. 466 00:24:57,120 --> 00:25:01,480 So university basically all schooling the K through 12 467 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:06,480 violates their child labor law and then the university system 468 00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:08,760 violates their minimum wage law 'cause you have people 469 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:12,000 performing labor and not getting directly compensated. 470 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:16,080 So the question is, should universities or any form of 471 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:19,680 schooling be abolished for the protection of the students? 472 00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:22,320 And my position is obviously not. 473 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:26,200 There's a reason so many people choose to voluntarily do such a 474 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,400 thing, so they could gain some skills so they can be more 475 00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:32,520 profitable in the future. And at the time, they're usually 476 00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:35,120 living with parents or living with someone else who's able to 477 00:25:35,120 --> 00:25:38,080 take on the bills, so they might not need it at that point. 478 00:25:38,360 --> 00:25:41,600 So the point is, is something that progressives actively 479 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:43,400 advocate. Go to college, do this. 480 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:47,040 They're telling people to work for $0.00 an hour in 481 00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:50,240 compensation and then get all high and mighty when they come 482 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:53,720 across a small business or some other organization which is 483 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:59,080 saying that, well, we can pay you $1.00 an hour or $5.00 an 484 00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:01,120 hour. The most amount of value that I 485 00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:07,120 got was in a two to three-week internship at a tech company 486 00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:10,560 where I didn't make any money, they gave me food and gas money. 487 00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:14,360 But getting that on the job experience is so valuable 488 00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:16,840 because that's what builds your skills, that's what makes you 489 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,400 more marketable in the marketplace among different 490 00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:22,600 employers. That's how wages rise. 491 00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:25,880 Now, according to the progressive worldview, we should 492 00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,960 see more or less something like 100% of people getting the 493 00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:33,400 minimum wage, because corporations just do the bare 494 00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:35,560 minimum. Absolutely necessary. 495 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:39,800 So how is it that such a small percentage of workers get this 496 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,840 minimum wage? It turns out research by Little 497 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,680 Wig von Mises in his book Planning for Freedom, Milton 498 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:49,040 Friedman in his book Free to Choose, they make the case that 499 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:52,760 wages rise as the result of a couple factors. 500 00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:56,000 One is capital investment by employers. 501 00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:58,720 I really saw this when I worked at Walmart. 502 00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:03,360 We had a scanning system that was very, very complex and 503 00:27:03,360 --> 00:27:06,360 people would send us orders. We'd scan them, get the list of 504 00:27:06,360 --> 00:27:08,600 orders, or you'd know where to go in the store to get the item. 505 00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:13,000 Then we'd give the person their groceries in the back of the 506 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,920 store. Well, one day this really, 507 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:19,160 really, really expensive system, these things had to be probably 508 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:22,840 like $2000 each. And the software, heaven knows 509 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:24,800 how much it costs in capital investment. 510 00:27:25,120 --> 00:27:28,120 One day this went down, so we had to do everything with a pen 511 00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:31,560 and paper. And I I honestly believe we 512 00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:36,200 might have done 10% of the sales that we were able to use when we 513 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:39,360 had access to those things just 'cause it was down for a day. 514 00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:43,560 So this really shows how each worker is more valuable because 515 00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:46,680 they're more productive as a result of capital investment. 516 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:49,240 The second thing, which Milton Friedman points out is the 517 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:52,040 importance of competition among employers. 518 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:56,520 So the employee is not necessarily protected because 519 00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:58,400 there's something like Occupational Safety and Health 520 00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:03,040 Administration, as I show in the book at place workplace desks 521 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:07,520 were drastically decreasing before the existence of OSHA. 522 00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,160 Second, he says the reason that we see wages higher than the 523 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:14,320 minimum wage is because of competition amongst employers. 524 00:28:14,360 --> 00:28:18,000 Knowing that there's this threat that I could leave, go elsewhere 525 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,720 and take my productivity with me, it gives the employer the 526 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:25,680 self-interest incentive to give me the wage that he thinks I'm 527 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:28,120 worth. So this is very important 528 00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:31,120 because a lot of times we're seen as, oh, you just think 529 00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:33,800 corporations are going to be oh so nice and generous. 530 00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:36,920 OK, well it turns out just as the customers are self 531 00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:39,600 interested when they come in the store, not because they love me, 532 00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:42,160 but because they want the products, employees are self 533 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,440 interested and the corporations are as well. 534 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:48,040 But the free market allows people to constantly harmonize 535 00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:51,520 these self interests by making sure that they can't get a penny 536 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:53,920 out of your pocket unless you voluntarily give it to them. 537 00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:57,280 They can't get a second of your time unless you choose to freely 538 00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,320 associate with them. So that, again, is why the 539 00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:04,360 state's not only unnecessary, constantly makes people more 540 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:07,280 impoverished because it stops people from getting that on the 541 00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:09,680 job experience. That means there's fewer 542 00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,040 employers because you're raising the cost of employing people. 543 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:14,240 Customers have fewer places to shop. 544 00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:17,480 Places are less beautiful because you have much more 545 00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:19,520 Walmarts. So this leads to the very 546 00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:23,000 oligopolies that progressives are constantly complaining 547 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,040 about. So it it is just worse all 548 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:28,120 around when some people claim the right to own the bodies of 549 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:32,960 other people. Did you happen to see at least 550 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:37,520 the the one now semi notorious clip of the interview between 551 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:40,040 Glenn Greenwald and and Tucker Carlson not long ago? 552 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:43,000 Do you happen to see that? Unfortunately, I did. 553 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,040 Yeah. So that's good answer. 554 00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:47,400 I thought you were saying unfortunately I missed it. 555 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:49,960 I thought I'll have to fill him in, but I'll fill in the 556 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:52,960 audience the the, you know, I I like Glenn Greenwald. 557 00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:57,360 I I I read one of his books. I I follow him. 558 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,640 I think he's a very valuable and important voice, and I think 559 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:02,280 Tucker Carlson is downright heroic. 560 00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:04,120 I I really, really respect the guy. 561 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:08,000 But nobody's perfect. And sometimes when when these 562 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:11,040 two agree on something, it's it's a bad thing. 563 00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:13,200 Sometimes it's a good thing, but sometimes a bad thing. 564 00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:15,640 And they were having a conversation about the economy 565 00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:19,720 and Greenwald was leading in with, yeah, you know, all this 566 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,160 libertarian economics. I think people are looking 567 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,080 around and they're seeing that, you know, Raytheon is getting 568 00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:27,840 richer and richer and they're wondering where this all goes. 569 00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:31,320 And I thought Raytheon getting richer and richer would not be 570 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:33,080 happening in a libertarian system. 571 00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:35,720 You know like what what are you talking about what does this 572 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:40,000 mean And and then it ended up getting diverted into a an 573 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:45,320 argument about how how ugly our society is becoming that that 574 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:48,080 it's it's the the aesthetics of it are are poor. 575 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:50,880 We can all agree on that. But The thing is it's hard to 576 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:53,280 blame that on libertarianism when we haven't actually 577 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,360 implemented that. That is the real thing. 578 00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:58,080 We we haven't actually implemented it this, but this is 579 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:00,800 not we're not living in a libertarian system at at this 580 00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:02,480 point. Every major thing the 581 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,960 libertarians have demanded, we've just been ignored. 582 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,040 They just pay no attention to us. 583 00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,600 Unfortunately, you the way they were talking, you would have 584 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:16,200 thought that in 1972 Milton Friedman became dictator of 585 00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:19,760 America and just has refused to get off the throne since then. 586 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:24,080 Tucker Carlson said that this sort of libertarian economic 587 00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:27,640 policy was completely rationalized after the rich saw 588 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:31,080 that it was in their interest. So notice immediately they're 589 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:34,880 not differentiating between wealth that's gained voluntarily 590 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:38,120 by people like George Eastman, who made the camera much more 591 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:39,680 accessible to the average person. 592 00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:43,040 Cornelius Vanderbilt getting steamship access to the average 593 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:44,520 person. Henry Ford getting the 594 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:46,720 automobile accessible to the average person. 595 00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:48,880 Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos. None of that. 596 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:52,440 They just say the rich. This is a classic progressive 597 00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,320 move where it's not like, you know, giving you a state. 598 00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:59,560 Obviously the the Nicolas Maduro and Hugo Chavez were very rich 599 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,840 as well, So that even that is not unique to the free market. 600 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:05,920 The fact that they don't even differentiate between voluntary 601 00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:08,800 wealth and coercive wealth is how they can make a statement so 602 00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:11,080 ridiculous as to say, well look at all this. 603 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:13,880 Reaganomics rich get richer libertarianism. 604 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:17,280 They constantly conflate those things intentionally and they 605 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,720 pin it on Raytheon getting all this money when there is a 606 00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:23,760 culprit that we could pin it on. Maybe the progressives that in 607 00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:26,800 spite of Allstate atrocities still say, well, the government 608 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:28,240 should tax more. Well the government should 609 00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:30,920 regulate more. But I'm against a lot of the 610 00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:33,440 things they do with all this power that I advocate that they 611 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:36,000 have. This is literally as evil 612 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,520 knowing about the mass murder campaigns of the Middle East, 613 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:43,680 Vietnam, Korea, the bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, Operation 614 00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:47,000 Meetinghouse, killing 100,000 civilians in Tokyo in a couple 615 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,960 days. This is as bad as saying I want 616 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:52,840 the Ku Klux Klan to have a ton of money and a ton of power, but 617 00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:55,320 I think they should be really nice and we should elect a good 618 00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:58,560 grand wizard. It is literally that ridiculous 619 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:00,600 when it comes to what they're advocating. 620 00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:04,760 So yeah, Raytheon, having all this money and power you could 621 00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:07,920 easily put at the feet of progressives who have had a lot 622 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:11,040 more power than the Milton Friedmans and Ludwig von Mises 623 00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:14,800 of the world. There's also a section in your 624 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:19,880 book where you you say a little something about the objection 625 00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:25,680 that in the society you want, the poor would XYZ, so X in this 626 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:28,560 case is have no access to education. 627 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,600 They would just be, you know, illiterate and helpless. 628 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:35,640 And I I might point out that that's kind of like what we have 629 00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:37,920 now. I mean, I wouldn't want to go to 630 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:39,640 any of these schools. I'm not going to learn anything. 631 00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,200 Complete waste of my time. I'm going to be probably 632 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:44,440 traumatized. Their chances are. 633 00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:49,160 So I'm not sure this accusation sticks, but I think for a lot of 634 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:53,080 people it seems like a a death blow to libertarianism. 635 00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:55,040 I I don't want people to have no schools. 636 00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:01,400 Oh, and I want there to be schools as well, But one, they 637 00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:03,720 should be voluntary. And two, you make the exact 638 00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:07,080 point by them saying, well, I can't believe people are so 639 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:09,960 uninformed to have elected someone like Donald Trump. 640 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:13,040 Oh, they all these people online, they spread these, you 641 00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:16,440 know, debunked conspiracy theories as they tell us Putin 642 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:19,840 installed our previous president without a shred of evidence. 643 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:22,920 But yeah, they're the ones who are constantly saying that 644 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:26,120 society's so uneducated after the majority of us have gone 645 00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:29,280 through 12 years of state indoctrination. 646 00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:33,719 So what I did was I tried to do some research and I came across 647 00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:36,239 the research of a woman, Pauline Dixon, she wrote. 648 00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:39,480 She has two studies. One is titled why the denial? 649 00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:42,679 Low cost private schools in developing countries and their 650 00:34:42,679 --> 00:34:46,159 contributions to education. So notice she doesn't say why 651 00:34:46,159 --> 00:34:49,560 the denial. Schooling in the Hamptons, she 652 00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:51,920 says. Let me take the worst people on 653 00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:54,800 earth. If it can work here, and by work 654 00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:59,440 we mean generally yield a high degree of utility for parents 655 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,760 and children alike, well then it is something that can be 656 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,240 generally embraced. So before this I actually used 2 657 00:35:06,240 --> 00:35:09,880 examples of how the Statue of Liberty, something beautiful 658 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,880 that I'm sure Tucker Carlson would also find beautiful, was 659 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:17,480 voluntarily funded along with the Salisbury Cathedral in 660 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:20,040 England. So that we can have beauty in 661 00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:24,120 the voluntary sector and we can get things like churches which 662 00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,640 so many people can go to totally for free. 663 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:31,120 I have been to many churches and I have never been charged to to 664 00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,760 to walk in the door. So we see this something that 665 00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:37,680 people go to one day a week, they're able to voluntarily fund 666 00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:39,320 and have a building and have a staff. 667 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:42,600 So if people are going somewhere five days a week, they might 668 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:46,520 find more value in it. And there might be a incentive 669 00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:48,840 on the other side of the equation for the teachers and 670 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:52,320 administrators to actually produce a much higher quality 671 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:55,160 product. So Pauline Dixon summarizes her 672 00:35:55,360 --> 00:35:58,920 findings in the study Private Education is Good for the Poor, 673 00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:01,400 a study of private schools serving the poor and low income 674 00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:04,320 countries. She says the majority of poor 675 00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:07,560 parents chose private, unaided schools for their children. 676 00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:11,360 Just the fact that when you give people choice, they opt for the 677 00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:14,720 competitive voluntary sector is so important because the 678 00:36:14,720 --> 00:36:18,200 progressive is constantly saying we need to empower people and 679 00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:21,400 let them vote. Well look, if your right to vote 680 00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:25,240 was taken away, there would be some psychological damage, but 681 00:36:25,240 --> 00:36:28,960 it would have no effect on the actual outcome of any election 682 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:31,040 where you send your kids to school. 683 00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:35,160 Having school choice that drastically changes every aspect 684 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:36,960 of your life and the child's life. 685 00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:39,480 So they want to give you tons of choice and something that 686 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:41,640 doesn't matter and no choice and something that actually 687 00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:43,480 determines the outcome of your life. 688 00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:46,440 Dixon goes on. Teacher costs are significantly 689 00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:49,600 less in private, unhated schools than in government schools. 690 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:55,160 Gender equity is maintained in private, unaided, unaided school 691 00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:57,240 enrollment. School enrollment is 692 00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:00,720 underestimated. Free primary education serves to 693 00:37:00,720 --> 00:37:03,760 crowd out private schools and does not increase overall 694 00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:07,000 enrollment. Better pupil teacher ratios 695 00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:10,440 prevail in private unheated than in government schools. 696 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,000 More teaching is occurring in private than in government 697 00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:16,320 schools. Every single thing you can 698 00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:18,320 imagine that we get the objections of. 699 00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:21,160 She went to third world countries and found that the 700 00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:24,600 voluntary sector was better able to achieve these ends than the 701 00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:28,240 coercive sector. All we have to do is take the 702 00:37:28,240 --> 00:37:30,280 progressive claim that they're always giving us. 703 00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:33,400 They say, well, monopolies are really bad because with 704 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:37,120 monopolies you have higher costs and lower quality than you 705 00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:38,640 otherwise would under competition. 706 00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:42,280 So we need antitrust laws. The same thing applies for the 707 00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:44,880 state having a monopoly on compulsory education. 708 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:47,520 They don't have the incentive to really get the good information 709 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:50,720 out there. I I forget the statistic that I 710 00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:55,480 had found from Corey Deangelis. He cites the National Education 711 00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:57,320 Foundation. I know I put it in the book. 712 00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:01,160 It's something like spending on education has increased adjusted 713 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:05,200 for inflation, something like 280% since 1960. 714 00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:08,440 And there are very few results to brag about. 715 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:11,160 In fact, the results are so bad after 12 years of schooling, 716 00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:14,760 progressive say, well, obviously you have to go to college. 717 00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:17,960 You didn't do much for 13 years. All you did was everything we 718 00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:22,200 asked. 5 hours a day, you know, five days a week for 10 months 719 00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:24,560 out of the years for for the last 12 years. 720 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:27,480 They know it's so bad that they're constantly advocating 721 00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:30,120 you go to college afterwards because they know how little you 722 00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:32,320 gained in there. So those are empirical 723 00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:36,880 realities, along with the moral arguments as to why the 724 00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:40,800 education sector should be brought under the volunteerism 725 00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:44,400 umbrella. Do you think most people are 726 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:48,240 reachable? There's no right or wrong answer 727 00:38:48,240 --> 00:38:53,400 to this, I'm just curious. Well, when I see how much things 728 00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:57,200 have changed in my life, being a progressive now, being a 729 00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:01,360 libertarian, being a, you know, drug addict for four years and 730 00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:04,320 then being able to turn my life around, I think it is amazing to 731 00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:07,360 see how much people can change when they surround themselves 732 00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:11,880 with the right people and start developing the correct habits. 733 00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:16,840 So yes, I actually do. As I said in our previous 734 00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:20,640 conversation, I think the really important things are social 735 00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:24,720 proof and repetition. So the more people claim to be 736 00:39:24,720 --> 00:39:27,680 part of something, the more people want to be a part of it. 737 00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:31,720 So the more people who are able to, you know, proudly identify 738 00:39:31,720 --> 00:39:36,520 as libertarian or just wear it as a side label, as our mutual 739 00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:39,520 friend Alan Mosley likes to say, I'm not, you know, doing a 740 00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:41,960 libertarian show. I'm just doing a late night show 741 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,640 and I happen to be a libertarian as well. 742 00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:48,040 So just, you know, sort of giving people that green light 743 00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:52,200 that it's OK to be on our side makes many more people than we 744 00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:54,640 otherwise would have want to join us. 745 00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:58,080 And then having someone who you can really admire, who really 746 00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:01,920 stands up to your enemies. You got almost the entire GOP 747 00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:06,680 saying that George W Bush lied us into wars, which got, you 748 00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:09,120 know, our soldiers killed and killed tons of civilians, 749 00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:11,040 something you never would have imagined. 750 00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:15,040 That they'd say, and they're anti CIA and a lot of them are 751 00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:19,360 now on board with abolishing the FBI supporting Vivek Ramaswamy. 752 00:40:19,600 --> 00:40:23,160 And it's not because I don't know if they read a lot of books 753 00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:25,760 to come to that conclusion, but what happened was someone took 754 00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:29,280 on their enemies, Donald Trump said My enemies are your 755 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:30,880 enemies. They're coming after me. 756 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,640 I'm just in their way, but they're really trying to get to 757 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:35,720 you. And he gave all these people a 758 00:40:35,720 --> 00:40:39,960 green light to completely do a 180 on all these institutions 759 00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:43,960 that they previously admired. So yes, I think the message can 760 00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:46,680 be sold correctly. You know, people like Xavier 761 00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:50,800 Malay really just inspire me with his ability to get on TV, 762 00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:53,880 make the unapologetic case against collectivism, really 763 00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:57,760 inspire people and show people that these ideas are worth 764 00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:00,200 getting behind. So, I think so, yes. 765 00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:04,360 Well, that's actually kind of a nice white pill to finish with 766 00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:08,800 because sometimes it's very grim and Nah forget it and there's no 767 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,160 hope. But but you are somebody who's 768 00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:16,720 been through quite a bit and has has come out really strong and 769 00:41:16,720 --> 00:41:20,000 so you you what your testimony is, is is very valuable. 770 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:25,080 So of course, as always, I I want to recommend that folks 771 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:29,120 listen to Keith Knight because I I know I I don't want to call 772 00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:31,200 you an up and Comer, Keith, because I almost, I feel like 773 00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:32,640 that's condescending towards you. 774 00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:40,840 You have already come up and you're I don't know exactly what 775 00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:44,400 reading regimen you had, but you've learned a lot. 776 00:41:45,080 --> 00:41:48,040 You know more about this material than a lot of people 777 00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,160 who have been around this movement a lot longer than you 778 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,520 have. So I highly recommend Keith's 779 00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:57,160 book, Domestic Imperialism 9 Reasons I Left Progressivism. 780 00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:00,440 You'll find it linked down here in the description of the video, 781 00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:06,160 also on the show notes page tomwoods.com slash 2436. 782 00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:09,760 So thank you very much, Keith. Tom, thanks for having me. 783 00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:11,880 And thank you, ladies and gentlemen. 784 00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:16,760 Become a smarter libertarian in just 30 minutes a day. 785 00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:20,680 Visit tomwoods.com to subscribe to the show for free and we'll 786 00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:26,640 see you next time. Like the sound of the Tom Wood 787 00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:28,640 show. My audio production is provided 788 00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:32,480 by Podsworth Media. Check themout@podsworth.com.