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Myths That Conceal Reality
YouTube ^ | 1977 | Milton Friedman

Posted on 12/28/2012 12:04:39 PM PST by PapaNew

Video Lecture. Might as well have been given yesterday.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: coersion; economy; freedom; propaganda
Below is a summary of the video. I started with the realities that favor freedom whereas in the video, Dr. Friedman starts with the myths that fuel government expansion.

Some reasons why individual freedom and limited government are beneficial to everyone, especially the poor, and why there is no true rationale for reducing freedom and increasing government.

1. The 1800’s were characterized by
• government spending < 3% GDP.
• rapid and widespread increase in the well being of the ordinary man turning the U.S. into a productive country (ex agriculture).
• continual immigration to the U.S. by those whose hopes for a better life were realized.
• flowering of charitable activity, proliferation of non-profit hospitals and private schools.

2. The Great Depression was caused by failure of government’s Constitutional responsibility in coinage and valuation of money. The FED lowered the quantity of money by 1/3 by raising and maintaining high interest rates causing 1/3 of the banks to close.

3. Government spending in providing goods and services is ALWAYS at individuals’ expense and is a zero sum game.
• “Business tax” (including business part of social security tax) is a concealed individual tax because although the corporation writes the check, SOMEONE has to pay: the stockholders, employees, or customers.
• “Printing more money” is another concealed tax because increase in money supply without corresponding increase in goods or services creates inflation – your money supply goes up but your buying power goes down.

4. Government programs transfer money from lower income groups to higher income groups. Examples:
• State financed higher education – poor nonstudents pay for mostly middle class students.
• Social Security – lower class workers start work earlier and die sooner. They, therefore, pay SS tax longer and receive less benefits thus benefiting mostly higher class recipients.

5. Propaganda campaigns that mislabel programs and mislead the public are needed for government expansion. There is no genuine and widespread demand for such programs. Examples:
• forced “social security” (not an insurance but a tax and subsidy program),
• forced purchase of auto safety equipment,
• forced proscriptions and prescriptions by the FDA, and
• forced “national health insurance” (“Obamacare”) which isn’t insurance at all, but makes doctors government employees, creates long waiting lines, and produces inferior medical care.

How is government getting away with this? Free enterprise and the free market have no press agents. Government and the FED have many press agents including by-and-large the willing acquiescence of the MSM.

What’s the solution? “We will not solve our problem [ultimately] by electing “the right people”. We will only solve the problem by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing.”

1 posted on 12/28/2012 12:04:41 PM PST by PapaNew
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To: PapaNew
Force The Wrong People To Do The Right Thing.

They ain't gonn'a do it on their own, THAT'S for sure.

2 posted on 12/28/2012 12:20:17 PM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: knarf
Right except what's actually said here is "make it politically profitable" to do the right thing.
3 posted on 12/28/2012 12:27:41 PM PST by PapaNew
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To: PapaNew

All liberalism is designed to conceal reality


4 posted on 12/28/2012 12:44:49 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: GeronL

Atheism/Marxism is based on a Big Lie. Their assumption that there is No God (No individual rights from God) means that they can decide what “Truth” is for us—for the collective. It is a lie to claim they can “prove” there is no God. No proof exists.

Since there is no Absolute Truth (God)-—there is no Right and Wrong. It is whoever is in power—to decide what Truth is. They define your reality and all your perceptions——using TV and Schools which has been controlled for decades by Leftists.

They destroy all Truth in history (The publishing companies)—distort everything in schools—so that Reason is impossible. That way-—what ever they tell you-—you will have to believe-—just like in 1984 and the Brave New World.

We are almost there. Most people believe the government lies and good people—think that sodomizing other people is a Right from God (insane)—and they actually believe this and teach children that atheist/Marxist/muslim worldview.

They force “Pride” for dehumanizing other human beings in our public schools and force immoral pedophiles as role models for children (Milk)-—to destroy the most rational, Just religion in history—Christianity-—and the very principles of our Constitution—based on the Laws of Nature and God’s Laws—just like Christianity.

Marxist/muslim/homosexual ideology is incompatible with our Constitution.


5 posted on 12/28/2012 1:09:43 PM PST by savagesusie (Right Reason According to Nature = Just Law)
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To: PapaNew
How is government getting away with this?

Emotionalism, altruism, and collectivism, utopian fantasies, loot and plunder mentality, Marxist mentality, public's hatred of the rich due to envy, self-pity, and resentment against achievement lead to statism and socialism.

6 posted on 12/28/2012 1:15:39 PM PST by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: PapaNew
The Marxist "progressives" have not been able to distinquish fantasy from reality for as long as they've been around.

That "problem" obtains in MANY areas, to wit:

A few days after the tragic Sandy Hook school murders, a young Marine in fatigues stationed himself at the front entrance of the Nashville elementary school his two children attend. Another parent heard him admit to a reporter that he was unarmed. The other parent commented that, even though the young Marine standing guard was not armed, it made him “feel better” to know he was there.

It’s often been observed that “perception is more important than reality”. The observation is often correct. It is never MORE CORRECT than for those we’ve come to call “liberals”. I prefer “statist” but “liberal” has morphed from its classic meaning to the other end of the spectrum so I’ll stay with it.

Since these folks operate almost entirely on EMOTION and FEELING, REALITY seldom allows FACTS to intrude upon the delusional worldview they have constructed and the comfort that provides them. It is that illogical, irrational and delusional mindset that prompts many of them to continue to quest after a Utopian society. The thought that such a society can and will never be achieved in a fallen world populated with failed sinners never penetrates whatever remains of their cognitive consciousness. It’s a DANGEROUS WORLD and, as the liberals continue to “define deviancy down”, it becomes more dangerous daily.

There is another, far more sinister, level of the “liberal” call for gun control.

It was Mencken who offered that “The urge to save humanity is most often a false front for the URGE TO RULE.” He clearly had been a student of the liberal politicians of his day. Were he alive today and able to observe the likes of Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein, Obama and the rest, he’d almost certainly have used far stronger language to frame his sage observation.

To conclude, dozens of studies reveal the FACTS concerning gun control. Those FACTS are that where firearms are widely and READILY available to law-abiding citizens, CRIME GOES DOWN! The liberals who willfully ignore the FACTUAL EVIDENCE and continue to call for gun control (i.e. the DISARMING of DECENT CITIZENS, thereby denying them the ability to exercise their God-given right to self-defense) are those about whom Mencken wrote: Their goal is NOT about preserving life. It is about the hell-bent pursuit of the impossible to achieve Utopian world where all are equal but some (that’d be THEM) are MORE equal than others (that’d be US).

There are many PRO-RTKABA videos on You Tube that your often busy lives don’t allow you to find on your own. Search there for “Gun Control”, watch them – and, more importantly – SHARE THEM with the folks in your orbit.

We’re in a fight. And losing will ultimately cost us much more than our right to our guns.

Dick Bachert 12/19/2012

7 posted on 12/28/2012 2:23:12 PM PST by Dick Bachert (An ARMED society is a POLITE society!)
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To: Dick Bachert
Good post. "Statist" (long "a") is what I think I'll call these peole from now on. Since I am a libertarian (small "l", not the party), I find it distasteful to call these people "liberals".

As an asides, you know the Bible prophesied about this very thing?

The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. Isaiah 32:5-6.

8 posted on 12/28/2012 6:10:49 PM PST by PapaNew
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To: Dick Bachert
Wanted to recommend this Milton Friedman lecture on the Role of Government in a Free Society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LucOUSpTB3Y

9 posted on 12/28/2012 6:22:34 PM PST by PapaNew
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