2 Comments

  1. Ian Mulder
    11 April 2013 @ 17:05

    Thanks, Steve. It makes its point very clearly. But if this is what Conservatives stand for, it makes me wonder if I’ve been voting for the wrong party all these years.

    All the arguments in the video backfired. I don’t know when Milton Friedman visited China, but the anecdote makes the Chinese government sound humane and wise for putting people before capitalism.

    Wealth creation doesn’t impress me, when its effect is to turn miners into call-centre battery-hens, or shelf-fillers for Amazon. The true and only wealth we have is Nature and fellow human beings. If we think of human labour as “expensive” and ignore the sense of dignity and worth that it bestows, we suffer from a poverty of spirit and that’s arguably the worst kind.

    I’ve always voted Conservative, always had doubts about Margaret Thatcher as PM, been shocked by the hate she attracted. But you’ve shown me by the video that it’s time to let Milton Friedman rest in peace, as well as his most famous fan.

    Instead of pursuing Friedmanesque wealth, which mostly turns out on to be bogus, because of the less satisfactory careers it generates, the government could do well to encourage jobs that suit people, not just foster capitalism.

    You have opened my eyes!

  2. Peter Colman
    11 April 2013 @ 19:34

    So, how come we don’t hear consistent and robust defence of and explanations of free market principles from this government? The message that the free market and capitalism has failed is the one heard the most by the public.