This is an interesting find, scholarly discussions on economics in lay-person’s language. There are over 150 episodes on YouTube of Hardfire: Libertarian Issues in Focus, produced by Cameron Weber, PhD economics.
Dr. Weber is generally pleasantly soft spoken, which is a plus in today’s strident public dialogue. As the title of the show suggests, issues are discussed from a libertarian (versus collective or socialist) perspective.
Why is the Just Vote No Blog recommending this show?
As a nation, we are in need of the basic education that allows us to competently fill out a resume, keep a financially sound household budget, point to where a country is located on a map, and assess the economic feasibility of what is proposed at the ballot box. Some point to home schooling, charter schools, and on-line courses as a way for students to improve their chances of competing favorably in an increasingly complex job market. Others point to free or low-cost life-long learning as a way for everybody to stay informed.
The trick is not only to find free or low cost instruction, but to avoid the echo-chamber trap of learning only what often agenda-driven groups prescribe. One way to avoid this trap is to explore different sources of information. It is good to listen to what Robert Reich (professor of public policy at U.C. Berkeley and partial to Keynesian economics) has to say, but counter that with what Thomas Sowell (Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and partial to Chicago School economics) says.
Cameron Weber’s show represents instruction that is freely available as well as libertarian (free market) economics which today is less widespread than the liberal central planning.
An Example of a Hardfire Episode
On the segment of August 2, 2019, Dr. Weber discusses what at first glance borders on the heretical – Adam Smith, father of free market capitalism, called for non-market government intervention! However, as Cameron Weber explains, this apparent contradiction is the result of Adam Smith’s discussion of two separate situations.
One situation describes economic relationships between individuals. For example, you sell widgets and I know you for being an honest and knowledgeable maker of widgets, so I decide to buy widgets from you. In this situation, the free market is the best judge of who are the most successful widget makers. Adam Smith discussed this theme in one of his two principal books, The Theory of Modern Sentiment (1759).
The other situation regards not individuals but nations, thus the title of Smith’s other principal work, The Wealth of Nations. Now, the free market must take second place to national wealth and security. Any benefit that might accrue to individuals comes as a result of government-determined policies on manufacturing and trade that aim to make nations wealthy and secure. Such policies according to Smith must include exceptions to the free market that protect 1) products used in national defense, and 2) infant industries.
From a libertarian viewpoint, the questions would be 1) are we really talking about national defense or imperialism, 2) do industry protections ever end once implemented, and 3) where does the line of protectionism end.
Sprinkled throughout this segment are explanations of mercantilism, social scores, analytic egalitarianism, and other interesting terms.
The Just Vote No Blog hopes you will enjoy this show and also watch a variety of points of views on economics, so much of it free of change on YouTube.
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body & mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. Thomas Jefferson
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