Johan Norberg - We Have to Fight for Capitalism

BIO: Johan Norberg is an author, lecturer, and historian of ideas from Stockholm, Sweden. His books on economics, politics, and history have been translated into more than 30 languages.STORY: Johan talks about capitalism and why it’s important.LEARNING: We should never lose sight of the benefits of capitalism. Capitalism is about peace, trust, and voluntary exchange, not war. “No matter what your long-term objective is, it’s better to be wealthy using resources in an effective manner and being more productive.”Johan Norberg Guest profileJohan Norberg is an author, lecturer, and historian of ideas from Stockholm, Sweden. His books on economics, politics, and history have been translated into more than 30 languages.In today’s episode, Johan discusses capitalism and its importance. Johan recently published his latest book, The Capitalist Manifesto. Like the title, the book is brilliant! Elon Musk said: “This book is an excellent explanation of why capitalism is not just successful, but morally right, especially chapter 4.” Have we lost sight of the benefits of capitalism?Without free markets and free trade, we’d probably be nowhere because it was only with the advent of higher productivity, open global markets, and free enterprise. Remember that when you give people more freedom to seek out opportunities to innovate, develop new business models, and exchange their best with the best of others, you have the machinery to reduce poverty and hunger worldwide.We must never forget this process because once people reach a certain threshold, they take wealth, opportunities, and technologies for granted and forget where they came from. This happens to many countries worldwide, electing the populace who use wealth without realizing that it’s not a pile of cash that happens to lie around.If we were to stop producing and innovating and start consuming and redistributing the wealth already on the planet, all of it would be gone in around four years. So wealth has to be created every day by hard work.Can government and capitalism co-exist?For your business to make a profit, you must make all the other groups happy. You have to satisfy your customers by giving them something they value more than the money they hand you. You must also pay your workers, suppliers, and those who lent you money. Then, and only then, if you made all these groups happy, and there’s something left for you, which will be heavily taxed, can you make a profit. The bigger your profit, the more good you’ve done to society.However, some profit is made not by competing over having the best goods and services but by having good connections with politicians and governments. They get subsidies and tariff protection from governments picking taxpayers’ pockets and handing them to businesses. That’s the opposite of a free market and capitalism—cronyism. It’s a horrible thing that can only end by stopping politicians from entering the game of business, picking winners, and deciding who gets what.Unfortunately, the future has no lobbyists, business organizations, or trade unions to defend them, only the incumbents and the old alternatives who constantly tailor all the regulations and policies to their needs and demands. Johan says the natural history of business regulation is always that you have, at first, a...