Ralph Nader: Destroying the Myths of Market Fundamentalism

1. If you look at the empirical historical evidence, market fundamentalism is overwhelmingly about the consolidation of power in the hands of an Elite class dressed up in overly-logicized euphemistic mumbo jumbo about "free markets" and "non-coercion." When the Elite finds itself on the losing end of the ideology that they worship, then they quickly dispense with it in the form of a huge double standard. Some of the biggest adherents of this disgusting worldview have no problem whatsoever using militaristic coercion to protect and to expand their own power/influence by supporting murderous dictatorships abroad. If a group doesn't want to be part of this system, oh well, the Elite will readily embrace the use of coercive force to quash dissidents. These Corporatists don't even believe the ideology that they pay think tanks to parrot especially when they are on the losing end of market discipline.

2. So much intelligence,common sense and compassion

3. In 22 minutes he didn't define 'markets', he didn't differentiate from coercion vs voluntarism. He didn't explain why the government has more rights than any other organizations, why they can acquire property via coercion, while companies can't get money out of your pocket unless you voluntarily exchange goods/services.

   Also the regulation he advocates helps big biz, only they have resources to comply, which hurts their competitors, giving us less choice as employees and consumers.

4. Neoliberalism is founded on "necessary myths" for our own good. Was the hollowing out of the middle class for anyone's good? The entire ideology is a web of Orwellian lies and doublespeak, which needs to stop being taught in mainstream universities. James Buchanan, one of the main drivers of neoliberalism and mentor to fellow libertarians the Koch brothers, is seen here condemning the Keynesian economics of the 50's and 60's. The Roosevelt Republic was the most prosperous two decades in US history!

   Paul Samuelson seen here admitting the balanced budget myth:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_pasHodJ-8

5. "The economist Karl Polanyi understood that there are two kinds of freedoms. There are the bad freedoms to exploit those around us and extract huge profits without regard to the common good, including what is done to the ecosystem and democratic institutions. These bad freedoms see corporations monopolize technologies and scientific advances to make huge profits, even when, as with the pharmaceutical industry, a monopoly means lives of those who cannot pay exorbitant prices are put in jeopardy. The good freedoms—freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of meeting, freedom of association, freedom to choose one’s job—are eventually snuffed out by the primacy of the bad freedoms."

   Neoliberalism's Dark Path to Fascism by Chris Hedges
   https://www.truthdig.com/articles/neoliberalisms-dark-path-to-fascism/?fbclid=IwAR0c2RPcGt3BwVUuf9Jt_EUY883ioDHyMGpLnThzK47hmF2be_ffTVvxrxg

6. The capitalists' definitions of freedom and human rights are diametrically opposed to the average person. Battle of the freedoms – economic vs. social. Libertarians' idea of liberty actually depends on economic inequality. It's their "human right". Economic freedom over liberty for all. Isn't that undemocratic? More to the point, isn't that fascist?

   "Aryeh Neier, founder of Human Rights Watch and its executive director for 12 years, doesn’t hide his contempt for the idea of economic equality as one of the key human rights. Neier is so opposed to the idea of economic equality that he even equates the very idea of economic equality and justice with oppression—economic rights to him are a violation of human rights, rather than essential human rights, thereby completely inverting traditional left thinking. 

   Here’s what Neier wrote in his memoir, Taking Liberties: “The concept of economic and social rights is profoundly undemocratic… Authoritarian power is probably a prerequisite for giving meaning to economic and social rights.”

   Neier here is aping free-market libertarian mandarins like Friedrich von Hayek, or Hayek’s libertarian forefathers like William Graham Sumner, the robber baron mandarin and notorious laissez-faire Social Darwinist. 

   As with Neier, William Graham Sumner argued that liberty has an inverse relationship to economic equality; according to Sumner, the more economic equality, the less liberty; whereas the greater the inequality in a society, the more liberty its individuals enjoy. 

   t’s the fundamental equation underlying all libertarian ideology and politics—a robber baron’s ideology at heart."

   https://thedailybanter.com/2012/06/the-quiet-extermination-of-labor-rights-from-human-rights/

7. “Economics students are forced to spend so much time with this complex calculus so that they can go to work on Wall St. that there’s no room in the course curriculum for the history of economic thought. So all they know about Adam Smith is what they hear on CNN news or other mass media that are a travesty of what these people really said and if you don’t read the history of economic thought, you’d think there’s only one way of looking at the world and that’s the way the mass media promote things and it’s a propagandistic, Orwellian way.

   The whole economic vocabulary is to cover up what’s really happening and to make people think that the economy is getting richer while the reality is they’re getting poorer and only the top is getting richer and they can only get rich as long as the middle class and the working class don’t realize the scam that’s being pulled off on them.” ~ Michael Hudson

8. "To allow the market mechanism to be the sole director of the fate of human beings and their natural environment …would result in the demolition of society.” ~ Karl Polanyi, 1944

9. MMT (modern monetary. theory) is description of the operational reality of how the economy works. TRUTH is way more easy to understand and very interesting! This clip below is the most clear concise presentation of our post-1971 fiat currency system, not the worn out, PRE-1971!! gold-standard, intentionally obfuscating lies that have been perpetuated for 40 years:
   @

10. Free market- no such thing in usa

11. Too much rambling Ralph. Get your thoughts together some more next time and speak more clearly please

12. Excellent

13. didn't he complain that Trump said a woman was overweight? NADER has lost his mind. A doddering fool

14. Ralph, wtf are you bringing up Soros as a legitimate critic of market fundamentalism? Atempt of a compromise with the oligarchy. Forget about noble predators for god sake!

15. 20:54 Tim Cook/Apple ?

16. Owners, both individual and institutional, are virtually powerless? Well how do you explain away the phenomena of the Activist Investor, and the sheer terror these shareholders instill in Boardrooms across this great nation of ours?

17. Michael Moore really screwed this guy! He should have been our President. Then Cynthia McKinney #UNRIG

18. Love this guy. Once I didn't—I had bought the 3rd Party lie…..sometimes you get lucky and learn as much of the truth that's humanely possible.

19. Ralph is dead on with Milton Friedman's books. They sound great UNTIL you fact check them, then they fall apart. Very much like creationist stuff.

20. Prevaricate: speak or act in an evasive way.

21. Shareholders demand high returns on their investments. Wall Street has a historical return of about 6% gain on average per year. Workers who actually make the product and the profit are lucky to get a 3% raise per year. Using the 72 rule (72 divided by interest rate equals the number of years to double money. [72/6= 12 years or 72/3= 24 years]). With $50,000 as a base for investor and worker the worker after 48 years will be earning $200,000 and the investor will have received $800,000. Wall Street and their investors steal wages.

22. Market Fundamentalists, i.e., Neoliberal "Corporate Capitalist" a hate F.D.R. New Deal deficit spending for the 99% working class, yet hypocritically these same Market Fundamentalists love and use New Deal deficit spending when it come to giving themselves a $2-trillion tax cut and $800-billion defense budget program. Until New Deal spending is use for the working class again, the way F.D.R. use it in the 30's and 40's, the Market Fundamentalists will continue to kill off and shrink the once great middle class that grew under F.D.R. Ironically, these same 1% Market Fundamentalists kleptocrats who love to use New Deal spending for themselves are also responsible for spreading myths and lies about what "deficits" really are with their: "We're Kicking the Can Down the Road" propaganda campaign. In other words, there is always New Deal deficit spending for the 1% and the war-for-profit industry, but never for the 99% working class. Fears and propaganda about "The Deficit!" is alway the red herring the 1% Donor Class uses to keep the working class from having necessary things like Medicare-for-All universal healthcare, a Green New Deal or a Federal Jobs Guarantee program.

    Professor of economics Stephanie Kelton served as chief economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee and as a senior economic adviser to Bernie Sanders’s 2015 presidential campaign. Professor Kelton dispels the myths and disinformation regarding "National Deficit" and the "National Debt" as taught in the tired and antiquated Freedman economics, which is still preached by the economically and monetarily illiterate by both Republicans and right-wing Noliberals like, Paul Ryan, Nancy (PayGo) Pelosi, Bill O'Reilly, Clinton, Reagan and Sarah Palin, etc. Presidential Lecture Series Stephanie Kelton:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS9nP-BKa3M

23. Measured, accuracy and correct so refreshing to hear thoughtful discourse from a lefty.

24. He really would've been a great President !!

25. Ralph Nader is the best presidential candidate never elected during my seventy years of life. I keep voting for him, but nobody listens.

26. People need to start treating the govt as them as it should be and every dollar that comes out of their collective wealth to fund corporate interests or subsidies to corporations needs to be paid back with interest and this especially includes any money made from a country we have used the military budget to invade or take over. Any money made by big oil or telecommunications that come in after the war need to pay back on the cost of that war. This will either help the taxpayers or end wars all together.

27. Thank you Mr Nader ,the table is tilted. The game is rigged

28. I wonder if it's possible to merge Nader with Noam Chomsky and Mark Blyth into one unified super-being with all the strength and intelligence needed to save the world from ignorance.

29. Truth!

30. Free market fundamentalism is suicidal.

31. The frustrating about it all is the idea of how wonderful the world could have been if we had had the courage to elect Ralph Nader and people like him. "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" is become a dark twisted joke.

32. only 22 minutes? Can we see the rest of the conference somewhere?

33. Howdy from "the larger audience" 🙂

34. Interesting that the "taking apart" of "contracts" doesn't include the
    UCC requirement to assert your "reservation of rights"…..and in failing
    to do this, you are barred from their "later assertion" which means you
    have "no rights", under the "constitution" ( as they would be understood
    in law and equity ) but only those "benefits, privileges and immunities",
    that exist in the "statutory jurisdiction" of the USC and its implementing
    regulations that may or may not exist in the CFR.

    This "statutory jurisdiction" ( not law and equity ) began in 1939, the UCC
    was introduced in 1952, the first "fraudulent" deception concerning "income"
    in Title 26 was initiated in 1956. The last federal reserve notes redeemable in
    "lawful money" were printed in 1955. Legal tender coinage in "lawful money",
    ended in 1964, with the exception of 40% silver half dollars, which ended
    in 1969. ( and while lawful money, legal tender coinage is still minted by
    the US MINT, these coins are not used in common circulation, and their
    legal tender value, is no where near the value of the metal they contain. )

    By 1970, all of the several states had adopted the "critical" sections of the UCC
    and its "reservations of rights" provisions….and shortly there after, the UNITED STATES
    formerly withdrew from the "international" gold standard system.

    All that is required to access the "law and equity" system, which is one of the four
    legal structures authorised by Article III, and which keeps your "rights" intact,
    which includes you right to bring "suit" in common law for all disputes whose
    value is $20, or more, are the words…"all rights reserved" or "without prejudice",
    after your signature. ( the "catch" or "trick" here, is that should you actually be aware
    of this and attempt it, the other "party" to the contract, will "probably" refuse to
    enter into it. I say "probably" here because this "fraud" has been in place for so long,
    that it is difficult to actually know, who is aware of it, and who isn't. )

    As a result of this fraud, informed consent has been replaced by "implied consent",
    and all "law" and "contracts" proceed under this "assumption", the evidence for
    which is established by your "failure" to assert, your reservation of rights, as
    required BY LAW. ( that you are "ignorant" of this is on YOU. )

    Now at this point, since all of this was by design, and given where we are and how
    we came to be here, which does not seem possible given what the "constitution"
    actually says, and the "numerous" times one hears that this or that is "claimed"
    to be "unconstitutional", the fact that your "ignorance" was necessary, should not
    be a mystery. After all, to change the constitution directly, would have required
    multiple amendments, none of which would have passed given the "implied
    consequences" they would have resulted in. ( where WE ARE NOW!!!!!! )

    What is more puzzling however, is given all those people, who are in the
    business of claiming to "expose" the "truth" about where we are and how we got
    here, is WHY they too are "seemingly" ignorant? ( including Nader and all your
    "other" favorites, regardless of your "political" position.)

    "No Virginia…it was not because of Ronald Reagan, for it required thirty years
    to structure this fraud and put all the pieces in place, and from an economic
    perspective, the downturn began as early as 1950, and then accelerated from
    1970 forward, with Reagan being the first president to "begin" to take advantage of it."

    Further relevant details are available in the following links and there are many more
    out there once you start looking. ( proceed with caution…for while the complexity of
    the fraud is somewhat extensive, the solution to it, is not….. )

    UCC 1-207/308 Reservation of Rights

    http://www.supremelaw.org/authors/freeman/freeman4.htm

    http://www.supremelaw.org/authors/freeman/freeman5.htm

    Bankruptcy of 1933

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/165i0dicryJ_KtzCr6agR6O6v4XaRM2EDr6f1WbmU3Fg/edit?hl=enThe

    w-4 Voluntary Withholding Agreements

    https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/31.3402%28p%29-1

35. You don't have to call it corporate capitalism. It's not capitalism at all the closest we can call the current economy and industries is authoritarian socialism. The government protecting and propping up their preferred monopolies while stifling and litigating any and all competition. That is not even related to capitalism.

36. Windbag.

37. The business ideologs go into the schools, the exact same way the 'Officer Friendly' Pigs go into the schools — to sell the various lies and crimes of the exploitative capitalist order.

38. Ralph Nader, a great man!

39. Ralph is a National treasure. US has adopted another false religion. Thanks for this.

40. He's alright ay.

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