Ep 227: "What is Capitalism?" - an encounter between Objectivism and Critical Rationalism.

Live from Sydney, Yaron Brook and Nikos Sotirakopoulos join me on stage to discuss capitalism, liberty, personhood, energy policy, Israel and antisemitism and much more. Rough timestamps are here:

00:00 Brett’s welcome and introduction

02:32 Nikos on “What is Capitalism?”

04:21 Yaron on “What is Capitalism?”

07:33 Brett on the relationship between personhood and capitalism.

10:02 Nikos on why progress is not inevitable.

12:06 Yaron on humans vs other animals

15:14 Yaron on why capitalism is retreating in the West.

19:56 Brett on the self similarity of the mind

25:40: Yaron on Israel and her allies

32:33 Brett on protectionism and nationalism

33:17 Nikos on defending your allies and nihilism.

37:01 Yaron on faith, collectivism and nationalism.

42:13 Brett on “concentrated losses, dispersed gains”.

43:50 Yaron on free trade and tarrifs

49:52: Yaron’s iPhone

54:52 Brett invokes Deutsch’s pattern, anti-capitalism and anti-Americanism.

56:01 Nikos on Marx’s role as an antisemitic anticapitalist and “secondhandedness”.

1:02:21 Brett on environmentalism and anti humanism

1:05:22 Nikos on energy policy

1:07:25 Yaron on saving the planet.

1:11:21 Brett on the death trap that is planet Earth 

1:13:15 Question 1: What is an Objectivist foreign policy?

1:18:21 Question 2: Is democracy necessary for protecting individual human rights?

1:25:31 Question 3: What explains the anti-ANZAC phenomenon in Australia?

1:30:01 Question 4: Should the government protect individual property rights? Remarks on “the minimum wage”.

1:32:53 Question 5: Should we be pessimistic about “woke”, “DEI” and the state of universities?

1:41:33 Question 6: Has China managed to achieve a beneficial separation of their political and economic systems?

1:47:02 Question 7: What is the role of the Fed in the USA? Is it necessary?