Comments by "Harry Mills" (@harrymills2770) on "Capitalism Myths: Part 2" video.

  1. I've only read one book by Ayn Rand. It's more of a monograph, entitled "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal." It's the best and best-documented quick take on the history of capitalism and how it's been distorted over the years by an ever-encroaching government.
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  2. A company would rather do things right than be sued and pay many times over for getting things wrong.
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  3. This is a bit disingenuous. Rockefellers and Vanderbilts weren't above unfair trade practices, using their size to sell locally at a loss to wipe out local competition in any region they pleased, more or less systematically, then jack up prices, later, when they had the market cornered. That doesn't mean it was the government's job to fix. I think the CULTURE fixes those things better and with fewer side-effects. Word gets out that you're a cheat, and people will go out of their way not to do business with you. The biggest side-effect is the way the regulatory agency ends up giving future unfair practices a government seal of approval and a government shield. They were also robber barons in the sense that they were in no great hurry to share their largesse with their workers. I agree that people of today don't appreciate that for most of the workers, the alternatives in the countryside were all worse. Nevertheless, I agree with the claim that OSHA isn't what "reformed" the workplace. Things were already trending that way under unregulated capitalism. As Henry Ford realized, if his workers couldn't afford to buy his cars, there was only so much profit to be made catering to the rich. He needed a middle class to keep his markets expanding. That meant paying his workers better. Also, by improving safety conditions, "robber barons" found it easier to hire and retain better workers, and get some loyalty in return. EPA isn't what's making things cleaner. USDA and FDA aren't maximizing the food value or the safety of medicines for consumers. Transparency and tough competition is what make and keep companies moral. Government agencies give companies a blueprint for how to cheat without getting on the wrong side of the law or the regulators. As long as you check all THEIR boxes, everything's supposedly good, even though we KNOW that most of the food we eat is grown by "chemical farming" and GMO. Nutritional value is shrinking and toxins in the food are increasing (They call it "pest resistance" but they're basically getting the crops to create pesticides, abortifacts, sterilization vectors and pest repellants into the crops, themselves. "Totally organic. Didn't spray ANY pesticide. We've engineered it to secrete Roundup from its leaves! Isn't that wonderful?"
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