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A friend of mine who is a socialist and I had not spoken with a ton in person since I have become an advocate of free markets and liberty and I have been talking. Conversations are best as a give and take and it is best to be able to examine people's ideas and be able to understand their vision and their values in trying to convince them why an alternate may be superior.

This friend was extolling how good Robert Reich's "Saving Capitalism" film on Netflix. Not sure if this is the same, I watched/listened a few different versions of the similarly titled speech at various places.

Essentially Reich seemed to assert there are three myths in our metanarratives that explain our world. At about 10: 12 the first myth Reich seemed to discuss was that it is not a major issue whether government can exist with markets. The second issue Reich seemed to assert was people are paid what they are worth. The third myth was never as clearly stated it seemed, I'm sure it's clear in the book is about redistribution and inequality.

Though I could not clearly tell the myths subject to my time available, I found most of his presentation to be about these theories. I was not convinced, I think whether there is state coercion with markets to be a central issue and the role of government in regulating conduct if there are markets. I do not agree this "myth" can just be summarily dismissed. As for the second myth, I find Publius Syrus' idea of all value is subjective, people are worth what their labor and capital is deployed as as measured by other people.

As for inequality I think Robert Nozick's discussion of Rawl's difference principle that as long as the lowest lot is improved it is morally permissible to have inequality. I disagree inequality is inehrently bad. What if there is a society where the lowest lot lives as princes even if the rulers live as Gods, I am not convinced that system would be inherently immoral.

Overall I think Reich's "Work of Nations" to be interesting but not as big a fan of hist contemporary ideas. I remember a few months ago I watched a video about how he claimed there was some arbitrary construct of ideas in Merica and he didn't even mention the Green Party and misrepresented the real nature of Libertarians, Republicans and Democrats at that time. I questioned his framing and conclusions.

Hopefully someday we will be free and be able to come to some consensus of the world we want to live in.

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