Entrepreneurship, the Market Economy, and Human Betterment

Richard Ebeling emails:

Dear Bob,

The free market-oriented Nassau Institute in the Bahamas has posted on their website the video of my talk on, “Entrepreneurship, the Market Economy, and Human Betterment,” which I delivered at the College of the Bahamas on October 20, 2016.

I explained and emphasized the ethical and economic importance of entrepreneurship, and the social institutions essential for a functioning and flourishing free market economy, for the material and cultural improvement of mankind.

Competitive markets guided by market-oriented entrepreneurs not only “deliver the goods” also but generate a associative environment of politeness, courtesy, reliability, honesty and respect for those with whom we voluntarily interact, making for a more tolerate and civilized society.

At the same time, the market economies existing around the world, today, are unfortunately sometimes far removed from the free, competitive, voluntary, and peaceful conception of human association. The world we live in, unfortunately, is more “crony capitalism” than free market capitalism.

But this also enables us to understand that many of the worst or most frustrating aspects of modern society are not due to a “failure of capitalism” or profit-oriented entrepreneurship but are the necessary and inescapable results of the politicizing of economic affairs through the interventionist-welfare state.

Our task is to understand the difference between free market capitalism and crony capitalism, and inform our fellow citizens about the virtues and vitality of a market society set free in place of the interventionist and politically managed and manipulated economy under which we presently live.

My talk runs for about 40 minutes with Q & A for another 30 minutes.

Best,
Richard