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Thursday, January 11, 2007
Today we're going to have a wide-ranging discussion of that totally misleading economic term so beloved by the right, the "free market." By the time we're finished, you'll never hear the phrase "free market" the same way again.
One of the more exasperating things when speaking to a right-winger, is that virtually no matter what subject you're talking about, if you're making good points and the right-winger has nothing to say, they'll resort to their old standby, all-purpose answer to anything: the free market. They'll accuse you of subverting the free market.
The free market this, and the free market that. The free market will cure this problem, the free market will cure that problem.
What brilliant marketing. Who could be against a free market? What, do you want an unfree market, an enslaved market?
We're going to look at this rebranding of right-wing economics from a variety of different angles. Some are hifalutin' theory, others down and dirty, in-the-trenches experiential. I hope everyone will hear something in this podcast to grab onto and use it to speak truth to power the next time a right-winger is standing in front of you, pulling their "free market" schtick.
The bottom line of this entire podcast is:
First, there never was a free market, and there isn't one now.
Second, even if there were, the results such a free market -- or any market -- produces, are not something we’re compelled to accept as holy writ.
We'll show how our "free market" in this country is, in reality, a complex, government created, pro-corporate market structure.
We'll review some of the unacceptable results that occur when this pro-corporate structure is allowed to function without progressive interventions.
And finally, we'll delve a bit into the moral and philosophical edifice that the right has erected to justify their free market sham.
(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first, and don't respond just on the basis of the brief written summary above)
For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.
You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.
Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.
iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/
In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright
That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.
Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html
Enjoy!!
Jack Clark 9:59 PM [+]
Post #116858177021212079
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