In this post, we’ll focus on PragerU’s ‘why you love capitalism’ video and go through it, refuting its central arguments.

Disclaimer: Due to the fact that a lot of millennials view socialism favorably,  I feel compelled to say that I personally don’t support socialism, so that’s not where I’m coming from in this rebuttal!

0:00-0:10

“You love capitalism. Really, you do. And you can’t stand big government. Really, you can’t.”

Hahahahaha

Ok, so right off the bat I have a comment here. It’s not the message itself that I find funny, it’s just the way this guy talks! The expression on his face seems really uncomfortable, like he’s forcing his way into a  semi-grin while holding back tears from the stick up his ass. And the monotone in his voice is going to make the video that much harder to watch. So cringe.

Maybe he’s camera-shy

Next (on to substance)

0:11-0:43

“Don’t believe me? Then I’ll just have to prove it to you. Do you use an iPhone, Android, Macbook, PC, Read on a kindle, Watch TV and movies on Netflix, videos on YouTube, shop on Amazon, listen to Spotify, search on Google, send money on Venmo, grab a ride with Uber, drive with Waze, book a room with Airbnb, are you on Facebook, or Instagram, or Snapchat? You probably use many if not all of these things.”

Is it bad he just described the livelihood of 95% of millennials?

0:49-0:58

“Where do you think they came from? From entrepreneurs with great ideas and the freedom to test them in the marketplace. That is what is known as: capitalism.”

1. Literally all of the services mentioned rely on one crucial element: the internet.

-technically, the internet was invented by a project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1960s…however, the internet in the form we use it today was invented by a CERN employee, Tim Berners-Lee in the early 1990s. And again, CERN is a fully stated-funded organization.

-also, Sir Tim refused to capitalize on his genius breakthrough, he explicitly did it for the sole purpose of creating a “universal space” and wanted it to be free and accessible to all.

-for Jared to suggest that things we all benefit from only come from having a profit motive is intellectually dishonest.

-oh, btw, the guy with the stick up his ass’s name is Jared

2. There is not a magical process where an idea just leaps into the marketplace for free testing.

-entrepreneurs take a massive risk when they work to get their products/services into the marketplace.

-usually, as especially is the case with Google, or Apple, lots of R&D (research and development) has to be done in order to create a viable product or service that can be tested in the marketplace.

-chances are that most entrepreneurs aren’t multi-millionaires so they can’t fund their own R&D. Entrepreneurs normally turn to two things: investors and the government.

-in the two major cases presented by Jared, Google and Apple, heavy government funding aided with their R&D. In reality though, government funding helped almost all of those companies he listed!

-it is important to highlight the crucial role that government has in helping entrepreneurs get to the point where they can test their ideas in the marketplace.

1:02-1:28

“Now consider some other things you probably use. Have you been to the DMV? Gone through airport security? mailed a package at the post office, called the IRS customer service line, called any government office for that matter? What’s different? Why is going to the Apple store so fun, but going to the DMV so painful? because one has nothing to do with government, and one is the government. One needs customers to survive and grow; one doesn’t”

1. Have I been to the DMV? Yes, it sucks. No disagreement there. But don’t you agree that this is a moot argument? Think about it; nobody else has the authority to issue licenses and things of that sort. That is the job of government. So why is Jared stuck on this? Nobody can skip out on getting their license unless they want to risk hefty fines and jail time, so of course DMV’s are always packed – everyone has to go! Whether it is government or a private company – nobody is really equipped to make this ‘painless’, it’s just a reality we have to do deal with. On the bright side, we can expect that as more things are done online, that physically going to the DMV will become obsolete – saving everyone time and pain.
2. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had issues with the post office. I’ve had to go plenty of times, it’s always been quick and easy. According to research, the post office ranks among the “better” companies for customer satisfaction.

-I wonder what he thinks about UPS? I usually ship with UPS. Customer satisfaction so far in 2017 for UPS is 81% positive, compared to FedEx which is 82% positive this year. The industry average for consumer shipping this year is 81% positive. So, UPS is right on the money and FedEx is 1% above average. Historically, UPS and FedEx are neck-in-neck, with UPS performing well above the industry average at times.

3. This is laughable. Jared’s point is that anything government related is bureaucratic and has awful customer service. Private companies have no customer service issues?

-hey, maybe Jared hasn’t gotten the memo, but private companies get customer service messed up all the time. Bad customer service is more often than not associated with private companies.

-have you ever dealt with insurance company customer service line? Especially for health insurance? They are notoriously awful, which by the way, is the result of a fragmented, bureaucratic for-profit healthcare system. But that’s a debate for another time.

-I’m not trying to say that there is no bad customer service in the government. Of course there is. My point is that bad customer service isn’t just a government problem. It goes both ways. But clearly, Jared’s agenda isn’t to be objective, it’s ideologically driven; he just wants to make government look bad.

-In fact, if I am honest, the best customer service line I’ve ever experienced was from MilitaryOneSource, a Dept. of Defense program that helps military and military families with every aspect of military life. You can check them out on their website. I would say call them for yourself and see, but if you are not in the military or a dependent, I think it would be disrespectful to urge you to do it simply to prove a point, because it is specifically a service for those involved in military life. However, if you are in the military or have a family member in the military, I would recommend calling them with an inquiry, and sharing your note of the excellent service.

4. Also, it’s not true that Apple has “nothing to do with government”, but that was addressed already.

1:34-1:40

“But if you thought about it for a few moments, you’d realize you don’t want the government involved in just about anything private business can do.”

1. Wrong! This argument is the fallacy of alleged certainty, and the reason it is so is because Jared assumes he knows the conclusion of your thinking. You would probably agree with him if you don’t question the video, because every second leading up to this point he has done nothing but stack the deck in his favor.
2. On the contrary, with evidence, one might actually argue that more people would want government involvement in things that private businesses would do instead. For example, single-payer healthcare. Citing the successes and benefits in other industrialized nations, one can argue with evidence and solid support that private businesses should not be in control of healthcare.

1:42-1:50

“That’s because profit-motivated individuals have to work to satisfy their customers – you. Government agencies don’t have to please anyone.”

1. This is true in theory, but again, I’ve proven that the profit-motive doesn’t eliminate bad customer service, and especially in the case of healthcare, it actually encourages it!
2. Generally speaking, government agencies are held accountable to the public, it’s not true that they “don’t have to please anyone.” I’ve given examples already but I’ll give more. Veterans Affairs needs to satisfy the needs of Veterans, the NOAA needs to satisfy the needs of the public who are looking for weather information, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission needs to satisfy the needs of public safety, etc.

2:04-2:11

“Just a few years ago, if somebody needed a private driver in a few minutes that would take you where you needed to go was truly a service available only to the wealthiest people…”

1. Uh…my guy, have you never heard of a cab?

2:20-2:28

“Until Uber came around, if it started to rain, say in Manhattan, and you wanted to grab a cab –  good luck.”

1. Ok cool so he knows what a cab is 😛
2. By the way, I completely agree with him, Uber is pretty great

3:09

1. Airbnb is also pretty frickin great

3:24-3:43

“Government never could have done this. What motivation would it have? How would it even know we wanted services like Uber and Airbnb? We didn’t know it, until risk-taking entrepreneurs made it possible, thanks to capitalism, and no thanks to government, which more often than not just gets in the way.”

1. I 110% agree about the importance of entrepreneurs – my main problem is Jared’s magical thinking. How do entrepreneurs become successful? Capitalism! The free market! Well, the free market doesn’t exist, and government also accounts for a significant share of their success.
2. Government can be intrusive and disruptive, but the fact is that government has also been absolutely crucial to the development of capitalism in the U.S. and around the world. We owe much of what we know today to government.
3. And somewhere a conservative’s head just exploded

3:46-3:51

“The government’s knee-jerk reaction is to regulate and control everything it can regulate and control.”

1. Too broad of a generalization. You can certainly point to instances government has been overly regulatory and you can point to instances where government has rolled back regulations when it shouldn’t have (Glass-Steagall) or hasn’t done any regulations where it should have (i.e. carbon fee and dividends).

3:58-4:09

“Governments across the world are putting up barriers to slow down or shut down services like Uber and Airbnb. Rule-making may be the only area where the government shows creativity.”

1. It’s true, a lot of union members are pissed off by the customers that convenient services like Uber and Airbnb are taking away. Needless to say, I agree that government shouldn’t prevent competition here.
2. Also, I’m just curious, how is slowing or shutting down competition creative? In a lot of places, services like Uber are simply banned. That’s not really creative lol

4:10-4:14

“Economic growth has the best chance to occur in the absence of that rule-making.”

1. Depends what the rules are. Some laws unfairly benefit one corporation over another, which may help grow the economy – but stifles competition. Other rules may be pesky, but would help maintain fair competition, which would encourage economic growth as well. Although, what constitutes ‘fair’ is arbitrary and I won’t get into the details right now.
2. Either way, I’m not a fan of implying that economic growth is inherently good just for the sake of it. Economic growth normally doesn’t reflect the state of social problems, or environmental degradation – so if, for example, a law was passed that cut into the profits of the fossil fuel industry but greatly benefited and/or protected our environment, to me it’s self-evident that is a good thing even though it would affect economic growth.

4:17-4:33

“The internet, to use just one important example, was able to develop in a regulatory climate that embraced what he calls ‘permissionless innovation.’ This approach to regulation allows entrepreneurs to meet their customers’ needs, without first seeking government approval.”

1. Here’s one fundamental problem though: it was also developed in the absence of profit, which means that people were able to innovate regardless of financial incentive. Kind of the opposite of what you are advocating.
2. Permissionless innovation? That’s vague. I’m not sure where Jared would draw the line here. Maybe he means that a company trying to make flying cars shouldn’t have to seek government permission and licenses for the development and testing of a new flying car? I really don’t know, but I’m pretty sure that an entrepreneur who wants to create flying cars with rocket launchers attached to them for civilian use should seek government permission first.

4:36-4:42

“Almost everything you enjoy using is a product of capitalism, almost everything you can’t stand is a product of big government”

1. The outro to this video should read: “almost everything you enjoy using is a product of government aiding the development of capitalism through the support of entrepreneurs via state funding. Except for the internet, that shit was just the product of big government. Fuck.”

4:42-4:48

“So do you love capitalism? Of course you do, you practice it everyday.”

1. And I’m sure Jared carries the Wealth of Nations everywhere he goes and is a devout follower of his capitalist faith

In closing, capitalism is good, government is also good, and no matter how hard PragerU tries, they can not and will not separate the historical marriage between the two. I rate this video as misleading, although it’s not total bullshit and it makes good points.

*Drops mic*