Dead Wrong™ with Johan Norberg - Stagnant Middle Class (VIDEO)

The middle class is being squeezed. US wages have not increased since the 1970s. If we had just slowed down the pace of technological change, and exposed our companies to less global competition, we would all have benefited. Dead Wrong! In this short video clip, Free To Choose Media Executive Editor and Cato Institute Senior Fellow Johan Norberg explains.

To watch more Dead Wrong™ videos, click here.

TV Worth Watching: The Real Adam Smith

We just released our latest Free To Choose Media broadcast 

It’s difficult to imagine that a man who lived with horse-drawn carriages and sailing ships would foresee our massive 21st century global market exchange, much less the relationship between markets and morality. But Adam Smith was no ordinary 18th century figure. Considered the “father of modern economics,” Smith was first and foremost a moral philosopher. The revolutionary ideas he penned in The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments, changed the world.

Swedish author, commentator and Cato Senior Fellow Johan Norberg explores Adam Smith's life, his ideas about morality and economics, and how the concepts he discussed in his books and lectures are still relevant today.

Morality & Markets:
Part One, Morality & Markets, explores Smith’s life and role in the Scottish Enlightenment, his thoughts on empathy and how we distinguish right from wrong. French wine, Scottish whiskey, and freshly-baked scones all illustrate Smith’s economic principles. True wealth is defined. We discover Smith’s thoughts on the government’s role in markets, his distaste for monopolies/crony capitalism in the form of the East India Company, and his thoughts on the American colonies.

Ideas That Changed the World:
Part Two, Ideas That Changed the World, explores contemporary life and Smith’s influences on the very things we see going on today. Why is Smith widely studied now in China? Ethical businesses, like Whole Foods, showcase the morality Smith insisted was critical to thriving markets. Uber, eBay and even a tiny guitar store demonstrate that markets can thrive through the organization and “self-policing” of the participants themselves.

Where To Watch:
You can stream both parts directly from our Free To Choose.TV website.

You can stream both parts directly from our YouTube channel.

You can stream both parts directly from our Vimeo channel.

You can Sign Up for broadcast airing notifications for public television.

Want to learn more about this program, Adam Smith, his books and ideas? Click here to discover who The Real Adam Smith is under our explore website.

You can also purchase the DVD set on SALE here. Broadcast Special Price: $15.95!!

Dead Wrong with Johan Norberg - Socialist Sweden (Video)

Many people claim the U.S. should be more like Sweden and give more benefits. Should we? In this short video clip, Free To Choose Media Executive Editor and Cato Institute Senior Fellow Johan Norberg explains how Sweden became successful first, and how expanded government actually pulled them down.

To see more Dead Wrong videos with Johan, click here.

In memoriam to Tibor R. Machan -- a man of great ideas, integrity & purpose.

Free To Choose Media extends its condolences to the family of Tibor R. Machan. We produced a one-hour documentary about Karl Marx, which Tibor hosted 29 years ago. We are posting a link to the program and invite all to enjoy it and reflect on Tibor’s work.

Watch the program here: http://freetochoose.tv/icvideos.php

Dead Wrong with Johan Norberg - Sweatshops (Video)

The clothes we wear condemn millions to a life of working in a sweatshop in countries like Cambodia and Bangladesh. It’s embarrassing that we walk around in fancy clothes made by poor people who work long hours for little money. We should all be ashamed, shouldn’t we?

Tomorrow India Kicks Off its Make In India Week...

Tomorrow India kicks off its Make In India Week (February 13th - 18th). India's economy is growing at a rapid pace! We recognize India's resurgence, and our film India Awakes shows how Indians are moving ahead. If you haven't seen the film yet, be sure to check it out here.

#MakeInIndia 

From the Founder: Seeing is Believing from Bob Chitester

Seeing is believing. 

Scenes of polar bears on melting ice floes. Beggars on the street--a church’s soup kitchen closed because of government regulations. An interior designer is put out of business for lack of a state-issued license. She has few options left to her. 

For most people these slice-of-life vignettes are more persuasive than mounds of data. Image and story are more likely to change beliefs and prompt individuals to act. 

And when you get down to it, it’s the individual who acts: Why do we think as we do? Why do we do what we do? 

Notice I did not ask about our education, our genetic makeup, our social environment, our ethnic or religious affiliations, our psychological makeup, or our philosophical starting points. Doing so may advance scholarship, but asking these questions will not directly engage the millions of citizens whose votes shape our collective destiny, for better or worse. 

That is not to say only a few of us are smart enough to understand why limiting government is desirable. It’s just too few citizens think it’s worth the effort. 

Give people the freedom--to make their own decisions, to decide what makes them happy and to take action toward that goal and they don’t much care whether Caesar Augustus or Cicero and the Senate rule the land. But whoever rules, there will be only a smidgen of difference in outcome unless a majority of citizens keep the autocrat or the legislature in check by somehow limiting the size and scope of government as necessary for human freedom to prevail. 

Why we do what we do - is to improve our well-being and achieve the satisfaction of taking care of ourselves. We want to be happy. Charles Murray and Arthur Brooks have been prominent among those testing the thesis of what Arthur describes as "earned success." Both are contributing to one our upcoming video projects, Work and Happiness: The Human Cost of Welfare, which parallels a soon-to-be released book by Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers. A public TV program and teaching units will be available in the Spring of 2016.

Our instincts and observations of others lead to the conclusion people would rather work for a living, but if things go bad, the majority expect Augustus or Cicero and the Senate to bail them out. And once bailed out, they want the government to get out of the way so they can give it another try own their own. And we should all accept the sincerity of that notion.

Cicero and the Senate and Augustus were practitioners of public choice theory, give the folks what they want and we can continue to enjoy the trappings of power. But failure to support Senators who resisted the centralization of power led to Augustus' empire and centuries of worsening imperial repression of personal and economic freedom.

Sound familiar? The burden is on those of us who do think it is worth the effort, to understand the acceptable limits of government and to communicate the winning ideas of freedom in the manner the average person can easily grasp and remember when making a decision regarding the extend of Caesar's role in their lives.