AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

George Gilder talks about what creates wealth in this short video below from Prager University. He talks about knowledge and innovation leading to economic growth. But the most important point he makes in this video is that freedom is the foundation on which knowledge and innovation is expanded and used productively to create economic growth. Here are some excerpts from the video.

“If freedom promotes knowledge and innovation, which leads to economic growth; why don’t all people and Governments embrace it? Innovation is a surprise, it’s unpredictable. This unpredictability makes many people uncomfortable. Their goal is to eliminate surprise. One finds this in all utopian vision, from communism, to socialism, ….in Europe with its failing welfare states and more and more in the US. We see their desire to eliminate surprise in the ever-expanding role played by Government, bigger bureaucracies, more rules, and more regulations. Every new crisis, real or imagined, brings ever more laws….Ironically the ones that benefit from all these regulations are big corporations and their teams of lawyers, lobbyists, and accountants. They’re the only ones who have the resources to untangle the mess and survive it. This drift away from freedom can be reversed, and quickly within a matte of a few years….Because it’s an economy of mind, the future can change as fast as minds can change. The opportunity for dynamic growth exists not only in the US, but all over the world if we’re only courageous enough and free enough to seize it.”

WHAT CREATES WEALTH?

Here are some related quotes by George Gilder from his books  Wealth and Poverty and Knowledge and Power.

“Socialist and totalitarian Governments are doomed to support the past, because creativity is unpredictable, it is also uncontrollable. If the politicians want to have central planning and command, they cannot have dynamism and life. A managed economy is almost by definition a barren one. “

“Knowledge is about the past; Entrepreneurship is about the future regulations are rules based on past experience. Regulators are political appointees responsive to their bosses and to the rules. Only entrepreneurial owners taken their cues from the subtle signals on the crests of creation.”

“Under capitalism, economic power flows not to the intellectual, who manipulates ideas and basks in their light, but to men who gives himself to his ideas and tests them with his own wealth and work.”

“The real issue is between the rule of law and the rule of leveler egalitarianism, between creative excellence and covetous “fairness”, between admiration of achievement versus envy and resentment of it.”

“The leading enemy and obstacle for accomplishment throughout the ages is the philosophy of victimization and socialist redistribution.”

In my opinion Wealth and Poverty is a must read, not only because it will expand your mind, but also because his writing style will be pleasing to your ear buds.

Related Article – Unleash The Mind, by George Gilder, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Capitalism vs. Crony Capitalism, at austrianaddict.com.