Anthony Escarra

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

I watch this clip at least once a year.

[WealthLens @WealthLens_]

In 1979, a talk show host looked at one of the most influential economists alive and told him, on live television, that capitalism ran on greed.

Milton Friedman had won the Nobel Prize in Economics three years earlier, in 1976, for his work on monetary theory and consumption analysis.

Phil Donahue, host of the highest-rated daytime talk show in America, asked him directly whether the concentration of power and profit under capitalism had ever given him a moment of doubt.

Friedman didn't pause before answering. "Well, first of all, tell me, is there some society you know that doesn't run on greed? You think Russia doesn't run on greed? You think China doesn't run on greed?"

He kept going, arguing that only capitalist societies built on voluntary exchange had ever lifted large numbers of people out of poverty, while every attempt to replace self-interest with central planning had made things worse.

Donahue tried one more angle, asking who would organize a fairer society if not government. Friedman's answer to that question is still being clipped and argued over online more than four decades later.

Their exchange lasted less than two minutes inside a much longer interview about the Great Depression, auto bailouts, and price controls, and it's become one of the most replayed moments in the history of televised economics.

Was Friedman right that every system runs on self-interest whether we admit it or not, or did he dodge the real question about inequality? Say which side you land on in the comments, then watch the full exchange below.

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

Generally applicable to any endeavor

[Josh Chambers @JoshChambers]

Tom Brady says his career turned around when a sports psychologist told him to stop complaining about what he wasn’t getting and start stewarding what he had the right way

“Greg said to me, ‘Why don’t you quit bitching about all the things you’re not getting, and how about you do the best with whatever opportunities you get?’, ‘Stop worrying about what the other quarterback’s getting. Stop worrying about what the coach is saying to you.’”

“‘Every time you get in there, you bring the juice. You bring the energy. You bring the enthusiasm. You treat practice like a game.’ Because if you just decide to go out there and you’re blaming everybody else, where does that get you? So I started to change my attitude.”

“I didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself. And when you don’t have a lot of confidence in yourself, you blame other people. When you gain confidence in yourself, you start pointing the finger at yourself.”

“I would encourage every athlete to look in the mirror after every day of practice or a game and say, ‘What can I do better to help the team? What can I do better?’”

“Not, ‘What does the coach need to do better?’ Not, ‘What do my teammates need to do better?’, ‘What do I need to do better?’ If every player does that, you’re going to have an incredible team.”

“You can’t have a false confidence. You don’t only gain your confidence because of your physical ability. You gain your confidence because you’re prepared, because you’re competitive. I couldn’t just show up and be better than everybody.”

“I had to show up prepared. I had to show up with energy. I had to show up with my body feeling right. I had to show up like I was on a mission.”

[Commentary - Sowell Economics @sowelleconomics]

Michael Kinsley argues for some government redistribution because capitalism creates inequality and not all of it is earned.

Thomas Sowell’s reply is sharper:

When governments design programs to equalize outcomes, they rarely produce equality. They produce something else.

After studying these programs for two decades, Sowell found the same pattern repeatedly: the benefits go mainly to the more affluent members of the disadvantaged group, while the poorest within that group fall further behind.

This wasn’t just an American failure. The same dynamic appeared in India and Malaysia.

The intention is equality. The result is a different kind of inequality.

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

@BretWeinstein https://t.co/z1ESVyFTWn

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

Watch my buddies new podcast.

How AI Is Changing Law Firms—and Why International Clients Are Different - SE3 Podcast

https://t.co/UpSUp8Sn0Z

[Milton Friedman Quotes @MiltonFriedmanW]

“You must distinguish sharply between being pro-free enterprise, which I am, and being pro-business, which I am not. Those are two different things.”

— Milton Friedman

[Raquel Regalado @RaquelRegalado]

Check out the latest article in my newsletter: From Caracas to the Causeway: Common Ground Without Borders https://t.co/MuV1try1OU via @LinkedIn

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

@hicasamadim 9

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

The standard applied by DOGE was very simple and easy:

Provide contact information for the recipients of aid, so that we can confirm it is not fraudulent.

The reality is that money was being sent to corrupt politicians under the guise of aid! Liars and stock insider traders like Ro the Robber should be in prison!!

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

Things to think about

[Yuri Bezmenov's Ghost @Ne_pas_couvrir]

Here’s Ben Stein in 1979 describing television as an engine of cultural demoralization. He argues that a small clique of producers and writers pushed a left-coded inversion of reality onto the public. They despised traditional power centers and hated figures like Buckley. They propagandized the nation into accepting a fake world where businessmen are villains, criminals are the good-guys, small towns are sinister, military officers are proto-fascists, and work barely exists.

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

@Attach @earthcurated Yes that’s what @Starlink is for 😉

[✳️Ⓐ Armed Joy 🔫💣 @ArmedJ0y]

Another trend in gun spaces is the response, “Sure, we beat them this time. But they never stop. We will just have to do this all over again until they eventually win.”

Yeah. We are fighting the forces of entropy here, folks. Get it out of your head that there will ever be a final moment where we simply “win.”

The tendency toward control and totalitarianism is constant. It ebbs and flows, but it never disappears.

You will be fighting this for the rest of your life. So stop whining about it and get to work.

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

Everyone talking or thinking about the Pretti incident should listen to what this Minnesota State Rep has to say about it

[Ian Miles @ianmiles]

Minnesota State Representative Walter Hudson has the perfect analysis of the recent shooting of Alex Pretti in Minnesota

Watch every second of this

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

@JohnManNotSuper @scrowder You’re all replying to a BOT this isn’t a human typing at a keyboard it’s rage farming

Pay attention people

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

Orwell would be impressed

[Gad Saad @GadSaad]

It truly is beyond Orwellian.

[Saganism @Saganismm]

"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

— Plato

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

@BretWeinstein Our stories matter more than people appreciate

[Anthony Escarra @AMEscarra]

@ElonMuskZAB R