Reisman: Disk 10: Wealth, Natural Resources, and the Environment and The Political Concept of Monopoly – 1991

George Reisman’s Program of Self-Education in the Economic Theory and Political Philosophy of Capitalism

Disk 10: Wealth, Natural Resources, and the Environment and The Political Concept of Monopoly – 1991

Description of Lectures below

Supplemental Material

• The Toxicity of Environmentalism [pdf]
• Wealth … Monopoly (1991) Supplement [pdf]
• Program Guide: George Reisman’s Program of Self-Education in the Economic Theory and Political Philosophy of Capitalism, Second Edition, Enlarged (including Introduction, Syllabus, and Syllabus Supplements) [pdf]
• Other Lecture Supplements

Youtube Channels

• Overall Program
• Disk 10. Wealth, Natural Resources, and the Environment and The Political Concept of Monopoly – 1991

Lectures

• DISK 10 – 1991 Series, Lecture 1 complete [mp3; youtube]
• DISK 10 – 1991 Series, Lecture 2 complete [mp3; youtube]
• DISK 10 – 1991 Series, Lecture 3 Complete [mp3; youtube]
• DISK 10 – 1991 Series, Lecture 4 complete [mp3; youtube]
• DISK 10 – 1991 Series, Lecture 5 complete [mp3; youtube]
• DISK 10 – 1991 Series, Lecture 6 complete [mp3; youtube]

Description of Lectures

From Capitalism.net:

REISMAN’S 1991 TJS SUMMER CONFERENCE SERIES
Wealth, Natural Resources, and the Environment (four lectures)
and The Political Concept of Monopoly (two lectures) 

This series of six lectures was delivered at the Jefferson School’s 1991 summer conference at the University of California, San Diego. The first four lectures are an excellent accompaniment to Chapters 2 and 3 of CAPITALISM, while the last two perform the same function for the first three sections of Chapter 10. The lectures, each of which is 90 minutes long, including question and answer period, are accompanied by Dr. Reisman’s pamphlet The Toxicity of Environmentalism and his article “The Growing Abundance of Natural Resources,” which were distributed to participants at the time and are included now at no extra charge.

1. Wealth and Its Role in Human Life. Wealth and goods. Economics and wealth. The limitless need and desire for wealth, or human reason and the scope and perfectibility of need satisfactions. Progress and happiness. The objectivity of economic progress: a critique of the doctrines of cultural relativism and conspicuous consumption. The objective value of a division-of-labor, capitalist society.

2. Wealth and Natural Resources. The law of diminishing marginal utility and the limitless need for wealth. “Scarcity” and the transformation of its nature under capitalism. The ineradicable scarcity of human labor. The limitless potential of natural resources. The energy crisis. The limitless potential of natural resources and the law of diminishing returns. Diminishing returns and the need for economic progress. Conservationism: a critique.

3. The Ecological Assault on Economic Progress. The hostility to economic progress. The claims of the environmental movement and its pathology of fear and hatred. The actual nature of industrial civilization. The environmental movement’s hatred of it. The toxicity of environmentalism. The collectivist bias of environmentalism. Environmentalism and the externalities doctrine. The economic and philosophic significance of environmentalism. Environmentalism, the intellectuals, and socialism.

4. Environmentalism and Irrationalism. Environmentalism, the intellectuals, and socialism continued. Irrational skepticism. The destructive role of contemporary education. The cultural devaluation of man. Objectivism as the intellectual antidote to environmentalism.

5. The Political Concept of Monopoly. The prevailing, economic concept of monopoly. The contrasting, political concept of monopoly, which is consistent with individual rights. The Objectivist framework. The meaning of freedom. Freedom and government. Freedom as the foundation of security. The indivisibility of economic and political freedom. The rational versus the anarchic concept of freedom. Monopoly versus freedom of competition. The meaning of freedom of competition. High capital requirements as an indicator of low prices and the intensity of competition. The political concept of monopoly and its application. Monopoly based on exclusive government franchises.

6. The Political Concept of Monopoly and Its Application Continued. Licensing law monopoly. Tariff monopoly. The monopolistic protection of the inefficient many against the competition of the more efficient few or even just one. Monopoly based on minimum wage and prounion legislation: the exclusion of the less able and the disadvantaged. Government owned and government subsidized enterprises as monopoly. The antitrust laws as promonopoly legislation. Socialism as the ultimate form of monopoly. Further implications of the political concept of monopoly. Monopoly prices and high costs rather than high profits. Why patents and copyrights, and trademarks and brand names, are not monopolies.