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Puppy Elephant Defends Capitalism

2009-10-12 · John · watch on YouTube · Economics · explainer learning

With Willy in an elephant costume, John defends the free market: capitalism runs on debt, freely flowing loan capital creates wealth, and microfinance through Kiva shows it working, with loans repaid 99% of the time.

What is said

00:00:00 — House under renovation, basement flooded; cranky John puts Willy in his tiny elephant costume

  • ★★ John says his house is a construction zone during an expensive renovation, with most of the electricity off and no place to sleep. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says his basement flooded on Friday, so he must take out all the carpet; fixing it will cost a fortune ('a billion dollars') and he is cranky. (playful) — 00:00:10
  • ★★ John says that when he gets cranky, he puts Willy in his tiny elephant costume. (playful) — 00:00:16 · Willy, puppy sized elephant

00:00:21 — Two quick things: free readings in La Grange, Illinois (this Tuesday) and at the library in Columbus, Ohio (next Tuesday)

  • ★★★ John will read, sign and hang out with Nerdfighters this Tuesday at a bookstore in La Grange, Illinois, and next Tuesday at the library in Columbus, Ohio; both events are free. — 00:00:22 · Nerdfighteria

00:00:40 — Defending capitalism: the free market blamed for the Great Recession; the puppy-sized elephant costume business; competing bids for the basement

  • ★★ John says capitalism has had a bad time recently: failure to regulate the free market is blamed for the Great Recession, the American healthcare system and more. — 00:00:40
  • ★★★ John says he thinks the free market is in many ways a great thing. (hedged) — 00:00:50
  • ★ John jokes that critics who call him a left-wing communist will, for one day, call him a right-wing fascist instead. (playful) — 00:00:54
  • ★★ John sketches a business: a dollar of fabric makes a puppy-sized elephant costume sold for $5, reinvested into more costumes until you are rich. (hypothetical) — 00:01:06 · puppy sized elephant
  • ★★ John says the free market lets him get competing bids from multiple contractors, making his basement repair as cheap and efficient as possible. (playful) — 00:01:27

00:01:39 — Capitalism runs on debt: borrowing to scale up, repaying with interest; free-flowing loan capital creates wealth; freer markets get richer

  • ★★★ John says capitalism isn't that simple: it runs on debt, since scaling a business needs borrowed money repaid with interest, which a good idea (costumes, penicillin) can repay at a profit. — 00:01:39
  • ★★★ John says that when loan capital flows freely, wealth gets created. — 00:02:10
  • ★★ John grants that an unregulated free market can also lead to decreased economic activity, illustrated with a joke about costumed puppies keeping people home. — 00:02:14
  • ★★★ John says that, on average, people in countries with freer markets get richer over time because those markets create wealth. — 00:02:27

00:02:34 — Microfinance through Kiva: loans to poor entrepreneurs repaid 99% of the time; money buys longer, healthier lives; go to Kiva.org; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says this is why microfinance works: through Kiva, people like him lend to developing-world entrepreneurs, who start small businesses and repay from the revenue. — 00:02:34 · microfinance, Kiva
  • ★★ John says the entrepreneurs he lends to in the developing world live on less than a dollar a day. — 00:02:38 · extreme poverty, microfinance
  • ★★★ John says lending to poor entrepreneurs almost never costs the lender anything: loans are repaid 99% of the time, so the same $25 can be lent over and over. — 00:02:48 · microfinance, Kiva
  • ★★ John says money can't buy love but can buy longer, healthier, more secure lives, and it is amazing to watch tiny loans bring people out of poverty at no cost to him. — 00:03:00 · microfinance, extreme poverty
  • ★★★ John tells Nerdfighters who want to see a 'made of awesome' free market in action to go to Kiva.org. — 00:03:15 · Kiva, Nerdfighteria, made of awesome

Humor (significant)

  • John lists his woes: house a construction zone, basement flooded, repairs costing 'a billion dollars'; when cranky, he... — 00:00:16 > «I put Willy in his tiny elephant costume.»
  • Critics will call John a right-wing fascist for defending capitalism; he asks Hank about a band from their childhood. — 00:01:01 > «do you remember that band the Left Wing Fascists that we liked when we were kids?»
  • An unregulated market can reduce activity, e.g. people too transfixed by costumed puppies to go to work. — 00:02:14 > «which is basically why heroin is illegal, but that's another story.»
  • Money can't buy love but it can buy longer, healthier, more secure lives... — 00:03:00 > «and ill-fitting puppy costumes.»

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