Mark Twain is often quoted as having said, “It’s not what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Ironically, there is no evidence Twain ever said or wrote this line, but we can still reflect on its implications for today’s most contentious economic debates. In the case of rising economic inequality, conventional wisdom (coupled with noble motives) has produced policies that hurt the very people they are intended to help: the poor and middle class. Ed Conard – founding partner at Bain Capital and visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute – takes aim at what he sees as a wrong-headed redistributionist mindset in his latest best-selling book, The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class (Penguin). Conard goes beyond an apology for "the 1%" in explaining the real drivers of persistent poverty and relative stagnation of the American middle class. Though counter-intuitive, his insights are essential to improving policy, and the uncertain economic outlook. Conard joins to the show to help listeners understand the economic landscape like never before.
The Bob Zadek Show
Bob talks about the issues that affect our lives on a daily basis from a purely libertarian standpoint. He believes in small government, fewer taxes, and greater personal freedom.<br /><br />America has lost its way, but it cannot and does not need to be reinvented. Our founders were correct about their approach to government, as were John Locke, Adam Smith and the other great political philosophers who influenced them. The country’s first principles are economic and social freedom, republicanism, the rule of law, and liberty. Bob believes we must take the best of our founding principles and work from them because a country without principles is just a landmass.
Bob talks about the issues that affect our lives on a daily basis from a purely libertarian standpoint. He believes in small government, fewer taxes, and greater personal freedom.<br /><br />America has lost its way, but it cannot and does not need to be reinvented. Our founders were correct about their approach to government, as were John Locke, Adam Smith and the other great political philosophers who influenced them. The country’s first principles are economic and social freedom, republicanism, the rule of law, and liberty. Bob believes we must take the best of our founding principles and work from them because a country without principles is just a landmass.Listen on
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