The Wealth of Nations Defending the Consumer Point of View

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A thing of the wealth of nations defending the consumer point of view as opposed to the producers point of view. In other words, if we're going to have government policy, favoring producers at the expense of consumers is not the way to increase the wealth of a nation. It's to make it e better for consumers. Whatever ins competition between corporations and therefore breaking up trusts are measures toward increa in the wealth of the nation by whatever measure they used at the time.

In episode 162 of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael speaks with one of the nation’s preeminent experts on economic policy, Benjamin Friedman, about his new book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism — a major reassessment of the foundations of modern economic thinking that explores the profound influence of an until-now unrecognized force — religion.

Critics of contemporary economics complain that belief in free markets — among economists as well as many ordinary citizens — is a form of religion. And, it turns out, that in a deeper, more historically grounded sense there is something to that idea. Contrary to the conventional historical view of economics as an entirely secular product of the Enlightenment, Benjamin Friedman demonstrates that religion exerted a powerful influence from the outset.