The Fundamentalism of Capitalism

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Many of the libertarian think tanks are still pitching high act, as if these arguments had not been tested and shown to be false. And so I don't judge ideas simply on whether they're scientific or not. But if you have an idea that's been shown to befalse, then if you're being rational, maybe we need to rethink that. If you look at any of the measures of happiness around the globe, the United States is not doing very well. We're actually doing quite poorly and we're one of the most unhappy countries of any wealthy nation. That tells us that we are doing something wrong. And therefore, we would do well to try to think about what it is that

Shermer and Oreskes discuss: the myth of market magic • market fundamentalism • market absolutism • market essentialism • capitalism and democracy • well-regulated vs. poorly regulated capitalism • U.S. Constitution and capitalism • what the founding fathers believed about markets • what Adam Smith really said about markets and capitalism and how economists rewrote Adam Smith • why markets need regulation in the same way sports need rules and referees • rhetorical fallacies of market fundamentalists • child labor laws • bank failures • Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 • Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman • religion and capitalism • think tanks • collective action problems.

Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and many other outlets. Her TED talk, “Why We Should Trust Scientists,” was viewed more than a million times. Erik M. Conway is a historian of science and technology and works for the California Institute of Technology. He is the author of seven books and dozens of articles and essays. Their new book is The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market.