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2017 December Solstice Meditation – December 21st at 4 28 PM GMT - Duration: 4:13.
2017 December Solstice Meditation � December 21st at 4 28 PM GMT
by Edward Morgan
2017 December Solstice Meditation � December 21st at 4:28 PM GMT � This is a CRITICAL
Window of Opportunity!
From Cobra�s �Situation Update� on December 7th:
�There is a full scale battle for planet Earth ongoing on the plasma plane in sublunar
space right now.
The light forces are focused on removing the wormlike plasmoid entity that has entered
our Solar system from Orion in 1996 and is now wound up around planet Earth: A multidimensional
portal to the Galactic Center will open from December 17th to December 25th with the turning
point on December 21st , that will drastically change the conditions of the plasma plane
in most of the sublunar space.
On the physical plane, the Light forces are purging all negative Secret Space Program
factions in sublunar space.
All members of those programs are given an option to unconditionally surrender and accept
the Galactic Codex or be cleared out.�
December Solstice Meditation Instructions:
1.
Relax your body, emotions, and mind by focusing on your breath or in any other way that works
for you.
2.
State your intent to use this meditation as a tool to bring peace, justice, freedom, and
abundance to Planet Earth and her inhabitants.
3.
Visualize a pillar of Light emanating from the Galactic Central Sun, then going through
all beings of Light inside our Solar System, through the Sun and the Moon and then through
your Soul Star Chakra and through your body to the center of the Earth.
4.
Now visualize another pillar of Light rising from the center of Gaia up through your body
and upwards into the sky towards all beings of Light in our solar system and our galaxy.
5.
You are now standing in two pillars of light.
The light flowing both upwards and downwards simultaneously.
Keep these pillars of light active for a few minutes.
6.
Visualize a vortex of brilliant white Light descending from the I AM presence into the
soul star chakra of every lightworker on Earth.
Visualize the higher selves of the 144,000 activating as they awaken to their respective
missions.
7.
Visualize a vortex of brilliant white Light descending from the I AM presence into the
soul star chakra of every human being on Earth and into their energy fields and personalities,
awakening them to the reality of Light, giving them the power to finally set themselves free
from darkness.
8.
See this collective beam of light expanding itself into the Earth�s Light Grid, and
connecting to the heart of Gaia.
9.
See every living being on Earth connecting to their soul families and spiritual guides
as this collective beam of light spreads out along the energy grid of the Earth.
10.
See this Light continue to expand throughout the Earth and throughout the entire solar
system, connecting to the soul star chakras of the Agarthans, the Ashtar Command, the
Pleiadians, the Sirians, the Andromedans, the Arcturians, the Lyrans, the Galactic Confederation,
and all beings of light who are guiding and supporting humanity through Earth�s Ascension.
11.
See the Goddess energy spiraling down through all these layers of expanding Light, bringing
peace, harmony, and liberation to Planet Earth.
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At This Point in the Broadcast: Shoe-Free Households - Duration: 2:31.
For more infomation >> At This Point in the Broadcast: Shoe-Free Households - Duration: 2:31. -------------------------------------------
Fergie: "A Little Work" - Duration: 4:07.
For more infomation >> Fergie: "A Little Work" - Duration: 4:07. -------------------------------------------
Games2rule G2R - Little Santa Girl Escape Walkthrough 2017 - Duration: 10:04.
Games2rule G2R - Little Santa Girl Escape
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Elite: Dangerous - Oracle Rescue Missions - Duration: 11:52.
hello its Ricardo and I'm still in the pLEIADES sector the home of the Oracle
destroyed base and all those level seven thyroid Medusa class interceptors so I
thought I didn't take a mission from the rescue ship the Oracle rescue ship
that's in the system and head on over to the damaged station and go and get some
some refugees now some of the missions that are available at the Oracle rescue
ship I couldn't find any escape pods in the
like I look around perhaps I've missed the boat about a day late but I was
doing you know other stuff around the third route in here we are we've dropped
in here's the Oracle station looking at for contact to see doesn't any debris
around couldn't find any looking at the outside it's had quite a pasting you've
got the stereotypical green gunk and corrosive nature of the thyroid weapons
visible on the hull part of the habitation ring where we're going to
call the habitation ring where all the nice grass and trees err has been
destroyed and is burning in space over the comms you can hear a very panicked
air traffic control telling you hey you know the station has been under attack
room evacuating evacuation procedure and only approach if you've got space to
evacuate people a really good spectacular visual from frontier
developments I mean I've got to say it I mean they've gone all out on these and
it'd be good to see if these sort of in-game artifacts burning stations or
attack stations are still going to be present
it's ashamed to say that only now we see in these sort of visuals are not part of
the Federation Empire war that's been going on but hey we've got them now and
let's not go complaining if you look at these stanchions of the
habitation ring they're burning some sort of gas is burning out of them
everything looks really eerie and then you can see the green gunk and the green
corrosive nature from the thyroid contact now as you pass through the
habitation ring and boost towards the rear section of the ship you can see the
drive sections also taking a bit of damage again more than likely and
looking from the video frontier released yesterday about the Oracle the the
attack came from behind taking out the drive system taking down any station
shields leaving it basically defenseless
lots of mist and smoke around the station
and I'm gonna start thinking about heading in to get some passengers out
and fulfilling a mission and if I could find any escape pods then so be it
so there you go the back side of the drive section venting something a rather
there's that stereotypical and blue light of an engine emission coming out
the side escaping out to the sides and if we zoom in on one of those pods you
can see it's taken quite the pasting exposing any of its innards I think
visually quite spectacular so we're going to boost on round to the front of
the station and request some docking and get inside now I have heard and have
seen that your ship is going to incur quite a lot of heat damage as a result
of this I four quipped the old badger with some heat sinks now I don't
generally use an awful lot of heat sinks I don't tend to get into an awful lot of
combat and I've been quite vocal about that you know I like trading and
exploring and elite is a lot of things to many different people not saying I
can't do it I said I'm just not interested in it so here we go we've got
warning lights rotating around the entry port a big red old glow in the middle so
that station is cooking from the inside out lots of debris inside there's our
emergency landing pad and again more debris inside well though the
temperature was rising so quickly on the ship I must admit I did panic a little
bit they went straight to the landing pad and didn't look for any additional
debris so a bit of a rough landing not too wary stop what services the
emergency protocol initiating function getting you inside as soon as possible
and then you got outfitting what you're gonna do with that I don't know you can
read fuel on all the rest of it and then going into the community goals section
the mission section and I think available all being done no missions
available there but as you'd expect people to want to get off the oil no
missions to come back to the station going into the passenger lounge is where
you can make a little bit of money nothing major though I mean let's face
it you're evacuating after a disaster so I've got about a 20 cabin berth now on
this ASP the rest I kept for cargo all economy because they're just gonna have
to make do and I loved one of the comments that somebody said from from my
community on my channeling of the day hey if you imagine if some of the
refugees didn't want to get into your cabins if they were just you know
economy you can just see that happening can you so there you go so we're gonna
select some we're gonna get 18 there for like 160,000 credits not going to break
the bank and I'm probably going to occur more than that in damage on the Bajor
but you know hey it's a mission of mercy and it's only a short poke back to the
Oracle ship no commodities there's nothing there to buy you can see has
lots of corruption on the screen again nothing in the Mission Board you know
this is a station on its knees look at the outfitting section no stock well no
surprise there you know no surprise there so a nice effect as well in the
docking bay you get quite the effect of you know warning warning warning it's
all gone horribly wrong gaffer lots of red light lots of those you know
emergency Klaxons the red light even that no
illusions this is an emergency so let's get back up and get out of the place
trying to be careful not to hit any of the debris and the debris is everywhere
now my ship is cooking and I haven't used one of my heat sinks yet which
perhaps I should have because I've got I got two of them
so they lift off and get outta Dodge
so the guns have picked up on something so obviously there's there's some sort
of debris there but I could have collected and I think on a future trip
perhaps I'll do that I'm just concentrating on I've hit something oh I
can't fire a sausage today I tell you up and then here we go out through the
doors I would say nice and easy but hey I was there doing a sightseeing mission
as well you know on and see what was all about drinking in all those visuals and
I'm away from the station now it's only a short hop now from there to the Oracle
rescue ship where I can hand in my missions now if you haven't already done
so please click the like and subscribe button the notification icon and that'll
let you know and I'm put in more videos of elite dangerous on YouTube boosting
away now locking our destination
stowing the weapons and jumping to the ship and there it is rescue medical
frigate the Oracle now someone also said I a miracle frigate is a Star Wars thing
yes they have medical frigates in Star Wars
they must have medical frigates as well in the real world so I don't think it's
just stereotypically just just you know Stella's hasn't got the monopoly on the
word medical frigate yet it's a rescue ship it has got medical frigate
emblazoned all over it so I've got close enough now let's request that docking
the pads lit up and here we are touching down and handing in that mission thanks
very much for watching that was the rescue ship mission for the Oracle there
are other sectors I'm gonna try and get round today and put some video videos up
later I'm gonna put a few screenshots as well at the end of the video if you're
still with me and you're still watching this so those stills will be there with
a little bit of music over him I didn't take that many but the ones I did take I
think are quite a quite good see you soon and fly safe
you
you
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Tử Vi Tuổi Dậu Tháng 11/2017 Âm Lịch: Sự Nghiệp Tài Lộc Thuận Lơi, Tình Cảm Nở Rộ, Sức Khỏe Suy Yếu - Duration: 9:17.
For more infomation >> Tử Vi Tuổi Dậu Tháng 11/2017 Âm Lịch: Sự Nghiệp Tài Lộc Thuận Lơi, Tình Cảm Nở Rộ, Sức Khỏe Suy Yếu - Duration: 9:17. -------------------------------------------
おばあちゃん 感動話！ お好み焼屋さんの おばあちゃんは、 泣く俺に親身になって くれていた…。 - Duration: 3:56.
For more infomation >> おばあちゃん 感動話！ お好み焼屋さんの おばあちゃんは、 泣く俺に親身になって くれていた…。 - Duration: 3:56. -------------------------------------------
Dhanurmasa Vaibhavam Part 4 || Devotional || MusicHouse27 - Duration: 23:07.
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Djeffrah - Paulina - Duration: 4:43.
For more infomation >> Djeffrah - Paulina - Duration: 4:43. -------------------------------------------
6 Amazing Foods To Eat After Running - Duration: 3:59.
6 Amazing Foods To Eat After Running
A long run can take its toll on your body and so can any kind of strenuous running routine.
While you're probably fuelling up well before a run, it is easy to forget about what happens
after.
Loss of salt and minerals such as potassium and sodium, glycogen store depletion, dehydration
and fatigue, and even micro damage to muscles, as they become sore from all the pounding
on the ground, will leave your body in need of some TLC after a run.
And your choice of meals – both food and drink – play a big role in post-run recovery.
Also, having a delicious but healthy post-run meal plan can serve as added motivation to
keep fit!
If you are a runner, you will need to choose post-run foods depending on the intensity
of the exercise and other goals like weight control.
If you're concerned that recovery food is limited to barely palatable "recovery drinks"
and energy bars available off the shelf, think again!
Fresh crunchy salads, creamy yogurts, tangy berries, and even wholesome salmon, tuna,
turkey, or chicken meals can make recovering from a run a treat for your tastebuds.
Best Foods To Eat After Running
Fresh fruit Chocolate milk
Low-fat yogurt Nut butter
Chicken or turkey Tuna or salmon
What Does The Body Need After A Run?
Considering the stress your body experiences during a run, giving it the appropriate nourishment
afterward is important for quick recovery.
Here is what you should aim to consume after a run.
Carbohydrates:
After a run or any form of exercise, your body eats into its energy or glycogen stores.
Researchers suggest having carbohydrates in your recovery meal within about 30 minutes
of completing a run.
This can stimulate muscle glycogen resynthesis.
Try and have foods that are easily digestible like fruit or vegetables which can bring blood
sugar levels back to normal while also providing you with nourishment, antioxidants, and minerals.
Protein:
Having protein after a run is important if you hope to keep your muscles in good working
order and to stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
It is also optimal to have this recovery meal soon after you finish a run and not several
hours later.
Plus, combining protein intake with carbs is said to enhance your body's ability to
replenish glycogen and synthesize protein.The exact amount is something you will need to
work out based on your body type, your weight, and the intensity of your runs.
A rule of thumb that works for most people is to have 0.14 to 0.23 gm of protein for
every pound of your body weight.
Electrolytes And Fluids:
Sports drinks are a popular choice among runners because they achieve the twin goal of hydrating
you while also replenishing salts lost through sweat.
However, you could also whip up fresh homemade juices and smoothies that give you a combination
of minerals and fluids.
Best Recovery Foods To Eat After Running
Now that you know the kind of foods you should be eating after a run, here's a look at
some of the best foods you can pick from.
You will need to choose how much of them to have and in what ratios depending on how intense
your training session or run has been.
For instance, after a marathon or a very intense run, you should rehydrate and get in a quick
carb-boosting snack immediately.
Follow it up with a proper meal a little later.
For less intense running, you could focus on replenishing water and electrolytes first
and leave the heavier eating to an hour or two later if need be.
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Heated discussions between U.S. and N. Korea expected at UN meeting - Duration: 2:06.
The UN Security Council is meeting to discuss North Korea's nuclear provocations.
Pyongyang made the rare decision to send its ambassador to the event...
most likely to protest the gathering's agenda... with a defiant speech claiming the regime
is a rightful nuclear power.
Park Hee-jun provides a glimpse of how the session could unfold.
The U.S. is set to further ramp up the pressure on North Korea at the United Nations, where
the North is also said to be making a rare appearance.
The State Department says Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will seek to rally members of
the UN Security Council on Friday to turn the screw on Pyongyang.
Tillerson is slated to take part in a Security Council Ministerial Briefing regarding North
Korea's nuclear weapons program.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert says Tillerson will reaffirm the Trump administration's
push for "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang so that it gives up its weapons programs.
And during the discussions,... he is also expected to confront North Korea's envoy.
North Korea said it will send its UN ambassador to the event, through an email from Jo Jong
Chol,... the spokesperson at the North Korean mission.
During his rare appearance at the council meeting, Ambassador Ja Song Nam is expected
to deliver a speech, possibly on how North Korea is a full-fledged nuclear power and
how it will not give up its nuclear program.
He met UN official Jeffrey Feltman on Thursday, to follow up on the UN official's visit to
Pyongyang last weekend.
North Korea is not a member of the UN Security Council,... but it made a request on Thursday
to attend the event as a participating nation.
The move is seen as a highly exceptional case, raising speculation that its envoy may be
planning to make strong and determined remarks on the meeting's agenda.
Ahead of the event, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency lashed out at the
U.S. for convening the meeting.
The report said "The meeting is none other than a desperate measure plotted by the U.S.
being terrified by the North's state nuclear force".
In a separate broadcast, the North slammed the U.S. over the possible use of a naval
blockade... warning such a move would drive the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the
brink of war.
Park Hee-jun, Arirang News.
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Trolls Incredibles finger family song Daddy finger Incredibles Trolls - Duration: 0:53.
Daddy finger, Daddy finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Mommy finger, Mommy finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Brother finger, Brother finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Sister finger, Sister finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Baby finger, Baby finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
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S. Korean President's state visit to China: Why visit Chongqing? - Duration: 4:25.
The final stop in the South Korean president's 4-day trip to China is Chongqing.
One of the country's four direct-controlled municipalities.
An up-and-coming major hub of trade in Asia But the city is special for more than just
these reasons.
Lee Jeong-yeon explains further.
One of the most significant diplomatic trips for Korea this year: President Moon Jae-in's
first state-visit to China.
It comes after a long-standing row between Korea and China over the deployment of the
U.S. missile defense system THAAD.
As expected, President Moon spent his first two days in the capital city Beijing, during
which he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to discuss the future
and development of Seoul-Beijing relations.
But as is the norm for Korean state visits to China, he is visiting another city; this
time it's Chongqing in Southwest China.
(stand-up) President Moon Jae-in's choice to visit Chongqing
is turning much focus toward this relatively unfamiliar city.
But given its regional characteristics and historic background, experts are hopeful that
this visit will help boost bilateral relations.
During World War II, Chongqing housed the headquarters of the last Korean government-in-exile,
in which Moon's predecessors organized the movement for independence from Japanese colonial
rule, and laid the foundations for modern Korea.
(Kor) "The President's visit to the Korean government-in-exile
in Chongqing reflects back on how the leaders of the two countries actively communicated
at the time…
In the long run, meeting the city's leader Chen Min-er could also lay the foundations
for future relations as he is a close ally of President Xi and one of the potential future
leaders of the country."
Chongqing is also home to several of Korea's biggest companies such as SK Hynix and POSCO,
as well as Hyundai Motor, which the president is expected to visit on his trip.
(Kor) "President Moon's visit to Chongqing shows
a strong interest in the city, which could be a huge boost, helping encourage local companies
in the region collaborate with the Korean companies there."
The city's land-locked location also gives companies the upper hand in expanding into
the inner-most regions of China.
(Kor) "The traditional places for expansion such
as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shandong Province are saturated markets with high competition.
In contrast, the central west area of China has strong buying interest, which is yet to
be fully explored by Korean companies.
So they can really use it to their advantage with the right marketing."
More importantly, the keyword when discussing economic opportunities in Chongqing is China's
"Belt and Road Initiative."
The BRI is a major project proposed by Xi Jinping that aims to connect Eurasian countries,...
by bridging the gap in infrastructure to accelerate economic growth in the region.
Experts say that because of the role Chongqing plays in this huge nation-wide project, President
Moon's visit to the region should hopefully pave the way for Korea to also participate
in the project.
(Kor) "The BRI passes through Chongqing, and considering
its strategic location, South Korea needs to think of ways to make use of it to get
onboard the project."
President Moon Jae-in made it clear not long after taking office in May that one of his
main economic goals is to improve Korea-ASEAN relations, and proposed the "New Southern
Policy."
It aims to boost trade with ASEAN countries to more than 200-billion U.S. dollars a year
by 2022.
Experts say that while paving our own way when expanding economic relations is a good
start, being a part of BRI would boost these efforts.
(Kor) "The South Korean government's 'New Southern
Policy' aims to improve diplomatic relations with ASEAN countries.
China's Belt and Road Initiative also happens to pass through this region.
So we need to create a co-dependent relationship with China so they also need us."
President Moon's visit to Chongqing, and China overall, is just the first step for the two
countries in thawing diplomatic relations.
But pundits remain hopeful that the state visit, along with the additional South Korea-China
free trade agreement talks coming up this month,... will bring mutual benefits for both
countries.
Lee Jeong-yeon, Arirang News
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Dui Diner Duniya - Dukhi Lalon / New Music Video / Bulbul Audio / Bangla New Song 2017 | Full HD - Duration: 4:02.
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President Moon meets with key politicians before heading to Chongqing - Duration: 1:56.
President Moon had an extra busy Friday in Beijing.
Right after delivering that speech, he met up with key Chinese politicians, including
the nation's premier.
Hwang Hojun fills us in on what was discussed.
The South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Thursday afternoon with China's second in
command, Premier Li Keqiang, both emphasizing the need to promote bilateral friendship including
economic cooperation and human exchanges.
President Moon said he hopes his meeting with Premier Li will accelerate the recovery and
development of the Seoul-Beijing relationship, and enhance cooperation in various areas,
including the agriculture and finance sectors.
They also agreed to closely communicate with each other for the early hosting of a trilateral
summit between Seoul, Beijing, and Tokyo.
It was the second time the President and the Premier had met - the first came during the
ASEAN summit in the Phillippines last month.
Earlier on Friday, President Moon Jae-in met with Zhang Dejiang,... the chairman of the
Standing Committee of the National People's Congress,... roughly the equivalent to South
Korea's National Assembly speaker.
President Moon said to Zhang that he considers the meeting meaningful, especially because
both South Korea and China must prepare for the next 25 years to come,... and expressed
his gratitude for Zhang's continuous support of a peaceful resolution of the North Korea
nuclear issue.
The two discussed ways to create a future-oriented relationship between the two countries,...
and called for efforts to increase communication and exchanges in all areas and at all levels,...
including between their parliaments and parties.
And with that, President Moon wrapped up the Beijing leg of his state visit.
The rest of his trip will be in the city of Chongqing, about 18-hundred kilometers southwest
of the Chinese capital.
According to the Blue House,... Chongqing not only holds historical significance for
Korea as the site of the nation's Provisional Government during the Japanese occupation,
but it's also a key part of President Xi's policies on economic cooperation with China.
Hwang Hojun, Arirang News.
-------------------------------------------
GTA San Andrees - Duration: 7:21.
For more infomation >> GTA San Andrees - Duration: 7:21. -------------------------------------------
Free Thoughts, Ep. 217: How Conscious Capitalism Can Solve Global Poverty (with Michael Strong) - Duration: 57:45.
Trevor Burrus: Welcome to Free Thoughts. I'm Trevor Burrus.
Aaron Powell: And I'm Aaron Powell. Trevor Burrus: Joining us today is Michael
Strong, the co-founder of Conscious Capitalism and the CEO and Chief Visionary Officer of
Radical Social Entrepreneurs. He is the lead author of Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs
and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World's Problems and the author of The Habit
of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice. Welcome [00:00:30] to Free Thoughts,
Michael. Michael Strong: Thank you. I'm delighted to
be here. Trevor Burrus: I'd like to start with your
background because you've had a history … an interesting history and you weren't always
into free markets. What brought you to this point?
Michael Strong: Absolutely, thank you. My parents were not educated. I basically educated
myself discovering Harper's New York Review of Books, New Republic, and so forth. As a
college student, I realized that all smart people were socialists. We all admired Scandinavian
socialism. [00:01:00] Then I discovered that economists, in particular Chicago economists,
believe that free markets were good. With all the hubris of youth, I thought, well,
clearly, they must be missing something. For graduate school, I went to the University
of Chicago, in the Committee on Social Thought. I went there to discover where the Chicago
economists went wrong. I realized quickly enough that I was absolutely clueless about
economics, so I ended up doing a dissertation under Gary Becker [00:01:30] on Ideas and
Culture as Human Capital and really became free market then, once I understood the benefit
of free markets. Later, I went to an Institute for Humane Studies
workshop and discovered both anarcho-capitalism, David Friedman's work and so forth and then
Austrian economics, Hayek in particular. I've become ever more deeply interested in these
fabulously powerful paradigms, intellectual and moral paradigms, ever since.
Trevor Burrus: But you didn't end up going into academia.
Michael Strong: [00:02:00] No, while I was in graduate school in Chicago, I began training
too. I went Saint John's College as an undergraduate, four years, where you read and discuss the
great books in Socratic discussions, and I loved it. I had earlier gone to Harvard, bored
by having famous people talk at me so while in graduate school in Chicago; I began training
teachers to Mortimer Adler's Paideia Project to lead Socratic seminars in their classroom.
That led to a full time job training teachers [00:02:30] in Alaska to lead Socratic seminars.
We were on soft money and when the grants ran out, some parents asked me to create a
private school based on the same Socratic principles. That led to me essentially becoming,
by accident, an educational entrepreneur. I've spent most of my life then creating small
schools based on Socratic inquiry, entrepreneurship, and personal development in both charter schools
and private school contexts. Aaron Powell: A lot of your [00:03:00] work
and writings have to do with social entrepreneurship. Can you tell us what that is, how that's different
from just starting a business or regular kind of entrepreneurship?
Michael Strong: Absolutely. Well, I am absolutely a do-gooder. When I was on the left, I wanted
to make the world a better place: peace, prosperity, happiness, and well-being for all. It was
only through studying economics that I realized government is a catastrophically bad mechanism
for making the world a better place; entrepreneurship is a much better one. To [00:03:30] connect
it directly, in I think it was about 2001, I met John Mackey, now CEO of Whole Foods,
founder of Whole Foods … co-founder. He and I agreed that entrepreneurship was more
effective at making the world a better place than government. Really, ideologically, I
describe myself more as a radical social entrepreneur than as a libertarian, simply because, for
me, it's not about reduced taxes and regulation par se.
It's the government systemically prevents people from making the world a better place
through [00:04:00] entrepreneurial initiative. Trevor Burrus: You really don't draw these
limits, as your book is subtitled, How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the
World's Problems, which is quite a claim. Michael Strong: Well, absolutely. Just to
go out there in one example, one of the … when I began working with what was originally FLOW,
Conscious Capitalism and Radical Social Entrepreneurs, the spin-offs with Mackey, we were looking
at how micro-entrepreneurs [00:04:30] had brought millions of people - a little, tiny,
but out of poverty -through microloans; The whole Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurship
solving problems thing was really getting going. When I really looked into it, the biggest
one was global poverty. I met Mark Fraser, who's a … who'd been a free zone developer
and consultant for years. He made the case that the reason poor countries are poor were
bad law and governance. Way back, [00:05:00] Milton Friedman had basically proposed a replicate
Hong Kong in order to create prosperity around the world.
Through Mark Fraser and others, I began really looking into how can we create zones with
higher quality law and governance in order to create prosperity? Eventually, that led
to my involvement in a free zone in Honduras. It was mistakenly associated with Paul Romer
in Charter Cities, but Romer was an afterthought from the Honduran prospective. [00:05:30]
Just before getting into all these solve all the problems, and I've got ideas for other
things, the big one is global poverty. In China, thanks to special economic zones, in
the last 30 years, average GDP per capita has increased from about $1,000 per person
to about $6,000 per person - its' average urban wages actually. With about 700 million
urban Chinese, never before in human history have so many people escaped poverty so dramatically.
That alone [00:06:00] is a spectacular improvement. As zones around the world are being designed
to improve law and governance, I see, as do many people in this movement, that we can
very rapidly eliminate global poverty if we're allowed to do so.
Aaron Powell: What is exactly a free zone or a special economic zone?
Michael Strong: Well, they really began … the modern era began in the 1930s, when the governments
around the world became heavily status-ed A [00:06:30] zone was really a very localized
region that was exempt from some of the trade barriers and later some taxes and regulations,
because no matter what national politics dictated in terms of heavily status policies, realistically
you need to trade to have some prosperity. Export processing zones, which was one of
the first phases, led to where there were, in some cases, no tariffs on goods produced
within the zone [00:07:00] for export. Export processing zones led to greater prosperity
in Taiwan, South Korea, in Japan, Ireland, Mexico, Mauritius, in some way [respects 00:07:12],
India, later China, of course. The idea was it's very difficult to get a good policy passed
on a nation-state basis, but it's very possible within a small localized zone.
In Dubai, there's a financial zone that's 110 acres. Chinese special economic [00:07:30]
zones are city-scale, so much larger. But the point is you don't have to fight all the
vested interests if you only want reforms in a zone. Bob Haywood, who is the Executive
Director of the World Economic Processing Zones Association for decades, is one of the
world's leading experts. He believes that zones are a path around Douglas North's natural
state issue, where basically oligarchy is the natural state of things. The miracle is
why it's not oligarchy everywhere all the time. He points out that very often zones
are initiated, [00:08:00] not by the central oligarchs, but by the second cousin - the
rent-seekers who are a little bit on the outside, maybe the younger brother or somebody who's
not already at the middle at the rent-seeking system but has influence enough to say, "Hey,
guys. Just give me a little freedom in the zone,"
and the rest of the family says, "Okay, whatever. You could have your little zone over there."
Then it's more formal than that, but he said underline whatever's going on in public, those
sorts of family dynamics that are going on in the background [00:08:30] that allows these
little zones to be created. Then those zones become prosperous and as they become prosperous,
everybody else wants in on it. That's how zones have expanded, both to greater geographical
territory, but also, Haywood makes a compelling case: the zones have led to broader economic
liberalization. As some of the elites in some of these countries realize, there's more to
be heard through more economic freedom rather than the tight, closed rent-seeking oligarchy
that's, again, North's natural [00:09:00] state.
Trevor Burrus: Now you mentioned Dubai and it seems weird, maybe because we just think
of states as doing what states generally do, that they would be like, "Here's ..." and
you say, "110 square miles." What do they actually do to setup a zone that was different?
Was there a line that you cross and everything is suddenly very different, different police
and everything? What do they actually do to do that?
Michael Strong: Not that extreme. To be clear, Dubai [00:09:30] has been one of the most
innovative zone creators around the world. There are four businesses that want to identify
the best jurisdiction within which to do business. There are lists made by trade associations
of the best zones in the world. Out of the top … Dubai has, I don't know, 15, 20 zones
at this point. Out of the world's top ranked zones, many of them were Dubai's. There's
an airport zone, there's an IT zone, and there's a financial zone. Dubai [00:10:00] has created
a model, and I think the leaders of Dubai deserve credit for this, for creating zone
where there are both special freedoms within those zones, as well as some deliberate government-led
attempt to concentrate the talents. Industrial policy has a bad name among libertarians,
but on a tiny, tiny scale of a city state, especially a tiny zone within a city state,
I think Dubai, like Singapore, is run almost more like a business than just like a [00:10:30]
regular nation state. But within these zones, then, there's a deliberate attempt to attract
capital and talent based on specially designed zone rules. The most exciting of which, the
one that I regard as an important precedent, is the Dubai International Financial Center,
which has a different legal system. Typically, the zone has simply fewer laws and regulations,
but same legal system. Dubai wanted to be a world class financial center. This was the
[00:11:00] early 2000s. Sharia law is not very friendly to finance so they're very pragmatic.
They identified British common law and they identified a prestigious commercial law judge
from Britain and another one from Singapore. Now they've got a panel of some 20 prestigious
judges from around the world from credible jurisdictions and those judges actually handle
cases, commercial law cases, within the zone based on British commercial law. As a consequence
of that, they succeeded [00:11:30] in attracting Citibank and Goldman Sachs and all of the
big finance institutions and Dubai has become the finance hub of Middle East. They went
from basically nothing to a top 20 financial center in less than 20 years by means of importing
best-of-class commercial financial law. Aaron Powell: I'm struck by the selection
of countries that you've mentioned, because you started this by saying that government
is ... We need to free up entrepreneurship [00:12:00] and government is what gets in
the way, but the countries that you've mentioned, Dubai and China and Honduras, aren't exactly
prime examples of human liberty. These are fairly autocratic or authoritarian or restrictive
regimes. Is there a … First, is there a tension there? Then, second, why are countries
like that willing to set up zones as opposed to, [00:12:30] say, freer western nations?
Michael Strong: Well, first of all, I'd love for all of them to have both personal liberty
and economic liberty, but the fact is when we look at potential sites for zones, I would
say desperation and enlightenment are what we're looking for, and desperation and poverty.
The world … Living in the United States, almost everything I see, that people care
about on campuses anymore are definitely first world problems. Somehow … My [00:13:00]
sense is the Left doesn't care about global poverty anymore because free markets are the
solution. There are, believe it or not, billions of people that are incredibly poor - actually
the New York Times gave a great example - just because it's there but nobody cares about
children dying anymore. I hate to say but in New York Times a great
cover story on factories, [Makela 00:13:20] sort of things in India, who talked about
these rural women, who, in their rural villages were required to wash the feet of their in-laws
and drink [00:13:30] the dirty water from the parents, the in-laws, after washing their
feet. Then, they go to the city to get a job in a sweat shop and are much happier. When
you just … hello … talk about Dubai, yes. Human rights violations in Dubai are horrible;
Meanwhile, there are people in Tubek who sell their 10-year old daughters into sex slavery.
Would you rather … in a poll, would you rather fly to Dubai and be treated like crap
or sell your daughter into sex slavery? In Libya right now, they are selling Africans.
[00:14:00] There are slave markets and that's gotten some media, thank goodness, where Africans
are being sold in old-fashioned, 19th century –what we thought were long gone - slave
markets. The fact is that global poverty is still an immense problem and people need to
move …. I describe the world as 'zone for poverty'. One of the analogies is that,
if you look at real estate development, often real estate developers will try to get a piece
of land, designated commercial zone, rather [00:14:30] than residential and very often,
the value of the land can go up two times, three times, four times or whatever, simply
by changing zoning. Instead of from residential to commercial, you can think of zone for poverty
to zone for prosperity. Most of the world is zone for poverty.
It was one of the most cruel and horrific things we've ever done to zone the world
that people are so desperate they will go and sell their daughters into sex slavery
or go in … risk being enslaved. [00:15:00] Even Honduran immigrants come in the US. They
leave Honduras, and then pay Coyotes $10,000, they may be forced to smuggle drugs across
the border, and they may be raped in the process. They get to the US, they have no rights. Somehow
we need to remember that the most urgent need is for people to move up from desperate, desperate
sole grinding poverty to a descent standard of living. If that happens, it happens to
be in countries that are not glamorous for human rights and individual liberty.
[00:15:30] Maslow's hierarchy, let's get people to the point where they have a descent
standard of living. Then, lots and lots of bells and whistles … yes let's all be
as wonderful as the most wonderful places on earth but we've got some pretty fundamental
issues we got to work on first. Trevor Burrus: You have an article with a
great title that is relevant to what you just said. It's called, 'Naomi Klein as a Young
Earth Creationist'. What is that? What are you saying there?
Michael Strong: One of the things that really [00:16:00] frustrates me, and Naomi Klein
is a really important symbol of this is, over the last - and this is very mainstream – over
the last 30 years more people have escaped poverty more than ever before in history.
China's big case, I already mentioned that. Roughly a billion people have come out of
poverty, thanks to greater economic freedom. No one disputes … the economic critics all
talk as if neo-liberalism was this evil conspiracy – this horrible evil right wing conspiracy.
Meanwhile, neo-liberalism for the most part is another name for greater economic freedom.
Compared [00:16:30] to 1980, there's dramatically more economic freedom in most countries in
the world, not the US by the way. In most nations, there's more economic freedom
and much more prosperity and it's been one of the greatest gifts to human kind ever.
When I read about academic humanist or critics of neo-liberalism like Naomi Klein claiming
that through capitalism, the rich get rich and the poor get poor – that's insane.
No credible economist claimed that the poor have gotten poorer in [00:17:00] the last
30 years. On balance, more people have escaped poverty. We just need to call these people
out. They need to be ashamed. I still run into people who are shocked to hear that people
in China are better off than 30 years ago. People in India, on average, are better off
than they were 30 years ago. Most countries have actually improved. We
need to make this absolutely mainstream. Just as a younger creationist, or someone who denies
evolutionary theories, they're wacko crazy. Too, i think most of the academic humanities
[00:17:30] and all those who assign Naomi Klein clueless neo ... anti-neoliberal books
need to recognize its not even credible. It's basically like Young Earth Creationism, forget
it. We can talk about how to make capitalism better for more people and to help more people
escape … there are a lot of interesting legitimate conversations but the notion that
capitalism simply makes rich richer and poor poorer is insane.
Aaron Powell: You mentioned special economic zones, is that the same or different [00:18:00]
than free cities and start up cities or are they all the same thing?
Michael Strong: That's a great thing. One issue is, where there's not a common terminology
because all of these things have happened ad hock, around the world in all sorts of
different ways. I would say the notion of free cities and startup cities is more ambitious.
Originally … again, zones were simply reduced tax regulations. China innovation in part
was to go from little export processing zones to city scale, machines in. Now the world's
manufacturing [00:18:30] headquarters is a very significant city and the entire city
is a zone. Most of the big zones in China are city scale. The next stage is to combine
the Dubai innovation of actually implementing a new legal system at city scale that's
not yet been done, but that's the concept of free cities. I'll give a little more
credit charter cities or start up cities Mark Klugman, an advisor of the Honduran government,
calls them leap zones. But I think [00:19:00] the next important
innovation are city scale zones with access to higher quality law and governance. When
we are allowed to create those, then we'll really accelerate the end of poverty.
Aaron Powell: What's the incentive for a place like China to do that? Say, if you set
up an economic zone and it generates a lot of wealth then, presumably they can take part
of that in taxes or it benefits the country and the government directly in that way; [00:19:30]
but say, importing more liberal laws, wouldn't that be scary for a country like China where
they say, "Suddenly this city gets to live under significantly more liberal laws than
anywhere else. If it works really well, that's going to look … they're going to have
to explain to the rest of the citizens why they're not doing it everywhere else.
Michael Strong: That's certainly a legitimate concern and in China, they experimented on
a small scale first. What people don't realize is the first [00:20:00] zones were designed
and implemented in around 1980. Even by the mid-1980s it looked as if they had failed.
Bob Haywood send me an article, I think from 1986, that announced that the special economic
zones experiment had been a failure after six years. Anyway, now it's one of the greatest
successes ever. By means of these little experiments, China did want to become more prosperous and
then through Milton Friedman had actually gone and talked to the Chinese government
in the late 1970s. [00:20:30] By the way people always talk about how he went and advised
Pinochet for an hour. He went to the Chinese leaders who were at
least as wicked as Pinochet, and in China's case, it led in part to great prosperity through
zones. The idea is that, if a country does want to become prosperous, and this is a desperate
notion, they are willing to engage in these experiments. Honduras talking of the tax thing
is an interesting thing. After the now recent Honduran [00:21:00] election I'm not sure
its going to move forward but there, there's an explicit design in the legislation where
the central government gets 12% of the tax raised within the central government and
within the zone and a consequence, if the zone does become prosperous the central government
has a source of income. The Honduran who designed the legislation
was brilliant because, in addition to that feature, the cash from the zone is allocated
between the Legislative branch, Executive branch, Judicial branch, [00:21:30] Military
and Municipalities. That's a straight forward way to get buy-in from all those sectors.
In addition, it must go through an Honduran bank and basically there are three Honduran
banks owned by the few and so they get the float on this tax. In many ways, that's
possible to design the legislation so that the right people get paid off as it were in
the open transparently. In addition, there are things such as certain pieces of land
designated [00:22:00] so … it just so happens the president's cousin owned that piece
of land. It's not that interesting how that became designated zone because land values
goes up with the zone. A lot of this, when you get into pragmatic
zone dynamics, it is a matter of, how do we incentivize the decision makers so that the
prosperity does benefit those who are influential enough to make it happen. It can still be
a risk and that's one of the reasons why there are often oppositions [00:22:30] to
zones. It's the rent seekers who do believe that their rents may be threatened … may
on a newspaper say and publish really hostile articles on the newspaper. As with all legislations,
at some level interest space and you need to find a set of interest who is officially
aligned to support the zone because short, medium or in the long term, they will gain.
Trevor Burrus: Are there any start up cities going right now? I have friends, acquaintances
around pure libertarian road on Washington [00:23:00] DC who are working on that and
have written about it in different ways. I'm unclear on whether or not there's something
that could actually be called a startup city that is going. I keep hearing about, "We're
pushing in Honduras. We're pushing in different countries," but there seems to be a lot
of setbacks. Michael Strong: First of all, you have to
remember that all of this takes place at the pace of government and government is slow.
Honduras is the long, slow battle. We … there is really excellent legislation in place and
with respect to [00:23:30] the opportunity to create a startup city. There are … everything
is in place. The recent election may be a setback, we do not yet know, but if the new
president does support the startup cities in Honduras it could happen quickly there.
There's also an interesting situation in Myanmar where there's … the current tribe
was engaged in a civil war. It's the longest running civil war, something like 75 years.
They mostly settled around five years ago with central government more recently but
there were [00:24:00] a few more flare ups after that.
More recently it looks as if there's stability there and the current tribe, in exchange for
a cease fire in essence has obtained legal autonomy. There is … We can very early stage,
pretty much call it a startup city. It might have become an opportunity, it's looking
cautiously optimistic. I know it's … Basically, with all these things the way to think about
it is that, even with a zone, even [00:24:30] if a country designates a zone with new legal
system before you get significant capital and talent to come into it they need to trust
that the government will respect the new rules in that zone. There're all sorts of legal
machinery that one can impose and incentive machinery that one can impose to increase
the probability that the government will respect it.
Realistically, it could take a couple of years for investors to see, "Okay, that contractual
dispute [00:25:00] was settled with the new legal rules in place. That opportunity to
confiscate when buying – they didn't confiscate." Just in the zones, we can land-value gains
through one of the business models we have. Often, the land values do not increase much
in the first year, two years, three years, four years because nobody is going to trust
the government to respect the rules until there've been a few test cases. After … China's
special economic zone looked like a failure for six years but after there is that credibility
that's [00:25:30] been built up then you can see more capital and talent coming in
to the zone. I would say the Krinn tribe says they have autonomy now, would I invest a million
dollars? I don't think so but you start small and you build up. I see this as a startup.
Eventually, capitalists know that most of their portfolio is going to end up losing
money but you want to work that on a few winners. I think the way to think around this is, not
that there is one magic project out there but rather that the need is [00:26:00] so
tremendous. I would say the intellectual sophistication around this is developing rapidly. I know
hundreds of people involved in this movement and everybody brings a different piece to
the puzzle and often they're working with different jurisdictions; and each of these
jurisdictions could take five, 10, 15 years before they really prove themselves as a legitimate
set of new rules. If you think of it that way, then there are
several of these zones that are in process and might turn out to be a winner [00:26:30]
but we can't yet promise on any particular one is a definite winner.
Aaron Powell: I want to go back to something you said and I want to see how it relates
to this. You were describing your intellectual journey at the start of our conversation.
You said you went from standard campus socialist to Chicago school of economics and then the
IHS to David Friedman's style on anarcho-capitalism. I was curious how these [00:27:00] things
fit in with that particular view. Do you see zones and startup cities and free cities as
a stepping stone to that? Do you see them as evidence that an anarcho-capitalism would
be ultimately the way to go, as a system of pure entrepreneurship?
Michael Strong: Certainly, that's the direction I'm going but to add a little bit of nuance
to that, for one, I don't know if you're familiar with Spencer MacCallum. Spencer MacCallum
has something … he wrote an article called the Enterprise [00:27:30] of Community. His
version is, other than competing mutual defense societies with neighbors and so forth to have
geographical contiguous basis, somehow like a shopping mall with different tenants, Spencer
MacCallum's model is a multi-tenant property and with the different tenants renting from
it as if it we're a private landlord, that private landlord can increasingly take on
the functions of a state. People [00:28:00] and especially the disputed on anarcho-capitalism
get way too caught up in binaries - is it or is not.
I actually think there is a continuum between the private entity and the government. If
you're talking about a private residential community with a Home Owner Association and
the Home Owners Association gradually takes on more and more roles and obtains more autonomy
vis-a-vis the central government, at what point exactly does it move from being a
private public entity? You [00:28:30] can stipulate arbitrary boundaries; maybe if they
have private police enforcement but private police enforcement at what case can a situation
be escalated to an outside authority. If it's never, maybe then it's hard to grow an anarcho-capitalism.
I see this infinite continuum … I'm a big fan of Eleanor and Vincent Ostrom's notion
of institutional diversity. I want more opportunities for prosperity around
the world; I want entrepreneurs to create those. I actually think one of the competing
[00:29:00] ways through which jurisdictions will win is by providing higher quality human
rights. A lot of the leftists attack on anarcho-capitalism is they picture these dystopias. What if instead
of dystopias we had really smart entrepreneurs doing, maybe, conscious capitalism, nonprofit,
trust hybrids where the real goal is to have brilliant protection of rights – both property
rights and human rights. There would be different bundles [00:29:30] of these rights so maybe
… In Senegal you get one bundle of human rights and in Burma you're Myanmar, the
Krinn tribe you get a different bundle of human rights and then a Honduran Zeti has
a different bundle. Right now, there's the illusion that through
democracy we have protection of rights in the US. Anybody who reads Radley Balko's
work knows that's ridiculous. You know, libertarians are well aware that extreme violation
of rights from every direction. The notion that majoritarianism protects [00:30:00] rights
is absurd. The constitution was designed to protect rights, of course that's degraded.
As we see rights not being protected by existing jurisdictions around the world, once we get
over the simple high school civics fantasy that government's there to protect your
rights and we start beginning to think about entrepreneurial creation of jurisdiction;
Nearly, there might be some- if you will- evil dysfunctional zones but I'm a great
believer in the market place. If you go to grocery stores, look at [00:30:30]
Whole Foods, you're treated nicely. Entrepreneurs have an incentive to treat customers nicely.
Now you can say, "Oh, we only treat the rich customers nice." Well in the US basically
if you're poor, you're screwed all over the place too. Its … again Stigler said
before we consider which opera singer is better, we have to listen to both. We need really
to look at how badly dysfunctional government is and then not think of anarcho-capitalism
as simply a matter of strictly aggressively for profit, [00:31:00] but for profit entities
based on an alignment of interest between their various stakeholders. It's kind of
conscious capitalism 101, which include … we protect rights better than anybody else.
I'd love to see 500,000 different jurisdictions around the world advertising the extent to
which they protect rights better than anyone else. I think that's a very plausible world.
One other footnote on that though is, and realistically the US is going to be the hedge
man probably for another 50 years maybe 100 years, I would very much have the [00:31:30]
US as the hedge man rather than Russia or China. When I picture a world of exploding
jurisdictions that are entrepreneurial in nature, that do become quasi anarcho-capitalism
… As bad as the US government is in its international policy, still I'd rather have
the US be the bully than Russia or China as the bully. With that proviso, yeah very much
moving towards sort of, enterprise community style anarcho-capitalism.
Aaron Powell: This term - [00:32:00] Conscious Capitalism- that you used a few times, we
need to get some clarity on what you mean by that and how it differs from standard profit-driven
capitalism. Maybe, imagine a company like Apple computers which is capitalist right
now, how would … what would Apple be doing differently if it were consciously capitalist?
Michael Strong: A couple of things and much of these comes from John Mackey and who really
led on this one. [00:32:30] First of all, although there is the machinery of markets
that necessitates profitability and the more profitable … high returns on investment
are going to be preferred to lower returns on investment. That said, there are a couple
of other things going on and Milton Friedman and John Mackey had a great debate on this
in Reason magazine, maybe 15 years ago. One element is, first of all people love to … by
nature we want to be driven by a purpose. [00:33:00] Of course, some people, their purpose
is to make as much money as possible but a lot of young employees and talented young
people want to work for companies. You could say its window-dressing, but companies that
have a purpose since we may be cynical and say its window dressing.
I actually think, again, Maslow's hierarchy a lot of people would rather work for some
company where they believe they were doing good than some company that they thought they
were engaged in evil. Part of my dissertation with Becker was looking at shadow prices for
[00:33:30] ideas in culture. Becker's very empirically pragmatic question is, "Are
there shadow prices?" For instance, might a person of talent X-maybe an MBA from a great
university-if he could work for a company that he thought he thought he was eliminating
global poverty versus a company that he thought was robbing widows—or she—and there was
a salary sacrifice of 20% of the do-gooder [00:34:00] company rather than the lets-kill-all-the-widows-and-orphans
company. That's a shadow price of 20% salary for working with the purpose driven company.
If we're really talking about killing widows and orphans versus ending global poverty,
actually that shadow price for working for a do-good company would be higher than that.
Over time, that mechanism along with the consumer mechanism … Again there are estimates that
one third of consumer purchases in the US are based, to some extent, on perception of
the values of the company. [00:34:30] You get a lot of ridiculousness out there. I'm
not claiming that they don't make sense but I think due to Maslow's hierarchy, as
we become more prosperous, more of us are going to want to make decisions of various
sorts based on meaning and purpose. We want to be allied with good guys and I think that
that is an active mechanism. I actually wanted to write a book on Mises plus Maslow, because
basically yes Mises is great economics and its hardcore libertarian as you wish.
[00:35:00] But there are Maslovian mechanism also active and I believe those will grow.
If you combine reputation mechanisms, there's a possible reason to believe that direction
will increase in the 21st century. Trevor Burrus: If we go back to the discussion
of special zones and increasing the amounts of jurisdictions, it seems that although there
would be very good ones; you said protecting human rights and trying to get people to come
to you because you protect human rights, there's an adherent [00:35:30] problem of, right now,
the poverty. The right of exit is very difficult if you're poor and there definitely are
people … You brought up selling into sex slavery, now that's a for-profit in sense
being driven by the profit motive. Doesn't have any of the conscious capitalism obviously
but it's a really good example of how bad the profit motive can be. It seems that, if
we did create certain areas like that where Myanmar where there's a lot of Human rights
abuses going on right now, it could go really [00:36:00] badly for the poor as opposed to
the relatively well-off who can leave just as we could leave McDonald's by transporting
yourself and your family and whoever else is just not available to the poor.
Michael Strong: That's a great question. I want to back up and say one of the most
… I once wrote an article called "Academia Is The World's Leading Social Problem". One
of the most damaging aspects of academia is, so many people come out of universities with
degrees that lead them to [00:36:30] think they know what's going on in the world but
so much of university life is stupidly anti-capitalist. It goes a little back to Naomi Klein young
earth creationist, where if people think that capitalism is the profit motive that really
are not very well educated. Just to focus … New institution economics is not sexy
and it's not simple. In a way libertarianism is much simpler to understand but if one really
starts learning about institutions and say he know a little bit about [00:37:00] the
work of Nobel laureates Coase and Buchanan and North and Williamson and Ostrom and so
forth. Then one sees … The way I look at it is,
what we're really trying to do is to create systems where entrepreneurial value creation
is possible. Where there are win-win systems and one does need to set up governance and
protection of rights and property rights and transaction costs. Those sort of things were
more likely to get win-win than not. That's not an ideological issue. There are actually
[00:37:30] different ways to set up different situations to ensure positive outcomes rather
than negative outcomes. Those positive outcomes are much more aligned with free markets economics
than they are with status absurdities that anti-capitalists promote. The number one
thing is, first, let's realize that capitalism has brought billions of people out of poverty.
The next thing is, yes bad things can happen but in addition to blaming the pimps who are
trading [00:38:00] in young girls for sex slavery, I want to point the blame in part
on governments that are really perpetuating poverty. If we had a for-profit corporation
that was keeping a billion people in Africa poor, there would be unbelievable outrage.
One of the thought experiment I often try to do is, when you see some bad or stupid
thing that government has done and of course those things are ubiquitous, imagine the global
rhetorical blow-back if it could have been a for-profit corporation doing exactly the
same thing. [00:38:30] If we knew, "Oh, more economic freedom led to prosperity and
these entities are keeping people poor by stealing and keeping economic freedom from
them." Imagine if Evil Corporation X was responsible for this.
The campus would go absolutely ballistic. A lot of this is learning to focus. I wrote
a post called Hierarchy of Moral Outrage for Let A Thousand Nations Bloom where yes[00:39:00]
Union Carbide in India, the Bhopal disaster, bad thing when anti-capitalist article saying
that the worst crime you've never heard of and let's talk about Bhopal. From my
perspective, Bhopal relatively scale wise, to me the worst crime you've never heard
of is the fact that nation states are keeping people poor unnecessarily around the world.
Six billion people, basically, enslaved in poverty unnecessarily. If [00:39:30] we open
things up in zone and there is some more sex slavery, that's a bad thing. At the same
time, we need to focus on the fact that governments are keeping people poor. The whole ... almost
all bad things are because people are poor. Fred Turner, a wonderful poet, has an article
called 'Make Everybody Rich'. Basically, the solution to all problems is
make everybody rich. Through economic freedom, classical liberal rule of law, [00:40:00]
secure transferable property rights and economic freedom, we can make everybody rich. Why are
we not doing it? Because of anti-capitalism and the states they support.
Aaron Powell: Trevor mentioned beginning the subtitle of your book; something about the
conscious capitalists can solve all the world's problems. I suppose I can ask are there any
problems that you think we need government for. Maybe another way of asking that is,
so someone listening to this who is perhaps [00:40:30] more skeptical of outright markets
and entrepreneurship might say, that all sounds well and good but really what you're describing
is still … You're describing governments enabling people to then innovate and create
wealth. That these zones that are set up are still inside of regimes that have provided
defense, have provided a level of safety, have provided a level of baseline wealth,
have set up rules [00:41:00] that have allowed markets to progress to a certain point. When
you're importing other rules, like in Dubai, you're simply importing the rules from a
different government. Really, what you're saying is, yes we can get more wealth if government
is perhaps less heavy handed but we still really need it to make any of this operate
at all. Trevor Burrus: Of course no one would disagree,
even the most status person, that there are really [00:41:30] bad governance and that
there are better governance and so they say, "Yes, we need better governance."
Michael Strong: What's a little bit funny
about this, when you suggest that governments protect people's rights and provide rule
of law and so forth, I think anybody who spends much time in many developing governments would
find that laughable. Let me give a specific example. When I was in Honduras working on
the Zed Project a number of years ago, NPR send some interviewers down there [00:42:00]
to interview. It turned out it was Romer and Octavio Sanchez in the final cut but when
they were interviewing me they said, "What makes you think that you can do a better job
than the Honduran government in providing these services?"I looked at them, and NPR
is pretty left-leaning, I looked at them and said, "Could we do any worse?" They immediately
acknowledged, okay, done. These governments … I've been in government offices around
the world where people show up two or three hours late.
You go in [00:42:30] and ask what are the rules for a project, they have no idea and
it's not all incompetence. I have huge respect for some of the people we were working with
in the Honduran government but as a system most governments are really, really incompetent
and in some combinations of evil and incompetent because they're all the cronyists and so
forth. When people … I think people need to become James Buchanan's word: government
without romance. [00:43:00] If a private … Again if a private provider provided the level of
service … government services that we see in most of the developing world, they would
be … it would just be unbelievably outraged.one of the things that pushed me farther along
in the anti-cap direction was Bruce Benson's wonderful work, The Enterprise of Law.
Trevor Burrus: He was a guest on Free Thoughts actually.
Michael Strong: I think he is underappreciated in a big way [00:43:30] because just going
back … my main focus has been on education and when I see what I can do in a small school
where we personalize education and change lives, just a little degradation there's
… often, I find students who are depressed, have been in treatment centers, sometimes
they're too far, too academically advanced. Sometimes they're considered learning disabled
that you're flexible make your curriculum more flexible, the so called learning disabilities
go away instantly. I see all sorts [00:44:00] of young people whose lives, I would say have
been destroyed, by conventional one-size-fits-all education and stupid bureaucracy. I think
immediately, "Why do we have to do this?" various ways, I know how dysfunctional the
education system is. Reading Bruce Benson's Enterprise of Law I realized all the public
choice mechanisms … Again, it's important to realize this is not about saying these
people are bad. There are heroic public school teachers, heroic
public school principals- it's a system. When the incentives are messed [00:44:30]
up you get terrible outcomes. When you can't eliminate the dysfunctional systems and when
you can't reward the better entrepreneurial systems then the dysfunction perpetuates.
Benson's Enterprise of Law showed me all sorts of ways which I had taken for granted,
that legal systems more or less work. The education is crap but if the legal system
works, then and the more I read, not just Bruce Benson, but a lot of Randy Barnett,
a lot of libertarian leading people have written about [00:45:00] the actual function of the
legal system—Radley Balko is another great one. It's so nightmare-ish. This is … talk
about white privilege. I would say, upper middle class educated white people can get
away with all sorts of things and not fear being entrapped in the legal system, but somebody
who doesn't have those protections, it's an absolute nightmare.
One great … John Hasnas has a great article called, I think, "The Ordinarness of Anarchy".
Everybody thinks anarcho-capitalism is this weirdo exotic thing. [00:45:30] Hasnas makes
a comparison with campuses. When I went to Harvard, my roommate was a drug dealer. Drugs
have been de-facto illegal on elite campuses for decades and meanwhile if a poor black
kid gets caught in the same thing, it's a nightmare. The homes are graded, the dogs
is shot, human beings shot. We have this delusion that somehow government is there or the legal
system is functioning. You see a kid from Harvard [00:46:00] can deal drugs and make
money, kid in a black neighborhood family shot for no reason. What planet are you living
in? This is why … I don't like right wing clichés about left media but I would say
there's a very … there's not a balance in terms of the destructions caused by government
with the bad things. Yes, there are bad capitalists and Bernie
Madoff and so forth but if you start to really become aware of just how chronic [00:46:30]
and systemic and really evil actions routinely take place via government. There was a public
… there was a lot of media on private persons and how evil they are. There was a public
prison in Florida for most of the 20th century that routinely killed people and there's
a huge burial ground under this. Yes, there are bad things that happen in private governments
but because of evolution we know, if there's a selfish incentive then people can be bad.
There's this stupid romance about the [00:47:00] government, by the people, for the people,
of the people and we get good outcome. No. By the people, of the people, for the people
we get chronic injustice and violence and degradation. We … privileged educated people,
we get away from most of it but if you look at the actual facts on the ground of much
reality mass incarcerations of African-Americans. It's a nightmare out there.
Trevor Burrus: It seems safe to say that you're not a big fan compared comparatively speaking
of politics as [00:47:30] the best way of trying to rectify some of these things.
Michael Strong: Frank Zappa brilliantly said politics is the entertainment division of
the military industry complex. It was mostly a joke. Trump makes a joke a little bit more
obvious and it can be a painful joke. When I learned public choice theory I was depressed
for two tears because I had been raised … our culture raises us to have this rosy view of
government and it's as if you fell in love with somebody and you find out that [00:48:00]
they're a deceitful, cheating scoundrel. We are trained, in some ways our high school's
civil romance of governments is actively damaging because it makes us believe. Actually, I have
a lot of compassion for my friends on the left because they were trained to believe
that this thing works and it doesn't. On small scale, like in a local governments,
I'm very interested in Switzerland where the canton level of governance is pretty functional.
I'm very interested in the way Scandinavian governments seem to be a little more functional
[00:48:30] but when you realize that Finland is smaller in population than Houston and
is the most ethnically homogeneous country in Europe. You go, "Oh, could we even get
Houston to function as well as Finland?" I don't know. That night be really hard.
Again small scale … yes we need governance. The mistake many libertarians get into is
we sound anti-government. I'm for good governance, passionately for good governance. Then, let's
be radically pragmatic about how we get good governance. The first [00:49:00] step of getting
there is to get rid of the rose-tinted glasses that make us believe that majoritarian democracy
at large scale is anything but radically dysfunctional. Trevor Burrus: I want to close up by asking
about something that you had some involvement in. You were on the board of the Seasteading
Institute, correct? Michael Strong: Yes.
Trevor Burrus: There are some interesting developments going on there. What are we seeing
with Seasteading? What is it and then what's happening [00:49:30] now?
Michael Strong: Seasteading is very much part of the let's create new jurisdictions. When
Patri Freidman created the blog 'let us house the nations bloom' and at Seasteading
along with … I introduced the idea of special economic zones as an alternative. There had
been many people trying to create their own sovereign jurisdictions. Again it's a portfolio
sort of situation. At sea, in theory, we should be able to create new jurisdictions. Of course,
there are huge technological problems at the open sea, which is why over [00:50:00] time
Seasteading has moved away from deep sea projects to near shore project. That ultimately led
to [Tahiti 00:50:08] being … actually signing an agreement with Seasteading to have a near
shore pilot project with its own law and governance. They have actually got an agreement in place
that would allow for a very small experimental community. Tom W. Bell, with whom I worked
on legal issues before, is one of the founders of the idea [00:50:30] of polycentric law.
He's working to create the governance system with that. He's been studying French law
and how to integrate … work on the boundary between the common law legal system on one
hand and the French legal system on the other. Optimistically, there may well be a little
pilot Sea Stead in the next year or two. Aaron Powell: Interesting, so then for people
listening to this who aren't in a position to move [00:51:00] to special economic zones,
who aren't in a position to move to a boat or a sea stead, an oil rig, who want to help
in this way – what can ordinary people do to participate in this vision that you've
outlined today? Michael Strong: That's a great question.
Actually, one group I would recommend is Startup Societies, it's an online group on Facebook
and they're organizing conferences. I'm going to speak in one of their conference
[00:51:30] in DC in January. A number of things … on one hand we need to explain to the
world, A that governments are responsible for poverty, that free markets cause prosperity,
I think it's 101. It should have been obvious 30, 40 years ago, 100—Adam Smith basically
got it. Anyway, we need to mainstream this. No one should still believe that neo-liberalism
caused poverty. Let's get rid of the young earth creationist idiocy out there, still
on campuses, especially amongst humanities professors. [00:52:00] We need to absolutely
make people aware of that. We do need to explain … it is important
to go beyond as it were a libertarian talking points really have huge respect for Douglas
North's natural states concept. We need to get into, "What does it take in terms
of property rights and the rule of law to create prosperity."
We need to help people understand how it is that some countries have become prosperous
and why more countries need economic freedom. My wife is a Senegalese entrepreneur. [00:52:30]
She actually has a TED talk coming out and is a leading proponent of explaining why African
countries are poor because of a lack of economic freedom. I often speak as well and almost
nobody knows that African countries are drowning in red tape and are heavily regulated. There's
a lot of basic economic development 101 that needs to be explained. Going beyond that,
I think we need to get people to think about applying entrepreneurial creativity to the
development of new jurisdictions. It's not about some simplistic anarcho-[00:53:00]capitalist
dystopia. If we could mainstream this to the point we had lots of people thinking about,
how would you create a zone that protected human rights better than the existing jurisdictions.
Part of that is, let's get really honest about how poorly governments today protect
human rights. As we change this perception from governments good, free markets bad to
a much more new one, how can we design institutions on small [00:53:30] scale and nurture these
institutions so they're better for all human beings. Then, we'll also need a pipeline
of people with nuts and bolts skills. We'll need a lot of entrepreneurial legal experts.
I've worked with a lot of illegal experts. Some of them are really boring and not very
creative, others are very visionary. We need a whole generation on of visionary legal experts.
That there's going to be countless concrete legal problems to be solved and moving from
nation states to innovative jurisdictions. Also, we're going to need municipal services.
[00:54:00] I'm a big fan of the Silver Springs, Georgia, small … Oliver Porter created this
tiny government that was a three or four people and subcontracting out the rest of the municipal
services in Sandy Springs—not Silver Springs—Sandy Springs, Georgia.
We talked to a reporter about the ways in which he wrote those contracts and how you
got different companies to provide different municipal services. Environmentalism, [00:54:30]
I'm a big believer in protecting the environment. Honduras … I've gotten to the grandular
level of governments have laws in book. In general in poor countries they're not enforced
to protect the environment. How do we create cost effective ways for local, as it were
cozy private governments, to protect the environment and some of this does go into a cost issue.
Entrepreneurs are great at providing higher quality, lower cost, more specialized [00:55:00]
because governments have dominated environmental protection; a lot of environmental protection
is just incompetent. When you start trying to do it from a private perspective, exactly
how do you monitor, say affluence going into sensitive coral reef in an effective way and
exactly how do you ensure that there are effective penalties in place.
When I go to this bigger picture of entrepreneurial solutions to all problems, I don't care
if it's a nonprofit or a trust or a voluntary [00:55:30] religious organization or a for-profit,
I don't care what the entity is. People are way too for atavistic reasons attached
to the motivation. We need to get away from exactly how the high motivation is and get
into the granular level of incentives and this is why new institution economics is important
to see how do we create more effective structures for getting the job done. In some ways, those
will be more effective systems for environmental protection, human rights protection; health
and well-being [00:56:00] as an educator of young people are very high priority for me.
If we could, as entrepreneurs, design entire safety nets … entire wealthier systems.
Child protective services … most people … Libertarians, we don't care about children.
I'm very interested in, if you were an entrepreneur child protection services has really messed
up. You hear about kids being taken away, killed by foster families, horrible things
and injustices. If you're an entrepreneur how do you solve that one more effectively?
I don't know at the top of my head but I do believe [00:56:30] that if we have hundreds
of thousands of our brightest, most ambitious people looking very carefully at systems and
incentives in order to create a process of continuous improvement, we'll actually feel
entrepreneurship broadly construed be better at child protection services better than our
existing governments. I could go on and on. One of the worst problems about politics is
people get stuck in right, left idiocy. Again, if it was [00:57:00] an evil plot to keep
us thinking about ways to keep ourselves down we would never go for it.
It's not just the Russian influence in it; it's the Democrats and Republicans influencing
us to think about politics non-stop when in fact there are positive, win-win, non-zero
sum solutions. The more people we can separate out from the tribal bigotries of left-right
politics into proactive entrepreneurial value creation that benefits everybody, the faster
we'll get there. Trevor Burrus: Thanks for listening. This
episode of Free Thoughts was produced by [00:57:30] Tess Terrible and Evan Banks. To learn more,
visit us on the web at www.libertarianism.org.
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