| Home | Other Authors Milton Friedman These notes are from watching one of his videos... Agree - that immigrants have a lot of opportunity in America - that it was easier when there were no rules, regulations
Problems - also easier to take advantage of people. - what about *caring* about the workerss? If you *care* about the workers, their needs, their feelings, you can make conditions better for them with no regulations and still make a decent profit. He says that Chinese women working in sewing shops factories etc helps them make a better life for their kids. But I am not sure. How do we measure quality of life? How do you care? - You listen. Get to know them, their lives, their families. You acknowledge them and really appreciate them since without them you would not be making money yourself. - You invite them to your home, to get to know your family. You don't live in isolation - in a manion guarded by more hourly workers you don't know. - You help educate them. You share your libraries, books, magazines with them. You show them you trust them. You enjoy their company. You don't hide things from them. You are honest with them. When you appreciate them, they will appreciate you. They won't feel resentful that you are making more money than them. They will be happy for you and believe you deserve it. -- Around 7 minutes mark... a guy says his father told him education was important so his kids could become professionals.... but being a professional doesn't guarantee you won't be unhappy or get a divorce or that your kids won't use drugs later or even kill themselves. this was part of the American myth of success - education = money = happiness a = b= c so there for a = c but this is not true. not always. what if one of your children does not want to be a professional? what if they want to draw, paint and they are happy with that? like my partner who was happy drawing and painting when she was a young girl. but her parents and everyone else kept telling her how important education was. it nearly killed her. here are some of her drawings.... They also did not value her innate emotional intelligence. No one did. I was the first one in her life to value her emotional intelligence, her caring, her patience, her understanding. We don't value these things in society. We do value degrees in psychology. We value licenses, diplomas and titles. No matter if a suicidal teenager would rather talk to someone who cares about them - or let me say who feels cared about by them - because these can be two very different things... and someone who they feel understood by. All of that doesn't matter much in the current mainstream society. But a professional degree does matter. I am watching this video because it was suggested to me by a person who told me that my website saved her life- it saved her from killing herself. Yet I am not a professional. I did not study psychology in a university. I have no degree in psychology or psychiatry and I have no license. But somehow my website helps save young people's lives. Now who values that? In my experience, not many people. Not even the teenagers themselves once they have left high school and gotten into a university. They forget about my help. I never hear from them again. In 15 years not one teenager who has entered a university has ever made a donation to me once they started working, not even after they got jobs as "professionals." Interestingly, the person who wanted me to watch this video did give me what I consider a signficant donation. And she did not go to a university. By they way, if you don't know, I myself went to two universities full time and took classes at a couple more. I have an MBA degree. I was a big fan of capitalism. Until I realized I could be "successful" but miserable. My belief now is that the problem is not so much with the economic system called capitalism. It is a problem in leadership, government. If the leaders led in the "right" direction, people would raise children whose emotional needs were met and they would then care about others and this would affect the economic system. If you care about people, you will not exploit them. You will encourage them to spend time listening to their children. You yourself will sponsor training for your workers' children in the area of emotions, conflict resolution etc. You won't wait for the government to do it. You will do these things not primarily because you will make more money if you do it. You will do it because you will fee better about yourself. You will know you are helping prevent divorce, alcholism, drug abuse, sexual abuse, violence, emotional abuse etc. etc. One day perhaps a wealthy business owner will hire me as a consultant to help him or her do these things. It hasn't happened yet. But it still could. -- around 10 minutes he talks about hong kong - but i wouldnt want to live in hong kong. and caring about employees, or customers isn't a factor in MF's economic equations. then at around 14 minutes he shows some pple carving elephant tusks. i am pretty sure that is illegal in a lot of countries - because too many pple were killing too many elephants for their tusks. i would prefer that people would self regulate - ie by a) not killing elephants just for their tusks or whatever and b) not buy things made from elephant tusks as MF understands very well, if there is no demand for products made from the ivory of elephant tusks, they no one will kill the elephants. simple as tthat. so why do pple wnt to by some decorations made from ivory? for their practical value? as tools? as something to eat? i'd say not. I'd say it is to help them fill some unmet emotional need. Not any physical need at all. I have lived my life without every buying anything made from ivory. And I believe most of the world also has. So this is what I would say is an unnecessary product. If people were more educated, care more about animals and other humans they wouldn't buy these things. If I had 200 or 500 dollars I could buy an expensive ivory box or whatever with, I could also use that money to purchase some books for a local library in a poor country. Or any number of other things which would have more benefit to humanity. - then he goes to scotland where adam smith taught before he wrote "The wealth of nations" - MF says trading helps prevent wars- that could be. Trading is a good incentive to work together. Trading and making money. But I would also like to see stopping war directly as an even better incentive. at 22 he talks about how a free system helps poor people the most, but what if we had a caring system in addition to a free system? around 26 27 he is talking about force vs voluntary cooperation. the music and graphics at 28 are a bit much. ie unnecessary and propaganda-ish or salesy. at around 31 he doesnt answer the question about needing laws to protect the environment - but again I'd say if we had caring people, who were not so needy, they wouldn't hurt the environment so much even without government regulation and if pple were to have good information and didnt just want the lowest price product they wouldnt buy from companies who were wrecking the environment. at about 48 now.i dont like how he smiles so much and basically laughs at what the other people are saying. he reminds me of an ex friend of mine steve b. who would laugh at things I said and give me lectures without listening to me or trying to understand. the people in the debate all seem to want to win and prove the other person wrong. no sign of anything like the 3rd alternative Covey talks about. around 50 to 57 harrington said something like businesses have gotten too big - have been multinational corporations controlling too much. i agree with that because executives in oak park illinois, the headquarters of mcdonalds, dont care about the people here in malaysia for example. They care about profits. if they can sell unhealthy food and get away with it, im pretty sure they will. again, the problem isnt the economic system it is the social system that creates people who dont care about other people but care about money and want to make more money when they are alraedy very wealthy. and the stock holders, who have extra money to invest, also want to make more money. That is their goal. So they buy stock in companies when they think the company will make money. They don't care much how the company is making the money. If they are getting dividend checks or watching the stock price go up, chances are they are content. |
Core Components of EQI.org Respect | Empathy
Emotional Literacy |
| Dec 26 Some things about MF are bothering me
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