Limited Government

Finance a la shmoop what is laissez faire? alright well you know the

Renaissance Fair you know about playing fair and what about with laissez faire?

French term for more or less a Beatles [Beatles band singing]

song yeah let it be well as it applies to economics let it be means that the

economy is smarter than we are or at least a better arbiter of what works

what doesn't and what is fair ish so the ideology of laissez faire argues that

economic forces should be allowed to work themselves with maximum freedom and

minimal government interference part of the logic is purely economic government [Stash of cash appears]

involvement is friction bureaucrats who insert their noses only serve to hit the [Car driving uphill and approaches woman with stop sign]

brakes on the economy and make transactions more expensive by applying

taxes, ever been to the DMV and you know gotten the angry stare from the woman

whose Facebook page updating you just interrupted while hoping to get your [Dog on a leash appears]

license renewed yeah that's big government at work friction tax dollars

being spent to employ that woman instead of just figuring out a website that'll

let you go do it all on your own for about one millionth of the cost but part

of the argument of laissez faire is ethical, laissez faire advocates argue that

government interference distorts the natural and equitable forces of economic

development like think global warming for economics courtesy of our carbon [Earth heating up]

pollution otherwise known as regulatory friction slowing down the natural forces

of the commercial markets well in the heyday of laissez faire economics in

the last decades of the 19th century you really could buy happiness money was

pretty much everything government could be bought and it was kind of not a real

force without money behind it right kill someone well, you pay a fine of 199.95

kind of the way you know mexico works today

so what's fair about laissez faire? is it fair to have no minimum wage well laissez faire [Scribbles appear on graph of federal minimum wage]

would say yes but john steinbeck you know The Grapes of Wrath guy yeah he

would say no no and a half the logic is that human being

needing to eat will do pretty much anything to feed their kids right and [Man using shovel]

can't blame them will they work for just five bucks an hour to pay for that last

meal and probably a dollar an hour if it'll feed their last kid yeah you bet

fair well maybe among cave people but not today [Cave people by a fire]

but then there are other perspectives to consider like is it fair to have child

labor laws? if kids want to earn money cobbling shoes or making straw hats or

working 16-hour days in a stock brokerage or at shmoop...

shouldn't they be allowed to do so what do you think fair

not fair laissez faire yeah we don't know for sure what do you think? [People in shmoop boardroom]