Freidman, Galbraith, Hicks. Who they hell are they??

Two economists and the best comedian ever. One Keynesian, one post Keynesian and one Chomsky with dick jokes.

What links these people, and what i like about them and their ideas (even the ones i disagree with) are that they were all people centred. Galbraith concerned himself with the power of corporate America, the provision of public services (or lack of it) and the education of Americans. Galbraith has things to tell us today that are relevant to Collective bargaining, government regulation, the power of large companies to dictate to small companies and consumers.

Milton Friedman was VERY different, but there's still much i admire in him, while he was strongly anti regulation (he even argued that government shouldn't license doctors)however he was influential in pushing the US away from conscription, he argued for the decriminalisation of drugs and prostitution, and he understood that government was better placed to provide some services than business was, even if we might disagree on which services these might be. He even suggested a negative income tax which is a thoroughly interesting idea.

Hicks on the other hand, wasn't an economist, hell for much of his life i'm sure he was too loaded to do simple maths but he was much MUCH more than a comedian. He believed the job of comedy was to point out the emperors missing clothes and he did this exceptionally well. He took no prisoners, stood no fools and spoke his mind. That he is still the funniest stand-up i've ever heard, that he was censored and obscure during his lifetime, that he was rated by George Carlin (of broadly similar style) and that he died young only amplify his mystique.

Many people have many heroes, Bill Hicks is mine.

Penn & Teller

Penn & Teller, the American "magicians" do a show called bullshit, 30 min episodes on a generally skeptic theme, really interesting stuff. In particular their programmes on PETA and gun control were really interesting.

Watching PETA members equate farming to the holocaust, arguing that seeing eye dogs are morally wrong and saying that diabetics should just live without insulin is tbh not all that surprising, i've always thought animal rights activists were a touch nutty.

It was the gun control episode that was most interesting to me, not a subject i've thought about for a long time. I've always been an advocate of the idea that governments should be afraid of their ppl not the other way around and the suggestion that an armed citizenry is the best way to achieve this is quite compelling, esp in light of G20 protests and so on. At the very least its a provocative idea, even if it is presented in the manner of entertainment rather than pure critique.

Bet they're friends of bill.

Seek it out on piratebay while its still around!