Penn and Teller Send Up Wal-Mart Hatred
Once again, Penn and Teller hilariously explode the myths and superstitions about capitalism with a healthy contempt and a plethora of curse words, so use discretion.
Here's Wal-Mart Hatred is Barbara Streisand.
By the way, one of the anti-Wal-Mart subjects of the show is Joe Moore, who's on Chicago's city council. He claims that Wal-Mart pays slave wages, destroys families, and is responsible for all kinds of evils.
I commented on this kind of thinking last week in an article in which I discussed the fact that it's the state itself that pays slave wages for jury slavery, and that this is an alleged civic duty.
Also amusing in the video is one man claiming that Wal-Mart isn't productive, but it's eliminative and displaces competition. Did he intend "Wal-Mart" to be a code word for "government"? And does Wal-Mart, being predatory for lowering prices and offering a wide variety of goods, make unilaterally imposed high taxes peaceful and productive? Because the government tools featured think so.
Comments (7)
Good show! Excellent, thanks for the link. It was especially sad to see those two jerks from Hel-mart feeling superior to people who decide to shop or work at Walmart. Made me feel pity for them.
Published: April 7, 2007 2:08 PM
Don't forget to mention Ben Powell's appearance, talking about his research with David Skarbek. Austrians in the media!
If you pause the video when Powell is lecturing (at about 18:27) you can see Ed Stringham sitting in the audience, as well as Nick Currott (who was a Mises summer fellow in 2005).
Published: April 7, 2007 4:00 PM
I enjoyed this video, then I clicked on the video for the P&T show about creationism. It's interesting because near the beginning, Penn expounds on his theory of government:
The problem we're having is we belong to a club, called the U.S.A. As members we pay dues, called taxes, to support public, government-run schools, and those schools are run according to the government handbook, called the United States Constitution. Now the constitution says, "Our club steers clear of religion." That's the deal we made. If we pay for it with taxes, it can't have religion in it.
It's too bad Teller isn't more of a Rothbardian libertarian, or the episode might have sounded like this:
Public schools are b-lls--t! No wonder so many kooks are competing to force their personal agendas into the curriculum. It's a f--king government indoctrination factory! And where the f--k in our club charter - the constitution - does it say that I have to pay for government schools? And how am I a member of a club just because my great-great-great grandpa joined?
It's interesting that a field of study like evolution - of everything taught in public schools probably the least necessary and the least useful (compared to mathematics, reading, writing, chemistry, physics, biology, even drama and music) - becomes the most controversial subject. Likewise, the story of creation in the book of Genesis is probably the least relevant part of the Bible when it comes to history, faith, morality, law, and so on. But when people consider what's good or bad about public schools, all they can think about is the war between an obscure, unimportant (to high schoolers) sub-field of biology and an obscure and meaningless page-and-a-half of a religious scripture. Only a government program could ever waste so many people's time and energy.
Anyone who wants to know more should read Darwin's Origin of Species. Among many gems, he says (i) There is no conflict whatsoever between the theory of evolution and the story of creation in the Bible, because obviously an omnipotent being could have produced the entire Earth and all of its rock formations and fossils in the blink of an eye, and if one chooses to believe in this creation then it is a matter of faith about which science has nothing to say. (ii) The complaint that there are missing links in the fossil record says nothing about the viability of the theory of evolution, because it is clear from the way that geoligical formations come into being that only a very small fraction of living creatures will ever become fossilized, and only in a very small number of places on the earth at any one time. Therefore, many (if not most) species of living creature which have existed in Earth's history were never fossilized and therefore many missing links will never be found.
Published: April 7, 2007 11:58 PM
Wal*Mart does not compete in a free market, and one can still criticize them for their rent-seeking and use of eminent domain.
But that much is true of most every other business, and to single out Wal*Mart is somewhat intellectually dishonest, when the criticism ought to be directed to the vehicle which makes privilege possible: government.
Published: April 8, 2007 9:45 AM
I love Penn and Teller’s show, and used to be a huge defender of Wal-Mart for all of the reasons presented in the show. Lately however I have tried to calm down my support of them because there have been some disturbing news stories out. I have read that Wal-Mart supports national health care, they have been in the news for eminent domain abuses, and for negotiating city and county tax breaks unavailable to everyone else (this is a tough call as I think all taxes are unfair and don’t blame Wal-Mart for trying to get a deal, but I also don’t like the government showing preferential treatment to one company over another).
Published: April 8, 2007 12:22 PM
Excellent. The P&T send-up of environmentalism is also excellent. It used to be on youtube but only small snippet remains. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw
Published: April 8, 2007 5:30 PM
For those who see Wal-Mart shaking down communities, the communities shake down Wal-Mart in turn, or the people who sell their land to them. I've heard of cases where the councils block a Wal-Mart being built by whatever means the have, some sort of restriction etc, that is until the person selling the land agrees to sell a tasty strip to the city as well, who in turn sells it to Wal-Mart and makes a tidy sum.
Just like gambling, it is bad for the people unless the government gets part of the house. Then it's sound public policy.
As for supporting national healthcare, Wal-Mart can go to hell.
Published: April 12, 2007 4:22 PM