David Simon, creator of "The Wire" on the End of the American Empire

[theseus51]

David Simon, creator of "The Wire" on the End of the American Empire. Not talking about military, or the federal reserve, but a thought provoking critique of the class divide, without sounding like the populist John Edwards.

My favorite part is about how Hollywood gets "poverty" so wrong. How people are either inspiring people who rise up against poverty and get out, or are criminals who get interrogated at police headquarters. There's no other type of poor people depicted by Hollywood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNkL12QD68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhPZYjRgqTI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z42m_J8t18

 

[efiniti]

He's a very interesting speaker and certainly one of those individuals who actually has a clue when it comes to social issues.

However, I'm not sure what he's arguing. He brings up the argument of minimum wage like its unbelievable how we can't agree on something like that. There's a moral issue with forcing someone to pay someone at least a certain amount. Plus, it only hurts employment because the person being forced to pay a certain amount for an individual has to make cuts elsewhere, usually from the employment of another individual. He's certainly looked through the perspective of the employee, but has he looked through the perspective of the employer?

Perhaps he wants to argue why we act the way we act? He can do that all he wants, but until we change who we are then we'll just have to do with free-market Capitalism. It doesn't get much better than voluntary association.

edit:

I am beginning to see that David Simon has not read up on economics at all. I just watched part 2 where he talks about the drug trade. He said that people turn to the drug trade because it solves the existential problem that people are worth less? Wtf? There are people I know around my college with flexible and above-average paying jobs who still make tons of money selling drugs like pot. They are people that aren't poverty stricken, are both black and white, and are obtaining quite successful majors. Why are they selling drugs? Because drugs are a commodity that are high in demand and generally low in supply in the marketplace. There's an incredible profit margin to be made and because its illegal its easier for people at the bottom to enter the market with their product because there's barely any competition.

 

[apropos]

It's an interesting speech, but his attitudes toward capitalism are not compatible with Paul and Austrian Economics. When he talks about modulating capitalism, in practice that means government intervention. Also, unions, minimum wages, and price floors/ceilings are all explored by the Austrian School, and they come to drastically different conclusions about these things than Simon.

 

[theseus51]

He was talking about people living in poor areas that sell drugs. He wasn't saying people who sell drugs are doing it to solve an existential crisis. He was saying that people in poor areas with no skills, no jobs and no industries, when they ask themselves "what am I supposed to do with my life?", there is no answer. People that do drugs, or sell drugs, at least they understand what they are supposed to do, but those that don't turn to the drug trade, they are left with the existential question of "what am I supposed to do with my life?"

And yeah, he isn't close to Ron Paul. But I just thought it was a good speech that y'all might like to hear. We've all listened to Ron Paul say the same thing 100 times, so it's nice to get another perspective. =)