About the seminar:
“The free market will save the world,” claims Johan Norberg, Swedish historian of ideas, journalist, lecturer, and senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank CATO Institute, in his book published in 2023. He explains that he wrote this book because “at least once every 20 years, we need a capitalist manifesto that advocates economic freedom” to remind ourselves of what restricting the free market leads to under pressure from various groups who believe that the state must intervene to solve the problems and conflicts that arise.
Capitalism, or, as Norberg more often writes, the free market (which is a better term because it is not ideologically charged), is based on private property and voluntary contracts between people (including employment contracts). In his work, Norberg cites many arguments and evidence from numerous economic studies that the free market is a powerful and progressive force that has brought about the fastest economic growth in history, technological progress, and improved living conditions for millions of people, including longer life expectancy and better health. Contrary to widespread but false claims, the free market, which promotes economic growth, benefits the poor by reducing poverty. “Therefore,” writes Norberg, “redistribution-based policies are terribly overrated.”
If so, where do the attacks on the relatively best economic system come from? What are their psychological and political underpinnings? Why is the state expanding in the economy, limiting economic freedom and competition in the market, and damaging the public finances? How can we counter these attacks and processes of restricting the free market.
