Last week, I told you all about Faith 101, the first class in Glenn Beck’s Beck University. Last night, (even though I have some serious hypothetical questions involving Beck U’s dean, my credit card number, and the Russians) I attended Hope 101, the second class in the online lecture series. And now I am going to tell you all about it.
If Beck wasn’t trying for the “Faith, Hope and Charity” conceit, Hope 101 would probably be named “Libertarian Economics 101.” The professor is David Buckner, who is most famous for fainting on Beck’s show once. It’s interesting to note that Buckner milks his professorship at Columbia University Teachers College for all it’s worth. It’s even more interesting to note that he is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology and Education there, meaning that this economics thing is…more of a hobby?
Anyway, Buckner is not as charismatic a professor as last week’s unctuous host, David Barton. He’s rather dull, in fact. On the positive side, he was more genuinely professorial than Barton. On the negative side, a bunch of dumb shit fell out of his mouth. Buckner opens with a 10-minute-long story about being stuck in an airport. He really wants to get on standby for a flight, but the gate attendant won’t let him on the list, even as she welcomes other last-minute travelers to the flight. (As with every story of awful airplane employees told by frequent travelers, Buckner is Absolutely Faultless in this story. I’m sure he wasn’t screaming, red-faced, at the attendant from the minute he approached the gate or anything like that.) Eventually, a kind stewardess leads him on the nearly empty plane, and Buckner has his choice of seat, including first class. Happy ending!
The point of the story, Buckner tells us, is that the dumb gate attendant kept blaming everything on “Policy” instead of questioning why those policies are in place. He says that all customers—nay, all Americans—need to relearn the power of asking “Why.” And then he told us what to think for another 25 minutes. The beginning of the real meat of the lecture was about value-added costs and opportunity costs: If you drive around forever to find gas that’s 2 cents cheaper a gallon, you’re probably not coming out ahead. If you see milk for $4, you refuse to pay it, and you hail a cab to go to another supermarket to pay $3.50 for that same gallon of milk, you’ve lost more money and time than you’ve gained.
Buckner told a long story about how he financed a small business by ordering ten no-fee credit cards and financing his business that way, turning the paradigm on its head by using tools of consumption as tools of investment. Buckner believes that the cheapest producer of things is always the best. “Why am I here? Truthfully, I’m the cheapest” professor they could find, he says, adding that the decision of Beck U students to “hire” him as a professor instead of just reading the books he gets his ideas from is a balance between cost and need and time and value. He then made the classic libertarian mistake: He applied personal finance rules to global economies, as though the analogy could be perfectly flawless. America, he suggests, is moving from a market system to a planned system. Governments don’t invest, he says. They only consume. So he warned us to be concerned when people say that the government says they’re going to invest in America. They are spending money with no hope of return, Buckner says:
You will hear many politicians arguing for an investment in America. A bridge is not an investment unless revenue can be drawn from it. A bailout is not an investment unless profit can be reaped.
That was the point of Hope 101: That things like infrastructure and health care and regulation are not America’s job. Buckner promised to delve further into this in future classes. Considering the flaws in the foundation he’s laid here today—in his ideal world, everything would be insanely cheap and business would be totally unregulated—this should be fun. There are screenshots and quotes from the post-class chatroom (“We all need to kling to HOPE”) after the jump.
[Comment From phoenix59: ]
am i the only person here?
Wednesday July 14, 2010 8:04
[Comment From Frank: ]
Excellent lecture. Thank you David. We all need to kling to HOPE.
Wednesday July 14, 2010 8:33
Some Q&As from the post-lecture chat:
[Comment From James: ]
What economy is the most Planned in the world?David Buckner:
Probably Iran, Cuba, Bhutan.
[Comment From Amy: ]
Do you think we have been purposely trained to not ask the “Why” questions?David Buckner:
Most businesses focus on policies and procedures rather than teaching to ask WHY
Buckner suggested that everyone should read his new book, Permission to Think.
8:51 [Comment From chris: ]
How do we get the book permission to think? Where?
[Comment From greenrun1: ]
Are all questions getting through?
David Buckner:
An honor to be with you all. Please stay in touch and send your questions to www.buckneronbusiness.comRemember to always ask “WHY” not just ‘HOW”
You have Permission to THINK!!!
You know, Jesus didn’t travel on airplanes.
If they really followed in Jesus’ footsteps, they’d be traveling by foot, so that we could run over them on our fixies.
As a libertarian, I resent the claim that that is a “classic libertarian mistake.” Rather, it is a classic moron mistake.
scary stuff, paul. thanks for the recap. i’ll stay tuned for the next debriefing.
I’d like to add to my own comment that I first came across the “applying personal finance rule to global economies” mistake in an article decrying how, by increasing its GDP, the US was necessarily stealing precious GDP from other countries. It’s just something that people who know absolutely nothing about economics do, regardless of political persuasion.
So how is it those copies of his book are supposed to either arrive in my mailbox or at my local bookstore if the trucks carrying them don’t have bridges to cross?
Yes, everyone knows that all buying decisions are made based on either lowest $ cost or lowest cost of resources. People are unwilling to pay more for things that are of better quality, that offer better service, or that confer some kind of status. People will not pay more for a particular brand. If you are starting a business, you should not try to do it “better” just do it “cheaper”. That’s the path to success!
I’m loving these courses (filtered through you of course, I would never devote more than 10 minutes to reading about it). This one just seemed to be a plug for the guys book…
If you’re not careful, going to Beck U might make your head explode. I hope the Stranger folks realize you’re really taking one for the team.
The first thing that comes to his mind when someone asks “what country has the most planned economy?” is Iran? IRAN? He’s an idiot. Iran’s economy is maybe 50% centrally-planned (and is undergoing significant privatization), which isn’t anywhere near the top of the state-planning table. And Bhutan? What the fuck? He’s just trying to sound all experty there. He knows fuck-all about Bhutan, I can guarantee it.
The correct answer is North Korea, Cuba, and Burma, though you could probably throw Saudi Arabia and several of the African kleptocracies in there without being far wrong.
This guy sounds like the worst professor in the world. His “bridges aren’t an investment” argument is completely vacuous.
@5, my copy of his book arrived this morning when I sat on the toilet and pushed. No bridge necessary.
Final Review:
#1 People produce wealth
#2 Governments are Monopolies
#3 Governments Consume
#4 Never Fight a Land War in Asia
@2 – but then what’s the difference, really?
My favorite part is how he thinks it’s necessary or even appropriate to browbeat people into behaving like the perfect “rational actors” that his theory of economics relies upon in order to be valid. In any other discipline, when your theory doesn’t describe how normal people act in the real world, the assumption is that your theory is at fault, not the entire world. But not in the “dismal science,” at least not for “libertarians.”
Action Slacks, I think I love you.
“Governments Consume, not Invest”? Really?
When you get your paycheck, the government takes a chunk out of it (in addition to withholding taxes) and INVESTS IT in Social Security, which then goes on to take care of you when you’re old and possibly destitute. The Federal government helps EVERYONE invest for the future RIGHT THERE.
My only question is how this schmuckhead missed hearing about this.
Oh yeah, that’s right, cognitive dissonance.
Oh yeah, those Bhutanese mofos… You gotta watch out for all those happy Buddhists, that’s for sure… Wouldn’t want to take any lessons from THAT playbook, oh no sirree bob, unh unh…
What a maroon.
Yes, Paul, you SHOULD be getting hazard pay for this assignment… for reals, yo…
Is he willfully misinterpreting the role of government, or is he truly that ignorant?
@16, I’m not sure what lessons you want to take from subsistence agriculture, which is what they mostly do.
It is really too bad that the Stranger readers weren’t in the class, you would have fried him. So sad that people are sucked in by someone as disturbing as Glenn Beck. I love all of your comments. If it wouldn’t make jack ass richer I would say we could all take the class and blow him out of the water, get him on everything we know is wrong, which is everything. Sick
Retard U.
“Governments don’t invest, they only consume”? WHAT is this moron smoking!? Hello, public roads? Public health? Public policing and fire departments? Public education? All these things grow the economy, thereby increasing revenue and ultimately paying for themselves. I am so disgusted by libertarians who think that guvmint is inherently evil and companies are inherently perfect. So busy masturbating to Ayn Rand that they never look at the world…
Also, the notion that cheapest=best is so ridiculous, so obviously counter to reality, that it makes my head explode. Everybody with half a brain knows that when something is the cheapest of its kind, it’s because the manufacturer prioritized cheapness over quality and made a shitty ass product that will fall apart the second the warranty runs out. Quality is ultimately cheaper than cheap, as you’ll see if you do the math: $100 boots last a lifetime, $10 boots last three years tops…
Also, the most planned economy in the world is CLEARLY North Korea, not any of the three he listed.
@23: North Korea has an economy? They’re so far down the tubes that the masses can’t even necessarily get anesthetic for routine amputations! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/15…
Ah making money off of schmucks by feeding them drivel they want to hear… America’s favorite pastime!
Wow. Its not always true that playing SIM city can debunk your crazy theories.