Thursday, April 28, 2011

Which is the Pitch

The debate I mentioned yesterday, about whether Rand is a help or hindrance, with Marsha Enright and Heather Wilhelm, is available online here

You have to let an ad run, and once it runs you might want to skip ahead to about 10:30. That's when the intro to the debate starts. It's really a very short debate, followed by a longer question and answer session.

To some extent the debate recapped articles the 2 women had authored.

Heather Wilhelm in the Wall St. Journal:
Rand held some insight on the nature of markets and has sold scads of books, but when it comes to shaping today's mainstream assumptions, she is a terrible marketer: elitist, cold and laser-focused on the supermen and superwomen of the world.

How are free markets best "sold"? A more compelling approach flips Rand's philosophy on its head, explaining how everyone, especially society's neediest, benefits from economic liberty
Marsha Enright and Gen LaGreca in the Daily Caller:
Free-market capitalism arises from a social vision that cares about the smallest minority of all: the individual. That vision recognizes the moral superiority of the right of the individual to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—the very vision identified by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence and fought for by the Founding Fathers.
I'm thinking we need a rap version of the debate video - something along the lines of the funny Keynes/Hayek video.

Free markets help everyone - the rich and the poor.
Everyone prospers when there's more - more - more.

But which is the pitch with more marketing verve -
"Markets help you prosper!" or "Markets help you serve!" ?

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