The Resurgence of Big Government

By Yaron Brook
Recorded September 18, 2008

America entered the 21st century riding a wave of prosperity brought on by two decades of increasing economic freedom—yet our current decade has seen an explosion in the size and reach of government. Today we hear from all sides that the source of our economic troubles is capitalism, and that the solution is more regulation, more controls, more government.

In this talk, Yaron Brook discusses why Americans began to embrace free markets during the ’80s and ’90s—and why this trend could not last. He argues that capitalism had proved itself to be the only economic system capable of achieving lasting prosperity, but that a crucial failure on the part of capitalism’s defenders made the resurgence of big government inevitable.

Using our current housing and financial crisis as a case study, Dr. Brook shows how the inability of capitalism’s advocates to provide a moral defense of self-interest and the profit motive—essential characteristics of capitalism—led Americans to view government intervention as the cure for economic disasters allegedly brought on by “market excesses” and unrestrained “greed.”

Finally, Dr. Brook shows how Ayn Rand’s revolutionary morality of rational egoism completes the case for capitalism and thereby makes possible a permanent end to big government.

© Ayn Rand Institute. All rights reserved.