5 Questions with Steve Forbes

[Geee]

Washington Times:

Steve Forbes is chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media. The flagship Forbes magazine, long regarded as America’s best business periodical, has a circulation of nearly 1 million. An early entrant and leader in new media, Forbes websites — including Forbes.com, RealClearPolitics.com and RealClearMarkets.com, among others — reach 20 million online readers a month. A candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000, Mr. Forbes served on the Board for International Broadcasting during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. Author of five books, his latest, with Elizabeth Ames, is, “Freedom Manifesto” (Crown Business, 2012). You can find out more about Mr. Forbes and his company at: Forbes.com.

Decker: The subtitle of your new book is, “Why Free Markets Are Moral and Big Government Isn’t.” What is the morality of the marketplace and how does it work? How is the free-enterprise system better and healthier for the masses than a government safety net?

Forbes: Free markets are moral because they’re fundamentally about meeting the real-world needs and wants of others. In a free-market transaction, two parties — individuals or companies — come together voluntarily to make a reciprocal exchange that provides mutual benefit. The voluntary nature of open markets, most of the time, encourages moral, ethical behavior. You have to treat people well enough so that they’ll choose to do business with you.

You may not always get exactly what you want out of an exchange — you may think, for example, your rent may be too high. But critics of markets are wrong when they insist that markets are driven by “greed.” There are greedy people in our society, but greed doesn’t drive markets. Free enterprise and free markets are about trust and cooperation. People from all backgrounds and beliefs learn to work together and cooperate in the marketplace or the workplace. Free markets enable individuals to discover and develop their individual talents to the fullest. That’s why innovation blossoms in a free-enterprise system.

[Valin]

@Geee

 

The Good News(?) in regards to big government is as I have said many times..."Trends that cannot continue....won't"

The only question as far as I am concerned is, how will this trend to bigger and bigger government end, with a bang (Europe, China) or a whimper. If you know what I'm saying.

So the question is, assuming Mitt Romney is elected President, does he know this?

 

BTW I still have my Forbes 2000 hat and T-shirt, and several bumper stickers, and autographed book.

We Steve's have to stick together!

[Valin]

I love to read the reviews at Amazon....particularly the one star....Astounding

All Reviews

[Argyle58]

@Geee

 

The Good News(?) in regards to big government is as I have said many times..."Trends that cannot continue....won't"

The only question as far as I am concerned is, how will this trend to bigger and bigger government end, with a bang (Europe, China) or a whimper. If you know what I'm saying.

So the question is, assuming Mitt Romney is elected President, does he know this?

 

BTW I still have my Forbes 2000 hat and T-shirt, and several bumper stickers, and autographed book.

We Steve's have to stick together!

I was always a Forbes fan, and would have voted for him. I think his biggest problem as a candidate is that he comes off as TOO likeable. As CEO of a multi billion dollar media enterprise, there has to be a shark there, somewhere, but he never lets it show in his public personae.

 

Not many folks who I can claim as a name sake ever made a good impression in politics, so I'll back a Steve as well as anyone else.

[Argyle58]

I love to read the reviews at Amazon....particularly the one star....Astounding

All Reviews

The one star review was strange......person claims to have entered into business, but had such ultra left wing ideas that it is no wonder that they never succeeded. I love the "140 million Americans at or near the poverty level" comment. 90%+ of our "poor" enjoy a higher standard of living than do 90% of the world's population.

[Valin]

Watch: Freedom Manifesto: Why Free Markets are Moral and Big Government Isn't

Jan. 9 2013

 

Are we a country founded on the values of freedom and limited government, as envisioned by the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? Or, do we want to become a European-style socialist democracy? What best serves the public good – freedom or Big Government?

 

In Freedom Manifesto, Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames offer a new twist on this historic debate. Today’s bloated and bureaucratic government, they argue, is anything but a force for compassion. Instead of assuring fairness, it promotes favoritism. Instead of furthering opportunity, it stifles economic growth. Instead of unleashing innovation and material abundance, its regulations and price controls create rigidity and scarcity. Not only are Big Government’s inefficient and ever-expanding bureaucracies ill-equipped to deliver on their promises – they are often guilty of the very greed, excess, and corruption routinely ascribed to the private sector.

 

The only way to a truly fair and moral society, the authors say, is through economic freedom – free people and free markets. Throughout history, open markets have helped the poor and everyone else by unleashing unprecedented creativity, generating wealth, and raising living standards. Promoting trust, generosity, and democracy, economic freedom has been a more powerful force for individual rights, self-determination – and humanity – than any government bureaucracy. In Freedom Manifesto, the authors provide a fully developed framework of “first principles” for a true understanding of the real moral and ethical distinctions between more and less government.