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A Firing Line Debate: Resolved: That Free-Market Competitiveness Is Best for America
Collection StructureFiring Line broadcast records > Episode guide > A Firing Line Debate: Resolved: That Free-Market Competitiveness Is Best for America
Item Title A Firing Line Debate: Resolved: That Free-Market Competitiveness Is Best for America
Guest Hart, Gary (1936-)
Guest Kemp, Jack
Guest Schroeder, Pat
Guest Galbraith, John Kenneth (1908-2006)
Guest Kirkpatrick, Jeane J.
Guest Buckley, William F., Jr. (1925-2008)
Guest McGovern, George S. (George Stanley) (1922-2012)
Guest Gingrich, Newt
Host Buckley, William F., Jr. (1925-2008)
Moderator Kinsley, Michael E.
Date CreatedSeptember 13, 1989
Description

Broadcast live. As Mr. Kinsley sets the stage, "At a time when even the Communist world is turning to free markets, I don't think you can expect tonight's negative team to come out for socialism. But you can expect them to give the affirmatives a hard time about whether unfettered free markets are always the best solution in areas like corporate mergers, health care, the environment, and so on." Mr. McGovern duly steps up to the plate: "All of us believe in freedom. All of us believe in competition. No one of us advocated the centralized, state-run systems of the Communist or fascist worlds. So the question is, What is the debate all about? It is about whether there is a proper role for the government in protecting us against the excesses and the weaknesses of a big-business, free-enterprise economy." The argument sometimes bogs down in (often funny) ad hominem remarks, and in Mr. Kemp's tendency to bound along on his standard entrepreneurship speech; but Mrs. Kirkpatrick in particular has the gift of making the proper distinctions: "My question, Pat, is why are you so eager to mix something that doesn't work-that's an admitted evil in itself, like controls and taxes and regulations-with something that works reasonably well, namely a self-regulating market?" PS: "Well, I'm not sure what you mean that I am trying to mix." JJK: "You keep talking about the desirability of a mixed economy as though it were good in itself.... It may be a necessity in itself in our times, I'll buy that, but it isn't a good in itself."

Language(s)
Country of Origin
Place RecordedOxford, Mississippi, United States
DimensionsDuration: 2 hrs.
FormatMoving Image
Medium television programs
Aspect Ratio
4:3
Color
color
Soundtrack
sound
Hoover IDProgram FLS106
Record Number80040.1079
NotesVideo available through special order.
RightsCopyright held by Stanford University. This copy is provided for educational and research purposes only. No publication, further reproduction, or reuse of copies, beyond fair use, may be made without the express written permission of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives on behalf of Stanford University.

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