Arthur Brooks and Steve Forbes on the Morality of Free Markets

In this video, John Stossel talks with Steve Forbes and Arthur Brooks about the moral case for free enterprise. When accused of promoting a system that hurts the poor, Brooks responds:

For the truly poor in this country we need two things. We need relief, and we need opportunity. If you want to guarantee relief to the most indigent members of society, you must have a functioning economy. You and I will be inconvenienced by a debt crisis in this country—which will come if we don’t change course—the poor will lose everything, and that's catastrophic.

Forbes also provides an insightful answer to Stossel's question about greed in capitalism, saying:

Greed in people's minds means taking something that doesn't belong to you. In the free market, what you have is transactions—you want something, I want something, we have an exchange… Free markets are about meeting the needs of other people, but government is about meeting their own needs.

Their discussion ranges from China and trade to poverty and cooperation, allowing the three men an opportunity to expound upon the virtues of free markets. Watch the full video below.