Ten Economic Principles Worth Fighting For
The Dividend Cafe · Aug 7, 2026 · 28:32
The Dividend Cafe · Aug 7, 2026 · 28:32
Listen in the Podli app 🎧
Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/4yXEhxi
David Bahnsen argues investors focus too much on describing or predicting the economy and not enough on prescriptive first principles about what a market economy ought to be. He outlines 10 “non-negotiable” tenets of free enterprise: private property; the profit motive; division of labor; innovation and progress; capital and labor enhancing one another (rejecting a Marxian conflict view); laissez-faire as the default with prudent regulation; incentives matter; Hayek’s knowledge problem and the dangers of centralized planning; an economics of addition and multiplication (growth) over subtraction and division (redistribution/zero-sum thinking), including how his firm invests; and “work” as the verb of economics that animates prosperity and service to others. He warns these principles are being treated as dispensable across modern political discourse, with consequences for portfolios.
00:00 Why Principles Matter
02:08 Ten Non Negotiables
03:11 Private Property
08:51 Profit Motive
10:29 Division of Labor
11:45 Innovation and Progress
13:25 Capital and Labor
15:32 Laissez Faire
16:32 Incentives Matter
18:05 Knowledge Problem
21:09 Growth Not Zero Sum
23:31 Work The Verb
25:19 Closing Thoughts
Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com
