We’ve all forgotten that there was a crisis of workplace accidents in the United States in the late-19th and early-20th century that killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of peopleīusiness leaders in the United States were absolutely dead-set against doing anything about these twin crises. It’s this idea of the inextricable link between capitalism and economic freedom as a bulwark against totalitarianism.Ĭonway: We pick up the story with business leaders fighting against the regulation of child labor and workplace safety. Then the third part of the myth is, in a way, the most damaging – it’s the piece that really informed Merchants of Doubt. And therefore, we should just trust markets, that the government distorts markets and interferes with the wisdom of the marketplace. So that leads to the second part of the myth, which is the idea that markets have wisdom, that the invisible hand guides us and that if we all do our own thing, our own self-interest will somehow lead to this productive, efficient and happy outcome.

The book documents the rise of what’s more politely called ‘market fundamentalism’ over the last century. The first part of the myth is the notion of the free market, the idea that you could even meaningfully talk about “the free market” as a thing that exists. Oreskes: In a way, the myth isn’t just one thing it’s a set of interconnected concepts that together support this larger ideology of market fundamentalism. The Guardian: How do you define “the big myth”?

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The Guardian spoke to Oreskes and Conway about The Big Myth and how it came to dominate how Americans think about government regulation. At the heart of their beliefs, Oreskes and Conway argue, was the big myth. The book is both a sequel and a prequel to their groundbreaking book Merchants of Doubt, which is about a handful of prominent scientists who obfuscated clear scientific findings to oppose climate regulation. In their new book – The Big Myth – How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market – Oreskes and Conway document the rise of what’s more politely called “market fundamentalism” over the last century, from corporate propaganda and fringe academic theory to mainstream ideology.

M friedman capitalism and freedom