Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer
Sep 1, 2026 · 40 min · 11 segments
Why do so many Americans feel powerless, lonely, and disconnected — and what does that have to do with our economy? Senator Chris Murphy joins Nick and Goldy to discuss his new book…
Chris MurphyGuestDavid GoldsteinHost
Nick HanauerHostNick, there's so many things I could go into on what he said, but I'm going to focus on one particular phrase because it really speaks to something that you and I both believe in.
Because one of my phrases is, and we've written this, I don't know if we've published this line yet, but it's the best things in life aren't free, but they are almost always inefficient.
When you actually think of your life, I mean, you don't play with your children efficiently.
You don't go out to dinner with friends efficiently, walk your dog efficiently.
And maybe hundreds of years ago when capital was scarce and food was scarce and most people lived in a subsistence economy where if you weren't efficiently like raising the chickens and tending to your garden, you might starve in the winter.
But one of the benefits, if you believe in capitalism, as a lot of people do, if you believe in markets, one of the benefits of the past couple hundred years of capitalism and industrialization is that we don't live in that scarcity world anymore.
We have plenty of stuff to adequately feed, clothe, house, educate, and give healthcare to all 8 billion people in this world.
We should let the machines do the boring stuff and the tedious stuff and the dangerous stuff and allow ourselves to enjoy the inefficiency that we have accumulated, this opportunity to enjoy inefficiency.
And that is just anathema both to economics, orthodox economics, as it is taught.
If you want to go to the old idea of the Protestant work ethic in America, the idea that we should all be hardworking and, you know, save all our pennies and, you know, reinvest it in the future.
I mean, I think that, I mean, neoliberalism, has a bunch of moral dimensions that are not explicit, but are nevertheless incredibly powerful.
Because once you reduce everything to effectively capital efficiency, there are such profound social, moral, and cultural ramifications to that, that we end up in this society where All the social ills that Chris points out become inevitable.
Nick, there's so many things I could go into on what he said, but I'm going to focus on one particular phrase because it really speaks to something that you and I both believe in.
Because one of my phrases is, and we've written this, I don't know if we've published this line yet, but it's the best things in life aren't free, but they are almost always inefficient.
When you actually think of your life, I mean, you don't play with your children efficiently.
You don't go out to dinner with friends efficiently, walk your dog efficiently.
And maybe hundreds of years ago when capital was scarce and food was scarce and most people lived in a subsistence economy where if you weren't efficiently like raising the chickens and tending to your garden, you might starve in the winter.
But one of the benefits, if you believe in capitalism, as a lot of people do, if you believe in markets, one of the benefits of the past couple hundred years of capitalism and industrialization is that we don't live in that scarcity world anymore.
We have plenty of stuff to adequately feed, clothe, house, educate, and give healthcare to all 8 billion people in this world.
We should let the machines do the boring stuff and the tedious stuff and the dangerous stuff and allow ourselves to enjoy the inefficiency that we have accumulated, this opportunity to enjoy inefficiency.
And that is just anathema both to economics, orthodox economics, as it is taught.
If you want to go to the old idea of the Protestant work ethic in America, the idea that we should all be hardworking and, you know, save all our pennies and, you know, reinvest it in the future.
I mean, I think that, I mean, neoliberalism, has a bunch of moral dimensions that are not explicit, but are nevertheless incredibly powerful.
Because once you reduce everything to effectively capital efficiency, there are such profound social, moral, and cultural ramifications to that, that we end up in this society where All the social ills that Chris points out become inevitable.
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