the yes men

I watched a very funny documentary the other night called The Yes Men. It follows a couple of liberal activists who get into a couple of situations that made me laugh so hard I had to stop and pause the movie.

If you've got NetFlix or something, queue this one up, watch it, and read this post later. If you've seen it, or don't ever plan on watching it, continue reading.


These two guys started a website to spoof the World Trade Organization website. Somehow, their website was often mistaken for the real thing -- to the point where these guys were being asked to make appearances on behalf on the WTO!

So naturally, they made the appearances. One them does all of the public speaking as the WTO rep, and he does it EXTREMELY well. The documentary is worth watching just to see him. He is so perfect for the role that it's difficult to explain.

Here he is on CNBC. Just look at him!

At these appearances, he essentially takes the same positions as the WTO, except he doesn't sugar coat the rhetoric. So it comes off as extreme (or just extremely honest to some.)

For example, my favorite is when he was asked to appear on CNBC's marketwatch for a debate. He poses as a WTO rep named Granwyth Hulatberi (they use great fake names by the way, my favorite was "Kinnithrung Sprat.")

Stances he takes during the debate include: The WTO's key agenda is to privatize education, so your kids won't think the way you do, they will understand why free trade is good, and they will honor the right thinkers like Darwin and Friedman. And might makes right, the rich are right because they have power, and the poor are wrong because if they were right, they'd have power. The problem with liberals is that they rely too much on facts, but protesters against free trade don't understand the theories well enough. Markets are still the answer no matter what. (you really have to watch him say this stuff) For example, a market in human rights violations can allow countries that want to abuse people to buy “Justice Vouchers” from those who don’t.

But, the craziest part, is that no one EVER questions whether this guy is an actual WTO rep. People just find him to be a straight talking free market guy.

Once he was up on a stage in front of an auditorium full of PhD students advocating that free trade would be actually more beneficial to business owners than legalized slavery (because it is cheaper to pay for the laborer's wages in their own country, and that also allows businesses to avoid the stigma of depriving anyone of their "freedom.") In the presentation, he actually crunches some numbers to demonstrate. He finally argues that slavery should have never been abolished because had it truly been a problem, it would have been fixed by the market.


It's very funny, just watching him play the WTO rep is worth it. As far as globalization, I don't really have a stance either way. Even if it seems immoral to some, it's difficult to argue with the fact that people in third world countries choose to work in these sweatshops. No one is putting a gun to their head. The argument will always be that they're better off with our factories there pumping money into their economy. No one is stopping them from passing labor laws, and if they do, large companies can find another country's poor people to work for them. And in theory, this should eventually lead to a truly global market. (which will be a disaster for the US (imho)) I guess I like my economics how I like my coffee, Keynesian.