The Citizen Reagan Podcast

The choice between the Free Market and Centralized Planning was a major topic throughout Reagan's broadcasts, with Reagan obviously supporting the Free Market. We look at several attempts by individuals or groups, both inside and outside of the United States, to put into place schemes for central planning (taking your freedom of choice).

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In the 1970s, it was (or it seemed) popular to be fearful of the future. The Cold War, the environment (and its related population bomb concerns), crime, drugs, the poor, stagflation, and more. One such group helping to sow that fear was the Club of Rome through their book The Limits to Growth. Futurist and physicist Herman Kahn believes they are wrong. Now, almost 50 years later, who was right?

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When Reagan was composing his episodes, he was constrained by a 3-5 minute time window. Podcasts have no such limitation. Today, we're going to take an expanded look at an 18-page pamphlet Reagan talked about in August 1979 about electrical power generation.

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When disaster strikes a community or area of the country, to whom should we turn? If you've been listening for awhile, you know my answer would not be the Federal government.

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Do we need a reminder, perhaps, of how great it is here in the United States of America? Might I suggest speaking to someone who was not born here. Reagan reads from a letter from a Polish immigrant (which I found in its entirety) and from a July 5, 1976 London Daily Mail editorial from Ferdinand Mount (which I have not found).

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The issue of gun control goes in and out of the news. The latest hot button event is President Biden's statement that at the time of the writing of the Constitution, there were already arms control laws in place. He also seemed to suggest that nukes were necessary to fight the government.

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When a government creates a "program" and creates a budget for it, how much of that money actually goes to the program and how much ends up in administrative costs or on completely unnecessary spending?

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In 1975, Reagan shared the story of the Modern Little Red Hen, but 8 years earlier, another fowl made a first appearance in theaters with a 20-minute lesson on money and economics.

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What is the history of Taiwan after the Chinese war between the Communists and Nationalists? Are there two countries (People's Republic of China and Republic of China on Taiwan) or one? Depends on who's talking. Reagan talked about Taiwan several times, mostly because Jimmy Carter is the president who ultimately severed ties with Taiwan in favor of the PRC.

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Reagan may have written the majority of his scripts, but did her perform every script? No, actually he didn't. Two scripts included in the book Reagan's Path to Victory never made it to the air, until now. I record one of these scripts and, as always, add some context and history.

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