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Watch a Livestream of Nick Gillespie and Katherine Mangu-Ward Debating Capitalism's Merits Against Jacobin magazine Tonight at 7:30 ET!

Reason's top editors go up against Vivek Chibber and Bhaskar Sunkara from the socialist publication.

Jim Epstein | 11.3.2017 4:00 PM

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Tonight at 7:30 ET, Reason's Nick Gillespie and Katherine Mangu-Ward will be debating the merits of capitalism with Vivek Chibber and Bhaskar Sunkara from Jacobin magazine, which bills itself as "a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture." The event will be held at Cooper Union's Great Hall in New York City. (Tickets sold out in 24 hours, prompting a move to a larger venue.) New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg will moderate.

We'll be running a livestream of the debate on Facebook Live, so you can go over to Reason's Facebook Page—like us!—to tune in and sound off in the comments. We'll also be embedding the feed here at Hit & Run.

The evening's resolution: "Is capitalism the best way to improve standards of living, ensure political and economic freedom, and provide opportunity? Could socialism do better?"

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NEXT: Republicans' Tax Plan Crashes Jerry Brown's Electric Car Fantasies

Jim Epstein is executive editor of Reason.

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  1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   8 years ago

    Watch a Livestream of Reason's Nick Gillespie and Katherine Mangu-Ward Debating Capitalism's Merits Tonight at 7:30 ET!

    KMW for, Gillespie against?

  2. DEATFBIRSECIA   8 years ago

    Would. Both of em.

    1. Citizen X - #6   8 years ago

      Bobby Clown is down with whatever!

      1. DEATFBIRSECIA   8 years ago

        DTC

  3. Brandybuck   8 years ago

    So ironic for the leading socialist rag in the states to be named "Jacobin". Not woke, not woke at all.

  4. BestUsedCarSales   8 years ago

    I'm just glad this will finally be decided.

  5. Fist of Etiquette   8 years ago

    I thought we all agreed to call it the free market.

    1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   8 years ago

      This isn't a democracy, FoE, it's a Cheerocaracy.

    2. Francisco d'Anconia   8 years ago

      YOU AGREED!

  6. ChipToBeSquare   8 years ago

    Please please just ask them how to perform economic calculation in a socialist economy. You can talk about how our lives have improved under the market but they have their own interpretations about that. They still don't have a rational allocation of resources figured out though and in my experience most of them haven't even heard about the problem

    1. Gary T   8 years ago

      Socialism would work fine, if we had the social mentality of ants or wasps.
      Human are social animals, but not so much so that we sacrifice all for the collective.

      Socialism begets Totalitarianism:
      https://tinyurl.com/y969axhk

    2. Gary T   8 years ago

      Socialism would work fine, if we had the social mentality of ants or wasps.
      Human are social animals, but not so much so that we sacrifice all for the collective.

      Socialism begets Totalitarianism:
      https://tinyurl.com/y969axhk

  7. TJM   8 years ago

    Is this really a thing? Do people not notice Venezuela vs Hong Kong?

    1. Brandybuck   8 years ago

      Venezuela has an evil dictator. Marxist socialism without evil dictators always works. We just haven't tried it yet.

  8. Alcibiades   8 years ago

    Equivalent debates in the sciences would be:

    Heliocentric solar system vs. Geocentric solar system

    Evolution by natural selection vs. Book of Genesis

    etc., etc....

    There are two things the political left are good at:

    1. Generating a high body count
    2. Generating verbiage, oceans and oceans of turgid, opaque, pretentious claptrap = Jacobin. Geez has anyone ever tried to wade through the bloated, BS there?

  9. Eidde   8 years ago

    It would be unthinkable for you to lose this debate...you better win, but more than that, you better beat them so bad that you end up drinking mead out of their skulls.

    No pressure, but don't screw this up.

  10. Crusty Juggler   8 years ago

    Ew why?

  11. imo   8 years ago

    imo for pcimo appimo appsnaptube for pcsnaptube app

  12. imo   8 years ago

    imo for pcimo appimo appsnaptube for pcsnaptube app

  13. LarryA   8 years ago

    How'd you get that set up?

    Some folks at our local university wanted to start a debate series, and asked if I would to do the gun-rights side of that issue. I warned them that they might have a problem finding an opponent. They said that lots of people at the university were anti-gun.

    Turns out several would be happy to give a talk about it, but none of them were available for a debate.

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