Publishing executive and two-time presidential candidate Steve Forbes made the case for capitalism Tuesday to hundreds of students at Western Kentucky University.

“It’s a bad word today. It’s not a word that polls well,” he said at the beginning of his speech. “It’s encrusted in a lot of myth.” 

Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, set out to destroy that myth with his speech “How Capitalism Will Save Us.” 

The lecture was sponsored by Young America’s Foundation, the Charles G. Koch Foundation, the WKU Department of Economics and the WKU BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism. Forbes was the first of three speakers who will visit WKU’s Gordon Ford College of Business this fall.

Louisville graduate student John Hay studies economics and was impressed by the speaker. 

“I think it’s great for the students to get this kind of experience while they’re in school,” he said, adding it makes WKU unique. 

Hay came hoping to learn more about capitalism and said he had an open mind. 

“I’m always open to being wrong,” he said. 

Through his speech, Forbes said he wanted to dismantle the stereotype of money-grubbing villains in popular culture. 

“Even if you’re that Hollywood caricature … you won’t succeed, you won’t get money, unless you provide a product or service that somebody else wants,” he said. 

Free markets encourage not just competition, Forbes said, but voluntary transactions, trust and cooperation between buyers and sellers and innovations on existing ideas. Additionally, big profits are not an excess but a mechanism that makes “creative destruction” and experimentation within marketplaces possible, he said.  

“When free markets are allowed to operate, they always – without exception – turn scarcity into abundance,” he said. 

When it comes to the current economy, Forbes said more could be done to remove barriers crippling free markets. 

“The reason we’re not prospering is because of policy errors,” he said.

He cited America’s health care system as the biggest example of that, with the problem being a lack of control for patients. 

People are not allowed to buy health care policies from other states and hospitals don’t have to be transparent with their prices, he said. America’s tax code is also out of control, Forbes said, and he called for a flat tax he advocated for as a presidential candidate.  

Wilder junior Megan Hamberg studies economics and marketing and found the talk refreshing. Those ideas aren’t often heard on college campuses, she said. 

“I just thought it was very insightful to hear someone’s opinions from higher up,” she said. 

— Follow education reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @BGDN_edbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.