Stossel Videos Contents:
4 Socialism Myths
Socialism Fails: Reason TV
Not all Students are Woke Students
$2 Million Government Bathroom
Welfare for the Rich
Bankrupting America
Military Boondogles
Biden Big Spending
Trump Big Spending
Free Stuff 2020
4 Socialism Myths – John Stossel
Video part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVBPgvY3TbU
Is capitalism a raw deal? What about the wage gaps? The socialists call for taxing the rich. Chomski promotes socialism and is paid $30,000 to speak at colleges.
Myth 1: That Wasn’t Real Socialism.
Socialism inevitably delivers government ownership of production.
In practice, individuals not owning business means government owned.
Venezuela is socialist. They say it isn’t. Hugo Chavez, who wrecked Venezuela, called for expropriating, taking, industries. He railed against capitalism.
Myth 2: That Socialism Just Wasn’t Managed Well.
They say Chavez just didn’t manage things well. But the nature of socialism is that the economic policies won’t adjust to reality.
Entrepreneurs will adjust how to deliver products and services, but government won’t. No central authority could possibly direct all these individual adjustments, instead they prevent needed adjustments and cause failure.
The free market allows experimentation to find what works. Socialism is a one size fits all economy.
Trabant cars of Germany were terrible. The socialist economy didn’t let them expand and adjust.
Vox’s video blamed the collapse of Venezuela on everything but socialism. But isn’t just Venezuela that deals with oil issues.
Video part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGURPuoXgW4
Myth 3: Democratic Socialism is Different.
Things start off democratically elected, then when the government controls the economy, it’s impossible to un-elect them.
Venezuela’s socialism was elected. Maduro bought votes, made it so people would lose their job if they didn’t vote for him, gave food if they voted for him, etc.
Socialism always turns into a totalitarian government.
Socialist things in America are famous for not working well, like public education, congested streets, and UPS.
Myth 4: Socialism Works well in Scandinavian Countries.
Scandinavian countries aren’t socialist. Markets organize their economics.
Sweden had big government, when they did, there were large lines for healthcare, etc. So Sweden said enough. They privatized trains, sold government owned businesses, lowered taxes, etc.
When Americans called Denmark socialist, the prime minister of Denmark came and said, “No. We have a market economy.”
Fascism and socialism aren’t exactly the same but have many things in common. They both replace decision making with state control. In both systems you lose control over your own future. Only in capitalism can you say, ‘No.’ In capitalism entrepreneurs offer you services and you can say no and make a better choice.
See the book Socialism Sucks.
Problems people point out with America are from the socialism in America. America is not entirely capitalist. Far from it.
Socialists call for reallocating wealth to who needs it. (How do you control this? Is it by force.)
Socialism Fails: Reason TV 6m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACXTTfE4GxM
(This is not Stossel, but Stossel is a big fan of Reason Magazine / TV.)
Gloria Alvarez, presenter of this clip, is from Guatemala and saw firsthand the evils of socialism. Her father had to flee Cuba etc.
We saw socialism fail in Latin America. Castro in Cuba was going to help the poor and make everyone equal. Many hundreds of thousands fled Cuba.
Cuba didn’t pay people well for their services. Hugo Chavez took Venezuelans down the same path as Cuba. He called capitalism a reign of injustice. They just printed more money. There was a million times inflation.
Chavez seized lots of private industry, 1000’s of businesses. People cheered for this. They called it social justice. But it made shortages of almost everything. It was like the apocalypse – no food, no medicine.
People blame Venezuela’s failure on everything but socialism.
Scandinavia’s private businesses are left alone. There’s not even a minimum wage. Yes, there’s a welfare state, but it’s funded by private free enterprise.
Denmark’s prime minister said Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy, it’s a market economy. Socialism hasn’t worked anywhere.
You don’t need the government to tell you how much you can make, spend, etc.
Violence is inevitable under socialism.
Not all Students are Woke Students – John Stossel 6m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKMkyCk03xM
People want more government.
Jefferson said the natural thing is for liberty to yield, and government to gain.
It’s hard to gain freedom, and hard to get it back when lost.
Everything in the media calls for eating the rich and feeding the poor.
Yes, inequality of wealth and income have surged. Yes, capitalism has inequality, but all can choose to grow. Contrast this with socialism where everyone is equal, but equally poor.
Stossel in the Classroom is a free resource with many basic educational materials reaching many students.
$2 Million Government Bathroom – John Stossel 5m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKRuhiMDOjo&list=PLFtZbRNUjWfyAX8FXtH-o0igAzpEWMNy6
Government spending gets out of control due to many rules.
Private businesses build cheaper bathrooms.
The private bathroom at a private run park is better run and is much busier.
The public pays union ‘prevailing’ wages, based on what people voted for, not based on the market supply and demand (reality). Union wage is sometimes over 100/hr.
The government bathroom took 7 years to build. It only took 2 years for the private sector to build the empire state building.
Welfare for the Rich – John Stossel 5m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwpIBJ3jbFA&list=PLFtZbRNUjWfyAX8FXtH-o0igAzpEWMNy6&index=4
See the book Welfare for the Rich: How your tax dollars end up in Millionaire’s Pockets.
Politicians often build elaborate football stadiums on tax dollars. Voters are promised many jobs will come, but research shows the stadiums cost around 188 million dollars and return around 40 million.
Huge companies get government money, close, and keep the money.
Green Peace mocks big company greed, but takes plenty from taxpayers themselves.
Politicians say we won’t have a stable food supply without subsidizing grain farmers.
Bankrupting America – John Stossel 5m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmjkEM3AJ1Q&list=PLFtZbRNUjWfyAX8FXtH-o0igAzpEWMNy6&index=2
75 million to NPR public broadcasting. 50 million for a museum. The US has 24 trillion debt.
Modern monetary theory, that we can just print more money and debt doesn’t matter, has destroyed many countries. 1920s Germany, Argentina, Russian, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and other countries have all seen this. Unemployment goes way up.
Europe bailed out Greece, but who would bail out the US?
Politicians talk about the rising debt but don’t do anything about it.
The debt doubled under Obama, but it’s going up even more under Trump.
Stossel doesn’t apply for or accept loans and grants from the government, seeing such as immoral.
Military Boondogles – John Stossel 5m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H58xTItT6qk&list=PLFtZbRNUjWfyAX8FXtH-o0igAzpEWMNy6&index=5
Defense contractors mark up prices thousands of percent when selling to the government.
Defense has such a large budget that it doesn’t care about overspending.
Politicians get pork. People get employment in their district.
The US built an extremely expensive natural gas station in Afghanistan which nobody used.
The US gave large planes to Afghans they never used and just trashed.
We can’t do everything. We have to choose which things are worth spending on. The goal of converting the whole world to democracy is vague and unrealistic.
The US spends 10x more than any other country on military.
The US military says maybe they will be audited in 2027. No private companies get away with that.
Now the military wants to spend more on climate change.
Biden Big Spending – John Stossel 5m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekS6LdfXkEY&list=PLFtZbRNUjWfyAX8FXtH-o0igAzpEWMNy6&index=10
Biden was suggested to be the lowest among democrats on federal spending, then when he was the official candidate he cranked it up saying we would spend the most since WWII.
Spending won’t give efficient infrastructure.
Don’t just tax to care for children and the elderly. We know better ways to care for them. Leave the money in our pockets to care for our own families.
A right to free speech means government leaves us alone. But a right to housing, college, etc., means government takes money from some and gives it to others.
See Pete Sepp of the national taxpayer’s union who calls for less taxation.
Deficits and debt destroy economic growth.
Trump Big Spending – John Stossel 5m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqgEhhJnEF0&list=PLFtZbRNUjWfyAX8FXtH-o0igAzpEWMNy6&index=11
Trump promised to cut spending.
Trump said he had to fix defense spending. Yet he pumped more into it than ever.
Trump cranked up spending for COVID. Both parties wanted to look caring. Government should help but enough is enough.
Most government departments got more money under Trump.
The state department has 60 sub departments.
Trump proposed slowing the growth of programs, but congress called that “the blueprint for destroying America.”
Washington is growing at the expense of everyone else.
Free Stuff 2020 – John Stossel 5m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5odA8Gsmzs&list=PLFtZbRNUjWfyAX8FXtH-o0igAzpEWMNy6&index=13
Students may be debt free, but the taxpayers won’t be.
Bernie Sanders was the only self-described socialist in the 2020 Democratic party race, but he wasn’t the one proposing the highest government spending. (The running Democrats were all socialists.)
Sanders wanted to guarantee everyone a government job.
No one tracked all the proposed spending so Stossel charts them up in this video.
Totals: Trump 267 billion. Biden 297 billion. Buttigieg 690.4 billion. Warren 3.0806 trillion. Sanders 3.976 trillion. And at the top, Kamala Harris 4.162 trillion.
No matter who wins, as they all want to spend more, and the taxpayers are the losers.
(A follow up video, “More Free Stuff 2020”, shows that the candidates just kept calling for more and more, far beyond their previous promises.)
