Transcripts For FBC Stossel 20170101

Booed. America, dont boo. Private is better. Thats our show tonight. Privates better . That doesnt sound right to people. Private seems selfish, secretive. By contrast, public or governmentrun sounds like sharing. We are all in this together. I have this phone because it was invented without government. First they had to give the developers permission. Government was barely aware people were working on this thing. Permissionless innovation is a beautiful thing. To the author of this book, this permissionless innovation that brought us google, facebook, the phone, is threatened now . It is, john. There are a lot of efforts to impose permissionbased. John drones, they are inventing all kinds of things but the government says you cant do it news get an faa license. There are hypothetical worst cases that could occur, and they end up basing policies off the worst case scenarios. If you base it off worst case scenarios, you will never get the best case scenarios. John they weigh less than asea guls than sea gulls which planes hit all the time. John so drone makers are going overseas . A lot of them are basing their testing in canada and australia. A lot of Driverless Car Companies are going there as well. Think about 20 years ago if Mark Zuckerberg of facebook or 1250e6 jobs or anybody from google had to come to the federal Communications Commission and get their blessing to operate. You have to wonder how many of them would exist today. John how come all these things were invented in the United States rather than europe . America got it right with our Public Policy towards deck tall technology the first time around congress and the Clinton Administration put in place policies that per permissionless based. They gave them the green light. But that is already change. We have forgotten the lessons of the past where america went out and conquered the world. Our companies are household names. Conquered the globe. John at the beginning of the computer revolution, france said we are going to control this. They created a computer company. They gave people computers. Throw out your yellow pages and use these. They have them in five different colors. They were going to be the leader according to the media i read. France took an industrial policy approach to the internet. But thats not the way innovation happens. You have to create the right environment and let the innovators invite. John now europe threatening google. The right to be forgotten. This is a threat to history and journalism. They will scrub issue away with the socalled right to be forgotten. John there are some mistakes out there, my reputation can be smeared. Somebody googles me. Let me start with a clean slate. The courts in europe said right you deserve that. If we have a Global Internet censorship regime, that will be a disaster. The whole internet will look like china or soviet russia. There will always be a way to find information. But europe wants to impose its censorship regime on the rest of the world. Our fda, the food and drug administration, very heavy handed doesnt want to allow for that sort of thing and they are driving innovators offshore. We have three printers that can manufacture amazing thing. Including what you saw today. Prosthetic hand for children with limb deficiencies. Volunteers were making on the spot these prosthetic hand for kids. But technically what they are doing is illegal. Even though its being done free very cheap for parents who need these things for kids that usually cost thousands of dollars. John they probably got away with it because they were volunteering their effort. Basically everything chans when you crge even a penny for something. Whether its drones or virtual reality. You do it in the sharing sense. As soon as you want to charge a penny, you are going to be regulated. John think about the tsa. Americans assume Airport Security is something that must be run by government. Tsa screeners are slow, sometimes rude, and random tests show most of the type they fail to find forbidden items. I think tsa stand for thousands standing around. Now Airlines Warn security lines will get even worse this summer. So many airports want to switch from the tsa to private airport screeners. The tsa chief is in washington to meet with airport officials after wait lines got so bad they may replace the tsa with private screeners. Viewn a few big cities did get permission to try something different. The lines are short at france airport. They move quickly and passengers say the screeners are nice. People here are friendly and willing to help. They are a little more understanding. Ebb is a lot more friendly than dallas. Reporter dallas and the other big airports employ governmente. San francisco was allowed to hire screeners from a private company. They were twice as good at finding contraband. Why would private screeners be nicer aner. Here is a reason. They practice. The fastest screen letter win 2,000. There is even dramatic music. The tsa trains its screeners, too, but not like this. In this competition screeners race to search bags and identify forbidden items. Here is a pipe bomb, and they rush to recheck the bag. They look at slide of people and try to remember details. How many buttons are on her sleeve. Watch it. Four. John the private Company Makes these screeners specialists. Usually its did you go . Yes. You tell a person your score, they will try to beat you and you want to be the winner. Its kind of like bragging rights. John they get better with these contests . Yes, they have to. Privatized seems so selfish. Ill better making money. Thats money coming out of my pocket. Its the american way. Profit make you try harder. We have to do well. If they dont do it well, they can get fired. But government rarely fires itself. Private screeners have proven themselves so much better, 2 airports have persuaded the department of Homeland Security to use the private screeners. What else might speed air travel. Privatizing air Traffic Control. So how would that work . And has it been tried . Its been tried in canada. There is navcanada which isnt more efficient and less expensive than the air Traffic Controllers here. John years ago they switched and everybody screamed the planes are going to crash and there will be lots of problems. No planes crashed and the number of flights are up 50 . It costs about 44 per less per Traffic Controller than it does now. Its liketronnic equipment we dont use. Why do they do it when your government cant or doesnt . Part of it is because this next Gen Technology requires fewer workers so there would have to be cutbacks. We have powerful unions here and they dont want any cuts in the w force. In the house bill that privatized the air Traffic Control, there is a bill in the house because the faa has to be reauthorized by the end of july. In the house there is a bill that includes privatization. John you call it socalled privatization. Its socalled because it doesnt get rid of the union and the union would have to approve any transfer of personnel and services between the faa and the socalled private air Traffic Control group. John the air Traffic Controllers union claims privatization would make air travel less safe. The problem is that the contractors in an effort to cut costs cut the number of controllers that are responsible for the safety of flights. John sound logical. Fewer people, more crashes. With the new technology, we dont need as many people as we used to. These driverless cars, for example. They communicate by text instead of voice commands. They think its funny that we communicate with voice command. John to show how cozy the politics are. Congressman bill shoeser has pro poised a partial privatization. The airlines for america, Vice President of global affairs, an got 118,000 in Campaign Contributions for unions. And there is a cozy relationship between them. John to join this argument please follow me on twitter. Use the hashtag stossel like my Facebook Page so you can post on my wall. Next, better private alternatives to government mass transit. A better way to go into space. Launching an successfully landing its falcon nine rocket. Its the first time its ever been done. Even better money. Afoot and lighthearted i take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. The east and the west are mine. The north and the south are mine. All seems beautiful to me. I mess around in the garage. I want to pay more to file my taxes. I want my tax software to charge me at the last second. Paying 60 to file my taxes was the highlight of my day. And you just saw footage of me flipping burgers. Want to charge me extra to itemize my deductions . No problem. I literally have too much money. Said no one ever. File for free with credit karma tax. Free to start, free to finish. Creditkarma. Com tax. A big tax Company Needs that 50 way more than me. I cant afford a car right now, and i dont want one, so i make metro. Thats Public Transportation in los angeles. And taxpayers pay for the ad. People love the idea of Public Transportation. Get people out of cars. Reduce congestion. I figured out a way to make Public Transit part of my daily commute. Thats how you do l. A. John thats not how they do l. A. Despite politicians forcing taxpayers to spend more on Public Transit. Fewer people are taking it. Now the department of Public Transportation. Are you an extraordinary innovator . I try my best to be extraordinary every day. John what are you going to do . The basic idea what we are trying to do is bring private Sector Innovation to l. A. Metro by opening the door to private sector innovators to come to us with ideas about new technology and ways to accerate the buildout oour frastructu john why cant lax just do it . Why do you need the private sector . They are very nimble so they can adjust to changing technology more rapidly than the Public Sector can. And they bring competition. They are able to compete against each other and say here is a way we would do it that creates more benefits for taxpayers. Why cant government be nimble . Government can be nimble, its just more challenging. I worked in large public and private bureaucracies. They have lots of policies in place and take longer to make decisions. The advantage of the private sector in this case. When they are able to work with the Public Sector on trying to come up with new technologies and innovations. You get a Public Policy thats oriented toward what people want. And you get innovations that are what the market demands. John los angeles has a long procurement process. Any organization has a long procurement process. A series of policies have been put in place over the years, most of which were wellintentioned and trying to prevent corruption. But over the years have built up into a very large set of policies that ma it difficult to procure things swiftly. John if your county wanted to procure pencils, they couldnt just bow to the store and buy them . Buying anything is more complicated when you have got a public entity. We want to buy pencils we want to make sure we are buying the pencils that provide the taxpayers with the greatest pencil quality at the lowest cost and provide competition between the pencil distributors. John that could take a year . We are hoping it will take a lot less time than that. John what would help commuters is if they had the option to take the bus. As people move, bus routes can move. But buses arent sexy. Expensive trains are sexy. So california has hit up taxpayers for a bullet train. Reporter once Governor Brown set his sights on highspeed rail. It was cool. John people found out what it would cost. 89 billion. My beef is the cost overrun for starters. Too expensive. We are taking on a huge debt load for an uncertain outcome. John florida is building a train, too. But a private company is building it. A smarter way, an alternative to our states crowded roads. Thats how miami is getting connected. John the private florida train will cost 3 billion. The first leg of californias bullet train will cost 30 billion. It gets a little further, but not much. Why is it so expensive. The florida route was already in existence. They are not building a new right of way. John isnt it bert they are not forcibly taking money from taxpayers . If they lose money, its their own money. Well, there are two sides to that coin. One, when you are talking about transportation being provided by a forprofit entity. What that means is it wont be accessible to everyone. One of the things we do as Public Transit providers is to make sure our system is accessible to everybody at all income levels. John the california bullet train is 89 a ticket. How is that accessible to everybody . 89 a ticket is significantly cheaper than flying in many cases between those two cities. John though you work for government, you acknowledge there are advantages to privatizing some things. Ma americans are mindlessly biased against privatization. East of here a long island official proposed privatizing bus lines. He got booed. Joshua, why do you think people are so hostile to this . There is this misconception this is taking tax dollars and giving them away to a forprofit entity. Thats not the case when you are talking about transportation. Even if the private sector gets involved, they are bringing greater cost certainty, they are bringing project delivery in a faster time, potentially cheaper and better because they are able to innovate in a way the Public Sector isnt. They are saving the taxpayers money because they finds a way to do it more ficialtdly. More efficiently. John next, private money. Bit coins. This woman will explain. Use bit coin whenever you pay when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. It starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. And neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum tum tum tum smoothies only from tums snap achoo snap achoo achoo snap snap achoo achoo feel a cold coming on . Zicam cold remedy nasal swabs shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45 . Shorten your cold with a snap, with zicam. Dt give up your money, you bit coin whenever you pay use bit coin whenever you pay jacques bit coin, a digital currency, money not controlled by any government. And for many People Better than this paper money. So why . The woman who composed and sang that song will explain. Im a singer songwriter and the coin inspired me to write something. When i learned about bit coins at first i thought it was pretty boring. But then once i got it i got inspired. I think there is a lot of uses for bit coin. There are over 2 billion people in the world that dont have access to banking. Now because of bit coin they have a bank account on their sms phone. I have a friend with a charity called code to inspire. They teach the girls how to code and pay them with bit coin. These are girls in afghanistan. How that was different from before is they would have to pay them with afghani money and they would have to height under their mattress and hope nobody in their family would find it. Now they can have control and live their lives freely without worrying about somebody coming and taking their money. Thes enough to empower billions of people arounded the world. John your website says artist and crip to currency its mony cripping to a i bycryptograp. Each currency can offer different value propositions. John the reason i bought some is because i dont trust the people who print these things. With bit coin there is a limit to how many are out there. There is nobody in charge it that can print it whenever they like. John when i bought them for 112, people mocked me. But compared to these, it has gown four times that. It was the best performing currency and its gone up by 8 . John because the fed makes these out of thin air. They do. John there is criticism saying bit coin causes crime and terrorism. Guns, drugs. Its not good for illicit activity. If you want to launder money you dont want to use bit coins. Most people i know are using bit coins for legal services. You can use it to get discounts at amazon and starbucks. There are all sorts of ways to use bit coins legal are you. Next how priva compaes are more likely than gernment to fly us to mars. Private companies are picking up where the government left off in the race for space. As soon as i left the hospital after a dvt blood clot, i sure had a lot to think about. What about the people i care about . Including this little girl. And what if this happened again . I was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me . So i asked my doctor. And he recommended eliquis. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. Yes, eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. Eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Both made me turn around my thinking. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. Plus had less major bleeding. Both made eliquis the right treatment for me. Ask your doctor if switching to eliquis is right for you. You got it what do you think . Youre going to wis wish big at the lexus december to remember sales event get up to 2500 customer cash on select 2016 and 2017 models for these terms. See your lexus dealer. [vo] quickbooks introduces he teaches lessons to stanley. And thats kind of it right now. But rodney knew just what to do. He got quickbooks. It organizes all his accounts, so he knows where he stands in an instant. Ahhh. Thats a profit. Which gave him the idea to spend a little cash on some brilliant marketing ha, clever. Wow, look at all these new students way to grow, rodne know where you stand instantly. Visit quickbooks. Com. Still trying to find how ara good site. Going . They all. Want. To. Charge me. Have you tried credit karma . Credit karma doesnt do taxes. Does credit karma do taxes . Yeah, and theyre totally free, so theyll never take any of your refund. Oooh, credit karma. Huh . We. Probably still want those. Yeah, good call. File your taxes for free with credit karma tax. Music you fill up my senses like a night in a forest like the mountains in springtime like a sleepy blue ocean you fill up my senses come fill me again come let me love you let me always be with you come let me love you come love me again john a satellite being launched into space by a private company, spacex. They found a better and cheaper way to smooth things into space. When government, nasa, sent their rockets up, them just taxed you and built new ones for every mission. The private Company Found a way to bring that same rocket back to earth. The private company did what government couldnt do, and did it with much less mone it happens all the time, though people at nasa wouldnt want to hear that. My next guest worked at nasa. But the number one guy doesnt agree with you. You think privatization is a good thing. Of course. The country was built on it, and the Space Program is a high technology, leading evening program, and it should be advancing our capability so the private sector can take over. John you say of course within i say of course, why dont they get it . They are a government bureaucracy, and their incentives are not to do things efficiently. If you are all about the job, you just like building new ones. John you are a democrat. You were an adviser to hillarys president ial campaign. The democrats dont want to privatize. President obama proposed privatizing much of this, and the bipartisan congressional response was extremely negative. When president obama came in and he was the head of his transition team. Our focus was on technology. And we got shut down on the hill the first year. They demanded we build this big rocket that will cost 50 million. John congress wanted to send money to their district. If you are competing you cant say what district it will be in. Elon is using his own money, and so is jeff bezos. John what congress is doing disgusting. Do people call them on it . I think our Space Program gets a pass. Nasa has a wonderful hisry and people just assume it will be on the cutting edge doing the right thing. They dont note journey to mars was built on old technology. When i went to jeff bezos facility they were building the same rocket for 30 million. John nasa did once do thing that were never done before. After russia launched a satellite our president said this. Our nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. We are carrying that infrastructure with us today. Nasa spend 18 billion of taxpayer money per year. Half of that goes for the infrastructure that was built for apollo. They only have a third of the buying power so they cant do as much with the rest of it. John most of the rockets going up now are private companies. Space has been privatized. John they are planning to go to mars. Probably 50 billion by the time its built. We have no money to do anything beyond that. The soonest we would go to mars would be the mid 20s and 3. I just dont think that thats going to be the way we get there. Elon musk announced hes going to mars in 2018. Not with people. But should he do that near the range with the heavylift vehicle. It will be obvious we dont need to spend taxpayer money on this. John you have been there nine years. Its not Just Congress fault. Nasa want to protect every job. Is a bureaucracy. People at nasa are wonderful. But the leadership, they are all in tight with the industry. Everybody likes to manage a contract. And so its pretty nice system. At this point you have got 18 billion of the publics money that i think the Space Program could do better with. John it could be so much better used, and so Many Americans say privatization. On msnbc they do get excited about space travel. But then the host has to say this. I also worry a great deal this is going to private industry. I keep thinking the competition of private companies in this on the planet has not necessarily led to equitable outcomes. John the outcomes wont be equitable. I cant understand that. Now i work for the Airlines Pilot union. We all fly in airplanes safely 700 Million People a year. Thats the technology that is completely run by the private sector and goes very well. I know people believe safety is with the government. But we dont have a perfect record at nasa, either. John private parking ticket. Cleaner water. What were the workers doing when they worked for the government . Were you goofing off . John people in flint, michigan got angry when they discovered their Drinking Water was toxic. The Public Officials were assuring the public the water was safe when they knew it wasnt true. John michigans governor tried to assure the people. You didnt create the problem, government failed you. John governments often fail. But providing Drinking Water, doesnt it have to be a job for government . No. A thousand American Cities have switched to private water companies. City water departments have let the pipes rust. In jersey city, new jersey, the water didnt taste good. City workers told the mayor there wasnt much they could do. They couldnt even slow the price increase. I said cant you get costs down so we dont have to increase rates . And they said no. So the water contract was put out for bid and a forprofit Water Company fixed the pipes the government couldnt fix. John how can you trust the Drinking Water to taken outside company. John privatizing Public Services isnt easy. Atlanta turned it parking meters over to a private Company Called park atlanta. People have been highly critical of park atlanta. Just say the name park atlanta and the citizens are united they dont like it. John people in atlanta are mad, and jim beard has to deal with that. Hes atlantas chief financial officer. Is the anger justified. The collection rate for tickets written was fairly low. 3040 percent. The new contractor was able to get the collection rates into the 70 range. John people are mad because they have to pay for parking violations . People are used to getting something for free. You bring in a private company that says this is no longer free, and you cant escape in the payment in this case, parking tickets. There is a little bit of angst in the community. In atlanta the history was that parking was relatively cheap or free. Atlanta didnt fully privatize our parking. We turned it over to a private management company. The city has 2,400 privately managed parking spaces. But those spaces belong to the city. The consider came in, fixed broken meters and put in new technology, but all that came at a price. Now people who were used to having something for free or parking at meters that didnt work. Now the meter worked and they were expected to pay, and when they didnt pay, there was collection and enforcement. John progressives are very hostile to privatization. This crisis in flint as you know was created by the government. Your policies are about expanding government. Why should people from flint trust that more government is the answer . Thats a good point. Maybe we should let wall street come in and run the city of flynt. John this villification of money making. You worked in the financial sector. You are a democrat. If that parking contractor can do a better job, we friep resources. John why can the contractor do a better job. They apply technology. John why cant the city apply technology. The city was in financial distress. John private companies go out of business if they dont do a good job. Ill let the jersey city mayor answer that. What if they screw up . They are toast. Well give the contract to somebody else. There is nothing like the prospect of a hanging. These men worked for jersey city water when the Department Said it couldnt be done. Now they do what couldnt be done. Are you working harder . Yes, you are always on the go, every date many something different. John were you goofing off before . Occasionally. Government workers, many of them are hard workers, but you cant fire the bad ones. It creates a culture where people dont work that hard. There are certain challenges involved with dealing with a government work force. And those challenges have to be managed by strong leadership. Government is a big aircraft carrier, it takes time and energy to moist but we are moving its. John next ill try to educate people who are convinced that parks mist be run by government. When they come back ill show them how totally clueless they are. You totaled your brand new car. Nobodys hurt, but there will still be pain. It comes when your Insurance Company says theyll only pay threequarters of what it takes to replace it. What are you supposed to do . Drive threequarters of a car . Now if you had Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, youd get your whole car back. I guess they dont want you driving around on three wheels. Smart. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, well place the full value of your car. Liberty stan with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. John most americans assume some things cant be privatized because, well, therefore, everyone public parks, for example, people say maintaining parks, keeping them accessible to the public is a job for government. The Public Sector has to do that. People like that word public. Once i went to a park near here and asked people which is better, public or private. If it were private they would charge you a fee for looking. Wound say public otherwise we wouldnt be here. They were standing in a privately run park but didnt know that. Although people love the idea of public, what comes to your minds if i say public toilet. Thats gross. John this is the image i have of public toilets. And my towns public parks used to look much like that. Garbage everywhere. Buildings covered with graffiti, fields bare of grass. When parks are well maintained, its often because a private group took over. But park users rarely know that. John this is a privately managed park. They have awesome toilets. They client very nicely. John but what about our National Parks . Privatize those . Some business might do this. But whats the alternative . Park managers say we dont have money for maintenance. In california alone, 150 state parks closed. They have a billion dollars in deferred maintenance. Projects they need but dont have money to fund. John its not just state parks. Yosemite streams were filled with raw sewage from a leaky sewer. The grand can yonls only source of Drinking Water is even 80yearold park that breaks several times a year. But National Parks cant be run by private interests, can they . Many private parks are run successfully by private sector operators. We run 150 parks. Our biggest client is the u. S. Forest service. They are taking a financial loser and by having us run it it should change from a money drain to a financial benefit because they are being paid rent. John people worry that they will cut corners to make more profit. But they have an incentive not to cut corners. It makes more money if it does a good job. My revenues are entirely dependent on people showing up every day. John these private businesses depend on pleasing customers. If they dont please you, the government can fire them. But government never fires itself. Its why private management is almost always better. Bert and cheaper. Thats our show. See you next week. Carey. Whats going on . Shes not here. Shes late. As the new year approaches, Consumer Confidence soaring. New jobs coming. And donald trump taking credit. And now some here say he needs to push an across the board tax cut right away to keep it going. Are they right . Happy new year everybody. Im Dagen Mcdowell in for brenda butner. This is bulls and bears. Gar b. , jonas, welcome to everybody. Gary b. , is an across the board tax cut needed right away right off the bat . Absolutely. Dagen. Look, we have had a rly