Add
Private Notes
From John Stossel's blog:
WAR ON INEQUALITY: Today, the richest 1 percent of Americans own 1/3 of America's wealth. This video, which highlights that, has been viewed more than a million times. Bob Beckel, co-host of "The Five," will try to help me understand why inequality is just wrong.
LESSONS FROM COMMUNISM: Philosophy professor Tibor Machan grew up in Soviet-controlled Hungary. He says Beckel and the left talk a good game, but they don't help the little guy.
WEALTH HYPOCRISY: Many people I talked to in Time Square said it was unfair that CEOs make millions. But they didn't hate celebrities and sports stars who are even richer. J.C. Bradbury, author of The Baseball Economist, explains why.
WELFARE FOR THE RICH: Stephen Moore of The Wall Street Journal proposes something called the "Millionaire Subsidy Elimination Act." He says government should cut handouts to people who make more than $1 million. I agree. Actually, government should cut all handouts, but simply stopping giving stuff to millionaires would be a good start.
MINIMUM WAGE: Carrie Sheffield from Forbes and Rich Benjamin from Demos debate the minimum wage. Sheffield says we need to let the market decide what wage is correct, while Benjamin says government must intervene.
WHAT'S RICH?: Radio host Dave Ramsey says if your household income is $34,000 a year or more, you're in the top 1 percent of income earners in the world. So in America, even "the poor" are rich.
LIFE ISN'T FAIR: What is fair? Why just talk about money? Is it fair that Jennifer Lawrence is good looking? Is it fair that LeBron James is 6' 8"? It didn't seem fair to me that I was the shortest kid in middle school.
Inequality may seem unfair, but the alternative is government force, and that leaves everyone poor. The truth is that the fate of most of the poor does not depend on government. The world's best poverty fighter is a free market.
From John Stossel's blog:
CLIMATE CHANGE: Bill Nye the Science Guy, who says he is "frantic" about climate change debates skeptic Marc Morano of ClimateDepot.com.
GREEN GIVEAWAYS: President of the WorldWatch Institute Robert Engelman defends subsidies for wind and solar power.
WAR ON COAL: Bill Bissett of the Kentucky Coal Association says we have clean air now, and the coal industry gets zero credit for the progress it has made. West Virginia coal miner Mark Nelson talks about lost jobs.
AN INCONSISTENT TRUTH: Radio host Phil Valentine made this movie to rebut Al Gore's documentary. Valentine calls Gore a hypocrite.
THE MORAL CASE FOR FOSSIL FUELS: Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress says he loves fossil fuels because they create cheap, plentiful and reliable energy.
MY TAKE: As the world got richer, the air got cleaner. The pollution we should worry about, like soot, particulates and sulfur, is down. Greenhouse gases may prove to be a problem, but we don't yet know that. The world has real problems like malaria, malnutrition and desperate poverty. America is deep in debt, and fewer jobs get created because we have too many rules. We don't need more micromanagement from the EPA, we need less. Let's chill out about global warming. Then free people will create a better world.
REPUTATION VS. REGULATION: Libertarian radio host Jason Lewis and Liberal radio host Alan Colmes debate whether reputation or regulations better protect consumers. I'll trust reputation over government any day.
THE FUTURE OF TRUST: The Web provides new ways for businesses and individuals to make decisions based on reputation. Xin Chung of TrustCloud says his website collects data you've generated online, including: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, giving everyone a "trust score," and making online reputations portable.
DINNER PARTIES: Guy Michlin, founder of the website EatWith, says his website's ratings and reviews for cooks and guests let both sides feel safe. EatWith, like Lyft, Uber, Side Car, Roomorama and AirBnb, is part of the wonderful new "shared" economy.
TECH & EDUCATION: K-12 education is a government monopoly where every teacher is paid the same. Glenn Reynolds, author of "The New School," says the Internet will revolutionize K-12 education and pop the college bubble.
INTRADE 2.0: Ignorant regulators shut down the prediction market website where people could bet on almost anything. Intrade CEO Ron Bernstein says he plans to start Intrade again. Good.
BITCOIN: Entrepreneur Margaux Avedisian says Bitcoin has the potential to disrupt the way we spend money. Michal Handerhan of BitcoinShop.us sold me gifts last Christmas. They arrived.
MY TAKE: Like politicians, I once believed that more laws were the answer to consumer problems. But I soon saw that government regulators added paperwork, but otherwise made almost no difference. Competition in the free market protects consumers better than government ever will. Leave consumer protection in the hands of millions of free people, freely making choices, and letting others know about their experience.
From John Stossel's blog:
PLAYING FAVORITES: Politicians say "we're all equal" and pretend that they represent everyone, but in fact they constantly pick winners and losers. Newsday columnist Ellis Henican admits that leads to cronyism, but says "you can't use that as an excuse to not do important things for our society." Mattie Duppler of Americans for Tax Reform and I argue that he's wrong.
RUNAWAY PRODUCTION: "Zombieland" movie producer Gavin Polone explains how filmmakers and politicians collude to rip off taxpayers.
PHILLY FIGHT: The City of Philadelphia says it has the right to use "eminent domain" to take a building from artist James Dupree so a developer can build a supermarket. Ryan Briggs of the Philadelphia City Paper explains why that's cronyism, and wrong.
RAISED IN PRIVILEGE: In Hollywood, kids of famous people get good roles: Charlie Sheen, Angelina Jolie and Drew Barrymore were all born into the industry. Adam Bellow, author of "In Praise of Nepotism," defends nepotism.
LESSONS FROM EUROPE: Anne Jolis of the Wall Street Journal says European politicians are worse than ours. A Hungarian firm received $560,000 from the EU to develop a hydrotherapy system for dogs. Tyrolean farmers got money to "reconsider their relationship with the landscape and become more aware of their emotional reactions to it."
MOVE THE CAPITAL: Nebraska Senatorial Candidate (R) Ben Sasse says we could reduce cronyism and the evils of bloated government by moving the capital to Nebraska.
MY TAKE: There are only two ways to do things in life: voluntarily--or by force. Washington is dangerous because it can force people to give money and privileges to politicians' cronies. They force us to subsidize farmers, green energy companies, race tracks and congressional staff. That's why it's evil when government gets bigger, and gives even more special privileges. It's one more reason to shrink the $3.5 trillion beast.
ISFLC: This week, I do my show in front of 1,500 college students at the International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington, D.C.
ECONOMICS 101: Economist Don Boudreaux says it's not government, but the market that helps the poor. In 1958, "The typical American worker back then had to work 30 hours to buy this vacuum cleaner. Today, a worker has to work only six hours to buy a much better vacuum." Abby McCloskey of AEI talks about how a minimum wage raise would actually hurt the poor.
CONSTITUTION 101: How often is the word "democracy" used in the Constitution? Answer: never. Tim Sandefur, author of "The Conscience of the Constitution," says that's because the Constitution focuses on restricting government to secure individual liberty.
FREE SPEECH 101: Robert Shibley of FIRE talks about rules limiting speech on campuses. At Wellesley College, some students demand that the Sleepwalker statue (below) be removed.
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 101: Kmele Foster of The Independents started his own consulting firm as a sophomore in college. He says college graduates should be entrepreneurial, even though most universities don't teach entrepreneurial skills.
PERSONAL LIBERTY 101: Nearly all of the campuses in the University of California system have banned electronic cigarettes. Katherine Mangu-Ward of Reason Magazine argues that adults should be able to choose what they want to put in their own bodies-even if that includes "vaping" e-cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol, meth, cocaine, etc.
COMMUNICATIONS 101: Cathy Reisenwitz, Editor-in-Chief of Sex and the State, says libertarians should "check their privilege" when they talk to liberals. They talk to women about making birth control available over the counter, and to Blacks about school choice. Julie Borowski of FreedomWorks disagrees, and says we shouldn't "box" individuals in order to reach them.
MY LESSON: If you learn anything at Stossel U, it should be that the best type of government is limited
From John Stossel's blog:
GENERATIONAL THEFT: Thanks to Medicare and Social Security, my generation takes money from younger people, who have much less money than we have.
Jonathan Bydlak of the Coalition to Reduce Spending wants this spending reduced. Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute says government should spend more.
OVERPOPULATION MYTH: The birth rate in America is below replacement level, and some people think that's a good thing, because they worry about overpopulation. Jonathan Last, author of "What to Expect When No One's Expecting," explains why that fear is absurd and why we need new births (new brains, new inventors, new wealth-creators) to pay for my generation's retirement.
BABY BOOMERS: P.J. O'Rourke, author of "The Baby Boom," says Baby Boomers are "spoiled, self-indulged and self-obsessed, but that selfishness led to tremendous creativity."
CURMUDGEON CRUSADE: An amazing thing has happened. This woman has been reborn in the body of Bill O'Reilly:
Carrie Nation of the Women's Christian Temperance Union helped bring America alcohol prohibition. O'Reilly claims marijuana, violent video games and too much texting corrupt our youth and weaken America. He should chill out! Youth violence has dropped over the past 20 years. Teen pregnancy also declined, and fewer teens have sex.
MILLENNIALS: Charlotte Hays, author of "When Did White Trash Become the New Normal?" says young people don't get jobs because they don't do what they need to do. "The Gen Y Guy" Jason Dorsey says millennials have skills that we geezers don't understand.
THE CULTURE OF OUTRAGE: I was disappointed to see Miley Cyrus "twerking" at the Video Music Awards. Michael Moynihan of The Daily Beast calls this moral panic, and says it gives the media something to hype. Is Cyrus's act different from Madonna's or Elvis Presley's iconic swiveling hips? At the time, even Frank Sinatra objected to that, saying "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac
From John Stossel's blog:
END OF AUSTERITY?: Rep. Mike Pompeo says it's ridiculous that President Obama's recent budget focuses on spending more money. Romina Boccia of the Heritage Foundation agrees. She debates Bryce Covert of ThinkProgress, who says government should spend more.
UNIVERSAL PRE-K: Part of President Obama's massive spending plan is "free" pre-school for all Americans. He claims every dollar we spend on that now will save $7 later. The president got that number from a study by Nobel prize winning economist James Heckman. I say the $1 to $7 claim is ridiculous. I'll debate Heckman.
ENTITLEMENTS: A year ago, the President agreed to make a more accurate cost of living adjustment for Social Security. Under the new budget the sensible agreement vanished. Evan Feinberg of Generation Opportunity says we're doomed.
MILITARY SPENDING: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel wants to reduce the size of the military to pre-WWII levels. Former presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul says the military should shrink, but these reductions are "smoke and mirrors." By the way, President Obama's budget actually proposes increasing military spending by $28 billion. More, always more.
INFRASTRUCTURE: President Obama says his new budget "will create new jobs in manufacturing and energy and innovation and infrastructure..." Economist Ben Powell points out that government spending takes money out of entrepreneurs' hands, money that would create better jobs somewhere else.
MY TAKE: Canada cut spending, and Canada's economy boomed. Even Sweden cut, and grew faster than the rest of Europe. When the Cold War ended, the first President Bush reduced military spending, and a Republican congress kept President Clinton from increasing spending too much. Our economy boomed. When people are free to spend their own money, life gets better. Will politicians ever learn that? Probably not. They love spending other people's money.
From John Stossel's blog:
GENDER INEQUALITY?: Liberals brag that Obamacare "fixed" health insurance: Women no longer pay more than men. Fox News Contributor Jehmu Greene asks me sarcastically, "Do you want to live in a country where you charge women more than men?" But actually, I do. Women go to the doctor more than men. They incur higher medical expenses. Insurance should reflect real costs! Greene debates Heather Higgins of the Independent Women's Voice.
PAY GAP: President Obama says that women make only 77 cents for every dollar men make, even though he knows the 77 cent statistic misleads. Amy Holmes of The Blaze explains why the 77 gap isn't real.
FEMINISTS' WAR: Naomi Schaefer Riley of the New York Post says the real war on women is waged by feminists who assume women are just as eager to have casual sex as men.
LEAN IN: Jane Hight McMurry, author of "Navigating the Lipstick Jungle," and Suzanne Venker, author of "The War on Men," debate whether women can "have it all."
WAR AGAINST BOYS: Fifty-seven percent of bachelor's degrees and 60 percent of master's now go to women. Christina Hoff Sommers, author of "The War Against Boys," says women are not victims - boys are now second-class citizens in classrooms.
MY TAKE: When I had kids, I tried to eliminate sexism. In my daughter's books I changed every "he" to "she," and I wouldn't give my son toy guns. But it didn't matter. My son still played war, and my daughter dressed up. Men and women are different, and we should celebrate that rather than claim women are victims. Equality means equal opportunity, not equal everything. Difference is good.
STUPID SUBSIDIES: Senator Tom Coburn says he wants to clean out government spending. His annual "Wastebook" of stupid subsidies includes $150,000 for a puppet show on Long Island, and $1 million to study the influence of romance through novels and film. Coburn retires from the senate this year but he tells me someone will continue his work after he leaves.
CORPORATE WELFARE: Mattie Duppler of Americans for Tax Reform talks about why stupid subsidies like the puppet show are minor compared to ripoffs like corporate welfare. She likens recipients of government handouts to "ticks that suck the populace's blood."
FARM SUBSIDIES: Farmers receive $19 billion in farm subsidies each year. Blake Hurst of the Missouri Farm Bureau explains why he deserves your hard-earned money. He says these special breaks on crop insurance help "provide a safety net under a very risky industry." I try not to scream while telling him why he's wrong.
EDUCATION: Neal McCluskey of the CATO Institute says spending on education continues to skyrocket while achievement is "like Death Valley. It's totally flat on a chart."
REGULATION NATION: Jeff Rowes of the Institute for Justice lists some government regulations that suppress innovation, like the pill-camera that could substitute for colonoscopies.
WAR ON DRUGS: I again try not to scream while debating former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who argues that we shouldn't end the disastrous Drug War.
MY TAKE: Big government destroys jobs, our self-respect, and our future. When government is big, we the people become smaller. When we're trapped in the web of their rules, we don't innovate; we become more passive and dependent. Now that spring is sprung, let's clean out government!
FDA DELAYS: It costs a billion dollars to get a new drug approved by the FDA and can take up to 15 years. I debate former congressman Dennis Kucinich, who supports these onerous regulations.
FDA VICTIMS: Jenn McNary's two sons suffer from the same life-threatening disease but only one is allowed an experimental drug that so far, has helped him. McNary joins Darcy Olsen of the Goldwater Institute, who argues that people who are dying should have the right to try any drug, even if it's not government approved.
BAD INCENTIVES: Every year, police seize over $1 billion in assets without any proof of guilt. They keep much of the loot. Eapen Thampy of Americans for Forfeiture Reform explains why this is a scam.
REGULATOR BULLIES: The FTC accused music teachers of "anti-competitive practices." Gary Ingle of The Music Teacher's National Association says it's "very difficult" for a small organization like his to take on the government and win.
CHARTER SCHOOLS: I say NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is a cruel bully because he resists charter schools. Kevin Chavous of American Federation for Children agrees. Noah Gotbaum of NYC Community Education Council says charter schools' bosses are bullies.
DRONES: Adam Thierer of the Mercatus Center says that despite the perception of drones as "nefarious things used to rain death and destruction," they actually have many positive commercial and peaceful uses. But the FAA wants to ban these good things.
MY TAKE: Government is so big that is has 22 million employees. 22 million government workers ban medical devices that might make our lives better, take about half our money, and jail more citizens than even China and Russia do. This is not a good thing. Voluntary is better than force. Free is better than coerced. We're better off when government is small and people are left to do as they please, unbullied.
GAMBLING FEVER: Les Bernal of Stop Predatory Gambling says gambling hurts people. Patrick Basham of Cato disagrees - he says it's "healthy." I wouldn't call it healthy, but should it be banned?
ONLINE GAMBLING: Should we be allowed to bet from our bedrooms? Many Americans are upset about plans to legalize that. But Former congresswoman Mary Bono says legalize away; banning things never works!
BITCOIN BETTING: The U.S. government shut down popular internet poker sites. But now new offshore sites allow Americans to bet online. Naomi Brockwell of the New York Bitcoin Center explains how Bitcoins make that betting possible.
WALL STREET GAMBLERS: Picking stocks is one way to gamble where the odds favor us. If you throw darts at a page of stock symbols, you will probably make more money than you'd make investing in managed mutual funds. Fox Business Network's Charles Payne disagrees and doesn't like me calling stock investments "gambling." He explains why.
LOTTERY SCAM: State lotteries are a ripoff. The betting odds are terrible.But most states - the same states who ban internet gambling sites - run lotteries. Ben Domenech of The Federalist explains the hypocrisy.
MY TAKE: Politicians who support gambling talk about the tax revenue betting will raise. But that's not a gain for the people. We're better off when more revenue is in private hands, not when government controls it. I wish they'd legalize for the right reason: adults ought to be able to do anything we want with other consenting adults. Anything that's peaceful.
THE "FLAT TAX" SOLUTION: The tax code is thousands of pages no one understands. Forbes Editor-In-Chief Steve Forbes explains how to fix it: get rid of the whole thing and start over with a simple flat tax, no charitable deductions. Won't people give less to charity? Forbes argues they'll actually give more because they'll have more money.
FAIR SHARE DEBATE: Do the rich pay their fair share? Reporter David Cay Johnston says no. William McBride of the Tax Foundation says the rich pay enough. They agree that the code itself is repulsively complicated.
MANIPULATIVE TAX BREAKS: Politicians use taxes to manipulate us. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute complains, "What the tax code is doing is trying to choose our values for us."
TAXING THE LITTLE GUY: Professor Brian Brenberg of The King's College says the tax code hurts the little guy: "big businesses have a lot more resource to throw at these 75,000 pages than small guys do."
VOTE WITH YOUR FEET: If you hate your state taxes, you can move. 50 different states have 50 different tax codes-this is great competition. "How Money Walks" author Travis Brown shows a cool way to see who moves where with their wallets.
THE SIN TAX: Government regulates your choices by taxing "sinful" behavior like smoking and drinking. But Reason.com Editor-In-Chief Nick Gillespie lists basic and bizarre reasons why this is wrong.
MY TAKE: Complex Taxes are a threat. It's not just the tax, the complexity itself is a terrible thing. America suffers when government turns taxes into a manipulative maze.
EARTH DAY MYTHS: Our president says "we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015." Nonsense. James Taylor of the Heartland Institute debates Paul Gallay of Riverkeeper.
EARTH DAY REALITY CHECK: Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg says global warming is a "real problem." But the world has much bigger problems. We need to get our priorities straight.
FARMER VS. THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Government got "clean water" right; rivers and lakes are cleaner than they used to be. But they always go too far. Farmer John Duarte joins lawyer Tony Francois of the Pacific Legal Foundation to talk about how "clean water" bureaucrats act like tyrants.
NUCLEAR ENERGY: Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore used to fight nuclear energy. But now he says "nuclear energy is the most important energy source for the continuation of civilization." I argue: if it's so great, why do we need to give it loan guarantees?
HUMAN RACISM: Alex Epstein of Center for Industrial Progress celebrates Earth Day this year by fighting what he calls "Human Racism." Epstein says global warming alarmists target all human beings.
STOSSEL'S TAKE: This Earth Day, instead of attacking those who sell fossil fuels, I applaud them for overcoming constant environmental hysteria and providing affordable energy that allows us to fight poverty, the real threat to the people of the world.
THE DEATH OF PRIVACY: I love the internet. It makes my life better. But there's a tradeoff. Eric Yaverbaum of SocialMediaMags.com says social media freaks him out because "your life isn't private anymore."
TERMS & CONDITIONS: Do you agree to the "terms and conditions" on a website without reading them? I do. I doubt that anyone reads them. Terms And Conditions May Apply director Cullen Hoback explains what "people give up when they agree to these things."
HACK ATTACKS: Crooks can sneak into your computer and watch what you do. Today's computer viruses are less likely to try to harm your computer, more likely to steal private information. Robert Siciliano of McAfee says everyone needs "a good anti-virus program" to "keep the bad guys out."
GPS: Now the government wants to know where you drive. And how you drive. Tech Reporter "Cyberguy" Kurt Knutsson says "Big Brother has been chomping at our heels and our privacy for years now."
DATA COLLECTORS: Advertisers track what I do on the web and then run ads targeted at me. This infuriates people but I agree with Kate Kaye of Advertising Age, who says "less fear-mongering" is in order
OFF THE GRID: Are you sick of constant emails, texting, and internet noise? Paul Miller of The Verge "just wanted to quit and get away" so he went off the grid for a year. He says he felt lonely, out of sync, and couldn't work: "everybody's job requires them to at least have email now."
MY TAKE: For all the privacy I've lost, I'd never give up my smartphone or favorite websites to get it back. Facebook, Amazon, Cato @ Liberty, and Reason.com provide me with so much good stuff. What bothers me is that people say, when it comes to loss of privacy, business worries them more than government. Why? Businesses can't use force; businesses can't forcibly take our money and put us in jail. But government can. Government spying is a much bigger threat than anything business might do.
RACIST SPEECH: Should LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling be fined and banned from the NBA for something he said in private? The Independents co-host Kmele Foster says "outrage is appropriate" but we need perspective.
ATTACKS ON GAY MARRIAGE: Former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich lost his job because he donated money to a campaign that opposed legalizing gay marriage. Is this a good way to punish "bigots?" Austin Petersen of The Libertarian Republic says yes. Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock says no.
PC UNIVERSITY: Students on campus are told, don't use phrases like "that's so gay" or "man up."
FEAR OF OFFENDING: Most white people now say "African-American" instead of "black" because they don't want to offend. But Vice Magazine co-founder Gavin McInnes says he likes offending people.
IT'S WORSE IN CANADA: Sun News Network host Ezra Levant explains why limits on free speech are so much worse in other countries.
MY TAKE: "Kindly Inquisitors" by Jonathan Rauch convinced me of the need for more free speech -even hate speech. He says, "America was a society permeated by hate." This changed because people were allowed to say hateful things. That led others to fight the bigotry. The best way to convince people to become less bigoted is to allow all sides to speak openly. Then the best argument will win.
DEATH OF THE AMERICAN DREAM: The left-wing media likes to say the American Dream is dead. But conservative David Goldman of PJ Media surprised me by saying he too thinks much of the American dream is dead.
YOU DID BUILD THAT: The president claims it's government's job to help businesses succeed. But they do the opposite. Angel investor Miles Spencer succeeded without the help of government and he's helped other businesses succeed as well.
GOVERNMENT BULLIES: 11-year-old entrepreneur Chloe Stirling was told she couldn't sell cupcakes without a permit and a government-certified kitchen. She may actually get that law changed soon.
BUSINESSMAN FIGHTS BACK: Greg Garrett is an oyster farmer who has the resources to fight the bureaucrats and 750 pages of regulations. So far, he's won.
DO COOL SH*T: Miki Agrawal says some of you should quit school, or quit your job, start a business, and "live happily ever after." It is "risky and hard to do." But she did it and says it's well worth it.
EXCHANGE BAR & GRILL: A third of new restaurants fail within a year, but New York City's Exchange Bar & Grill found an edge by changing drink prices based on supply and demand -- like the stock market. We asked Reason TV's Naomi Brockwell to check it out.
STOSSEL'S TAKE: Did you know that I started Facebook?! Well, sort of. When I was in college at all-male Princeton, I tried to make money by adding photos to a snarky guide to neighboring girls' schools and called it "Who the Girls Are." I should be the Facebook billionaire! Unfortunately there was no internet back then. My business failed. But that ability to try something, and try again, is something I'm told is unique to America. It's part of what made America successful.
TIL DEBT DO US PART: I'm grossed out by how much money people spend on weddings. The Wedding Channel claims that the average spent today is more than $29,000. "Miss Manners' Guide To A Surprisingly Dignified Wedding" author Jacobina Martin says weddings have gotten out of control.
HELPING MARRIAGE: Government gives your tax dollars to groups that claim they help people stay married, even when government's own research concludes that the program has no effect. Melissa Moschella of Catholic University of America still says government should do more to try to keep families together. Steve Horwitz of St. Lawrence University disagrees.
IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN: When I was a kid, about 2% of children were born to unwed mothers. Today, it's 29%. For Hispanics, it's 53%, for Blacks, it's 72%. Kay Hymowitz of the Manhattan Institute says "kids do better growing up with...two stably married parents."
COHABITATION: People used to get married before they moved in together. Now, 65% of people live with each other before they are married. Pamela Smock of the University of Michigan says it's become "a normal part of the life course."
I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO: You've heard a lot about gay marriage. But what about polygamist marriages? Joe Darger -who has three wives-says "polygamy is the oldest and most traditional form of marriage."
DIVORCE CORP: Some couples think their divorce lawyer just wants to help. But divorce lawyers are paid by the hour to fight. Divorce Corp director Joe Sorge says "this is a prevalent problem."
MY TAKE: As we've seen recently, there's still plenty of racism in America. But every year more people than ever marry someone from a different race. There aren't many better ways to show acceptance of racial difference than that.
Love who you love regardless of race, gender or number, even. Leave government out of it.
DOOM AND GLOOM MEDIA: The media tell you about problems-like poverty, climate change, an energy "crisis." But "The Rational Optimist" Author Matt Ridley says "actually, things have been getting better, much better."
LIFE GETS BETTER: Author Robert Bryce says most everything today is "Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper."
FREE MARKETS: Vox.com writer Zack Beauchamp understands things are better. He says, "markets are a big part of the story... because they spark innovation." But he's also a lefty who believes is plenty of government regulation. I'll push him on that...
FRACKING FEARS: Is fracking dangerous? People tell us it is. My state has banned it. But FrackNation creator Ann Mcelhinney says fracking is "a marvelous thing" and "we need more of it, not less."
MEDICAL MARVELS: Today is one of the most exciting times in history for technology and medicine. Cardiologist Dr. Kevin Campbell explains that doctors now can provide things for patients, like 3D Printer produced organs, that we never imagined were possible.
HOW FAR WE'VE COME: Chris Cheng is a gay and Asian male-a twofer in terms of historic discrimination. But now he works with the NRA and makes speeches about guns. That almost certainly would not have happened in the "good old days."
MY TAKE: Politicians will destroy our future if they continue to ban innovation with regulation. But despite our irresponsible politicians, life has gotten better. Google will inform us about most anything within seconds. Facebook, Instagram, Skype, and email allow us to share all kinds of things. And all of it's free. If innovators can just keep creating new things faster than politicians and regulators can kill them, our future will indeed be the good NEW days.
GMO FOOD: 90% of all corn grown in America is genetically modified - it grew from a seed that scientists altered. Michael Hansen of Consumers Union says this puts people in danger. Jon Entine of the Genetic Literacy Project says opposition to GMOs is just scaremongering.
FED UP WITH THE FOOD POLICE: Katie Couric's new movie Fed Up claims "95% of America will be overweight or obese in two decades." What?! Couric and the filmmakers won't return our call to explain that and other dubious claims in her new movie.
ORGANIC FOODS: Liz Reitzig of Nourishing Liberty is upset about all the chemicals in food. She says we should only buy organic.
SATURATED FAT: All my life I avoided butter and bacon because I knew they contained too much saturated fat. Today, new research suggests we were misled. "The Big Fat Surprise" author Nina Teicholz explains.
DON'T EAT ANYTHING WITH A FACE: Vegans avoid anything that comes from an animal. "Eco Vegan Gal" Whitney Lauritsen says "eating meat is unnecessary given all of the nutrients" in plants. But "The Paleo Solution" author Robb Wolf argues that meat is healthy.
FOOD FREEDOM: Michelle Obama explained that even if kids don't want to eat so-called healthy food, America will give it to them anyway. "Keep Food Legal" founder Baylen Linnekin says it is not government's job to protect public health because "food freedom" is a basic right.
EAT GLOBALLY: The latest food fad: "eat local." But Pierre Desrochers of the University of Toronto says we need to help the planet and eat globally.
MY TAKE: Government peddles myths about obesity. Politicians claim kids from poor neighborhoods get fat because there's little healthy food near their homes. They and Michelle Obama call poor neighborhoods "food deserts." But then, oops, research showed that there's more access to supermarkets in poor neighborhoods.
My non-profit, Stossel in the Classroom, ran an essay contest this year inviting students to write on "Food Nannies: Who Deci
LESSONS FROM HOLLYWOOD: New Fox News Channel contributor (and former "Clueless" actress) Stacey Dash says that in Hollywood, "only certain opinions are OK as long as they're aligned with the opinions of the liberals." Christian Toto of Breitbart.com calls Hollywood a "bubble society." That leads to popular nonsense like this year's Godzilla movie, which the director says is "really about global warming." Huh?
NONSENSE NEWS: Are the New York Times' news pages liberal? The recently fired editor claims they are not. Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard, who had a Times column for a year, says they are.
UNPAID INTERNS: Obama and his bureaucrats say unpaid internships "exploit" students and are illegal. My former intern, Zoelle Mallenbaum, who now works for Neil Cavuto, debates Raphael Pope-Sussman, who says "unpaid internships should be banned because they are anti-meritocratic." I say internships are great. Why else would companies hire a twenty-something nobody for eighty-something days? Internships may not pay but they are not without profit. One of my interns went on to win a Pulitzer Prize.
COMMON CORE: Lots of people on the left and the right are furious about Common Core, the movement to standardize what's taught in schools. Lindsey Burke of the Heritage Foundation explains why.
MODERN MARXISM: Thomas Piketty's book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" suggests we "fix" income inequality with a tax on assets, plus an 80% income tax on rich people. Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute says this is a good start. But libertarian economist Mark Scousen says taxing capital is a terrible idea.
VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES: Activist Jack Thompson says violent video games inspire mass shootings. The problem is: there's no good evidence for that, and in fact, as video game use increased, youth violence decreased.
MY TAKE: Most of us struggle to run our own lives. We can't pay attention to everything. It's logical to believe politicians should plan our lives an
WAR ON DRUGS: Libertarians think the war on drugs is nuts. Adults should be free to do what they want with their own bodies. Congressman Allen West disagrees.
GAMBLING: Likewise, I say it ought to be your choice whether you want to gamble. Alex McFarland of the American Family Association says I'm wrong.
GAY MARRIAGE: Most libertarians don't care whom you marry. Want to marry someone of your own gender? Fine. In fact, most libertarians don't see why government is involved in marriage at all. But "What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense" author Ryan Anderson says marriage must be a union between a man and a woman.
PROSTITUTION: Sex is OK. Making money is OK. But sex for money? Not OK. We libertarians ask, why? I don't see a problem with paid consensual sex between two adults. But Fox News contributor Monica Crowley says, "the social cost is far too high."
MILITARY POWER: Libertarians want less military spending and less involvement in other countries' problems. Conservatives like Ambassador John Bolton support the war in Iraq and say that if Iran is about to get a nuclear weapon, we need to use military force. We gently debate.
IMMIGRATION REFORM: I think immigrants are great for America. Fox Business Channel host Lou Dobbs says he does too, but we need to "make decisions about who we want to work in this country."
MY TAKE: F.A. Hayek wrote an essay "Why I'm Not A Conservative." He argues that "the conservative regards it as his mission to "civilize" others - not by voluntary and unhampered intercourse but by bringing them the blessings of efficient government."
As usual, Hayek was on to something. America benefits when conservatives speak out against immoral behavior. But shaming is one thing, force of law is another. Using law means people with guns demand that everyone behave the way the majority thinks they should.
We ought to be able to do anything that's peaceful. We should be allowed take drugs, gamble, pay for sex, and do self-destr
THE TECH REVOLUTION: Today, a child's PlayStation has more computing power than a military supercomputer from the 1990s. Moore's Law says computing power will continue to double every 18-24 months. MIT professor Eric Brynjolfsson explains why this is all good for human progress.
ROBOT REVOLUTION: Will robots become a threat to us? The Futurist editor-at-large Patrick Tucker says they are definitely capable of "anti-social behavior." They become "more dangerous as we ask them to do more and more things, and we're not exactly sure what those things are."
STEALING OUR JOBS: Computers now teach themselves. Watson, a robot made by IBM, taught itself how to play Jeopardy. He beat the world champion. Since robots now can learn, will they soon be a threat to our jobs? Economics professor Noah Smith says they will, and that's why we need more social programs for the poor. But libertarian economist James Miller says people who want government to fix inequality should chill out, because less drudgery for humans is good news.
IMMORTALITY: "Transhumanists" want to use technology to try to live forever. Baseball star Ted Williams tried "cryonics." He had his body frozen soon after he died in the hopes that when science is more advanced, he will be brought back to life. So far, no luck. But journalist Zoltan Istvan says it will happen.
DESIGNER BABIES: Wouldn't you like your baby to be healthy? Smart? A good athlete? A talented musician? Five years ago, clinics started helping parents choose gender, hair color and eye color. Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg of the Fertility Institute says he could do more if the USA would legalize genetic engineering.
ROAD WARRIORS: Is this intersection in Ethiopia a better way to improve traffic flow? I doubt it- Ethiopia is one of the deadliest places to drive. Nevertheless, people are eager to find better ways to speed traffic. And soon, traffic lights may be less necessary because we won't drive our own cars. Computers will. The technology
Might this year be the beginning of the end of crony capitalism, or as I call it: crapitalism? That's the cozy alliance between big-government spenders and politically-connected businesses.
THE EXPORT-IMPORT BANK: The U.S. Ex-Im Bank's charter expires in September. House Finance Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling says Congress should not reauthorize the bank. But Rep. Brad Sherman says America needs an export promotion program.
CRONY CAPITALISTS: George Mason Economist Don Bourdeaux says the Ex-Im Bank is just a taxpayer subsidy for crony capitalists.
SCANDAL: WSJ reports that crooks at the bank took bribes and kickbacks. Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner says kickbacks are not unique to the Ex-Im Bank. Corruption always happens when government agencies hand out big money.
LOBBYISTS: John Hardy of the Coalition for Employment through Exports lobbies for the Ex-Im Bank. He says the agency helps level the playing field. We will fight.
CLUB FOR GROWTH: Barney Keller of Club for Growth explains how his organization defends economic freedom and fights against the Ex-Im Bank.
MY TAKE: Politicians-even Barack Obama- promise to put an end to wasteful bureaucracies like the Ex-Im Bank, but once they get to Washington and breathe in all that money and power, they change. Has the Tea Party changed the balance of power? If Congress kills the bank in September, it's a first step toward saving America.
MEDIA BIAS: When I began my career as a consumer reporter, I had an obvious agenda: Businesses cheat consumers! Government must regulate them!
But when I wised up about the problems with government, my bosses resisted, and I stopped receiving Emmy Awards. Emmys reward liberal reporting.
CENSORSHIP AT CBS: Investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson has a similar story. She explains why she left CBS after it became "harder and harder to get stories on television" that criticized this government and "any powers that be."
IS STOSSEL BIASED?: Years ago, journalist Howard Kurtz criticized me for not being objective. I said it's impossible for any journalist to be completely objective. Now that Howard Kurtz is on Fox, we debate again.
THE OBJECTIVITY MYTH: Andrew Kirell of Mediaite.com says, "every journalist has a point of view and they don't just magically check it the minute they walk in the newsroom door."
NEW MEDIA: Reason TV's Remy Munasifi uses music videos and parodies to complain about things like politicians' spending. One of his latest parodies highlights the scandal surrounding the VA hospitals. Munasifi discusses his videos, which have gone viral on YouTube.
RETRO REPORT: It's great there's a new media organization called Retro Report, which reveals media hype of the past ("crack babies," America's landfill "crisis," the "superpredator," etc.) and corrects stories everyone in the media got wrong. I discuss the new show with its executive producer, Kyra Darnton.
REAL OR FAKE?: Sometimes people in the media say things that are so bizarre, you'd think they were made up. Kennedy of The Independents quizzes FoxBusiness.com's Kate Rogers, Fox Business host Charles Payne and me to see if any of us can tell which quotes are real, and which were made up by my staff.
MY TAKE: I used to report on lots of scares. CBS even ran an ad for me where someone called me a "guardian angel."
That's bunk. The only guardian angel is a free and open society. Th
This week I join thousands of libertarians at a conference in Las Vegas called FreedomFest-the world's "largest gathering of free minds."
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING: The phrase "Big Brother" comes from George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four," where government watches everyone constantly. Is that America today? Yes, say Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks and Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots.
MONEY MANIPULATION: Steve Forbes, Editor-In-Chief of Forbes Magazine, says government controls us by manipulating our money: "weak money always means a stronger government."
FREEDOM DEMOGRAPHICS: Sadly, Emily Ekins of Reason Foundation says millennials prefer larger government. But the good news is: when you ask them if they prefer larger government and higher taxes, they say no. Also, 58% of young people think government agencies generally abuse their power, and 63% say they don't trust government regulators.
THE NANNY STATE: The maker of the movie, Freedom from Choice, Tim Delmastro says "most people would actually prefer freedom from making important decisions in their lives" over the freedom to choose.
EXECUTIVE POWER: President Obama uses executive power when congress doesn't do what he wants. But he doesn't do it more often that other presidents have. Obama issued 182 executive orders so far, but George W. Bush issued 290, and President Eisenhower, 480. Attorneys Tim and Christina Sandefur say it's not the number, but the content of these orders.
WAR ON THE MIDDLE CLASS: The middle class is doing pretty well by historical standards: their average disposable household income has increased 40% since 1979. But radio host Wayne Allyn Root disagrees. I argue with him about whether or not the middle class is being "murdered."
MY TAKE: Lots of libertarians love Vegas: there's no income tax, gambling and sex work is legal, and people are free to carry concealed weapons. But Nevada is among the worst states when it comes to government colluding with business. C
SILLY LAWS: Many laws are simply unnecessary. "The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance" author Kevin Underhill expands on things like the Washington State law that makes it illegal to kill a Sasquatch, and the Texas Obscenity Statute that prohibits the promotion of sex toys.
CRIMINAL LAWYERS: Lawyers defend child molesters...muggers...rapists. How do they live with themselves? Criminal defense lawyer Norman Reimer explains why he's proud to stand against the state.
LITIGATING FOR LIBERTY: Big Government often uses Big Law to step on the little guy. Luckily, lawyers like Scott Bullock of the Institute for Justice take cases for no fee when government infringes on individual freedom.
LEGAL CURES: I once assumed that lawyers would punish deceitful businesses. But then I watched them work. Lawsuits take forever and cost a fortune. Change.org offers a better idea. Jeninifer Dulski explains how the website's petitions help people without force.
WACKY WARNING LABELS: A printer ink toner warns users not to drink the ink. A football helmet warns customers, "don't play football..." We get stupid labels because manufacturers, rightly, fear lawsuits. But the labels don't help. Robert Dorigo Jones of Center for America explains, "anybody who makes a product is always looking over their shoulder for the next lawsuit.
MY TAKE: The American legal system is a giant vacuum that eats time and money. Years ago, I was sued by a Philadelphia dentist exposed for fraud. It took four years just to get me into court. I won in the end, and finally the man who sued me left his fancy apartment and went to jail. But in our legal system, even when you win, you lose. My legal costs were over a million dollars. The lawyers wasted months of people's lives.
In the free market, people constantly invent ways to do things faster, better, cheaper. But American law stays slow and stupid.
We need law, and lawyers, to keep the peace. But we should avoid using them.
STUTTERING: I never expected to go on TV since I'm a stutterer. I tried all kinds of therapies that didn't work. Finally I tried an experiment that did work. Actress and model Phire Dawson got help from the same clinic.
ANXIETY: My nephew, "My Age of Anxiety" author Scott Stossel, is riddled with anxiety. Nothing has fundamentally cured him but after experimenting, he says he's learned that for some people, "certain medications can be incredibly effective."
BACK PAIN: For years, I suffered crippling back pain. But Dr. John Sarno said, "You don't have a problem...You have a psychological problem." At first I didn't believe him, but in a matter of weeks my pain disappeared.
OXYTOCIN: I let Dr. Paul Zak give me the hormone oxytocin to see if 10 hits of it will make me happier. It's the same chemical our bodies release when we give people hugs, but does it work nasally? I find out.
STARTUPS: My son Max Stossel is a living experiment. He says he's "learned more from the work force than in school" and quit his job to experiment in the startup world with entrepreneur friends Radha Agrawal and Alex Banayan.
MEDICAL RESEARCH: My brother Tom Stossel often works with the "evil" drug companies to help fund his medical research at Harvard. He fights the new regulations that make collaboration with industry more difficult. "I want to get the information. The drug company wants to make money. And guess what? Everybody benefits."
MY TAKE: Let's remember that America is an experiment. George Washington said that he "didn't expect the Constitution to last twenty years." Let's keep experimenting.
MILITARIZED COPS: Do police really need more military equipment from the national guard?
RACISM: Columbia professor John McWhorter discusses race and the "relationship between police forces and young black men."
TECH SOLUTIONS: How do you keep police officers accountable? In Rialto, California, police officers wear cameras that record everything between them and the public. After using these cameras for only a year, police used force 60% less often. Complaints about brutality went down 80%.
POLICE STATE USA: "Police State USA" author Cheryl K. Chumley says, "the government is unfettered in its desire to control the American people." America has now become "a de facto police state." Stossel pushes back.
SELF-DEFENSE: Some residents of Ferguson buy firearms to defend themselves against looters and the police.
MEDIA COVERAGE: Several reporters have been arrested in Ferguson. Everyone in media has covered this story, but how many actually got the facts correct?
HOORAY FOR THE EPA: The Environmental Protection Agency created rules that made the environment cleaner. In a rational world, the EPA would now say stick a fork in it, it's done. But bureaucracies never say they're done. Done means bureaucrats are out of work.
GET OFF MY LAWN: The EPA cares very little for what is "private property." They said a farmer in Wyoming violated the Clean Water Act simply because he built a pond on his land. He even had a permit from the state! Why don't they pick on someone their own size?
CRONY CAPITALISM: Government environment subsidies harm more than they help. For example, every Chevy hybrid costs the government $49,000! That's what, in my consumer reporting days, they called a "scam."
FRACKING: Getting energy by injecting chemicals into the ground and breaking up rocks is great for America. But the hysterical left is in a panic.
POLLUTION MYTHS: Reporting about foul skies and the filthy earth makes for great TV. Most Americans believe that pollution is getting worse. But it's not!
THE FREE MARKET SOLUTION: Terry Anderson of PERC explains that private ownership actually decreases the incentive to pollute. We wash our own cars for example, but we don't wash rental cars. Private companies learned to deal with pollution long before the EPA even existed.
MY TAKE: Our lives are much better because the EPA forced cities to install sewage treatment, power plants to put scrubbers in smokestacks, and car makers to build cleaner cars. America still needs a few inspectors to enforce the rules we have. But we don't need 16000 environmental regulators constantly trying to control more of our lives.
EPA should stand for "Enough Protection Already!"
SAME SONG AND DANCE: For 40 years, policymakers promised to reform education. But as Andrew Ferguson of the Weekly Standard says, it's like an itch that reformers just can't scratch. New reform brings money, and since the reforms don't work, they create need for more money.
ROTTEN TO THE CORE?: Common Core is the big education controversy this year. But what does it mean for our kids?
PORN TO PAY TUITION: College has become absurdly expensive. Duke University Student "Belle Knox" became a porn star to pay her $60k tuition. Many are repulsed by what she does, but Knox says, "I'm not relying on any government loans or aid, and I think that's something I can definitely be really proud of."
E-LEARNING: Thanks to new technology, good things are happening in education. Today you can learn a language just by downloading a free app to your phone called Duolingo. Your kids can master their math skills with the app Splash Math. I suggest the new technology may overwhelm the repression of the government education monopoly.
MY TAKE: People who love government control don't understand that central planning usually fails, and that competition is the only thing that serves consumers well. It would work for education too if they'd let it. Then more kids would have an experience like charter school kids. All kids deserve that. We should let our children enjoy the benefits of competition.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT ISIS? There is no doubt ISIS poses a great threat to the U.S. But is bombing them the right answer? Some say intervention will only make things worse. Others say we must "destroy ISIS militarily."
AMERICAN OVERREACH? Progressives and neocons alike support "nation building" and call those who don't support it "isolationist." I resent this smear. I want to be engaged with the world without being in charge of it. There are times when we have to go to war, but those times should be as rare as possible.
LOSING YOUR RIGHTS: Judge Andrew Napolitano says that since 9/11, the American people lost their rights guaranteed in the Constitution; The Patriot Act and NSA spying are just the tip of the iceberg. I push back.
THE LEFT AND THE MILITARY: The military's job is to defend the country and win wars when asked. But the media instead suggests the military's greatest challenge is to achieve greater social justice and gender equality, while integrating green technology. Has the military been politicized by progressives?
PRIVATIZE THE TSA: The TSA's security screening performance is abysmal. So why not privatize it? This would create a more efficient and innovative security system that would do a better job to protect us from terror.
MY TAKE: The U.S. military is asked to chase and kill terrorists, train foreign militaries, protect sea lanes, secure the internet, contain China, keep oil cheap, protect other countries from aggression, stop genocide, protect innocent people, transform failed states into democracies-and the list goes on! Is it worth all the spending and the lives? Often it makes new enemies. Like most government plans, war tends not to work out as well as planners hoped. We libertarians wonder why people assume government will do better this time.
POROUS BORDERS: Recently, tens of thousands of kids have crossed the border illegally. To handle the crisis, Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies says we should deport them. But Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation says the solution is open borders. A debate. I fight with both of them.
WELFARE: Are immigrants a drain on America? Some are. But most contribute enough to the economy to make up for what they take in welfare.
SUCCESSFUL IMMIGRANTS: Ever use eBay, RadioShack, Nordstrom, Sara Lee, or Kraft Foods? These are all companies started by immigrants. Americans benefit from foreign entrepreneurs. Not only do their products improve our lives, but their companies create jobs here. Immigrants gave us Google, cheap Ikea furniture, YouTube, bicycles, blenders, ATMs, blow dryers, basketball, football, the first shopping mall, comfortable jeans, and even the American hot dog (that came from Germany's frankfurter). Immigration enriches our language. Jewish immigrants gave us the word "glitch." "Gee whiz" came from the Irish. The song "God Bless America" was written by an immigrant-the prolific Irving Berlin, born in Russia.
THE DRUG WAR: U.S. drug policy makes it harder to get control of the border situation. These laws don't stop anyone from using drugs and they create horrible, vicious crime.
MY TAKE: America needs immigrants. They are special people with the ambition and guts to leave their home to pursue an American dream. We ought to let more of them in. We should make legal immigration easier, relax the rules, and issue more work permits.
MY TAKE: People tell libertarians who complain about government limiting choice: "What are you whining about? People can vote the bums out." Democracy is a sort of free market. We choose our representatives.
But compared to a real free market, the political process is vastly inferior. We get to vote for politicians once every two... or four ...or six years.
In the private sector, we vote with our dollars. We get to vote often, for more stuff. Competition requires businesses to innovate or lose votes and die.
Also, and most important, politics is a package deal. Vote for Obama, you get Obama policies. But in the free market, we have a million choices. Suppose you chose food the way we choose politicians. You get two choices- donkey meat or elephant meat. Then, no matter how you voted, you have to eat what the majority picked.
In the free market supermarket, I can pick elephant and you can pick donkey. Even the in the simplest supermarket, we can each get what we want. That's why government should be kept small.
OBAMACARE MANDATES: Obama sold his signature healthcare law by saying it would lower costs and give us more choices. In truth, more people are covered, but we have less choice and higher costs.
RIGHT TO TRY: If you have a terminal illness, you should be able to try any treatment you think might save your life. But today, you cannot.
In Vermont, two brothers suffer from the same terminal illness, but the FDA has only approved the drug for the younger brother, Max. Max continues to get better while his older brother, Austin, will likely die.
ARE DEMOCRATS THE PARTY OF CHOICE? Democrats often call themselves the "party of choice." But they're almost always talking only about abortion. When it comes to other choices-like the right to choose your child's school...or not join a union..or buy a gun-they're not so big on choice. I fight Alan Colmes, who says everybody benefits from these restrictions.
ARE REPUBLICANS THE PARTY OF CHOICE? Rep
VIOLENCE AND CRIME: Americans believe crime is on the rise. But in the last decade, crime has gone down; homicide is down 5%; rape down 35%; robbery, 56%; and assault, 45%. Horrible things do happen, but they've always happened, and used to happen more often.
BEST OF TIMES? Recently, President Obama said, "The world is less violent than it has ever been." He was mocked for saying this, and yet this statement is entirely true. Things are better. The violence today doesn't compare to the 1940s and ‘50s when millions were killed during World War II, the Korean War and in Communist China under Chairman Mao.
THE GUN MYTH: Politicians and the media constantly scream about gun crime. But violent crime rates are down while the number of Americans who own permits to carry guns has tripled.
BUREAUCRATS OVERREACT: A 7-year-old boy in Maryland was suspended this year for molding a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun. In New Jersey, another student was suspended for twirling a pencil...
HOLLYWOOD HYPOCRITES: Actors like Matt Damon and Sylvester Stallone push gun control, but they keep making movies filled with gun use.
MY TAKE: The world hasn't gotten meaner. Terrorism is a threat, but less of one than the hot and cold wars of my youth. The air and water are cleaner, and crime is down over the past 25 years.
We libertarians complain about today's politicians destroying our freedom and our future. And they do, with their taxes and suffocating rules and overspending.
But in spite of that, the free market has managed to make more or most of our lives less mean.
Also, if you are black or gay or a woman, America is much less mean than it was.
But fearful people often accept, and even welcome, repression that comes along with politicians' promise to protect us. But we don't need more protection. The world is less mean now.
ENDING POVERTY: 50 years ago, President Johnson said America will end poverty by spending more on the poor and creating special programs for them. How did that work out? Today, after taxpayers spent 22 trillion dollars, poverty is more entrenched.
THE WAY FORWARD: Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) says government programs perpetuate poverty. We need to "break up the bureaucracy" and "focus on getting individuals from welfare to work."
POLITICS OF POVERTY: Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) says Republicans like Ryan don't care about the poor. I push back.
POVERTY, INC: Americans give about 5 billion per week to help poor people. Our government forces taxpayers to spend $27 billion on economic development overseas. But it doesn't work, says the new film "Poverty, Inc." Often it stops people in the developing world from creating their own farms and businesses.
CHILD LABOR: We're told sweatshops are cruel. But "Out of Poverty" author Ben Powell says if we really want to help people climb out of poverty, let them work!
CASH BY THE TRUCKLOAD: Some say we should end welfare programs and just give people money. Switzerland may give $30,000 to its citizens each year. Is this a good idea? Libertarians debate.
HANDS OFF OUR BEER! In most states, people can bring "growlers" to grocery stores or specialty brewers to get them filled with their favorite craft beer. But not in Florida! Arbitrary regulations restrict interior decorators, hair braiders, floor sanders, sports coaches in schools, landscape workers, makeup artists, teaching assistants, and more. The poor are the people hurt most by these regulations.
MY TAKE: We rarely help the poor by "spreading the wealth." We know what works: economic freedom. When countries have it, people prosper. Fewer rules bring better lives and make most everyone richer.
I become a Founder to ask: Does anyone care about the Constitution?
STOSSEL PREGNANT? The First Amendment made my career possible. It allowed me to expose crooks and cheaters. Once, I had a female producer take my urine to two abortion clinics who said I was pregnant! They would have given my producer a fake abortion had I not first said, " No!" I confronted those doctors, and they closed their practices and disappeared.
EXPOSING THE TRUTH: The First Amendment also made citizen journalist James O'Keefe's career possible. O'Keefe complains that authorities prosecute him for violating privacy laws but don't go after activists on the left. Mother Jones won a Polk Award after they ran this illegally recorded undercover video of Mitt Romney.
WE THE PEOPLE: Glenn Beck got huge ratings talking about the Constitution on TV. He once said our president "fully intends to trash the constitution." Now, he says he's "mellowed some," but he still thinks people are not standing up for the Constitution.
RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS: I tried to get a legal permit to carry a gun, but officials said I hadn't proved a special need for it. That was in New York City. Chicago and Washington, DC have been forced to change laws to honor the Second Amendment. You should thank our founders for that.
FEDERALISM: You've probably heard people call the states "Laboratories of Democracy." What does it mean? Nick Gillespie of Reason.com says it's about state experimentation: "[California] has high taxes and high services; [Texas] has low taxes and low services. People can sort based on which model they like."
FOUNDER JOHN'S TAKE: Over the last century, Americans experimented, and we became the most prosperous country in the world. Our success is largely because our founders understood the dangers of big government and wrote a Constitution to limit them. We should pay more attention to it. Then we could have what Thomas Jefferson promised -- a "wise and frugal government which shall leave men
DO-NOTHING CONGRESS: The mainstream media routinely complain about today's "do-nothing" Congress. But why? We're better off with a Congress that does less. Much of what Congress does in the name of solving problems takes our freedom, increases spending, and ends up creating worse problems.
LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATES: Ann Coulter wants to "drown" anyone "considering voting for the Libertarian candidate in any Senate election." Why? She says libertarians "are going to cost Republicans the Senate."
PROSECUTOR POWER: A small group of Washington overlords-federal prosecutors- sometimes break rules and laws to advance their own careers and wreck the lives of people who may have done nothing wrong. Are they jailed? Punished? Disbarred? No! Sidney Powell's book "Licensed to Lie" explains how they actually get promoted into some of the most prominent positions in national government. One of these prosecutors, Kathryn Ruemmler, is reported to be Obama's choice to replace Eric Holder!
RIGGING THE SYSTEM: The media say the electorate is angry at incumbents. But the overlords in Washington almost never get pushed out (their reelection rate never drops below 85 percent!) There are too many rules written by incumbents to protect their incumbency.
INTRUSIVE LAWS! Did you know it's illegal to own a small turtle? Yes! You might put one in your mouth and get....salmonella! There has been a staggering growth in the number of federal regulations over the past 40 years. And yet, bureaucrats never look back to see whether these regulations work. They just add more!
IMPERIAL WASHINGTON: Politicians get privileges that we the people don't. The senate barbershop loses about a third of a million dollars every year. The Eisenhower Memorial has received $65 million in appropriations, but there's no monument built. The governor of Massachusetts spent $9 million to renovate his office.
GOP REACTION: Senator Mike Lee says, "Democrats are going to lose...because they haven't offered anything that's new or appealing to the American people."
PREDICTIONS MARKET: Foolish Republicans killed off Intrade.com, the useful betting site that predicted elections and other future events better than polls and pundits did. Now there's another prediction market, England's Betfair, plus polls and predictors like Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog. Who will be most accurate this time?
ELECTION PANEL: Fox Contributor Deroy Murdock, Austin Petersen of the Libertarian Republic, and Katherine Mangu-Ward of Reason offer their perspectives.
LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATES: Libertarians probably won't win any seats. So why run? Libertarian senate candidate in North Carolina Sean Haugh says, "voters are ready to take back their government by voting for independent and third party candidates."
NO MEANS...TRY AGAIN? What is sexual consent? Now we're told "affirmative consent" must be "enthusiastic" and ongoing. That's the language from a new California law, and it is policy at many universities. But this is nonsense. Men and women Stossel interviewed often admitted that many women want to play "hard to get."
MATTRESS GIRL: Columbia student Emma Sulkowicz says another student raped her, but Columbia did nothing about it. For months she's carried the mattress she was allegedly raped on everywhere to raise awareness over the school's failure to expel the boy. A Columbia judicial board has heard the case twice and both times ruled the boy innocent.
WRITTEN CONSENT: As an absurd example of "legal consent," Stossel's producers drafted a silly sexual "consent form" to see if students would be willing to sign it before they had sex.
Most students saw the absurdity, but some students say it doesn't go far enough!
THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! While our contract was a joke, others are deadly serious about it. Some promote a new app, Good2Go, which says this: "When you are ready to ask a partner they consent to sexual activity, just launch the app and provide the phone to your partner.
"Your partner is presented with the question, "Are you good to go?" and three choices. If the partner chooses "I'm good to go," then they also assess the sobriety level. If the partner chooses "pretty wasted," the selection changes to "no thanks."
KIDS DOING IT YOUNGER: Contrary to what the media say, kids are not doing it younger. The age of first sexual activity is later than it's been, and teen pregnancy rate is the lowest it's been in decades.
REAL OR FAKE? Some states have really bizarre sex laws-so bizarre, you wouldn't believe they were real. Stossel quizzes "The Independents" hosts Kennedy, Matt Welch, and Kmele Foster to see if they can tell which laws are real and which ones were made up by John's staff.
For instance:
In Massachusetts...
Sex between u
Tonight, Stossel will react to President Obama's 8PM immigration address.
REACTION PANEL: Matt Welch, Kmele Foster and immigration analyst Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute join Stossel to discuss the legality of Obama's executive orders.
DEFERRING DEPORATION: Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies says we don't need amnesty. We should deport illegal aliens.
LAND OF OPPORTUNITY: Immigrants often think differently, which benefits the country. Shrada Agarwal of Context Media has created over 100 jobs in the U.S.
OPPORTUNITY DENIED: Because of strict immigration policy, some entrepreneurs like Thomas Ketchell cannot get a visa to innovate in the U.S.
Control freaks want to run your life! Here's our show:
RISK CORRIDORS: I embarrass myself (again) by dressing up as Uncle Sam and also as FatCat, health insurance company boss.
Since it would cost insurance companies too much money to comply with all the new Obamacare standards, Uncle Sam promised to bail them out if they lost money. But shhh! Don't call them ‘bailouts' -those are unpopular! Instead, politicians use the term "risk corridors."
THE NANNY STATE: Before I wised up to the idea of individual liberty, Itoo thought regulators should protect people from their own behavior. But-as a consumer reporter-I had no real power. Government does. And sadly government is filled with people just as ignorant and arrogant as I was... and they do use force.
"IT TAKES A LONG TIME TO CONTROL THE PEOPLE:" Rep. John Dingell once said "it takes a long time ...to put the legislation together to control people"
SPORTS BETTING: Millions of us bet on sports. Governor Chris Christie signed a bill that partially legalizes sports betting in New Jersey, but most politicians only want to legalize betting in casinos and other "state controlled" facilities. And even that goes too far for the control freaks. Shouldn't free people be allowed to do what they want with their own money?
MY TAKE: People on the left and right believe government should promote good things... and discourage bad things. But that is just a license for the control-freaks to stick their noses into everything we do. As Frederick Hayek said in "The Fatal Conceit", "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."
Many Americans believe in ridiculous things. Here's our show:
CLIMATE CATASTROPHE VS. CLIMATE CHANGE: Most people think global warming is a big problem. Secretary of State John Kerry said, "It's warning us. It's compelling us to act. When 97 percent of all scientists agree on anything, we need to listen."
But "The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels" author Alex Epstein explains that there's a big difference between climate change and climate catastrophe. Even if we have made the world warmer, climate change deaths are at a record low. Fossil fuels save lives.
BLINDLY TRUSTING AUTHORITY: In social contexts, people often ignore reason. When in a room of shills who all purposely give the wrong answer, people actually change their answer just because of what others say.
LOOK-ISM? We hear about people being racially biased or sexist, but looks? At ABC, I sent pairs of actors out to apply for the same job with the exact same resume and clothing. The difference was: one was especially good-looking. The other was not. The good-looking people did much better.
RAISE THE WAGE! Higher minimum wage sounds reasonable to most Americans, but it makes no economic sense, and hurts some poor people.
REASON: Twenty years ago, I wasn't so rational. When neither liberal nor conservative publications made much sense to me, I discovered the libertarian magazine "Reason," which is skeptical of both the left and right. Reason editors Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch (host of "The Independents") say libertarians are more rational than others.
MY TAKE: Over a third of Americans believe in ghosts. Just as many people believe in astrology. But dozens of studies have debunked astrology! Astrologists tell people things that apply to everyone, and people also have something called confirmation bias: we tend to focus on the things that are true, but forget the dozens of misses. Astrology is fun, but reason is better.
THE FAILED WAR ON POVERTY: Seven years after LBJ's War on Poverty, the poverty rate stopped falling. Why? Government handouts encouraged poor Americans to become dependent. Teaching a man to be self-reliant helps him far more, and private charities and markets do a much better job of this than government.
BIG GOVERNMENT VS. CAPITALISM: There are three ways to help people: Government, charity, or free markets. Markets work better than charity, and charity works better than government, but when I asked people whether government or capitalism helps people more, most said charity or government. If you study the data, its clear markets are superior to charity.
CAPITALISM THAT CARES: Another example of how markets work better than government: Obamacare requires everyone to have health insurance, but government-approved insurance distorts the market and raises prices. Fortunately, some medical clinics don't take health insurance. We went to check one of these places out.
SLACKTIVISM: By now, we've all heard of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Lots of people did that and posted it to their Facebook pages. The Ice Bucket Challenge did raise a lot of money, but often people donated nothing. Sumpto.com founder Ben Kosinski calls that "Slacktivism."
PRISON UNIVERSITY: 20 years ago President Clinton decided that taxpayers shouldn't be forced to fund college for prisoners through Pell grants. So a charity called Hudson Link stepped in to offer courses. Now it does a much better job than government. Prisoners who were previously uninspired now want to do well.
MY TAKE: This is the season for giving. But let's not forget that the people who do the most for the poor are capitalists, honest ones, the majority who create things rather than feeding off government. They do more good for the world than government and the politicians who promise "public service".
We look back at some of my attempts this year to tell the truth. Here's our show:
GOVERNMENT WASTE: Politicians say the budget is already "cut to the bone" but they spent nearly $4 trillion this year. That's not bone! Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) retires from Congress soon, which means we will have to bust the politicians' myths without him.
CHILD LABOR: We're told sweatshops are cruel. But "Out of Poverty" author Ben Powell says if we really want to help people climb out of poverty, let them work!
PORN TO PAY TUITION: Duke University Student "Belle Knox" became a porn star to pay her $60K tuition. When my interview with Knox first aired, many viewers objected, saying I shouldn't condone women "enslaving themselves." But Knox is no slave. She chooses to use her body to make money. She's an adult, and what she does with her body should be her choice.
PESSIMISM PORN: The media's dire predictions are almost always wrong. The "experts" in the 70s said the population explosion was unstoppable. Famine was inevitable. Pesticides were going to shorten our lives. Bird flu was going to kill us. The Ice Age was coming back. Acid rain was killing forests. The Y2K computer bug would destroy the economy. Journalist Matt Ridley explains that things have been getting better.
CLIMATE CHANGE VS. CLIMATE CATASTROPHE: "The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels" author Alex Epstein points out that climate change deaths are at a record low. Fossil fuels save lives.
BIG LOVE: Gay marriage is now more accepted, but why stop there? If you own your own body, why can't you marry two people? Or six? I invited a polygamist family onto the show.
WHY THE "SCHTICK?" Several times this year, I humiliated myself by putting on costumes.
Why? What we report is often complex, or abstract. I'll use any gimmick to try to explain the ideas.
MY TAKE: This year government passed thousands of new laws as usual. Some companies like Uber, Airbnb and EatWith have found ways to dodge the oppressive
