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John Stossel - Is There Anything Goverment Can't Do?
Duration:
42 minutes and 17 seconds
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Genre:
Documentary
Producer:
mustwatch.eu
Director:
John Stossel
Views:
2,145
(1,478
embedded)
Posted by:
reformy.cz on Jan 26, 2010
Another great series of John Stossel
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- Unfortunately there is problem in timing in this english version with english subtitles!!! Czech is allright but other languages will be problem
- help translate and transcribe www.mustwatch.eu
- Thank goodness for government.
- lt gives us rule of law that keeps the peace, makes sure no one physically attacks you or steals your property.
- America needs that. But today our government does much more than that.
- Government today runs trains, subways, schools, parks, public housing, welfare, Medicare, Social Security, war on drugs.
- Search warrant!
- lt provides water, sewer systems, snow removal, trash collection, ambulances.
- lt subsidizes students, farmers, lndians, researchers, volunteers, small businessmen, rich businessmen and performance artists.
- 'l am sorry, America.'
- lt inspects fruit, pickles, mattresses, toys, cars, garage doors and barbecue grills.
- lt polices the world, suppresses vice and puts opera on TV.
- lt's very nice to have classical music on PBS. l like it. l listen to it. l watch it.
- But, says Chapman University philosophy professor Tibor Machan,
- it's wrong to make Americans pay for programs they may not want.
- This is the politicians substituting theirjudgment for ourjudgment. Exactly what gives them that right?.
- We elected them to do that. lt's democracy.
- lf you believed in democracy being that bloated, you could vote hair cuts democratically.
- You could vote ties democratically.
- You could vote everything -- marriages democratically.
- The Founders tended to believe that government should be restricted.
- lt should be limited to the function of securing our rights.
- The Founding Fathers never talked about a government giving people things.
- They said it should have limited duties like running the post office, the courts and printing money.
- For a hundred fifty years that's about all it did.
- The focus was on guaranteeing liberty.
- Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books, Mrs. Sanders.
- When Mr. Smith came to Washington in the 30s, government was just beginning its explosive growth.
- Roosevelt's New Deal went beyond liberty.
- lt promised people jobs, retirement benefits, health care.
- Bill after bill pours into Congress from the White House.
- Whatever Roosevelt wants, he gets.
- And every president since FDR, Democrat or Republican,
- signed onto this new idea of expanded government.
- Strengthen the arts, fight teen pregnancy, prevent violence among young people, promote racial healing.
- And we'll help all seniors afford prescription drugs.
- Washington's become a kind of grab bag, where people with demands line up in the streets.
- Guarantee access to life-saving drugs.
- And the lobbyists line up inside.
- They see the system there, and they grab whatever they can from that system.
- And who pays for it all?
- Morning, Joe.
- You do. Joe taxpayer.
- These roofers in St. Louis have a brutal job, melting tar in hundred degree weather.
- Yet one out of every $3 they make doing this goes to the government.
- Americans pay more in taxes than we do in food, clothing, and shelter combined.
- Amity Shlaes wrote ''The Greedy Hand,''
- a book about what the government takes from us.
- You'd be surprised at what it takes from you.
- For example, Bill and Mary Thurston of St. Louis pay taxes all the time, even when they're not aware of it.
- At four in the morning when Bill's alarm goes off, they're already paying.
- Five percent to the county, for electricity.
- Brushing his teeth? Two taxes on the toothpaste.
- A sewer fee for this,
- and when he takes a shower.
- There's water tax! Money goes down that drain, too.
- To drive somewhere, the Thurstons pay taxes for his truck and her minivan.
- And when they buy gas they pay much more.
- Work is where Americans pay most of our taxes.
- Bill's one of those roofers we saw earlier.
- And while he and the rest of the crew are out slopping tar,
- it takes two employees back at the company's offices just to calculate how much to withhold from their paychecks.
- Going to feel tight, OK?
- Because Bill's wife, Mary, works as a nurse, the Thurstons pay a marriage tax.
- Their marriage penalty bill is over a thousand dollars.
- Then there's the grocery tax, property tax, utility tax, two cable TV taxes, seven taxes on the phone, and finally a sin tax.
- Forty-three percent of what Bill pays for that bottle of beer is taxes.
- What this means is that Americans on average have to work until May of every year --
- four months -- just to pay off your taxes.
- For four months, you sweat not for yourself
- but to pay for all those benevolent government programs.
- Government is never charitable, never generous,
- never benevolent because what is involved in government giving is government taking.
- Since government takes so much of your money,
- you'd think they'd be careful to keep track of it.
- But in fact, billions slip through the cracks.
- Maybe it's because the accounting process is so boring that few of us watch carefully.
- At these hearings, it's hard to stay awake.
- These uniwue features justify moving the funding for these programs out from
- under the discretionary caps to the mandatory sides.
- What reporter wants to attend these dull hearings when we can focus on the really important news?
- 'Did you have sexual relations with the president?.'
- We focus on this while the government loses track of your tax money.
- Mr. Lincoln, may l ask you about this money?.
- We're doing a hearing today.
- At this hearing, they're about to discuss a little problem at the Pentagon.
- Somehow, billions of your tax dollars are unaccounted for.
- They may have it. They just don't know where it is.
- David Walker heads the GAO,
- the part of the government that's supposed to keep track of taxpayers' money.
- How can you not find billions of dollars?
- lf you saw how many systems that the Department of Defense has,
- with the lines of code,
- you would know the answer to that wuestion. lt is mind-boggling.
- Walker says the Pentagon has spent billions on things they can't find.
- lf they have it, but they don't know that they have it, they may buy it again.
- The Pentagon has acknowledged discrepancies in accounting for more than $2 trillion.
- What if a private company kept its books that way?.
- l asked that at a convention of accountants.
- The Pentagon says for a decade, it's been trying but failing to produce a credible financial statement.
- What would happen to your clients if they did that?.
- You couldn't last very long on the business.
- The SEC would shut them down as a public organization.
- The companies would go bankrupt. The investors would be all over them.
- No private company could get away with this.
- But we're not a private company.
- There you have it. Government doesn't have to follow the same rules you have to follow.
- ltjust keeps spending and misplacing money. And you pay for it.
- Here in Washington, there are lots of experts.
- Very smart people with specialized knowledge, who are convinced that they, through central planning you might call it,
- can run our lives better than we could left on our own.
- Yet again and again,
- the government experts have failed. They make things worse.
- Look what this department, the Department of the lnterior, has done.
- You've heard about the catastrophic forest fires over the past few years.
- Some people call them natural disasters, but many say these fires are not natural.
- ln fact, most of the catastrophic fires out West were government-caused fires.
- The result of decades of bad government policy or carelessness
- like at Los Alamos or this fire in Lewiston, California,
- where the Department of the lnterior lit a fire to try to get rid of a weed, this thistle.
- They set the fire despite weather reports saying it would be windy.
- lt was windy.
- Two dozen people lost their homes.
- Faddy Lochler was one.
- Some idiot lit a fire when the wind was blowing.
- l think it's a criminal act.
- The man from the lnterior Department's a criminal?
- He's untouchable. That was the attitude. The arrogance.
- Because l asks him. l says, 'You know, had l got caught burning trash today,
- it would have been about a $2,000 fine.'
- And this little guy looked me right dead in the eye and he says, 'You're just a homeowner. l'm a professional.'
- The fire not only destroyed homes, it failed even to eliminate the thistle, which grew back stronger than before.
- Government mismanagement of forests has led to fires all over the West.
- There's a lot of privately owned land here, too. But it's better managed.
- The catastrophic fires were on government land.
- And if the lnterior Department does a bad job managing land,
- you ought to see what happens when they try to manage people.
- Often, the more the government helps, the worse things get.
- Look at what they did to the first Americans.
- They put us in a little cage here called a reservation.
- Chief Red Cloud, the leader of the Lakota Sioux tribe of Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
- The Sioux have been herded and controlled by the government for over a hundred years.
- The result?.
- This is now the poorest county in America.
- Unemployment's about 80 percent. People live on government checks.
- Every month they receive some type of handout from the federal government.
- So our people become lazy and they don't want to work.
- With nothing to do, many just drink.
- l been under the supervision of the federal government for a long time.
- They messed us up, man. They messed us, man.
- Seventeen-year-old Russell Blacksmith would like to help his tribe improve their lives.
- He wants to be chief some day, but he's not optimistic.
- The federal government turned us into a concentration camp.
- We sit back and just live off of government handouts.
- lt's been a trap. We need to stand on our own two feet.
- We have the least life expectancy.
- Less than Guatemala. Less than Bolivia, Brazil.
- Hardly anyone reaches 65 anymore.
- Activist Russell Means blames the lnterior Department's Bureau of lndian Affairs,
- the agency that claims to help lndians by planning their lives.
- We cannot make a plan or a decision without the express consent of the secretary of interior.
- We submit anywhere from two to five year economic plans.
- Does that sound like the Soviet Union?
- The old Soviet Union and their failed economic plans?
- Most of the crimes against the lndians were that of the government.
- The government goes in and ruins their lives, and it comes up and says, 'Hey, you need us.'
- Come on in.
- By contrast, look what's happened when a tribe managed to get some freedom from government control.
- We decided that we're going to have to do something for ourselves.
- Phillip Martin is chief of the Choctaw tribe.
- The government put the Choctaw on a reservation in Mississippi, and for years, they lived much like the Sioux.
- Tuberculosis was rampant.
- lnfant mortality was horrible.
- Babies were coming into hospitals not being cared for and going home and returning and dying in mother's arms.
- But then the Choctaw petitioned Congress to give them special concessions
- that would allow them to try new things without having to go through so much red tape.
- For the first time, we're able to make some changes.
- Today, 20 years later, they have factories that generate hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.
- One makes stereo speakers. Another, wiring for cars.
- Another makes plastic utensils for McDonald's. Every lndian who wants a job has one.
- They've even hired thousands of non-lndians from off the reservation.
- They've built their own schools and hospital, and they've built a thousand new homes.
- l think if my grandparents were still living today,
- they would be so astonished at what all has happened and how much it's changed.
- Makes you wonder how does the lnterior Department get away with it?.
- Charged with helping lndians and given tax money to spend billions on them,
- they created the poorest people in America.
- But they still tell the world, 'We're taking care of our poor little lndians.'
- The Bureau of lndian Affairs can't even keep track of the lndians' money.
- More than $2 billion of it is unaccounted for.
- Yet no one is even reprimanded.
- No one's indicted.
- No one's demoted.
- No one is fired.
- No one is even named.
- Just more billions lost in the bureaucracy.
- And where might the money be?
- l wanted to ask then-Secretary of the lnterior, Bruce Babbit. He agreed to an interview,
- and his staff had us set up our camera gear in his conference room.
- But when Babbit arrived, he seemed to change his mind.
- l'm not sure why l'm here.
- l mean, you know -- another -- another expose'.
- lt's all in a day's business. l understand. OK, well, lets -- let's have at it?.
- OK.
- But before l could ask him anything, he decided he didn't want to talk.
- l'm gonna fire whoever scheduled this interview.
- Why?.
- Well, well, wh- wh- what's the name of the show?.
- Uhh, we haven't titled it yet. lt's probably --
- Oh, okay.
- The government is wasting your money. They are corrupt and incompetent.
- l wouldn't -- l wouldn't say corrupt. l would argue competent.
- You say incompetent.
- Look, l'm getting less and less interested in doing this interview, l got to tell you.
- l -- l really am. l'm not sure -- l'm not sure how l got here, but...
- Well we...
- We told you it was a consumer report on government. Told your staff.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- Look, l really don't want to do this. Now...
- And that was that. The interview was over.
- Now his department wants Congress to give more money to the Bureau of lndian Affairs.
- Should they get it?. Should they exist at all?
- There's no Bureau of Jewish Affairs. There's no Bureau of lrish Affairs. There's no Bureau of Black or African Affairs.
- They sit up there in Washington, DC and they legislate laws that affect us
- when in fact they don't know what the heck's going on here.
- When we return, we'll see if government can build you a house.
- Government wants to do good things for people. Help the lndians, protect the forests and so forth.
- The planners always have such good intentions.
- But again and again, their plans make much of life worse.
- ln the name of helping the poor, look at what the Housing Department's done.
- After spending billions on public housing, many families have been helped.
- But too often, public housing looks like this.
- lt's bug-infested.
- lt's mice-infested.
- At housing projects all around America, elevators don't work, repairs aren't made.
- This has been like this for l would say about two months now.
- At this St. Louis building, an alarm sounds 24 hours a day.
- With no security and no locks, they just leave the doors wide open.
- Now every administration has said they'll do better.
- Both the current and last administrations said they want to do more.
- Let's help you build a better life for you and your family.
- For years, Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo has handed out giant checks
- and issued press releases saying 'Cuomo makes the American dream achievable.'
- 'Cuomo awards $10 million.'
- How arrogant. lt's not Cuomo's money. lt's your money.
- Let me give you a safe, clean, decent place to live.
- Did he?
- So often, public housing has locked poor people into crime-ridden ghettos
- with problems so intractable, the government laterjust blows the buildings up.
- ln St. Louis, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, our government destroys the very things they once held out as the solution.
- Why do these projects fail?
- Some housing officials have said it's not the government's fault.
- The tenants are the problem.
- Many won't pay their rent.
- They vandalize their own buildings.
- But if the tenants are the real reason public housing is in such sorry shape,
- how do you explain what happens when you get the government out?.
- This apartment complex is in the middle of one of the poorest sections of New York City.
- Unlike so much public housing, it's very clean and well-maintained.
- There are playgrounds filled with happy children.
- lt didn't used to be like this.
- When this was a public housing project, living here was hell.
- There were some 4,000 broken windows.
- The elevators wouldn't work for months at a time.
- This place was a shambles. lt looked bad, it felt bad, it even smelled bad.
- Residents say the government just let the project decay.
- When Brian Lewis took over as building manager...
- Half the place had no heat. Half the place had no gas. Ten broken sewer mains.
- The government put in new boilers, says Lewis, but hooked them up wrong.
- ln five years, those brand new boilers were gone.
- That's an example of not caring because it's not their money.
- 'Are we doing it right?. Well, who cares? We got the money. We're putting it in. l did my job because my job was put in the boilers.'
- And that's the way they work.
- And then, there was the crime.
- We identified 132 apartments that were controlled by drug dealers.
- They had nicknames for this place like ''New Crack City,'' ''Ambush Alley.''
- That's what they call passageways like this because people were so scared they didn't walk through -- they ran through.
- That was when it was a government project.
- Now a private developer runs it, and is doing all kinds of odd things.
- Like bringing in musicians to work with the kids.
- Ay!
- Yaa!
- Giving karate lessons. Building a new playground.
- For the first time in, l mean, a lot of years, they had children running around in that park,
- playing on the climbing facilities, going down the slides.
- You had mothers there with baby carriages. l just looked at it, and l said,'You know,
- this is becoming a community again.'
- Under private management, everything changed.
- Why?. What's the difference?
- This is a business here, so how do you make your business a success?
- You find out what your customers need,
- and you cater to them.
- Right.
- You give them the things they need to make them continue to be good customers.
- lt's dollars and cents in his pocket.
- The man he's talking about is Harley Frank who, when we visited this summer, was the owner's rep.
- Harley knows they'll make more money if the complex has a good reputation.
- That keeps him working on the building
- and negotiating with tenants.
- You want me to close the park?.
- Nah.
- Harley had been considering the kids' rewuests for new lights and bleachers by the basketball court,
- but only if the pot smoking by some of the kids stopped.
- l need weed.
- When these kids resisted...
- lt's not gonna stop.
- ...the tenants started policing themselves.
- They're not gonna put on the lights if we don't stop smoking weed in the park.
- No lights gonna be up in here...
- No bleachers are going to be here. No water, no nothing.
- Just for a nickel bag? Come on, man.
- We never had this, and we got it now. We can't let this go.
- How would you like it if each -- every one of those guys knows that we're closing the park because you're smoking?
- You -- would you like that?.
- No. l can't have it where we're walking down here and l'm smelling weed.
- ltjust can't be.
- We work with you. And we can't do nothing, l'm saying, but work with you.
- Why can't this passion come out under public housing?
- Because in public housing, there's no motivation for it.
- People are civil servants. They get paid at the end of the week
- whether they do their work or not.
- Now, of course, there are civil servants who work hard.
- But overall, government's record at providing goods and services -- it's not impressive.
- We assume government has to be in charge of so much.
- But, given how the government's managed things like public housing or the American lndians, isn't it time to try something new?.
- Today, there's a revolution afoot.
- Private entrepreneurs are doing things people used to say only government can do.
- Take something as basic as drinking water.
- Government usually provides that.
- Trouble is, in much of America, city water departments have let the pipes rust.
- ln Jersey City, New Jersey, it got so bad the water didn't taste good,
- sometimes failed government's own tests and kept getting more expensive.
- City workers told Mayor Bret Schundler there wasn't much they could do.
- They couldn't even slow the price increases.
- We said, 'Can't you get the costs down so we don't have to increase rates?'
- And they said no.
- 'Can't be done' is an answer heard in bureaucracies everywhere.
- So Schundler did something unusual.
- He put the water contract out for bid, and a for-profit company won.
- Within months, the private company had fixed the pipes the government couldn't fix.
- But how can you trust the drinking water to some outside private company?.
- The reality is our water is safer and cleaner than it's ever been before.
- For the first time in years, the city's water meets the highest standard and for less money.
- The private company saved taxpayers $35 million.
- What if they screw up?
- They're fired.
- They're toast.
- l don't care.
- lf they blow it, we're going to give the contract to somebody else.
- That focuses the mind?
- Yeah. They say there's nothing like a hanging, the prospect of a hanging to concentrate the mind.
- That's the difference.
- Government's a monopoly, so it has no real competition, no incentive to innovate or try harder.
- These men worked for Jersey City water when the department said it couldn't be done.
- Now they do what couldn't be done.
- Are you working harder now?.
- Yes. You're always on the go, every day something different.
- So were you goofing off before?
- Well...
- Sitting around, drinking coffee?
- Well, occasionally, yes, when we worked for the city.
- Many workers told us they're happier working harder in privatized systems.
- We work harder.
- There's a lot of reason to work harder.
- Nurse Debbie Vass loves herjob as a paramedic in Pinellas County, Florida.
- The system is way cool.
- You have state-of-the-art, brand new ambulances.
- State-of-the-art, brand new ewuipment.
- That is so different from the way things were before when it was a struggle just to have a pillow on your stretcher.
- Then the service was sometimes slow and expensive.
- The costs were just going up, up, up with no end in sight.
- That was before the county let Jersey City put their EMS service up for bid,
- placing the lives of their residents in private hands.
- The result astonished the county.
- Our taxes were lowered eight years in a row.
- Competition has proven to get us higher wuality, faster ambulances and lower costs.
- Because of competition, paramedics -- not just dispatchers -- now answer the phones.
- Are you having any chest pains?
- They give you medical advice while you are waiting.
- l want you to stay on the phone with me because she is unconscious.
- And the ambulances get to you sooner because their satellite tracking system
- -- few government services have this --
- tells them which ambulance is closest.
- This one's parked at McDonald's not for lunch,
- but because the company computer said this was the best place to wait to reach more people fast.
- You can hear them before you get off the phone.
- Mary Night's neighbors called 91 1 because Mary was disoriented.
- The paramedics got to her within minutes.
- That's one of the main reasons we live here.
- The people in our ambulance service are excellent.
- But then again, they have no choice.
- lf they're not excellent, they're history.
- That's not how it works with government work.
- Even when it's crucial government work.
- Look at the FAA.
- Was your last flight on time?
- 'A third of the flights here are now delayed.'
- 'So much for that trip.'
- Delays are becoming the norm.
- 'lt's been the worst summer on record in US airline history.'
- How can this be?
- Look at the sky.
- Even over an airport, there's lots of room.
- Why can't they fly more planes in this empty space?
- The Federal Aviation Administration issued a report, candidly saying it is largely to blame.
- lt's not that they haven't tried.
- lt's just that government monopolies don't modernize well.
- The FAA still uses these antiwuated vacuum tubes in its radar system.
- Vacuum tubes.
- l mean, they took these things out of our TV sets years ago.
- But your government still uses them to keep track of planes in America.
- With such old technology, no wonder flights are delayed.
- lt seems that the system has reached its breaking point.
- But there are not as many delays here in Canada.
- This airport in Toronto is just as busy as JFK or San Francisco's airport or Denver's.
- Yet here, the flights are more likely to be on time.
- We went through a divorce.
- We left the government behind.
- We left the number of management layers behind.
- Former government controller Andy Vasarins now works for Canada's new private air traffic control system.
- And he says he can't believe the difference.
- We're saving $250 million a year.
- Controllers used to write information down on little pieces of paper and slide them around, the way bartenders slide beer down the bar.
- lt's the same system still used in control towers in the US, but not here in Toronto.
- Here the private companies said the old control tower was so out of date, they just blew it up and built a new one.
- Paper and pencil was replaced by a computerized system.
- Thanks to innovations like that, in Canada today, though more people are flying, delays are down.
- lf the government was still here, we'd be falling behind the eight ball every day.
- every day.
- Delays, delays, delays.
- We would gridlock this airport.
- Finally, traffic on the ground's often gridlocked, too.
- We tend to take this for granted, assume it's inevitable.
- But private enterprise works better here, too.
- Take the 91 Freeway in California.
- Recently, a private company rented the empty space in the middle of the freeway and built a toll road --
- but a better one than what we're used to.
- lt takes about 45 minutes off the rush-hour trip, and there are no toll booths.
- Computers in this scaffolding bill people electronically.
- You don't even have to slow down.
- And if you break down, they see it.
- They have cameras everywhere, and they come to help you.
- He's down east of Ontario.
- Number one lane blocked.
- l'll be en route to the eastbound toll plaza.
- Run out of gas?
- They'll give you a free gallon, because the private company has the right incentive.
- Unless we give them what they want, they won't use the express lanes.
- lf they don't use the express lanes, we don't have a viable business.
- That's that competition that focuses the mind.
- Government, because it's a monopoly, doesn't have that.
- Whatever you think the role of government should be, l think most people would say,
- in a rich country like ours, government must help the poor, try to lift people out of poverty.
- Well, our government's sure been trying.
- America now spends about $40,000 a year on every family of four below the poverty line.
- Think about it -- $40,000 a year!
- You could just cut them a check for that and they'd be out of poverty.
- Yet they're not out of poverty. Millions still line up for welfare checks.
- What the government's accomplished with its anti-poverty money is not impressive.
- Despite the massive welfare state,
- the same complaints occur year after year -- that there are the homeless,
- there are the poor children, there are the-- well, if the government is so good at this,
- why is it failing all the time?
- Now the trillions we have spent certainly have helped some people.
- When you spend that much, you're bound to help some.
- ''- Thank you. - Your welcome.''
- The real wuestion is, is this the best way to help poor people?
- lnstead of ending poverty, governments war on poverty has created generations of dependent people.
- ''Spare any change ma'am?''
- But what's the alternative?
- lf government doesn't help those in need, who will?
- Well, look at Delancey Street.
- lt's a collection of society's worst.
- 500 former street people,
- drug addicts,
- ex-cons.
- Eighteen felony convictions is the average here.
- Now, here in San Francisco, they live together, work together and help each other out.
- That's what saved them, they say. Brotherhood, not handouts.
- Former car thief Eric Hartman teaches ex-con Christina Esparza a job he recently learned, the food business.
- She in turn teaches him what she learned about accounting.
- Christina says she's been in every prison in California.
- l have basically just broke every law that l could break.
- Robberies, kidnaps, guns.
- The government put her through lots of rehab programs, but nothing worked until she came here.
- ''Ta Da!''
- They say Delancey Street works where other programs fail because it's mutual aid.
- The needy helping the needy.
- The residents have built the biggest independent moving company in the Bay area.
- ''Welcome to Delancey Street!''
- A fine restaurant, a catering service.
- ''Two double latte's to go.''
- A beautiful cafe, book store.
- ''Did you get that little screwdriver l was talking about?.''
- This auto repair shop,
- and they built the apartment complex where they all live in San Francisco Bay.
- Now this mutual aid idea is not new.
- ln the 1920s, 30 percent of American men belonged to mutual-aid societies.
- They were especially popular among minorities.
- They helped people pay for doctors, build orphanages, cook for the poor.
- lnstead of a government handout which tends to make people dependent, mutual aid meant neighbors helping neighbors.
- So they made sure their money was used to teach self-sufficiency.
- Yet today, there are fewer mutual-aid societies like Habitat for Humanity because government crowded them out.
- Many people say, why do it ourselves when $400 billion of our tax money and hundreds of government programs do it already?.
- This is a tragedy because, as Delancey Street shows, mutual aid works better.
- You know, they make you accountable for what you do.
- They didn't do that at the other program.
- lt's just 'your anger, you're very angry. Let's talk about that,
- and they did that for nine months. lt was, like, okay. l thought it was a joke.
- ''Mabel, stand up!''
- Thirteen thousand people have now been through Delancey Street,
- but it wasn't easy because surprisingly, government kept getting in the way.
- We have had to fight every bureaucracy that exists because we don't fit what you're supposed to do.
- Mimi Silbert, who started Delancey Street, says government rules have been an obstacle to their achievements
- because she doesn't employ certified teachers and drug counselors,
- the bureaucratic red tape, she says, could ruin anything.
- lf Jesus Christ walked in today and wanted to start Christianity, he wouldn't be able to do it because they'd say to him,
- you need two psychiatrists, you need one social worker, somebody has to sign the things.
- Get the government to understand when something good is happening, step out of the way.
- But private charities kept telling us government's often in the way.
- Here in Houston, Carol Porter started feeding poor people.
- l was feeding children who were eating out of dumpsters.
- l never would imagine things like that in America.
- She and her volunteers serve 20,000 meals a week.
- ''People think unless they do something big, huge, enormous, they're not making a contribution, but you are.''
- What makes community-based programs work vs. government -- you know the people.
- You get involved in their lives. You know their names.
- ''Hello, Erica!''
- And when someone at Kid Care needs assistance, we don't have to do a form in triplicate.
- We give them service right then and there.
- Despite her good work, at one point her charity was almost killed by government regulations.
- Over 16 years ago, l applied for a government grant, and we were accepted.
- Well, boy, was l in for a revelation.
- The government grant came with so many rules. Like the milk rule.
- Even though the child may not drink the milk, l had to place it in front of them.
- So l was throwing 60 and 70 containers of milk in the garbage every day.
- Other rules limited what she could serve, when she could serve it, who she could serve it to.
- So many rules she just gave up.
- We just shut down the program.
- ''How are you, today?.''
- A month later, she tried again, but this time, without government funds.
- But the government still wouldn't leave her alone.
- They said charities must abide by the same rules as restaurants.
- They demanded she cover the beams in her ceiling,
- that she get a special sink to clean mops and a vented hood for the stove where she made home-cooked meals.
- The vented hood was for the purpose of containing grease fires. And we never fried anything.
- What did l need a mop sink for?. My mop was much cleaner because l washed it in my washing machine.
- ''C'mon, hey there!''
- This is insane. No one should put any obstacles in the pathway of anyone
- who goes out of their own pocket, who goes out of their way to do good.''
- ''Got that?. Hold it tight.''
- She didn't want to remodel. She wanted to spend all the money on the kids.
- But the government wouldn't let up.
- You prefer the children eating garbage can cuisine -- versus my home cooking? l couldn't believe it.
- Eventually, the government offered a deal.
- 'Let's settle this out of court, Mrs. Porter, and you can do 200 hours of community service.'
- l said, ''Get a life! l do community service every day.'''
- But eventually, Carol gave in.
- She got that mop sink and a special new ceiling
- and stopped serving hot meals.
- The government is standing there with a sword at the gate
- and saying, 'lf you do these things, l've got a list of 500 regulations you must adhere to, or, ''kkurrch'', off with your head!
- Government thinks it knows best.
- But ask yourself: if you want to help the poor, do you write a check to the government?.
- Or do you give your money to a private charity, someone like Carol Porter?.
- There are only two ways to do things in life -- voluntarily, or because you're forced to.
- Government's the only institution in America that's allowed to use force, that has a legal right to make you do things.
- And everything government does -- every regulation, every tax it imposes --
- is backed up by force, or the threat of it in one form or another.
- Sometimes the force comes in the form of a bulldozer.
- That's what's threatening this neighborhood in New Rochelle, New York.
- lt's what you might call a mixed neighborhood.
- There are two thriving churches, 34 homes, 28 businesses. lt's very diverse.
- People of different races live here in harmony.
- Residents told us they like their neighborhood the way it is.
- ''We're just like one big family there.''
- So what's the problem?
- Well, the problem is that city officials like the mayor don't like it.
- No urban planner would ever design a neighborhood like that.
- With a house next to an industrial site, next to a bus depot. That's not a neighborhood, in my opinion.
- The city's solution?
- Flatten the area and replace it with an lkea furniture store.
- ''lkea has to go away!''
- Lots of people around here are not happy about that.
- ''They want to put us out of our homes and businesses and destroy two churches, '' so they can come in and...sell furniture?
- Well, yes!
- These people may have deeds for their homes and businesses, but government can still just kick them off their property
- by using a law called ''eminent domain'', which means superior ownership.
- Officials can take over your property if they decide it serves what they consider to be the greater good.
- The government first used eminent domain to get land for new highways, bridges, parks.
- This woman was literally dragged from her home to make room for a park in Virginia.
- ''Thank you. Please be seated.''
- These days, however, government officials use eminent domain for all kinds of things.
- To help private companies expand. Notjust lkea, but K-Mart, Home Depot, baseball teams, shopping malls.
- When this shopping mall in Texas wanted to expand into that neighborhood,
- the town just ordered everyone out and had the entire neighborhood bulldozed.
- That's the plan for New Rochelle.
- We have freedom, but where is the freedom?
- What freedom do we have when we have businesses that will just come in and say, 'Oh, you have to move'? There is no freedom.
- l have to move my city forward and then renew areas that have fallen into disrepair and into blighted conditions.
- And l think the only way to do that in a city of this size is to be able to reorganize things a little bit.
- What about freedom? The people there say they don't want to be reorganized.
- l think there's a -- there's a need to understand how government can improve its community.
- Now, l have to say, l like lkea stores. These are great things to have around.
- But should families be forced out to make room for them?
- ls it right to tear people from their homes? ls that right?.
- Dominick Gataletto's family has lived here since he was two.
- He remembers his mother cooking pasta in the kitchen.
- ln the same plot where his father used to grow tomatoes, Dominick now grows tomatoes.
- He and his wife, Virginia, wanted to leave the house to their children.
- All the memories that l've had all these years.
- l've been here 67 years and you don't just wipe that away simply because a furniture store wants to come in.
- This is America? l don't think so.
- You think of government. You think of government's there to help you.
- ''No, they're not going to help you.''
- When they take your house, that's not a help.
- They're notjust gonna take your house, they'll pay you for it.
- Mister, you don't know what you're talking about.
- She has a point. The city has to pay only what it says the homes are worth.
- We're just asking them to move to a different site.
- You're not asking people. You're telling them, 'Move.'
- But we're going to try to find them adewuate relocation headwuarters.
- l've never felt so powerless in my whole life.
- What's wrong with my American dream? Why is lkea's American dream better than my American dream?
- Because the politicians need to plan for everyone. They've decided a furniture store is what this town needs.
- lt's a furniture store today, and tomorrow, what will it be?
- Will it be your home? Whose house? Whose business will be next.
- Politicians assume they know best. So they have the right to use force to fix things.
- ''Lie down! Hands behind your back.''
- lt's threatening enough when government uses force in America.
- But the really big guns come out when government intervenes overseas.
- The cold war may be over, but since then, we've still sent soldiers to Somalia,
- Panama,
- Bosnia,
- and a hundred other countries in the name of keeping the peace.
- Sometimes we seem to bomb first and ask wuestions later.
- We bombed this factory in Sudan.
- This is a normal factory. There is no involvement of any army or any...
- l scoffed when l heard this factory director's claims, but now our government admits at the time, weapons were not produced there.
- Our interventions may even make America less safe, more vulnerable to terrorism, because they tend to make us new enemies.
- ''Down, down, USA!''
- Most recently, we intervened in South America.
- ''Today, we are called upon to stand for democracy under attack in Colombia.''
- We're getting ready to start a war in Colombia.
- We've just voted umpteen billions of dollars to go down there and get involved in a civil war that's been going on for 30 years.
- Who do you think lobbied for it?.
- The people who build the helicopters, and the people who own oil wells.
- They're the ones who lobbied, and they won the vote easily.
- The president asked for so much money, and they came to the House, and we increased it!
- Representative Ron Paul is a lonely voice in Congress.
- When bills pass 400 to one, Paul is typically the one.
- He says he'll vote against funding of any government action beyond three basic functions.
- Protecting our borders, keeping the peace at home, and running the courts.
- He says bills that go beyond that violate the Constitution.
- You're often called ''Dr. No.''
- l'm saying no to those bills, but l'm saying yes to liberty.
- Now other politicians have talked about reducing the role of government.
- ''Wherever waste is found, l will eliminate it.''
- ''lt is time to wuit putting good money into bad programs.''
- ''Our government is...''
- (ln unison) ''...too big and it spends too much.''
- But the cuts almost never happen.
- Under every administration since Roosevelt, government's only grown, and you pay for it.
- When America began, government cost every citizen $20.
- Just $20 in today's money.
- Taxes rose during wars, but for most of the life of America,
- spending never exceeded a few hundred dollars per person.
- Government did get much bigger during World War ll.
- You paid $5,000 per person then.
- That was supposed to be temporary. But it wasn't.
- Government grew again and now it charges each of us on average not $20 per year,
- but $10,000 per year.
- After all, the politicians say they need the money
- because government is so busy -- it has to do so much.
- ''We need these things.''
- What should government do?
- Government should do what it's appointed to do, namely to protect our rights.
- When criminals attack us and when a foreign aggressors attack us,
- then the government rises and does its job of protecting our rights.
- And government would do a very nice thing to us if itjust kept to thatjob.
- And it would do it much better if it didn't do all this other stuff it has gotten its nose into.
- Will that ever happen?
- l doubt it.
- As Thomas Jefferson warned,
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