Give Me A Break

How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media…

By John Stossel

In most of American life, we do quite well without government setting wages. Wages are best set by competition—by supply and demand.When there’s more demand for workers, wages rise. When business slows, wages drop. Some wage rates change every day. It keeps things flexible, efficient. It allows more people to keep working. Prices are valuable information. They tell workers where it might be better to work, and contractors where it might be better to hire. Supply and demand lets every individual earn in proportion to what he or she contributes. Contractors who want the best carpenters and electricians bid up the wages for the most outstanding workers; beginners or goof-offs get less.

(Stossel 2005, 36-37)

Some years ago, the FDA held a news conference and proudly announced, “This new heart drug we’re approving will save fourteen thousand American lives a year!” No one stood present to ask, “Excuse me, doesn’t this mean you killed fourteen thousand people last year—by delaying its approval?” No one asked that because reporters don’t think that way, but that’s what the FDA’s announcement meant. If the drug saves 14,000 lives a year, then 14,000 people die each year while the drug awaits approval. Thousands will die this year while cancer therapies and fat substitutes wait for approval. Some of us may want to wait. Many of us wait to be absolutely certain a drug is safe before we take it. Why isn’t the choice left to us? In a “free” country, why do we meekly allow the FDA to act as a police agency that can tell us, “You may not”? Why does it get to use force?

(Stossel 2005, 43-45)

Politicians keep expanding the giveaway, rewarding more victims and thereby creating more victims. Social Security was designed to help the elderly and the severely disabled. But today checks go to young men like those I met waiting in line in San Francisco’s Social Security office. Their “disability”? Addiction. A strong-looking man named Clay said he got a check because “I’m an alcoholic—smoke too much rock.Smoke weed everyday. And I like my heroin, too.”

I think addiction is primarily a bad habit—a lack of self-control. But the government labeled addiction a disease. Since disease isn’t your fault, the kindly social workers decided addicts are entitled to monthly checks.

Most I interviewed didn’t even bother to pretend they wanted the check for medicine or housing; they admitted they used it to get high.Clay said, “We should not be getting this money. But since it’s there, we’re going to take it.”

Another man, Carter, made his $602.40 check last longer by investing it in his “business.” “I take my money from the government and I deal a couple of drugs to make sure I’ve got money all month.”

Many felt entitled to their checks. “Everybody has some sort of an addiction,” said Mike. “That’s society, man. You know?” He said he was willing to work, “but they won’t get me a job.” When I asked him how many jobs he’d applied for that week, he said, “Hey, I ain’t gonna apply for a job.”

If he got a job, he’d lose his check.

(Stossel 2005, 207-208)

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), one of the coalition of 100 nonprofit and religious groups denouncing workfare, assembled a group of “victims” who told us why workfare “is like slavery.”

Pierre Simmons: Somebody gets a call somewhere upstairs, “Hey, man, we need 10 workers on some highway” That’s not your job, but they can snatch you from your park and put you on a highway. And that’s like slavery?

John Stossel: And that’s like slavery?

Pierre Simmons: Yes, it is.

Carrie Tillman: Why not give me a real job?

John Stossel: Because you didn’t get a real job on your own.

Pierre Simmons: I’m picking up dog crap all day long, dead animals. I’m tired of it. I don’t like it.

Elliott Roseboro: We make less than $5,000 a year.

John Stossel: So quit and get a job. Nobody’s making you do this. Mostpeople find work in America. You could. You’re well spoken, smart people. You don’t have to be on welfare.

Jose Nicolau: Where are the jobs? Where are the jobs at? Come on. Be real!

I pulled out that day’s New York Post and started reading from the long list of help-wanted ads.

The ACORN group laughed derisively.

Jose Nicolau: You’ve got to look at how much the pay is, too.

John Stossel: …. delivery person, warehouse work…

Pierre Simmons: How much is it paying? Four seventy-five an hour?

John Stossel: Not enough?

Pierre Simmons: A minimum-wage job would kill me. I’d be crushed. Nobenefits, no medical…

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. First jobs don’t pay well, but they are the first rung on the ladder of opportunity. They teach people how to show up on time, follow instructions, and handle responsibility. They give them the self-respect that work alone brings. Then the workers can move into better jobs. ACORN and the rest of the “poverty industry” hurt poor people by deriding entry-level work.

And calling workfare slavery is an insult to those who suffered real slavery. Yes, it would be nice if all workers earned more, but the perfect is the enemy of the good.

“What you’re hearing is the absence of vision,” said Errol Smith, a radio host. “I have worked as a waiter. I have worked as a janitor. I’ve had some of the most menial jobs that you can imagine. But they were all means to an end. I learned something.”

(Stossel 2005, 223-224)

Every presidential election year, reporters ask, “Who will run the country?” Run the country? Hello? A president runs the country? What arrogance. The politicians are so important that if they’re not in power, alized America stops? I don’t think so.

Fortunately, America is really run by millions of free people, entertaining themselves, building spectacular buildings, offering us thousands of wonderful new inventions. Politicians don’t run that.

Most of the best of life has nothing to do with the government. People falling in love, worshiping, creating things, making families work. Yes, good government can keep the peace and create conditions that allow these good things to flourish, and presidents can do dumb things that make our lives worse. But for the most part, the complex, thriving giant that is the United States runs itself.

(Stossel 2005, 285)

References

Stossel, John. 2005. Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media… N.p.: HarperCollins.

ISBN 9780060529154