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Destroying Latin America: Journalist Mary O'Grady on Populism, Protectionism, and Prohibition

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"The inequality produced by liberty: This, for the socialist, is the soft underbelly of pro-market rationale and the best place to attack," says Mary O'Grady, a columnist who covers Latin America for the Wall Street Journal. "I would argue that it's the intellectual stream that prevails in Latin America, and it's the reason the region can not hope to reach its potential any time soon."

O'Grady made a presentation at Reason Weekend 2012, Reason Foundation's annual donor event. He talked about why Latin American countries are so susceptible to socialism and identified the "three P's" of "Populism, Protectionism, and Prohibition" as the primary sources of the region's biggest problems.

About 32 minutes. Filmed by Joshua Swain and Anthony Fisher. Edited by Zach Weissmueller.

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Why The Future Is Better Than You Think

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 EDT

Can a Masai Warrior in Africa today communicate better than Ronald Reagan could? If he's on a cell phone, Peter Diamandis says he can.

Peter Diamandis is the founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, which offers big cash prizes "to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity." Reason's Tim Cavanaugh sat down to talk with Peter about his new book Abundance and why he think we live in an "incredible time", but no one realizes it. Peter thinks that there are some powerful human forces combined with technological advancements that are transforming the world for the better.

"The challenge is that the rate of innovation is so fast..." Peter says, "the government can't keep up with it." If the government tries to play "catch up" with regulations and policy, the technology with just go overseas. Certain inovations in "food, water, housing, health, education is getting better and better." Peter "hopes we are not going to be in a situation where, entrenched interests are preventing the consumer from having better health care."

Filmed by Sharif Matar and Tracy Oppenheimer. Edited by Sharif Matar

About 15 minutes

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Author D.J. Waldie on Being a 'Partisan of Suburban Places'

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST

"Lakewood is not really a suburb anymore, it's a particular kind of urban place that looks suburban superficially but which is netted fully in an urban fabric," says author D.J. Waldie who is most famous for writing Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, set in 1950s Lakewood, California.

Waldie sat down with Reason Magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch, who also grew up in Lakewood, to talk about city planning and the unique issues affecting suburbia in 2011. For 34 years, Waldie served as the Public Information Officer for the city of Lakewood and still lives in the house he grew up in.

The film rights to Holy Land were bought in late 2010 by actor James Franco for a possible movie.

Waldie is also the author of the book Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles, blogs at KCET.org and is a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times.

Topics include: Why contract cities pinch every penny; the effects of a recession on suburbia; and why residents are leaving California.

Aproximately 10 minutes.

Camera by Paul Detrick, Alex Manning and Tracy Oppenheimer. Edited by Detrick

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Anthony Randazzo Talks Generation Jobless on Freedom Watch

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

Reason's Director of Economic Research Anthony Randazzo appeared on Freedom Watch to discuss how government work projects of the past are increasing unemployment for young people today. Air Date: November 7, 2011.

Approximately 5 minutes.

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Reactions to Obama's Jobs Speech 9/8/2011 or, "Two Girls One Job"

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:00:00 EDT

As President Barack Obama took to the pre-prime-time airwaves to announce his $450 billion jobs program, Reason.tv captured the candid reactions of viewers from all over the Internet.

About 2 minutes. Produced by Paul Detrick. Edited by Sharif Matar.

For more info, and actual ideas that might generate jobs, go here.

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What We Saw At The "Our Communities, Our Jobs" Labor Rally

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EDT

On March 26, 2011, the Our Communities, Our Jobs Rally in Los Angeles brought together the Teamsters, AFL-CIO, SEIU, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, and many, many more to protest a local Ralph's grocery store and to show solidarity with public-sector unions in Wisconsin.

Reason.tv was on hand to document the rally and speak with some of the thousands present. While the protest ostensibly targeted various businesses such as Ralph's and Chase Bank, there was a continuity in the overarching message: Collective bargaining rights are under attack, and they must be saved—both for private-sector and public-sector workers. According to participants in the rally, enemies of organized labor include big business, foreign labor, Republicans, the Koch brothers, and the capitalist system itself.

Approximately 4 minutes long. Shot and edited by Zach Weissmueller. Interviews by Tim Cavanaugh.

For Reason.tv coverage of other rallies (inlcuding Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally, the 9/12 Freedom Works Rally, and One Nation Working Together Rally), go here.

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Shikha Dalmia Talks Public Sector Contracts on Freedom Watch

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:22:00 EST

Senior policy analyst at Reason Foundation Shikha Dalmia appeared on Jude Napolitano's Freedom Watch to discuss public sector workers and their contracts. Air Date: March 10, 2011.

Approximately 4 minutes.

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Collective Bargaining and the Bottom Line

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:00:00 EST

Faced with an $8 billion budget deficit, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is on the verge of signing a bill that would prevent state employees from using collective bargaining to negotiate their health and pension benefits. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has pushed a similar bill, which has drawn national attention, spawned weeks of protests, and sent Democratic lawmakers fleeing the state as a way to stall its passage.

Two other GOP governors facing major budget crises - New Jersey's Chris Christie and Michigan's Rick Snyder - have made it clear that they don't see restricting bargaining rights as the key to more austerity. Texas, North Carolina, and Louisiana face major budget deficits, and in those states public employees don't have collective bargaining rights.

To what extent is collective bargaining to blame for out-of-control state spending? Is clamping down on the ability of public-employee unions to negotiate an important tactic for closing what may grow to a combined $125 billion gap in state budgets next fiscal year?

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with the Heritage Foundation's James Sherk to talk about what collective bargaining means to the bottom line of states.

Approximately 5.30 minutes. Camera by Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain, and edited by Epstein.

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Budget Battle Showdowns

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:12:00 EST

Wisconsin. Ohio. Michigan. New Jersey. New York. Budget-battle showdowns are coming soon to a statehouse near you.

Thousands of angry school teachers, union members, and their sympathizers have descended on capitals to fight against reducing pay and benefits for public employees. The protesters are up against a new crop of governors who are hell-bent on spending cuts to deal with deficits that may rise to combined $125 billion in the next fiscal year.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) is looking for public employees to pay $500 million towards benefits they’re currently receiving for free.

New Jersey's Chris Christie is proposing public employees pick up 30 percent of their health care premiums. Wisconsin's Scott Walker wants public employees to pay at least 13 percent of their health care premiums. And he wants state workers to start contributing to their retirements for the first time.

This newfound fiscal discipline comes after a virtually unchecked binge over the past 10 years during which state expenditures exploded by more than 80 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars, including big bumps in overall worker compensation.

The most controversial aspect of the budget battles deals with public-sector unions and collective bargaining. Wisconsin'sWalker and others argue that the current process is inherently stacked against taxpayers because the government isn’t spending its own money like companies in the private sector do. What’s more, taxpayers have no way of opting out of any agreement that’s reached. In the private sector, consumers can always take their business elsewhere. That’s the basic reason why progressives such as Franklin Roosevelt and labor legend George Meany were against unions for government workers.

In a world of super-tight budgets, it's a foregone conclusion that public-sector workers are going to have to give back compensation. Public school teachers make up the bulk of government employees in every state in the country and they already make 35 percent more in straight salary than their private-school counterparts. There's also a growing gap between what they get toward retirement and what private-sector professionals receive.

Teacher union leaders in Wisconsin and elsewhere now say that educators are willing to accept less compensation - just as long as nobody cuts the union out of the deal-making. Whatever the fate of public employee unions in this, the winter of our discontent, there's no question that teachers and other state workers are going to have to get used to making less.

That's not a total fix, much less a revolution, but it counts as real progress in a country where every state government has spent itself to the brink of bankruptcy.

"Budget Battle Showdowns" is a joint production of Heritage Foundation and Reason.tv.

Written and produced by Jim Epstein and Nick Gillespie, who also narrates. Footage and other assistance from Dan Hayes and Clay Broga of FreeThink Media.

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Why It's So Hard to Make a Movie: Q&A with Filmmaker Joe Gressis

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:00:00 EST

This Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Hollywood as usual, but it's increasingly common for Hollywood films to be produced outside California or even outside the United States.

Filmmaker Joe Gressis isn't surprised when Hollywood productions leave the Golden State. He's surprised when they stay. “The fact that we remain here is kind of ridiculous," says the three-time Emmy-nominated Gressis.

Reason.tv’s Tim Cavanaugh sat down with Gressis, a founding partner of Secret Handshake Productions, to talk about runaway film production and the headaches of making movies in California (or anywhere else, for that matter).

Topics include: tax incentives, the benefits of shooting in Hong Kong, and why Gressis admires Michael Bay.

Approximately 10 minutes.

Shot by Zach Weissmueller, Paul Detrick, and Alex Manning. Edited by Detrick.

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The NFL 2011 Lockout Labor Mess

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:00:00 EST

Now that the Super Bowl is over, it's time for the really big game: the labor battle between National Football League owners and players.

The NFL's collective bargaining agreement, which governs how much players can make, what teams can spend on payrolls, and much more, is set to expire in March. Despite sweetheart deals with publicly financed stadiums and hefty national television contracts, owners say they are being bled dry by runaway salaries and tight economic times. They're looking to extend the regular season to 18 games and for players to forego $7 billion in potential pay increases over the next seven seasons. The players, represented by the federally certified NFL Players Association, want to see the owners' books, more pay for extra games, and other concessions.

Given the amount of money in play, Vegas oddsmakers are betting heavy that the owners will lock out players for the first time since 1987, when a work stoppage shortened the season by a game. In 1982, similar problems led to just nine regular-season games being played.

But don't mistake this for a classic showdown between management and labor hashing out differences on an even playing field. Given the amount of public money in play through stadium deals and the fact that individual players must negotiate collectively through the government-certified NFLPA, federal regulations have almost guaranteed a nasty, sudden-death battle.

How things will shake out is far from certain, but this much is a lock: If the 2011 NFL season is scrapped in part or in whole, the real goat will be government meddling in what should be a purely private negotiation among millionaires and billionaires.

Approximately 3 minutes.

Produced by Austin Bragg.

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UPS vs. FEDEX: Ultimate Whiteboard Remix (Original Cut)

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:30:00 EDT

Starting with MSNBC, Reason has started airing commercials on cable news channels with the goal of bringing a new audience to Reason.com and Reason magazine

For our first TV spot, we chose a slimmed-down version of our popular and acclaimed 2009 video, "UPS vs. FEDEX (Ultimate Whiteboard Remix)", which was nominated for a digital National Magazine Award and explores the way in which federal labor classifications lead firms to jockey for political favors rather than customer satisfaction.

See the new 60 second version of the Ultimate Whiteboard Remix as seen on MSNBC here.

You may have heard the UPS is in quite the political fight with FEDEX. Though both are package-delivery companies, they're governed by totally different federal labor rules. As a result, UPS's workforce is much more heavily unionized than FEDEX's—and more than twice as expensive.

So now UPS is trying to get FEDEX reclassified under federal law as a way of screwing a competitor. That's horrendous, but it also makes a sick kind of business sense. And it also reveals the real villain: A government that is big enough to absolutely, positively guarantee it can screw any business. Overnight.

"UPS Vs. FEDEX" was produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie (who also hosts). Approximately two minutes long.

This video is based on "Using Unions as Weapons," by Mercatus Center economist Veronique de Rugy, which appeared in the October 2009 print edition of Reason. Read that article here .

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3 Reasons Obama's Education Vision Deserves an F

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:00:00 EDT

President Barack Obama is making his bid to be "the education president." At the start of NBC's recent Education Nation summit in New York, Obama appeared on the Today Show and touted what he claimed were a wide-ranging set of reforms to improve America's K-12 schools.

Yet Obama's education vision deserves an F for at least three reasons:

1. Money Talks. Obama says that the educational system needs new ideas and more money. Despite a doubling in inflation-adjusted per-pupil spending since the early 1970s, student achievement is flat at best. But Obama is placing most of his bets on the money part. While he brags constantly about his Race to the Top initiative, in which states competed for $4 billion to fund innovative programs, he's spent more than $80 billion in no-strings-attached stimulus funds to maintain the educational status quo.

2. Choice Cuts. Candidate Obama said that he'd try any reform idea regardless of ideology. Yet one of his first education-related moves after taking office was to aid his Senate mentor, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), in killing a successful and popular D.C. voucher program that let low-income residents exercise the same choice Obama did in sending his daughters to private school.

3. The Unions Forever. The two largest teachers unions, The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, overwhelmingly supported Obama with their votes and their contributions. Some 95 percent of the groups' campaign contributions go to Democratic candidates and the NEA, spends more money on elections that Microsoft, ExxonMobil, Walmart, and the AFL-CIO combined. No wonder Obama's big talking point is that he wants to add 10,000 more teachers to public payrolls despite the fact that there are already more teachers per student than ever.

Reforming education may not be politically easy, but the solution is pretty simple: Give parents and students more ability to choose - and exit - schools. This works for every other sort of business and it works for higher education, too. There's no reason to think it wouldn't work for K-12 education.

And sadly, there's absolutely no reason to think that Obama will embrace that sort of change.

Written and produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie, who also hosts. Approximately 2.30 minutes. Scroll down for iPod, HD, and audio versions. Subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel for automatic notification when new videos go live.

For more "3 Reasons" videos, go here.

NBC's Education Nation Summit: Joe Trippi, Michelle Rhee, & More

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EDT

Now that the final bell has rung on NBC’s week-long Education Nation conference, we can ask the extra credit question: When did school choice go mainstream?

The "summit," held at NBC's New York studios at Rockefeller Center, almost felt like a publicity junket for Waiting for Superman, a highly praised new documentary advocating for charter schools. A national TV audience watched as D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee chewed out teachers union honcho Randi Weingarten for spending $1 million in campaign funds to halt Rhee's reform agenda. Morning Joe's Mika Brzezinski took a shot at Weingarten for resisting merit pay for teachers. And what to make of former Howard Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi working to promote National School Choice Week, slated for January 2011?

Will Democrats turn their newfound zeal for school choice into policies that actually banish unions from the classroom and empower parents and students? Reason.tv’s Michael Moynihan went to Education Nation to find out.

For more on Michelle Rhee and Washington, D.C.'s now aborted school reforms, read Katherine Mangu-Ward's feature story from Reason's May 2010 issue .

Produced by Jim Epstein and Michael Moynihan, with help from Joshua Swain. Approximately 4.15 minutes.

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Afraid to Create Jobs: Brian Calle on Why Businesses Aren't Hiring

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EDT

"It's scary when the ones who are going to drive the economic recovery and put people back to work are saying, 'We're going to hold off a bit because we don't know what our government is going to do.'" So says Brian Calle.

The columnist and editorial writer for the Orange County Register got fed up with public-sector jobs programs and sluggish private-sector job growth, so he decided to ask business owners why they weren't hiring. The result is an ongoing, multimedia project called "The CEO Solutions Series," in which business owners diagnose the problem and propose solutions.

Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Calle to discuss what should be done to spur private-sector growth, the role uncertainty plays in hiring decisions, why business leaders are often afraid to complain about public policy, and the myth of the laissez-faire CEO.

Approximately 10 minutes.

Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Hawk Jensen, Alex Manning, and Zach Weissmueller. Edited by Jensen

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Steven Greenhut on Public Employee Paychecks, Perks and Plunder

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:54:00 EDT

Steven Greenhut, Editor in Chief of CalWatchdog.com and author of the new book, Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation sat down with Reason.tv's Ted Balaker to discuss the widening gap between public and private sector employment.

Approximately 9 minutes. Shot by Alex Manning and Paul Detrick. Edited by Austin Bragg.

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Pension Tsunami's Jack Dean on the Growing Wave of Public Pension Debt

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:00:00 EDT

At his website PensionTsunami, Jack Dean and his staff chronicle the ever-growing wave of public pension debt. "The whole idea of the pension was to provide public servants with a decent retirement," says Dean. "It wasn't to make them wealthy, to allow them to retire younger and with more money and be able to go off and play golf while the rest of us supported them."

Reason.tv's Ted Balaker spoke with Dean about a fiscal mess so large that even prominent liberals like former California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown are sounding the alarm.

Interview shot by Alex Manning and Paul Detrick. Edited by Manning. Approximately 9.47 minutes.

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Joel Kotkin: Why America Will Still Lead the World in 2050

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EDT

What will America be like in 40 years, after it adds another 100 million people? With so much bipartisan handwringing about everything from illegal immigration to environmental degradation, it seems like many are expecting America to collapse before 2050. Enter urban historian Joel Kotkin, who offers a rare and optimistic take on America's future.

Kotkin is the Distinguished Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and the author of the new book, The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050. Topics include: immigration, suburbia, job creation, why America's demographic trajectory gives it an advantage over its peers.

Interview by Ted Balaker, shot by Paul Detrick and Zach Weissmueller, and edited by Alex Manning.

Approximately 9.35 minutes long.

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A Teachers' Strike in Paradise

Thu, 27 May 2010 07:00:00 EDT

South Orange County is a suburban paradise is southern California. The climate is unbeatable, the surfing is great and the public schools are performing well. But not everything is perfect in the Capistrano Unified School District.

In April 2010, 2,200 teachers went on strike for three days after the school board imposed a 10 percent pay cut. The children who attended school during the strike had to walk past their teachers who, instead of preparing for class, were marching in front of the school with picket signs reading "It's not about the money" and "We'd rather be teaching."

Some parents honked in support of the union as they drove by. Other parents were frustrated by union members who were unwilling to work out a compromise with a district that is facing a $34 million budget deficit. Lots of parents talked about using the strike as "a teaching moment."

Reason.tv's Paul Feine talked to the school board president, the president of the union, teachers and parents to learn more.

Approximately 8.5 minutes. Produced and hosted by Paul Feine. Shot by Alex Manning and Paul Feine. Edited by Alex Manning.

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Adrian Moore on Fox Business Discussing California Public Unions

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EDT

On April 26, 2010, Vice President of Research at Reason Foundation Adrian Moore talked with Stuart Varney on Fox Business's Varney & Company about California's public sector unions.

Approximately 3 minutes.

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Is California Too Big to Fail? Q&A with The FlashReport's Jon Fleischman

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 07:00:00 EDT

Is California "too big to fail" or is a Golden State bankruptcy in the cards?

Reason'tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Jon Fleischman, founder and publisher of the FlashReport, to talk about California's ongoing fiscal meltdown, and how, after a barrage of bipartisan tax hikes and spending sprees, California's political class has yet to learn its lesson.

Shot by Hawk Jensen and Paul Detrick. Edited by Alex Manning.

About 9 minutes long. Scroll down for iPod, HD, and audio versions of this video.

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3 Reasons Why Public Sector Employees Are Killing the Economy

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:00:00 EDT

As unemployment stubbornly sticks near 10 percent and any sort of economic recovery seems a long way off, think about this: The one part of the economy that's going gangbusters is government work.

Indeed, since the Great Recession started in December 2007, over 8 million jobs have been lost in the private sector while the public sector has added at least 100,000 positions. It's time to recognize that public-sector employment is killing the economy for at least three reasons:

1. They cost too much. As USA Today recently noted, federal employees make on average almost $8,000 more than their private-sector counterparts. When you add in benefits, the gap spreads to about $30,000. State and local government workers make around the same as private-sector counterparts, but their health and retirement packages mean they make significantly more in the end.

2. We can't fire them. The private sector has shed positions in response to slackening demand and the economic downturn. That sort of adjustment is painful but necessary, as it allows the economy to adjust to changing circumstances and workers and employers to move into new activities. Because it is guaranteed certain amounts of tax revenue and has a non-market mind-set, the public sector is largely insulated from such forces and keeps or even adds workers despite changed conditions. The result? We keep paying for things that we don't use, need, or want.

3. They create a permanent lobby for expanded government and higher taxes. Look at California, where teacher unions have spent over $211 million dollars on elections in the past decade. One result is that 40 percent of California's budget must be spent on education, regardless of the number and needs of students. Over the last 10 years, taxpayer contributions to public-sector pension funds has increased by 2000 percent! Such sort of tax-based gladhanding is just getting started. For the first time in history, the number of public-sector union employees is greater than those in the private sector, so expect to see even more lobbying for the sorts of mandatory raises and permanent job security that most of us can only dream of.

Because the public sector gets its pay and benefits from tax dollars and public debt, every thing it gets means there's less for the rest of us to save, invest, or pay workers with. With the federal government and most states already neck-deep in red ink, it's time to cut public-sector pay and payrolls and return more money to the private sector. That will help spur the sort of investment and innovation that will get the economy moving and end the recession far faster than paying more and more money to government workers.

"3 Reasons Public-Sector Employees Are Killing The Economy" is produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie, who also hosts. Approximately 3 minutes. Scroll down for iPod, HD, and audio versions.

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Nick Gillespie on Fox's Cavuto, 12/8/2009, Talking Jobs & Unemployment

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST

On December 8, 2009, Reason's Nick Gillespie appeared on the Fox Business Channel's Cavuto to discuss President Barack Obama's "jobs summit," stimulus, deficit spending, and related plans to create more employment.

In the long run, we're all dead, said John Maynard Keynes. "But," asks Gillespie, "how do we pay for our funeral?"

Watch this video at Reason's YouTube channel.

Natural Food Fight: Whole Foods and Health Care

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:12:00 EDT

In August, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey argued in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that the solution to America's health care crisis was to be found in "less government control and more individual empowerment." His own company's unique health care plan, Mackey wrote, covers 90 percent of employees, costs less than health insurance plans, aned provides a "very high degree of worker satisfaction." But for the sin of not supporting a government take over of health care, labor unions and left-wing activists called for a boycott of Whole Foods, claiming that Mackey's solutions were unworkable and his employees were unhappy.

Reason.tv talked to protesters, Mackey, and employees about "the Whole Foods alternative to ObamaCare."

Produced by Michael C. Moynihan and Dan Hayes. Edited by Dan Hayes. Approximately 5 minutes. (Full disclosure: Mackey has contributed to Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes this website.)

Bailing Out the Big Three

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:00:00 EST

2008 was an apocalyptic year for the American car industry, with sales of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler cars all falling by 25 percent. Supporters of the Big Three automakers argue that the government needs to provide Detroit with at least $50 billion in taxpayer money in order to save the American car industry, on top of the billions of federally subsidized loans they've already received. President Barack Obama agrees, having attacked John McCain during last year's presidential campaign for opposing a bailout of Detroit.

But while many commenters and union advocates paint Detroit's economic troubles as a consequence of the financial crisis, necessitating its inclusion in the bailout sweepstakes, the financial troubles of the Big Three long predated the current mess. Indeed, in 2007, GM sold more cars and trucks than Toyota. Yet Toyota made almost $2,000 per vehicle while GM lost more than $1,000. So why does the United Auto Workers union and President Obama want taxpayers to reward Detroit—and punish her competitors—for making unprofitable cars?

Mexicans and Machines

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:00:00 EDT

Campaign season is just getting warmed up, but looking back on the primaries we’ve already seen plenty of the usual fare: candidates shaking hands, hanging out at diners, and scaring voters about foreigners who are taking your jobs.

Sometimes the threat comes from China, Japan, or outsourcing to India. Today, it’s NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement—you know, all those Mexicans taking our jobs.

Senator Barack Obama joins the likes of CNN’s Lou Dobbs in decrying NAFTA. So many free trade foes fret about cheap foreign labor, yet they rarely holler about competitors who will work for far less than any foreigner. Politicians don’t pay much attention to it, but—from Terminator to Ice Pirates—Hollywood films have been warning us about humanity’s inevitable war against the machines.

“Now, think about it,” says Reason.tv host Drew Carey. “How are we supposed to compete against something that doesn’t get paid, doesn’t get health insurance, and never goes on breaks?”

Today, we don't need human workers to book our travel, do our banking, or file our taxes. From factory workers to symphony conductors, countless workers are locked in battle with soulless job stealers known as computers, websites, and robots.

“No job is safe from the robot threat!” warns Carey. Of course, the warning is more than a little tongue-in-cheek. There’s no need to take a sledgehammer to a robot, because, although technology shakes up the labor market, it ends up giving us higher living standards as well as more and better job opportunities.

Like technology, trade gives us more good stuff than bad—yet Americans are likely to cheer technology and fear trade. No doubt TV talkers and White House wannabes will keep stoking our fears of foreigners until voters and viewers stop buying it—or until robots snag their jobs, too.

Strike Turns Violent

ted.balaker@reason.tv (Ted Balaker) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:24:00 EST

Think WGA members are too soft to go Teamster on strikebreakers?

Clever clip; thanks to Courtney.

As far as strikers go, these writers are pretty productive. Here's another video.

Hollywood economist Glen Whitman mulls the strike here and here .