Classic Stossel: Banning the Competition — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00what if before i could get my tv show i
2. 0:02had to first get permission from the
3. 0:04competition
4. 0:05if dan rather diane sawyer said no i
5. 0:08wouldn't be here
6. 0:10that makes sense
7. 0:15rj bruner of kentucky assumed he could
8. 0:17start a moving company
9. 0:19without having to get his competitor's
10. 0:21permission
11. 0:22we'll schedule this one in this one
12. 0:23first so he started one we put an ad on
13. 0:26craigslist
14. 0:26pickup truck and an enclosed cargo
15. 0:28trailer and we were
16. 0:30very very busy all summer long more
17. 0:32people wanted your services
18. 0:33now in just a couple of years you got 30
19. 0:36employees six trucks
20. 0:38over 30 now clean cut young guys that
21. 0:40really sells you know in the moving
22. 0:42industry
23. 0:42this customer's pleased it's been great
24. 0:44the guys showed up exactly on time
25. 0:46they've been loading they've been
26. 0:47working hard but rj soon learned that
27. 0:50pleasing customers isn't enough
28. 0:52he got a threatening letter from state
29. 0:54regulators in order to continue to
30. 0:55operate
31. 0:56we need a household goods permit
32. 0:58basically it's a certificate of
33. 1:00necessity
34. 1:01saying that there is room in the market
35. 1:03for us to operate certificate of
36. 1:05necessity meaning
37. 1:07a necessity within the moving market in
38. 1:10kentucky for another
39. 1:11mover what a business has to
40. 1:14prove it's needed to get a license you
41. 1:17essentially have to get permission
42. 1:18from your own competition first tim
43. 1:20sanderfer's law firm took bruter's case
44. 1:22for free
45. 1:23when starbucks began it would have had
46. 1:25to have gotten permission
47. 1:26from all the other coffee shops that's
48. 1:28right but if you had had to prove then
49. 1:30that america needed a new national chain
50. 1:32of coffee shops you couldn't have proven
51. 1:34that no we don't need that
52. 1:35and yet it turns out america did need a
53. 1:37new chain of coffee shops we know that
54. 1:39because they're so successful
55. 1:41competition sorts this stuff out better
56. 1:43that's right
57. 1:44the consumer is in the driver's seat but
58. 1:46not when the competition has
59. 1:48veto power we're worried about consumer
60. 1:50protections
61. 1:52healthy companies in kentucky ryan flota
62. 1:55is president of the kentucky movers
63. 1:56association
64. 1:58he has his own moving business kentucky
65. 2:00like half the states
66. 2:02allows existing companies to protest new
67. 2:05competition
68. 2:06and over the past five years 19
69. 2:08companies were
70. 2:09prevented from entering the moving
71. 2:11business because competitors said
72. 2:13the existing transportation service is
73. 2:15adequate
74. 2:16competition would diminish their
75. 2:19revenues affordable moving
76. 2:20vincent fisher hall moving all these
77. 2:23other moving companies say
78. 2:24no we don't want to allow that well what
79. 2:27gives them the right
80. 2:28we're not against new companies coming
81. 2:30into kentucky you are you don't
82. 2:32want a moving company stealing your
83. 2:34business we don't want the
84. 2:36scenario of a licensed company going
85. 2:39bankrupt
86. 2:39but companies go bankrupt all the time
87. 2:42it's the end of the line for circuit
88. 2:44city
89. 2:44borders bookstore went belly up it's
90. 2:47part of the creative destruction that
91. 2:49makes competition work
92. 2:50let's say a town population of 20 000
93. 2:52people
94. 2:54would it be beneficial to the consumers
95. 2:56to have 15 moving companies in that area
96. 2:59maybe how do you know you'd have
97. 3:01companies that are not
98. 3:04in a position to provide a good service
99. 3:07to
100. 3:07the general public the bureaucracy can't
101. 3:10decide
102. 3:10whether there's a public need for a new
103. 3:13moving company
104. 3:14not even the moving companies know that
105. 3:16they have to try it and find out
106. 3:18by an experiment and these laws prohibit
107. 3:20that kind of experiment
108. 3:22wouldn't home depot like to say no new
109. 3:25hardware store in the neighborhood
110. 3:26you can't open wouldn't gm have like to
111. 3:29say that to toyota and honda
112. 3:31i'm sure i'm not the one that set the
113. 3:33law
114. 3:34i'm just abiding by the law
115. 3:39also he says the older moving companies
116. 3:41want to protect consumers
117. 3:43from shady operators say i'm coming to
118. 3:45pick up your furniture
119. 3:47okay i tell you it's 80 an hour well
120. 3:49then when i get to your new house i say
121. 3:51well you know i'm gonna charge you 155
122. 3:54an hour
123. 3:54now we have this thing called the
124. 3:56internet where people can find out if a
125. 3:58company has a bad rep consumers
126. 4:00go for the cheapest price john
127. 4:04reesa de beer checked the web before she
128. 4:06hired rj
129. 4:08if somebody raided a company poorly said
130. 4:10they didn't take care of their items
131. 4:12that would certainly you know bring some
132. 4:14alarm bells for me
133. 4:15had you had complaints from people you'd
134. 4:17moved no
135. 4:18no complaints in fact we are the
136. 4:20top-ranked moving company in the state
137. 4:21according to angie's list
138. 4:23startups like rj's company create much
139. 4:26of the job growth in america
140. 4:28entrepreneurs are the wealth creators of
141. 4:30our society they're the engine of
142. 4:31innovation and progress
143. 4:33and job creation and wealth creation i
144. 4:35assume if i want to start a business
145. 4:37a moving company would be a good way to
146. 4:40enter
147. 4:41simple you just need a truck some
148. 4:42strength go compete
149. 4:45it should be you buy a truck you paint
150. 4:47the word mover on the side of it and
151. 4:48you're in business
152. 4:49and if customers like your products and
153. 4:51services then they'll buy from you and
154. 4:53if they don't then they won't
155. 4:54now the regulators aren't just mean for
156. 4:57safety in an
157. 4:58orderly marketplace shouldn't there be
158. 5:00some rules
159. 5:01orderly marketplaces are precisely what
160. 5:02we don't want what we want is a free
161. 5:04marketplace
162. 5:05if we have an orderly marketplace who's
163. 5:07doing the ordering
164. 5:08it should be consumers who do the
165. 5:10ordering and the law stops them from
166. 5:12doing that
167. 5:12not to protect the public but to protect
168. 5:15established businesses
169. 5:16against having to compete fairly that
170. 5:19violates liberty
171. 5:20these laws are outrageous and they all
172. 5:22ought to go