Classic Stossel: No They Can't — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00yes we can yes we can yes we can
2. 0:04no they can't that's a nasty title for
3. 0:08my new book but politicians can't do
4. 0:10what private individuals can
5. 0:13over the years politicians have promised
6. 0:15us energy independence world peace an
7. 0:18end to poverty if we just give them more
8. 0:20money they will solve those problems but
9. 0:23no they can't their plans go bad head
10. 0:27start doesn't work college tuition pays
11. 0:29for spas the tsa is awful she actually
12. 0:33felt
13. 0:34touched my vagina but wait you say if
14. 0:36government can't what about cutting edge
15. 0:39science like nasa america did send a man
16. 0:42to the moon got the flag up now we all
17. 0:44like this beautiful that's beautiful but
18. 0:47think about it it costs billions and
19. 0:50what did we get promos for a breakfast
20. 0:52drink tang instant breakfast drink went
21. 0:55with them nasa technology did bring us
22. 0:57the cat scan but our billions haven't
23. 0:59gotten as much we get lots of delayed
24. 1:02projects government science is clumsy
25. 1:05by contrast for a fraction of the cost a
26. 1:08private group called the x prize does
27. 1:10better offer a prize and they will come
28. 1:13they promised 10 million dollars to
29. 1:15anyone who could launch three men into
30. 1:17outer space
31. 1:1825 teams competed for the prize i have
32. 1:22never been myself as creative
33. 1:25as i have eyeballing this damn prize
34. 1:29bert rutan spaceship one won the prize
35. 1:32then billionaire investors said i want a
36. 1:35piece of that richard branson came in
37. 1:37and bought the rights and commercialized
38. 1:39to create virgin galactic a company that
39. 1:41plans to run a tour bus in space
40. 1:44already tom hanks ashton kutcher katy
41. 1:47perry and brangelina bought tickets the
42. 1:50fare is two hundred thousand dollars now
43. 1:52but branson says someday it'll be as
44. 1:54cheap as normal airfare this is richard
45. 1:57branson and he's here
46. 1:59i'm told private companies won't want to
47. 2:01do this there's no money to be made in
48. 2:03going to the moon so this has to be done
49. 2:05by government um you know all new
50. 2:07innovation really comes out of the
51. 2:09private sector it comes out of
52. 2:10entrepreneurs are they going to make
53. 2:11money by charging for the ride
54. 2:14politicians say government support is
55. 2:17critical in helping businesses get new
56. 2:19energy ideas off the ground we're
57. 2:21programmed to believe that if it's for
58. 2:23real high-tech futuristic innovation
59. 2:26it's got to come from the government and
60. 2:28it's just the opposite the feds have
61. 2:30already thrown billions at failures like
62. 2:32solyndra and that was tiny compared to
63. 2:35the clinch river breeder reactor solar
64. 2:38one the triad ethanol plant and the
65. 2:40hundreds of billions wasted on sin fuels
66. 2:43some things work out some things don't
67. 2:45progressives say government's
68. 2:46boondoggles are worth the risk i like
69. 2:49the idea of government taking my my
70. 2:50dollars my tax dollars and investing in
71. 2:53the technologies of tomorrow
72. 2:54progressives also like government
73. 2:56forcing private companies to do it those
74. 2:59fuel efficiency standards have forced
75. 3:01detroit to innovate in ways that it
76. 3:02might not have
77. 3:04without them
78. 3:05if government didn't dictate 35 miles
79. 3:08per gallon we wouldn't get there
80. 3:10we need government to force it
81. 3:12i think we do need government to force
82. 3:14it but no we don't while government
83. 3:17spent billions xprize offered a 10
84. 3:19million dollar prize for a car that gets
85. 3:22a hundred miles per gallon the
86. 3:24announcement sparks an immediate and
87. 3:25powerful worldwide response we're in we
88. 3:27got to do this we're going to go for
89. 3:29this in a big way to meet the challenge
90. 3:31some teams use gasoline electricity even
91. 3:35compressed air 130 teams around the
92. 3:37world entered it's proving what's
93. 3:39possible the design phase was first cars
94. 3:42had to pass a looks test
95. 3:45then came the safety and performance
96. 3:47tests most teams were eliminated oh well
97. 3:50we had the range we had the mileage but
98. 3:53in the zero to 60 our transmission just
99. 3:56didn't hold up this team won the prize
100. 3:58with a car that got 102 miles per gallon
101. 4:01i can't buy these cars not yet but these
102. 4:04cars are slowly getting into production
103. 4:05components of them are going into the
104. 4:07large auto manufacturers one more
105. 4:09example thousands of gallons of crude
106. 4:11oil are oozing government took charge
107. 4:13after the bp oil spill make no mistake
108. 4:16we'll continue to do whatever is
109. 4:18necessary have we brought in the best
110. 4:20and the brightest of all the minds that
111. 4:22could deal with this no government
112. 4:24hadn't we started looking at this and
113. 4:26said you know reinventing how to clean
114. 4:28up oil on the surface
115. 4:30hasn't changed since the exxon valdez 21
116. 4:32years earlier so how would he improve it
117. 4:35i don't know but the competition will
118. 4:38bring the best ideas to the top and it's
119. 4:39odd to hear you say i don't know the
120. 4:42government assumption is that someone in
121. 4:44government does know and can pick but
122. 4:46you're
123. 4:47giving away all this money and you say i
124. 4:49don't know we don't pick the winner in
125. 4:51advance like the government does in
126. 4:53research the research
127. 4:55funding agency says you're a good
128. 4:56researcher here's money we flip it and
129. 4:58say
130. 4:59i don't know which of you hundred teams
131. 5:01are the best one but the one who
132. 5:02achieves this will pay you we only pay
133. 5:04for success and i'm waiting for that
134. 5:07great big check so wendy schmidt offered
135. 5:10a one and a half million dollar prize
136. 5:12for a faster way to clean up oil 350
137. 5:15teams around the world registered to
138. 5:17enter that competition we gave it our
139. 5:18best shot and we'll see what happens
140. 5:21some teams had no prior experience with
141. 5:23oil spills we get asked all the time to
142. 5:25go how long have you been in the oil
143. 5:27industry and i
144. 5:28well counting today the top 10 teams
145. 5:31went head to head at the world's largest
146. 5:33oil spill cleanup facility in new jersey
147. 5:36and seven of the ten teams doubled the
148. 5:38pre-existing standards that had been
149. 5:40used to clean up oil for the last the
150. 5:42last 20 years if we get this pump
151. 5:44working
152. 5:46we will win one of the teams that
153. 5:48doubled it was a team that met in a las
154. 5:50vegas tattoo parlor i kid you not you
155. 5:52can't make up this stuff and they built
156. 5:55a scale model in one of the guys pools
157. 5:57and it still doubled the ability to
158. 5:59clean up oil spill from the last 21
159. 6:01years
160. 6:02so for 20 years they tried and tried and
161. 6:05they can clean up oil spills but only at
162. 6:07a certain speed with the prize you
163. 6:10double it actually the winning team for
164. 6:11the prize quadrupled it why can't the
165. 6:14environmental protection agency lead
166. 6:15stuff like this well they could but they
167. 6:17didn't did they
168. 6:20[Applause]
169. 6:21just because government can't that
170. 6:23doesn't mean we can't we can
171. 6:26individuals succeed while government
172. 6:29fails
173. 6:40you