Corporate Welfare — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Government handouts keep going bad.
2. 0:03Strangely, PBS is covering this now,
3. 0:06because it’s airing a documentary on
4. 0:08corporate welfare.
5. 0:09This is basically socialism for the rich.
6. 0:12Here our Stossel TV sized version of it.
7. 0:15IKEA was founded in my home country of Sweden.
8. 0:20Here in America,
9. 0:21IKEA is best known for meatballs
10. 0:23and nearly impossible to pronounce product names.
11. 0:26IKEA said, "Oh, we're interested in coming
12. 0:28to the Memphis area.
13. 0:29We think it would be a great fit for us."
14. 0:31But obviously with that, they also said,
15. 0:32"Well, how much money you're going to give us
16. 0:34before we decide whether we're going to come or not."
17. 0:36The city of Memphis has a program
18. 0:39called the Economic Development Growth Engine
19. 0:41to entice new businesses to move to the city.
20. 0:45One way it does this
21. 0:46is by offering large property tax abatements.
22. 0:50As always, the abatements are complex,
23. 0:52and so it’s the big companies with lots of lobbyists
24. 0:55and lawyers that are able to figure these things out.
25. 0:59IKEA agreed to create 175 new jobs
26. 1:02with an average salary of $41,000 a year.
27. 1:06Lines are growing tonight for
28. 1:07IKEA's grand opening tomorrow.
29. 1:11There was some pushback
30. 1:12from other businesses as well.
31. 1:15What about us?
32. 1:16I mean, we've been here and
33. 1:17we employ here and we pay taxes here.
34. 1:20You're really pitting these gigantic corporations
35. 1:23who know the government and have tons of lobbyists,
36. 1:25against mom and pop shops in our community
37. 1:27that we're trying to save.
38. 1:29You're basically asking
39. 1:31people to pay more tax dollars
40. 1:34in order for their competitor to succeed over them.
41. 1:36Two years after IKEA Memphis
42. 1:39opened to much fanfare
43. 1:40and millions in tax breaks
44. 1:41new documents show the Swedish furniture retailer
45. 1:45doesn't have as many jobs
46. 1:47on the site as they promised.
47. 1:49There’s only one IKEA in Memphis,
48. 1:51but there’s 15-20
49. 1:53independent furniture stores in Memphis.
50. 1:56Where’s our tax break?
51. 1:58Less than two years after IKEA opened,
52. 2:01King’s Furniture went out of business.
53. 2:04These are our tax dollars.
54. 2:05We work really hard for them
55. 2:07and they should go to things that we need.
56. 2:08They should go to essential government services,
57. 2:10roads, schools, police, fire.
58. 2:13I mean, that's what this money should go to.
59. 2:14I think it's essentially just not the role of government
60. 2:17to give money to big corporations
61. 2:19at the expense of small business owners.
62. 2:23Many such programs begin with good intentions,
63. 2:26but they result in unintended consequences.
64. 2:29And those unintended consequences
65. 2:32never, ever go away.
66. 2:34We will always stand with the American Farmers.
67. 2:37Now to the Farm Bill.
68. 2:38America’s annual farm bills give money to farmers,
69. 2:41to make sure America has an adequate food supply.
70. 2:45But that justification is just bunk.
71. 2:48Most crops don’t get subsidies,
72. 2:50and they do just fine.
73. 2:52Farmers choose to raise corn and soybeans
74. 2:55because those are the crops
75. 2:58that there's government guaranteed revenue insurance.
76. 3:02Exactly.
77. 3:03Guaranteed money.
78. 3:04And who gets it?
79. 3:05It's the big guy who have the resources,
80. 3:08not just to lobby in Congress,
81. 3:10but to actually have entire shops
82. 3:13to try get and maximize the
83. 3:15amount of subsidies that they're getting.
84. 3:17Many of which are not even American companies.
85. 3:20In 2016, the largest pork producer in the U.S.,
86. 3:23Chinese owned Smithfield Foods,
87. 3:26increased consumer prices in stores,
88. 3:28but decreased the amount they paid
89. 3:30farmers for live hogs.
90. 3:32Yet they still benefited from the
91. 3:35government subsidy system,
92. 3:36heavily lobbying to keep feed prices low.
93. 3:40It’s estimated that in 2019 alone,
94. 3:43Agri-business spent over $135 million on lobbying.
95. 3:48We embody what people romantically
96. 3:51think about when they think about a farm.
97. 3:53These farmers spent nothing.
98. 3:55Jeff and Zach raise hogs,
99. 3:57cattle, vegetables and poultry.
100. 4:00They sell primarily to families and
101. 4:02restaurants in the area.
102. 4:03Pete Eshelman owns a four-star restaurant
103. 4:07in nearby Fort Wayne, Indiana.
104. 4:09In 2015, the Indiana state legislature
105. 4:12invited Jeff and Pete to make a presentation
106. 4:15on farmer's markets and local restaurants.
107. 4:18I come today as a fifth-generation
108. 4:20Wabash County farmer and my son,
109. 4:22who is my partner, is a sixth-generation…
110. 4:25But they were in for a surprise.
111. 4:28We finished our presentation
112. 4:29and the chair of the committee said,
113. 4:31"Well, that's illegal."
114. 4:32They immediately had to stop selling
115. 4:35and serving chickens from the farm.
116. 4:37They basically came up with a story
117. 4:39that small farms processing chicken on the farms
118. 4:44is a health risk.
119. 4:45What really happened was that the
120. 4:47bigger, politically connected farms
121. 4:49got the legislature to ban competition.
122. 4:52But … Hawkins chicken was popular.
123. 4:55And so that's how the hash tag was born,
124. 4:57#keepchickenonthemenu.
125. 4:59If you've enjoyed this meal,
126. 5:01will you please contact your representative?
127. 5:03People were telling us that they would call
128. 5:05and they actually would lead with,
129. 5:06"Is this about the chicken thing?"
130. 5:08when they picked up the phone.
131. 5:09Not even hello.
132. 5:10Once again, Jeff, Zach, and Pete
133. 5:13head to Indianapolis to testify.
134. 5:16The opposing side was not only represented
135. 5:18by state regulators,
136. 5:19but also by large agricultural lobbying interests,
137. 5:23including the Indiana Farm Bureau,
138. 5:25the Indiana State Poultry Association,
139. 5:27the Indiana Pork Producers Association.
140. 5:30It's all about eliminating competition.
141. 5:33However, in this case
142. 5:35The social media campaign continued
143. 5:37to create enormous public pressure.
144. 5:40So local politicians took a closer look
145. 5:42without the influence of the agricultural lobbyists.
146. 5:45"What can we do to make this better?”
147. 5:47Remarkably a revised bill was drafted
148. 5:49to everyone’s satisfaction.
149. 5:51Restaurants like Pete Eshelman's
150. 5:53can continue to serve locally-sourced poultry
151. 5:56and neighbors have a choice
152. 5:57in the food that they eat.
153. 5:59[Laughing]
154. 6:03A rare happy ending.
155. 6:04One small victory
156. 6:05amidst America’s growing
157. 6:07welfare for the rich.
158. 6:09You can watch the full documentary at
159. 6:13[Swoosh]
160. 6:14Thanks for watching out video.
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