did was move interest rates. >> host: right, and that is what they did for a long time. >> guest: should you had the easy times, alice. >> host: absolutely. i think we are out of time. >> guest: thank you. it's been a pleasure. ..

>> this is not just ammonium the elite, academics, it is often shared by businessmen of cells. when bill gates announced

his philanthropic organization to give away billions of dollars to help fight poverty in africa and elsewhere he said it is about time he give back to society. i thought that was an odd way to put it because he gave us the computer and internet revolution and contributed vastly to the welfare of his business and i applaud him for his efforts but it is not a matter of him knives giving the philanthropy is in addition through his enterprise and for-profit activities. in some will show this has been like behind in america. strangely enough today i found it rasmussen poll through september show wayne

favorability ratings for various professions. small-business owners those who start their own business are ring to #1 and number two. they are doing fine but the ceo is second to last. outside the entrepreneurial circle is not seen favorably as of -- at all in america. the good news the very last category is members of congress. [laughter] what i found to be the most finding it at all our people randomly selected from the phone book to do a better job than congress. but our guest today michael medved takes away the misconception of business head on in his book, it "the 5 big lies about american business." mr. medved is a premier

political commentator hosting a daily talk show that has 5 million listeners each day. also a veteran film critic and an ex liberal at one time working for the left-of-center congressman from california and talk about your unpopular profession, he also came close to being a lawyer to the yale law school with bill clinton and hillary rodham. so maybe he will talk to us about his connections from the school-- as well. please join me in welcoming michael medved. [applause] >> thank you so much if thank you for the generous introduction. we will certainly have time for questions and answers that we find always the most exciting and stimulating if

you want to ask me about the clintons in moscow you can. you can even ask if the in hailed. [laughter] but in the introduction and raised some of the reasons i wrote this book. i had a book one year ago and i spoke here at heritage about it and it was called the 10 big lies of america and it was the collor misconceptions and misrepresentations that anti-americans use the most common of course, being america was founded on genocide against native americans or that america built its wealth is through the crime of slavery. i rebut these one by one and a facilitated a great deal of discussion and

conversation and 12 weeks on the new york times' best-seller list and i was very struck however at one of the 10 big lies that was most controversial of all was the big lie that said the growth of corporations has harmed the american experience and damaged the american people. it clearly hasn't it should be fairly obvious to people that it hasn't. those of you who came here on sun means other than walking, benefited from some corporation that created the motor scooter or car or whatever it was that came here. if you walked you benefited from shoes made somewhere. the involvement of business in our lives, every aspect is so obvious and ubiquitous

and omnibus that it seems utterly bizarre than anybody could deny this. i became involved in promoting my previous book from last year with some of these totally widely accepted and unthinkingly accepted lies about american business that i determine an entire book especially in the midst of an economic downturn and dealing with some of those lies was needed and appropriate. and to focus just a moment on how some of these lies operate and how they are contradicted by everyday reality, let me just share and little contrast that has emerged from the book tour so far. this is my third stop. i will be honest, it is the fourth stop. i was in philadelphia at yesterday and san francisco the day before them last week i was in new york city.

then i had a interesting experience. i have close connections with air transport. i had the experience flying to new york from seattle and found as generally have been to and i rely on our air transportation system, it performs. i know people do a lot of complaining about the airline's in america they are heavily regulated and imperfect and sometimes they lose luggage and keep you on the tarmac for five hours but it is rare. generally come if you get on an airplane and they say they will have you some where you may notice they have adjusted schedules to make them more realistic so the percentage of on-time arrivals has been going up. basically our airline system works. it worked to fly to new york. my plane going to and coming from arrived early.

that means i must have been doing something right. it was wonderful. i did my radio show from our studios in the day after i arrived after not just on time that early, i gent had to rely on the highway system practice actually was being taken now to a book signing on the long island. there the traffic was appalling, a bumper-to-bumper and a deeply frustrating, and we arrived late. too different alternatives in transportation, airline, how ever system. what is the key difference? highways represent the ultimate in a government monopoly the airline's you can say not so much wild free enterprise but the airline companies are in it

for a profit. being in a for-profit you have to do something too actually please the public. you can go out of business. airlines have gone nablus business. have you heard about twa? or pan am? those are big companies. of the airline doesn't function like the road system in new york city it would go out of business. if it functioned like any of the new mass transit systems across the country say would go out of business. tomorrow. to the basic math in the book about the new light rail system opening with much fanfare in seattle in 2009. based upon the figures they have announced which are probably understated comment that 14-mile light rail system has cost over

$100,000 per yard to build. just calculating the interest on this idiotic central link that nobody is writing, just calculating the interest every single writer is being subsidized every time he steps on the train $140. it would be cheaper to buy people like have. think of how much government money you could save. if you could travel 14 miles most of the trips are not the full waned it is just a few miles, then take a $140 you could even have the lunch inside the cab your taking and save the taxpayer half the money they are paying just on but interest

90 monday capital expenditure of the white elephant the difference between business and government is basically capitalized by a quote from milton friedman that represents the spiritual core of my book that people spend in there mid own money more carefully than they spend other people's money what a concept. the lives of american business would have you believe the realities of the for-profit system are somehow evil and suspect and destructive and greedy. let me go through the five big lies very quickly in try to give you some indication why each of these is directly relevant and very, very important going on for debates right now and why the of five big

elias -- "the 5 big lies about american business" make a totally unnecessary christmas present for any american who wants to be informed more aware of this country. number one, capitalism is doomed as indicated by the current financial downturn. what is interesting just in the time since i have read this book -- have written a book you were hearing a little less of the tomb of capitalism. michael moore's new movie he announced on the larry king show the most serious intellectual noticed -- are announced on the larry king show that capitalism is over. this economy downturn shows it does not work. they want you to forget "newsweek" ran a cover story

that said they should do you remember that? was a few weeks ago then "newsweek" came back the senior editor at "newsweek" john mecham came back with a commentary. they run a cover that says we're all socialist then he was railing at conservatives for suggesting obama is a crypto social less. excuse made it is on the cover of your magazine we are all socialist. the ada capitalism is doomed, i tell the story in the book of a school in berkeley california that every year there would have a gift from the graduating eighth grade class in a very progressive private elementary school. the class that was graduating 2009 was a beautiful mosaic that said

capitalism will fail. i thought that was interesting in the private school where they announced capitalism ofheo as a -- will fail has a school with almost no scholarships pay $17,000 per year. [laughter] gettelfinger those parents are looking for to capitalism failing. going forward with the idea that capitalism is doomed or will fail it is basically clarified if you go away from the media focus. the problem is it is always immediate. it is just what is happening right now at this moment. the whole idea of news up-to-the-minute then you forget it a minute later. if you take a broader focus and look at the 50 or 30 or

20 year perspective, it is obvious capitalism has not failed it is socialism and for securely communism for it is striking "the new york times" today this morning which did not arrive on time. amtrak? said anytime day should any point* usa nostalgic review called the red flag and basically lamenting the fact that communism has all but disappeared in the world except a small pox virus preserved in the laboratory in cuba and in north korea. that is pretty much shipwreck if you look at the elections the socialists got wiped out everywhere. there's only one country in europe that is greece. and if you look across the continent if anybody reads a

polling where the labor party, a new labor which is not the old proud socialist labour of the past yes there are new stories and conservatives but there are conservative more friendly to the free-market governments in france, italy, germany, denm ark. and israel where part of my family lives. my father went to live in peace 19 years ago and my brother is a soldier there several books came out recently of the capitalist revolution stripping away the socialist past that has held back the economy and that the economy has been a marvel as soon as they were able to lower the tax burdens are of regulation on business. it has been a phenomenal example. israel has more companies

listed on the nasdaq than any other nation in the united states. there are more is really nasdaq companies and japanese come a canadian, british or german or anything. capitalism has not been shown to fail but to work. here in the united states there is a tremendous amount of self pity that is a encouraged by the victim would mentality. one of the things of my radio show michael medved every day we are proud to say i am not a victim. the idea of victimhood suggest this standard of living and the difficulties in choices are lower we cannot live the kind of lives are parents lived and everybody has heard this. it is nonsense. right here in the building we have done terrific work on this and i quote him extensively.

if you look at any meaningful measure of living standards, the progress under capitalistic america has been dazzling and unprecedented. options available to people the extended life expectancy or opportunities for college rear at this stage where the majority of american young people in every ethnic group are pursuing some form of post high school graduation after they graduate from high school. that is phenomenal. sometimes it may now be worth what people pay for it but one of the reasons college tuition is so tremendously expensive and has gone up more the cost of inflation because more people want it and can get it. it is extraordinary. in the 1960's, barely 10 percent of americans

graduated from college. we're pushing 30%. that is a huge difference. another example, when i was in college when the earth cooled in the '60s, and i got a part-time job, the main motivation i want to say i was a national merit scholar and my parents helped me and i did not need the job to pay for tuition or room and board. if was much more reasonable. got the job because i had a girlfriend back home in california and i had to pay for phone calls. i figured at the time iris making minimum wage $1.35 per hour. it took me three hours of work to pay for a five minute phone call. [laughter] think about that for a moment. any of you who have cellphones plans sadr

unlimited as most people do. the cost of long-distance calls comair travel, everybody travels by air today. the flight from sam francisco the other night, everybody was on its. [laughter] it seemed i don't know like the express traveling but it was great. the truth is more is available to more people than ever before. anyone who does not see the added opportunities or comforts her life expectancy that we have would have been undreamed of four our parents and grandparents. anyone who does not see that is deliberately blind and deaf and limited and

embittered. my grandfather came from the ukraine in 1910 and never stayed in a hotel in his life. that would be very rare for americans when other figure people will not pull the bit but in addition labor department figure, the typical american family today spends more is eating out that either fast-food restaurants were injurious reston's than they spend on health care. we spend too much and health care. the idea capitalism is dead i go into the reasons why it is not dead and very much alive. and has been on the march advancing and there are the early at least 1 million people living under tyrannical socialist system

was more than 3 billion people if you count india and china 30 years ago who now live under something that resembles a free market. this light we do not have to spend so much time on because it is breathtaking the stupid. people believe and you will find many people believe including the educated people that when the rich get richer the poor get four. if you believe and the rich get richer the poor get poorer than you believe creating wealth causes poverty. [laughter] how does creating wealth cause poverty? wealth is not stolen. being credited with the stupak line behind every great fortune is a great crime. sorry. that is not true. behind every great fortune

is great creativity. the idea is if you look at human beings as infinitely creative, then there is no set amount of wealth to which you are limited. creating new wealth does not take it away from somebody else. it is not a zero sum game. it is dramatically illustrated by our recent downturn. the group population who suffered most affluent people, the people who had poor follow-up -- portfolios and again did this help anyone? now the rich are suffering. it led people to lose jobs. what do you think happens if your boss is losing money? if your boss is losing money or he loses his net worth or find it more difficult to borrow money to keep the business alive, what happens

to your chance for a raise or your job? it goes away. the idea of the rich get richer the poor get port is the central marxism it has been repudiated by every historical example and one of the things i do in the book is go back and look at the nostalgic garbage that the left used to believe and it goes back to a 1921 songs which has become a standard standard, and then they play a game but they say the poor get children then they play it again. the whole idea of poverty causing wealth of a zero sum game needs to be rebutted. one of the ways, it is

tremendously important people acknowledge that if you have a materialistic world view where there is only so much matter on earth and nothing else can be created as matter is neither created nor destroyed, you can believe there is only so much wealth. it is simply a question of chopping up the wealthy and moving it around george bernard shaw wants said if you rob peter to pay paul you can generally count on the support of paul. that of course, is what a great deal of liberalism is based upon come with the idea to allow peter to pay paul and make sure there are enough calls out there to support you. but the notion that to spread around teenine the inherent power of individual and look at the world a

materialist term comment everyone knows man is created in god's image cover that means we are infinitely creative. there is no end or limit to what we can do that is the american idea with our political system. that brings me too big lie number three, particularly popular right now says corporate executives are overpaid and corrupt. of course, he will find a lot of people are conservatives will say yes. why do they need these bonuses? one of the things that you find out in the financial industry is many bonuses function as commissions. it was structured this way because of governmental interference because

basically people are paid in bonuses and stock options has a way of avoiding the greedy and the government. but the bonus functions as commissions and even though it has a terrible losing season you still want to reward those salesmen or representatives who were doing a good job. for instance people in this country don't understand business but everybody understands sports. baseball millions play baseball and i understand we have a baseball team the washington nationals not a very successful corporation have not been doing well on the field or off the field but they have a player named ryan sir men who had a great year. on the all-star team. does he deserve a bonus? yes. he had a great year and he

got one but he is playing for a losing team. there owns a 200 games behind first-place. but they did not do well. but that does not matter. if you have a bonus structure it has to do directly with some wall street bonuses. the basic point* that argument that somehow someone is doing well will take away from someone else is answered. if your neighbor has a good year and has more money to remodel his house were landscape, that does not hurt you. if all of a sudden you live in a community or a small town and somebody has a small business moot -- booming that does not take away from your business come a brings more customers and has more energy. there is no finite amount of

wealth. the notion corporate executives are corrupt and overpaid. some of them are but i cite several studies that have been done. business success is by and large based on behavior as people would describe as a virtuous. if you look at the qualities that predictably lead to business success, the quality more than any other is focus. the ability to concentrate, the focus and shut out distractions and reliability. hard work. integrity. people who were all over the map with attention deficit disorder will tend not to function well or succeed in business. business does not create or encourage or promote in this world. . .

generally that hasn't gotten big jet or a business that hasn't been particularly successful. that is the nature of it. every big business in the

country almost without exception started off as a small business. the traditional definition of a small business and big business would surprise a lot of people according to the department of commerce and the department of labor federal statistics. anybody know what the standard cut off this? how many employees you have to have to be considered a big business? 500 is good for you, that is exactly right. most people would think a business that employs 400 people is pretty big. or even a business that employs 100 people. think about it if you employ 100 people you are a big business. this is an arbitrary distinction that is absurd. this is a product in some services to require a big business. i was talking about airlines before. you cannot build airplanes in your garage. if you're going to build jet aircraft and ask people to risk their lives getting on that and fly from one place to another. we hope to get this put be up

there tonight. no, you need a big business. there's certain things that require economies of scale otherwise you can't compete and you can't do it successfully. you need someone to design their plan and import the steel and put in the seats and design the interior etc., etc., etc.. and we depend actually, we despite the big lie that says small-business is so much better on things that matter like our health and survival we tend to depend on big business is the most hospitals and insurance companies and drug companies, most medical device companies are emphatically big businesses. and it's good that they are. the notion that small-business is inherently more effective, shows more integrity? do you remember the story that came out earlier this year about it was a neighborhood cemetery where they were burying the people three deep and abuses the

corpses. it was a chicago area. a traditional african american summit triet at hill had been built there. that was a mom-and-pop cemetery. it would be tougher for the forest lawn to get away with that kind of thing, some kind of big cemetery business. the truth is the prejudice, the law that says small business is inherently better than big business is sentimental, misleading and it's stupid and it leads to abominations' like anti-trust. we spend close to if you want to figure all of the cost close to $1 billion a year on the antitrust scam. that means your federal government takes your tax money out of your pocket to punish companies that are too successful because that is what antitrust is. anybody remember the wonderful suit against microsoft? gup was so important and was a huge federal focus and joel klein and the clinton administration, the bus to bill gates. remember what it was they were suing about primarily against

microsoft? was a microsoft was a belgian people by charging too much, microsoft was creating shoddy products? some people think they do but what was it that they were suing dow? >> [inaudible] >> correct. they were giving people stuff for free. internet explorer. the problem with microsoft there's a problem with most antitrust prosecution is the charge to little. they get people to much, they are getting too good a deal, not to lousy. can you imagine we pay as tax payers this bloated justice to part with ups your bureaucracy -- observed bureaucracy to go after businesses that want to charge too little. and why? because we have to protect the open market. do you know they had a 16 year -- honest to god 16 year pursuit, countless expenditures against ibm because ibm was shutting out all computer competitors in the business?

ibm dominates the whole computer business today, right? because this is absurd. what happens is yes, you can have companies that will have a short-term prominence and even dominance. but when you remove regulations and stopped the antitrust interference the natural cycle in business is for instance if you take a look at and i have a list in my book of the leading computer companies that were in the world of the time of ibm, none of them are among the ten leading companies today. the economy turns and changes and the whole waste with antitrust brings me to the fifth and final big lie which is the one most involved a few blocks from here on capitol hill and the debates on health care and climate change and everything else and it's the one i hope people can come out of here and particularly armed with material in this book feel energized to

rebut and challenge and go berry that lie in some empty field somewhere with a stake through its heart and it is the big lie that says you can trust government to treat people more compassionately, more fairly than does the private sector. the bureaucracies and nonprofits will more reliably deliver good service to people and everything van will for-profit corporations. president obama himself expressed something like that. i site in the book a graduation speech he gave arizona state university in tempe arizona, the spring of this year. and the president of the united states was addressing himself to business school graduates, people who are being equipped to go out in the free-market system and create wealth and he said many of you will go into our corporate system and follows a

well-worn path to your own business advancement. but i know also many of you and i hope more of you will take a high your path and involve yourself in the nonprofit sector. ahhh! this is insanity. what is good about not making a profit? seriously, think about this for a moment. the nonprofit sector? where is the non-profit sector for the profit sector? this goes to the of in same obsession with public option the idea that is we are going to have a much better insurance company if it's done on a nonprofit basis by the government. that works out well, worked out well with highways and with light rail. works out well with the dmv. where would you rather wait in line for service, at your local starbucks or your local department of motor vehicles? and there's a reason for it because at your local starbucks to have to smile and be nice and give you when you want for your non-going to come back.

but you have no choice of coming back to the department of motor vehicles or they put you in jail. the problem of non-profit sector meaning the patronis sector is the only give you one choice, obey or go to jail. that is the basic choice the government offers the citizens. every once in a couple of years to get the chance to make correct decisions in the elections and throw the bums out until the new ones give you the same choice, obey or go to jail. and the difficulty -- the contrast with the private sector is very direct. you'd make business decisions every day and have almost limitless array of choices. go into an american supermarket today. you don't like some of the junkie food and mauna nursing food, they all have organics sections now. this is the response to the marketplace you didn't need the government to declare we are now going to prepare -- i am not sure organic vegetables are with it but some people believe it and some people can get. you can get it. it's in the market.

and dysfunctions remarkably well. if you look -- looker, talk for a moment, non-profit versus profit-making sector. talk for a moment about education. do you think it is an accident schools, private schools, catholic parochial schools in particular that spend far less per student than the public schools in washington, d.c., and i know the chancellor is trying to make things better in washington. i know it's happening but the public schools in washington, d.c. spent twice, three times as much per pupil as some of the inner-city catholic schools with worse results, worse results. would anyone -- is their anyone here who would say i absolutely care when i get terribly sick i want to make sure i get into a government hospital. right? no.

the truth is there are some nonprofit operations that worked fine. i, for 12 years, worked for public television for my sins. [laughter] i often said my 12 years with pps were three of the happiest weeks of my life. [laughter] anyone who believes pbs and npr are inherently superior because they are nonprofit, because they are dependent upon taxpayer support, anyone who believes the art that is created with taxpayer support, one of the insanities of the law, administration is i don't know if you have heard this yet but we have a deficit, $1.42 trillion this year. it is a nightmare and the obama administration provided a 20% increase in funding for the national endowment for the arts. try to imagine what kind of person is it uses no i want to listen to music, i want to go to please, i want to read books

that are a firm support. first of all none of the most popular or esteemed were worthwhile work would fall into that category. the truth is the profit system works better because the profit system encourages good behavior and morality. and i conclude my book with that argument. if you are in business to make a profit, you must take other people into account. you can order them around, you can't disregard them, you will lose money. i conclude the book with a little chapter called lemonade in the bullets which is about a lemonade stand in my neighborhood. what is it about the lemonade stand a warm smile about, little kids, is the fact that kids are making money?

50 cents here, 1 dollar here to get cold lemonade on a hot day? no, it is the building of relationships. that is the essence of what a free market system does. it connects people. it connects people in the webs of mutual dependence and mutual beneficence. there is a quote that i found that i love and want to leave you with and i want to conclude with if you don't mind. it's from andrew carnegie, one of the richest americans who ever lived, and somebody who managed to get away, people estimate now two-thirds of all of the literally billions if you put it in today's dollars that he earned as one of the people who created the modern steel industry. maybe if he had been able to stay around he could have saved the steel industry. who knows to lead in 1896, carnegie looking back on his life wrote a little piece for a kids' magazine called youth

companion. and he wrote a piece about the first dollar he ever heard at the 12th and he actually saved that and carnegie wrote i cannot tell you how proud i was when i received my first weeks own earnings. $1.20 made by myself and given to me because i had been of some use. no longer entirely dependent on my parents but at last eckert added to a family partnership as a contributing member and able to help them i think this makes a man out of a boy sooner than almost anything else. and a real man, too. if there be any durham a true man and him. it is everything to feel that you are useful. making a profit, earning money, getting paid to give people

something they want and they choose is to feel useful and it is the greatest joy in our country and our nation's future depend on that. thanks very much for your attention. [applause] questions, comments, arguments, quibbles? i saw some people shaking their heads with displeasure. >> al mulken come a iain media. what other changes have you found about the way to liberal arts colleges have dealt with business in recent years as opposed to the past? >> liberal arts colleges have been by and large hostile to business is for very long time. this is nothing new. this goes back in fact to the

1960's and even some extent the 1950's before then, and one of the things that has happened there is been a number of books written about this the sources of funding for private colleges and universities have changed and private colleges and universities are far more dependent upon government today. then they used be. as you know there are only two very small liberal arts colleges that refuse government aid. one of them hillsdale college in michigan which i know has had some connection with heritage foundation and grove city college in pennsylvania. all of the other liberal arts colleges including religious liberal arts colleges takes some kind of form of governmental or federal assistance. they all do and the percentage of money paid by government is extraordinarily high. what does that create? that creates a situation in which you are on the bomb profit side of this divide and by the way i think and operates the

same way things operate during the years i worked on public tv. there are very good things about pbs by the way. i don't want to deny and every once in awhile they'd do something beautiful and worthwhile. i thought the can spurns piece about the national parks, america's best lady was a wonderful piece of television and i'm glad the was created with corporate underwriting. but the since people have on public tv i think is common to the sense people have in most colleges and we university's public and private, which is we are smart, we are good, we are beautiful, we are not less than other people therefore we are required to look down on them and there is a sense of the virtue of the nonprofit sphere. is that because i get paid less the meantime better than someone else makes more. i would argue logically and empirically you can make the

case the fact one earns less money is not a sign of superior virtues are productivity. >> if i can jump in the position at the heritage foundation -- [inaudible] -- dedicated [inaudible] >> certainly. >> one additional line perhaps is the business programs in anti-government. health care many businesses most recently comcast which is fighting the fcc but now endorsed [inaudible]

-- why is it the business is antibusiness and is there any way, is their anything you can do about it? >> look it's a great question. everybody here the question? okay. i think the basic thing is in business you tend to look after your self-interest, and given the huge power and huge interests of miss of government today, it does make sense many businesses, and this is why the entire, i share their revulsion that the corruption involved with the lobbying world, but i have a different view. i don't blame business for lobbying and spending literally billions of dollars every year lobbying for advantage in the governmental system. if the government is going to pick winners and losers. you better make sure that they don't put you on the list of losers or of corporate criminals or dismantled your authorization or throw you into jail or do

something terrible to do. they've been forced to play ball. i think all of a sudden it to begin shrinking the size of government and reducing the tremendous intrusiveness and tremendous unproductive intrusiveness of government on so many levels that all of a sudden you would see business would become more pro business than it is, and basically it is like paying protection. i mean, i think that is part of what you certainly see with this health care situation which is why so many big health care companies and insurance companies that fought ferociously against hillary care this time the determine it is inevitable. i do not believe it is inevitable by the way. and they thought the thing was inevitable and they better play along to make sure their own particular ox is gored meanwhile not recognizing that a certain point i think you do reach a tipping point where the business

receives such a tremendously heavy hand of regulation and interference that it's virtually impossible to look back. mr. swanson? >> what are american elementary school children being taught about money, economics, the market? are they being taught anything at all, being taught the wrong lessons are the right lessons? >> they are being taught on the wrong lessons and they are being taught wrong lessons about almost everything in history. one of the things that has appalled me and this goes back to the last book is now common in elementary school curriculum to teach and learn of a lie about smallpox blankets, that americans deliberately infected indians with smallpox blankets. i spent a great deal of time and many pages in the ten big lies about america. this never happened. this is all based on three letters exchanged not by americans but by british officers in 1763 during the

rebellion and it was speculating wouldn't it be nice if we could affect them and the city savages, because they were in the midst of being killed. the war going on but there is no evidence that there was during the pontiac's rebellion and the siege of the fort williams there was no evidence whatsoever that there was actually any blankets that were given to people or any kind of epidemic or infection or disease that could spread at that point. going back to what the kids are being taught about business, what they're being taught about business is business got too big and made people poor and then teddy roosevelt came in and boasted the trust and business got big again and then people that poor again and franklin roosevelt had to come and save them. i think that a great deal of this, look i'm all for spending more time on learning american history that one of the terrible, terrible things is

people in high schools, and i know you're asking a live tree schools are reading hubbard zinn's which is a tissue of lies about the country and among those are the notions that the growth of business makes people poor. no recognition what henry ford did. i'm not a huge fan of henry ford. i'm jewish and very jewish reactive and henry ford was a world-class anti-semite. however, he changed america for the better. giving people ordinary people the ability to buy a car following people to go on vacation and take weekends off. it is incalculable the gift provided there and virtually every gift that is allowed the middle class lifestyle for better and worse to emerge with be limitless choices middle class people have in this country today has come because of the creative ability of

businesses. there is no lesson of any kind of that nature, and i write in the book about you can go through the typical class is that people have, or even the holidays to celebrate. we celebrate holidays, little kids learn about holidays. they never learn the pilgrims were part of a corporation. they had investors, they were sent here to make a profit, so were the people of jamestown, and they ought to learn that. do we have time for a few more questions? yes, the leedy here. >> my name is emily from england. i would like to say i think that you are a very charming man. but i am quite concerned the rhetoric your skilling is a symbol of this corruption and manipulation the system you are protecting essentially you are coming against these lawyers that the rich get richer the poor get poorer and you are completely just throwing out the window the key points, the

reality that we have in the u.k.. we have an increase of poverty gap that is protected by what he called the greedy hand of government and i call the minimum wage, employment laws. you reject the importance of nonprofit organizations and say that places like starbucks i have the freedom. if i go to starbucks and say i don't like the way they manipulate people in other countries around the world to provide me for my cup of coffee and i say i'm not cling to go to starbucks anymore starbucks doesn't care. >> are you aware starbucks has investigating $600 million in a global responsibility initiative? you can go into starbucks now and ask for fair trade coffee which is coffee where it is done together with a greenpeace which is one of the sponsoring organizations. starbucks happens to be left bank company. >> i was using starbucks as an example -- >> but it's a perfect example. starbucks has responded to the

public because they have a certain number of customers who want that kind of insurance. you can go and pay i think 20 cents extra per cup of coffee and honestly starbucks is right down the road from where i live, the corporate headquarters. and they spent literally hundreds of millions of dollars on this new initiative to try to address the social justice of broad concerns of their customers. go ahead. >> i do have a question. not that specific response. but essentially, you know, you're kind of i think there's a lot of concern that people are now criticizing the ideology of capitalism because of the crisis and people are seeing capitalism is dead and i agree sadly it is alive and well. the thing is surely it is a sign not that the capitalist system and big business corporation culture that we have in america and around the world is becoming more flawed it is more of a sign people are not buying it anymore. people notice when we have an economic crisis but bankers

still get their bonuses. people are still as you said the losses don't lose their jobs to other people. people notice business and profit motivation is about is about self-interest, self-serving people who come from privileged backgrounds and want to entrench their privileges, so my question is it is a sign, it's not the sign and we have feelings in society or the media it is a sign that the reality that capitalism is self-serving and doesn't help people that is the reality that is now coming out. >> can i just ask you one question back to get something they use it, you said on fortunately capitalism is alive and well. what system do you think has demonstrated better functioning on behalf of say poor people? >> ascent chollet [inaudible] -- i'm not been to promote one system over another. >> that's when you said it's unfortunate -- >> i think it is.

>> you think it is because of capitalism were not alive and well we would be living under what kind of system that works better for poor people? >> one, there is essentially -- if i could rule the world i would invent something that takes into consideration the things like we both agree on for instance the amazing fact live our life in america yesterday on an airplane, technological innovation is amazing. sprigg that's because you have a privileged background, bristol university. >> i definitely do. [laughter] is essentially but the point is is to take the fact people have a right to make a profit, people have a right to kind of promote their interest but they also have a responsity to feed that back -- >> one of the things i hope he will take a look at is this a great deal of material to read it right here at the heritage foundation. one of the things the heritage does every year that i feature

in my book and that is the index of world economic indicators -- >> [inaudible] >> index of world economic freedom. thank you. it is extraordinary because if you take a look at gross domestic product and take a look at these fate of poor people everywhere, poor people do better the more the nation's move in the direction of free markets. let me give you the two powerful examples of the world. india and china. but india and china have incorporated, they abandoned their socialist past on the one hand and communist past on the other and put into operation the idea of private property and private profit, and guess, people looking after their own self-interest. but i would argue to you is that it is not evil or rotten for people to look out after the run self-interest. it is beautiful. it's exactly what our country is about and what your country is

about. the police put down britain as a great nation of shopkeepers as if that were an insult and then the shopkeepers actually taught a lesson to his frenchified rear end. [laughter] and they did so based upon the notion isn't vicious, it is not selfish, it is not evil to want a better life for yourself and for your family. and by creating a better life for yourself and your family, and this brings me that is something you said the beginning of your little statement, by creating a better life for yourself and your family, you are helping the people around you. the notion that there is a greater wealth gap in the u.k. today than in the past is not a reflection of the fact the poor are worse off in the u.k. than in the past. the emphatically are not by every measure. >> but it's not a reflection the system of big business -- >> it is totally a reflection of that because the truth -- the truth of the matter is yes, you are right there are people on

top doing much, much better but when people on top to better the people on the bottom to better as well. they may not be going up as quickly. but if you look at the way that the poor live in our country or your country, and people were poor like my grandparents during the depression, they were really poor. the had sued in security. they didn't have enough to eat. they did not have enough to pay for heating bills. ..

>> i don't think we should empower government to go after companies because they're too successful. >> would you not agree that in nine with mainstream economic theory that monopolies create deadweight loss and supply being restricted and consumers with higher prices it is to make sure

monopolies are not created then there's more supply? would you agree that has an important role? >> absolutely not. i did not really know the history in the u.k.. i do not know that but i do know a great deal of antitrust and united states and it has always been a disaster. usually for contentions and will take off after some company and one of the problems with general motors which is a deeply troubled american corporation, i have this in the book, alfred p. sloan, the longtime head and creator of general motors motors, was terrified they would go after gm with the antitrust case because believe better not used to command the majority of the world automotive sales. isn't that amazing? so he deliberately did not

fight back in the aggressive way when the japanese invasion began it was delivered to avoid having to deal with the antitrust prosecution. there is a famous court case involving the u.s. to keel that the -- killed the steel business and it really did help to kill it in the united states. the idea that justice douglas talks about and a curse of bigness is a very negative idea. the whole theory of monopolies in a world of global economy it is lower and lower, a god willing willing, with technological

innovation being what it is comment to dominated the one field is still with the idiotic antitrust resources. last question? >> i am with their heritage foundation. i don't know if you mentioned this but one thing i have noticed but some people think if if without nonprofits and the other organizations they would just die and that amazes me i just went over to new york and unnoticed bid gallery is named after a chevron texaco. you talk about corporations the starbucks and a free trade coffee and all of that but you mention these as far as corporations and their charitable giving?

>> yes. i mentioned it in this book and it to a certain extent of book previous. when you talk about supporting the arts, talking about public television television, about 14% of the total budget is paid for by government at different levels. about 35% of the cost is paid for by corporate donors. corporation support public tv far more than the government. the arts in the united states are a flourishing business one thing that is picking if you take a look at the people concert and opera performance if you take the number of people who go every year to a

classical music concert for chamber music concert or opera performance and a many it is a larger money than of the people who attend a football professional football, baseball or basketball game in this country. if you start putting in nascar it is more people. [laughter] the parts are flourishing in the united states. nationwide london has peerless orchestras but here in the united states in the small cities during the economic downturn they have been in trouble and have had to cut back and suffering but the truth is these are institutions that by and large are supported by corporate largess. the whole idea of creating wealth if you like the good things paintings and sculptures nine of this can exist unless wealth is

created and accumulated and then used wisely by people who want to support a big government idea. it usually tends to be one of the things of the peculiar national endowment for the arts was created by president johnson. if you look at the record of great artistic achievement since 1967 it is very, very few of those achievements i greatly appreciate people coming out today i will be glad to speak to you or sign copies of this booker answer any questions you may have. thank you for being part of this audience and part of this location and support for heritage foundation. [applause] >> i do have to say if

anybody wants any more information that puts in a perfect way you need to pay attention too not charge the same is collusion this book is on sale in the lobby of it is excellent he did a wonderful job if you want to go for the finer points of it and i hope to see you at future events. thank you.

>> it is a tremendous pleasure to be with so many and to be back here. it is too bad we have overflowed your beautiful premises for the north american offices so my career took an interesting turn in this building as we were completing bachelor's degree in economics of which i was not cut out. [laughter]

and having grown up in beirut and with the middle east eddie's program we got a nice addition to meet with a group with tri-state area people i drank far too much wine by which time i knew the late place i would get my master's was at harvard. [laughter] and then a career dedicated to middle eastern studies. thank you for coming. the subject to night that goes back to the history that preoccupied the time of my book. so i start with barack obama and where he is going with the arab world. the arab world has been reaching for the change in mideast policy for some time. since 9/11 the new

conservative government of george of the bush resumed policies that were widely perceived -- perceive to be hostile for most of the arab world the american-led war on terrorism was the and declared war on islam. so when barack obama was elected and came to cairo many people believed there moment had come and a change was about to happen. we needed a time of tension between the united states and muslims throughout the world he told his audience, attentions bridget and historical forces going beyond any current policy debate. there were a lot of things that won them over to the skeptical audience they were amazed the same united states had twice elected george w. bush would choose to elect its first african-american president in history per obviously it was an important turning

point* in more over they were struck by the name of the new president. [laughter] faber used to ronald, jimmy, george, a bill, but who within seven years of 9/11 would have expected not just one but two arab names to become president? they could even spell it in arabic without stretching the imagination. [laughter] his background made him sympathetic to many they believe in somebody you may actually share their values and for those who read his autobiographical book, dreams from my father felt somewhat removed from europe and described himself a westerner not entirely at home in the west and somebody very critical about europe's imperial history and attitudes and they

appear repeatedly in his book and the attitudes he expressed hearken back to another u.s. president who heads who inspired hope and captured the imagination as in the emerging world of asia and africa with wilson. a month the peacemakers in 1919 the american president woodrow wilson spoke with the idea that electrified people around the world. in his address to a joint session january 1918 he set out a vision of america's post-world policies set out with 14 famous points and declared to the day of conquest and asserted the the do the interest of the population concerned must be eco- with the claims of those in power.