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tv   Amity Shlaes Great Society  CSPAN  January 25, 2020 6:01pm-6:41pm EST

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i realize the greater front we face is that falsification of history. in the indoctrination of a whole generation of americans. >> to watch the rest of this program, visit our website book to be .org. click on the "in depth" cap or search for sebastian borge, using blocks and that top of the page. [background sounds] >> it is great to be here with you will to celebrate and discuss an excellent new book printed by one of our country news most original and insightful economic thinkers. over the course of her distinguished career she's brought her wide range of intelligence and feel for storytelling to some of our country news leading intellectual and cultural f institutions.
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she has served as a member of the wall street journal editorial board, a columnist for the financial times and bloomberg news, and economic history as theis stern school of business. now in addition to her prolific book writing, amity serves as the presidential scholar for case college, chairs the board of the calvin coolidge presidential foundation and in a bigfo coupe for us at mi, chairs the selection committee for the manhattan institute.tc in a worksheet herself has one. ebony slater news work great society, new history, is a stunning achievement. few decades have been printed on the popular imagination quite as much as the 60s and so many of us remember the decade was most meamatic and turbulent moments. the assassination of the kennedys, and martin luther king jr. printed the march on washington, and antiwar protests. neil armstrong on the moon inviting them in vietnam. aonly focus though is not the
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drama that played out on television screens across the country. it is so much as the failure of washington grande to control these events and direct the show. indeed, a generation of politicians can paralyze the centralized hierarchical and highly regulated model of political economy that dominated postwar america had stopped working. yet more than just a technical failure, she captures the stifling feeling of a country down.om the top american put up with the machinery and culture immobilization during the two world wars and in the early years of a nuclear cold work but at some point, that old american yearning, sloshed buckling independent-minded, mistrustful of authority, wasas found to reemerge. this is a vitally important story for times and we can all be grateful amity has told it with such insight. i am happily to report the books will be sold in the back of the room. ladies andme gentlemen, amity.
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[applause]. >> thank you. if you can not hear me, please let me know. [laughter]. a book about the great society deserves great thanks. my thanks to the manhattan institute president. in its former president who is also here, is vice president and planner, for hosting this event. i would like to take my publisher from harpercollins, and my agent andrew wiley and his colleague, who is with us. i like to think that coolidge foundation for supporting me. certain friends including several people who are here. the king's college and especially people who work on
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the research. i would like to thank my family, my husband and my daughter and they are both here tonight as well. the first sentence ofni the book is a question. why not socialism. this is a question we asked ourselves last night when we estch the presidential debate. we answer it. it is a question all commonsense people, all markets people, want to be able to deliver an answer to. we all really feel an obligation to undertake long-term investment in projects that would open american minds southern american minds see the challenge and the tragedy of socialism. we want to share the record of the past or the record of venezuela so that when they come to vote or lead businesses and family that younger americans
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recognize what is not mutual policy. carly. it is november, and 2019, educating is a long firm investment and some of us don't have the heart for the long haul. we feel frustrated at the prospect of slow outcomes and perhaps outright failure in our intellectual entrepreneurship. politics are much more fun and instant gratification. all of us have some vanity. people remember politicians. they do not always remember educators. so we tend to, we journalists and business people, scholars, we want to be remembered to and sometimes we peg short-term projects for that reason. so tonight i would like to tell you a story of a really long term project. a crazy project. this is a story which starts in
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the 1950s and it features a company, a man in the american public. those are the three characters. this is a story of a failing long-term project of humiliation of business shame and intellectual failure, no way around it. the story which is in the 1980s, also reveals an unexpected event. some of you may know the characters. who might appreciate hearing about them one more time. the name of the company was general electric. the 1950s, general electric road hi its factories in new york, massachusetts and connecticut and employed many thousands and it was the industrial center in some ways. every year americans brought more tvs and more radios. ge such as the company, it is not gone. it serves as space program and the tennessee valley authority,
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americans trusted general electric just as they trusted the game of baseball. a good company that follows rules and the essence as you know, the soviets in 1959, invited the u.s. to create a display about progress. america sent several modern kitchens in the lemon yellow one was general electric. [laughter]. most ge executives at the time and again were talking about the late 50s, like execs at most companies out that time, and it view of how capitalism works. the private sector was invincible. as a workhorse. what was supposed to do was to serve as that milk cow from the public sector. the government herded the private sector like tanana animal.
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to ge, most of ge, sounded just fine. the milk cow was intent with the government. the tennessee valley authority news, that the client was the essence of a government project and ge executives at the top liked it very much. ge found that it was one of biggest customers. they did mind serving the space program using executives in military-industrial complex. unions existed by virtue a very strong union law. they demanded that they get big pay packages. all right, jean would pay that print social experiments by the federal government, all american business can pay that. maybe expansion of healthcare, while the u.s. could pay that. or perhaps, a longer lead for young parents. that is just a joke. [laughter]. something like an over leave. heavy unions, stalin was said to
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have joked that the only country rich enough to afford communism was the united states. [laughter]. why should it not be true. in the 1960s, benchmarks for you, the dow jones industrial average was approaching a record level of 1000. and it seemed only a matter of months before the dow passes landmark. but there was one aging underappreciated executive and ge who saw things differently. he was an older guy. he was a vice president/labor relations. in the name of this man was bulwarks. he believed when the bar pay taxes to the federal government or middle think together and made up big plans.
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he believed the growth took place when the lonely scientists in a dumpyt lab, had an idea ad flaunted the world. ideas like the lightbulb. the ge idea. boulware believed that the burden of government and the burden of unions meant they were backed by government would gradually strangle american competitiveness. even a little bit of socialism. he said could do damage and the reason our 1959 kitchens were better than the russian kitchens work the longest term investments of inventors at the beginning of ge. the reason the company strived was at the goods were affordable. in the high wages and prices would render ge uncompetitive and in the end, the russians would make better kitchens. nobody could quite imagine japan at this point. i was the scope of the imagination. it was the god-given assignment boin view of of a pristinenment
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company like general electric. they would inspire america who would return to old capitalism of edison. the problem was urgent, i will read a quote from him, there current rapid trend has got to change. are we through with everything we cherish. the younger executive at general electric found him ludicrous. it wasn't modern. his superb collective irritated them. many people agreed with this evaluation.. fortune magazine described him as a figure of fervor of a washing machine salesman. [laughter]. the other executives said ge did not worry, they were the future. boulware was approaching retirement. 1965, he would be out anyhow. let him rent from his recliner.
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still determined that he used his final years and hours to make his own long-term investment in saving the future, ge in america. he wanted teach americans the nature and the depth of the preciousness of the if they had in capitalism. it is that millions of ge money and many grasping patents explaining the value of markets. any warned tales were ge operated in the midwest of the east, that the highway pages and all the extra social benefits would force companies eventually to leave. massachusetts a small town there and industrial center, he warned people the glassful wrote if it's filled did wake up. to the importance of competitive rises and wages and costs. any use new media in his case that would be television to reach the people creating a tv show, is called ge theater to
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showcase traditional american values. he hired staff including the aging actor to be ge east spokesman. member, the actor was the union men democrat who admired franklin roosevelt and the new deal. seller will see as they met. this actor who was hired, have the potential. we have her c-span audience so let's stick with the story. a special ge house with all modern appliances, like the ge kitchen. for the actor to live in. and he would the actor ronald reagan, with little is examined by henry catholic. he gave little books just like the manhattan institute out and red.they would be this actor, reagan, wasn't exactly a popular across ge
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either. the younger executive did like having some kind of western propaganda inwe the complaint about reagan. for the few remaining years, he couldn't stop the work and is actor and boar set reagan all run to hundredsou of plans to a spine about the tv in the future of industry and if industry might move west. and so on. he wrote speeches about the danger of socializing medicine. there is a bad idea. how are could innovate faster when it is free make its own decisions. maybe hydropower wasn't the only kind of cute power in the united states. and soon enough the actor began to take the arguments seriously. even by the sun some ge stock. 1960, cast a dark cloud over ge.
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boulware and his propaganda mill. the justice department was investigating company. in 1961, the new attorney general, his name was robert kennedy, altogether a strong case, ge was colluding withh other companies like westinghouse to fix high prices on the turbines is sold. the justice department went to court and the judge said the ge executive to jail he sent him to jail.udud the irony was undeniable. the irony was undeniable. department mouthing off about free markets even as ge cheated the american taxpayer. this was a terrible blow for ge and for boulware. the company look like the worse advocate in the world. nationwide, will felt betrayed by the trusted company. it was like the black sox scandal of 1919. when this happened to ge. a national betrayal, ge stock went in the toilet.
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the actor was fired. ge theater was canceled. in boulware got pneumonia. and he did retire the years that followed, the set subject of the great society only deepened the sense of failure for such a venture. ge at self defendant news cooperation as did many other companies with the federal government. in his own boulware mocked his old efforts. american voters did turn away from socialism, they thought social democracy or just government expansion sounded nice. they voted in lyndon johnson and a socializing program and we can call it that. great society.gr johnson promised to cure poverty and to make america an even better place in a great place with an even stronger economy. they did create the beginnings of a national healthcare system. though we getting now, medicare.
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this year the great society year did strengthen unions and johnson was only the beginning. one of the revisions of great society, in this book is a evvision of richard nixon. in my research, i discovered that nixon actually expended government and johnson had before him and in some areas even more rapidly. in other presidents just added on. just imagine a great interesting process of program upon program. manhattan institute was officially at the numbers and recent john cogan laying out a few more. some of you were at that event. here is the scope of what the great society yielded. by 1980, health medical costs work six times since 1950 cost in constant dollars. in may 1980, public assistance cost for tee times 1950 cost. social insurance costs work 27
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times 1950 level and housing costs work hundred and 29 times their 1950 cost. if you call last night one of the candidates suggested that we needed to spend more on housing. what happened, the great society field. the government expansion did not eradicate poverty. in fact, the reduction in the poverty rate producer of the coming down. in fact a fun renewed up with 2 percent and stayed there. the programs shackled americans into dependents. generally speaking, there's a generally speaking, there's a follow the great society bench. the economy began to flail as it never had before. we know that unemployment went towards 10 percent and we know that interest rates went past 1f labor under policy backed by the
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government, to drive american companies telling tales. grass did grow in his field. just as boulware had predicted. the great thriving center of detroit did become the rust belt. i read a lot about that in the great society. the dow jones industrial average stay below a thousand for a generation. today younger americans believe in ever rising stock market is their birthright. expect nothing else. see want to stop and contemplate that duration from the mid 60s until the 80s, women interns, with great inflation did not pass 1000. imagine if today and wait until 2035, to get to the next barrier. in my book, what i learned in running it, is that you don't have to be socialist all the way to do damage.
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indeed boulware was right even o little socialism, does incredible damage. this is not the paradox, it is the road. you get there sooner than you think. the whole while, can imagine boulware who was decades in himself talked about the failure of his effort and enlightenment. but as you know, when figure was now enlightened, they did care, was the actor reagan. any decided to try politics. in 1964, he took a standard ge speech out of the can or a status bar and given to beat. practically word for word. in america had to choose socialism or not. and this was what became known as the time for choosing speech in the actor read the governor of california where he challenge the great society numerous times including the legal department they came out of our poverty program. any but the policies and ge into
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practice. government restraint saving money, fighting expansion of welfare, personal dignity, support, respect for markets and when he did run for president, anyone, is 1980. it was really no longer the morning-after effect. the great society, it could be morning in america. the entire council revolution that reagan brought, that morning in america, it came out of those little boulware pamphlets. and he had so lovingly prepared. boulware news long-term investment that no one remembered had paid off the magnitude that is near unimaginable. markets thrived and we did get a strongly rising market. i will stop interesting there were several lessons from the great society and that is one of 12 chapters of this book. first of all, the lesson, the
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overarching lesson is that the government is rotten at planning. no matter how much it spends. you get a perverse outcome. the second lesson is that a private project, one of ours, that looks like a complete gift, or a failure in the short or medium term need not turn out to be a complete failure in the end. sometimes the project is just early. and sometimes that early this is good. think of it from the point of view of the voters. they have learned about markets from ge when reagan gave talks in the cafeteria, a factories. in some of those of thousands of meetings between reagan and ge did have an effect. those voters understand what reagan was saying when he spoke as a politician. there was another way for the american worker. they emerge in 19 as reagan's famous blue-collar boat. another point more obvious, but
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worth mentioning is that the great society offers a lesson on trusting your own judgment great if you suspect that a program isn't good, it probably isn't. if you suspect a program might be good, invest in it. think of the institutions that inspired you as a child and laid the plan for your own institution. much of the work that i do, and the manhattan institute does, is trying to plan the seeds try to plant the seeds. a theoretical seed can be the most fruitful seed. the third and final point, individuals matter. without these scholars, individual scholars, there wouldn't been no broken glendale policy. without boulware, and oregon. if you think your name, and i would now i would like to raise a theoretical lesson going, what we remembered for doing this work but you may be wrong.
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i am sitting right here in manhattan in 2019 with you, three decades after the death of that eight ge executive. everyone in this room is raising a mental glass to reagan, to public policy work, but also most of all, there raising a glass to the name of boulware. q very much. [applause]. amber lee has kindly agreed to take a few questions. >> when i think about a great society, two things come to mind.
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lbj in the race of revolution in america. the civil rights revolution. the riots in the streets. the great society was the response. helping blacks out of poverty. helping them overcome discrimination based on race. what i remember about the great society, was that lbj was abandoned by people who opposed the vietnam war. in the only people who stuck with him in terms of civil rights agenda. >> your question. >> my question to you is what about the civil rights revolution of america. how can that not be in iraq. how can we explain the great society. without talking about racial issues. screamac and is in my book. this was just one chapter. the book looks at civil rights
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law, so we have the civil rights act which came before as you c know, the voting rights act and basically the early rights are great and important and revolutionary. and without them, we wouldn't be where we are. the later laws particulate following the howard university speech of president johnson were more about benefits. that is positive. what people get. and i argue and there's plenty of evidence for it, that this benefits did help for people white or black. they kept them poor. for example, today we have the hillbilly book that is so important. what can we do kind of struggling group and has since pathology in addition to poverty. in the 1960s, women appalachian law in order to improve but it did help, just
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made life harder there accustomed to people to getting benefits. toy divide, in this book, market divide and johnson howard university speech. i think johnson got ahead. i do have a very, long treatment of the 1964 convention. at which the mississippi delegation was it not seated. the decision hud of betrayal by organized labor with johnson to turn away those people because they needed to vote of the regular party. >> i'm very excited to read your book. it seems like a successful book following your us on. there seems to be to schools of
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thought. the first is that it was counterproductive and second it was more modern. it basically does enough for up or about enough, and if you include transfers and tax credits into poverty rates, since the 1960s that you will see that a lot of these programs helped to reduce poverty. we shouldn't accept the left-wing heritage that we need to do so much more printed text so much more into so many more transfers. and brings one of the scandinavian type of welfare systems. when you come down on that or center-right point of view. ythere is basically an f transfers now so kind of except the great society. >> thank you. this in very important question. and really when you count poverty, you can count it with benefits are without. are they for or when you go without, there are a lot of poor people. what are we doing. i would argue that we are
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anesthetizing people. that is, they are becoming so accustomed, in a sale way out. they don't see an opportunity to work. they don't believe that they can't work. so i think it's disruptive if they keep people quiet. clearly, some of the benefits of the 1960s particularlyet the money that floated chapter four, from the office of economic opportunity to the cities was meant to calm people so they what it right. i did work. the money got caught in bureaucratic traps and people were angry about genuine problems such as bigotry of the police in los angeles. but i don't think you can buy out people. i do believe we would be stronger if we had many opportunity rather than entitlement.
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>> amity, i am partway through aur book which i'm enjoying. and i will be glad to learn how to pronounce these words. could you talk a bit about the relevance of your book in the contemporary debates about redistribution and about growing the wealth. we are going through a spasm which is really kind of knew. people saying that we need to be redistributing things much more. and just make it more complicated, what is the role of being in the cold war nurses 30 years out of the cold war treated and how communism has or is both an alternative model and a threat to the american way of life. how does that playan into arguments now giving benefits. screamac can answer the second first. the secondfi question also towas
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attitudes towards socialism. his younger people have nothing to compare to. they have not by and large served in the military. they have not seen a lot. so the 11 idea. younger people in the 1960s, and my book is a chapter on the statement so that would be, like 1940. they were less naïve. they were still naïve that they were less naïve because the n wr was closer and because communism was closer and because they're older brother, was in the korean conflict. so now we have massive naiad to be which is a problem. naïve. a parallel between them. now. i think we are a bit liberated because if progressives can call for socialism and talk about socialism, then we can talk about socialism. without being labeled as haters.
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this doesn't have to do with moscow. a number of progressives, a few of them are actual traders. it was problem that they were wrong. about their ideas domestically. so we can talk about socialism now to without involving the soviet union and someone. i tried to do good job. i wanted to say one of the thing. in the book i try to capture the romance of socialism. see think about when young people today want to trip. they go to a latin american country and they see marked social democracy of the fall in love with scandinavia their outreach) in the book, i had to the character who goes on a trip that sort of his intellectual towards looking for socialism. the character is tom hayden,
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recently peter collier died. and peter gave me a picture of something that he had that was made from a failed american jet. it was a north vietnamese sort of knickknack of pride, and sent hundreds american planes downed. someone gave that item to tom hayden who gave it to peter collier. so tom's trip is very romantic trip. he meets a girl and someone. and absolutely intellectually lazy crazy because he doesn't see the reality. he probably got in the way of our bombing. i'm wondering whether johnson called a halt at the time. it was a halt because want to be blamed for bombing tom hayden. [laughter].
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but that is the story ofor the romance of socialism. it is so present today. thompson confusion. the end or the end of the chapter he decides that socialism is wonderful because it is never finished. and as long as it's not finished, no one may criticize it. that is the beauty of it. >> i believe we have time for one more question. >> that was great. my question is whether there is a society that is ever successfully woken from socialist anesthesia. is there model that we might follow to walk back these tendencies. >> i don't want to say something that has to happen to us before something something wakes up.
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but i do believe americans love business. in the mario people we can exposed to traditional common sense ideas, i'm talking about four h, art deco, or reading books that they impartially don't get to read high school. learning about calvin coolidge. i see they responded with great excitement. and i hope they'll permit me to put my foundation. we have a scholarship for academic merit. it's sort of like the specialized high schools in new york road scholarship. it is really about academic merit and is quite a serious competition. we only have four scholarships a year. they are very expensive. it is a full ride to college. we already have 15000 kids who have registered to apply for four scholarships this year. putting those kids want. they with the money right there
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what independence from the parents. they want to not have to fill out the fafsa. but a lot of them also like the idea of doing things on your own. something is supported for all of us to send signals to young people that you will be rewarded for enterprise. for trying and doing things on your own. for going on way. currently our system doesn't particularly do that. it is more a reward system is about how you can figure out about what you can get. from the point of view of the 17 -year-old. something is quite easy to change of political culture if you focus on 16 to 20 -year-olds and show them what's in it for them and also play to their natural wisdom which they have. and we understand the you might think this and you might not be wrong. [applause]. please join me in thanking natalie amity. they encourage all of you to buy a book. auy a copy for a friend or your
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enemy. [laughter]. all of them will be enriched by printing this wonderful book. [applause]. [background sounds] >> here's a look at some of the events book to be will be covering this week. on monday at six synagogue in washington dc, he will offer us pots on american political divide. also that they will be at green apple books in san francisco. print up with technology reporter and a wiener who will recount her experiences working work silicone valley expert up. wednesday will be back in san francisco for university of texas professor samuel woolley discussion on how technologies are being used to minute late public opinion. on thursday look first at brown university were international
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studies professor peter endres will provide a history of war through drugs. back to the nation news capital for an event at politics and prose books on friday with editor who will argue this morning american institutions, rather than replacing them, will unite the country. all of these events are open to the public. in attendance, take those picture and take those set book tv on twitter facebook or instagram. book tv in primetime stars now. first retired career foreign service officer, talks about u.s. policy in the middle east. in the recent tensions between the u.s. and iran. and then history professor, davos, recounts a decision of the defendants of john adams and john quincy adams to dissolve the family's political dynasty. after that, examines the history and future of u.s. public lands.
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and as the senate effacement trial continues, we thought we would show you and afterwards program from 2016 within a majority leader mitch mcconnell, joining conversation by republican senator lamar alexander from tennessee. and wrapping up tonight primetime lineup is university of texas officer michael and, he argues that democracies are being unraveled by a new class work. check your program guide for more information. and now, joining conversation might new york times columnist thomas friedman. >> many thanks to all of you for making time in your day to join us. our gathering today includes ambassadors and representatives from across. across these printed from iraq and jordan and rocco, tunisia, turkey, yemen, the netherlands, norway, australia, and ecuador. so from the four corners, we come to hearou

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