pros >> to >> today we have the highest standard of living in the world. >> we can't complain. >> jobs are always opening up. the businesses are booming out of nowhere. buildings are coming up. hotels are being built. >> simple rules has been good for people. >> yes. >> it's counterintuitive. people's reaction is, we protect people with more rules. >> i go back to the ten commandments. you you know, the bible said you needed ten. they didn't say you needed coming up -- do you hate the [[otsa? >> that's disgusting abuses of power! >> but >> but good news. there's something better. >> people here are friendly and willing to help. >> that's next.

welcome to the world 2116, you can fly across town in minutes or across the globe in under an hour. whole communities are living on mars and solar satellites provide earth with unlimited clean power. in less than a century, boeing took the world from seaplanes

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af after september 11th, politicians said government must take over airline security.

>> get federal law enforcement to do this job. >> tom daschle said you can't professionalize if you don't fed and and the senate voted 100-0 to take over airport security sc >> sir, >> sir, do you have your i.d.? >> so is it now professional? >> opt out! >> these people don't think so. fliers complain that they are -- >> subjected to such disgusting abuses of power! >> tsa employees ordered the elderly woman remove her soiled adult diaper because it was preventing a former pat-down. this former -- >> she actually touched my vagi vagina >> the >> there haven't been successful attacks since september 11th. you might say that shows it's w >> >> actually, every report shows that tsa missed things. what actually saved us was the passengers and crew. >> congressman micah helped

create the tsa, the chair of the transportation committee. >> richard reed. it wasn't a tsa that saved the day. if you if you look at the diaper bomber, it was the passengers and crew that saved the day. the times square bomber, he called on his cell phone, ordered his ticket on the way to jfk, went through tsa, got on the plane. >> on top of that, the tsa is such a lousy place to work that more tlan 50% of the work force has quit. >> the agency keeps losing employees and hiring new ones. >> they're advertising on the top of pizza boxes. >> a career where x-ray vision and benefits are standard. turnover is high not because the tsa is underfunded. it spends ten times what the previous private screening companies spent. micah said he was shocked at how much money they can waste. >> john, you don't want to know. i just sent two guys down. they've got a warehouse in texas and they have hundreds of puffers that didn't work. >> remember these? they cost $150,000 each.

and were supposed to detect exp but t but they didn't work. >> they sat in warehouses, and they paid i think $600 apiece for d.o.d. to destroy them. >> sot tsa wastes money, misses terrorists, infuriates passengers, and creates long isn't isn't there a better way? oh, here's one. the lines are shorter at san francisco airport. they move quickly. and passengers even say the screeners are nice. >> people here are friendly and willing to help. >> i think they're a little more underst >> eve >> everybody here is friendly. a lot more friendly than dallas. >> dallas and all the other big airports employ government screeners. san fr san francisco is the one major airport that was allowed to hire screeners who work for a private not not only are these screeners nicer, they're better at finding the the tsa tested them and found they were twice as good at finding contraband. why would private skeiners be nicer and better? here's a reason. they practice.

here they're racing to match these security carts together under black lights. the fastest screener will win $2,000. ther there's even dramatic music. the tsa trains its screeners, too, but not like this. in this competition, screeners race to search bags and identify forbidden items. there's a pipe bomb. then they rush to repack the >> all >> all right, all right! >> in this test, they look at slides of people and try to remember details. >> how many buttons are on her >> f >> four? >> >> yes. >> >> the private company makes these screeners special. >> you have to be able to look at something, look at a lot of people and be able to retain what they saw. so this isn't things you find out who is very good at that >> >> we're really competitive. >> screeners love the contests. >> so usually it's, did you go? what what's your score? i'm not telling you.

if you tell a person your score, they're going to try to beat you ju you just want to be a winner. it's like bragging rights. >> i suppose they get better with these contests? >> oh, yes. they have to. >> if you don't have the passion for it, i guess you need to find another job. >> who knew privatization would create better attitudes? privatizing seems so selfish. i bet you're making money. that's money coming out of my pocket p. >> i don't mind making a little profit. it's it's the capitalistic way, american way. >> profit, it makes you try >> it >> it makes you do very well. we have to do well. >> that also means getting passengers through security wait wait times here are shorter because they move screeners >> th >> they move staff from piercy check point with two lanes up. >> if we show red there, we're short staff there. we start to back up, we find out how many people we can send to help them. >> the director of this airport wishes her screening company

tried as hard to keep lines >> we >> we get a high number of visitors in the g@( >> of course she does. her airport is right next to montana's glacier national park. people go to the park in summertime. traf traffic triples. but the tsa doesn't respond to >> >> screening levels remain constant year round. same number in the summer as in the winter. >> so, because of that and the delays it creates, and passenger complaints about rude screeners, cindy wanted to switch to a private screening company. the law that created the tsa allows that. but airports have to ask for permission. cind cindi and other airport managers asked, but the tsa simply didn't respond for a year and a half. then they said no. what reason did they give you? >> they didn't give us a reason. >> we asked tsa officials to come on the show to complain their position, but they decl their their spokesman also lied to us when we asked for permission to film the competitions at san francisco airport. they told us, the private

company is camera shy and wants to stay out of the limelight. but it wasn't true. >> i don't know why they did i i really don't. >> after the tsa refused for years to let more airports use private screeners, congress finally forced the tsa to allow a few. montana's glacier international airport now has them. >> i bet mcdonald's would like to tell burger king, you can't open here, there's no clear advantage to you coming here. >> they would love that, i'm >> >> tsa creator congressman mica says the bureaucrats are just protecting their turf. >> it's typical government. >> gives them more power. >> yeah. keep the power in washington. >> so what were you thinking? you did this! >> there's no question it's grown into a monster, and they've become a huge personnel operation instead of a security operation. coming up -- people think the program head start gives poor kids a head

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there is one government program that most everyone says is a big success, and that's head start. >> head start has been such an extraordinary success over all these years. >> it's a program that's w >> ev >> everyone loves head start. it gives underprivileged kids

some early education to give them a head start before regular school. its l its lobby says it's a place -- >> where dreams are born and minds are nourished. talent can grow. curiosity flourish. >> head start is a great p >> and >> and it gets results? >> i think there's tons of >> eve >> everyone thinks that, but it's not true. >> we've spent $180 billion on a program that has zero advantage for disadvantaged kids. >> what do you mean zero ad >> th >> there was a study in 2010 funded by the federal government. it it looked at 114 indicators. it did not find one positive ou >> so >> some poor kids got head start. other other kids didn't. >> they couldn't tell the difference between the kid that had the large head start investment and the similar poor disadvantaged kid. >> the government's own study found positive impacts while the kids were in head start, but one year later all gone. >> by kindergarten and first grade, they could find no difference in the kids that went

and kids that didn't. >> now, our president has taken a strong stance against ineffective programs. >> we've got to will eliminate programs that don't work. eliminate programs that don't work eliminate proom programs that no longer work. >> we've spent more than $100 billion and the government does this big study and finds, oops, no difference. >> right. >> so they say, okay, we're going to stop? >> no. instead it gets a billion-dollar increase and then the next year it gets a 400 million-dollar i >> i h >> i had a chance to visit one of the classrooms here, and i have to say it got me a little choked up. >> we should be choked up because government keeps spending more money on programs that even they admit don't work. i wanted toz%!r confront the administration, people from head start about this, but they wouldn't talk to me. so i'm glad congressman al ellison did. >> you cannot tell me that the food that they get, the instruction that they get, the love that they get from the people who work there are not

doing these kids tremendous be >> i w >> i would like to believe that they get a lasting benefit, but the government's own data finds none of that. >> well, you know what? that's not the problem of head start. that's that's the problem of not adequate investment in our public education system. >> what would be enough? 50,000 a kid, 100,000 a kid? the line is always, we have to spend more money. and if we're just better funded, we'll eventually get better outcomes for kids. >> that's what the big spenders always say about most everything government does. >> yes, we can! >> more money and government power will fix everything. but no, they can't. okay, although government can't, when we return, we'll see how ♪ i built my business with passion. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on

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yes, we can. >> yes, we can. >> yes, we can. >> no, they can't. that's a nasty title for my new book, but politicians can't do what private individuals can. over the years, politicians have promised us energy independence, world peace, an end to poverty. if we just give them more money, they will solve those problems. but, no, they can't. their plans go bad. head start doesn't work. college tuition pays for spas. the tsa is awful. >> she actually felt my --

touched my vagina. >> there are hundreds of other examples of how government can't in here. you can read more of that on my website john stossel.com. but wait, you say, if government can't, what about cutting-edge science like nasa? america did send a man to the >> we'v >> we've got the flag up now. >> we all like this. >> beautiful. just beautiful. >> but think about it. it cost billions. and what did we get? promos for a breakfast drink. >> tang instant breakfast drink went with them. >> nasa technology brought us the cat scan, but our billions haven't gotten us much. we get lats of delayed projects. government science is clumsy. for a fraction of the cost, a private group called the x prize does better. >> offer a prize, and they will >> they >> they promised $10 million to anyone who could launch three men into outer space. 25 teams competed for the prize. >> i have never been myself as

creative as i have eyeballing this [ bleep ] prize. >> burt ruetan's spaceship one won the prize. billionaire investors said, i want a piece of that. >> richard branson came in and bought the rights and commercialized it. >> a company that plans to run a tour bus in space. already, tom hainkz, ashton kutcher, katy perry and brangelina bought tickets. the fare is $200,000 now, but branson says someday it will be as cheap as normal airfare. >> this is richard branson, and he's here. >> i'm told private companies won't want to do this. there's no money to be made in going to the moon so this has to be done by government. >> you know, all innovation really comes out of the private it com it comes out of entrepreneurs. >> how are they going to make >> by >> by charging for the ride. >> politicians say -- >> government support is critical in helping businesses get new understand ideas off the >> we' >> we're programmed to believe that, if it's for real

high-tech, feweristic innovation, it's got to come from the government. and it's just the opposite. >> the feds have already thrown billions at failures like solyndra, and that was tiny compared to the clinch river breeder reactor, solar one, the triad ethanol plant and the hundreds of billions wasted on sin fuel. >> some things work out, some >> so >> some say boondoggles are worth the risk. >> i like the idea of government taking my tax dollars and investing in the tech follows of tomo >> >> progressives also like government forcing private companies to do it. >> fuel efficiency stbdzs have forced detroit to innovate in ways it might not have without them. >> if >> if government didn't dictate 35 miles per gallon we wouldn't get there? >> we need government to force >> i >> i think we do need government to force it. >> but no, we don't. while government spents billions, x prize offered a $10 million prize for a car that gets 100 miles per gallon. >> the announcement parks an

immediate and powerful worldwide res >> we >> we're in. we've got to do this. we're going to go for this in a big way. >> to meet the challenge, some teams use gasoline, electricity, even compressed air. >> 130 teams around the world e it's it's proving what's possible. >> the design phase was first. car hz to pass a looks test. then came the safety and performance tests. most teams were eliminated. >> oh, well. we had the range. we had the mileage. but zero to 60, our transmission just didn't hold up. >> this team won the prize with a car that got 102 miles per >> >> i can't buy these cars. >> not yet. but these cars are slowly going to production, components of them are going into the large auto manufacturers. >> one more example. >> thousands of gallons of crude oil are oozing. >> government took charge after the bp oil spill. >> make no mistake, we'll continue to do whatever is ne >> >> have we brought in the best and the brightest of all the minds that could deal with this? >> no. government hadn't. >> we start looking at this and

said, you know, reinventing how to clean up oil on the surface hasn't changed since the exxon valdez 21 years aerearlier. >> how would you improve it? >> i don't know. but the competition will bring the best ideas to the top. >> it's odd to hear you say i don't know. the government assumption is that someone in government does know and can pick. but you're giving away all this money, and you say "i don't >> we >> we don't pick the winner in advance like the government does in research. the research funding agency says, you're a good researcher, here's money. we flip it and say, i don't know which of you hundred teams are the best one, but the one who achieves this, we'll pay you. we only pay for success. >> and i'm waiting for that great big check. >> so wendy schmidt offered a $1.5 million prize for a faster way to clean up oil. >> 350 teams around the world registered to enter the comp >> we >> we gave it our best shot. we'll see what hatches. >> some teams had no prior experience with oil spills. >> we get asked all the time,

how long have you been in the oil industry? well, counting today? >> the top ten teams went head-to-head at the world's largest oil spill cleanup facility in new jersey, and seven of the ten teams doubled the preexisting standards that had been used to clean up oil for the last 20 years. >> if we get this pump working, we will win. >> one of the teams that doubled it was a team that met in a las vegas tattoo parlor. i kid you not. you can't make up this stuff. and they built a scale model in one of the guys' pools and it still doubled the ability to clean up oil spills from the last 21 years. >> so for 20 years they tried and tried, and they can clean up oil spills but only at a certain with with a prize, you double it. >> actually, the winning team for the prize quadrupled it. >> why can't the environmental protection agency lead stuff like this? >> well, they could, but they didn't, didn't they? >> no, they can't! >> just because government can't, that doesn't mean we can't.

we we can! indivi individuals succeed while government fails. that's our show. i'm john stossel. thanks for watching. join us monday. have a good weekend. good night from new york. colonel sanders failed until he was 65 years old. john. john: charlie brown ever learn from his failures. but we can learn from failure. try and try again. that's our s