or than a half ton of the stuff will be thrown from off of buildings around times square and the big night. this saturday december 29 i'm jon scott. thanks for spending part of your day with us. "life, liberty and levin" starts right now. mark: hello america i'm mark levin and this is life liberty and levin. i have a great guest greg harrison hoar user? >> i'm doing great. mark: you were notch up the newer a very successful businessman. a couple of questions just to begin withh here. you never went to college. all this talk about free college and you can't make it unless he went to college. how far in high school did you go? >> the ninth grade.

b.a.r.t. and what happened? stu, >> i started buying and selling stuff. shop and i wanted a pawnshop, so i went down to city hall and they told me, no, you can't get a pawnshop. mark: in las vegas? >> in las vegas. i asked him why, and they pulled out the city code and apparently what happened in 1955, the good old boys got together and they passed a city ordinance, when the city population got to quarter of a million, they would issue one more license, and when they made the law, there is only 25,000 people living in vegas, they thought it was never going to happen. i'm 22 years old, and pawn license, if someone has one for sale, it was 500,000, 700,000, something like that, and i definitely couldn't afford

that. so once you read this law, i'm going, got to be close to that now for the city proper there. i started calling the city statistician once a week and in april of '88. he said yeah, we think it's a quarter million. i'm no longer naive 22-year-old, i'm a naive 23-year-old. i go to the city to get the license, they didn't give it to me. a judge said give him the license you. >> had to get a court ordered license to get a store? >> yes. the rest is history. mark: let's talk about the history. you finished the ninth grade. >> yeah. mark: you are self-educated. >> yeah. mark: you read, you read, you read. >> yeah. mark: what did you read? >> it will go back to when i was a kind. i was a really sick kid. i developed epilepsy when i was eight years old and i would have violent seizures, and literally i couldn't get out of bed. couldn't walk, sometimes for a

week or two, and my mom went to the library. we were lower income, my dad was in the navy, he was in vietnam, my mom was trying to sell real estate. mark: and you were in san diego. >> this is 1973, there is no cable, no kids television and we definitely didn't have the money for more than one tv in the house. my mom got me a set of books that was sort of kismet, it changed my life. it was john d. fitzgerald's the great brain, about an eight-year-old kid growing up in utah in the 1890s coming up with schemes to make money, and i devowed the books. i think it was eight books in the series, i read them in a week or two, and i fell in love with reading. i was 12 years old and checking out books on physics. >> self-educated mostly books

you read on your own. >> yeah. mark: so when we watch you on your show, "pawn stars," and you see things come in and you know a little bit of the background. the stuff that you've read in the past clicks in. >> yeah, because i don't really get into fiction. it's always been science books, it's been history books, i mean like one of the jokes i tell is i read the history of batteries twice, i found it so fascinating, and to this day, i read things like that, and once you develop a really diverse knowledge in your head, when you see something, you can start figuring things out, i guess. mark: you and i have gotten to know each other. >> yeah. mark: we're friends. i've gotten to know you have a political mind too, a philosophical mind. and before we get into, that people want to know more about

your family. your father just passed on. >> yeah, my father was an amazing guy. 20 years in the navy, great father. you know, i had epilepsy when i was a kid. he did not treat me one bit different because of it. when i was 12 years toeshlgsd was 5:30 in the morning saturday morning, my dad would not buy apartments unless there was a condemned sticker on every door, we would get them cheaper. mark: he was investing in real estate. >> made me work construction when i was 12 years old. mark: he worked hard his whole life. >> he did. he was always a hard worker -- he had the world's greatest work ethic. he used to tell me like family is everything. there is no choice about take care of your kids, and, you know, like i said, me, both my

brothers, we worked construction with him when we moved to las vegas. when i was 16, you know, he ended up going broke in '81. and all of a sudden we're going to move to the land of milk and honey, vegas. we had a little business where he bought and sold gold coins, he opened one up in vegas. i kept on working with him my whole life. mark: and you two got along, didn't you? >> we always got along. the joke i'd always tell is the greatest thing about my business is working with my pham family and the worst thing about business is working with my family. he was my best friend my entire adult life. mark: and you get into this pawn business. did you know anything about the pawn business? >> i knew about buying gold and silver, and knew the basics. there was this old pawn broker in town they met that helped me figure out the book work and

everything and helped me out. i'd call him almost every day for the first year, but got to figure it out, and i knew from the beginning that i had to be different than the other guys. there was a couple independent pawnshops in town. most of them owned by really large chains. most people don't realize there is one chain of pawnshops in the united states with a thousand stores and another with a thousand stores, so i realized quickly you can't go head-to-head with walmart, i had to be tiffany's. in the early 90s, i made it like always got to be a picasso on the wall. this place has to be immaculately clean, just the best employees, everything better than everybody else. mark: did you make money from day one? >> basically, yeah. i mean, it was a struggle because when you start a pawnshop, you are loaning out money all the time. when you first start, you are loaning out money and not

bringing in a lot. it was a struggle. mark: i'm asking this because you came from very little, you didn't go to college, you didn't get a high school diploma, and according to many people in our country, that's it, you're never going to succeed, and you're an example of somebody who says, wait a minute, i've got my oin own brain, i've got my two hands, relatively good health. i am going to succeed. and in america i can succeed. is that right? >> it's true. you know i think it would be a lot harder to do the same thing today because there is so much government bs you have to go through. there's constantly a new law, some new rule regulation, more and more difficult to fire a bad employee. i mean, in the 80s, i could go

down and get a business license and be open in three weeks. now, it's three or four months, and it's like that with almost everywhere in this country. the layers and layers of bs. much more difficult for, you know, a young couple sitting at the kitchen table. should we go and open our own business? you're going to need a lot more money. a lot more bs. a lot more expenses. it's slowly getting better. mark: didn't they just make it more difficult on the internet? now, the supreme court rules that, yes, states can tax the internet. now you have 50 states, district of columbia, the territories, some guy wants to start a business like you, he doesn't have a lot of capital. he wants to go on the internet, can't afford a brick and mortar store, and he's got to be able to, or she, to file tax in every state of the union and then some. >> look at california. california has 59 counties, and

they have a couple hundred different sales tax rates, and there's -- you can't -- basically what you do is make it more and more difficult, and it's just the insanity of government. mark: we have conservatives celebrating that. now it's equal with retail shops. i'm thinking equal what? money flows like water. if people want to go over here with money, they're going to go over here with money. why is the government's business to make anything equal, whatever that means? >> yeah, it's the whole idea of -- well, it's the safe spacers, cry room people, everything's got to be fair. there is no definition of fair. when you get taxes like -- there's no way anybody can figure that out on their own. mark: you mean all these various taxes and jurisdictions and so forth? >> yeah, i really like trump.

i think he's doing an amazing job. mark: you're a big fan of his. >> a big fan of his. i don't agree with everything he does. ed koch had a great line running for mayor in new york. believe in nine out of 12 things you vote for me, if you believe in 12 out of 12 have, your head examined. [laughter] >> as far as beating up on amazon and online businesses. mark: amazon is successful because people use it, otherwise it wouldn't be there, would it? >> like the argument that walmart was beating up on the grocery stores. grocery stores got the mom-and-pop small grocery stores out of business, there used to be general, like the general store in town. it's an evolution of business, and in the end, we all have a better life because of it. mark: because, is it not true that a capitalist economy is a dynamic vibrant economy, and competition creates different

products, different outlets and people respond to it and that's how we what's successful and what's not successful? >> yeah, it's survival of the fittest, and in the end, everyone has a better life because of it. take for example, in 1850, the watch capital of the world was london. the majority of the pocket watches in the world were made in london. right around this same time, machine tools became a lot less expensive, precision machine tools. little watch companies start popping up in the united states. by 1890, the best watches in the world handsdown were american watches. as a matter of fact, they were so good, the europeans were trying to sell watches with american sounding names. congress had to pass a law saying the watch had to be printed on the dial. you can make a dial of a watch but you couldn't paint it.

okay. there is a separate guild that made the hands, made the cases. massive bureaucracy. and in 1890s they were making in london the same watches they were making in 1820, and that's just one example of capitalism. there's a million examples out there. socialism doesn't work, big government doesn't work. mark: and yet, when we come back, i want to discuss that with you. because this debate over democratic socialism seems to be going hot and heavy, in one party, and the power of government in terms of commerce seems to be accepted by both parties, or at least people in both parties. we'll discuss that as soon as we come back. don't forget, ladies and gentlemen, you can watch me on levin tv most week nights, go to crtv.com or give us a call 844-levin tv. 844-levin tv. we'd love to have you. we'll be right back.

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. mark: rick harrison, you're part of a culture. you've got one of the most popular tv shows in america. one of the highest rated tv shows on cable.

i'm sure people know who you are when you're walking -- i know that in las vegas, because when we were with you, rick, rick, rick, so -- >> yeah. mark: you're speaking out more about the country. you're speaking out more about capitalism, about liberty. is that because you're recognized and you're part of the culture and concerned about the future of the country? >> i am concerned about the future of the country. i have six kids. i have three grandkids. and there is going to be an economic reckoning in this country eventually. you know, the government will give you all their voodoo economics about how social security is fully funded. it's insanity. it's the equivalent of me saying i had a million dollars and loaned it to myself and i gave myself an iou and partied and spent all the money but i'm still a millionaire because i owe it to yourself. mark: there's no money in

social security. >> they have a social security trust fund that there is no social security trust fund. mark: the government took all the money. >> the government spent all the money. and -- mark: don't people go to prison for stuff like that, in the private sector? >> it's everything with government statistics. they waste the money. it's really the insanity keeps growing every year. do you know the bureau of labor statistics still gets most of its information from doing land line surveys and i don't know what demographic still has a land line. mark: i don't have a land line anymore. >> i don't either. they still go to grocery stores with a clipboard to get prices. and it's all this -- because the government can never fire anybody, and it really -- it concerns me that eventually we'll have an economic

reckoning. >> is it the massive debt? >> the massive debt and eventually they will have to monetize the debt and will cause inflation. mark: venezuela. >> look at venezuela. some of the richest natural resources in the world, it has more oil than saudi arabia, but this is another thing that liberals irk me on. they complain when a ceo makes $20 million a year. they have no problem when a sports star makes $20 million a year, and the fact of the matter is those ceos that take care of the big oil companies and internet companies, the reason they get paid that kind of money is they're no different than a big sports star. they have that skill set just like lebron jamess had a skill set. i can run an oil company. no, you can't. perfect example is venezuela.

they have more oil than saudi arabia and can't make money off the oil and gas system. mark: they don't have stuff to give anybody. >> the average venezuelan lost 15 pounds last year because of food shortages. that's what socialism leads to. mark: what does socialism create? products? wealth? or redistribute what other people create? >> it creates a system where there's -- in capitalism, it's survival of the fittest. that's why this car company is competing -- every car company is trying make a better car because people are going to buy the best car. when you have socialism everything is ran by the government. they don't care if the car is any good. it's the only car. that's what you get, and so socialism -- mark: obamacare? similar? >> yeah, similar. mark: what has obamacare done

to your business in specific? >> i do pretty well. but it's triple the price of insurance on my employees that i don't think the insurance is -- the medical care is as good. there's a lot of little incremental things that can be done to help medical care in this country. i believe the social safety net, but you can't pay for everything. the government can't pay for everything. >> what if people don't mind paying into the social safety net but don't want to be part of the social safety net. isn't that the problem of obamacare? we're sucked into the vortex? >> and then it's like we were talking about earlier, once everyone is getting something for free, they never want to give it back. capitalism works, look at the price of medical care over the past 20 years, okay? but elective surgeries, those prices have gone down over the

past 20 years because you have capitalism working there. there's a million other things too with medical care, you have tort laws where everybody is suing everybody. i read once that almost every prescription drug out there has a lawsuit against it. mark: i don't doubt it because some states when you drive around, like in florida, every other billboard is personal injury lawyers? every commercial on the radio is personal injury lawyers? >> people don't want to realize it's an imperfect world, you know? not everything is going to work right. there's always -- some people are allergic to peanuts, some people are allergic to a drug, and you get so much bureaucracy involved, lawyers involved and everything is sort of, eh with medical insurance and things like that. i don't know the exact solution for medical care, more

government is definitely not the answer. mark: don't forget, every week night, almost, you can watch me on levin tv if you join us at crtv.com. crtv.com. we have 20 wonderful hosts there on our conservative digital network, crtv.com. or give us a call at 844-levin tv. hey!

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for those that naïvely asked why didn't the republicans is get approval to build a wall of the last year because the senate many 10 democrat votes and they will give us none for border security. now we have to do it the hard way with the shutdown. too bad. and the stalemate lately means the shutdown will extend into the new year. the senate in the house are not scheduled for full votes in solis a third currently 25% of the federal government remains closed with more government agencies expected to run out of money very soon. i'm jon scott. now back to "life, liberty and

levin". . mark: socialism. democratic socialism. we have a 28-year-old who was elected in the democrat primary, not elected yet, in new york. 17,000 votes, and she's on every major news outlet. they're saying this is the future of the democrat party. this is being celebrated. why would this be celebrated? >> well, i mean, you have basically a large -- no one has -- okay, here's an example, okay? every kid coming out of high school thinks a corporation is evil, but they have no idea what a corporation is, and like i've explained this to a million young people that work for me. a corporation is a piece of paper. a piece of paper cannot be evil. you might have bad guys running

a corporation, but a corporation in itself can't be bad. and you wouldn't have that cell phone without a corporation, you wouldn't have a car without a corporation, you wouldn't have the power on at your house without a corporation. corporations are one of the greatest inventions of all time, a way to combine capital without any risk above and beyond the amount of capital, and to create wealth. there's not a single person that can come up with the money to start a massive car company. he's going to have to get on market to get money, but this doesn't taught to anybody or kids. all they're taught is corporations are evil. they go to college and basically told by the liberal professors that have never lived in the real world, everything should be free, and like margaret thatcher said, socialism is great until you run out of other people's money. it has never worked. all it does is the socialists

say everyone will be equal and you'll be equally miserable and equally poor. mark: they always talk about the top 1%, there's always a top 1%. i don't care if you go to the poorest nation on the face of the earth. someone has an extra ball of rice, the top 1%. >> yeah, and they talk about how trickle-down economics is so evil and terrible. i think the whole word trickle-down economics is not a great phrase for it, but like i was explaining to my 17-year-old daughter. a wealthy guy goes out and buys a jet and everyone at the jet factory works and then everyone at the local airport that maintains that jet works. he's got to hire a pilot, and all these people are working. if you take the rich guy's money away, have you dozens of people not working. so their entire argument is completely false. mark: you think part of the

problem is that we live in the greatest, most successful economy mankind has ever known where people in this country. blue collar workers, white collar workers, union, nonunion, live better than kings and queens ever lived, ever lived and because we're so close to, it we don't see it? >> i think so. this is the only country you can live in an apartment with air-conditioning. two tv's, a refrigerator full of food. a car in the driveway. little money in the bank, and you're poor. mark: we hear this propaganda day in and day out whether it's the democrat party, some in the republican party, the media, you are indoctrinated through education, most of the people rely on government, subsidized by government and those who aren't, they those people are subsidized through government, shouldn't i be subsidized too?

>> everyone wants something for free. we're not taught to be self-reliant. morality is no longer taught in school. i go talk at troubled high schools, you know, and i try and talk like they talk. i tell these kids, all you guys want to be a baller or be really super cool, be a little bit of a nerd. get an education, get a job, and wait until have you kids when you're married, okay? because you do those three things, you reduced your chances of being property by 95%. for some reason they're not allowed to teach that in school. it's common sense, it boggled my mind. look at news channels, these people supposedly have a college education and touting socialism, which, to me is mind-boggling. obviously, you cheated a lot. [laughter]

>> but socialism is -- it sounds so great, though. that's why people embrace it. the government is going to pay for everything? sounds great. economically it can't happen. mark: do you think more and more people have difficulty dealing with liberty? liberty. freedom to fail. to succeed. to go through the and be whomever you want to be. do you think too many people are afraid of doing that or don't comprehend what it means to be a free person? >> i think they comprehend it and we're raising an entire generation that gets a participation trophy. mark: what about our generation that runs the government, and our generation that push thes agenda? chuck schumer, he's our generation, nancy pelosi, is a generation beyond, but you get the point. >> i truly believe that if

you're older and you're educated and you're touting socialism, you're either not that intelligent or you're evil. it comes down to that. mark: power hungry, maybe? >> power hungry. power hungry is basically evil in most situations. and they're completely intellectually dishonest. things that come out of chuck schumer's mouth literally, he knows what he's saying is bs, but he's playing to the cameras, he knows the press will play to him, and you know, he has an agenda, he's power hungry. mark: if you're such a powerful politician and can influence the future of the country, and you know what you're saying is bs, is that a problem with virtue, then? >> yeah. mark: so he and people of that ilk who promote what they know is simply impossible, and yet

the damage that can result from it lack virtue? >> it's the old adage, power corrupts absolutely, and they will do anything to hold onto that power. mark: i don't want to put words in your mouth. >> you're not putting words in my mouth. you go back to the founding fathers. those were people who really seemed to care. they risked their entire lives. risked fortunes, lives, families, everything obuilding this country, and now we have a lot of politicians out there and it's all about getting re-elected. look at congress. we have one guy in congress for 50 years? mark: yeah. can we do without him? he's indispensible and i can't think of his name. >> it's so difficult, i reach out to the public because we

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. mark: rick harrison. you libertarian? conservative? pro-trump? anti-trump? tell us. >> more of a libertarian. pro-trump, mostly. like i said, i don't agree with everything he does. mark: what do you agree with? >> lower taxes, less government. because in the end, that's what works. and it's just not a theory, you can go throughout history, when you have less government, you have a better economy, better

lives, better everything. all government does is slow everything down. government caused the great depression. mark: let's hit that, for a second. government caused the great depression. we're talking about the depression in the 30s. >> yep. mark: and basically what happened there was you had a recession. a bad recession and government intervenes. government does two things, tell me if i'm right. tariffs. tariffs again and then monetary policy. tightens money rather than loosens money as milton friedman would say, and they turned the recession into a great depression. i have that about right? >> in 1936, when everything was getting better. we had positive gdp growth in 1936. tightened up monetary policy again and created another straight back into the depression.

like in 2000 -- right after 9/11, the fed massively lowered interest rates, which in turn, all the pension funds run the united states. they have a basic model. 6% return, they'll be able to pay the pensions in the end. but now they can't get yield, so they started chasing yield, and that's when these collateralized debt obligations, crazy things started happening. if they didn't get the yield, the entire model would collapse. mark: didn't get their 6%. >> average 6% and so they had the chase yield and that's what caused everything to burst in 2008 because the federal reserve is always trying to keep us out of a recession. mark: is that the job? what was the original job of the federal reserve? wasn't it to keep the currency stable? >> keep the currency stable and keep the bank stable. mark: now what does it do? runs the economy. >> trying to run the economy and it's an impossible

situation. it's government trained to run something. capitalism needs a recession every once in a while to separate the weak from the chaffed. economy slows down, the bad business goes out of business, good business stay in business. everything is more efficient that way. mark: sounds cruel. >> when you have a politician speaking, we don't want a recession so people might lose a job and i'll lose office. it's not a perfect world and these things have to happen to have a stable economy. you perpetually prop up -- the more you prop up an economy, the harder it's going to fall. like adam schmidt in the wealth of nations, the unseen hand will of -- the economy will balance itself out, but when you start getting the government in there pushing up something really high eventually it's not going to

fall -- mark: you talk about adam smith and the invisible hand where millions and millions of people are making independent decisions. untold number of decisions about their lives, about their business, about their family. and the invisible hand is we interact with each other. we know what we want better than anybody else knows what we want and so on and so forth. when the government intervenes it's a relative handful of people with an army of bureaucrats telling us what we want. telling us what we need. how can the handful of people, the masterminds know as much as all the rest of us, and isn't the problem that they can give us a piece of cheese, but to explain how we get a piece of cheese actually requires people to pay attention for about three minutes so you can explain it. >> i mean it's literally an office worker telling a plumber how to do his job. there is a need for government. we need roads, we need a system

of educating our kids. there should be vouchers for teaching our kids so there is school choice. need to make sure no one is shooting at us and things like that. the bureaucracy we have now. what did the department of commerce do? mark: certainly doesn't promote commerce. [ laughter ] >> we'll be right back. introducing add on advantage, a new way to save on travel. now when you book a flight you unlock discounts on select hotels that you can add on to your trip up until the day you leave. add on advantage. only when you book with expedia.

. mark: i want to circle back a little bit with you. corey, your oldest son. >> yep. mark: chum lee, almost like a son to you. do they have similar views of the world that you have? >> yeah, they do. mark: they do? is chum lee, let me be blunt, is he sharper than he appears to be? >> yes, he can be -- he's a comic genius. he has his moments where he -- mark: spaces out? >> literally, he gets me a father's day present every year. i love him like a son. at times he can be brilliant. i own a shopping center next to the pawnshop and he said can i rent out a store for a candy

shop. who's going to do your books and everything like that? it was brilliant because he had a bunch of candy branded with the -- chum candy. when he goes over there, there's a massive line, everyone wants to take a picture with him at his candy store and he does really, really well. mark: knows how to market? how about corey? what's he like? >> corey. mark: he strikes me as really bright. >> he is really bright. he owns the beauty bar -- voted the number one dive bar in las vegas. but apparently people like dive bars so you can't even walk in the place on a friday and saturday night. he does well with that. he's really a bright -- i'm proud of him.

he can be -- he's young and single, he can be rambunctious and piss me off once in a while. he's an amazing guy. mark: do you, your family, are you big collectors? you see all this wonderful stuff full of this stuff. >> i have an entire house decorated in pawnshop motif. in my office i have maps of the state of california. mark: what's the most rare or valuable thing have? >> probably this right here. a 1200-year-old biking bracelet, circa 800. mark: and somebody walked into the store with this? >> yes. mark: what did you pay for that? >> i think 7,000 or $8,000. a lot of people think it would be worth a lot more. i explain this a lot of the times. you take an item that's $10,000 should be worth so much more. it's the free market, there are

a million more. mark: you know what we have here? the mirror that over the reagan -- in the reagan home over the fireplace for years and years and years, that was the mirror. >> that's amazing. mark: i'm not selling it to you, either. [ laughter ] >> and we're thrilled to have it. anyway. we'll be right back. my experience with usaa has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪ get your usaa auto insurance quote today.

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. mark: rick harrison, you told us you had epilepsy and it actually led to you self-educating, you're a brilliant man, you know so much about so many things. you're on the board of the epilepsy foundation. how did that happen? >> came to me and wanted to know if i would do psa's, one

of the people read my book, i told him i had epilepsy as a child. we just had a board of director's meeting, you've been drafted. you're on the board of directors. it has been rewarding. i do a couple hundred hours a year, raising money for them, interacting with kids, and basically have a good time doing it. mark: what do they do. they basically support research? >> we support research. we pay for kids' medicine, we pay for doctor visits, we want to raise awareness, there's always been a sigmattism with epilepsy. mark: what causes epilepsy? >> basically a short circuit in your brain. it's an electrical storm and could be all over your brain or certain parts of your brain, and they're slowly making advances with it. i really truly believe eventually there will be a cure. i'm not going to get super technical with you on that.

it's near and dear to my heart. mark: how widespread is it? >> more prevalent than you think. more people have epilepsy than autism. a whole host of diseases combined, people have epilepsy. always a stigma attached to it. mark: can people have it but the attacks are so infrequent, they don't know it? >> if you have a seizure, you know it. people have small seizures when they sleep and don't know it. it's a disease more people need to know about or more awareness about it. hopefully i'm going to find a cure for it one day, the epilepsy foundation, not me. mark: absolute pleasure talking to you, meeting with you. a lot of people are huge fans of yours and wanted to know more about you. we've become good friends. i been your philosophical take on things, it was a pleasure having you.

>> pleasure being here. mark: god bless. see you next time on "life, liberty & levin." [♪] jesse: i'm jesse watters. welcome to this special edition of "watters world." looking back at some of the craziest and controversial moments of 2018. a year and a half into his investigation, the special counsel hasn't even earthed any evidence of collusion between trump and russia. but he made serious moves involving several key players. former national security advisor mike flynn who pled guilty to lie together fbi is cooperating on at least three