i'm david schoumacher.n all enjoy the benefits of public services such as museums, schools, and highways, but they have to be paid for. they are, usually in the form of taxes. why must the government provide these services? why can't we rely instead on the free market? it's a controversial question, as we see in the case of private utilities versus the tva. the great mississippi flood as we of 1927the case left 800,000 homeless. swelling waters overran levees throughout the tennessee river and into the mississippi, turning northern louisiana into an inland sea. secretary of commerce herbert hoover called the flood the greatest peacetime calamity in the history of the country. the disaster was predictable. the mississippi had flooded before. local authorities attempted to pvide flood control, but with uneven efforts. the levee system is oy as strong as its weakest link. the building of dams could have prevented the flood. some legislators wanted to use federal funds. but they faced tough opposition on capito

for "economics u$a," i'm david schoumacher. i'll get that one. must be careful.l, that's a nice picture. come on, anna. ok. announcer: foreclosure doesn't affect just you. it affects your whole family, too. if you've fallen behind on your mortgage, we can help. call 1-888-995-hope. because nothing is worse than doing nothing.

i'm david schoumacher.ody worried too much about the first japase cars to reach the united states. it w the heyday of the gas guzzler. as the nation's largest consumer of steel, of glass, of rubber, the auto industry drove the economy. and since the days of henry ford, the american auto industry kept its hand on the wheel and its foot on the accelerator. detroisold the big car. and american drivers bought it. high gas mileage didn't mean much to people used to 30 cent gas. 1973 changed that. war in the middle east and an oil embargo were followed by short supplies, gas lines, and skyrocketing prices. higher gas prices de datsunsan. to some, importing japanese cars meant exporting american jobs. so why not just cut imports to save jobs? for drivers, cars are transportation. but in detroit, cars are jobs, good jobs, and lots of them. for auto workers, more imports would mean more layoffs, often permanent layoffs, and a search for new work by men and women who had spent their lives on the assembly line. presid

for economics usa, i'm david schoumacher. captioning is made possible by the nenberg/cpb project captioning performed bytheg institute, inc. captions copyright 1986 educational film center annenberg media ♪ for information about this and other annenberg media programs call 1-800-learner and visit us at www.learner.org. annenberg media ♪ annenberg media ♪ it was 1927. once again, havoc reigne ♪ thughout the mississip and tennessee valleys. during a great depression, congress created the tva--