In this episode, Tudor Dixon sits down with veteran journalist John Stossel to unpack how generational attitudes toward money, work, and government have changed. They explore why younger Americans are increasingly drawn to socialism, how political rhetoric fuels unrealistic expectations, and what happens when government oversteps in key industries. Stossel shares his insights on economic freedom, personal responsibility, and why understanding capitalism is essential for a thriving society. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. This is going to
be an awesome one. One of my favorite people. We
have the ultimate MythBuster and fact checker with us here today,
John Stossel. John, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, thank
you for being here. So. I have had a discussion
with a lot of people across the state of Michigan lately,
one that they don't really like to hear, and that
(00:23):
is that I don't believe that this generation is worse
off than my parents' generation financially. I see them spending
wildly and that seems to be the problem. You've recently
done a few articles, you did an episode on this,
So what's your take on this?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I just did one video. I just do one a week.
But yes, it was about that, about all the whining
on the internet. I wasn't familiar with all of it,
but the younger people and my staff have seen these
memes about if it is so much tough for now,
I can't afford a home, nobody can afford a home,
(01:05):
and we looked into it and it's just crap. It's
just not true. Almost every category life is easier today.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yes, So I was watching your video and you made
some really great points you had someone on. Actually, I
love the way you go about your videos, so I
encourage anybody who's listening to check these videos out. I
love the fact that you stepped out of traditional TV
and took a chance on this and the way you
talked about what is happening with this next generation is
(01:37):
something that I've talked to my friends about as our
kids are going out and looking for homes. Just a
couple days ago, one of my friends called and she said,
there's just no homes for sale. And I said, my
first house had one bathroom, two bedrooms, no basement, just
like four rooms in the entire house. But these kids today,
they want to have the same size house I have
(01:59):
now to have a four bedroom home or more a
huge yard. They want to live out on a big
piece of property. They can afford the smaller house.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Right though, there are fewer smaller houses for sale. That's
true because that's not what most people want these days.
We're not aware that we want more. We expect more.
We expect cars that don't rust and don't break down
quickly and have all the gadgets that go with it.
(02:29):
But people don't calculate that when they compare these things.
I was struck in the comments to my video we
release on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and all these
different formats, and usually people are pretty positive. And this
was so obvious to me that I thought people would say, yeah,
(02:51):
what are these people complaining about? But no, there were
all these ignorant complaints like you mentioned, Yeah, I can't
that's true, I can't find a house. It's not true.
Cars costs much much harder to buy a car now.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So forth, Well, it was rare for my friends to
go on a vacation if we were when we were
young and before we had kids, it took us months
and years. I mean my husband and I before we
had kids. We were married for eight years and we
took two vacations in those eight years, and we saved
for years to go on those vacations. But I see
(03:28):
this generation now. My husband's sister is eighteen years younger
than us, and they go on a vacation every six months,
and I think, and they're mad if they haven't gone
on a vacation. It's stunning to me the fact that
it just is in this entitlement that you go away.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Or that you eat out.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And very good point.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yes, I'm older than you, and the memes that I
saw started with blaming the baby boomers for everything. And
I'm one and we never went out to eat twice
a year and it was a big deal to go
to our restaurant.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I remember when we were kids, we would go to
McDonald's probably once a week, and my dad at the
time would say for us to go to McDonald's as
kids was such a big deal, and constantly always tell
every time we went to McDonald's. It was like, you
don't understand what a treat this is. We went to
McDonald's every few months if we were lucky, and at
(04:30):
the time, you know I had, we had. We were
certainly weren't eating out to dinner every night, but absolutely
now it's constantly eating out. Interestingly, eating out has also
changed because of this climate of everything is it is
so expensive and stores are buying this prepackaged food, and
eating out has become different. We're spending more, restaurants seemed
(04:53):
to be spending less. But it's a whole it's just
a totally different lifestyle. But you talk about Paul Piticians
a lot in the videos that you do. I mean,
I saw it in your Puppy Stores video. I saw
it in your socialism video. I see it in this
video as well. Because you talk about the fact that
politicians can adjust the way people think. I don't think
(05:14):
it was as obvious when I was young. I really
know what politicians were saying because you were hearing it
on the nightly news at ten o'clock at night. And
I wasn't always watching that when I was young. But
now kids are constantly pushed with the political rhetoric because
it's on their phones.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And we have changed our behavior in that we were
happy looking at the news at night the end of
the day, if we looked at all, And now I
find myself checking all the freaking time, and this makes us.
This hurts us. I mean it's a wonderful thing in
many ways. It hurts us in other ways because the
(05:53):
more you watch, the more you look, the more you scared.
People are of the world. Old people who don't go
out a lot fear crime more. It's the nature of
the news business to talk about the problems. It's amazing
that all these planes take off and land inches from
(06:14):
each other without crashing. It's not news. It's not nobody's
out by the back fence, gossiping about who's faithful to
their spouse. Bad news is snows, and when we consume
more of it, the world seems worse.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It reminds me. I was watching your video with you
had an expert in DEI or a DEI trainer who
had stepped out of the professor profession because he felt
like it had gone the wrong direction. But that was
kind of what he was saying. If you if you
don't have racism, then you can't have anti racism. And
(06:53):
so there's almost this perpetuation of something bad to create
some billion dollar industry to fight that thing that's so bad.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Everybody wants attention, and you get attention pointing out a problem.
His point that I've found most interesting was that in
the places where he was a DEI teacher, he found
the courses made different races more fearful about speaking to
each other, They were less likely to engage.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, that was the thing that I thought was the scariest.
And that's something that I see with my kids. My
kids are in high school and they've felt like that.
They've felt like, well, should I not am I bad?
Am I a problem? Should I not engage with someone
who's a different race, and it's something I had never
considered as a kid. I hadn't thought about it, and
(07:48):
they think about it in a totally different way, because
I think it is pushed upon them. You are different,
they are different than you. You may not get along
because of that, so we have to push you to.
He even talked about microaggressions, which I always thought was
a weird thing when it came out years ago. But
you're so afraid now that you might commit a microaggression
(08:09):
that you'd rather not talk at all.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And good was intended, I assume, with waking people up
to things we might say that might hurt somebody else's feelings.
But the as all of it, as you get more attention,
the farther you take it, and that hurts people.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
As I have watched what you've created, though, I was
looking at it as from the perspective of someone who
ran for office and thinking you've really done something incredibly
unique with the program that you've created because you're not
a partisan. You're not. You're actually super inquisitive in these interviews,
(08:52):
which I love, and you are You're trying to point
out really common sense, but you you are letting the
other person also come to that conclusion. And I think
for the political world, the strategy behind politics now is
I mean, it's different than what I thought when I
got into it. I was very naive about the fact
(09:14):
that I thought you did it because you wanted to
do the right thing. And then you get into it
and there's a million people around you and it's exactly
what you say. If you have this rhetoric, these people
will come. And if you have this rhetoric, these people
will come. And you start to look at it and say,
what do people actually believe? And then you see young
(09:34):
people becoming more and more reliant on government because government
and politicians are about promising things. You've done a phenomenal
job of pointing this out without being critical, and.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
They're also telling you that life's getting worse. Therefore you
need government to intervene. One of the best examples for
me that I learned from is Welfare. I was at
Princeton at the time it was being formulated, and all
my professors were saying, it's horrible that in this rich
country some people are still poor, and we can fix
(10:09):
this with programs, and that just made total sense to me.
Then I became a reporter I started covering these programs
and I saw how, yeah, they give money to people
who really could use it, and that helped them, but
it also made them feel entitled, and it cut off
their need to figure out how to become self sufficient
(10:32):
by themselves. And the longer the programs continued, the more
entitled people got angry if it wasn't just done just
the way they were entitled to it. And if you
look at the total numbers now Americans, the graph was
going down. Americans were lifting themselves out of poverty since
(10:53):
the beginning of the country. It was slow progress, but
it was progress. And then the War on Poverty began.
For seven years the progress was even faster, more people
were lifted above the poverty lone. But since then, for
the last fifty years, progress stopped poverty rates going up
and down a little bit, but for as many people
(11:16):
were helped, as many people were taught to be dependent
and passive, and that's horrible for people.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I think the younger generation is now thinking that that's
what government is there for. Because I go to college
campuses and I'll sit there and these college age students
will look at me and say, why should I vote
for this candidate over this candidate. What is the government
going to do for me if this candidate is in?
And so I've started saying, why do you ask that question?
(11:46):
What are you expecting? Because it's not something I ever
asked when I was young, and never thought about what
would what would I get if I vote for you?
What are you going to hand over to me? But
there is the mindset now that I need something free.
I need a reward for voting for you.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And my wish is that government would say what I
promise to leave you alone? And yes, we need limits
at government to protect us from foreign invaders and crime,
and to run courts and the police, even schools and
fire departments. But that's local government. That's not the fits.
(12:28):
And government was once two percent of the economy. It's
now forty percent, and it keeps growing.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. It's funny to me government seems
to do things that are I see so often government
hands something and then the strings come in. It's when
you first get it, it seems lovely, it's beautiful, it's
(12:57):
this amazing gift, and then suddenly they start attaching all
the strings because they want something back. We gave this
to you, now we want you to give us something.
This is Michigan, I think is a great example right now.
In twenty eighteen, we had marijuana pass the marijuana Bill
when it was a ballot a ballot initiative, and Democrats
(13:20):
got elected in mass in twenty eighteen because they were
all about, we want you to have marijuana, we want
it to be legal. And now we have small businesses
across the state that have been built on marijuana. And
I got to tell you, when I ran in twenty
twenty two, I was like, I don't love this. I'm
a factory person. I grew up in factories. My dad
owned a factory. I worked in the factory. It's hard
(13:43):
to tell if somebody's high. You know, you have a
whole different level of danger. But this last few weeks,
my mind has really adjusted on this because I saw
the Democrats last week come out and say we make
so much money in taxes on marijuana that we want
(14:03):
to add a twenty four percent tax on marijuana. We're
going to get a lot more money from you on marijuana. Now.
Our small business is one of the thriving small businesses
that we have in Michigan because we're really we're really
hurting small businesses. One of the thriving small businesses we have.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Now, how's it.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Twenty four percent tax on it. We're going to look
at the people who are using marijuana and ask them
to pay our bills, ask them to restore our roads
and pay for our schools. This is the only industry
out there, one of the only industries out there, that
has a very dangerous black market. So we've just created
a huge crime problem. And we can't foresee that. We
(14:45):
give you marijuana and then all the strings come. What's
your thought on that.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I should have been able to foresee it. It happened
in California, one of the first states to legalize, but
they put on so many regulations. It's not just the taxes,
it's the stupid rules so they can say, oh, you
can't show it the children, you can't have open windows.
That the black market is as big as ever, and
(15:15):
marijuana will cause some problems, but banning it doesn't necessarily
make that better. It didn't work for alcohol for prohibition,
and we should realize that with other drugs.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You have had other programs where you've talked about the
government coming into ban things. It doesn't seem like you're
a fan of banning things. And I find it interesting
the way you break it down. And that's one of
the things that you recently came out and did a
video on this is why we did this, This is
how I stepped out of TV and I started this program.
But you went into the detail of the facts that
(15:50):
the fact checking that you go through, and that's the
team that you have, which is I think very critical
in this world right now where a podcast comes out
every day and it's someone's opinion and it feels very
much like fact, but there's not the behind the scenes
that goes into it like your show you did. You
recently did this show on puppy stores, and it was
(16:13):
to me it was very valuable because my family absolutely
loves dogs. We love to go out and buy dogs.
There are no dog puppy stores in my town. They
have all been run out of town. There's one left
in grund Rapids. But I had been under this impression
that these dog these puppy stores had puppy mills attached.
(16:34):
And you showed the pictures, which I loved of that
scared me to death, and I went, oh my gosh, yeah,
I can't get a dog at a dog store. I
have to go to a breeder. So I went to
this breeder. I know nothing about this breeder. I got
the most reject dog you could possibly have. He's got
skin infections, he's got all kinds of health disorders. Would
(16:56):
he have been that way if I'd got him from
a puppy store, I don't know. But you did a
great job of breaking down. Really, this is government intervention
that doesn't need to be there.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And don't you call them pet stores. You call them
puppy stores. I mean they sell cats and rabbits are
now banned too. Eight states I didn't know that your
state was one of them have banned ball pet stores
from selling dogs, cats and rabbits because of the puppy
(17:29):
mill problem. But as with drugs or alcohol, ambition creates
new problems. And you're supposed to only buy from a
reliable breeder. But how do you know who that is.
You look at the internet and they all say they're
a reliable breeder. At least the pet store in your town.
(17:51):
They had to maintain a reputation, and if they sold
sick dogs from a puppy mill that cruelly imbred dogs people.
Word would spread. Now, thanks to ratings on the internet,
word spreads even faster. But the humane societies, which are
much richer than I thought they were. They have hundreds
(18:14):
of millions of dollars and they pay themselves well and
spend very little running shelters. They've got this big ban stores,
ban pet store campaign and they're winning.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
And I think that's something that people don't realize either.
These organizations. They feel good, you're rescuing a dog. You
feel like you've done something amazing, and they put this
rhetoric out there, and they have so much money that
they then have lobbyists and they can buy their message
through the government as well. They go to legislators and
(18:51):
they say, you can't allow this. You've got you don't
understand how this is hurting the dogs, these poor dogs
that'll never find a home because you have allowed these
people to sell new dogs. And there's this hole behind
the scenes nobody really knows about.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Maybe they know, but they don't think about it. I mean,
in the case of the puppy mill campaigns, they also
get people to stand on the street holding signs stop
abusing puppies, bad bed stores, and they make contributions to
politicians and that gets results. That's the way you do
(19:27):
things in politics. And I mean, I disagree with your
comment about politics a little bit and that I think
most people who go into it want to do good.
It's the process that five years later turns them into opportunists,
because to get anything done you have to make deals.
(19:49):
And I find and in government, the good people don't
get paid more. You're barely allowed to give them a raise.
The horrible person who sleeps at the desk next you
can't be fired because of civil service rules. This soon
sucks the initiative out of you, and government becomes what
it is. Right.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
The bureaucracy that is involved with that, they can stay
there forever, and they can make more money than the
elected officials, and they have a lot of power. And
then you if you have term limits, you have somebody
that doesn't know the system and they come in and
they're taken over by the bureaucracy. I completely agree with you.
We just had I was just in the Upper Peninsula
(20:32):
of Michigan a couple of weeks ago, and they were
telling us we have a terrible bear problem. Now I
live in the Lower Peninsula. We don't have a terrible
bear problem. I don't think about it. It doesn't affect me.
In fact, a few years ago they had a terrible
wolf problem, and the Lower Peninsula had a campaign saying
(20:52):
we could no longer shoot wolves in the state of Michigan.
And it was so it was so impactful it hurt.
I mean, you would watch these tiny puppy wolves on TV.
How could you shoot this wolf? These people want to
shoot wolves. We've got to stop it. Well, they were effective.
We put a ballot initiative through saying that you couldn't
kill the wolves in Michigan anymore. The people in the
(21:14):
Upper Peninsula who actually deal with the wolves, we don't
see them. They said, our livestock is being ripped apart.
Now they can't. They told us a couple weeks ago,
we can't hunt deer anymore because the bear are all
taking the deer right out of the fields. You can
watch them take the deer right out of the fields.
And I think, you know, these are the things that
(21:35):
it's very easy for a politician to come to me
and say, we can't give out any more bear tags.
We don't have enough bear whereas I don't live where
the bear are. I have no idea what the bear
are doing, which.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Is why people say local government is better. But that's
not always true either.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Right, Well, local government can also. I mean, this is
why I go back to when the next generation says
to me, what is the government going to do for me?
Why do you want so much government? Why are you
looking for more government? What has happened in that generation
that they're so desperate for more government?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
They've been brainwashed by schools. I don't know, it's upsetting
to hear that when you speak, that's what the students ask.
They don't ask me that, but maybe that's because they
know I'm a libertarian and I'm making fewer speeches lately
because I don't need the money anymore. But they no longer.
(22:35):
I don't remember them asking that. Man. That's sad that
that's what they ask you.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I think it's just this new motivation, as you see
the mom Donnis of the world saying, look, if you come,
we'll give you free We'll give you free transportation, we'll
give you free groceries, will give you everything free. I mean,
what is your take? What's happened in New York.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
All your problems and my kids are for him. It's
so upsetting to me. Part of it's because he's just
a reasonable guy as opposed to these creepy alternatives that
we have had. He seems like one, like a nice
guy who cares about people, wants to make things better.
(23:23):
But it's because of their vast ignorance from bad schools,
I guess. Because the basic question should be where has
socialism ever worked in what country and what state? Anywhere?
And people say Scandinavia, but they are not socialists. Sweden
went socialists and it was such a disaster they pulled
(23:47):
it back. They're capitalist countries. That Danish Prime minister even
came to Harvard to shout, we are not a socialist economy.
It's never worked at rex Lives wherever it's been trying,
and yet these politicians keep promising it.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
They say it's democratic socialism, it's different, which.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Just means you vote for the guy. But once in power,
socialism means we control the means of production, we run things,
and that inevitably becomes oppression and poverty.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
That's a statement that maum Donnie has made. He wants
to seize the means of production. He clearly openly said that,
and people thought that that was great because he was
going to come in and help to make sure prices
are lower. It would be helpful to the people in
New York. And he'll take from the billionaires because they
shouldn't be allowed to have that kind of money.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Anyway, it sounds good. Government will run it and they're
not looking to make a big profit, so it'll be better.
And I mean two answers to that. One is think
the Department of Motor Vehicles. That's the experience you have
in government stores again, because the guy who's a really
(25:05):
good worker gets paid no more than the slacker next
to him. And maybe you keep trying for a year,
but after five years, when nobody could be fired, you
stop trying and the services just go downhill. And the
second point I've now forgotten, So never.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Mind, let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next
on the Tutor Dixon podcast. Well, I've also said to
young people who say, well, we want free public transportation,
I always tell them, you know, even if you're just
paying a small amount for public transportation, you have a
different level of respect for that. Studies show this. They've
(25:48):
done psychological studies. If you get something for free, do
you respect it as much as if you just pay
fifty cents for it? Even if you just pay a
small amount, why do you want it to be free
if you can afford it. It's a very hard message
to get through to this generation.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Well, that's one I think is less evil because the
city's already running buses and it barely makes money on them,
and it costs money to collect the fares and police
the fair cheaters. If that were free, if they would
save money elsewhere, it wouldn't be so terrible. But I
(26:27):
now remember my second point. The other problem is that
people think there's a fixed amount of money and if
Jeff Bezos has a billion dollars, that we have a
billion dollars less. But it doesn't work that way. The
only way Bezos at Amazon got rich was to offer
us something we like better than the alternatives, and in
(26:50):
fact Amazon lowered prices so much that it even affected
the consumer Price index. He saved us money while making
billions for himself. It's hard to get your brain around
that that these greedy capitalists perform a service to us
when they sell us all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
But they do, and I mean States fight over who's
going to get the next Amazon center because they know
that they're going to have tons of jobs that too.
It is. It is always interesting for me to see
people mad at the billionaires because they are the job creators.
They are actually putting wealth into the country. But there's
(27:30):
a narrative that goes the other direction. If we watch
your show, we would know that that is not the
case that we would actually learn the facts. So I
appreciate what you do. Please tell the audience where they
can watch your show and listen to your show.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
YouTube is the best. Just type in John Sassel or
just google Mayn you'll find it.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
If you sign up, we'll just send you an email
once a week. We won't sell your name, and we'll
give you the Vigo by email.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Wonderful. Thank you so much, John Stossel, thank you for
coming on the podcast today, Thanks for having me absolutely
and thank you all for listening to the podcast. You
can get this one on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can always
watch on Rumble or YouTube at Tutor Dixon and join
us next time. Have a blessed day.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. This is going to
be an awesome one. One of my favorite people. We
have the ultimate MythBuster and fact checker with us here today,
John Stossel. John, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, thank
you for being here. So. I have had a discussion
with a lot of people across the state of Michigan lately,
one that they don't really like to hear, and that
(00:23):
is that I don't believe that this generation is worse
off than my parents' generation financially. I see them spending
wildly and that seems to be the problem. You've recently
done a few articles, you did an episode on this,
So what's your take on this?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I just did one video. I just do one a week.
But yes, it was about that, about all the whining
on the internet. I wasn't familiar with all of it,
but the younger people and my staff have seen these
memes about if it is so much tough for now,
I can't afford a home, nobody can afford a home,
(01:05):
and we looked into it and it's just crap. It's
just not true. Almost every category life is easier today.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yes, So I was watching your video and you made
some really great points you had someone on. Actually, I
love the way you go about your videos, so I
encourage anybody who's listening to check these videos out. I
love the fact that you stepped out of traditional TV
and took a chance on this and the way you
talked about what is happening with this next generation is
(01:37):
something that I've talked to my friends about as our
kids are going out and looking for homes. Just a
couple days ago, one of my friends called and she said,
there's just no homes for sale. And I said, my
first house had one bathroom, two bedrooms, no basement, just
like four rooms in the entire house. But these kids today,
they want to have the same size house I have
(01:59):
now to have a four bedroom home or more a
huge yard. They want to live out on a big
piece of property. They can afford the smaller house.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Right though, there are fewer smaller houses for sale. That's
true because that's not what most people want these days.
We're not aware that we want more. We expect more.
We expect cars that don't rust and don't break down
quickly and have all the gadgets that go with it.
(02:29):
But people don't calculate that when they compare these things.
I was struck in the comments to my video we
release on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and all these
different formats, and usually people are pretty positive. And this
was so obvious to me that I thought people would say, yeah,
(02:51):
what are these people complaining about? But no, there were
all these ignorant complaints like you mentioned, Yeah, I can't
that's true, I can't find a house. It's not true.
Cars costs much much harder to buy a car now.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So forth, Well, it was rare for my friends to
go on a vacation if we were when we were
young and before we had kids, it took us months
and years. I mean my husband and I before we
had kids. We were married for eight years and we
took two vacations in those eight years, and we saved
for years to go on those vacations. But I see
(03:28):
this generation now. My husband's sister is eighteen years younger
than us, and they go on a vacation every six months,
and I think, and they're mad if they haven't gone
on a vacation. It's stunning to me the fact that
it just is in this entitlement that you go away.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Or that you eat out.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And very good point.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yes, I'm older than you, and the memes that I
saw started with blaming the baby boomers for everything. And
I'm one and we never went out to eat twice
a year and it was a big deal to go
to our restaurant.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I remember when we were kids, we would go to
McDonald's probably once a week, and my dad at the
time would say for us to go to McDonald's as
kids was such a big deal, and constantly always tell
every time we went to McDonald's. It was like, you
don't understand what a treat this is. We went to
McDonald's every few months if we were lucky, and at
(04:30):
the time, you know I had, we had. We were
certainly weren't eating out to dinner every night, but absolutely
now it's constantly eating out. Interestingly, eating out has also
changed because of this climate of everything is it is
so expensive and stores are buying this prepackaged food, and
eating out has become different. We're spending more, restaurants seemed
(04:53):
to be spending less. But it's a whole it's just
a totally different lifestyle. But you talk about Paul Piticians
a lot in the videos that you do. I mean,
I saw it in your Puppy Stores video. I saw
it in your socialism video. I see it in this
video as well. Because you talk about the fact that
politicians can adjust the way people think. I don't think
(05:14):
it was as obvious when I was young. I really
know what politicians were saying because you were hearing it
on the nightly news at ten o'clock at night. And
I wasn't always watching that when I was young. But
now kids are constantly pushed with the political rhetoric because
it's on their phones.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And we have changed our behavior in that we were
happy looking at the news at night the end of
the day, if we looked at all, And now I
find myself checking all the freaking time, and this makes us.
This hurts us. I mean it's a wonderful thing in
many ways. It hurts us in other ways because the
(05:53):
more you watch, the more you look, the more you scared.
People are of the world. Old people who don't go
out a lot fear crime more. It's the nature of
the news business to talk about the problems. It's amazing
that all these planes take off and land inches from
(06:14):
each other without crashing. It's not news. It's not nobody's
out by the back fence, gossiping about who's faithful to
their spouse. Bad news is snows, and when we consume
more of it, the world seems worse.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It reminds me. I was watching your video with you
had an expert in DEI or a DEI trainer who
had stepped out of the professor profession because he felt
like it had gone the wrong direction. But that was
kind of what he was saying. If you if you
don't have racism, then you can't have anti racism. And
(06:53):
so there's almost this perpetuation of something bad to create
some billion dollar industry to fight that thing that's so bad.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Everybody wants attention, and you get attention pointing out a problem.
His point that I've found most interesting was that in
the places where he was a DEI teacher, he found
the courses made different races more fearful about speaking to
each other, They were less likely to engage.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, that was the thing that I thought was the scariest.
And that's something that I see with my kids. My
kids are in high school and they've felt like that.
They've felt like, well, should I not am I bad?
Am I a problem? Should I not engage with someone
who's a different race, and it's something I had never
considered as a kid. I hadn't thought about it, and
(07:48):
they think about it in a totally different way, because
I think it is pushed upon them. You are different,
they are different than you. You may not get along
because of that, so we have to push you to.
He even talked about microaggressions, which I always thought was
a weird thing when it came out years ago. But
you're so afraid now that you might commit a microaggression
(08:09):
that you'd rather not talk at all.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And good was intended, I assume, with waking people up
to things we might say that might hurt somebody else's feelings.
But the as all of it, as you get more attention,
the farther you take it, and that hurts people.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
As I have watched what you've created, though, I was
looking at it as from the perspective of someone who
ran for office and thinking you've really done something incredibly
unique with the program that you've created because you're not
a partisan. You're not. You're actually super inquisitive in these interviews,
(08:52):
which I love, and you are You're trying to point
out really common sense, but you you are letting the
other person also come to that conclusion. And I think
for the political world, the strategy behind politics now is
I mean, it's different than what I thought when I
got into it. I was very naive about the fact
(09:14):
that I thought you did it because you wanted to
do the right thing. And then you get into it
and there's a million people around you and it's exactly
what you say. If you have this rhetoric, these people
will come. And if you have this rhetoric, these people
will come. And you start to look at it and say,
what do people actually believe? And then you see young
(09:34):
people becoming more and more reliant on government because government
and politicians are about promising things. You've done a phenomenal
job of pointing this out without being critical, and.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
They're also telling you that life's getting worse. Therefore you
need government to intervene. One of the best examples for
me that I learned from is Welfare. I was at
Princeton at the time it was being formulated, and all
my professors were saying, it's horrible that in this rich
country some people are still poor, and we can fix
(10:09):
this with programs, and that just made total sense to me.
Then I became a reporter I started covering these programs
and I saw how, yeah, they give money to people
who really could use it, and that helped them, but
it also made them feel entitled, and it cut off
their need to figure out how to become self sufficient
(10:32):
by themselves. And the longer the programs continued, the more
entitled people got angry if it wasn't just done just
the way they were entitled to it. And if you
look at the total numbers now Americans, the graph was
going down. Americans were lifting themselves out of poverty since
(10:53):
the beginning of the country. It was slow progress, but
it was progress. And then the War on Poverty began.
For seven years the progress was even faster, more people
were lifted above the poverty lone. But since then, for
the last fifty years, progress stopped poverty rates going up
and down a little bit, but for as many people
(11:16):
were helped, as many people were taught to be dependent
and passive, and that's horrible for people.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I think the younger generation is now thinking that that's
what government is there for. Because I go to college
campuses and I'll sit there and these college age students
will look at me and say, why should I vote
for this candidate over this candidate. What is the government
going to do for me if this candidate is in?
And so I've started saying, why do you ask that question?
(11:46):
What are you expecting? Because it's not something I ever
asked when I was young, and never thought about what
would what would I get if I vote for you?
What are you going to hand over to me? But
there is the mindset now that I need something free.
I need a reward for voting for you.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And my wish is that government would say what I
promise to leave you alone? And yes, we need limits
at government to protect us from foreign invaders and crime,
and to run courts and the police, even schools and
fire departments. But that's local government. That's not the fits.
(12:28):
And government was once two percent of the economy. It's
now forty percent, and it keeps growing.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. It's funny to me government seems
to do things that are I see so often government
hands something and then the strings come in. It's when
you first get it, it seems lovely, it's beautiful, it's
(12:57):
this amazing gift, and then suddenly they start attaching all
the strings because they want something back. We gave this
to you, now we want you to give us something.
This is Michigan, I think is a great example right now.
In twenty eighteen, we had marijuana pass the marijuana Bill
when it was a ballot a ballot initiative, and Democrats
(13:20):
got elected in mass in twenty eighteen because they were
all about, we want you to have marijuana, we want
it to be legal. And now we have small businesses
across the state that have been built on marijuana. And
I got to tell you, when I ran in twenty
twenty two, I was like, I don't love this. I'm
a factory person. I grew up in factories. My dad
owned a factory. I worked in the factory. It's hard
(13:43):
to tell if somebody's high. You know, you have a
whole different level of danger. But this last few weeks,
my mind has really adjusted on this because I saw
the Democrats last week come out and say we make
so much money in taxes on marijuana that we want
(14:03):
to add a twenty four percent tax on marijuana. We're
going to get a lot more money from you on marijuana. Now.
Our small business is one of the thriving small businesses
that we have in Michigan because we're really we're really
hurting small businesses. One of the thriving small businesses we have.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Now, how's it.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Twenty four percent tax on it. We're going to look
at the people who are using marijuana and ask them
to pay our bills, ask them to restore our roads
and pay for our schools. This is the only industry
out there, one of the only industries out there, that
has a very dangerous black market. So we've just created
a huge crime problem. And we can't foresee that. We
(14:45):
give you marijuana and then all the strings come. What's
your thought on that.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I should have been able to foresee it. It happened
in California, one of the first states to legalize, but
they put on so many regulations. It's not just the taxes,
it's the stupid rules so they can say, oh, you
can't show it the children, you can't have open windows.
That the black market is as big as ever, and
(15:15):
marijuana will cause some problems, but banning it doesn't necessarily
make that better. It didn't work for alcohol for prohibition,
and we should realize that with other drugs.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You have had other programs where you've talked about the
government coming into ban things. It doesn't seem like you're
a fan of banning things. And I find it interesting
the way you break it down. And that's one of
the things that you recently came out and did a
video on this is why we did this, This is
how I stepped out of TV and I started this program.
But you went into the detail of the facts that
(15:50):
the fact checking that you go through, and that's the
team that you have, which is I think very critical
in this world right now where a podcast comes out
every day and it's someone's opinion and it feels very
much like fact, but there's not the behind the scenes
that goes into it like your show you did. You
recently did this show on puppy stores, and it was
(16:13):
to me it was very valuable because my family absolutely
loves dogs. We love to go out and buy dogs.
There are no dog puppy stores in my town. They
have all been run out of town. There's one left
in grund Rapids. But I had been under this impression
that these dog these puppy stores had puppy mills attached.
(16:34):
And you showed the pictures, which I loved of that
scared me to death, and I went, oh my gosh, yeah,
I can't get a dog at a dog store. I
have to go to a breeder. So I went to
this breeder. I know nothing about this breeder. I got
the most reject dog you could possibly have. He's got
skin infections, he's got all kinds of health disorders. Would
(16:56):
he have been that way if I'd got him from
a puppy store, I don't know. But you did a
great job of breaking down. Really, this is government intervention
that doesn't need to be there.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And don't you call them pet stores. You call them
puppy stores. I mean they sell cats and rabbits are
now banned too. Eight states I didn't know that your
state was one of them have banned ball pet stores
from selling dogs, cats and rabbits because of the puppy
(17:29):
mill problem. But as with drugs or alcohol, ambition creates
new problems. And you're supposed to only buy from a
reliable breeder. But how do you know who that is.
You look at the internet and they all say they're
a reliable breeder. At least the pet store in your town.
(17:51):
They had to maintain a reputation, and if they sold
sick dogs from a puppy mill that cruelly imbred dogs people.
Word would spread. Now, thanks to ratings on the internet,
word spreads even faster. But the humane societies, which are
much richer than I thought they were. They have hundreds
(18:14):
of millions of dollars and they pay themselves well and
spend very little running shelters. They've got this big ban stores,
ban pet store campaign and they're winning.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
And I think that's something that people don't realize either.
These organizations. They feel good, you're rescuing a dog. You
feel like you've done something amazing, and they put this
rhetoric out there, and they have so much money that
they then have lobbyists and they can buy their message
through the government as well. They go to legislators and
(18:51):
they say, you can't allow this. You've got you don't
understand how this is hurting the dogs, these poor dogs
that'll never find a home because you have allowed these
people to sell new dogs. And there's this hole behind
the scenes nobody really knows about.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Maybe they know, but they don't think about it. I mean,
in the case of the puppy mill campaigns, they also
get people to stand on the street holding signs stop
abusing puppies, bad bed stores, and they make contributions to
politicians and that gets results. That's the way you do
(19:27):
things in politics. And I mean, I disagree with your
comment about politics a little bit and that I think
most people who go into it want to do good.
It's the process that five years later turns them into opportunists,
because to get anything done you have to make deals.
(19:49):
And I find and in government, the good people don't
get paid more. You're barely allowed to give them a raise.
The horrible person who sleeps at the desk next you
can't be fired because of civil service rules. This soon
sucks the initiative out of you, and government becomes what
it is. Right.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
The bureaucracy that is involved with that, they can stay
there forever, and they can make more money than the
elected officials, and they have a lot of power. And
then you if you have term limits, you have somebody
that doesn't know the system and they come in and
they're taken over by the bureaucracy. I completely agree with you.
We just had I was just in the Upper Peninsula
(20:32):
of Michigan a couple of weeks ago, and they were
telling us we have a terrible bear problem. Now I
live in the Lower Peninsula. We don't have a terrible
bear problem. I don't think about it. It doesn't affect me.
In fact, a few years ago they had a terrible
wolf problem, and the Lower Peninsula had a campaign saying
(20:52):
we could no longer shoot wolves in the state of Michigan.
And it was so it was so impactful it hurt.
I mean, you would watch these tiny puppy wolves on TV.
How could you shoot this wolf? These people want to
shoot wolves. We've got to stop it. Well, they were effective.
We put a ballot initiative through saying that you couldn't
kill the wolves in Michigan anymore. The people in the
(21:14):
Upper Peninsula who actually deal with the wolves, we don't
see them. They said, our livestock is being ripped apart.
Now they can't. They told us a couple weeks ago,
we can't hunt deer anymore because the bear are all
taking the deer right out of the fields. You can
watch them take the deer right out of the fields.
And I think, you know, these are the things that
(21:35):
it's very easy for a politician to come to me
and say, we can't give out any more bear tags.
We don't have enough bear whereas I don't live where
the bear are. I have no idea what the bear
are doing, which.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Is why people say local government is better. But that's
not always true either.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Right, Well, local government can also. I mean, this is
why I go back to when the next generation says
to me, what is the government going to do for me?
Why do you want so much government? Why are you
looking for more government? What has happened in that generation
that they're so desperate for more government?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
They've been brainwashed by schools. I don't know, it's upsetting
to hear that when you speak, that's what the students ask.
They don't ask me that, but maybe that's because they
know I'm a libertarian and I'm making fewer speeches lately
because I don't need the money anymore. But they no longer.
(22:35):
I don't remember them asking that. Man. That's sad that
that's what they ask you.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I think it's just this new motivation, as you see
the mom Donnis of the world saying, look, if you come,
we'll give you free We'll give you free transportation, we'll
give you free groceries, will give you everything free. I mean,
what is your take? What's happened in New York.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
All your problems and my kids are for him. It's
so upsetting to me. Part of it's because he's just
a reasonable guy as opposed to these creepy alternatives that
we have had. He seems like one, like a nice
guy who cares about people, wants to make things better.
(23:23):
But it's because of their vast ignorance from bad schools,
I guess. Because the basic question should be where has
socialism ever worked in what country and what state? Anywhere?
And people say Scandinavia, but they are not socialists. Sweden
went socialists and it was such a disaster they pulled
(23:47):
it back. They're capitalist countries. That Danish Prime minister even
came to Harvard to shout, we are not a socialist economy.
It's never worked at rex Lives wherever it's been trying,
and yet these politicians keep promising it.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
They say it's democratic socialism, it's different, which.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Just means you vote for the guy. But once in power,
socialism means we control the means of production, we run things,
and that inevitably becomes oppression and poverty.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
That's a statement that maum Donnie has made. He wants
to seize the means of production. He clearly openly said that,
and people thought that that was great because he was
going to come in and help to make sure prices
are lower. It would be helpful to the people in
New York. And he'll take from the billionaires because they
shouldn't be allowed to have that kind of money.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Anyway, it sounds good. Government will run it and they're
not looking to make a big profit, so it'll be better.
And I mean two answers to that. One is think
the Department of Motor Vehicles. That's the experience you have
in government stores again, because the guy who's a really
(25:05):
good worker gets paid no more than the slacker next
to him. And maybe you keep trying for a year,
but after five years, when nobody could be fired, you
stop trying and the services just go downhill. And the
second point I've now forgotten, So never.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Mind, let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next
on the Tutor Dixon podcast. Well, I've also said to
young people who say, well, we want free public transportation,
I always tell them, you know, even if you're just
paying a small amount for public transportation, you have a
different level of respect for that. Studies show this. They've
(25:48):
done psychological studies. If you get something for free, do
you respect it as much as if you just pay
fifty cents for it? Even if you just pay a
small amount, why do you want it to be free
if you can afford it. It's a very hard message
to get through to this generation.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Well, that's one I think is less evil because the
city's already running buses and it barely makes money on them,
and it costs money to collect the fares and police
the fair cheaters. If that were free, if they would
save money elsewhere, it wouldn't be so terrible. But I
(26:27):
now remember my second point. The other problem is that
people think there's a fixed amount of money and if
Jeff Bezos has a billion dollars, that we have a
billion dollars less. But it doesn't work that way. The
only way Bezos at Amazon got rich was to offer
us something we like better than the alternatives, and in
(26:50):
fact Amazon lowered prices so much that it even affected
the consumer Price index. He saved us money while making
billions for himself. It's hard to get your brain around
that that these greedy capitalists perform a service to us
when they sell us all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
But they do, and I mean States fight over who's
going to get the next Amazon center because they know
that they're going to have tons of jobs that too.
It is. It is always interesting for me to see
people mad at the billionaires because they are the job creators.
They are actually putting wealth into the country. But there's
(27:30):
a narrative that goes the other direction. If we watch
your show, we would know that that is not the
case that we would actually learn the facts. So I
appreciate what you do. Please tell the audience where they
can watch your show and listen to your show.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
YouTube is the best. Just type in John Sassel or
just google Mayn you'll find it.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
If you sign up, we'll just send you an email
once a week. We won't sell your name, and we'll
give you the Vigo by email.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Wonderful. Thank you so much, John Stossel, thank you for
coming on the podcast today, Thanks for having me absolutely
and thank you all for listening to the podcast. You
can get this one on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can always
watch on Rumble or YouTube at Tutor Dixon and join
us next time. Have a blessed day.
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