Posted by
Always To The Right on Saturday, July 15, 2006 6:49:35 PM
This is from a book review of the book by John Stossel the title of which is show below, myths, lies, etc. this book show that everybody doesn't know.
Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity
Stossel, John
There are lots of things "everybody knows" these days. "Everybody
knows," for instance, that radiation is deadly, especially when food is
exposed to it. "Everybody knows" that public school teachers are
underpaid, and public schools underfunded. "Everybody knows" that
outsourcing puts Americans out of work. The trouble is, in these and so
many other cases, what "everybody knows" is flat wrong. Now, in Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, John Stossel exposes the errors behind hundreds of media-generated myths -- and reveals that the truth is often the opposite of what we've been taught to believe. Just as important, he also reveals who benefits
from the deception -- whether it's big government, greedy lawyers, or
special-interest groups looking for political advantage at taxpayers'
expense.
Running parallel to his investigative reports for ABC's 20/20,
Stossel's book covers everything from consumer cons and health myths to
environmental scare-mongering and big-government propaganda.
The facts and research behind HUNDREDS of myth-busting revelations like these:- MYTH: Radioactivity is deadly. Keep it away from food! FACT: Food irradiation saves lives.
- MYTH: "Outsourcing" takes jobs away from Americans. FACT: "Outsourcing" creates American jobs.
- MYTH: Overpopulation causes poverty. FACT: Population has nothing to do with poverty.
- MYTH: A higher minimum wage helps poor workers. FACT: A higher minimum wage puts more poor workers out of work.
- MYTH: Farm subsidies help save family farms. FACT: Most farm subsidy money goes to giant agri-businesses.
- MYTH: "Sweatshops" exploit workers in poor countries. FACT: "Sweatshops" help workers escape poverty.
- MYTH: The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
helps make America less sexist and racist. FACT: The EEOC fans the
flames of sexism and racism.
- MYTH: Aside from the obvious physical differences, men and
women are pretty much the same. FACT: Science reveals that there are
many differences -- mental, emotional, behavioral, and more.
- MYTH: Women earn less than men because of sexism. FACT: Women earn less for sound economic reasons.
- MYTH: Government regulation is necessary to protect
consumers from unethical businesses. FACT: Competition protects us --
if government stays out of the way.
- MYTH: Government should put price controls on prescription
drugs to protect the poor and sick. FACT: Price controls will harm the
poor and the sick.
- MYTH: Business believes in free markets. FACT: Most
businesspeople will use government regulation to stifle competition if
it serves their interests.
- MYTH: Education is too important to be left to the private
sector. FACT: Education is too important to be left to a government
monopoly.
- MYTH: Private schools enable segregation. FACT: Public schools are more segregated the private schools.
- MYTH: Vouchers will hurt public schools. FACT: Vouchers will force public schools to compete -- and make them better.
- MYTH: Premium gas is better for your car. FACT: For 90 percent of cars sold today, high-octane is no better.
- MYTH: Malpractice lawsuits protect patients. FACT:
Malpractice lawsuits encourage doctors to perform unnecessary
procedures, endangering patients.
- MYTH: To invest in stocks, follow the experts. FACT: Stock "experts" get it wrong more often than right.
- MYTH: Global warming is a catastrophe in the making. FACT:
Global warming is just a gradual trend coming out of what scientists
call the "Little Ice Age."
- MYTH: Cracking your knuckles is bad for you. FACT: Crack away.
Whether it's a myth, a lie, or just plain stupid, Stossel takes it all
on. Prepare to be surprised -- even outraged -- as you learn how
conventional wisdom is often wrong. Highlights include:
- Stossel on education: "Americans spend much more on schooling than the vast majority of countries that outscore us on international tests."
- On "underpaid" teachers: "K-12 teachers average
$45,081 a year. But most teachers only work nine months a year. If you
look at the average hourly K-12 teacher wage ($30.91), it's more than
chemists ($30.64), computer programmers ($28.98), registered nurses
($26.87), and psychologists ($28.49) make."
- On "overpopulation": "[Famine-struck] Niger's
population density is nine person per square kilometer, miniscule
compared to population densities in wealthy countries like the USA
(28), Japan (340), the Netherlands (484), and Hong Kong (6,621). The
number of people isn't the problem. Famine is cause by things like
civil wars and government corruption. . . ."
- On gas prices: "If the price of a barrel of oil
stays high, lots of entrepreneurs will scramble for ways to supply
cheaper energy. . . . At fifty dollars a barrel, it's even profitable
to recover oil that's stuck in the tar sands in Alberta, Canada,
[which] alone contain enough oil to meet our needs for a hundred years."
- On "sweatshops": "In poor countries, the factories
the well-fed American protesters revile routinely pay twice what local
factories pay, and triple what people can earn doing much harder and
more dangerous work in the fields."
- On farm subsidies: "In 1984, New Zealand eliminated
farm subsidies cold turkey. Farm productivity, profitability, and
output have soared since the reforms. The Federated Farmers of New
Zealand say that the experience 'thoroughly debunked the myth that the
farming sector cannot prosper without government subsidies."
- On drug prices: "Less than a third of marketed
drugs have enough commercial success to recover the cost of their
research and development. The hated pharmaceutical companies make big
profits, but I want them to make big profits because they have to make
huge investments, suffer lots of failures, and go through ten to
fifteen years of testing before they can bring me the drugs that might
save my life or alleviate my pain."
- On stock "experts": "Over the years ending October
31, 2005, only 5.72 percent of actively managed mutual funds had beaten
the 500 stocks that make up the Standard & Poor's Index. In other
words, 94 percent did worse. Over that fifteen-year period, you had a
94 percent better chance of making money if you ignored the advice from
those well-paid professional stock pickers."
- On PBS: "PBS is welfare for the well-off. . . .
Compared to other Americans, PBS viewers are 44 percent more likely to
make more than $150,000 a year. . . . The free market serves its
customers, and in the TV business, the customers are viewers. PBS, on
the other hand, is broadcasting by bureaucracy. This is a bad idea. We
need separation of news and state."
- On bottled water: "Many people believe that bottled
water is cleaner. So we sent bottled and tap water samples to
microbiologist Aaron Margolin, of the University of New Hampshire, to
test for the bacteria, like E. coli, that can make you sick. 'No
difference,' he said."