Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity - 20/20's John Stossel
 

Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity
by John Stossel


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. Get 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."