No Plan, No Problem! Spontaneous Order With John Stossel

ACCORDING TO PLAN: Politicians always say they can make things better with a “plan.” But most of life works better when it’s not planned by government. Economists call this free-flowing innovation, “spontaneous order.”

RINKONOMICS: Suppose you’d never seen a skating rink, and we said we were going to have skaters strap sharp blades on their feet and zip around ice. The only rule: go counter-clockwise.

DISASTER RELIEF: After Hurricane Katrina, the NY Times ran the headline: “A Big Storm Requires Big Government.” But FEMA did an awful job. By contrast, after a big storm, private businesses like Walmart, and charities like Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief help many people, much more quickly.

CROWDFUNDING: Need money to expand your home, make a movie, to start a business? Crowdfunding is a spontaneous way to bring people and new ideas together without central planners. “Anybody can raise money for absolutely any idea anywhere in the world,” says Indiegogo‘s Slava Rubin.

FREE MARKET MEDICINE: LASIK eye surgery is one area of healthcare where quality goes up, but costs go down. That happens because LASIK is rarely covered by insurance, so patients and doctors negotiate directly. Patients shop for the best deal. That spontaneity leads to better service.

BRITISH TOLL ROAD: In Britain, a local highway was damaged by heavy rains. When government said it would take a year to repair it, entrepreneur Mike Watts built a “private road” in just 12 days.

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES: Government planners slow innovation with burdensome rules. In 1931, workers built the Empire State building in just over a year. Now it takes 13 years to finish the new World Trade Center. Entrepreneur Peter Thiel says America is lucky that today’s FDA wasn’t around when the polio vaccine was invented.

JAZZ: If life needs a central plan, how does jazz happen? Some musicians just listen to each other, and create an “unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom.” Some say, that could have only happened in America. (Source: FOX News Channel)