Dennis Prager Show - Lee Habeeb: NY Times/FedEx Controversy
Aired: 2020-01-21
Duration: 05:15


=== Boeing's Big Win (03:06) ===

[00:00:00]  They're lobbying for tax cuts.
[00:00:02]  So again, please explain.
[00:00:04]  I want people to remember this, and repetition is the mother of memory.
[00:00:11]  What did FedEx do with its profits?
[00:00:15]  It reinvested them, Dennis, and even more than that.
[00:00:18]  It took lots of its capital and decided to buy a whole bunch of planes, 2477S. Which, by the way, Fred Smith noted, injects 540 million into the U.S. economy, supporting an ancillary 1,850 jobs.
[00:00:35]  Let's put it this way.
[00:00:36]  When Boeing found out it was getting that order, especially given the shape they've been in the last year, what a boom to the Boeing workers.
[00:00:43]  By the way, Boeing gets its jet engines from General Electric.
[00:00:47]  What a boom to the General Electric workers.
[00:00:49]  This is downstream jobs.
[00:00:51]  And all kinds of downstream taxes, they're paying.
[00:00:55]  We aligned themselves for competition next year.
[00:00:57]  So they're going in a head-to-head battle with a giant, Amazon, and they needed to reinvest their profits into their people, the pensions, the planes, and the warehouses.
[00:01:08]  By the way, Dennis, they pointed out way at the bottom of the article that FedEx had paid $10 billion in taxes in the last five years.
[00:01:16]  Moreover, Fred Smith promised...
[00:01:18]  That after all this is done, they'd be back paying those big taxes again.
[00:01:22]  They'd be competing against and beating their arch rival in the delivery business, which is a new one called Amazon.
[00:01:29]  When Amazon comes to play, they're really tough competitors, Dennis.
[00:01:33]  That's right.
[00:01:34]  I'm rooting for FedEx, by the way.
[00:01:36]  I don't want Amazon to take over the world.
[00:01:40]  So, this is so, it was so misleading, the New York Times piece.
[00:01:45]  Look, the truth is, I believe this.
[00:01:48]  What I'm about to say, I believe this.
[00:01:50]  This is not meant as an attack.
[00:01:53]  I truly believe this.
[00:01:55]  At the New York Times, they would rather the government give money to all those workers than have them employed by Boeing.
[00:02:07]  Oh, I think you're right, Dennis.
[00:02:09]  In fact, I think in some respects, they'd rather see the manufacturing of planes put into a government enterprise of some sort.
[00:02:17]  And by the way, the government regulates the heck out of the airline business as it is.
[00:02:22]  But I think you're right.
[00:02:24]  One other point I made in this piece, Dennis, is, you know, this guy Fred Smith started, well, he graduates from Yale in the 60s, and rather than join the anti-war protesters, he goes to Vietnam, where he's in charge of logistics.
[00:02:37]  Flying in planes and figuring some pretty difficult terrain where to drop soldiers and where and how to rescue them.
[00:02:44]  He comes out, he starts FedEx in 1971 with another dime in his pocket, a loan from his dad, and he builds a company that has 330,000 workers in America.

=== 33,000 Jobs in Memphis (02:24) ===

[00:02:55]  And these aren't any jobs.
[00:02:57]  These are drivers, pilots, mechanics.
[00:03:00]  These are the kind of jobs that everybody wants.
[00:03:03]  33,000 of them, Dennis, are in my own backyard.
[00:03:06]  33,000 jobs in the little city of Memphis.
[00:03:10]  I am stunned at these numbers.
[00:03:14]  These are big numbers, Dennis.
[00:03:16]  And by the way, with those 33,000 jobs, anyone owns a mail salon, air salon, restaurant, car deal.
[00:03:24]  What would happen to all of those businesses?
[00:03:26]  That's right.
[00:03:27]  And by the way, who would pay for the teacher's salary and the mayor's salary?
[00:03:31]  Who would pay all these government bills without FedEx?
[00:03:36]  Yes, exactly correct.
[00:03:38]  That is exactly correct.
[00:03:41]  Well, it doesn't matter because it's all ideology.
[00:03:46]  Look, you wrote this.
[00:03:47]  Any feedback thus far that just came out?
[00:03:50]  What's the story?
[00:03:51]  Oh, I got all kinds of feedback from FedEx.
[00:03:54]  They loved it and they thanked me.
[00:03:56]  Especially telling the story.
[00:03:58]  It's for all banditists.
[00:03:59]  We all say capitalism or socialism, but we don't really tell the story.
[00:04:04]  That's right.
[00:04:04]  One job creates three.
[00:04:06]  That's right.
[00:04:07]  The next three creates six more.
[00:04:11]  I think it's so powerful, your piece, and the whole story.
[00:04:14]  Maybe we should do a PragerU video on it.
[00:04:18]  People don't know.
[00:04:19]  They don't understand.
[00:04:22]  This happened on a business section.
[00:04:23]  This happened in the business section of a paper.
[00:04:26]  The business section.
[00:04:28]  That's what was most shocking.
[00:04:31]  And it wasn't an op-ed.
[00:04:32]  It was an op-ed.
[00:04:35]  Right.
[00:04:35]  Paid zero in taxes.
[00:04:37]  Right.
[00:04:38]  The fact that, you know, tens of thousands of Americans have well-paying jobs, that's irrelevant.
[00:04:46]  That's what they're saying.
[00:04:48]  That's irrelevant.
[00:04:49]  How much taxes...
[00:04:50]  Did you increase employment, or did you increase the government?
[00:04:57]  And by the way, they're not counting all the taxes that people pay, who work at FedEx, the gasoline taxes.
[00:05:03]  Yes, yes, right.
[00:05:05]  Oh my goodness, it's billions of dollars.
[00:05:08]  All right, where do people fall?
[00:05:09]  Oh yeah, we put it up, that's right, at Newsweek.
[00:05:11]  Lee Habib, you're a joy, and thank you for your help on the Newsweek issue.