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In Season One of The Story of Stuff,
we looked at a system that creates way

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too much stuff, and way too little of 
what we really want. Now we're going to

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start looking at the stories
behind the Story of Stuff.

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That's where we'll find ways to turn
this situation around.

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Welcome to Season Two!

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These last few years, I've had to get
a lot more careful about how I spend

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my paycheck. Everyone has.

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Like I'm eating out less often,

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holding back on expenses I don't really
need, saving for my kid's college.

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I'm getting more responsible,
taking control of how I spend.

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But one thing I can't control is that
every month a big chunk of my paycheck

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goes off to the government.

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It's not the most fun part of my budget,
but I believe in paying taxes.

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Not just because it's the law

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but because that's how I invest in a
better future that I can't afford

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to build on my own.

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You know that future we all want and
nearly every candidate promises us —

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great schools,

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a healthy environment,

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clean energy, good jobs. But a funny
thing happens to our money on its way

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to that better future.

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It seems to disappear.

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And by the time we get around to
investing in it, all we hear is,

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"sorry, not this year, we're broke."

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In fact, we're so broke, they say,

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that we have no choice but to slide
backwards,

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cutting things that made this country
great — like schools and the EPA,

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maybe even Social Security and Medicare.

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Wait a minute. Broke?

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I'm sending in my share of
hard-earned cash every month and so are

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you!

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If everyone did, we'd have
plenty of money.

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Now, what we've got to work with shrinks
a lot thanks to corporate tax loopholes

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and unprecedented tax breaks for the
richest 1%.

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But even after those, we've

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still got over a trillion dollars.

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So if we're broke,

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what's happening to all that money?

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I decided to look into it and it turns
out this whole "broke" story hides

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a much bigger story

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— a story of some really dumb choices
being made for us —

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but that actually work against us.

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The good news is that these are choices,

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and we can make different ones.

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So, where is all that money going?
Well first the military takes a big

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chunk --

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$726 billion in 2011.

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Wow! We could build a lot of better
future with that kind of money.

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Spending billions on fighter planes
we don't need or wars with no end, and

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then saying we're broke,
just isn't honest.

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It's like calling your kid from your
billion-dollar yacht to say you can't

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afford her lunch money.

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Then hundreds of billions more go to
propping up the dinosaur economy.

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You know, the obsolete system we talked
about in The Story of Stuff —

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the one that produces more pollution,
greenhouse gasses and garbage than any

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other on Earth —
and doesn't even make us happy.

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In so many ways, it's just not working,

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but we're keeping it in on life support
instead of building something better.

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A lot of that life support comes in the
form of subsidies.

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A subsidy is a giveaway that gives some
companies a lift over others.

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That's not necessarily a bad thing —
we should help companies that are

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building a better future.

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The problem is the government keeps
lifting up companies that are actually

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dragging us down.

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Everywhere you look along the dinosaur
economy, you'll find these subsidies.

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There's spending subsidies: where the
government just gives our money away —

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like payments that benefit big
agribusiness, while helping drive family

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farms off a cliff.

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Or the less obvious version where the
government foots the bill for things

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corporations should pay for themselves

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like cleaning up toxic chemical spills
or giant livestock manure ponds.

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Or building roads that go to only
one place — a new Walmart.

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Or paying for polluting and wasteful
garbage incinerators that would never

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make financial sense to build on their
own.

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Then there's tax subsidies:

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which excuse big corporations from
contributing their fair share —

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like the enormous tax breaks granted
to oil and gas companies

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even in times of record profits.

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These subsidies amount to billions of
dollars we should be collecting

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and putting to good use.

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And there's risk transfer subsidies:
where the government acts as an

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investment bank and even an insurance
company for corporations doing risky

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things, like building nuclear reactors.

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If anything goes wrong,
we have to cover for them.

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There's freebie subsidies:

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where the government gives stuff that
belongs to all of us to corporations

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for cheap or even free.

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That's billions more we should be
collecting but never see!

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Like permits to mine public lands,
granted at prices set in the Mining

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Law of 1872.

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Really. 1872.

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President Grant signed this law to
encourage settlement of the West.

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News flash:

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it's settled.

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And all this doesn't even count
externalized costs. They

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don't show up on any spreadsheet and
could amount to trillions of dollars —

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they include the damage to the
environment,

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public health and the climate that this
dinosaur economy causes.

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Without laws that make the polluters
pay, we all pay with the loss of clean

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water and air,

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or increased asthma and cancer.

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By the time we've handed out all these
subsidies, there isn't even enough money

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to pay our bills —

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forget about building the better future.

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So why is there always enough money for
the dinosaur economy, from big oil to

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bailouts for big banks, but when it

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comes to building a better future we're
supposedly broke? Maybe it's because

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these guys know how to ask for it.

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Their lobbyists and giant campaign
contributions let the government know

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what they want,

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and what they'll do if they don't get it.

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And it works.

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US Senators who voted to keep big oil
subsidies in 2011 had

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received 5 times more in Big Oil
campaign cash than those who voted to

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end them. So, while subsidies should 
be a tool for government to help

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companies that are helping all of us,
instead, they've become a prize for

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those with the most power
to get on the handout list.

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But you know who has the real power?

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We do! What if we got as protective of
our tax dollars as we are with

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the rest of our money?

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What if we told the government
what we want and what we'll do if we

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don't get it -- starting with
voting them out!

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We could re-direct these dinosaur
subsidies,

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freeing up hundreds of billions of
dollars. Forget broke, we could

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build a better future right now!

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We could start by reinvesting the
$10 billion in oil and

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gas subsidies to renewable energy and
energy efficiency projects.

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With just half of that amount, we could
put solar systems on over two

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million rooftops. Then use the
rest to retrofit half a million homes,

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creating jobs and saving energy
year after year.

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The average cost of cleaning up a
toxic site on the Superfund list is

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$140 million.

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Let's make the polluters pay and instead
invest our money in developing safer

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materials so we don't have to worry
about them spilling in the first place.

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Most chemicals today are made from oil —
that's why they are called

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petro-chemicals.
Switching just 20% of them

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to bio- based materials would create
over 100,000 new jobs.

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Instead of subsidizing garbage
incinerators, let's subsidize

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real solutions, like zero waste.

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Raising the US recycling rate to 75%
would create one and a half million

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new jobs — with less pollution,
less waste,

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less pressure to harvest and mine new
stuff. What's not to like?

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That would still leave hundreds of
billions of dollars

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for improving education — the best
investment for a healthy economy.

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With $100 billion, we could increase
the number of elementary school

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teachers by over 40%

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and give college scholarships
to over 6 million students.

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See, we can rebuild the American Dream;
we can afford to

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have a healthy environment, good jobs,
and top-notch public education.

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But not if we continue subsidizing the
dinosaur economy.

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So next time you have an idea for a
better future and someone tells you,

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"that's nice, but there's no money for
that,"

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you tell them we're not broke.

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There is money, it's ours,
and it's time to invest it right.