WEBVTT - Revenge of "A Good Walk Spoiled" 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:24.436 Pushkin. Every writer lives in fear of one thing, that 0:00:24.596 --> 0:00:27.956 what they say won't matter. You toil away in obscurity. 0:00:28.436 --> 0:00:31.036 You scrub your prose until it's shiny and perfect. You 0:00:31.156 --> 0:00:33.316 put your work out for the world to see, and 0:00:33.356 --> 0:00:35.636 in the back of your mind is always a thought 0:00:35.876 --> 0:00:38.476 that all that effort will sink quietly into the sea, 0:00:39.476 --> 0:00:43.556 like a corpse witted down with concrete shoes. Have I 0:00:43.636 --> 0:00:47.036 had this fear? Oh? Yes, worse. I've seen it happen 0:00:47.076 --> 0:00:49.396 to me again and again. It was a time in 0:00:49.396 --> 0:00:52.036 my life when I was obsessed with the relative age effect, 0:00:52.436 --> 0:00:55.956 wrote about it, did episodes about it on this very podcast. 0:00:57.316 --> 0:00:59.236 You look at a room full of third graders or 0:00:59.276 --> 0:01:02.276 fifth graders and you say, Tommy is a poor student, 0:01:02.876 --> 0:01:05.716 Alice is a good one. But what if Alice was 0:01:05.756 --> 0:01:08.516 born in January and Tommy was born in December, And 0:01:08.556 --> 0:01:12.076 what looks like superior ability on Alice's part is actually 0:01:12.116 --> 0:01:14.356 just the fact that she's a year older than Tommy, 0:01:15.156 --> 0:01:17.476 and the year's extra maturity at the age of eight 0:01:17.876 --> 0:01:22.036 is a really, really big deal. I made this argument 0:01:22.156 --> 0:01:24.876 until I was horse And what did I want? I 0:01:24.916 --> 0:01:28.196 wanted elementary and middle schools to devedop their students by 0:01:28.196 --> 0:01:30.916 birth month, so the oldest kids would be in one 0:01:30.916 --> 0:01:33.276 class and those born in the middle months would be 0:01:33.316 --> 0:01:36.036 in another class, and the youngest kids would be in 0:01:36.076 --> 0:01:39.836 a class by themselves, and the playing field could be leveled. 0:01:41.116 --> 0:01:44.556 Did any school superintendent ever call me up and say, 0:01:44.596 --> 0:01:47.796 I love your idea. I've reorganized my kids by birth month. 0:01:48.436 --> 0:01:48.516 No. 0:01:49.556 --> 0:01:49.796 Never. 0:01:50.476 --> 0:01:53.236 My own daughter is going to kindergarten this fall, and 0:01:53.356 --> 0:01:56.116 some part of me wanted to ask her principal, can 0:01:56.196 --> 0:01:57.956 she be in a class with all the other kids 0:01:57.996 --> 0:02:00.796 born at the same time as her? But I didn't. 0:02:01.516 --> 0:02:06.036 And you know why, because I'm demoralized. Because this fixation 0:02:06.156 --> 0:02:10.036 of mine, this beautiful, radical, provocative idea that I put 0:02:10.076 --> 0:02:14.236 out into the world, sank quietly into the sea like 0:02:14.276 --> 0:02:18.916 a waited corpse. I had all but given up until, 0:02:19.716 --> 0:02:25.436 like an angel descending from heaven, became adrenarian Los Angeles 0:02:25.516 --> 0:02:33.996 City Council member and revisionist history listener. Thank you for doing. 0:02:33.796 --> 0:02:36.236 This, Thank you for inviting me. 0:02:36.356 --> 0:02:41.036 No no, so I was delighted to hear that you 0:02:41.076 --> 0:02:46.836 are the author, the instigator of a proposal to be 0:02:46.876 --> 0:02:50.516 put before the voters of Los Angeles. 0:02:50.996 --> 0:02:52.196 Well, you were the instigate. 0:02:53.796 --> 0:02:57.876 Well, I you know, I'm I was a provocateur. I 0:02:57.956 --> 0:03:01.436 just I just raise issues. Others have to make them 0:03:01.436 --> 0:03:04.196 actually happen. So I could you tell me straight? How 0:03:04.276 --> 0:03:08.596 did you did you? How did you come across my podcast? 0:03:09.396 --> 0:03:12.196 So one of my staff members brought this to my 0:03:12.236 --> 0:03:14.556 attention and said, you got to hear. 0:03:14.396 --> 0:03:19.276 This, council member, you got to hear this. And did 0:03:19.316 --> 0:03:20.596 he hear this? Oh? 0:03:20.636 --> 0:03:21.196 Yes he did. 0:03:23.596 --> 0:03:26.516 My name is Malcolm Glabwell. You're listening to Revisionist History, 0:03:26.636 --> 0:03:31.116 my podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood. Later this week, 0:03:31.356 --> 0:03:33.676 we're going to be dropping the first of our epic 0:03:33.796 --> 0:03:39.196 five episode blockbuster, The Staten Island Problem. But before we do, 0:03:39.596 --> 0:03:42.956 as a little amuse bouosh, we're going to revisit one 0:03:42.956 --> 0:03:46.116 of my all time favorite episodes in the Revisionist History 0:03:46.156 --> 0:03:51.836 canon from ten years ago, A Good Walk Spoiled. I'm 0:03:51.836 --> 0:03:53.636 going to play it for you now in case you 0:03:53.676 --> 0:03:56.036 need a little refresher, and then I'm going to come 0:03:56.076 --> 0:03:59.596 back at the end and tell you how finally, a 0:03:59.756 --> 0:04:09.836 decade into Revisionist History, somebody listened. A friend who lives 0:04:09.836 --> 0:04:12.716 in Brentwood on the West side of Los Angeles between 0:04:12.756 --> 0:04:15.956 Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. He has a little pool 0:04:15.956 --> 0:04:18.636 house in his backyard and I stay there whenever I 0:04:18.676 --> 0:04:21.836 come to LA, kind of like Cato Kalon if your 0:04:21.836 --> 0:04:27.876 memory for O. J. Simpson Esoterica goes back that far. Anyway, 0:04:28.436 --> 0:04:32.116 my friend's street dead ends on San Vicente Boulevard, one 0:04:32.156 --> 0:04:35.836 of the central east west corridors in LA. And on 0:04:35.876 --> 0:04:39.276 the other side of San Vicente is this absolutely gorgeous 0:04:39.276 --> 0:04:41.836 golf course, one of the many private country clubs that 0:04:41.996 --> 0:04:45.596 LA is famous for. If you drive down Wilshire Boulevard 0:04:45.596 --> 0:04:48.956 into Beverly Hills, ten minutes east of Brentwood, you go 0:04:49.036 --> 0:04:52.316 right past Los Angeles Country Club, which costs maybe a 0:04:52.436 --> 0:04:55.396 quarter of a million dollars just to join, that is, 0:04:55.436 --> 0:05:00.636 if they'll even consider your application. There's bell Air Country 0:05:00.636 --> 0:05:03.556 Club just north of Ucla, which might be the most 0:05:03.556 --> 0:05:08.036 beautiful golf course in the country, Hillcrest offf Pico, Wilshire 0:05:08.076 --> 0:05:12.156 country Club, and Hancock. I could go on. They're everywhere, vast, 0:05:12.676 --> 0:05:18.556 gorgeous and private. The one near my friend's house is 0:05:18.556 --> 0:05:21.596 called Brentwood country Club, and it has a tall chain 0:05:21.636 --> 0:05:24.476 link fence around it which goes almost all the way 0:05:24.516 --> 0:05:28.116 out to the street, leaving just this narrow, rocky dirt track. 0:05:28.636 --> 0:05:31.276 There's no sidewalk, and since there aren't a lot of 0:05:31.276 --> 0:05:34.196 places to run in Los Angeles, tons of people run 0:05:34.236 --> 0:05:36.996 around the Brentwood country Club on that narrow dirt track. 0:05:42.596 --> 0:05:44.876 And there's one thing that always bothers me every time 0:05:44.876 --> 0:05:47.476 I run that route. Why do all the runners of 0:05:47.476 --> 0:05:51.076 West Los Angeles have to squeeze into this narrow, rocky 0:05:51.116 --> 0:05:54.756 little track when there's a huge, magnificent park just on 0:05:54.796 --> 0:06:00.796 the other side of the fence. My name is Malcolm Gladwell, 0:06:00.996 --> 0:06:04.916 and you're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about things 0:06:05.036 --> 0:06:14.436 Overlooked and Misunderstood. This episode is about the problem with golf. 0:06:15.596 --> 0:06:18.756 I hate golf and hopefully by the end of this 0:06:19.476 --> 0:06:29.756 you'll hate golf too. I'm standing here would die day Zac, 0:06:29.836 --> 0:06:34.916 who is a very successful landscape architect Santa Monica, and 0:06:34.956 --> 0:06:38.436 we're on the corner of Sana Cente in Berlin Game 0:06:38.876 --> 0:06:43.196 and we're looking into the Brentwood Country Club and the 0:06:43.196 --> 0:06:44.716 first thing I see is barbed wire. 0:06:45.356 --> 0:06:48.076 Looks like a couple of layers of barbed wire. 0:06:48.476 --> 0:06:50.476 This looks like it looks like the Berlin Wall. 0:06:50.796 --> 0:06:53.156 It's like they want us to get in there? 0:06:53.076 --> 0:06:54.716 Are you what are we seeing? We're seeing smooth. A 0:06:54.716 --> 0:06:57.716 little closer here, what's that stand up trees? Do you 0:06:57.796 --> 0:06:58.556 know what those are? 0:06:58.956 --> 0:06:59.116 Uh? 0:06:59.636 --> 0:07:03.196 That looks like silk oakes in the foreground. And then 0:07:03.436 --> 0:07:07.756 I see a sadrus theodora, quite lovely. Lots of larger trees, 0:07:07.796 --> 0:07:12.636 which are unusual unless angelists because there's so little open space. 0:07:13.956 --> 0:07:17.836 There's some piness. Canariensis looks like a redwood in there. 0:07:18.476 --> 0:07:20.356 I don't think Dayezac has ever played a round of 0:07:20.396 --> 0:07:23.956 golf in her life. That's exactly why I wanted her opinion. 0:07:24.476 --> 0:07:27.796 I wanted someone objective to tell me what it would 0:07:27.836 --> 0:07:29.636 take to turn this place into a park. 0:07:29.836 --> 0:07:32.076 Well, first of all, I would get rid of the 0:07:32.116 --> 0:07:33.596 two layers of barter wire. 0:07:34.196 --> 0:07:37.836 Were the whole Eastern European feel east. Your German field 0:07:37.836 --> 0:07:39.476 would have to be corrected. 0:07:40.076 --> 0:07:43.756 I mean, that might be some people's bag, but it's 0:07:43.796 --> 0:07:44.836 not very welcoming. 0:07:45.436 --> 0:07:52.916 Yeah. The typical golf course is two hundred acres, give 0:07:52.996 --> 0:07:55.516 or take. There's a lot of land. You have to 0:07:55.636 --> 0:07:59.276 landscape it, mow it, drench it in pesticides, keep the 0:07:59.316 --> 0:08:02.596 sand traps perfect. I read somewhere that when a fancy 0:08:02.596 --> 0:08:05.996 golf course rebuilds its bunkers. It typically takes about three 0:08:06.156 --> 0:08:10.156 hundred and eighty nine truckloads of sand three hundred and 0:08:10.276 --> 0:08:13.956 eighty nine just to keep everything nice and white and fluffy. 0:08:14.996 --> 0:08:17.996 But at the same time, because golf involves launching a 0:08:17.996 --> 0:08:23.236 potentially lethal projectile at great speeds across enormous distances, you 0:08:23.316 --> 0:08:25.196 have to severely limit the number of people on the 0:08:25.236 --> 0:08:28.916 course at any one time. Typically, a good private course 0:08:28.956 --> 0:08:31.556 can handle no more than seventy two golfers at once. 0:08:32.036 --> 0:08:34.636 So that's one golfer per one hundred and twenty eight 0:08:34.676 --> 0:08:37.876 hundred and thirty three square feet. Can you imagine if 0:08:37.876 --> 0:08:41.236 basketball had the same population density as golf. I did 0:08:41.236 --> 0:08:44.916 the math. If basketball was played according to the geographical 0:08:44.996 --> 0:08:48.836 requirements of golf, a basketball court would be thirty acres. 0:08:49.876 --> 0:08:58.316 Picture that that had to play on motorcycles. Okay, another 0:08:58.356 --> 0:09:02.996 fact about golf. Rich people really really like it. They're 0:09:03.036 --> 0:09:05.236 obsessed with it in a way that there just isn't 0:09:05.276 --> 0:09:09.116 any parallel for ordinary people. Because serious golfers are souper 0:09:09.276 --> 0:09:12.716 anal about their scores, we can actually quantify their obsession 0:09:13.636 --> 0:09:16.796 in order to calculate their handicap. Basically how well they're 0:09:16.836 --> 0:09:19.436 playing relative to other people at the country club. They 0:09:19.436 --> 0:09:21.996 all post their results on a database maintained by the 0:09:22.116 --> 0:09:26.156 United States Golf Association. So we have a record and 0:09:26.196 --> 0:09:27.556 it's a gold mine. 0:09:27.636 --> 0:09:29.916 To be able to calculate your handicap and track it 0:09:29.956 --> 0:09:33.396 through time. You will log into the system either at 0:09:33.516 --> 0:09:35.636 your course or on your home computer. 0:09:36.076 --> 0:09:38.916 I'm talking to an economist at Miami University named Lee 0:09:39.036 --> 0:09:43.596 bigger Staff. He's interested in the habits of top corporate executives. 0:09:44.196 --> 0:09:46.876 If you have the corner office and a multimillion dollar 0:09:46.956 --> 0:09:49.916 stock option and a Gulf Stream five, does that make 0:09:49.996 --> 0:09:52.116 you more or less likely to put in a hard 0:09:52.156 --> 0:09:56.476 day's work. The USGA database is of serious professional interest 0:09:56.556 --> 0:09:57.716 to a guy like bigger Staff. 0:09:58.036 --> 0:10:01.156 And your input where you played, and what day you 0:10:01.156 --> 0:10:04.596 played on, and what your score was, and you know, 0:10:04.636 --> 0:10:07.796 after a certain number of rounds being played, the USGA 0:10:07.836 --> 0:10:10.716 will indicate what's your hand indicaptives your level of skill, 0:10:10.996 --> 0:10:13.436 which allows you to compete against other golfers of different 0:10:13.436 --> 0:10:15.516 skill level and kind of normalize against that. 0:10:15.916 --> 0:10:18.076 You know, how you always hear that CEOs play a 0:10:18.116 --> 0:10:21.956 lot of golf. Bigger Staff's insight is that the USGA 0:10:22.076 --> 0:10:25.356 database allows us to know exactly how much they play. 0:10:25.916 --> 0:10:28.036 All you need to do is cross reference that list 0:10:28.116 --> 0:10:30.876 of scores with a list of the CEOs of America's 0:10:30.956 --> 0:10:34.436 largest companies. So that's what he does. It takes forever. 0:10:34.556 --> 0:10:36.756 By the way, Well started while as a PhD student, 0:10:37.156 --> 0:10:39.636 and so this certainly was a multi month process. So 0:10:39.676 --> 0:10:41.196 it's not something that nine is really want to repeat 0:10:41.196 --> 0:10:42.476 in the near term just because it took a lot 0:10:42.476 --> 0:10:43.476 of collection time. 0:10:43.516 --> 0:10:46.516 There, how can you not love this? Surely this is 0:10:46.516 --> 0:10:50.156 why God invented graduate students. Bigger staff begins with the 0:10:50.236 --> 0:10:53.156 names of the heads the top fifteen hundred publicly held 0:10:53.196 --> 0:10:56.756 companies in the US. Three hundred and sixty three of 0:10:56.796 --> 0:11:00.156 those fifteen hundred turn out to be so obsessed with 0:11:00.236 --> 0:11:03.316 golf that they enter their scores into the USGA database. 0:11:03.516 --> 0:11:06.996 What you're seeing on average is, I think fifteen rounds 0:11:07.036 --> 0:11:09.476 a year is kind of the average CEO is playing 0:11:09.476 --> 0:11:12.516 that amount of golf. But it's a heavily skewed distribution, right, 0:11:12.556 --> 0:11:13.556 So we have a lot of people that are playing 0:11:13.596 --> 0:11:17.356 very little golf, and then we have a tail where 0:11:17.436 --> 0:11:19.476 we're picking it up, you know, the top quartile of 0:11:19.556 --> 0:11:21.316 we're looking at which is twenty two or more rounds 0:11:21.316 --> 0:11:21.676 per year. 0:11:21.996 --> 0:11:23.796 And if you go to the top ten percent of 0:11:23.836 --> 0:11:27.476 Bigger Staff sample, the CEOs are playing around at least 0:11:27.676 --> 0:11:33.996 thirty seven times a year. A round of golf is 0:11:34.036 --> 0:11:36.356 a good four four and a half hours, So if 0:11:36.356 --> 0:11:39.116 you play thirty seven times a year, that's more than 0:11:39.156 --> 0:11:42.436 one hundred and sixty hours on the course, the equivalent 0:11:42.476 --> 0:11:45.876 of five and a half weeks of work. And by 0:11:45.876 --> 0:11:49.156 the way, these are understatements. They don't include the time 0:11:49.236 --> 0:11:52.716 spent driving to the course, warming up, getting changed, having 0:11:52.716 --> 0:11:56.196 a drink. Doesn't include the hours spent practicing shots on 0:11:56.236 --> 0:11:58.676 the putting green or the driving range, or all the 0:11:58.756 --> 0:12:01.036 rounds you play that you don't enter into the database, 0:12:01.316 --> 0:12:03.316 like if you're only playing nine holes or playing a 0:12:03.356 --> 0:12:06.676 fun round, so the real time is probably way higher. 0:12:07.876 --> 0:12:10.276 Bigger Staff then goes on to show that the more 0:12:10.316 --> 0:12:13.836 golf of CEO plays, the worse his firm does, and 0:12:13.876 --> 0:12:16.596 also that the more golf of CEO plays, the more 0:12:16.716 --> 0:12:19.876 likely he is to be fired. In other words, this 0:12:19.996 --> 0:12:24.476 isn't a harmless habit, it's a dangerous habit. Remember the 0:12:24.516 --> 0:12:28.236 Wall Street investment bank bear Stearns. They went bankrupt during 0:12:28.236 --> 0:12:31.676 the mortgage crisis. In July of two thousand and seven, 0:12:32.196 --> 0:12:35.596 right when the crisis was beginning, the CEO of Bear 0:12:35.596 --> 0:12:38.876 Stearns would often helicopter out from Wall Street on Friday 0:12:38.916 --> 0:12:41.796 afternoons to his exclusive course in New Jersey to get 0:12:41.796 --> 0:12:45.636 a round in before sunset. Even when his company was collapsing, 0:12:45.916 --> 0:12:50.716 he couldn't stop playing golf. Out of President Donald Trump's 0:12:50.716 --> 0:12:53.716 first four months in office, he visited his own golf 0:12:53.716 --> 0:12:57.596 courses twenty five times. One week he played three times. 0:12:58.236 --> 0:13:00.276 You would think he would be at the office learning 0:13:00.276 --> 0:13:03.676 how to be president, reading intelligence briefings, drading the swamp. No, 0:13:03.836 --> 0:13:07.796 he's golfing. It's an addiction, right, because the definition of 0:13:07.796 --> 0:13:11.116 an addiction is a self dis destructive habit. Just think 0:13:11.156 --> 0:13:13.956 if I said to you that an important employee of 0:13:13.956 --> 0:13:17.516 a major organization made lifestyle choices that caused him to 0:13:17.556 --> 0:13:20.876 miss enormous amounts of work, harm his performance, and put 0:13:20.876 --> 0:13:24.316 his own career in jeopardy, you would say, WHOA check 0:13:24.396 --> 0:13:29.356 that guy into rehab. That's golf crack cocaine for rich 0:13:29.396 --> 0:13:29.916 white guys. 0:13:31.316 --> 0:13:34.436 The highest in the sample one hundred and forty six 0:13:34.556 --> 0:13:37.356 or one hundred and forty eight rounds recorded in a 0:13:37.396 --> 0:13:38.916 single year, which I mean that at that point, that's 0:13:38.916 --> 0:13:41.236 a tremendous amount of time spent on the golf course. 0:13:41.636 --> 0:13:44.156 You thought I was engaging in hyperbolely, didn't you that 0:13:44.236 --> 0:13:47.436 I was using the word addiction metaphorically. One hundred and 0:13:47.516 --> 0:13:49.596 forty eight rounds a year is a round of golf 0:13:49.756 --> 0:13:51.956 every three days. 0:13:52.036 --> 0:13:53.716 And that would be if it was kind of uniformly 0:13:53.716 --> 0:13:57.716 distributed across the year. It's you know, GoF certainly has 0:13:57.716 --> 0:14:00.156 a season where it's a little bit more intense in 0:14:00.236 --> 0:14:02.196 terms of the summer versus the winner. 0:14:03.076 --> 0:14:06.756 And you can't tell me what company it is. I 0:14:06.796 --> 0:14:08.196 want to know what company it is. 0:14:08.836 --> 0:14:11.836 Yeah, we're just with this data, given it somewhat sensitive, 0:14:13.396 --> 0:14:15.636 we're unwilling to name out CEOs. 0:14:16.156 --> 0:14:18.476 I can't believe you won't tell me. I mean, here, 0:14:18.516 --> 0:14:21.756 we have an activity that is incredibly expensive, that is 0:14:21.916 --> 0:14:25.436 organized in just about the most extravagant manner possible, and 0:14:25.476 --> 0:14:29.036 at the same time, this expensive habit is incredibly addictive, 0:14:29.236 --> 0:14:31.436 to the point that there's a chief executive out there 0:14:31.556 --> 0:14:35.396 of a major American corporation who plays an average of 0:14:35.396 --> 0:14:37.956 one hundred and forty eight rounds of golf a year 0:14:38.396 --> 0:14:41.756 and is so completely unself conscious about that fact that 0:14:41.796 --> 0:14:44.636 he posts all one hundred and forty eight rounds on 0:14:44.716 --> 0:14:48.476 a public database where it can be analyzed by graduate students. 0:14:49.356 --> 0:14:51.756 So what happens to rich white guys with a dangerous, 0:14:51.796 --> 0:14:55.436 costly obsession? Do they burn through their life savings paying 0:14:55.476 --> 0:14:59.196 for their addiction like ordinary addicts do? Please give them 0:14:59.236 --> 0:15:00.076 a little more respect. 0:15:02.676 --> 0:15:05.036 By the way, this is my fifteenth year in television. 0:15:05.076 --> 0:15:06.676 Imagine that fifteen years of me. 0:15:09.156 --> 0:15:11.396 Longest stomach test and the history of showb. 0:15:12.756 --> 0:15:15.676 You could argue, I would say in the forties and fifties, 0:15:15.716 --> 0:15:18.116 there was no one who was more widely popular in 0:15:18.156 --> 0:15:19.396 America than Bob Hope. 0:15:19.516 --> 0:15:23.596 I'm talking to Richard Saglan, Bob Hope's biographer. I think 0:15:23.636 --> 0:15:26.116 Bob Hope has been a little forgotten in recent years, 0:15:26.396 --> 0:15:28.436 but in his day he was huge. 0:15:28.956 --> 0:15:32.156 Every late night comedian who does a stand up monologue 0:15:32.156 --> 0:15:34.556 at the beginning of the show owes a debt to 0:15:34.596 --> 0:15:36.876 Bob Hope, because he kind of invented that thing, a 0:15:36.956 --> 0:15:39.796 stand up comedy monologue that sort of took note of 0:15:39.796 --> 0:15:41.756 what was going on in the world, what was going 0:15:41.756 --> 0:15:44.756 on in Hollywood, what was going on everywhere, And he 0:15:44.916 --> 0:15:48.116 was just the voice of America. I think for a 0:15:48.156 --> 0:15:48.676 long time. 0:15:49.676 --> 0:15:51.836 Bob Hope is a crucial part of the story of 0:15:51.836 --> 0:15:55.556 golf in America, although I'm warning you things are going 0:15:55.556 --> 0:15:58.436 to get a little complicated, which is sort of the point, 0:15:58.516 --> 0:16:00.356 because you don't get to run the world for as 0:16:00.356 --> 0:16:03.356 long as rich white guys have without being pretty wily, 0:16:04.116 --> 0:16:07.076 and some of their best and wiliest work has been 0:16:07.116 --> 0:16:12.276 on the golf course. So there's a principal and property 0:16:12.276 --> 0:16:15.356 tax law called highest and best use, which is that 0:16:15.396 --> 0:16:17.516 one of the ways you figure out how much to 0:16:17.596 --> 0:16:20.436 tax a piece of property is to estimate what its 0:16:20.516 --> 0:16:23.636 best use might be. For example, if I have a 0:16:23.676 --> 0:16:26.356 one acre plot and the fanciest part of Manhattan that 0:16:26.436 --> 0:16:28.796 I used to grow vegetables, I can't say to the 0:16:28.796 --> 0:16:32.316 city that land is worthless, it's just a vegetable garden. No, 0:16:32.916 --> 0:16:35.196 the city's going to say, we're going to value that 0:16:35.236 --> 0:16:37.436 one acre and tax it as if it had an 0:16:37.476 --> 0:16:40.516 apartment block on it, because that's the best use of 0:16:40.636 --> 0:16:43.796 land in the fancy parts of Manhattan. Now, if you've 0:16:43.796 --> 0:16:45.836 got a vast golf course in the middle of Beverly 0:16:45.916 --> 0:16:49.796 Hills or Brentwood, highest and best use makes you really nervous, 0:16:50.356 --> 0:16:53.236 because plainly, the highest and best use of land in 0:16:53.236 --> 0:16:55.236 the middle of one of the most expensive and densely 0:16:55.236 --> 0:16:58.076 populated cities in the world is not a private golf course. 0:16:59.556 --> 0:17:03.276 So years ago, in nineteen sixty, California's country clubs realize 0:17:03.356 --> 0:17:05.956 they have to act or they're going to get taxed 0:17:05.996 --> 0:17:10.036 into oblivion. They get together and they propose an amendment 0:17:10.036 --> 0:17:13.836 to the state constitution that permanently exempts them from the 0:17:13.916 --> 0:17:17.516 highest and best use standard. They want their vegetable garden 0:17:17.596 --> 0:17:22.116 to be taxed as a vegetable garden. If you think 0:17:22.156 --> 0:17:27.116 about it, this is seriously audacious. Private golf courses are 0:17:27.156 --> 0:17:31.876 these massive, opulent, gated playgrounds, and membership is often restricted. 0:17:32.076 --> 0:17:34.516 In Los Angeles in nineteen sixty, a lot of these 0:17:34.516 --> 0:17:37.356 clubs didn't let in Jews. They certainly didn't let in 0:17:37.396 --> 0:17:40.356 black people except to work in the kitchen. Yet they 0:17:40.396 --> 0:17:44.996 wanted a constitutional exemption to ordinary property taxes, like there 0:17:44.996 --> 0:17:48.236 were some kind of public amenity. How can they argue this? 0:17:48.916 --> 0:17:52.956 They don't not really. They just bring in Bob Hope, who, 0:17:53.036 --> 0:17:56.196 in addition to being the most popular entertainer in America, 0:17:56.356 --> 0:18:00.556 is also an obsessive golfer obsessive. I might as well 0:18:00.636 --> 0:18:01.076 level with you. 0:18:01.116 --> 0:18:03.476 I spent so much time in Sandstraft they sent me 0:18:03.556 --> 0:18:07.196 citizenship papers from Saudi Arabia. Oh yeah, I love to 0:18:07.196 --> 0:18:08.676 hear the whole story. 0:18:08.676 --> 0:18:11.556 Bob Hope once wrote an entire book just devoted to 0:18:11.596 --> 0:18:14.836 his golf game, called Confessions of a Hooker, in which 0:18:14.836 --> 0:18:18.356 he estimates that he had played on two thousand different 0:18:18.396 --> 0:18:20.476 golf courses over the course of his life. 0:18:20.596 --> 0:18:24.276 He belonged to the Lakeside Country Club in La near 0:18:24.316 --> 0:18:29.956 where he lived, one of the prestigiousstigious I think so. Yeah. 0:18:30.356 --> 0:18:32.596 The genius at picking Bob Hope is the face of 0:18:32.636 --> 0:18:37.156 California's country clubs is that his whole persona, his whole act, 0:18:37.476 --> 0:18:40.796 was about being every man. He's self deprecating. Half his 0:18:40.876 --> 0:18:43.236 jokes are about how he's not part of the inn group, 0:18:43.396 --> 0:18:45.596 even though of course there's no one more in than 0:18:45.636 --> 0:18:46.156 Bob Hope. 0:18:46.316 --> 0:18:48.356 Isn't this wonderful all being here in California? 0:18:48.436 --> 0:18:48.956 I just love it. 0:18:48.996 --> 0:18:51.716 Look at that skuy, That's the only place in the 0:18:51.716 --> 0:18:53.556 world where you can get four seasons in one day. 0:18:53.596 --> 0:18:56.796 I want to tell you that this is we better hurry, 0:18:56.836 --> 0:18:58.436 We'll be able to be snowing before the third. 0:18:58.436 --> 0:19:00.236 Hold, you know, let's move on. 0:19:00.356 --> 0:19:03.436 Oh boy, So, how did the Bob Hope for Golf 0:19:03.476 --> 0:19:08.156 campaign do in nineteen sixty It wins. The proposition passes 0:19:08.396 --> 0:19:11.316 and is added to Article thirteen of the California Constitution, 0:19:11.716 --> 0:19:15.716 where it remains to this day. In order to win 0:19:15.916 --> 0:19:18.476 a set of privileges for the very wealthy, in other words, 0:19:18.836 --> 0:19:22.396 California's country clubs turn to a man who symbolizes the 0:19:22.436 --> 0:19:25.956 common man. I mean, when does it ever happen that 0:19:25.996 --> 0:19:28.876 a TV celebrity wins a sweetheart deal for his rich 0:19:28.916 --> 0:19:31.676 golf buddies by posing as a friend of the common man? 0:19:32.636 --> 0:19:48.196 If you get my drift to take me back, just 0:19:48.436 --> 0:19:51.796 to I totally understand Prop thirteen property has passed in 0:19:51.836 --> 0:19:56.716 nineteen seventy eight, and what are the principal stipulations of 0:19:56.756 --> 0:20:01.036 the proposition. I'm in a big conference room in the 0:20:01.036 --> 0:20:04.796 Los Angeles County Municipal Building, one of those beautiful nineteen 0:20:04.916 --> 0:20:07.956 thirties office buildings that are all over downtown Los Angeles. 0:20:08.436 --> 0:20:10.356 There are four people on the other side of the table. 0:20:10.716 --> 0:20:14.036 They're from the LA County tax Assessor's office. I'm on 0:20:14.116 --> 0:20:17.116 my quest to figure out why Brentwood Country Club isn't 0:20:17.196 --> 0:20:19.116 just a big park that I can go running through. 0:20:19.676 --> 0:20:21.996 And I've decided to start with the people who run 0:20:22.036 --> 0:20:27.036 the tax system. These are serious folks, deliberate, thoughtful. They 0:20:27.036 --> 0:20:29.956 have promised to help me. You'll have to guess what 0:20:30.036 --> 0:20:30.716 they really think. 0:20:32.396 --> 0:20:35.876 The tax rate is set is one percent of the value, 0:20:36.156 --> 0:20:38.236 as opposed to a variable rate, which it was before. 0:20:38.596 --> 0:20:41.796 The man speaking is Brian Donnelly. He's talking about the 0:20:41.836 --> 0:20:46.156 most famous amendment to the California Constitution, Proposition thirteen. 0:20:46.676 --> 0:20:50.516 The properties only get reassessed with when there's a transfer 0:20:50.596 --> 0:20:54.436 or a change of ownership, or there's new construction. Those 0:20:54.436 --> 0:20:56.036 are the primary parts of it. 0:20:56.356 --> 0:20:59.076 Here's what he's saying. If you own a house, every 0:20:59.076 --> 0:21:01.756 one or two years, typically the value of your property 0:21:01.836 --> 0:21:04.116 is reassessed by the city or county where you live. 0:21:04.796 --> 0:21:07.436 So if your house doubles in value, the local government 0:21:07.436 --> 0:21:11.276 will raise your taxes accordingly. That's the way property taxes work, 0:21:11.956 --> 0:21:16.556 except in California. Proposition thirteen said that for tax purposes, 0:21:16.796 --> 0:21:19.756 the value of any piece of property in California is 0:21:19.876 --> 0:21:23.756 frozen at pre nineteen seventy eight levels, and the only 0:21:23.796 --> 0:21:27.036 way that property can be reassessed at its real current 0:21:27.156 --> 0:21:30.356 value is if the property is sold, or to be 0:21:30.436 --> 0:21:34.036 more specific, if ownership of more than fifty percent of 0:21:34.076 --> 0:21:38.436 the property changes hands. In other words, California has two 0:21:38.516 --> 0:21:42.236 kinds of taxpayers, the post nineteen seventy eight people who 0:21:42.236 --> 0:21:45.996 pay normal property taxes, and the people lucky and old 0:21:46.076 --> 0:21:48.316 enough to be living in the same house they owned 0:21:48.356 --> 0:21:51.556 in nineteen seventy eight, who pay a tiny fraction of 0:21:51.596 --> 0:21:52.276 their fair share. 0:21:52.556 --> 0:21:55.156 You know, I've got family members who've owned their house 0:21:55.156 --> 0:21:59.436 in nineteen sixty nine and they're paying I think their 0:21:59.436 --> 0:22:02.596 tax will value is bad ninety thousand dollars or something 0:22:02.596 --> 0:22:04.836 like that. The houses in that neighborhood sell for six hundred, 0:22:05.316 --> 0:22:09.636 so they're paying a lot less. It's the property conundrum, 0:22:09.636 --> 0:22:11.116 which I'm sure you've read about. 0:22:14.356 --> 0:22:18.996 Please understand, this system is insane, totally crazy. I mean, 0:22:19.116 --> 0:22:21.316 just think of all the reasons why someone might deserve 0:22:21.356 --> 0:22:24.396 a big tax break. I mean, they're sick, they're poor, 0:22:24.996 --> 0:22:27.356 they have tons of young kids, they've made a big 0:22:27.396 --> 0:22:30.516 investment in their business. The State of California says, no, 0:22:31.316 --> 0:22:34.396 we think the most deserving group are people whose property 0:22:34.436 --> 0:22:39.236 hasn't changed hands in forty years. Okay, Now, imagine that 0:22:39.276 --> 0:22:42.916 you're a private golf club you did that spectacular bit 0:22:42.916 --> 0:22:45.676 of jiu jitsu with Bob Hope in nineteen sixty, which 0:22:45.716 --> 0:22:48.956 means that you don't pay real property taxes. Gift from 0:22:48.956 --> 0:22:53.876