Mike Rowe: Americans are realizing 'the price of safety is devastating'

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Mike Rowe: 'Eventually, people get bored of being terrified'

'Six Degrees With Mike Rowe' host joins 'The Story' to discuss the state of the American economy amid pandemic

More than a year after the coronavirus arrived in the United States, American are "starting to understand the importance of balance again," Mike Rowe told "The Story" Friday.

"Several months ago, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said no measure, no matter how draconian, could be deemed unwise if it saves but a single life," the "Six Degrees with Mike Rowe" host told Martha MacCallum. "I got a lot of flak when he said that, because I said, 'That is a safety-first way of thinking, and deep down we're not a safety-first society.

"Now we're starting to see the price of safety is devastating," Rowe added. "What is happening right now in the energy industry is really the thing that I think we ought to be focused on, because there feels to me, and feels to a lot of people I talk to on a day-to-day basis, like a concerted effort to wage a kind of war against energy. It's not a war we can win, especially with regard to fossil fuels and all of the jobs that are wrapped up in that industry. I don't mean to sound like an apologist, but I know of no greater investor in alternative energy than the fossil fuel industry." 

 MacCallum brought the discussion back to the issue of safety, saying, "We're a country that was built on risk-taking. We want to take wise risks, we don't want to be reckless, but that element of being strong and fighting through is something that I think is such an American value.

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"Risk is the only four-letter word that matters," Rowe agreed. "It impacts and informs every decision we make, from driving a car to walking around without a mask or wearing one mask or two masks."

"We're starting to see," Rowe concluded, "if you elevate the business of staying alive to the very, very top of all things, then the only thing you'll ever do is stay alive. You won't go anywhere. You won't try anything or build anything."