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Dangerous Political Rhetoric, Ozempic Myths, & Understanding Economy
22 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of Unsolicited Perspectives, host Bruce Anthony takes listeners on a rollercoaster of important and engaging topics. He kicks things off by passionately dissecting two alarming stories in the news: a racist comment by Representative Clay Higgins targeting Haitian immigrants, and a troubling racial incident at Gettysburg College. These stories fuel Bruce's commentary on the dangerous ripple effect of political rhetoric in shaping societal behavior.
The episode then shifts gears to tackle the controversial weight loss drug Ozempic. Bruce explains its function and side effects while drawing a crucial line between fat loss and weight loss, questioning Americans' fixation on quick fixes. He even shouts out comedian Lil Rel for his commitment to natural weight loss. #UnsolicitedPerspectives #ozempic #economyexplained #ozempicweightloss #politicalnews
Next, Bruce simplifies the complex relationship between inflation and the overall economy, demystifying how they impact everyday lives. And finally, the show wraps up on a lighthearted note with the unforgettable tale of an 8-year-old girl who, in an impressive display of childhood determination, drove herself 13 miles to Target. Bruce reflects on the ingenuity of kids and the parenting challenges that come with it.
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Thank you for tuning into Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Let's continue the conversation in the comments and remember, stay engaged, stay informed, and always keep an open mind. See you in the next episode!
Chapters
00:00 Welcome to Unsolicited Perspectives
00:55 Current Events: Racism and Politics
09:45 Weight Loss and Ozempic
18:32 Personal Anecdotes and Fitness Advice
23:35 Understanding the Economy
28:59 Understanding Demand Pull Inflation
29:32 Exploring Cost Push Inflation
30:06 Built-In Inflation Explained
32:25 Effects of Inflation
33:54 Defining the Economy
35:00 Current State of the U.S. Economy
35:52 Interconnection Between Economy and Inflation
37:49 Consumer Spending and Economic Strength
44:04 A Lighthearted Story to End
54:56 Final Thoughts and Farewell
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Preview
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome. First of all, welcome. This is us listening to perspectives. I'm your host, Bruce Anthony, here to lead the conversation in important events and topics that are shaping today's society. Join the conversation and follow us wherever you get your audio podcast. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch our video
00:00:32
Speaker
On today's episode, I'm going to be talking about ozimpic and weight loss, then I'm going to be talking about the economy, and I'm going to finish things off with an eight-year-old girl that was determined to get to Target. But that's enough of the intro. Let's get to the show.
Upcoming Topics Teaser
00:00:55
Speaker
Before I get to the topics that I addressed at the top, there are two topics that literally ripped from the heads headlines that popped up on my radar as I was prepping to do the show. And I want to get into an in-depth conversation, but I want to include my sister in this conversation. So I'm not going to get too in-depth on these two things that I'm about to tell you guys about.
00:01:17
Speaker
One, most of you guys probably have already heard of. The second one, I know for a fact the majority of you people haven't heard of it because I just found out about it literally today as I'm filming this episode and it just recently got picked up by the news media outlet. So by the time this show airs,
00:01:37
Speaker
Okay, you might know about it, but what am I talking about? And like I said, I'm going to get into in-depth conversation with my sister about about these two incidences because it's <unk> a part of ah a larger problem that I see in this country that a lot of people are turning a blind eye to or they just don't give a damn about. Okay, what's the first one?
Racism in Social Media and Politics
00:01:58
Speaker
So the first one was House of Representative Clay Higgins, a a Republican from Louisiana, ah posted on X Wednesday afternoon a racist statement ah about Haitian immigrants here in this country. This is what he said.
00:02:15
Speaker
LOL, these Haitians are wild, eating pets, voodoo, nastiness country in the western hemisphere, colts, slapstick gangsters, but damned if they don't feel all sophisticated now filing charges against our president and VP. All these thugs better get their mind right and their asses out of our country before January 20th. Now, what is this response to?
00:02:40
Speaker
A lot of Haitians, especially in Springfield, have filed criminal charges, civil criminal charges, against former President Donald Trump and his VP candidate, Nance, or Vance, because they keep pushing this lie that Haitians are eating people's pets in Springfield and bringing trouble to Springfield. Like white supremacists and domestic terrorists are going to Springfield and they're causing trouble. These people's lives are in danger. And you know what? Trump has repeatedly done this. He's repeatedly put people's lives in danger off of lies. he He needs to be criminally charged for that. I would say that's almost attempted murder.
00:03:21
Speaker
Right? I will, like I said, with my sister, I will get into it, but I'm furious because, damn it, if you're voting for Trump, like I said, all the people that are in my life that consider themselves my friend, I will reiterate, if you are voting for Trump, cool, we not friends. And in this sense, some will agree to disagree situation.
00:03:44
Speaker
we can agree to disagree who has the best breadsticks. Is it Longhorn Steakhouse or Olive Garden? I mean, it's Olive Garden, but like we can agree to disagree on something like that, something that's trivial that doesn't really affect other people's lives. This right here, this election affects so many lives and it causes a grave danger to any minority, any a person of color, any woman, any immigrant,
00:04:11
Speaker
Anybody who isn't white, straight, male. So if you're rocking with Trump, you can't rock with me. you know Because there is a line. Either you're on the right side of history or on the wrong side of history. And Trump, anybody voting for him is on the absolute wrong side of history. There is no debate about that. There is no debate about that. You're on the wrong side of history if you're rocking with Trump.
00:04:37
Speaker
And this is another prime example of these racist politicians because this was a racist statement. And he doubled down on CNN saying that he doesn't regret it and that he'll say it again because it's all true. He's a racist. All right. Plain and simple. So it's it's you got in your party, if you're a Republican, you got people who are racist. So if you rock with them, that means you condone racism. That means you condone racist. You don't condemn them.
00:05:04
Speaker
i came't I can't rock with you. And that's just the way it is. And and why has this... caused fury in me. It's because of the second story. and And there are going to be people out there out there to try to say that these two things aren't connected. They are absolutely connected. Anybody that's a person of color who's a self-loving person of color, because there are some self-hatred people of color who will actively go against their people. um Anybody who is self-loving can tell you, hey, there's a direct correlation between the words that these politicians are saying and actions of people out in the street. And here's another example of this. A student has left Gettysburg College after a racial slur was an etched onto a student's chest. I don't think y'all heard me.
00:05:56
Speaker
I said a student has left Gettysburg College after a racial slur was an etched onto a student's chest. So a lot of y'all people out there listening might not know what an etched means. Maybe I didn't even ah say the word right because y'all know speech impediment.
00:06:12
Speaker
Let me just give y'all a brief synopsis of this story. Several students were attending an informal gathering of the swim team at an on-campus residence on September 6th. When one of them, one of the people that was attending this little soiree used a box cutter to scratch the n-word on another student's chest. so Guess what? They were teammates on the swim team. You got that right. Two teammates on the swim team. One white, one black. The white one carved with a box cutter
00:06:53
Speaker
the N word on his black teammates chest. Now some of you are going to say, Bruce, that didn't really happen. Google it. One of the first things that pop up are several news articles from reputable news organizations that confirm this. This happened September the 6th as I'm filming this right now. It is September 26th. This will air September 27th. There's no racism in America. Okay.
00:07:24
Speaker
So before I even started to film this show and I started out with something that I thought was gonna be light, you know, light fare ends up not being light fare because those two stories made me hot. Hot. I mean, okay. All right. That's that's how people are gonna react. Let me tell y'all something. Last thing you want.
00:07:52
Speaker
Nevermind. I'm not even going to say it.
Weight Loss and Health: Myths and Facts
00:07:54
Speaker
Let let's in the words of Bernie Mac, let's move on. I will bring those two subjects up at the sibling happy hour. That'll be released Tuesday, October the first. And y'all would hear my sister's perspective, but the anger that I have, trust me, it's going to be double that with her. Cause I'm a little bit more reserved in my emotions than my sister is.
00:08:21
Speaker
And I'm finding it really difficult to reserve my emotions because if these two stories don't make you sick, don't make you repulse at what the Republican party is doing and and and the people that are going to be out there, doma cru ah no, no, they're not. You don't hear Democrats saying this stuff. Sorry. And if you can find an example,
00:08:45
Speaker
That wasn't a 1960s Democrats because then you could find some those 1960s Democrats that would say things like this. I have to repeat over and over again. They join the Republican Party after the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act was passed. Those Democrats joined the Republican Party. They are now your party. Your party is the party of hatred. You hate minorities.
00:09:14
Speaker
You hate anybody in the LGBTQ plus community. You hate women. You hate immigrants. I don't know what you love besides money and mayhem. Actually, that's, that's a pretty good slogan for the Republican party. We love money and mayhem. All right. Let me get to the regular topics cause uh, I went a little long on this and I didn't mean to go that long. So we're going to start off.
00:09:44
Speaker
with ozimpic and fat loss. Weight loss. Let's go with weight loss. Okay, not fat loss, because fat loss and weight loss are two different things. Fat loss leads to weight loss, but weight loss doesn't necessarily lead to fat loss. I'll get to that.
00:09:58
Speaker
throughout this segment. But Lil Rel, he's a comedian. Y'all might remember him from ah Get Out. He was a TSA agent. And if you've seen the movie Get Out, he was kind of chubby. I've been following Lil Rel since he came up on my radar, I don't know, well before Get Out. He had a stand up that I still absolutely love. And it was promoted by Kevin Hart.
00:10:22
Speaker
Kevin Hart was doing a lot of promotions for comedians to do stand up, giving them a platform. And Lil Rel is hilarious, loved him. And then he had ah he was in the Carl Michael show, and then he had his own show that was on Fox. It had Sinbad on it, and just hilarious. Didn't quite make it past the first season. I don't know how that show was not funny, but it wasn't as funny as it should have been. Nevertheless, he posted something on his Instagram probably about a week and a half, a month ago, somewhere in between that. These days all run together for me. This is what happens when you get old. And in that Instagram post, he showed an extreme weight loss. I mean, my man looks lean and felt like my man looks good. I was watching an interview that he was doing. I can't remember what show, but I was watching an interview that he was doing. And basically the interview that the the interviewer asked him, how did he lose all the weight? He basically said, I got my life right.
00:11:17
Speaker
What that meant was for him was, one, he stopped drinking, does not drink anymore. Great for him. I'm not going to stop drinking, but great for him. He only ate healthy. you know No more fast foods, no more like even fast dining, like Applebee's or Friday's, like none of that stuff. Everything was cooked, meals were prepared, and he was eating healthy. He said he also got right with the Lord.
00:11:40
Speaker
All those things kind of align, right? You want to get right mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And this led to an incredible weight loss. However, of course, because he lost all this weight, the cynics in America, I'm going to specifically say Americans, the cynics in America said, oh, that must be Ozimpic. Now, some of you know what Ozimpic is.
00:12:09
Speaker
Some of you don't know what Ozimpic is. Let me break it down for you. Ozimpic is a once-weekly injectable medication primarily used to manage blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes. Although it's not officially approved for weight loss, it has been found to help with weight reduction in clinical trials. Remember what I said, weight reduction, not fat loss. These are two different things. Don't worry, I'll explain it later.
00:12:39
Speaker
how does is How does ozimpic work? Ozimpic works by mimicking a natural hormone called GLP-1, the glucogen polypeptide-1. Yes, I'm stumbling on all of these scientific words. Look.
00:12:55
Speaker
It is what it is, okay? um This hormone helps regulate insulin release, appetite, and at and at the rate at which food processes through the summit. the These results was result in lower blood sugar levels, a reduced appetite, slower gastric emptying, making you feel fuller. Now, listen to this, slower gastric emptying, that means pooping less.
00:13:23
Speaker
That's what that means, by the way. Effectiveness for weight loss. Hmm. Okay. Once again, weight loss. While ozimpic is not FDA approved for weight loss, studies have shown that it can lead to modest weight loss. For example, for example patients taking ozimpic have lost an average of 3.5 kilograms more than those taking a placebo over a 30 week period. I'm sorry that I'm not great at conversion rates. I'm American. We only use a certain system here that isn't used anywhere else in the world. And it's very difficult to convert measurements, no matter if it's measurements from one system or the current system that we use.
00:14:06
Speaker
Here are the common side effects for using Ozimpic. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, constipation, upset stomach, heartburn, loss of appetite.
00:14:20
Speaker
um Okay, so Ozimpic became popular, I don't know, maybe about a year ago when people have been using it for weight loss. Me being a fitness professional,
00:14:32
Speaker
I have often said there is no shortcut to weight loss. Even my sister who had gastric bypass surgery, I think that's what it is, had the the gastro surgery, took her a year to lose a hundred pounds. She did it.
00:14:47
Speaker
She did it and she looks great and she's continuing to lose. But even with that surgery, all it did was make her stomach smaller. She still needs to eat right and she still needs to exercise. And guess what? This is what I tell people that this is what I've been telling people for 20 years that wanted to sign up with me and wanted to hire me as a personal trainer. And they would ask me, well, how fast can I lose weight? And I say to them, how fast did you put the weight on?
00:15:14
Speaker
Well, you know, I've been gaining weight steadily over two years. Well, I'm not going to say it's going to take you two years, but it's going to at least take you a year to get that weight off. And it's going to be a hard year. It's going to be a year of eating right and exercising and staying consistent. That's how you effectively lose weight. How do you effectively lose weight by reducing fat in your body? So Ozimpic helps you lose weight, but it doesn't reduce the fat.
00:15:41
Speaker
Think of it as the difference between a long distance runner and a sprinter. There's dramatically differences in their bodies, correct? Sprinters work out. They kind of they do these high intensity workouts. They're not very long. They're very short, high bursts of energy that is used. This helps them dig into fat cells. The longer you work out,
00:16:07
Speaker
Your body doesn't, that doesn't dig into your fat cells, it digs into your muscle. As your body digs into your muscle and stores fat, you can lose weight. You can, but you don't lose fat, leaving you looking like a lot of these people who are on a Ozimpic sunken face. They have Ozimpic butt, which is no butt, which is dramatically difference in somebody who is doing resistance training and eating right. They look leaner.
00:16:36
Speaker
You could tell they have muscle definition. This has not happened with Ozimpic. Why? Because Ozimpic leads to weight loss, not fat loss. Exercise and diet leads to fat loss. Now you had me lost as soon as it said that you could have both stomach pain, diarrhea, and constipation. I've never, look, I don't know what that's like, but I know that's something I don't want. How am I gonna have diarrhea and constipation, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, just to lose weight when I could actually eat right, go into the gym, and lose the weight? That's the problem with Americans. Americans always look for quick fixes. But I was talking about Little Rel, right? The whole topic was me talking about Little Rel.
00:17:20
Speaker
I know as a fitness professional for over 20 years that I was looking at Lil Rel's picture and there was muscle definition. He was leaner. His skin was tight, not saggy, which was what would be happening if you just had weight loss without the fat loss, which was what would be happening if you had weight loss without gaining lean muscle. Lean muscle makes you look Guess what? Leaner. That's what happens when you develop lean muscle. The only way to develop lean muscle is by resistance training. He looks leaner, doesn't just look smaller, which that is the case. He looks leaner. I know that he's been eating right and working out, but most cynics, especially here in America, can't fathom the fact that this celebrity who has a lot of money for personal trainers,
00:18:12
Speaker
dietitians, et cetera, right? Cooks the whole nine that that person could lose weight. He's got a little bit more help because he's got money. But these are things that you could do on your own as well. Or guess what? Hire a professional. You could do that as well and you could lose the weight. But why would you attack this man just because he lost the weight, which you yourself couldn't imagine that you could do? I got a friend, really good friend of mine that I had a whole life in high school before I met them.
00:18:41
Speaker
right, because I went to high school in Virginia for two years, my freshman and sophomore year. And then I went to high school in Maryland for two years, my junior year and senior year. I met them the second semester of my junior year because I went to two different high schools my junior year. So I met them second semester of my junior year. They couldn't fathom the things that I did in Virginia because I was a different kid, right? Like they couldn't fathom the things that I did on the basketball court.
00:19:11
Speaker
because they hadn't seen it and they couldn't in fact do it themselves. So 25 years later, they still poo poo everything that I did in Virginia because one, they didn't see it. And two, they can't imagine them doing it themselves.
00:19:28
Speaker
That's what people do in life. When people can't imagine them doing it themselves, they shoot down your success. That's called haters. Should you use Ozimpic? Yeah, if you got type two diabetes. I don't believe that you should use Ozimpic as a weight loss drug. Okay. And there's a lot of generic versions of Ozimpic that people are using to lose weight. This is my shout out to everybody that wants to lose weight.
Understanding Economics: From Personal Struggles to Inflation
00:20:00
Speaker
There's three ways that you do it effectively. And you in these d three three things have to be working in concert together. Number one, and the most important thing, is your diet. And I don't want you to think of it as you're going on a diet. Think of it, your nutrition, right? The way you eat, what time you eat, how much you eat. There's a thing called your macros.
00:20:26
Speaker
right, your protein, your carbohydrates, your fat your your fats, the amount of calories that you're supposed to have during a day. You wanna have less calories that you would normally take in. That's by eating less, but eating the right things less and working out. That's the other thing, right? You gotta work out. And a lot of people don't know what to do in a gym. There are a million and one programs and trainers and things like that that can help you with that. It costs money.
00:20:55
Speaker
It costs money, right? But you're spending money anyway, right? You're spending money on bad food. You're probably spending money on going out to eat all the time. You're probably spending money on alcohol. I bet if you looked at what your budget was, you would definitely be able to afford, if not a personal trainer, then an online trainer or a virtual trainer. Somebody that is either with you virtually or somebody that sends you workouts attached with videos to help you with what you're supposed to be doing in a gym. They develop a program for you. Working out is very important. And not just doing cardio. That doesn't work. Because once again, you need to build lean muscle. on The only way to build lean muscle is by doing resistance training. That means you need to lift weights. And women out there that listen to this that are afraid to lift weights because they don't want to be big and bulky like men, you're missing something you're missing a major ingredient to do that testosterone you don't really have it okay so you're not going to be big and bulky and i know what you're going to say what about the female bodybuilders do you know how hard they have to work to get to that level it is actually physically dangerous for them to be at that level for them to have their body fat that low it messes with the administration cycle but they have a goal
00:22:09
Speaker
And they want to compete and I applaud them. You know, I i couldn't do it. I don't have that type of discipline. But these are the things that you need to do. And the third component is sleep. You need to take your ass to sleep. I know you're busy. You probably got kids. You got work. You got stuff that you need to do around the house. There's 24 hours in a day. You're thinking to yourself, how am I going to find 78 hours of sleep? You need that.
00:22:35
Speaker
You need to have 70 hours of sleep to function properly, especially the older that you get. So those three things will help you lose weight. Stop being cynics just because people get right with their body and their mindset and lose weight. literal accomplish something that is remarkable. He should be applauded, not questioned on how he got there.
00:23:02
Speaker
Think about that next time somebody comes up to you and they made a small accomplishment. Think about just praising them for the accomplishment that they made instead of finding in a way to poop on it.
00:23:24
Speaker
You know, there was one class in college that literally brought me to tears. Econ 100. So I'm at the University of Maryland. I'm a sophomore, I believe. Yeah, I was a sophomore, second semester my sophomore year and I had to take Econ. Econ at the University of Maryland was at this big big auditorium hall, it's like 300 students. And the professor says, hey, look, everybody's gonna be graded on a curve. This class is difficult, but do your best. I said, well, I ain't never failed at anything. So I mean, econ, you know, econ is basically math to me, right? Math, I got math, I'm gonna be all right. Took the first exam, scored a something like a 40 or 50,
00:24:18
Speaker
Out of 100, by the way, on the exam. I said, whoo, this was gonna be a lot harder than I thought. Luckily, the class was graded on the curve, so I ended up with a C out of that 40 or 50. And I was like, all right, I can't be rocking no Cs, so I'm gonna study a little bit harder, really. All right, I gotta focus in on this class. I can't skate by. I gotta focus in on this class. Next exam. I scored something like a 30 or 25.
00:24:47
Speaker
I'm distraught. I get my exam paper. I go back to my dorm room. Luckily, I had a single at this point, a single room, so I didn't have a roommate. I was in a suite, but I had my own room in the suite. Went back to my dorm room, closed the door, sat at my desk.
00:25:06
Speaker
put my head in my hands and started sobbing. Because that was the first time in my life that I'd ever really tried at something, really, really tried at something and absolutely failed. I ended up getting to see in that class, was not happy because it messed up my GPA at that point. um But that that was the best thing that I could do. And a lot of people averaged to see in that class. Once again, it was graded on the curve. It was a very difficult class.
00:25:32
Speaker
My boy majored in econ and I looked at him and I was like, bro, you're smarter than I thought you were. I didn't mean to say it like that, but that's how it came out because I was like, look, econ was the hardest class that I ever took in college and I took physics and got an A in physics. So that says something that econ was very, very difficult and and and it was just difficult for me to understand.
00:25:57
Speaker
So knowing that, I find it extremely fascinating that during during this election cycle, so many people are experts on the economy.
00:26:11
Speaker
saying that the economy is good or bad, saying that this person or that person made the economy good or bad. It it just, it fascinates me because, you know, like I say it on the show, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I know I have above average intelligence. ah When I stumble over words and, you know,
00:26:29
Speaker
My speech impediment kicks in and I have trouble you know saying words sometimes. Y'all may not think that that's the case, but I know for a fact that I have above average intelligence. It's not just because of my education. I'm talking intelligence, not smarts. It's two different things. I know I have above average in both. okay So if I can't understand Econ 100, why do people out here in the US Some of which don't even have a college education. I'm not saying that just because you don't have a college education that you're not smart. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is if you never went to college, what makes you think that you understand economy? Those two things don't make sense to me because there were 300 people in my class.
00:27:15
Speaker
that took econ just that semester and we were all real average. And that was econ 100, the easiest econ course that you could take. Okay. We couldn't understand it and we were all at the university of Maryland, which by the way, it's a very difficult school to get into. Okay. We couldn't understand it, but all these people in the country can understand it, right?
00:27:41
Speaker
And I keep hearing people talk about inflation and economy and merging the two together like they're the same thing. And I know from econ 100 that they're not the same thing. Can they be tied sometimes, but they're not the same thing. So when people say, well, we have a bad economy because of inflation, actually, no, that's not true, but Inflation and economy are closely related, but they are not the same thing. And I'm going to break it down to tell you guys how they interact. Let's start with inflation because that's a real issue right now. Inflation is a general increase in prices of of goods and services over time. What causes inflation? It can be caused by demand pull factors, high demand. Okay.
00:28:37
Speaker
That's the demand pull factors, high demand. Cost push factors, increased production costs, that would be a cost push factor. And monetary policy, increased money supply. These can be causes of inflation. Okay, so what is demand pull inflation? This occurs when the demand for good and services exceeds supply leading to higher prices. Kind of like ah a car, right?
00:29:04
Speaker
A car that's really in style and everybody wants to get it, but there's not a lot of supply. There's more demand than supply.
00:29:15
Speaker
So if there's more demand than supply, then that means the cost of the supply is going to go up. That's demand pull inflation. What is cost push inflation? This happens when production costs increase, i.e. raw materials and labor. And these costs are passed on to the consumers. So what's an example? You go to a sub shop, right? The cost of bread has gone up. The cost of meats have gone up.
00:29:45
Speaker
they're paying more for those raw goods to make the sub. That means that the cost of the sub is going to increase as well. That is cost push inflation. What is built in inflation?
00:30:00
Speaker
Built-in inflation results from expectation that prices will continue to rise leading to higher wages and higher protection costs. I'm trying to think of it and an example of this, maybe gas, right? So you people keep thinking that the price of gas is going to go up. To employ people to process that gas, the wages for them are going to go up, which means production costs go up which means built-in inflation, and okay? So that's demand pull inflation, cost push inflation, and built-in inflation. There are also other things that cause inflation. Supply shocks, events like natural disasters or pandemics, huh? Pandemics, kinda like COVID, right?
00:30:57
Speaker
These things can disrupt supply chains causing prices to rise. Yeah, I mean, y'all remember toilet paper? Y'all remember trying to get toilet paper? What about eggs? Remember how eggs shot up in price, right? Pandemic can cause inflation. That kind of seems,
00:31:19
Speaker
Reasonable to me, monetary policy, increases in money supply can stroke demand driving up prices. So in other words, if more people out here getting that money, suppliers know, oh, we could raise the price on this. The price of the brick is going up as Marlowe from The Wire would say.
00:31:41
Speaker
That means you're paying out more. that's in face That's inflation. And then there's fiscal policy. Tax cuts or increased government spending can also lead to a higher demand and inflation. So these are all the causes. There are multiple causes that have inflation, right? It's not one particular thing. It's a multitude of things that can cause inflation, which by the way, is not economy.
00:32:12
Speaker
They can be correlated, but they're not the same. But what are the effects of inflation? Inflation can reduce purchasing power leading to higher interest rates and create an economic uncertainty. Now the Fed lowered interest rates, but if you remember correctly, interest rates, especially on mortgage loans, but just across the board went up.
00:32:37
Speaker
Not too long ago, a couple of years ago, right? It became increasingly difficult to buy a home because um the interest rates was real high, real high. Well, that was due to inflation. But what was that thing again? Supply shocks? Pandemic. we I know it seems like forever ago, it was just four years ago that we were in the dead and that pandemic lasted from 2020 Really until 2022? I think we were still we were still definitely in lockdown in 2022. At certain time periods, we would get to come outside and then there be a spike again and we would have to go back inside, which by the way, there's another spike happening because a bunch of people that I know here in the DMV, the DC area, are getting COVID again. But those are causes and effects and explanation of what inflation is, okay? Did that sound difficult to you?
00:33:35
Speaker
um I tried to make it sound as easy as possible, but did that sound difficult to you? You think you gotta handle on inflation? Maybe, maybe you don't. Okay, what about the economy? Okay, so the definition of the economy refers to the system of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services in the country.
00:33:57
Speaker
Economic health is often measured by indicators like the GDP, the gross domestic product, unemployment rates, and consumer spending. I'm going to go through that again. The measures of economic health, the three measures, the three indicators of the gross domestic product, unemployment rates, and consumer spending.
00:34:22
Speaker
What is the growth of the economy? Economic growth occurs when there is an increase in production of goods and services leading to more jobs and higher income levels.
00:34:35
Speaker
Okay, what that that's kind of, you know, that's different than inflation, right? Like that's, they're not the same thing. They can affect one another, but they're not the same thing. Hmm, okay, well well, how is the US economy right now? How's the US economy right now?
00:34:56
Speaker
We got economic growth. The US economy grew at a 3.3% annualized pace in the second quarter. This growth rate is a key indicator of economic health and affects everything from job creation to consumer spending.
00:35:11
Speaker
What about political impact? With the upcoming elections, economic performance is a hot topic. Politicians are discussing their economic plans and how they will impact them impact the middle class and the overall economic stability. What are the global factors of the economy right now? International economic conditions such as Japan's recent growth and the impact of global events also play a role in shaping discussions about our economy. You know, like wars.
00:35:39
Speaker
and how we help out in wars. All right, so that's the difference between an economy and inflation. What's the correlation between the two? Okay, here are the positive effects. Modern inflation can stimulate spending and investment, which can drive economic growth.
00:35:57
Speaker
moderate inflation. What are some negative effects? High inflation can lead to economic instability, reduced purchasing power, and higher interest rates, which can slow down economic growth. So basically saying, while inflation and economy are distinct concepts, they are interconnected.
00:36:18
Speaker
moderate and and um Moderate inflation can be a sign of a healthy growing economy, but high inflation can have a negative impact on economic stability. Okay, so this is confusing me, right? Like, it doesn't make sense to me. Right now, our economy is good. People say our economy is not good. Our actual economy is good. We have low unemployment. Our interest rates are lowering. People have jobs, right? People are making a living.
00:36:50
Speaker
Wages are down, but people the people are out there working, right? When people say that we have a bad economy or that the economy is not good right now, they're talking about inflation. Inflation is high for certain products, right? Inflation is not high across the board. Sometimes I go into a grocery store and my Gatorade is at 32 ounce for a dollar.
00:37:15
Speaker
And I'm happy as hell. Sometimes I walk in the grocery store and that same 32 ounce Gatorade is two for $5. I'm like, what the hell happened just this week alone? All those different factors that I explained earlier about inflation take effect. And we are just coming out of a pandemic, but our economy is actually good. Our inflation is just a little high. So how can our economy be good, but inflation is still high?
00:37:44
Speaker
The US economy can still perform well despite high inflation due to several factors. A strong job market, a low unemployment rate can boost consumer spending and confidence helping to drive economic growth. You know, everybody keeps talking about this inflation. And it is inflation out here. Some of these products are a lot higher, but it hasn't stopped me from spending money. I'm just spending more of it.
00:38:07
Speaker
Right? When I got it, I'm spending it. And if I have to, you know, like curtail some of my spending, then I do that as well. But we still out here spending money. So even though inflation is high, we still are going out buying goods. Increased wages. Higher wages can offset some of the negative impacts of inflation, allowing consumers to maintain their spending levels. I know of some people out here getting that money. I also know of some people out here severely underpaid.
00:38:38
Speaker
This is not trickle down economics, ah ah right? When people say, well, we want to give tax cuts to the rich, and money doesn't get trickled down to the middle class, working class, and poor. It doesn't happen. They keep the money. The way to get more money to the middle class, job creation, and then paying them livable wages. So we have a lot of the haves and the have nots. Where I live, there are still the have nots, definitely, but there's a lot of haves.
00:39:06
Speaker
There's a lot of haves here. So people are out there spending money. um So with the robust consumer spending, even with higher prices, consumers continue to spend and it keeps the economy moving forward. We out here spending money in America. So that's the reason why we have a strong economy.
00:39:26
Speaker
even though we have high inflation. We are not deterred from still spending our money. That's basically what that means. Also, there's strong corporate earnings. Businesses that can pass on higher cost to consumers without losing sales can maintain or even increase their profits. Meaning that companies are out here passing the buck on us. So when Former president Donald Trump talks about tariffs and the tariffs are going to pay for everything. Look up what actually tariffs do. Tariffs cause us to spend more money, a unilateral tariff. Sometimes tariffs on certain goods will bring down the cost. But just saying a blanket tariff on everything, yeah, that's going to drive up prices for us. That's going to cause more inflation, not lower inflation. And then also
00:40:18
Speaker
What's the last thing? The reason why we have a pretty good economy right now, even though inflation is high, is government policies, stimulant packages, and other government interventions can help support the economy during periods of high inflation. Kind of like the stimulus packages that we got during the pandemic. A lot of people lost their jobs, right? A lot of people lost their jobs.
00:40:41
Speaker
I personally know of people that I worked with that lost their job and I you know helped them get unemployment benefits, right? Part of part of the company that I was working with. There were people that had to be let go. And I said, hey, look.
00:40:59
Speaker
You're not going to be able to make any money, but there are employee benefits through the COVID package that will at least maintain you for your main spending stuff, right? Like you'll be able to live, not like you used to live, but you'll be able to live. And that's what the government was providing because the government had to shut us down because people were dying. That's how that all happened.
00:41:22
Speaker
While inflation could create challenges, these factors can help mitigate its impact and keep the economy relatively strong. And that's what's happened. So that's how you can have a strong economy, which is what we have, but high inflation, which is also what we have. High inflation on certain products. It's not high inflation across the board. High inflation on certain products. So you might go to the grocery store in one week, eggs are real cheap. Then next week, eggs are real expensive.
00:41:52
Speaker
You might go to the grocery store and Gatorade might be real cheap and then next week real expensive, chicken, et cetera. But you're still going and buying. So that's keeping their economy strong. So for all those people out there saying that we have a bad economy, we do not. We have a good economy. What's bad about what's going on is that we have high inflation on certain products. Please, when you're going out there,
00:42:20
Speaker
and you're talking like you think you know what you're talking about. Remember young Bruce taking that Econ 100 class, working real hard to get a C that if the grade was properly done and not on a curve, would have been an F and majority of the class would have failed out too. You don't understand the economy.
00:42:44
Speaker
You don't. You don't understand how it works. Hell, economists have a really difficult time understanding how their economy works. You're not an expert. You don't know what you're talking about. Stop talking like you're an expert. Stop saying, this person helped their economy and this person didn't help their economy. You don't know. Pay attention to the policies that they're presenting and what makes sense. What makes sense to you? You getting more money in your pocket through tax cuts for you or Rich people getting tax cuts and you thinking that's going to trickle down to you. This seems pretty simple to me, but and some people are so entrenched in their party affiliation that they can't see the forest for the trees. All right, do what you want to do, but stop saying that you understand the economy because I just gave you a tutorial. And even if you were taking notes during that whole thing, how many of you actually understand what the hell is going on out there?
00:43:45
Speaker
You don't. So stop talking-ish.
Parenting Dilemmas and Child's Feats
00:43:56
Speaker
This last segment, I'm going to bring it up a little bit, right? I'm going to make it a little bit more light. I know that you guys can tell that there's anger inside of me right now. I'm not doing a good job of hiding it. Those two first stories really really aggravated me. So this show is a little bit more emotional for me than I would typically have it be. But it's raw and it's real and it's unsolicited perspectives with Bruce Anthony and I'm giving you my unsolicited perspective and it's raw, real and genuine. This is how I feel and I'm angry.
00:44:32
Speaker
Not like angry all the time, but certain stuff makes me angry. Certain stuff that people do when it feels like you're not using common sense makes me extremely angry because I don't feel like common sense is you know that hard. But I'm finding out in my older age that common sense isn't that common.
00:44:54
Speaker
But what is remarkable is when a little eight year old girl wants to go to Target so bad that she drives herself there. So so I read a story and some of you may have heard of this story. An eight year old girl from Ohio took her mother's SUV, an SUV and drove to the Target store about 13 miles from our home. She jumped in and she's an eight year old girl.
00:45:19
Speaker
She jumped in her mom's SUV and drove to Target 13 miles away from her home. Some of y'all can't drive to Target 13 miles away from your home without getting into a fender bender or almost getting into an accident or running a red light. This little girl drove to Target in an SUV 13 miles away and made it there okay.
00:45:47
Speaker
The incident occurred on September 15th of this year, 2024. The girl was last seen by our family around 7 AM and they discovered she was missing missing shortly after that. A neighbor's ring camera footage showed the girl getting into the 2020 Nissan Rogue and driving off. The police were alerted and they found the SUV in a Target park parking lot. The girl was inside the store and she was safely returned to her family. The police joked about the incident on Facebook saying, we did let her finish her Frappuccino. We're not mean. Many commenters were impressed by the girl's ability to drive such a long distance at such a young age. I am absolutely impressed that she was able to do that. But when I was reading this story, I was thinking to myself, and I'm not a parent,
00:46:32
Speaker
Hell, some parents out there are not parents. I'm just going to put that out there too. Some of y'all out here are bad parents. And bad parents don't necessarily mean that you have bad communication or bad structure in your household with your kids. It could be maybe you're a single parent and you bring people into the house that you're dating that you necessarily shouldn't be bringing around your kids. Or you bring them in too quickly or things of that nature. That's something that I've experienced myself. I date a young lady.
00:47:00
Speaker
Or in my case now, you know, older ladies, and they have kids. You know, I don't have any kids, but they have kids. And I'm like, hey, look, don't be yeah introducing me to your kid right away. I'm not trying to be in that kid's life and then disappear. I don't know if I'm going to love you for a minute or forever. but You know what I'm saying? But I'm going to tell you one thing. I'm going to stick around a lot longer if you've got kids in the picture, because Brucey Bruce loves the kids.
00:47:26
Speaker
Um, so there's a lot of different ways that you could be a bad parent, but I was thinking about how I would discipline my child for stealing the car and driving the target. What amazes me is that she knew how to get there because you're eight years old. And I remember being eight years old. Like maybe I could walk to the school and back home. Maybe I knew my way to a park.
00:47:50
Speaker
But a store 13 miles away, probably not. Now, I don't know if there's a lot of turns or things of that nature. Maybe it's a straight shot. But even still, 13 miles, that's at least 20 minutes, you know depending on where you are. If you're in DC, that's 15 hours to drive 13 miles. That's just remarkable that she got there. But I have to discipline her somehow.
00:48:18
Speaker
And yes, I would be extremely impressed that my daughter did that. I'd be like, that's daddy's little girl to be able to operate an adult machine for such a long period of time, go in the store and get you a Frappuccino. I don't know where she got the money. I would be questioning that because parents don't do like my parents did in the 80s. My dad used to leave. you know dollar bills and change around the house that I just used to collect. I didn't know it was stealing. It was just money laying around. I collected and I had about $50 one time. I offered to pay my babysitter. Roxanne. Roxanne was fine. Anyway, but as I detour, I wouldn't know how to discipline my child. In one regard, I'd be so proud of her that she dunton did this accomplishment. Daddy's little girl is a rock star. At another point,
00:49:06
Speaker
She could have killed herself. She could have killed somebody else. She could have made severe damages to buildings, cars that could have crippled me financially. I was talking to a friend of mine and they were like, well, when they turned 16, they just don't get their driver's license. I'm like an eight year punishment to punish a 16 year old for something that they did at eight. I think that that's really ridiculous because at eight, does she truly know that what she did was wrong?
00:49:36
Speaker
Had her parents explained to her, only grownups can drive. Right? Only grownups can go there. She would, it was seven o'clock in the morning and she's like, look, I need to start my day with a Frappuccino. That's what she said. So I don't know what the dynamic was with the parents. And I don't know that you necessarily have that conversation with an eight year old girl. Like, no, you don't get in the car and drive. This is for adults.
00:50:00
Speaker
And even if you do say that, do you explain to them why it's only for adults? That was a lot of issue that I had with my parents. They would always say, no, you can't do that or no, don't do that. My favorite question still is my favorite question. Why? Because I said so. Me and my mom get into arguments now in my big grown age about that's a stupid explanation. Now, granted, parents have a difficult job.
00:50:27
Speaker
You got to go to work. You got to get kids ready to do whatever they need to do. You got to feed them, make sure they clean up after themselves, or you have to clean them. you Look, it's a lot going on. And then these terrible twos, all kids do is ask questions all day long. You tired? You don't feel like dealing with that. You just want to relax. And I get that. I understand that. But Aren't we supposed to be teaching so that these kids become responsible, productive adults by saying, because I said so that's not given an explanation. So they're not learning. They just know that they shouldn't do this out of fear. And I'm not saying that kids shouldn't have a healthy fear of their parents,
00:51:17
Speaker
I repeat, a healthy fear of their parents, but kids should also understand why doing something is not the right thing for them to do. Taking the time to explain it, kids understand better than what you think. You can talk to kids, they learn, they they're the fastest learners.
00:51:37
Speaker
Right? Kids that are, you know, one, two, three, four years old, it's been studied, it's been proven. It's easier for you to pick up a language than it is for you to an adult. You learn faster and quicker as a kid. Your capacity to learn is not vast yet. You can't teach a kid algebra, right? Your capacity to learn complicated concepts is not there, but you learn and retain information very quickly. Kids observe. They're always watching. They're always listening. They're picking up on stuff because they're experience every they're experiencing everything for the first time.
00:52:12
Speaker
I think adults seem to forget that when they have kids. This is somebody that's experiencing life for the first time. Whereas you've gone through this thing a million times, they've only tied their shoes or they've never tied their shoes. And when they learn to tie their shoes, it's only been three or four times.
00:52:31
Speaker
You know, they haven't mastered that. Some of y'all are adults that don't know how to tie your shoes. You know who I'm talking to out there. So it was just, it was just an interesting thought. You know, I like to think about things. I like to ponder. And I was like, how would I discipline? And I honestly, I don't know what I would do. I would sit down and have a long conversation.
00:52:52
Speaker
I was explaining the severity of how it could have gone wrong and how you could and how my daughter could have hurt herself or other people or hurt her her siblings or a mother and or me because you hit or destroyed things and financially we're ruined because we got to pay that stuff off.
00:53:14
Speaker
right? And I would say, hey, that's really great that you had this real, this, this cool accomplishment, but there are consequences to all of your actions. Here are the things that you could have done.
Conclusion and Future Content
00:53:27
Speaker
I guess I would have to put her on punishment, but, but once again, if they had told her know you can't drive that's only for adults, then she knew it was wrong, then she absolutely should be punished. But if something like that was never thought to be said by the parent because we know that obviously she shouldn't be doing this, but did we explain to her that no, you can't do this and this is the reason why or
00:54:00
Speaker
When she asked, can I drive? Did you just say no and not explain why? I don't know. It was, it was, this was just really interesting to me. It's also really remarkable. Wow. An eight year old girl drives 13 miles of target and got herself a Frappuccino. That's, that's funny. The cops let her finish it too. That's cool. You know, how are you going to get mad at a little girl? How are you going to get mad at a little kid, man? Little kids of joy of life. They really, really are. Oh, you know what?
00:54:30
Speaker
that broughten up there that brightened up my spirits. Because you know, I was angry at the beginning of this show. I'm not so angry anymore. But yeah, I feel a lot better about that story. Kids can definitely bring a smile to your face. That's for sure. Ladies and gentlemen, I know this has been a lot to consume today. I hope you learned some things. I hope you learned. Ozimpic is not the way to fat loss. I hope you learned. You do not understand the economy. And I hope you learned sometimes You just gotta to go get you a Frappuccino. Sometimes you just gotta go get you a Frappuccino. I never had one. I might go get me one now. but Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for
00:55:19
Speaker
That was a hell of a show. Thank you for rocking with us here on Unsolicited Perspectives podcast wherever you're listening or watching it to it. Pass it along to your friends. If you enjoy it, that means the people that you rock will will enjoy it also. So share the wealth, share the knowledge, share the noise. And for all those people that say, well, I don't have a YouTube. If you have a Gmail account and you have a YouTube, Subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can actually watch our video Podcasts with the real party is on our patreon page after hours uncensored and talk a straight ish after hours uncensored is another show with my sister and once again the key word there uncensored those are exclusively on our patreon page jump onto our website at unsolicited perspective and for all things us. That's where you can get all of our audio, video, our blogs, and even buy our merch. And if you're really feeling generous and want to help us out, you can donate on our donations page. Donations go strictly to improving our software and hardware so we can keep giving you guys good content that you can