Transcript
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Speaker: Question, question. Do you think you should be able to do whatever you want to poor people as an employer? Now that you own Wildwood, do you think you should be able to exploit people, do whatever you want to them?
Speaker: I'm going to go big on this one. for at My baseline, I'm against slavery. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker: I hate to answer a question with a question, but do you, where do you believe is slavery? Yeah. Because there are people that probably earn a wage that feel like slaves. And then there's people that maybe feel like slaves to the system or whatever, which is more of a I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know if that's metaphorical, but like, because I think you have to kind of answer that a little bit to start to say, what are you comfortable with when you're exploiting workers and resources and all that stuff?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure. So I think the commentary on this is kind of hysterical on either end of it. And it just it's an interesting topic in the sense that like if you if you tap the white liberal who lives in New York City or whatever, but typically a female, we love to trash the women, but it's like...
Speaker: Can you believe it Oh my God. i won't i won't do the voice and do it make everybody stop listening. But like it's, it's I don't have healthcare care paid for and we don't have the childcare benefit. can Can you believe it? And like, if you look at the Scandinavian countries, we should have all this stuff.
Speaker: And I actually fundamentally don't disagree that a rich country should strive to provide those things for the entire population, but it's the whininess when people, considering like immigrants truly come over to the border here, or they used to rather, but they come over the border here to find the most basic of opportunities, which for them is truly life-changing, like picking a sense of gratitude.
Speaker: Yeah, picking cherries on a farm. And so there's something missing in between there. But as I think about it, you know, employers have some power. As a country, we need to like have some values about what exploitation means versus opportunity.
Speaker: And so it's ah it's a confusing thing that I thought only two smart guys like us could solve. And there's such a high level of hypocrisy in it ah because any anything that you're accessing now ma in the modern world was done with some labor that probably is is is an environment that you yourself wouldn't want you or your kids to work in.
Speaker: So like we're so far, you know, people are so far removed from it up there. Like, ah you're like you know you're just a bite by any You're basically a hypocrite, whether you like it or not.
Speaker: Because you have something you're wearing something, you're using something, you're doing something with that was made by somebody who's making a wage that you couldn't fathom survival with it. Yeah, that's why I wanted to have the conversation. You have a different lens seeing a level that a lot of people don't see being in Costa Rica.
Speaker: You see immigrants coming to Costa Rica who are so so down and out. I mean, they're happy with like somebody rolling a peach across the driveway to them or whatever. Yeah, it's it's crazy, dude. I mean, I see people here, some people, like friends I have, that are like when they're looking for a job and they're like, oh, this is what I can make. And it's something that like nobody could fathom in the U.S. And and you're like, yeah, I mean, I think it's been good for me. Because because as ah as you as you're close to it, in it, it's easier to like make, to see it and make decisions. and
Speaker: But when you're... I just now I look I mean, I hate to say it, but I look at like, it's almost like I feel like Robin Hood. It's like if I go up there and try to make some money off these crying, crying people in the US that are bitching about money and wages, and it's like, come on.
Speaker: But I think a lot of people up there know that and respect it. I'm not dogging people in the U.S. the same issue here, but I just think it's hard to be like that liberal crying person who's like voicing their opinions through their iPhone.
Speaker: But it's like, all right, that is just a ironic, you know, hypocrisy right there. You know, you're you're putting it on social media. But I mean, I i think that I don't know. i mean, you you you studied I think you went pretty far in the ah um economics and i do remember a ah presentation by i think it was macro or some huge like 100 level class at colorado and the guy was making a comparison about why michael jordan gets paid more than a janitor and it was like because he's one of one of a million that can do what he does where a lot of people might be good at being a janitor not not that a janitor is not a valuable position but it's more about demand and like
Speaker: ah I kind of believe in that stuff as far as like free markets, but it's like, where's the bottom, right? Like ah as I, as I, we try to sell tables and we're trying to make, make margins work and we're always looking for lower costs.
Speaker: If someone said, Hey, I can get you like these table bases that we buy. I can get you table bases for 10 bucks a piece because I have a network of children that, that are chained up and making these for me.
Speaker: It might be like, if I get margin, I get margin. No, right. it Yeah, the economic theory has something to do with equilibrium between labor versus management. It's sort of like the premise of that theory, I believe. I'm going way back to the textbooks. is like The theory is employers want to pay people the least amount possible to get the job done, and that labor wants to make as much money as possible for the least amount of work.
Speaker: And I think we all go... Both of those are true to some extent. We've done it, I would be fair to say on both sides. We've done it, but that implies that there is no trust between the two parties.
Speaker: And if you work at a company like that, which I'm sure we both did at some point, you work at a company where there is no trust like that, it's a fucking terrible place to work. And there aren't, you know, we we had the luxury of working at companies that weren't.
Speaker: terrible places to work. So I think as an employer, like if you're Wildwood, you're not like, I'm going to pay this person the least amount I possibly can because you know that that's an ineffective way to get what you want out of them.
Speaker: So you are going to like look at the market if you're rational. You're going to look at whatever the carrots are that would motivate somebody to do well if you're rational. And yet there are still plenty of places where employers exploit the living fuck out of people, especially the the marginal communities.
Speaker: And so you have to ask yourself, like what's the what's the baseline? What is the value of the kind the country in terms of how we take care of people? That's the debate. Yeah, there's another side to it. Yeah, go ahead. yeah People are lazy as shit and they're they show up to the work site and do nothing and they're they're not really good employees. So you have about all those dynamics happening at once. And so do you really wanna give a lazy piece of crap, free healthcare, care free childcare and two weeks off?
Speaker: It's a strange dynamic. We're going to solve it today. Biatch. Yeah. The other side of that up and up there in your lily white, it's it's interesting how like It's almost never enough for the employee and the, and the amount of money they make almost has in benefits, whatever, almost has no bearing on if they're a good employee or not. It's usually not like, like, so the other side of that is this, everyone's like, i need more money. It's like, why you're not, and but it does not mean it's like, here's more money. i'm going to get more work out of you. That's almost never the case, unless it's like a ah hardworking foreigner.
Speaker: Who's who realizes like, all right, more work means more hours and I'll work harder and I'll show you that I, that I, you know, like a laborer will work harder to make more money or or put more time in. And I've seen it like over and over again, but I never, you never see that in the suburban white corporate world, the people like working hard related to money. Rarely. That's like a unicorn.
Speaker: Yeah, maybe, maybe, dude. I hear what you're saying. yeah But like, I think employers are also, they're trying to maximize their profit and their benefit. And you look at CEO salaries. They're the same people though that we're talking about, don't you think? Like employees are like middle management, white people that never really blow your socks off as far as like how hard they work and stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, that's that's like a key point. And maybe one of the more interesting things is that hedonic adaptation that like, if I get something, I expect it. And I always now I'm seeking more and then I adapt to whatever the more is. And I just kind of keep going on this cycle and I'm never happy. that's a That's a sickness in our, I don't know, in our psyche.
Speaker: But it seems now that nobody's ever satisfied. And that's probably what makes the white collar people and the privileged people in New York City or whatever place that are bitching, that makes them really off-putting.
Speaker: i want what I wonder if the, which is almost the exact opposite what you're saying, like, is the best system just the most in, you know, like Wall Street, Gordon Gekko, that greed is good? Like the most, what like people people are always like investment bakers seem to work hard, or at least they they claim they work a lot of hours, you know?
Speaker: i don't know why, but... Just like NFL coaches, like always talking about how many hours they work. It's like, calm down. you know But what like so investment bankers are just strictly driven by more money and because that they work harder and they make them money and they make money.
Speaker: Is that the only honest system? No, i think that's a horrible system. I think that's the no rule system is what brought children into factories in the beginning of the industrial revolution. I mean, and people working like 14 hour days. I mean, that's a, that's. why Yeah. But you just said like the problem is we can't trust people that that's the problem, right? It's like that system would be good if you could trust people not to exploit, exploit the ah exploitable, right? Maybe. Right.
Speaker: Right. I was saying the theory, the theory, sorry, sets up this no trust paradigm between labor and and capital or labor and management, however you want to term it. Not everybody's like that.
Speaker: Like they're really good business owners. They're really like the guy that started Hershey's. Like he created a whole like... living experience for his, yeah, for his employees. That was magnificent. But people are driven by different things. But I think the money alone is an immoral way to run businesses.
Speaker: It might still be money. Like you're, because if you go, well, if my, all my employees are happy because I set this thing, this utopia up or whatever, like Hershey's guy, then that's just gonna mean more production, better production, less, less like, ah you know, loss of wasted time because of, because of mental illness and everything.
Speaker: But the bottom line, you know, it's like a good way to look at it and in a way is like, well, if everyone's happy and feels well compensated and the environment's good, you're gonna, it's good. It's like rising tide. Everyone's gonna do better.
Speaker: Exactly. Win-win, right? Yeah. But, uh, yeah, but I, I just don't have, i mean, I don't have like the, the corporate, I don't know, like it, like we bitch a lot about the system and corporations, but that you're like, who is that? Like, I never felt you were in a pretty big corporation and I don't know if you felt there was like a person or a group of, of illuminati type people that were like no we'll never let them get it's like the only people you're dealing with in those environments are usually like you're direct above you or that are right above there and they have a budget and they're based and they're basing it on whatever you know income or money they're raising and usually it's not this like evil thing in that environment i mean we're talking about like that white middle class job not the guy that's like exploiting labor somewhere but like
Speaker: Right. The culture permeates the company and it's not about a single person, but the the culture does drive what the the values of the company are and sort of what people accept expect and get used to.
Speaker: that That happens in every company and there are great companies. I would say I work for a solid one from an employee perspective. And then there are terrible companies that do continue to extract from Everybody that works for them. I would argue a place like an Uber or a Lyft or a DoorDash is extractive.
Speaker: And from an employee perspective, they know that these are people that need some part-time extra cash and ah and they they get squeezed. It's like a not a place you can actually make a living. and And some people casually go, ah, well, so what? That's like what the market dictates.
Speaker: At some point, though, a society has to go, well, well what's what is a reasonable baseline minimum for all human beings? Is it we provide healthcare? i mean, we've we've decided that emergency care services is a baseline.
Speaker: There's another side there, though, which is like when you get in the Uber and you're like, what the heck? I'm going to not to curse this week. What the heck? $95 Uber ride? Right. or Or, you know, $17 lettuce because the because the guy picking it's making $45 an hour now as a as a livable wage.
Speaker: that's the That's the problem. Well, it's back and forth. That equilibrium changes and the power imbalances change. 2022, employees were like basically middle finger to everyone and could switch jobs so easily.
Speaker: And now it's turning back to the employers having more power and they're starting to lay off some hoes, to lay off do buyouts and shit like that. But what what do you think every human being in a rich society should have access to?
Speaker: Be honest, Matt. Huh? Huh? I don't know. i mean, because I see like down here, i so my, the like i there's minimum, like if the government has set like a requirement, like to protect the employee and protect the people, they always like would err on the side of the public. that they There's like minimum salaries set in to protect people from being exploited. And you know what that creates?
Speaker: That's exactly what people get. is the minimum. Right. And so so someone goes, well, that's so i have to pay the the maid. Like you can pay a maid four or five hundred bucks a month to work 48 hours a week, clean your house and do your laundry and take care of your kids.
Speaker: And so no one pays more than that. Maybe some people are like I pay them well, it might be like six hundred bucks a month and they feel like a martyr. and the the maids happy. So it's hard to say because like by setting the the minimums and stuff, which ah which in generally like unions were formed to like in in the US to protect people who are getting exploited when they're working crazy hours in the Industrial Revolution.
Speaker: But then you're also setting like for a lot of people, it's like, all right, that's legally what I have to do. So that's what I'm going to do and and not a cent more. So I mean, your question is about just in general, what what are people, what do I think people deserve in ah in a functioning society?
Speaker: But it's it's not about the wage for me. I'm asking more. do you think they deserve to eat? It all goes together, I think. Like how Darwinian are you? get Do you think they deserve to eat to have health care? Like they have a kid who who has childhood cancer. The kid just like throw them in the dumpster because health care doesn't apply to you. Like, I mean, that that's obviously ah a bait, but.
Speaker: ah rage babe but like this it comes back to like all right we're all hypocritical because we know that's happening but we're not out going out of our way to like empty our bank accounts because there's somewhere somewhere somebody's malnourished and it's not getting what they need somebody somewhere yeah but in your own country you have to kind of decide i think and we've decided i'll help i'll give people homeless people some money but i'm not like i didn't i'm not helping people that i don't know right now So what do i do? People do it's hard. These people deserve to eat and have healthcare. care That's like the the first two questions. What what does deserve mean?
Speaker: It's like, is that like entitled to or what? I think, and yeah, if you were to as if you were to like look at it from a moral perspective or philosophical perspective, it it's a belief. it you'd You'd have to say to yourself and agree collectively as a society, yeah, I think that starving human beings and human beings that don't have any access to healthcare care is wrong, and I don't want that in my society.
Speaker: So you would fix it by having like social programs? Yeah, I think if you're down and out, you have you have ah some help, which I think is the U.S. has done it a fairly decent job, except that it's all scattered. Right. Our emergency departments can't refuse care.
Speaker: So if you have an emergency, you can get care. If you're a citizen. a lot of people don't know that. I think when people bitch about the U.S., they're like, you can't get health care. Like if you have an issue, you can go to a hospital and they can't refuse you. Right. Yeah. I'd be in debt or bankrupt, but you'll you'll be alive.
Speaker: Maybe you don't want to be. Maybe. Right. and Yeah. So then you have that. But like if you're a citizen, you have ah lots of other safety nets. And then, of course, a society around.
Speaker: or a whole community around giving people food is developed all across the nation and and sort of food pantries and other, even the government funds a lot of stuff. So I think. You think that should be private or public?
Speaker: i i I think it could be better organized. I'm just saying, I think we've already decided in the U S that people should eat. And people should have some level of healthcare option.
Speaker: I guess that feels good to me. I don't know if it's too little or too much, but it's probably a little, it's too little. I think it's a nice thing to have. That might sound like a horrible way to say it, but it's like in an ideal world, if you're in a society like the U S that has an amazing amount of money, you ought to be able to carve out a little bit of, a little bit of money.
Speaker: You're not going to tank the economy or really like, it's almost like a zero loss. I think you should, and Costa Rica's done ah a great job of that. They've probably done a better job. But like if you don't do that, you risk like a Haiti type of of highly corrupt, like a sort of a devastating living circumstances. like If one thing goes wrong, the half of society falls through the cracks. It's just known terrible place.
Speaker: a known terrible place Yeah, that's like, you're, yeah I mean, people make the counter argument, the of a diehard Republican might be that if you do that, then you're just going to have people that have no motivation. They're just going to take handouts and live essentially in the the worst life they can.
Speaker: So there's ah there should be a way to do it where you're motivated to be your own person, but also you know that if shit hits the fan, you have some help. Like for, i you know, I mentioned to for a while, I have like health insurance here. It's like for me and my kids, I think it's 35 bucks a month.
Speaker: And it's through like the universal healthcare care program. You can argue is it better worse and than private health insurance in the U.S.? it Doesn't really matter. What I know is like when I was trying to figure out my life and start my business up after I'd lost my job, it was great because I like, it's one thing I didn't have to worry about. And in my case, it was part of a motivation to become an entrepreneur error to create, know,
Speaker: create whatever my own a job a path for me a thing that's affected other people and and made like it's a money multiplier right somebody starts a business and so the fact that i had that comfort it was like oh now I can now I can take a risk or or like a capitalist republican might say no you're just giving someone ah a a reason to be a piece of shit or it's like no if you're if you're comfortable with like you're healthy you know your kids like if so they break their arm there's a place for them to go and you'll be fine and it's not going to ruin you then then maybe you're more likely to like
Speaker: make a, make a choice that might actually make the economy better and make yourself better and make the world better. You know? agree. i I think that's a gap in the U S and it's not like, Oh, we're just going to give everybody free healthcare and the healthcare industry is going to collapse the way that it is. It's like, no, you just have an option.
Speaker: You have an option. You raise taxes. Public option, bro. Yeah. You raise taxes and that way, People with means can throttle up if they want or do whatever, get extra benefits.
Speaker: All the same things that happen in the economy with any consumer good or any pursuit, whether it's real estate or going to nice restaurants. I think that's reasonable. Well, but how do you compare that to like, so you have you have private,
Speaker: privately plan for your retirement and the main investments. Do you have faith in the social security system, which is kind of like what we're talking about, that that's viable running like it's run to the government. You think that works, the system works?
Speaker: I think it's worked. Great. I mean, I think it's worked great for millions of Americans. i don't know how many years it's been in existence. Is it their 30s, 40s? I think, yeah. I think that was part of the New Deal or whatever, like maybe Roosevelt. So probably, yeah. I don't know if he did that before. Well, he had to do it before the war because he died during the war. So yeah, we'll call it 30. So almost 100 years. I mean, my parents, that that's their income. They've had some other savings and shit, but they use that money, you know? Oh, of course. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's great. and And I think it's for especially for people that would have been just fallen through the cracks, had no other options financially. Like it's so it's a life lifesaver.
Speaker: It's even part of the reason I'm like, you know, where I'm like, all right, well, things will be all right. I just got to get make it to 65. But it's like a reason why you can take a risk too. Yeah.
Speaker: But but that's that's kind of the way that this healthcare system is set up here, where like people pay in. It's not free, but people pay in a modest amount. The employee pays in a modest amount, and that's what supports it. Then they do shit, like I told you, they have ah like the the amusement park here.
Speaker: like the It's like Six Flags over Costa Rica. It's not what it's called, but Parque de Versiones. That's like money they raise for the children's hospital, which is pretty cool. you know like There's other ways to do it, where you can get creative with it. but ah Yeah, so...
Speaker: um but yeah i just i don't know if it's hard for me to say like what people deserve it's like to me it's like that's great because not always what you deserve is what you can get it's like sometimes it's not feasible and so like it's like a goal it's a great goal for a thriving society but if it's like you're probably going to have some terrible shit happen to people because that's where the world is and but it's like a goal i think yeah no i think we agree does everyone deserve to eat I don't know. It's just weird to say deserve. I don't know if it's the right word. It's like, should you have, should you be a, should you have an initiative where you're trying to help everyone survive and thrive? I would say yes. Well, it's the same thing. Eating, eating is a part of, should everyone have clean water?
Speaker: But it's like, I mean, you could take that. You could be like, right, well, anyone who walks in a restaurant with no money, the restaurant should feed them because people deserve to eat. No, that's not the same thing. the grocery store or the house. Like I should right now just be like, lunch is on and just bring in everybody from the street.
Speaker: It's not the same thing, but it's true. It's like, where's the where's the line where you're like, people deserve to eat. So whose responsibility is it? Well, you could follow the path of Jesus and you could give food out to people who need it. And plenty of people do, right? Yeah, some people do. And a lot of people start nonprofits and they feed people in need. I think all that's good. I'm just saying that morally we have decided, i would say, in the U.S. that people deserve to eat.
Speaker: The people that don't do that, though, are they they at fault? Like if you never help somebody who ah um someone who doesn't have access to food the way you do with food, are you are you, you know, are you like a debt? It's like what are you responsible? Should be like, no, you have people deserve to eat. So you need to participate in that.
Speaker: I don't know. I don't know. Everybody chooses how they live. And I i know there's a segment of society that sort of sequesters themselves on a golf course somewhere and they're living the high life and they look down upon people who didn't pull themselves up by their bootstraps. I mean, there is a segment. Always golfers, Always golfers. Yeah, it's tough. I had to pick on somebody. But dude, that yeah there's ah there's a big part of the society that still thinks that you know people just need to fit that they should just figure it out like they did.
Speaker: And they they really believe that they worked extremely hard. they don't They don't really connect with the idea of luck, but that they just worked so hard and that's why they have what they have. And they don't see that society as a whole, whether it's infrastructure, the rule of law, all the things that form society helped them dramatically. And so paying taxes is sort of like like no fucking way i earned this and you have that that whole thing i don't respect those people at all yeah i mean there's definitely like if you don't see that the the planets aligned for you so to speak uh like there's there's this luck involved everywhere who you who you're born to where you were born but i mean the u.s s still whatever you want you know you have political
Speaker: Issues and stuff. It's still a place where you can like make make a way for yourself it It seems to be getting harder But I think that's what some people that are like speak a little better and less worried about their fucking agenda and guns and shit They did you know, you should say I was I was completely I was lucky just to be born in the US. That's the first thing. Just to be born there. And then I was lucky to be an environment where people around me helped me. I had teachers. I had i had you know whatever. I had people at least tell me like what's what's right and wrong. like All that is is a big deal.
Speaker: And then there's like privilege and all that stuff. so Yeah. Now we've, I've railed on that side of it for a long time. And why I want to talk about this is because the other side, as these democratic socialist types come into power, at least some of them won, then the fear is now, eh, oh my God, like people should have 5% match. We're going to write a law where everybody gets 5% match for their 401k from their employer. And you you could see this like escalating benefit structure that ultimately collapses. It's not sustainable, right? Yeah. And there's there's just like this like like laughable whining. Like we need a child care benefit for all. Think about it. If if I have free child care, then I can go work.
Speaker: Okay. If you have free child care, you might sit on your ass. That's what i that's all I was saying earlier. like that You could drive the bottom instead of drive people up. right Or at least that's the fear, right? That's the piece that liberal Lance, Mr. Anti-Right-Wing Lance, is like actually now starting to think and worry about. like are we Is there a potential that we go too far into this space of like, he didn't have internet.
Speaker: And that how could he ever access a job? How could he ever figure anything out in the world in like every possible gap? Has to be filled by the government? Has to be filled by some policy. And that's where I might like lean right.
Speaker: That's what we taught. Like we were joking last night, but it's like, man, we never just sat on it because we were we were joking with each other like, all right, so the the blue wave happened and now it's going to be, I don't know, we're making jokes about...
Speaker: I'll say I was making the jokes, so you're not implicated, but like I don't know trans abortions in public bathrooms mandatory or so It's like like things gonna get so far left because no one in the it went way too far right with fucking Hegseth and Trump and and all this bullshit and now it's gonna go way left again like it's like this There's some easy things you probably could set up a social system to like help people when they need stuff like Social Security seemed to work But yeah, but well your your fear is like, oh, we're just going to push it too far in the other direction on all all all premises, right?
Speaker: Absolutely. Like I always thought we should establish a minimum baseline of the sort of moral understanding for what if you exist as a human being in this country or in a country, you you deserve this. And I actually mean deserve.
Speaker: And then from there, it's it's competition, it's ingenuity, it's intelligence, all the other factors that lead to who who takes more of the pie. Capitalism has proven to be fairly effective in sort of moving society forward and and elevating living standards for all. So that's how I feel about it. I just also get a little worried when we have a segment now of society And i have i have the hypocrisy is real. Like I've leaned on this side more often than not.
Speaker: but it's like it sees everybody as a victim and wants to provide, fill all the gaps and provide all the services. So like the free college, the childcare for all, the healthcare care for all, you know, and where does it stop?
Speaker: It'd be concerning, right? Corporate profits would plummet. Wildwood would suffer. It would be like the bottom gets a little easier life and the top comes down or something like that. Then you'd settle like at a below average life, right?
Speaker: Well, yeah the whole country would probably settle lower if we if we escalate that side of things too far. So I hope we just get back to some traditional legislative debates between reasonable Republicans, not MAGA fucks, and reasonable Democrats who say, hey, I think this is the fix. And it's it's back to that debate of intervention versus hard work whatever.
Speaker: The biggest problem with all, like the the underlying theme of everything you said and what we've been talking about and who's privileged and not, I think a lot of it, and it happens here a lot, like why this country is not quite as advanced as should be is corruption.
Speaker: So you have, you put in these social systems and then corruption, money's missing it didn't go and then people like that system doesn't work well it's because the fucking money never got to where it needed to be and so and then same thing like you do oh why why did the socialists want to overcompensate because you can't trust that the corporate's not gonna you know a special deal is gonna be made with someone to fund these these projects so but i don't know if you can ever get rid of corruption seems to be in our human nature or something You can strengthen the rule of law, which is actually one of the solutions for fairer society is if you strengthen that and all people punish no matter, this is where the argument for- Walk me through this. well What are you talking about?
Speaker: Like harder laws on corruption? Well, that the rule of law is is the standard of society. And so when laws are written, you don't you go after everybody, no matter how rich they are, no matter how powerful they are. ah yeah So you would never have- ah Loopholes. and You would never have like a president and immunity thing. You wouldn't do that in a society that really thinks the rule of law makes sense.
Speaker: Anyone um come to mind? like Taking advantage of that? No, no, no. no But like I do worry now about because it seems to permeate the culture of our young people who are blaming the boomers for ruining society. The boomers just took advantage of whatever was happening in the country at the time, which it was a high growth period. There's a period where they could accumulate. Like our parents.
Speaker: Yeah, the boomers have done well. They have a lot of assets, but the the millennials and and below are all like, oh, it's a fucking boomers why I can't buy a house. And they ruined the environment and they ruined everything. And now they're falling in this trap of like, give me- Everything for free.
Speaker: Shore me up. Yeah, shore me up. I need this, I need that. How am I ever going to buy a house? I mean, there have been some really absurd, like erase all college debt to me was like, okay But then it just gets everyone's like, oh, you guys just don't want to work.
Speaker: like that Like you want everything given to you without working for it. And the boomer generation like acts like they're the only generation that ever worked to get what they wanted. They're both right, but like, yeah, I hear you. But I don't know. i don't know.
Speaker: like It's like, I i think what we're going to find out in like four years is like everything still sucks. i know I know you're probably happy with the way the blue storm went. There's some weird shit that happened in the previous two years.
Speaker: And i don't i'm not going to say there still won't be, but yeah. I could be wrong, but didn't even Trump was kind of like, well, they won. They did a good job. I'm not stopping it. Yeah. I mean, he said that in between a lot of other crazy stuff, but whatever.
Speaker: Well, he's still a politician. Like, no, no, no. Come on. He's so low character. Don't he's just so there's no strategy. There's just a low character human being. But who you have more. it's It's like, don't you think most the scumbag politicians are like kind of like that?
Speaker: He might be the worst in your eyes, but like, I mean, how many politicians have you listened to talk and you're just like, Jesus, this is a fucking snake oil salesman. I really don't know. Like, I don't know who you're talking about. There's nobody that has ever acted like them. I think some Republicans have come recently to to try to mimic it. You're saying he's on an island on his own as far as this sort of scumbag politics?
Speaker: I think he opened the door for people to be grotesque. Reagan would hate Trump. Look, if you're a religious and you believe in business and you believe that businesses create jobs and elevate the lifestyle of America and you have a true conservative take and you believe that small government is the way to go, You are not going to look at Trump and go, wow, he embodies all that.
Speaker: So how long do you think before the party, J.D. Vance, and just start sort of isolating themselves? J.D. Vance, like that guy's a chameleon. That guy, I mean, that guy's a piece of shit, dude. But the party, like any lame duck president is going to get alienated. Like you think you think it's going to happen? Like Trump's trump's been, so his like power has been like un...
Speaker: Unchecked for so long like you think at some point the Republican but just like the Democratic Party had no Nothing to stand on for a while. was like pathetic and now now they have some rallying points Some it's just because Trump's such a jackass, but um, you think that that at some point they just kind of uh yeah I don't know, like the MAGA. Is MAGA just a Trump thing or is that a thing that's going to go on forever? Because I think that's really... You talk about your fear of the country. It's like, all right, is MAGA going to go away when Trump does or is this still going to be like this? Because the Tea Party bullshit just kind of faded away, at least. The the conservative pundits are already saying MAGA's dead. So it it doesn't matter, though. I didn't want to totally talk about that piece of it, but...
Speaker: it doesn't well that i get it it's like but those are that's gonna be like so the exactly that we had the top of this show like what is what are people if you want to put it in mega terms say what do people think they're entitled to that's why that word's important like deserve entitled but you you're gonna you need like a cultural shift and it can't go so far left where people immediately just go fucking that's communist bullshit when you talk about ah do we need better programs for people that ah have hit rock bottom? Most people would would it would say yes, they might go, its it should but that should only be done through private means or public means. But like when it when it looks like it's too public and forced, that's where a lot of Americans just go, I can't do that. But when you get to like this crazy MAGA shit where it's like we can't help anyone.
Speaker: They've got to go hunt. You go hunt for your own food. Go fuck yourself. Like that's why I'm asking if that's still like if that's a cultural thing and not a Trump thing, then any sort of conversation like this is um is going to be pretty hard to because it's going to like you're a communist or you're MAGA.
Speaker: And that's it, which is probably ah been in the way the US is like since the 40s or 50s like that that's the conversation line but like that that's neat that that bullshit needs to end The argument?
Speaker: Just the whole thing I like. i Everything is about freedom and myself and MAGA or it's like, oh, a public park is communist. It's like any, any there's like, yeah there's a lot of social programs that are that someone might be like, that's fucking communist. Like, okay, Wash Park is ah is a publicly funded park. Does i mean where it's and we may as well be living in fucking Moscow because there's a public park, you know? I'm ah i'm okay. I'm actually okay.
Speaker: I'm actually okay with those fundamental philosophical differences in the party lines. if that's I don't know that that's true today, but I think that that the idea that um self-determination is what we're wanting to reinforce in society versus like safety nets.
Speaker: And ah both of them have their places, and I'm fine that that that's the central argument. It keeps us level of shit. Yeah, policy-wise. i just I just would like to see us move to just a clearer set of values and then like people have... You don't get into office if you're a low-character piece of shit.
Speaker: But it's entertainment is leading everything at the at the moment still. It's kind of making a sad a sad society. But I do worry i do worry about the ah the libs. If left unchecked, they'll do stupid shit.
Speaker: you know They'll let's try to scrap capitalism. like They'll just' just do stupid shit. And yeah, you need to tax the rich more. like We went too far on the tax cuts. But like do you need to... like Be insane about it.
Speaker: And then then then what are you providing? What are the trade-offs? right We do have to acknowledge that rich people generally start businesses. Some don't, but many do. And like what are the trade-offs? So I took the money from them and then I gave it to...
Speaker: I don't know, some social program that is just like what it provides like massages to homeless people. And you kind of go to yourself, say to yourself, is that, is that really what we should be doing?
Speaker: That pendulum always swings as, as a pendulum was designed to swing. It's fine. i love it. The next four years or whatever, it's gonna you're going to be going after insanity on the left.
Speaker: Suddenly it's going to be a new look. it's just It's just we, if we could move so somehow society to be just like a little bit more intelligent to like... look at issues and look at trade us. I don't know if that's possible anymore given how tech works, but we've sort of lost the, the exploitation versus opportunity um conversation. That's fine. This is what we do.
Speaker: Guess what three letters I just typed into Yahoo finance finance, dude. It's the same letter. Triple Q's baby. Oh, TQQQ? TQQQ. By the way, audience, TQQQ was down like 19% in one day.
Speaker: What's the, oh, T is the triple leverage, because I just pulled up QQQ. The market's kind of popping today because of the jobs report, but the one that you you have an issue with, but it's QQQ is the same thing, it's just how leveraged it is? Yeah, if you put the T in front.
Speaker: It's not something you should hold long-term because you could actually lose all of your money. So what ah what do you think... Damn, air dude. i fucking I went in on Airbnb like five, six years ago thinking we'd come out of the...
Speaker: come out of the fucking pandemic with everyone traveling and pumping. And like, I had to dump it because ah because ah I needed money and now it's popping, dude. I just look, now it's up fucking 12% today. The market's popping today though. But what what's you take on- Show me TQQ. 53. What's up today? It's at 5301. It's up 5%. What did it go up today? 5%?
Speaker: Yeah. That's it? Yeah. Down 19%. 52 week range is 30,
Speaker: Yeah, 37, 32 to 88. But what do what do you is what do you think? does that I know it's kind of funny, but do you think that what happened with in the political structure, like any that's good or bad for funds like this that are you know tied to new technology and stuff like that?
Speaker: It should be bad for stock prices because the the Democrats will slow data center development probably. In theory, they're not going to be as good for that line of business.
Speaker: I saw something that um that the Anthropic IPO probably get pushed back because of that crisis. crushing of the of that sector yesterday but now it's pop but like this is so it's so flaky like even spacex that we talked about last week is up it's up seven percent today after it got wiped out yesterday like what could have changed in four in 24 hours for all this stuff but this is typical behavior of like ah a massive drop one day ah if it's a small pop that's actually potentially not good so if it's a small pop up today it likely starts going back down
Speaker: In my opinion, it's like not enough gas in the tank for the fight for the the fight the the fight back, essentially. That's what we're seeing today. Yeah. People have said so So basically, if you think of like the psychology, right, people were like, it's time to take some risk off the table. We had a good five years.
Speaker: and that starts happening. People reallocate portfolios a little bit. Then people go, oh, we went too far yesterday. and they they say, oh, buy in here. It's probably short-term traders more than anything. But not as much as i i got out. Yeah, so then it goes up, and then people go, oh, fuck, man, this thing ain't gonna keep going up, so I'm gonna pull off more, and it keeps going down. And then the belief system cracks, and then it starts to hit the real economy, and that thing Today's popping though a little bit. It should go down 30% at some point, I would think.
Speaker: It's not popping as much, like you said, it's not popping as much as it went down, but it's, it's there's some movement. yeah But we'll see. I mean, I'm happy. i think everyone should probably be. I don't know if there's a way out. As you know, I'm a believer in the the doomsday or doomsdayers on ah AI. i I sent you a message. I'm like, i don't know if they can stop it because I think people are just going to chill out for a couple of weeks and then be like, all right, keep cranking. But, uh, like, it's if there's a reset in that space, or or if if the left at least, or whoever's in charge is like, alright, we really need to like listen to the guys are building this shit, who keep saying they need some regulation, and need some outside outside auditors and stuff like that, then maybe that this whole blue wave will be enough to at least keep that movement going.
Speaker: where we can keep moving technology and the economy forward without putting our whole mankind at stake. Well, how hilarious is it that I'm an anthropic, I'm going to go after a 1.5 to $2 trillion dollar valuation with my IPO. And then in my, uh, I'm in, by the way, when that happens, yeah regardless of what you say. Yeah. But in my list of, of company risks in my financial report, I have the annihilation of humanity.
Speaker: I mean, how? i don't know, dude. Is that admirable? or is that or It's funny, that but they're like saying well just that they're they're saying it.
Speaker: like They're not even hiding it anymore. like every guy Every guy, Dario, Sam, are publicly going, here's the risk. death and everyone's like yeah there it is but that's annihilation of humanity so like how I don't know how big is the cognitive dissonance in your head because like if you really believe that when you go we have to pull the plug on this company because we believe it'll destroy all of humanity like if if you're that so like how do you reconcile it how do you look at that person how do you look at the leaders of that company and go oh yeah you're you're real human beings it doesn't make any sense well they're they're
Speaker: I mean, what I understand is they're going, we're they we're the we're the only people that can get through this. But you still, in your own report, say it's an existential risk for humanity. i don't like Then you want, hey, give me your money. This is a huge this is a risk, a major risk.
Speaker: Give me all your I that's why they keep pushing their OpenAI and now they push their IPOs back. You think that's part of it? Or you just think, no, they realize, oh, this is a bad time money-wise? I think raising capital is looking less and less appealing at this point.
Speaker: Like people, people are moving to more of a risk, a risk. all that Is it fair to say all that? Sorry, cut you off, but their capital is just straight up data center money.
Speaker: You think like that? That's where the investment is, right? Enough compute to to kill us. Well, I think it's, That'd be a great corporate motto. and Enough compute to kill us. Yeah. Different companies are investing in different things.
Speaker: Are you following that industry a lot? Do do you keep up on that? Not really. You should for me, bro. So I don't have to. But the robots, to tie it all in, the robots eventually will exploit us.
Speaker: We know that. Did I send you... I didn't send you any pictures last week. So we have a running joke and a ah serious idea that we're going to one day build a compound somewhere and only invite people we like hang out there.
Speaker: ah Lance and myself and I have a few other people I might invite. Are you going to... My kids are... I think I'll probably let them in. But depends how their report cards are and what they can give to me. ah But I was, I went to the very Southern tip of the, of the Corcolla Peninsula last week with my kids. I didn't send you pictures. It's, it's like, we should do it there. There's nothing there, like no grocery stores or anything, literally the middle of nowhere. And I'm, I mean, they could come get us there, but i don't know why they would, but it's, it's,
Speaker: it's off the path when you think would you need a helicopter to get i mean i got there i i use my wife's isuzu whatever the hell she has like four by i need four by four to get there uh i mean we stay in a big ass house like on the beach we're able to paddle out to this break saw a bunch of monkeys two cans all sorts of fucking crazy birds and animals and uh and like every place around there is like solar energy like the house we stayed in with solar energy is like not not a whole lot of like like you're you could go down you go down there and build a place on your own but
Speaker: besides doing it to be hang out with cool people in the twilight of your life in a cool place, do you think that any of this blue wave and that and this like changes any of the sort of people that were like, shit? Because we we also talked last night. I was like, Duolingo is a publicly traded stock that's absolutely crushing. And you thought it was tied to people are like going to get the fuck out of the US if things keep happening the way it is. And now you predict it's going to crash. Listeners, Lance predicts go short on Duolingo. Do lingo as you think that that changed anything? You feel a vibe this week where people are like, great.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. i the The liberals that were planning to, like, find another place to live, I think, ah maybe are reversing those plans. Good. Stay away from my paradise, gringos.
Speaker: I go peach seeds. You get to suck when the immigrant seeds.
