Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Don't think it.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
No butt dial.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, I can understand a butt dial, but a butt
talk back that's pretty difficult to do because you've got
to find the microphone, you've got to start the recording,
and you've got to send it.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It may automatically shut off at some point to the
timer does shut you off.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Now, then I'm pretty sure I haven't done it in
quite a while, but I'm pretty sure you have to
hit like send.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Oh, I don't know. I'm just thinking. I've never tried it,
so I don't know. I'm just thinking, Okay, they said
it on the you know, like sometimes I'll put my
phone like at a dinner table and then put it
on the table. I'll put it right under my leg
and maybe I know, you know, they put it on
the couch and I just sat there butt on the couch.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And it but A you have to have the app open,
and then you have to hit the microphone button. And
I'm fairly certain you have to hit the start recording buttons.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Oh. I don't know why I assume a female, right,
But whoever it was they were, maybe they were trying
to just be smart asses and we're making it way
too complicated.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Somebody in this audience is a smart ass.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'd be surprised if this audience was not a smart ass.
I'd put it that way.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
We can find another sperm story that would help. Oh,
good lord, well you know this the sperm racist come up.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, this next story is kind of sperm related. Uh oh,
this is this all started? And I know you've heard
the view already, but I want you to hear the
view again. When Trump was asked kind of cavalierly about
you know, this idea about a new five thousand dollars
(02:16):
baby bonus concept, which I think is one of the
stupidest things I've heard in a long time. But nonetheless,
the view, as I'm sure you know, weighed in and.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Said this because when I look at something like this,
these proposals, I want to know why, and I want
to know who's making them. And so when I looked
into that, they're saying that the US birth rate is declining. However,
in twenty twenty four, there was a one percent increase
in US births, but that increase was with Hispanic mothers
(02:50):
and Asian mothers. Ah, So they don't seem to be
concerned about that increase. They seem to be more concerned
about a decrease in other populations. No, and so well,
it's just study.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And so the other thing.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I will said that anywhere.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I mean, I just feel like, yeah, it's just it's
just a stop. It's just how they said that is
to target only white family.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I didn't say that. We have to read between the lines.
I just gave.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
They didn't say that I just read between the lines.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Because she can't because the last few times she said
things like that, she had to go back on the
air and go, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Allowed your sy I need to say this because the
lawyers don't be you remember that, Remember I don't remember that.
So the idea that we just want population growth, and
nobody said anything about white babies or brown babies, or
(03:56):
black babies or any other color of babies. We need
more babies. Uh JD. Vans of course made the comment
about more babies. And let's see if I can find
that one real quickly. Uh jdvents not not vance vance
(04:20):
more babies. Now I can't. I can never mind. But
this whole idea that a five thousand dollars bonus, Now
is that a cash outlay? Is that a tax credit
for example, think about a tax credit, a tax You know,
(04:42):
I wouldn't mind having a tax credit for something, not
necessarily having another baby, because I don't. I don't want
a rug rat, but just a five thousand dollars tax credit,
because I pay taxes. I actually pay federal income tax,
so I would like a five thousand dollars tax credit
(05:03):
so I pay less taxes. But this idea of tossing
this tossing around the idea of a five thousand dollars
baby bonus to encourage kids, young married couples. I don't
know mothers. I'm not quite sure who this is directed
(05:24):
to to have more kids. I just I've got a
problem with it. You think about it, it gives a
whole new meaning to the word stimulus, doesn't it. Now.
(05:44):
I did a very shallow dive, not a deep dive,
a shallow dive into why there is a decline in
birth rates, and there were some pretty interesting things that
I hadn't thought about. Rampant pornography. I mean, nobody pays
(06:09):
for pornography anymore, right, I mean, you just it's everywhere.
Sex robots, yes, no more blow up dolls. You've got
sex robots that are very human like. Then you have
(06:30):
things like the institutionally encouraged gender dysphoria starting at a
young age kindergarten, so you grow up, you know, starting
when you're two or three years old, being inculcated and
propagandized that you have to be confused about who you are,
(06:52):
otherwise you're not normal. Only normal kids are confused about
who they are. Think. I mean, that's how dystoping is it?
All is microplastics in water, microplastics in our food, the
all of the petroleum based dies and things that you know,
Kennedy's trying to get rid of. But what's the real
(07:13):
reason why people are having kids? They're too damned expensive.
That's that's the problem. They're they're too expensive. And five
thousand dollars is I'm looked if anybody offered you five
thousand dollars not to have a kids. I'm just talking
(07:33):
about the value of five thousand dollars. I know, Dragon
to take it, Bill's bells, Dragons still pissed off. I'm well,
actually I'm still pissed off about the damn gift card.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
You're pissed off. I just know I did the right thing.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's it. You did the right thing. But now I'm pissed.
You know what, squirrel, I'm announcing a squirrel right here.
I'll get back to the kids in the minute. Okay,
I want to go back to the gift card for
a moment. It's okay.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Nobody in the buildings is listening to so we're at
this point.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I'm you have a ratsass. I hope everybody in the
building is listening, because I really am pissed off about this.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
The one who is speaking is Michael Brown. He's the
one that cares. Dragon Redbeard does not. Dragon did the
right thing.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Dragon did do the right thing. But now I'm pissed
off about the lack of action. Although I will I
will insert a caveat.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
There could be action happening behind the scenes, and let
me get to that.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
On my own in a minute. So Dragon turns. You know,
Dragon found a gift card in the.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Parking lot with a lot of money on it, with
a lot of Did we ever say the dollar I
don't care to give that. No, that's fine, No, but
it was it was a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yes, it was. It was. It was a lot of money.
I mean it was a substantial sum and the original
balance six dollars, seven dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Four dollars, did twelve dollars would take or did twenty
something dollars would take?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And they were all parking fees. Correct.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, So somebody been using this gift card which had
a substantial money on it to pay their you know,
like to use it a meter or whatever, to pay
two dollars here or four dollars here to park someplace.
And it was beat up, damaged, probably been out there
for weeks. Dragon found it. We had an on air
(09:17):
discussion about what to do with it. Uh, there was
not a pen requirement. He didn't Dragon need it, did
not need a pen to to determine the balance.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
All kind of gift cards was literally just like finding cash.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yes, it was. He just found cash, is what he did.
It was in a different form, and I said, well
just keep it, you know, and then Dragon told me
how much money it was, and then I was like, oh,
well that kind of changes things. So we decided on
the course of action and he would email our program
(09:55):
director of that you know, describing you know, hey, listen,
I found this card and if someone can describe it,
tell me what the you know, original balance is on it. Uh,
maybe give some you know, i'd be able to particularly
identify that particular card.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Right, not give the card number, because that's just insane.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's has been too much.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, maybe what the last purchases were.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Purchases, what color was the card, you know, any number
of things that would say that you understand that particular
card is yours and so. But then the program director said,
I'm too busy to deal with that. Just give me
the card and I'll give it to someone else in
the building and have them reach out to you know,
like doing all hands email as well.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Our program director cannot do an all hands email, so
he was going to pass it up right the food
chain on his end as well.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
That was Monday or Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Monday, that was.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Monday, checks the calendar. Today is Friday. That all hands
emails still not gone out. And now here's the caveat
I want to insert. Someone may have already gone to
this person who was going to do the all hands
email and said, hey, I lost the gift card. In
(11:16):
case anybody turns it in, it's mine, and it's you know,
they've already described it. So when when our boss turned
it over to that person, they may have already known
who it was and just handed it to Yea. So
I understand that could have happened, but no one's ever
reached back out to Dragon. No one's ever said another
(11:38):
word to Dragon. We've never seen I've never seen an
all hands email, and I'm arguably I've never inquired and
I am still an employee of iHeartMedia Watch. I know
shocks many people, so I would have gotten in the
all hands email, and it just bugs the crap out
of me that there's been no indication, like we haven't
gotten the all hands email asking for anyone to describe it,
(12:00):
and we have not been or no one's been told,
or you know, thought, oh maybe we should just got
out of courtesy. Let Dragon know that. Hey, you know,
we found the owner of the of the gift card?
Where is it?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It really does bug me, and I don't care.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I know you don't care, but it bugs me because
it goes back to should have gone to you And
it wasn't five thousand dollars either, which is what we're
talking about here. So I got you know, I feel better,
and I've got that off my tough mind. I'm glad
you feel better. I do. I do it just the
(12:41):
lawyer in me is just like, there's just something not
quite right about this. I can rationalize it with my caveat,
But even then, where's just the professional courtesy of just saying, hey,
you know that, thank you for doing that. Someone is
very thankful that you did it because.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
They And again, for that argument's sake, I have not
reached out and asked, hey, has anybody found it? And norse,
did you have anything? And I'm not going to it
doesn't it does not concern me.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Right, So back to the five thousand dollars. That is
a nice sum of money, and I would take five
thousand dollars just as Dragon would have taken if I
could have convinced him to take. And it wasn't five
thousand dollars, but it was a there was a five
could have gone to Dragon, and he would have taken
it if I could have convinced him. Now, if you
(13:33):
assume a family that lives the most frugally conservative possible lifestyle,
you have a male bread winner, a stay at home mom,
you don't have child care to pay for. Five thousand
dollars still only represents a few months worth of groceries
(13:53):
and diapers. At the most. It probably does not even
cover the hospital thatductible for giving birth in the hospital.
So I started digging around trying to find out what's
the cost of raising a kid from birth to age eighteen.
The average, I would say was around three hundred thousand dollars.
(14:15):
That doesn't include college or anything, just you know, from
birth to age eighteen. And that might be less if
you homeschool, or it might be less if if you
live the life of a you know, a pioneer. You
live out, you live in your car, you live, you
live in a van down by the river. But still,
(14:40):
if you grow all your own food, you make toys,
you know, you build your own toys for your kids,
you harvest your miraculously tax free property which does not
exist anywhere in the world, various bills have still spoken
for that five thousand dollars before you even cash the
(15:03):
check for five thousand dollars. I haven't had to take
partner in raising a baby since well since dirt was invented,
but even in the days that I was doing it,
five thousand dollars have been just a crutch. I look
back on how Tam and I raised two kids, one
(15:25):
child while we're both working and I'm in college and
then eventually started law school and doing all of that.
Maybe that's why I had my receiving hairline. Maybe that's
why I had to go to advanced hair If the
government really wanted to encourage people to make babies, to
make families, it ought to figure out a way to Oh,
(15:49):
I don't know. Let's look at it from a democrat
point of view. Universal daycare, universal pre care, truly affordable healthcare,
paid maternity leave for everybody, as well as other progressive
coded programs. Schools, yeah, free launching schools that exist only
(16:09):
in the Eurosocialists never never land of Europe. To do that,
you'd have to levy a Scandinavian style levy of taxes
at fifty percent or greater on all incomes, something that
seems to be in opposite of what Trump's trying to do,
(16:33):
which is to get rid of the personal income tax
for people making under one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
a year. And then there's the authority question of what
what's universal schooling going to look like in a country
that can't even agree on basic questions like the men
have babies and did people live at the same time
as the dinosaurs, and then think about this. Would a
(16:54):
Republican run federal government give a federal baby bonus to
male identifying persons in California? I would hope not. I'd
like to assume not, but I can't. I can't assume
that they wouldn't. So what would it take? Well, this
gets back to the chaos that we're living in right now.
(17:16):
We have to make this country more affordable. You know,
the price of gold is skyright. It's broken a psychological
barrier of three thousand dollars. It's probably gonna pull back some,
but it means it will continue to grow. But has
the price of gold really gone up? Or conversely, has
(17:37):
the value of your dollars actually decreased? Oh maybe that's
the problem. I'm so glad you found my five thousand dollars.
I thought I was going to be out my weekend
hooker money. Hey girls, good news, it's party time. Yeah.
(17:58):
You know. The sad part is his five thousand dollars
gets him fifty hookers. Not exactly what I would say
high class, you know, But that's that's our demo dragon.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
But deepots don't let me have no idea how much
Hooker's run so that's all. You don't know that that's
your department. Well, I keep a running charge only because
out of town that you you.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Know, right, I've gotta I gotta check. Let's see how
much how much do I've left on my h what
do you call it? Your credit limit on your credit card?
How much do I have left on that? Versus I
got to eat something somewhere, you know. So it's either
peanut butter and jelly or or hookers. So you know
what am I going to do here? Uh? You know,
(18:53):
I made an offhand comment, but I want to talk
about it from home because there's there's some stats that
might interest you. I just casually mentioned, you know that
gold has broken the thirty four hundred dollars an ounce barrier.
And I know that because while I wouldn't call myself
necessarily a gold investor, I do carry and keep precious
(19:17):
metals and it is a significant part of my portfolio.
And so I do watch the price of gold. And
as much as I watch the price of gold, I
also watch the value of the dollar. And there is
a there's a relationship there. And I said, gold's not
(19:40):
soaring so much as that the Fiat or the paper
currencies that we carry around have been quietly eroding, and
they're eroding pretty badly. So there's a there's a chart
that I keep that goes back to two thousand and seven.
(20:02):
I don't know why I started. I don't know why,
but two thousand and seven that tracks the price of
gold versus different currencies the dollar, the euro, the British pound,
the Swiss frank, Canadian dollar, the Japanese yen, the Australian dollar,
(20:22):
and a lot of those are because I also have
different gold coins that are from those particular countries. When
you look at the chart, gold is served by a
i'd say about four hundred percent in almost all those currencies.
(20:44):
For example, let's see the low is it serves two
hundred and thirty eight percent compared to Swiss francs to
a staggering well, yeah, this is the largest. One is
six hundred and fifty one percent in British pans. So
since two thousand and seven, the major world currencies have
(21:07):
lost about eighty percent of their purchasing power when you
measure that against the purchasing power of gold. On the
low end, the Swiss frank declined by about seventy percent
the British pound is the worst at about eighty seven percent,
So that I think is a fairly critical truth. Gold
(21:31):
isn't actually rising in value. What we're seeing worldwide, which
is part of the chaos that Trump is trying to correct,
is that all this paper currencies they're losing their purchasing
power and it's happening at a really alarming rate, which
holy crap. So why don't we use gold as a
(21:56):
yard stick in the first place? Is the most reliable
monetary yardstick in historyes what six thousand years the gold
iss served humanity as the premiere form of money, as
a means of exchange and a store of value. So
(22:19):
while it temporary fell out, it really fell out of
favor about the time I really first started buying gold,
which was in the late seventies early eighties. But this
comeback that is going through right now is pretty amazing.
But if you're skeptical about using gold as a yardstick
for measuring currencies purchasing power, the decline is confirmed by
(22:45):
other metrics. The most widely used metric is one that
you hear about all the time, the Consumer Price Index,
which tracks the average change in prices over a time
period for a fixed basket of goods and service. Now,
if you calculate the average CPI for the major world
currencies that you know, the Swiss, the Australian, the American dollar,
(23:12):
the British pound, all of those on average, they've lost
about thirty one percent of their purchasing power a third
almost a third of their purchasing power since two thousand
and seven. So the dollar that you have in your
pocket since two thousand and seven has lost almost a
(23:33):
third of its value. So then when you look around
and you think about the five thousand dollars for babies,
that's pretty meaningless when you think about the total costs
that you have for you know, you get married, you
want to have a family, you want to own a home,
(23:54):
you want to have reliable transportation, you want a good
job that pays you good money. And you did all
that in two thousand and seven. In two thousand and seven,
that's when you finally got married, You got your first
serious job, you bought a car, maybe you got a
mortgage at that time, which, of course the rates was
I had come back and I haven't tracked the rates.
(24:16):
I had to go back and look at the rates.
Well since that time, which I know is eighteen years,
So you've been married for eighteen years, so you know
you've probably already had kids. But if somewhere during that
time period you decided to have kids, the purchasing power
of your dollars has lost at least thirty percent. Now
(24:44):
I realized that there's a discrepancy between the roughly eighty
percent loss of purchasing power in terms of gold and
the thirty one percent loss according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics and the CPI data that we get out
of the Treasury Department. So my theory is that the
(25:04):
gap exists because the CPI figures come from the government.
That's government reported economic data, and the government's want They're
notorious for understating inflation because they want to make their
currencies and their economies appear healthier than they actually are. Now,
(25:24):
I think most people have noticed that the price increases
that you experience in the real world don't line up
with the same inflation numbers coming from the economists and
the Ivory towers. I would rather trust what gold is
telling us, and it's telling us that in official inflation
(25:45):
metrics are understating the reality of what we're dealing with.
I will always are on the side of gold. I
really was thinking about that what I posted that receipt
from the bonnet. I stopped there on Wednesday, dropped tamro
(26:05):
off at the airport, was coming back, got diverted because
of Iraq on two two five, so I came up
to twenty five and I'm thinking, well, I just haven't
eaten there in a while. I think I'll just stop
there and eat. Well. That one post on my x account.
I haven't looked today. That one post has continued for
days on end to get Oh my gosh, I'm looking
(26:30):
at it again today. Let's see. No, let's see. Oh,
there it is so even even after three days there's
eight nine, ten, eleven, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen sixteen. I'm just
(26:52):
scrolling through looking there's still responses to that stupid post.
And I think the reason is is not it's not
just that, oh there was that search charge for wages
as opposed to just putting in the price of the meal,
but people are also commenting on how much money I
(27:14):
spent on that meal Carnea sauda a which came with
the typical you know, beans and vegetables and rice, and yeah,
I had a margarita at you know, at one o'clock
in the afternoon or whatever time it was, and a
soapopia and it was outrageous. And the more I've thought
(27:36):
about it, the more I've realized, because I ate out
again last night because the camera's gone. And now I
understand why I'm so shocked at the cost of us
eating out when it's the two of us versus just
one of us. Well, it's just one of you, you know,
two of you, you just like only once. Blah blah. No,
(27:58):
I'm looking at it now, and oh my gosh, I
don't know how restaurants stay in business. Better yet, I'd
like to know where people are getting all this money
to go out and eat, because these costs are absolutely
out of control. So why are currencies losing the purchasing
(28:20):
power over time? Inflation and the persistent rise.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
In the cost of living and taking a break on
time and taking a break on time.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Michael in Morgan, Utah, there's a truck stop charging fifteen
dollars for biscuits and gravy.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
What Yeah, you know what. That's an interesting point because
if you go look at all of the responses, replies
retweets and the retweets with quotes. A lot of people
really berated me for having spent that much money. But
(28:59):
if you go out almost anywhere unless you go to
the McDonald's, that's what it's.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Going to cost, and people are paying it because that's
how they're able to sell it for that much, right.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Right. However, when you think about price elasticity, I think
what I witnessed a blue Bonnet is they've probably peaked. Now.
Granted it was Wednesday and it was maybe it wasn't
(29:33):
one o'clock. Maybe it was still close to me because
I remember I dropped Tamra off at eleven, so it's
probably about noontime when I actually got there, and I
actually expected to have to wait for a while, or
what I was planning to do was just sit at
the bar because I thought it would be crowded. But
as I said, the dining area, which is half the restaurant,
was completely closed off. Then the bar area was a
(29:57):
part open. There was no one sitting at the and
there were four tables occupied out of maybe fifteen tables.
So I think price that elasticity has hit the blue bonnet,
and it's that's why, as someone said in an email
or in a text message. When we first talked about
(30:18):
this on Wednesday, they talked about, Yeah, we used to
go there, and starting at about ten thirty in the morning,
it was a weight and it was a wait all
the way until closing time. Well, I think that's a
reflection of two things. One is post COVID people are
probably just eating out less, or they're getting it to go,
(30:40):
although I didn't see any the go orders leave the
restaurant that evening or that at lunchtime. I think instead
people are beginning to realize this is absurd and they
simply can't afford it. So you think about a young couple.
Now I'm only picking on the Blue Bonnet because that's
where I stopped. I'm sure we could find another Mexican
(31:02):
die somewhere else that wouldn't be nearly that expensive. But
you think about, you know, a couple of college kids
or a young couple that just wants to go on
a date night. That same meal, assuming they both ordered
the same thing, would have cost them a hundred bucks.
(31:29):
Almost a hundred bucks for Mexican food. That's absurd, as
the fifteen dollars for biscuits and gravy at a truck
stop for Pete's sake, and I assume you're not talking
about a bucket of why there's probably not BUCkies in Utah.
So there's another metric for the decline in the dollar.
(31:52):
If you calculate the average CPI for all these world
currencies that I mentioned earlier, talked about how they lost
thirty one per cent, Well, there's another measurement, and that's
the M two money supply. That's the most widely used
measure of total currency in circulation. It is surged by
(32:13):
two hundred percent since two thousand and seven doesn't sound
like a lot, and I tell you what the raw
number is. The total value of currency in circulation has
gone from thirty eight trillion dollars in two thousand and
seven to a staggering one hundred and eleven trillion dollars.
That is a massive expansion of the money supply, and
(32:35):
that's probably the driving force behind the soaring cost of
living worldwide. We're printing too damn much money, and that's
another reason why I think gold is surging too, which
points out everything that Trump's trying to do about realigning
all of the economy. He recognizes that this path that
(32:58):
the entire world is on is not sustainable, and so
trying to fix that, of course, is going to create chaos.
So it means that practically everybody alive today, not everybody,
but I think about my mom's assumption, but practically everybody
(33:19):
that's alive today has lived their entire lives in the
world of persistent inflation. Now that condition is not an
inevitable feature of life, and it's not an inevitable feature
of capitalism, and I think that's what Trump is truly
trying to fix. But it's going to be chaotic doing so.
Don't think it.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
No butt dial.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, I can understand a butt dial, but a butt
talk back that's pretty difficult to do because you've got
to find the microphone, you've got to start the recording,
and you've got to send it.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It may automatically shut off at some point to the
timer does shut you off.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Now, then I'm pretty sure I haven't done it in
quite a while, but I'm pretty sure you have to
hit like send.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Oh, I don't know. I'm just thinking. I've never tried it,
so I don't know. I'm just thinking, Okay, they said
it on the you know, like sometimes I'll put my
phone like at a dinner table and then put it
on the table. I'll put it right under my leg
and maybe I know, you know, they put it on
the couch and I just sat there butt on the couch.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And it but A you have to have the app open,
and then you have to hit the microphone button. And
I'm fairly certain you have to hit the start recording buttons.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Oh. I don't know why I assume a female, right,
But whoever it was they were, maybe they were trying
to just be smart asses and we're making it way
too complicated.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Somebody in this audience is a smart ass.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'd be surprised if this audience was not a smart ass.
I'd put it that way.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
We can find another sperm story that would help. Oh,
good lord, well you know this the sperm racist come up.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, this next story is kind of sperm related. Uh oh,
this is this all started? And I know you've heard
the view already, but I want you to hear the
view again. When Trump was asked kind of cavalierly about
you know, this idea about a new five thousand dollars
(02:16):
baby bonus concept, which I think is one of the
stupidest things I've heard in a long time. But nonetheless,
the view, as I'm sure you know, weighed in and.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Said this because when I look at something like this,
these proposals, I want to know why, and I want
to know who's making them. And so when I looked
into that, they're saying that the US birth rate is declining. However,
in twenty twenty four, there was a one percent increase
in US births, but that increase was with Hispanic mothers
(02:50):
and Asian mothers. Ah, So they don't seem to be
concerned about that increase. They seem to be more concerned
about a decrease in other populations. No, and so well,
it's just study.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And so the other thing.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I will said that anywhere.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I mean, I just feel like, yeah, it's just it's
just a stop. It's just how they said that is
to target only white family.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I didn't say that. We have to read between the lines.
I just gave.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
They didn't say that I just read between the lines.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Because she can't because the last few times she said
things like that, she had to go back on the
air and go, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Allowed your sy I need to say this because the
lawyers don't be you remember that, Remember I don't remember that.
So the idea that we just want population growth, and
nobody said anything about white babies or brown babies, or
(03:56):
black babies or any other color of babies. We need
more babies. Uh JD. Vans of course made the comment
about more babies. And let's see if I can find
that one real quickly. Uh jdvents not not vance vance
(04:20):
more babies. Now I can't. I can never mind. But
this whole idea that a five thousand dollars bonus, Now
is that a cash outlay? Is that a tax credit
for example, think about a tax credit, a tax You know,
(04:42):
I wouldn't mind having a tax credit for something, not
necessarily having another baby, because I don't. I don't want
a rug rat, but just a five thousand dollars tax credit,
because I pay taxes. I actually pay federal income tax,
so I would like a five thousand dollars tax credit
(05:03):
so I pay less taxes. But this idea of tossing
this tossing around the idea of a five thousand dollars
baby bonus to encourage kids, young married couples. I don't
know mothers. I'm not quite sure who this is directed
(05:24):
to to have more kids. I just I've got a
problem with it. You think about it, it gives a
whole new meaning to the word stimulus, doesn't it. Now.
(05:44):
I did a very shallow dive, not a deep dive,
a shallow dive into why there is a decline in
birth rates, and there were some pretty interesting things that
I hadn't thought about. Rampant pornography. I mean, nobody pays
(06:09):
for pornography anymore, right, I mean, you just it's everywhere.
Sex robots, yes, no more blow up dolls. You've got
sex robots that are very human like. Then you have
(06:30):
things like the institutionally encouraged gender dysphoria starting at a
young age kindergarten, so you grow up, you know, starting
when you're two or three years old, being inculcated and
propagandized that you have to be confused about who you are,
(06:52):
otherwise you're not normal. Only normal kids are confused about
who they are. Think. I mean, that's how dystoping is it?
All is microplastics in water, microplastics in our food, the
all of the petroleum based dies and things that you know,
Kennedy's trying to get rid of. But what's the real
(07:13):
reason why people are having kids? They're too damned expensive.
That's that's the problem. They're they're too expensive. And five
thousand dollars is I'm looked if anybody offered you five
thousand dollars not to have a kids. I'm just talking
(07:33):
about the value of five thousand dollars. I know, Dragon
to take it, Bill's bells, Dragons still pissed off. I'm well,
actually I'm still pissed off about the damn gift card.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
You're pissed off. I just know I did the right thing.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's it. You did the right thing. But now I'm pissed.
You know what, squirrel, I'm announcing a squirrel right here.
I'll get back to the kids in the minute. Okay,
I want to go back to the gift card for
a moment. It's okay.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Nobody in the buildings is listening to so we're at
this point.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I'm you have a ratsass. I hope everybody in the
building is listening, because I really am pissed off about this.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
The one who is speaking is Michael Brown. He's the
one that cares. Dragon Redbeard does not. Dragon did the
right thing.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Dragon did do the right thing. But now I'm pissed
off about the lack of action. Although I will I
will insert a caveat.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
There could be action happening behind the scenes, and let
me get to that.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
On my own in a minute. So Dragon turns. You know,
Dragon found a gift card in the.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Parking lot with a lot of money on it, with
a lot of Did we ever say the dollar I
don't care to give that. No, that's fine, No, but
it was it was a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yes, it was. It was. It was a lot of money.
I mean it was a substantial sum and the original
balance six dollars, seven dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Four dollars, did twelve dollars would take or did twenty
something dollars would take?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And they were all parking fees. Correct.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, So somebody been using this gift card which had
a substantial money on it to pay their you know,
like to use it a meter or whatever, to pay
two dollars here or four dollars here to park someplace.
And it was beat up, damaged, probably been out there
for weeks. Dragon found it. We had an on air
(09:17):
discussion about what to do with it. Uh, there was
not a pen requirement. He didn't Dragon need it, did
not need a pen to to determine the balance.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
All kind of gift cards was literally just like finding cash.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yes, it was. He just found cash, is what he did.
It was in a different form, and I said, well
just keep it, you know, and then Dragon told me
how much money it was, and then I was like, oh,
well that kind of changes things. So we decided on
the course of action and he would email our program
(09:55):
director of that you know, describing you know, hey, listen,
I found this card and if someone can describe it,
tell me what the you know, original balance is on it. Uh,
maybe give some you know, i'd be able to particularly
identify that particular card.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Right, not give the card number, because that's just insane.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's has been too much.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, maybe what the last purchases were.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Purchases, what color was the card, you know, any number
of things that would say that you understand that particular
card is yours and so. But then the program director said,
I'm too busy to deal with that. Just give me
the card and I'll give it to someone else in
the building and have them reach out to you know,
like doing all hands email as well.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Our program director cannot do an all hands email, so
he was going to pass it up right the food
chain on his end as well.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
That was Monday or Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Monday, that was.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Monday, checks the calendar. Today is Friday. That all hands
emails still not gone out. And now here's the caveat
I want to insert. Someone may have already gone to
this person who was going to do the all hands
email and said, hey, I lost the gift card. In
(11:16):
case anybody turns it in, it's mine, and it's you know,
they've already described it. So when when our boss turned
it over to that person, they may have already known
who it was and just handed it to Yea. So
I understand that could have happened, but no one's ever
reached back out to Dragon. No one's ever said another
(11:38):
word to Dragon. We've never seen I've never seen an
all hands email, and I'm arguably I've never inquired and
I am still an employee of iHeartMedia Watch. I know
shocks many people, so I would have gotten in the
all hands email, and it just bugs the crap out
of me that there's been no indication, like we haven't
gotten the all hands email asking for anyone to describe it,
(12:00):
and we have not been or no one's been told,
or you know, thought, oh maybe we should just got
out of courtesy. Let Dragon know that. Hey, you know,
we found the owner of the of the gift card?
Where is it?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It really does bug me, and I don't care.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I know you don't care, but it bugs me because
it goes back to should have gone to you And
it wasn't five thousand dollars either, which is what we're
talking about here. So I got you know, I feel better,
and I've got that off my tough mind. I'm glad
you feel better. I do. I do it just the
(12:41):
lawyer in me is just like, there's just something not
quite right about this. I can rationalize it with my caveat,
But even then, where's just the professional courtesy of just saying, hey,
you know that, thank you for doing that. Someone is
very thankful that you did it because.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
They And again, for that argument's sake, I have not
reached out and asked, hey, has anybody found it? And norse,
did you have anything? And I'm not going to it
doesn't it does not concern me.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Right, So back to the five thousand dollars. That is
a nice sum of money, and I would take five
thousand dollars just as Dragon would have taken if I
could have convinced him to take. And it wasn't five
thousand dollars, but it was a there was a five
could have gone to Dragon, and he would have taken
it if I could have convinced him. Now, if you
(13:33):
assume a family that lives the most frugally conservative possible lifestyle,
you have a male bread winner, a stay at home mom,
you don't have child care to pay for. Five thousand
dollars still only represents a few months worth of groceries
(13:53):
and diapers. At the most. It probably does not even
cover the hospital thatductible for giving birth in the hospital.
So I started digging around trying to find out what's
the cost of raising a kid from birth to age eighteen.
The average, I would say was around three hundred thousand dollars.
(14:15):
That doesn't include college or anything, just you know, from
birth to age eighteen. And that might be less if
you homeschool, or it might be less if if you
live the life of a you know, a pioneer. You
live out, you live in your car, you live, you
live in a van down by the river. But still,
(14:40):
if you grow all your own food, you make toys,
you know, you build your own toys for your kids,
you harvest your miraculously tax free property which does not
exist anywhere in the world, various bills have still spoken
for that five thousand dollars before you even cash the
(15:03):
check for five thousand dollars. I haven't had to take
partner in raising a baby since well since dirt was invented,
but even in the days that I was doing it,
five thousand dollars have been just a crutch. I look
back on how Tam and I raised two kids, one
(15:25):
child while we're both working and I'm in college and
then eventually started law school and doing all of that.
Maybe that's why I had my receiving hairline. Maybe that's
why I had to go to advanced hair If the
government really wanted to encourage people to make babies, to
make families, it ought to figure out a way to Oh,
(15:49):
I don't know. Let's look at it from a democrat
point of view. Universal daycare, universal pre care, truly affordable healthcare,
paid maternity leave for everybody, as well as other progressive
coded programs. Schools, yeah, free launching schools that exist only
(16:09):
in the Eurosocialists never never land of Europe. To do that,
you'd have to levy a Scandinavian style levy of taxes
at fifty percent or greater on all incomes, something that
seems to be in opposite of what Trump's trying to do,
(16:33):
which is to get rid of the personal income tax
for people making under one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
a year. And then there's the authority question of what
what's universal schooling going to look like in a country
that can't even agree on basic questions like the men
have babies and did people live at the same time
as the dinosaurs, and then think about this. Would a
(16:54):
Republican run federal government give a federal baby bonus to
male identifying persons in California? I would hope not. I'd
like to assume not, but I can't. I can't assume
that they wouldn't. So what would it take? Well, this
gets back to the chaos that we're living in right now.
(17:16):
We have to make this country more affordable. You know,
the price of gold is skyright. It's broken a psychological
barrier of three thousand dollars. It's probably gonna pull back some,
but it means it will continue to grow. But has
the price of gold really gone up? Or conversely, has
(17:37):
the value of your dollars actually decreased? Oh maybe that's
the problem. I'm so glad you found my five thousand dollars.
I thought I was going to be out my weekend
hooker money. Hey girls, good news, it's party time. Yeah.
(17:58):
You know. The sad part is his five thousand dollars
gets him fifty hookers. Not exactly what I would say
high class, you know, But that's that's our demo dragon.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
But deepots don't let me have no idea how much
Hooker's run so that's all. You don't know that that's
your department. Well, I keep a running charge only because
out of town that you you.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Know, right, I've gotta I gotta check. Let's see how
much how much do I've left on my h what
do you call it? Your credit limit on your credit card?
How much do I have left on that? Versus I
got to eat something somewhere, you know. So it's either
peanut butter and jelly or or hookers. So you know
what am I going to do here? Uh? You know,
(18:53):
I made an offhand comment, but I want to talk
about it from home because there's there's some stats that
might interest you. I just casually mentioned, you know that
gold has broken the thirty four hundred dollars an ounce barrier.
And I know that because while I wouldn't call myself
necessarily a gold investor, I do carry and keep precious
(19:17):
metals and it is a significant part of my portfolio.
And so I do watch the price of gold. And
as much as I watch the price of gold, I
also watch the value of the dollar. And there is
a there's a relationship there. And I said, gold's not
(19:40):
soaring so much as that the Fiat or the paper
currencies that we carry around have been quietly eroding, and
they're eroding pretty badly. So there's a there's a chart
that I keep that goes back to two thousand and seven.
(20:02):
I don't know why I started. I don't know why,
but two thousand and seven that tracks the price of
gold versus different currencies the dollar, the euro, the British pound,
the Swiss frank, Canadian dollar, the Japanese yen, the Australian dollar,
(20:22):
and a lot of those are because I also have
different gold coins that are from those particular countries. When
you look at the chart, gold is served by a
i'd say about four hundred percent in almost all those currencies.
(20:44):
For example, let's see the low is it serves two
hundred and thirty eight percent compared to Swiss francs to
a staggering well, yeah, this is the largest. One is
six hundred and fifty one percent in British pans. So
since two thousand and seven, the major world currencies have
(21:07):
lost about eighty percent of their purchasing power when you
measure that against the purchasing power of gold. On the
low end, the Swiss frank declined by about seventy percent
the British pound is the worst at about eighty seven percent,
So that I think is a fairly critical truth. Gold
(21:31):
isn't actually rising in value. What we're seeing worldwide, which
is part of the chaos that Trump is trying to correct,
is that all this paper currencies they're losing their purchasing
power and it's happening at a really alarming rate, which
holy crap. So why don't we use gold as a
(21:56):
yard stick in the first place? Is the most reliable
monetary yardstick in historyes what six thousand years the gold
iss served humanity as the premiere form of money, as
a means of exchange and a store of value. So
(22:19):
while it temporary fell out, it really fell out of
favor about the time I really first started buying gold,
which was in the late seventies early eighties. But this
comeback that is going through right now is pretty amazing.
But if you're skeptical about using gold as a yardstick
for measuring currencies purchasing power, the decline is confirmed by
(22:45):
other metrics. The most widely used metric is one that
you hear about all the time, the Consumer Price Index,
which tracks the average change in prices over a time
period for a fixed basket of goods and service. Now,
if you calculate the average CPI for the major world
currencies that you know, the Swiss, the Australian, the American dollar,
(23:12):
the British pound, all of those on average, they've lost
about thirty one percent of their purchasing power a third
almost a third of their purchasing power since two thousand
and seven. So the dollar that you have in your
pocket since two thousand and seven has lost almost a
(23:33):
third of its value. So then when you look around
and you think about the five thousand dollars for babies,
that's pretty meaningless when you think about the total costs
that you have for you know, you get married, you
want to have a family, you want to own a home,
(23:54):
you want to have reliable transportation, you want a good
job that pays you good money. And you did all
that in two thousand and seven. In two thousand and seven,
that's when you finally got married, You got your first
serious job, you bought a car, maybe you got a
mortgage at that time, which, of course the rates was
I had come back and I haven't tracked the rates.
(24:16):
I had to go back and look at the rates.
Well since that time, which I know is eighteen years,
So you've been married for eighteen years, so you know
you've probably already had kids. But if somewhere during that
time period you decided to have kids, the purchasing power
of your dollars has lost at least thirty percent. Now
(24:44):
I realized that there's a discrepancy between the roughly eighty
percent loss of purchasing power in terms of gold and
the thirty one percent loss according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics and the CPI data that we get out
of the Treasury Department. So my theory is that the
(25:04):
gap exists because the CPI figures come from the government.
That's government reported economic data, and the government's want They're
notorious for understating inflation because they want to make their
currencies and their economies appear healthier than they actually are. Now,
(25:24):
I think most people have noticed that the price increases
that you experience in the real world don't line up
with the same inflation numbers coming from the economists and
the Ivory towers. I would rather trust what gold is
telling us, and it's telling us that in official inflation
(25:45):
metrics are understating the reality of what we're dealing with.
I will always are on the side of gold. I
really was thinking about that what I posted that receipt
from the bonnet. I stopped there on Wednesday, dropped tamro
(26:05):
off at the airport, was coming back, got diverted because
of Iraq on two two five, so I came up
to twenty five and I'm thinking, well, I just haven't
eaten there in a while. I think I'll just stop
there and eat. Well. That one post on my x account.
I haven't looked today. That one post has continued for
days on end to get Oh my gosh, I'm looking
(26:30):
at it again today. Let's see. No, let's see. Oh,
there it is so even even after three days there's
eight nine, ten, eleven, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen sixteen. I'm just
(26:52):
scrolling through looking there's still responses to that stupid post.
And I think the reason is is not it's not
just that, oh there was that search charge for wages
as opposed to just putting in the price of the meal,
but people are also commenting on how much money I
(27:14):
spent on that meal Carnea sauda a which came with
the typical you know, beans and vegetables and rice, and yeah,
I had a margarita at you know, at one o'clock
in the afternoon or whatever time it was, and a
soapopia and it was outrageous. And the more I've thought
(27:36):
about it, the more I've realized, because I ate out
again last night because the camera's gone. And now I
understand why I'm so shocked at the cost of us
eating out when it's the two of us versus just
one of us. Well, it's just one of you, you know,
two of you, you just like only once. Blah blah. No,
(27:58):
I'm looking at it now, and oh my gosh, I
don't know how restaurants stay in business. Better yet, I'd
like to know where people are getting all this money
to go out and eat, because these costs are absolutely
out of control. So why are currencies losing the purchasing
(28:20):
power over time? Inflation and the persistent rise.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
In the cost of living and taking a break on
time and taking a break on time.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Michael in Morgan, Utah, there's a truck stop charging fifteen
dollars for biscuits and gravy.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
What Yeah, you know what. That's an interesting point because
if you go look at all of the responses, replies
retweets and the retweets with quotes. A lot of people
really berated me for having spent that much money. But
(28:59):
if you go out almost anywhere unless you go to
the McDonald's, that's what it's.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Going to cost, and people are paying it because that's
how they're able to sell it for that much, right.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Right. However, when you think about price elasticity, I think
what I witnessed a blue Bonnet is they've probably peaked. Now.
Granted it was Wednesday and it was maybe it wasn't
(29:33):
one o'clock. Maybe it was still close to me because
I remember I dropped Tamra off at eleven, so it's
probably about noontime when I actually got there, and I
actually expected to have to wait for a while, or
what I was planning to do was just sit at
the bar because I thought it would be crowded. But
as I said, the dining area, which is half the restaurant,
was completely closed off. Then the bar area was a
(29:57):
part open. There was no one sitting at the and
there were four tables occupied out of maybe fifteen tables.
So I think price that elasticity has hit the blue bonnet,
and it's that's why, as someone said in an email
or in a text message. When we first talked about
(30:18):
this on Wednesday, they talked about, Yeah, we used to
go there, and starting at about ten thirty in the morning,
it was a weight and it was a wait all
the way until closing time. Well, I think that's a
reflection of two things. One is post COVID people are
probably just eating out less, or they're getting it to go,
(30:40):
although I didn't see any the go orders leave the
restaurant that evening or that at lunchtime. I think instead
people are beginning to realize this is absurd and they
simply can't afford it. So you think about a young couple.
Now I'm only picking on the Blue Bonnet because that's
where I stopped. I'm sure we could find another Mexican
(31:02):
die somewhere else that wouldn't be nearly that expensive. But
you think about, you know, a couple of college kids
or a young couple that just wants to go on
a date night. That same meal, assuming they both ordered
the same thing, would have cost them a hundred bucks.
(31:29):
Almost a hundred bucks for Mexican food. That's absurd, as
the fifteen dollars for biscuits and gravy at a truck
stop for Pete's sake, and I assume you're not talking
about a bucket of why there's probably not BUCkies in Utah.
So there's another metric for the decline in the dollar.
(31:52):
If you calculate the average CPI for all these world
currencies that I mentioned earlier, talked about how they lost
thirty one per cent, Well, there's another measurement, and that's
the M two money supply. That's the most widely used
measure of total currency in circulation. It is surged by
(32:13):
two hundred percent since two thousand and seven doesn't sound
like a lot, and I tell you what the raw
number is. The total value of currency in circulation has
gone from thirty eight trillion dollars in two thousand and
seven to a staggering one hundred and eleven trillion dollars.
That is a massive expansion of the money supply, and
(32:35):
that's probably the driving force behind the soaring cost of
living worldwide. We're printing too damn much money, and that's
another reason why I think gold is surging too, which
points out everything that Trump's trying to do about realigning
all of the economy. He recognizes that this path that
(32:58):
the entire world is on is not sustainable, and so
trying to fix that, of course, is going to create chaos.
So it means that practically everybody alive today, not everybody,
but I think about my mom's assumption, but practically everybody
(33:19):
that's alive today has lived their entire lives in the
world of persistent inflation. Now that condition is not an
inevitable feature of life, and it's not an inevitable feature
of capitalism, and I think that's what Trump is truly
trying to fix. But it's going to be chaotic doing so.
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