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welcome to the show where for just $6, you can
watch Gibbs play in an inflatable pool filled
with mayonnaise while wearing just a Speedo.
I don't even like mayonnaise! Welcome back to
the Now We Consume podcast. I'm your host, Pip.
Here as always with my co -host, Gibbs. Fuck
you! But mayonnaise is an instrument, Gibbs.
Mayonnaise is not an instrument. So yeah, tonight
we're going to be discussing the death of the
careers, the resurrection of the trades, the
rise of the gig economy. And we figured that,
or I figured rather, Gibbs didn't know I was
doing that intro. But OnlyFans, FeetFinder, specialty
streams like Twitch where... Models play in inflatable
pools filled with various materials, water, whipped
cream, or even mayonnaise. All things are on
the table. No, they're not on the table. There's
a visual for you, Gibbs. I don't want to do that.
You in a Speedo within a pool full of mayonnaise.
I mean, I get it if you like them hunky, but
like, I just, mayonnaise, just, oh, no. I like
them thick. I like them chunky. I get that I
resemble Moto Moto. I understand that, but it's
the thought of mayonnaise going to places where
mayonnaise shouldn't be. That's what gets me.
You're going to be sitting there like, you got
to open yourself up to new experiences, all right?
Yeah, but the smell of three -day -old mayonnaise
coming from my clock is just not what I want.
Oh, would you not shower, though? Good God. Yeah,
but you're never getting all that. It's mayonnaise.
You have to, like, bleach it. Like, I don't know
how... What, I have to be naked running through
a car wash, like, five times? I am so sorry.
I was in a vat of mayonnaise. And everyone's
like, oh, yeah, it makes sense. I, too, would
be frolicking through a car wash five times in
a week. Yes, I would like the undercarriage treatment.
Thank you. Oh, that nibbles. But... Don't forget
the coin purse. Oh, there's a grundle setting.
I'm kidding. Oh, God, not the grundle. Oh, you
know, apologies in advance, folks. This has been
a weekend of weekends. Gibbs was basically on
his deathbed. So that's why the episode is coming
out late. And I have just been busy dealing with
life. Yeah, you actually took a page out of my
book this week. Yeah. There's alcohol involved
tonight. And Gibbs is just kind of in a mood.
So we're just kind of trying to relax and chill
and get this episode out and have a little fun
with it. Because while some of the information
might be a little dry, it is important. It is
something that. We're hoping we'll hit you in
the face a little bit. Kind of like a well lubed
dildo of consequence per se. But a lot of this
is stuff that just isn't getting talked about.
So Gibbs, I know you said you had a couple points
you wanted to make right away. So go ahead and
take it away. Exactly. I wanted to quickly set
up this episode by looking at some numbers and
some history here. about comparing really the
work environment and everything leading up really
from post -world war ii to the 1950s up until
today i want to kind of compare and contrast
what the average salary was back then and its
2025 equivalent in spending value as well as
what the bills were average house things like
that because i want to build a picture here as
to how the country has changed and both the good
and the bad points I know we've loosely touched
upon this in a couple of episodes between economics
and a few other things, but I want to drive this
point home that simply things have not gotten
better as time has gone on, and I want to explain
why. In some areas, I will say absolutely, but
it's more due to technological advancements and
the availability of information and education
rather than the economy getting better. I just
wanted to paint that picture and kind of get
going with this. So quickly kind of to give us
a bit of a primer here. I'm only going from the
1950s because really the U .S. economy, or really
even the world economy pre -World War II, was
so different that it's hard to be able to give
it any sort of relative meaning. Context. Yeah,
yeah, context. Because there were far few government
exemptions or even... Tax incentives, things
like that. The tax structure is very different.
Also, civil rights is a big issue. There's a
lot going on to where it's not even really worth
diluting this conversation down with. That's
a whole different discussion, which we already
kind of loosely talked about. But to give you
an idea, I just want to do a quick rundown. In
the 1950s, the average family income adjusted
for today's dollars. The average family income
was $39 ,800. True income of $3 ,300. Yeah, yeah.
The income of the time was $3 ,300. But adjusted
for inflation and everything, it would be worth
about $39 ,800 today. So $40 ,000. Or aka, you're
making your $20 an hour, give or take. Now in
the 60s, that goes up to about $46 ,000 in today's
dollars. In 1970... I just want to stick my tip
in here. The $24 an hour equivalent was $2 an
hour. Yeah. $2 an hour. I know. Equals 24 in
2025. Yeah, our income has lost its value 12
times. Our money back then was worth 12 times
more than what it is today. That hurts. Yeah,
I know. That's why the statistic that we saw
last week of the U .S. dollar has lost, what
was it, 94, 96 % of its buying power? Yeah, 96,
I think. Yeah. it's this goes to show but that's
why we talked about it you know getting off the
gold standard doing all that really kind of hurt
but in the 1960s you're up to you know the 37
500 a year or approximately 46 200 give or take
and then in the 70s you're up to that 41 43 000
mark so that's kind of again in the similar vein
so you're noticing Even in the 80s, $41 ,000
to $42 ,000. In the 90s, we go up to $47 ,000.
In the 2000s, that's a big shift. That was a
huge boom. That was the internet boom and everything
else. You're talking the average American was
making $32 ,000 or adjusted was about $54 ,000.
That was really the peak of the American dream
in terms of relative to today. Where from that
late 90s to that early mid 2000s, before the
2008 housing crisis, the bubble and everything,
before that happening, that is where america
was at really one of its peaks the reason i wanted
to bring this up is in the 2010s it goes all
up to 59 000 but i'll be showing you a point
in a minute here why that's important and then
in 2019 it goes up to about 65 000 this is all
pre -covered this is all to where the dollar
really does kind of have a lot more buying power
now we already kind of started to see inflation
really hitting In the mid to late teens, and
it was kind of starting to shift to where what
COVID really set off, which was that not quite,
we're not like in hyperinflation, we're definitely
in inflationary period. So what the fuck is my
cat doing? COVID kind of showed a lot of the
shit going on behind the curtain that was going
to come out eventually. I think that if the 2020s,
I think would have shaped up a lot differently.
Had COVID not hit, it would have just come out
over time, kind of in drips. But with COVID hitting,
everything just screeched to a halt and everything
was just brought front and center all at once.
We had basically 15 to 20 years of economic downturn
happen in like two to three years. And that's
part of the problem. All the inflation, all the
money printing, everything just... And we basically
went through an economic depression that would
have spanned, you know, probably a decade or
two. that wouldn't have really felt that bad
yeah but it all got smushed in but the reason
why i want to bring up these numbers is what
you're noticing is throughout from world war
ii up until covid the average american always
brought in it brought up a little bit but anywhere
between 40 000 at the lowest roughly in equivalent
to 60 000. that's always been the middle class
that that has always been that amount Now something
to consider is with all those changes for instance
in the 50s You really didn't have benefits like
health care and health insurance that started
coming around the 60s as well Between employer
-sponsored health insurance was expanded and
even in the 70s and 80s Start becoming something
that was even legally forced and or required
you had different benefits you had pensions which
no longer exists That's another talking point
in a minute as we started having 401k or contributions
different pension contributions What ended up
happening? is not only where the average wage
is increasing, but that is with the offset of
having to pay for higher and higher health insurance
over the decades and contributions. The bigger
thing I wanted to bring into now is the reason
why we're setting up for the death of careers
is because of the housing market, which I know
we've talked about before, but I want everyone
to be aware of this. In the 1950s, the relative
price for a house, the average house, was $93
,000, meaning they were making like $35 ,000,
$40 ,000, and the house was $93 ,000. Is that
the adjusted number? That's the adjusted number.
The average price was $7 ,300 or $7 ,500. Oh,
God. To give you guys an idea, the house that
I'm in right now, my grandparents bought in 67
for $11 ,000. As of last year, without all the
additions we've done, it's worth $800 ,000 to
$900 ,000. There is no market. There is no money.
There's nothing you can do to ever, ever outcompete
that kind of rate of increase in the market.
The point I want to get at is that alone from
the 50s, even into the 60s, the average American
was able to afford a mortgage. The average American,
as long as you were working a decent job, it
didn't even matter. You could be working at a
hardware store. You can be working literally
McDonald's back then or other shit or even doing
whatever. And also you could at least afford
18 to $23 an hour. And you were, you, you had
a house. Yeah. And the equivalent. Yeah. Like
that's, that's what I'm saying back then. You
can make the average money and afford the average
house. However, once we started having this problem
of between corporations getting involved, mass
immigration, and a few other things, it has gotten
to the point to where, the housing price housing
cost and housing crisis has gone exponentially
so much so if you look at the 70s the average
house was about 40 000 or adjusted right now
is for 223 to 313 which that's still kind of
high but like at least you could afford it back
then you know the 80s was almost the same cost
roughly it doesn't really go up that much it
only goes up to 273 in the 90s it goes up to
374. In the 2000s, it goes up to 476, and that's
all relative. So the entire, yes, those are shifting
more, but most Americans are still keeping up
with that, with their wages. One thing that I
want to kind of point out in the 80s, they did
have some much higher interest rates. So that
was one thing that people dealt with. Lower house
prices, but much higher interest rates. Yes,
but the catch is the average American who was
making $46 ,000. if the house don't handle it
well the house is only 73 000 that's less than
double whereas nowadays what's even crazy is
to afford the average house in america even in
my area so my state in particular massachusetts
the issue we have is you have to make over 150
000 a year to afford the average home because
the average house is 450 to 500 000 and that's
without any down payment or anything else and
all that the issue is just it's it's to where
you have to make a ridiculous amount of money
to even be allowed have a chance And there's
also no way to save. Because who the hell is
going to save up $200 ,000 to bring that price
down? No one. Especially in the taxes. The taxes
and everything else. And also the fees and capital
gains and everything else. It's just a mess.
The reason I wanted to bring this up as a preference
for everything is there was a time in American
history to where if you had a decent job, you
could afford to pay your bills and have a house
not that long ago even not that long ago and
also something to consider is over time the bills
get more and more complex and more and more necessary
there used to be a time in american history where
the 1950s all you needed was a house and a car
and that's it now you have to have a cell phone
or household you have to have internet you have
to have access to electronics and other devices
you have to have different types of insurances
You have to have different types of insurance,
either for kids or for pets or anything else.
The list keeps growing, but yet the wages in
terms of relative buying power do not. And when
you reference our previous episodes, particularly
the one about the feds and our treasury department,
the issue has been we have printed so much money
recently that the dollar is massively devalued.
So this is part of the reason. It's one of the
many parts why the old ideas of work, the old
ideas of working at a company for 20, 30 years
and having a big pension, a big retirement, are
gone. For the mass majority of people, all that's
gone. There's no such thing anymore. You don't
get the same kind of benefits or reward from
staying long -term at a company. It sucks. And
for there are some that do thankfully i'm in
one of those right now and it's something to
work It's like a family -owned thing. It's like
a small thing. But for a lot of them you're not
going to see that because really There's no incentive
for them And we're going to be going over as
to why the different changes um, but it was definitely
I wanted to make people aware That a lot of this
is based off the housing market because at the
end of the day everyone has to live somewhere
You got to sleep somewhere, bro Second of off
when it comes to the bills between inflation
with all the overprinting of money as well as
the higher obligations and more bills that you
have to pay you get squeezed it's that simple
yeah so on the housing um i just kind of want
to make a little mushroom standpoint a lot of
people are opting to live in vehicles now because
you can finance a essentially cargo van yeah
um buy a used U -Haul truck and pay to have it
renovated, and it costs less than a house, and
you've got your transportation, you've got your
house, you've got all your utility needs right
there in one, and it's far less all in one package.
And it's becoming more and more popular, especially
out on the West Coast. Oh yeah, van life is a
big thing. van life is a huge thing out in california
but unfortunately it's because of necessity not
by choice yeah that necessity is the mother of
all invention so people are getting more and
more creative and they're actually coming out
with more and more products that are uh focused
on that kind of lifestyle and i'll give them
credit they're coming out with some absolutely
fantastic ideas yeah but i also think that it's
shit that in 2025 we're pushing van life on people
because they can't afford the fucking rent yeah
but it's unfortunately a problem from the top
down oh 100 the the issue is not to have like
a slight aside but i i know we've made this point
previously but i do want to make this point in
this podcast the issue is when you make it so
people can't retire what happens is they don't
leave their jobs So therefore, the next generation
doesn't move up and that generation doesn't move
up. When they're talking about delayed growth,
one of the issues you have is what used to happen
is when people got into their 50s and 60s, they
would retire or pass on their business or leave
their position of management. And then the people
in the 30s and 40s would move up. Then the higher
20 -year -olds move up. Then the lower 20 -year
-olds would move up. Then the 18 -year -olds
would step in. Now you're noticing in many places
there are people in their 30s, 40s, even 50s
still in entry -level jobs. You have the issue
of the people that were in management, they're
working there until the 70s or 80s. The problem
is you're delaying the entire process by a decade
or two. And they're wondering why, oh, why is
there no one there? It's like, well, they're
there. It's just, unfortunately, we've created
an economy where those people can't retire. So
therefore, they got to be somewhere. So they're
going to be there. You don't give them the space
to be able to move on or do something else. So
that's going to be an issue in almost every single
segment of the economy. And the thing is, it's
not those people's fault. If you're someone in
your 70s that's still working, you're like, man,
I thought having $2 ,000 to $3 ,000 a month coming
in would have been great when I retired. And
you realize that that barely buys a car. Oh,
God, don't get me started on cars. Oh, dude,
it's insane. There are places offering 30 -year
payment plans on vehicles. At 30 % interest.
My favorite one I saw when I was at the dealership.
Somebody paid. I think it was $130 or $140 for
a Cadillac. It was like the Blackwing edition,
whatever. Their payment was like $1 ,400 a month.
That's a house, bro. That was 30%. Oh, my God.
And they were going to pay into, I think it was
like $210 ,000 by the time they're done or something.
$210 ,000, $220 ,000. That's a fucking house.
Yeah, but the thing is, they made enough money,
they didn't care. They're like, whatever. I'm
just going to trade it in a couple of years anyway.
But I think there's a lot of people that one
of the reasons they're spending that money is
because they don't... So I know my generation
is very nihilistic when it comes to the economy.
A lot of us assume that, why would I save for
retirement? I'm going to be dead anyway. Or there's
going to be nothing for me anyway. I know for
a fact, I will never get Social Security. I'm
30 years old. A lot of people are banking on
some kind of disaster scenario happening so that
they don't have to worry about it. And I'm kind
of wondering if that's not going to be a self
-fulfilling prophecy. That's the problem. It's
like, again, I'm still putting away money and
I'm still financially doing well. But the problem
is for most people my age I know, they couldn't
give a shit. They're not. Well, think about this,
right? If Social Security is already insolvent
as of today, and our government's doing nothing
to fucking fix it other than spending and printing
more money it's just not going to exist in another
40 years it's not so it's like it's clearly not
my problem you know which is unfortunate because
then what happens to our kids and grandkids where
it's like you think we're screwed imagine they're
gonna have to pay off our debt with triple or
quadruple the interest or like imagine if god
forbid the day comes where our payments on our
interest are more than our gdp it's like we're
we're done That's it. Wrap it up. Here's the
country. And we're heading that way. That's the
problem. Rapidly. Beyond rapidly. Oh, jeez, that's
a fucking flashbang. If I open the wrong window,
just... But it is something for people to consider.
That makes smart moves financially. And, you
know, diversify, make sure you're, you know,
well -situated and have your shit together. And
invest in precious metals, invest in brass and
lead and lead dispensers and gold and food, ways
to raise food, learn how to cook a human, you
know, things like that. Land and people you can
count on. You know, that's, you got, unfortunately,
you have to make your own community, people.
You can't trust the community that's there. I
hate to say it, but it's the reality. So much
that's one of the points I did want to bring
up those when we're talking about the older generation
not I Want to say like giving over the reins
or anything handing over the reins but it has
become such a big point to where I know people
even other industries where They simply can't
innovate as a business so they can't change because
they have Their parents or grandparents that
still hold on to it that still want the income
that still need this or that Or then the other
problem is with the taxes and everything else.
It's, they can't afford to not have them own
it because then the tax system gets really fucky
by trying to have to pay them as an employee
or doing other stuff. It just, it puts these
small businesses in a situation to where they
have almost no choice. They just kind of have
to deal with it. They're just stuck in limbo.
They're forever stuck in limbo. And that's not
fair. That's not right. But a lot of them just
simply have no choice. And you also have to consider,
too, the bigger issue is because of inflation
and everything else, you can't really pay people
more because you can't necessarily charge more
for your product because every single company
is having to try to out -compete these big national
corporations, or international corporations is
the problem. At the end of the day, it's like...
Well, they're mostly competing with China. Yeah,
and I'm sorry, you can't out -compete slave labor
when it comes to cost. Nope. The Chinese are
really good. at slave labor and their children
like that's that's just their thing so what are
you going to do how are you going to do it yeah
again refer to our previous episode about tariffs
just uh throwing that out there like it just
becomes a situation where as americans we get
stuck for trying to do the right thing and unfortunately
our government really hasn't been helping us
with trying to do the right thing when it comes
to our tax laws everything else because there's
no incentive for us to try to start businesses
or keep them going so what do a lot of people
do They sell it off, they cash out, they sell
it to an investment firm, or they sell off the
land, sell off the assets, and then that money
just gets spent into the ether away. That was
what I wanted to say. Investment firms. They
should not be allowed to buy American homes.
Period. Investment firms should not be allowed
to buy homes that people are supposed to live
in. I think the rule should be that single -family
homes have to be bought by single families. That's
it. Landlords, I understand that. And if they
want to do that, fine. Cap it. You can own a
maximum of X amount of properties. And that's
it. Now, is that interfering with free market?
A little bit. But it prevents too much landholding
by too few people. I have no problem with somebody
if they want their business to be, you know,
being a landowner, running apartments, running
stuff like that. The issue is when you buy up
all the single family homes in an area and then
de facto basically have a control over the rent
prices in that area. That's a problem, regardless
if it's a single person or shell companies or
different companies or whatever. The issue does
have to be, I think, for any single company.
You should not be able to hold more than 30 or
50 or whatever single family homes past that.
It must be multiple family, like two to three.
That way you leave a single family. No, I think
no companies, period, should be allowed to hold
the real estate. Individual ownership only capped
at a certain number. Which I'm fine with. Period.
That's fine. So this is kind of a tangent. AI
-backed Cities Skylines 2. They let AI play it.
They ran a scenario where, and this is, I know
it's a game, but it was a very realistic situation.
Corporations were not allowed to own the housing
properties, like the real estate properties.
They were allowed to own corporations, industrial,
all that shit, but no. Real estate for housing.
Yeah. That housing market, it spiked and then
came back down and leveled off. Yeah. And it's
kind of some interesting insight if you kind
of step out and look at it. And they dove into
the factors. They looked at the data and everything
and determined that, yeah, if you get rid of
the big landlords, housing prices come down.
Well, it's always supply and demand. And we do
have a lot of space in this country. Yeah, we
need to start building a lot more houses. And
we also have like a four and a half million house
deficit right now. Yeah. And the sad part is
of those four and a half million, there's several
million of them that are just vacant. Because
these companies only so many houses that they
can actually take the tax right off. So there's
a there's a guy that's on. He's on social media.
Very smart guy. He's been a huge proponent of
taking a lot of financial wisdom and applying
it. And vacant houses is one of them. If the
house is vacant for a year, the holders need
to start paying property taxes, house taxes,
and some other things, and start essentially
funding money back into the market for holding
vacant houses. So the way I saw it described,
because I actually saw a very good breakdown
of this, what you do is for every year that a
house or a rental property is vacant, They have
to put in the equivalent amount of rent in funds
into an account that is national. That's for
an FHA home loan, the first -time home buyers.
Yeah, for first -time buyers, yep. So the idea
is the more of these companies that decide to
not pay in, then the more first -time home buyers
that can then buy a house. So either way, it's
a self -correcting problem. So I don't know,
because, hey, if you want to own 100 properties
and have 20 of them vacant for the tax write
-off, great. Then after the first year of it
being vacant, you're gonna have to pay the equivalent
what the state or local government sets that's
the rent for it you're just gonna have to pay
it monthly in a tax and it all goes to that fha
account that when someone goes to buy a house
they're like hey we brought in this much last
year and there's this many people applying this
year so you're like so hey you get 20 grand or
10 grand or 30 grand or whatever and for a lot
of people that would make an immense amount of
difference for a lot of people that could change
their life for some people to actually be able
to afford a house That same guy that I was talking
about was talking about funding FHA programs.
I know the guy you're talking about. I totally
forget his name, but I saw him on a couple of
podcasts mention that, and I was like, hell yeah.
Yeah, he's somebody that needs a position in
government and some authority. Well, the idea
for America is the easiest way to generate wealth
is through land and through ownership. Yeah,
look at Ray Kroc. Exactly. look at what we should
be promoting is the idea of people buying land
and starting businesses. And as you know from
the last podcast, I'm huge into both of those.
It should be the case of, I really feel, to be
honest with you, we should be reducing a lot
of our property taxes, income taxes, stuff like
that, get people to own homes, and then give
us incentives to start small businesses, which
I know your state might be doing that, which
that's a whole different, which I am so jealous.
I spend over $600 a month. interest property
taxes. God, that's gross. And you know what's
crazy? My roads are some of the worst in the
country. And we have some of the highest taxes
on roads. It's great. I also have to pay an excise
tax every year to the state for the privilege
of having a fucking vehicle. They're like, hey,
you have a vehicle. You got to pay a tax on that
just for owning it, even though I already paid
a sales tax for it. God. It makes me just want.
You're in the state that started the Revolutionary
War. That's what pisses me off. I know. They
need to remind it. I'm sorry. My state's full
of a bunch of soy boys, I don't have to tell
you. I'm so done with it. It makes me just want
to buy a bulldozer and some plates. I already
got the boulder. Oh. But I do want to mention,
I think Kiki and Chat made a really good point.
Or how about full U .S. citizenship if you want
to buy anything more than one house? I agree
with that 100%. I feel like if you're not a U
.S. citizen, you should be able to buy one property.
That's it. That's your vacation property. Anything
more than that, you have to be an American citizen.
Because I'm sorry, the fact that we have hordes
and hordes of American farmland that was bought
up by the Chinese is ridiculous. Absolutely not.
Yeah. Any foreign entities should not be allowed
to buy that much land. No. Especially near military
bases. You buy one. Uno. Singular. One. And that's
your vacation house. And it's taxed as such.
That's it. Yeah. So something else that we need
to, we'll steer back on track here. I'm sorry.
No, you're fine. The American job market as a
whole is kind of undergoing a significant shift.
And that really reflects a change in how people
view careers and work overall. So I know you
kind of talked about careers and whatnot, but
a bit of a breakdown that we can discuss. The
shifting landscape of the career mentality, and
I know you touched on that, decline of the traditional
career path. The notion of working for a single
company for decades, climbing the linear corporate
ladder, And retiring with a pension, it's less
prevalent, mostly because pensions just don't
exist anymore. There are a few companies out
there. I know Pepsi, Coca -Cola, they still offer
pensions. I think Ford, Honda, a couple of the
bigger, you know, ultra huge companies that can
actually afford it. still have them, but they're
few and far between. And all those countries,
sorry, countries, all those companies are on
the S &P 500 or NASDAQ. All of them are just
the top 5 to 1 ,000 companies. And even then,
most of them don't have it. It's literally a
handful of the top ones, and only because they
just have such an overwhelming profit margin.
They're able to issue something that has not
changed since the 80s. That's the other problem.
It's not like their pensions now are making people
millionaires. They're not. No, they're not. They're
barely outtracking the average 401k. Or they
should have better 401k contributions. That's
the other thing. Their pension might be, hey,
instead of 5%, it's a 10 % match. Yeah, or you
get a pension in lieu of a 401k match, which
is something. Or the other ones I saw, too, is
just stock options. It's like, oh, we do a 401k
match, 5%, and we give you... The one I saw from
Coca -Cola was something like... about four thousand
or three thousand dollars worth of equivalent
stock or something like that every year depending
on the amount of hours you worked or something
else i haven't looked at it a little bit but
yeah it was something to where like it's nice
that but that's not breaking the bank that's
not like wow you know this that's not like how
it was in the late 90s to the early 2000s where
you'd work for some it company And somehow make
a million dollars in four or five years because
you have all these stock options, everything
else. Unfortunately, some of these companies
have already expanded to where they're only going
to make a few percent. Yeah. Increased job hopping
has become a thing now. Staying with one employer
for a long time is no longer the norm. Employees,
especially the younger generations, looking at
you, Gen Z, are more open to changing companies
and roles to gain diverse experiences and potentially
higher compensation. The younger generation are
continually chasing the higher paycheck, and
that is unfortunately the norm. People will just
job hop to get the next pay raise because raises
have become so low, or in most cases stagnant,
that that's how you get a raise. It's the unfortunate
part of many companies. For some reason, this
I do not understand. Many companies feel like
if you want a 5 % or 10 % raise in a year, they'd
rather you just go and they'd rather train someone
new. It's going to cost more than that raise
to replace the employee than it would be to just
give the raise to the employee. Which is weird.
I found that a lot of jobs do not value the experience
you've gained while you're there, but they'll
pay you for the experience you have before you
get there. It's weird. It's a weird trade -off.
That's why there's a lot of people I know. I
have a buddy of mine who's a chemical engineer.
Every three years he trades, and he gets like
a 10 or 20 grand bump every time. I think a lot
of it has to do with the fact that people don't
have any negotiation skills. Well, not only that,
but okay, so here's a big question I have to
a lot of people. This is something I'd love to
hear from the audience as well as people understand.
For your company, if HR are the people that are
supposed to be in charge of hiring, firing, and
doing all that, are those people actually held
responsible for... for actually hiring people
are they ever fired when they don't find people
or are they ever held responsible when they have
failed negotiations the answer usually that 90
of that is no um they just kind of sit on their
ass protect the company quite frankly they're
not there for you they're there for them so it's
this weird problem of they get they hire people
when they get around to it if they find the right
person that accepts the money and then there's
really no um how should i say punishment if they
just don't And I can tell you, so from a friend
of mine that works at a local hospital, they
were short 12 people in their department. That's
a lot. Yes, especially in their entire department
had like 17. Wow. They were short 12. It took
three months of another person and I applying
there, because this was back when I was in college,
applying there, never got a response. Never once,
myself and another person, and the other person
I know that was working there was screaming at
them, hey, we need to hire people. And they were
like, yeah, but we'll get around to it. There's
an issue I've seen, and this may be just in my
experience and something I've heard from a lot
of people. One, there is no urgency for companies
to hire because at the end of the day, if the
job market is bad, people will stay and be overworked
and they'll just deal with the conditions. And
these companies know they have the leverage.
So why would they bother hiring somebody else?
Until they find somebody that's willing to be
underpaid and overworked, they don't give a shit.
And that is the sad part. When it's an employer's
market like that, they will take full advantage
of it. Oh, 100%. That's why there's a company
that I left because, again, with the employer's
market, I was told one thing when I was hired.
Then I was told another thing after I started
there. When it was completely wrong, the pay
was wrong, the benefits were wrong, the hours
were wrong. And I didn't really have a choice
because it's like, well, I got to fucking pay
the bills and deal with shit. So this is what
I got to do. And the sad part is up until recently,
up until about the early to mid 2000s. It had
always been majority in the favor of the employers,
aside the employees. Every employer was like,
we're itching to find people. We need to find
people. We got to keep growing. I got to keep
expanding. Got to keep doing more and more and
more. Well, now we've hit the apex of, hey. taxes
have made this and expenses have made this so
your company can't really grow anymore you're
gonna be lucky to get two percent year over year
you can't do those twenty percent years anymore
those ten percent years anymore you're there
that's as big as you're gonna get and for a lot
of companies that's where they're at there is
no room for expansion so without any government
incentives or really reduces in taxes or with
the reduction of inflation without any of those
things happening they are stuck there And I would
agree with you 100 % on the negotiation part,
because a lot of people, they can't negotiate
at all for shit. And second, I hate to say it,
but it does dive down to a lot of people in the
younger generation, this is myself included,
because they've been all over the place. They
never got proficient at any one thing. It's always
there. They got good enough. They're passable
in several things. And for some roles in some
companies, that's great. That's all you need.
But in order to be paid good money, you've got
to be good at a marketable skill. And if you
are not proficient, not just passable, but proficient
at something, you're not going to make good money
at it. And I hate to say it, but the easiest
way I can think of is how much are you going
to pay somebody that's a painter if they're just
doing an okay job? Most people only pay good
money for beautiful paintings. If you're a beautiful
painter, they're going to pay you $5. $5, don't
pay the bills. $5 will make you holler. But that's
the kind of thing where you have to be good enough
to be marketable and be able to do more. And
if you don't push for that, and don't get me
wrong, it kind of sucks because I'll admit high
school set a lot of us up for failure and even
college. They didn't really actually push marketable
skills or anything else like that. So for a lot
of these kids, I... My heart goes out to you.
I get it. I got lucky with the things that I
had and everything else I had going on, my experiences
and my stuff, but holy fuck, it's very difficult
in the way the market is right now. And that's
why a lot of us parents need to push onto our
kids self -reliability, skills, marketable skills
especially. You can't get a degree in gender
studies of giraffes and expect to come out of
college and have a marketable skill. It just
doesn't happen. You've got to go to a school,
ideally a trade school with the way things are
going, because I love Mike Rowe and the man pushes
trade schools left and right because we have
a massive trade skills deficit in this country.
We need electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, welders,
construction workers even. Oh, yeah. That know
what the hell they're doing. I mean, have you
watched the videos of the people doing the home
inspections? Those are people's homes, and they're
paying $300 ,000 to $800 ,000 for these new homes
that are being put together by people, and they
don't pass the inspections. I can tell you why.
Lack of enforcement of building code. And I hate
to be an asshole, and I'm going to have to say
it. And I might get canceled for saying it, but
I'm going to fucking say it. Say the shitty thing.
They're hiring all illegals to do the work. It's
80 % people that are not American citizens that
don't speak English. Why? Because most American
dudes, men and women, don't want to do that kind
of work. Not only that, but the ones that do,
they cost too much. Because there's the other
problem. So it's the issue of it's very difficult
to start your own construction company. It's
very difficult to even start many of these trades.
Here's the other issue. And I got to call out
some of the people that are already in the trades.
In order to get started in some of these trades,
a lot of these people are fucking assholes. And
I understand, and I don't know if these people
kind of get where I'm going with this, but if
you are new in a trade, either an apprentice
or a rookie, whatever, I understand a little
bit of hazing I get making fun of people. In
some of it's been in all male environments that
used to do construction and commercial kitchen
installation, we all give each other epic amounts
of shit. Don't get me wrong. It's part of the
process. Part of the problem is not teaching.
Yes. Here's the issue. You cannot be in a construction
unit or a welder's unit or HVAC unit and say,
wow, you know, it's weird. We keep hiring all
these young kids, and if they keep leaving, they
can't do the work. They're all fucking lazy.
But the reality of it is they're not teaching
them anything, and they're only just shitting
on them their entire fucking day, and they're
like, wow, I basically go to work to get bullied.
There's a difference here that I don't think
people realize. It's one thing. They give each
other shit and say, oh, nice job, Mike. Fucking
great job, you idiot. And laugh and say, don't
worry, we'll figure it out. The problem is there's
a lot of people that are not leaders, yet they
wonder why they can't lead a group. So to piggyback
on the lack of leadership, most companies have
a lack of training as well. The training programs
at the companies that I have seen is mediocre
at best, and I've worked for some really good
companies. There have been a few like very shining
pebbles of training all -stars, I'll say. But
outside of that, it's been, okay, here's the
manual. Go ahead and read it. And then you're
trained. You know what's crazy? I have been with
three different companies before the one I'm
at. They didn't even have an onboarding process.
They didn't even know. A lot of places don't.
They're like, oh, welcome aboard. What are we
doing here? You'll just figure it out. And then
they get mad that you don't know how to do things,
but they've never taught you. There's no structure.
There's no training. The problem is a lot of
companies have HR departments, which ideally
they're supposed to handle this. The onboarding
and training and everything. And what they don't
fucking do is handle any of it. All they do is
say, wow, that's great. We're HR. Bring your
complaints to us and we're just going to sit
in our office and I can't finish the rest of
that sentence because that's not Twitch appropriate.
But it enrages me beyond because really at the
end of the day, your boss or your manager, whoever's
hiring you, it's their job to teach you how to
do your job. And people might be saying, well,
you might be hired. And a lot of cases, you get
one person. in charge of 20, 50, 100 people,
they cannot be expected to train each and every
one of them when, let's say, one guy gets 100
people and there's 10 different departments and
each department is vastly different. That one
guy or person cannot be reasonably expected to
know every position well enough to train, excuse
me, to the standards. That each position needs
to be held to. And that's, that's what leads
are for, but that's also what training programs
are for precisely. And this is why people leave
those positions and go and drive for Uber or
door dash or Uber eats or post baits. They're
their own boss at that point. And there used
to be companies where you would actually be hired
in a position and your job was to train people
to onboard people. They were dedicated people
for these jobs. I mean, to give you guys an idea,
a little bit of background, why this really pisses
me off. My grandfather was one of the head engineers
for Xerox. Back when they invented the Xerox
machine, did the whole printer thing and everything.
My grandfather, incredibly smart guy. Also incredibly
on the spectrum, but incredibly smart guy. Love
him to death. It must be genetic. Very funny.
Listen, I don't even have a good response for
that. I know what I am. But the point I'm getting
at, is with his company they were dedicated people
in his department but the idea is whenever they
got new technicians or engineers they would spend
months with them to train them on their standards
their process their procedures just to even how
to do their own paperwork so everything was exactly
the same they had people dedicated to it that
got paid good money like damn near six figures
back in the 90s i couldn't believe it when he
i spoke about it years ago but that's because
these companies wanted to make sure That people
were well trained and that as long as you just
followed the process and actually put in the
effort You could do it But unfortunately wonder
why a lot of the younger generation has burnout
It's simple you show up to a job You're not trained
how to do it and then you yelled at for not knowing
how to do it It's like what do I just come to
work? Do you fucking yell that? Like, no, if
I want to be abused, I just go hang out with
my family. Like, not for nothing. It's just,
it's not, what are we doing here? You know, I
just, I know that was a little too close to home,
but you get my point. Sorry, I'm in a very yelly
mood today. But I know a lot of people my age
and younger that feel like this. And unfortunately,
I hate to be an asshole, but there's a lot of
people that are in the older age range that run
these companies. They are not, as involved or
understanding because as you get old, this happens
to everybody. This is not just the car older
generations. Everybody that gets older one day,
I'll be that fucking asshole. But at some day
you get old enough to the point to where you're
too removed from the day -to -day operations
and expectations and how things are constantly
evolving and changing in every single business.
Something is evolving or changing every single
day. And if you are not keeping track with that,
you will fall behind. And especially with the
needs that are changing, with demands that are
changing, if you're not constantly updating your
training, your standards, evaluations, if you're
not looking at these things, you will fall behind.
And that's why these companies fail. Or better
yet, that's why they can't find new people. That's
why they can't hire. Every company that says,
well, we can't retain or hire people, congrats,
you are the fucking problem. It's literally you.
Because I know other people that have family
companies or local places that, God. They thrive.
They throw up an ad for somebody to get hired
within a week. They're like, oh, yeah, we need
this position. Cool. Look at this. Look at this.
Look at this. Interview them. Cool. I've had
companies where it took me months just to get
an interview. And they were actively looking
for me like, oh, you're an awesome candidate.
That's great. Let's do the background check.
And I'm waiting for two months like, hello. I
thought you wanted me. Like, what are we supposed
to do? So sorry for my rant, but like, fuck.
I know other people agree with me on this, though.
Oh, a hundred percent. Literally everything you
said is essentially true. We will all become
those get off my lawn type people at some point,
but you have to go through the stages when you're
not given the tools to do your job. How are you
supposed to do your job? You can't change a tire
without the wrenches, right? Yeah. And then if
you're told to go change a tire, but then you
don't have the tools to do it, and then someone
comes out and asks you why it's not done, what
are you supposed to do? You know? And I do agree.
We'll just make a point, and I do want to address
this like two seconds really quickly. We'll give
the chatmate a point. Don't forget about the
DEI portion of this. I will tell you my limited
experience with what I can say. It's sad that
we have gone away from meritocracy. Thankfully,
we're going back to that. But hiring people just
solely based off the color of their skin to add
diversity does not help. They do not focus on
diversity of thought or background or education.
They focus on diversity of skin color, which
is inherently racist, and I'm just not a fan
of it. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't
work. If companies were smart, they'd focus on
diversity of backgrounds and educations. That
way you have more to bring to the table, but
they assume you have more to bring to the table
because of the color of your skin, which is inherently
bullshit. So, just because you're a different
color doesn't mean you grew up any differently.
Yeah. So, getting a little bit back on track.
No, you're good. The rants take us down the rabbit
holes that we need to go down. The rat holes.
The rabbit holes turn into foxholes. you know
can we make a shirt out of that i i turned my
rabbit holes into foxholes it's just it's just
like it just shows like cnn or msnbc holding
guns like shooting um like dislikes or something
like that i don't know that'd be kind of funny
yes i'll ai that later get anderson cooper out
there with a a an ar -15 that looks like a dildo
that has like the big it fires dislikes that's
all it does yes Erosion of employer loyalty.
You can no longer expect lifelong employment
and strong loyalty between employers and employees
due to factors like mass layoffs, outsourcing,
and organizational restructuring. Yeah, those
days are long gone. Getting on with a company
and working there for 40 years and then getting
your gold Rolex and riding off to retirement
does not exist anymore. You jump around, you
find what works for you, and you stick there
for a few years, get some resume padding, and
then you move on. Focus on the flexibility and
work -life balance. Modern workers, especially
those under 30, prioritize flexibility, autonomy,
and a better work -life balance over the security
of the traditional nine -to -five jobs. Hence
the rise of the gig economy, like your DoorDash
drivers, Uber, Uber Eats, Lyft, those types of
deals because they can work when they choose
to work. They are their own bosses. They are
the master of their own domain. They answer to
no one. I will say when I was doing DoorDash
for a while, I quite enjoyed it. To be fair,
I was doing that when we were getting the stimulus
money and the tips flowed like wine. Something
to consider, too, is I think a lot of people
that are younger. I understand that if I work
a nine to five, I'm barely going to make more
money, but I have to deal with someone else's
bullshit. Whereas if I could just do something
like this, I make a little less money, but I
work wherever the fuck I want. I could sleep
in till 11 or noon if I want to and work until
midnight if I want. So a lot of people complain
that, oh, the young people don't want to work.
I tell them that's bullshit. They just don't
want to work for you. Yes. The growth of the
independent work. The gig economy, characterized
by short -term contracts, freelance work, and
on -demand jobs, has expanded significantly,
especially due to COVID. A substantial portion
of the U .S. workforce now engages in gig work
for various reasons, including flexibility and
the ability to choose their own projects. I know
retirees are a huge portion of that. I cannot
tell you the amount of people that I have had
when I DoorDash are 60 -plus. That's so sad.
I know. I hate seeing that. Like, I hate seeing
older people go to work. Now, I want to say that
it's sad, but, like, the good in me is, like,
I really hope that they're just doing it because
they're bored. Like, I really, really hope that
that's the case for these people. Yeah, for some
of them, maybe, but I hate to say it. I doubt
it. For most of them, I bet you're in necessity.
It's probably not. I can hope at all that I want,
but it's probably not. Yeah, because unfortunately
people have to pay taxes on their social security,
so therefore they never make that much. That
has to stop. That has to fucking stop. Technological
enablement, online platforms, and apps have made
it easier for individuals to connect with short
-term work opportunities and for companies to
hire independent contractors. Again, companies
like DoorDash can let you be your own employer.
boss 1099 employee type deal they don't have
to have an employee workforce they don't have
to have insurance or anything like that it works
out for both people the employer and the employee
so and like you said just finding out when the
good times to work are in your area when you're
doing something like doordash uh can be a huge
benefit if you know that the breakfast and lunch
rush is great and then it's quiet for six hours
and then it's banging for like four hours in
the evening you can split your work day in half
if that's what you want to do yeah you you can
work nine to one and then be off for six or seven
hours and then work you know six to nine and
then you've got a full day of work in and you've
been able to do what you need to do and you get
paid that day that's also a nice thing and also
consider nowadays unfortunately most companies
It's very difficult to do anything medically
or anything else outside of the traditional 9
-to -5 work week. So then if you work 9 -to -5,
you then can't do anything with your kids or
do anything or do anything officially between
at a bank. Which, by the way, the fact that banks
are closed Sundays is absolute bullshit. That's
beside the point. But the fact that so many things
aren't open on weekends means if you're a regular
9 -to -5 person like me or you, during the week,
we can't do shit. And then on the weekend, half
of everything's closed anyway. So for younger
people where it's like the money doesn't matter
as much as the flexibility. I don't blame them
at all, and especially considering the amount
of ways you can make things on Etsy or Fiverr
or even doing internet sponsorships if you have
any sort of following on TikTok or Instagram
or social media stuff. You could literally just
do DoorDash and then do online shit and make
as much or more. Or like I've been doing with
Facebook Marketplace and the planners that I've
been selling. Exactly. I cannot wait to be done
with these things. You chose to start a small
business, my man. I know, but I want to make
other things. Well, start making them. I have
to get through this season. Let's see. Skills
-based hiring. The gig economy often emphasizes
specific skills and project -based work leading
to a rise in skills -based hiring. Yeah. When
you take on... 1099 and project based work. If
you've got one or two things that you're really
good at, you can go fill roles pretty quick and
it doesn't have to be a permanent hire. It can
be a contract deal, six months, eight months,
whatever you're in, you're out and you're gone.
And then you're onto the next deal. And a lot
of people love that kind of work because they
get a lot of experience, a lot of different places.
They see new technology, new environments, new
people. They get a lot of networking done that
way. And that can lead to a lot of things right
there. It's literally not what you know. It is
who you know. The greatest piece of advice I
can give to anybody that's younger is you don't
go to college to learn. You go to college to
network, to learn, and know some different people.
And also, number two, if you are someone that's
pleasurable to be around, like you actually have
a good attitude, you're personable, you're charismatic,
I'll be honest, do you have any idea how effective
that is? I was unemployed from my previous job
for a whole three hours. I was charismatic and
I was able to call up. I had a person call that
wanted to hire me before I went to the previous
dealership. I was like, hey, how you doing? And
I was still fucking pissed because I was let
go the Wednesday before Christmas and I was like,
this fucking sucks because half the service team
got fired because of quarterly reports because
that's what happens when you work at a dealership.
It's all about what the parent company says that
they sell from. So when they say, hey, sales
are down, you're going to have to let go of people
or else we're not going to be able to support
you. the new guy gets let go it happens but anyways
i was unemployed for a whole three hours because
they gave me a call and i was like yeah you know
this just happened i'd love to meet up and i
was a big fan of you before i know you weren't
able to hire me before but i'd love to come and
talk if you have time today or tomorrow i'd love
to come and have an interview and lou is like
yeah just come on down if you happen to be free
and whatever chat with the guy he's like dude
you're awesome you're hired and it's the thing
is if you can stand out on the i mean you're
on the younger side and just be personable knowledgeable
and do a little bit of research before you actually
go in for an interview learn about the company
learn about what they do learn about some things
and put in the effort you'll be fine because
you'll be one of the standout people just don't
be the young person that shows up that acts like
they don't give a because then you're gonna look
like the rest of them and i hate to be like an
but that is such a prevailing thing that i see
is they're like well i'll just go get another
minimum wage job or low -paying job so why bother
why care i can always just door dash and i'll
still make about the same and i it sucks they're
in the situation but they're not wrong yeah so
a couple things that i want to point out uh i
i have a bunch of other stats but i feel like
i'm just kind of being dry and reading on but
uh the unemployment rate has remained relatively
low at 4 .2 percent as of march of 2025 uh the
non -farm payroll or employment increased in
March by 228 ,000 jobs. So there is some job
growth and that's non -farm. So unfortunately
that does include government jobs. However, I
think with Doge swinging the band hammer, a lot
of those government jobs are going away. Yes.
So I don't think that reflects the Doge adjusted.
workforce numbers. That's something we have to
get later on when we can actually get more numbers
from Doge more clearly. Yeah, give it another
month or so and they'll be out. Oh, yeah. But
the big job gains did occur in sectors like healthcare,
social assistance, and transportation, as well
as warehousing. So there's a big emphasis on
skilled labor with adaptability in the workforce.
So to sum up all that, The American job market
is moving away from the rigid long -term career
and moving towards a more fluid environment that
includes a growing gig economy, the resurgence
of the importance and desirability of the skilled
trade professions. It's driven by a lot of technological
advancements, worker preferences, and the evolving
needs of businesses across the country. Now.
Here's something that Gibbs and I differ vastly
on. With the changing job market comes changing
income and financial stability issues. I think
I've talked a little bit in previous episodes
about the possibility of the need for UBI, universal
basic income. This is a topic that gets... Some
coverage here and there. When people get into
debates about this, it can get kind of heated
because even me being a fairly right -leaning
libertarian type person, it is an extremely socialist
perspective because it is a social support construct.
If some of the ideas that we have put forward
on this podcast, are followed. The math will
actually math out. And it is possible. But constraints
and other devices have to be put in place. So
yes, it's the age -old adage of, oh, it has to
be done the right way for this socialism to work.
Typical communist. Typical communist, yes. I
am not a communist. I am not a socialist. But
a lot of other things have to be done correctly.
for a program like this to be put in place. Do
I think UBI will ever be a thing? No, I do not.
Do I think that the government and the other
entities of the US need to consider something
that's maybe UBI adjacent? I really do. So maybe
explain to people in the audience that might
not know what UBI means. I said universal basic
income. Oh, okay, I didn't know you said that.
My bad. Yeah, you weren't paying attention. It's
cool. With the continuing development of automation,
robotics, AI, and the shifting workforce, I really,
really feel that something either UBI or UBI
adjacent is going to have to be developed at
some point down the pipeline because people are
not going to be able to survive on the jobs that
they're able to ascertain. Within the economy
that's going to be. On the spectrum in 10, 15
years. Now, if we're asteroid mining by then.
That might be a different story. Because I would
like to be an asteroid miner myself. I would
also like to be digitally uploaded into a scenario
where I can be an asteroid miner. Go listen to
episode two. So the crux of what you're proposing
is effectively a universal basic income that's
a standard. That way people's basic necessities
are paid for. The idea is you have, I'm assuming,
like a house. You have enough for food and public
transportation, like the minimal necessities.
So it's not like, hey, we're going to cover all
your shit. It's more or less like. $1 ,000, $1
,500, on the high end, maybe even $2 ,000 per
person per month. And it's on a sliding adjustment
scale. And the more that you actually earn, the
less you get from the UBI. There are things like
VAT taxes that go into refund this thing. When
people die, anything in their accounts gets rolled
back into it. Consumption tax. There are things
that have to be put back in place. A flat tax
obviously has to be instituted to make this work,
as well as the elimination of a lot of other
current social support programs. If you're doing
that in lieu of other things, that may be possible.
But I still think there would have to be a requirement
that in order for you to receive UBI, you have
to have a regular job or be on disability or...
be on social security so the idea is effectively
your employment status is either you're working
or you're disabled or you're collecting because
you're retired yeah because i that's my worry
is that there's gonna be a lot of people that
say oh i get two thousand dollars fifteen hundred
dollars a month i will just van life that and
just collect it out of a post box that appeal
box that i have and sure like being a nomad for
a while is fine but your entire life not contributing
back into society just being a detriment I feel
like that would kind of suck because there's
a lot of people that would just check out, which
like, don't get me wrong. If that's what you
want to do, that's your call. But then for how
long can we subsidize that is the right. Well,
even, even those people are still going to have
to eat. They're going to have to buy parts for
their vans for their van life life. I mean, they're
still going to recontribute back into the, to
the program. Now, if they're not working, maybe
they get less. I don't have all the answers.
This is not a one -man solution. But it's something
that could be laid out and then worked out. It's
something that could work. But it absolutely
could work. It literally just needs flushed out
and worked out and looked at. Some of the arguments
for UBI in the context of the changing job market.
automation and job displacement. I already mentioned
some of that. The rise of the gig economy. If
you've got people who are working as gig workers,
imagine what an extra grand a month could do
to help them out. That'd be great for folks like
that. I mean, if jobs are just not available,
but you can do gig work, the UBI is to support
that. Support of entrepreneurship. If you're
starting a business. You get maybe max UBI for
X amount of time during the first X amount of
months during a new business to supplement that.
Things like that could be done. Improved health
and well -being. You'll be able to cover and
afford your doctor visits, paid time off from
work to attend doctor visits and whatnot, paid
transportation to the doctor. There are things
that could be put in place to make sure that
people are being taken care of. that need to
be taken care of in that capacity. Valid. Labor
supply. This is one you were just saying, and
I'll just read this directly from what I found
earlier. Critics of UBI often worry that it could
disincentivize work, leading to a decrease in
labor supply. Some studies on UBI have shown
the slight reduction in hours worked, but others
indicate that recipients largely retain their
jobs. and may use the income to pursue education
or better job opportunities. So if they're going
to work, not have to stress about the bills,
maybe even go to school while they've got the
extra money. It does open up avenues. If you
were working a job and you were getting mid -level
UBI, and it was like $1 ,200 extra a month, you
wouldn't have to stress about the bills. You
could afford to go and do... something with the
the wife and kids or whatever i mean it it's
something that could work it's just always the
catch of making sure that those people that are
taking the money out but that money is going
back in to do something of use and that's oh
yeah leaving the country or it's not doing something
else i'm not yeah i guess that's my worry with
it is i never trust the government being in charge
of running something because every single time
they run it to the ground And then shit it out
and then bury it again. So it's the case of if
it was done for the very limited idea of like,
hey, you have these very strict criteria where
you can get it. Otherwise you don't. And that's
fine. But as long as like it's very well defined,
I believe is my issue with that, because I would
agree that for a lot of particularly younger
people that are trying to get a start in life
that just simply can't. It would be massive.
Because here's one thing that I wanted to bring
up this entire discussion now that we're finally
here. The biggest thing that would help young
people do is start families. Have you looked
at, I want to pull up some data that I saw. Look
at the cost of daycare. That's discouraging enough.
Not only that, did you know by almost 20 million
people, there's more millennials than Gen Z?
all right we are at the point where it's supposed
to be a pyramid but right now it's diamond shaped
it's by almost 20 million if there's like 15
to 20 million as of the count as i saw from a
couple of days ago um the problem is we're going
to have an inverted pyramid at some point where
the younger generation simply cannot afford to
have kids and here's the problem we can't just
have a bunch of immigration have people bring
kids here because then they don't assimilate
into the culture into the society and they're
not invested in the country so the problem you
have to have is you really have to incentivize
people that are here to be able to have kids
and right now gotta start cranking out them babies
the problem is people are not incentivized to
do that there's no way like for most young people
if you're going to spend a couple thousand dollars
per month per kid on daycare But you need two
incomes to live. Congratulations. You now can't
have kids. The math is that simple. There is
no math in your way out of this problem. And
for a lot of people, especially nowadays, maybe
it's just because the area of the country that
I live in, I know a lot of people that are not
that close with their family, that aren't that
close with their parents. I know a lot of people
that would not send their kids to their parents'
house to have them watch over them while they
were at work or their grandparents or whoever.
For a lot of people I know unfortunately have
developed a society where you have to be 100
% self -sufficient Which means if you can't afford
the daycare yourself, you're just not having
kids. It's that simple So with something like
UBI with daycare assistance and other things
I would agree That would help people start families
because you always have to have for a society
to be successful You have to have that pyramid
structure of the most amount of people are the
newborn kids, and then you got the other kids
and the teenagers, then it goes up smaller and
smaller and smaller. The issue is right now,
we are projecting for Gen Alpha, they're looking
at, so if millennials are like 76 million, and
then you have the Gen Z that are like 55 or 60
million, what do you think Gen Alpha is going
to be? Because right now they're projecting about
35 million. 20 to 30? They're projecting about
30 to 35. Here's the problem. What happens when
millennials outnumber Gen Alpha 2 to 1 and they're
in their 50s or 60s? What happens to retirement?
What happens to, better yet, any single... It
collapses. This is the problem I see. This is
the thing I've wanted to wait until near the
end to bring up. Any single job that requires
physical attributes or physical things to do
will be in the biggest demand possible. You are
looking at things like any single trade. EMS
services, police, fire, medical. Any of the things
that you need on a daily basis to operate, those
kids that are going to be at half the amount
means their job is going to pay double as much,
if not more. They're going to fight for every
person. So, weirdly enough, all these problems
we're talking about eventually might self -correct.
The problem. Might. Do you know what's happening
in Oklahoma right now? No. So basically, they
are going to be losing most of their EMS personnel.
Oh, wow. That's a bad place to have a heart attack.
So one of the things that's happening is because
of between the restructuring and the renegotiations
for contracts and everything else, there are
so many EMS or emergency personnel that are being
paid near minimum wage or barely above it, and
they're not getting inflationary increases. That
you can literally make more money stocking shelves
at Walmart at 22 to 23 an hour than you would
being an EMS. So, what's happening? Wow. I saw
a statistic, and I do want chat to fact check
this because I heard it on Thursday. They usually
get several hundred thousand people involved
in EMS in Oklahoma. And from what I heard, they
only had 7 ,000 new applicants. Normally there's...
tens of thousands if not a hundred thousand they
are going to be losing people those people are
going to be dropping like flies but more importantly
with this inverted chart with this inverted h
bracket how many ems how many firefighters are
going to be in their 50s and 60s how is this
going to work especially with our poison food
supply and everything else going on with people
being unhealthy as hell the robots the robots
are going to save us well elon's robots are going
to come to the rescue That's going to be the
only savior. No, you know what? I think this
might end up, however, self -correcting the problem.
Because if there's half the amount of people,
all of a sudden, now the, you know, the, I guess
the leverage is in back of the hands of the employees.
Now, all of a sudden, it becomes a market where
they're striving, they're demanding more people.
So as long as we're aware that this is the future
we're going to, understand that eventually there
will be the inverted triangle and understand
everybody my age and younger needs to understand.
The reason why I keep saying you'll never get
retirement or you'll never get Social Security,
there won't be enough people to pay for it. You
could tax every company 100 % and pay for it
for maybe a year or two. And then now you lose
everything. So this is why we keep promoting
these things. I keep talking about this. This
is something that is, I think a lot of politicians
are five, 10 years behind the ball on this one.
There's a reason why Poland in Europe is pushing
families really hard. There's a reason why they
pay people every month when they have more children.
Anything past three or four, even five kids,
they start paying them monthly. They don't even
pay taxes. We get the opposite. As Poland sees
what we're going to be going through. in a few
decades and i'm not saying poland's perfect they
have their other issues but at least they understand
that the country has to beat that basically there's
like a replacement factor it's like 2 .1 or 2
.2 or something like that where as long as you
could beat or exceed that your country can grow
and be healthy if you don't you're going to have
the problem that we're going to have which is
there's going to be a bunch of people your age
at my age That are gonna be you know waiting
on the phone for a strong young strapping police
officer EMS agent one of us breaks our hips And
we're gonna realize they are one hour 47 minutes
away because oh, yeah, there's nine in the whole
state Mm -hmm, and unfortunately it's because
we made it so expensive for people to have kids
and have families so You know, hopefully we can
fix that We do this podcast mostly because we
love to do it. It's a hobby for us, but we'd
like to talk about things that don't get enough
attention in the limelight. It's one of the reasons
why I personally really wish that people in places
of power and ability to make changes would listen
to the show. Will that ever happen? I don't know.
We can only hope. We just need to go to Truth
Social and start adding all the politicians.
Watch this cool podcast. Maybe what we could
do is maybe we can hire the bot programs you
can hire. Maybe we'll just use them to start
standing up podcasts on every single politician
left and right. I don't care. Ooh, there we go.
Oh, my God. Can I annoy AOC so much that she
actually has to shout us out by denouncing us?
That'd be hilarious. That's awesome. I love it.
I take it. I don't care. So I've got a lot of
other points on UBI, but I think we've driven
the point home. It could work. There are some
hurdles to overcome it. It needs work. It needs
flushed out. But, you know, it's something that
if done correctly, it actually could make a huge
difference for a lot of people. Of course, upper
income caps and whatnot, sliding scale, all that
shit. Especially for people that are retirees
as well, people that are on disability. People
that are disabled, they can't work or anything
else like that, plus other stuff. It really could
work as long as you kind of rein it in. Absolutely.
Maybe with all the terrorist stuff and everything
else, maybe we could do an episode down the road
of, like we did the last episode, Fix the American
Economy, but we could throw in UBI and a few
other things and see how exactly it would work.
Yeah, I had slated UBI to be its own separate
episode, but I felt tying it into this episode
was probably more appropriate. So we'll see what
develops. But as we had discussed in the previous
episodes, Doge is doing a lot to cut government
waste. And honestly, if that mentality is applied
more going forward in the future, as well as
the tariffs and some tax policies that have been
discussed, I know. President Trump just announced
that there's a possibility that there will be
zero income tax on people making under, what,
$150 ,000 or $200 ,000 a year. I mean, come on,
love them or hate them. That's going to be a
great thing if it's actually put through. Tax
policies that need to be adjusted and even policies
that have been discussed on this show. We are
literally solving. countrywide issues one episode
at a time on this podcast, as crazy as it sounds.
All I'm saying is that if we could get together
a few other smart people as well and make a think
tank and just start posting stuff on websites
and make it seem like we're like this big international
think tank, I bet you we'd get national publicity.
I bet you. I'd be able to post links and do stuff
and also talk about Doge. They're at roughly
$371 billion, by the way. Oh, wow. What were
we, since we have the running note list? $371
billion. And that's recommended savings. What
were we at? For what? During the last, when we
did the show. I don't remember. I really don't
remember what it was at. Oh, I didn't have the
snippet. I forget. I think there's a screenshot
of when I, of the U .S. National. Well, the national
debt during that show when we did the snippet.
Was 36 trillion, 721 billion, 237 million. What's
it at now? 36 .783. So it's gone up 50 billion.
That's actually not bad because that's been a
couple of weeks. That's sad. That's really sad
that you've said, oh yeah, it's only got a 50
billion in a couple of weeks of debt. Yeah. Because
there was a time where it was going up. Wasn't
there a few months where it was like a trillion
every few months? There was a time it was a trillion
a week. Fucking Christ. Kills me. But we're on
the right track. They're getting there. But honestly,
the fact that Doge is able to save us enough
for a small European nation. That says something.
Again, you do not have to like the people that
are in charge of the place. to approve of the
job that they are doing are they going about
the right way maybe not but the outcome is still
a good thing will some things need to be adjusted
after it's all said and done probably people
forget Elon Musk isn't firing people he's just
making recommendations with his with the people
he's with and by the way he is going to be stepping
away from that in the coming months because as
a um not like a government it was a temporary
position you can only work i think it's like
130 days So he's already been working almost
every day since Trump was inaugurated. So he
literally has like 30 or 40 days left. So he
will be stepping away. And then I think all that
hate is just going to magically disappear. Because
it's not Elon. No. Well, people have short memories.
Give it a year. We'll see. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah,
so how are the clips coming along? You promised
the last show we would have clips last week.
I don't like you holding me accountable. Where
are my clips, Gibbs? Where are the clips, Mansley?
Oh, by the way, Mansley is what I'm calling the
guy on our cover art. I like it. Mansley the
mascot. I'm like, all right, all right. Are we
going to be like Iron Maiden? Iron Maiden has
their big mascot, so we're going to have a mascot?
Probably. Mansley's going to be our archangel
of the apocalypse? Archangel? I couldn't English
that. I don't know. I can't. Words are difficult.
So just a few bits of housekeeping. We now have
an open, operating, functional Facebook group.
It is called the Now We Consume Podcast Fans.
The link will be going out after the show, so
you can look for that. If you look at any of
our posts, the link will be there. You're welcome
to join. We'll see what kind of shenanigans we
can get into there. Probably just try to have
some people come in. Share the show there. Post
some memes, post some fun stuff, interact. Yeah,
just, you know, nothing too horrible. No, no,
no. Dark humor is great, but, you know, we'll
try to keep it reasonable. Put it this way. If
you don't want your employer to see it, probably
don't post it there. It's Facebook. Let's be
real. I mean, it's a closed group, so, you know,
we can be a little loose and wild, but. Still,
if there's a chance that. Please don't break
any local or federal laws, please. That's not.
Yes. No, I will throw you under the bus if you
break a federal law. I have no qualms about that.
Yes. I started trying out the laser with some
potential merch ideas. I have a metal business
card that's got the noodles and dips on it. And
it's got a QR code that takes you to the YouTube
page. It actually works. I posted that in the
Discord, and it's actually pretty awesome. I'm
pretty impressed with it. I was very impressed
with it. I will pay you for a metal business
card. Okay. I will mushroom stamp it just for
you. I will say that the smell of laser -oblated
spray paint is wonderful. It gave me all kinds
of wonderful brain things. Ah, yes, the brain
tinglys. The brain tinglys. Ah, yes, the static
in my mind. It is now tension. Yes. I got some
leather keychains as well that I'm going to try
out. So if literally if anybody is interested
in anything that, you know, we can put up as
something that you might want to. have around.
I'm taking suggestions. Eventually I do want
to do the merch stuff and get a few things organized.
I will finally get paid this week so I can start
doing the AI stuff here. I'm very excited for
it Wednesday. I get paid. Honestly, I'm just
going to use the AI thing. That's fine. You promised
us clips. I know. I didn't get paid. I'll fund
it. You can pay me back or pay half. So the thing
is, I was supposed to have my 30 -day review
three months ago and my 90 -day review back on
the 9th of this month and it is now the 28th.
So I kind of was like, hey, when are we having
that? It was supposed to be last Friday. And
then it didn't happen and it was supposed to
be this last Friday. And then it didn't happen.
Just ask him if the 30 day review is still happening
today. That'll, that'll jar. It didn't happen.
So I kind of said, Hey, it's happening tomorrow.
Right. And he said, yeah. So either it happens
tomorrow or I, I don't know what I'm going to
do at that point. So you just type up the paperwork
with your own raise and submit it to him for
signature. And then to HR, he is HR. It's a small
company. Well, there you go. There you go. But,
yeah, so possible merchant stuff, the Facebook
group. Find the Discord. The Discord link will
be in the episode notes, or description, rather,
with all the episodes now. In the past, going
forward, it'll be there. So find us, join us,
be one of us. Love the noodle. Love the noodle.
Rock that show. A little personal. But yeah,
I think that's pretty much it. Yeah. Hit up the
socials. Do all the things and join us next week.
Thank you for listening to us rant for a little
bit. We appreciate it. Yes. Two fat guys ranting
about life. I know. It's great. We should really
rant about pizza one of these days. A food episode.
An episode that Our food is killing us. Oh, yeah,
that's on our list. That is on the block. That's
on our list. Well, now that I do want to mention
really quickly, because I know... Fuck, what's
his name? Ah, thank you. Jesus Christ, I'm losing
my mind. His nickname is Brain Worm, so just,
you know. RFK just talked about they're going
to be making a bunch of the dyes illegal in the
U .S. Yeah, they've already started changing
the names of the dyes to try to get around it.
Yeah. Fun, fun times. I'm sorry. Just, yep. I'm
so sick of it. Yep. Yeah. We'll definitely have
to drop seven. Yes. So, all right. You guys,
uh, thank you for joining us. Have a great night.
We love you. And, uh, we'll catch you next time.