The A&G Replay Monday Hour Three

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand: The A&G Replay Monday Hour Three
Hosted by iHeartPodcasts
Release Date: December 30, 2024

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1. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the Military and Higher Education

Discussion Overview: Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty delve into the contentious topic of DEI programs, particularly focusing on their implementation within the U.S. military and higher education institutions. They critically analyze a think piece by Tom Klingenstein, which argues that DEI initiatives may be detrimental to military readiness by clashing with the core values of discipline and unit cohesion.

Notable Quotes:

• Jack Armstrong [03:10]: “DEI is utterly incompatible with the cultural norms that have underpinned every military in the history of time.”
• Joe Getty [05:41]: “Anti Asian bias, which we'll get to in a second.”
• Jack Armstrong [07:30]: “As a white male is perfectly fine, can be even helpful to ask me to examine my values and beliefs for racism and sexism, but it's not fine to assign me the category of oppressor based solely on my race or gender.”

Key Insights:

• Military Readiness: Armstrong emphasizes that DEI programs introduce group quotas that conflict with the military's emphasis on uniformity and self-sacrifice for the unit.
• Higher Education Challenges: The hosts discuss how DEI efforts on campuses have not only failed to achieve their intended goals but have also fostered environments of antisemitism and division among students.
• Public Sentiment: Referencing reader comments from The New York Times, Armstrong highlights a widespread backlash against DEI, with many individuals rejecting the notion of being categorized as oppressors based on inherent traits.

2. Post-Affirmative Action Admissions at MIT

Discussion Overview: The conversation shifts to the significant changes in MIT's admissions statistics following the Supreme Court's ruling against affirmative action. The hosts analyze the racial composition shifts and discuss the broader implications for other Ivy League institutions.

Notable Quotes:

• Joe Getty [08:28]: “MIT is the first top level college to release their numbers on this post affirmative action admissions.”
• Jack Armstrong [10:12]: “Why do black kids underachieve? If you don't paper over the process at the end, you're forced to reckon with the problem at the beginning.”

Key Insights:

• Admissions Statistics: Post-ruling, Asian American admissions at MIT surged from 40% to 47%, while Black students dropped from 15% to 5%, and Hispanic students from 16% to 11%. White student admissions remained relatively stable.
• Racial Dynamics: Armstrong questions whether the admissions office is intentionally or unintentionally favoring Asian Americans, suggesting systemic biases.
• Historical Parallels: Getty draws parallels with California's experience after banning affirmative action in 1996, noting similar demographic shifts in student bodies.
• Future Implications: The hosts anticipate that other elite institutions will release comparable admissions data, further illustrating the impact of the Supreme Court's decision.

3. Economic Analysis: Oasis Reunion and Concert Ticket Pricing

Discussion Overview: Armstrong and Getty pivot to an economic exploration of the Oasis reunion concerts, using them as a case study to explain basic economic principles like supply and demand. They critique media portrayals of ticket pricing and defend the economic rationale behind dynamic pricing models.

Notable Quotes:

• Jack Armstrong [14:28]: “The market clearing price of anything is where demand meets supply. The correct and fair price is whatever the market will bear.”
• Joe Getty [18:20]: “That’s what people don’t understand about sports. Guitar players, whatever, actors and actresses... somebody's getting the money. It's just the way it works.”

Key Insights:

• Supply and Demand: The hosts explain that limited concert tickets for high-demand events like the Oasis reunion naturally lead to higher prices.
• Dynamic Pricing Critique: They defend dynamic pricing as a fundamental economic mechanism, countering accusations that artists or Ticketmaster exploit fans.
• Media Misconceptions: Armstrong criticizes journalists for lacking a basic understanding of economics, arguing that price hikes are a natural outcome of high demand and limited supply.
• Scalper Impact: They discuss how scalpers exacerbate price increases, suggesting that without such intermediaries, prices would remain more accessible.

4. The Metaphor of Size Inflation and Personal Discipline

Discussion Overview: In a lighter segment, Armstrong and Getty engage in a humorous yet insightful conversation about size inflation, using it as a metaphor for broader societal issues related to discipline and personal accountability.

Notable Quotes:

• Joe Getty [24:03]: “I think many people have been through this... I finally decided the other day, it's been long enough. Clearly, you're not going to do that.”
• Jack Armstrong [41:33]: “What a beautiful example of spin... I just number the, the 16, 15 and a half. I don't know that the next size.”

Key Insights:

• Personal Anecdote: Getty shares his struggle with maintaining his shirt size, symbolizing challenges in personal discipline and the acceptance of change.
• Rhetorical Spin: Armstrong comments on the rhetorical framing of personal setbacks, highlighting how language can obscure underlying issues.
• Cultural Commentary: The discussion subtly critiques societal pressures around body image and the challenges of maintaining personal standards amidst changing circumstances.

5. Argentina’s New President and the Struggle Against Socialism

Discussion Overview: Armstrong and Getty briefly touch upon Argentina's political landscape, focusing on President Javier Milei's attempts to combat entrenched socialist policies. They draw parallels between societal addiction to socialism and drug addiction, emphasizing the difficulty of implementing significant systemic changes.

Notable Quotes:

• Jack Armstrong [28:32]: “Argentina is not addicted to heroin and fentanyl and opioids or whatever. They're addicted to socialism.”
• Jack Armstrong [31:04]: “There are hundreds of examples in our system... they're dependent on them.”

Key Insights:

• Socialism as Dependency: Armstrong likens Argentina's reliance on socialist policies to a form of addiction, suggesting that breaking free from such systems is inherently challenging.
• Inevitability of Change: They express skepticism about reversing deeply ingrained governmental structures, implying that efforts to dismantle them face significant resistance.

Conclusion

Armstrong & Getty On Demand: The A&G Replay Monday Hour Three offers a robust exploration of DEI's impact on military and educational institutions, the ramifications of affirmative action policies, and fundamental economic principles through contemporary examples. The hosts blend critical analysis with personal anecdotes, providing listeners with a nuanced understanding of these complex issues.

Key Takeaways:

• DEI initiatives may conflict with established institutional values, leading to challenges in implementation and public backlash.
• Changes in admissions policies post-affirmative action significantly alter the demographic composition of elite institutions, warranting further scrutiny.
• Basic economic laws like supply and demand are often misunderstood or misrepresented in media narratives.
• Personal experiences and metaphors can effectively highlight broader societal and economic phenomena.

For a comprehensive understanding and deeper insights, tuning into the full episode of The A&G Replay Monday Hour Three is highly recommended.

Transcript

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Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong.

[Joe Getty]

And Joe Getty Armstrong and Getty and.

[Coffee Expert]

Now here's Armstrong and Gettysburg came across a fantastic think piece by a fellow by the name of Tom Klingenstein about DEI in the the United States military. And I've heard various folks, including some who've served, talk about how it's hurt readiness and I believed it. But I've never heard it fleshed out this well. And I wish we had hours and hours because I'd love to read the whole thing and discuss it with you. But his point that is quite eloquently made and we'll post [e-mail] under Hotlinks, is that, well, he writes, the military is often perceived by well meaning Americans as the last holdout in the progressive march through the institutions in in reality, however, it was among the first American institutions to formally embrace the radical logic of group quotas. And he talks about the difference between civilian society and military society in its values, in its training, in its social norms and why they're so important and how DEI is utterly incompatible with with the cultural norms that have underpinned every military in the history of time. Discipline, sacrificing oneself to the unit, everyone being the same. Your only identity is I'm a member of this unit. It's very, very well written and it's made me all the more dedicated to stamping out this radical ideology wherever it happens. I was encouraged to see a guest editorial in the New York Times pointed out by fabulous frequent correspondent Paolo DEI is not working on colle campuses. We need a new approach. It's by a couple of academics from Stanford Law and Stanford University, and they write it in a way that is they are lefties approaching lefties. So it's fairly gentle about how the DEI programs that exist on campuses are not quite what they purport to be and don't really achieve what they've said they should achieve. Pointing out the rampant antisemitism on all of these enlightened campuses. And again, it's very well written and I'd love to go into more detail.

[Joe Getty]

On it and anti Asian bias, which we'll get to in a second.

[Coffee Expert]

Oh, yeah, yeah. And we could certainly get into the report that just came out from Columbia University about how miserable a failure DEI has been in rooting out antisemitism there. And he gets into the I'm sorry, these two ACT academics get into the rigidity of these programs and how. And again, this is not a revelation to us at all. They don't seem to actually be about diversity, equity and inclusion, whatever those things mean. They. They seem to be rigidly enforcing a particular point of view and they seem to just want to seize power at the universities. Well, welcome to enlightenment, my friend. But what was interesting was, and this is what Paolo, the service Paolo provided, which I appreciate very much, he says more interesting than the article are the generally pretty solidly left New York Times readers Comments if you view the reader's picks, meaning the comments on the story that got the most thumbs up and that sort of thing, you'll see that they are all critical of DEI and they run from As a white male is perfectly fine, can be even helpful to ask me to examine my values and beliefs for racism and sexism, but it's not fine to assign me the category of oppressor based solely on my race or gender. Blah, blah, blah. How about this one? As a black immigrant from Africa, the idea that groups are inherently oppressed based on skin color is shocking to me. All races and genders have issues because we're all human beings. I've received far more discrimination in Africa on the basis of my tribe than I have from any white person, and he goes down that line for a while. As a staunch liberal and white minority ally, the only thing that's ever made me consider voting Republican is having to write diversity statements for a university job. It's a blatant tool of discrimination and everyone knows it's.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Coffee Expert]

A couple. One more quick one. As a professor at a university, I agree for students to succeed the university, they must feel that they belong. For a minority student from a public school in a class full of white kids, it's tough to feel like you belong. This guy, does he finally get to the point? Oh, it's that socializing with peers, involvement in student groups, participating with a broad array of people is what breaks down those barriers. Not being set into camps and set against each other. That's the opposite of what works. So as I've said many times, this is not the beginning of the end of this neo Marxist garbage. It's the end of the beginning. People are Starting to realize, wow, this isn't about diversity or equity, which is communism or inclusion at all. They just want to take control of things by cowing us into silence by calling us racists.

[Joe Getty]

On the racial breakdown at colleges. Maybe you saw this headline. I saw the initial headline over the weekend after Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action, Black acceptance to MIT drops 10 percentage points. And they presented it only that way. I think it was. The New York Times had it and obviously it's supposed to be a horror that happened. Rich Lowry actually wrote in the New York Post yesterday, digging into it a little more, a spike in Asian Americans who were admitted to MIT, who you can only assume were not getting in, even though they deserved it before because of affirmative action. So the whole number's on that. So MIT is the first top level college to release their numbers on this. We're going to be hearing more about these in the fall, I assume from Harvard, Yale, whoever else. But MIT released its first Post affirmative action admissions number for the incoming class since the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action in these universities is wrong. And the percentage of Asian American students increased from 40 to 47% the first year or the first opportunity to have, you know, merit based admissions. Black students dropped from 15 to 5, Hispanic students from 16 to 11. White stayed roughly the same. And as Rich Lowry writes, either the MIT admissions office has been somehow infiltrated by racists who want to exclude as many black and Hispanic students as possible while boosting Asian Americans for some reason, or they were working to keep out meritorious Asian American applicants all these years. People that deserved to be in the school and weren't allowed in because they weren't the right race. What could be more racist than that?

[Coffee Expert]

Well, and to take a step back to, I think the greater and more important issue is now that we haven't papered over the differences in achievement by shoving kids in who probably can't make it at MIT because there's a huge incidence of that. The kids who are elevated beyond their level of achievement and stuck into these colleges, they fail at unbelievable levels. You're not going to read that in the mainstream media, but it's true. Instead of papering over the question of, okay, why is a disproportionately small percentage of black students able to qualify for mit? Let's start before they're even in school. Let's talk about kindergarten, let's look at first grade through eighth grade, let's talk about middle school and high school and the rest of it. Let's address causes as opposed to these Affirmative action at the end, programs that enable A people who are profiting from this, teachers unions and don't want to solve the problems, and B society that's uncomfortable talking about it. Why do black kids underachieve? If you don't paper over the process at the end, you're forced to reckon with the problem at the beginning. And that's why I like these problems. As somebody who's not trying to take over universities through my dei critical thinking or not critical thinking, critical theory, neo Marxism, I actually care about little black kids.

[Joe Getty]

So a Duke researcher is expecting similar results in other Ivy League schools this fall. A big increase for Asian American students, white students staying about flat, and then a substantial drop in black and Hispanic admissions. Rich Lowry points out here it's the same experience California had when the state passed the anti affirmative action proposition in 2009. I mean 209 back in 96, Asian Americans went from 37% of freshmen at UC Berkeley to 43%. White students dropped 10 points. So you can't claim it's white supremacy or white power structure or something like that. The number of white kids getting into Berkeley dropped from 30% to 20%. And this is my favorite part of it. There isn't some giant factory somewhere that's manufacturing generic Asian Americans either, who all have the same backgrounds and attitudes. The category of Asian American includes people from countries that hate each other and always have people from countries that have little to do with one and one another. For instance, China, India, the Philippines, whatever. They got nothing to do with each other and in some cases hate each other and always have hated each other. They've killed each other by the hundreds of thousands in brutal ways. It's not like some monolithic group like you claim white people are who are trying to take over something.

[Coffee Expert]

Well, and you've got to drop your preconceptions too about elite universities and such. I tell you what, here at Joe's second tier university, you're going to learn a hell of a lot. You're going to drink some beer and get laid. It's going to be great. The super achiever Universities will be for super achievers, and that's fine. And I remind you of the fact that generally speaking, A students work for B students at companies owned by C students, as the old saying goes.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that, because Rich Lowry did end with as for students who would have been admitted under the old racialized system, it's not like they'll have no future if they end up at a good state school somewhere. You'll be absolutely, perfectly fine if you're. If you're good.

[Coffee Expert]

Better off, probably.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Very good chance that you'll be better off. But the idea that your life is ruined or something like that's insane. Took us a long time to get here.

[Coffee Expert]

These affirmative action programs exist in large measure to prevent us from considering the uncomfortable and difficult questions, questions of black underachievement. I believe that to my bones.

[Joe Getty]

That's. That's really interesting.

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No.

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Okay, so we're going to do the 101 class first, and then 201 class. If this first part is too obvious for some of you, congratulations on understanding the basics of economics, which is a fairly rare thing in today's world, which is highly discouraging. But first of all, they're talking about. Who's this writer? I like to give credit because this is really well written. Matthew Hennessy in the Wall Street Journal is talking about the fellows in Oasis, the British rock band which is getting back together.

[Joe Getty]

Wonderwall.

[Coffee Expert]

He gets back in. He gets into some of the. The backstory. The Gallagher brothers, who can't stand each other and can't get along. But they're the indispensable members of the band Oasis. Last month, the boys buried the hatchet announced series 2025 concerts. Delirious. Fans were young and relatively poor during the band's heyday, are now older and relatively rich. They have the willingness and ability to pay to see Oasis in concert. Economically speaking, that's called demand. But demand is only one side of the economy. Economic story. Morning glory. For the moment, at least. The Oasis reunion is a handful of shows. And though Wembley Stadium is large, it's not infinitely so. And there's no guarantee the brothers will remain on speaking terms beyond next summer. Fans understand that this may be their last chance to see the Battling Gallagher lads together on stage. Supply is limited. Now, introductory economics tell us that when supply is tight and demand is high, prices rise to an equal equilibrium, which is exactly what happened then. He talks about dynamic pricing and how the tickets are significantly more expensive than they seemed to be when initially announced. Some accused the greedy brothers of ripping off their loyal fans. Many more aimed their fury at Ticketmaster, the American ticket sales behemoth owned by Live Nation Entertainment. The viewer revealed terrible.

[Joe Getty]

Probably not going to argue me out of my anger at Ticker Ticketmaster in general, but go on.

[Coffee Expert]

Oh, the, the fees. The fees that creep up onto your bill at the end. Yes, that's a different topic. And an interesting.

[Joe Getty]

Your electronic sending me of the ticket cost $40. What?

[Coffee Expert]

Yeah. Anyway, putting that aside, because this is just a question of the price of the tickets, the Fuhrer revealed a terrible ignorance, even among the highly educated of what prices are and how they work. I would argue to the journalists that, no, these are people posing as being outraged. They're not actually outraged. Like the very Prime Minister of Britain, Keir Starmer, told the House of Commons that he found it depressing to hear of the Oasis price hikes. He promised a commission to investigate what he called extortionate price resales.

[Joe Getty]

Whatever.

[Coffee Expert]

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the Beeb that, quote, vastly inflated prices would exclude ordinary fans.

[Joe Getty]

They. They have a Culture Secretary.

[Coffee Expert]

Yeah. Why do you need that?

[Joe Getty]

Secretary of Culture. And there should be some sort of government intervention in that. Some things are more expensive than others.

[Coffee Expert]

What? Yeah, Bollocks. In economic terms, a concert ticket. And this is the really important part, this is the Econ 101 stuff that if you don't understand it, you don't get anything about economics. A concert ticket is no different from a book, a bottle, a wine or a house. It has no inherent value, only the price a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is willing to accept. The market clearing price of anything is where demand meets supply. The correct and fair price is whatever the market will bear. No buyer has a right to a low price, just as no seller has a right to a high price. Then they point out the obvious. Oasis could be nice guys and sell their tickets for five bucks, but scalpers would snatch them all up and resell them for much, much more. What good would it do for Oasis for the ordinary fan or anybody to allow third party resellers to capture all that value?

[Joe Getty]

Well, that's what. Yeah, that's what people don't understand about sports. Guitar players, whatever, actors and actresses, somebody's going to get that money because there's a demand for it. So if it's not George Clooney or Shohei Ohtani or the Gallagher brothers, then the, the, the company that puts on the show or the game or the network or whatever, they get the money. But somebody's getting the money. It's just the way it works.

[Coffee Expert]

Right? A couple more quick tidbits. A music industry guru explained that the acts hide behind Ticketmaster. They want them to take the flack for all of this stuff.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that's pretty good. That's probably true.

[Coffee Expert]

Yeah, it's not good for your image. But Ticketmaster takes all the flack. And he also writes, here's the dirty little secret. Ticketmaster does nothing that the band does not agree to. So anyway, I thought that was a good little instructional on if there's demand and little supply, the prices are going to go up, and it should. And you know what's going to happen? The gallery boys are going to put down their fists and. And open up their calendars and say, you know, I'm willing to play half a dozen more shows. Are you? And supply will increase and the prices will.

[Joe Getty]

I was drunk in the backseat of an SUV that could go like, I have 1,500 stories that start that way. But in this particular one was drunk in the back of SUV on the way to an Oasis concert in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1995, when we heard on the radio that they had canceled the concert because the two brothers had gotten a fist fight backstage. So I still have not seen them.

[Coffee Expert]

Wow. Wow. Yeah, that legend. Not overblown.

[Joe Getty]

No.

[Coffee Expert]

That reminds me when they were like in their 60s. The Davis brothers. It looks like Davies, but it's pronounced Davis of the Kinks, actually. Were continuing to come to blows and scream at each other backstage in their 60s trying to tour.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Coffee Expert]

Get some counseling, fellas, or something.

[Joe Getty]

Let it go, Armstrong.

[Coffee Expert]

And get.

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To make a latte, brew two shots of espresso.

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[Joe Getty]

Today is a major day in my life.

[Coffee Expert]

Do tell.

[Joe Getty]

I think many people have been through this.

[Coffee Expert]

I.

[Joe Getty]

I'm wearing a shirt that fits for the first time in quite some time. I caved and gave in. Just went ahead and got a bigger size.

[Coffee Expert]

Oh boy.

[Joe Getty]

Because the size I had been wearing for two years had stopped fitting And I was pretending that I was going to get back into that shirt. There's no point in buying new shirts. This shirt fit before. Fine, it'll fit again. I just need to get a little discipline. But the discipline was not coming, and I was tired of being squeezed to death. And so I just bought a bigger shirt. And it is so comfortable. So I just gave up or acknowledged reality. It depends on how you want to look at it.

[Coffee Expert]

Right. A temporary measure. An emergency measure, if you will.

[Joe Getty]

Is it a temporary measure? Is it?

[Coffee Expert]

Or is it.

[Joe Getty]

Or is it on the road to even bigger shirts? That's what we'll have to wait. That's what we'll have to wait and see.

[Coffee Expert]

So how bad was the previous size? I mean, could you. Were the. The buttons like this, between the buttons gapping so bad you could see flesh?

[Joe Getty]

Yes.

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Definitely not good.

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I wear an undershirt so no flesh will be seen. But yes, yes, that was happening. And I know for a fact that that was not the case when I. When I. When I bought the shirt. So something changed. And that something is, well, the number on the scale. And I just.

[Coffee Expert]

I just. I just.

[Joe Getty]

So it's a big day. It's a big day. I just admitted, you know what? You're a different size than you were for the past two years. You just are. There's more of you to love.

[Coffee Expert]

Okay, well. And again, the days of discipline are coming any minute now or not. Okay. I hope they are, but they're trying to be positive. I'm trying to provide a little leadership here. I don't feel like. Like Jim Harbaugh going to the Los Angeles Chargers. What a terrible idea. We need to change a culture here. You're not buying into my system, right?

[Joe Getty]

But I thought the discipline was coming. All of those days of wearing my shirt with this thing split open in the middle, thinking, you know, this is embarrassing, but that's part of what's going to motivate you to not eat, you know, crap today. But it wasn't working in the. Pretty soon, the buttons were going to pop off and put somebody's eye out.

[Coffee Expert]

Oh, boy. Nobody wants that.

[Joe Getty]

So, anyway, it's just somewhat relaxing to have just given up. We still accept you. Thank you. Thank you. Wow.

[Coffee Expert]

There you go, Michael. That's nice. That's a kind of a. Michael's our director of dei and he's. He's making sure Jack feels inclusioned.

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[Coffee Expert]

There you go. Enjoy your infarction.

[Joe Getty]

It's fairly common, isn't it? I've never had this, but it's fairly common. It isn't to have a. A group of clothes that you want to be in or were once in here and then another group of clothes that you were currently wearing.

[Coffee Expert]

Oh, I got half a closet full. Yeah, yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Of like mostly two different weights or all the shades in between.

[Coffee Expert]

That's difficult to say. I will just. I describe it as this realistic and unrealistic.

[Joe Getty]

Do you have some clothes that, like, you'll never wear but you still hang on to?

[Coffee Expert]

And then there's. There's like the lawless border region, the gray area. It might be. It might conceivably be on me someday, but it's unlikely. Do I have clothes? What? That I've.

[Joe Getty]

You said unrealistic. So I just wondered, like, if you have some clothes, you think, yeah, that could happen, but it's not.

[Coffee Expert]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. In particular T shirts. I got a lot of T shirts, a lot of great T shirts, Cool T shirts, Concerts, fun places I've been, that sort of thing. And a lot of them, if I were to put them on now, well, they look like an undergarment stretched across to me.

[Joe Getty]

I was just thinking, luckily, so far, I still wear the same size socks when I need to go up in the sock size. That might be when I have to really take a look at myself.

[Coffee Expert]

My feet have really gained weight.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, boy. As I heard a woman say not too long ago, and I thought it was hilarious. She said, I got up this morning, put on my pants and thought, well, looks like we outgrew these. We're getting bigger, aren't we? Oh, that happens.

[Coffee Expert]

Speaking of economics, moving along, Argentina's new president, this Melee fella, Javier Milei, who we're big fans of, man, is he up against it. So interesting. He is trying to get a junkie to go straight. And Argentina is not addicted to heroin and fentanyl and opioids or whatever. They're addicted to socialism. And it's. It's so interesting. I've been reading about what he's trying to accomplish and how painful it's going to be to get there and all of the forces who are fighting him tooth and nail. And when you have a socialist system for more than, like, a cup of coffee, everybody depends on government largesse for their, you know, for their living, for their comfort, for their luxuries, whether legitimately through the system or. And this is inevitable, it happens every time in socialism, rampant corruption. And so the forces aligned against this guy trying to solve Argentina's problems are probably insurmountable. But the similarity to the drug, to a drug addiction is so. I mean, it's such a great metaphor because it obviously has to happen. I mean, they're in a disastrous state. But everybody is so dependent now on socialism, nobody can see any way out of the situation. Which is, you know, why those of us who are, you know, practically fanatical opponents of socialism and communism are so adamant about the way we make step after step after step toward that in the U.S. because we recognize. Yeah. Going from five, you know, oxycodone or what's the strong one? Oxycontin, I can't remember. It's all about those synthetics now that are going to make fentanyl look like the good old days, according to some medical experts. Yeah. If you can imagine that. But yeah, if you go from Goblin five oxycontin a day to seven, you know, okay, that's just two pills. But, man, you're making it harder and harder and harder to ever get straight.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. When you're. Once you're getting something for free, even if it kind of didn't make sense to get it for free in the first place, how are you ever going to take it away from someone?

[Coffee Expert]

Oh, I know.

[Joe Getty]

Using my finger quotes and italics in bold. There's no such thing as free. I hate that word. It ought to be banned from the English language.

[Coffee Expert]

Yeah. And there are hundreds of examples in our system. Sure. Welfare programs that on Tuesday, you never imagined it, that you, you need it or want it or anybody would do it for you on Wednesday, they grant it by Thursday. You're militantly against it ever going away because you're, you're saying that would cause me pain and financial difficulty and the rest. And it's sincere. That's true. It will do that. And you know my final thought on this screen, because I can't help myself. The people who pass These programs are 100% cognizant of these facts. They're not accidentally getting you hooked on them. You're dependent on them. Final note. And I thought this was so interesting. Everybody's heard the stock markets are. The various indices are setting records. Right. Your S and P, your, your Dow Jones. I know.

[Joe Getty]

I looked at my 401k the other day. What?

[Coffee Expert]

Yeah, I, I've resisted the temptation because I'm afraid it's going to go curblooey, particularly after reading this story. And this is not just doom saying, I found this so interesting. There are 11 sectors that the. Is this the the S and p looks at 11 different sectors from. Where's the list? Industrials, financials, consumer staples, real estate, health care, utilities, materials and tech. Ten of those 11 indices are flat or down. Only tech is up. Only tech. Yipes has dragged the S and P up.

[Joe Getty]

That's a good perspective right there.

[Coffee Expert]

Yeah, I was shocked, shocked by that. Let me get to the 10 other sectors are trading an average of 15% below their all time highs and none has set a new record in January. The equal weighted S&P 500 which gives the same status to smallest largest companies in the index is down 0.3% this year. The markets rally two years ago was much wider. Seven other sectors, industrials, financials, consumer staples, joined tech to trade at new highs in the two weeks that was January 2022.

[Joe Getty]

And that fits with what I'm feeling or what Americans seem to be feeling. I mean when I keep hearing about these records in the stock market, I keep thinking, man, it doesn't feel like.

[Coffee Expert]

That because it's just the tech sector.

[Joe Getty]

It's kind of like our old story of if Bill Gates walks into a bar, the average net worth in the bar is now $40 billion. Well, that doesn't tell you anything.

[Coffee Expert]

Right, right. Final note, they give a. For example, if SEC is not sex. Sex. If six of the biggest tech stocks were to pull back to their 200 day moving averages, which is the measure they have for to see longer term price trends, it eliminates the up down, up down, up down. And you see the greater Trend. If the six biggest tech stocks were to pull back to their 200 day moving average, it would knock about 5% off the S&P 500. A 5% drop would be cataclysmic.

[Field App Promoter]

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[Joe Getty]

Sure. Oh yeah, I'd get your attention.

[Coffee Expert]

Yeah. Which is not to say, well, it's a little precarious. I mean tech's in good shape. People need technology, chips and the rest of it. But it does give you a different perspective.

[Joe Getty]

By the way, the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said yesterday, I think most Americans know that prices are not likely to fall. About the whole inflation thing, I don't know. Do you watch the news much? That's not what they tell them on the news. Or that's not the way. Our Vice President doesn't seem to get that.

[Coffee Expert]

Yep, our talking heads don't know that inflation is down. Finally, prices are easing. Inflation is down. You chuckleheads.

[Joe Getty]

You idiots.

[Coffee Expert]

You idiots.

[Meta Assistant]

Armstrong and Getty.

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[Coffee Expert]

And you like to hold your own.

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[Joe Getty]

You drop even more knowledge.

[Paris Hilton]

My name is Martine Powers and I'm Elahi Izadi. We host a daily news podcast called Post Reports. Every weekday afternoon, Post Reports takes you.

[Joe Getty]

In inside an important and interesting story by the kind of reporting that you can only get from the Washington Post.

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[Meta User]

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[Meta Assistant]

So you say hey Meta, how do I make a latte?

[Coffee Expert]

To make a latte, brew two shots of espresso.

[Meta User]

After Meta AI gets you caffeinated, you start walking to work and you need a soundtrack.

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[Coffee Expert]

Hey nice glasses.

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[Meta Assistant]

The Armstrong and Getty Show.

[Coffee Expert]

I have not packed off of my crackpot theory that because of the pandemic then the post pandemic high, people were on the bounce back. Spending, revenge spending. There were a bunch of terms for it. I just think the feeling of and maybe there's a technical term for this in the world of psychology, but I think the vacation money feeling has persisted among American consumers in a way that it never has before. The way you spend money on vacation and buy stuff and eat out and order the top shelf liquor or whatever your example is, you spend money on vacation differently. We all make jokes about it. I just think that's like stayed in our bloodstream.

[Joe Getty]

Could be that or some sort of life's too short thing. Which is a dumb way to look at finances because that last several decades of your life is going to really be really unpleasant if you don't have any money.

[Coffee Expert]

But yeah, you only live once and you shouldn't be eating dog food. Signed the 85 year old you.

[Joe Getty]

Based on my experience. Well, I guess dog food's cheaper than regular food, but it ain't cheap. Lots of dog food I buy, not.

[Coffee Expert]

The stuff worth eat, right?

[Joe Getty]

Speaking of eating, got this text. This is from something I talked about earlier in the program. Jack Listening to the first hour and my heart dropped when you said that you gave in. I thought you were going to say that you had a drink. Thank God that's not the case. Glad to hear that you just ended up buying a shirt that fit. Yes, there's a major one way to put it. Major moments in my life today where I'm wearing a shirt that fits for the first time in a while as I had, I had become about 10 pounds lighter than I had been for a while and I got all new Dress shirts to wear with my suits. And that worked for about a year and a half or so, but I, I have re reclaimed those lost lbs and those shirts were no longer fitting. And not only were they uncomfortable, but I had this spread on my shirt where, like, the buttons are gonna pop off or whatever. That's not a good look.

[Coffee Expert]

And I, and I, there should be no visible belly.

[Joe Getty]

I went with that for a while, thinking, well, I'm not gonna get new shirts. I'm just gonna lose the weight again or these shirts fit again. But I finally decided the other day, it's been long enough. Clearly, clearly you're not going to do that. How about you buy some shirts that fit? So I bought a larger size shirt and that's what I'm wearing today. And it looks much better, it's much more comfortable. And I just gave up. So I've given up.

[Coffee Expert]

What a beautiful example of spin. Something that is completely accurate but is clearly spin. I bought a shirt that fits. It's true. The other side of that coin is I've gained so much weight, I was forced into buying new clothing thing. And I am, believe me, I'm not coming from a place of judgment. I'm just pointing out the rhetorical, you know, art there.

[Joe Getty]

And I have a whole bunch of not inexpensive dress shirts that I really shouldn't wear unless I want to be mocked as I walk away.

[Coffee Expert]

What size are you in right now, dress shirt wise? What's your new size?

[Joe Getty]

This is a large. I was wearing mediums, which. A medium is my size if I'm 185, because I'm, I'm just that well. And size inflation. A medium wouldn't have fit me in 1990, but everything's gotten so much bigger. A large is like an extra large now, right?

[Coffee Expert]

I just number the, the 16, 15 and a half. I don't know that the next size.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know that. I don't know if my neck has changed much, but the circumference of my moob area is certainly different.

[Coffee Expert]

Oh, boy. All right.

[Joe Getty]

Anyway, what was I going to say? See?

[Coffee Expert]

No idea.

[Joe Getty]

I was actually looking at jeans or shirts or something the other day online and they said, we don't do size inflation. This is our actual sizes. And they gave the inches. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna have to recalibrate here. So. So if I want something that fits in your shirts, I'm gonna have to get an extra large as opposed to like a medium or large. That's interesting that they're Fighting that battle. I don't.

[Coffee Expert]

Yeah, it's nearly hilarious when you go, and ladies, you deal with this times five. But you go, I don't know, I'm gonna buy some golf shorts or whatever. And you know that brand. Oh, I like that pair. That pair is good. That pair is good. And the 34 is looser than this 36, and the 35 is way tighter than this 30. It's. And it's just, you just have to try it because there's so much size inflation. True, Katie.

[Joe Getty]

Joe Getty just named the exact reason as to why I hate shopping. Because the sizes are all over the place. Every brand with, I mean, pants, shirts, all of it. I, I have so many different sizes in my closet, it doesn't even make sense. But they all fit me. Then they all range from a small to an extra large because nobody can make up their mind on this size thing. Yeah. That's why I tend to stick with a brand once I get the size, just because I don't want to do that anymore. But I wonder. I'm kind of interested myself. Will I ever be back in those shirts again? I don't know. I was pretending that I would be there for a while, but I may have just decided, you know, it ain't gonna happen. And I, and I don't care enough to make it happen. It's not enough of a priority. So whatever.

[Coffee Expert]

Not right now. Give it time. You think? Sure. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

I think realistically, if you're going to be a betting man. No, I think for most people.

[Coffee Expert]

Well, right. But that's, that's not the way I run my life. I mean, if there's a 1 in 5 chance, I mean, like according to Las Vegas, but it's important to me, I'll make it happen.

[Joe Getty]

Well, I don't think it's important to me.

[Coffee Expert]

So you're telling me there's a change right now. Right. I think you'll be back.

[Joe Getty]

You think you have it.

[Coffee Expert]

You have it. I think it's on your plate right now. Pun not intended.

[Joe Getty]

I think it's gonna be a health scare, though. Like, like what I had to do. I'm not, I'm not health scare heavy. I'm just not as skinny as I wanted to be. No, I'm not. I know I'm not. So that's.

[Coffee Expert]

Well, I remember the other day, you, you were trying to pay a toll at the Bay Bridge and you couldn't get your head out the window.

[Joe Getty]

I, I, you know, you would. Most guys, when they, or women, when they get divorced, they go all crazy skinny. I decided to go the other way. You know what I'm gonna dare you to do? Hate me. That's what I did.

[Coffee Expert]

See?

[Joe Getty]

Huh? You want some of this? There's plenty more of me to love. That's what I keep saying.

[Coffee Expert]

My buddy Dave the cyclist just texted. If you ever buy Italian cycling clothes, you will feel morbidly obese. I wear 3x sizes in Italian stuff compared to large in u. S. Wow. And the 3x is a little tight. Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Now that's reality. That would be good for all of us. Us just for like one day. All the stores in America go back to the sizes as they were in like 1995. Go shopping today, everybody, and see if you feel the same way about yourself.

[Meta Assistant]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Meta User]

You wake up, put on your Ray ban meta glasses. You're living all in. You realize you need coffee, so you.

[Meta Assistant]

Say, hey meta, how do I make.

[Coffee Expert]

A latte brew two shots of espresso.

[Meta User]

After meta AI gets you caffeinated, you're ready for some beats.

[Meta Assistant]

Hey meta. Play hip hop music.

[Meta User]

You head to meet some friends but can't remember the place.

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[Coffee Expert]

Hey.

[Paris Hilton]

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