← Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff
314. Scott Galloway Replay. A Look Back at Prof G’s Predictions for 2024. The United States vs Itself. Young People Being Left Behind. Reinvest in the Middle Class.
00:45:39
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, everybody. I hope Santa was good to you. I hope the elves were good to you. I hope Festivus was good to you. Here is one of my favorite conversations from 2024 and one that I hope you enjoy, too. We'll have new conversations in 2025. In the meantime, be sure to go to IndependentAmericans US. Follow us on all social medias, watch videos on YouTube, and get ready for much more in 2025. Until then, try to get some downtime where you can be kind to each other, spread light to contrast the heat, and, of course, stay vigilant and Happy New Year.
- [00:43]
B
Ladies and gentlemen, Independent Americans around the country and around the world. Happy New Year. We're kicking it off with a returning champion, one of our favorite guests of all time and. And a man that I look to for insight, conscience, inspiration, and much more. I think a perfect guest to start off a new and what will surely be a turbulent and tumultuous year. The great and powerful Professor Scott Galloway is back on Independent Americans. Welcome back, sir.
- [01:11]
C
Thanks, Paul. Although I'm neither of those things. But anyways, good to be with you.
- [01:15]
B
Happy New Year. It's great to have you back. I'll start by asking you what I ask everybody. Where are you and how are you?
- [01:25]
C
I'm in London and I'm doing really well. It's a little cold and dark here, but on the whole, I'm doing really well. How are you, Paul?
- [01:32]
B
I'm all right. Yeah, I'm all right. I'm glad you're asking because I wanted to get into that. I want to get into you. And I had a great dinner last year and we had a conversation on my show, and I think there aren't enough men checking in on other men. And I think you've been really setting a powerful example in doing that in addition to all the other work you do. I think that the stuff you've done to lead by example as a father and a man is. Is some of the most important work out there.
- [02:02]
C
I appreciate that. Yeah.
- [02:04]
B
So I hope we can. We can get into that. I'm all right. The house is. We got. My wife's got Covid. One kid's got strep, the other kid's got stomach flu, and I'm just dodging bullets all around here, man.
- [02:19]
C
How old are you, Paul?
- [02:20]
B
I'm. You know what? Yesterday was my birthday. I just turned 49.
- [02:25]
C
You look a lot younger than that. So you are. You are exiting what are the least happiest years of your life? There's There's a lot of research, and it correlates or it's. It holds up across geographies, ethnicities, income groups. And that is if you have on the X axis, time and the Y axis, happiness. It's a smile. And basically kind of 0 to 25 football, Star wars, prom, pretty happy 25 to 45 or 25 to 50. Kids stress, economic pressure, maybe a little bit of disappointment that you're not a general or a congressman or have a fragrance named after you. But as you hit sort of 50, generally what happens is you start taking stock of your blessings. Your kids get less awful or at least a little bit older, maybe you build up a little bit of equity in your house, you feel less financially insecure, and you get happier. Which is sort of strange because when you think about it, the least happiest group should be the least healthiest, and it's not. Seniors are the happiest cohort. So what I would tell you is it's. It's going to get better.
- [03:30]
B
I need to hear that, and I think a lot of folks need to hear that. And I've been trying. My wife told me last year that she thought that this conversation we were having about how we're doing and the macro conversation about how people are doing in this country and how maybe men and fathers in particular are doing is some of the most. She said it was some of the most important stuff that we did last year. And I really feel like it's true. And it's this intersection point where all my work around mental health with veterans, even my background working in finance, my pop culture understanding. Like, I feel like this is the conversation we need the president to be having. If you look at suicide rates, if you look at isolation, you've talked with Richard Reeves on your show, this great conversation about the crisis of masculinity. I have shared that single podcast episode with more people than any other podcast episode I've ever shared, because I thought you guys got to what might be one of the most important issues in this country, in particular, because it's about who we are and how we're doing and maybe opens us up to everything from suicide to happiness to susceptibility to extremism. Right. I think it's. It's all like a reflected in our politics and our economy and in our culture. But do you think it's. What do you think going into 2024, with all of your insight and perspective, what do you think is the most important conversation we should be having?
- [04:59]
C
So I, I think the biggest threat is not Russia versus Ukraine or is Israel versus Hamas. I think the biggest threat is the United States versus itself. And I think extremism is the most dangerous thing in the world. And I actually think the most dangerous extremism is extremism. In the US we have a Speaker of the House who believes that school shootings are a function of teaching evolution in schools. And on the far left we have apologists for terrorism. So. And we can seem to find common ground or connective tissue. I think more people, I would like to see mandatory national service. I think that more people with platforms need to start celebrating how fortunate we are. I mean, if you look at the US on a relative basis, I would argue you could argue things have. At least relatively speaking, we're doing better than any other nation in the world. We have some of the strongest growth in GDP across the G7 and yet we have the lowest inflation. That's almost impossible to pull off. No one's lining up for Chinese or Russian vaccines. We are fighting or backing, I would argue the winners in two conflicts with no boots on the ground. The new technology that has garnered more market capitalization than the GDP of Germany. AI is not only in the US it's in one state, it's within a 10 mile radius of SFO airport. I mean, things are just relatively speaking, I don't think we've ever been stronger. And yet people, for example, people will blame the government and America for rising food prices, but when wages, which are now outpacing inflation increase, they, they credit their own grit and character. So people tend to blame the US for their problems and credit, you know, their hard work for all their blessings. And I think we've gotten so far right and so far left in America that our inability to, you know, we just don't like each other. 45%. 45. I think it's 45% of Democrats are worried their kid's going to marry a Republican. And so people see Americans as the biggest threat, other Americans, as opposed to recognizing that Americans will never have greater allies than other Americans. So I see just circling back to trying to answer your question, I see the biggest threat is political or ideological extremism such that, you know, if, if America's problems were a horror movie. The call is coming from inside of the house. We can beat back any external threat, I think, but if we can't get along and we don't like each other, that's, that's a bigger issue.
- [07:38]
B
I share that viewpoint and I feel like the world may not be Able or the country may not be able to put their finger on it, but they feel it too. I mean, the number one movie on Netflix over the break was Leave the World Behind. Right, where we, where we all kill each other and it's an internal civil war created by our enemies to let Americans kill themselves.
- [07:57]
A
Right.
- [07:57]
B
And I asked Jason Alexander about that in our episode to end last year. But I do feel like Americans sense that. But why? What's this? Why do you think the economy is doing so well and the country is doing so well and people don't feel like it's impacting them, they don't feel it themselves or such a high percentage of people don't feel that way themselves. And what's the solution? Is it too simple to say leadership and that we're lacking transformative leadership that can communicate the situation and chart a strategic path forward and bring us together? Or is there another prescription to this disease that's inflicting the body? Politicians.
- [08:40]
C
Well, for a treatment plan, first you have to diagnose the problem and you think, okay, consumer morale or people's view of America. If America is heading the right direction despite the data, there's just some consumer dissonance here. There's a gap between perception and reality. So the question is, why are people so disappointed? And I think a lot of it can be reverse engineered to one phenomena that has never taken place in America before. And that is for the first time in our 200, whatever it is, 70 year old history, the 30 year old is not doing as well as his or her parents were at 30. That's never happened before. And so what you have is an entire cohort of a younger generation that looks at their parents life, looks at the opportunities presented to their parents and those same opportunities aren't as prevalent for them. And it creates shame and rage. More people under the age of 30 are living at home than with a romantic partner on their own. There are less viable men economically and emotionally, which makes them less attractive to women. So there's less household formation, there's less, the birth rate is declining. If we continue to have fewer and fewer young people as a ratio to older people, the majority of our budget is going to go to supporting seniors and things like investment in defense, technology, growth, education, all the things that create growth are going to get, get kind of squeezed out. So while we have incredible prosperity, it is not being distributed equally. The average 70 year old is 72% wealthier than the 70 year old. Average 70 year old was 40 years ago. The average person under the age of 40 is 24% less wealthy. And if you look at our tax system, whether it's mortgage tax deduction, capital gains tax break, both of these things are targeted at old people who own stocks and homes, people my age who rents and makes their money from their sweat and current income. You know, a 25 year old or 30 year old, we just stripped out $40 billion tax credit, the child tax credit, which was shown almost immediately to reduce child poverty by 40%. I mean, the fact that we could even reduce child poverty by 40% is remarkable. And the fact that that costs 40 or $45 billion a year is literally dropping the bucket in terms of our total spending. But it got stripped out of the infrastructure bill, but seniors got a 9% cost of living adjustment in Social Security. So I believe that almost every economic policy is essentially an elegant transfer of wealth from the young to the old. And so what you have is a group of young people who look up and see a lot of wealthy people and a lot of older people doing well. And they are on social media all day where they have wealth porn shoved in their face. So basically they have constant reminders that you're not living up to your potential or America is not letting you live up to what you deserve. And I just think it creates real disappointment and rage because it kind of goes back. Warren Buffett says the key to a good marriage is low expectations. Every day you have this sense of shame that you, because you don't have a six pack, a hot boyfriend or girlfriend and haven't made tens of millions of dollars buying Solana, you're a failure. And so you can either say, well, I'm a failure and turn on yourself and get depressed, which a lot of people do, or you turn on the government. But I think that economic policies that have transferred wealth from young to old to the point such that people under the age of 40 now control just half of GDP versus relative to what they used to control 40, 50 years ago. You come out of school, you got debt, healthcare, all the things that have skyrocketed in cost. Housing, education, healthcare. They dramatically over impact young people. So I feel as if America has kind of fallen out of love with investment in young people. Young people are more vocal, they tend to get more angry. They're more likely to, you know, pick up arms or, or, or, or want radical change. And I'll finish here. There's nothing more dangerous than a broke, lonely young man. And we're producing way too many of them.
- [12:42]
B
And so is a lot of the Western world. Right. I mean, it feels, at least in Europe and other places, like there's this cauldron simmering and bubbling around the world and. And, you know, complemented by the rise of extremist leadership that is tapping into that in so many places, from Hungary all the way across. So is it.
- [13:02]
A
Are people.
- [13:04]
B
Have they had their heart broken by the fallacy of America? Is it a situation where we've got really good products and services and bad marketing and salespeople, and how do we get to it? Right. I feel like you've ascended this year in a really important, powerful way because you're explaining it. You're really breaking it down and helping people understand, and you're living it in the way you represent your business and your values and your family. But there's a lack of that. Right. People feel like Trump and Biden aren't connecting, or if they are, and it's in a very partisan and extremist way, you've got. Maybe Trump has been replaced in some ways by Elon as, like, this new villain to be obsessed over. Where's the leaders, Right? Like, when we try to navigate this, I think you're one of them. But who else do you view as strategic leaders or inspirational leaders or even transformative leaders? We don't have a Zelensky in this country right now to bring us together and show us the future. Do you see any people or types of people that are rising to meet that moment, to provide solutions in leadership or even just comfort?
- [14:12]
C
I think there's a lot of good people out there trying to set good examples for young people. But, you know, if you. Where the rubber meets the road is opportunity and. And economics, and also just a chance to establish connections with other people and have deep, meaningful relationships and something David Brooks has written a lot about. And as someone from the left, you know, I was at somewhat of a gag reflex 10 years ago when he started writing about this. The decline in church attendance, the. The lack of connective tissue vis a vis institutions and programs, whether it's after school, you know, marching band, whether it's church, whether it's athletic leagues, whether it's parks, the barbershop, you know, what we called sort of third places, if you will. There's so few of them that we don't establish connective tissue. When you live in a community where there aren't very many immigrants and all you read about is migrants pouring over the border, you resent them. Whereas when you live in a community with immigrants, you generally come to recognize that, you know, they're just people trying to make a living that love their kids and generally probably like America most, you know, more than most Americans. But we're sequestering from each other. The number of high school kids that sees their friends every day has been cut in half. And when you don't have that contact one, you're much more likely to become depressed because you don't make as many friends, mentors or mates. And you begin to resent people, you begin to make it easier to demonize immigrants or the other political party, what have you. So I think a lack of connective tissue, whether it's church or national service, you know, most, the most patriotic Americans are people such as yourself. They're veterans, they're people who've invested in the country. And anyone who has kids knows that, understands the concept of the more you invest in something, the more of a vested interest you have in that thing's well being. What I find especially obnoxious, as I would describe the least patriotic people, are the ones that are most blessed. Specifically some of these tech bros who have made billions by building what I would describe as a thick layer of innovation on top of middle class household investments, whether it's darpa, the space program, I mean, for God's sakes, you mentioned Elon. We gave him a $350 million loan. His company would have got out of business. There's no way he could build the charging infrastructure without government subsidies. And he deserved, I think it's great. He's worth a quarter of a trillion dollars. I want to attract more innovators and billionaires. But for these guys to immediately make this kind of money and then the first thing they do when they make this kind of money is they engage in this sport of shitposting government. I just think it's the wrong example. Why wouldn't they be? Okay, I could have. I didn't start an EV company in Cape Town, we didn't build a search engine in Toronto. We're, we're not, we didn't build an AI chip manufacturing company or design company in Buenos Aires because there is something wonderful and unique to America. And the reason I get to fly on a Gulfstream 650 and my kids have such a wonderful life. And I can say things that I don't agree with is because I live in this singular, unique place and I'm appreciative of it. And I hear very little of that from our most fortunate. It seems like once they make their millions or billions, they want to move to a low tax domain state, which is their right. I don't resent that. What I resent is they seem to be just so entirely critical and be pouring fuel on the fire of dissent. And it's. And I would like to see young people have mandatory national service. And I would like to become part of the Zeitgeist, where we don't just expect rich people to give their money away because then they get to decide what are the priorities as opposed to elected officials. But they're expected to serve. They're expected to. And that doesn't mean just giving money to far right or far left candidates. But they're expected to serve somehow in their local community or their government. But that just becomes part of our culture, that once you get to a certain level of wealth, you're expected to serve because, I mean, everyone's going to realize how amazing America is after it collapses on itself or how amazing it was. And so, again, I find a lack of appreciation among our most fortunate. I think social media makes things much worse by trying to identify what are you angriest about? Are you left? Are you right? And then move you to become even angrier. It ends up in the, you know, kind of the 60s and 70s. The Mad Men, the ad Madison Avenue said, wow, we've stumbled on something. Sex sells. We can engage people with sex. Actually, that's number two. The thing that trumps sex is rage. And if I can figure out that you're left or right and start serving you content that makes the other side look stupid or evil and enrage you, I can keep you glued to your phone and sell you more Nespresso on Nissan ads. And that has been really damaging to America. And then, you know, we could go a little bit deeper. I think there are foreign actors or bad actors who have weaponized these platforms who see that we can't beat America kinetically, militarily, economically. So let's get them to hate each other. And when I'm on and I'm no longer on Twitter because I don't want to paint this guy's fence, but when I'm on social media, I just find a lot of the most incendiary comments. And if I double click on it, it's not a person, it's clearly a bad actor. Now that my person might be just someone who doesn't like people or is angry. But if I were China, if I were the gru, I think they'd be stupid not to be weaponizing these very porous platforms and getting us fighting against each other when this European Settlers came in, they didn't want to fight the Native Americans directly because so what they did is they got them fighting each other, and then they came in for cleanup. You know, Hitler did the same thing. So the way you defeat an enemy is you atomize it first. And I feel like we're being atomized. But if there is a need right now in America, I think it's a massive investment in things that restore kind of the connective tissue internally within ourselves.
- [20:04]
B
I appreciate and celebrate all of that and especially the focus on the connective tissue and national service. You know, the rage is the piece that I don't think is being pulled apart and explored enough in the public conversation or even by leaders in an open way. I think there's a behind the scenes conversation that politicians will have about rage and about anger, but out in the open, understanding how angry this country really is and how angry men and isolated men tend to be. And they don't have national service. They don't have the military as an option. They don't see politics as an option. They don't have a family. This show used to be called Angry Americans. Right? That's where we started because we saw this. I saw this anger, and I wanted to channel it. You know, everybody's angry, but what you do with it is a choice. And we've tried to encourage people to put that into. Into positive solutions. And the rage component is. Is so scary that I feel like folks don't want to touch it. And the national service piece, the only leader I see focusing on that is Governor Westmore in Maryland. Now, this show sometimes becomes a Governor Westmore love fest. He's a friend of mine. I wish he was an independent, He's a Democrat, but he seems to be embodying a lot of the things you're talking about. And he's also putting them into practice in policy. So I ask you, do you have thoughts on him or anyone else that you can look to? And you say, all right, Elon is not a good example for our kids. Who is a good example. And. And going a bit deeper on the solution piece, you're great at understanding markets. It feels like our political market is bankrupt and it feels or it's calcified, it's failing. Is there a disruptive solution? We talk a lot about independents, third parties ranked, choice voting, all the ways to get that 49% of people who aren't Democrats or Republican more engaged. Is there a business solution to this political problem that you're betting on in 2024 and beyond.
- [22:06]
C
Well, you mentioned a couple of things. To de gerrymander America would be a good start, such that we're not just constantly sending hard right or hard left people because we send people to Washington that just day one aren't going to like each other. They're just not going to find common ground. And so ranked choice voting kind of final five. I think that would be very powerful. Alaska has that. And when, you know, Senator Murkowski is pretty reasonable. And so we just, we need to send, we need to. We have minority rule right now and that is the majority of, you know, first off, and we're not going to change this, but about 60% of our senators represent about 15 of the population. Right. But let's focus on the things we can solve. The majority of Americans are now the largest self identified political party is independent. The majority of the people are in the middle. If you looked at, if you looked at abortion, most people think, okay, a woman should have a right to choice, but there's an IQ test and once again, it's beyond a certain point. It should probably be just for health reasons. The majority of Americans are probably kind of okay with that. You know, the majority of Americans think, all right, you have a right to bear arms, but there needs to be at least registration or some, some sort of technology to track this stuff. Or maybe we don't need assault weapons that can kill 40 people in, in 22 seconds. Maybe weapons of war shouldn't be. I mean, most is common ground. But the people who end up in D.C. because of our electoral map and because of our election system are just. And because of social media, the way you get reelected, the person who gets reelected is the person who raises the most money. And the way you raise the most money is by inflaming the hardcore part of your base such that you can get through the primary or you make some sort of out crazy, outrageous, incendiary, hostile statement that goes viral on TikTok and your cons, a small number of your constituents. And unfortunately the people that will send in 3, 5, 10 bucks by when you call the other person a bad name or, or just say, you know, shoot them at the border. Right? Shoot it when they come over, shoot them at the border. You know, the New York Times and reasonable media, Wall street on left and right will, will decry that and then that person will raise a lot of money. And so we have to figure out a way to have a more representative democracy where we have reasonable people. I do think national service, I think we have to start doing A better job of distributing the spoils. Our economy the last 30 years has produced more wealth than Europe has produced in the last 200 years. But you wouldn't know it looking at the average household income. It's gone up, but I don't think it's bested inflation or kept pace with the market because we keep crowding more and more money into the top 1%. And I believe in billionaires. I'm not a class warfare person, I don't believe in a wealth tax, but it really has gotten out of control. And when people see prosperity of just these staggering proportions, it's the 1% that get the most play in the media. It just makes you feel like shit. It's like you get the sense that everyone's a baller but you and it makes you really upset and angry. And the greatest innovation in history wasn't a microchip. It wasn't AI, you know, it wasn't the ev. The greatest innovation in history was the American middle class. Until that point, the world was pretty futile, pretty hostile, pretty violent. You know, 10% of the men had 80% of the opportunities. Only 40% of men even had the opportunity to procreate. They didn't have the opportunity to build a family. All of the wealth went to people, all of the mating opportunities, all of the power. And then we brought back 7 million men, veterans who were kind of heroes. They played on the field and won. We gave them low cost loans for mortgages, we gave them the GI Bill so they could go to school. And we, we produced this cohort of really attractive economically and emotionally viable men. And they attracted a lot of potential mates. And then we decided through equal rights and more progress and laws protecting women and their rights and civil rights, we created this economic engine where everyone kind of had a shot at it. And there was huge household formation. And the middle class became just this economic juggernaut where people felt like they had a vested interest in the success of America and our industrial base. And people could, on a decent job, have a home, two cars, send their kids to college and feel really good about America. The middle class is extraordinary. It's just the middle class in America, there's never been anything like it. And it created peace, prosperity, happiness the likes of which we've never seen. It has kind of gone stagnant the last 20 years through a lack of investment. And we need to stop this myth that the middle class is a self sustaining function of a market. It's not unless you reinvest in it, unless you give Kids, Pell Grants. Unless you figure out a way for investment programs so young people can meet each other, unless you figure out a way such that a kid from a poor household has a shot at getting into the middle class, you're just not going to sustain the middle class. So let me use the R word. Unless you redistribute income from our more successful, our most productive citizens, that is the rich, to sustaining a middle class through whether it's the University of California or Armed services opportunities or ROTs, whatever it might be, right. Or low interest first time home buyer loans or child tax credit, whatever the program is that helps build up or buttress the middle class, that's the investments that we need to make. And I see the greatest innovation in history being starved for investment.
- [27:50]
B
That's a perfect point for me to ask the question because we used to say about the GI Bill, it's not a charity, it's an investment. It's the greatest government investment arguably in history. You're an Investor, you're making 2024 predictions. What's the, what's the play? How do you invest in that opportunity? Who are the people or the companies or the app? Like what, where do you make that investment? Whether you're an individual or you're a political actor, or you're a government or you're a billionaire, or even just you personally. How do you, how do you, where do you make that, where are you putting your money to capitalize on that investment in 2024 and beyond?
- [28:25]
C
Well, there's two different things. So there's where I'm putting my money. I got, I got very lucky. And by the way, it's not a humble brag. I think I'm, I think I'm remarkably tal. And I know I'm hardworking, but the economic security I have is, is exponentially greater than my talent. And a lot of that's because I was born at the right time. The right, you know, just the right. Where you're, when and where you're born is, is the key or is the largest determinant of your outcome. If I'd been born in, you know, in Hamburg in 1920, I would have been a Nazi and died on a Russian field. And instead I was born in 1964, California and came of age in the Internet. Processing power, free education, the University of California, and boom, here I am. So what I invest in, because I have the money to do it, is I have this sort of externality or immunity strategy where I can invest in software companies that are managing the comments section on media sites because I think I see the comment section is where a lot of the real vitriol and really abhorrent content ends up. So I invested in a subscription based search engine because I think of the ad model is going to terrible places. So I can invest in things where I think there's big economic opportunity and upside but also I think are addressing a social ill. I would advise young people. I'm writing a. I have a book called Algebra of Wealth coming out in April. I think it's really important that you establish economic security in your life. I think in America, America becomes more like itself every day. And your freedoms, your opportunities are unfortunately very much correlated to your economic security. And the wonderful thing about the market is over the medium and the long term especially it the trajectory is up. And so what I tell people in terms of investment is there is an algorithm for investing or establishing economic security. And it's the following. The first is focus. You gotta find something you're good at and identify it. That's what your twenties is for. Workshop. Find something you're good at. And then once you find something you're good at, resign yourself to investing 10,000 hours, sacrificing some relationships, sacrificing your hair. Realize it's going to be stressful hard and try and become at least aim to be in the top 10% if not the top 1%. And make sure it's a field that doesn't have a 90% unemployment rate. I'm not talking about pursuing your passion in basketball or being a DJ or owning a nightclub or a restaurant or being an actor. Those are shitty businesses with 98 plus points of unemployment. Find something you're good and can maybe be great at that has at least a 90 plus percent employment rate. Once you find that, you should be able to make enough money to sustain yourself. And then add some stoicism. And the key to building wealth is not making a shit ton of money. It's how much money you save. And that is try and live a fairly stoic life. Maybe when you're younger, live with your parents before you can buy a home, really try and really gamify it. I'm going to save 100 bucks a month. I'm going to save 500, I'm going to save 1,000. I'm going to save $2,000 a month. And create an army of capital for yourself and basically save more than you spend and then invest it in diversified funds, ETFs, low cost index funds because nobody is an investment Genius. I don't think after investing for 40 years and thinking I know more than your average bear about the markets, my net conclusion is nobody knows. 100% of economists surveyed in 2022 were predicting a recession in 2023. 2023 was one of the best years in the history of the market. No recession, nobody knows.
- [31:51]
B
Paul.
- [31:52]
C
And so you don't want to buy, you don't want to try and find the needle in the haystack. Excuse me, you want to buy the whole haystack. And if you have the ability to be good at something and then make more than you spend, save some money, put it in diversified low cost funds, you also need to appreciate something our species does not have an easy time appreciating, and that is you sitting there at 49. The last 20 years flew by. They flew by. And if you're an idiot like me at 25 and said, well, I'm not going to save any, I was making good money at 25 and I didn't save any because I'm like, if I need to save two or three thousand dollars a year by the time I'm 40, shoot me in the fucking head. Because I'm a baller and at some point I'm going to make millions. And guess what? I woke up at your age and I didn't have economic security and it was really frightening. And my, you know, that boring, unimpressive person that doesn't buy bottles at clubs, that goes for a Toyota, a three year old Toyota Camry instead of the new BMW. I mean, I understand the desire to want to be attractive to mates and indulgent every once in a while. But if you, if you can save some money and then put it in low cost ETFs and index funds, yeah, someone will take a screenshot of how they double down on bitcoin and now they're rich and you're not. But the way to get rich on a fairly certain level is focus times stoicism, times diversification and then an appreciation for how fast time will go. Because if you invest just, you know, you know what it is, you start investing a few thousand dollars a year when you're in your 20s, you are going to be a millionaire by the time you're my age and it's going to go really fast. And we have no ability to register the pace of time because the majority of our species, time of our species on this planet, we didn't live past 35. So we can't imagine it, we can't process it in Fact, you're going to live another 20, 30, 50, 80 years, and it's going to go really fast. So here's the good news. I know how to get you rich. The bad news is it's going to be slowly. But I do know how to get you rich. And if you follow those, if you combine that algorithm of those four things, you will get rich. That's the good news. The bad news is you're going to get rich slowly.
- [33:54]
B
I love it. This is why you're the master of this. And I wish you would run for public office in addition to all that you're doing. I think I asked you last time. You're not going to run for office, are you? Can we get you to run for office? Because we need leaders like you in the public dialogue driving policy. I'd much rather have you determining policy on Ukraine and Israel and the economy than most of these jackasses. Would you ever run or serve in government?
- [34:22]
C
That's a really generous question. When I sold my first company. So this is how I can tell the political system works. When you sell a company and you make a bunch of money and you're seen as somebody. And if you have a large social following, you get a call from your party. In my case, I got a call from my state's Democratic Party and they said, we want to run you for mayor or maybe for governor, and we need you to put in 10 million bucks of your own money. And you're going to lose the first time, but you'll get a name recognition that you might win the second time. They were very straightforward. I really appreciated how honest they were. And here's the thing. I'm a narcissist, so I considered it. I love the idea of being involved in office. I think I would really enjoy running. I'm not sure I would actually enjoy governing because when I meet with Senators Klobuchar and Bennett and Warner, I actually think they're just super impressive people. And they work hard and they have so many options to lead extraordinary lives. And they show up in 50% of America, day one hates them. They are. They, they, they, they have such a difficult time getting anything done. We need checks and balances, but it's just so difficult for them to get, isn't it?
- [35:32]
B
A higher calling. Like this is that moment where America's at a crossroads. We need people to come off the sidelines who are untraditional. You talk to all these communities that we're talking about. You have a following, you have the money. This is where you know, I think the independent political movement has been underserved by what we've got. I mean, right now we've got, you know, RFK Jr. And Dean Phillips, and we could have the Rock and Oprah and you. I mean, how do we get people like you to. Yeah, it's gonna suck. It's gonna be terrible. But your country needs you. And without a generation that jumps in, in leadership or at least a cohort in the next couple of years, I don't know how many people are long on America.
- [36:12]
C
Well, again, you're being. You're being really generous.
- [36:14]
B
Yeah, but beyond the generosity, I'm also being. I'm being. I'm being strategic. Like, we need you, man. Like, we need guys like you. And if we can't get guys like you and gals like you, then that says something about our system, too, right? Like, we need our best and brightest to meet this moment. And frankly, people who can do all the things. And. You just said you could do all the things.
- [36:34]
C
Well, first off, there are a lot of good people running, and you got to ask yourself, where would you be most effective? I'm just being very transparent here. I don't think I have the mental strength to run for office. I think I have a tough time when people say mean things about me on Twitter. And so the idea of running for office and having people comb through my past and then try and embarrass me and my family, I just think I'm not sure I could handle it. Well, yeah, the other thing is, I have money now. I get to do wonderful things with my family, and I just really enjoy my life. And. And I don't. I don't want to give that up. I think there's a certain amount of. I believe in happiness. I'm trying to get good at it. I'm. I'm. I see my time on this planet as finite. And I think one of the keys to happiness is to be rich but anonymous, and you can't be anonymous when you're running for office. Also, where can you add the most value? If you have a platform and you have some money and you think of yourselves as a good citizen, you can get involved. I'm not sure, Paul, that I can't have more of an impact being a provocateur from outside of the tent and using my platforms and a little bit of my money to talk about issues and to run into the fire. I'm getting a lot of shit from my views on Israel right now. And I'm like, well, it's my time. Even if it's not popular, even if I lose some podcast advertisers, I'm going to speak my mind and I'm going to talk about intergenerational that. I think that Covid and the response to Covid was the most insane intergenerational theft in history. I have the luxury of talking about these things. So I think you can make a big difference. What you're doing is making a big difference. So there's different ways to add value and different ways to contribute. And 10 years ago, when someone called me and said, or when people called me and asked me to run for office again, see above narcissist, I thought, well, I like the, I like the, the, the idea of that. And then when I sat down and really thought it through, I just think the amount of resilience and money it takes relative to the impact you may or may not have, I'm not sure it's worth it. And it goes back to the problem of how do we get good people to run. But every time, I will say this, every time I go to D.C. and maybe it's the people I meet with, when I meet with some of the senators I mentioned or I meet with Representative Rona, I'm just, I'm actually really impressed and hopeful. I just interviewed a kid, a kid Andy should. I'll get his name. He ran cyber security for the CIA and I'm trying to get him to run. Like this guy. This guy is so impressive and so reasonable and so modern. I'm trying to get, you know, I'd like to see, I don't know, I'd like to see Mark Cuban maybe not run for president, but run for governor. I, I think there's a lot of time.
- [39:10]
B
Looks like he might, he might run against Ted Cruz. I think, I think that, that, that intergenerational piece, I think especially, I don't know, maybe the cohort around your age, my age, Cuban's age, that can kind of be translators between the generation, especially folks who have an understanding of media and politics and technology, who can be kind of a bridge generation into what America was and what America could be. I think there's a moment for that type of leadership in politics where you're the ones signing the bills, you're the ones determining the budget. And, and I hope that, you know, every time you come on the show, I'm going to ask you if you can run because we need you specifically and people like you and it's like.
- [39:50]
C
Any other for you to run. Paul, I'll cut.
- [39:52]
B
You know what, I'll tell you straight up. We've talked about. I talked to this on the show before. I'm an independent. If I want to run as an, as a non wealthy independent, there's a tough path. There's no path. And that's what we need to change. And I think there is structural change that can happen.
- [40:07]
C
Sorry, but even it's near impossible. But I will say like a guy, like a guy like Andrew Yang, he ran. He, he didn't, he didn't get a. He got enough traction that his ideas resonated. People don't realize UBI was seen as so socialist and such a, such a non starter and now he's, he's actually gotten people comfortable with the notion. Well, maybe we just give the, maybe we just give people money. People would never even have that conversation before. So.
- [40:35]
B
That's right.
- [40:36]
C
Have impact. My fear is that third parties now are just going to be spoilers that they never actually.
- [40:42]
B
Well, it doesn't have to be third party.
- [40:44]
A
Right.
- [40:44]
B
I mean, it has to be no party. And I think that's the part. If we can empower the people who don't want to pick a side, if only unite them in the fact that they don't want to pick a side, we're half the country. And that gives us a chance to upend a lot of this and put some more reasonable people in. Even if it's just a couple senators as a beachhead and if it's someone you know, like you running in a place like Maine or like Alaska, we get five or six of them in the Senate and then we start to shift that entire thing. But let me. I've taken much more of your time than I promised I would. Let me ask you one last question.
- [41:16]
C
Sure.
- [41:16]
B
You made a lot of great predictions. I recommend everybody check out your podcast and your newsletters, everything. I always want to try to bring people light to contrast the heat. Do you have a hopeful prediction and a positive prediction for 2024 of your list that you want to say? Hey, if you're feeling shitty going into this year, January's tough. There's a lot of fire all around the globe. Here's something to keep your eye on and something that I predict will help us all through 2024.
- [41:44]
C
Oh, there's a lot. You have young kids. If you're born in America today, you're going to live to be 100 and you're probably going to live. You're probably going to see for the first time a Multicultural democracy of this prosperity. This has never been accomplished and we're in striking distance of that. More specifically, geopolitically, I actually believe the kingdom and Israel will re establish relations and bring some form of midterm peace to the Middle East. I think the two largest economies coming together will create an iron dome for Israel security, create more prosperity. I think I'm hoping that we can come to some sort of multilateral solution that gives the Palestinian people and the residents of Gaza some dignity and ability to govern themselves. So I actually think that there's a hopeful sign, hopeful signs in the Mideast. I'd like to think that the west is going to continue to support Ukraine and we've taken out a third of Russia's kinetic power. I think it spells the end for Putin. I think we've sent a message to autocrats all over the world that when the west binds together militarily and economically, there's. We are a formidable force not to be trifled with. And I do think that some of the advances around AI and medicine are going to reduce death, disease and disability. The number of people living in poverty. The number of people living in poverty. The World Health Organization 20 years ago put out a goal to cut it in half in 40 years. They cut it in half in less than 10. So on the whole, I think there's remarkable reasons to be optimistic. We came out of a global pandemic with an all hands on deck war footing to come up with vaccines that are a gift from God. I am very pro vaccine and we would have lost another million American souls had the American. The way we converted the Buick factories into tank factories. We did the same thing around vaccines. So I think there's a lot of reasons to be very hopeful also. Fargo, season five is outstanding, Paul. Outstanding.
- [43:51]
B
See, man, that you got my vote and this is the kind of mess of mine. Well, this is the kind of mess. We can continue to figure out ways to, to. To bring together the Avengers and try to meet this moment, man. But I appreciate your perspective, your positivity, and your example as a leader, as someone who just says sometimes this is not the right thing for our kids. And your focus on the next generation and future generations is so important and something we don't hear enough. And you're just a really, really great example. And I'm grateful for your leadership and for your time on this show and all your support, man. It's really great to have you back.
- [44:30]
C
Well, right back at you, brother. I appreciate you doing this. Appreciate your service and trust me on the kids thing. It gets less bad. It gets less bad.
- [44:39]
B
Well, I'm thankful for the vaccines right now because it could be a whole lot worse in this house right now, but. But it's less. Thank you for all you do. Happy New Year, Scott.
- [44:47]
C
Yeah, take care. Bye now.
- [45:05]
B
Power by righteous media.