The Numbers Behind the Maduro Arrest: Polling Data, Military Intervention, Immigration, and America’s Cultural Shift

Summary

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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: The Numbers Behind the Maduro Arrest: Polling Data, Military Intervention, Immigration, and America’s Cultural Shift

Date: January 7, 2026
Host/Guest: Ryan Girdusky (substitute/guest host)
Focus: How Americans are responding to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, public opinion on military intervention and immigration, and the broader implications for U.S. culture and politics.

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Episode Overview

Ryan Girdusky (as guest host) explores the American public's attitudes toward recent U.S. military action that resulted in the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Drawing extensively on fresh polling data, he explains how reactions divide along partisan lines—with unique perspectives among Hispanic Americans. The discussion then pivots to immigration trends, the cultural assimilation of immigrant groups in Western societies, and the potential future impact on American society and cities. Girdusky shares statistical insights and cultural critiques, blending his characteristic humor and sharp analysis throughout.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Polling Data: Public Attitudes Toward Maduro’s Arrest

• Partisan Divides Dominate Opinions ([02:18]-[04:15])

  • Public support or opposition to Maduro's arrest is heavily shaped by political alignment.
    • Washington Post poll: 40% support the raid (74% of Republicans, 13% of Democrats, 34% of independents); 42% oppose.
    • Reuters poll: 37% support the arrest; 38% oppose.
  • Quote:

    “Basically, the Democrats and Republicans mirror each other, right? It's, it's strictly partisanship, almost entirely.” — Ryan Girdusky ([03:47])

  • Exception: Hispanics, particularly those of Venezuelan or Cuban descent, are more likely to back the operation regardless of U.S. partisanship.

• Independents and Ambivalence ([04:15])

  • High percentage of independents have no opinion, reflecting a knowledge gap or lack of engagement with Venezuelan politics.

• Attitudes Shift After the Operation's Success ([04:30]-[05:05])

  • Support increased following the operation's success (a 25-point swing), driven by the perception it was efficient, did not incur U.S. casualties, and quickly handled Maduro.

• Latin American Approval ([05:05]-[06:00])

  • An “Alica survey” showed overwhelming Latin American support:
    • 87% of Costa Ricans, 78% of Chileans, 77% of Colombians, 76% of Panamanians, 74% of Peruvians support the raid.
    • Mexico is less enthusiastic, possibly due to recent leftist electoral trends.
  • Quote:

    “All of Latin America wildly approves, wildly approves of it. The only country where it's on the margin is Mexico…” — Ryan Girdusky ([05:27])

• Should Maduro Go to Trial? ([06:00]-[07:25])

  • 50% of Americans believe Maduro should face trial for drug charges, including 79% of Republicans and 42% of independents.
  • Very few Americans oppose a trial (just 2% of Republicans, 15% of independents, 24% of Democrats).
  • Cross-tabs: Every demographic group leans toward trial.
  • Quote:

    “A plurality or majority support putting Nicolás Maduro on trial in the United States for drug charges.” — Ryan Girdusky ([07:22])

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2. War-Weariness and Limits on Intervention

• Reluctance for Prolonged Military Action ([07:25]-[09:25])

  • Americans, scarred by Iraq and Afghanistan, reject the idea of protracted wars or occupations.
  • Poll: Only 24% support America “taking over” Venezuela to choose its new government (45% opposed).
    • Even among Trump supporters and Republicans, refusal rates are high.
  • Quote:

    “Americans don't want a prolonged war. They don't want another Afghanistan, they don't want another Iraq. We are just a war weary country.” — Ryan Girdusky ([07:44])

• Military Recruitment: Who Bears the Burden? ([10:00]-[12:20])

  • Military service is disproportionately from red counties and red states (South, Midwest, Texas, inland West).
  • Girdusky’s adage:

    “Kids in blue states wave foreign flags. Kids in red states get American flags draped over their coffin.” ([11:20])

  • Discussion on how Republicans, though proud of the operation’s outcome, are loath to see their communities pay the cost for another U.S.-led intervention, highlighting a split even within Trump's base.

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3. Immigration & Cultural Assimilation: The UK Wealth Study ([19:04]-[27:45])

• Study from LSE: Immigrant Wealth Gaps in the UK

  • Explores how different immigrant groups have fared in wealth accumulation:
    • Wealth gains since 2012 are concentrated among White British and Indian groups; other groups (Black Africans, Caribbeans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis) are stagnant or in decline.
    • High remittance rates mean money is sent “home,” undermining wealth accumulation in host nations.
    • Top income brackets within minority groups perform well; the broad middle/working-class majority do not.
  • Cultural Transplant Thesis ([25:28]-[27:00]):
    • Ryan references Garrett Jones’ book: Immigrants tend to reproduce the economic and social traits of their home societies no matter where they settle—even two or three generations on.
    • “Culture changes us more than we change them.”

• U.S. Parallels: Welfare Use and Economic Mobility ([27:45]-[29:45])

  • Shares Trump’s social-media post showing high welfare use among specific groups (e.g., Bhutanese, Yemeni, Somali, Dominican, Afghan immigrants).
  • Argues that host countries bear high welfare costs, and low-performing groups tend to remain dependent for generations.
  • Raises provocative questions about selection criteria for future immigrants, especially with looming automation and demographic pressures.
  • Quote:

    “Is it worth U.S. spending million plus dollars over two generations to hopefully get to a third or fourth generation where they're producing and promoting prosperity in our own country?” — Ryan Girdusky ([29:02])

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4. Ask Me Anything: Is New York City Doomed to Repeat Patterns of Decline? ([32:41]-[39:50])

• Listener: Greg from New Jersey asks whether New York’s current far-left turn (electing Mandani) mirrors cultural tendencies more than actual generational change ([32:41]).
• Girdusky’s Analysis:
  • New York’s character has changed due to new waves of both international and domestic migrants, not “native” city dwellers.
  • Argues that idealistic newcomers are “trying to enjoy the fruits of prosperity, but couldn't deal with the actual cost.”
  • Predicts that the radical direction under Mandani may backfire, especially as “real New Yorkers” (natives) are now a minority.
  • Raises the risk of demonizing economic minorities (e.g., homeownership linked to “whiteness”), which throughout history “have been persecuted the fastest and the hardest.”
  • Quote:

    “New York City sleeps. … The New York of legend and lore does not exist anymore.” ([33:05]) “Whites have an economic dominance in New York despite being a minority of the population. … Those are the groups who are persecuted the fastest and the hardest.” ([37:00])

  • Ends on the notion that radical change often fails, and hindsight may bring regret to coalition groups that pushed for it.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On U.S. Foreign Policy Attitudes:

  “A lot of people are in this country, not a majority, but a big slice, really don't have an opinion. They're not as highly informed on Venezuelan policy.” — Ryan Girdusky ([04:06])

• On Military Burden:

  “It is not an even distribution of sacrifice. … And when you compare that map to the 2024 election, it is overwhelmingly counties with high enlistment rates have voted for President Trump.” — Ryan Girdusky ([10:40])

• On Generational Assimilation:

  “Culture doesn't change because people move. It doesn't change even when they're born into a certain place, if they're still more ingratiated in their, in their ethnic culture that they came from.” — Ryan Girdusky ([26:38])

• On Immigration Policy:

  “Is it worth it as a country then to bring in cultures that stay impoverished generation to generation to generation…?” — Ryan Girdusky ([29:01])

• On New York & Mandani:

  “Those New Yorkers are either in the cemetery, are in Florida or are a minority in their own city.” — Ryan Girdusky ([39:36])

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Key Takeaways

• Americans remain cautious about foreign military intervention—even after “successful” strikes or arrests.
• Partisan identity shapes foreign policy attitudes. Exceptions exist among Hispanic populations with personal ties to Venezuela/Cuba.
• Military burden is uneven—rural, red-leaning American communities bear the cost.
• Immigrant economic integration is complex and varies dramatically by source country and cultural background. Long-term welfare dependency and remittance outflows challenge net benefits for some groups.
• American and Western cities face cultural shifts. Local politics and demographic changes are fundamentally altering cities like New York, which now walk the line between prosperity and radicalism.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode arms you with the polling numbers and cultural debates driving current headlines—from the politics of the Maduro arrest to deeper worries about America’s future cultural and economic identity. Girdusky’s sharp, data-driven perspective offers a cautionary tale on the risks of both foreign intervention and uncritical immigration policy—always with an eye on how these trends shape, and sometimes shake, our cities and communities.

Transcript

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[Ryan Graduski]

Welcome back to A Numbers Game with Ryan Graduski. Thank you guys for being here again. I have to tell you that I love it when I see some data and I make a prediction in an opinion based upon the data and then more information comes out and approves me. Correct. And that is what's happened with what I told you guys on last show on Monday about Venezuela. If you remember on that last episode I was saying to you that early polling information looked like most Americans didn't have strong feelings about the raids outside of how they felt about Trump. Like, if you like Trump, you supported the raids. If you didn't like Trump, you didn't like the raids, the arrest of dictator Nicholas Maduro. But if you, but a lot of people were kind of like ambivalent foreign policy is not a big issue for them. I said that based upon early polling information at the time. Now new information has come out, basically sitting there and saying, yeah, most Americans are really tied to how they feel at Trump, with the exception of Hispanics. Hispanics have a stronger opinion, especially if they are Venezuelan or Cuban. That is the big caveat. But overall, it falls under partisan lines. Let's break it down. So new poll came out from the Washington Post. It was released on Tuesday, and it found that 40% of Americans supported the raid, the arrest of, of Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro. For 74% of them being Republicans, 13% of Democrats, 34% of independents, 42% opposed the raid, 76% of Democrats, 10% of Republicans and 42% of independents.

[Jacob Goldstein]

40.

[Ryan Graduski]

Basically, the Democrats and Republicans mirror each other, right? It's, it's strictly partisanship, almost entirely. Independence lean a little against it, but not that heavily. And independence, once again, it's hard to pull independents because a lot of them usually always vote one way or the other. They either always vote Democrat, they say they're an independent, or they always vote Republican, they say they're independent, but they're pretty partisan. So anyway, very, very evenly split. 18% had really no opinion, including 24% of independents, which I think a lot of people are in this country, not a majority, but a big slice, really don't have an opinion. They're not as highly informed on Venezuelan policy. Two, and that follows a similar poll, that Washington Post poll, which I'll come back to in a second. That follows another poll that also came out on Tuesday from Reuters. And the Reuters poll found that 37% of Americans supported the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, 38% opposed it. Almost exactly the same as the Washington Post, lower numbers, but follows the same trajectory. Now, the Reuters happen to have polled this question several months ago asking, would you support a future military intervention into Venezuela? And that poll had 47% opposed, 21% support. Because I think when you hear, when an American hears about a military operation, they think Iraq, Afghanistan, they were thinking, we're going to lose thousands of people, we're going to have a decade of violence. We're going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars for ungrateful people who will end up coming to our own country as refugees. Right. The fact that it was a flawlessly executed campaign where no one died, it didn't cost, you know, a trillion dollars. I think that that changed people's opinion about it pretty, pretty spectacularly. After the arrest of the, of, of Nicholas Maduro, the poll founds that 37% supported the operation, 38% opposed. That's a 25 point swing in favor of the operation after it was executed. Because of this perception that shows it was a very successful thing. There was another poll taken by, called a company by Alica survey. I had not heard of them before, so I don't know how accurate they are. But a leak of survey and it asked Latin Americans how they felt about the raid. 87% of Costa Ricans, 77, 78% of Chileans, 77% of Colombians, 76% of Panamanians, 74% of Peruvians. All of Latin America wildly approves, wildly approves of it. The only country where it's on the margin is Mexico, which remember, voted for a socialist president not that long ago. But aside from Mexico, the rest of Latin America very supportive of what President Trump has done. You know, not like the Europeans or anybody else, but Latin Americans who've seen Nicolas Maduro being a dictator really, really were happy that he was arrested and facing this trial. So speaking of the trial, let's go back to the Washington Post poll that I talked about earlier. 50% of Americans say that Nicholas Maduro should go to trial for drug charges. Right. A lot of Americans don't have a very deep understanding of who Nicolas Maduro is or his government or anything. Especially when you compare him to like a foreign leader like Xi Jinping or Putin, somebody who's in the news constantly. You know, Nicholas Maduro is not at the forefront of many Americans minds. I'll just say like that. But 50% still believe that he is, he should go on trial because after all he is a dictator of a narco state. He's not exactly Mr. Rogers. That includes 79% of Republicans, 42% of independents and a plurality of Democrats with just 29%. Only 14% of Americans say that he should not be on trial, including just 2% of Republicans, 15% of independents and 24% of Democrats. I looked through every crosstab that was publicly available to see if there was any group of American where a majority or plurality opposed putting Maduro on trial. And there wasn't Every group of people in this country, whether they voted for Harris, whether they are a liberal, whether they are white or college educated or not college educated, a plurality or majority support putting Nicolas Maduro on trial in the United States for drug charges. Anyone saying that this is that they everyone's outrage is only talking to purple hair. They thems who are overweight with too many college degrees. It is overwhelmingly on one side saying he should go on trial. And a plurality of every group, if not majority, support that. Remember what else I told you guys? When it comes to Venezuela, Americans don't want a prolonged war. They don't want another Afghanistan, they don't want another Iraq. We are just a war weary country. It is the, it is what happened from the Bush legacy, from the Bush presidency that continued onwards after Obama and in Afghanistan into the first Trump term. I mean and the withdrawal from Afghanistan was horrendous how it was executed. So we are just very war weary. We don't want a long intervention. And also remember Venezuela is not Afghanistan or Iraq. I'm talking to my liberal friends about this and they're like, it's going to be the same thing. Venezuela had democracy in our living memories, right? They had their last free election, really free election. 1998, I guess 2002 was also fairly free. It wasn't even Chavez was the leader at that point. But it is not, it was not like the subsequent elections in Venezuela which were completely fraudulent. But 1998 was a free election and it is people's living memory. Everyone over the age of, you know, 35 probably remembers 1998 existing and being around. So it's not like you have to pull people who are, you know, hundred to sit there and say, do you remember when there was the last election in Iraq or Afghanistan? Which I'm not saying that they would even know, but what I'm saying is that Venezuelans have some tie to democracy, unlike Afghanistan or Iraq. When you ask Americans do you support America taking over Venezuela and choosing the new government, Americans are very against it. Still, 24% support that idea, 45% opposed. Now remember, Trump kind of flirted with that idea and then he's kind of changed his mind several times. Among those who Support it is 9% of Democrats, Democrats, 18% of independents and 47% of Republicans, which is the plurality. But it's not a majority for something that Trump has quasi endorsed, which is unique. That doesn't happen a lot where Republicans are willing to, a majority of Republicans willing to sit there and say I'm not so sure or flat out no. Among people who voted for Trump, 46% said yes, 19% said no, and 34% said they weren't sure. Among Trump's most loyal voting bloc, which are whites without a college degree, 34 say yes, 35 say no. Which is crazy that he's not winning a plurality even of his most loyal voting block outside of Republican voters. I was talking to a friend of mine whose wife is a Venezuelan refugee and I, I think she's a citizen now. But I called them and I, when Maduro was arrested and I said, I'm sure you're so excited and you know, this is, must be so great for your wife. And she was on Maduro's hit list and she would have been executed if she would have stayed in Venezuela. So I'm sure that she probably thinks this is, you know, wonderful. And you guys are so happy. And we started talking about what happens next and what they would like to see happen next, because I don't have very strong opinions about what the Venezuelan government should look like. Right. I hope they're not a terrorist supporting nation, but other than that, I'm not really. I don't have a lot of strong feelings about Venezuela. But I asked her what they think is next and they said that they were like, you know, if we need to invade, that they would be okay with it. So I kind of made a joke and I said, well, you know, instead of Americans going there, we could send the 700,000 Venezuelans who have come here in the last five years, give them arms and send them back to their own country and say, have at it. Like, you know, get. Have your own election, become, you know, run your own country now. This is your time to run your own country. And they were kind of, I don't know if they were offended. People always get offended by stuff I say, but I like, in my regular life, as if they don't know who I am, but that they were, they were like, no, no, we would want Americans to do the job. And I think that this is a very clear dividing line for Republicans. Right. The New York Times and this map, if you're listening to this podcast, if you watch it on YouTube, I have the map on display there. The New York Times put up the 500 counties that have the largest amount of enlistments of military enlistments of where they come from. And if you look at the map of where our enlistments come from, they're very concentrated. It's the south. It is parts of the Midwest, parts of Indiana and southern Illinois and Kentucky and Missouri and Ohio. It is Texas, which is, you know, Texas, Texas. It's not the south, it's Texas, it's Texas. The south, the parts of the Midwest and the Inland Empire between California, Arizona, Nevada, that, Idaho, that whole stretch, like not on the coast of California, but inland into the west, western part of our country, that very Republican part of those states. That's really where military recruitment is extremely concentrated. In this. You know, I've said the old adage before. Kids in blue states wave foreign flags. Kids in red states get American flags draped over their coffin. It is not an even distribution of sacrifice. And when you compare that map to the 2024 election, it is overwhelmingly counties with high enlistment rates have voted for President Trump. Now that's not shocking given that a lot of lower income people see the military as not only part of their heritage they do generationally, but also as a ladder into the middle class. People do it because they're very patriotic. In red states, because they believe in the military, they support it. There's a lot of reasons to join the military. And in red states and in red county America, they do so overwhelmingly. So if we were to do in a long standing invasion of Venezuela, guess who pays the price for it? Guess who overwhelmingly bears that sacrifice? It is white Americans, majority white Americans. White American men from red counties and red states. People who voted for Donald Trump in part because he was the man who sat there and said that Iraq was a failure, who told Jeb Bush that on the South Carolina debate stage. Now, their support of what happened because it was flawless, it was easy, it was 1, 2, 3. And they trust their president. I don't know if President Trump would want to burn that trust by engaging in long, maybe a decade long conflict where those same people's children, those, their sons get murdered for a war that necessarily they didn't vote for. Right. I think that that's an important part as why the Republican overall voter, as much as they love this and they're saying, hoorah, you know America, let's kick some, you know what, there's some trepidation when it comes to further involvement and that's really where fellow non interventionalists are getting this wrong. I have friends of mine who are big anti venture interventionalists and I, I'm more on that side than not on that side. However, we don't live in a bubble. We have to engage where we have to engage. The bombings in Iran went great, right? We bombed, we were in, we were out. We didn't, we didn't occupy it. We didn't lose American lives. We didn't sit there and lose American treasure. It was a 1, 2, 3 thing to make sure Iran doesn't get a nuclear weap. Happen. Great. The arrest of Nicholas Maduro. One, two, three. No Americans died. We were in, we were out. And we're gonna have a drug lord of narco state that killed a lot of Americans killed on trial. That's great. We don't live in a bubble. We should apply pressure. We should try to make the world function better. It is our military that makes the world operational as we understand. It is our navy that keeps the seaways safe, all the rest of it. However, that doesn't mean we should engage in prolonged occupations of foreign countries at the expense of treasure in American blood. Especially because so often it is the Republican sons that go and fight and die in these wars or come back deeply depressed, deeply mangled, sometimes deeply wounded. Personally, spiritually, physically, they carry that burden overwhelmingly. It is not a Zoram Mandani voter who is going out there to fight these wars. It is always the ones who, you know, belong to the frat and or couldn't afford college and they work at a garage and they're trying to do the best in life and they join the military for a myriad of reasons, but they bear that sacrifice. So there it is, there's the data. We love how the the Republican Party loves what President Trump did. Americans pretty evenly split, but more favorable than they used to be. On the whole, on the whole conflict with Maduro and arresting Maduro. Don't want a foreign invasion, don't want to occupy Venezuela, don't want to decide its future. They want the Venezuelan people to decide and hopefully they make a good decision. I have some immigration data that's coming up next that is very wonky, but so interesting. I think you guys are going to love it. That's coming up next.

[Jacob Goldstein]

This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out Odoo at O D o o dot com. That's O D O o dot com.

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[Ryan Graduski]

So a woman, I think it's a woman named Eleni Ki. Ki. You guys know I can't pronounce names. It's a Greek name though. She is an assistant. She or he is an assistant professor, professional research fellow at the London School of Economics and they did a study on immigrants and the success of immigrants who had came to the UK basically over the last decade. And they were saying how has the wealth gap changed over the last decade among these immigrant groups in the uk? Basically studying how third world immigrants, how they're doing in a first world society, especially the uk and how that translates not only just among like individual, just like you know, native born versus foreign born, but different individual groups. Right. And here's what the study says. The analysis of this stage considers that both cross sectional changes in ethnic wealth gap and ethnic gaps in short term wealth accumulation using changes in wealth across waves. That means basically people who came 2008, 2000, sorry, 2012, 2016 and 2021. How the wealth change over those different times. The findings reveal a stark and persistent inequalities in wealth across ethnic groups, which widened over time and highlight how initial wealth positions determine wealth growth. She's wrong about that, but here's why. The study concluded that since 2012, median wealth gaps between ethnic groups have widened sharply with gains concentrated among white, British and Indian ethnic groups. Median wealth substantially for those groups rose, but median groups remain close to zero for Black Africans, Black Caribbeans, Bangladesh, Bangladeshis, and while adults of Pakistani ethnic groups experience a marked decline basically over the Course of this decade, in the last decade in the uk, wealth accumulation has risen for Indians primarily because they've been buying huge pieces of property in the uk that's what the data shows. And for white British, white British have made up substantial gains. Indians have made substantial gains. Everyone else is basically flat. And Pakistanis are also declining. Now remember, this comes at a time of exorbitant population increase. For all those groups except for white British, their numbers are pretty stagnant. But everyone else has this explosion in population. So you would think there's all these people coming into the household, they're able to work harder. You know, you have three generation, two generation working household families among these immigrants, and yet they're actually either stagnant or losing financial stability. I'll go on the wealth distribution. All ethnic groups experience losses, with exception of Indian ethnic groups. Minority groups are substantially larger losses than white British groups, reflecting the accumulation of larger debt holdings. Adults in Pakistani, Bangladeshi, black Caribbean and black African ethnic groups registered gains at higher wealth quadrants. Basically the very wealthy did very, very well and those of the middle class or lower class did not do well. And those, but those were remarkably smaller than white British and other Asians. Even top, even the top quadrant of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis has significantly lower performances than every other group. Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Africans experienced lower levels of savings than white British with 50% saving absolutely nothing. Now what's crazy is, I mean, she, the writer kind of blames it on racism, which is so stupid when you realize that, I mean, Indians and Bangladeshis and Pakistanis are not all the same, obviously, but they're, they are more in common than I would say like Indians and Icelandic groups, you know what I mean? Like, they're pretty, they're, they're more in common than they're not. There's a lot, tons of cultural difference, but as far as racial differences, it is extremely minor. And to the average person, if someone, if an Indian and a Bangladeshi and a Pakistani are all wearing, you know, a business suit, they probably can't tell them differently. So the idea they're racially discriminating against two of the three and not the third, seems quite strange and probably not likely that it's happening. What's crazy is not only did later groups of these of this study, the one crazy thing, not only were they saving less, but they were actually giving more money to their native country that she looked at remittance rates. Remittance rates for recent waves of Black Africans was 41% recent. For, for Bangladeshis 26% for other Asians, 29% for Pakistanis, 15%. Huge amount of money was going instead of saving, instead of, instead of, you know, building wealth in the UK was going to be sent to family members throughout Africa and Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. And when you look at native born Pakistani or British born, rather British born Pakistani, British born Indian, British born Caribbean into the second generation, into the third generation, what the study found, while they acted more like white British, their mean that how they averaged out how they saved money and treated wealth accumulation was actually closer to that of an immigrant. So why do I bring this all up? I know this is very, very, very wonky and I put on a lot of graphs for people who are watching this program instead of listening to it. I bring this up because a couple years ago there was a book called the Cultural Transplant. How migrants make economies, they move to look like ones they left. It was a book by a professor named Garrett Jones. I'm asking him on this podcast a couple times and he's always denied me, which breaks my heart because I like him, even though he probably thinks I'm annoying. But in essence his, his philosophy, his opinion in this book was that cultures that come to our country, they change us more than we change them. Especially over, I mean, I guess in the margins over generations, but it's very, very, very rare. And I think that for Indians especially, what you're looking at is because there was a strict caste system in India for generations. It's not as prevalent as it was then for sure, but there was a strict caste system. We managed to get the wealthiest, the well educated, the well to do, the upward mobile Indians from India to the first world. I'm sure if that was broaden out where everyone had to take a hundred million Indians of randomized demographics, we, those numbers would change dramatically over a very short period of time. But we've gotten the upward, the upward mobile Indians in this country. But what he says is if you look at a country in the year 1500, how it did in the year 1500 relative to that time around, things like scientific advancements, if they had a functioning government, other things like that, that shows how those immigrant groups do in, as, as immigrants now, right? So unless you're taking the upward cross, you're, unless you're taking like the very few Algerians or people from Madagascar who are extremely advanced, right, Those top quadrants of Caribbeans that I mentioned who are very, very wealthy or Africans who are very, very wealthy, maybe they own a diamond mined. If you take just those. Yes, you'll see vastly over performance among immigrant groups. But the overall group as a whole looks a lot more like their native country into the second and into the third generation. In essence, culture doesn't change because people move. It doesn't change even when they're born into a certain place, if they're still more ingratiated in their, in their ethnic culture that they came from. And I think that plays into something that Trump posted about on True Social. I know you're like, Ryan, you're going all over the place. I promise you, I'm landing the plane right now. Trump posted on Truth Social picture of welfare dependency based upon ethnic groups. Right. He said people from Bhutan, 81% welfare. Yemen 75. Somalia 72% Dominican 68, Afghan 68. Those were the top. I decided, let me look at those groups that that study came from, from the UK how welfare dependent are they? Bangladeshis 55, Pakistanis 40%. Parts of Africa like Rwanda, Ethiopia, Liberia, 47, 47, 49%. Those immigrant groups, whether they be in the UK which has had much worse immigration policy in the last five years, America has, but whether they be in the UK or whether they be in the United States, they're very close to mirroring each other in many respects when it comes to welfare and dependency and wealth accumulation. And I'm sure if you look though out of Europe, those groups are Miriam themselves. I mean, we see the Somalis right now in Minnesota, Somalians in Minnesota, and they've done Somalians and studies about Somalians in Denmark and Sweden and in the Netherlands. And it's, they are the most expensive immigrant group any host nation could possibly take in. They have the worst wealth accumulations, overwhelming welfare dependency in, in every place they go. And I think that as this information is breaking in the UK I would love a study like this in the United States. But as this information is breaking, I think that the important questions that there and says when we talk about immigration, when we talk about immigrants, we don't like to demonize immigrants, but we're always lumping them all in together. We should be talking about them as cultures, as groups, because while we don't like to sit there and say everyone from a group is the same, and that's obviously not true, the means are true, the, the, the laws of nature are true, the averages are true. And is it worth it as a country then to bring in cultures that stay impoverished generation to generation to generation if it costs over $1 million in a Somali refugee's life? Right. Cost $1 million. And in their children's life, they're still running a deficit. Is it worth US spending million plus dollars over two generations to hopefully get to a third or fourth generation where they're producing and promoting prosperity in our own country? I think that that's a worth worthwhile question, especially when you think of the Somalian fraud. If they stole a billion dollars on top of the million plus it cost per Somali for the for their welfare and their entire life, it will be generate. It may be a century until the overall Somali population has paid back the cost of importing them. And is that worth it? When we talk about the future of our country and we're talking about a future with AI and robots taking jobs, do we need to bring anybody or should we be highly selective and we can start looking at cultural backgrounds that are complementary to ours and then have long records of producing prosperity and acting peacefully, worthwhile and worth looking at and thinking about? Next is Ask Me Anything. Stay tuned.

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[Ryan Graduski]

Now it's time for the Ask Me Anything segment. If you want any part of the Ask Me Anything segment, email me. Ryan numbers game podcast.com that's Ryan plural numbers game podcast.com I love getting your emails. Question comes from Greg. Greg says hi Ryan, it's Greg from New Jersey. Hey Greg from New Jersey. Ryan from New York over here. I was wondering if you heard of the book, the book the Gods of New York from Jonathan Mer, egotist, idealist, opportunist and the birth of the Modern City from 1987 to 1990. It deals with the periods involving Trump's rising real estate, rising crime and Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani and the AIDS crisis. You said on your podcast about people from Venezuela voting for socialism under Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro. If New Yorkers now voted for socialism under Mandani, is it not the Canada that is bringing about the revolutionary change, but the culture, the cities or the country like Venezuela embody? Is New York City just Babylon always rising to come crashing down from its own sins? Thanks. Big fan of your and Ann Coulter, who's the smartest woman in politics. I will let Ann know that that is a fabulous question, Greg. That was really smart. I haven't read that book. I want to read that book now. I'm probably going to pick it on audio because I have a couple of Audible books that I'm gonna, I have a free pass for. So I might pick that one up. Here's the thing about New York, right? And this and I speak as somebody who was born in the city. My family came to the city, forget about over a century ago. We've been here forever in this city. And we went from Manhattan to Brooklyn to Queens to back to Brooklyn. I mean they, they they mean like it's cockroaches and like my family, like that will stay here for the, for the nuclear fallout. We are not the same city. The city that I was raised in, the city I was born in, the city that New York of legend and lore does not exist anymore. New York is not a 24 hour city. The New York is not the city that never sleeps. New York City sleeps. We are. Apartments are built differently. We are built like suburbs that are more compact with no backyard, that live on top of each other. The infrastructure is all beyond its sell by date. Like everything should have been repaired in order to occupy all these people and the people who were here for generations, the people who are native to this city, they voted for Cuomo or for Sliwa. They did not vote for Mandani. The people who came to the city either as immigrants or as, you know, internal migrants, people from like Iowa with blue hair and nine genders, they came here and then insisted that it was too hard and too expensive and too bad. So that's the very curious thing is that they, they moved somewhere and said it was too tough for them and then change it. And it comes to this old idea that I used to fight with my boomer relatives about is, you know, I have, I don't have a lot of liberals in my family. I have a couple though that are just like nuts. I have relative, specifically a first cousin who's mentally deranged. And my boomer relatives would always say about this cousin, they would say, well, wait till they graduate school and they're gonna have the real world hit them. And I would say, no, they're going to change the quote, unquote, real world. And for people under 40, not even under 30, people under 40 or 45 who came to New York thinking, I'm going to be able to make it here based upon what things used to be like, or this idealized version of New York from the 80s and 90s realized it was in that place and that they really were having a difficult time, but didn't want to leave. They wanted to enjoy the fruits of prosperity, but couldn't deal with the actual cost of it either because they're, you know, they're trust fund kids or whatever, or they're all just socially, ideologically the same and they're very progressive, but they didn't want to have to live with those. The, the grittiness of the city, the, the hardship that the city breaks people down in. And so they changed it and they picked a guy who was also not from New York who also disagree with the fundamentals of New York. And I don't, I, I don't think that he's going to accomplish most of what they promised. I think, I mean, I think he said something today about as a recording this podcast about New York becoming the next being modeled after South Africa, what like the biggest failed state right now in that used to be a prosperous going besides Venezuela. I don't think they, they are aware of the ideological and racial perspective that far left social activists come from. They like the bullet points. They like the idea of, you know, staying in New York and not visiting Israel, which was a debate line. They like the idea of free public busing or making a housing more affordable or you know, fighting against landlords who keep jacking up their rent. They like all that. They don't understand the things that he can accomplish that are radical, what that would do to them. I just don't think that they do or they do. And they're so soaked in ideological purity that they are, that they, you can't, you can't negotiate or talk to them, which is also a possibility. Right. And I think that's a very big dividing line among native New Yorkers and New Yorkers who are, are recent immigrants. And if Mandani is a successful mayor, and I hope that he is in some capacity that, that, well, you know, he'll probably be reelected, but if he's not and if he's really horrendous, as New York was In the late 80s before Giuliani, I think it will be on the backs of people who want to be prosperous and don't understand how bad racially idealized socialism is. Right. Because what it is, and this is the thing that they don't understand, right, is that it is not just domination. What it is in New York is that whites are a minority in New York for sure, but we are an economic dominant minority. Whites have an economic dominance in New York despite being a minority of the population. And that was true of a lot of groups in parts of the world throughout history. And those are the groups who are persecuted the fastest and the hardest. And what we're seeing in this emerging Mandani administration is people saying homeownership is whiteness and home ownership is white supremacy. And we need to break those things down. And they're trying to coalesce around the demonization of white people and whiteness. This alliance, a multi different racial groups, all which you. I don't know if they all agree on everything and if it fails and I think that those ideas usually almost always do fail. It will be sucker. Some of those groups sit there and realize a little too late. Oh, I'm on the losing end of this, of this equation. But as far as did the culture elect him or did he elect it? I think he did. I think that he brought the ideas and he sold himself and he's got that stupid grin and you know, those, those Instagram, you know, reels and he just happened to be lucky enough to run at a time when New Yorkers are a minority in their own city. You know, had he come around in the hard hat era of the 70s or in the 90s era, or even in the 2000s, right after 9 11, they would have told him to buzz off. But luckily enough, those New Yorkers are either in the cemetery, are in Florida or are a minority in their own city. So fabulous question, Greg. I'm going to read this book now. Now that I'm thinking about it more, I want to read it. Thank you guys so much for listening to this podcast. Please like and subscribe to this podcast if you want to get more of it. I'll be back on Friday. It's on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Pod, YouTube. Wherever you get your podcasts, please like and subscribe. Don't miss an episode and I will see you guys on Friday.

[Jacob Goldstein]

This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. Way you can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out [e-mail] that's O D O.

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