WEBVTT - Like a New Car Every Year 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:14.680 Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:16.160 Washington Broadcast Center. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.799 Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty. 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:33.720 Armstrong and Getty, and He Armstrong and Yetty. Thank you 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:35.640 for being here. A lot of good stuff to squeeze 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:39.840 in this hour, so let's get right to it. Craig 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:42.880 gott Wall's longtime friend of The Armstrong and Getty Show 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.280 and friend of mine personally. Craig the Healthcare Guru is 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:49.040 an attorney, law and benefit consultant for Benefit Revolution and 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.839 is one of the most voracious readers and studiers of 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:54.800 what's happening in the world that I've ever met in 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.040 my life. Hence a really good guy to talk to 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:00.680 you about some stuff that's pretty complicated and tends to 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.800 make people's eyes glaze over because he's really really good 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:05.800 at helping us understand it. Craig, how are you my friend? 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:08.440 I am well, mister Geddy, how are you? 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.679 I'm terrific. Thank you. Can't complain, but some times I 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.760 still do as the song said, but looking forward to 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.920 talking to you about various healthcare and kind of tangential issues, 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.240 including and I didn't even ask can you do the 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:27.800 second segment this half hour. Sure, Yeah, look, okay, great, 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:30.800 because in that second segment, I want to get to 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.360 solutions and make sure we set aside time to do that, 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.800 because there are some things that particularly employers can do 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:45.479 about the incredible expense of healthcare and insurance and that 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.600 sort of thing. I'm told our connection dropped. Wow, that's 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:57.240 been happening semi regularly lately. As I explained yesterday, a 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:01.320 lot of the software and computer you know, dependent stuff. 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.520 It's like super inexpensive and incredibly handy, and you can 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:06.880 connect with people from around the world, but it's like 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:11.239 a third is reliable as the old timey wires connected 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:19.919 to stuff systems of the past. Okay, we've got them, Joe, Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.760 no worries. What are you gonna do? So anyway, what's 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:29.280 Let's talk about the big problem in healthcare costs because 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.000 I know I saw this in your notes, and please 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:37.720 people forgive me. Next year, the healthcare costs for all 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.800 of us, the increase will probably be the worst in 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:41.720 a decade and a half. 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.880 Correct, Yeah, the worst in sixteen years. Everybody's reporting. 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:50.080 Oh good lord, good lord. Okay, give us all a minute. 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:53.440 You've punched us in the stomach. Okay, now we're able 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:58.200 to stand up and listen. Why what's the big problem? 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.560 Well, the number one problem in healthcare and it's taken 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:05.240 me years to uncover this, Joe and I know everybody 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.120 likes to hate on the insurance companies and they're a 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.880 huge problem. But the number one problem, if you just 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.359 look at this in a sheer dollars number, is the hospitals, 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:18.000 the hospital lobby, and specifically what hospitals charge employers for 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.600 the care they receive, because it's typically two and a 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:24.280 half to three times what a hospital will charge a 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.800 patient on Medicare, for example. Now, is Medicare enough for 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:31.000 every hospital? Probably not, but it doesn't have to be 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.600 three x. And that's what's going on in the hospital world. 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.280 The statistic that I think boggles most minds on this 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.200 topic is if you were to cobble together all of 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.840 the profits in the hospital industry in a given year, 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.840 it's about seventy five billion dollars, Whereas if you were 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.280 to cobble together all of the profits of all of 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:50.480 the health insurers in a given year, it's only about 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:52.320 a third of that twenty five billion dollars. 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:52.920 Wow. 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.000 Wow, that is in the hospital pricing. 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.720 Right, So we're we're dedicated capitalists, you and I. I'm 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.320 low profit. But the problem is, and this is where 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.400 leftists get away with what they get away with. They 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.440 point to this and say it's the free market. No, 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.040 it's the opposite of the free market. It's cronyism. It's 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:18.160 lobbyists buying favors from the government. So basically, if you're 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:22.000 on government healthcare, you are grossly underpaying what you probably 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.360 would for say a hospital stay or treatment or whatever. 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.640 And the hospitals, because the game is fixed by the government, 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.839 can then like double triple charge those of us with 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.040 private insurance and the government lets them while the government 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.719 forces them to take those underpaying government accounts. Is that 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:39.600 more or less accurate? 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:42.720 That is more or less accurate, Joe, Yeah, I mean 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:44.880 I might quibble with some of your firm phrasing there, 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.919 but that's pretty much what's going on. Yeah, Well, it's 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.960 the when we say government payment, right, that's a pretty 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:57.719 broad picture because macaid, what the low income amongst us pay, 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:01.160 which is about twenty five percent of society, is underpaid. 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.520 The medicaid doesn't pay enough. Medicare what we put the 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:07.799 oldsters on. It actually does pay enough at about eighty 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:12.160 to ninety percent of facilities. So this this marketing ploy 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.760 that the Medicare is so horrible and payment is actually 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.320 really been kind of a smoke screen created by the 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.800 hospital insurance cartel in bed with the government, is what 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:24.880 I would say. It's like you said, the market is 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:29.720 totally broken because the end users have no real exposure 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.680 to the actual prices. I mean, how many people understand 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:34.760 if you have your family on a health plan this year, 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:38.040 the premium for that health plan in twenty twenty seven 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.159 is going to be thirty thousand dollars. You don't see 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:43.240 it because your employer pays the lion's share of it. 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:45.799 But it's a new car every year just to ensure 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:46.360 your family. 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:49.360 Wow. Wow. 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:53.640 So then, and I'm here to tell you, Joe, a 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.040 huge portion of that is waste, fraud and abuse. So 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.120 like roughly a third thirty percent, and that's wasted. I 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.520 say waste front abuse. I mean middleman getting rich. I 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.640 mean lobbyists getting rich. I mean the hospital lobby and 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.200 the insurance lobby, shaking hands behind closed doors, pretending that 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.480 they fight over prices, when in reality they're just gouging 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.280 us all at these prices. But the market's so broken, 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.040 it's such an oligopoly. We can't fix it that way. 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.400 We can't fix it with free market mechanisms anymore. Wow, 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.800 so dangerous. That's what's so dangerous to allow the left 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.000 to say, ah, yes we need socialism, right. 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:33.080 Gosh, it would be more of this, yeah, gosh. So 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:37.520 is it just a political problem? Then we need new 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.719 leaders who won't take the bribes and will design a 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:43.120 system that works. O. Now, is it just so screwed 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:47.040 up that we as individuals and companies have to find workarounds. 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.280 It'll never be fixed at the individual level, and it'll 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.880 never be fixed at the political level. It has to be. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.320 The one power we still have in healthcare is that 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.920 employers still control about a third to forty percent of 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:03.680 all healthcare. So it's incumbent upon employers, one by one 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.680 to exit the system, self ensure their plan, and remove 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.800 as many of these cartel members from their direct health 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.520 care plan as they can. It works, it's growing, and 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.000 it is. It is the one ray of light we 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.720 have in this space where where innovative employers are saying, 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:25.120 no more insurance companies, no more hospital cartels. We're going 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.080 to negotiate directly with our local hospital. We're going to 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:30.000 find fair pricing, and we're going to put a plan 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:33.760 together on our own that exits all this lobby government 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:35.920 industrial compact plex from our plan. 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.800 Right right. You mentioned, Craig that roughly a third of 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.080 healthcare spending is private insurance. Is that what you said? 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.560 Yeah, there's two ways to cut this. So this is 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:48.400 a little bit because I. 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:51.560 Was working forward asking you what percentage currently is the 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.440 government paying for, you know, around America. 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.360 Yeah, so the government, let's say it this way, taxpayers 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.600 pay for seventy percent of healthcare in the United States. Wow, 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:06.160 all right, true statement. Yeah, yeah, but employers still control 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.800 about forty five percent of healthcare in the United States. 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:10.440 And you say, well, how does that square? Well, you 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:15.400 got to remember counties, cities, and governments are still employers, 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.760 so those are government controlled employers that where the taxpayer 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.040 is paying the So you can little overlap and that statistic. 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.400 Right right, yeah, okay, all right, Well we can talk 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:28.600 more about the you know, what companies can do with 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:30.720 self insurance and that sort of thing, because I absolutely 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:34.040 love it. But the long story made short is that 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.400 big hospital, big insurance, and big Pharma are all in 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:39.160 bed together. 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.719 Yeah, they absolutely are, and Obamacare solidified that for them. 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.400 Obamacare brought all of them to the table and said, look, 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.480 we're going to basically what was happening behind the scenes 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.280 and Obamacare as they were saying, We're going to tell 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.559 everybody we're going to cover more people and bring costs down. 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:56.880 But the reality is it was all a Lincoln and 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:58.680 nod and everybody kind of knew you weren't going to 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.200 bring costs down, which, of course we haven't. Costs have 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:05.720 gone up even faster since Obamacare. Yes, more people were covered, 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.360 but the number because of population growth in the United States, 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.520 the number of uninsured in the country today is roughly 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.520 the same as it was when Obamacare passed in twenty ten. So, yes, 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:20.560 we have more people covered, but with the people coming in, 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:22.520 we still have the same problem we had in twenty 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:23.520 ten for the most part. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:29.319 Wow. So Obama in essence thought, reinventing this is going 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:33.120 to be way too difficult and politically unpopular, So I 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:36.679 will use the super giants who are already just at 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:42.120 the troth getting fat and enlist their help in return 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.760 for not calling them on their their bs. 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:48.960 Yeah, and that's exactly what would happen with any Let's 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.400 just say we get another super lefty socialist type in 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.520 the federal office right at the president's level, the same 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:57.839 thing would happen. They would get in and realize big insurance, 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.600 big pharma, and the hospital chains are so powerful. They're 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:03.800 the number one employer, the number one lobby, and the 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:08.560 number one expenditure in the federal government. And so they 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.520 would just realize, Okay, we have to work with them 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.280 to massage it. We'll never be able to break out 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.600 of the system entirely. It has to be employers doing 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:20.760 it one by one, and right now, rough roughly five 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:23.560 percent of employers are doing like the full but the 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:25.439 full boat like what I would talk about, like where 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:27.839 you really exit all that stuff from your plan. If 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.040 we got to twenty to twenty five percent of employers 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.920 doing this, it would radically change the healthcare landscape. 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:35.240 Okay, I want to talk about that a little bit 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:39.120 more next segment. But first, how do you answer people 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.160 who say, Craig, look, it's so screwed up, we need 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.440 single payer government healthcare. 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:48.680 Yeah, well, that's that's an answer. I get it, Like 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.600 I don't. I don't even push back on that anymore. 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:52.840 I say, look, that's what France does, you know, that's 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.080 what other countries do, That's what that's what Canada does. 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.640 And as screwed up as ours is, with all these 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.000 fat taps, with all this crony capitalism going on, and 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.080 all these people getting fat and profiting and all this 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:07.679 garbage that's in our stuff, it's still significantly better than 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.080 the socialized countries once you start to look at the 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.800 amount of weight time, the amount of the lack of 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.800 specialties they have in these other countries. And while it 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.520 might be better for some people to go fully socialized 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:23.199 on the whole, it won't be better. It'll be Medicaid. 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:25.560 It'll be what we have for the low income, not Medicare. 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:27.680 They like to say Medicare for all, because Medicare still 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.720 has a good reputation, But Medicaid is what it'll end 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.000 up being. That's the one that could actually be afforded 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.640 if we did it, And that's a horrible system that 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.120 does underpay and causes these massive weight times and these 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.280 doctors that exit the game. So it would be worse 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:43.719 I have note. I mean you would end up in 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:46.199 a situation like France where you just have smaller homes, 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.240 you drive less cars, you just live a more modest 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.079 life because socialism has fully crept into the largest part 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:52.720 of your government. 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:57.600 Then well, I don't mind smaller cars and houses or 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:01.640 whatever nearly as much as I'm waiting eighteen weeks to 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.520 begin my cancer treatment in Great Britain, for instance. 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:06.960 There you go, you go. I was looking more at 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.120 the macroeconomics of how it affects everything out but no, 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.960 the healthcare. Yeah, and all the stats that show, you know, 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.040 results are better in these other countries, they're all so 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.240 flawed for many reasons that you guys have pointed out 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.120 over the years. It's it's the true tell is when 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:21.959 you get people in Canada that have a real problem. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:23.839 They pay cash to come here if they can, right, 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:27.000 they can't. They wait there and they often die right correct. 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:28.880 All right, We need to take a quick break, Craig, 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:30.920 but we'll be back with more a word from our 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.960 friends and sponsors at Blue Collar Dollar. You Craig, me Jack, 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.560 We're all kind of the same sort of people. 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That's pound 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:13.040 two point fifty and say blue Collar Dollar. Nice folks too. 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.679 Advisory service is offered through Talent LLC and SEC registered 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.760 investment advisor. Rocketing is conducted by its Philia company blue 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.200 Collar Dollar LLC. Registration as an investment advisor does not 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.160 imply a certain level of skill or training. For more 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.480 important disclosures, visit Triple dub dot bluecollar dot com. We're 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:34.839 to come with Craig the healthcare Guru. In seconds Armstrong HEETI. 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:42.920 See Armstrong and Yetty show. 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.560 We're talking to Craig got Walls, Craig the healthcare Guru, 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.680 about our screwed up, incredibly expensive healthcare system and how 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.200 the big hospital and big pharma and big insurance are 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.840 all making wild profits and you're paying for it. Craig, 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.079 I just if I could. I wanted to get a 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:08.560 quick description again of how you get around that for 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.360 companies and then, believe it or not, I want to 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:16.040 go into self checkout laws, anti self check levels. But 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.080 so tell us again, how do you do what you do? 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.040 I love it. So what we've been doing the last 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:24.000 handful of years, Joe, is something called reference based pricing. 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:27.280 What I would tell you is most employees, more than 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.200 half of employees on a corporate employer plan, are already 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:34.120 on a self insured plan. It's a great first step. However, 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:36.840 most of those employers still pay one of the big 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.640 four insurance companies to administer the plan, and they rent 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.680 their networks and still pay those bloated prices on the claims. 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:45.800 The next step, and what about five percent of employers 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.280 are now doing nationwide, is to say, hey, we've gone 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.880 this far, let's cut the insurance lobby out entirely. Instead 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.680 of renting that bloated PPO that pays three hundred percent 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.000 at a hospital of what Medicare would pay, let's name 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:01.200 our own price, pay one hundred and fifty percent of 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.120 what Medicare would pay. Negotiate these deals directly with the 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.720 hospitals and our footprint and go from there. It's aggressive, 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:12.160 but it saves overall healthcare costs thirty percent first year alone. 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:15.920 And it works unbelievably. But it's work. It's not for everybody, 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.840 but that's the new thing in healthcare. That's what people 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.760 are doing to really get all of the pillars of 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:23.120 the cartel out of their health plan. 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.160 Wow. If people want to know more about that, or 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:28.560 understand it or read it a little more slowly, how 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.560 do they get a hold of you or read your 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:31.480 substack or whatever. 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.560 Yeah, Gottwalves dot substack dot com or you can. You 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.960 can just google my name. There's only one Craig Gottwalds 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:39.760 in the United States, so it makes it really easy. 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:42.280 You can find me on LinkedIn or Twitter or substack. 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.040 Got t w als We'll have a link at armstrong 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.120 and getty dot com so people can find you, all right, 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.240 So I love the sound of that. You drop me 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:54.640 a note about self checkout laws like in cal Unicornia. 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.920 They claim it's because they want to limit shoplifting, which 0:15:57.960 --> 0:15:59.080 is truly hilarious. 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:01.920 Yeah, because of what I do. I have a lot 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.400 of grocer clients because they have narrow profit margins and 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:06.480 they want to be aggressive about reigning and healthcare costs. 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.640 So I've gotten this glimpse into the grocery industry, and 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:11.880 what I've seen, particularly in the Blue States, is some 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:13.680 of my clients will sit in front of the state 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.360 legislature and tell them, look, we have theft present prevention 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.080 under control. We're not having a problem at our self 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:22.600 checkout lines. We'll police it ourselves, thank you very much, 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:24.920 as the legislature pats them on the head and says, 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.960 you're a good little grocer. Let us limit your self 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:30.000 checkout lines for your own good because we want to 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:33.120 prevent theft. So, first of all, think of how insane 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.080 that is. Because we don't enforce criminal law, we don't 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.560 enforce shoplifting, we have to tell you you can't have 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.840 self checkout, right, That's the first thing. But the real 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.360 thing is that's not why they're doing it. Why they're 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.200 doing it is self checkout lines are a visual reminder 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:52.240 that the policies and Blue states limit the hiring of individuals, 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:56.000 and the number one supporter in the Blue lobby is unions. 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.000 And so unions hate self checkout and that's why you 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.000 really see all this going on in the Blue States 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:04.120 of the limitations on self checkout lines, which is amazing. 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:08.159 California every year tries to limit and ban self checkout laws, 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:10.960 self checkout lines every way they can. They say, you 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.159 have to have so many people overseeing it, you can 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:15.479 only you can only have certain products in there, you 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:17.280 have to have a fifteen item limit, etc. 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:20.000 So you got both sides of the coin going on. 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.719 Number one, you see the working moms and the teenagers 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.200 in the semi retired people losing their jobs in favor 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.679 of a machine. And then b they're desperate for all 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.400 these people to be unionized because as a Democrat, you 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:36.439 get a cut of that the union dues, and they 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:39.400 want everybody to be unionized. The union dues are mostly 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:44.560 spent on lobbying Democrats, writing big checks to Democrats, so 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:47.960 of course they want these laws passed, so they have 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:50.400 to have more employees than they unionize, and then they 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.040 get a cut of it. It's absolute graft. All right, 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:58.320 we're out of time, Craig, Okay, awesome, Well you end 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:00.240 up with what go ahead, end. 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.160 Up with this beautiful this beautiful situation where you literally 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.200 have a grocer sitting in front of a state legislature, 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.480 and the legislature saying, we know what's better for you, 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.119 little grocer. We'll protect your lock prevention numbers. You know. 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.920 Craig got walls, Craig the healthcare guru. Grab them online 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:19.280 if you need to. Greg. It's always fun to talk. 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:21.280 Best of the family, and we'll stay in. 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:23.080 Touch, right Thank you, sir. 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:27.479 Great perspective on AI and the problems it is solving 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.480 these days and what it ought to be solving. Really 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:36.240 unique thought coming up next day with US Armstrong and Getty, 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:43.800 THEE Armstrong and Getty Show. I mentioned a little while 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:45.520 ago we were going to talk to Josh Rogan of 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.200 the Washington Post and he writes a substack about how 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:53.679 Washington is trying to deal with the rapid proliferation of 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:59.160 open source Chinese AI models and advanced AI systems in general. 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:04.760 But there are a lot of folks embracing Chinese open 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:10.399 source models right now and if that continues, and I 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.840 came to understand that if you're running I don't know, 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.800 a university lab or a research company or just somebody 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:25.920 who's really into AI and you start building on, for instance, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.360 an open source Chinese AI model because it's available to you, 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.760 you can afford it, and that sort of thing, and 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:33.480 you build on top of that. Then you build on 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:36.480 top of that. You've got these really big, complicated, sophisticated 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:39.879 systems all built on that Chinese open source AI model. 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.919 You're in that community. It's like getting used to Apple 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.760 versus you know, a Google phone, a Samsung phone, something 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:50.880 like that, and so it kind of matters who's doing 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:55.160 what in these early days. But folks, including in DC, 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:58.399 are worried that Beijing could have undue influence over the 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.600 Technical Standard Safety Rule, even some of the political assumptions 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.960 baked into software used by governments, militaries, hospitals, and banks 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.679 for decades to come. Nobody's quite sure what to do 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:14.720 about all this, which is scary, and you should be scared. 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:19.040 I'm scared. Let's all be scared. There was another AI story. 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:20.760 Do we have time for it? I tell you what, 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:22.320 Maybe we squeeze it in, But I wanted to get 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:26.439 to this. Roland Fryar, I've quoted semi regularly. He is 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:33.360 an economist at HAVAD. He is a young black man 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:38.920 and an original thinker, and I really like him even 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:41.880 when I disagree with him. He's one of those guys 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:45.720 who he grew up of quite modest means a young 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:48.080 black man in America. He's just got an unbelievable brain. 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:54.000 And because he is smart and he worked hard and 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:58.640 he's brave, he has realized his dreams in America, as 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:03.560 so many people do. And he's one of those guys 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:07.959 who when he's told oh, that's not the conventional thinking, 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:10.359 that's not how we talk around here, he says, I 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.800 don't care. He's a real independent thinker, which I love 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.520 about him. He came to fame with a study about 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:19.720 how he said, yeah, I've actually crunched the numbers, and 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.480 cops aren't hunting down black men in America. They're not 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:27.600 killed at disproportionate numbers. That's not true. And oh my god, 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:30.280 Academia just hated that. They didn't know what to say 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:32.480 because here he is a black man. We can't yell 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:34.720 at him that he's a racist. We don't know what 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:37.320 to do anyway. So Roland Fryar, that's who Roland is. 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:40.120 And he writes about all sorts of interesting things and 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:44.600 looks at them from the point of view of an economist, 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.359 and he writes, I've spent much of the summer talking 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:52.560 with technology executives about aim. Hmm. The word the only 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.840 word I hear more often than AI is abundance, not 0:21:55.960 --> 0:22:00.359 far behind his socialism, usually accompanied by bewilderment, why wonder 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:02.600 are so many Americans, especially young ones, attracted to an 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:07.800 economic system that has failed so spectacularly elsewhere. Anyway, so 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:10.160