WEBVTT - Is The Banking Collapse Being Used to Push CBDCs? | Bruce Fenton 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.279 Is the banking collapse being used to usher in central 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:07.120 bank digital currencies. Well, that's a big problem, that's a 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:09.280 big threat. A lot of people are speculating that central 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:12.560 bank digital currencies will be used in this banking crisis 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:16.040 that's leading to this consolidation and the inevitable push. I'm 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:18.840 gonna be sitting down today with Bruce Fenton. We're gonna 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.040 discuss this. We're gonna talk about freedom from a broad perspective. 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:24.959 We're gonna talk about freedom states in the state of 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:27.639 New Hampshire. We're gonna then move into kind of the 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:30.400 politics side. What he learned running for US Senate, Get 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:32.960 inside the belly of the beast, go through the banking system, 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.120 the eventual push to central bank digital currencies, of course, 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.160 the big risk that that poses, and as well, how 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:40.559 we can push back and how we can fight this. 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:42.840 It was a great conversation with Bruce, one that I enjoyed. 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:44.320 You're gonna enjoy it too. So let's go ahead. Just 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.280 jump right in, all right, Bruce, thanks so much for 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.760 joining me. A little bit of technical difficulties on your 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.239 end last week, am I in. But here we are, man, 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:53.720 You've been around a long time. You've done a lot 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:55.400 of different things. There's a lot of things I want 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.600 to dig into here, but let's start a little bit 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.960 just kind of setting the stage with with with your background. Um. 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:03.400 You know, I know you've done a lot of things 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.479 in the technology space, you know, bitcoin space, financial space, 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.880 but also dipping your toe into politics. I think you 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.600 were running for a Senate seat, is that right? Yeah? Yeah, 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.320 over the summer I ran for I ran for US 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:20.479 Senate representing New Hampshire. So, um, just about a year ago. 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.200 I was in that process and I you know, I 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.800 announced about a year ago and I was you know, 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.720 I ran through November. Um, and I didn't win the primary, 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:32.280 but it was a great experience. I was kind of 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:33.800 a long shot. I jumped in late and I had 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.240 never had much experience with politics, and so it was 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:38.560 sort of a long shot, but it was a great 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:40.319 way to get my ideas out there. I got to 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:42.640 be in the national debates with the other candidates, and 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.160 you know, really kind of got a PhD in politics 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.200 over the over the summer. So so I'm glad I did. 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:50.920 What are some of the takeaways of your PhD in politics? 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.320 What'd you find out your ideas don't really matter, um 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:57.320 you know you and really even who you are, if 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.920 you're a good speaker, bad speaker, charismatic, not arithmatic. That 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.840 stuff is all, you know, a far, far, far distant 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.040 second to how much money you raise. You know, the 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:11.799 politics is a multideck, a billion dollar business with a 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.360 lot of very motivated people to you know, perpetuate this 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.080 status quo. There's a lot of people making high six 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.320 figures even seven figure salaries, consultants and media experts and 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:26.080 all of these other people that are in this political system. 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:28.440 And it's very, very very competitive, with high stakes and 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.680 a lot of money. So it's become a commodity. It's 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:32.840 like if you want to if you want to have 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:35.360 a new soda, you know, you want to compete against 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.359 Coca Cola or something, the smart vcs will tell you 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.160 that's almost impossible. You know, you just have to spend 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:43.600 a fortune on marketing. Nobody really cares if your soda 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:45.880 tastes a little bit better than the other person's soda. 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:47.640 And that's sort of the way it is with politics. 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.800 Nobody really cares that much about your ideas. It comes 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:55.160 down voters are just you know, basically driven by how 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.000 much you spend and they have it almost down to 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.720 the penny. You know, it costs you know, fifteen dollars 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.280 twenty two cents a vote in this district or that district. Um, 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:05.800 So that's that's kind of unfortunate, you know, I know 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.640 that's a reality of it. I wish it was different, 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:11.680 you know, I wish people would care more about the issues. 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:13.800 But you know, that's one reality of it. But you 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.960 know politics is as very much dominated by money. Is 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:18.720 that because of the repetition where they just need to 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:20.440 see your name over and over and over. So when 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:21.600 they go to vote, they don't really know who they're 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:23.240 voting for, but they recognize the name. So there's happened 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.679 to vote for the name they recognize. Yeah, yeah, it's 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:27.560 there's a lot to it. For one thing, not that 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.360 many people vote. Um, the average voter here in New 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.160 Hampshire is seventy years old. Um. You know, it's only 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.240 a small especially in primaries. You know, it's a it's 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.600 a fraction of a fraction. You know, most people just 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.240 don't vote, don't bother. Um. So the ones that do, 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:45.480 it's a very predictable set of metrics, Like you know, 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:47.840 they know exactly how many times you have to have 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:52.040 name recognition, you know, have your um, you know, kind 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.840 of touched these voters with with mail or television or whatever. 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:58.320 And it really is the name of the game, you know, 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.800 your ideas, you know, don't don't or nearly as much 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.640 as just you know, repeating and getting that that kind 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.360 of name recognition out there, unless unless somebody like Elon 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.040 ran for office, or in Trump's case, when Trump ran, 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:10.800 you know, he was already very famous. Well, they've already 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.520 got the name recognition, they've already got the brand. Uh, 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:16.480 why why would you want to subject yourself to that? 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:18.279 I mean, you said you jumped in last minute, so 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:20.760 it wasn't something that was like pre pre planned and meditated. 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:22.440 So what made you judcide? Do you want to jump 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:24.560 into that? Yeah? You know, I mean part part of 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.360 the reason I lost, frankly, is because I probably, um, 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:31.880 I don't want to say I didn't try. I tried. 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:33.920 I tried, but I did it my own way. I 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:35.960 didn't play a lot of the political games, and partly 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.600 because I didn't really want the job, you know, Frankly, 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:40.840 like I don't really want to go down there. I mean, 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:42.960 it wasn't an exciting thing to go down there. It 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.280 was sort of like a duty, you know, like like 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.840 serving in the military or something. I viewed it as 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.240 almost like a deployment, you know. If I would have won, 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.640 I would have dreaded it, you know. And and my 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.279 my youngest son, the night that I lost the primary, 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:58.280 he said, to be honest, Dad, I'm kind of glad 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:00.920 you you didn't win. And then, you know, I totally 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:03.560 agree with that. I mean, i'd be I'd be miserable 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:07.200 in DC. And I've thought about that many times since January, 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.400 which is where I would have been sworn in, you know. 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.120 I mean, it would be an absolute miserable, miserable. But 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.000 our country needs it. Our country's in trouble. There's a 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:17.800 lot of serious stuff going on. And if I could 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.279 help in some small way, which is really all a 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:22.440 senator can do. Senators can't help in a big way, 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.000 they could help in a small way, then I think 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:26.719 that would be worth it, if I could help our country. 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:28.719 So I would have done it, and I would have served, 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.240 but I wasn't psyched about it for sure. So what 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.000 are some of those big things that are happening that 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:37.679 that caught you so concerned, do you want to jump in? Well, 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.520 you know, big picture, we're in a fourth turning, you know, 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.839 where this time of epic change, you know, the kind 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:45.839 of times that you only see every century or so, 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.800 where you know, money systems change, borders change, and you 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.320 know clearly you know this is this is a you know, 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.200 there's a book called The Fourth Turning which came out 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:56.440 in the nineties which talks about this, but they're not 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.680 the only ones. Historians and other others have talked about. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.599 You know, how the world is cyclical and things change, 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.440 and empires rise and die, and power structures rise and fall. 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:08.360 And that's what we're going through right now, a very 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.080 epic time in human history, and we're either going to 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.040 go down a path of more tyranny or a path 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:17.080 of more freedom. You know, I like the path of decentralization, liberty, 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.080 human freedom, those kind of ideals. But there is a 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:25.400 very very significant movement in our government and globally down 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:29.159 the opposite path, a path of tyranny and controls CBDCs, 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.080 you know, central bank digital currencies, money that the government 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:36.000 can control, controlling aspects of health, controlling you know, telling 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.440 you to wear a mask or locking down businesses. These 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.080 kind of things wouldn't have been possible with governments in 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.719 and throughout most of American history, wouldn't have been possible. 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.520 So we've had a radical departure from our history and 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.200 the way that, in my opinion, things are supposed to 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:57.280 work down this experiment of socialism and wokeism and kind 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:00.480 of uh, you know, identity politics and things like that, 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.960 which I think are very destructive and antithetical to our 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:08.279 values as as a nation and our constitution. So it's 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:10.680 serious times, you know, and it's getting more serious now. 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:12.520 You know. There's a good chance of some sort of 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.320 global war or major global conflict. There's a good chance 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.440 of major economic meltdown. You know. These kind of things 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:20.960 are things I talked about last summer, and you know, 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:23.320 I'll have to pull up some of the those speeches 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.720 because a lot of it has come, you know, unfortunately 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:29.040 come true, some of my concerns about inflation and economics 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.640 and other things. Yeah, you know, as you said, I mean, 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:34.440 there's there's all a lot of work that's been done 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:35.880 in cycles. I've done a lot of work in the 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.520 cycles as well, the eighty year cycle. There's a book 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.560 written called the pendulum and talks about how the pendulum 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.400 swings back and forth on an eighty year cycle three 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:45.480 times eighty four eecles is two hundred fifty year cycle, 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.280 which is then this like big political revolution cycle. So 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.760 two unfreto years ago the American French Revolution two and 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:53.200 freto years before that was a Protestant Reformation. And it's 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.840 sort of like we just uh, sort of I mean cycles, right, 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:58.320 So it's like you go too far one way and 0:07:58.360 --> 0:07:59.840 then you swing back the other way like a pen. 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.120 And so it swings between like centralization where we give 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:04.920 more and more and more and more to the governments 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:06.920 in the state, and then we've given so much, we 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:08.560 see how bad it is, and then we swing all 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:10.200 the way back to the other side, right, and we 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:12.200 probably go too far that way. And so I think 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.400 I've kind of talked about it. Like in markets, you 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.200 have like this blowoff top, right, where like markets keep 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.239 going up up up, like real estate boom. It's sucking 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:22.360 more and more people in and eventually because there's no 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:24.960 more buyers or you know bitcoin in twenty seventeen or 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:26.800 crypto in twenty seventeen, you know, it sucked all the 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:28.640 people in and then no more buyers and then it 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.120 blows off and so sort of like that, like we've 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:33.360 we've given more and more to the government, and just 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:37.360 take care of my retirement, take care of my education, 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.080 take care of my health care, and like eventually there's 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:42.240 nothing else to give them, Like they've gotten as big 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.280 and centralized as they can. We've seen how bad it is. 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.720 I'm hopeful that that we're at that blowoff top moment 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:49.920 and the pendulum is starting to swing back. It seems 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.080 like we're seeing signs of it all over right. I 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:54.960 mean that the global homogene is breaking apart. I mean, 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.120 look at what's going on in France just today, all 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.719 those big riots and things that are happening. So it's 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.640 like that's what's happening. But it's it's certainly a volatile time. Yeah, 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:05.640 I mean, I hope we're I hope we're swinging the 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:07.720 other way. You know, we've had a lot of tyranny, 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:10.560 uh you know, kind of things that were unrecognizable and 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.560 this is sort of a twenty year um you know 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:15.480 thing I think I think we go back twenty years 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.760 is where this has been headed. You know, more and 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.640 more government control, you know, after nine to eleven that 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.840 created the Department of Homeland Security didn't even exist before. 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.600 Now it's like three hundred. It's the domestic standing army 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:29.719 that our founders warned about, you know, three hundred and 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.760 fifty thousand people, you know, and they're they're doing like uh, 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.719 honor guards at the parades and the football games. And 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.000 think that they paid the NFL five million dollars to 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:41.439 have these TSA honor guards come out. You know, it's 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.760 just sort of bizarre. You know, the the this sort 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:48.240 of ever expanding state, and um we saw that manifested 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:51.640 most clearly in the last few years with with these 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.680 um you know, insane uh COVID policies. You know, the 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.400 idea that the government can tell you to lock down 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.400 in your home or stay home, or you have to 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:02.640 close your small business and somebody else can keep their 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.480 large business open. You know, these things are just you know, 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:09.040 totally unworkable. You know, they're exports, especially in the COVID 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:11.720 policy case. You know, they're direct exports from China. You know, 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:18.080 China influenced the who and the who influenced the United States. 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.319 But they're terrible ideas, you know, And we have the 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.400 same thing with censorship. You know, you have the government 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.480 involving themselves with things that you would have never seen. Um. 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.280 You know when I was growing up or even even 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:32.520 twenty years ago. You know, you wouldn't the idea that 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.080 the government would go and tell a private organization what 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.719 to say or not say, or censor or kick these 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.199 people off your platform. You know, these are very new 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.839 and dangerous ideas that are you know, totally against the constitution, 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.600 against everything that we stand for as a nation. So 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.960 hopefully people will finally get fed up and you know, 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:52.480 maybe the ship sort of rights itself. You know, I 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.640 think freedom is a good thing. You know, central planning 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.959 and central control doesn't work. Communism is a bad idea. 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.760 China will fail in my opinion, because it's bad economics. 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.160 It's a stupid idea. And uh, you know you can 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:08.880 you can live on fumes for quite a while if 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.160 you steal enough money from enough people and you enslave 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.880 enough people. I mean, look at the pharaohs of of 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.800 of old Um, you know, and people who ran slaves 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:18.920 and everything else. You know, you can you can prop 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.360 it up quite a bit on an artificial economy based 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:24.920 on theft and violence and cohersion. But at the end 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:26.720 of the day, I believe that the you know, free 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:28.920 markets and freedom is what made America great, and I 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:32.720 think that that's what we'll we'll come back again hopefully. Yeah. 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:34.560 Well that goes back to kind of the as you 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:36.520 were referencing the fourth turning, right, And so it's like 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.240 that generational theory where the hard times create the strong 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.360 men and then the good The strong men create great times, 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.440 great times, great weak men weak man create great bad times. 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.040 And so it's like those weak men creating bad times 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.200 are living off the fumes, as you said, right, So 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.600 the strong men create those good times and it carries 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:54.200 them on for a while. I mean, we can see 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:56.200 examples of that all over. I mean I like to 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.760 think about like Weimar Republic of Germany. Right, they went bankrupt. 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:03.400 They this massive, massive hyperinflation, they had to pay back 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:07.480 all these war reparations. I mean, the country was completely demolished, 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:12.480 really really really hard times, and Germany became the economic engine, 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.440 the powerhouse of Europe. Right, those extremely hard times made 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:20.800 them the strongest, most profitable country. But now look where 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.400 they are now. They've lost all reality, They've shut off 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:27.079 all their energy. Now they're deindustrializing now they've created really really, 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.920 really bad times for themselves. Yeah, we're totally seeing that, 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:31.720 and we see it with generations too, I mean, right 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.800 before our eyes. You know, there's a big difference between uh, 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.800 you know, kind of the Bob Hope generation, the Baby Boomers, 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:42.679 my generation Generation X, and then the millennials are very 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:44.880 distinct and then Gen Z. And my hope is that 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.360 you know, unfortunately, I think the millennials have it the worst, 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:49.280 and a lot of people kind of agree that's, you know, 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:54.400 one of the generations with a lot of challenges and frankly, 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.720 you know, that's a high percentage of the authoritarians and 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:01.240 status and people with these you know, bad ideas about 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.559 you know, identity politics and economics and socialism and everything. 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:08.280 A lot of them are millennials. But it's interesting, you know, 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:10.560 my kids are gen Z, you know, the real young kids. 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.800 A lot of them are very, very skeptical of politicians. 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.360 They're skeptical a lot of this identity politics and other 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.640 nonsense that's being crammed down their throats. And unfortunately, I 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:22.480 do fear that we're going to have hard times, and 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:23.959 I think that a lot of them are going to 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.560 grow up in a very different, uh, you know, type 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:28.880 of job market. You know, when I was a teenager 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.400 and in my early twenties, jar market was radically different, 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:36.719 radically different. You had adults doing unpaid internships, you had 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.600 commission only sales jobs were very very common. You know, 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.040 people would you know, sixty people would fight for one position, 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.360 and that, you know, the dot com bubble and other things, 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.439 you know, sort of changed that and made it much 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.040 more of an employee's market. But you have a lot 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.720 of employees that just don't produce. So I think you 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:56.920 could have, you know, again, the pendulum swing back the 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.280 other way, and unfortunately for gen Z, I think they're 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.760 going to get hit it hard by it. I think 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:03.679 that more of gen Z is not going to have 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:05.800 the kind of uh you know, the idea that you 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:07.920 just graduate from school and you know, the world is 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.440 handed to you. I think it'll be much more like 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.080 workers in the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, where I mean 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:15.920 you might have to work for free for two years, 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:18.280 you might have to do an internship or an unpaid 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:20.480 internship or an apprenticeship, or you may have to work 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:24.640 commission only. My first job was commissioned only. They paid me, um, 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:29.480 basically minimum wage. Uh for some of the hours I worked. 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:32.200 And you know, and this is at Morgan Stanley. You know, 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.840 Morgan Stanley had jobs that were you know, if you 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.960 worked at Morgan Stanley in the before my time, especially 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.680 in the eighties, most of the people didn't get paid 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:42.760 believe it or not. You know, one of the biggest banks, 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.200 you know it was, it was a big bank back then. Um, 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:47.400 you know, you'd you'd go in and it's like you 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:49.080 eat what you kill. If you if you make money 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:51.880 and you earn revenue, you can you can get a 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:57.040 bonus and commissions. Otherwise uh, you know you're out. Um. So, 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:58.920 so I think you'll probably have that and that you know, 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:00.920 I have high hop help for gen Z. You know, 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:03.760 they're really smart and creative and they're able to learn, 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.320 and they're embracing technology and everything. So you know, my 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.000 hope is that they are the new strong generation. Yeah. Well, 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:11.760 it's not a bad model. I mean, you can go 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:13.840 work for free and learn a valuable skill that you 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:15.560 can go then use to make money the rest of 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.680 your life. Or you can pay to go to an 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:22.960 overpriced college and learn nothing and come out come out 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.800 with no skills that are worth anything in the marketplace 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.120 and an entitled attitude. So maybe that wasn't such a 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.880 bad bad model back in the day. Maybe we kind 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.800 of need to go back to something like that. I'm 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:36.720 curious coming from New Hampshire where you're part of the 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:40.640 Free State Project that was there. Yeah. Yeah, and I'm 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.360 an active member. My wife's on the board. I signed 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:46.480 this Free State Pledge, we both did, I don't know, 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.960 a decade and a half ago or something, and there's 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:52.120 a non binding pledge that said you're gonna try and 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:54.160 get twenty thousand people to move to New Hampshire and 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.600 pursue the maximum role of government being the protection of life, liberty, 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.640 and property. So it's not necessarily libertarian, it could be. 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.800 You know. Originally we're saying kind of nonpartisan Republicans and Democrats. 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:07.920 You know, Unfortunately, I think the Democrats have gone so 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:09.960 far the other way. I don't think there's probably a 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.680 lot of Democrats they are members. Although originally it was 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.640 just kind of nonpartisan, like, hey, let's all pursue less government. 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.720 Because at the time when the Free State Project was created, uh, 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.040 you know, Democrats had an interest in reducing war, reducing 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.480 domestic spying, surveillance, uh, the NSA. You know, these kind 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:30.040 of issues that were we were talking about twenty years ago. Um, 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:33.360 were things that Democrats had a lot in common with libertarians. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.760 But as politics changed, you know, it turned out they 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.240 they didn't really care as much about those issues as 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.600 they did about the alphabet letter next to their name. UM. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:43.280 So it's so it tends to be you know more 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.040 you know, certainly liberty liberty, libertarian oriented, but it's not 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:50.720 you know, a nonpartisan group, um and very diverse because 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:52.960 there is uh, you know, so many people and a 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.040 lot of them are kind of not joiners or not 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.280 followers by nature. You know, a lot of even me, 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.320 you know, although I identify, you know, I don't necessally 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:03.040 like being put in a box or associated with other 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.000 people who may have different ideas than made. But there 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.359 is a good strong liberty community, a good number of people, 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.119 good annual events. There's a few annual events. Porkfest is 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.040 the big one coming up in the summer where people 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.159 just you know get together and share these ideas and 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.680 it's it's attracted a lot of people. And I think 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:21.800 we had the record number of movers over the last 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:23.760 three years because there was a lot of people who 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:25.639 were on the fence who signed the pledge or whatever. 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.000 But if they were in a place like California or 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:33.119 New York where they had especially high tieranny, a lot 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.040 of the you know, thousands of those people ended up 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:37.280 moving to New Hampshire. So New Hampshire, you know, New 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.199 York and California both lost, and I think Texas and 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.480 Florida new Hampshire gained. New Hampshire was a smaller gainer 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:45.840 as a smaller state, but you know, we definitely gained 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:47.800 from you know, people who just want to get out 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.800 of oppressive regimes. You know, I left Massachusetts. You know, 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.399 I immediately got a fifteen percent raise by moving sixty 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.000 miles north because I don't have state tax. Now I 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:58.840 used to have income tax, and I don't. It was 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:00.720 really weird. The first year We're like, well, how do 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:02.840 we file, and they're like, you don't file. You just 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.120 pay your federal and that's it. There is no state tax. 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.280 And that was very strange for us having lived in 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:09.359 Massachusetts all our life, where we got to pay a 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.320 small fortune to Massachusetts. And then what you notice is 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.399 what what do you get for it. In Massachusetts, I 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:19.119 had a bunch of busybody bureaucrats up in my business 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.320 twenty four to seven. You come up here and it's 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:25.359 just you know, less people, less government involvement, less heavy 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:29.320 handed bureaucracy, less you know, police state kind of things. 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.320 It's just more of a of a free place. So, uh, 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.240 you know, a lot of people are seeing that movement. 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:38.000 But what about the roads, so Bruce, what about the roads? Exactly? 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:40.240