Speaker 1: From UFOs two, ghosts and government cover ups. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Hello,
Speaker 1: welcome back. My name is Matt and I am Ben,
Speaker 1: and this is stuff they don't want you to know.
Speaker 1: And today, Ben, we're tackling a topic that's gonna hit
Speaker 1: home with you right away. And I can tell I know,
Speaker 1: how can you tell me personally? Or everybody out there
Speaker 1: listening with us, everybody listening, this is something we can
Speaker 1: all identify with, well, not all of us, but we've
Speaker 1: probably heard about it. Perhaps are robotic listeners who loved,
Speaker 1: uh love that episode, by the way, perhaps they can't
Speaker 1: identify with it now. Matt, I have to say that
Speaker 1: a lot of people before we get started, a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't know that you have some amazing voices
Speaker 1: under your belt. Yes, in your throat. You get the
Speaker 1: gist of what I'm saying. Yes, they exist mostly inside
Speaker 1: my throat. Some of them are in my head. Um Ever,
Speaker 1: every once in a while they coincide. So we did, uh,
Speaker 1: we did the opening for this episode a couple of
Speaker 1: times today because Matt, you were doing brilliant public radio
Speaker 1: voice that sounds really good, and I was I was
Speaker 1: just messing up in ira glass impression. So that's exactly
Speaker 1: what it was. I was trying to picture what it was.
Speaker 1: N Well, if it's a good impression, then you just know. Well, look,
Speaker 1: I haven't been listening to as much this American life
Speaker 1: as I probably should be. Well, we're big fans, but
Speaker 1: we also want to tell you this, listeners, just so
Speaker 1: that you know that maybe you can write to Matt
Speaker 1: asking him to do some voices and uh maybe maybe
Speaker 1: he will because I can't persuade you did do them. No,
Speaker 1: you would be hard pressed to persuade me to do this.
Speaker 1: The voices are usually things I do I don't know,
Speaker 1: in the in the shower, in theater class in ninth grade,
Speaker 1: in our office after six Yeah, that that's when they
Speaker 1: really come. That's when they kick in. Yeah. I feel
Speaker 1: like I can hear the voices in your head then too.
Speaker 1: Uh So. One thing that I always think about when
Speaker 1: I hear the phrase middle class, right, is I think
Speaker 1: about the what we call in the United States, the
Speaker 1: American dream. Yeah, man, I think about suburbia, two point
Speaker 1: five kids, maybe a dog, sometimes cats. In my case,
Speaker 1: it was cats. Okay, yeah, probably own a car, take
Speaker 1: a vacation once in a while, at least making payments
Speaker 1: on a car. Right, Yeah, What the heck is the
Speaker 1: middle class? So many people in the West talked about it,
Speaker 1: and there's always this big concern. You know, every every
Speaker 1: few years, Uh, some pundit will come out on your
Speaker 1: local radio or television say, the middle class is disappearing.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? What does that mean? Well, let's
Speaker 1: define our terms first of all, as we like to
Speaker 1: do here. Well, the middle class is a financial label
Speaker 1: above most other things, but it's also it kind of
Speaker 1: talks about a lifestyle or refers to a lifestyle about
Speaker 1: what a family of a family unit can afford. We're
Speaker 1: again we're talking about home cars and you know, to
Speaker 1: some extent, education and also even the ability to take vacations. Uh,
Speaker 1: there are like budgeting and saving. It encompasses a lot
Speaker 1: of different things, a little bit like investings. So what then,
Speaker 1: it's not just physical goods the ability to buy physical
Speaker 1: goods like what's that eighties song? Uh? Material World? Yeah,
Speaker 1: do you want me to go into it? How did
Speaker 1: it go? I don't know that I can legally in
Speaker 1: this format, But it's Madonna and I'm yes, I'm checking. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm throwing aside. I hear with our super producer Noel
Speaker 1: Brown on the ones and twos because you guys, Matt
Speaker 1: and Noel no uh darn near everything about music. They
Speaker 1: know a lot of stuff, which is dabble. We dabb
Speaker 1: you guys dabble for sure, which is why every so
Speaker 1: often you'll hear some uh some amazing sounds on our
Speaker 1: audio podcast, our video podcast. But I digressed so hard. Yes,
Speaker 1: So it's not just that this households could buy material goods.
Speaker 1: It's that there is this lifestyle. Um. Maybe they don't
Speaker 1: have two homes and travel to Florida every winter or something,
Speaker 1: but they do probably have a summer vacation when the
Speaker 1: kids out of school, yes exactly, and things like that.
Speaker 1: So the further we drill down into this definition of
Speaker 1: what a middle class is, uh, the more that we
Speaker 1: find there is not necess fairly one size fits all
Speaker 1: rule because what means middle class depends on the country
Speaker 1: in which you live, absolutely, and as we live in
Speaker 1: the US, we're going to be focusing primarily on that. Um.
Speaker 1: So so let's look at the money factor first of all.
Speaker 1: So the average income in the United States was fifty
Speaker 1: one thousand and seventeen dollars in two thousand and twelve.
Speaker 1: So that's just the the um then is that mean?
Speaker 1: I guess it must be the average the middle number.
Speaker 1: So counting all the people who made negligible and counting
Speaker 1: all the people who made a lot, we end up
Speaker 1: with a alarmingly deceptive number because you can't take an
Speaker 1: average of that many people and that many uh in
Speaker 1: that many environments, in different socioeconomic circumstances and expect it
Speaker 1: to be very helpful. So, and there are two things
Speaker 1: about that numbers that. First of all, it's pretty high. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's not the highest. It's not like cutter or something,
Speaker 1: right exactly, but it is globally pretty high. So let's
Speaker 1: look at another place spend. Let's say the Democratic Republic
Speaker 1: of Congo. The average income there is two hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty six dollars. Wow. We should note, of course as well,
Speaker 1: that that is one of the poorest countries in the
Speaker 1: world by this metric. But it's weird, right, because they
Speaker 1: also have a wealth of resources and suffer from what
Speaker 1: is often called an international politics the resource curse. The
Speaker 1: resource curse which is no, that's okay. That is just
Speaker 1: another show and we will have to cover that again.
Speaker 1: I think we mentioned that before. And another talking about
Speaker 1: international banking we mentioned in resource extraction. You can check
Speaker 1: out some of our We had an outdated video now,
Speaker 1: but it still holds up pretty well called is China
Speaker 1: Colonizing Africa? Which I would recommend to anybody who's interested
Speaker 1: in stories of resource extraction or establishing slash fighting hedgemoney.
Speaker 1: And if you don't want to look at our videos,
Speaker 1: then just look up the current president of Bolivia so
Speaker 1: you know how he's working with us. Uh. And remember
Speaker 1: that we said Bolivia because that that will be interesting later.
Speaker 1: So there's a standard. If we were to take a
Speaker 1: standard definition from like a financial website, we would say, uh,
Speaker 1: we will find a couple of different numbers. One that's
Speaker 1: commonly found is that twenty five thousand to a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars of income a year is what most people
Speaker 1: would consider a middle class income. Uh. This accounts for
Speaker 1: a wide cost of living differential. So you know, it
Speaker 1: costs more to live in New York City than it
Speaker 1: does in um Fargo or Baring Forks. And so any
Speaker 1: one who lives in San Francisco or New York will
Speaker 1: tell you that twenty five thousand dollars a year is dirt, poor, dirty, poor,
Speaker 1: um nothing. And that's because, uh, in that city, you
Speaker 1: can't you can't make a long con you can't grow old,
Speaker 1: support of family and retire and have a place to
Speaker 1: sleep at night, right, right, dollars a year, I mean
Speaker 1: you couldn't it. We'd be you'd be really hard pressed
Speaker 1: to find a place to live. Yeah. Now there are
Speaker 1: subsidies for fure and for residents, right, but this and
Speaker 1: you know, of course we're not in any way detigrating
Speaker 1: anybody who makes twenty five dollars and lives in a
Speaker 1: very expensive city. Absolutely not. It's just the reality of living,
Speaker 1: you know, cost of living in sety it's very different.
Speaker 1: Like Atlanta, where we are based, has one of the
Speaker 1: lowest costs of living for a city its size, and
Speaker 1: only ever becomes apparent to me when I'm in another city. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, So what we found is that this means
Speaker 1: essentially there's no universally recognized definition of middle class, but
Speaker 1: there is something different about the socioeconomic makeup of Western
Speaker 1: countries over the last few decades. In many countries. The
Speaker 1: Western middle class, however vaguely defined, isn't prospering at least
Speaker 1: in the way that it once was back when we
Speaker 1: had an economic boom with construction and industrialization in the US,
Speaker 1: when we were making cars. Let's says, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: There is a c change that is troubling to people,
Speaker 1: and there's this it. We can't make any bones about it.
Speaker 1: This is not a conspiracy theory, no matter how often
Speaker 1: it may be presented. Is one. Uh, this is not
Speaker 1: a It is true and hard numbers that inequality in
Speaker 1: the United States is rising in some areas more than
Speaker 1: other areas. So what does this mean for me? Would
Speaker 1: be most people's question, right exactly, from the Koke Brothers
Speaker 1: to uh, somebody making twenty one dollars and living just
Speaker 1: outside of New York, the question would always be what
Speaker 1: does this mean for me? Very different answers and exactly
Speaker 1: so it First of all, it means a lot of
Speaker 1: different things depending on where you are. Like we said
Speaker 1: at the top, in developing, in emerging markets, we're actually
Speaker 1: seeing a rise or in emerging middle class. So it's
Speaker 1: not so much that the global middle class is dying
Speaker 1: as it is that the middle class. What it means
Speaker 1: b middle class is moving. Yeah, isn't that a weird idea.
Speaker 1: It's just that that type of emerging wealth has just transferred,
Speaker 1: it's just took a trip across the world other other
Speaker 1: different places. That sort of lifestyle is become an increasing
Speaker 1: popular in countries where it wasn't once upon a time. Exactly. So,
Speaker 1: then we also see that rising inequality has dangerous effects
Speaker 1: on the existing UH middle class of these of these
Speaker 1: different countries. In October of two thousand fourteen, Interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: the United Kingdom's wealthiest ten percent controlled fifty four point
Speaker 1: one percent of the country's total wealth UM. If we
Speaker 1: if we look at the math of that, you know,
Speaker 1: it can be a deceptive thing. A lot of these
Speaker 1: statistics can sound scary, and some of them were constructed
Speaker 1: not by us, but constructed or framed to sound frightening.
Speaker 1: We know that inequality is on the rise in the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom, it's on the rise in UH the United States.
Speaker 1: Maybe not for the same reasons, but there have been
Speaker 1: some pretty smart people making some pretty good studies about
Speaker 1: this right. The authors of the new study, Emmanuel Says
Speaker 1: and Gabriel Zokman, highlight that the wealth inequality was high
Speaker 1: in the beginning of the twentieth century, decreased steadily from
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine to nineteen seventy eight, but was continuously
Speaker 1: increased ever since then. Moreover, the increase in wealth inequality
Speaker 1: is almost completely due to the increase in the top
Speaker 1: point one percent wealth share from seven percent in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy nine to two percent in two thousand twelve, nearly
Speaker 1: as high as in nineteen twenty nine. The study also
Speaker 1: showed that the wealth share of the bottom wealth edged
Speaker 1: up until the mid nineteen eighties and has been declining
Speaker 1: steadily ever since. And today, Uh, huge majority of Americans
Speaker 1: acknowledge the growing gap between the rich and the poor,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people say, hey, I think that
Speaker 1: is going to be a problem if it isn't already.
Speaker 1: But there's little, uh, there's little agreement on the causes
Speaker 1: of this rise in inequality or how to address sit.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, sure, Ben, So that question
Speaker 1: is hugely complex, and you'll hear people like Russell Brand
Speaker 1: talking about it on talk shows, even wrote a book
Speaker 1: about it recently, UM and lots of other people just
Speaker 1: trying to figure out a way to help stop this
Speaker 1: inequality from increasing. And then there are people who say
Speaker 1: that it's part of the system, so it should exist
Speaker 1: in some way in a capitalist society sort of inherently
Speaker 1: demands inequality. And then on the far side you have
Speaker 1: people on the far far other side, you might have
Speaker 1: people who say, uh, something like iron Rand was right
Speaker 1: with her opinion and I do mean opinion about objectivism.
Speaker 1: And then you have people on the other end of
Speaker 1: the spectrum who will say, you know, why do we
Speaker 1: need to have any sort of system. Let's just let
Speaker 1: people do what they want because people are inherently good.
Speaker 1: What's the worst that could happen? Right, Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: we'll all be equal. Uh. However, we have some uh
Speaker 1: compelling physiological evidence that human beings are not capable of
Speaker 1: considering the rest of the human race as a peer,
Speaker 1: as a as a group of people. We crap out
Speaker 1: around a hundred and fifty. That's all our brain can
Speaker 1: uh close or friends brain stuff on that. Yeah, Dunbar's number. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: And now we can go ahead. We set the stage
Speaker 1: right the extinction of middle class, the definitions, uh, the
Speaker 1: exploration and some of the assumptions, and now it's almost
Speaker 1: time for the really crazy stuff. But first the word
Speaker 1: from our sponsor. You know, usually we have our sponsor,
Speaker 1: Illumination Global Unlimited coming in. Yeah, but they're not here
Speaker 1: this week. I'm not sure. Maybe they'll come back sometime. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It all depends really if the stars are in the
Speaker 1: right positions. And sure there are a lot of factors
Speaker 1: that Illumination Global Unlimited takes into account. Yeah. Um, and oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, I guess we should say that for
Speaker 1: anybody who hasn't checked out our episodes, Uh, be sure
Speaker 1: to um put like a sheet over your TVs or
Speaker 1: your mirrors if you're listening to or using a lot
Speaker 1: of Illumination Global products. But anyway, just little ps a there. Uh,
Speaker 1: here's the crazy stuff. Here's where it gets crazy. I
Speaker 1: love it. Is there an oligarchy that is developed in
Speaker 1: the United States? That's the big question. We all know
Speaker 1: what an oligarchy is. It's a small group of interest
Speaker 1: or whatever running a larger group. Sure, so do you
Speaker 1: want my personal answer or my objective research answer. Uh,
Speaker 1: let's see first the objective research and then your personal take. Well,
Speaker 1: whether or not this has developed inside the United States
Speaker 1: is a matter of debate. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: different opinions. But there's something even more surprising about this subject.
Speaker 1: When you look at the research across the world. The
Speaker 1: globe as a whole, inequality has actually decreased, at least
Speaker 1: for a time leading up to the recent economic disaster,
Speaker 1: so to two thousand seven, and then some of the
Speaker 1: other stuff that's been going on. So the things we're
Speaker 1: getting better for a little while. But you have to
Speaker 1: be really careful when you look at the stats. All Right,
Speaker 1: we've got a great report via the Guardian the richest
Speaker 1: one percent of the world's population are getting wealthier, if
Speaker 1: not healthier, which almost said owning more than forty eight
Speaker 1: percent of global wealth. This was according to the Credit
Speaker 1: Suits Global Wealth Report, which you can find online. And uh,
Speaker 1: here we go, though, when we say the richest one
Speaker 1: percent of the entire world, that's such a bigger number
Speaker 1: in both directions. So what what What are the numbers meant? Well,
Speaker 1: a person only needs three thousand, six hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: dollars including the value or equity in your home to
Speaker 1: be among the wealthiest half of the world citizens. Wow, okay,
Speaker 1: and then uh, to be a member of the top
Speaker 1: ten percent of global wealthholders, you need more than seventies
Speaker 1: seven thousand dollars. And that isn't a no like how
Speaker 1: much money you make every year. That's how much worthy exactly,
Speaker 1: there's something. And then, uh, last, but not least, can
Speaker 1: we get a drum roll, No, you need seven hundred
Speaker 1: and nine thousand dollars to belong in the top one percent. Now,
Speaker 1: that's smaller. That's a smaller amount than I thought. But
Speaker 1: I guess that's because it's a much bigger one percent. Sure,
Speaker 1: So that is a lot more money than this guy
Speaker 1: will ever see in his lifetime. Um, but you know
Speaker 1: it's something to shoot for. Ben Uh. The American dream
Speaker 1: as where we started in the beginning, So let's go
Speaker 1: straight to some of the more conspiratorial stuff. One thing
Speaker 1: that I thought was interesting that comes to us from
Speaker 1: UH political spheres, right, is the idea that concerns over
Speaker 1: inequality are some sort of noise or propaganda made by
Speaker 1: socialist and communists seeking to overthrow capitalism. So I guess
Speaker 1: the argument there would be that the nature of inequality
Speaker 1: itself is being vilified and that it's not bad for
Speaker 1: a few people to control as much wealth. Yeah, in
Speaker 1: in the eyes of someone UH talking about this, I
Speaker 1: would say they see it as more villainizing the rich,
Speaker 1: and at least that in my head, that's what I see.
Speaker 1: And I would you know, I would argue that perhaps
Speaker 1: those arguments come from the wealthy a lot of the times, right,
Speaker 1: and that would that would make sense because opponents of
Speaker 1: that argument would say that there is a group of
Speaker 1: wealthy elites actively working to disempower the populations of various countries,
Speaker 1: which is not I'm it's gonna I'm gonna be honest.
Speaker 1: It's totally been proven that that's happened in the past.
Speaker 1: We know that that has happened in the past, um,
Speaker 1: during times of imperialism or colonialism. And no, I'm not
Speaker 1: just talking about European expansions. I'm talking about the history
Speaker 1: of tribute states, the history of vassals and peasants and
Speaker 1: servants and lifelong slavery, which still exists. I think Mauritaniah
Speaker 1: still has quite a large slave population. Yeah. And also
Speaker 1: if you look at the power of money in politics now,
Speaker 1: especially in the US, um, you need a certain amount
Speaker 1: of money to make any kind of waves in the
Speaker 1: political sphere here, and you know, if you're increasing that
Speaker 1: that wealth gap, then perhaps that's one of the goals.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just a guy man. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1: There's also there was all you remember. This might be
Speaker 1: a little bit before some of our listeners time, uh,
Speaker 1: but you remember growing up and hearing about the the
Speaker 1: idea of trickle down economics, um, which I I still
Speaker 1: probably have a child's understanding of that, because I didn't
Speaker 1: really get it when I was a kid, and I
Speaker 1: haven't looked into it too much. But I just want
Speaker 1: to present these counter arguments. Oh sure, yeah, trickle down economics.
Speaker 1: So the idea that when the ultra wealthy have a
Speaker 1: lot of money, they spend a lot of money, and
Speaker 1: then it trickles down throughout the economy because they're spending
Speaker 1: money here and there and here and there, yase everybody else.
Speaker 1: That's my understand Inherently, I don't understand how that would work,
Speaker 1: because that is the dispersion of wealth, not the accumulation
Speaker 1: of wealth. And also because of Swiss bank accounts and
Speaker 1: or Australian incorporation, wouldn't you be more likely to try
Speaker 1: to save money? I don't know, I I don't know.
Speaker 1: But there's another point here, and this is the one
Speaker 1: that I think has the most sand that the relationships
Speaker 1: between governments and businesses are empowering wealthy actors, and by
Speaker 1: that we mean companies as well as individuals at the
Speaker 1: expense of the poor. Yeah, and again look at the
Speaker 1: representation and governments where especially in places where money makes
Speaker 1: the politician. Right. Yeah, So we we've talked about this,
Speaker 1: you and I extensively when we've done any a series
Speaker 1: on financial shenanigans. There's this, there's this argument. A lot
Speaker 1: of people here in the States are very cynical about
Speaker 1: the relationship between financial institutions and the regulatory bodies set
Speaker 1: to watch those financial institutions. I can't air quote hard
Speaker 1: enough UH on regulatory or watch. But but there and
Speaker 1: you know, the idea, there is something that we lampooned
Speaker 1: in an earlier podcast that these UH groups can't really
Speaker 1: watch each other or have the kind of authoritative relationship
Speaker 1: they need to have because they end up work the
Speaker 1: individuals end up working for the same companies. But to
Speaker 1: be fair, the counter argument is that this field is
Speaker 1: so rarefied and complex that they're the only people qualified
Speaker 1: to work in it. Sure, it makes my eyes my
Speaker 1: eyes that I saw that I saw that they're rolling
Speaker 1: hard they're still rolling. Uh So, without me personally commenting
Speaker 1: on it, I just want to present that argument and
Speaker 1: counter argument. It's true though, that governments have in the
Speaker 1: eyes of the public, not just in the United States
Speaker 1: but also in the United them uh that governments have
Speaker 1: been seen as not stopping crimes by large financial institutions,
Speaker 1: and typically that scene as further proof that the middle
Speaker 1: class is somehow being squeezed out of a judicial process,
Speaker 1: a legislative process, things like that. Um. But another thing
Speaker 1: that you and I have run into quite often is
Speaker 1: that the laws. It's it's very important to figure out
Speaker 1: who gets to write laws, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And the concerns that we have read about with the
Speaker 1: idea of a disappearing middle class is that, first, it's
Speaker 1: so very vaguely defined in the United States. If you
Speaker 1: ask people to pull the majority of people in the
Speaker 1: United States would say that they are the middle class. Um.
Speaker 1: And politicians have wildly differing ideas about this. But are
Speaker 1: these people being shut out of legislation? That's a question, right,
Speaker 1: It's a really good question, and I think it should
Speaker 1: be addressed by people who know more than us, right,
Speaker 1: which might be you listeners. Hopefully Uh, so we wanted
Speaker 1: to know if the if you think that the middle
Speaker 1: class is disappearing, And let's keep in mind also that
Speaker 1: over the great span of human existence, the middle class
Speaker 1: is a very recent phenomena. Yeah, sure, absolutely, Um. And
Speaker 1: also here's another question. Is it necessary that inequality exists
Speaker 1: for let's save the entire system to run correctly. That's yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a really good question. Is there a conscious drive
Speaker 1: by someone or some group to accelerate inequality? Then I
Speaker 1: was reading this thing right before we came in here. Um,
Speaker 1: you can look this up. It was about restaurants in
Speaker 1: the that aim for the middle class that our middle
Speaker 1: of the road like, and it mentioned specifically places like
Speaker 1: Red Lobster Um out Back. Yeah, and just talking about
Speaker 1: how those being in owning a restaurant in that level
Speaker 1: right now is really dangerous because restaurants are starting to shift. Um,
Speaker 1: at least the ones that are prospering right now are
Speaker 1: either the really ritzy, high priced places with locally sourced
Speaker 1: food that's just prepared by you know, chef genius in
Speaker 1: the back, and then to the fast food this is
Speaker 1: as cheap as it can possibly get. And the people
Speaker 1: in the middle are finding that they're just losing money
Speaker 1: week after week. So if middle class families aren't disappearing,
Speaker 1: middle class restaurants are, well, people aren't going out. The
Speaker 1: idea is that the people who find themselves and identify
Speaker 1: in the middle class are trying to save every bit
Speaker 1: of money that they possibly can because they're feeling squeeze,
Speaker 1: you know, perhaps not getting that small raise for cost
Speaker 1: living every year, or not getting just what all the
Speaker 1: different reason, medical emergency, anything that could pop up. So
Speaker 1: I think that's really interesting to me, and it made
Speaker 1: me think about my past growing up, and we my
Speaker 1: family just says a little anecdote. I want to see
Speaker 1: if anybody identifies with this. When it was a special occasion.
Speaker 1: After I got two, about ten, red lobster was like
Speaker 1: my jam So if it was a special occasion, I
Speaker 1: was like, Mom, Dad, please can we go get some
Speaker 1: of those garlic? Yeah? Um, that's all I wanted. I
Speaker 1: don't care about the lobster. I didn't care about any
Speaker 1: other stuff. I just wanted those biscuits. But yeah, we
Speaker 1: could only afford to go there. Maybe you know a
Speaker 1: couple of times a year, dude, But it just makes me, uh,
Speaker 1: I see what you're saying because it now in retrospect,
Speaker 1: you're thinking, yeah, this is not a place we would
Speaker 1: go every week exactly because we couldn't afford to, at
Speaker 1: least at the time. Um. But yeah, it makes me.
Speaker 1: It just makes me wonder what effect that has on
Speaker 1: the wider scale, just if you're just looking at restaurants, Like,
Speaker 1: what what else is starting to disappear? Sure, and that's
Speaker 1: a really good question, like are there certain types of
Speaker 1: cars that people aren't buying? Um? What about home home purchases? Right? Uh, vacations,
Speaker 1: all the stuff we named in the beginning essentially, and
Speaker 1: you know you can track that to the skyrocketing costs
Speaker 1: of some of these things as well as wage stagnation.
Speaker 1: And everybody, big hand to know for editing that thing.
Speaker 1: I was trying to say that sentence like four times
Speaker 1: in a row. Yeah, big up. Everything you like about
Speaker 1: this show is probably null. All right, Well, we've got
Speaker 1: to get out of here, everybody. I'm so sorry, Matt.
Speaker 1: I have one piece of listener mail for you. Fine,
Speaker 1: Pope Ge writes to us and says, I really enjoy
Speaker 1: listening to your podcast. While listening to the show today,
Speaker 1: I'm stuck. I'm wanting to know if Matt Frederick is Canadian.
Speaker 1: He sounds like he is. That's all they said. Really,
Speaker 1: that's that's what he wants to know. Wow. Hey, Uh no, sir,
Speaker 1: I I am not Canadian. I was born in Alpharetta, Georgia,
Speaker 1: and I have lived less than fifty miles from there
Speaker 1: my whole life. So wow, as far as we know.
Speaker 1: And on that note, ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for
Speaker 1: interrupting you, Matt. I thought it was a great question
Speaker 1: and we should get it out there in case other
Speaker 1: people believe that you're Canadian. Not that there's anything wrong.
Speaker 1: It's quite all right, ben. So, Uh, everybody find us
Speaker 1: on Facebook A and uh, go ahead and hit us
Speaker 1: up on Twitter. We're at conspiracy stuff there. Also on
Speaker 1: Facebook conspiracy stuff. Go to our website. Stuff they don't
Speaker 1: want you to know. For everything we've ever done, it
Speaker 1: all exists there, and it's all wondrous. Uh. The U
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