WEBVTT - How does the economy affect the tech sector?

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<v Speaker 1>Hi everyone, welcome to the podcast. My name is Chris Poulett.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm an editor here at How Stuff Works, and sitting

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<v Speaker 1>next to me as usual as senior writer Jonathans Rackland. Hello. There.

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<v Speaker 1>The economy has been in the news a lot lately. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>not not in a good way. Well, now it depends

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<v Speaker 1>on who even even the good stuff about the bad

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<v Speaker 1>stuff is still bad stuff, so just blew my mind. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>well there there goes that. All right, Well, thanks for listening. Now, Um,

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<v Speaker 1>we were we were talking about the economy and how

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<v Speaker 1>it has been affecting the tech sector, and uh, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>there are a lot of different things that if you

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<v Speaker 1>go through the news and and specifically look for tech stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>you can find in an entire range of how the economy,

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<v Speaker 1>the troubles with the economy are affecting tech stuff if

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<v Speaker 1>you I mean just taking it on the surface level.

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<v Speaker 1>A lot of the companies that are you know, that

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<v Speaker 1>are mainly affected are the financial organizations Shanks, investment banks,

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<v Speaker 1>UM and uh. You know an article I read in

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<v Speaker 1>the in the Guardian from October two, the British newspaper

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<v Speaker 1>UM said that one of the things that you know

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<v Speaker 1>you would look for, companies are cutting back on discretionary spending.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's a lot of tech hardware. People are gonna

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<v Speaker 1>stick with older computers. They're not going to run out

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<v Speaker 1>and and buy a lot of new machines UM and

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<v Speaker 1>you know, smartphones, things like that. Things that people would

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<v Speaker 1>normally you know, go ahead and invest in for their

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<v Speaker 1>companies to keep them going and and say, oh, well

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<v Speaker 1>we've got a new way to stay connected to our employees.

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<v Speaker 1>They're not going to go out and spend money on that. So,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, while the tech companies are not the ones

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<v Speaker 1>leading the headlines right now, they are directly affected by

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<v Speaker 1>by that sort of behavior. Yeah, they kind of lagged

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<v Speaker 1>behind both economic downturns and upturns. You if you look

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<v Speaker 1>at the tech industry for a while, even before we

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<v Speaker 1>had the the massive drops in and consumer confidence and

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<v Speaker 1>the stock markets around the world. Even before that happened

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<v Speaker 1>in September, we had people kind of shouting out warnings

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<v Speaker 1>about the economy. Sure, you know, you had the whole

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<v Speaker 1>reduced economic growth. We're not in a recession. We just

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<v Speaker 1>have reduced economic growth. Yea. For months they were debating

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<v Speaker 1>whether it was a recession or and and the thing

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<v Speaker 1>about the tech industry was a lot of people out

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<v Speaker 1>there were saying, Hey, you know, it hasn't affected us

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<v Speaker 1>at all. We're still going strong. We've got all these

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<v Speaker 1>different companies that are starting up. Um, we've got just

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<v Speaker 1>success story after success story. Well, here's the thing is

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<v Speaker 1>that when the economy takes a downturn, tech may not

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<v Speaker 1>be hit immediately. But look at the tech industry three

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<v Speaker 1>or six months down the line and see how it's

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<v Speaker 1>affected at that point, because that's really when these sort

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<v Speaker 1>of things that Chris has talked about about, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>the reduced purchases, that's where it really when you're gonna

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<v Speaker 1>start seeing that appear in their financial statements. Sure, if

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<v Speaker 1>you're um, if you're a techie listening to this podcast,

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<v Speaker 1>it's our you know, our audience I guess, um, you

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<v Speaker 1>may be saying, well, you know we're involved in I T.

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<v Speaker 1>You know we'd recession proof everybody needs computers. Well, that's true.

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<v Speaker 1>But if companies are starting to cut corners and they

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<v Speaker 1>start looking at things like job growth and whether or

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<v Speaker 1>not there's any room to hire additional i T staff, um,

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<v Speaker 1>they may be looking at ways to cut addition I

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<v Speaker 1>T staff. Um spending on external I T. If you're

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<v Speaker 1>contracting with if you've outstoresd um your I T or

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<v Speaker 1>you know, tech support, Um, you may be looking at

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<v Speaker 1>cutting down on on those expenditures too at your company,

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<v Speaker 1>and small vendors especially are more likely to feel it

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<v Speaker 1>than than some of the big guys. Uh, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>depending on how much of the fat they can trim.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, I'm sure big companies probably could let go

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<v Speaker 1>of more people. That will probably be a smaller percentage

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<v Speaker 1>of the overall workforce. Actually, I that kind of segues

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<v Speaker 1>nicely into a discussion about the the Internet giant Google. Oh, yes,

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<v Speaker 1>I think I've heard of them. Yeah, you may have

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<v Speaker 1>heard a kind of things about Google. So Google recently

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<v Speaker 1>it's stock fell to more than it fell down to

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<v Speaker 1>hit the of what its highest amount was so so

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<v Speaker 1>like billion dollars to share more like, but um, it's

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<v Speaker 1>still a lot of money for share. But it really

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<v Speaker 1>did take that, Like by the time October rolled around,

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<v Speaker 1>it had taken about a hit off of its top

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<v Speaker 1>market price. Um. That wasn't all at once or anything

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<v Speaker 1>or else. You really hear about it on the news

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<v Speaker 1>all the time. But over time it is lost value.

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<v Speaker 1>And this is a concern for a Google. Uh. And

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<v Speaker 1>it's a concern for Google shareholders, which brings us to

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<v Speaker 1>another important distinction is that if a company is publicly traded,

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<v Speaker 1>they have to answer to the people who hold shares

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<v Speaker 1>in that company. They can't just make decisions willy nilly,

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<v Speaker 1>because the shareholders will definitely make it known that that's

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<v Speaker 1>not acceptable. Um. So you have a responsibility to your

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<v Speaker 1>shareholders if you're a public company. And Google is a

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<v Speaker 1>public company. So I was reading an article, uh, and

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<v Speaker 1>actually a few articles about Google, and there were some

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<v Speaker 1>nice interesting points about what might happen to a Google

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<v Speaker 1>in the future if they aren't able to turn this

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<v Speaker 1>around and get regained their their dominant position in the market.

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<v Speaker 1>Really yeah, so here's here's some points. Okay, so they

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<v Speaker 1>could share holders could pressure management to be more forthcoming

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<v Speaker 1>about how they're spending Google's astronomical R and D budgets.

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<v Speaker 1>Are we talking about cutting the free food to possibly

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<v Speaker 1>the fruit? Well, the free food actually has already been

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<v Speaker 1>had a cutback. Know that that the engineers still get it. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>And actually I think everyone still gets breakfast in lunch.

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<v Speaker 1>It's just dinner now that only the engineers are that's

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<v Speaker 1>a shame because you know, they got to keep the

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<v Speaker 1>engineers there as much as possible to get this stuff

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<v Speaker 1>out right, So you don't cut their food because otherwise

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<v Speaker 1>they might leave to go eat. Um. I love Google,

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<v Speaker 1>by the way, but some of their some of their

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<v Speaker 1>practices do seem a little kind of manipulative, let's say.

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<v Speaker 1>But r indeed, so we're talking about like everything in

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<v Speaker 1>Google labs. Um, think about the twenty percent time that

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<v Speaker 1>people get of their time to work on personal projects. UM,

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<v Speaker 1>projects that could eventually become something that Google invests in. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>But if shareholders are saying, hey, why aren't you concentrating

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<v Speaker 1>on your core business and regaining this great market share

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<v Speaker 1>price that you used to have, Why are you concentratings

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<v Speaker 1>down this little twenty percent time thing, you might see

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<v Speaker 1>that go away. But you might also see things like

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<v Speaker 1>you might see uh employee cutbacks where they have to

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<v Speaker 1>layoff employees. Um that you might see other benefits start

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<v Speaker 1>to get the squeeze. We've already seen some of that

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<v Speaker 1>at Google too, with the the childcare brew. I'm using

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<v Speaker 1>brewha a lot recently. I think that's my new term. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it's very technical, yes, sure is. And another concern is

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<v Speaker 1>that if Google continues to struggle, then some of the

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<v Speaker 1>top talent a Google will leave the company. They've there

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<v Speaker 1>have been some instances of that already, and that it's

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<v Speaker 1>kind of one of those you know, rats abandoning the

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<v Speaker 1>sinking ship kind of thing. It's not necessarily that Google sinking.

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<v Speaker 1>No one thinks that Google is going away. They just

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<v Speaker 1>think Google is going to have to slow down, and

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<v Speaker 1>that a lot of the people who are really you know,

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<v Speaker 1>kind of those brains behind Google, who really push what

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<v Speaker 1>Google is doing, They're gonna think, you know what, this

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<v Speaker 1>isn't much fun. Cleaning this up would be a lot

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<v Speaker 1>more fun doing something new and exciting and jump into that.

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<v Speaker 1>I don't really want to spend my time fixing problems.

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<v Speaker 1>I want to spend my time doing new stuff, so

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<v Speaker 1>you might see more people from Google who are really

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<v Speaker 1>the creative types, uh, kind of look around for other opportunities.

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<v Speaker 1>So I mean this so it can affect the big

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<v Speaker 1>guys Google. You don't get much bigger than Google when

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<v Speaker 1>it comes to Internet companies. That's true, that's true. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>speaking of stock price. Um, an article in Business Week

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<v Speaker 1>was mentioning that, you know, with the investment banks closing

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of these investment of banks were the ones

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<v Speaker 1>who helped launch, uh, the I p o s of

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<v Speaker 1>people like Yahoo and Google. Uh, so they've been historical

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<v Speaker 1>supporters of the tech industry. They are you know, responsible

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<v Speaker 1>for for these companies being on the stock market essentially. Now.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean there are other people who can do that.

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<v Speaker 1>But you know that's one thing that's that that is

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<v Speaker 1>going to hurt them in finding funding, finding funding. That's fun. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>you know in the future is that that the banks

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<v Speaker 1>are not, as you know, readily available. And uh, some

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<v Speaker 1>are concerned that venture capital could be drying up right,

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<v Speaker 1>And venture capital is one of those interesting things about

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<v Speaker 1>the Internet where the more you learn about the more

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<v Speaker 1>you start saying this really this this works how again?

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<v Speaker 1>So venture capital is sort of it's it's a risk.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's when you are investing millions of dollars

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<v Speaker 1>into a company with the hopes that of eventually this

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<v Speaker 1>company is going to turn around become profitable, and because

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<v Speaker 1>you're essentially, you know, an early investor, you're gonna see

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<v Speaker 1>a huge return on that investment. Yeah. Um. And there

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<v Speaker 1>are a couple of different ways that companies can actually

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<v Speaker 1>turn this around and make this happen. They can they

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<v Speaker 1>can find a way to actually make money off of

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<v Speaker 1>whatever it is they're doing. Or they can get bought

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<v Speaker 1>up by a larger company, which you know, if you

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<v Speaker 1>give enough attention, eventually Google or Yahoo's gonna buy you,

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<v Speaker 1>or maybe Microsoft. So so the idea there is that

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<v Speaker 1>even if the company itself doesn't really get off the

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<v Speaker 1>ground financially, you might still see a return on your

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<v Speaker 1>investment because someone else went and bought them. Um. And

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<v Speaker 1>and here's the interesting thing about the Internet is that

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<v Speaker 1>you've got engineers, not not economists, who are driving innovation.

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<v Speaker 1>So these engineers are figuring out new services and programs

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<v Speaker 1>and applications things that make the Internet really really cool,

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<v Speaker 1>and they do some really neat things. But the engineers

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<v Speaker 1>aren't thinking in terms of how do I make money

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<v Speaker 1>from this? It's more like, how can I accomplish this

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<v Speaker 1>knowing what I know? And so then they accomplish it,

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<v Speaker 1>and then it comes time to figure out, well, how

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<v Speaker 1>do I make money from this? And and not everyone

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<v Speaker 1>has an answer for that, and some people are proud

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<v Speaker 1>of the fact that they don't have an answer for that.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry. For some reason, I was hearing Twitter in

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<v Speaker 1>my hand. Twitter. Yeah, yeah, you used companies like Twitter

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<v Speaker 1>and and for a while Facebook, you had people specifically saying, hey,

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<v Speaker 1>we don't have a business plan, and we're okay with

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<v Speaker 1>that because what we're doing is we're providing a great

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<v Speaker 1>service and people are willing to use it and people

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<v Speaker 1>would be upset if it went away. And all of

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<v Speaker 1>those things are true, but it doesn't mean that you're

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<v Speaker 1>making money. And without money, you can't keep you can't

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<v Speaker 1>keep going because there are costs associated with these services,

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<v Speaker 1>and whether it's the server cost or renting the space

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<v Speaker 1>or the power or that you can continue to do,

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<v Speaker 1>all these things cost money. And you can't just sit

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<v Speaker 1>there and say, oh, I'm going to be truistic and

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<v Speaker 1>offer this up for free, because that's not the way

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<v Speaker 1>the world works, there's no there are no free lunges

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<v Speaker 1>and uh so well okay except at Google, I'm gonna

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<v Speaker 1>hit you so hard. So so, venture capital is one

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<v Speaker 1>way these companies stay alive. You have people who are

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<v Speaker 1>actually it's really organizations. Usually it's not normally people. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>occasionally you might have some multi millionaire who wants to

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<v Speaker 1>invest in a company, but usually it's it's organizations and

0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:33.440
<v Speaker 1>financial companies that kind of thing. Um. They'll pour money

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<v Speaker 1>into a business to keep it afloat, to keep it innovating,

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<v Speaker 1>and to um to hopefully reach a point where it

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<v Speaker 1>turns a profit, it finds a way to generate revenue. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>But without this venture capital, these companies just can't exist.

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<v Speaker 1>They don't have anything else generating revenue. So if venture

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<v Speaker 1>capital drives up, drives up for something like Twitter, as

0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:56.439
<v Speaker 1>soon as that money runs out, you can bet Twitter

0:12:56.520 --> 0:13:00.280
<v Speaker 1>is gonna go away because it can't run other wise,

0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:04.360
<v Speaker 1>it can't run on its own. It's funny though, Um,

0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.079
<v Speaker 1>if you really look at all the different articles about

0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:12.440
<v Speaker 1>the economy and especially the tech stuff, Um, it's obvious

0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.240
<v Speaker 1>that people are sort of throwing guests out there. Because

0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.760
<v Speaker 1>I saw another article that suggested that venture capital actually

0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.959
<v Speaker 1>it's a good time for tech companies because venture capitalists

0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.440
<v Speaker 1>have money on hand and other investments are drying up,

0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.200
<v Speaker 1>so they're gonna look back at tech you know tech

0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.920
<v Speaker 1>um operations and go, hey, you know they look good there.

0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.000
<v Speaker 1>That's an opportunity to make some money. And that that

0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.640
<v Speaker 1>may be good, especially in the rebuilding effort, because there

0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:40.240
<v Speaker 1>are going to be a lot of companies that are

0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:45.360
<v Speaker 1>restructuring their businesses and business operations, and they may be

0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:47.760
<v Speaker 1>looking at new kinds of technology to help them do

0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:50.319
<v Speaker 1>that more efficiently. Is saying, well, you know, we have

0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.200
<v Speaker 1>this crash, We're gonna have to redo some things in

0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.920
<v Speaker 1>order to survive another one. UM. And I think I

0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.400
<v Speaker 1>saw that in the info world. Yeah, the dot com

0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.880
<v Speaker 1>crash was was a different animal. Uh, there are a

0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:04.360
<v Speaker 1>lot of people who are looking at this time and

0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:08.640
<v Speaker 1>they're they're kind of pointing back to the dot com crash. Um,

0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:12.720
<v Speaker 1>but dot Com that bubble burst mainly because people were

0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:17.240
<v Speaker 1>pouring so much money into unproven uh services and technologies,

0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.360
<v Speaker 1>and uh, it just it just went way too fast.

0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:22.160
<v Speaker 1>People are a little more savvy now, they are a

0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.520
<v Speaker 1>little more cautious. It may not seem that way when

0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.720
<v Speaker 1>you start reading about these venture capital deals, but there

0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.560
<v Speaker 1>it's not the kind of wanton spending that was going

0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.720
<v Speaker 1>on back in two thousand that led to the bubble bursting.

0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.480
<v Speaker 1>And then I was just dreadful here in Atlanta. It

0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:39.400
<v Speaker 1>was pretty tough. We have a lot of tech companies

0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:43.760
<v Speaker 1>here in Atlanta that folded um after that happened, um

0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.400
<v Speaker 1>and and you know, it was a real wake up

0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:48.080
<v Speaker 1>call for a lot of people. Now we're kind of

0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.200
<v Speaker 1>gotten back to sort of a complacent state of mind

0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:53.920
<v Speaker 1>in the tech industry a little bit um for a

0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.080
<v Speaker 1>long time, Like in the nineties, late nineties, early two thousand,

0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.680
<v Speaker 1>if you were an I T guy, you know, the

0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.680
<v Speaker 1>sky was a limit. You could jump from job to job,

0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.840
<v Speaker 1>getting increasingly better salary and benefits, and there was no

0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:11.480
<v Speaker 1>sense of job loyalty, nothing like that. Sometimes months at

0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:13.520
<v Speaker 1>a time, you know, yeah you might, yeah you might

0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.560
<v Speaker 1>work at a company for a couple of months and

0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.280
<v Speaker 1>then immediately get hired away for twice the salary somewhere else.

0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:21.480
<v Speaker 1>And that's not an exaggeration. That really did happen. Um.

0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.240
<v Speaker 1>And then that that obviously came to a stop after

0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:26.080
<v Speaker 1>the bubble burst and all these companies went out of

0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.720
<v Speaker 1>business and suddenly being an ide guy was not necessarily

0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:31.280
<v Speaker 1>the best thing in the world. Um, but it steadily

0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.720
<v Speaker 1>it got better, and UM, I don't think we're quite

0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:36.080
<v Speaker 1>at the point where we're gonna have to worry about

0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:38.760
<v Speaker 1>other dot com bust And there's still people who are

0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.760
<v Speaker 1>investing venture capital, like like you you know, like some

0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.840
<v Speaker 1>people are saying this is the right time. Dig got

0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:47.520
<v Speaker 1>a twenty eight point seven million dollar ventury capital deal

0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.320
<v Speaker 1>just a couple of weeks ago. So it's still happening.

0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:55.000
<v Speaker 1>It may not happen as often, and it may be uh,

0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.800
<v Speaker 1>people might be much more picky when it comes to

0:15:57.920 --> 0:15:59.760
<v Speaker 1>figuring out what they're going to invest in. It's not

0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:01.760
<v Speaker 1>just going to be a oh well that sounds like

0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.160
<v Speaker 1>that's interesting, throw money at it kind of approach. So

0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.880
<v Speaker 1>people aren't just gonna be spending willy nilly on a

0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:11.440
<v Speaker 1>lot of expensive items that they don't need. Oh, that's

0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:15.200
<v Speaker 1>always gonna happen. That's always gonna happen. In fact, you

0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.200
<v Speaker 1>know what I can tell you about an interesting item

0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.960
<v Speaker 1>that you might you technically need it, but you don't

0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.080
<v Speaker 1>necessarily need this particular version of it. Oh yeah, yeah,

0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:26.720
<v Speaker 1>and it's pretty expensive. But first we'd like to thank

0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.800
<v Speaker 1>our sponsor, Audible. You can sign up for an account

0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.760
<v Speaker 1>over at audible dot com slash stuff, which actually gives

0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:35.560
<v Speaker 1>you a of your first download for free. And we

0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.720
<v Speaker 1>thought we'd recommend a couple of books that relate to

0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.720
<v Speaker 1>this topic. Chris, you've got a recommendation for our listeners. Yeah, Personally,

0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.720
<v Speaker 1>I would advocate trying to stay out of this bind

0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.200
<v Speaker 1>in the first place. And uh, I was thinking of

0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.320
<v Speaker 1>the Rich Dad series, which is, you know, a very

0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.360
<v Speaker 1>popular way to um get a little bit better at

0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.880
<v Speaker 1>managing your money. And uh, the latest is Robert Kiyosaki's

0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.440
<v Speaker 1>Rich Dad's Increase your Financial i Q gets Smarter with

0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.679
<v Speaker 1>your Money. Oh okay, that's a good one. I've got.

0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.639
<v Speaker 1>I've got a recommendation as well. This comes from the

0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:12.200
<v Speaker 1>writer Chris Anderson, who you may know from Wired um.

0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.119
<v Speaker 1>He has this book called The long Tail, Why the

0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.240
<v Speaker 1>Future of Business is selling less of more Now. The

0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.480
<v Speaker 1>long Tail kind of goes into this whole web two

0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:25.159
<v Speaker 1>point oh model of web economics, and so if you

0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.560
<v Speaker 1>are at all confused about web economy, I would recommend

0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.240
<v Speaker 1>reading this book. Getting it off Audible take a take

0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:33.280
<v Speaker 1>a good listen, and that explains a lot of why

0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.320
<v Speaker 1>these companies are interested in getting into venture capital in

0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:38.879
<v Speaker 1>the first place. Um and you can find both of

0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.160
<v Speaker 1>those at audible and like we said, sign up at

0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.040
<v Speaker 1>audible dot com slash stuff. You can get your first

0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:47.199
<v Speaker 1>download for free. Okay. So we're gonna talk about an

0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.360
<v Speaker 1>item that's expensive and necessary, but you don't necessarily need

0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:56.480
<v Speaker 1>this brand. Okay. Have you heard of bling? Uh? Yeah,

0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:58.600
<v Speaker 1>I had to, you know, take all my bling off

0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:02.840
<v Speaker 1>so I didn't rattle right, No, okay, gangs to see.

0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.160
<v Speaker 1>It's not that kind of bling. Now there's this. There's

0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:11.520
<v Speaker 1>this kind of designer bottled water known as bling and

0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:17.920
<v Speaker 1>has crystals on it. That's spill up bling. Okay, So

0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.439
<v Speaker 1>so hang onto your heads, folks. If you haven't heard

0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:25.399
<v Speaker 1>about this. This water is um on average, fifty five

0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:30.479
<v Speaker 1>dollars a bottle of water from Tennessee. We lived two

0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.040
<v Speaker 1>hours from Tennessee. Chris. We could go and make a

0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.399
<v Speaker 1>mint right now, I mean granted, okay, when you figure

0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.200
<v Speaker 1>gas gas prices into it, all right, maybe half a mint,

0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:43.520
<v Speaker 1>but still half a mint, Chris, that water just sitting there.

0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.439
<v Speaker 1>Just give me a bedazzler and some plastic bottles and

0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:52.280
<v Speaker 1>we will be in business. Yeah, you would like to

0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.480
<v Speaker 1>learn more about bling and all the wonderful facts and

0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.160
<v Speaker 1>figures of surrounding it, You can read this great article

0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.679
<v Speaker 1>written by John Fuller. It's called Would You Pay Dollars

0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:04.320
<v Speaker 1>for a Bottle of Water? That's live right now at

0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.600
<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot com and we'll talk to you

0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:11.199
<v Speaker 1>again soon. Let us know what you think. Send an

0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:18.880
<v Speaker 1>email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought

0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.119
<v Speaker 1>to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:22.720
<v Speaker 1>are you