Bet-David Podcast | Guest: Tom Ellsworth (Biz Doc) | EP 45
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And I think it's important before we get started with the 45th episode with Tom Elsworth being in town here with us and we got him here with us.
The biz doctor.
I think we have to tell everybody what we saw this morning when we pulled in.
It's crazy.
So we pull in.
No joke.
Okay.
We pull in this morning.
Parking lot.
Parking lot.
Exactly.
And we see Paul E. running routes.
He's just running in the morning, 7.30, our camera guy, Paul, I wish you could see his face.
Paul Oscarsika's running routes.
He's a song.
He's 61240.
61240.
He played for Chaplin University, right?
Big dude.
What song was he working out to?
What was it?
Keith Sweat?
What was this?
What's what LSG?
My body all over your body, baby.
Who works out to LSG and Keith Sweat?
Only our buddy, Paul.
Everybody, give a shout out to Paul E. Paul.
You're just something else, buddy.
Tupac.
Tupac.
Yeah.
Tupac.
Right.
Okay.
Anyways, it was a sexy workout.
It's a sexy workout.
He's trying to get it.
Speaking of sexy, let's give an intro to the biz dog.
Oh, thank you.
I went there.
I went there.
Yes, sexy Tom?
In Boca, in the house.
That's right.
And by the way, you grew up here.
You grew up in Boca.
Yeah, my dad's job was down here in the last two years.
High school, I was a bokeh guy.
Tom, your dad was a what, rocket scientist?
Literally, he was a rocket scientist.
Yeah, he was a mathematician, guy.
Washington State University, small school in the middle of nowhere, and, you know, mathematic genius, was a rocket scientist in the early days.
By the way, that's like literally, his dad was a rocket scientist.
Yeah, it's like I'm no rocket scientist, but no, I understand.
You actually am a rocket scientist.
This explains so much.
But you know what's really funny?
You look back at the pictures there, and here is him with these short-sleeve white shirts, little skinny black ties, and he had slide rules, you know, and there would be like 30 or 40 of them.
You would see this team, and I'm like, wow, what'd you do?
He says, we were putting men into orbit, and we were building, it wasn't about missiles and rockets and bombs.
We were putting men into orbit, and we wanted to beat the Russians.
So they had vision, mission, all that.
Now there's probably five guys from MIT with big computers.
Back then it was 40 guys and everything.
But we were proud of them.
So by the way, this morning we're having breakfast.
And Tom, what is Tom doing?
Tom takes the moment, takes a moment to teach the kids about the difference between Mahimai, El Dorado in San Diego, and dolphin, but not the kind of dolphin you think it is.
So Tom just teaching, right?
And the kids are like enamored by Tom's teaching.
He's shown all these pictures.
Was your dad also somebody that would always teach you?
Like, was he like you?
Like, were you like him?
You know what?
We didn't have a lot growing up.
I mean, we were just middle class, and he was always teaching.
What are you talking about?
You said you guys grew up in a $6 million home in Boca back in the 80s.
No, This is Boca in the 80s, and we were like out west by 441.
Yeah.
I can only imagine being able to see.
Was your dad a rocket scientist?
My dad wasn't a rocket scientist.
I mean, that was back then.
That was the border.
There was Boca West, then 441, and then Animals and Swamp.
I'm just, I'm still revisiting this rocket scientist.
You know what I mean?
How many times I've said, look, I'm no rocket scientist.
Question.
If you're watching this, who has a relative that is or was a rocket scientist?
If you're watching this, comment, I'm actually curious in how big the community of rocket science.
Did you have anybody that was a rocket scientist?
I figured if anybody would have had a rocket scientist, it'd be Kai.
Pauli, any rocket scientist in a family?
No, my dad's an electrical engineer, but not anybody.
Okay, I mean, your dad's a pretty legit guy.
Chris, shout out to your dad, Chris.
Sam, Chris.
Sam, anybody was a rocket scientist in your family?
Nobody.
Okay, let's see if anybody we had here that was a rocket scientist.
Definitely nobody in our family was a rocket scientist.
I bet you find a lot of people from Southern California.
That's where the space program was.
Ray Finns Country North and all those guys.
There's probably a lot of people middle-aged that had moms and dads that worked in that industry, LA?
Southern California.
Have a friend that was probably one hallucin away from being a rocket scientist.
He was that legit of a guy that could have gone there.
He was a mathematician.
You know who I'm talking about.
What do you mean, one hallucination?
One like he should have done one more experiment or he did one too many.
Well, he was a genius when he came down.
There was a couple guys in our school that were good in math.
He was one of them.
And he could have been a rocket scientist, but he sells kebab today, is what he sells.
He's a kebab salesman.
He's in the kebab business, is what he's doing.
The kebab business is booming.
Anyways, you told me you are very excited about today's topics.
Any reason why you're very excited about today's topics?
Because I noticed last year.
You came in pretty amped up.
I'm amped up.
I don't know if it's a caffeine pill.
I don't know what's going on, but I don't know if it's just the biz doc.
You didn't take the pill from the guy in the lobby.
Yeah, yeah, that guy, that guy.
I'm amped up.
No, there was a guy looking like with a man purse.
His name was Zach.
And he said, who let the dogs out, and he offered him a couple pills.
I don't know if it was Rufies or coffee, you know.
Rufies.
I don't say no.
You ever seen the documentary?
If you're not taking a roofie, you won't be saying no.
Have you ever seen the documentary Hangover?
You ever seen the documentary Hangover?
The documentary.
The three-part series?
Yeah, I saw the documentary.
It starts in Las Vegas.
No, no, it starts in Las Vegas.
There's a tiger in the bathroom.
These guys wake up.
So it's like.
Yeah, that one.
I don't know why they call it Rufus.
They should call it Flories because you always end up on the floor.
Who made you laugh the most in Hangover?
Well, obviously, Zach Elfenaki.
Something else.
This is my son, Pedro.
This is my son.
Hangover.
Look what he's doing.
We'll be having breakfast.
I remember we watched the first one.
We're like, this is hilarious.
You watch the second one with friends.
You're like, it's a little awkward.
You watch the third one.
I'm like, okay, they just crossed the line.
Okay, so the third one is not one you're going to watch with your friends and family.
It's a little awkward.
By the way, Wolf of Wall Street.
You know who I watched Wolf of Wall Street with the first time?
With my dad.
Okay.
At Arclight in Sherman Oaks.
We're sitting there.
My dad is cracked.
By the way, the whole place is jammed.
Your dad is laughing?
My dad is in tears, cracking up the entire time in every scene.
I haven't heard my dad laugh that loud at Wolf of Wall Street.
Yeah.
Your dad wasn't asking questions?
He wasn't asking questions.
What is all the sugar on her butt and what is he doing?
No, no, no.
My dad's a well-traveled man.
He's a G. My dad's a well-traveled man.
Okay, so let's get right into it.
Let's get into the topics.
We got a lot of exciting stuff.
We're having some flories.
Okay, by the way, here's what we're going to do.
If you're watching this, if you're watching this and you have a question or you want us to cover a topic, Kai is following Twitter hashtags.
If you go on Twitter and you put in hashtag PBD podcast, once again, PBD podcast with any questions you have or topics you want us to cover, Kai will be following that.
By the way, my handle is at Patrick Bay David.
So if you tweet at Patrick Bay David or PBD Podcast, Kai will let us know.
Maybe some of the tweets will even be shown on the screen to see what the question is.
So Kai, you follow that trend as we're going through it, but let's get right into it.
We started 30 minutes a little earlier.
I know we said 9 a.m.
We did 8.30 because I got a 10.30 meeting today and I figured we start 30 minutes early.
Rather than doing a 90-minute show, we said, let's do a two-hour show.
We'll start 30 minutes early.
I think it starts in town.
It's a great move.
We're getting good feedback.
People like this time.
Yeah, so let's get right into it.
So we got topic.
SPAC versus IPO.
I think it's important for people to realize what's going on with SPACs versus IPOs.
I think it's 20, what was the number?
$70 billion.
We'll touch up on that.
You got a lot of feedback to SPAPs, yeah.
Crazy numbers.
Disney Plus just topped 100 million subscribers in 16 months.
It took Netflix 60 months to do it.
They did it in 16 months.
And wait till you hear what they're projecting to do, which the number is absolutely astronomical.
37% of Americans in a recent survey said that they made trades based on Elon Musk's tweet.
They made trades based on Elon Musk's tweet.
Americans cut credit card debt by nearly $83 billion during the pandemic.
Elon Musk, SpaceX, now owns about a third of all active satellites in the sky.
Next, we have, okay, Elon Musk made another $25 billion yesterday in 24 hours.
What a rough day.
You know, when you make 25.
He loses 25.
He makes 25.
Just another day with Elon Musk stories.
Hybrid working will become the norm.
How much money do you need to live comfortably in every state in America?
It's interesting to see what is the most expensive state to live in and most cheapest, cheapest state to live in.
We'll cover those numbers.
Zoom's founder, Eric Wan, just transferred 18 million shares, $6 billion.
And everybody's wondering why that is.
Tom's got some speculation on what happened over there.
U.S. lawmakers, one thing we've been talking about for a while, introduce a bill to clarify crypto regulations.
You do not want to see regulations and crypto in the same sentence, but we're headed in that direction.
We'll see what's going to happen there.
When there's a party, the government's going to regulate it.
That's right.
Democrats may just have laid the groundwork for Biden to cancel $50,000 of student debt per person.
We'll see what happened there.
Russia slowed down Twitter speed and threatened a total block after the site allegedly failed to delete banned content.
Russia's back at it again.
Can you imagine you're threatening a company in the U.S. from Russia where you have control over saying, I swear to God, if you don't delete banned content, we're going to ruin your website.
Imagine the kind of power you have to be able to do something like that.
Biden administration plans to buy another 100 million extra doses of JNJ, COVID, vaccine.
Yeah, the one-shot.
The one shot.
The one-shot.
That's right.
The one-shot.
And then China is behind a new huge cyber attack of Microsoft.
And then we got a few other things that's going on.
Texas Pink Raider.
Texas Tech offers the two-day-old daughter of Patrick Mahomes a full-right scholarship to play soccer there.
Obviously, we got to cover Myers Leonard, what he said while he was playing video games, and Julian Edelman responding to him.
And then Cuomo, you know, a story came out that he groped a girl under the shirt.
We may cover that.
I don't know whether we're going to get into that or not, but we've got a lot of stories here.
Okay.
Then our boy Gronk.
Gronk is NFT is, right?
He's starting an NFT for himself.
Yeah, he's starting an NFT.
So why don't we go into the Disney story?
I said we start off with the Disney story first.
So 100 million subscribers in 16 months.
Initially, they projected to have 60 to 90 million subscribers by 2024.
They are a way off.
Three years ahead of their projection.
They hit 100 million.
And a company spokesperson said Disney expects to hit, ready for this number, 300 to 350 million subscribers by 2024.
Watch them miss that mark as well, right?
If they miss that mark.
It took Netflix 10 years to accumulate 100 million subscribers after launching in 2007, whereas Disney Plus took less than a year and a half.
And in October, Disney Plus pulled Dumbo, Peter Pen, and Aristocrats, amongst other films from kids' profiles, because of racist stereotypes depicted in these films.
Let me get this straight.
So Dumbo, Peter Pen, and Aristocrats, I actually like all of those movies, but they pulled it out.
And the film's removal from kids' profiles comes amid a nationwide campaign to slap disclaimers on or outright ban old movies, TV programs, and books deemed racist and offensive.
Anyways, two different topics in the same subject here with Disney.
Tom, what are your thoughts with Disney guest Netflix?
Disney Plus, you know what I think this is?
I think this is a leadership case study here.
And I'll tell you why I think that.
The guy running Disney Plus is a guy named Michael Paul.
I met Michael Paul when he was at Fox in Los Angeles, California, and I was at Go TV.
Michael Paul is a very impressive guy, was an absolute leader.
He leaves Fox and gets recruited to go run video for Amazon.
So let's follow the crew trajectory and look at the leadership.
He's up at Amazon, runs video, and then he gets recruited to Disney, I think it's in New York, to come run Disney Plus.
When I saw that, I felt, and it's Michael Paul, P-A-U-L-L.
Great guy.
Double L?
What?
Double L.
It's the Paul family with the extra L.
And so I really was impressed by the guy when we would talk there.
We would talk about where's Go TV going to go, where I think it should go, what's going on with Fox.
And a lot of times, I just connected with him professionally.
We weren't next door neighbors or anything, but I grabbed a couple lunches with him.
Always, always very sharp.
And I kind of noticed what was going on.
I think this is a leadership thing.
This is not somebody that grew up in Disney with production film.
This is a guy that cut his chops with a stop at Amazon.
And it doesn't surprise me that he's driving it this way at all.
I thought the blending was good.
I thought the ESPN Plus they put in there and the way they put it all together.
They recreated the cable company.
Boom.
And he's driving it.
And I'm not surprised by this.
I'm not surprised at all.
I'm a Hulu subscriber from like day one.
Do you think they're going to hit the 300 to 350 or you think they're going to surpass it and hit a half a billion?
I don't know.
It all depends on what, you know, you got Canada.
You have the other markets.
It's the take rate in foreign markets because you've only got how many hundred million homes in America and 330, 350.
Right, you're a little bit five million?
Yeah, but it's homes.
Homes is different than population, right?
So if you count four to one, so we're dealing with only 100 million in the U.S., let's just say, or 90 million in the U.S., you have to figure out a way to expand internationally to get a number like that.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
But what's happening in the U.S., I think they're just sucking the air out of the room.
YouTube TV didn't get going fast enough.
You know, they had a head start.
They had a lot of things going on.
Question for you.
Can they go into China?
Can Disney Plus go into China?
Can you check to see if Disney Plus is in China right now?
Can they go into China?
Because look, kids watch Disney from all parts of the world.
So I'm curious enough if that is a market they're considering that they're going to get into that's going to give them a chunk of that business right there of 350.
Adam, what's on your mind?
Disney made the, it's a small world, after all, famous.
We've all been there.
We know it's a small world.
We're all in connected world.
What I got to appreciate about the BizDoc is you're looking at the story and you see some of these numbers and we'll kind of get into it.
But of course, Tom Ellsworth knows the guy, Michael Paul, with two L's.
Oh, yeah, I met him back at a party and we were doing a video conference.
Like that kind of insight is actually very impressive.
Like no one would know.
But speaking of leadership, like who, if we forget, you know, we're thinking of these massive companies, but no one understands.
Like, oh, well, there's a guy named Reed Hastings and this is his philosophy and this is the book that he wrote and this is why Netflix became that company.
And like there's a story behind the story.
And what you're essentially, you're saying is like, yeah, Disney, the name of Disney is obviously a popular name and people get it.
But no, there's this dude named Michael Paul with two L's and here's the deal and here's where he came from.
But let me let me kick it over to you, Pat.
I've been pretty vocal about this because we've covered, you know, when Quibi didn't, you know, and I was like, what the hell is Quibi at the time?
You said something yesterday, like the big three, hospitality, in hospitality in, what was the big three that you said regarding.
You had airlines and you had restaurants.
It's the ones that got hit heaviest by COVID.
During the pandemic, you kind of sort of gave it its own moniker, the big three.
What's the big three when it comes to streaming?
Obviously, Netflix is numero uno, right?
But Disney is right there.
It's coming up on its heels.
So it seems.
Then you got Amazon Prime.
How many players, is there a big three?
Is there going to be a big five?
Hold it up.
Top OTTs in the world, top OTT.
Because you can only have such a freaking thing.
How many of these can you have?
Like when Quibi failed, I was like, yeah, obviously, because there's freaking 10 other things they're competing with.
You got Hulu, Hulu, just put, okay, there you go.
Oh, HBO is one as well.
That's right.
That's the one that you got to be looking out for because HBO is competing in a marketplace.
And you have so many Disneylands.
In the U.S., type it in the U.S. Top OTT.
Okay, streaming platforms in the U.S. Look at that.
Do you see that?
Wow.
You know what Kai's doing over the weekend?
Kai is learning better.
Ladies and gentlemen, the fingers of lightning.
That's already a month old, but we'll see what that says.
So YouTube is considered OTT for Netflix.
So YouTube is in the mix.
Amazon, Vimeo.
Yeah, this isn't even another.
But I think you have to look at this as the multi-channel because the YouTube here is YouTube Red and a few things like that.
You know, just access.
People intentionally buying it.
So everybody thought, and by the way, I did a case study on Netflix.
Remember, I talked about that Netflix without all the Disney programming going off the air, going to have some challenges.
Netflix is holding its own and even raised prices a buck.
So it's Netflix for designated, you have to look at it two sides, the live TV side.
Hulu Live TV is really good.
And then Netflix is the premium programming, going back to House of Cards and things that they built themselves.
Although House of Cards came out of Britain.
I got a question for you guys.
Here's a question for you.
What's more impressive?
Disney going from zero to $100 million in 16 months?
Or Netflix going from zero to $100 million in 10 years?
Well, I think you would argue that Netflix was the organic growth entrepreneurial on, thank you, Adam, Reed Hastings and his leadership.
And then Disney kind of took their own stuff and then bought up the rest of the air out of the room.
You know, they bought the libraries.
So there's your acquisition strategy.
What's tougher, though?
What's tougher between?
What's more impressive?
I don't have a business.
I think it's tougher what Netflix did over 10 years.
I told you.
I think that's much tougher.
I mean, Disney had, let's face it, all the money in the room.
They have a monopoly.
Yeah.
And they have content galore from how many years?
Well, yeah, and they bought the stack from Fox.
They got the Marvel.
They got the Star Wars.
I mean, so they bought everything.
Yeah.
How much credit here goes to Iger?
How much does Iger get credit for what he did during his 15, 16 years of doing what he did and buying out Star Wars, buying out Fox, buying out everything?
How much of the credit goes to Iger?
I like Bob.
I don't agree with him on everything that he says and does where he crosses over in the politics and whatnot.
But I think he doesn't have to apologize that that was the hand he was played.
I have Disney, I've got money, and I'm going to go buy it.
I don't think you apologize for that.
His job was to grow and to deliver for the shareholders, and he did it.
Now, is that as impressive as what Reed Hastings did?
No, but I think in the chair that he inherited with the hand he was dealt, I think he did a good job.
Yeah.
I say Reed Hastings, kudos to the guy for building something that you have, you have nothing.
You have to create content.
You have to go get people to come and visit your.
You have to get, you know, hey, let's go.
What do you got here?
Netflix, 204 million, Prime, 150, Spotify, 144.
I can't read the next one.
Is it Trescent, 10 cents, 120?
And then it's, what's the next one at 119?
Okay, and then you have Disney at 95, Yoku at 90 million.
Apple Music.
Can you make it bigger?
I actually want to see who's next after that because I want to know how many of these we're using.
Go a little bit more.
Do one more layer?
Do one more.
Okay, that's good.
So Disney, 95, Yoku, 90.
Apple Music, 68.
Music, Amazon, 55.
I don't know who the next one is, 57.
7E, what does that say?
VO and then Hulu 39.
Hulu's only at 39 million.
Eros and then YouTube Premium 30 million.
Sirius, 34 million.
Disney, another one right there.
You got Showtime, Paramount.
HBO Max is only 17 million.
I thought for sure HBO would have been bigger number than that because a lot of stuff you're seeing lately going straight to HBO Max.
But remember, you take Disney Plus plus the Hulu plus the ESPN Plus plus the Disney cell phone.
No question about it.
Well, this was essentially my point.
And this is why actually I kind of disagree with you guys on the Netflix thing.
Yeah, Disney had sort of a lead in the race, but look at how much competition is out there.
Like we can't even, we don't even know half these names.
We're talking about, I don't even know that one.
What's this?
There's just so much competition.
So yes, it's Disney.
Yes, it's a big, you know, bohemian type of company, but you still have to compete in the marketplace.
You still have to have a good product.
You still need to have.
Adam, what did you drink this morning?
I'm all over the map, baby.
What was that?
Can we check the company?
I'm just saying, I got to get a guy in the morning.
Okay, all right.
Here's the deal.
The first stock that I've ever owned in my life was Disney.
My grandma bought me like 20 shares of Disney when I was like born.
So I still have them.
They're the only individual stock.
Yeah, I still have them.
So she probably bought them for like a nickel back in 1980.
And now they're worth a decent amount of money.
Is it a decent amount of money?
Yeah, I don't know.
It's like probably 30 grand.
20.
Yeah, like pretty cool.
She bought you 20 shares and it's worth 30 grand.
Maybe not, maybe 26 grand.
I don't know what I don't know the exact number.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
It's great to do that.
Thanks, Graham.
I mean, guys, long, you know, buy and hold, buy and hold.
So point is, I got a little soft spot for Disney.
So when I see Disney kind of doing all right, it's a small world.
Yeah, all right.
I'm buying Canada.
Let's go find Adam Cinderella already.
I think that's what.
By the honesty, how many times have you seen Cinderella?
Be honest.
50, 60?
Recently?
I'm talking last week.
Just last week.
In the last week, probably 20 times.
I saw Cinderella like.
I'm looking for that slipper, baby.
You got two daughters.
Where's other Paul?
I saw Cinderella like three times.
He opened for poison, right?
Is that right?
Awesome.
Anyway, I'm just impressed with what's going on, Disney.
Back to you.
Last point.
Last point.
And then I'm going to turn it over to the BizDoc.
Speaking of competition, speaking that there's all these different competitors out there.
Yeah.
You know, you brought up the big three.
We talk about, you know, you have Uber and you have Lyft.
You've got Amazon, you've got Walmart.
In the streaming world, there's a couple dozen names that you have to compete with.
So to be in the top three or even the top five in that category is very impressive.
Any final thoughts there, Tom, before we move on?
I got to make one salute to Reid Hastings and his management team.
When he came out, I look at who wanted you dead.
HBO wanted him dead.
He's putting movies in the hands of consumers.
That's HBO's realm.
Showtime, Cinemax, all those, they wanted him dead.
And yet he was getting these, you know, Blockbuster.
Remember, Blockbuster Video, Jim Keys?
They wanted him dead.
So you have to look at these incumbents that were massive when he came out there.
The number of people that wanted him to fail when they had less than nothing.
And here they are.
The dust is cleared.
And a lot of those names I mentioned are gone or demuted in their influence.
So that's what I look at Netflix.
Here's my final question to you, Pat.
How many of these streaming services do you have in the Bet David household?
I couldn't even tell you.
So we obviously don't have...
More than five?
We have Disney.
We have Netflix.
We have Amazon Prime.
I think those are the three that we have.
That's it.
You have three.
I think we have three of them.
Okay, how many in?
But now ask Mario.
Mario over there.
Mario owns underground streaming services.
Mario owns pretty much every single thing that you can see on streaming service.
He owns all of them.
Why does Mario?
He subscribes to all of them.
Why?
I don't know.
Mario's a content guy.
He's an underground kind of guy.
He's an underground content type of guy.
I think I got like eight.
See assimilation.
You have eight, Paul?
I think so.
I got eight streaming services.
HBO Max, Apple TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Stars, what else?
Keith Sweats, OTT.
Keith Sweats.
You taught me your body baby.
Would you consider going down to three?
Sweat.
No.
You wouldn't.
You go down to five.
First of all.
And Peacock just opened up.
YouTube.
You're peacocking over there, Paul.
You are definitely peacocking.
You're talking about a guy that when the movies were open, Paul, how many movies were watching every week at the movie theater?
Honestly.
Three.
Minimum every week.
Yeah.
No matter what.
In addition to all your OTT.
I wasn't streaming as much, to be honest.
Paul, when you watch three movies, do you get the popcorn and an IC or you just go watch the movie and you leave?
I would rotate.
You would rotate?
Sometimes, yes, I would just go in.
Three times a week, no matter what.
Do they even make three movies every week?
Not anymore.
I've honestly seen probably one a month now.
Okay, so we're starting to get some questions here, folks.
If you got some questions, I mean, I'm seeing already questions on the podcast.
Cool GuyAlert says, let's talk about Dogecoin.
Some folks are talking about, I'll just go into the next question here.
Kevin Thatcher, if you want to go on to Twitter just to have it up to see it and put it on the big screen so we can see it.
Kevin Thatcher, shout out to Kevin.
Real estate or crypto as long-term investment?
I'm a real estate guy, but I'm thinking crypto.
Tom, I'm going to ask you, here's a good question.
Do I invest in real estate, long-term investment, or do I do crypto for long-term investment?
Both you guys are money guys.
I'm curious to know what you're going to say about this.
I'm going to say real estate on the conservative side.
So if you're younger and you've got time to make a recovery later in life, you could take a bet on crypto and see where it goes.
But if you're over 40, I would probably say real estate because it's got permanent scarcity and more people come in the United States.
So that would be my headline.
What would you say?
Age is a factor for sure, but I like to keep things moving.
I like the portability.
So I've been very vocal.
Like, I'm not trying to just stay in a house and just wait for the house to appreciate.
So I'm going in on crypto versus real estate for sure.
So long term, you're saying crypto over real estate.
Yeah.
Okay.
I agree.
Well, you got to realize real estate long term, what has it done?
What's the number on real estate?
3%.
3% is what is a real estate is long term.
Good luck with that, Haas.
Yeah.
But he's saying conservatively crypto, conservatively real estate.
This is the old school thinking.
This is the new school thinking.
I'm more of a crypto guy.
He's a real estate guy.
That's fine.
If I was 22, no student loans coming out, I would be on crypto.
And I'd be hanging with Bitcoin because I think there's – Guy, can you put his tweet up?
I'm begging you put the tweet up.
Like, I've been asking Kai, texting him, sending him signals.
But, Tom, are you a big real estate guy in general?
Forget about crypto.
Just in general, like you buy your house, you have a mortgage.
I mean, where are you at with just real estate in general?
Real estate, I like the mathematics of rental property with the cost of housing.
No, no, no, no, that's not what I asked because everyone's going, oh, I'd like to have a rental property.
I mean, just literally having a mortgage, buying a house, paying down your mortgage, that concept.
No, I'm really not.
I'm really not.
You're not.
No.
And you're a numbers guy.
Why not?
Well, at the time I would have bought, and at the time earlier, we had 5% and 7% mortgages.
Maybe even higher than that.
And that was the good era.
And so I think that the price of the mortgages is everything.
Well, the price of mortgages are extremely low, right now.
So it's a different world right now.
Oh, you're saying back when you bought?
Yeah.
But now I'm talking about.
Oh, yeah.
If the government wants to give me 2% money, I'll take it all day long.
Look, 2% money and the 3% appreciation, you're 50% ahead of the government.
So it doesn't sound like big numbers, but you're ahead.
But it's a conservative plan.
You're crypto long-term.
If you're 22, you're crypto long-term.
Today, you're more real estate and crypto long-term.
40-45, I cross over to more conservative stuff.
Fair enough.
You've got no time to recover.
Age.
Age.
Yeah, fair enough.
Let's continue.
I can see how that could potentially be the case.
So, America, Americans cut credit card debt by nearly $83 billion during the pandemic.
According to a study from Wallet Hub, a personal finance website, Americans collectively got rid of a record $83 billion of debt in 2020.
The figure is significant given that consumers have added an average of $54.2 billion in credit card that each year for the past decade, still the U.S. has a long way to go in paying off the $1 trillion of debt collectively.
But it is progress.
Wallet Hub analyst Jill Gonzalez said that 2020 was the second year in more than 30 years.
We've ended the year owing less credit card debt than we started with.
The first year was 2009, the height of the great recession.
Thoughts?
I got to tell you, this is one of the stories I was super excited to even discuss.
I am, you said progress.
This is very impressive stuff, right?
I mean, we're talking about investing right now.
We're talking about, are you long on crypto or your real estate?
People forget the best investment you can possibly make is paying off your freaking credit card.
Because if you're paying 10, 12, 15, 20, 24% interest rates, you're not going to get that in the market.
It's more like the 20s.
Right.
Okay.
Exactly.
I mean, it could be in 20-something percent.
So it's very interesting here, and I would love to get your opinion on the correlation here.
Two times in the last 30 years, we've ended the year with what, less credit card debt than we started with?
Two times.
Yeah.
2020, pandemic, and 2009, the Great Recession.
So it seems to me that fear, you know, produces sort of fiscal prudence.
What's the correlation with that?
I think you just said it.
Okay, is that what it is?
It's like, holy crap, the world is coming to an end.
That was an epiphany moment for you, honestly.
Was that what it was?
I was a savior debt moment.
Okay.
Right.
So it's on top of the leaderboard right now, baby.
No, I think you're right.
It's very impressive.
I think you're exactly right.
If you're one of those people out there that took the opportunity to get your stimulus check or make your money or not travel and you actually did the smart, fiscal, prudent thing and actually paid off your credit card and said, I am not effing going back into debt ever again, kudos to you out there.
I have respect for you if you did that out there.
No, I think you're absolutely right.
So you take somebody who's got $25,000 limited on a credit card and they're sitting there at 15.
I may need this for something really important.
And I can't go to restaurants.
I can't travel.
I'm probably lower on car maintenance.
There's a lot of things that you just weren't buying at all for people living beyond their means, partying a little bit.
And I think there was prudence in there that says, hey, I got a couple extra dollars here.
I'm going to knock this down.
Sitting at home with time to think is actually good for Americans.
And I think generally people sitting at home with time to think will make pretty rational decisions.
So in 2008, okay, Barack Obama is being interviewed.
And he said, look, these are times that you may want to stay home and skip that Vegas trip.
He says that.
And he says, save that money, right?
Instead of, you know, he said this.
And I don't want to see any more of them CEOs going to Vegas on those private jets.
I think that stuff needs to come to an end.
I think that's wasteful.
Got it.
Remember that?
Not about Obama, right?
Do you remember where we said that and all the private jet companies and Vegas flipped out and said, we supported you, jerk?
So he says this.
Politics for you.
He says this.
And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, okay, a friend out of Las Vegas, the mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman, comes out and calls out Barack Obama.
How dare you say such a thing about my city?
How dare this is a guy that voted for him?
How dare you tell people to not come to the great city of Las Vegas where all these people have their jobs, right?
All this money being saved is a beautiful thing, but this money being saved hits a lot of industries.
Okay, that money would generally end up in an industry.
It's going to go somewhere.
It's going to be spent somewhere, which by the way, I tell you, I like the fact that we're paying off debt.
I'm all about paying off debt.
Unfortunately, during COVID, the country got into $5 trillion more debt.
So, yeah, we paid off $83 billion of individuals' credit card debt, but the country is officially $5 trillion and more debt, which means you're eventually that $83 billion may be sexy, but it ain't nothing compared to what you're going to have to pay off your kids, yourself in the next 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, possibly 100 years, because that debt has to be paid off with the $5 trillion of money that we printed.
So the saying, like you said, you know, fear makes people save money.
Fear also sharpens listening.
People listen more when they're afraid.
People are willing to take advice when they're afraid.
Unfortunately, today, fear is not really sharpening listening to anybody because they're not afraid today.
People are pretty aggressive today.
People are very optimistic today.
People are playing offense today.
So everybody's thinking the market's going to go galore and everyone's going to make money and the Dow's not going to drop.
And we saw a glimpse of it.
What happened when the interest rates went up a couple weeks ago, two weeks ago, when the rates went up, all of a sudden, like, wait a minute, what's going on over here?
You know, market took a hit for a day.
And of course, it came back up.
But, you know, this is good playing aggressive offense like this paying debt off.
But it'd be great to have this habit during good, bad, and ugly times.
Unfortunately, when you're staying home, you have nowhere to go to spend that money.
What do you do?
Save that money.
Save that money.
Thank you for that tee-up.
Well, one just, I guess, counterpoint to our good friend Oscar Goodman.
It's not you.
You know, it's the wrong people.
I just want you to know.
So before I ask you.
Oscar was, you ever seen a movie Casino?
Of course.
Robert De Niro, baby.
He is in the movie.
And in real life, he was the attorney of Tony Spilatro, Frank Colada.
And, you know, Oscar is a very interesting story about Oscar Goodman.
He was the mayor of Vegas for 12 years.
You know who was the mayor after him?
For eight years?
His wife has been those.
Did he play himself in the movie?
I know exactly what he's doing.
That's what you're talking about.
Yes.
Yeah.
What a G. What a G. Oscar is.
We met him, right?
Yeah, of course.
We had a great time with him.
He's a good man.
He's a good man.
He's an interesting man.
But you brought up, like, how dare you not spend your money in Vegas?
Look, it's not, I've had this conversation with people before.
Well, why would I save?
You know, because if I spend money that helps the economy and helps individual sectors, listen, it's not your individual job to stimulate the freaking economy.
It's your job.
So you're more about stimulating yourself.
You're stimulating your own pocketbooks.
Don't worry.
Don't worry about it.
What noble person you are.
I'm giant.
I'll be back in 10 minutes.
I'm just saying.
Don't worry.
Like, worry about your own.
Jesus.
Jesus, Pat.
Don't worry about what's going on in the macroeconomy.
Worry about what's going on under your roof.
Like, if you're in debt, don't justify getting into more debt and spending more money.
Well, I'm helping the economy, man.
Don't worry about that.
That'll figure itself out.
If you've got $5,000 of credit card debt and you have the opportunity to pay it off, get that out of your life.
Self-stimulation is what they call it.
Stimulation.
I'll be right back, guys.
Yeah, self-stimulation.
Focus on.
Which, by the way, I think you make a very good point because, you know, at the end of the day, you know, even Michael Jackson said what?
If you want to make a change, take a look at yourself.
And, you know, talking to the man in the world.
In the mirror, right?
Starts with you.
Yeah.
It starts with you.
So we've gone all over the place.
If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change.
Say it.
Tom, dude, the song you plays from the 60s.
That's the song you wake up to.
We forgot.
What was the song you wake up to?
No, no, no, no.
What was the song you played here a minute ago that just woke us up with a TV Ray Von Skull Button?
So sing it.
Sing it for us.
Well, it doesn't have any words.
Well, then Goes to go, there you go.
That was great.
Great goals.
Thank you, Steve.
But I'm going to remind you.
That's where it sounds.
Kai, what's going on?
Talk about Michael Jackson, be the man in the mirror, guys.
SPAC versus.
By the way, by the way, if you're enjoying the topics we've covered so far and the fact that we have Tom on, smash that subscribe button.
If you're enjoying it so far, press that subscribe button.
We're trying to get this podcast over 100,000 subscribers.
But let's talk about SPACs versus IPOs.
First of all, assume 80% of people listening to this don't know what a SPAC is.
20% don't have heard about it.
So why is everybody talking about SPACs versus IPOs?
Got it.
So a lot of people out there, entrepreneurs, think about, you know, having your own company and saying, you know, how did Facebook get on the market?
How did Twitter get on the market?
Well, you build your company up and then you work with a New York bank, a Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, folks like that.
And they do what's called IPO, initial public offering, and they get you on the stock market.
Now, the bank is in charge of all that.
And a lot of times the bank, you know, they got heavy fees and stuff.
There's an alternative that's out there.
It's called SPACs.
And it's like a short way to get on the stock market.
And what's very interesting that I think most people don't know is how this gets gamed.
Because the money that your company will get is the first day IPO.
So when you go on the stock market, the company gets a bunch of money on the first day, and then the company is traded on the stock market.
And then you can take that money, build your company, and do all these kind of great things.
So a faster version of going public rather than taking the IPO.
Correct.
Correct.
And, you know, what's very, very interesting, and I was giving you an example.
Many people, you don't have to understand SPAC or IPO to notice, hey, that company just went public and they see this jump in the stock price.
Wall Street Bets will tell you about it.
If you're on Robinhood, you see it all about it.
It's very easy to see.
You don't really have to denode a lot of details and notice it.
And hey, Kai, put up Poshmark.
So you have Poshmark, really cool company, where people are reaching to their closets, taking fashion, and they can trade it.
It's like second-hand retail.
That's right.
And it's like an eBay for curated fashion where you can sell what's in your closet that's not too old.
So Poshmark goes out on day one.
They sold IPO, and it was Goldman and Morgan that walked hand in hand down the aisle to do this one.
So they went out and a bunch of people at Gold, high net worth people at Goldman IPO were invited to buy in at about 42 to 49.
Look what happens within two days, all the way up to 100.
And then this one just happened in January, and then it goes down.
You know why it went?
Because all those people, Goldman and Morgan, those high net worth people that saw the thing pop day one, they're like, I've just doubled.
Maybe I'm out.
And so now it levels out down to a more rational, where is it today?
Like 50 or something?
51.
51.
So it's above its IPO value a little bit.
Now it's going to grow into its still make 25%.
You're just going to make 100%.
That's exactly right.
But the point is that pop there, if that was really the value of the company, this should have gone out maybe at 75.
And that would have been more dollars for Poshmark on day one.
They got the first day price, like $49.
So it's kind of gamed.
So the IPO game is kind of gamed by the business.
This is in the IPO game.
Who wins in the IPO game?
The IPO game, the banks win, and the high-net worth people and the big institutions that buy your IPO price the day before the pop and then they sell out.
That's in the IPO.
That's in the IPO.
Who wins in the SPAC?
The SPAC, the company still gives up a percent of itself to go public, but the pricing is much more rational.
And you work with the SPAC partner, and it's just, it's more rational, and you have less of this hidden game, this day one, week one game.
And so the bad side of SPACs right now is there's too many SPACs.
And so if there's too many SPACs and not enough good companies, bad companies are going to get out because some SPAC will say, well, you're not really that perfect yet, but I'll take you public.
What's a bad company?
Not a real product.
It's just future projections.
You don't have past projections.
You're just kind of like, here's what we're going to do next three years.
And you say, what have you done last three years?
And you have nothing to show for yourself.
Your growth is less stable.
You're profitable.
That makes sense.
Maybe you're a little stable.
So let me ask you this.
If I created a SPAC myself and you and I put a couple hundred million dollars and we're doing it at $10 with 50 cent warrant, whatever.
That's exactly right.
Okay, so say we have that, right?
Okay, we put a couple hundred million dollars in there.
What kind of companies are we not looking for to put in the SPAC?
And what kind of companies are we looking for to consider putting into our SPAC?
Three-year-old venture company that hasn't yet grown into profitability and gotten above 25 million in sales is probably sketchy.
So don't touch that one.
Don't touch that one.
But they're touching it, and that's where shit's hitting the fan.
Correct.
That's the criticism of SPACs is that the lower quality companies are getting out because there's too many SPACs out there right now.
It's like, you know, there's great companies out there that entrepreneurs are putting together and are going to get out.
So, Pat, you brought up something yesterday.
But give me the other one.
Give me the other one that you would.
We have a couple hundred million, $10.
MetroMile just went out with a SPAC.
I think highly of them.
They're redoing car insurance over $100 million in sales.
It's a real legitimate company.
Legitimate companies are waiting 18 months, go 90 days and go with a SPAC.
Yeah, exactly right.
You got to be ready for it.
Speaking of Metro Mile, you did a case study, Metro Mile versus Root.
I watched it.
I tried to, you know, not only am I on Value Attainment Economics, I hair.
Watch it.
I'm a subscriber because I learned from the BizDoc.
The Hair Club for Men.
I'm also a customer.
Exactly.
Not only am I the president, I'm also a customer.
Yeah.
You're going to like the way you look.
I guarantee you, Tom.
But anyway, I listened to that episode.
You were in Hawaii, lucky you, doing episodes from Hawaii, looking good, drinking a Mai Tai, I believe.
You were slightly drunk, but we're not calling you out.
You're having a good time.
But you were doing an episode on the SPAC of the last five minutes of the case study.
It was a little inebriated.
A little shaky at the end, but it's all good.
Tom, does he?
You remember doing the case study?
I did a case study.
I remember that.
And then you did, you know, it was Metro Mile versus Root.
It was actually very informative.
But I mean, I'm of the 80% that was like, what the hell is a SPAC?
I never even heard about a SPAC until basically our good friend Chamath Palipatia started talking about it over the last 12 months.
He's all about it.
He's all about that life.
And he's got the track record.
He's got the track record.
You brought up something yesterday, Pat, when I said, well, what's the deal with the SPAC?
And you said, it's all about speed.
It's all about speed.
It takes less time.
So anyway, what is that?
I mean, if you want to go public, it can cost you $4 to $10 million.
I'm giving a low too high.
It's about a $6 million number.
Is that about a right number?
Absolutely fair.
A ton of things you have to do.
So $4 to $10 million, legal fees, CPA accounting, audits, headaches.
You're probably, you're going to have a handful of people in your office for six months just sitting there going through every single thing to prepare.
And then Goldman, Morgan, Merrill, whoever it is that's going to take you, they're going to go.
Telling you how beautiful you are.
They're going to have to go sell you.
It's a mess when you go public through the IPO.
SPAC, boom.
90 days.
If you're good, we're out.
And you're on the market, ding, You're on the market if you go through the SPAC.
If you have a real business, if you don't have a real business, guess what they will do if you go on a SPAC?
You will be trashed by the media.
Oh, my God.
If it's not a real business.
Why will they trash you?
What is it?
Because it's fake.
You're trying to make money by manipulating the stock and saying, here's what we're creating.
Here's who we're going to be.
Here's what we're building.
But you don't have any of that built today.
And if you keep saying, here's what we're going to do, watch, watch us, watch us, and nothing happens with the watches.
Are patient for a month, maybe three months, maybe six months, maybe 12 months.
But eventually, if you can't show proof in a pudding of what you're creating, that's when backlash comes.
Let me ask you another question.
Professional analysts are out there to protect the share.
You know, a lot of this is sort of big macroeconomics.
Should I go SPAC?
Should I go IPO?
How does this affect our listeners out there?
Like, what should they be aware of?
Is it when they're investing, where they're looking to allocate their capital?
Is it just knowledge?
Where should our listeners be following this?
First of all, education is key, but this isn't even about the education.
I'll give a completely different angle of it.
Tom is sitting here.
For people that don't know Tom, if you know Tom, Tom is a guy that did very well in business.
If you've ever, you ever seen the interview between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the last great interview between the two in the red chair, you know which one I'm talking about.
Pull up the picture.
Don't play the video because in case the folks out of silicone start knocking on the door, put Steve Jobs, Bill Gates' last interview, interview.
Yeah, you probably have seen it.
I mean, the world saw that picture right there with them going at it.
Like it was very, very emotional.
It was intense.
It was awesome, right?
There were 300 people in that room.
Tom was one of them, okay?
That were invited to be in that room.
Tom was a Silicon Valley guy.
Tom was a technology guy.
Tom was a guy that participated in four companies going and they sold it for over a billion dollars.
That's what Tom's resume is.
Former professor, adjunct professor at Pepperdine.
I think Loyola Mountain.
Am I missing one of them?
Biola.
Biola was what he was teaching.
So I mean, he's no rocket scientist, but he's doing it.
No rocket scientists.
But his dad was.
His dad was a rocket scientist.
Son of a rocket.
Son of a rocket scientist.
But the point is, the final one: if you have the ability to go run with a person you believe in, that you think is crazy enough to do what they're saying, they're going to do it, and you go, you become a voice, you become a leader, you own a piece of that company and that company takes off and you own some shares and you bring value to that company, you can experience some nice exits.
I lived in communities my last 10, 15 years.
I live in communities where people you talk to them, how'd you make your money?
You'll hear them say uh, it was either.
The inheritance is actually a very small percentage, only less than 10 self-made millionaires, 90 self-made billionaires yes, that is a 70, that's self-made.
30 that the money was, you know, passed on like the Walton family, all these other guys.
But 70 of billionaires, 90 of millionaires, are self-made, right?
How'd you make your money?
Oh, you know real estate.
How'd you make your money?
Oh, stocks.
How'd you make your money?
I was part of a company.
The company went public.
I owned some shares.
I was there early.
I got my exit.
I got my 16 million auto check.
You don't know this person, right?
I got my 22 million auto check.
I got my 41 million.
The world doesn't know 40 million dollar people.
Yeah you you, you could.
You could be sitting next to a guy that's got 42 million dollars from an exit that he had and he's sitting pretty, he's set, he's got good things, good life all.
So anybody that's watching this and you're hearing us talk about ip or spec, my challenge and, you know, sort of an inspiration to you would be, try to figure right away, to get into that circle and go contribute to a company that's potentially going to go public or have a spec or, you know, Be of value to that company.
The upside could be exponential.
Even Mario.
Mario was a guy that started with me early.
You know, you got Mario, Moral, you know, Tikrin, who started Lexus.
And then you got some of the guys from Amor, big, you know, Tom himself.
Tom's Tom's, you know, one of the biggest shareholders in the entire company.
I think, Tom, you're like the third biggest shareholder in the company, third or fourth biggest shareholder in the company.
Look at the smile on his face, right?
Third or fourth biggest shareholder in the company.
So, but if you go back and you think about Jose Gaitan, right?
Jose Marlene Gaitan, big shareholder, right?
You think about a Palayo, you think about even Sepalis that came later on.
So these guys come in, they get, and by the way, there's a lot, we have like 250 of them, but some more than less.
You come in, you get the shares, you contribute, the company does well, then you have an exit.
So I think what I take away from IPOs and SPACs is go find one and bring a ton of value to that company with the hopes of earning the rights to get some shares.
So hopefully you can have your own exit as well one day.
That's how I process that when I see that.
Yeah, feedback on that time?
What do you do?
No, absolutely.
You're just smiling over there.
I'll tell you about a guy.
There is, going back at Jamdad, there is a producer, a games producer.
And if he's listening, he knows who he is.
It's Travis.
And Travis wanted to know how do I get more equity?
How do I get more equity?
And he wanted to know how do I build value for the organization?
How do I build the organization's value?
And he never was a guy that came in and said, hey, you know, they're hiring over at Electronic Arts or Activision.
Can I have another $10,000 a year in salary?
He never, never, never.
He said for shares.
He asked for shares, but more importantly, he was like, how do I impact the valuation of the company?
And by the way, that's the attitude what Patrick just said.
That's the attitude you walk in.
Hey, how does my job increase the value of this company?
I just want to know how I can be really, really good at it.
I need health insurance, so I got to have enough to live and do things like that.
But I'm willing to make a bet here and drive on value.
And you walk in there, you're going to have an entrepreneur hug you and say, I will take care of you, and this is how you do it.
FYI.
We just recently interviewed an executive.
I won't give the name.
Here's how the interview went: Look, pay me whatever salary you want to pay me.
It's great.
Whatever you want to pay me, pay me the salary.
But I'm more interested in equity and participating in the victory.
So pay me there.
I don't care what my salary is.
Let me participate in this.
That comes from a person with experience.
Okay.
And when you learn more about the person, you realize why the person says, pay me in equity, not in, because he had an exit in the past or one or two or three exits in the past.
So you had a guy that was working for you years ago, goes to Snap, has an exit, gets 40 million bucks, and he was a guy that reported to you.
Correct.
That's a pretty nice exit to have, right?
So those things happen to a lot of people.
That's the part about working for an established company, and that's the part about working for a company that's steadily grown where you can have a big upside.
By the way, if you're enjoying it, you're learning, press that subscribe button.
And if you want us to answer a question you may have, go send a tweet with hashtag PBD podcast.
Once again, PBD podcast, hashtag my handle is at Patrick Bay.
David Kai's watching all the questions that are coming in.
We're going to get to a question here as well, but let's continue to the next topic of Russia.
I want to do Russia next.
We'll get to that one as well.
Russia slowed down Twitter speed and threatened a total block after the site allegedly failed to delete banned content.
If Twitter continues to ignore the requirements of the law, the enforcement measured will be continued.
The state communication regulator said, think about that.
The move which escalates a grown standoff between Moscow and U.S. social media comes weeks after Russian authorities accused Twitter and others of failing to delete posts it said illegally urge children to take part in the anti-Kremlin protests.
The regulators claims that the vast majority of the posts Twitter allegedly refused to delete contained content encouraging minors to take their own lives.
Other posts including indecent images of children and information about drug abuse.
Moscow has gradually introduced tougher internet laws in recent years requiring search engines to delete some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Tom, what do you, by the way, Russia tried to ban Telegram Messenger since 2018, for example, but proved technically unable to block the app.
And last year, he publicly lifted the ban.
What do you think Russia is doing here going after Twitter?
I think there is a not-so-humorous truth that's in the middle of that, and that is you are encouraging children to take their own lives.
What are you talking about?
You're encouraging them to speak against the government.
Oh, I see.
So that's how you take your own life.
You speak against the government and you get disappeared.
Look, Russia, hey, Russia really hasn't changed that much.
I mean, since the Soviet Union broke, they've been trying to put it back together.
And the biggest thing they're trying to put back together is the control systems.
And information, you know, and human yearning for freedom are things that are catalysts for massive change.
And the government doesn't want change.
I think it's as simple as that.
And this window to the world, they don't want it.
This soapbox to speak, they don't want it.
Ronald Reagan told a great joke.
And he said, he was talking to a Russian friend.
And he says, I think the United States is great for the freedom.
He said, why do you say that?
And Ronald Reagan said, because any citizen in America can walk in to the president's office and pound his fist on the table and say, Mr. Reagan, I don't like how you're running your country.
And the Russian guy says, I can do that too.
So what do you mean?
I can walk into Gorbachev's office.
I can pound my fist on the table.
And I said, I don't like how Mr. Reagan's running his country.
And I don't think anything's changed.
It's just these digital states.
But Russia's still Russia.
Russia's still Russia.
How much of this liability is on Twitter?
How much of this is backfiring on Twitter based on how they mishandled prior incidents?
I think they need to be careful that arrogance against American controls doesn't play well other places like China and Russia.
How ugly could this get?
I mean, what can Russia really do to Twitter?
Let's face it.
What do you do?
You can't bomb a social media platform and say, I'm going to blow you up, Twitter.
Well, what do you do?
They've got some great hackers.
I mean, we all know Russia's got great hackers.
We're going to talk about it a little later, but Microsoft right now is under a state-sponsored attack from China.
So you've got some smart people over there, and I think, you know, digital attacks, digital warfare.
I think that's exactly where they go with this.
Okay.
Well, I mean, back to your initial thought of complaining against the government of Russia.
Obviously, Putin's in charge there.
What's the name of the gentleman who's been the biggest dissident and detractor of Putin and Alexey Navalny?
Right?
We've seen this guy's story over the last year.
The Germans took three months in hospital.
Okay, so he was poisoned on a plane.
We played that video sort of in one of the initial podcasts.
He's back in the plane.
Oh, my God.
They take him off the plane.
Turns out he was poisoned.
Clearly, this was a Germany saves his life.
Shout out to your people.
I'm Canadian, by the way.
Okay, I didn't, you know.
Just go along with it, baby.
What does this guy do?
He, you know, recovers, and what does he do?
Goes back to Russia and essentially dares Putin to kill him again.
He gets arrested.
What's the status of him now?
Puts him on trial and puts him in a tough prison.
That's where he is right now.
Is he not?
I don't know.
That's my point, is that you speak out against the government, poisoned, you know, imprisoned.
Good luck out there.
I mean, back to your point about the Russian joke.
Back to your point with Twitter.
How do you fight a social media company if you're a strong man like Putin?
It's just hacking, digital warfare.
that the only um outlet you have to doing something like this you're slowing down the kai what can they really do to twitter Can they do anything to Twitter outside of hacking?
You can't poison Twitter, or can you?
Tom, can they do anything to Twitter?
You don't have an answer for that.
I think they just shut it off, right?
Because Russia controls internet over there.
Yeah, they limit access.
Nobody in Florida.
In Russia.
But can they do anything to the actual network of Twitter?
I think just tweeting or hacking bots, kind of that stuff.
They can do some stuff.
Which obviously can do damage because remember the Bitcoin scam that happened with Twitter on the users and stuff like that?
Well, according to CNN, they can steal elections.
It's proven by CNN folks.
And if CNN said, you know, it's true.
Yeah, of course.
That's your community.
Okay, so let me give a shout out to a few people here that gave some contributed to the podcast today.
Let me see what this one is here.
Florida seems to be a great place for people that want to escape New York for many of the obvious reasons.
What are the material cons that you have come across about living in Florida that people just have to accept by moving there?
We're a family with young children.
Ask Jack Hasso.
He gave $100 and he's, that's actually a real question he's asking.
What's the question saying?
He's asking, what is the risk and negative side of living in Florida?
If you were to say the negative part of living, you lived in Boca for many years.
You've been here your entire life, minus the exciting travel you had to Addison.
But what is the negative and the con of living in Florida?
So A, it depends on where you're at in Florida.
So if you're in the panhandle, that's a lot different than living in South Florida versus Central Florida or if you're on the West Coast.
The first thing that comes to mind is hurricane season.
So without a hurricane season in Florida, there's not a lot of downside to being here.
Obviously, you know, the jobs aren't as plentiful as they are in New York City or in California or in Silicon Valley or anything like that.
Because typically we haven't had the industry that influx of companies coming out here.
But now things have changed.
So I think people are starting to get wise.
So I think the biggest, clearly the weather's on your side.
Clearly, you know, the sun, the fun, like there's all that in Florida.
It's just, can I make money there?
What are the jobs?
So I always tell people that move here from New York City, if you keep that type of attitude, and it doesn't necessarily need to be New York exactly, but if you keep that type of, I'm going to crush it, I'm going to get out there, wake up every day and grind and do my thing and get to work and get to business, if you bring that attitude to Florida, you will crush it.
Because Florida is very, especially in South Florida, very Latin American influence, like, you know, they say you're running on Cuban time, which is basically like the meetings at nine.
I don't mean I'll be there at 9:45.
I'll be there when I be there.
It's all good.
It's a very relaxed kind of, you know, you know, retiree kind of thing.
The only negative that you're going to say is hurricane and the fact that there's the pool of talent is not as high as LA, New York, Silicon Valley.
But it's getting better.
But it's getting better.
What would you say, negative, Tom?
I would say that.
I say that the economy here is thin.
It's not thick.
So you have a thin economy of jobs over here, and it's largely a service economy where everybody is working in the city serving each other, if you know what I mean.
And there's not like hubs of industry necessarily.
There's not like a silicon beach, if you will.
So I think, you know, you're going to be working in hospitality and service industries and regional offices of like state farm insurance and things like that.
Schools down here, public schools, typically have not been the way they are, say, in the Northeast.
So there's a couple of things like that.
And let's face it, the great weather in the winter is, you know, countered with the tough weather in the summer.
And you've got hurricane season, stuff like that.
So I think there's cons, but I think there's cons everywhere you live, right?
But for a solid eight, nine months, South Florida, there's literally not a better place on the planet to be.
Like, for sure.
I mean, look, if you want to.
Even if you're in the Redneck Riviera where you like to hang out, didn't you say you've been there, Panhan?
I have been to Tallahassee.
Who is it that goes to Destin?
Who is someone who's sitting in this chair?
Striner.
Striner goes there when he visits here.
Striner goes through the streets.
Even it's nice up there.
No, I talked about that.
Okay, gotcha.
I'm not going crazy here.
No, no, you're not.
It's like a ton of people from Dallas, Houston.
They go to Destiny as a more affordable kind of spring break.
It's beautiful, great.
You know, it's not like cheap stuff.
Great VRBO stuff there to families.
Share it.
It's great experience.
By the way, here's what you got to be thinking about.
If you've got a family, you said family and kids, right?
Okay.
Living in South Florida, you're two and a half hours away from Orlando, which is Disney World, and you got Universal City.
Universal Studios over there.
So that's that part.
If you want to rent a yacht for the weekend and take the kids to Bemini, which is, what, two hours away, you'll spend a couple thousand dollars and go with your family of four and food and all that, have a good time and come back up.
If you want to go to Key West, if you want to go to Cuba, if you want to go to the Caribbean, if you want to go to Europe, you're eight hours away.
If you want to go to New York, you're 2.5 hours away.
If you want to go to, you know, you got so many different options.
Sports, they got all the sports.
You got Marlins, you got the Heat, you got the Hockey.
They got all sports, right?
Obviously, it's not the craziest time today with sports.
When LeBron was here, they were doing well.
When Dan Marino was here, different story.
We haven't had anything crazy going on with the sports.
What do you mean?
Last year, the Heat went to the finals.
Tampa Bay Lightning Cup.
I don't know if I would put the level of excitement of LA or Nets or something.
Oh, you're spoiled out in L.A. You're winning.
It is winning championships.
You were at the World Series.
It is what it is.
Dodgers win.
And it's a place right now where just yesterday I had a call with our buddy Tim, and he was whispering to me about, you know, how Goldman is moving one of their divisions here.
We already know that.
That's public.
You know, Peter's saying, you know, some of these stories that have already come out.
Tons of them.
But there is another one that's way, way bigger than Goldman that is moving out to South Florida that it's 100% they've announced that they're coming out.
You're going to hear about in the next couple of days.
It's more and more that are making the move out of the world.
Bro, you're not going to announce it.
I cannot announce it because, you know, anyways, so there's more and more people that are making the move in South Florida, okay, that's taking place.
But heat, you'll experience heat, humidity, and hurricane when it comes.
And when it happens, I'll let you know how it goes because I've been through wars.
I've been through bombing.
I've been through tornado.
I've been through earthquakes, many of them.
And I guess the next one is I have to kind of have the trifecta.
Maybe not a trifecta.
That's a quintufecta.
We just missed out on the snowstorm, though, Dallas.
Yeah.
Well, let me just say one thing because I don't know if you've been ever for a hurricane season.
I look at a hurricane season in Florida versus whatever the hell goes on in California, wildfires and earthquakes and mudslides.
I'll take my month of hurricanes before, you know.
It's like a guy fight, and the guy says, in about five seconds, I'm going to punch you in the face.
And it's going to be tough.
So you got five seconds to move, okay, versus the guy punches you in the face, okay?
Earthquake doesn't give you the warning.
No.
Hurricane tells you in five seconds to move.
I'll be there in five days.
What do you want to do?
Yeah, exactly.
You may want to leave.
So anyways, next question we got here, $5 from GTRA23.
Pat, how do you see the chance of Texas separating from the United States?
And what's your take in all this massive migration coming to the following states?
You know, yesterday I was being interviewed by nomad capitalist, a guy named Andrew, who has lived in 100 different countries, and he teaches people how to have dual citizenships, and he owns properties in five different countries is what he does.
He's all about leave America because there's better places to live than America.
He asked me a question.
He says, are you an America fan?
I said, diehard.
He says, tell me what you mean by that.
I said, I'm a die-hard America fan of what it was founded on.
America to me is the values of principles, which is what?
Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of your Second Amendment, free enterprise, that stuff.
The moment that changes, it's no longer America to me.
It's a complete different name to me.
So the moment certain states and what California is experiencing right now, as well as New York, when you're 20 years old, guess where you want to live?
You want to live in L.A. You want to live in, well, you live in Miami.
Partying in Miami is probably going to be better than partying in L.A., quite frankly, if you think about it.
Miami partying is pretty legit.
But when you're younger, you're like, I'm in L.A., Hollywood, I'm in New York City, all this stuff.
And you start kind of making money and you start having a family and you start kind of saying, well, I just don't know if these are some of the things that I want to be around.
I want to kind of have a little bit more flexibility and freedom.
Then you start looking.
And then if America goes into tipping point and they really start pushing around the populace, I just think it would be like, you know how with business, when you see somebody that's totally screwing up, like Sears is screwing up, you're leaving an opportunity, okay, for others to come in.
When you saw Blockbuster royally getting arrogant as an $8 billion company screwing up with the late fees, you remember how annoying it was with Blockbuster?
I was like, dude, just wipe it, take it off.
No.
I said, I'm paying you 30 bucks for this movie to buy brand new is 15 bucks.
Waive the damn late fee.
Put a limit of the value of the DVD.
No, I'm not going to be doing yours 30 bucks.
After doing that to tens of thousands of people, you're like, you know what?
I'm sorry.
I just can't stand the way you treat customers.
I'm out of here.
Now there's only one left.
And we interviewed the manager, the one blockbuster that's left.
I don't know where it's at, Seattle or Washington or something like that.
I think today there's a great opportunity for a handful of countries to become a second option.
I think today is a great opportunity for a handful of countries to say, you know what?
We kind of see America that's been what everybody wanted to be like.
What if we see the mistakes America's made and we give that safety to people to come over here?
What if we change it up?
Okay.
What if we change it up?
How many people are going to move?
Not many.
But all it takes is a couple people that move influential.
And then if and only if America royally gets cocky, arrogant, egotistical, kind of like the city of Detroit went from 200,000 people to 1.8.
And next thing you know, the municipalities, the city employees, the government people started kind of pushing people around.
Ford said, listen, forget about it.
You're right.
We're out of here.
People started leaving.
They went from 1.8 million people living in New York City, richest city in the world, to 700,000 people living there.
Today, if you call 911, I don't know if we covered this on the last podcast.
If you call 911 in Detroit City today, it's the poorest city, and it's the most dangerous city to live in America today.
Today, poorest and most dangerous, lowest.
It's the worst city today based on economical freedom and safety, right?
You call 911 today.
Do you know how long it takes for cops to show up?
59 minutes.
Let me say this one more time.
If you dial 911, it takes more than 50 minutes for cops to show up if you call 911 today.
You call them, you tell them.
Kai said this in the room.
You call them, you tell them, I'm about to rob the bank.
You go rob the bank.
It takes you 20 minutes to do it.
You leave and they still haven't shown up, right?
So what does this mean with America?
If America gets too cocky and arrogant, start pushing people around, I think people will be looking at going elsewhere.
If you look at a lot of people, where are you from?
Oh, I'm Irish.
Their family left Ireland to come here.
Where are you from?
I'm Jewish.
Okay, your family left Israel.
Where are you from?
Norway.
Your family left.
Where are you from?
Mexico, Maifa, Iran.
So if people from other countries are willing to move to a country like this, people will be eventually forced to leave America if America gets too cocky.
You guys have any opposing opinions on what I just said?
I know you want to say, like, Merkel was...
Look, obviously, we're all very pro-American, and we love it here.
But, you know, it's easy to say, well, you know, just leave America.
Oh, I'll just leave America.
But where are you actually going?
Did you hear what I said earlier?
Yeah, okay.
What did I say?
Regarding what?
I said, if same way Blockbuster lost people, this is a great opportunity to be a Netflix.
I agree with you.
So Belize.
Exactly.
Costa Rica.
Not Canada.
No.
I'm not saying now, they could be.
I know a lot of people that moved to Costa Rica.
Dubai is a place that's attracting a lot of people.
Now, living there is a different kind of a lifestyle.
So you're going to have to ask about the pool of talent, the benefits of talent.
So the guy asked me a question.
He says, you know, he was somewhere in Central America.
That's where he was at, at the country he was staying at.
I said, so for, he says, would you consider?
I said, certain industry could do that.
Not all industries could do that.
Like, he's a guy that does online courses, things like that.
You can live where?
Anywhere.
Engineers, anywhere.
Coders, anywhere.
Certain industries, you can't go anywhere.
So the challenge would be, the only challenge when I process it is what?
Pool.
Pool of talent.
But if you have a place, I tell you right now, if we had a country, I'm telling you right now, if we had a country right now, somehow somewhere, we got 10 million people and we got a good amount of land right now, decent weather, some natural resources, watch what we would do to that country 20 years later.
I'm telling you right now, if we had a country right now with 10 million people, decent natural resources, some land, give us 20 years.
Look what we would do to our citizens.
Look how much they would love living where we live.
Look the kind of foundation and the values and principles we will build that country.
And look what kind of people would want to live with us.
And you know what we would do?
We wouldn't allow everybody to come in.
It wouldn't be one of those situations where it's like a, it would be by invitation.
Just like, you know, if you want to be part of Clubhouse, what do they do?
You have to be invited.
Right.
Okay.
Back in the days, a lot of these social media platforms, you have to be what?
You have to be invited.
It'd be a similar thing.
Hey, you're going to say, Pat, I think we got to let Keith in here.
Tell me about Keith.
Dude, we're going to love Keith.
What are you talking about, bro?
Have I ever brought anybody?
Okay, cool.
Bring Keith in.
I think there would be an element of that that we could build a country with.
Invite only.
Yeah, that was the origination of Facebook.
Remember that?
It was college by college, and you had to be a student at that college.
Those are the emails that you had to say.
So I agree.
I don't see a valid, viable option to today.
There are some.
Singapore, New Zealand, there are some.
Singapore is an option.
New Zealand is an option.
And quite frankly, those would probably be at the top five of places you would look at.
Costa Rica is an option.
When I went to Panama City, Panama, not Panama City, like Spinnakers or Club of Vila.
I'm talking Panama City.
Panama next to Nicaragua.
Yes.
When I went to Panama City and I played poker with the senator, I'm sitting there with them.
And I said, so where are you from?
Oh, I'm from Dallas.
Oh, very cool.
You vacation here often?
He says, no, I've been living here for 11 years.
I said, why'd you leave?
I said, do you know the regulations here?
Unemployment here is 2.3%.
They leave you alone.
You can do anything.
Have you looked at the real estate in Panama?
Matter of fact, go to Panama and type in Panama real estate.
Panama City, Panama, real estate.
Like buildings.
Some of the buildings are ridiculous.
Buildings.
You got to put buildings, right?
Panama City buildings.
Yeah, buildings.
I hope it goes to the right Panama City.
Put images like right there.
Like, you ever seen anything like that in the U.S.?
The FNF Tower.
I've never seen anything like this in the U.S., right?
You look at some of the, right there, click on that one right there, luxury real estate.
Look at that.
You know, you see some of the most beautiful stuff.
Now, obviously, I'm seeing stuff like this in Miami, but he says, have you seen what we're doing in Panama City?
The next guy, where are you from?
Chicago.
How long have you come here?
I've been living here for 10 years.
So that gave a glimpse, and that was 10 years ago.
That gave me a glimpse that people are considering moving to other countries from the U.S.
No, no doubt.
And I know a lot of people, especially people in South Florida that end up in Costa Rica, what have you.
I guess my point was, yeah, little pockets here go to Costa Rica.
Maybe you go to little Panama, like little tiny countries.
Maybe you end up in New Zealand.
I guess my macro question is what country is going to supplant America?
I just don't see one right now.
And I'm not being a cocky American, like, oh, you can't compete with America.
I just, like, Paul joked and said, Canada.
I don't know if he was joking or not.
Go check out the weather in Canada nine months out of the year.
Good luck over there.
So I'm just saying, you want to go to China?
Have fun in China.
You should check it out in Michigan.
Well, that's what you can move from Michigan.
Oh, wait a minute.
No, no, no.
Wait a minute.
Let me ask you this.
What was the richest city in the world in the 1950s?
Motown, baby.
What was the temperature in Motown?
80 degrees year-round?
Do you know the temperature in Motown?
That was because of Thomas Ford and the Industrial Revolution and making the cars and Oris brother Henry Ford.
I mean, Thomas, I was thinking of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford.
You just.
Thomas Ford.
Nicola Ford, right?
He was a good guy.
I'm thinking of Thomas Edison and Ford put them together.
The point that you just made without trying to make a point is one man changed a city.
One.
It didn't take 50.
It didn't take 100.
One person changed the city forever.
Ford came in, created jobs.
Everybody moved in.
Other automakers went there.
Motan came out of there.
Michael Jackson, Diana Ross.
You know, all of those names of who came out, meaning the records who signed them.
All of that is from Motown, Detroit.
They call it the Paris of the West, a Paris of the Midwest, Detroit.
And weather sucked there.
It's not about the weather.
Don't get me wrong.
I give credit to California.
Weather's got to be the Miami weather.
Totally.
I get it.
Weather is very important.
I'm not going to go.
I was about to move to Naperville, Chicago.
A friend of mine, Jeff, had a place.
I was going to go.
I wanted to run with the guy for a couple decades, right?
But I'm like, yeah, I'm good.
I'm much better being in LA or much better being in Florida, but that's my preference.
But if it comes down to it and they force, people would rather follow a leader, an environment that gives you safety and freedom.
And they'll give up a little bit of weather.
They'll give up a little bit of other things to have freedom.
There's nothing in your life that's more important to you than freedom.
Nothing.
When you have it, you don't know you have it.
You know how when your body is doing well, you don't think about any potential pain.
Then you start having back pain.
And in which you say, I'll give anything to get rid of this back pain.
Then you get COVID.
You're throwing up all over the place.
You'll say, dude, I'll give anything.
I'll give anything to get rid of this, right?
Yeah, when you have freedom, you don't know you have it.
People don't know they have freedom.
They don't know.
But when it's taken away, then you're going to say, there's no way in the world I can live like this for the rest of my life.
I'm willing to go to a different place because I just want to be free.
Listen, the chances of us getting there is less than 1%, just so people know.
It's not a big chance.
We're not putting going to Vegas right now, betting $100,000 because America's going to go down.
But that 1% chance is a chance where you should have a hedge.
You should hedge against it and have your own insurance policy and kiss things do happen.
And can I clarify one thing Adam kind of made fun?
When I was talking about Canada, I was talking more Vancouver, which a lot of Americans have been moving to and Montreal.
Freezing.
They have been stealing business from Hollywood.
A lot of productions are going to Canada and doing this.
That's a good point, Paul.
And so those were two of the examples I was thinking of when I said Canada has a huge opportunity.
They've already pounced on that opportunity, and I could see them continue to grow.
That's just, my bottom is just a very powerful point you just made with what's happening over there with Austin even getting business away from Hollywood.
And by the way, Jack Hasso said, I'll donate $5 if Adam isn't allowed to sing ever again.
I just want to make sure Jack said that.
So Jack, I have to give you that shout out.
Tom, looks like you want to say something about this.
No, I think I did, but you've covered it.
Okay.
Pat, one counterpoint with that.
But aren't you like the Detroit example?
Because my dad's from Detroit, and he ended up moving to Florida in the 60s.
So I'm familiar with this.
But aren't you sort of highlighting the beauty of America?
It's like, well, if you're unhappy in that state, move to a different state.
I mean, it's exactly what's playing out right now with California and New York and why people are moving to Florida, Tennessee, Texas.
Isn't that sort of the point of America that, you know, states rights that certain states are screwing up?
Like you did an awesome video about is New York the next Detroit?
You can move to a different state, right?
You don't have to move to a different country.
I just don't see the country that's going to usurp America.
Sure.
If federal government has more power than state level, the state didn't decide to get a $1.9 trillion stimulus, but that $1.9 trillion stimulus affects people living in any state, including South Dakota, that maybe wasn't affected by COVID.
Fair enough.
Like a place like California was affected by.
So yes, federally, you are still getting side effects of bad decisions being made at the top of the government.
You will be affected by it.
All I'm saying is this is a great time for another country to position themselves.
When Rick Perry was coming to the state of California and he was saying, you're running, you've heard me say this, you're running a business, you're not happy, regulation, come to Texas, come to Texas.
Now, guess who's doing it today?
DeSantis is doing it.
Guess who's the most hated?
Guess who are the two of the most hated governors in America today?
Who are two of the most hated governors in America today?
Cuomo and our friend in California.
Abbott and DeSantis.
Abbott and DeSantis.
Absolutely.
Abbott and DeSantis.
The only reason Cuomo is given, by the way, Cuomo.
Okay, Cuomo, you know what's next.
If he doesn't resign, let's talk about Cuomo.
If Cuomo doesn't resign, you know the whole story came out yesterday.
So, well, first of all, he flirted with me.
He touched my face.
Hot dog.
He told me to eat the whole sausage.
He told me to do this.
He told me to do that with daughter sitting right next to him.
Yesterday's story comes, he put his hand under my blouse and he groped my breasts, right?
Another story that comes up.
Okay.
You know what's next?
You know what's next.
Here's what's next.
If Cuomo doesn't resign, they have 20 other stories.
They're just sprinkling it.
They're not putting all of it out.
Slowly.
And they're telling Cuomo.
Listen, do you not think a call behind closed doors is happening and the call goes something like this with the people who have the real power, not Cuomo?
Here's what the call sounds like.
Andrew, it's time.
There is no way in the world.
My dad, to grave turn, I would never resign.
Do you know what this means to my family's legacy?
I would disappoint.
I get it, Andrew.
But we have 10 more stories.
And we have the story you don't want us to talk about.
So each week, we're going to put a new story until you finally resign.
We're telling you, resign.
Now, I'm not going to do it.
Okay.
Watch the news tomorrow.
New story coming out.
Enjoy your Thursday.
You wake up.
A woman comes out, another one, you know, saying that, da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
He's like, oh, shit.
Okay.
Hey, Andrew, yeah.
So you ready to resign?
No way.
You're not going to bully me.
I'm a New York and you're not going to do me my Italian descent.
Okay.
Another story is going to come out Monday.
I can tell you, stories are going to come out until this guy resigns.
And by the way, it's not Republicans doing it.
It's Democrats doing it to him.
I talked to Ron Kim, New York State Assemblyman, who is part of the whole AOC camp and Bernie Sanders camp, cannot stand Cuomo, okay, for what he did with the old folks' homes, nursing homes is what he did.
And Kim is not crazy.
These are not crazy.
These are mainstream Democrats.
These are level-headed people.
They're not freaks.
I'm talking to Ron.
Ron, you know, listen, don't get me wrong.
He's a socialist, proud.
He's a guy that's progressive.
Yes, he's a guy that's on that side.
But behind closed doors, he's getting pushed out nonstop.
He is eventually going to get pushed out nonstop.
If he doesn't resign, expect a story to come out every single week.
That's my prediction.
I may be wrong, but I think behind closed doors, there's 20 other stories that are waiting to come out once every week until the guy finally says, you know how it's going to happen?
Here's how it's going to happen.
Mom's going to call.
Chris is going to call.
And they're going to say, look, bro, I'm just telling you.
I'm telling you right now, it's time.
Just do it, bro.
I don't care.
I'm going to back you up, but you go out there and do it.
Okay.
Forget about it.
We've had a great life.
We've done well for ourselves.
These guys are now trashing our family.
Daughter doesn't know.
My niece doesn't need to hear this.
It's time.
And he's going to say, what are you talking about, Dad Mario?
What have said, I get it, but this is a very unique situation.
It's enough.
We got to do it.
And I still have your back.
I think that's what it could lead to.
I hope it doesn't, but I think that's what it's going to lead to where he's going to have to resign.
So the two of the most hated governors in America today are who?
Abbott and DeSantis.
Why?
You know, when I talked to Ron Kim yesterday, he said something very interesting.
And I was like, why would you say that?
He said, I don't think it's a good strategy to recruit citizens from other states to your state purely based on the economy.
I'm like, that's the whole idea.
What are you talking about?
People went to New York because you're recruiting people to economy.
And he made a comment, which, by the way, I can't wait to have Ron back again.
We had a great hour conversation and discourse.
And there was a debate and banter where he's saying his side is, well, I know who you are.
Of course, I follow your stuff.
But I got to tell you, here's what I stand.
You came in America.
We both came here as immigrants.
I'm 41.
You're 42.
My dad owned a liquor store or a grocery store.
After 10 years, they had to shut it down and all this other stuff.
And I said, okay, so you have a personal experience.
I said, you went to this, you decided to go into business.
I went into public.
So you wanted to be an entrepreneur.
I went to public.
And he said, I don't think it's a good strategy to take people away from businesses.
And then I said, what about the fact that a division of Goldman Sachs is leaving?
Peter Santa, all this stuff is leaving.
And he says, yeah, it's okay that financial people are.
He didn't say it's okay that financial people are leaving, but he's saying it's the financial folks that are leaving.
But we're building our own tech hub like Silicon Valley in New York City.
That's what's growing.
If the financial people do what they do, let them do what they do.
But we're building a technology center, like a hub, like a Silicon Valley in New York City.
So, you know, it's interesting, but more power to DeSantis and Abbott.
But imagine if now it's a country.
Now, imagine you're a president and you go and you have an accent, whatever part of the world you are.
Hey, this is President such and such.
And you go on the media and you talk on 50 different media platforms, BBC, whatever, all these other places, Sky News Australia, all these places you talk.
And you say, Americans, I can't believe I'm saying this.
But from a person who admires your country and what it was founded on, I am surprised on what is happening today to your country.
Here's a country that was able to do in 200 years what China couldn't do in 2,000 years.
Here's a country that was able to go from nothing just because of some land.
You became the most powerful country in the world.
Here's a country that went from having this kind of a GDP to doing this kind of a GDP.
Here's a country that gave birth to Rockefeller, Franklin, Chase.
You go through the list of great entrepreneurs.
But unfortunately, we all know you're no longer the America you used to be.
And if you're somebody that's looking at options, let me explain to you what we at our country are doing.
We protect this.
We protect that.
The five concerns that you may face is this, this, this.
Here's how we have protected you long term.
And all I suggest is before you even think about moving to our country, I suggest you come here for a vacation for three, four days and see how you like it.
And we are given $500 tax credits if you come here from America.
Come pay a visit to us and see if you like that.
If you do, we would love for you to consider to bring your talents and your resources to our country.
At $300,000 deposits you bring to our country, we give you a citizenship.
And with the benefit of our citizenship, you get the following.
Boom, If that starts happening with another country recruiting people away from America and that country has something to offer, it's going to get very interesting because you can run a business out of any country and you're zooming in.
You can have people, you're running it from all over the place.
You can zoom them in, right?
I got people working for us from Armenia.
We got people working for us from India.
We got people working for us from Colombia.
We got people all over the place because they can work remotely.
So if something like that were to happen, America could see somewhat of people being comfortable knowing that if America goes the wrong direction, I have a second choice.
I can go somewhere else.
Would you secretly or even not so secretly actually love to see that?
I would secretly and publicly never want to see that.
Ever want to see that?
You do not want to see that.
Ever in a billion years, I would never want to see that.
Ever.
Zero.
Not even 0.01%.
Ever want to see that happen?
But you know what I would love to see happen?
I would love to see a country get to a point that they have the resources and the offer to get others to consider that you could leave.
I'd love to have a country that's an option two where America realizes there is option two.
When there is an option two, the country can bully to say you're not going anywhere.
You know what Newsom said yesterday?
Newsome goes out and does a press conference for like, I don't know what it was, at the Dodger Stadium.
I don't know if you guys saw this or not a couple days ago.
I know we didn't put it here.
Put Newsom best place to do business in America.
He said, California is still the best place to do business in America.
People said, what the hell is this guy talking about?
Is he smoking something?
He's just hone deaf?
He says, California is the best place to do business in America.
Just type in news.
Go to the state of the state address.
Where's this?
News.
Check in Newsom state address.
Yeah, he said it was a state of the state.
Anyways, you have to really look through it and you would see best place to do business.
Search for it.
Best place.
Yeah, he said business.
Just type in business.
Put the keyword business.
It has the most innovation venture, capital, small business in the country.
We will keep fostering every small lines or drivers of GDP every day.
So we build a bunch of special taxes on us, you know, our own families, our own small businesses.
They're providing small business.
You'll find it.
If you keep looking for it, you'll find it.
He says, California is the best place to do business.
Where does it say?
The special mix of audacity, human capital, and creativity founded in California means there's literally no better place to do business.
Audacity is a great word.
It's the audacity.
Can you imagine?
It's the audacity of Sacramento to tax and regulate businesses.
And he uses, you know, it's our audacity to be entrepreneurs and stuff.
You don't know anything about entrepreneurs.
You got the audacity to tax and regulate and chase them out.
I mean, let's speak it.
And look, he was talking about we have the ability to create the California for business and jobs and everything.
You know what he sounds like?
He sounds like Tennessee, right?
We have the ability to build this.
Wait, you did build it.
You're the golden state.
You were, you know, California put the man on the moon.
Yeah, you, you, you fumbled the opportunity.
We have the opportunity to create this.
What's with the vision?
Somebody told him, hey, your speech has got to have vision.
A lot of vision, a lot of vision.
You know, you have to be positive.
You got to be assertive.
You have to show leadership and vision.
And then everything you say now is going to, you're going to get memed to death.
This guy already has 1.9 recall votes, and they say 30% of them are from moderate Democrats.
And what did Yahoo News say?
What did Yahoo New say about him and Florida?
Oh, yeah, that closer inspection.
California actually did better than Florida did on the COVID thing.
And then Yahoo News picks up like two sets of stats to put in there that did show a reflection.
But what are they really doing?
It's Yahoo News and liberal media supporting their guy, the guy that wears their jersey.
You know, and trying to pick on Florida and DeSantis a little bit because he wears the other jersey.
I'm not sure if you understand though, Tom, because Francisco and Fresno, he received $5,000 to reopen his pastry business after being closed for six months.
I mean, he's sad.
He's good.
Wow, sarcasm, right?
And by the way, what Kai just read, Newsom actually said that.
Are you cringing?
Is anybody else cringing?
That's why he said it.
That's why it's so pathetic.
When I was looking at Kai, I'm like, you got to be.
He said this two days ago, and I'm like, oh my God.
Like, that's his case example of how business is.
He's trying to say, what a great.
Do you know how many we are?
We are still 25 to 30% of the state of California.
I cannot tell you how many.
Yesterday I had a call with a couple that Chris and Mary had a call with them.
You know, the call I had Sam we were setting up, Chris and Mary, the Zoom I was doing.
And I'm talking to them.
They're from San Diego.
They've been there their entire lives.
They love San Diego.
They don't want to go anywhere else.
They've never lived anywhere else.
You know what she said?
She says, I'm worried.
They have, I think, seven kids.
I'm worried.
Seven kids.
I said, why are you worried?
Because I've never lived in another place.
I've never moved to another place.
I don't know where to go.
This is all I know.
And I said, I totally understand.
I said, for me, it's not a big deal because I lived in Iran.
I lived in Germany.
I lived in LA.
I lived in South Carolina.
I lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, Dallas, Florida.
I'm good because if you push me out, I'm going to another place.
I love America.
I fight to make sure these freedoms stay put because I don't want to go anywhere else.
I would like to stay in this great guy.
I served in this country's army.
I love this place, right?
What's the point there?
Call-ins.
But we can't stay here longer because California is just constantly challenging us, constantly making it difficult.
The other day, I'm driving on the freeway and I see a guy who's changing his tire.
I see a CHP giving him a ticket.
I can't see, and he's just going through all these stories that he's telling me here.
And you got a Newsom going out there telling a story about California is the best place to do business.
The reason why DeSantis and Abbott are winning is because of ludicrous, stupid statements being made by a guy like that in the state of California.
Okay?
That's why DeSantis and Abbott are winning on paper with business, with small business owners.
And a guy like that is being, you know, destroying small businesses and is thinking there's no way people, the pompous, the arrogance, no one will leave California.
Nobody will leave California.
Look, we've been around the block.
What happens to arrogant people?
What happens to them eventually?
You can't go around walking around thinking you're infamous and somebody cannot not, you know, you're so powerful that somebody cannot touch, knock you out.
Nobody's untouchable.
Nobody is untouchable.
And that includes the state of California.
Anyways.
Even Elon Musk is untouchable.
Elon Musk is not untouchable.
This is why I brought it up in the last podcast saying Elon Musk could be the target of the federal government and Twitter because he's becoming too powerful.
They don't like one individual getting too powerful.
If he becomes too powerful through, you said 37%.
What was the number?
37%.
Where are we at here?
Let's just go to it, right?
37% of Kai, am I missing the story here or where is it at?
Let me see.
Okay, first of all, he lost $25 billion.
Is it page one?
Yeah, 37% of Americans in a recent online survey say they've made trades based on Elon Musk's tweet.
That's out of 30,400 responders, they said yes, we responded to his tweets and we invested in what he did.
16% said that invested many times based on Tesla CEO's tweets.
Nearly half of a respondent said they found Musk's market movement tweets quite amusing.
In August 2018, Musk got himself in trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after tweeting about taking Tesla private.
Said he had funding secured recently.
His tweets about GameStop had drawn the IRA Bill Gross, who made an ill-timed bet against GameStop in January and caused them to lose much $15 million at one point.
Musk is a little devil and he enjoys playing these games.
Gross said about him last month.
So, you know, guys like him got to be a little bit careful.
But Tom, why don't we go into the story that you want us to go into, which is a SpaceX story.
Elon Musk SpaceX now owns about a third of all active satellites in the U.S. SpaceX created a sporum of about 1,000 satellites that is circulating about 340 miles overhead for some early customers of $99 a month.
Starlink service.
The satellites are already improving how rural communities access internet.
More Starlink satellites were put in orbit last year than had been launched by all the rocket providers in the world in 2019.
That is insane.
SpaceX has promised its satellite clusters will bring cheap, high-speed internet to the masses by beaming data to every corner on the globe.
The company now says it has roughly 10,000 customers, which proves that Starlink is no longer theoretical and expiry mental.
Fiber optics-based internet providers are against hit and are pushing back against the federal government's decision to award SpaceX nearly $900 million in subsidies.
Tom, thoughts?
There is always a mission behind the mission for Elon Musk.
You know, I did a case study two years ago, and I said that I thought Tesla was an energy company.
And now everybody's coming.
Guess what?
You know, popular media and press are getting behind that.
And I pointed out, I said, look, the infrastructure to charge to Tesla is going to become an industry and it's valuable unto itself.
The power wall and everything they've done, especially when you look at high energy cost states like Hawaii.
Here's what I think is happening here.
SpaceX.
Oh, he wants to send somebody to Mars.
Oh, he wants to make money launching things for other people.
No, it's a communications company.
Just like Tesla is an energy company underneath, I think SpaceX is a communication company underneath.
He is passionate about education and he is passionate about communication.
I think that's what's under SpaceX.
That's what I think is going on.
Telecommunications.
That's behind the scenes, what's going on here.
Yep.
Look, he's building a network.
He wants to have free education out there for the average person.
He's got a big heart for the average, you know, the average person living in a rural community to have connectivity to the internet and the education background to do that.
That's what I think is going on.
So he's.
Here's my question to you as a business owner.
And this is the part that's stuck to me.
Obviously, it's ridiculous that one-third of all satellites in space is from Elon Musk.
Like, what?
Here's my question to you as a business owner.
It says, Musk noted in a tweet that the company needs to, quote unquote, pass through a deep chasm of negative cash flow over the next year or so to make Starlink financially viable.
From a business owner, what does that mean?
That you need to spend money in order to make money.
What's your take on that specific sentence?
It's nothing new.
That happens to a lot of people.
It means I'm a startup and I'm going to build through it.
That's not even a no-brainer.
He has to do that.
It's a normal concept for where he's at.
It's what people had to go through with him in Tesla.
It's what people had to go through with Amazon and Bezos.
It's what people had to go through.
That's been around for a while.
And here, you're not betting on the company.
You're betting on Elon to be able to pull this off.
So explain that a little bit further.
When you said, oh, it's a common thing, and that's why I kind of set you up for this.
What does that mean exactly?
So when you're starting a business, you understand that you're going to take some deep losses.
You need to invest and you're going to lose millions or invest millions in order to come out on the other side three to five years later to make 10 million, 100 million, whatever the number.
Like, what's that business model?
How many times have you seen one of the rockets he launches explode?
How many times have you seen it now?
I've seen it a few times.
How many times is it?
Like, seriously, we've seen it many times, right?
What's the big deal nowadays?
Nothing.
And do you know, do you see how he handles it?
Let me get this straight.
You run a company that sends rockets into space, and failing is what?
Part of the process.
An explosion.
And he says, ah, okay.
All right, next one.
It's not like it's the end of the world.
This guy's got rockets exploding left and right, and he's just like going off to the next one because in his mind, it's like, I'm going to figure this thing out.
You ain't got to worry about it.
I'm going to figure this thing out.
My only concern is go back to a time where one individual had as much power and influence as he does, and their name wasn't starting with a president.
Tell me the last time an individual had more power and influence, more power and influence than Elon Musk does today, and their name didn't start with president.
Tell me what your last question is.
John D. Rockefeller.
I disagree.
I fully disagree with you guys.
Because he didn't have the power of Twitter.
Guys, there is no social media with Rockefeller.
What are you talking about?
Rockefeller would write a story.
It took you two weeks to read about it.
He would send a tweet.
It took a month to find out about it.
China didn't find out about what Rockefeller said for two months.
How are you going to find out about the news?
There's no way to send it to you.
This guy says something, boom, like this.
People go on, you know, short trade, e-trade their website, markets, and they buy stocks and they go on Robinhood.
So when we are officially at a phase where individuals can have more power than countries, and this guy's getting to a point right now, who has more influence right now for people to take action?
If Joe Biden tweets tomorrow, go buy Walmart stock.
How many people buy it?
Maybe like four.
Now, everybody shorts it.
Yeah, if Elon Musk, tomorrow, if Joe Biden says tomorrow, hey, you know what?
Here's what I think about Dogecoin.
And we're like, dude, you don't know.
Who sent this tweet?
Like, can you?
We want to know the staffer.
But he would call it Doggy Coin and he would actually call Walmart Kmart.
So let's remember, we're talking about it.
That's a good point.
But if this guy goes out there and sends a tweet, who responds to it?
The entire world stops.
Apparently, 37% of Americans are making trades based on an Elon Musk.
That concern that we're about to find out how, you know, there was a book written just with all of Trump's tweets.
It's a book.
You go buy the book, it's all of his tweets in a book, and it was a bestseller.
It's a book with his tweets, okay?
And it explains the timing of the tweets.
Trump was able to get the world's attention with one platform.
Okay.
Now, some may say this guy's taking it to a whole different level, Elon Musk, with the kind of influence that he's having right now.
Because if you think about Trump's influence wasn't go buy real estate in New York, Trump's influence wasn't go buy the stock.
That wasn't Trump's influence.
Trump wrote a book called What? Art of the Deal, right?
They did very well and bestseller for many, many years.
Trump had a TV show.
Trump was entertaining.
Trump was making money.
Trump was doing all that stuff.
But Trump wasn't telling you where to go invest your money.
Trump wasn't going.
Trump played a political game.
He put a one-page ad in, you know, President Bush going to war, not the right decision.
And he put that, I don't know what newspaper was in, New York Times or Wall Street Journal.
He put in one of those.
He played for the longest time he was involved in politics.
This guy's influencing other industries.
So we're about to learn what happens to an individual who has this much power.
And recently he comes out saying he supports free education, but not the kind of free education of $50,000 to discount it.
He gives $5 million to Khan Academy, a generous $5 million donation to Khan Academy.
Khan Academy, I think he started the website.
He started his YouTube channel helping his niece or something do homework.
It's a simple story.
Now he supports free education, but not free education as in scholarships.
Free education as in, you could go to a YouTube channel and take geometry.
You can go to this one place and learn about the history of this.
You can go to this one place for free and learn about coding.
He is hurting a lot of industries.
He is hurting a lot of companies.
He is taking business away from a lot of powerful people.
And I'm just wondering at what point is there going to be a meeting behind closed doors of all the people that he's putting to work?
There's nothing more annoying than you're somebody that's making $10 million every year and you've been kicking back for 15 years golfing seven days a week.
You're just chilling.
You go to the restaurants, Mr. Whatever your last name is, and then all of a sudden a guy shows up where you have to get back to work and you haven't worked for 20 years.
People don't like people like that.
Behind closed doors, those people are hated.
I have a bit of an experience in that myself personally.
Elon's taking that to a whole different level.
He is hated because he's putting a lot of his competitors back to work of having to show up to office early again because he's not stopping.
So how long will this last?
I have no idea.
I have no idea.
So it doesn't sound like you guys have an opinion on it.
Okay, so what is it?
I actually wanted to see what I'm saying.
Do you think there's a simulation between Reed Hastings and Elon Musk in the sense that they kind of disrupted big industries and blazed the path?
No, Reid Hastings is not Elon Musk.
Reid Hastings is just a guy that destroyed, you know, hurt an industry.
How many of the Grammy Awards went to Netflix?
Was it 17?
I don't know what there was.
The number was just ridiculous, right?
And where a Gervais, what's his name?
Ricky Gervais goes up and says, you know, forget about who are you guys?
You guys are nobody.
Everybody's calling Netflix.
And he said, if the, what did he say?
If the ISIS was to come out with a new streaming service, you would be calling your agent to say, get me on that streaming service to get a contract with them, right?
Meaning you're selling your soul to anybody.
So, no, what Netflix did is one industry.
He's not doing one industry.
He is not touching one industry.
He's touching five, 10, 15, 20 industries.
He is going to collectively piss off a lot of people.
And those people that he pisses off, their expertise is to have paid off a politician in the back where no one knows about.
And those politicians own, oh, those people a lot of favors.
And I don't know what's going to happen.
Honestly, I don't know what angle they're going to take with them.
Well, what's really interesting, you're bringing up something very interesting.
I think we have to peel it back a little bit and take a look.
Both SpaceX and Tesla have something in common.
They have federal subsidies on their products.
And so you got the fiber.
$900 million.
Correct.
SpaceX, that's right.
SpaceX billion dollars isn't a big number from the government, but that's very, very real.
And so the rural education play and the satellite play for rural internet has got a billion dollars of subsidies.
Meanwhile, you got these guys, Time Warner and people like that, Verizon, putting fiber optics in the ground or getting really pissed off by that.
And as we all know, there's still, you know, what, $15,000 of federal subsidies in every electric vehicle.
So, you know, when you add up the battery and all the parts and everything that goes in it and actually the end price.
And so there's a lot of government that is lined up in the U.S. with Elon.
And so the question is, does the lobbying go the other way and have it shift?
And that's what I look for.
I look for when does Elon start to lose the support of the government in the form of these subsidies?
Because he's got some friends somewhere and they're helping.
He has some friends somewhere.
Elon, they're given subsidies from the government.
Somebody's been part of a meeting that says, hey, you know what?
Here you go.
You know who are the scariest people I've ever competed against?
You know what people I actually fear when it comes down to competition?
People who have the regulated people who have connections to government.
Nope, I'm going to tell you, the scariest people you'll ever face in your lifetime that could ruin you and are willing to do whatever they can to hurt you is lazy, ambitious people.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lazy, ambitious people are the most dangerous people you'll ever go up against because they're lazy, but they're ambitious.
They're not willing to do the work that you're doing to get the success you're getting, but they still have your level of ambition, if not higher.
Lazy, ambitious people are great manipulators and game players, phenomenal at it.
So meaning what?
How many people does Elon face today who are lazy ambitious people, who were at one point somebody 20, 30 years ago or 15 years ago, who are now ambitious still, but very lazy?
How many?
You can just describe most of the auto industry.
I just described most of the auto industry.
I just described most of the politicians.
I just described most of the people that are in the financial industry.
I just described a lot of people who made their money.
They just don't want to get to work.
His number one enemy is not the SEC.
It's lazy, ambitious people.
The lazy, ambitious people are who are the ones that are going to make his life a living kill.
You know what's the crazy thing about lazy ambitious people?
You rarely know.
They start it, but they know and say, oh, he did it.
That's the secret sauce of lazy, ambitious people.
I don't know if that made sense or not.
So they go behind closed doors, and they know how to do.
Did you hear about what that person said about you?
Oh, look, I got it.
I mean, let me tell you what I did.
I defended you.
I got a call from a guy saying, hey, the other day I was this place and they said this about you, but let me, I said, I said, first of all, why are they so comfortable to talk smack about me in front of you?
The whole line that Jay-Z uses in his song.
Why are they so comfortable to talk smack about me in front of you?
Maybe you gave them that comfort that they can talk smack about me in front of you.
So maybe you joined the club of let me have them trash our buddy here.
So the lazy, ambitious people behind closed doors, they know how to put the thing together and they say, ooh, you know what he said about you?
And they're like, ooh, I did it.
Responsibility's off them.
So they still stay close allies and they put it on him, but they started the whole thing.
He's giving birth to a lot of people like that.
Working on the smart note.
Because, okay, do you think they're going to let this guy be worth a trillion dollars in the next five years?
Do you think to the point where he says this, okay, you don't want to give me the subsidies of $900 million?
I don't care.
I got $900 million.
Don't give me the subsidies.
I'm worth a trillion dollars.
Then all of a sudden they're going to say, oh, shit, he no longer needs us.
You know what?
Boom.
Lock him in.
People like Elon Musk, typically, the lazy, ambitious people get very scared of people like Elon.
Because Elon doesn't know how to what?
How to stop.
He's not going to stop.
He's not trying to be a billionaire to live in a big ass house.
That comes with it.
He's not trying to go date all the hot girls.
He's already had up plenty.
Everybody wants to find out what this guy's like.
He's not trying to go have dinner with the cool people.
He's done it so many times.
He wants to change the world.
World changers scared a hell out of lazy, ambitious people.
There's not that many people at his level.
They're some of the most.
Remember how the same way I said lazy ambitious people are the people you fear because they know how to behind closers, ruin the game?
You know who lazy, ambitious people fear the most?
Ten times more?
Hardworking, ambitious people?
They're frightened and envious of Elon Musk type of people.
Envious people.
Because they have that moxie that they go to sleep every night saying, I actually think this guy's going to pull it off.
And what if he pulls it off?
And everybody's going to realize that I was wrong and I'm going to lose face and I'm going to do this.
I can't let that happen.
Let me see what I'm going to do.
They go to sleep all night long to try to stop that person.
Guess who the world favors, by the way?
The world favors.
Guess who history favors?
You're saying not the Musks?
History favors the bold, baby.
History.
History favors the bold.
And that's Elon Musk.
History favors the bold.
That's why we keep giving birth to new Elon Musk.
So, dude, more power to you.
Go do it.
Just, I hope he doesn't get a little out of control where he creates enemies that he doesn't need to create.
You're going to create enemies.
Just don't create the enemies that are unnecessary enemies to create.
Speaking of birth of Elon Musk, do you know how many kids he has?
Five.
You knew that?
Yeah.
Okay.
Do you know the breakdown of the kids?
I think with the first one was four.
Was it huh?
12 boys, right?
Yeah, here's a little fun fact.
You said birth.
He's got, now he has six kids now.
Okay.
He lost his first kid, I believe, with his first boy.
He never wants to talk about it.
Yeah.
He has two twin boys.
Yep.
Then he had triplets.
So five boys.
And now he has a six boy with the musician Grimes that he named the kid some AXAE or whatever.
But do you know one of the triplets' names?
The youngest triplet or the youngest triplet?
Nicola, what is it?
Kai.
Oh, that's cool.
Kai, did you know that?
You didn't know that.
There you go.
You are the son of a son.
You could be the son of Elon Musk.
I said you could be.
Maybe he is.
Maybe he is.
We just don't know about it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe he's been planted here to support.
Anyway, I thought that was very interesting.
All boys, twins, triplets, and now a kid from outer space.
I like what you just did.
It's like when I talk to Ticon Dylan sometimes, I'm like, guys, let me tell you about the history of what happened here.
Dad, do you know in Minecraft how many different things you can build?
We just got a, we just went to a different direction.
So what you, you're not worried about it, sounds like, because you think everything's going to be okay with Elon.
No one's going to bother him.
The lazy, ambitious army is now going to unite and go out.
No, look, there's a reason here why we've got 10 pages of stories, whatever, and four of the pages are about Elon frickin Musk.
The guy's a financial rock star, and he's otherworldly.
And even his newborn baby is named after a solar system or something.
How much money do you need to live comfortably in every state in America today?
Kai, you want to pull up the story?
The median necessary living wage across the country right now is $67,690.
However, here are the top three states and the bottom three states.
The bottom three states, which one are you going to?
The top three?
The most expensive states to live in in America, top three.
Can you guess who it is?
I'm curious if they can guess.
Can you guess what is the most expensive state to live in in America?
Kai, I want you to give a tweet on the last one before we wrap up.
That's what we're going to do with questions.
Not right now.
While I do this, we'll go to it.
Can you take a wild guess what's the most expensive state to live in in America?
Do you guys know what it is?
Most expensive.
You want to take a wild guess?
Take a wild guess.
What is the most expensive country to live in America, Sam?
What state?
That's Hawaii town.
Okay, Hawaii is number one.
You're right.
Why would Hawaii not count?
Hawaii is one.
Can you go a little lower, Kai, so we can see it?
Go a little lower.
Can you give me a lower?
Hawaii is Hawaii is number one.
Well, then I'll just say it.
Hawaii is number one.
Then it's California.
You need $136,000 a year to live in Hawaii.
Okay?
Median.
You need $99,971 to have an average, decent lifestyle in California.
You need $95,000 in New York.
You want the bottom three?
Here we go.
Mississippi is at the bottom.
You need $58.
$58,000.
You're going to be getting the VIP section at Applebee's and have an incredible, incredible clam chowder soup.
Don't try out chicken breast.
Then after that is Arkansas, place I've been.
I've been to Arkansas.
It's right next door to us.
We've been there.
I've had a good time with my friends in Arkansas.
Third, lowest is Bama, Alabama.
Roll tad.
That's it.
Roll tight.
Yeah, that's right.
Nick Saban.
Alabama is third.
That's what it takes in America.
Hawaii won.
When we were in Hawaii, how many people kept coming to us saying, thank you so much for doing your trip here?
Thank you so much for doing your trip.
We're so happy bringing commerce to it was unbelievable how grateful they were because homelessness in Hawaii took a massive hit.
It wasn't a pretty sight in Hawaii on what happened there.
So it was exciting seeing there.
But again, folks, if you're thinking about going to Hawaii, make sure you're making over $136,000 before you make that move because you need $136 to live in Hawaii before we wrap up.
If you're one of the one that's going to be a little bit more than one of the things that's going to be, we're not knocking Hawaii.
There's two reasons for it.
No, we are knocking Hawaii.
I just want to make sure we're very simple.
Just two simple reasons for it.
They're quick.
Energy is very expensive to make there and it costs you a lot for energy.
Number one.
And number two, shipping cost.
Everything is shipped to Hawaii.
So you're not getting screwed in Hawaii on pricing.
It's just the cost of bringing milk, food, all kinds of things to Hawaii is huge.
So you're paying for shipping costs to get all that stuff to Hawaii so you can enjoy the island.
And then making energy on the islands is very expensive.
And that's the two reasons.
When you add up those two things, that makes Hawaii very expensive.
I think this is also a good kind of goes to show that raising a minimum wage, a flat minimum wage, doesn't make sense because it's quite different medium incomes that you need to live in Hawaii versus Alabama or Mississippi.
Very good point, Kai.
How are they defining live comfortably?
Because that's what this whole premise is.
This is the amount of money you need to live comfortably.
Do they define what living comfortably means?
Well, maybe it's not at your level.
I know you have a bone everybody every night, and they're talking about normal people here.
By the way, just so everybody knows, I love Hawaii.
And we just took 450 people to Hawaii.
They treat us royally when we go to Hawaii.
Let's do a shout-out.
Shout out to the people that are working on the people that are working in Capitola and Lahaina, and especially the staff of the Hyatt Regency in Maui.
We do a shout-out for them.
They were just so hospitable, so pleasing, so glad for us to be there.
And our guys, you know, tipped them out, took care of them, gave them a lot of encouragement.
And just thank you to that whole side of Maui that entertained us.
Agreed.
Last story here.
Kai, did you come up with anything or no, any tweets that you want to bring up?
If not, I'm going to go into the China story.
Last story.
China is behind a huge cyber attack of Microsoft.
Microsoft is in the middle of a cyber attack, cyber crisis right now.
Hackers targeted weaknesses in Microsoft Xinj service, which is used by small and medium-sized companies.
The attack allowed hackers to access the email accounts of at least 30,000 organizations in the U.S. and has affected hundreds of thousands of Microsoft customers around the world.
Microsoft flat out said the hack came from a group tied to the Chinese government called Hafnium.
The Biden administration is launching an emergency task force to address this aggressive cyber attack, the second major hacking campaign to hit the U.S. since the election, as this comes on the heels of SolarWinds, a separate series of sophisticated attacks attributed to Russia that breached about 100 U.S. companies and nine federal agencies.
Tom, thoughts?
We are living in a Cold War now, and it's being fought in digital pipes.
It's as simple as that.
And China and Russia are trying to assert themselves as the new duopoly of world power, and they're going after things that matter.
And so if anybody doesn't think that we're in a Cold War right now, they're not paying attention.
We may not be putting pushing missiles in Germany to take down the Berlin Wall and things like that, but we are in the middle of a Cold War and people need to pay attention to it.
Yeah, we brought it up on the last podcast that, you know, I think it was with Danielle DiMartino Booth.
And I said, look, we've been talking about China.
We've been talking about China.
At what point are we like, is it like the alarm bells are going to go off?
You know, Trump kind of signaled some of the alarms with the trade war, but that was more about soybeans than actual intellectual property.
But the CCP, you know, they are enemy number one.
And we've addressed it and I've kind of just hitting this home and hitting this home.
This is enemy number one.
And we talked about it last time that the problem in America right now is that we're fighting amongst ourselves and we have to rectify that, come to terms with that, and start fighting against who our real enemy is, which is China coming after everything we got.
So yesterday I talked to the former director of CIA, James Woolsey.
I had him on.
Big name back in the day.
Big name back in the days.
He was hired by Bill Clinton.
He was the director of CIA.
If you remember the one individual that we had was a former CI agent of 31 years that turned against U.S. and the espionage.
What was the last name?
Emmett or I can't think of his last name.
And he turned against the U.S.
And he was a director of CIA when that even took place, back in 1994, I want to say, February when that came out.
And then it led to James right there.
Aldrich Ames is who was a former CI agent that ended up becoming a KGB spy and helped out for them and shared a lot of intel with them, right?
So we talked about different countries and he brought up China and he brought up Russia and we brought up a bunch of different things that we're talking about.
I said, what's your biggest concern and threat that we have right now on how they can attack us?
Give me a creative way.
He said the electromagnetic pulse, EMP, right?
It was the first time this was ever brought up in a debate was by Newt Gingrich when in 2011, 2012 in a presidential debate, they asked, what is the biggest threat that we should worry about?
He said EMP, electromagnetic pulse.
And everybody's like, let me go to Google.
What the hell is an AMP, right?
So, look, you know, you notice two stories.
Russia targets what?
Twitter.
China targets who?
Microsoft.
Microsoft, okay.
And what is the real long-term ramifications, control threat if somebody decides to?
Because what an EMP is, they drop it a mile above you and it kind of explodes, but it's not a bomb.
It's not anything.
And all of a sudden, it takes out all your electric powers, all the plants.
Go ahead, Tom.
Remember Oceans 11?
Yeah, exactly.
The very small glimpse of it.
Yeah, where Don Cheadle's up there with that big old big battery and he covers up his manhood and presses the button.
That's an EMP.
It takes out all the electricity in the entire town of Las Vegas.
So this can take it out in the entire country if they wanted to, right?
EMP.
So remember how I said, you know, what can Russia really do to Twitter if they really wanted to?
Some of these empires, they're not held accountable to U.S.
It's not like their accountability is to them.
What can they do and who can they blame?
What are you going to pull them over, give them a ticket?
There's no cops on international high school.
I think things are getting very interesting.
I think things are getting very, very interesting.
And by the way, none of this stuff is new.
None of it is new on what's going on.
But is it about to get to a level where, you know, some crazy stuff's going to happen where we're going to get a real, real experience of what it is?
Because what happens if we lose electricity for a month?
Imagine you have no power.
Then what happens?
Chaos.
What kind of chaos?
How long can it last?
How long is it sustainable?
How long can the generators last?
What happens once the generators are gone?
What happens to the people that don't have generators?
Who do they go to?
What happens to the people that have generators?
Do they keep it a secret?
What happens?
How long before we recover from it?
How long before we come back up from it?
It's very, very interesting on what's happening today.
And what I'm trying to say to the listeners, I'm very optimistic about the future.
The future looks very, very bright.
Future looks very bright.
But we're hoping that people will play nice and they'll find a way to be diplomatic amongst each other and somehow, someway realize that at the end of the day, if you do something to another person, it can backfire in another way.
And I'm hoping that's the one part that gets people to not go to the craziest routes of doing dumb things.
Small things like Microsoft, Twitter, maybe that can happen.
I just hope it's not the level of retaliation, but the retaliation keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
So, anyways, it'll be interesting to see what happens here with Microsoft and Twitter.
Look, I've really enjoyed today's podcast.
We started at 8:30.
We're going to test it next week to see if we start at 9 o'clock, what that looks like.
I have a Zoom I got to jump on myself.
We all got things we got to do.
But for those of you guys that were with us from the beginning to the end, much love to you.
If you enjoyed Tom being on with us today, let him know both on Twitter and let us know by smashing that subscribe button.
