Join John Rush as he delves into the complexities of economic perceptions and the stark realities behind political narratives. In this enlightening episode, John and Jersey Joe engage in a passionate discussion on the misconceptions surrounding wealth distribution and the socio-economic divide. From addressing accusations of bias to exploring the impact of wealth on innovation, this episode challenges the listener to reconsider what they know about economic dynamics. As the conversation unfolds, the hosts explore political shifts and the lingering effects these have on urban centers. With keen insights into recent op-eds and socio-political commentaries, they provide a compelling
SPEAKER 11 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 05 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 11 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 09 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
SPEAKER 03 :
Get a job, sir. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 14 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 17 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right, Hour 3, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Jersey Joe joining us now. Joe, how are you? John, I’m doing fantastic, and I hope you had a happy birthday the other day. I did. I appreciate it. I was asked, though, a moment ago, and I don’t know if this is being facetious or not, but is the host also being paid to be on Team Israel and being paid off by the new car lobby to be anti-public transportation? I don’t know if that’s a joke or not, but I said I wish. I wish. If only.
SPEAKER 08 :
If only, if only, John. I get asked, you know, when I post on some of these liberal websites, I get the same thing. I either get accused of being a Russian troll, you know, or on the payroll of big oil or something. It’s hilarious what people, when they can’t, when they don’t have a good argument. You know, there’s a quote attributed to Socrates, never been proven that he said, he says, but when the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser. So when they can’t fight you on the facts, you know, they start attacking you personally. Good point.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, that’s a good point. And again, no, I guess I probably should set the record straight on this. We have a type of organization here at Crawford Broadcasting to where we have company policy where I’m not allowed to get any bonuses or anything from anybody at any time. So all of what I do as far as endorsements and all of that are concerned from our sponsors and so on, Joe, that is all done as a part of what I do daily and I’m not paid extra for any of that period.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I think people should hear that and understand that, because I think if it was anything else, John, it would hurt your credibility.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and here’s the reality. There is a lot of hosts out there on a lot of other stations that every single endorsement they make, they’re being paid for.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER 19 :
And that is not what we do here. So just as a side note, for all of you listening, no, I am never paid by anybody to do anything or say anything, and I get no perks along those lines in any way, shape, or form. So there it is.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, good. John, I’d like to start off with a quote, actually two quotes from a great, it’s one of the best articles I’ve written in a long time. This is a guy from the FE Foundation for Economic Education. And he wrote this, Mondami in New York City, the guy who’s probably going to be the next mayor, he’s incorporating, he wants to tax billionaires out of existence. And he’s got all the poor people in the city convinced that the reason they’re poor is because billionaires are rich. And, you know, he views wealth as a fixed pie, you know, because they have—the reason you have so little is because they have so much.
SPEAKER 19 :
They have so much. There’s only so much to go around. In other words, you can’t generate any wealth on your own. They’ve taken all of yours, so the only way you can have any is to take theirs.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right, as opposed to the reality, which is wealth is not a fixed pie. I mean, if a farmer discovers oil on his property tomorrow, his wealth will increase overnight, and nobody else’s wealth will be diminished.
SPEAKER 19 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 08 :
So— But there’s two quotes that it’s a great, you know, it’s a great editorial. It’s an op-ed piece. But here’s the first quote. He said, let’s be clear. The real enemy isn’t extreme wealth. It’s persistent poverty. And you don’t fight poverty by punishing wealth. You fight poverty by creating more of it. That’s like, boom, like, you know, how about that? Hitting you in the face. And then here’s the other one. Because Mondami, you know, wants to have a New York City without billionaires. And here’s what he said about A world without billionaires is not a world without poverty. In other words, eliminating billionaires doesn’t eliminate poverty. It’s a world without Google, Microsoft, the iPhone, and many of the conveniences that define modern life. The experiments that billionaires fund, their risky bets on new technologies, pave the way for millions to enjoy what were once luxuries. And think about that. Google, Apple, Microsoft, they all got their start funded by venture capital, and venture capital, a lot of that money comes from people who are billionaires. I mean, the long list of companies that are household names today, including Tesla, by the way. I know some of the people who invested in Tesla before they were public, and these were extremely wealthy people, and they gambled.
SPEAKER 06 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 08 :
15, 20 years ago, Tesla was a gamble. And they were losing tens of millions of dollars every single year.
SPEAKER 19 :
Billions of dollars, Joe, early on.
SPEAKER 08 :
Early. And these people said, yep, I’m going to gamble on Tesla. And if it wasn’t for these billionaires gambling on Tesla, you wouldn’t have a Tesla today.
SPEAKER 06 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 08 :
And regarding what a world without billionaires would look like, you don’t have to imagine it. All you have to do is look at places like Cuba, Somalia, North Korea, Venezuela, and Bangladesh to see what happens when your economic and taxation practices make becoming a non-ruling billionaire impossible. Obviously, the rulers always wind up rich. But so in Venezuela, maybe have one billionaire and everybody else is living in abject poverty, eating dogs and pigeons from the public park. And that’s what a world without billionaires looks like.
SPEAKER 19 :
It would be awful. And I don’t know – I mean, I guess, Joe, I do know where some of this mentality comes from because this is brainwashing. It’s been force-fed. People that don’t have – by the way, it’s why it’s one of the Ten Commandments. And for those of you that don’t understand what I mean by that – Don’t covet. In other words, don’t I, don’t want what the person next to you has. That’s why it’s a commandment, Joe, is because even God himself knows, or God himself especially knows, that that is one of the biggest diseases you could ever encounter in your life, is A, comparing yourself to others and envying what they have.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. And by the way, I’m not so sure that Mondami actually believes that.
SPEAKER 19 :
I don’t think he does, Joe. No, what he is, as you know, he is a total Marxist. Marxism is creating two large classes with this huge chasm in between to where you have the haves and the have-nots, and Mondami knows that. He’s not dumb.
SPEAKER 08 :
And he’s just playing to the crowd. That’s right. I don’t think he believes 90% of what he says.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, he just knows that it’s one of the core beliefs of Marxism, which he is.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. And so that’s what he’s spewing. But this was such a great op-ed piece on terms of… So, Joe, here’s a question for you.
SPEAKER 19 :
You’re much closer to this than, of course, we are being in Jersey. Once he gets elected, because I’m like you, I believe that he will, I think there’s a pretty… I mean, if you wanted to bet on something, bet on him winning, because there’s a high chance that that’s going to happen. So that’s almost a done deal. So once he does get elected… and some of these changes start to take effect and the city starts to literally crumble around and the wealthy start to move away and so on, what happens?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, the city goes into a state of decay because obviously they’re not going to have the tax revenues. And by the way, just another little side note, he’s already promised to make all the buses in New York City free. Now, Kansas City tried that five years ago, and what they found out is that the buses became nothing more than rolling homeless shelters. When the homeless people wanted to get out of the rain or the cold or the heat, they simply rode the bus all day. In fact, some of them even went to the bathroom on the bus, and bus ridership fell off. So I think reality is going to hit him in the face that he’s going to wind up with these gaping holes in his budget as tax revenues decline and costs go up. He said he wants to spend $700 million to buy up apartment houses and turn them into low-income or subsidized housing for poor people. And I think reality is going to hit them in the face, and they’re going to have a budget crisis, which could result in the city going bankrupt. By the way, Detroit went bankrupt about 15 years ago. And when Detroit went bankrupt, the union, the employees union, went to court. And the judge told the union, sorry, guys, you’re a creditor. You’re going to have to take a haircut. So all city employees in the city of Chicago, both retired, already retired, and those who had earned a pension but were still working, were told, You’re not going to get the pension you were promised. And I could see that happening in New York City.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, it’ll be interesting to see how that works. And you know this better than I. Is that a two-year or four-year deal he gets?
SPEAKER 08 :
Four-year deal. Four-year deal.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
So four years he’s mayor. Mayor of New York City, four years.
SPEAKER 19 :
Four years, meaning he’s got four years to basically self-destruct the city.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I think it’ll only take them two.
SPEAKER 19 :
I don’t think you’re wrong in that, Joe. I think you’ll see a ton of changes in the first year, and the ill effects of that will happen in year two.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. John, if we’re betting, I’m betting with you, not against you.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, no, I’m sorry to say that’s what’s going to happen, but that’s what’s going to happen. Now, the only saving grace is it gets so bad, people might realize after four years that, man, we can’t do this anymore.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep, and hopefully, you know, the pendulum will swing back the other way. As it has done, you look at Biden and Trump, you know, it swung to Biden, and then, you know, even the independents voted for Trump. So I think, you know, maybe you have to go through a tough time to understand, you know, what works and what doesn’t work.
SPEAKER 19 :
I can’t argue that. I think you’re exactly right. Can’t argue that one at all.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. Nothing I want to touch on. I mentioned it very briefly last night when I called in, but I want to go back to this – Teachers Union praise of this convicted cop killer. For those who didn’t listen last night, back in 1973, there was a woman, a member of the Black Liberation Army. Her name was Joanne Chesimar. She was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper and robbing a bank, and she was sentenced to life in prison. And she was sent to a woman’s prison about five miles from where I live. Anyway, a few years later, with the help of some of the other members of the Black Liberation Movement, She was able to escape from that prison. They got her in a boat, and they got her down to Cuba, where she’s been living in protected exile for the past 45 years. Well, she died last week in Cuba at age 78. So what did the Chicago’s Teachers Union do? And this woman has no connection to Chicago whatsoever. The Chicago’s Teachers Union felt it necessary to come out and publish a eulogy for her. And she had changed her name to Assata Shakur. And here’s the eulogy that they posted on X. Rest in power, rest in peace, Ashada Shakur. Today we honor the life and legacy of a revolutionary fighter, a fierce rider, a revered elder of black liberation, and a leader of freedom whose spirit continues to live in our struggle. Ashada refused to be silenced. She taught us that it is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains. Never once did they mention the fact that she’s a convicted cop killer.
SPEAKER 19 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 19 :
Shows you where they’re coming from, Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep, and this is a city where they’ve got 50 schools where not one high school student is proficient in reading.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay, that’s the only question that I have on, you know, all of what is involving with Mondami in New York is, you know, we see other cities like Chicago and even L.A. and other places where they just continue to elect the same knuckleheads. Denver does the same thing, Joe. You would think at some point these people would realize that, wait a minute, we need different leadership here.
SPEAKER 08 :
John, you know— You shake your head. How long can this go on before people finally put their foot down and say enough? Or are we heading, you know, we talked about a couple of months back, we had the movies. Remember Escape from New York with Kurt Russell? Yes. When the city had fallen into a lawless hellhole. You wonder if that’s where it’s heading.
SPEAKER 19 :
I don’t know. I mean, even here in Denver, I talked, you know, even in the last hour about the pavilions here in Denver being bought by the city of Denver. The total tab on that’s going to be about $45 million when it’s all said and done. And yet we’ve got people that, you know, are not going to have jobs. We’ve got police officers that have to have hours cut back. On and on we go. And yet, you know, somehow or another they can dig up enough money to go do this. And on top of that, you’re now going to compete with the private sector, which I’m strongly against.
SPEAKER 08 :
You and I both, John, there’s a long history of the government never being able to do anything as well and cost-effectively as the private sector can because the private sector is always driven by competition. If you can’t do it better, faster, cheaper – you’re going to go out of business. There’s no such pressure on the government to do it better, faster, cheaper.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, in this particular case, they could run with no tenants. They could have lower rents. There’s all sorts of things that they could do that the private sector can’t do, and it’s not fair competition at the end of the day. It isn’t.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely not. You can’t compete with the government.
SPEAKER 19 :
Nope, you cannot. And it’s why they shouldn’t be in that business in the first place. Yep. All they do, as you know, Joe, and not to get off on a tangent, but all they do is screw things up when it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 08 :
John, all we can do is sit back and watch and hope for a better outcome. Hey, just little news. You remember Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the guy from El Salvador that got sent back and then we had the senator from Maryland. Had to bring him back. We had to bring him back and he was fighting. And the State Department offered him, said, look, if you agree to not contest your deportation, we’ll let you go. And he said, well, you can’t send me back to El Salvador because I might be killed, you know, my life would be at risk. So they said, okay, if you drop your suit, we’ll send you down to Costa Rica, which is a neighboring country. They speak Spanish. But if you fight us and lose, we’re going to send you to prison in Ethiopia. Well, he fought it, and the judge ruled against him. He’s going to Ethiopia.
SPEAKER 06 :
Good for him.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good for him. Good place. Good place. The farther away from here, the better. The farther away from here, the better. Yep. Hey, since the shutdown is on everybody’s mind, I’ve got a clip of Chuck Schumer. This goes back 20 years. This is Chuck. He’s not talking about just the most recent shutdown, although one of the clips is. But he’s talking about four or five different shutdowns over the past 20 years, including the most recent one. So here’s Chuck talking why the government… why shutdowns should never be initiated over policy issues.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is the type of thing you’ve said about shutdowns in the past. Let’s listen.
SPEAKER 09 :
What if I persuaded my caucus to say I’m going to shut the government down? I’m going to not pay our bills unless I get my way. It’s a politics of idiocy, of confrontation, of paralysis. Shutting down government over a policy difference is self-defeating. We can never… hold American workers hostage again. While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down. That was you three times in the past.
SPEAKER 08 :
Go ahead.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay, I’ll stop it there.
SPEAKER 08 :
So there’s Chuck Schumer over the past 20 years saying over and over and over, you should never shut the government down over a policy issue. And so what have they just done? They’ve shut the government down over a policy issue. And by the way, the continuing resolution, people, the left has peddled this fairy tale that the continuing resolution had all these budget cuts. The continuing resolution, all it said is we will continue to spend at the exact same level that was in the 2025 budget, zero cuts, no cuts, no reductions, no changes. So there’s no cuts in the continuing resolution that the Democrats blocked with a filibuster. You know, that what they came back with and said, well, We’ll agree to a continuing resolution, providing you put back all this stuff that was eliminated.
SPEAKER 19 :
And that’s not how those work, as you know, Joe. That’s not how it works.
SPEAKER 08 :
Not how it works. So that happened there. The other thing that most of your listeners who—I’m going to guess, John, that the majority of your listeners are Christian, that they’re probably unaware of is the genocide taking place in Nigeria. Now, all these people protesting about the genocide in Gaza— I’ve not heard anyone protest against the genocide taking place in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, most people don’t even know about it. So can we play this clip of—and again, this is Bill Maher, who I think is turning into a closeted— Man alive.
SPEAKER 19 :
You’re going to start to wonder. Yep.
SPEAKER 08 :
Here’s Bill Maher talking about genocide in Nigeria.
SPEAKER 19 :
Let me make sure we’re up here and playing this well.
SPEAKER 04 :
This issue has not gotten on people’s radar.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right, no one’s talking about it.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s pretty amazing. If you don’t know what’s going on in Nigeria, your media sources suck. You are in a bubble. And again, I’m not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They’ve killed over 100,000 since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches. This is so much more. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the kids protesting this?
SPEAKER 19 :
And he’s right. He’s 100 percent correct.
SPEAKER 08 :
I’ve not seen one protest where all these college kids saying stop killing Christians. Stop burning churches. John, 100,000 Christians.
SPEAKER 19 :
Right. They don’t exist.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. I believe that’s more than more that’s been killed in Gaza.
SPEAKER 19 :
I’d have to look, but I think you’re seldom wrong, Joe, so I’ll go with what you’re saying. I can’t argue that.
SPEAKER 08 :
So, and again, and probably most of your listeners were probably not aware of the genocide that’s taking place in Nigeria right now. Right. He called it Niger, which is another… proper name. You know, most of us know it as Nigeria, but I think they’ve altered their name recently to call it Niger.
SPEAKER 19 :
Either way, and by the way, it wouldn’t matter if it was Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia. I mean, we can go down the list. It wouldn’t make a hill of beans a bit of difference, Joe. His point is, this is happening somewhere else. Why is nobody protesting that?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. And you have to wonder, John, in fact, I know better, is that a lot of these protests against Israel are funded by you know, to get the George Soros of the world are paying these people. In fact, you see the same people in different cities two days apart with the same price.
SPEAKER 19 :
That’s right. No, you can see it. You’re exactly right. 100% Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
Exact same people. How did they get from city A to city B?
SPEAKER 19 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know.
SPEAKER 19 :
On a protester’s budget?
SPEAKER 08 :
On a protester’s budget.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, no, I was going to say it, but that’s exactly what it is.
SPEAKER 08 :
And in terms of a little more genocide, did you hear about the attack in Manchester, England this morning?
SPEAKER 19 :
No, I did not.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, today is Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the Jewish year. A British citizen who was of Syrian—but he was born in Syria, he was a Syrian Muslim. He drove his car into a crowd of people getting ready to enter a Jewish synagogue in Manchester, England. And after running over a bunch of them, got out of his car with a knife and started to stab the Jews waiting to enter the synagogue. Now, the police fortunately got there and shot them dead. But, again, you’ve gotten more genocide against the Jews where this guy said, yeah, I think I’m going to go kill a bunch of Jews this morning.
SPEAKER 19 :
35-year-old Jihad al-Shami.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. You know, what bothers me, John, is it doesn’t get the amount of press.
SPEAKER 19 :
I didn’t hear anything about it until you just said it, Joe. I had to look it up. I did not see it in any of my feeds today at all.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I’m gathering, John, I mentioned this, I’m wondering how many of your listeners didn’t hear it until we just talked about it. Most.
SPEAKER 19 :
I would say most, Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
So ask yourself, if you didn’t hear about this guy running down a bunch of Jews in front of a synagogue on Yom Kippur. Why?
SPEAKER 19 :
Why?
SPEAKER 08 :
Why? What’s wrong with the news that you’re watching?
SPEAKER 19 :
Great point. Joe, man, it’s always a joy. I appreciate it very much. Thank you so much for your time.
SPEAKER 08 :
My pleasure, John.
SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560. And we are back, David Strzeski joining us now, Sound Planning Group. David, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, doing fantastic, John. How about yourself?
SPEAKER 19 :
I’m good. Been a little while since we’ve talked to you. I’m glad you’re back with us. I appreciate you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Great to be with you.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right. So government shutdown, normally that’s a big factor when it comes to the markets and so on, although hasn’t really been this time around. Why is that?
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, it’s kind of interesting. I think that we’re sort of used to this idea. I think it’s sort of a nothing burger. And just to be clear, those who are furloughed, are not going to be paid, but ultimately those who are working will get their checks every two weeks, and they’ll be made up for the time just in between. So I think a lot of Americans are looking at this right now, and they’re saying there’s a lot of bigger things going on in this world than what the government’s going to do or not do with their credit card limit. Although it is very concerning, and I think the rest of the world is looking at us right now and thinking the U.S. dollar is going to probably get weaker.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and I’m not so sure that that’s – and this is a question for you. Is that a bad thing when it comes to our own exports and what we can do economically speaking that way?
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, no. We have to get a weaker dollar for sure if we’re going to be able to be a net exporter. And ultimately, if we’re going to be manufacturing more here at home and buying, selling, trading more at home, then really that doesn’t affect us as much. So you’re correct that it’s maybe a little less potent than perhaps other times in this world, but that really speaks to the global shift that’s been taking place here for the last, I don’t know, number of years. But there’s less peace, there’s less transactions kind of going forward, but If the U.S. can rebalance some of this in trade, then, yeah, a weaker dollar is absolutely needed.
SPEAKER 19 :
And it overnight fell by 0.10%, so 1% basically. No offense, David, at the end of the day, that’s not even enough to already talk about.
SPEAKER 07 :
True, true. No, we definitely can see, though, that if gold and silver are priced in U.S. dollars, that it takes more of those individual units to buy one ounce. And so, you know, we’re definitely seeing that there’s an inflation that’s incurring in what, you know, I think most people would agree is the definition of money. And so, you know, these are things to be watching. And I think that we’re seeing a significant structural shift right now, given, you know, gold at all-time highs, silver is just below its all-time high of 50 right now. So it’s still a good deal below its all-time high. And I think ultimately just, you know, picking up here. So we’ll see probably those commodities going up.
SPEAKER 19 :
I read something yesterday talking about, and I don’t know what truth there is to this, talking about Trump and crypto and the fact that he’s trying his best to make crypto more of a mainstream thing, therefore affecting the value of the dollar. Is there any truth to any of that? What are your thoughts there?
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, so the Genius Act is a really big deal, and I think that there’s some positives to it, and then there’s also some challenges that will happen as a result of it. But ultimately, one of the things that if you’re in blockchain like I am and you want to get out of a specific position, you buy USDC or USDT, which is ultimately a treasury underneath that’s been tokenized, and so that’s the equivalent of a U.S. dollar. Well, this is actually a really good idea for America because we’re ultimately able to sell a lot more treasuries where the world is net sellers of treasuries right now. So this is another way for us to continue to be able to sell treasuries that are not as appetizing right now as we’re going into more of a blockchain world. But just to add another point to that, they’re tokenizing gold now and able to add that into some version of a stable coin. And I think that we’ll probably see other advances in this area, even with potentially in-ground assets, maybe that are at Yellowstone national park or something. Maybe they can add that to the strategic wealth reserve of the nation. I’m not sure. but it seems like there could be some movement in that direction, and ultimately that could back up the U.S. dollar as well.
SPEAKER 19 :
Interesting. Those are things that I hadn’t really thought much about, and I get the whole crypto end of things. The one thing that still scares me about the whole crypto side, and get your opinion on this, is the reality that, and I get it, that people will say, well, the U.S. dollar is not backed by anything either. Well, It is. It’s still backed by the U.S. government, where, no offense, David, Bitcoin isn’t backed by anything other than the faith in it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Sure. Well, that is what the U.S. dollar is backed by.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, hang tight. It is, but it isn’t. I mean, on the same token, we have trillions of dollars of assets in this country. Bitcoin has zero, nothing.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. But what you’re going to have is, you know, mathematically only a certain amount that’s available. I get that.
SPEAKER 19 :
But again, it still comes down to, and correct me if I’m wrong, still comes down to faith in the product. Am I right or wrong?
SPEAKER 07 :
It does come down to faith in the product, and there’s a lot of nations around the world. Let’s just say that you’re in Argentina right now who’s experiencing 20% or 30% of monthly inflation. So what are you going to do with your dollar when you get your paycheck? You’re going to go buy some groceries. As quickly as you can. And then you’re going to leave it. You’re going to get out of it, and you’re going to go someplace with it. And so Bitcoin is one of these things that it’s finite. Right. You know, there’s essentially been 20 million of the 21 million possible coins that have already been mined. So there’s really only a million left. The one thing that people miss with Bitcoin, though, is that it is not very quick at transacting. And so I don’t believe that anybody who owns Bitcoin is going to go out and buy lunch with it or groceries with it tomorrow. I think that what they’re going to do is continue to spend U.S. dollars, which is the most liquid markets in the world, and they’re going to continue to do that. Also, if I believe that it’s deflating like it is, then I’m going to want to retain other assets that potentially hold value, like gold, silver, platinum, palladium, potentially Bitcoin and other assets like that. But a lot of what I see in the crypto market today are more like the algorithms for technology that are going to be fueling things in the future. So kind of like the Internet early, you know, there’s a lot of technology that goes into our smartphones and how technology all comes together. And so a lot of those really are, in my opinion, the wave of the future for that.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, I read something on this as well. As you can tell, I read a lot. It’s what I have to do for this program on a daily basis. And I read and I was watching a little bit of a blurb the other day on Bitcoin and how will it continue to make money once everything’s mined. And essentially, and I don’t think these guys are wrong, essentially it’ll come down to just like every other credit card company that’s out there, it’ll come down to the transaction fees. And essentially that’s how the money will be made in Bitcoin once everything’s mined. Your thoughts?
SPEAKER 07 :
Sure. We call it gas tax. And so Ethereum as an example is one of the larger functional coins out there. It’s called the layer three. And, uh, and so basically it can become very expensive to transact if everyone’s trying to do it at the same time. Um, so, you know, also if we think about Nvidia chips versus other chips, we’ve not really gotten into the conversation of efficiencies, the amount of energy that it takes to run it versus what’s the output and the actual needs that we have. And so whether you’re talking any of this new technology, I think that we’re just at the beginning places of identifying what is really a good idea and what is not as good of an idea. I mean, there’s even a theory here where supercomputers can crack the Bitcoin and it’s maybe not as secure as everyone believes. And so I’m not saying that it’s either good or bad. I’m saying that it’s something that people should consider and should look into. And one way I like to think about blockchain is that, you know, if I’m right, Then then, you know, maybe if you look at, you know, taking your wife out or something for for a nice weekend, if you would just instead just stay at home, do some other things and put that money inside a blockchain, maybe in the next 10 years, that’s grown to something that ultimately, you know, can impact your retirement in an awesome way. Or you just lost one weekend with your wife, and you probably don’t even remember that loss.
SPEAKER 19 :
Good point. No, no, no. I don’t know that I can argue that. And I own just a little bit of Bitcoin over the years, and it has gone up as time goes. has gone by. And in my case, it’s not something that I have to have to make my next meal by any means. Frankly, I wouldn’t have put that money into it if that were the case, because I don’t believe in doing that either. And yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what happens as time goes by. And again, all of this stuff, to me, is just fascinating, because between it and AI and where things are headed, I mean, I am one where, I guess, David, I look at this maybe a little differently than others do. I think the future is grand. In fact, I think it’s bigger than most people realize I look at AI as a tool only. I don’t look at it any other way. Yes, it can be good. Yes, it can be bad. Depends on how it’s used. But I look at it, and I said this earlier in the program today, it’s very much like the Industrial Revolution that came in in the late 1800s, early 1900s, only I think this one might even be bigger.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, yeah. No, this is literally the space race right now. And, you know, AI today is just a speed reader. And to be clear, in my opinion, is that AI is going to be your doctor in the future because we’ve got a big problem right now with so many primary care physicians over the age of 60 that are nearing and entering retirement. Got plenty of cash. But also, AI can read your entire profile, not just what was in the chart and prescribe you something that you had last time. And so there’s some really great advances that are probably going to take place here in medical use, for example. But, you know, the hacking that can happen and some of those other challenges that can be nefariously used, I mean, could be a real problem. And so it’s kind of, you know.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, no, this is going to be – by the way, I like what you said. I’m right there with you, and I look at it exactly the same way. And as it continues to learn, it could become more, quote-unquote, nefarious, but on the same token – David, the reality is we’ve had a lot of nefarious things that we’ve always dealt with in the past. Yeah, this could be bigger. I say could be, depending upon how we control and handle it. of, oh, you know, no, that’s of the devil, that’s of Satan, I don’t want to be involved in that, I can’t be involved in that, blah, blah, blah. And I’ve heard people actually say that, and my fear of that, David, is if we’re not careful—and I know your background, so I think you’ll understand what I’m going to say here—if we’re not careful, we as Christian conservatives and the Church in general are going to find ourselves doing exactly what we did with music, what we did with Hollywood, and what we’ve done with a lot of other things over the years. If we stay silent and back away and have nothing to do with it, it’ll be to our detriment.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. And really what I think God wants to do is he wants to bring the right stewardship to those that have the same faith and have the ability to do that. I can tell you right now that I’m involved with quite a number of projects in AI and in blockchain that are very significant. And the thing that we’re trying to identify is how to be ethical, how to be effective, but ultimately how to bring prices down, how to actually affect real families in a real way that can actually make a difference. So we want to bring out the best side of this while also limiting the negative side of this. So it’s really important that… that Christians and people with the right worldview are involved with these projects, because they’ll steward it right into the future.
SPEAKER 19 :
Amen. You’re preaching to the choir. I’m glad you said that. There’s very few of us that I feel believe this way, David, and I want my audience, who a lot are on the Christian right, and I want them to understand what you just said, because this is one of those areas we cannot be silent in, we cannot back away from.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, and I’d just even say, you know, try to even create some prayer points for the nation by just talking into chat GPT or Grok. And you’ll be pretty, you know, like I said, this is a speed reader. You might be, you know, pleasantly surprised with what you can actually create and what you can come up with, even from a faith side, because, again, it knows all languages that have ever been written.
SPEAKER 19 :
There you go. David, how do folks find you, sir?
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, myspg.com is where our firm… We do, you know, quite a number of things here in our community and education about finance and how to retire, how to invest. And we got information up there, a lot of things going on. You can find me on YouTube, et cetera.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, I always appreciate it. It’s always a joy. We have great conversations every time you’re with us, and I always appreciate it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Pleasure’s mine, John. God bless you. Thank you, David.
SPEAKER 19 :
You bet. Have a great night. Appreciate him very much. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. Rejuvenate your current roof, therefore making it last longer, saving you money across the board, and in some cases, keeping your insurance policy in effect. Give Roof Savers a call today, 303-710-6916.
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SPEAKER 11 :
The best export we have is Common Sense. You’re listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right. Something I didn’t get a chance to mention with David because we had to take a break and make sure I get caught back up here on our breaks as we’re a little behind here with where we’re at. But at any rate, Charlie sent me an article earlier today coming out of Fortune talking about some individuals writing about the U.S. economy and the fact that in most cases, some of these economists that, by the way, have been predicting a really slow economy and we’re going to have ill effects from the Trump tariffs and Liberation Day and so on. Basically, this is an article from Fortune talking about how all those economists owe the United States public an apology because they’ve been wrong, which Andy and I, by the way, have been talking about some of this now for quite some time. And we predicted exactly where we would be, not trying to take any credit here, but literally we predicted that we would be exactly where we’re at. And I’ll go one step further. We’d be farther ahead. You guys have heard me say this a gazillion times now. We would be even much further ahead if you could have got Fed participation. So economy actually is not doing too bad. Could it be doing better? Absolutely, especially in the housing end of things, it could be doing much better. But all of the naysayers that were talking about how, you know, tariffs were going to ruin this and tariffs are going to ruin that and all the prices are going to do this and all the prices are going to do that and, you know, it’s going to kill this, it’s going to kill that. Reality is, in some areas… You’re really even starting to see some stagflation, which we don’t want. I was going to ask David about that, but again, we were running out of time. I couldn’t do it. I’ll get him back here at some point and ask that question. But in some areas of the country, you’re seeing even some stagflation, meaning things aren’t doing anything. That’s not good either. And anybody that understands economies at all, you need a little bit of inflation to keep things rolling along. It’s not a bad thing. And you’re not seeing that in some cases. In fact, if we’re not careful, you might very well see us go the other direction. So, again, one of the things we’ve got to be careful of, but it’s an interesting article that was in Fortune that Charlie sent me, and basically saying that, you know what, some of these economists need to give some apologies out to the American public because – They’ve been dead wrong. All right, got to catch up on breaks. Golden Eagle Financial, speaking of finances and where you need to head in your life and where you need to be, making sure you’ve got a plan, sticking to that plan. Give Al Smith a call today. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
It’s time to leave your safe space. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right, getting things wrapped up for today. EV credits, federal-wise, ended, of course, on Tuesday, September 30th. Now, here’s what Colorado is doing. EVs are here to stay. Colorado is increasing its electric vehicle incentives after the federal ones expire. So the state credit prior was, I believe, $6,000. It’s now going to $9,000. and new electric vehicle purchases and leases. That’s on the new side, by the way. Used side will be $4,000 to now $6,000. I wasn’t expecting that, to be honest with you, although I’m not shocked. Now, the question is going to be for how long can they do that? You know, Polis basically said in a press release that EVs are here to stay. Let’s make that clear, blah, blah, blah. Well, there’s only so much money to go around. So the question is, how long will this last? I don’t have an answer to that. Now, keep in mind, this is statewide. Each state will do some things on their own. What’s interesting, though, is I got a notice, I believe, a text message from one of you, whereby… Hyundai, on some of its EVs, just discounted them $10,000, meaning the $7,500 federal tax credit you were once getting, they upped that. And Richard and I were talking about this on Monday. This is going to be interesting to see what happens with EVs from the manufacturer’s sides of things because the only way they’re going to continue to move those is to get them priced accordingly where they will still sell them. Now, this is the interesting part. They’re losing money. on those cars not across the board but they’re losing money there’s there’s but a few ev manufacturers tesla being one of them that’s actually making a profit on their evs most are losing money now fortunately for the majority of the manufacturers they’ve got enough other revenue generating divisions whereby they can offset some of the losses they have on the ev side and make that up the question is for how long can they do that And I don’t have that answer, folks. And by the way, it’s not a standard answer. It’ll depend. That probably is the answer. It depends. Because it’s going to come down to each manufacturer and how deep their pockets are in other divisions that they have and what they’re selling worldwide. Because remember, they’ve got deep pockets that go worldwide, not just here in the United States of America. And that includes all of them. Hyundai included, like I just mentioned. Hyundai is actually the maker of Hyundai and Kia. Just like General Motors has Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, you get the drift. Okay, that’s exactly the way that the Hyundai sides of things work. So how is this going to work with the EVs moving forward? As Richard and I predicted, and exactly what we predicted is happening, the manufacturers, in this case, the state of Colorado, but manufacturers are kicking in to continue to make sure that they can move those EVs because there’s a lot of them still out there. And again, like I talked about with the state of Colorado and those credits, how long can some of these manufacturers continue to do that until they start making a profit on those cars? That I don’t have an answer to. As with any product, though, keep this in mind, as they produce more and all the R&D sides of things gets paid for and they’re able to then reduce the cost, just like big screen TVs, when they first came out, they were five, six, ten grand when they first came out. You can now buy, I’m not exaggerating, you can now buy a 75-inch, not a 55. You can buy a 75-inch big screen for, what, Charlie, $1,000 or so now? I’m not exaggerating. Now, it may not be the highest quality of a 75-inch. You’re still going to pay probably a couple of grand for a really high-quality, well, I don’t even think you pay that. I think you can buy a really high-quality 75-inch for about $1,600 now. Far cry from what they once were because, again, as that R&D is done and they can now start adding the quantity of production back in, it reduces the price. That’s why early adopters always pay a higher price. And, by the way, you should thank early adopters. Most people are very envious of early adopters. You should thank early adopters. They’re what make most products work. Without them, most products would stay expensive forever. But because there’s people out there that actually buy things when they first come out because they like that technology or they like having that newest piece of whatever, they actually help support all of the others. It goes back to Joe’s talk about billionaires being in a city. That’s a great thing. They help drive the price of a lot of things down because they’re willing to invest and buy things nobody else will. Those are good things. Despite what folks on the left will tell you, those are good things. So where do we head with EVs and all of that? It seems like I always kind of come back around to this. I don’t know, folks. I do know this. Despite all of the naysayers, they’re here to stay. I will agree with Governor Polis on that. They’re not here to stay because of what he thinks. They’re just here to stay because certain people, once they understand the value of and the convenience of, maybe I should say it that way, when people really understand the convenience of, yes, they’ll own one. And they are convenient. Despite what a lot of folks on the right feel, they are convenient. In fact, that’s the best-selling feature they’ve got, the fact that they’re fast and they’re convenient. Those two things alone will continue to sell them, providing they get the price at the right value where that end user, that end customer understands that and can actually make that work. All right, let me do this. Before we go to our last break, let me give you the question of the day. Yesterday’s was which American hockey team made history in 1917 by becoming the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup? That was the Seattle Metropolitans. Today’s impossible question. Name the 2009 storm that was canceled. Sorry, sitcom, not storm. Make my eyes work right here. The 2009 sitcom that was canceled after airing just one episode. Okay? Just one episode. Hint. It immediately followed American Idol. So there’s your hint. We’ll be back here in just one minute. Dr. Scott is up next. He is my doctor. He’d love to be yours as well. And he is there to make you feel better and live the best life you possibly can health-wise. 303-663-6990.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 18 :
Stay up to date with Rush to Reason after the show on Twitter at RushToReason.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right, we’re wrapping up today. Tomorrow, we have got movies, NFL reviews, and, of course, Movie Rental Hour. And the three movies tomorrow that Andy’s reviewing, The Smashing Machine, Good Boy, and Coyotes. Now, Movie Rental Hour in honor of Good Boy and Coyotes is going to be Howlers, movies with dogs or wolves. So be sure to send me those if you would like on our text line, 307. 282-22. But guys, be safe. Have a great evening. We’ll be back tomorrow for Friday. This is Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
