December 23, 2025 • 33 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 3 (12/23) - Lou Penrose fills in for John. Royal Oakes comes on the show to talk about more Epstein Files being released. Some companies are implementing a restocking fee for returns. Everyone is worried AI is going to steal more jobs.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't f I am six forty. You're listening to the
John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
App Lou Penrose and for John Cobelt. Good to have
you along with us ABC News legal analysts, Well Oaks
joins us the.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Latest round of Epstein files.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Where does it leave us? Is Trump in worse shape?
Better shape? I just see a lot of photographs of
Clinton and Hantub Royal?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Are we almost Are we done with the data dump?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Or is this just going to be a Chinese water
torture of slow trickle.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I got a double check for that picture. Yeah, you know,
it's amazing, isn't it. Low It just goes on and on.
I mean, Epstein was arrested again in twenty nineteen, and
then he was dead, and yet it's still coming out.
But I mean to answer your question, you know, we've
all seen some sort of provocative images, but no real
smoking guns. I mean, not even as sneaky as that
(00:56):
picture Prince Andrew, you know, looking out out the door.
Bottom line is that people are still suspiciously because we
see these redactions, just blacked dot portions. Now the officials say, well,
we've got alleged victims, and we have to protect their privacy.
But the Democrats are saying that Trump's dojy early isn't
being really forthcoming in terms of what they're redacting. Ultimately,
(01:18):
it may take a judge looking at everything without the
blacked out stuff seeing everything to decide whether or not
the redactions are fair.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So let's say you, for and who knows what the
circumstances would be, but you find yourself invited by Jeffrey
Epstein to a weekend with a bunch of other people.
I don't know if you're a financier or a banker,
or some new celebrity some read right you heard about
this guy throws a huge party.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
He's got his own island. That's all you know. You
don't know any of the arrests or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And now you're there and you don't see anything inappropriate.
You have dinner and spend time with them, and spend
time with the other people, and you fly home. Ten
years goes by, and now your name is on some
piece of paper in an email that you were there,
and you've done nothing wrong.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
You saw nothing wrong, you've enabled nothing wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I mean, these people's privacy does matter, because if somebody's
name comes out that they were there ten years ago
with their wife. It could be detrimental to their business
success and their their their reputation.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Oh absolutely, I mean it's guilt by association. I mean,
of course you showed up them as a giant sign
welcome to the little Leitown Island. You know, that would
be a tell. But the bottom line is you're right.
A lot of people, you know, hang out with folks
who are you know, filthy rich, and maybe they knew
nothing about any alleged illegal activity, but they're going to
(02:44):
be tarred with the same brush. That's why, after so
many years, it is strange that we haven't seen people
come forward with sort of proof positive as somebody who
was sixteen at the time and they happened to have
a recording or a video or a picture. We're just
not seeing that at least as to the huge names
like Trump or Clinton. But you know, we just have
(03:05):
to play it out. And of course the Democrats have
a chance next November. If they take the House, then
every chair every committee in the House will be a Democrat,
in which case they can launch more investigations, issue more subpoenas.
Right now, Chuck Schumer is threatening to go to court,
and there could be some court fights between now and
next November. Bottom line though, is I think this is
(03:26):
just going to continue dribs and grabs. Maybe we see
a light at the end of the tunnel, but it's
a case that just won't go away.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, like any conspiracy theory, it does serve to fascinate people.
So if politically speaking, if you are trying to distract
from top story like GDP growth, you'll reenter this into
the conversation.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
And Trump knows it, and you could tell it bothers
him a lot. It was the source of.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
The breakup between he and Marjorie Taylor Green and other Republicans.
Just he's trying to keep everybody on message. He believes
there's nothing there. He's not clearly not afraid of anything
coming out that could be damning to him. What he's
most afraid of is some other headline, some other narrative
other than what I'm trying to do as president. And
(04:14):
that this thing stays alive means that it's just a
tool in democrats toolbox at any given time to just
you know, bring up a story or change the narrative
from something else. And if Democrats do control the House,
they will constantly be able to pull that trigger.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Oh absolutely, then it'll just be the evergreen, evergreen story.
And it's a great point. I think that the reason
this story just has such legs is because you know,
there are two legs. The last leg the Democrats. They
want to keep it alive because they're convinced there's something
incriminating about Donald Trump. So they're pushing the right. They're
(04:52):
pushing because the Marjorie Taylor Greens of the world think
that this is a huge conspiracy and a cover up
of you know, of all the sexual exploitation, and they
think Donald Trump or excuse me, Bill Clinton, is probably responsible.
So I mean, how many issues do you see where
both sides have big chunks of the demographic pushing for this.
(05:13):
And of course, you know, they've got a bipartisan support
for the Epstein Files Transparency Act several weeks ago, so
that's the law. You got to hand the stuff over.
And you know, if the Democrats really think that Trump
DOJ is cheating and redacting stuff that would embarrass Donald Trump,
ultimately it's just going to wind up in the chambers
of a judge and the judge looks at the documents
before the redactions, the little black bars were applied, and
(05:36):
the judge will decide whether or not it was appropriate
or whether it was something fishy in removing something to
hide it from the public.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Is there any longer a political constituency for the Clintons
among Democrats that say, hey, you know, this is embarrassing
to the former president.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
And it's not looking good.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So maybe as Democrats we want to lay off the
Epstein thing, because is only going to be more photos
of the former president.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Of the United States.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean, does he have a fan club anymore, cheering
section and the contemporary Democrat Party.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
I think he does because you know, if you look
at politics in America over the last several decades, it's
not just a silo. You know, you go from Carter
to Reagan to Bush. You've got the two sides. And
I think, just as Republicans always have kind of fond
feelings about Eisenhower and Dick Nixon and Reagan and Bush
(06:29):
and then Trump, the same thing with the Democrats. You know,
JFK and Johnson and Bill Clinton and Obama their teammates.
So I think people on the left want to sort
of circle the wagons and protect the people in their party,
and the same thing on the right. So that's why
this story just does not want to go away.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, I have a prediction, and that is another hot
tub photo comes out with the former president in it.
Bill Clinton is not standing on that stage in the
twenty twenty eight convention.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
No chance?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
But I appreciated politicians to just stay out of hot tubs.
That's that's, that's the rule.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Royal Oaks, ABC News Legal analysts, Thanks so much, good
to talk to you. Happy holidays to you and all
your all your family, and we'll catch with You'll catch.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Up with you again.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Name do you?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Thanks?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, No more photographs, any more photographs of Bill Clinton
in that hot tub. And he's not going to be
on that stage if he's invited back to the Democratic
National Convention. I have no idea what the Democratic National
Convention will even look like in twenty twenty eight. Who's
going to be on that stage, who's gonna be giving
those speeches? It's going to be a wild time, all right.
(07:39):
So when we come back. Popular retailers now are all
implementing new return fees this holiday season. Does it apply
to purchases that you did in the mail or in
person or how does it all work. I'll tell you
how much you're going to pay to take something back
and how are you going to do it.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
That's all coming up next on The John Cobelt Show.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Lou Penrose Info, John Coblt on KFI AM six forty
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio apps.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Lou Penrose Info. John Cobelt on The John coblt Show. Yeah,
keeping an eye on the rain for sure. The National
Weather Service in Los Angeles are very serious about this
forecast and the potential danger of mud slides, rock slides
and flooding and all kinds of issues that come with
(08:35):
a lot of rain. A strong extreme atmospheric river dropping
four to seven inches in eighteen hours, so they're saying
high risk of flash flooding. You could drive from Crescent
City to San Diego nearly eight hundred and fifty miles
and be under the same National Weather Service floodwatch the
entire time.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
So, Yeah, it's gonna rain a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
And I know it sounds a little hysterical. I get that,
like it's rain. You know, we can drive in the rain.
That's what the Winschi wipers are for. But I do
know that these National weather guys, the folks that come
on from the National Weather Service, they are like really
thoughtful meteorologists. They really like their craft, they like what
(09:22):
they're doing, they know a whole lot about it. Weather
excites them and they are to be taken seriously. So
before you know, I just kind of write it off
as like, oh my gosh, can you get more hysterical
about some rain? I get it, it's gonna rain a lot.
We can handle it.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I'm going to trust their judgment, all right.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
So if you're gonna return gifts to the store, you
can go in physically in person and return your gifts
and not be charged. But if you're going to mail
your returns back, and a lot of these companies do
have a very convenient return on it, they'll even send
you a barcode. I don't know how Amazon does it.
(10:05):
I really don't.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I've returned things at Amazon, and you can just print.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
If you have a printer at your house, you can
just print out a label and have the UPS guy
com when if you have UPS near you, or they
could regularly come to your office or you can go
to the UPS store and drop it all. You can
even take it without boxing it. Some products anyway, and
they just they I don't know how they.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Know where it goes.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I think just Amazon throws everything out. I don't know
if they restock anything. I don't know where they'd keep it.
I'm I cannot like that level of scale is beyond
my level of comprehension. So Amazon makes it really easy.
But these other stores, I kind of get it. There
are a lot of people that are very wasteful when
(10:54):
it comes to shopping, particularly with clothing. I know a woman,
the wife of a friend, so I don't want to
out that person. She doesn't live in the state anymore,
but she literally buys clothing in different sizes and different
Like she wants to buy one outfit, one pants and
the top, she'll buy it in like three or four
(11:17):
different colors and two sizes, try it on, find out
which one works the best, and return everything else and
like all the time, Like that's how she does her
clothing shopping. And she justifies it. She's like, well, it's
the same thing if I go into Macy's, I take
(11:37):
two different colors, two different sizes into the changing room,
and I try everything on, and the one that's most
flattering and the one that fits the best is the
one I keep, and the rest go back on the rack.
And she doesn't even put them back on the rack herself,
just throws them in that great big bin. But I
think he's supposed to do that. So her attitude is, well,
(11:58):
it's the same thing. I mean, I'm they're saving money
because there's not a storefront, and I'm not going to
wear something or have something that doesn't fit, and I'm
not going to do this seven times in a row,
so I'll just do it all at once, return it,
it credits the account.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
She keeps an eye on.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
It because you know, the one purchase is four times
the amount that she wanted to spend for the outfit,
but three are going back and it's.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Okay, and that's how she shops. And I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Something about that feels wasteful to me. You're wasting people's time.
These are products.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
So I'm kind of a fan of the restock fee.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I do think that if you buy something and it's
fine and it's not broken, and you knowingly chose it
and now took it home and decided that you no
longer want to own it. If you want to bring
it back to the store, if it's opened and used,
(12:55):
I think the store probably has a right to refuse it.
But if it's unopened, I think this or has a
right to say, okay, there's a two percent restock fee
or a three percent restock fee, because it's work for
the store to sell it to you and then and
then take it back and put the money back on
your credit card. It was not on the shelf, so
it was a potential loss of a sale.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
What if it was the last I don't know oil.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Filter and now you have it, You had it out
in your house for a week, you brought it back
to the store. Yeah, I don't want to change the
oil myself. Here's your oil filter back. Okay, here's the
money back on your credit card. But that was the
last one. And then somebody in the meantime needed to
have that oil filter, they couldn't buy it because it
wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
It was in your house, you follow.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So I think it is totally fair for that to
be a restock fee, and I think it would keep
all of us kind of in check about what is
all going on. If we knew that, Hey, when I
buy this, it's going to cost me a little bit
to return it if I'm returning it for no reason.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Now if it's busted or like an obvious mistake.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I mean, you know, they're extenuating circumstances. But again, uh,
what so what am I saying? At one percent, two percent,
three percent restock fee? Listen to these restock fees. These
are called return fees for this holiday season. American Eagle
Outfitters five dollars per item to return it, Best Buy
forty five dollars on all returns. H and M three
(14:27):
ninety nine, J Cruz seven point fifty J C penny
eight dollar fee. There has to be a minimum, right,
I'm sure this is on a minimum purchase. They didn't
say it in the article, but I can imagine they'd
charge you an eight dollar restock fee on a nineteen
dollars item. Marshall's eleven ninety nine per item, J TJ
(14:48):
Max eleven ninety nine. Well that's the same company, Macy's
nine to ninety nine. The fees are charged for mailed returns.
For free returns, you must physically go into one of
their stores.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
So this is going to be the new argument.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I think they don't do this at Costco, but you
will not be able to return something at Costco until
Valentine's Day. The Costco return line is one of the
trickiest things to time, and I've never fully been able
to do it. They basically take back everything at Costco
(15:22):
because it's membership based, so you don't really have to
make up a story. You don't have to have the
packaging all together. They just need to find somewhere where
it's in their computer, and then it goes back on
your Costco card and they just throw it into this
great big pile. I have no idea where it goes,
but I think they're less concerned about the profit loss
at Costco, but some of these other stores are clearly concerned.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
About the loss.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And I don't begrudge them that these fees seem a
little high.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
They really do seven fifty j crew what's going on.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
But I still contend that a restocking fee of some
kind we'll keep people in line.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I get it, it's.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Really convenient to order something and have it delivered to
your house, try it on, and then send it back.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
But that's taking time. It takes energy that many more
boxes on the truck, and you got to be a
little bit more thoughtful about your purchases.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
That's the way I see it, all right, when we
come back, the new concern about AI is driving more
and more people into more and more young people anyway,
considering blue collar jobs, blue collar workforce applications are growing.
Peter Navarro, former Trump economic advisor and a long time
(16:44):
advocate for blue collar manufacturing in the United States. He
was speaking today what will blue collar jobs look like
in the future with AI. I'll tell you what he
had to say. That's all coming up next. Lou Penrose Info,
John Cobelt on The John Cobelt Show kf I AM
six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Blue Penrose Info. John Cobelt on the John Cobelt Show.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
So everyone's concerned about AI and Peter Navarro was asked
about basically long term economic thinking. Right, it's great that
we are exporting more. The GDP number came in high,
really high. Three point three was the estimate. Four point
three was the result a one percent larger gross domestic
(17:41):
product of the United States on a twenty six trillion
dollar economy, not small, So hooray. Things are going in
the right direction, and we to look forward to the
future where the job is going to be. Everyone talks
about AI, and for the most part, the only AI
that I am seeing implement is at the drive through window,
(18:03):
Like I don't see that. I'm sure it's doing a
lot of things. I just don't know how it's affecting
my life. And I haven't seen anybody fired for being
replaced by AI, at least not yet.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I know a lot of people in radio are worried.
That's why we're human on KFI. Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Just a little reminder, But yeah, I mean people are
using AI to fact check things.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
It's basically like a really good Google search.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
And also they take your entire order at the Carls
Junior by my house, and that's pretty much it. But
we're told that AI is going to replace a lot
of jobs in America and we're going to.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Go through a huge shift, really like.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
A a paradigm shift is the term that's being used
in the workplace. What will never be replaced is manual work,
blue collar jobs. And Navarro said that's what people need
to start thinking about.
Speaker 6 (18:59):
It's a good time for people to to think about
having good blue collar jobs.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I mean that used to be how and Dereka prosper the.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
Middle class, the blue collar middle class, because they had
good wages at the time, back in the days when
Detroit was king was a beautiful age.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Beautiful age. Yeah, he's not wrong.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
What people make stuff out of raw materials, that is
valuable and we'll always need to do that, and there's
nothing wrong. In fact, I find it quite satisfying to
work with my hands. I was tinkering as a kid.
My grandfather was a general contractor, so there was all
(19:42):
kinds of tools around all the time. He had every
tool and you know, just taking lawnmower engines and turning
them into mini bites and go karts and adjusting things.
I did that as a young kid, and I enjoyed
it and just always repaired stuff. And nowadays it's not
really worth it to repair stuff. But when you're a
(20:03):
kid and you get out that soldering iron, you really
know that you're going to fix something, and it's kind
of magical. And I've had the experience of teaching that
to my sons which is really rewarding.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
We bought a beat up pit bike from some guy
who was also a pit bull like dealer.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I guess way out in Redlands, that's where they all
are pit bull breeders, and beat up pit bikes are
out there. And we took it home and it was
completely not working and parts not available because it was
a Chinese knockoff of a Honda CRX CRS. And we
(20:45):
played with it and I showed him how to use tools,
and it was really a lot of fun, and we
got the thing started, and then we got the thing working,
and then we were able to ride it around until
the neighbor called the police. So it was really rewarding,
and like working with your hands and fixing things and
using tools. That's good work and it will always be
valuable and the robot will never be able to do it.
(21:06):
So that's not a terrible idea to start directing people
into blue collar jobs. That is the missing link in
America's prosperity, turning raw materials into refined products for sale
in the American marketplace. I've told this story so many times,
(21:27):
but I'll say it again. We mentioned Costco earlier. When
you go to Costco. And you see a flat screen
TV from Visio for eight ninety nine retail eight ninety nine,
it's a good deal. Flat screen TVs have come down
in price and they are beautiful. My sons have the
OLEAD and it's the best TV in the house, is
(21:49):
in my son's room.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
It's really incredible, frankly, and eight ninety nine it's the steal.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Right. Take that TV that's sixty five inch old lead
TV and you grind it down to its basic components,
like like the raw materials.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
That are involved there, and what do you have?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I would argue you have probably five to eight dollars
worth of glass, plastic, copper, rubber and packaging. I would
argue you have more money in packaging the way these
things are packaged than you do in raw materials.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
So that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Like if you grind it like like literally throat in
a blender and grind it all up, what do you got?
You got black plastic dust which is plastic, and some
some copper wiring not a lot, some silver solder not
a lot, glass and little else, just raw materials. The
difference between that five dollars of raw materials and the
(22:48):
finished television that retails for eight ninety nine, eight hundred
and ninety nine dollars. The difference between five dollars and
nine hundred dollars that delta that represented the American manufacturing economy,
and that American manufacturing economy created jobs and sustained jobs
all across this nation, not just in manufacturing televisions but
(23:11):
all electronics. So there's work and there's products. And the
good news is we don't live on an island. We
have all the raw materials and all the places to
get the raw materials to the factory floor. Like the infrastructure, ironically,
(23:34):
the infrastructure to make America great again in a manufacturing sense,
like Navarro was talking about putting Americans back to work
in jobs that AI could never take.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Away building things from raw materials. The infrastructure is already there.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Like iron came from Birmingham, Alabama, and all the steel
that's used in cars in Detroit, all the steel that's
used in appliances that were manufactured in the Midwest, all
the steel came from iron from Birmingham, Alabama, and the
railway lines are still there, and the like all the
raw materials, whether it's lumber from North Carolina to make
(24:14):
your furniture or the fabric that's milled in upstate New
York that covered that furniture. Like, all those interconnections by
rail are all still there.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
For the most part, those rail lines are still there.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
They all go into the Midwest right Take an aerial
view of the railway system of Chicago. It's all designed
to get raw materials from all over the United States
to the manufacturing hub in the Midwest, and the railspurg
goes right up to the loading dock.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Like, the infrastructure is all there.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
And then all those rail lines go to every major city,
at least every major city circa nineteen seventy five in
the United States, where it would be put on a
truck and then the truck would take it to the market,
and then you'd go to the market and you'd buy
the finished product. So the infrastructure to support this whole
(25:09):
renaissance of blue collar jobs is all there.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
It's just there for the taking. We'll see where the
future goes.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
But you'll never go wrong making something out of nothing
and then bringing it to market for sale. And I
think that blue collar wave is something that has to
be seriously looked at, seriously looked at. Lou Penrose Info
John Cobelt on The John Coblt Show on KFI AM
six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM six.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Lou Penrose in for John Coblt on the John Coblt Show.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Good to have you along with.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Us on a wet Tuesday that's about to become a
whole lot wetter.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
Blu collar work is good, but it doesn't work that
way nowadays. You can make forty five dollars an hour
and still not be able to afford a house unless
you live in the Midwest where you can be a manager,
which is a white collar and you're gonna make a
lot of money not even really knowing the job, just
because your degree says you do. So that's the world
we live in, speaking from experience on both ends of it.
Managerial with a degree working up in a blue collar
(26:14):
it's not the same how it was for my grandparents.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, it's not the same, but it was that way
for your grandparents and your parents. So that's the question, right,
Examine the conditions, because you could live in the same
town as your manager in blue collar America, not the
same part of town, but you could live in the
same town, you live in the same area, and you
(26:42):
could become a manager and then you move to the
other side of the town like that.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
That's that's a very interesting point.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
So to actually work with your hands at the factory
doesn't pay enough money to live in the same town
as management. So that's that's an imbalance, and that's a
whole separate discussion.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
But I appreciate the call.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
I gotta tell you, man, you're pretty delusional if you
believe that AI isn't going to take over the blue
collar industries. Also, those things are going to be able
to build everything, Okay. Also, that's just not where we
are mentally. Some girl or boy in high school who's
(27:23):
exceeding exceptually well in mathematics or science or anything else
that a white collar sector is going to value.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
At a time. I appreciate the call. I think I
know where you're going.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
First off, I challenge that, and maybe I'm completely off.
Build everything, that's all you hear, Ai Lou, It's gonna
build everything. How how does artificial intelligence, which is effectively
a search engine, at least in my experience, I mean,
you tell me how that manufactures equipment, heavy equipment, how
(27:56):
it manufactures airplanes for Boeing, how it manufactures, how houses,
how it fixes things. I get that it can problem
solve quicker, but then a person needs to go solve
the problem.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
It will have an impact. Look, fax machines had an impact.
Email has an impact. But the net good is we're
more efficient with our time.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
We don't have to we don't have to mail the
contract across town or have a delivery person right deliver
the contract and then have somebody sign it and then
bring it back right.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
We do all this electronically.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
That increases our time availability to do the next thing.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
So yeah, I mean everything has a small impact.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
But I'm hearing these ominous discussions about how AI is
going to take over and none of us are gonna
have a job, and Comma when it does, young people
don't want to work, like eventually you'll have to figure.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Out something to do, to something to do to earn.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
And there are things that will never be taken taken
up by AI. And that's what I think Navarro was
talking about, that we need to have a renaissance in
blue collar work, and blue collar work has to pay.
I do give you that I don't think wages have
kept up. I think that there's been a couple of problems.
I think government regulation made business too expensive and it
(29:29):
ended up hurting labor. And for all the talk of unions,
Democrats pound their chest over unions, they love.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Unions, unions, unions, unions.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Like unions, have really let labor down. Wages haven't ket
up kept up the way they ought to have, and
unions haven't done a very good job of representing.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Certainly in like.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Industries carbonry, electricians, they're not getting pay aid what they should.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Be getting paid.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I think the service worker union model is a joke,
and I think Americans, frankly that work blue collar labor
should be paid more.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
They're worth more, they're more efficient.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
If technology and AI and all that does anything, it
allows the person to be more efficient and getting more
work done, so they should be paid more.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Right, Like, do the simple math.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Just here in southern California nineteen eighty the average wage
in Los Angeles County was twenty thousand dollars a year,
give or take.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
But let's just go with run numbers.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Average cost of a starter home single family home sixty
thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Now three times as much. But if you wanted to,
you could.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Save a down payment on a sixty thousand dollars home
making twenty thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
You could do it.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I mean, it's you have to be mindful of it
and positive, right, it's gonna you have to be aggressive
to do it. But people to do that, of course
they did. Our parents did it. That's how the houses
got there. And what did they do. They said, well,
we're not taking a vacation this year because we're saving
for a house. We're not going to buy a new
car this year. We're saving for a house. People actually
saved for a house because it was doable. It was
(31:17):
a plan, and they saved for a house, and they
bought a house, and then there was equity in that house,
and then they bought a bigger house.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
And there you go.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
There's Southern California. You witnessed it, you lived with these people.
Fast forward forty years. Average salary now in Southern California
sixty thousand dollars three times as much. Average cost of
a starter home nine hundred and seventeen thousand dollars. There's
(31:47):
no way, there's no way. And now they want twenty
percent down with prey, with mortgage and shirts. Right, I'll
give you two people working at six one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars a year, and you're not saving a
down payment ever, because you're also paying rent at the
same time.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
So you can say, well, you know, we need to
build more houses. That'll bring the price down.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Okay, maybe it'll bring it down to eight hundred thousand dollars.
And I'm not a huge fan of creating conditions that
make my house less valuable, but and you're going to
have that pushback.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
People don't want a decrease in housing value if you
own a house. But we're trying to solve a problem.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Okay, So even if you did that, even if you flooded,
you just completely forgot about every environmental regulation and just
build houses everywhere where you can find.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
A square of dirt, you couldn't do it. You couldn't bring.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Down the price of the house anywhere near the average wage.
And that's what two people working now. So the problem
isn't the house. The problem is the wage. Americans are efficient,
they're more efficient, and their wages just haven't kept up,
and that where the problem lies. Lou Penrose on KFI
(33:03):
AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast.
You can always hear the show live on KFI AM
six forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Can't f I am six forty. You're listening to the
John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
App Lou Penrose and for John Cobelt. Good to have
you along with us ABC News legal analysts, Well Oaks
joins us the.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Latest round of Epstein files.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Where does it leave us? Is Trump in worse shape?
Better shape? I just see a lot of photographs of
Clinton and Hantub Royal?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Are we almost Are we done with the data dump?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Or is this just going to be a Chinese water
torture of slow trickle.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I got a double check for that picture. Yeah, you know,
it's amazing, isn't it. Low It just goes on and on.
I mean, Epstein was arrested again in twenty nineteen, and
then he was dead, and yet it's still coming out.
But I mean to answer your question, you know, we've
all seen some sort of provocative images, but no real
smoking guns. I mean, not even as sneaky as that
(00:56):
picture Prince Andrew, you know, looking out out the door.
Bottom line is that people are still suspiciously because we
see these redactions, just blacked dot portions. Now the officials say, well,
we've got alleged victims, and we have to protect their privacy.
But the Democrats are saying that Trump's dojy early isn't
being really forthcoming in terms of what they're redacting. Ultimately,
(01:18):
it may take a judge looking at everything without the
blacked out stuff seeing everything to decide whether or not
the redactions are fair.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So let's say you, for and who knows what the
circumstances would be, but you find yourself invited by Jeffrey
Epstein to a weekend with a bunch of other people.
I don't know if you're a financier or a banker,
or some new celebrity some read right you heard about
this guy throws a huge party.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
He's got his own island. That's all you know. You
don't know any of the arrests or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And now you're there and you don't see anything inappropriate.
You have dinner and spend time with them, and spend
time with the other people, and you fly home. Ten
years goes by, and now your name is on some
piece of paper in an email that you were there,
and you've done nothing wrong.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
You saw nothing wrong, you've enabled nothing wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I mean, these people's privacy does matter, because if somebody's
name comes out that they were there ten years ago
with their wife. It could be detrimental to their business
success and their their their reputation.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Oh absolutely, I mean it's guilt by association. I mean,
of course you showed up them as a giant sign
welcome to the little Leitown Island. You know, that would
be a tell. But the bottom line is you're right.
A lot of people, you know, hang out with folks
who are you know, filthy rich, and maybe they knew
nothing about any alleged illegal activity, but they're going to
(02:44):
be tarred with the same brush. That's why, after so
many years, it is strange that we haven't seen people
come forward with sort of proof positive as somebody who
was sixteen at the time and they happened to have
a recording or a video or a picture. We're just
not seeing that at least as to the huge names
like Trump or Clinton. But you know, we just have
(03:05):
to play it out. And of course the Democrats have
a chance next November. If they take the House, then
every chair every committee in the House will be a Democrat,
in which case they can launch more investigations, issue more subpoenas.
Right now, Chuck Schumer is threatening to go to court,
and there could be some court fights between now and
next November. Bottom line though, is I think this is
(03:26):
just going to continue dribs and grabs. Maybe we see
a light at the end of the tunnel, but it's
a case that just won't go away.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, like any conspiracy theory, it does serve to fascinate people.
So if politically speaking, if you are trying to distract
from top story like GDP growth, you'll reenter this into
the conversation.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
And Trump knows it, and you could tell it bothers
him a lot. It was the source of.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
The breakup between he and Marjorie Taylor Green and other Republicans.
Just he's trying to keep everybody on message. He believes
there's nothing there. He's not clearly not afraid of anything
coming out that could be damning to him. What he's
most afraid of is some other headline, some other narrative
other than what I'm trying to do as president. And
(04:14):
that this thing stays alive means that it's just a
tool in democrats toolbox at any given time to just
you know, bring up a story or change the narrative
from something else. And if Democrats do control the House,
they will constantly be able to pull that trigger.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Oh absolutely, then it'll just be the evergreen, evergreen story.
And it's a great point. I think that the reason
this story just has such legs is because you know,
there are two legs. The last leg the Democrats. They
want to keep it alive because they're convinced there's something
incriminating about Donald Trump. So they're pushing the right. They're
(04:52):
pushing because the Marjorie Taylor Greens of the world think
that this is a huge conspiracy and a cover up
of you know, of all the sexual exploitation, and they
think Donald Trump or excuse me, Bill Clinton, is probably responsible.
So I mean, how many issues do you see where
both sides have big chunks of the demographic pushing for this.
(05:13):
And of course, you know, they've got a bipartisan support
for the Epstein Files Transparency Act several weeks ago, so
that's the law. You got to hand the stuff over.
And you know, if the Democrats really think that Trump
DOJ is cheating and redacting stuff that would embarrass Donald Trump,
ultimately it's just going to wind up in the chambers
of a judge and the judge looks at the documents
before the redactions, the little black bars were applied, and
(05:36):
the judge will decide whether or not it was appropriate
or whether it was something fishy in removing something to
hide it from the public.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Is there any longer a political constituency for the Clintons
among Democrats that say, hey, you know, this is embarrassing
to the former president.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
And it's not looking good.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So maybe as Democrats we want to lay off the
Epstein thing, because is only going to be more photos
of the former president.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Of the United States.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean, does he have a fan club anymore, cheering
section and the contemporary Democrat Party.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
I think he does because you know, if you look
at politics in America over the last several decades, it's
not just a silo. You know, you go from Carter
to Reagan to Bush. You've got the two sides. And
I think, just as Republicans always have kind of fond
feelings about Eisenhower and Dick Nixon and Reagan and Bush
(06:29):
and then Trump, the same thing with the Democrats. You know,
JFK and Johnson and Bill Clinton and Obama their teammates.
So I think people on the left want to sort
of circle the wagons and protect the people in their party,
and the same thing on the right. So that's why
this story just does not want to go away.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, I have a prediction, and that is another hot
tub photo comes out with the former president in it.
Bill Clinton is not standing on that stage in the
twenty twenty eight convention.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
No chance?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
But I appreciated politicians to just stay out of hot tubs.
That's that's, that's the rule.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Royal Oaks, ABC News Legal analysts, Thanks so much, good
to talk to you. Happy holidays to you and all
your all your family, and we'll catch with You'll catch.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Up with you again.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Name do you?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Thanks?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, No more photographs, any more photographs of Bill Clinton
in that hot tub. And he's not going to be
on that stage if he's invited back to the Democratic
National Convention. I have no idea what the Democratic National
Convention will even look like in twenty twenty eight. Who's
going to be on that stage, who's gonna be giving
those speeches? It's going to be a wild time, all right.
(07:39):
So when we come back. Popular retailers now are all
implementing new return fees this holiday season. Does it apply
to purchases that you did in the mail or in
person or how does it all work. I'll tell you
how much you're going to pay to take something back
and how are you going to do it.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
That's all coming up next on The John Cobelt Show.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Lou Penrose Info, John Coblt on KFI AM six forty
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio apps.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Lou Penrose Info. John Cobelt on The John coblt Show. Yeah,
keeping an eye on the rain for sure. The National
Weather Service in Los Angeles are very serious about this
forecast and the potential danger of mud slides, rock slides
and flooding and all kinds of issues that come with
(08:35):
a lot of rain. A strong extreme atmospheric river dropping
four to seven inches in eighteen hours, so they're saying
high risk of flash flooding. You could drive from Crescent
City to San Diego nearly eight hundred and fifty miles
and be under the same National Weather Service floodwatch the
entire time.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
So, Yeah, it's gonna rain a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
And I know it sounds a little hysterical. I get that,
like it's rain. You know, we can drive in the rain.
That's what the Winschi wipers are for. But I do
know that these National weather guys, the folks that come
on from the National Weather Service, they are like really
thoughtful meteorologists. They really like their craft, they like what
(09:22):
they're doing, they know a whole lot about it. Weather
excites them and they are to be taken seriously. So
before you know, I just kind of write it off
as like, oh my gosh, can you get more hysterical
about some rain? I get it, it's gonna rain a lot.
We can handle it.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I'm going to trust their judgment, all right.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
So if you're gonna return gifts to the store, you
can go in physically in person and return your gifts
and not be charged. But if you're going to mail
your returns back, and a lot of these companies do
have a very convenient return on it, they'll even send
you a barcode. I don't know how Amazon does it.
(10:05):
I really don't.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I've returned things at Amazon, and you can just print.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
If you have a printer at your house, you can
just print out a label and have the UPS guy
com when if you have UPS near you, or they
could regularly come to your office or you can go
to the UPS store and drop it all. You can
even take it without boxing it. Some products anyway, and
they just they I don't know how they.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Know where it goes.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I think just Amazon throws everything out. I don't know
if they restock anything. I don't know where they'd keep it.
I'm I cannot like that level of scale is beyond
my level of comprehension. So Amazon makes it really easy.
But these other stores, I kind of get it. There
are a lot of people that are very wasteful when
(10:54):
it comes to shopping, particularly with clothing. I know a woman,
the wife of a friend, so I don't want to
out that person. She doesn't live in the state anymore,
but she literally buys clothing in different sizes and different
Like she wants to buy one outfit, one pants and
the top, she'll buy it in like three or four
(11:17):
different colors and two sizes, try it on, find out
which one works the best, and return everything else and
like all the time, Like that's how she does her
clothing shopping. And she justifies it. She's like, well, it's
the same thing if I go into Macy's, I take
(11:37):
two different colors, two different sizes into the changing room,
and I try everything on, and the one that's most
flattering and the one that fits the best is the
one I keep, and the rest go back on the rack.
And she doesn't even put them back on the rack herself,
just throws them in that great big bin. But I
think he's supposed to do that. So her attitude is, well,
(11:58):
it's the same thing. I mean, I'm they're saving money
because there's not a storefront, and I'm not going to
wear something or have something that doesn't fit, and I'm
not going to do this seven times in a row,
so I'll just do it all at once, return it,
it credits the account.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
She keeps an eye on.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
It because you know, the one purchase is four times
the amount that she wanted to spend for the outfit,
but three are going back and it's.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Okay, and that's how she shops. And I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Something about that feels wasteful to me. You're wasting people's time.
These are products.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
So I'm kind of a fan of the restock fee.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I do think that if you buy something and it's
fine and it's not broken, and you knowingly chose it
and now took it home and decided that you no
longer want to own it. If you want to bring
it back to the store, if it's opened and used,
(12:55):
I think the store probably has a right to refuse it.
But if it's unopened, I think this or has a
right to say, okay, there's a two percent restock fee
or a three percent restock fee, because it's work for
the store to sell it to you and then and
then take it back and put the money back on
your credit card. It was not on the shelf, so
it was a potential loss of a sale.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
What if it was the last I don't know oil.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Filter and now you have it, You had it out
in your house for a week, you brought it back
to the store. Yeah, I don't want to change the
oil myself. Here's your oil filter back. Okay, here's the
money back on your credit card. But that was the
last one. And then somebody in the meantime needed to
have that oil filter, they couldn't buy it because it
wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
It was in your house, you follow.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So I think it is totally fair for that to
be a restock fee, and I think it would keep
all of us kind of in check about what is
all going on. If we knew that, Hey, when I
buy this, it's going to cost me a little bit
to return it if I'm returning it for no reason.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Now if it's busted or like an obvious mistake.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I mean, you know, they're extenuating circumstances. But again, uh,
what so what am I saying? At one percent, two percent,
three percent restock fee? Listen to these restock fees. These
are called return fees for this holiday season. American Eagle
Outfitters five dollars per item to return it, Best Buy
forty five dollars on all returns. H and M three
(14:27):
ninety nine, J Cruz seven point fifty J C penny
eight dollar fee. There has to be a minimum, right,
I'm sure this is on a minimum purchase. They didn't
say it in the article, but I can imagine they'd
charge you an eight dollar restock fee on a nineteen
dollars item. Marshall's eleven ninety nine per item, J TJ
(14:48):
Max eleven ninety nine. Well that's the same company, Macy's
nine to ninety nine. The fees are charged for mailed returns.
For free returns, you must physically go into one of
their stores.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
So this is going to be the new argument.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I think they don't do this at Costco, but you
will not be able to return something at Costco until
Valentine's Day. The Costco return line is one of the
trickiest things to time, and I've never fully been able
to do it. They basically take back everything at Costco
(15:22):
because it's membership based, so you don't really have to
make up a story. You don't have to have the
packaging all together. They just need to find somewhere where
it's in their computer, and then it goes back on
your Costco card and they just throw it into this
great big pile. I have no idea where it goes,
but I think they're less concerned about the profit loss
at Costco, but some of these other stores are clearly concerned.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
About the loss.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And I don't begrudge them that these fees seem a
little high.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
They really do seven fifty j crew what's going on.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
But I still contend that a restocking fee of some
kind we'll keep people in line.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I get it, it's.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Really convenient to order something and have it delivered to
your house, try it on, and then send it back.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
But that's taking time. It takes energy that many more
boxes on the truck, and you got to be a
little bit more thoughtful about your purchases.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
That's the way I see it, all right, when we
come back, the new concern about AI is driving more
and more people into more and more young people anyway,
considering blue collar jobs, blue collar workforce applications are growing.
Peter Navarro, former Trump economic advisor and a long time
(16:44):
advocate for blue collar manufacturing in the United States. He
was speaking today what will blue collar jobs look like
in the future with AI. I'll tell you what he
had to say. That's all coming up next. Lou Penrose Info,
John Cobelt on The John Cobelt Show kf I AM
six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Blue Penrose Info. John Cobelt on the John Cobelt Show.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
So everyone's concerned about AI and Peter Navarro was asked
about basically long term economic thinking. Right, it's great that
we are exporting more. The GDP number came in high,
really high. Three point three was the estimate. Four point
three was the result a one percent larger gross domestic
(17:41):
product of the United States on a twenty six trillion
dollar economy, not small, So hooray. Things are going in
the right direction, and we to look forward to the
future where the job is going to be. Everyone talks
about AI, and for the most part, the only AI
that I am seeing implement is at the drive through window,
(18:03):
Like I don't see that. I'm sure it's doing a
lot of things. I just don't know how it's affecting
my life. And I haven't seen anybody fired for being
replaced by AI, at least not yet.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I know a lot of people in radio are worried.
That's why we're human on KFI. Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Just a little reminder, But yeah, I mean people are
using AI to fact check things.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
It's basically like a really good Google search.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
And also they take your entire order at the Carls
Junior by my house, and that's pretty much it. But
we're told that AI is going to replace a lot
of jobs in America and we're going to.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Go through a huge shift, really like.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
A a paradigm shift is the term that's being used
in the workplace. What will never be replaced is manual work,
blue collar jobs. And Navarro said that's what people need
to start thinking about.
Speaker 6 (18:59):
It's a good time for people to to think about
having good blue collar jobs.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I mean that used to be how and Dereka prosper the.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
Middle class, the blue collar middle class, because they had
good wages at the time, back in the days when
Detroit was king was a beautiful age.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Beautiful age. Yeah, he's not wrong.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
What people make stuff out of raw materials, that is
valuable and we'll always need to do that, and there's
nothing wrong. In fact, I find it quite satisfying to
work with my hands. I was tinkering as a kid.
My grandfather was a general contractor, so there was all
(19:42):
kinds of tools around all the time. He had every
tool and you know, just taking lawnmower engines and turning
them into mini bites and go karts and adjusting things.
I did that as a young kid, and I enjoyed
it and just always repaired stuff. And nowadays it's not
really worth it to repair stuff. But when you're a
(20:03):
kid and you get out that soldering iron, you really
know that you're going to fix something, and it's kind
of magical. And I've had the experience of teaching that
to my sons which is really rewarding.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
We bought a beat up pit bike from some guy
who was also a pit bull like dealer.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I guess way out in Redlands, that's where they all
are pit bull breeders, and beat up pit bikes are
out there. And we took it home and it was
completely not working and parts not available because it was
a Chinese knockoff of a Honda CRX CRS. And we
(20:45):
played with it and I showed him how to use tools,
and it was really a lot of fun, and we
got the thing started, and then we got the thing working,
and then we were able to ride it around until
the neighbor called the police. So it was really rewarding,
and like working with your hands and fixing things and
using tools. That's good work and it will always be
valuable and the robot will never be able to do it.
(21:06):
So that's not a terrible idea to start directing people
into blue collar jobs. That is the missing link in
America's prosperity, turning raw materials into refined products for sale
in the American marketplace. I've told this story so many times,
(21:27):
but I'll say it again. We mentioned Costco earlier. When
you go to Costco. And you see a flat screen
TV from Visio for eight ninety nine retail eight ninety nine,
it's a good deal. Flat screen TVs have come down
in price and they are beautiful. My sons have the
OLEAD and it's the best TV in the house, is
(21:49):
in my son's room.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
It's really incredible, frankly, and eight ninety nine it's the steal.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Right. Take that TV that's sixty five inch old lead
TV and you grind it down to its basic components,
like like the raw materials.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
That are involved there, and what do you have?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I would argue you have probably five to eight dollars
worth of glass, plastic, copper, rubber and packaging. I would
argue you have more money in packaging the way these
things are packaged than you do in raw materials.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
So that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Like if you grind it like like literally throat in
a blender and grind it all up, what do you got?
You got black plastic dust which is plastic, and some
some copper wiring not a lot, some silver solder not
a lot, glass and little else, just raw materials. The
difference between that five dollars of raw materials and the
(22:48):
finished television that retails for eight ninety nine, eight hundred
and ninety nine dollars. The difference between five dollars and
nine hundred dollars that delta that represented the American manufacturing economy,
and that American manufacturing economy created jobs and sustained jobs
all across this nation, not just in manufacturing televisions but
(23:11):
all electronics. So there's work and there's products. And the
good news is we don't live on an island. We
have all the raw materials and all the places to
get the raw materials to the factory floor. Like the infrastructure, ironically,
(23:34):
the infrastructure to make America great again in a manufacturing sense,
like Navarro was talking about putting Americans back to work
in jobs that AI could never take.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Away building things from raw materials. The infrastructure is already there.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Like iron came from Birmingham, Alabama, and all the steel
that's used in cars in Detroit, all the steel that's
used in appliances that were manufactured in the Midwest, all
the steel came from iron from Birmingham, Alabama, and the
railway lines are still there, and the like all the
raw materials, whether it's lumber from North Carolina to make
(24:14):
your furniture or the fabric that's milled in upstate New
York that covered that furniture. Like, all those interconnections by
rail are all still there.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
For the most part, those rail lines are still there.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
They all go into the Midwest right Take an aerial
view of the railway system of Chicago. It's all designed
to get raw materials from all over the United States
to the manufacturing hub in the Midwest, and the railspurg
goes right up to the loading dock.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Like, the infrastructure is all there.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
And then all those rail lines go to every major city,
at least every major city circa nineteen seventy five in
the United States, where it would be put on a
truck and then the truck would take it to the market,
and then you'd go to the market and you'd buy
the finished product. So the infrastructure to support this whole
(25:09):
renaissance of blue collar jobs is all there.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
It's just there for the taking. We'll see where the
future goes.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
But you'll never go wrong making something out of nothing
and then bringing it to market for sale. And I
think that blue collar wave is something that has to
be seriously looked at, seriously looked at. Lou Penrose Info
John Cobelt on The John Coblt Show on KFI AM
six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM six.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Lou Penrose in for John Coblt on the John Coblt Show.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Good to have you along with.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Us on a wet Tuesday that's about to become a
whole lot wetter.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
Blu collar work is good, but it doesn't work that
way nowadays. You can make forty five dollars an hour
and still not be able to afford a house unless
you live in the Midwest where you can be a manager,
which is a white collar and you're gonna make a
lot of money not even really knowing the job, just
because your degree says you do. So that's the world
we live in, speaking from experience on both ends of it.
Managerial with a degree working up in a blue collar
(26:14):
it's not the same how it was for my grandparents.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, it's not the same, but it was that way
for your grandparents and your parents. So that's the question, right,
Examine the conditions, because you could live in the same
town as your manager in blue collar America, not the
same part of town, but you could live in the
same town, you live in the same area, and you
(26:42):
could become a manager and then you move to the
other side of the town like that.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
That's that's a very interesting point.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
So to actually work with your hands at the factory
doesn't pay enough money to live in the same town
as management. So that's that's an imbalance, and that's a
whole separate discussion.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
But I appreciate the call.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
I gotta tell you, man, you're pretty delusional if you
believe that AI isn't going to take over the blue
collar industries. Also, those things are going to be able
to build everything, Okay. Also, that's just not where we
are mentally. Some girl or boy in high school who's
(27:23):
exceeding exceptually well in mathematics or science or anything else
that a white collar sector is going to value.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
At a time. I appreciate the call. I think I
know where you're going.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
First off, I challenge that, and maybe I'm completely off.
Build everything, that's all you hear, Ai Lou, It's gonna
build everything. How how does artificial intelligence, which is effectively
a search engine, at least in my experience, I mean,
you tell me how that manufactures equipment, heavy equipment, how
(27:56):
it manufactures airplanes for Boeing, how it manufactures, how houses,
how it fixes things. I get that it can problem
solve quicker, but then a person needs to go solve
the problem.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
It will have an impact. Look, fax machines had an impact.
Email has an impact. But the net good is we're
more efficient with our time.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
We don't have to we don't have to mail the
contract across town or have a delivery person right deliver
the contract and then have somebody sign it and then
bring it back right.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
We do all this electronically.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
That increases our time availability to do the next thing.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
So yeah, I mean everything has a small impact.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
But I'm hearing these ominous discussions about how AI is
going to take over and none of us are gonna
have a job, and Comma when it does, young people
don't want to work, like eventually you'll have to figure.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Out something to do, to something to do to earn.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
And there are things that will never be taken taken
up by AI. And that's what I think Navarro was
talking about, that we need to have a renaissance in
blue collar work, and blue collar work has to pay.
I do give you that I don't think wages have
kept up. I think that there's been a couple of problems.
I think government regulation made business too expensive and it
(29:29):
ended up hurting labor. And for all the talk of unions,
Democrats pound their chest over unions, they love.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Unions, unions, unions, unions.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Like unions, have really let labor down. Wages haven't ket
up kept up the way they ought to have, and
unions haven't done a very good job of representing.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Certainly in like.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Industries carbonry, electricians, they're not getting pay aid what they should.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Be getting paid.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I think the service worker union model is a joke,
and I think Americans, frankly that work blue collar labor
should be paid more.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
They're worth more, they're more efficient.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
If technology and AI and all that does anything, it
allows the person to be more efficient and getting more
work done, so they should be paid more.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Right, Like, do the simple math.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Just here in southern California nineteen eighty the average wage
in Los Angeles County was twenty thousand dollars a year,
give or take.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
But let's just go with run numbers.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Average cost of a starter home single family home sixty
thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Now three times as much. But if you wanted to,
you could.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Save a down payment on a sixty thousand dollars home
making twenty thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
You could do it.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I mean, it's you have to be mindful of it
and positive, right, it's gonna you have to be aggressive
to do it. But people to do that, of course
they did. Our parents did it. That's how the houses
got there. And what did they do. They said, well,
we're not taking a vacation this year because we're saving
for a house. We're not going to buy a new
car this year. We're saving for a house. People actually
saved for a house because it was doable. It was
(31:17):
a plan, and they saved for a house, and they
bought a house, and then there was equity in that house,
and then they bought a bigger house.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
And there you go.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
There's Southern California. You witnessed it, you lived with these people.
Fast forward forty years. Average salary now in Southern California
sixty thousand dollars three times as much. Average cost of
a starter home nine hundred and seventeen thousand dollars. There's
(31:47):
no way, there's no way. And now they want twenty
percent down with prey, with mortgage and shirts. Right, I'll
give you two people working at six one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars a year, and you're not saving a
down payment ever, because you're also paying rent at the
same time.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
So you can say, well, you know, we need to
build more houses. That'll bring the price down.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Okay, maybe it'll bring it down to eight hundred thousand dollars.
And I'm not a huge fan of creating conditions that
make my house less valuable, but and you're going to
have that pushback.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
People don't want a decrease in housing value if you
own a house. But we're trying to solve a problem.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Okay, So even if you did that, even if you flooded,
you just completely forgot about every environmental regulation and just
build houses everywhere where you can find.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
A square of dirt, you couldn't do it. You couldn't bring.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Down the price of the house anywhere near the average wage.
And that's what two people working now. So the problem
isn't the house. The problem is the wage. Americans are efficient,
they're more efficient, and their wages just haven't kept up,
and that where the problem lies. Lou Penrose on KFI
(33:03):
AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Hey, you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast.
You can always hear the show live on KFI AM
six forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The John Kobylt Show News
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John Kobylt
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