July 3, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of the July 3,2025 A&G Replay contains:
- Jobs that can't be filled
- DC Restaurants Changed
- Self Reporting Mental Health
- FLQ: Thomas Truth, Mailbag
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe, Ketty arm.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Strong and Getty and Pee Armstrong and Getty Strong and.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Philadelphia Zoo announced last week that a pair of nearly
one hundred year old tortoises recently welcome their first hatchlings.
You may have seen the tortoises on the MTV show
ninety nine.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Pregnant markets are surging if you're listening to us live,
so the bounce back has begun. And get into that later. Also,
latest polling on the whole tariff thing, get into that
later also. And oh and I just saw the real
(01:03):
ID deadline is a month away. This is going to
be my all time greatest hit screw up because it's
been I've seen it coming for so long and known
the entire time for years that at some point I
will be at an airport ready to get on a
plane someplace I need to go, yes, and they'll say
(01:25):
we no longer accept your driver's license, you need your
real ID, even though I knew it for years, I
am that is going to happen to me.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
I'll like your high school teacher assigned you a book
report due in twenty years and you waited until the
last night and you're up all night, right, that is
going to happen to me? Yeah, it's funny, Judy, And
I heard that report, and I have a feeling. I
spoke for many, many millions of Americans when I said,
do we have real IDs? I've completely lost track? Is
(01:54):
ours real? She looked at it and said, yeah, yes
we do. How that happened?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I don't recall, but I sure don't have one? Are
you sure? I'm positive you might. When did you last
for new year license?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
I don't know?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So, so your driver's license?
Speaker 5 (02:12):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh it is?
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Well, maybe I did have a real like the updated
does it have like a hologrammy looking thing on there?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Or yeah? Yeah, there you go. Maybe I do have.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
It done and done, sir. That's my point. Nobody has
any idea. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
So, speaking of economics and that sort of thing, which
a lot of people are doing these days in reference
to the tariffs.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
But to this too shall pass, I hope eventually. Uh
And and some of.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
The support and lack of support are coming from some
interesting areas for the tariffs, and we can talk about
that more later, but I'm kind of tariffed out.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
We brought this up kind of briefly at the end
of the.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
So you see I could talk about tariffs for many
more hours.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Well you should feel free. How about one room over anyway?
I found this so interesting, big survey of America's employers,
especially manufacturers. They cannot find reliable, conscientious workers who can
pass a drug test. A good worker, like a good man,
(03:19):
can be hard to find these days. And who is
this writing in the Alicia Finley, who I think is
a terrific writer, But she says, blame government, which showers
benefits on able bodied people who don't work well at
the same time subsidizing college degrees that don't lead to
productive employment, and the result is millions of idle men
(03:41):
and millions of unfilled jobs, what an economist would call
a dead weight loss to society.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
So failing the drug test, is it mostly the marijuana,
the Mary Jane, the lettuce, the hippie let?
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Yeah, I don't know. I suspect so though. Sure I
think it's mostly pot. But I think that it's just
brilliantly simply put, we are showering benefits on able bodied
people and subsidizing useless college degrees as as a people
(04:14):
because the government is theoretically doing our work right.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Well, I for one, don't like either end of that anyway.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Forty percent of small business owners and March reported job
openings they could not fill. Construction companies fifty six percent said, yeah,
we have unfilled jobs and we can't find anybody. Transportation,
I have a feeling that's mostly truck drivers fifty three
percent manufacturing, which the President is, according to many people,
(04:42):
admirably trying to shepherd back inside the country. More forty
seven percent of manufacturers say, no, we've got openings we
can't fill.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
So, according to the last week's National Federation of Independent
Business survey, that might.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Be a flaw in the president's plan that hasn't been
discussed enough. He wants to bring back the fifties or
seventies or whatever golden era of manufacturing that we used
to have.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
But back then people would do those jobs.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
If half the manufacturing jobs out there or you can't fill.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Now, what if manufacturing did come.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Back to the United States, who, in theory is going
to do those jobs?
Speaker 5 (05:21):
Well, not illegal immigrants, because thank god, the border has
been closed and the statistics are astounding.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Biden was a scoundrel anyway.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Was it going to be the woman who studies major
from your local university that goes works, They're probably not well.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
It could well be the dudes who have no disability
on disability who are heaved off of that system, but
that would take some tough love, and that's not very
popular politically speaking. I mean, if you go into one
of the districts of the rust Belty places or Appalachia
or whatever where you have just ludicrous levels of people
(05:54):
on disability. Happened to read a couple things about this recently.
Didn't flog you with it on the air. But and
if you go into those places and say we're kicking
it off everybody on disability who's not like missing a limb,
you will lose an election by seventy points.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
That's even possible.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Once people are on the toll man, once people have
a benefit, whether legitimate or perhaps questionable, taking it away
as political poison as you know, Labor Department's job openings
and labor turnover survey of businesses tell a similar story.
There are twice as many job openings in manufacturing now
than in the mid two thousands as a share of employment.
Save for the pandemic, America's workers shortage is the worst
(06:37):
in fifty years. Decades ago, productivity, enhancing technology and yes,
inexpensive imports costed men who worked on shop floors to
lose their jobs and drop out of the workforce. But
that generation is sailing into the sunset, and there are
many fewer young Americans who want to work in factories.
Listen to this now, the labor force participation rate among
young among working age men is now about five percentage
(07:00):
points lower than in the early eighties. Okay, this is
not like the nineteen tens. This is the nineteen eighties,
five points lower. As a result, there are about three
and a half million fewer men between the ages twenty
five and fifty four in the workforce, and one point
three million between the ages of twenty five and thirty
four in a significantly bigger population than we had in
(07:23):
the eighties. Right then there would have been were it
not for this decline. Labor participation among working age women,
on the other hand, recently hit a record in part
because they are having fewer children, and then people aren't
coupling and that sort of thing at the risk of
stereotyping women are more inclined toward helping professions such as
services than those that require physical labor.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Well, that's just true. It's undeniable.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
So I've not done a manufacturing sort of job before,
so I don't know what it's like, but I certainly
feel like there's a social stigma around it that doesn't
help true.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Why it is?
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Why there's not a social stigma around having a meaningless,
soul deadening paper pushing job in a cubicle, I don't
know why that is. I mean, maybe the other way
around should be. There shuldn't be any stigma around any jobs.
Working for a living is considerably better than not whatever
(08:25):
the hell you're doing.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
So why at least the vestige of the twentieth century
where a job where you used your brain as opposed
to your back was seen as a higher status job.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
God, I don't know some of these jobs or you
use your brain.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
That's barely not much, I mean, but they certainly don't
seem like they'd be much more enjoyable as starter jobs.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Right, Tedious is tedious.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
I had a sort of manufacturing job for one summer,
and it was pretty tedious. Honestly, but I'm sure it is.
You know why I go went ahead and took it
and kept it. It was because it paid pretty good.
It was my best hop right. So yeah, and well
you should have to make a living. You got to
support yourself somehow.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
No, you don't. What kind of monster are you listen
to this? Would you?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
So?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Where have all the good working men gone? Some are
subsisting on government benefits, are living off their parents. About
seventeen percent of working age men are on Medicaid, seventeen percent,
seven and a half percent on food stamps, and six
point three percent on Social Security, many claiming disability payouts.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
According to the Census Bureau.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Many spend their days playing video games and day trading, well,
day trading hilarious, speculating on meme stocks, or you tell
somebody your day trading. I don't know how often you're
actually trading and making any money, because you don't want
to say I just play video games and live in
my parents' basement, so you say you're your day trader.
(09:49):
So I don't remember our a good friend, Craig the
healthcare Genius's statistics. But if I remember correctly, originally Medicaid
was only supposed to cover like a tiny percentage people period.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Now it's covering percent.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Now it's covering And that would have been like the
old and you know people that I got all kinds
of physical or mental problems.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Now it's seventeen percent of.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Working age men, not not like senior citizens.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's nice.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Yeah, a couple more stats. Other missing men are taking
longer to finish college or pursuing graduate degrees. Only about
forty one percent amen complete a bachelor's degree in four years,
even though study after study shows they don't teach, you
don't have to work.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
There's great inflation. It's dopey.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Only forty one percent and a quarter take more than
six years.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Wow, because you're in no hurry to get out of college.
My dad used to comment about perpetual college students, and
I never really understood what he was talking about. And
I'm sure it was a small number of people back
when he was in college, but now it is a lot. Apparently,
I'll just stay in college. I'll just keep borrowing money.
And because I'm too young or unwise to understand what
(11:03):
I'm doing, and I'll just keep this game going. Of
I get to sit around with my friends and discuss
the world without ever having to engage in it.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Yeah, and I have disability. My thumb hurts on Thursdays.
Final stat Then will I will stop? We're just we
are a fat, lazy, comfortable society. We're headed to front denial, right,
we are headed straight toward France.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
The unemployment rate Jack considered this among recent college grads
with a sociology degree is about seven percent, and their
median wage, if they do have a gig, is forty
five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
According to the Federal Reserve Bank.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Social grads could earn twice as much working on an
auto assembly line, which pays an average hundred thousand dollars
a year. Good gig, but not many want it. The
reality is that masses a young people, writes Alicia Finley, who,
again as a genius, has been taught that capitalism is exploitive.
They don't want to work in factories. They'd rather mooch
off to their parents. How CHORL Marx is that?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Yeah, some of it is that, I'm sure, But I
just I think a lot of it is just the
cultural that would be embarrassing for your parents and for
you if you worked over at the whatever factory yeah,
more embarrassing in our current society than if you just
live at home and you know, you say you're a
day trader. It should be more embarrassing to have a
(12:26):
job at a plant than to live with your parents,
but I think it is.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
Or having taken six years to get an undergrad degree
in gender studies, you're now getting a master's degree in
the theoretical decolonialization of art, or whatever the s.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Wait they.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Sometimes think for soft people. Man, there is no more
iron law of humanity than that.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
The armstrong and getting shot.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
So I've waited on more people at this restaurant than
you have in your goddamn life, say the waiters and
waitresses of Washington, DC, Jack, where you just were.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
The Washingtonian, which is read in the self obsessed Nation's Capital,
has a piece about how DC restaurants have long been
like politically neutral spaces. Obviously, to cite the cliched example,
you got Reagan coming in, you got Tip O'Neil coming in, right,
so you treat everybody with respectfully.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
But that changed during the Trump years.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Restaurant owners became much more politically outspoken.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
They were part of the resistance, and Trump.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Officials became social pariahs when dining out. You remember several
incidents involving Ted Cruz and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who got
kicked out of a restaurant in West Lexington, Virginia. Homeland
Secretary Kirsten Nielsen's dinner at a DC Mexican resta Mexican
(14:07):
restaurant was interrupted as.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
They yelled shame.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Steven Miller tossing eighty dollars worth of takeout sushi after
somebody cursed him and flipped him off at a sushi place,
somebody on the staff. But anyway, in the Washington Washingtonian, anyway,
you got all these restaurant tours and waiters and bartenders saying,
we're not going to be silent, We're not going to
be quote unquote civil.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Let's see, here's this guy.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
What does he do. He's a DC restaurant. He's a
manager at a club, big club in DC. If you're
just going out for a nice dinner at your anniversary,
your birthday, and God forbid, RFK Junior is sitting X
to you now, you're going to be dealing with whatever
repercussions happened from that. He's saying all this restaurant staff
is justified into cursing these people out and yelling at
(14:56):
him and kicking him out.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Well, we'll see if this actually happens or not. Like
I said, bumping around d C, it was quite a
bit different than the last time I was in DC
when Trump got elected, he was being treated like a
regular president. I mean, the number of Trump shirts, hats, pins,
inauguration forty seventh president stuff that I saw. There was
nothing like that in twenty seventeen when I was there
(15:20):
for the inauguration.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
In fact, that was my question. I wonder if this
is just big talk by little people.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I'd be my guess.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Here's a woman who's a server and manager at a
saloon on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Quote.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
People were a lot more motivated the first time around
to do these kinds of shows of passion. This time around,
there's kind of a sense of defeat and acceptance. But
I hope that people will still do stand up to
this administration and tell them their thoughts on their misbehavior
as they're trying.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
To get a ham sandwich at lunchtime.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Here's my biggest question about restaurants DC restaurants, because I
had this and I tweeted it out and it's the
most controversial tweet I've ever put out ever. It got
more responses than anything I've ever tweeted this question. So
I mean it in Gordon Ramsey's restaurant, which I wish
i'd ha spent the time to look into what it
costs to eat there, because it's the most expensive meal
I've ever paid for for me and my two kids.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Partially because.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
There was the we've added to twenty percent already thing
that restaurants are doing sometimes now.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
And so service charge is that what they call it?
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Earth It just said, yeah, we've we've added to twenty
percent service charge to your bill, and then it's got
the line for the tip, and I thought, do I
tip on top of this or not? And I tweeted
that out. I googled it and tweeted it, and same
result either way. Plenty of people say, absolutely, that's not
the tip. You need to tip on top of that
ere screwing your server or one hundred percent that's the tip,
(16:43):
No way you should give any more money. I still
don't know what the answer is on that, but obviously
if they add twenty percent, and I didn't know they
were going to do that, or I wouldn't have gone.
If they add twenty percent and I'm supposed to tip
twenty percent, that's.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Forty percent on top of my meal to no go.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
That's that second group that that is the tip. No
freaking way I'm eating there. A whole bunch of people
adamantly said, no, that goes to the restaurant. The server
will get nothing, and you absolutely need to tip on
top of that. Maybe that's true, but I'll never eat
at a restaurant that does that. You can't pay forty
percent on top of your bill. Nobody's doing that. That's ridiculous.
(17:21):
It is ridiculous. Well, I don't know what the correct
answer is either, or if it varies from restaurant to restaurant,
if you know text line four one five two nine
five KFTC. But what the hell are Strong.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
The Armstrong and Getty shirt?
Speaker 5 (17:45):
So this is so interesting. I came across this the
other day. A couple of scientists writers commentaries who ran
into each other after the one published a piece on
why young men have turned against the Democratic Party, and
(18:07):
this other guy, this other researcher, said, hey, you know,
I've actually been doing studies in that area, let's get
together and talk about it and compare notes. And they came,
They've come out with a really, really interesting report. Young
people in general report fairly miserable mental health, with high
(18:28):
rates of anxiety and depression. But this is particularly true
for young women. And they make the point that assumptions
democrats make about how to attract younger voters may not
appeal to men for various reasons.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
But they point out that this.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
That it the one report they looked at very the
most interesting finding, which is that conservatives have much higher
self reported mental health than liberals.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Is this surprising to anyone?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
No?
Speaker 5 (18:56):
No, The really interesting part is still to come self
reporting grain assault, but just a grain, not a shaker.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Why.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
I don't know on self reporting on your mental health.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
It could be that in certain communities it is taboo
to be honest about your mental health.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
I think it's more likely the other direction, But yeah,
I'm just trying to be in there that in more communities,
it's the greatest prize of all to explain how I
have anxiety and depression and OCD and all these other things.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I agree with you completely, and I'm glad you pointed
that out.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Blah, blah blah.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
It's a wide gap.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
Too between conservatives and liberals, according to this giant study
with sixty thousand respondents that provides the opportunity for highly
detailed democratic demographic analysis. Among people who report excellent mental health,
conservatives outnumber liberals fifty one to twenty as a ratio,
but liberals out number conservatives forty five to nineteen among
(20:03):
those voters who say they have poor mental health. This
isn't the least bit surprising to me. What's interesting? And
they assigned points, So one hundred points scale zero is
poor mental health, twenty five is fair, fifty is good,
seventy five is very good, one hundred is excellent.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
I think i'd go, what would you say for yourself?
I'm going I would say very good. Oh, there's might
disagree with me who know me, but I feel like
I'm very good.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Yeah. Can we have a round of rating where we
rate each other too? Even a town full of people
who are crazy? So that helps me stand out? I
feel like, are you graded on a curve in this?
Speaker 4 (20:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
So here's the first thing that popped in on my
mind is and part of the reason I leapt to
this thought was because we came across an absolutely fantastic
quote which I've misplaced, damn it, that women more than men,
not all women, but women in general, and like effeminate men,
(21:08):
filter information through a process not of is this true?
But will believing this gain me social currency and acceptance?
Will the group accept me for adopting this attitude? And
so the first thing I thought was, Okay, maybe people
(21:29):
of an unhappy or mentally fragile bent need more support,
and so they tend toward liberalism. Well, it's funny I
had that thought, and the guys immediately got to the question.
They said, could this reflect a spurious correlation? In other words,
that voters with characteristics associated with lower happiness tend to
(21:51):
be attracted to liberalism, but that political attitudes themselves don't
tell you much on their own. In short, no, they're right,
or at least probably not. The difference between liberals and
conservatives is remarkably persistent, even once you control for those factors.
Then they explain, going to give you a long chart
with those point values that I talked about. The average
(22:12):
American self reports at sixty on the scale, somewhere between
good and very good mental health, but.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
That's roughly where I would be.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
But liberals report an average score of fifty three and
conservatives sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Moderates not shockingly right in the middle at fifty eight.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Anyway, they take advantage of that's a moderate for you,
always moderating anyway, take advantage of the large sample size
in this CEES study. Let's see how this difference holds
up against a wide array of demographic and political characteristics.
Let's see gender men tend to be conservative men at
(22:52):
a sixty nine giggity liberal men of fifty six. Conservative
women up there at sixty six, liberal women way down
at fifty one. Average mental health score white fault. That's that.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
I realize what you just said about all these things.
But man, because I'm surrounded by this world, you would
really stand out as like you might be kicked out
of the herd if you were to say, you know,
I think I'm perfectly fine.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Yeah, Whereas I live in a world of hey, we're
all here for you. Have a drink, you'll be fine,
and most people are. Let's see black in his I'm sorry,
white black and Hispanic and Asian conservatives are virtually.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Tied at sixty eight. Sixty eight sixty five sixty five.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
Liberal, White, Black, Hispanic and Asians is fifty two sixty
fifty one fifty one, like a fairly consistent fourteen point gap.
Young people age gen Z that's ninety seven or later,
it's fifty six to forty gen Zers. Liberal gen zers
(24:18):
are among the most miserable people in America. The older
you get, the highers, the scores get on both ends
of the scale, and we could get into education that
sort of gen zers report the most.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Yeah, it's tough to break all this stuff down. And
I realize they tried to control for all these things,
But I can't imagine being a twenty year old in
a lot of your blue cities and telling your parents
not I think I'm fine. You wouldn't want to disappoint
your parents like that by telling them you don't have
(24:59):
anxiety or depression or any of those things.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, your parents are horrified.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
I know several young people, some of whom I may
be genetically related to, who are seem to be very bright,
very well adjusted, happy with their lives, but have some
of these modern emotional problems, and it makes me really curious.
(25:25):
As we've discussed many times through the years, what environmental
causes are going on. Is that the never ending barrage
of inputs, that's my greatest suspicion.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Yeah, so yeah, we're.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Never quiet, we're never alone, we're never bored.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
You're right in presenting this information, we're kind of or
I was kind of presenting it like this is all
somewhat imagined. But we have talked a lot about it,
and I know, I got one kid who has for
real anxiety depression OCD all that sort of stuff, and
it's been struggling with it his whole life and on medication,
and I've seen a gazillion psychiatrist and doctors and blah
(26:00):
blah blah. So yeah, there's something going on that is
causing problems, right, Yeah, so separating out that the real
from the just culturally, you live in a town where
everybody's supposed to have some of this stuff because life
is so hard and the world is.
Speaker 5 (26:17):
So bad if you're keeping track at home. Just for
the record, Jack came to judge, Joe came to understand.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Damn right, I came to judge and then brag about it.
So let's be fair. I bragged about it anyway.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Uh So this is as I as I mentioned last segment,
the most miserable pastors in America appear to be progressive bisexuals.
If you are bisexual or other, and apparently there are
some conservatives there are at a fifty nine, which ain't great.
But if you're a progressive bisexual, you're at you selfrate
(26:52):
yourself at thirty five, which is I mean, like, by
far the most miserable people in America. I heard one
prominent lesbian writer. I read her right, well, what do
you want? These people want everything from the world, both sexes.
You know, everything goes with a How can the world
not disappoint them? Hmm?
Speaker 4 (27:13):
I feel like I know a lot of baristas that
meet that description and they look unhappy. I don't know
that that's our facial expression anyway.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
Yeah, and their voice buncle fry fizes. Interestingly, people who
have high interest in news and politics on both sides
of the aisle tend to be more happy with their
mental health.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Really.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Yeah, I'm somewhat surprised by that, because it's enough to
make you insane.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Trust me, I do it for a living.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Huh.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
And it declines low news and political interests significantly lower
on both sides.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Wow. Hmm. So they just take in the information about
the world just kind of the way they hear it
from people and get despondent over it.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
Yeah, having more income does seem to make you more
positive about your mental health.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
That could be the other carosation correlation.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
Yeah, reverse, Yeah, you're much more likely to make more
money if you're mentally Okay.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
No meaningful difference in mental health between Catholics, Protestants, and
adherents of other organized religions. The differences between liberalists and
conservatives persist there, but religious adherence does soften them somewhat.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
I'm glad to see there's not a big breakdown between
Protestants and Catholics.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
Married people and people, and well, I know you want
to start another Holy war.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
You're a big fan of Joan of arc.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
But married people and people in domestic partnerships are happier
than those who are separated, widow, divorced, or who have
never been married.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
That has been true for as long as we've been
doing radio and reading these studies that married people tend
to report being happier more than single people, which is
interesting given that so much of the single world looks
at married people. Is like, I'm glad I'm not in
that prison when statistically that is not born out at all.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Oh, not at all.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
It's interesting they phrased it as happier when it's self
reported mental health. I'm not sure those are synonyms, but
I guess they're close.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
I make they're pretty close.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
Yeah, yeah, those are the main takeaways. Why are young
liberals so depressed? Matt Iglesia showed about.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
You'd be depressed to the.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Part of it, the weird hair color and the thing
through their nose, old white couple, old white men. I
can't stand it, and he points out, Jack, you'll be
gratified by this that there may be a performative axed
aspect to this. Yes, liberals may express negative sentiment as
a sign of solidarity with the movement that thinks there
is profound injustice in the world. How can I act
(30:03):
happy with all this injustice?
Speaker 4 (30:07):
You shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Everybody will judge me.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
You think you could walk into your hipster coffee shop
where you're a barista and there's like nine other employees
and be a everything's fine. You know, life is what
life is. I just I roll with the punches. You
think you could be that person?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Oh? Yeah, good days, bad days. What are you gonna do.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Let's make some coffee. Right, he's gonna be drummed out.
Let's just see what Trump did.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Oh my god, it is so clearly a fascist dictatorship.
Right to live. I've considered moving to Belgium.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
I couldn't find a parking spot because of the patriarchy.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Jack Armstrong and Joe, The Armstrong and Getty Show, The
Armstrong and Getdy Show.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
Here's your freedom living quota today is from a gentleman
who celebrated his seventy seventh birth day yesterday. And he
should be a hero to young children, particularly black children,
all across America.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
That's Clarence Thomas.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
But he's been so denigrated in bad mouthed by the
liberal media.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
He's not, but he was talking.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
He gave a speech not too long ago about the
importance of standing up for truth, even if you're the
only one doing so. And here's the quote. You can
be in the middle of a hurricane, or you can
be on a calm day. North is still North. You
could be in a thunderstorm. North is still North. People
can yell at you. North is still North. It doesn't
change fundamental things. And in this business right is still
(31:34):
right even if you stand by yourself. Yeah, different version
of two plus two equals four.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
No matter what, anybody else is.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Right exactly, Well said Clarence, and happy birthday, sir, mail bag.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
I've got a couple more later in the.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Week from Clarence Thomas drops a note mail bag at
Armstrong in getty dot com.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Dirk's the German Rights It was a mostly peaceful bombing.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
See.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
Iran is a nation of over six hundred one thousand
square miles. The US bomb three small nuclear sites to
protest Iran's nuclear ambitions. It was clearly a mostly peaceful protest.
That's fantastic, Well done, Dirk.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
How come nobody's commenting on the rest of Iran the
vast ninety nine percent of Iran that was untouched by bombs.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
It RAN's a very big country.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
It was just downtown Nukeville that had the problems.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Well play. Dirk uh Don writes.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
If President Trump Wonseranian women's support of regime change, could
she should offer swapping their burkes and other oppressive head
coverings for red make around Great again ball caps. Wow,
just ship cases of those over to Iran. Yeah, my
hair's covered with this truvy redhead. I just got take
that secret police. Of course, they've probably got the hell
beat out.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Of them for that, and then you'd be tortured and
then executed.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
Yeah, let's see why I am not stressed out by
Steve and Everett Washington. Seems to me that two very
important metrics should be considered whether or not we're at
peace with the regional conflicts in the Middle East. One
did oil prices increase or decrease? It decreased significantly more
than ten bucks in barrel. Two did the Dow Jones
(33:10):
increase or don't look at the Dow, look at the
S and P five hundred? Did the S and P
increase or decrease? It increased the better part of one percent.
I'm not one to engage in industrial espionage, but I
trust the fact that Wall Street has those resources. If
the market seem to think things have calmed down, I'm
inclined to agree with them.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah. Up again today on the ceasepire talks, although might
have more to do with the FED chair and what
he said about interest rates.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
I was just reading about how uncertainty affects hiring and
investment in business, and I find myself wondering whether at
some point we become just more comfortable with a higher
level of volatility uncertainty as a culture.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Get we better get used to it or we're going
to go crazy.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
Yeah, Poollo with an interesting topic. It looks like Iran
has at least a fly in the ointment of its
nuclear ambitions. It's probably only a bump in the road
for them. But it's not just Iran and nukes. We
have to worry about the development of technology and learning
generally is snowballing, and eventually just about everybody will have
the capacity to do great harm. May take a while,
(34:15):
I hope, very long while, but it's inevitable. How can
we avoid it except by our destruction or some sort
of great reset that sets us back centuries. We'll have
to hope that we get a lot wiser before our
knowledge progresses to the point where the power to destroy
ourselves is ubiquitous and available to just about everyone. JT
and Livermore makes the point that none of the former
presidents have come out and said, nice job Donald j getting,
(34:40):
you know, taking the nuclear capabilities away from Iraq.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
That's a decent point considering I saw a montage of
Clinton Obama, Biden all saying Iran will never get a
nuclear weapon and doing very little about it, doing very
little about it in some cases helping them come along.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Let's see Tim who hates US rights?
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Yay ww three a disgusting escalation guaranteed to give J
and J little chubbies in their dockers. Wow, that's unnecessarily
a graphic. And I'm not wearing docers sir as they
bloviate with that special studio.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Courage they're known for. Yeah, okay, your type.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
So we have less of a chance of World War
three if Iran has a nuclear weapon. Explain that to me.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
Well in the false arguments and bad faith arguments in
a very short email.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
You know what.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
I respect your ability to cram so many bad faith
arguments into the sentence and a half.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
A chubby in my dockers.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
Let's see Byron rights and there have invariations on this
attempt at humor. Trump's newest golf project is coming together.
He just established the first three holes of his new
eighteen hole golf CORER.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
That would be the nuclear facility as of Iran. Jack
the holes in the ground.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
I was tracking instead of yes, okay, It wasn't that
I didn't laugh, because understand it. I understood how I
see Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe, Ketty arm.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Strong and Getty and Pee Armstrong and Getty Strong and.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Philadelphia Zoo announced last week that a pair of nearly
one hundred year old tortoises recently welcome their first hatchlings.
You may have seen the tortoises on the MTV show
ninety nine.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Pregnant markets are surging if you're listening to us live,
so the bounce back has begun. And get into that later. Also,
latest polling on the whole tariff thing, get into that
later also. And oh and I just saw the real
(01:03):
ID deadline is a month away. This is going to
be my all time greatest hit screw up because it's
been I've seen it coming for so long and known
the entire time for years that at some point I
will be at an airport ready to get on a
plane someplace I need to go, yes, and they'll say
(01:25):
we no longer accept your driver's license, you need your
real ID, even though I knew it for years, I
am that is going to happen to me.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
I'll like your high school teacher assigned you a book
report due in twenty years and you waited until the
last night and you're up all night, right, that is
going to happen to me? Yeah, it's funny, Judy, And
I heard that report, and I have a feeling. I
spoke for many, many millions of Americans when I said,
do we have real IDs? I've completely lost track? Is
(01:54):
ours real? She looked at it and said, yeah, yes
we do. How that happened?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I don't recall, but I sure don't have one? Are
you sure? I'm positive you might. When did you last
for new year license?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
I don't know?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So, so your driver's license?
Speaker 5 (02:12):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh it is?
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Well, maybe I did have a real like the updated
does it have like a hologrammy looking thing on there?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Or yeah? Yeah, there you go. Maybe I do have.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
It done and done, sir. That's my point. Nobody has
any idea. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
So, speaking of economics and that sort of thing, which
a lot of people are doing these days in reference
to the tariffs.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
But to this too shall pass, I hope eventually. Uh
And and some of.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
The support and lack of support are coming from some
interesting areas for the tariffs, and we can talk about
that more later, but I'm kind of tariffed out.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
We brought this up kind of briefly at the end
of the.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
So you see I could talk about tariffs for many
more hours.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Well you should feel free. How about one room over anyway?
I found this so interesting, big survey of America's employers,
especially manufacturers. They cannot find reliable, conscientious workers who can
pass a drug test. A good worker, like a good man,
(03:19):
can be hard to find these days. And who is
this writing in the Alicia Finley, who I think is
a terrific writer, But she says, blame government, which showers
benefits on able bodied people who don't work well at
the same time subsidizing college degrees that don't lead to
productive employment, and the result is millions of idle men
(03:41):
and millions of unfilled jobs, what an economist would call
a dead weight loss to society.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
So failing the drug test, is it mostly the marijuana,
the Mary Jane, the lettuce, the hippie let?
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Yeah, I don't know. I suspect so though. Sure I
think it's mostly pot. But I think that it's just
brilliantly simply put, we are showering benefits on able bodied
people and subsidizing useless college degrees as as a people
(04:14):
because the government is theoretically doing our work right.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Well, I for one, don't like either end of that anyway.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Forty percent of small business owners and March reported job
openings they could not fill. Construction companies fifty six percent said, yeah,
we have unfilled jobs and we can't find anybody. Transportation,
I have a feeling that's mostly truck drivers fifty three
percent manufacturing, which the President is, according to many people,
(04:42):
admirably trying to shepherd back inside the country. More forty
seven percent of manufacturers say, no, we've got openings we
can't fill.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
So, according to the last week's National Federation of Independent
Business survey, that might.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Be a flaw in the president's plan that hasn't been
discussed enough. He wants to bring back the fifties or
seventies or whatever golden era of manufacturing that we used
to have.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
But back then people would do those jobs.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
If half the manufacturing jobs out there or you can't fill.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Now, what if manufacturing did come.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Back to the United States, who, in theory is going
to do those jobs?
Speaker 5 (05:21):
Well, not illegal immigrants, because thank god, the border has
been closed and the statistics are astounding.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Biden was a scoundrel anyway.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Was it going to be the woman who studies major
from your local university that goes works, They're probably not well.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
It could well be the dudes who have no disability
on disability who are heaved off of that system, but
that would take some tough love, and that's not very
popular politically speaking. I mean, if you go into one
of the districts of the rust Belty places or Appalachia
or whatever where you have just ludicrous levels of people
(05:54):
on disability. Happened to read a couple things about this recently.
Didn't flog you with it on the air. But and
if you go into those places and say we're kicking
it off everybody on disability who's not like missing a limb,
you will lose an election by seventy points.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
That's even possible.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Once people are on the toll man, once people have
a benefit, whether legitimate or perhaps questionable, taking it away
as political poison as you know, Labor Department's job openings
and labor turnover survey of businesses tell a similar story.
There are twice as many job openings in manufacturing now
than in the mid two thousands as a share of employment.
Save for the pandemic, America's workers shortage is the worst
(06:37):
in fifty years. Decades ago, productivity, enhancing technology and yes,
inexpensive imports costed men who worked on shop floors to
lose their jobs and drop out of the workforce. But
that generation is sailing into the sunset, and there are
many fewer young Americans who want to work in factories.
Listen to this now, the labor force participation rate among
young among working age men is now about five percentage
(07:00):
points lower than in the early eighties. Okay, this is
not like the nineteen tens. This is the nineteen eighties,
five points lower. As a result, there are about three
and a half million fewer men between the ages twenty
five and fifty four in the workforce, and one point
three million between the ages of twenty five and thirty
four in a significantly bigger population than we had in
(07:23):
the eighties. Right then there would have been were it
not for this decline. Labor participation among working age women,
on the other hand, recently hit a record in part
because they are having fewer children, and then people aren't
coupling and that sort of thing at the risk of
stereotyping women are more inclined toward helping professions such as
services than those that require physical labor.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Well, that's just true. It's undeniable.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
So I've not done a manufacturing sort of job before,
so I don't know what it's like, but I certainly
feel like there's a social stigma around it that doesn't
help true.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Why it is?
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Why there's not a social stigma around having a meaningless,
soul deadening paper pushing job in a cubicle, I don't
know why that is. I mean, maybe the other way
around should be. There shuldn't be any stigma around any jobs.
Working for a living is considerably better than not whatever
(08:25):
the hell you're doing.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
So why at least the vestige of the twentieth century
where a job where you used your brain as opposed
to your back was seen as a higher status job.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
God, I don't know some of these jobs or you
use your brain.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
That's barely not much, I mean, but they certainly don't
seem like they'd be much more enjoyable as starter jobs.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Right, Tedious is tedious.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
I had a sort of manufacturing job for one summer,
and it was pretty tedious. Honestly, but I'm sure it is.
You know why I go went ahead and took it
and kept it. It was because it paid pretty good.
It was my best hop right. So yeah, and well
you should have to make a living. You got to
support yourself somehow.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
No, you don't. What kind of monster are you listen
to this? Would you?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
So?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Where have all the good working men gone? Some are
subsisting on government benefits, are living off their parents. About
seventeen percent of working age men are on Medicaid, seventeen percent,
seven and a half percent on food stamps, and six
point three percent on Social Security, many claiming disability payouts.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
According to the Census Bureau.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Many spend their days playing video games and day trading, well,
day trading hilarious, speculating on meme stocks, or you tell
somebody your day trading. I don't know how often you're
actually trading and making any money, because you don't want
to say I just play video games and live in
my parents' basement, so you say you're your day trader.
(09:49):
So I don't remember our a good friend, Craig the
healthcare Genius's statistics. But if I remember correctly, originally Medicaid
was only supposed to cover like a tiny percentage people period.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Now it's covering percent.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Now it's covering And that would have been like the
old and you know people that I got all kinds
of physical or mental problems.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Now it's seventeen percent of.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Working age men, not not like senior citizens.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's nice.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Yeah, a couple more stats. Other missing men are taking
longer to finish college or pursuing graduate degrees. Only about
forty one percent amen complete a bachelor's degree in four years,
even though study after study shows they don't teach, you
don't have to work.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
There's great inflation. It's dopey.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Only forty one percent and a quarter take more than
six years.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Wow, because you're in no hurry to get out of college.
My dad used to comment about perpetual college students, and
I never really understood what he was talking about. And
I'm sure it was a small number of people back
when he was in college, but now it is a lot. Apparently,
I'll just stay in college. I'll just keep borrowing money.
And because I'm too young or unwise to understand what
(11:03):
I'm doing, and I'll just keep this game going. Of
I get to sit around with my friends and discuss
the world without ever having to engage in it.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Yeah, and I have disability. My thumb hurts on Thursdays.
Final stat Then will I will stop? We're just we
are a fat, lazy, comfortable society. We're headed to front denial, right,
we are headed straight toward France.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
The unemployment rate Jack considered this among recent college grads
with a sociology degree is about seven percent, and their
median wage, if they do have a gig, is forty
five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
According to the Federal Reserve Bank.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Social grads could earn twice as much working on an
auto assembly line, which pays an average hundred thousand dollars
a year. Good gig, but not many want it. The
reality is that masses a young people, writes Alicia Finley, who,
again as a genius, has been taught that capitalism is exploitive.
They don't want to work in factories. They'd rather mooch
off to their parents. How CHORL Marx is that?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Yeah, some of it is that, I'm sure, But I
just I think a lot of it is just the
cultural that would be embarrassing for your parents and for
you if you worked over at the whatever factory yeah,
more embarrassing in our current society than if you just
live at home and you know, you say you're a
day trader. It should be more embarrassing to have a
(12:26):
job at a plant than to live with your parents,
but I think it is.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
Or having taken six years to get an undergrad degree
in gender studies, you're now getting a master's degree in
the theoretical decolonialization of art, or whatever the s.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Wait they.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Sometimes think for soft people. Man, there is no more
iron law of humanity than that.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
The armstrong and getting shot.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
So I've waited on more people at this restaurant than
you have in your goddamn life, say the waiters and
waitresses of Washington, DC, Jack, where you just were.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
The Washingtonian, which is read in the self obsessed Nation's Capital,
has a piece about how DC restaurants have long been
like politically neutral spaces. Obviously, to cite the cliched example,
you got Reagan coming in, you got Tip O'Neil coming in, right,
so you treat everybody with respectfully.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
But that changed during the Trump years.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Restaurant owners became much more politically outspoken.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
They were part of the resistance, and Trump.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Officials became social pariahs when dining out. You remember several
incidents involving Ted Cruz and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who got
kicked out of a restaurant in West Lexington, Virginia. Homeland
Secretary Kirsten Nielsen's dinner at a DC Mexican resta Mexican
(14:07):
restaurant was interrupted as.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
They yelled shame.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Steven Miller tossing eighty dollars worth of takeout sushi after
somebody cursed him and flipped him off at a sushi place,
somebody on the staff. But anyway, in the Washington Washingtonian, anyway,
you got all these restaurant tours and waiters and bartenders saying,
we're not going to be silent, We're not going to
be quote unquote civil.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Let's see, here's this guy.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
What does he do. He's a DC restaurant. He's a
manager at a club, big club in DC. If you're
just going out for a nice dinner at your anniversary,
your birthday, and God forbid, RFK Junior is sitting X
to you now, you're going to be dealing with whatever
repercussions happened from that. He's saying all this restaurant staff
is justified into cursing these people out and yelling at
(14:56):
him and kicking him out.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Well, we'll see if this actually happens or not. Like
I said, bumping around d C, it was quite a
bit different than the last time I was in DC
when Trump got elected, he was being treated like a
regular president. I mean, the number of Trump shirts, hats, pins,
inauguration forty seventh president stuff that I saw. There was
nothing like that in twenty seventeen when I was there
(15:20):
for the inauguration.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
In fact, that was my question. I wonder if this
is just big talk by little people.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I'd be my guess.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Here's a woman who's a server and manager at a
saloon on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Quote.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
People were a lot more motivated the first time around
to do these kinds of shows of passion. This time around,
there's kind of a sense of defeat and acceptance. But
I hope that people will still do stand up to
this administration and tell them their thoughts on their misbehavior
as they're trying.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
To get a ham sandwich at lunchtime.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Here's my biggest question about restaurants DC restaurants, because I
had this and I tweeted it out and it's the
most controversial tweet I've ever put out ever. It got
more responses than anything I've ever tweeted this question. So
I mean it in Gordon Ramsey's restaurant, which I wish
i'd ha spent the time to look into what it
costs to eat there, because it's the most expensive meal
I've ever paid for for me and my two kids.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Partially because.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
There was the we've added to twenty percent already thing
that restaurants are doing sometimes now.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
And so service charge is that what they call it?
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Earth It just said, yeah, we've we've added to twenty
percent service charge to your bill, and then it's got
the line for the tip, and I thought, do I
tip on top of this or not? And I tweeted
that out. I googled it and tweeted it, and same
result either way. Plenty of people say, absolutely, that's not
the tip. You need to tip on top of that
ere screwing your server or one hundred percent that's the tip,
(16:43):
No way you should give any more money. I still
don't know what the answer is on that, but obviously
if they add twenty percent, and I didn't know they
were going to do that, or I wouldn't have gone.
If they add twenty percent and I'm supposed to tip
twenty percent, that's.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Forty percent on top of my meal to no go.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
That's that second group that that is the tip. No
freaking way I'm eating there. A whole bunch of people
adamantly said, no, that goes to the restaurant. The server
will get nothing, and you absolutely need to tip on
top of that. Maybe that's true, but I'll never eat
at a restaurant that does that. You can't pay forty
percent on top of your bill. Nobody's doing that. That's ridiculous.
(17:21):
It is ridiculous. Well, I don't know what the correct
answer is either, or if it varies from restaurant to restaurant,
if you know text line four one five two nine
five KFTC. But what the hell are Strong.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
The Armstrong and Getty shirt?
Speaker 5 (17:45):
So this is so interesting. I came across this the
other day. A couple of scientists writers commentaries who ran
into each other after the one published a piece on
why young men have turned against the Democratic Party, and
(18:07):
this other guy, this other researcher, said, hey, you know,
I've actually been doing studies in that area, let's get
together and talk about it and compare notes. And they came,
They've come out with a really, really interesting report. Young
people in general report fairly miserable mental health, with high
(18:28):
rates of anxiety and depression. But this is particularly true
for young women. And they make the point that assumptions
democrats make about how to attract younger voters may not
appeal to men for various reasons.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
But they point out that this.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
That it the one report they looked at very the
most interesting finding, which is that conservatives have much higher
self reported mental health than liberals.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Is this surprising to anyone?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
No?
Speaker 5 (18:56):
No, The really interesting part is still to come self
reporting grain assault, but just a grain, not a shaker.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Why.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
I don't know on self reporting on your mental health.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
It could be that in certain communities it is taboo
to be honest about your mental health.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
I think it's more likely the other direction, But yeah,
I'm just trying to be in there that in more communities,
it's the greatest prize of all to explain how I
have anxiety and depression and OCD and all these other things.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I agree with you completely, and I'm glad you pointed
that out.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Blah, blah blah.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
It's a wide gap.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
Too between conservatives and liberals, according to this giant study
with sixty thousand respondents that provides the opportunity for highly
detailed democratic demographic analysis. Among people who report excellent mental health,
conservatives outnumber liberals fifty one to twenty as a ratio,
but liberals out number conservatives forty five to nineteen among
(20:03):
those voters who say they have poor mental health. This
isn't the least bit surprising to me. What's interesting? And
they assigned points, So one hundred points scale zero is
poor mental health, twenty five is fair, fifty is good,
seventy five is very good, one hundred is excellent.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
I think i'd go, what would you say for yourself?
I'm going I would say very good. Oh, there's might
disagree with me who know me, but I feel like
I'm very good.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Yeah. Can we have a round of rating where we
rate each other too? Even a town full of people
who are crazy? So that helps me stand out? I
feel like, are you graded on a curve in this?
Speaker 4 (20:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
So here's the first thing that popped in on my
mind is and part of the reason I leapt to
this thought was because we came across an absolutely fantastic
quote which I've misplaced, damn it, that women more than men,
not all women, but women in general, and like effeminate men,
(21:08):
filter information through a process not of is this true?
But will believing this gain me social currency and acceptance?
Will the group accept me for adopting this attitude? And
so the first thing I thought was, Okay, maybe people
(21:29):
of an unhappy or mentally fragile bent need more support,
and so they tend toward liberalism. Well, it's funny I
had that thought, and the guys immediately got to the question.
They said, could this reflect a spurious correlation? In other words,
that voters with characteristics associated with lower happiness tend to
(21:51):
be attracted to liberalism, but that political attitudes themselves don't
tell you much on their own. In short, no, they're right,
or at least probably not. The difference between liberals and
conservatives is remarkably persistent, even once you control for those factors.
Then they explain, going to give you a long chart
with those point values that I talked about. The average
(22:12):
American self reports at sixty on the scale, somewhere between
good and very good mental health, but.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
That's roughly where I would be.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
But liberals report an average score of fifty three and
conservatives sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Moderates not shockingly right in the middle at fifty eight.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Anyway, they take advantage of that's a moderate for you,
always moderating anyway, take advantage of the large sample size
in this CEES study. Let's see how this difference holds
up against a wide array of demographic and political characteristics.
Let's see gender men tend to be conservative men at
(22:52):
a sixty nine giggity liberal men of fifty six. Conservative
women up there at sixty six, liberal women way down
at fifty one. Average mental health score white fault. That's that.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
I realize what you just said about all these things.
But man, because I'm surrounded by this world, you would
really stand out as like you might be kicked out
of the herd if you were to say, you know,
I think I'm perfectly fine.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Yeah, Whereas I live in a world of hey, we're
all here for you. Have a drink, you'll be fine,
and most people are. Let's see black in his I'm sorry,
white black and Hispanic and Asian conservatives are virtually.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Tied at sixty eight. Sixty eight sixty five sixty five.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
Liberal, White, Black, Hispanic and Asians is fifty two sixty
fifty one fifty one, like a fairly consistent fourteen point gap.
Young people age gen Z that's ninety seven or later,
it's fifty six to forty gen Zers. Liberal gen zers
(24:18):
are among the most miserable people in America. The older
you get, the highers, the scores get on both ends
of the scale, and we could get into education that
sort of gen zers report the most.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Yeah, it's tough to break all this stuff down. And
I realize they tried to control for all these things,
But I can't imagine being a twenty year old in
a lot of your blue cities and telling your parents
not I think I'm fine. You wouldn't want to disappoint
your parents like that by telling them you don't have
(24:59):
anxiety or depression or any of those things.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, your parents are horrified.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
I know several young people, some of whom I may
be genetically related to, who are seem to be very bright,
very well adjusted, happy with their lives, but have some
of these modern emotional problems, and it makes me really curious.
(25:25):
As we've discussed many times through the years, what environmental
causes are going on. Is that the never ending barrage
of inputs, that's my greatest suspicion.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Yeah, so yeah, we're.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Never quiet, we're never alone, we're never bored.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
You're right in presenting this information, we're kind of or
I was kind of presenting it like this is all
somewhat imagined. But we have talked a lot about it,
and I know, I got one kid who has for
real anxiety depression OCD all that sort of stuff, and
it's been struggling with it his whole life and on medication,
and I've seen a gazillion psychiatrist and doctors and blah
(26:00):
blah blah. So yeah, there's something going on that is
causing problems, right, Yeah, so separating out that the real
from the just culturally, you live in a town where
everybody's supposed to have some of this stuff because life
is so hard and the world is.
Speaker 5 (26:17):
So bad if you're keeping track at home. Just for
the record, Jack came to judge, Joe came to understand.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Damn right, I came to judge and then brag about it.
So let's be fair. I bragged about it anyway.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Uh So this is as I as I mentioned last segment,
the most miserable pastors in America appear to be progressive bisexuals.
If you are bisexual or other, and apparently there are
some conservatives there are at a fifty nine, which ain't great.
But if you're a progressive bisexual, you're at you selfrate
(26:52):
yourself at thirty five, which is I mean, like, by
far the most miserable people in America. I heard one
prominent lesbian writer. I read her right, well, what do
you want? These people want everything from the world, both sexes.
You know, everything goes with a How can the world
not disappoint them? Hmm?
Speaker 4 (27:13):
I feel like I know a lot of baristas that
meet that description and they look unhappy. I don't know
that that's our facial expression anyway.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
Yeah, and their voice buncle fry fizes. Interestingly, people who
have high interest in news and politics on both sides
of the aisle tend to be more happy with their
mental health.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Really.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Yeah, I'm somewhat surprised by that, because it's enough to
make you insane.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Trust me, I do it for a living.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Huh.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
And it declines low news and political interests significantly lower
on both sides.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Wow. Hmm. So they just take in the information about
the world just kind of the way they hear it
from people and get despondent over it.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
Yeah, having more income does seem to make you more
positive about your mental health.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
That could be the other carosation correlation.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
Yeah, reverse, Yeah, you're much more likely to make more
money if you're mentally Okay.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
No meaningful difference in mental health between Catholics, Protestants, and
adherents of other organized religions. The differences between liberalists and
conservatives persist there, but religious adherence does soften them somewhat.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
I'm glad to see there's not a big breakdown between
Protestants and Catholics.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
Married people and people, and well, I know you want
to start another Holy war.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
You're a big fan of Joan of arc.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
But married people and people in domestic partnerships are happier
than those who are separated, widow, divorced, or who have
never been married.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
That has been true for as long as we've been
doing radio and reading these studies that married people tend
to report being happier more than single people, which is
interesting given that so much of the single world looks
at married people. Is like, I'm glad I'm not in
that prison when statistically that is not born out at all.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Oh, not at all.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
It's interesting they phrased it as happier when it's self
reported mental health. I'm not sure those are synonyms, but
I guess they're close.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
I make they're pretty close.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
Yeah, yeah, those are the main takeaways. Why are young
liberals so depressed? Matt Iglesia showed about.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
You'd be depressed to the.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Part of it, the weird hair color and the thing
through their nose, old white couple, old white men. I
can't stand it, and he points out, Jack, you'll be
gratified by this that there may be a performative axed
aspect to this. Yes, liberals may express negative sentiment as
a sign of solidarity with the movement that thinks there
is profound injustice in the world. How can I act
(30:03):
happy with all this injustice?
Speaker 4 (30:07):
You shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Everybody will judge me.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
You think you could walk into your hipster coffee shop
where you're a barista and there's like nine other employees
and be a everything's fine. You know, life is what
life is. I just I roll with the punches. You
think you could be that person?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Oh? Yeah, good days, bad days. What are you gonna do.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Let's make some coffee. Right, he's gonna be drummed out.
Let's just see what Trump did.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Oh my god, it is so clearly a fascist dictatorship.
Right to live. I've considered moving to Belgium.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
I couldn't find a parking spot because of the patriarchy.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Jack Armstrong and Joe, The Armstrong and Getty Show, The
Armstrong and Getdy Show.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
Here's your freedom living quota today is from a gentleman
who celebrated his seventy seventh birth day yesterday. And he
should be a hero to young children, particularly black children,
all across America.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
That's Clarence Thomas.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
But he's been so denigrated in bad mouthed by the
liberal media.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
He's not, but he was talking.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
He gave a speech not too long ago about the
importance of standing up for truth, even if you're the
only one doing so. And here's the quote. You can
be in the middle of a hurricane, or you can
be on a calm day. North is still North. You
could be in a thunderstorm. North is still North. People
can yell at you. North is still North. It doesn't
change fundamental things. And in this business right is still
(31:34):
right even if you stand by yourself. Yeah, different version
of two plus two equals four.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
No matter what, anybody else is.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
Right exactly, Well said Clarence, and happy birthday, sir, mail bag.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
I've got a couple more later in the.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Week from Clarence Thomas drops a note mail bag at
Armstrong in getty dot com.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Dirk's the German Rights It was a mostly peaceful bombing.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
See.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
Iran is a nation of over six hundred one thousand
square miles. The US bomb three small nuclear sites to
protest Iran's nuclear ambitions. It was clearly a mostly peaceful protest.
That's fantastic, Well done, Dirk.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
How come nobody's commenting on the rest of Iran the
vast ninety nine percent of Iran that was untouched by bombs.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
It RAN's a very big country.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
It was just downtown Nukeville that had the problems.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Well play. Dirk uh Don writes.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
If President Trump Wonseranian women's support of regime change, could
she should offer swapping their burkes and other oppressive head
coverings for red make around Great again ball caps. Wow,
just ship cases of those over to Iran. Yeah, my
hair's covered with this truvy redhead. I just got take
that secret police. Of course, they've probably got the hell
beat out.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Of them for that, and then you'd be tortured and
then executed.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
Yeah, let's see why I am not stressed out by
Steve and Everett Washington. Seems to me that two very
important metrics should be considered whether or not we're at
peace with the regional conflicts in the Middle East. One
did oil prices increase or decrease? It decreased significantly more
than ten bucks in barrel. Two did the Dow Jones
(33:10):
increase or don't look at the Dow, look at the
S and P five hundred? Did the S and P
increase or decrease? It increased the better part of one percent.
I'm not one to engage in industrial espionage, but I
trust the fact that Wall Street has those resources. If
the market seem to think things have calmed down, I'm
inclined to agree with them.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah. Up again today on the ceasepire talks, although might
have more to do with the FED chair and what
he said about interest rates.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
I was just reading about how uncertainty affects hiring and
investment in business, and I find myself wondering whether at
some point we become just more comfortable with a higher
level of volatility uncertainty as a culture.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Get we better get used to it or we're going
to go crazy.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
Yeah, Poollo with an interesting topic. It looks like Iran
has at least a fly in the ointment of its
nuclear ambitions. It's probably only a bump in the road
for them. But it's not just Iran and nukes. We
have to worry about the development of technology and learning
generally is snowballing, and eventually just about everybody will have
the capacity to do great harm. May take a while,
(34:15):
I hope, very long while, but it's inevitable. How can
we avoid it except by our destruction or some sort
of great reset that sets us back centuries. We'll have
to hope that we get a lot wiser before our
knowledge progresses to the point where the power to destroy
ourselves is ubiquitous and available to just about everyone. JT
and Livermore makes the point that none of the former
presidents have come out and said, nice job Donald j getting,
(34:40):
you know, taking the nuclear capabilities away from Iraq.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
That's a decent point considering I saw a montage of
Clinton Obama, Biden all saying Iran will never get a
nuclear weapon and doing very little about it, doing very
little about it in some cases helping them come along.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Let's see Tim who hates US rights?
Speaker 5 (35:02):
Yay ww three a disgusting escalation guaranteed to give J
and J little chubbies in their dockers. Wow, that's unnecessarily
a graphic. And I'm not wearing docers sir as they
bloviate with that special studio.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Courage they're known for. Yeah, okay, your type.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
So we have less of a chance of World War
three if Iran has a nuclear weapon. Explain that to me.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
Well in the false arguments and bad faith arguments in
a very short email.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
You know what.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
I respect your ability to cram so many bad faith
arguments into the sentence and a half.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
A chubby in my dockers.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
Let's see Byron rights and there have invariations on this
attempt at humor. Trump's newest golf project is coming together.
He just established the first three holes of his new
eighteen hole golf CORER.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
That would be the nuclear facility as of Iran. Jack
the holes in the ground.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
I was tracking instead of yes, okay, It wasn't that
I didn't laugh, because understand it. I understood how I
see Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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