July 18, 2025 • 35 mins
Hour Two of A&G features...
- Bill Melugin's report on the ICE Sweep at a NorCal Home Depot...
- The Coldplay Affair...
- Too proud to hire a landscaper...
- Bergum & Bondi go to Alcatraz!
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, Armstrong and Gettie
and he Armstrong and Jetty.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
So, last week in Los Angeles, a federal judge issued
an order blocking the Trump administration from carrying out controversial
immigration sweeps in seven southern California counties. Well, that order
has no effect up here in Northern California, where we
joined a Border Patrol strike team today here in the
state Capitol as they went out and enforced immigration law.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Let's get right to that video. Take a look.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
As soon as those border patrol agents pulled up to
a local home depot, suspected illegal immigrants took off running
in all directions. That then led to several foot pursuits
and we saw about ten people arrested in this one
single location.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Now that's the home depot and Flora. The only reason
I ever go over to Flora is because I go
to PCP Motorsports a lot to get my motorcycles worked
on and that sort of thing. But I'm over in
that area and it is pretty uh Spanish speaking, heavily
heavy over there, so it's not shocking and home depots
have seemed to be a target really all across the
(01:22):
country for so I've never actually done this, and I'm
kind of surprised I haven't, because we've needed lots of
workers out at the farm for a variety of things.
But so you can just show up to the home
depot and there's a bunch of Spanish speaking gentlemen hanging
around the parking lot who are willing to work.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Who you say, I need two guys for eight hours ex.
Twenty dollars an hour whatever.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And they probably aren't citizens of this land, uh, nor
properly registered as visitors.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
That's what I've heard, Jack, But the governor of cal Unicornia,
the man with more lust for the oval office than
a teenage boy has for the touch.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Of a female l presuming they're straight. We love everyone here.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Gavy blasts away, trying to escape a court order stopping
their reprehensible and illegal racial profiling and illegal rests in
La Border Patrol came to Sacramento to spread more of
their chaos and fear they should go do their jobs
at the border. Interestingly, he posted that online and the
comments were almost entirely Yeah, that's what we voted for.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
For them to do what they're doing. Another eighty twenty issue.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Ah, and of course some of the local media, including
the reprehensible Sacramento will be reported that one of the
individuals captured by ICE is actually a citizen of the
United States.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
But Bill Malugin explains why they did that.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
In the next clip, Border Patrol went on to tell
us that record checks came back already on one one
of those men, showing he's a felon with a prior
conviction for fentanyl trafficking. Now, agents also chased down this man,
a US citizen. This is after Border Patrol said he
slashed the tire on one of their vehicles. Agents eventually
took him to the ground where he appeared to lunch
(03:08):
at one of the agents, causing him to get mace
in the face and placed under arrest. As he was arrested,
his wife was shouting that he's a US citizen. Agents responded, well,
too bad, because he slashed our.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Tire, mased in the fast. That's not the way you
want to spend your weekend.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You get to face mace in place under arrest.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
What do you want them to do? Well, so we
got this text. This is kind of where I am
on this. Somebody said, I don't believe the polls. We'll
get into the latest poll that just came out a
couple of hours ago where people are getting less happy
with this. But this person texted, if we let in
twenty million people, there's gonna be some pain getting them out,
the country will be better for it. I think I
(03:57):
heard this from Sarahzger on the Dispatch. She's lizes polls
and issues and the different sort of stuff and then
the actual long term effect versus just the polling at
the time. I think ultimately the Republican Party and Trump
will be benefit from dealing with this, even if the
polling at the time doesn't look very good. For instance,
(04:18):
right now, the latest Raids IPSOS poll out fifty four
percent of people disagreed with the statement immigration arrests at
places of work are good for the country. Fifty four disagreed,
only twenty eight in support. That's a pretty big gap.
But again, at the end of the day, I think
people are going to reward the party that finally does
(04:41):
something about illegal immigration.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
I think that's a really interesting point because you do
tend to forget about some of the rough patches that
took place as you're accomplishing an important goal. Once that
goes accomplished, what I had another thought is important. Oh,
I wish the Republicans were any good at messaging. It
must be because Conservatives, generally speak, are individualists and we
(05:05):
don't particularly like being told what to say. But why
not have everybody respond with some version of the Democrats
let twelve million. But whatever the good accurate number is
during the Biden years or Biden plus abom or whatever,
the Democrats let twelve million people into the country. It's
(05:28):
not going to be easy to fix that. Bear with us.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
That's a good line, That's a great line. They should
all be repeating that.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
You're right, yeah, yeah, And I actually do believe that
poll because I think so many of us interact and
all over the country with folks who maybe don't have
their paperwork in order, but they're doing jobs and seem
to be law abiding in the rest of it. The
further you get down the road toward law abiding and
(05:56):
tax paying, the less support you're going to have. But
where the critical point is where you have so little
support you have to stop.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I don't know or how difficult it would be to
separate those out that wouldn't take either way too long
or costs way too much.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
One other talking point I wish the Republicans to your
point I wish they would settle on, is if these
so called sanctuary states would turn over the criminal illegal
aliens to ICE, we wouldn't have to do this.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Excellent point. That would be a winning message. Excellent point.
There is a breakdown on the so only twenty eight
percent of Americans are in support of going into these
workplaces like the home depot down the street here, only
twenty eight percent. But it's a pretty big divide. Only
seven percent of Democrats while fifty six percent of Republicans.
But I think only fifty six percent of Republicans is
(06:49):
pretty striking, given the fact that I saw a different poll.
Trump's approval among Republicans just overall is it ninety percent,
ninety percent, but on this issue it drops down quite
a lot. Overall, Trump's immigration approval rating is down to
forty one in this poll. He was as eye as
forty seven just a month ago. It's down to forty one.
(07:10):
He could be in the thirties very soon. But you know,
to use a very tired sort of phrase, he's gonna
make an omelet you got to break some eggs. I
don't know how you deal with this mess without having
some pretty unfortunate stories out there.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And maybe force the hand of the electorate and or
the Congress to say, all right, all right, all right,
all right, you've made your point. We need to enforce
the law. But the laws are a little broad. It
doesn't have support. Let's let's refine this, let's have better laws.
To my point about sanctuary jurisdictions, though, I like this
next clip, now heedy too.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
The Border Patrol chief in charge of this entire operation
tells us the federal government can and will go wherever
they want, even in this sanctuary state.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Well, there is no sanctuary city. Sacramento is not a
sanctuary city. The state of California is not a sanctuary state.
There is no sanctuary anywhere.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
We'll be here.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
You'll probably see us in many of the locations as well.
We're here to stay. We're not going anywhere. We're going
to affect this mission, scare the homeland. So did the
Supreme Court decide to take that up? Nor did I
dream that were you gonna finally deal with that? Is
there such thing that guy's basically saying there's no such
thing as a sanctuary city or a sanctuary state, and
there is there shouldn't be.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah, I want to say next session, it's on the docket.
Maybe I dreamt it too. That'd be weird if we're
dreaming the same dreams. I'm quitting the show's gone too far. Yeah, exactly,
I'm disturbed, but mostly I don't watch. You see, in
my dreams, some of them can get very well, let's
just say not for air.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
It's like briefly when we were getting each other's notes
in our note portion of our iPhones. Remember that, What
the hell was that? Yeah? I don't even remember.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Highly troubling, Yeah, no kidding. Anyway, moving along, let's see
what else do we have. Oh, this is kind of
foun how come.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
That hasn't been set out loud more strongly by more people.
There's no such thing as a sanctuary, So you can't
have a sanctuary from the current federal law. That's not
a thing, or you could, or or red states would
start having sanctuary gun law, we allow people to get
open carry here just anywhere they want, all the time,
and you can have as many rounds as you want.
(09:29):
That because we're a sanctuary gun in town.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Right right again. The Republicans are so terrible with their messaging.
It seems to me a pretty compelling sales pitch to say, look,
we're just going to deal with the criminals. We need
law enforcement everywhere to hand over the criminals and see
what percentage of Americans are in favor of that. This
is gonna be like everybody and at the same time,
(09:54):
and trust me, well, anybody who's been listening to this
show for a long time knows tim as hardcore border
security serious immigration laws as anybody out there. But on
the conservative side of the aisle, there is undeniably sympathy
for the hard working go getter who disrupts their whole life,
(10:16):
busts their ass, shows up every single day, follows the law,
pays their taxes, loves their family, just happens to be
from a fur in land. If they want to come
correct and pay a fine or whatever and have a
pathway to whatever. There's a lot of sympathy for those
people on the right, and there should be. Maybe we
can enact a law wherefore every person like that who
(10:41):
we permit to stay in the country, we kick out
some free loading scumbags who are American citizens.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I don't care what they are. You're born in Omaha,
but you're living off the taxpayer. Yeah, get out.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, you're's the third generation sucking off the government's teeth.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Please, no, you're out.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Go to that.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I'm a citizen. Well, go be a citizen somewhere else.
You're a leech. Go to that El Salvador prison where
they make you bend over and walk around. Well no,
wait a minute, there are other alternatives, but call it.
Call it what would it be?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
The the go getters for sit downers act.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
No, that's not good. I gotta keep working on it.
But you get the point. I have a list of
some people you can grab. I gotta hear you. I
hear you. Put me in charge. I'll be fair. You
probably are on the story of the Chris Martin of
Coldplay does the kiss cam and the guy kisses the
girl but they're having an affair and they get caught
(11:38):
and it becomes a problem. He is a CEO of
a big company, and he put out a big statement
yesterday that I thought was interesting. Well, you know, put
that in our groupings of apologies that we we like
to read.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, interesting, is one word for his statement, among other things,
on the way stay.
Speaker 6 (11:55):
Here, the Steve Miller Band has canceled all of its
tour dates because of global warming. Oh god, yeah, organizers
admit it's a waste of fuel to go from Phoenix, Arizona,
all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Why are you clapping for that? What he is? The
A plus policeman, different concert. I can't believe cold Play
with Chris Martin because he's a very u progressive musician.
You know, he's married to Gwyneth Paltrow. They named their
kid Apple. They believed in what was that conscious uncoupling
or whatever the whole package. That's right, But he's still
(12:46):
touring despite climate change. And I can't believe how much
attention the story is getting. The whole you've probably heard it,
are you're seeing it? If you watched any news yesterday.
It included the story of the they do a kiss
cam at their concerts like they do it baseball games,
I guess, and uh, they put they put the camera
on a couple who like immediately gets wide eyed and
(13:08):
like disappear, and Chris Marcus.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Usually couples see themselves and say, oh, let's kiss. It's
the kiss cam and everybody yy. But this couple's like,
holy crap, and everybody's yay. So here's what it sounded like.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, oh, all right, come on, Ruthie. What either an
affair or they're just very shut Yeah, you're right. They're
either having an affair. They're very shy. The CEO of
this corporation with the HR chief of his company. They're
both married to other people, and uh, pretty bold in
(13:46):
their affair. I would say to go out to this
concert anyway. He felt the need because this blew up
all day yesterday and social media. A statement from CEO
Andy Byron, New York, New York, July seventeen. I want
to acknowledge the moment that's been circulating online and the
disappointment it's caused what was supposed to be a night
of music and joy. Oh wow, I couldn't even when
(14:08):
I read that, I thought, I can't believe this is
where you're starting. What was supposed to be a night
of music and joy turned into a deeply personal mistake
playing out on a very public stage. I want to
sincerely apologize to my wife, my family, and the team
at Astronomery that's the company he runs. You deserve better
for me as a partner, as a father, and as
a leader. Wow, that's he's right. It has caused some disappointment.
(14:30):
I love that word.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
His wife must be thinking, oh, he's having an affair
and actually going out with her on the town.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
That's disappointing.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
And his children are thinking, oh, Papa has another wife
across town.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I too, am disappointed or our family is going to
split up and having been through that, this will be
the most devastating thing that's ever happened in my entire
life as a child, and I'll never ever be the
same afterwards. But how disappointing, how fun for everybody to
see it happen on the Cold Play stage. This is
ironic that it was supposed to be a night of
music and joy. That's a weird way to look at it.
(15:04):
This is not who I want to be or how
I want to represent the company I helped build. It's
about the company. I'm taking time to reflect, to take accountability,
and to figure out the next steps personally and professionally.
I asked for privacy as I navigate that process. Well,
he probably was thinking lawyers and hr and all that
sort of stuff immediately, in addition to the fact that
he may have blown up his family.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Having already issued a fairly mediocre apology, he decides to
write a little more.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
This is the part's amazing. I also want to express
how troubling it is that what should have been a
private moment became public without my consent. Oohoo, So you're
kind of angry at someone else for the way this
has turned out interesting. I respect artists and entertainers, but
I hope we can all think more deeply about the
(15:52):
impact of turning someone else's life into a spectacle. You
were literally in an effing stadium full of people. In
what sense is that a private moment? That is hilarious? Sir,
I can't believe that with a little bit like rereading it,
he thought, he didn't think. You know, I probably shouldn't
(16:14):
blame anybody for this, because I have created this situation
completely on my own, acting like it's someone else's fault
somehow at the end of the letters, probably not a
good idea, but I don't know. Maybe that helped him
sleep last night, probably in a hotel. It's a great
example of how we can come up with self justifying
arguments that are just completely ridiculous, because I mean, for
(16:38):
him to claim that was a private moment, that's hilarious,
but he believed it enough to write it and issue it,
or that that's the real or that that's worth even
bringing up at all. So if Chris Martin hadn't put
the camera on you, you'd been able to have your
affair and go to the concert with your lover and
continue both of you lie to your families. And wouldn't
(17:01):
that have been grand? I mean, what, wow, what a dope.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Anyway, coming up, they call them the monster trucks of
the Lake. They're banned in many places, and a brilliant
young economist explains the economics of doing it yourself or
not doing it yourself.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Intriguing stuff. I like all this. Stay tuned, Armstrong and Getty,
And finally, today Uber announced a partnership to deploy more
than twenty thousand robotaxis over the next six years.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Lyft also has a robotaxi, but it's just a regular
car where the driver's covered by a blanket.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
That's interesting that he makes it seem Likelyft is a
poor man's Uber where I was told a couple of
years ago and I struggled with Uber that somebody told
me no, no, no, you got to dot Lift is Target,
Uber is Walmart. But then other people have told me
it varies from town to town, which might be true
or maybe it's all, but it's certainly not clear that
(18:02):
Lift is like clearly lesser than Uber. I have looked
for patterns and not to find them. No, I can't either,
although the price office sure varies a lot sometimes so
I do check both. If one comes back high, yeah,
absolutely true. But that's another pattern I haven't been able
to figure out. If it's just if it just happens
(18:22):
to be a day where there's a bunch of.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Lift drivers out. Yeah, but a lot of guys are
both anyway. Sure there's somebody who has a grasp on this.
Perhaps you can email us mail bag at armstrong e
Giddy dot com. But speaking of working and paying the
people to do things to work for you, I came
across this essay that I thought was so great by
Roland Friar. Roland is a fascinating guy. He's an absolutely
(18:45):
brilliant Youngish economist. He happens to be on the faculty
of Harvard. Among other things, he's won many awards. He
first came to fame as a young black man because
he published an extremely compelling analysis in twenty nineteen that
we talked about at length arguing that black and Hispanic
Americans were no more likely than white Americans to be
(19:07):
shot by police in a given interaction with police.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
In fact, it was somewhat less likely.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
And that was extremely controversial, and he was called all
of the things black folks are called when they dare go.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Against the progressive consensus.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
But he's a really compelling guy and what he's writing
it do you have a comment on that, Jack before
before you head or Okay, he's talking about the economics
of d IY do it yourself? Should you hire someone
to mow your lawn or clean your house? And I
thought this is great and we'll close the CENTERIC. Oh yeah,
I know, and it's trust me, it pays off. We'll
(19:43):
post this at Armstrong and getty dot com. You might
get paywalled, but we'll see what we can do. He
mentions that Americans are real di wires. We clean our
own houses a large extent, assemble our own furniture a grill,
even when we'd be better off hiring someone else.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
He says they are better off is a phrase that
should be put in quotes, because he can argue that
that's the whole point of this.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Indeed, still I mow my lawn and cook most nights
for my family, even though I work eighty to ninety
hours a week, not counting my side hustle as an
unpaid driver in sideline soccer coach for my two daughters.
I'm an economist able to think through these decision decisions rationally.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yet here we are.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
When a friend invited me to play golf and I
declined because the yard needed mowing, he couldn't hide his disbelief. Quote,
you can pay someone to cut your lawn, you can't
pay someone to have fun for you. He meant it
as a joke. I took it as an indictment. He
was calling me out on one of the most basic
principles in economics, opportunity cost, meaning the things you give
(20:47):
up when you spend your resources, including time and money,
on something else. If I choose to be an astronaut,
I have given up my chance to be an interpretive dancer,
at least.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
For a while. I think that was a good choice.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
If I if I have limited money, explored space as
opposed to world around in random ways and claimed it
meant something so opportunity costs meaning the things you give
up when you spend your resources, including time and money,
on something else.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Was he right?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Maybe, But a truly economics informed approach to dy is
more nuanced than it seems. It gets really interesting. It's
tempting to treat decisions like this as simple arithmetic. Add
up the cost of hiring help, compare it with your
hourly wage, voila. In that light, it does seem crazy
for a tenured professor to mow his lawn. Yes, I
(21:45):
talked about this a year or so ago.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Scott Linskim, who does the financial stuff economic stuff for
the Dispatch, wrote a Colosscott long piece about that opportunity
cost that really kind of convinced me toward hiring more people.
Though I don't know that I have which I have
a feeling this is where we're going, and I want
to hear the rest of this. I bet you're right.
(22:09):
Let's see. It's it's tempting to.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Treat decisions like this simple arithmetic, as he says, it
seems even crazier to do what I did as a
broke grad student when I hired a daily housekeeper so
I could stay focused on what mattered most research, writing, teaching,
in the occasional video game, when I wasn't consumed with
the first three. But that isn't really thinking like an economist.
And he's one of the leaders in economics moving from
(22:35):
this single minded idea that human beings are purely logical
and purely you know, economic in terms of dollars and
cents numbers, and that's the only thing that matters. It
seems laughable in retrospect that that's the way economics thought
for a long time.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah, it's interesting. You know, if you were going to
go with that logic, no one would ever have kids
because economically it does make sense. Right.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Decision making is about considering the full set of options
and how much you value each one. Sometimes you may
find yourself mowing the lawn when you can afford not to,
or paying more than your hourly wage to hire help.
Other economic concepts can illustrate why one diminishing marginal returns.
The value of an extra hour isn't fixed. It depends
on what came before it. If you've been working all
(23:23):
weekend and finally carve out a free hour mowing the
lawn might feel like a punishment, and avoiding that punishment
would be especially valuable. But if you spent the weekend
relaxing or playing with your kids, that same hour might
feel restorative. The activity hasn't changed you have. He's mentioned
speaking of uber and left as we were. When I've
been traveling too much and I haven't seen my daughters,
(23:44):
I'll sometimes take an uber with them instead of driving,
just so we can sit in the back and catch up.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Oh to me, that's money well spent. That's cute. That's sweet,
isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yeah, that brings me to a third economic layer, to
consider American beliefs about identity and morality.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I think this is maybe what you were hinting at, Jack.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
We attach pride to doing things ourselfs, and pride has
value too. For some of us, mowing the lawn isn't
only about the grass, time or money.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
It's about what it says about us.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
It signals I take care of my things, I don't
rely on others, I'm not above the work. Sometimes I
wonder if I'm pushing that more out of principle or
because I want others to see me pushing it. I
resisted hiring anybody to help with lawng cair, landscaping, plants, trees, etc.
For a very long time for precisely that reason, and
(24:34):
I had to admit it. And I had some fairly
complicated yards that took so much time and energy it
was indefensible.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
But I was doing it out of pride. That's interesting.
I think he also got a factor in what it
signals to your kids. And I don't know which side
of this a person would be on. You might feel
like you should signal to your kids, don't waste your
time on the lawn, or you might I feel like
I'm closer to this need to signal to my kids,
I mowed the freaking lawn right and that noscle you
(25:08):
on the lawn.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I do what has to be done, whether I like
it or not. Maybe the most important muscle any human
being ever develops. In fact, I know it is beneath
our pride lurks. The opportunity cost. My friend chided me
about a cost that too few people consider seriously. According
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans spend two hours
a day on household activities like cooking, cleaning, laundry and
(25:31):
yard work. That's more time than we spend exercising or socializing.
We should probably buy more of that time back, even
if it means swallowing a little pride. Not everyone can
or should outsources DIY activities, of course, but a great
many people perform these tasks out of habit, inertia, or
guilt and would be better off spending the money to
get help.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, I just one. I enjoy mowing the lawn. I
just I don't think I couldn't. I don't have a
lawn currently. I don't own a how so, but if
I did own the house I have, I would mold
al on myself. But there's other stuff, like our agent's
always on me because every time I'm talking to them
about personal life Stuff's just the amount of paperwork that
I have to do is the loane. I'm the head
(26:16):
of the household, and the household I'm the only person.
I should hire somebody for that. I should not be
spending my time hours trying to log into a website
pay a stupid bill crap. Somebody should be doing that
for me. That's just a waste of my life. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, And the sentence about many people perform these tasks
out of habit, inertia or guilt, and would be better
off spending the money to get help.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
That reminds me of one of the great divides I
think that you can observe in society. The left generally
is big on trust your feelings, and the right is
more on, you know, observe your feelings, but think about them.
Your feelings are irrational and unhelpful, at least as often
(27:03):
as they are you know, or you know, maybe it's
sixty forty or forty sixty, it doesn't matter. But the
idea that your feelings are always right and you should
always trust them. Yeah, yeah, my husband kind of pissed
me off. I'm gonna blast him and tell him exactly
what I think of him. No, don't trust that feeling.
It'll be gone in like ten seconds anyway. Here are
(27:26):
some examples Roland writes of how to think through this
decision these decisions Like an economist. Jane is a corporate
lawyer and workaholic. Not enough hours in her day. Her
rare moments are free time or precious She's got cash
to burn for her paying someone to clean the house
or prepared dinner isn't indulgence, it's common sense.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
That's an easy one.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Heather is short on both time and money, and hiring
a cleaner would cost more than she makes it work.
Usually she hates cleaning or needs that time for something urgent,
she's probably better off doing it herself. That isn't a failure.
It's the most rational choice given her circumstances. Yeah, unless
she really hates cleaning or needs that time, she's better
off doing it herself.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I did want to throw this in because we're gonna
get a whole bunch of texts about this, because the
last time we wrote it up about you know you
and your effing yachts or whatever, about people who this
is an option for Yeah, for a big giant chunk
of my life. I didn't worry about these conversations because
I wasn't an option to hire anybody to do anything. Ever,
(28:27):
So you have to be in a situation where it's
an option. So he gave you a pretty easy one
on both ends. John is a middle class dad with
modest savings and limited flexibility at work. If he wants
extra time at home, he can't simply clock out early.
He pays the cleaner more than he makes per hours,
so on paper, it doesn't seem to add up. Yet
it buys him time to read to his kids, or
help with homework, or simply be less stressed after a
(28:49):
long shift. It might be the smartest money he spends
all week. He isn't maximizing his present disposable income, but
he's boosting his lifetime utility. Yeah, that's where I was.
I'm getting a person to clean the house, which I
still rubs me the wrong way. It just it's not
in my DNA. But it became clear to me that
(29:10):
it was cutting into time with the kids to do
various things. And I can't justify that. If I were
on my own, no freaking way, I would be higher.
Now I was cleaner to do this, I would do
it myself. But I just I couldn't. I couldn't justify
saying I'm sorry, I can't go for a bike ride.
I got to finish this laundry. I just I couldn't.
I couldn't justify that. But it does bother me. My
(29:31):
kids sometimes have a bit of an attitude about the
house cleaner didn't do something right or whatever, and I
don't like that.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
I don't that I totally hear you. You are absolutely
justified in hiring a housekeeper. Are your kids absolutely justified
in having one?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
No? I know what a quandary.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
I don't even like to admit that Judy and I
have a house cleaner, especially because she does not get
along with our butler at all.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Two of them. They have a thing going way back.
There's just no solving it.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
And and Sleeve Boy, my servant who merely buttons the
little button that's like mid arm that's so difficult to button.
He hears them bickering and he can't concentrate on his work,
and then I have to punish him.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Oh my god, just cite a long running joke on
the Armstrong a Gedddy show. I have known people, you know,
and it's none of my business. I have known people
that complain to me about their financial situation and have
people that do this stuff. And I think, Okay, your
paycheck to paycheck, you're barely making it. Don't have someone
clean your house. Maybe do it yourself. But you know what,
(30:45):
wh he's they're on Michael. I just remember Joe has
that guy who's a footstool as well. Oh yeah, remember
the human footstools, right, he's part time.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
He's just during, you know, the latter part of the
week when I'm getting tired and really need a footstool
and the adjustable kind of mechanical kind aren't good enough.
I like to be able to say footstool boy, footstool
boy when it comes.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
With you, backup slightly higher, please, thank you, comes with you,
whatever room you go into, it's very Yeah, footstool boy.
We're moving to the den now. Oh my god, that
is the worst any thoughts in any of this text
line four one, five two nine KFTC. We are thrilled
(31:32):
to have you here.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Alcatraz Prison the Rock an infamous symbol of law and
order in American history, and President Trump wants it reopened.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
It could hold anything. This is a terrific facility needs
a lot of work.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Fox News joined Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary
Doug Bergham for an exclusive tour of the rock, now
part of a national park.
Speaker 7 (31:54):
Alcatraz Is is the brand known around the world uh
for being a effective at housing people that are in incarceration.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Pam Bondy and Doug Bergham are both very bright people,
and to hear them struggling to come up with any
explanation whatsoever of what they're doing is hilarious.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
I'm sorry, I'm just keeping it real.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
As the kids say, actually traveled Alcatraz is amazing.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
It could hold anything. She says, actually traveled clear across
the country, then had to take the boat out Talcatraz
in San Francisco to vis just a key aspect of
the question before us.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
And.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Then act like this is gonna happen. Okay, any who
just came across this story.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
You know, the truth is very briefly, Alcatraz is much
much more significant as a tourist location than as a prison.
It was a prison for relatively short amount of time,
and it captures the imagination because it's remote and you
take a boat ride out there and it's fun.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I want to talk about CBS firing Colbert. That's an
interesting one if it was financial and not political. Man,
the timing shirt certainly doesn't work in your favor for
that narrative. But I want to talk about this at
some point. Australia is the first major country clearing the
path for a social media age checks, or really age
(33:30):
checks of any kind online that they think will work,
which obviously you could apply to social media and porn
and all kinds of different things. Maybe we'll talk about
that a little bit later. I came across this thread
I thought was really good. I was actually actually from
Matt Tybee, who we really liked, the journalist Matt Tybee.
He just said, post your favorite NPR ridiculousness. I love that.
(33:54):
On the day that the taxpayer funding for NPR and
PBS got ya, and the mainstream and left is claiming
like it's some sort of attack on free speech or whatever.
Good lord. Actually, Tom Cotton, Senator Tom Cotton, Republican, said
this would be like yanking the funding if there was
(34:18):
taxpayer funding from bright Bart News and it got yanked.
Except for Bred, he said, except for Breitbart's closer to
mainstream than NPR is. I haven't read breit Bart regularly
in a long time, but NPR is so far out
there it's unbelievable. Anyway, here's just some examples, people bringing
up old tweets or whatever. This is probably the biggest one.
(34:40):
From a couple of years back. The NPR Public editor
tweeted out, why haven't you seen any stories from NPR
about the New York Post? Hunter Biden story read more
in this week's newsletter, in which he said, we don't
want to waste our time on stories that are not
really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners
and readers time on stories that are just pureist actions
(35:01):
about the Hunter Biden laptop. Nice job, NPR. Here's one
from NPR. A new pole finds forty percent of respondents
believe in a baseless conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was
created in a lab in China. There's zero evidence for this.
Scientists say the virus was transmitted to humans from another species.
Thank you for that one, NPR. Oh, this is a
(35:21):
good one that held up well about emojis a while back.
Some white people may choose to use the yellow thumbs
up emoji because it feels neutral, but academics argue it's
actually racist and is trying to get away from your
white privilege.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Hows an NPR story. People have no idea how hilarious
you are.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
They're the network that says LATINX Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, Armstrong and Gettie
and he Armstrong and Jetty.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
So, last week in Los Angeles, a federal judge issued
an order blocking the Trump administration from carrying out controversial
immigration sweeps in seven southern California counties. Well, that order
has no effect up here in Northern California, where we
joined a Border Patrol strike team today here in the
state Capitol as they went out and enforced immigration law.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Let's get right to that video. Take a look.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
As soon as those border patrol agents pulled up to
a local home depot, suspected illegal immigrants took off running
in all directions. That then led to several foot pursuits
and we saw about ten people arrested in this one
single location.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Now that's the home depot and Flora. The only reason
I ever go over to Flora is because I go
to PCP Motorsports a lot to get my motorcycles worked
on and that sort of thing. But I'm over in
that area and it is pretty uh Spanish speaking, heavily
heavy over there, so it's not shocking and home depots
have seemed to be a target really all across the
(01:22):
country for so I've never actually done this, and I'm
kind of surprised I haven't, because we've needed lots of
workers out at the farm for a variety of things.
But so you can just show up to the home
depot and there's a bunch of Spanish speaking gentlemen hanging
around the parking lot who are willing to work.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Who you say, I need two guys for eight hours ex.
Twenty dollars an hour whatever.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And they probably aren't citizens of this land, uh, nor
properly registered as visitors.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
That's what I've heard, Jack, But the governor of cal Unicornia,
the man with more lust for the oval office than
a teenage boy has for the touch.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Of a female l presuming they're straight. We love everyone here.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Gavy blasts away, trying to escape a court order stopping
their reprehensible and illegal racial profiling and illegal rests in
La Border Patrol came to Sacramento to spread more of
their chaos and fear they should go do their jobs
at the border. Interestingly, he posted that online and the
comments were almost entirely Yeah, that's what we voted for.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
For them to do what they're doing. Another eighty twenty issue.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Ah, and of course some of the local media, including
the reprehensible Sacramento will be reported that one of the
individuals captured by ICE is actually a citizen of the
United States.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
But Bill Malugin explains why they did that.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
In the next clip, Border Patrol went on to tell
us that record checks came back already on one one
of those men, showing he's a felon with a prior
conviction for fentanyl trafficking. Now, agents also chased down this man,
a US citizen. This is after Border Patrol said he
slashed the tire on one of their vehicles. Agents eventually
took him to the ground where he appeared to lunch
(03:08):
at one of the agents, causing him to get mace
in the face and placed under arrest. As he was arrested,
his wife was shouting that he's a US citizen. Agents responded, well,
too bad, because he slashed our.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Tire, mased in the fast. That's not the way you
want to spend your weekend.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You get to face mace in place under arrest.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
What do you want them to do? Well, so we
got this text. This is kind of where I am
on this. Somebody said, I don't believe the polls. We'll
get into the latest poll that just came out a
couple of hours ago where people are getting less happy
with this. But this person texted, if we let in
twenty million people, there's gonna be some pain getting them out,
the country will be better for it. I think I
(03:57):
heard this from Sarahzger on the Dispatch. She's lizes polls
and issues and the different sort of stuff and then
the actual long term effect versus just the polling at
the time. I think ultimately the Republican Party and Trump
will be benefit from dealing with this, even if the
polling at the time doesn't look very good. For instance,
(04:18):
right now, the latest Raids IPSOS poll out fifty four
percent of people disagreed with the statement immigration arrests at
places of work are good for the country. Fifty four disagreed,
only twenty eight in support. That's a pretty big gap.
But again, at the end of the day, I think
people are going to reward the party that finally does
(04:41):
something about illegal immigration.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
I think that's a really interesting point because you do
tend to forget about some of the rough patches that
took place as you're accomplishing an important goal. Once that
goes accomplished, what I had another thought is important. Oh,
I wish the Republicans were any good at messaging. It
must be because Conservatives, generally speak, are individualists and we
(05:05):
don't particularly like being told what to say. But why
not have everybody respond with some version of the Democrats
let twelve million. But whatever the good accurate number is
during the Biden years or Biden plus abom or whatever,
the Democrats let twelve million people into the country. It's
(05:28):
not going to be easy to fix that. Bear with us.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
That's a good line, That's a great line. They should
all be repeating that.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
You're right, yeah, yeah, And I actually do believe that
poll because I think so many of us interact and
all over the country with folks who maybe don't have
their paperwork in order, but they're doing jobs and seem
to be law abiding in the rest of it. The
further you get down the road toward law abiding and
(05:56):
tax paying, the less support you're going to have. But
where the critical point is where you have so little
support you have to stop.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I don't know or how difficult it would be to
separate those out that wouldn't take either way too long
or costs way too much.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
One other talking point I wish the Republicans to your
point I wish they would settle on, is if these
so called sanctuary states would turn over the criminal illegal
aliens to ICE, we wouldn't have to do this.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Excellent point. That would be a winning message. Excellent point.
There is a breakdown on the so only twenty eight
percent of Americans are in support of going into these
workplaces like the home depot down the street here, only
twenty eight percent. But it's a pretty big divide. Only
seven percent of Democrats while fifty six percent of Republicans.
But I think only fifty six percent of Republicans is
(06:49):
pretty striking, given the fact that I saw a different poll.
Trump's approval among Republicans just overall is it ninety percent,
ninety percent, but on this issue it drops down quite
a lot. Overall, Trump's immigration approval rating is down to
forty one in this poll. He was as eye as
forty seven just a month ago. It's down to forty one.
(07:10):
He could be in the thirties very soon. But you know,
to use a very tired sort of phrase, he's gonna
make an omelet you got to break some eggs. I
don't know how you deal with this mess without having
some pretty unfortunate stories out there.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And maybe force the hand of the electorate and or
the Congress to say, all right, all right, all right,
all right, you've made your point. We need to enforce
the law. But the laws are a little broad. It
doesn't have support. Let's let's refine this, let's have better laws.
To my point about sanctuary jurisdictions, though, I like this
next clip, now heedy too.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
The Border Patrol chief in charge of this entire operation
tells us the federal government can and will go wherever
they want, even in this sanctuary state.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Well, there is no sanctuary city. Sacramento is not a
sanctuary city. The state of California is not a sanctuary state.
There is no sanctuary anywhere.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
We'll be here.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
You'll probably see us in many of the locations as well.
We're here to stay. We're not going anywhere. We're going
to affect this mission, scare the homeland. So did the
Supreme Court decide to take that up? Nor did I
dream that were you gonna finally deal with that? Is
there such thing that guy's basically saying there's no such
thing as a sanctuary city or a sanctuary state, and
there is there shouldn't be.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah, I want to say next session, it's on the docket.
Maybe I dreamt it too. That'd be weird if we're
dreaming the same dreams. I'm quitting the show's gone too far. Yeah, exactly,
I'm disturbed, but mostly I don't watch. You see, in
my dreams, some of them can get very well, let's
just say not for air.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
It's like briefly when we were getting each other's notes
in our note portion of our iPhones. Remember that, What
the hell was that? Yeah? I don't even remember.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Highly troubling, Yeah, no kidding. Anyway, moving along, let's see
what else do we have. Oh, this is kind of
foun how come.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
That hasn't been set out loud more strongly by more people.
There's no such thing as a sanctuary, So you can't
have a sanctuary from the current federal law. That's not
a thing, or you could, or or red states would
start having sanctuary gun law, we allow people to get
open carry here just anywhere they want, all the time,
and you can have as many rounds as you want.
(09:29):
That because we're a sanctuary gun in town.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Right right again. The Republicans are so terrible with their messaging.
It seems to me a pretty compelling sales pitch to say, look,
we're just going to deal with the criminals. We need
law enforcement everywhere to hand over the criminals and see
what percentage of Americans are in favor of that. This
is gonna be like everybody and at the same time,
(09:54):
and trust me, well, anybody who's been listening to this
show for a long time knows tim as hardcore border
security serious immigration laws as anybody out there. But on
the conservative side of the aisle, there is undeniably sympathy
for the hard working go getter who disrupts their whole life,
(10:16):
busts their ass, shows up every single day, follows the law,
pays their taxes, loves their family, just happens to be
from a fur in land. If they want to come
correct and pay a fine or whatever and have a
pathway to whatever. There's a lot of sympathy for those
people on the right, and there should be. Maybe we
can enact a law wherefore every person like that who
(10:41):
we permit to stay in the country, we kick out
some free loading scumbags who are American citizens.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I don't care what they are. You're born in Omaha,
but you're living off the taxpayer. Yeah, get out.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, you're's the third generation sucking off the government's teeth.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Please, no, you're out.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Go to that.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I'm a citizen. Well, go be a citizen somewhere else.
You're a leech. Go to that El Salvador prison where
they make you bend over and walk around. Well no,
wait a minute, there are other alternatives, but call it.
Call it what would it be?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
The the go getters for sit downers act.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
No, that's not good. I gotta keep working on it.
But you get the point. I have a list of
some people you can grab. I gotta hear you. I
hear you. Put me in charge. I'll be fair. You
probably are on the story of the Chris Martin of
Coldplay does the kiss cam and the guy kisses the
girl but they're having an affair and they get caught
(11:38):
and it becomes a problem. He is a CEO of
a big company, and he put out a big statement
yesterday that I thought was interesting. Well, you know, put
that in our groupings of apologies that we we like
to read.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, interesting, is one word for his statement, among other things,
on the way stay.
Speaker 6 (11:55):
Here, the Steve Miller Band has canceled all of its
tour dates because of global warming. Oh god, yeah, organizers
admit it's a waste of fuel to go from Phoenix, Arizona,
all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Why are you clapping for that? What he is? The
A plus policeman, different concert. I can't believe cold Play
with Chris Martin because he's a very u progressive musician.
You know, he's married to Gwyneth Paltrow. They named their
kid Apple. They believed in what was that conscious uncoupling
or whatever the whole package. That's right, But he's still
(12:46):
touring despite climate change. And I can't believe how much
attention the story is getting. The whole you've probably heard it,
are you're seeing it? If you watched any news yesterday.
It included the story of the they do a kiss
cam at their concerts like they do it baseball games,
I guess, and uh, they put they put the camera
on a couple who like immediately gets wide eyed and
(13:08):
like disappear, and Chris Marcus.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Usually couples see themselves and say, oh, let's kiss. It's
the kiss cam and everybody yy. But this couple's like,
holy crap, and everybody's yay. So here's what it sounded like.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, oh, all right, come on, Ruthie. What either an
affair or they're just very shut Yeah, you're right. They're
either having an affair. They're very shy. The CEO of
this corporation with the HR chief of his company. They're
both married to other people, and uh, pretty bold in
(13:46):
their affair. I would say to go out to this
concert anyway. He felt the need because this blew up
all day yesterday and social media. A statement from CEO
Andy Byron, New York, New York, July seventeen. I want
to acknowledge the moment that's been circulating online and the
disappointment it's caused what was supposed to be a night
of music and joy. Oh wow, I couldn't even when
(14:08):
I read that, I thought, I can't believe this is
where you're starting. What was supposed to be a night
of music and joy turned into a deeply personal mistake
playing out on a very public stage. I want to
sincerely apologize to my wife, my family, and the team
at Astronomery that's the company he runs. You deserve better
for me as a partner, as a father, and as
a leader. Wow, that's he's right. It has caused some disappointment.
(14:30):
I love that word.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
His wife must be thinking, oh, he's having an affair
and actually going out with her on the town.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
That's disappointing.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
And his children are thinking, oh, Papa has another wife
across town.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I too, am disappointed or our family is going to
split up and having been through that, this will be
the most devastating thing that's ever happened in my entire
life as a child, and I'll never ever be the
same afterwards. But how disappointing, how fun for everybody to
see it happen on the Cold Play stage. This is
ironic that it was supposed to be a night of
music and joy. That's a weird way to look at it.
(15:04):
This is not who I want to be or how
I want to represent the company I helped build. It's
about the company. I'm taking time to reflect, to take accountability,
and to figure out the next steps personally and professionally.
I asked for privacy as I navigate that process. Well,
he probably was thinking lawyers and hr and all that
sort of stuff immediately, in addition to the fact that
he may have blown up his family.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Having already issued a fairly mediocre apology, he decides to
write a little more.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
This is the part's amazing. I also want to express
how troubling it is that what should have been a
private moment became public without my consent. Oohoo, So you're
kind of angry at someone else for the way this
has turned out interesting. I respect artists and entertainers, but
I hope we can all think more deeply about the
(15:52):
impact of turning someone else's life into a spectacle. You
were literally in an effing stadium full of people. In
what sense is that a private moment? That is hilarious? Sir,
I can't believe that with a little bit like rereading it,
he thought, he didn't think. You know, I probably shouldn't
(16:14):
blame anybody for this, because I have created this situation
completely on my own, acting like it's someone else's fault
somehow at the end of the letters, probably not a
good idea, but I don't know. Maybe that helped him
sleep last night, probably in a hotel. It's a great
example of how we can come up with self justifying
arguments that are just completely ridiculous, because I mean, for
(16:38):
him to claim that was a private moment, that's hilarious,
but he believed it enough to write it and issue it,
or that that's the real or that that's worth even
bringing up at all. So if Chris Martin hadn't put
the camera on you, you'd been able to have your
affair and go to the concert with your lover and
continue both of you lie to your families. And wouldn't
(17:01):
that have been grand? I mean, what, wow, what a dope.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Anyway, coming up, they call them the monster trucks of
the Lake. They're banned in many places, and a brilliant
young economist explains the economics of doing it yourself or
not doing it yourself.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Intriguing stuff. I like all this. Stay tuned, Armstrong and Getty,
And finally, today Uber announced a partnership to deploy more
than twenty thousand robotaxis over the next six years.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Lyft also has a robotaxi, but it's just a regular
car where the driver's covered by a blanket.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
That's interesting that he makes it seem Likelyft is a
poor man's Uber where I was told a couple of
years ago and I struggled with Uber that somebody told
me no, no, no, you got to dot Lift is Target,
Uber is Walmart. But then other people have told me
it varies from town to town, which might be true
or maybe it's all, but it's certainly not clear that
(18:02):
Lift is like clearly lesser than Uber. I have looked
for patterns and not to find them. No, I can't either,
although the price office sure varies a lot sometimes so
I do check both. If one comes back high, yeah,
absolutely true. But that's another pattern I haven't been able
to figure out. If it's just if it just happens
(18:22):
to be a day where there's a bunch of.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Lift drivers out. Yeah, but a lot of guys are
both anyway. Sure there's somebody who has a grasp on this.
Perhaps you can email us mail bag at armstrong e
Giddy dot com. But speaking of working and paying the
people to do things to work for you, I came
across this essay that I thought was so great by
Roland Friar. Roland is a fascinating guy. He's an absolutely
(18:45):
brilliant Youngish economist. He happens to be on the faculty
of Harvard. Among other things, he's won many awards. He
first came to fame as a young black man because
he published an extremely compelling analysis in twenty nineteen that
we talked about at length arguing that black and Hispanic
Americans were no more likely than white Americans to be
(19:07):
shot by police in a given interaction with police.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
In fact, it was somewhat less likely.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
And that was extremely controversial, and he was called all
of the things black folks are called when they dare go.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Against the progressive consensus.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
But he's a really compelling guy and what he's writing
it do you have a comment on that, Jack before
before you head or Okay, he's talking about the economics
of d IY do it yourself? Should you hire someone
to mow your lawn or clean your house? And I
thought this is great and we'll close the CENTERIC. Oh yeah,
I know, and it's trust me, it pays off. We'll
(19:43):
post this at Armstrong and getty dot com. You might
get paywalled, but we'll see what we can do. He
mentions that Americans are real di wires. We clean our
own houses a large extent, assemble our own furniture a grill,
even when we'd be better off hiring someone else.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
He says they are better off is a phrase that
should be put in quotes, because he can argue that
that's the whole point of this.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Indeed, still I mow my lawn and cook most nights
for my family, even though I work eighty to ninety
hours a week, not counting my side hustle as an
unpaid driver in sideline soccer coach for my two daughters.
I'm an economist able to think through these decision decisions rationally.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yet here we are.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
When a friend invited me to play golf and I
declined because the yard needed mowing, he couldn't hide his disbelief. Quote,
you can pay someone to cut your lawn, you can't
pay someone to have fun for you. He meant it
as a joke. I took it as an indictment. He
was calling me out on one of the most basic
principles in economics, opportunity cost, meaning the things you give
(20:47):
up when you spend your resources, including time and money,
on something else. If I choose to be an astronaut,
I have given up my chance to be an interpretive dancer,
at least.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
For a while. I think that was a good choice.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
If I if I have limited money, explored space as
opposed to world around in random ways and claimed it
meant something so opportunity costs meaning the things you give
up when you spend your resources, including time and money,
on something else.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Was he right?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Maybe, But a truly economics informed approach to dy is
more nuanced than it seems. It gets really interesting. It's
tempting to treat decisions like this as simple arithmetic. Add
up the cost of hiring help, compare it with your
hourly wage, voila. In that light, it does seem crazy
for a tenured professor to mow his lawn. Yes, I
(21:45):
talked about this a year or so ago.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Scott Linskim, who does the financial stuff economic stuff for
the Dispatch, wrote a Colosscott long piece about that opportunity
cost that really kind of convinced me toward hiring more people.
Though I don't know that I have which I have
a feeling this is where we're going, and I want
to hear the rest of this. I bet you're right.
(22:09):
Let's see. It's it's tempting to.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Treat decisions like this simple arithmetic, as he says, it
seems even crazier to do what I did as a
broke grad student when I hired a daily housekeeper so
I could stay focused on what mattered most research, writing, teaching,
in the occasional video game, when I wasn't consumed with
the first three. But that isn't really thinking like an economist.
And he's one of the leaders in economics moving from
(22:35):
this single minded idea that human beings are purely logical
and purely you know, economic in terms of dollars and
cents numbers, and that's the only thing that matters. It
seems laughable in retrospect that that's the way economics thought
for a long time.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah, it's interesting. You know, if you were going to
go with that logic, no one would ever have kids
because economically it does make sense. Right.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Decision making is about considering the full set of options
and how much you value each one. Sometimes you may
find yourself mowing the lawn when you can afford not to,
or paying more than your hourly wage to hire help.
Other economic concepts can illustrate why one diminishing marginal returns.
The value of an extra hour isn't fixed. It depends
on what came before it. If you've been working all
(23:23):
weekend and finally carve out a free hour mowing the
lawn might feel like a punishment, and avoiding that punishment
would be especially valuable. But if you spent the weekend
relaxing or playing with your kids, that same hour might
feel restorative. The activity hasn't changed you have. He's mentioned
speaking of uber and left as we were. When I've
been traveling too much and I haven't seen my daughters,
(23:44):
I'll sometimes take an uber with them instead of driving,
just so we can sit in the back and catch up.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Oh to me, that's money well spent. That's cute. That's sweet,
isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yeah, that brings me to a third economic layer, to
consider American beliefs about identity and morality.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I think this is maybe what you were hinting at, Jack.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
We attach pride to doing things ourselfs, and pride has
value too. For some of us, mowing the lawn isn't
only about the grass, time or money.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
It's about what it says about us.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
It signals I take care of my things, I don't
rely on others, I'm not above the work. Sometimes I
wonder if I'm pushing that more out of principle or
because I want others to see me pushing it. I
resisted hiring anybody to help with lawng cair, landscaping, plants, trees, etc.
For a very long time for precisely that reason, and
(24:34):
I had to admit it. And I had some fairly
complicated yards that took so much time and energy it
was indefensible.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
But I was doing it out of pride. That's interesting.
I think he also got a factor in what it
signals to your kids. And I don't know which side
of this a person would be on. You might feel
like you should signal to your kids, don't waste your
time on the lawn, or you might I feel like
I'm closer to this need to signal to my kids,
I mowed the freaking lawn right and that noscle you
(25:08):
on the lawn.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I do what has to be done, whether I like
it or not. Maybe the most important muscle any human
being ever develops. In fact, I know it is beneath
our pride lurks. The opportunity cost. My friend chided me
about a cost that too few people consider seriously. According
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans spend two hours
a day on household activities like cooking, cleaning, laundry and
(25:31):
yard work. That's more time than we spend exercising or socializing.
We should probably buy more of that time back, even
if it means swallowing a little pride. Not everyone can
or should outsources DIY activities, of course, but a great
many people perform these tasks out of habit, inertia, or
guilt and would be better off spending the money to
get help.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, I just one. I enjoy mowing the lawn. I
just I don't think I couldn't. I don't have a
lawn currently. I don't own a how so, but if
I did own the house I have, I would mold
al on myself. But there's other stuff, like our agent's
always on me because every time I'm talking to them
about personal life Stuff's just the amount of paperwork that
I have to do is the loane. I'm the head
(26:16):
of the household, and the household I'm the only person.
I should hire somebody for that. I should not be
spending my time hours trying to log into a website
pay a stupid bill crap. Somebody should be doing that
for me. That's just a waste of my life. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, And the sentence about many people perform these tasks
out of habit, inertia or guilt, and would be better
off spending the money to get help.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
That reminds me of one of the great divides I
think that you can observe in society. The left generally
is big on trust your feelings, and the right is
more on, you know, observe your feelings, but think about them.
Your feelings are irrational and unhelpful, at least as often
(27:03):
as they are you know, or you know, maybe it's
sixty forty or forty sixty, it doesn't matter. But the
idea that your feelings are always right and you should
always trust them. Yeah, yeah, my husband kind of pissed
me off. I'm gonna blast him and tell him exactly
what I think of him. No, don't trust that feeling.
It'll be gone in like ten seconds anyway. Here are
(27:26):
some examples Roland writes of how to think through this
decision these decisions Like an economist. Jane is a corporate
lawyer and workaholic. Not enough hours in her day. Her
rare moments are free time or precious She's got cash
to burn for her paying someone to clean the house
or prepared dinner isn't indulgence, it's common sense.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
That's an easy one.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Heather is short on both time and money, and hiring
a cleaner would cost more than she makes it work.
Usually she hates cleaning or needs that time for something urgent,
she's probably better off doing it herself. That isn't a failure.
It's the most rational choice given her circumstances. Yeah, unless
she really hates cleaning or needs that time, she's better
off doing it herself.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I did want to throw this in because we're gonna
get a whole bunch of texts about this, because the
last time we wrote it up about you know you
and your effing yachts or whatever, about people who this
is an option for Yeah, for a big giant chunk
of my life. I didn't worry about these conversations because
I wasn't an option to hire anybody to do anything. Ever,
(28:27):
So you have to be in a situation where it's
an option. So he gave you a pretty easy one
on both ends. John is a middle class dad with
modest savings and limited flexibility at work. If he wants
extra time at home, he can't simply clock out early.
He pays the cleaner more than he makes per hours,
so on paper, it doesn't seem to add up. Yet
it buys him time to read to his kids, or
help with homework, or simply be less stressed after a
(28:49):
long shift. It might be the smartest money he spends
all week. He isn't maximizing his present disposable income, but
he's boosting his lifetime utility. Yeah, that's where I was.
I'm getting a person to clean the house, which I
still rubs me the wrong way. It just it's not
in my DNA. But it became clear to me that
(29:10):
it was cutting into time with the kids to do
various things. And I can't justify that. If I were
on my own, no freaking way, I would be higher.
Now I was cleaner to do this, I would do
it myself. But I just I couldn't. I couldn't justify
saying I'm sorry, I can't go for a bike ride.
I got to finish this laundry. I just I couldn't.
I couldn't justify that. But it does bother me. My
(29:31):
kids sometimes have a bit of an attitude about the
house cleaner didn't do something right or whatever, and I
don't like that.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
I don't that I totally hear you. You are absolutely
justified in hiring a housekeeper. Are your kids absolutely justified
in having one?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
No? I know what a quandary.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
I don't even like to admit that Judy and I
have a house cleaner, especially because she does not get
along with our butler at all.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Two of them. They have a thing going way back.
There's just no solving it.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
And and Sleeve Boy, my servant who merely buttons the
little button that's like mid arm that's so difficult to button.
He hears them bickering and he can't concentrate on his work,
and then I have to punish him.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Oh my god, just cite a long running joke on
the Armstrong a Gedddy show. I have known people, you know,
and it's none of my business. I have known people
that complain to me about their financial situation and have
people that do this stuff. And I think, Okay, your
paycheck to paycheck, you're barely making it. Don't have someone
clean your house. Maybe do it yourself. But you know what,
(30:45):
wh he's they're on Michael. I just remember Joe has
that guy who's a footstool as well. Oh yeah, remember
the human footstools, right, he's part time.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
He's just during, you know, the latter part of the
week when I'm getting tired and really need a footstool
and the adjustable kind of mechanical kind aren't good enough.
I like to be able to say footstool boy, footstool
boy when it comes.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
With you, backup slightly higher, please, thank you, comes with you,
whatever room you go into, it's very Yeah, footstool boy.
We're moving to the den now. Oh my god, that
is the worst any thoughts in any of this text
line four one, five two nine KFTC. We are thrilled
(31:32):
to have you here.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Alcatraz Prison the Rock an infamous symbol of law and
order in American history, and President Trump wants it reopened.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
It could hold anything. This is a terrific facility needs
a lot of work.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Fox News joined Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary
Doug Bergham for an exclusive tour of the rock, now
part of a national park.
Speaker 7 (31:54):
Alcatraz Is is the brand known around the world uh
for being a effective at housing people that are in incarceration.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Pam Bondy and Doug Bergham are both very bright people,
and to hear them struggling to come up with any
explanation whatsoever of what they're doing is hilarious.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
I'm sorry, I'm just keeping it real.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
As the kids say, actually traveled Alcatraz is amazing.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
It could hold anything. She says, actually traveled clear across
the country, then had to take the boat out Talcatraz
in San Francisco to vis just a key aspect of
the question before us.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
And.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Then act like this is gonna happen. Okay, any who
just came across this story.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
You know, the truth is very briefly, Alcatraz is much
much more significant as a tourist location than as a prison.
It was a prison for relatively short amount of time,
and it captures the imagination because it's remote and you
take a boat ride out there and it's fun.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I want to talk about CBS firing Colbert. That's an
interesting one if it was financial and not political. Man,
the timing shirt certainly doesn't work in your favor for
that narrative. But I want to talk about this at
some point. Australia is the first major country clearing the
path for a social media age checks, or really age
(33:30):
checks of any kind online that they think will work,
which obviously you could apply to social media and porn
and all kinds of different things. Maybe we'll talk about
that a little bit later. I came across this thread
I thought was really good. I was actually actually from
Matt Tybee, who we really liked, the journalist Matt Tybee.
He just said, post your favorite NPR ridiculousness. I love that.
(33:54):
On the day that the taxpayer funding for NPR and
PBS got ya, and the mainstream and left is claiming
like it's some sort of attack on free speech or whatever.
Good lord. Actually, Tom Cotton, Senator Tom Cotton, Republican, said
this would be like yanking the funding if there was
(34:18):
taxpayer funding from bright Bart News and it got yanked.
Except for Bred, he said, except for Breitbart's closer to
mainstream than NPR is. I haven't read breit Bart regularly
in a long time, but NPR is so far out
there it's unbelievable. Anyway, here's just some examples, people bringing
up old tweets or whatever. This is probably the biggest one.
(34:40):
From a couple of years back. The NPR Public editor
tweeted out, why haven't you seen any stories from NPR
about the New York Post? Hunter Biden story read more
in this week's newsletter, in which he said, we don't
want to waste our time on stories that are not
really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners
and readers time on stories that are just pureist actions
(35:01):
about the Hunter Biden laptop. Nice job, NPR. Here's one
from NPR. A new pole finds forty percent of respondents
believe in a baseless conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was
created in a lab in China. There's zero evidence for this.
Scientists say the virus was transmitted to humans from another species.
Thank you for that one, NPR. Oh, this is a
(35:21):
good one that held up well about emojis a while back.
Some white people may choose to use the yellow thumbs
up emoji because it feels neutral, but academics argue it's
actually racist and is trying to get away from your
white privilege.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Hows an NPR story. People have no idea how hilarious
you are.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
They're the network that says LATINX Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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