October 16, 2025 • 21 mins
(October 16, 2025)
Host of ‘How to Money’ Joel Larsgaard joins the show to discuss attending a wedding now costing a fortune, only 1/3 Americans now think college is ‘very important,’ and people willing to be paid less to work remotely. Grocery stores adopt digital price tags.. could your bill change? People are sneaking answers from AI… who can blame them?
Host of ‘How to Money’ Joel Larsgaard joins the show to discuss attending a wedding now costing a fortune, only 1/3 Americans now think college is ‘very important,’ and people willing to be paid less to work remotely. Grocery stores adopt digital price tags.. could your bill change? People are sneaking answers from AI… who can blame them?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listenings KFI AM six forty the Bill Handles show
on demand on the iHeartRadio Fatto here is Yes, Thursday morning,
October sixteenth, Bads the stories. We're looking at a judge's
order of the Trump administration to halt its effort to
fire those federal workers and not just put them on
(00:22):
a four well permanent furlough. And four thousand already he's
going to go to ten thousand, and Jude said no, no, no,
not during the shutdown. And also what else do we
have here? Oh in Gaza. I think Hamas is looking
at a world of hurt because they said they had
the twenty eight dead hostages and now they say they don't,
(00:44):
and Israel is not really happy with that. All right, Sunday,
every Sunday from twelve to two pm. What I find
kind of interesting and I didn't even know this, and
that's that there are certain bankruptcy attorneys that are actually
open and usually they listen. People listen to Joel on
(01:05):
the way to the bankruptcy attorney and figure out how
their life is going to end very quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Joel, Good morning morning, Bill.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, Joel is Sunday, twelve pm to two PM at
how to Money, Joel, all Right, a couple of things,
and this one is weird.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I'm sure that this was there's something wrong with this.
Going to a wedding.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Going to a wedding is now as expensive as a
month's rent.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Do I have that right? Not throwing a wedding, but going.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
To Yeah, just just attending and participating in. And basically
what they're saying is that, you know, for people who
are in the wedding party and all of the stuff
involved with being a part of the crew, it's expensive.
And I think it's true. Like it's think about buying
the suit or the dress if you are if you're
(01:53):
a groomsman, Like think about the bachelorette party, the bachelor party.
Those have been ramped up in recent years, and so
often they involve a destination and running a place and
going out and stuff like that. And so I think
especially for young people, I'm out of this phase, Bill,
haven't been in this phase for a while of like
all my friends getting married. But when you are invited
(02:13):
to participate, it's an honor and then you realize, holy mackerel,
this is going to cost me a lot of money
to actually participate in the way my friend wants me
to be able to participate, this is actually going to
be a financial obligation at the same time, well.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
There's a couple of ways around it.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And by the way, I'm still in I'm going to weddings,
usually fourth or fifth weddings that my friends are having,
and when they say we'd love you to be a groom,
spin and all I have to do is rent this
tuxedo at one hundred and fifty dollars and kick into
the bachelor party.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
The quick answer is no, thanks.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Have fewer friends. I think is one piece of advice,
right that you could follow in order to save money
and then or yeah, you could say no, or I
think there's also just ways to lean in and say, hey, like,
what are the obligations going to be. I'd love to participate,
but I'm also worried about my finances and if we're
going on some sort of fat, fancy, you know, bachelor
(03:10):
trip like then bachelor party trip, then I'm a little
nervous I won't be able to participate in that part
of it. I think you could be honest with your
friends and typically that I don't think people view it
in the way they used to thirty years ago. I
don't think there's a shame in that game. I think
you can just be honest and say, listen, I want
to participate in the ways I can't, but I can't
afford that part of it.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, or do what I do. I have plenty of money.
I could easily afford it, but you are not worth it.
I am not going to spend this.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Kind of money. You could be that brtally honest.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, but it can be expensive. You know, I'm no joking.
I have bailed out and said it's not worth it.
I will be glad to sit in the audience and
watch what's going on.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I don't have to be up there.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
When I got married, I had one of my best friends.
I asked him to be a grimsman and he said no,
And he was a photographer, and so he said, actually,
I'm gonna I'm gonna shoot the wedding. Can you pay
me to do that? And so he took the opposite approach,
and he was like, I'm gonna find a way to
make money off your wedding instead of paying money to
be in it.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So you he charged you. He charged me.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Good for him, I know, right, Yeah, that works now.
Neil was my best man, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Going to invoice you too.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, of course Neil was my best man. And the
only thing I asked is that everybody wear the groomsman
if you will, just wear a dark suit, right, just
and the only people that had to wear a charcoal
suit that matched my suit and neil suit. As I
am my best man. And Neil came through, didn't you, Neil,
(04:46):
you went out and bought a suit.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Oh no, no, hold on, I'll tell you what I did.
I went out and bought your suit. Suit doesn't what
happened together? And then I went, oh no, no, I
got it. I got it, don't worry. And Bill goes, no,
I got it, and I said, you're damn right you do.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
And then they brought in four bolts of material to
weave together a suit that fit.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Now to realistically, okay, I'm going to tell you a
true story. There's a little inside baseball, and that is
we pulled out the biggest suit they had and and
I'm not exaggerating, it costs more money to alter the
suit to fit Neil to take it out than the
(05:31):
suit itself.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's absolutely true. Take the suit. It's true. We almost
had two. He almost had two suits put together to
make it work. I had four arms, four pant legs.
It was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Neil came in with a Neil came in with the
best idea of all since weekend, since I bought a
suit and Neil got a suit, he suggested that we
put the two suits together, and so you had two arms,
one arm for me, one arm for Neil, two heads,
three legs, so we would hop and walk down as
(06:07):
conjoined twins.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I like it's got like a dumb and dumber vibe
going on.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I thought it was, and I really wanted I came
very close to doing that, but I have a certain
person in my life said, you are dreaming. If you're
going to do that, Yeah, it wasn't gonna happen, all right, Joel.
It used to be that if you didn't go to college,
that was something that you were almost embarrassed because it
(06:36):
depends on the culture. But to me, going to college
was like gravity. I woke up in the morning, my heat,
my feet hit the floor instead of the ceiling. I mean,
it was sort of automatic, and so was college.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Not anymore. The world has changed hasn't it. Yeah, it
sure has.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And I don't necessarily think it's because college is unimportant
or it doesn't make a big difference in your earning
trajectory over your lifetime.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
It still does.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
When you look at the numbers, the average person with
a high school diploma and a college degree that the
average earning is different is something like a million dollars
over the course of your career. And so yeah, that's
it still matters. But it's really been interesting to see
the growing skepticism that the general American public has about
(07:26):
the value of college and whether it's worth it or not.
And Gallup does this poll every year. They've been doing
it for decades, and something like a third of Americans
now think college is very important. That was three quarters
of Americans back in twenty ten, So just fifteen years ago.
The massive at least belief that people have in how
(07:47):
important going to college is, it's declined precipitously. I think
that's a few different things that are contributing to that,
but I think probably the number one thing is how
student loans have burdened people massively, which comes down to
really how expensive college has become.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Hey, I have a question and I noted this as
we talk about it is over a lifetime a million dollars,
let's say, and that's probably a pretty fair figure. Well,
that's people who if you look backwards, if you look prospectively,
we're not going to know if that figure is a
million dollars until people retire fifty years from now or
(08:29):
forty years from now. And when you look at high
school versus college, first of all, you're four years ahead
of the game if you go out of high school.
If you start getting a job, a blue collar job
that's highly skilled versus what you can get with college today,
I would say a blue collar job is worth more,
(08:50):
certainly in the short term.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
And with blue collar.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Jobs you normally don't get student loans, or if you do,
they're very small. I'm willing to that if we talk
and we look prospectively at the next forty years, I
think that number is going to change, where a college
degree is not going to be worth as much as
a good, highly paid blue collar job.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I mean, I think the gap between those is closed.
And I think you have to look at what degree
are you getting, what is it going to get you
at the end of the day, because if you're getting
a degree in engineering, then that's one thing, right that
you might be able to be in that upper echelon
of income earners. And if you're getting a degree in
(09:36):
English literature, let's say, not to denigrate that as a choice,
but truly, especially depending on how much you're going to
pay for that degree, you might not find that it
pays off in the same way. And I just think
back in the day twenty thirty forty years ago, getting
a degree was was the most important thing, and even
if you got it in something that wasn't necessarily like
(09:57):
highly applicable or leading to an immediate six fee your job,
it could still mean and it still often did mean
increase lifetime earnings. But I think with artificial intelligence harming
especially some of those people at the very beginning of
their career ladder taking over some of those jobs, or
at least making some of those jobs less relevant or
(10:17):
maybe leading to lower pay in some of those early
postgraduate years, I think you really do have to do
a different value assessment. And the people that are ultimately
in the worst possible place when we're talking about college
is the people that go for two or three years
and then don't get the degree. I was talking to
a friend the other day and her son's been going
to school for a couple of years. He's racked up
a little bit of student loan debt, fortunately not a lot,
(10:38):
But so oftentimes it's the people who are like, I'm
not sure what I want to do. Let me go
to college, let me figure it out, and then they
take on, you know, tens of thousands of dollars in
student loan debt. They don't graduate, they don't have the
degree that drives up their earnings, and they still have
student loan debt to pay off.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, and the cost of course of tuition, to your point,
is absolutely insane. When I went to law school and
they raise the per unit cost from fifty five dollars
a unit to sixty five dollars a unit, there was
almost the riot at high school.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I believe it.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I believe.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
One of the other things I think we should probably
mention real quickly on that front is that when you
look at the sticker price of college and then the
actual out the door price, the gap has actually grown there.
So what looks like like when you look at the
website of the school you're interested in going to and
you see the average annual tuition, you're like, oh my gosh,
that's insane. But when you think about when you look
(11:34):
at the merit aid and the need based aid that
students are able to get these days, if you fill
out the fast sun and you jump through the proper
hoops something like the average private school, the discount is
something like fifty six percent for students. So if you
see the forty thousand dollars a year, it's not actually
forty thousand dollars a year, and you do have to
jump through those hoops in order to get that discounted price.
(11:55):
But it is important to note that maybe it's not
quite as expensive as you might think it is either.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, as I've been saying, my daughter is starting a
master's degree in computer engineering because you can't get a job,
and so she goes now getting a master's degree, which
at the end of that she won't have a job.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So you know what I do.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I have her practice every day at min espresso machine
making coffee. It just is that's a skill, that's a
that's a skill she can actually use. All right, Joel,
we'll catch you this Sunday, twelve to two pm. And
he's at how to money. Joel, you have a good wedd.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
You too, thanks Bill.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Okay, let me tell you a little bit about technology
and dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing is pricing that changes pursuant
to well market influences. And we know dynamic dynamic process pricing.
We live with it all day long. Airlines, hotels dynamic pricing,
(12:55):
Disneyland dynamic pricing. And so how about grocery stores. Well,
wait a minute, how do you do dynamic pricing at
grocery stores. Well, you have a little screen and the
pricing and it's electronic, like a little tiny electronic billboard.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I mean it used to be whenever you would.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Do a price change, the clerk would come out, have
this little gun that would punch out this adhesive sticker
thing and that would go on. Well, those days are gone,
and grocery stores are arguing prices are going to go
down because our labor costs are going to go down
and we can change the price literally just by pushing
(13:34):
a button in the office. So they claim, the grocery
stores claim, we're not using it to increase costs dynamically. Now,
the question is, Neil, your thoughts on this because this
is your wheelhouse, it is bad.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I think both are true.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
I think it's going to expedite them being able to
raise prices. I don't know that it's going to be
like on the far end of fear where people are
saying that, you know, if you walk around the store once,
that the price is going to be different between you
walking in and walking out, although we saw that with
(14:14):
you know, the first place I remember this was gas stations.
You remember they used to use those suction cups with
the plastic letters.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And the big pole.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
They'd put them up and they'd change the gas prices
that way. Now they're all digital, and they change as
they need to change, and I'm driven up and seeing
the change, the price changes, you know, just it's happened.
I do think that it will cost cut labor costs,
but I think it's a little dubious to say that
(14:43):
that's going to be passed.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
On to us technology.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I'm going to go another step further and take technology
which is there right now, and I maybe they're using it,
maybe they're not, or maybe they're trying pilot programs. And
that is you walk in the store face recognition right
for example, just as an example, I go to Smart
and Final and they have these pork egg rolls that
(15:08):
you can't find anyplace else, and they are phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Oh They're wonderful.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
And so I walk into the store and they get
my face bill handle pork egg rolls, and they know
that's where I go. And as I walk past the
pork egg rolls, there's my little the little sign sort
of blinking pork egg rolls A buck off, a dollar off.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Do you see that happening?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Oh? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
I think that we already have digital billboards and bust
shelters and things like that, that encoding will eventually let them.
They have the technology now speak directly to us the
same way our phone or Alexa or anything else. I
get more suggestions now on things that I've looked at
(16:04):
that it's like, hey, this just went down in price
than ever before on my.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Phone, in my inbox, all these things.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
I think absolutely they will see you coming and know
when you're in there and offer you c pons most definitely,
and be on your.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Phone exclusive to you.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And there is the digital price which changes just for
you as a loss leader, to keep you in the store.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
So, I mean there's technology in a way that is extraordinary,
and they save a ton of money because the amount
of labor that goes into changing prices is very high
because it's so labor intensive to change prices.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Think of it this way.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
Your average grocery store has an upwards of forty different
items in the store, and of course some are produced
and you're not labeling every single individual one. But keep
in mind how long that takes to do to go
through and change all those different prices.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeap, all right, yah, be prepared for those Why not
digital age changing?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Now?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Job interviews AI is really a terrific thing. Why because
now job applicants no one looks at job applications anymore.
It's all algorithms, and so you have to say, you
have to use the words that they want, and so
you have to basically generate the job application application that
(17:47):
the employer wants.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Well, everybody is doing that.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
So now what do you do when a job opening
and literally thousands.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Of applications come in because it's so easy with AI.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Well, the company now has to have an algorithm that
figures out is this AI?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
And if it is, everybody is back to square zero.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So what AI has done through insane technology is effectively
made it mandatory.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
For people to sit down and do a personal.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Interview just like they always did, except how do you
know if someone is qualified? Because an AI produces the application.
By the way, all applications are the same. And leadership.
I love working with people. I communicate great. You know,
(18:46):
I had when I had my surrogacy agency and I
had applications, and it was always I mean, they were
identical in terms of how great people where I did projects,
and you know, I looked to me and I'm looking,
you know, as a fit and You're company is wonderful
and I want to stay there forever. God, I prayed
that someone would say, hey, I hate people.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I'll probably hate you.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I have no leadership abilities whatsoever, no communication skills at all,
but I'll work my ass off for you and I'll
produce hired.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You're hired. But that doesn't work, does it?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
So AI helps you figure out through the algorithm what
the algorithm wants, and AI tells the tells the algorithm
that you are one of a million, and you really have.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Just written or have just produced.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
An application that's meant for the AI algorithm.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
It's sort of everything is useless. It used to be great.
It's all now useless.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And my daughter told me this, by the way, when
AI for came out, this is Pamela, and she said, Dad,
you have no leadership abilities.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You hate everybody. I hate you.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
That's a given, that's the way a conversation starts. But
she said, you're going to find that AI is not
the panacea that you think it is. Right now, it's
the hottest ticket in town. I was reading an article
the other day in the Wall Street Journal that there's
no way for these companies that are spending hundreds of
(20:27):
billions of dollars on AI technology and the systems and
the hardware are ever going to get their money back.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It just isn't the panacea.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
So don't look for me to work, especially if you
like people and you have great communication skills and you
have leadership crap.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
I don't want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
We're done, all right, coming up Gary and Shannon, and
they're at Bjay's and huntingson Beach, and I'm taking phone
calls starting in just a moment off the air for
handle on the law marginal legally vice. The numbers eight
seven seven five two zero eleven fifty eight seven seven
five two zero eleven fifty. I go through the calls
pretty quickly because there's news, no breaks. There's no news,
(21:11):
no breaks, no weather, and I have no patience and
no commercials, so that all works out. Eight seven seven
five two zero eleven fifty. Back again tomorrow, five am
wake up call with Amy and Neil, with Amy and
Will Neil and I come aboard at six we're out
of here. And of course I have to mention Cono.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
And you've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listenings KFI AM six forty the Bill Handles show
on demand on the iHeartRadio Fatto here is Yes, Thursday morning,
October sixteenth, Bads the stories. We're looking at a judge's
order of the Trump administration to halt its effort to
fire those federal workers and not just put them on
(00:22):
a four well permanent furlough. And four thousand already he's
going to go to ten thousand, and Jude said no, no, no,
not during the shutdown. And also what else do we
have here? Oh in Gaza. I think Hamas is looking
at a world of hurt because they said they had
the twenty eight dead hostages and now they say they don't,
(00:44):
and Israel is not really happy with that. All right, Sunday,
every Sunday from twelve to two pm. What I find
kind of interesting and I didn't even know this, and
that's that there are certain bankruptcy attorneys that are actually
open and usually they listen. People listen to Joel on
(01:05):
the way to the bankruptcy attorney and figure out how
their life is going to end very quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Joel, Good morning morning, Bill.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, Joel is Sunday, twelve pm to two PM at
how to Money, Joel, all Right, a couple of things,
and this one is weird.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I'm sure that this was there's something wrong with this.
Going to a wedding.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Going to a wedding is now as expensive as a
month's rent.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Do I have that right? Not throwing a wedding, but going.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
To Yeah, just just attending and participating in. And basically
what they're saying is that, you know, for people who
are in the wedding party and all of the stuff
involved with being a part of the crew, it's expensive.
And I think it's true. Like it's think about buying
the suit or the dress if you are if you're
(01:53):
a groomsman, Like think about the bachelorette party, the bachelor party.
Those have been ramped up in recent years, and so
often they involve a destination and running a place and
going out and stuff like that. And so I think
especially for young people, I'm out of this phase, Bill,
haven't been in this phase for a while of like
all my friends getting married. But when you are invited
(02:13):
to participate, it's an honor and then you realize, holy mackerel,
this is going to cost me a lot of money
to actually participate in the way my friend wants me
to be able to participate, this is actually going to
be a financial obligation at the same time, well.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
There's a couple of ways around it.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And by the way, I'm still in I'm going to weddings,
usually fourth or fifth weddings that my friends are having,
and when they say we'd love you to be a groom,
spin and all I have to do is rent this
tuxedo at one hundred and fifty dollars and kick into
the bachelor party.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
The quick answer is no, thanks.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Have fewer friends. I think is one piece of advice,
right that you could follow in order to save money
and then or yeah, you could say no, or I
think there's also just ways to lean in and say, hey, like,
what are the obligations going to be. I'd love to participate,
but I'm also worried about my finances and if we're
going on some sort of fat, fancy, you know, bachelor
(03:10):
trip like then bachelor party trip, then I'm a little
nervous I won't be able to participate in that part
of it. I think you could be honest with your
friends and typically that I don't think people view it
in the way they used to thirty years ago. I
don't think there's a shame in that game. I think
you can just be honest and say, listen, I want
to participate in the ways I can't, but I can't
afford that part of it.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, or do what I do. I have plenty of money.
I could easily afford it, but you are not worth it.
I am not going to spend this.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Kind of money. You could be that brtally honest.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, but it can be expensive. You know, I'm no joking.
I have bailed out and said it's not worth it.
I will be glad to sit in the audience and
watch what's going on.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I don't have to be up there.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
When I got married, I had one of my best friends.
I asked him to be a grimsman and he said no,
And he was a photographer, and so he said, actually,
I'm gonna I'm gonna shoot the wedding. Can you pay
me to do that? And so he took the opposite approach,
and he was like, I'm gonna find a way to
make money off your wedding instead of paying money to
be in it.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So you he charged you. He charged me.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Good for him, I know, right, Yeah, that works now.
Neil was my best man, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Going to invoice you too.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, of course Neil was my best man. And the
only thing I asked is that everybody wear the groomsman
if you will, just wear a dark suit, right, just
and the only people that had to wear a charcoal
suit that matched my suit and neil suit. As I
am my best man. And Neil came through, didn't you, Neil,
(04:46):
you went out and bought a suit.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Oh no, no, hold on, I'll tell you what I did.
I went out and bought your suit. Suit doesn't what
happened together? And then I went, oh no, no, I
got it. I got it, don't worry. And Bill goes, no,
I got it, and I said, you're damn right you do.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
And then they brought in four bolts of material to
weave together a suit that fit.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Now to realistically, okay, I'm going to tell you a
true story. There's a little inside baseball, and that is
we pulled out the biggest suit they had and and
I'm not exaggerating, it costs more money to alter the
suit to fit Neil to take it out than the
(05:31):
suit itself.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's absolutely true. Take the suit. It's true. We almost
had two. He almost had two suits put together to
make it work. I had four arms, four pant legs.
It was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Neil came in with a Neil came in with the
best idea of all since weekend, since I bought a
suit and Neil got a suit, he suggested that we
put the two suits together, and so you had two arms,
one arm for me, one arm for Neil, two heads,
three legs, so we would hop and walk down as
(06:07):
conjoined twins.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I like it's got like a dumb and dumber vibe
going on.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I thought it was, and I really wanted I came
very close to doing that, but I have a certain
person in my life said, you are dreaming. If you're
going to do that, Yeah, it wasn't gonna happen, all right, Joel.
It used to be that if you didn't go to college,
that was something that you were almost embarrassed because it
(06:36):
depends on the culture. But to me, going to college
was like gravity. I woke up in the morning, my heat,
my feet hit the floor instead of the ceiling. I mean,
it was sort of automatic, and so was college.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Not anymore. The world has changed hasn't it. Yeah, it
sure has.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And I don't necessarily think it's because college is unimportant
or it doesn't make a big difference in your earning
trajectory over your lifetime.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
It still does.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
When you look at the numbers, the average person with
a high school diploma and a college degree that the
average earning is different is something like a million dollars
over the course of your career. And so yeah, that's
it still matters. But it's really been interesting to see
the growing skepticism that the general American public has about
(07:26):
the value of college and whether it's worth it or not.
And Gallup does this poll every year. They've been doing
it for decades, and something like a third of Americans
now think college is very important. That was three quarters
of Americans back in twenty ten, So just fifteen years ago.
The massive at least belief that people have in how
(07:47):
important going to college is, it's declined precipitously. I think
that's a few different things that are contributing to that,
but I think probably the number one thing is how
student loans have burdened people massively, which comes down to
really how expensive college has become.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Hey, I have a question and I noted this as
we talk about it is over a lifetime a million dollars,
let's say, and that's probably a pretty fair figure. Well,
that's people who if you look backwards, if you look prospectively,
we're not going to know if that figure is a
million dollars until people retire fifty years from now or
(08:29):
forty years from now. And when you look at high
school versus college, first of all, you're four years ahead
of the game if you go out of high school.
If you start getting a job, a blue collar job
that's highly skilled versus what you can get with college today,
I would say a blue collar job is worth more,
(08:50):
certainly in the short term.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
And with blue collar.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Jobs you normally don't get student loans, or if you do,
they're very small. I'm willing to that if we talk
and we look prospectively at the next forty years, I
think that number is going to change, where a college
degree is not going to be worth as much as
a good, highly paid blue collar job.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I mean, I think the gap between those is closed.
And I think you have to look at what degree
are you getting, what is it going to get you
at the end of the day, because if you're getting
a degree in engineering, then that's one thing, right that
you might be able to be in that upper echelon
of income earners. And if you're getting a degree in
(09:36):
English literature, let's say, not to denigrate that as a choice,
but truly, especially depending on how much you're going to
pay for that degree, you might not find that it
pays off in the same way. And I just think
back in the day twenty thirty forty years ago, getting
a degree was was the most important thing, and even
if you got it in something that wasn't necessarily like
(09:57):
highly applicable or leading to an immediate six fee your job,
it could still mean and it still often did mean
increase lifetime earnings. But I think with artificial intelligence harming
especially some of those people at the very beginning of
their career ladder taking over some of those jobs, or
at least making some of those jobs less relevant or
(10:17):
maybe leading to lower pay in some of those early
postgraduate years, I think you really do have to do
a different value assessment. And the people that are ultimately
in the worst possible place when we're talking about college
is the people that go for two or three years
and then don't get the degree. I was talking to
a friend the other day and her son's been going
to school for a couple of years. He's racked up
a little bit of student loan debt, fortunately not a lot,
(10:38):
But so oftentimes it's the people who are like, I'm
not sure what I want to do. Let me go
to college, let me figure it out, and then they
take on, you know, tens of thousands of dollars in
student loan debt. They don't graduate, they don't have the
degree that drives up their earnings, and they still have
student loan debt to pay off.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, and the cost of course of tuition, to your point,
is absolutely insane. When I went to law school and
they raise the per unit cost from fifty five dollars
a unit to sixty five dollars a unit, there was
almost the riot at high school.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I believe it.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I believe.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
One of the other things I think we should probably
mention real quickly on that front is that when you
look at the sticker price of college and then the
actual out the door price, the gap has actually grown there.
So what looks like like when you look at the
website of the school you're interested in going to and
you see the average annual tuition, you're like, oh my gosh,
that's insane. But when you think about when you look
(11:34):
at the merit aid and the need based aid that
students are able to get these days, if you fill
out the fast sun and you jump through the proper
hoops something like the average private school, the discount is
something like fifty six percent for students. So if you
see the forty thousand dollars a year, it's not actually
forty thousand dollars a year, and you do have to
jump through those hoops in order to get that discounted price.
(11:55):
But it is important to note that maybe it's not
quite as expensive as you might think it is either.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, as I've been saying, my daughter is starting a
master's degree in computer engineering because you can't get a job,
and so she goes now getting a master's degree, which
at the end of that she won't have a job.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
So you know what I do.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I have her practice every day at min espresso machine
making coffee. It just is that's a skill, that's a
that's a skill she can actually use. All right, Joel,
we'll catch you this Sunday, twelve to two pm. And
he's at how to money. Joel, you have a good wedd.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
You too, thanks Bill.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Okay, let me tell you a little bit about technology
and dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing is pricing that changes pursuant
to well market influences. And we know dynamic dynamic process pricing.
We live with it all day long. Airlines, hotels dynamic pricing,
(12:55):
Disneyland dynamic pricing. And so how about grocery stores. Well,
wait a minute, how do you do dynamic pricing at
grocery stores. Well, you have a little screen and the
pricing and it's electronic, like a little tiny electronic billboard.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I mean it used to be whenever you would.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Do a price change, the clerk would come out, have
this little gun that would punch out this adhesive sticker
thing and that would go on. Well, those days are gone,
and grocery stores are arguing prices are going to go
down because our labor costs are going to go down
and we can change the price literally just by pushing
(13:34):
a button in the office. So they claim, the grocery
stores claim, we're not using it to increase costs dynamically. Now,
the question is, Neil, your thoughts on this because this
is your wheelhouse, it is bad.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I think both are true.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
I think it's going to expedite them being able to
raise prices. I don't know that it's going to be
like on the far end of fear where people are
saying that, you know, if you walk around the store once,
that the price is going to be different between you
walking in and walking out, although we saw that with
(14:14):
you know, the first place I remember this was gas stations.
You remember they used to use those suction cups with
the plastic letters.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And the big pole.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
They'd put them up and they'd change the gas prices
that way. Now they're all digital, and they change as
they need to change, and I'm driven up and seeing
the change, the price changes, you know, just it's happened.
I do think that it will cost cut labor costs,
but I think it's a little dubious to say that
(14:43):
that's going to be passed.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
On to us technology.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I'm going to go another step further and take technology
which is there right now, and I maybe they're using it,
maybe they're not, or maybe they're trying pilot programs. And
that is you walk in the store face recognition right
for example, just as an example, I go to Smart
and Final and they have these pork egg rolls that
(15:08):
you can't find anyplace else, and they are phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Oh They're wonderful.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
And so I walk into the store and they get
my face bill handle pork egg rolls, and they know
that's where I go. And as I walk past the
pork egg rolls, there's my little the little sign sort
of blinking pork egg rolls A buck off, a dollar off.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Do you see that happening?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Oh? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
I think that we already have digital billboards and bust
shelters and things like that, that encoding will eventually let them.
They have the technology now speak directly to us the
same way our phone or Alexa or anything else. I
get more suggestions now on things that I've looked at
(16:04):
that it's like, hey, this just went down in price
than ever before on my.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Phone, in my inbox, all these things.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
I think absolutely they will see you coming and know
when you're in there and offer you c pons most definitely,
and be on your.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Phone exclusive to you.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And there is the digital price which changes just for
you as a loss leader, to keep you in the store.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
So, I mean there's technology in a way that is extraordinary,
and they save a ton of money because the amount
of labor that goes into changing prices is very high
because it's so labor intensive to change prices.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Think of it this way.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
Your average grocery store has an upwards of forty different
items in the store, and of course some are produced
and you're not labeling every single individual one. But keep
in mind how long that takes to do to go
through and change all those different prices.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeap, all right, yah, be prepared for those Why not
digital age changing?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Now?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Job interviews AI is really a terrific thing. Why because
now job applicants no one looks at job applications anymore.
It's all algorithms, and so you have to say, you
have to use the words that they want, and so
you have to basically generate the job application application that
(17:47):
the employer wants.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Well, everybody is doing that.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
So now what do you do when a job opening
and literally thousands.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Of applications come in because it's so easy with AI.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Well, the company now has to have an algorithm that
figures out is this AI?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
And if it is, everybody is back to square zero.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So what AI has done through insane technology is effectively
made it mandatory.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
For people to sit down and do a personal.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Interview just like they always did, except how do you
know if someone is qualified? Because an AI produces the application.
By the way, all applications are the same. And leadership.
I love working with people. I communicate great. You know,
(18:46):
I had when I had my surrogacy agency and I
had applications, and it was always I mean, they were
identical in terms of how great people where I did projects,
and you know, I looked to me and I'm looking,
you know, as a fit and You're company is wonderful
and I want to stay there forever. God, I prayed
that someone would say, hey, I hate people.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I'll probably hate you.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I have no leadership abilities whatsoever, no communication skills at all,
but I'll work my ass off for you and I'll
produce hired.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You're hired. But that doesn't work, does it?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
So AI helps you figure out through the algorithm what
the algorithm wants, and AI tells the tells the algorithm
that you are one of a million, and you really have.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Just written or have just produced.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
An application that's meant for the AI algorithm.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
It's sort of everything is useless. It used to be great.
It's all now useless.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And my daughter told me this, by the way, when
AI for came out, this is Pamela, and she said, Dad,
you have no leadership abilities.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You hate everybody. I hate you.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
That's a given, that's the way a conversation starts. But
she said, you're going to find that AI is not
the panacea that you think it is. Right now, it's
the hottest ticket in town. I was reading an article
the other day in the Wall Street Journal that there's
no way for these companies that are spending hundreds of
(20:27):
billions of dollars on AI technology and the systems and
the hardware are ever going to get their money back.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It just isn't the panacea.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
So don't look for me to work, especially if you
like people and you have great communication skills and you
have leadership crap.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
I don't want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
We're done, all right, coming up Gary and Shannon, and
they're at Bjay's and huntingson Beach, and I'm taking phone
calls starting in just a moment off the air for
handle on the law marginal legally vice. The numbers eight
seven seven five two zero eleven fifty eight seven seven
five two zero eleven fifty. I go through the calls
pretty quickly because there's news, no breaks. There's no news,
(21:11):
no breaks, no weather, and I have no patience and
no commercials, so that all works out. Eight seven seven
five two zero eleven fifty. Back again tomorrow, five am
wake up call with Amy and Neil, with Amy and
Will Neil and I come aboard at six we're out
of here. And of course I have to mention Cono.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
And you've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
The Bill Handel Show News
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