April 9, 2025 • 28 mins
The looming trade wars and AI revolution aren't just abstract economic concepts – they're about to hit your wallet, stress levels, and daily life harder than most realize. From skyrocketing prices on everything from guacamole to therapy apps, to job cuts as companies prioritize AI over humans despite higher implementation costs, this crisis will affect your physical and mental health in tangible ways. Discover how to prepare your lifestyle, mindset, and budget now before the economic pain becomes unbearable, and learn why getting ahead of these changes might actually improve your quality of life in surprising ways.
Topics Discussed:
- How tariffs on imported goods will directly increase prices for health and wellness products/services
- Why AI implementation costs are rising due to tariffs but companies will cut humans first anyway
- The psychological impact of economic instability and job insecurity on mental health
- How a potential global recession affects stress levels and wellness behaviors
- The compounding effect of news consumption and social media on economic anxiety
- Why now is the time to "Marie Kondo" your life before financial necessity forces you to
- How lifestyle simplification can lead to unexpected health and wellness benefits
- Why self-reliance will become increasingly important as economic systems face disruption
- The physical toll of potential career transitions as manufacturing jobs return
- How to prepare financially and mentally for the coming economic changes
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Mark as PlayedTranscript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hello and welcome to the Fitmas.
My name is Jeremy.
His name is Jason.
Say hi, Jason.
Today we are talking about something on a health and wellness podcast that you may findsurprising and may even think, what the fuck does that have to do with my health and
wellness?
Because that's what I thought when Jason texted me this as a topic idea.
But we are going to talk about, don't push the skip button, keep the, just hang on, hangon.
(00:26):
We're going to talk about tariffs and AI and how it all.
Everything that's going on this global trade war, all this nonsense will directly affectyour health.
I know, I know.
Hang on.
Don't go away.
Don't go.
I don't want you to freak out.
We're going to make this make sense.
Stick around.
Jason, help me out.
(00:46):
Make this make sense for me, man.
What in the world do these tariffs and the fight between Canada and the US and the tradewar around the world?
How is this going to trickle down and affect me on a day to day basis when I'm trying tojust keep my shit together every once in a while?
Yeah, so I mean, we've already seen this transition in big companies out there that havealready made big announcements that they're going to start investing a huge amount of
(01:11):
money and resources and time into artificial intelligence, with the goal being to reducetheir dependency on human beings and reduce their labor costs and move as many things as
possible over to artificial intelligence.
With that in mind.
The concept of adding these tariffs is going to make everything more expensive and it'sgoing to make everything significantly more expensive, especially when you look at the
(01:38):
bullshit tariffs that have been made up based upon some trade deficit value as apercentage of that.
there's not a real basis for this.
The people in charge of the current US administration have no idea what they're doing.
I mean, they're lost and they're making something up and this is not
(01:58):
Not politically controversial because you're seeing the same things happen in things saidin conservative media sources like this is clearly something that just isn't.
The math isn't math-ing.
Yeah, I mean, for lack of a better term, but the net effect of this is that most of theinfrastructure pieces that are required to implement these artificial intelligence systems
(02:21):
are actually built overseas and they're all going to be tariffed through the roof.
And if you look at the things that are carved out, as far as exceptions go for thesetariffs, chips aren't on there.
And these graphic processing units and these language processing units, which are the keysto actually making AI work, are all going to go up.
And the other components that go into that, others from the conductor pieces that go intothat, boards, sheet metal to make these different pieces, building new data centers to
(02:50):
house this stuff, things like steel and concrete and asphalt, like all these things.
We import several different components of this into our country to put these thingstogether.
And we haven't been charging a minimum 10 % uplift on that, and some places 37 % uplift onthat.
All that's going to get passed on to people that consume these things.
(03:11):
So the people that consume these artificial intelligence components as individualconsumers, yes, our costs might go up 25%, which, you know, fine, you're paying 20 bucks a
month for a Chad GPT subscription right now or using the free version.
So it's going to be, you know, zero dollars.
Everyone else is going to pay 20 to 25.
(03:32):
Not a big change.
When you talk about these companies out there, though, they actually have to pay thesebills.
in that context, they're going to take everything that they're putting forward in this andthey're going to wind up having to pay a lot more.
And because they're paying a lot more, they're going to pass that additional cost ontotheir consumers.
Now, there's this belief by these companies that they can actually save money by reducingthe number of human beings doing things.
(04:00):
by having AI do these things for them.
And we've all known that it's going to be messy transition process.
It's not going to get it right.
It's going to give us bullshit responses.
There's going to be issues.
But because it's a shiny object that seems like it could actually make them money, they'veall kind of made these announcements that a lot of these companies that are moving in this
direction.
And the people that built this infrastructure, your Amazons and Googles and Microsofts,Amazon got five nuclear reactors approved to be built in Eastern Washington.
(04:28):
So they can actually
power these GPUs and LPUs.
Well, all that shit's going to cost more money.
And because it's all going to cost more money, they're going to push that back to thepeople that are actually consuming those service layers.
Those companies out there that are trying to make these replacements are now going to haveto pay 25 % more, which means their margins aren't going to be as great.
And they're going to have to deal with the fact that we're about to head into a globalrecession and possibly global depression because of this trade war that's going to go on.
(04:54):
And that is going to destabilize things further.
And it's going to make them have to make a choice of either, hey, do we abandon these AIprojects because there's some upfront cost behind this?
Or we've already got this initiative to go after these places because we want to make moremoney because, burp, I'll greed.
That's part of the equation.
(05:14):
And then now it becomes my labor costs are too high.
And I've got these AI costs that are too high.
What are they going to dump first?
It's not going to be the AI because there's a potential.
Right.
They're going to dump more people faster.
And what they're going to do is they're going to dump those people that I would havenormally had to train these things to make them proficient and efficient and effective.
(05:38):
And they're going to cut corners and they're going to get worse results.
And they're not going to give a shit because the number of companies out there that aregoing to be doing this.
is going to shrink because you're going to wind up having winners and losers in thesetrade wars.
Actually, I should say you're going to have degrees of losing, not winners and losers.
So something I think is interesting though is like this doesn't just impact the chat GPTuser like you mentioned Amazon.
(06:02):
this, know, if they're suddenly paying more, you're suddenly paying more.
Whatever you're having delivered to your house is going to cost more.
When you log into your BetterHelp app or Headspace or use your Apple Watch to trackwhatever like your membership for those various services.
All of that is going to be impacted.
So again, this is not like a DC problem.
This is not something that's happening at the capital.
(06:23):
This is not something that's happening only to the companies.
All of this is going to trickle down on top of the grocery bill you're already paying, ontop of your probably mortgage and rent prices that are going up.
Like all of this is going to directly impact you.
And then getting to where you were going there, you're probably also gonna lose your jobdepending on whatever sector you're in.
(06:45):
Yeah, I mean, I would say it's realistic that there's going to be a 5 to 10 % shrinkage injobs.
I mean, that's realistic.
I mean, we've already been running a record low job number.
wellness and your mental health while you're dealing with it because you can't afford topay for the app anymore.
And you're probably watching the news, losing your mind, screaming and throwing things atthe television because they keep announcing these stupid things that are going to keep
(07:07):
happening to make life worse for everybody.
Well, and if you think about the it's not just about losing your job.
It's about reducing the number of hours you're going to have in your job.
It's going to be under employment as a result of a lot of these components because they'regoing to be using these little bits of AI to try to push things into things that are our
(07:27):
wrote human tasks.
The other side of this is that the work that's going to be available is probably going tobe difficult because
If the machines can do the computational work and they can do the digital lifting,somebody still has to do the heavy lifting.
So the work that's probably going to be available to most people is not going to be whatthey've actually trained on doing or necessarily what it is they're good at.
(07:51):
And because of that, that stress, that change, that transition is going to affecteverybody.
And it's not entirely doom and gloom.
I mean, it's, it's really not.
I mean, there will.
said, I literally was just going to say like, I hate having topics like this because Iwant to be able to offer a glimmer of hope, something that you can that you can tactically
do to try to prevent your life from feeling like it just a complete shit show because ofall these things that are very much or at least seemingly out of our control.
(08:19):
Well, so I think it's Robert Rodriguez has this this quote of a fear forward where eventhough you're afraid of doing a thing or a thing might be happening or bad things are
occurring.
Tough shit, you got to do it like you.
You just got to bite it off and go and make it try to make some changes.
(08:43):
And it's great when you're talking about creative pursuits and you're talking aboutcreating a film with no money.
and doing those kinds of things.
But when you're talking about, you know, your health and wellbeing and how am going tomake these things, how am going to make ends meet?
Like those things are a bit scarier, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
This is going to be a macro problem that's going to affect everybody and it's going toaffect everybody in a bad way.
(09:06):
The other side of this is that the the dollar, the US dollar may get devalued and youmight wind up with a new currency standard.
such as the euro or the yuan.
And those are things that will change the way that people react to different thingsbecause a lot of countries have their entire economy based on the idea of the strength of
(09:31):
the dollar.
And if these things start to get sold off because the US begins to look like an unreliabletrade partner, which guess what?
It is.
You're going to wind up seeing these bigger macro changes.
But that means everybody around you is going to be kind of affected at the same rate.
Mm-hmm.
and people in your neighborhood.
We're all going to be suffering together, and this show is going to be short lived becauseI don't I don't see the big companies out there letting this happen very long.
(09:59):
There's just so much fun.
There's I mean, we've lost five trillion dollars in a day.
seen or heard the tape anyway of Elon Musk crying to Trump about how much Tesla issuffering because of everything.
He's even going like, dude, we got to do something.
This isn't good.
Right.
And this is hugely problematic.
So when you you look at these things in context, how is it that we're going to get throughthis in a way that actually gives us something of value out of it?
(10:23):
So one, first and foremost, you're going to get to optimize the things in your life.
You're going to get a Marie Kondo shit basically out of necessity because you're probablyjust not going to have as many economic resources to make these things happen.
So, you know, going out and going, hey, I'm going to
buy an extra bottle of beer, an extra bottle of booze, or blah, blah, blah.
(10:44):
Well, you might have money to do that.
So use it as an opportunity to drink less.
Buy better food, buy smaller quantities.
You can make all these small micro adjustments to the reality of your situation that'sgoing to be affected by us with all these tariffs and all these additional pieces.
And AI, I mean, I can't stress this enough.
(11:04):
AI is going to be a huge component in this space.
And it's
There's multiple different angles, but one of the really scary angles of this is that ifwe're taking these shortcuts and cutting corners on these pieces with LLMs that are
already not great and already are flawed and based upon past information and we've thewhole information cycle, we've turned these things into dumber things than our human
(11:27):
counterparts, but they do it really, really fast.
So there's a presumption that it's better.
And I think of this, you know, kind of the same way that
I think a problem is like, you know, it's really expensive to employ kindergartners to goout there and play on swings.
But.
(11:47):
If you have older kids go out there and play on swings with these kindergartners, youmight wind up with with a landscape of bloody children as a result of this.
Well, that's what we're heading in towards.
So we have some smart workers that are older kids that are out there doing the things theyneed to do.
and then a billion little kindergartners that have no idea what they're doing, runningaround, making things, creating chaos.
(12:11):
And there's going to be some bumps along the way.
And it's I mean, it really is just going to be this like free for all of of thingshappening on the Internet around us that we're not really going to have a lot of gating
control over.
And because we don't have gating control over it, some of us aren't going to be a lot ofthe playground anymore.
So if that's the case, great.
Build your own.
And I think that's where things are going is we we have to figure out a way to become
(12:35):
happy, self-reliant, and all of these different pieces on our own in the context of theidea that corporate America and really the US government is not going to be there to help
US citizens anymore.
And it's going to be adversarial to people around the world because we're creating thisprotectionism isolationist strategy.
And at the end of the day, if everything's more expensive and you're not bringing in asmuch money revenue on your end, Me, Inc.
(13:02):
is going to suffer.
And I got to make a determination as to, you know, how am I going to let myself suffer inthis scenario?
And that's going to be realigning your life, realigning your perspectives, putting thosethings in the proper context.
And honestly.
Turn off the news.
mean, it's it's the grossest thing out there.
Social media is disgusting.
(13:23):
It's only getting worse.
It's only getting more toxic and hate filled.
And it's only going to add to the stress that the reality of the situation is alreadypiling on you.
so I think, you know, one of the kind of the stoic philosophies is coming into my head ofthe idea of just sort of preparing for, you know, what seems inevitable.
And I think you were alluding to this, like, don't wait until you have to downsize.
(13:45):
Don't wait until you have to Marie Kondo the shit out of your house.
Like, this is the time.
Like, prepare for it now because it's coming.
barring any major shift or sudden awakening in DC to like wildly correct course, we're allgonna feel the financial pressure of this.
And so if you can, like for me, this takes me back to the whole reason like I moved fromwhere I did in Seattle to where I am now in Canada.
(14:09):
Like we were forced into a lifestyle that turned out to be better.
Like we didn't like.
you know, in comparison, what we were doing compared to what we ended up doing.
And it was the pain of COVID and the pain of isolation that made us look for where's thehealthiest and happiest place that we can live like this in case this is forever.
(14:30):
Well, what if this is forever?
It's probably not, right?
mean, odds are that historically you can tell like these things course correct and getbetter, but it's going to suck for a while.
So what can you do now to make the suck suck less for a while to get through it?
And you may find that by like
getting rid of shit, selling stuff to have a little bit more income coming in.
Like maybe you can survive with a little bit less and all of a sudden you feel like Ididn't need all that shit to begin with.
(14:53):
Like this is actually kind of better.
And I'm not saying that to sort of play into the like a little bit of pain right now isbetter for the long run, you know, bullshit narrative that you're hearing.
But like in some cases it may be for you personally, this like everyone taking a kick inthe nuts to like try to make a better America.
I don't think that's the path that we're actually on.
(15:16):
Yeah, like I can't disagree with that and it.
It's going to be about 30 to 90 days when all these price hikes happen, because inventoryis going to be out at that point in time and the grocery stores and the big box stores are
going to have to go through and adjust their prices to reflect the reality of thesetariffs.
(15:38):
And with that in mind, you you've got like the next.
one to three months to try to figure this stuff out and figure out how it is you're tomake these adjustments and just assume every consumable that you want to buy is going to
be 25 % more expensive.
And just making the determination right now that, I'm going to use the car that I got forthe next four years.
(15:58):
That's probably not a bad idea.
And making a determination, I'm only going to consume things in this way from theselocations.
That's probably not a bad idea either.
I mean, I hate to say it, but if you love guacamole, shit's going to be hard.
mean, California avocados are fucking expensive.
(16:19):
They're delicious, but they're expensive.
Avocados are about to get crazy expensive, and it's funny because one of my neighbors sentme out this recipe for eggs Benedict.
He's like, but because eggs are so expensive, I've replaced the eggs with scallops.
I'm like, scallops are like 20 bucks a pound.
Well, he's right.
(16:42):
it is cheaper to put a scallop on a Benedict.
So I had scallops, things Benedict or anything with scallops on.
It was wonderful.
I made an adjustment.
Exactly.
Well, and I mean, that's and that's food, right?
And these are joking pieces and they're it's interesting because we're making the shift tomuch more of a service economy.
We've been making that for a long time.
(17:05):
And now there's this belief that we're going to somehow become a manufacturing base again,and we're going to
these things back into the country and there's going to be these these new jobs and you'vegot half of the country that's really pumped and excited that thinks this is going to
happen somewhat soon.
The fuck it is.
Remember to build those factories, you're going to have to take goods from things outsidethe US, which are all going to cost more money, which nobody is going to have extra of
(17:31):
because we're all paying tariffs.
So.
have to convince a lot of people that, YouTuber is not the career path you're on, grabthis shovel.
There's a whole culture of building stuff that we haven't had to do for a long timebecause we found people to do it for a fraction of the price.
So reintegrating manufacturing and building and actual physical labor for a lot of peopleis going to be something that is going to be a very foreign concept that's going to take a
(17:57):
long time to adapt to.
Boeing is right in my backyard.
And we have a bunch of neighbors that work there on the floor.
Some of them do film, some are architects.
There's a bunch of folks here.
And a lot of them made career transitions to go back to Boeing for something else they didbefore.
(18:17):
they were like, these transitions were hard.
They were difficult because I was in an industry that did X, Y, or Z, and that industrydried up.
So I made this change.
And they're like, my day is
on a factory floor on my feet or crawling into small parts of an airplane to run wire andcable.
Yes, it pays well, but it's a whole different thing.
(18:38):
mean, a lot of them were like, I used to go to the gym all the time.
I used to do this.
I used to do that.
It's like, I'm exhausted now.
I have no energy for that at all.
So I mean, a lot of these folks, like me, a tech worker and working on the business sideof things, somebody comes to me and says, you got to pick up a shovel and go dig ditches.
part of me is like, that's gonna suck.
(18:59):
Another part of me is like, I don't have to go to CrossFit five times a week now.
I mean, I'll adjust and adapt because that's just kind of who I am, but other people needto be able to be able and willing to make those things and those changes happen.
And there's gonna be a lot of fight and there's gonna be a lot of pushback.
And not to mention the fact that, you you've got a huge amount of personal automationalready on deck.
(19:25):
and showing up from some of these other companies out there.
I Musk's Optimus robot is not, it actually works.
It actually does some things that are kind of interesting and it's gonna be out of reachfor most people at 25 to 30 grand a pop, which is what they're quoting it.
I'm sure it's gonna be 75, 80 and Trump will give some kind of fucking giveaway for it.
But those are things that people are pushing and they're trying to make those thingshappen because they're trying to reduce the value of human labor by pulling in these
(19:53):
robots.
and pulling in these things, these automatons that can do these things without people orhuman interaction.
And then that becomes, you thought it was hard to live on the US minimum wage of $7.25 on40 hours a week.
Well, we only have 20 hours a week work for you because the robots have taken it overbecause you're doing it for five bucks an hour.
(20:14):
These are considerations that are going to have to play into it.
And I don't think you have an account or an administration in US that's really going to befriendly to that.
And the US right now,
is 4 % of the population and it basically equates for 20 % of global domesticproductivity.
So 20 % of the money generated goes to the US and it's 4 % of the population.
(20:37):
So essentially, it's a five to one ratio of the average American.
And even our poverty class in the US, our poverty line is still in the top 1 % globally ofnations.
Yes, there is going to be an effect of tariffs.
And I believe the effect of those tariffs is going to be to shrink that ratio because Idon't think we're going to have as much productivity.
(21:02):
We're going to start losing supply chain value.
We're going to start having these things pull back.
The money is going to become tighter.
It's going to be more difficult.
And it's not just going to affect poor folks.
Like it's it's going to affect everybody top to bottom.
They're going to be some people that are going to weather this very, well, and they'regoing to buy up other pieces and property and make themselves very, very wealthy and rich.
(21:25):
For the average folks like you and I, that's not going to happen.
We're going to have to figure out how to get by and how to survive this period of time.
Because I've watched my retirement plan, poof, over the last few months.
Yeah.
I got kids in college.
I got a mortgage to pay.
(21:46):
I got all these things happening.
You can sense it around here where I'm at up in Everett, Washington.
People are pissed off and people are scared and people are angry and the attitude isinsane.
Like people are driving like reckless a-holes and flipping each other off.
Like the stress level is just high and people are trying to get where they have to go asquickly as they can because they're trying to figure out a way to hustle and make money.
(22:10):
And it's not good for everyone's mental health.
It's going to make things worse.
And at the end of the day,
as individual as you're going to have to figure out your path through this.
And the best advice that I can give anybody right now is to just be prepared and startpreparing now that your wallet, your dollar's not going to go as far and you're probably
(22:33):
not going to have as many dollars in
Yep.
So yeah, solid advice.
That's where I was gonna go.
You beat me to it.
So I know what I'm doing when we hang up the call.
I'm gonna start going through stuff and making some plans because it seems prettyinevitable at this point.
It does.
I will say that Canada has a very, very good plan in place.
(22:54):
It seems like it seems like, you know, they've made some smart decisions.
And you can look at Europe like England's making some of these adjustments now also.
The Swedes right now are restarting their nuclear bunker program because they're lookingat the way things are becoming destabilized.
And they're anticipating that these bunkers that they built after World War Two to staveoff a nuclear assault by Russia are going to need to be restarted.
(23:18):
just in case, they're going to have to just invested, I think, like $40 million to gothrough and rebuild these bunkers so they can house 75 % of the Swedish population in this
fashion.
Like you're seeing major state actors making these kinds of adjustments and prep movementsbecause shit's weird.
(23:38):
Well, that's what's been so interesting to watch it from this side of the border.
I'm in Canada.
you know, there's a lot of talk up here about like, for us, this is kind of good.
Like it's going to help us.
It's going to force us to sort of open up our trade routes.
We're going to have to make some new relationships.
We're going to have to not rely on one place as much.
We're going to have to rely on ourselves a lot more.
(23:58):
And I think that attitude.
helps also trickle down to the individual to be a little more self-reliant and not dependon the government and certain sources that are available.
Clearly those are needed.
I'm not saying, you know, that we need to be cutting those things, but the more that youcan take the lesson here that, you know, ain't nobody coming on a white horse to save you
no matter what you're trying to change.
(24:19):
the more you can sort of take stock of where you're at and figure out what is within yourcontrol to make those changes, the better off you're gonna end up on the other side of
this.
And hopefully we all end up on a relatively decent side of this because it's pretty scaryright now.
Well, and it's what is interesting.
And one of the things that has been happening in the AI market is that you've got severallarge countries out there where they are not taking full advantage of AI and machine
(24:46):
learning because the majority of the AI ML infrastructure resides in the U S and they'relike, I don't want to put all my data and effective processing.
in a foreign actor who has control of those pieces because they're afraid that the USfederal government might be snooping and listening in.
Because they are.
(25:06):
I mean, let's just be really clear about it.
So they have plans to go through and create what they call AI factories.
And nobody's really been able to implement them because the cost metrics don't pan outbecause of the way that global trade is set up.
Well,
That has been very beneficial for the US because these big companies in the US can becomethese spots for this and kind of force everybody to do this and build these separate
(25:34):
private infrastructures.
Well, now these other places out there are like, well, economically it doesn't make sensefor us to not build it here now.
It makes as much sense because I'm not gonna have to pay this important tariff taxes.
I mean, this is.
Yeah, it's kicking ourselves in the nuts, shooting ourselves in the dick.
don't I mean, pick something.
(25:56):
I mean, punching ourselves in the ovaries.
I'm fuck.
I don't know, man.
Like, all I know is that we're we're attempting to to sterilize our productivity andsterilize our people from being able to go through and actually be productive members of
society.
And half of this country is going, yeah.
I mean, it's like the scene from Idiocracy where
(26:20):
Fredo has his car blown up and is cheering that his car is being blown up.
And Joe's like, Fredo, that's your car.
What are you doing?
That's what this feels like.
And yeah, we need a president Camacho to come in and take care of this problem.
Yeah, it's time to go back to drinking Mountain Dew.
(26:44):
It's got electrolytes.
Exactly.
And Bronto, the thirst speed later.
I'm sure we just violated like 15 trademarks.
Exactly.
All right, well on that happy note, I think we can wrap things up here.
And any closing thoughts here for the person who is completely hopeless now that we'veterrified them.
Um, yes, uh, none of it is forever.
(27:09):
All of it's temporary, including you.
So you will not have to suffer this forever one way or the other.
We all expire at some point.
The life expectancy for everybody over a long enough period of timeline is zero, includingpeople that make stupid fucking tariff decisions.
(27:33):
We'll just leave that one dangling out there.
Thank you so much for listening.
You can follow us on social media.
You can reach out to us, info at thefitmess.com and subscribe on whatever podcast playeryou're listening to this on now so that you don't miss the next episode, which should be
out in about a week at thefitmess.com.
Thanks so much for listening.
Hello and welcome to the Fitmas.
My name is Jeremy.
His name is Jason.
Say hi, Jason.
Today we are talking about something on a health and wellness podcast that you may findsurprising and may even think, what the fuck does that have to do with my health and
wellness?
Because that's what I thought when Jason texted me this as a topic idea.
But we are going to talk about, don't push the skip button, keep the, just hang on, hangon.
(00:26):
We're going to talk about tariffs and AI and how it all.
Everything that's going on this global trade war, all this nonsense will directly affectyour health.
I know, I know.
Hang on.
Don't go away.
Don't go.
I don't want you to freak out.
We're going to make this make sense.
Stick around.
Jason, help me out.
(00:46):
Make this make sense for me, man.
What in the world do these tariffs and the fight between Canada and the US and the tradewar around the world?
How is this going to trickle down and affect me on a day to day basis when I'm trying tojust keep my shit together every once in a while?
Yeah, so I mean, we've already seen this transition in big companies out there that havealready made big announcements that they're going to start investing a huge amount of
(01:11):
money and resources and time into artificial intelligence, with the goal being to reducetheir dependency on human beings and reduce their labor costs and move as many things as
possible over to artificial intelligence.
With that in mind.
The concept of adding these tariffs is going to make everything more expensive and it'sgoing to make everything significantly more expensive, especially when you look at the
(01:38):
bullshit tariffs that have been made up based upon some trade deficit value as apercentage of that.
there's not a real basis for this.
The people in charge of the current US administration have no idea what they're doing.
I mean, they're lost and they're making something up and this is not
(01:58):
Not politically controversial because you're seeing the same things happen in things saidin conservative media sources like this is clearly something that just isn't.
The math isn't math-ing.
Yeah, I mean, for lack of a better term, but the net effect of this is that most of theinfrastructure pieces that are required to implement these artificial intelligence systems
(02:21):
are actually built overseas and they're all going to be tariffed through the roof.
And if you look at the things that are carved out, as far as exceptions go for thesetariffs, chips aren't on there.
And these graphic processing units and these language processing units, which are the keysto actually making AI work, are all going to go up.
And the other components that go into that, others from the conductor pieces that go intothat, boards, sheet metal to make these different pieces, building new data centers to
(02:50):
house this stuff, things like steel and concrete and asphalt, like all these things.
We import several different components of this into our country to put these thingstogether.
And we haven't been charging a minimum 10 % uplift on that, and some places 37 % uplift onthat.
All that's going to get passed on to people that consume these things.
(03:11):
So the people that consume these artificial intelligence components as individualconsumers, yes, our costs might go up 25%, which, you know, fine, you're paying 20 bucks a
month for a Chad GPT subscription right now or using the free version.
So it's going to be, you know, zero dollars.
Everyone else is going to pay 20 to 25.
(03:32):
Not a big change.
When you talk about these companies out there, though, they actually have to pay thesebills.
in that context, they're going to take everything that they're putting forward in this andthey're going to wind up having to pay a lot more.
And because they're paying a lot more, they're going to pass that additional cost ontotheir consumers.
Now, there's this belief by these companies that they can actually save money by reducingthe number of human beings doing things.
(04:00):
by having AI do these things for them.
And we've all known that it's going to be messy transition process.
It's not going to get it right.
It's going to give us bullshit responses.
There's going to be issues.
But because it's a shiny object that seems like it could actually make them money, they'veall kind of made these announcements that a lot of these companies that are moving in this
direction.
And the people that built this infrastructure, your Amazons and Googles and Microsofts,Amazon got five nuclear reactors approved to be built in Eastern Washington.
(04:28):
So they can actually
power these GPUs and LPUs.
Well, all that shit's going to cost more money.
And because it's all going to cost more money, they're going to push that back to thepeople that are actually consuming those service layers.
Those companies out there that are trying to make these replacements are now going to haveto pay 25 % more, which means their margins aren't going to be as great.
And they're going to have to deal with the fact that we're about to head into a globalrecession and possibly global depression because of this trade war that's going to go on.
(04:54):
And that is going to destabilize things further.
And it's going to make them have to make a choice of either, hey, do we abandon these AIprojects because there's some upfront cost behind this?
Or we've already got this initiative to go after these places because we want to make moremoney because, burp, I'll greed.
That's part of the equation.
(05:14):
And then now it becomes my labor costs are too high.
And I've got these AI costs that are too high.
What are they going to dump first?
It's not going to be the AI because there's a potential.
Right.
They're going to dump more people faster.
And what they're going to do is they're going to dump those people that I would havenormally had to train these things to make them proficient and efficient and effective.
(05:38):
And they're going to cut corners and they're going to get worse results.
And they're not going to give a shit because the number of companies out there that aregoing to be doing this.
is going to shrink because you're going to wind up having winners and losers in thesetrade wars.
Actually, I should say you're going to have degrees of losing, not winners and losers.
So something I think is interesting though is like this doesn't just impact the chat GPTuser like you mentioned Amazon.
(06:02):
this, know, if they're suddenly paying more, you're suddenly paying more.
Whatever you're having delivered to your house is going to cost more.
When you log into your BetterHelp app or Headspace or use your Apple Watch to trackwhatever like your membership for those various services.
All of that is going to be impacted.
So again, this is not like a DC problem.
This is not something that's happening at the capital.
(06:23):
This is not something that's happening only to the companies.
All of this is going to trickle down on top of the grocery bill you're already paying, ontop of your probably mortgage and rent prices that are going up.
Like all of this is going to directly impact you.
And then getting to where you were going there, you're probably also gonna lose your jobdepending on whatever sector you're in.
(06:45):
Yeah, I mean, I would say it's realistic that there's going to be a 5 to 10 % shrinkage injobs.
I mean, that's realistic.
I mean, we've already been running a record low job number.
wellness and your mental health while you're dealing with it because you can't afford topay for the app anymore.
And you're probably watching the news, losing your mind, screaming and throwing things atthe television because they keep announcing these stupid things that are going to keep
(07:07):
happening to make life worse for everybody.
Well, and if you think about the it's not just about losing your job.
It's about reducing the number of hours you're going to have in your job.
It's going to be under employment as a result of a lot of these components because they'regoing to be using these little bits of AI to try to push things into things that are our
(07:27):
wrote human tasks.
The other side of this is that the work that's going to be available is probably going tobe difficult because
If the machines can do the computational work and they can do the digital lifting,somebody still has to do the heavy lifting.
So the work that's probably going to be available to most people is not going to be whatthey've actually trained on doing or necessarily what it is they're good at.
(07:51):
And because of that, that stress, that change, that transition is going to affecteverybody.
And it's not entirely doom and gloom.
I mean, it's, it's really not.
I mean, there will.
said, I literally was just going to say like, I hate having topics like this because Iwant to be able to offer a glimmer of hope, something that you can that you can tactically
do to try to prevent your life from feeling like it just a complete shit show because ofall these things that are very much or at least seemingly out of our control.
(08:19):
Well, so I think it's Robert Rodriguez has this this quote of a fear forward where eventhough you're afraid of doing a thing or a thing might be happening or bad things are
occurring.
Tough shit, you got to do it like you.
You just got to bite it off and go and make it try to make some changes.
(08:43):
And it's great when you're talking about creative pursuits and you're talking aboutcreating a film with no money.
and doing those kinds of things.
But when you're talking about, you know, your health and wellbeing and how am going tomake these things, how am going to make ends meet?
Like those things are a bit scarier, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
This is going to be a macro problem that's going to affect everybody and it's going toaffect everybody in a bad way.
(09:06):
The other side of this is that the the dollar, the US dollar may get devalued and youmight wind up with a new currency standard.
such as the euro or the yuan.
And those are things that will change the way that people react to different thingsbecause a lot of countries have their entire economy based on the idea of the strength of
(09:31):
the dollar.
And if these things start to get sold off because the US begins to look like an unreliabletrade partner, which guess what?
It is.
You're going to wind up seeing these bigger macro changes.
But that means everybody around you is going to be kind of affected at the same rate.
Mm-hmm.
and people in your neighborhood.
We're all going to be suffering together, and this show is going to be short lived becauseI don't I don't see the big companies out there letting this happen very long.
(09:59):
There's just so much fun.
There's I mean, we've lost five trillion dollars in a day.
seen or heard the tape anyway of Elon Musk crying to Trump about how much Tesla issuffering because of everything.
He's even going like, dude, we got to do something.
This isn't good.
Right.
And this is hugely problematic.
So when you you look at these things in context, how is it that we're going to get throughthis in a way that actually gives us something of value out of it?
(10:23):
So one, first and foremost, you're going to get to optimize the things in your life.
You're going to get a Marie Kondo shit basically out of necessity because you're probablyjust not going to have as many economic resources to make these things happen.
So, you know, going out and going, hey, I'm going to
buy an extra bottle of beer, an extra bottle of booze, or blah, blah, blah.
(10:44):
Well, you might have money to do that.
So use it as an opportunity to drink less.
Buy better food, buy smaller quantities.
You can make all these small micro adjustments to the reality of your situation that'sgoing to be affected by us with all these tariffs and all these additional pieces.
And AI, I mean, I can't stress this enough.
(11:04):
AI is going to be a huge component in this space.
And it's
There's multiple different angles, but one of the really scary angles of this is that ifwe're taking these shortcuts and cutting corners on these pieces with LLMs that are
already not great and already are flawed and based upon past information and we've thewhole information cycle, we've turned these things into dumber things than our human
(11:27):
counterparts, but they do it really, really fast.
So there's a presumption that it's better.
And I think of this, you know, kind of the same way that
I think a problem is like, you know, it's really expensive to employ kindergartners to goout there and play on swings.
But.
(11:47):
If you have older kids go out there and play on swings with these kindergartners, youmight wind up with with a landscape of bloody children as a result of this.
Well, that's what we're heading in towards.
So we have some smart workers that are older kids that are out there doing the things theyneed to do.
and then a billion little kindergartners that have no idea what they're doing, runningaround, making things, creating chaos.
(12:11):
And there's going to be some bumps along the way.
And it's I mean, it really is just going to be this like free for all of of thingshappening on the Internet around us that we're not really going to have a lot of gating
control over.
And because we don't have gating control over it, some of us aren't going to be a lot ofthe playground anymore.
So if that's the case, great.
Build your own.
And I think that's where things are going is we we have to figure out a way to become
(12:35):
happy, self-reliant, and all of these different pieces on our own in the context of theidea that corporate America and really the US government is not going to be there to help
US citizens anymore.
And it's going to be adversarial to people around the world because we're creating thisprotectionism isolationist strategy.
And at the end of the day, if everything's more expensive and you're not bringing in asmuch money revenue on your end, Me, Inc.
(13:02):
is going to suffer.
And I got to make a determination as to, you know, how am I going to let myself suffer inthis scenario?
And that's going to be realigning your life, realigning your perspectives, putting thosethings in the proper context.
And honestly.
Turn off the news.
mean, it's it's the grossest thing out there.
Social media is disgusting.
(13:23):
It's only getting worse.
It's only getting more toxic and hate filled.
And it's only going to add to the stress that the reality of the situation is alreadypiling on you.
so I think, you know, one of the kind of the stoic philosophies is coming into my head ofthe idea of just sort of preparing for, you know, what seems inevitable.
And I think you were alluding to this, like, don't wait until you have to downsize.
(13:45):
Don't wait until you have to Marie Kondo the shit out of your house.
Like, this is the time.
Like, prepare for it now because it's coming.
barring any major shift or sudden awakening in DC to like wildly correct course, we're allgonna feel the financial pressure of this.
And so if you can, like for me, this takes me back to the whole reason like I moved fromwhere I did in Seattle to where I am now in Canada.
(14:09):
Like we were forced into a lifestyle that turned out to be better.
Like we didn't like.
you know, in comparison, what we were doing compared to what we ended up doing.
And it was the pain of COVID and the pain of isolation that made us look for where's thehealthiest and happiest place that we can live like this in case this is forever.
(14:30):
Well, what if this is forever?
It's probably not, right?
mean, odds are that historically you can tell like these things course correct and getbetter, but it's going to suck for a while.
So what can you do now to make the suck suck less for a while to get through it?
And you may find that by like
getting rid of shit, selling stuff to have a little bit more income coming in.
Like maybe you can survive with a little bit less and all of a sudden you feel like Ididn't need all that shit to begin with.
(14:53):
Like this is actually kind of better.
And I'm not saying that to sort of play into the like a little bit of pain right now isbetter for the long run, you know, bullshit narrative that you're hearing.
But like in some cases it may be for you personally, this like everyone taking a kick inthe nuts to like try to make a better America.
I don't think that's the path that we're actually on.
(15:16):
Yeah, like I can't disagree with that and it.
It's going to be about 30 to 90 days when all these price hikes happen, because inventoryis going to be out at that point in time and the grocery stores and the big box stores are
going to have to go through and adjust their prices to reflect the reality of thesetariffs.
(15:38):
And with that in mind, you you've got like the next.
one to three months to try to figure this stuff out and figure out how it is you're tomake these adjustments and just assume every consumable that you want to buy is going to
be 25 % more expensive.
And just making the determination right now that, I'm going to use the car that I got forthe next four years.
(15:58):
That's probably not a bad idea.
And making a determination, I'm only going to consume things in this way from theselocations.
That's probably not a bad idea either.
I mean, I hate to say it, but if you love guacamole, shit's going to be hard.
mean, California avocados are fucking expensive.
(16:19):
They're delicious, but they're expensive.
Avocados are about to get crazy expensive, and it's funny because one of my neighbors sentme out this recipe for eggs Benedict.
He's like, but because eggs are so expensive, I've replaced the eggs with scallops.
I'm like, scallops are like 20 bucks a pound.
Well, he's right.
(16:42):
it is cheaper to put a scallop on a Benedict.
So I had scallops, things Benedict or anything with scallops on.
It was wonderful.
I made an adjustment.
Exactly.
Well, and I mean, that's and that's food, right?
And these are joking pieces and they're it's interesting because we're making the shift tomuch more of a service economy.
We've been making that for a long time.
(17:05):
And now there's this belief that we're going to somehow become a manufacturing base again,and we're going to
these things back into the country and there's going to be these these new jobs and you'vegot half of the country that's really pumped and excited that thinks this is going to
happen somewhat soon.
The fuck it is.
Remember to build those factories, you're going to have to take goods from things outsidethe US, which are all going to cost more money, which nobody is going to have extra of
(17:31):
because we're all paying tariffs.
So.
have to convince a lot of people that, YouTuber is not the career path you're on, grabthis shovel.
There's a whole culture of building stuff that we haven't had to do for a long timebecause we found people to do it for a fraction of the price.
So reintegrating manufacturing and building and actual physical labor for a lot of peopleis going to be something that is going to be a very foreign concept that's going to take a
(17:57):
long time to adapt to.
Boeing is right in my backyard.
And we have a bunch of neighbors that work there on the floor.
Some of them do film, some are architects.
There's a bunch of folks here.
And a lot of them made career transitions to go back to Boeing for something else they didbefore.
(18:17):
they were like, these transitions were hard.
They were difficult because I was in an industry that did X, Y, or Z, and that industrydried up.
So I made this change.
And they're like, my day is
on a factory floor on my feet or crawling into small parts of an airplane to run wire andcable.
Yes, it pays well, but it's a whole different thing.
(18:38):
mean, a lot of them were like, I used to go to the gym all the time.
I used to do this.
I used to do that.
It's like, I'm exhausted now.
I have no energy for that at all.
So I mean, a lot of these folks, like me, a tech worker and working on the business sideof things, somebody comes to me and says, you got to pick up a shovel and go dig ditches.
part of me is like, that's gonna suck.
(18:59):
Another part of me is like, I don't have to go to CrossFit five times a week now.
I mean, I'll adjust and adapt because that's just kind of who I am, but other people needto be able to be able and willing to make those things and those changes happen.
And there's gonna be a lot of fight and there's gonna be a lot of pushback.
And not to mention the fact that, you you've got a huge amount of personal automationalready on deck.
(19:25):
and showing up from some of these other companies out there.
I Musk's Optimus robot is not, it actually works.
It actually does some things that are kind of interesting and it's gonna be out of reachfor most people at 25 to 30 grand a pop, which is what they're quoting it.
I'm sure it's gonna be 75, 80 and Trump will give some kind of fucking giveaway for it.
But those are things that people are pushing and they're trying to make those thingshappen because they're trying to reduce the value of human labor by pulling in these
(19:53):
robots.
and pulling in these things, these automatons that can do these things without people orhuman interaction.
And then that becomes, you thought it was hard to live on the US minimum wage of $7.25 on40 hours a week.
Well, we only have 20 hours a week work for you because the robots have taken it overbecause you're doing it for five bucks an hour.
(20:14):
These are considerations that are going to have to play into it.
And I don't think you have an account or an administration in US that's really going to befriendly to that.
And the US right now,
is 4 % of the population and it basically equates for 20 % of global domesticproductivity.
So 20 % of the money generated goes to the US and it's 4 % of the population.
(20:37):
So essentially, it's a five to one ratio of the average American.
And even our poverty class in the US, our poverty line is still in the top 1 % globally ofnations.
Yes, there is going to be an effect of tariffs.
And I believe the effect of those tariffs is going to be to shrink that ratio because Idon't think we're going to have as much productivity.
(21:02):
We're going to start losing supply chain value.
We're going to start having these things pull back.
The money is going to become tighter.
It's going to be more difficult.
And it's not just going to affect poor folks.
Like it's it's going to affect everybody top to bottom.
They're going to be some people that are going to weather this very, well, and they'regoing to buy up other pieces and property and make themselves very, very wealthy and rich.
(21:25):
For the average folks like you and I, that's not going to happen.
We're going to have to figure out how to get by and how to survive this period of time.
Because I've watched my retirement plan, poof, over the last few months.
Yeah.
I got kids in college.
I got a mortgage to pay.
(21:46):
I got all these things happening.
You can sense it around here where I'm at up in Everett, Washington.
People are pissed off and people are scared and people are angry and the attitude isinsane.
Like people are driving like reckless a-holes and flipping each other off.
Like the stress level is just high and people are trying to get where they have to go asquickly as they can because they're trying to figure out a way to hustle and make money.
(22:10):
And it's not good for everyone's mental health.
It's going to make things worse.
And at the end of the day,
as individual as you're going to have to figure out your path through this.
And the best advice that I can give anybody right now is to just be prepared and startpreparing now that your wallet, your dollar's not going to go as far and you're probably
(22:33):
not going to have as many dollars in
Yep.
So yeah, solid advice.
That's where I was gonna go.
You beat me to it.
So I know what I'm doing when we hang up the call.
I'm gonna start going through stuff and making some plans because it seems prettyinevitable at this point.
It does.
I will say that Canada has a very, very good plan in place.
(22:54):
It seems like it seems like, you know, they've made some smart decisions.
And you can look at Europe like England's making some of these adjustments now also.
The Swedes right now are restarting their nuclear bunker program because they're lookingat the way things are becoming destabilized.
And they're anticipating that these bunkers that they built after World War Two to staveoff a nuclear assault by Russia are going to need to be restarted.
(23:18):
just in case, they're going to have to just invested, I think, like $40 million to gothrough and rebuild these bunkers so they can house 75 % of the Swedish population in this
fashion.
Like you're seeing major state actors making these kinds of adjustments and prep movementsbecause shit's weird.
(23:38):
Well, that's what's been so interesting to watch it from this side of the border.
I'm in Canada.
you know, there's a lot of talk up here about like, for us, this is kind of good.
Like it's going to help us.
It's going to force us to sort of open up our trade routes.
We're going to have to make some new relationships.
We're going to have to not rely on one place as much.
We're going to have to rely on ourselves a lot more.
(23:58):
And I think that attitude.
helps also trickle down to the individual to be a little more self-reliant and not dependon the government and certain sources that are available.
Clearly those are needed.
I'm not saying, you know, that we need to be cutting those things, but the more that youcan take the lesson here that, you know, ain't nobody coming on a white horse to save you
no matter what you're trying to change.
(24:19):
the more you can sort of take stock of where you're at and figure out what is within yourcontrol to make those changes, the better off you're gonna end up on the other side of
this.
And hopefully we all end up on a relatively decent side of this because it's pretty scaryright now.
Well, and it's what is interesting.
And one of the things that has been happening in the AI market is that you've got severallarge countries out there where they are not taking full advantage of AI and machine
(24:46):
learning because the majority of the AI ML infrastructure resides in the U S and they'relike, I don't want to put all my data and effective processing.
in a foreign actor who has control of those pieces because they're afraid that the USfederal government might be snooping and listening in.
Because they are.
(25:06):
I mean, let's just be really clear about it.
So they have plans to go through and create what they call AI factories.
And nobody's really been able to implement them because the cost metrics don't pan outbecause of the way that global trade is set up.
Well,
That has been very beneficial for the US because these big companies in the US can becomethese spots for this and kind of force everybody to do this and build these separate
(25:34):
private infrastructures.
Well, now these other places out there are like, well, economically it doesn't make sensefor us to not build it here now.
It makes as much sense because I'm not gonna have to pay this important tariff taxes.
I mean, this is.
Yeah, it's kicking ourselves in the nuts, shooting ourselves in the dick.
don't I mean, pick something.
(25:56):
I mean, punching ourselves in the ovaries.
I'm fuck.
I don't know, man.
Like, all I know is that we're we're attempting to to sterilize our productivity andsterilize our people from being able to go through and actually be productive members of
society.
And half of this country is going, yeah.
I mean, it's like the scene from Idiocracy where
(26:20):
Fredo has his car blown up and is cheering that his car is being blown up.
And Joe's like, Fredo, that's your car.
What are you doing?
That's what this feels like.
And yeah, we need a president Camacho to come in and take care of this problem.
Yeah, it's time to go back to drinking Mountain Dew.
(26:44):
It's got electrolytes.
Exactly.
And Bronto, the thirst speed later.
I'm sure we just violated like 15 trademarks.
Exactly.
All right, well on that happy note, I think we can wrap things up here.
And any closing thoughts here for the person who is completely hopeless now that we'veterrified them.
Um, yes, uh, none of it is forever.
(27:09):
All of it's temporary, including you.
So you will not have to suffer this forever one way or the other.
We all expire at some point.
The life expectancy for everybody over a long enough period of timeline is zero, includingpeople that make stupid fucking tariff decisions.
(27:33):
We'll just leave that one dangling out there.
Thank you so much for listening.
You can follow us on social media.
You can reach out to us, info at thefitmess.com and subscribe on whatever podcast playeryou're listening to this on now so that you don't miss the next episode, which should be
out in about a week at thefitmess.com.
Thanks so much for listening.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com