November 12, 2024 • 55 mins
In this episode of Our Life Beyond, hosts Scott and Connie dive into the heightened emotions and division surrounding recent political events. Reflecting on the impact of social media, intense political polarization, and the struggle to maintain unity, they discuss the importance of focusing on local elections, the balance of power in government, and finding compassion in our interactions. Scott and Connie share personal perspectives on how we can approach political differences without letting them divide us, emphasizing the importance of informed, balanced conversations that look beyond party lines. Whether you’re celebrating or disappointed by election results, join us as we explore why unity and understanding are crucial now more than ever.
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Episode Transcript
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Well, hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Our Life Beyond the podcast where we explore how
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to navigate and hopefully thrive through some of life's biggest transitions. I'm your
co-host Scott Dibben and I've teamed up with my great friend and mentor Connie King to
share some stories, strategies and insights that helped us adapt to the ever-changing
seasons of our life. Whether your life transition is divorce, death of a loved one, switching
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careers, moving to a new city or just trying to figure out what the hell is next, where
with you every step of the way. But always remember we're not therapists, just fellow
travelers with a knack for finding humor in the chaos and maybe some untraditional method
of overcoming what life dishes out to us. Hopefully you'll have fun embarking on this
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journey. So now let's get started.
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Hello Scott.
Hello Connie, how are you?
I'm doing okay. How are you?
I'm okay but boy it's been a rough week on social media.
Oh, it's been a rough week period. So today is Sunday and on Tuesday we got a new president.
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We did.
And election time in the United States is a ride. That's the only way I know how to put
it.
So has it always been this way Connie? I mean I've been on this planet for 50 years
and I don't remember it being quite this bad and is it going to continue to get worse?
I think it has been bad because I remember in 9-11, so what was that? 2001?
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One of our businesses actually went under because that was the day that you would do
direct marketing on TV. And our biggest product, we had just run a test for it and it was going
to be the absolute biggest product we'd ever had. 9-11 happened, so we ran the ad on 9-10.
Oh yeah.
It was the biggest product. 9-11 happened and then the election happened and it took
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all the news or all the commercials. I mean we couldn't get any airtime.
We couldn't get any airtime because I think our elections do. They take up so much time
and so much space and so much mental energy.
So yeah. I agree. Hopefully everybody was able to enjoy our two-part series on dating.
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I talked about the men's view, you talked about the women's view, dating and the dating apps.
But now we're going to switch gears. We're going to get a little more serious but I also
want to make sure that everybody understands all of these are our opinions but we are going
to be very unbiased I think on this episode. As far as anything political, it really has
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nothing to do with who become president or who did not. It's just going to be our views
and what we took out of this election. You agree with that?
I agree. So we are going to explore the emotions of this political spectrum. We'll start talking
a little bit about the underlying factors that influenced the outcome based on our opinion.
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Why things turned out the way they did and I'm sorry whether you celebrated or whether
you're feeling deflated. We really just want to have a candid, respectful conversation
that looks beyond headlines, social media, people being ugly and we just kind of want
to talk about the why behind the votes. So if you are on board with that, let's dig in.
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All right. That sounds great.
All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about you are definitely more political than
I am.
I'm political but I don't follow either party and I want to make sure everybody understands
that. I really do kind of divide the line whenever I go to vote. I'll vote one side
or the other but I don't vote straight parties. I look at things and as we go through this,
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we'll probably see that. I look at things financially for our country, probably more
than I do social but we'll get into that. But I want everybody to understand that for
me, I don't vote Democrat or Republican straight. I really do try to figure out who I think the
best person for our country is. So with that, Connie, I was going to say, I think you're
...
Yeah, I'm the same way.
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Yeah.
But this election was a little bit different and part of that was just the sheer fact.
I'll just tell you a quick little story. Tuesday, granted, I have a hard time getting out because
I have a broken leg but I did not vote in this election and it's probably, I'm going
to give myself a little bit of leeway and say this is the second election I have not
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voted in since I was 18 and I'm 53 right now. I was talking to somebody and they said,
well, then you can't bitch about the outcome. I said, the fuck I can't. Here's why. I don't
think either party gave me a very good candidate to vote for. I think that's really, really
important to not make people feel guilty, to not want to partake. I didn't have a dog
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in this race at all. To look at it from a point of view where you just go, yeah, it
all looks kind of baffling to me, I come at it from a different perspective then.
For me, I did go vote and I don't do anything on social media typically politically. Part
of it's because of the job I got, part of it's because I just don't want to try to
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influence someone because that's not my job. I don't think that's right for me to do.
I did put one political thing out this year and it was about maybe it's time to take the
keys away from Joe Biden. I use the example of when your grandpa gets older, of course,
he never wants to give the keys away, but sometime you have to take them from it. Where
I was going with this was I was trying to say it's time for the Democrats to find somebody.
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Let's find somebody that's very strong. Let's find somebody that can really challenge Donald
Trump because I wanted this to be a very fair election. I'm going to be honest, neither candidate,
I cared for, I did not care for either candidate. I didn't want either of these to be quite
honest with you. It wasn't really fair with Harris because she had 100 days to do what
Donald Trump had been preparing for for several years, but I can tell you, I did not want
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either one of these either. I agree with you, Connie.
Well, so, oh, go ahead.
No, I was going to say, so with that, what our goal of this, I think, we just want to
try and help set the tone to be compassionate and balanced in your view during these next
few weeks or months because there's a lot of heated discussions out there. And I think
it's important that we at least try to voice our or express our opinion that everybody
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needs to calm down and try to at least take a breath and really look at what this is.
And I think you're right on that earlier. You and I were talking about, I don't know
why people become so involved and so passionate that they are willing to, so involved and
so passionate about people they don't know about who these people aren't are really in
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their life. They're willing to piss off, get rid of, like, just have no contact with family
and friends. And I'm always amazed by that. So that's the one thing I want this discussion
to be about is very open and honest. And again, it is our opinion. But let me tell you, I
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can see both sides of the parties. I mean, I can see both of them and I get both of them.
So hopefully we can kind of walk through that and talk a little bit more.
Let's jump in and talk about one of our first points is while the presidential election
is important, I don't, I think we missed the point as Americans because we have checks
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and balances. Let's start with that because everybody knows we have the separation of
power. We have the executive and legislative and judicial branches. So, you know, whoever
it was, whether it was Harris, which everybody, you know, half the America hated or Trump
half America hated, those people are not going to go in and change your life forever. You've
got 500 people underneath there that's in the house and in the Senate. And that's part
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of what we should have been focusing on, in my opinion, but we didn't. We missed the ball
and we just watched that top line. I don't know anybody that complained about who got
governor or state representative or house in the state we're in, Missouri. Nobody on
social media complained. The only thing they complained about was the president. And I
can tell you Connie and tell me if I'm wrong, but a lot of the social issues today, marriage
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rights, even abortion, that a lot of that's determined from a state level unless the government
thinks they're overstepping their boundaries and then they get into a heated match. But
most of the time the states try and take that on. So I think we missed the bark because
I don't know anybody cared that we ended up with the governor we ended up. And that was
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so interesting to me.
That's absolutely true. And I feel like a lot of times also on those, you know, even
the state amendments or people have one thing they think about. It's not the whole as a
state. So just for you, because this is something that you like to think about as the checks
and balances, how do you think now we, you know, we have a Republican president coming
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into office, we have Republican Congress, we have Senate judicial, everything's Republican.
How do you think that's going to play out? Do you think there's still going to be good
checks and balances?
I do because I can tell you right now, while President-elect Trump is considered a Republican,
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I think there's probably 20% of the Republicans that absolutely do not follow him, do not
like him. You combine that with what's on the Democratic side of things. I think it's
an equal of power. And we'll talk about that a little bit later on. Why do we think that
happened? But I think there's still a balance of power. Now, I do think America missed the
vote. If we wanted a Democratic Senate, we should have been focused on that. Nobody focused
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on that. And I really, I can tell you the papers, all the media, especially my social
media, and I've got a lot of people on there, nobody focused on any of that. Now, there
was a few amendments to the Missouri Constitution that they were, you know, focused on, but
nobody gave any extra thought, I don't think, to any of that. So if we look out, I do believe
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that there's still going to be a balance of power because I do not believe that Donald
Trump represents the Republican Party like the Republican Party would like him to. You
agree? I agree with that. Absolutely. And I agree with you as far as the state level.
I mean, we really, really missed the boat on that. We did. And I say we did. We missed
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the boat as far as nobody's complaining about it. Maybe everybody thought about it and voted
the way they wanted. But I don't leave anybody invested the amount of time that they did
in the presidential election. Absolutely. I agree with that. And I really do think that's
so much more important because, you know, we know that the more liberal states are on
the coasts. And it would make people happy to have different rules for them than here
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in the Midwest, maybe, you know? And so I think that's one of the things that really
does need to flip a little. You know what I love about our country, though? If you don't
like the politics of Missouri, move to Illinois. Yeah, you can move to Illinois. You can move
to Michigan. And, you know, or I say Michigan, Minnesota is more on the Democrat side, but
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you can pick a state that's even close by. So you don't have to say I'm leaving the country
because I really don't leave a lot of the social issues are determined there. They're
at the state level because I want to ask you one thing, Connie. Marijuana, is it federally
legal? No. Then why the hell can Colorado sell it, Missouri? It's all legal statewide.
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And that's why I'm trying to say, you know, focus on your local community. First of all,
focus on your neighbors. Focus on your local community. Focus on the state government.
And I really believe that means more than who just become president. You're right. And
I'm going to, it's funny because I think change starts at that smaller level. Absolutely.
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Let's take the marijuana. Let's just go with that because Missouri legalized it. Yes. And
I know several people who smoke marijuana and they have to have it for medical reasons.
And if they go somewhere, they are putting it in their luggage. They're, you know, they're
doing things with it. Sure. Well, when you fly, you're flying under the FAA, which is
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a federal agency and not once. And I'm sure somebody's going to be like, well, I know
somebody who's been busted. Guess what? Not me. Not once have I seen somebody because
I think what's happening is anybody who's checking bags are like, nah, it's, you know,
all these states have it legal. People need it. I'd much rather have somebody smoke in
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marijuana than drinking because they're so much more laid back. I mean, it, you know,
I think the changes start at that state level or that county level. In fact,
I agree. And with that, though, I think the reason people miss the focus is, which is
kind of our next point. It's the impact of social media on social media and all of the
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advertisements. We were just bombarded with Harris and Trump for president. And I can
tell you, Connie, once you Google or once you go in and like something or you don't
even have to like it, if you go to the page and you spend enough time reading it, those
cookies, all of the stuff that either your iPhone or your iPad or whatever it is device
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you're using, this is all an algorithm. Once they figure out you like content, guess what?
They feed on that. And if they know you're against Donald Trump, they're going to feed
stuff that's negative to Donald Trump. And what that does, that just builds and reinforces
your beliefs. This guy is terrible. I don't know why anybody in the world would ever
vote for him. He's evil. It was the same thing on the Harris side. It was so funny
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because I watched it and everybody's like, well, why in the hell would we ever vote?
She's been in office for four years, almost four years, nothing's changed. I mean, both
sides, if you fed, if you would feed to that, you got as much information about that as
you wanted. And what I think people need to do, if we really want to be smart about it,
take a step back and fact check this stuff, go out and say, go to, even if you don't like
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Fox News, go to Fox News, go to CNN, go to wherever it is you have to read opposing
stories on this and see if you can figure out what the truth is because I can tell you
social media feeds on what you want it to.
And I think that was the other thing. I would see my friends posts and so much of the time,
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I'm always so amazed that people don't do a lot of research. And then they post stuff
like it's, like it's, you know, been researched to death. I, a lot of times will like a post
either way because I'm so happy that these people have their own opinion and are having
a discussion. And yeah, sometimes it turns ugly, but let me tell you, that's freedom
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of speech. And I think that's really, really important. And yeah, I don't love social media.
I don't want the ads for Trump or Harris, if you want to know the truth, I don't want
any of them, but I do love that social media allows us to voice our opinion. I do love
that.
The only thing I wish that we would present things as our opinion and not like we have
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fact checked it because I'm very analytical. You know that Connie. So there was, I know
for instances, both sides, I promise you this wasn't one side. It was both sides. I've got
something through social media from an individual and it was posted to where everybody got it.
And I thought, ooh, this is interesting. Well, what do I do? I spend two hours and I fact
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checked it and I figure out it's false. And I remember on all four instances, I sent a
message back privately and I said, Hey, just so you know, that's not right. And here's
really what it is. And here's three sites that says this. Do you know nobody cared that
it was right or wrong? It followed the beliefs that they wanted to represent and push forward.
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And I'm like, Oh, that's almost sad to me because they're saying I got this from this
site. You can get anything from the, from the web. You can get anything false that you
want and it looks so legitimate.
Absolutely.
So that does drive me a little crazy, Connie. I just wish that we would fact checked a little
more if we're going to represent it as true. Now, if we want to say in there, Hey, I don't
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know if this is true, but this may be something somebody looks at, but nobody puts it that
way. They're like, See, I told you this was happening, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
and I click on it and it's from TikTok. And I'm like, Holy shit, TikTok just become a
reporting service for news. No, no, it's some, it's just ridiculous. I'm sorry.
Well, and I think a lot of people will fight over these things. So they post something,
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they'll fight over it and they'll, you know, they have to prove everybody wrong to prove
their point. And it's like, if that's, if that's what you want to stand on, just stand
on it. I mean, just say, you know what? I love Trump because I don't know, I'm trying
to make something up because I feel like he, I just, my finances did better while he was
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in office. Well, great. I can understand then, but when you're like, Oh, Trump did this,
this was so much better. All these things were so much better. And then you go look
and you do the reporting and you're like, or the research and you're like, uh, that
is not what any of this says. Sure. Both parties are doing that on inflation, you
know, on immigration. I mean, and that's what's crazy to me is if there was just a way that
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we could figure out and actually uncover all the bullshit. And, and I can tell you, it's
not easy. It's complicated and it takes a while. And if you look at how many issues
are out there, I'm not saying that you could, I mean, you could spend your lifetime trying
to figure out which candidate's the best, but I think pick out what it is. What is most
valuable to you? Like for me, I can tell you right now, financials of our country, I'm
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worried more about that than almost anything in our country today. And I know that may
seem sad, but when we talk a little more about that, we'll hopefully understand that. But
I look at who, who was trying to balance the budget, which nobody, nobody tries to balance
our budget, which pisses me off. You know, I go back to 92 and 96 when Ross Perot, I
don't know if you remember when he pulled out all the charts, I voted for the guy because
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he had data behind him. Nobody else has any of that. But where I'm going with that is
pick out what it is that you drives you or makes you think that's, you know, the U.S.
is going to be a better country because of it, research that and research it with the
candidate and pick the right one.
Yeah. Also on social media, the other aspect, so you come at things from a very analytical
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point and I come at things from a more emotional point of view. And one of the things on social
media that I hate is number one, when a friend of yours who believes something different is
mean and ugly and downgrades anybody who doesn't think they indict them basically for not thinking
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the same way they do. That's one thing. And the second thing is, oh, this is going to
sound bad, but...
Just say it.
You and I, well, you and I spoke about this, the whole counseling that happened after the
election. So I saw that one of the colleges in the town was offering counseling and, you
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know, whatever.
Not just a college. I can vouch for you that there are companies I know for a fact that
we're doing the same thing. Go ahead, Connie. I didn't mean to interrupt, but it's not just
colleges.
Well, social media brings that up. My first response because of who I am, how I've lived
and everything that I've been through, my first response is, what? Why? As I sit there
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and I say that, I go, I would like to sit down with somebody who needed the counseling
or who... I mean, because I understand disappointment. I understand being sad about those things.
So to make it clear, what you're saying now is the university and these companies, they're
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basically saying if the employees are having a hard time coping with what happened over
the election that they've got counselors available to help them. Is that what you're saying?
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
I wanted to make sure.
I didn't clarify that. Yeah.
So for me, social media exacerbates that. If you have somebody who's like, oh, I'm so
sad, I'm so sad, you can see 15 people who go, well, now I can't go to work. I can't
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do this. I can't do that. And I'm thinking, are all those people really sad or is it just
the train to jump on? But I really want... I know there's people who are sad about it.
I know there's people who need some help coping with it. I've never done that. I've never
really needed to... I mean, I go to counseling, but on a situation like that, I don't know
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that it would stop my day. And so social media sometimes I think exacerbates this type of
thing. It exacerbates the ugly and it exacerbates the drama. That's the best way for me to put
it.
And you know, social media right now, I think that if you're having to go into counseling
because of the election or if you're having a problem with it, it may be time to pause
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social media for a little while because I can tell you, I'm on there and I told you before
this Connie, I'm about ready to pause mine because I watch both sides right now and I
can tell you, I'm not on either of these sides to be quite honest with you. And I watch the
hatred from both sides. You know, if you voted for this person, I can never be your friend
again. And the other side is gloating sometimes. Sometimes they're not, but I mean, I'm watching
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this and it's... I feel like I'm watching a football game instead of an election, you
know, it really feels like that. It feels like we're voting for teams here and it's
just, it's sad. It really is sad that we've stooped to this level in my...
You know, there are a lot of therapists who have... This is kind of an offshoot, but a
lot of therapists who have come out and they're like, in a marriage, you're a team. Well, we
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need to think of our country that way too. We're a team.
At least your neighbors.
Yeah. If the person you thought was best for the job did not get the job, yes, that's
sad. That's not fun, but now where do we go? What do we do? How do we, you know, get together
and figure it out?
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Yeah.
That's my thought.
So let's jump into what happened and what they're actually starting to say out there.
And I say them, you know, once again, I read a lot. I watch a lot of videos and I do. I
promise you, I watch on every side of it, but the big thing that I'm hearing right now,
Connie, is there is a need to evolve all the political parties to what's needed today.
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And it's so interesting the conversations they're having. So I want to take you to...
And I know I sent this to you, but there was a video and this video had, if anybody knows
these people, they'll probably know these are hardcore political people in their own
parties. One of them is Harold Ford Jr., Democrat, and the other is Carl Rove, which
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is Republican. Everybody's probably heard Carl Rove. I don't know why, but I've heard
that name more than the other of Harold Ford.
But they actually got up beforehand and they went through the map and the electoral votes
and how it all broke down. What shocked me, Connie, was there were several states. There
was one that they talked about in... I'm not state, sorry, counties. There was one county
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in Florida, one county, I believe, in one of the Carolinas. It may have been North Carolina.
But the one that really keyed in, that I keyed in on, was there was a county in Texas that
was at the down at the very border and they showed that this county had not voted Republican
since 1896. This election, they voted Republican. But they also showed a few other counties
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that did the same thing. And it was interesting, the guy that went from the board come over
and then started talking to this Harold Ford Jr. from the Democrats and Carl Rove. And
I want to tell you, I think a lot of Harold Ford Jr., because what he said, he's the one
that started this conversation, he said, you know, we missed the mark. And he's the one
that said, our party is going to need to evolve to today's standards, basically. We are not
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connecting with the people. If you've got a county that has voted Democrat since 1896,
that has switched to Republicans, there's something wrong with our party. And he said,
basically, we have 36 months before this all starts over again, to figure out what we can
do to connect with our people because we are supposed to be for the people, not just for
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our party. So that was such an interesting conversation they had. Give me your thoughts,
Connie.
Oh, yeah. I mean, I think both parties have, I think that's the reason Trump won is because
he is this outsider who, okay, he's not, he's not a lifetime politician. And I think that
was the hope. People want to feel seen and heard. And I don't think either of the political
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parties are offering that. I think the hope was Trump would be that. I think a lot of
people have realized that he's closer than a lifetime politician, but is he really?
It's a wild card.
Yeah. Is he going to really be that good? And I agree absolutely. I think if somebody
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handed, if one of those political parties handed us a really smart, solid talk to the
people candidate, I think they'd sweep it at this point because I am not seeing, I don't
see staunch Democrats anymore and I don't see staunch Republicans anymore. I'm sure
everybody has them somewhere, but I think our generation for sure has gotten to the
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point where we go. Let's hear what they have to say. Who is it? I mean, I think there's
so many people who want a median candidate instead of these extremes that if one of the
parties handed you something like that, I think that that would be a way to win over
everybody. Yeah. I don't think you see very many people that vote a straight ticket of
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Republican or Democrat anymore. I can tell you, I've got a very good friend of mine that
really leans to one side a lot that ended up voting for the other side for one of the
officials or for one of the positions. And I was impressed with that, but talking with
that individual basically said, I just didn't believe in the other person, even though that's
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typically the party I swayed or it just didn't feel right and liked the views of the other
person better. So you're right, Connie. It's not like you go to a household and you say,
okay, they're completely Republican, completely Democrat, or it shouldn't be, I should say,
because I think you need to look at the individual person and what they're trying to do for the
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country or the state or the local government. Right. Absolutely. I think so too. You also
told me something, we were talking at the beginning, that you had researched that there
was a expert out there that was basically saying that they had a reason why they thought
Trump appealed to more people and had to deal with that tagline. Can you share that?
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Yeah. So that's funny. I thought I already said this. There is a marketing man. I followed
Donald Miller and he was talking about how Donald Trump had a very clear message, which
was make America great again. That was his tagline. And what that plays into is I get
to decide what made America great. And so in my mind, Donald Trump is going to do that.
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Now, he may not. He may think everything opposite of what I think, but that tagline, which is
what we've heard constantly from him, makes people go, oh, he's going to make us all live
easier, bring up the unemployment, I mean, just all the things where we, you and I actually
had to look up Kamala's tagline and it was a new way forward. And so Donald Miller was
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talking about how, what does that mean? A new way forward. It focused more on her. She
was the new way forward. When the reality is, is we don't want to see a person. We want
to see like the big picture America. It's going to be great for everybody, not just
following her, like moving her forward because she's the new way. He was kind of talking
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about that. And he also attributed that to Donald Trump losing in the last election because
the tagline was keep America great. There were millions of people who didn't think America
was great because they were not affected by his or not affected much or affected negatively
in his first presidency. So for him to say, you know, keep America great, people were
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going, what? It's not that great. How are we going to keep it this way? No, let's keep
moving forward. Let's do better. And so he attributed the taglines and the messages to
failure or success of the candidate. It was really interesting.
Well, we all know marketing plays a big role in everything and anything you buy, if you
(30:41):
see it enough time on TV and it looks appealing, you're going to go look at it in person. So
I mean, I hate it. I hate to think that marketing can drive that much, but it absolutely does.
This is the reason the super PACs end up, you know, putting so much money into these
candidates and help them with advertisements, I believe.
(31:01):
Well, Trump sold the dream.
Yeah, of course he did.
And we'll see, you know, he's got four years. And I'm going to tell you right now, I am
really excited what's going to happen in four years. If we've really got the Democrat and
the Republican side saying we've got to evolve our political parties to meet more what are,
you know, what the common person or what our people want, that's exciting to me. That
(31:24):
this was a wake up call and I don't think that's a bad thing. And once again, if we
go back to the beginning, I don't think that in the next four years, we're going to have
all this devastation and that the US is going to go under because of it, because I do think
that we have enough checks and balances to keep that from happening. So I am excited
to see what happens four years from now and what happens to both political parties.
(31:46):
But let's talk a little bit about that. It may not happen in the next four years.
Oh, that's true.
Kind of bypassing that. But you brought up some financial issues and I think that is
something that concerns me because if we're unable to pay back our debt or if we're just
printing money, we're not doing ourselves any good. So talk about that part. You and
(32:08):
I talked about how that was worrisome to us. Okay. Yeah, let's talk about two sections.
So let's talk about the government, country in general. And then I want to go back and
talk a little bit about prices at the store and locally what we're seeing. But once again,
these are numbers that I researched. They're not my numbers. Of course, I can't get numbers
except from what I researched. But today we are $32 trillion in debt. Our government is
(32:33):
$32 trillion in debt. If you try to write that on a piece of paper, the number of zeros
will scare you. It really will. But that's a number. We see it going up and I know that
you remember this and I hear it all the time. We hit our debt selling and they have to vote
to add $6 trillion more or $3 trillion more. Otherwise, the government's going to go into
(32:54):
standstill and basically it shuts down the government. It's scary. I don't know right
or wrong what we should be doing there. But I can tell you right now, for me, for me moving
forward, we have to figure out how to balance the budget. And that's something we've heard
for years and I don't think we even understand what that means. But let's dig it more into
the numbers. $32 trillion in debt. Per year, our government pulls in in revenue $3 trillion.
(33:19):
So we pull in $3 trillion. But now also think about it, we're pulling in $3 trillion, but
we're given $890 billion to military. So almost $1 trillion, not quite, but almost $1 trillion.
Each state gets money to work on roads, to fund whatever program. I mean, all of our
military bases, we've got Fort Leonard Wood, we've got the Whiteman Air Force Base, all
(33:41):
of those. The government funds those. So that's money out of that $3 trillion.
Okay. Today, our interest payments, and I say today, these numbers were from about three
months ago, our interest payments today is $640 billion a year. That's just interest.
So we only make $3 trillion. So $640 billion only pays interest, doesn't pay anything off
(34:05):
our principal. On top of that, they're saying at the rate we're going, because we keep adding
to it, within five years, they're projecting that our interest alone will be $1 trillion.
The big thing they're worried about, Connie, is what happens to our country when our interest
rate or our interest that they call in from us is more than our revenue we pull in GDP,
(34:31):
basically. What happens when it's $3.1 trillion is our interest, but we only pull in $3 trillion?
It doesn't work. You can't function that way.
So why do you feel like, because we've seen it, we've seen the government shutdowns, and
then they have to decide to raise that debt ceiling.
Oh, yeah, all the time.
(34:51):
And then I would imagine there's more money printed, and then we have, we devalue our
dollar.
The more money they print, that causes inflation if we wanted to get it all. I mean, this is
just this catch 22 that if anybody understood, I mean, right now, our country's doing everything
with a credit card innocence, and you would never support your whole household on a credit
(35:14):
card, because this $3 trillion in revenue, if we take all of our interest payments off
of it, we are giving out more money than $3 trillion a year.
So we are asking people fund us every year so that I can fund everybody else. We have
to stop doing that. I think, I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I believe we have to.
And did you know, so out of the $32 trillion in debt, and the sources went back and forth,
(35:38):
so I'm going to apologize if they're a little bit off, but we're between 20 and 30% of that
is foreign owned debt from Japan being number one and China being number two. It's really
neat how we hate China, but we want to borrow from them in my mind. It's just weird to me.
So that's part of that interest that we have.
Yeah. Yeah. And if you take 30% of that between Japan, China, which are the top two, and then
(36:03):
there's several others in there, but we owe $9 trillion in foreign money. Everything else
is internal, and that's things that some of the big financial institutes, the bonds, I
mean, there's several ways internally that they get funded, but think about that. No
household could live off of that. So all I'm saying is for me, when I look at a candidate,
(36:24):
I'm thinking, do you have the ability to try to balance a budget? And I've never found
a candidate, I don't think since I've almost been alive that has done that, but we have
to somehow get our finances in order for our country because we base everything off of,
or everybody in the world bases everything off of reserve currency. That's how oil and
(36:46):
everything else that's globally is priced. And that's based off the US dollar because
we have reserve currency. That's the reason Japan and China loves our money and they're
willing to take it because we're a good risk because we are the reserve currency. When
that goes away and it becomes something else, they're not as interested in us.
So what would cause that to go away?
What would well,
(37:07):
Yeah, so a few things can cause that to go away. One thing is our dollar weakened against
another currency and enough of the country's getting together saying they don't want to
use the US dollar as the reserve currency. And it can happen. And then they'll choose
another currency, whatever it would be they'll choose. And then we start getting compared
to the reserve each year basically or each month. So it's interesting because I don't
(37:31):
see anybody on social media concerned about that, but I also don't hope I don't see anybody
on social media that's using their credit card every month to pay their house payment,
their car payment, everything and just hoping that next month it looks better because it
won't. And I have a lot of concern there.
Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. I mean, when we talk about leaving, you know, not
(37:51):
just a great earth for our kids, but what about our country? You know, I don't want
my kids. I saw a report the other day that said our children is the, it's the first generation
who will not be able to do better than their parents.
Oh, wow.
And after hearing those numbers, it makes me go, this needs to change because we, I want
(38:14):
to give my kids a chance, you know, I definitely want to give my kids a chance.
Well, and I think everybody does. So let's jump into, and this was one of the things
that both the candidates was really big on this year, I think everybody has felt the
hurt whenever you go to the store today and you check out and whatever you used to buy,
that was $72 is now 114 or something. And you're like, holy shit, the price of everything
(38:39):
is one up. So once again, I am not saying I'm 100% correct. I would love to be challenged
on this and talk through it with somebody if I'm not correct. But all of the candidates,
all of them, both of them, they had the solution that was so, so easy. I mean, I think Harris
was talking about all she had to do was, you know, the first thing she's going to do is
price gouges. She's getting rid of price gouging. I'm going to call bullshit on that. Not every,
(39:02):
not every manufacturer of a food type product is price gouging. And I'm going to just tell
you, I don't think Walmart's price gouging. I don't think Hivey's price gouging. I think
that was just a bullshit, easy way to say I'm going to do something and make everybody
think, oh, she's going to get these big companies. On the other side, Donald Trump's like, we
got to, we got to figure out inflation as soon as I get inflation down, I'm going to
(39:25):
work with these companies. We're going to, I think that's bullshit. I'll just be honest
because this is, I did a lot of research and I can tell you what, where this starts, let's
start at the very top. I have got 401ks. Most of their listeners probably do too. If you've
got 401ks, you're invested in companies. I may be invested in Walmart. I may be an invested
(39:45):
in Procter and Gamble or whatever. Next year, I need their stock to go up. I need to make
money off of their company. If I don't make money off of their company, I'm going to another
company. I say I am. My investors hopefully will because I am paying them in a sense to
make me money. So at the very top line, what we have is we have corporate expectations.
(40:06):
They have to make more money every year. You agree with that?
Yes.
Okay. So
And as a business owner, that is the truth.
You have to, yes. So let's think about Walmart or our products and there are high V or wherever
you end up going. Think of the products in there. Most all of those are corporations.
It's got to make more money next year. Okay. So that's the first thing that's going to
(40:26):
cause prices to possibly go up. How they can keep that from going up is they produce more.
They produce different products or they cut the cost of a product. Well, how do they do
that? Well, first of all, we have higher interest rates today. Do we not?
Yes.
Okay. If they want to add additional lines to production, if they want to add additional
(40:48):
facilities, most all of these companies get loans for it. Those loans cost them a lot
more than it used to cost them.
So guess what? That money has to go somewhere. They can't absorb it. If they absorb it, the
stock owner is going to get pissed because their stocks are going to go down. So let's
keep going though.
Yep.
Labor cost. Labor cost keeps going up and minimum wage, I know went up, not only minimum
(41:10):
wage, but all the added benefits that everybody's needing, the price of insurance is going up.
I mean, it is insane, honey, you know this. And these companies are taking this on their
self. They have to because an employee can't pay. And I can tell you, I worked at a small
place for a period of time. My insurance was 900 a month for a family. Most companies or
(41:32):
most individuals can't do that. So think about these companies are absorbing all this additional
cost. Okay. Once again, remember, stock holders are pushing them. I need more money next year.
I'm pushing them because I got their stock on top of that. Then they've got this supply
chain. If there's any disruptions, if there's global trade and we know Trump's talking about
putting a global or a tariff on China, well, that's going to cause some problems could.
(41:55):
And I'm not going to say I don't know his plan, but it could cause some problems. Fuel
prices has fuel prices went up.
Yes.
Well, hell, our supply chain, guess what? They run off fuel prices and everything else.
Also, there's been a lot of weather events. We've had a lot of hurricanes. We've had a
lot of weather impacts. All of that combined together contributes to the price you're paying
(42:17):
at the supermarket today. And what I'm trying to say is whenever you hear one of our political
candidates tell you that they're going to say it's price gouging or it is bullshit answers,
what they need to tell you is we're going to get a team together to figure this out.
Because I can tell you right now, if you take all of the problems in the world today or
(42:37):
in our country, not the world, Kamala Harrison or Harris, sorry, or Donald Trump, neither
one of those by themselves could fix that problem. They're going to have to have a huge
team of people that understand these industries, understand what happens, and they have to
be able to implement these solutions.
So what I'm saying is Donald Trump can probably not tell you exactly what it's going to take
(42:59):
to get those prices down. Neither could Harris. That's unfair to even ask them to do it because
they're going to have to do more research. But what I hate is when they throw out these
one answers and act so confident that this one thing is going to fix it because it's
not.
So backing up, what I think is going to end up having to happen, we got to get lower interest
rates. We've got to figure out the cost of having labor. There's a company in, I believe
(43:24):
it's San Francisco County that I found, they're 100% automated as a small restaurant. They
basically do hamburgers and French fries and stuff. It's a very simple organization.
But they found that if the labor inside was more than $20 an hour average, they could
automate 100% of the restaurant and make more money. So we've got to watch this balance
(43:49):
of when and if we keep pushing wages too high that automation makes sense. Can you imagine
what's going to happen if 50% of the restaurants automate half of what they're doing and a
lot of that labor goes away? And I know whether it's Trump or Harris, they can say, we'll
make sure that doesn't happen. They don't have the right to make sure that this is capitalism.
They have no right to make sure that happens.
(44:11):
And I think that's where the younger generation, well, and I say younger generation, I think
that's where so many people are really terrified of so much of what they see coming down the
pike is we can't pay a living wage. And yet, like you said, these restaurants can start
getting it done cheaper. You know, our products can get made in China cheaper. We can it's
(44:33):
getting to the point to where that part needs to be solved. We need to be able to pay our
people a living wage. And again, I am not on that committee. I couldn't solve that problem
unless I did a ton more research. But it's scary. And these candidates do that thing.
He you know, he was Trump was big on terrace. Yes. And I saw I saw a thing where they were
(44:56):
asking people, you know, well, the terror, what do you think about the tariffs? They're
like, Oh, it's great. And they said, Do you realize that you're the one who actually pays
for tariffs? And they're like, No, the other countries pay for tariffs. And they had to
explain that to them. And there were so many people who were like, Oh, no, no, no, no, no,
that's not the case. You know, a ship comes in from China with product, tariffs are placed
(45:20):
on it. The company who gets that product is the one who's charged. And then, or I guess
China's charged. And then they charge the company. You know, I mean, it all falls down
to the consumer. Yeah, absolutely does. I'm like, but you know, at the top, what's terrible
is I know this, I'm going in and bitching about the price I'm paying at the store. But also
(45:41):
on the other side on my 401k, I've got I'm bitching if it's not making money, which means
the companies are there they're in this middle saying, What the hell do you want me to do?
You want me to make more money for you, but you don't want me to sell it for anymore.
I mean, it's, it's tough on these companies. It's not fair, the position we put them in.
And then we point the spotlight at them and say they're being crooked and evil because
I don't believe they all are. The other part that you're you, you know,
(46:05):
what about the people who don't have the 401ks? So they're not getting the benefit of the
positive of their stocks going up. All they're getting is the negative of the prices going
up. You're absolutely right. So I do understand
why people want the minimum wage to go up and better benefits and all that. But just,
I mean, but just realize that when that happens and we go into McDonald's and our hamburger
(46:29):
goes up 50 cents or something. I mean, it's hard for us to complain because that company
has to figure out how to balance everything they do. And I don't know. I don't know the
answer to this equation. I promise you I don't. And but I'm going to also tell you one thing.
If Harris was in office, I would say the same thing as Trump being in office right now.
You know, I hope to stand behind him and say he's going to put a great team. I hope, I
(46:53):
hope she would have too put a damn good team together. Let's figure out how to make this
work, how to get our prices down a little bit, how to lower our debt, how to make our
country more appealing. And I say more appealing internally. I think there's more people internally
in the U S right now that is unhappy with the situation we're in for one reason or another.
(47:13):
If we can start showing some positive progress, if we can get our fuel prices down, if we
can get our prices down to store a little bit. And once again, I don't care what candidate
it was, I truly don't. I am for the person that can actually get an action done.
Let's take, so I know this is going to be a weird question. Let's take the whole government
aspect out of it. How do we as human beings with our neighbors start moving forward after
(47:37):
this election?
Yeah. So first of all, I'm not, I'm not saying everybody has to go apologize to everybody
because we're all, we're all big people and understand that, you know, we, we're not going
to like everything that everybody says, but I just think the election's over. Quit gloating.
Let's stop it. The gloating. And let's, let's be a little more kinder and say, you know,
Hey, if you're having any hard time with anything, if there's anything I can do to help, you
(47:59):
know what I mean? Be kind. We, we really are. I mean, I think that, that the U S we're very
kind people or can be. And I think that we just need to switch that from being competitive.
Our football team one, in a sense, is what I feel back to you are my neighbors. And I
want to make sure everybody's okay, you know, if I'll mow your grass, if you mow my grass,
(48:20):
we need to get back to being civil to everybody. And that's on social media too, because believe
it or not, when you criticize one person on social media, a lot of time, or I say one
person a party like that, it can make a lot of people feel like it's directed towards
them because I live right next door to him. I know this is pointed toward, you know what
I mean? And it may not be, but really be thinking about what you're posting and why and what
(48:43):
fucking purpose does it serve? Is it to gloat? Is it to just say, look at what has happened?
Because that's bullshit. We should all stand behind who was voted for president and why?
Because 50.2% of the population voted him popular vote. 47% over that was for Harris.
So half of the people you're going to meet at work and maybe not where we live as much
(49:05):
as some other place, but half the play or half the people in your neighborhood, half
the people you work with may have voted for that other person. I guarantee that you can
still have a great conversation with them at lunch. You can still have dinner with them.
Just be kind when you're talking politics because I just don't think we need to cause
all this havoc we're causing right now. That's where these counselors are coming from.
(49:27):
Well, and I think that's the other thing, you know, at the beginning I had said, I don't
understand why people need counselors. Well, a lot of that comes from, you know, I don't
have a huge ego. I really don't. I don't care whether I'm right or wrong. I mean, yeah,
I like to be right, but if I'm wrong, do I have a problem saying to somebody, oh, I was
wrong about that. Absolutely not. And so if somebody, if I sat down with somebody and
(49:51):
they said, well, I had to go to the counselor today because this really, really bothered
me, my question would be really tell me why. And a lot of that would not be judgment. It
would be, I really truly want to find out where your emotional state is. Why? Because
if they are so scared, guess what? I as a human being want to make sure the next human
(50:13):
being feels some love and some safety and some security. I don't have to agree with
them. Absolutely. But guess what? That is a basic, basic human right is to feel that.
And you know, I want to, you know, you need to be really cautious, I think, because what
we're seeing around locally where we live, Connie, some of the politics is generational,
(50:36):
some of the odor really see something one way where the younger generation sees it.
And that could be your son, your daughter, it could, maybe it's not your son, but it
could be your daughter-in-law. It could be, you know what I mean? These are people, I
don't think everybody hates them, but man, they can sure spread hate and say that if
you voted this way, you could never be a friend of mine or you could, it is horrible. It is
(50:58):
horrible. I just think we need to get back to the basics of let's all be good to each
other. Right. Yep. And don't indict people. I saw that go around. There was a meme that
said something like, if you have a gay friend and you voted for Trump, you don't really
have a gay friend, you have a gay acquaintance. And I was like, oh, you just indicted that
(51:20):
person. Like you, because somebody thought that the things that were important to them,
which may be completely different than what's important to you, but because of something
that was important to them, they voted a certain way. You just indicted them and used shame
and guilt. And I think that's what really, really causes a lot of problems in this political
(51:44):
world is that we don't have to use shame and guilt. I mean, I have so many different family
members who disagree with my stance or I disagree with their stance, but guess what? When you
sit down and talk to them, ultimately we all have the same goal. It's just looking at the
way you get there. Absolutely. And that's the difference. And it's, oh, it's been eye-opening
(52:07):
to me over as an adult that I go, oh, we're really not that different. It's true. It's
the way we want to get there. All right. Let's close it with this. We've got the holidays
coming up, Connie. Let's all be kind to each other. We've got Thanksgiving. Guess what?
Someone sitting around your table probably didn't vote the same way. You may have to
give a present to somebody that didn't vote your way, but you know what? It's the holidays.
(52:30):
The election's over. We either won or lost. Let's just move forward and let's try and
help everybody move forward in a positive manner. Absolutely. I agree with that. Well,
hopefully Scott, in the next couple of weeks, we can dive a little bit more into this. And
the only thing that I'd like to see is I would like to see different party lines like somebody
(52:51):
who voted for Harris, the thoughts behind that. Sure. And I'd like to see the people
who voted for Trump, the thoughts behind that and why they did it. And I want to do it in
a way that's just really, truly valuable. Like I want no judgment. I want to know these people.
I want to know their heart. I want to know why. Yep. I think you can do that. I think
(53:14):
that can open some people's eyes, or at least I hope. Maybe I'm looking for a utopian world,
and I'm going to try either way. All right. Well, with that, thank you for the talk. I
mean, you definitely have more to say about politics than I do. Now, you balance me a
lot, Connie, and I don't say it enough, but I definitely appreciate your views. And I
(53:37):
appreciate you so much. All right. Well, everybody have a good week. We will talk to you soon.
Okay. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Our Life Beyond. We really hope
that you found our discussion insightful and inspiring, or at least brought us a smile
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(53:58):
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(54:20):
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Well, hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Our Life Beyond the podcast where we explore how
(00:12):
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(00:34):
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(00:55):
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(01:39):
Hello Scott.
Hello Connie, how are you?
I'm doing okay. How are you?
I'm okay but boy it's been a rough week on social media.
Oh, it's been a rough week period. So today is Sunday and on Tuesday we got a new president.
(02:01):
We did.
And election time in the United States is a ride. That's the only way I know how to put
it.
So has it always been this way Connie? I mean I've been on this planet for 50 years
and I don't remember it being quite this bad and is it going to continue to get worse?
I think it has been bad because I remember in 9-11, so what was that? 2001?
(02:30):
One of our businesses actually went under because that was the day that you would do
direct marketing on TV. And our biggest product, we had just run a test for it and it was going
to be the absolute biggest product we'd ever had. 9-11 happened, so we ran the ad on 9-10.
Oh yeah.
It was the biggest product. 9-11 happened and then the election happened and it took
(02:54):
all the news or all the commercials. I mean we couldn't get any airtime.
We couldn't get any airtime because I think our elections do. They take up so much time
and so much space and so much mental energy.
So yeah. I agree. Hopefully everybody was able to enjoy our two-part series on dating.
(03:19):
I talked about the men's view, you talked about the women's view, dating and the dating apps.
But now we're going to switch gears. We're going to get a little more serious but I also
want to make sure that everybody understands all of these are our opinions but we are going
to be very unbiased I think on this episode. As far as anything political, it really has
(03:40):
nothing to do with who become president or who did not. It's just going to be our views
and what we took out of this election. You agree with that?
I agree. So we are going to explore the emotions of this political spectrum. We'll start talking
a little bit about the underlying factors that influenced the outcome based on our opinion.
(04:02):
Why things turned out the way they did and I'm sorry whether you celebrated or whether
you're feeling deflated. We really just want to have a candid, respectful conversation
that looks beyond headlines, social media, people being ugly and we just kind of want
to talk about the why behind the votes. So if you are on board with that, let's dig in.
(04:26):
All right. That sounds great.
All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about you are definitely more political than
I am.
I'm political but I don't follow either party and I want to make sure everybody understands
that. I really do kind of divide the line whenever I go to vote. I'll vote one side
or the other but I don't vote straight parties. I look at things and as we go through this,
(04:50):
we'll probably see that. I look at things financially for our country, probably more
than I do social but we'll get into that. But I want everybody to understand that for
me, I don't vote Democrat or Republican straight. I really do try to figure out who I think the
best person for our country is. So with that, Connie, I was going to say, I think you're
...
Yeah, I'm the same way.
(05:10):
Yeah.
But this election was a little bit different and part of that was just the sheer fact.
I'll just tell you a quick little story. Tuesday, granted, I have a hard time getting out because
I have a broken leg but I did not vote in this election and it's probably, I'm going
to give myself a little bit of leeway and say this is the second election I have not
(05:31):
voted in since I was 18 and I'm 53 right now. I was talking to somebody and they said,
well, then you can't bitch about the outcome. I said, the fuck I can't. Here's why. I don't
think either party gave me a very good candidate to vote for. I think that's really, really
important to not make people feel guilty, to not want to partake. I didn't have a dog
(05:54):
in this race at all. To look at it from a point of view where you just go, yeah, it
all looks kind of baffling to me, I come at it from a different perspective then.
For me, I did go vote and I don't do anything on social media typically politically. Part
of it's because of the job I got, part of it's because I just don't want to try to
(06:16):
influence someone because that's not my job. I don't think that's right for me to do.
I did put one political thing out this year and it was about maybe it's time to take the
keys away from Joe Biden. I use the example of when your grandpa gets older, of course,
he never wants to give the keys away, but sometime you have to take them from it. Where
I was going with this was I was trying to say it's time for the Democrats to find somebody.
(06:40):
Let's find somebody that's very strong. Let's find somebody that can really challenge Donald
Trump because I wanted this to be a very fair election. I'm going to be honest, neither candidate,
I cared for, I did not care for either candidate. I didn't want either of these to be quite
honest with you. It wasn't really fair with Harris because she had 100 days to do what
Donald Trump had been preparing for for several years, but I can tell you, I did not want
(07:03):
either one of these either. I agree with you, Connie.
Well, so, oh, go ahead.
No, I was going to say, so with that, what our goal of this, I think, we just want to
try and help set the tone to be compassionate and balanced in your view during these next
few weeks or months because there's a lot of heated discussions out there. And I think
it's important that we at least try to voice our or express our opinion that everybody
(07:27):
needs to calm down and try to at least take a breath and really look at what this is.
And I think you're right on that earlier. You and I were talking about, I don't know
why people become so involved and so passionate that they are willing to, so involved and
so passionate about people they don't know about who these people aren't are really in
(07:51):
their life. They're willing to piss off, get rid of, like, just have no contact with family
and friends. And I'm always amazed by that. So that's the one thing I want this discussion
to be about is very open and honest. And again, it is our opinion. But let me tell you, I
(08:12):
can see both sides of the parties. I mean, I can see both of them and I get both of them.
So hopefully we can kind of walk through that and talk a little bit more.
Let's jump in and talk about one of our first points is while the presidential election
is important, I don't, I think we missed the point as Americans because we have checks
(08:34):
and balances. Let's start with that because everybody knows we have the separation of
power. We have the executive and legislative and judicial branches. So, you know, whoever
it was, whether it was Harris, which everybody, you know, half the America hated or Trump
half America hated, those people are not going to go in and change your life forever. You've
got 500 people underneath there that's in the house and in the Senate. And that's part
(08:58):
of what we should have been focusing on, in my opinion, but we didn't. We missed the ball
and we just watched that top line. I don't know anybody that complained about who got
governor or state representative or house in the state we're in, Missouri. Nobody on
social media complained. The only thing they complained about was the president. And I
can tell you Connie and tell me if I'm wrong, but a lot of the social issues today, marriage
(09:23):
rights, even abortion, that a lot of that's determined from a state level unless the government
thinks they're overstepping their boundaries and then they get into a heated match. But
most of the time the states try and take that on. So I think we missed the bark because
I don't know anybody cared that we ended up with the governor we ended up. And that was
(09:43):
so interesting to me.
That's absolutely true. And I feel like a lot of times also on those, you know, even
the state amendments or people have one thing they think about. It's not the whole as a
state. So just for you, because this is something that you like to think about as the checks
and balances, how do you think now we, you know, we have a Republican president coming
(10:08):
into office, we have Republican Congress, we have Senate judicial, everything's Republican.
How do you think that's going to play out? Do you think there's still going to be good
checks and balances?
I do because I can tell you right now, while President-elect Trump is considered a Republican,
(10:29):
I think there's probably 20% of the Republicans that absolutely do not follow him, do not
like him. You combine that with what's on the Democratic side of things. I think it's
an equal of power. And we'll talk about that a little bit later on. Why do we think that
happened? But I think there's still a balance of power. Now, I do think America missed the
vote. If we wanted a Democratic Senate, we should have been focused on that. Nobody focused
(10:54):
on that. And I really, I can tell you the papers, all the media, especially my social
media, and I've got a lot of people on there, nobody focused on any of that. Now, there
was a few amendments to the Missouri Constitution that they were, you know, focused on, but
nobody gave any extra thought, I don't think, to any of that. So if we look out, I do believe
(11:15):
that there's still going to be a balance of power because I do not believe that Donald
Trump represents the Republican Party like the Republican Party would like him to. You
agree? I agree with that. Absolutely. And I agree with you as far as the state level.
I mean, we really, really missed the boat on that. We did. And I say we did. We missed
(11:38):
the boat as far as nobody's complaining about it. Maybe everybody thought about it and voted
the way they wanted. But I don't leave anybody invested the amount of time that they did
in the presidential election. Absolutely. I agree with that. And I really do think that's
so much more important because, you know, we know that the more liberal states are on
the coasts. And it would make people happy to have different rules for them than here
(12:05):
in the Midwest, maybe, you know? And so I think that's one of the things that really
does need to flip a little. You know what I love about our country, though? If you don't
like the politics of Missouri, move to Illinois. Yeah, you can move to Illinois. You can move
to Michigan. And, you know, or I say Michigan, Minnesota is more on the Democrat side, but
(12:27):
you can pick a state that's even close by. So you don't have to say I'm leaving the country
because I really don't leave a lot of the social issues are determined there. They're
at the state level because I want to ask you one thing, Connie. Marijuana, is it federally
legal? No. Then why the hell can Colorado sell it, Missouri? It's all legal statewide.
(12:48):
And that's why I'm trying to say, you know, focus on your local community. First of all,
focus on your neighbors. Focus on your local community. Focus on the state government.
And I really believe that means more than who just become president. You're right. And
I'm going to, it's funny because I think change starts at that smaller level. Absolutely.
(13:09):
Let's take the marijuana. Let's just go with that because Missouri legalized it. Yes. And
I know several people who smoke marijuana and they have to have it for medical reasons.
And if they go somewhere, they are putting it in their luggage. They're, you know, they're
doing things with it. Sure. Well, when you fly, you're flying under the FAA, which is
(13:35):
a federal agency and not once. And I'm sure somebody's going to be like, well, I know
somebody who's been busted. Guess what? Not me. Not once have I seen somebody because
I think what's happening is anybody who's checking bags are like, nah, it's, you know,
all these states have it legal. People need it. I'd much rather have somebody smoke in
(13:57):
marijuana than drinking because they're so much more laid back. I mean, it, you know,
I think the changes start at that state level or that county level. In fact,
I agree. And with that, though, I think the reason people miss the focus is, which is
kind of our next point. It's the impact of social media on social media and all of the
(14:17):
advertisements. We were just bombarded with Harris and Trump for president. And I can
tell you, Connie, once you Google or once you go in and like something or you don't
even have to like it, if you go to the page and you spend enough time reading it, those
cookies, all of the stuff that either your iPhone or your iPad or whatever it is device
(14:39):
you're using, this is all an algorithm. Once they figure out you like content, guess what?
They feed on that. And if they know you're against Donald Trump, they're going to feed
stuff that's negative to Donald Trump. And what that does, that just builds and reinforces
your beliefs. This guy is terrible. I don't know why anybody in the world would ever
vote for him. He's evil. It was the same thing on the Harris side. It was so funny
(15:01):
because I watched it and everybody's like, well, why in the hell would we ever vote?
She's been in office for four years, almost four years, nothing's changed. I mean, both
sides, if you fed, if you would feed to that, you got as much information about that as
you wanted. And what I think people need to do, if we really want to be smart about it,
take a step back and fact check this stuff, go out and say, go to, even if you don't like
(15:27):
Fox News, go to Fox News, go to CNN, go to wherever it is you have to read opposing
stories on this and see if you can figure out what the truth is because I can tell you
social media feeds on what you want it to.
And I think that was the other thing. I would see my friends posts and so much of the time,
(15:48):
I'm always so amazed that people don't do a lot of research. And then they post stuff
like it's, like it's, you know, been researched to death. I, a lot of times will like a post
either way because I'm so happy that these people have their own opinion and are having
a discussion. And yeah, sometimes it turns ugly, but let me tell you, that's freedom
(16:12):
of speech. And I think that's really, really important. And yeah, I don't love social media.
I don't want the ads for Trump or Harris, if you want to know the truth, I don't want
any of them, but I do love that social media allows us to voice our opinion. I do love
that.
The only thing I wish that we would present things as our opinion and not like we have
(16:35):
fact checked it because I'm very analytical. You know that Connie. So there was, I know
for instances, both sides, I promise you this wasn't one side. It was both sides. I've got
something through social media from an individual and it was posted to where everybody got it.
And I thought, ooh, this is interesting. Well, what do I do? I spend two hours and I fact
(16:56):
checked it and I figure out it's false. And I remember on all four instances, I sent a
message back privately and I said, Hey, just so you know, that's not right. And here's
really what it is. And here's three sites that says this. Do you know nobody cared that
it was right or wrong? It followed the beliefs that they wanted to represent and push forward.
(17:17):
And I'm like, Oh, that's almost sad to me because they're saying I got this from this
site. You can get anything from the, from the web. You can get anything false that you
want and it looks so legitimate.
Absolutely.
So that does drive me a little crazy, Connie. I just wish that we would fact checked a little
more if we're going to represent it as true. Now, if we want to say in there, Hey, I don't
(17:40):
know if this is true, but this may be something somebody looks at, but nobody puts it that
way. They're like, See, I told you this was happening, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
and I click on it and it's from TikTok. And I'm like, Holy shit, TikTok just become a
reporting service for news. No, no, it's some, it's just ridiculous. I'm sorry.
Well, and I think a lot of people will fight over these things. So they post something,
(18:04):
they'll fight over it and they'll, you know, they have to prove everybody wrong to prove
their point. And it's like, if that's, if that's what you want to stand on, just stand
on it. I mean, just say, you know what? I love Trump because I don't know, I'm trying
to make something up because I feel like he, I just, my finances did better while he was
(18:26):
in office. Well, great. I can understand then, but when you're like, Oh, Trump did this,
this was so much better. All these things were so much better. And then you go look
and you do the reporting and you're like, or the research and you're like, uh, that
is not what any of this says. Sure. Both parties are doing that on inflation, you
know, on immigration. I mean, and that's what's crazy to me is if there was just a way that
(18:52):
we could figure out and actually uncover all the bullshit. And, and I can tell you, it's
not easy. It's complicated and it takes a while. And if you look at how many issues
are out there, I'm not saying that you could, I mean, you could spend your lifetime trying
to figure out which candidate's the best, but I think pick out what it is. What is most
valuable to you? Like for me, I can tell you right now, financials of our country, I'm
(19:16):
worried more about that than almost anything in our country today. And I know that may
seem sad, but when we talk a little more about that, we'll hopefully understand that. But
I look at who, who was trying to balance the budget, which nobody, nobody tries to balance
our budget, which pisses me off. You know, I go back to 92 and 96 when Ross Perot, I
don't know if you remember when he pulled out all the charts, I voted for the guy because
(19:39):
he had data behind him. Nobody else has any of that. But where I'm going with that is
pick out what it is that you drives you or makes you think that's, you know, the U.S.
is going to be a better country because of it, research that and research it with the
candidate and pick the right one.
Yeah. Also on social media, the other aspect, so you come at things from a very analytical
(20:01):
point and I come at things from a more emotional point of view. And one of the things on social
media that I hate is number one, when a friend of yours who believes something different is
mean and ugly and downgrades anybody who doesn't think they indict them basically for not thinking
(20:23):
the same way they do. That's one thing. And the second thing is, oh, this is going to
sound bad, but...
Just say it.
You and I, well, you and I spoke about this, the whole counseling that happened after the
election. So I saw that one of the colleges in the town was offering counseling and, you
(20:45):
know, whatever.
Not just a college. I can vouch for you that there are companies I know for a fact that
we're doing the same thing. Go ahead, Connie. I didn't mean to interrupt, but it's not just
colleges.
Well, social media brings that up. My first response because of who I am, how I've lived
and everything that I've been through, my first response is, what? Why? As I sit there
(21:09):
and I say that, I go, I would like to sit down with somebody who needed the counseling
or who... I mean, because I understand disappointment. I understand being sad about those things.
So to make it clear, what you're saying now is the university and these companies, they're
(21:29):
basically saying if the employees are having a hard time coping with what happened over
the election that they've got counselors available to help them. Is that what you're saying?
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
I wanted to make sure.
I didn't clarify that. Yeah.
So for me, social media exacerbates that. If you have somebody who's like, oh, I'm so
sad, I'm so sad, you can see 15 people who go, well, now I can't go to work. I can't
(21:54):
do this. I can't do that. And I'm thinking, are all those people really sad or is it just
the train to jump on? But I really want... I know there's people who are sad about it.
I know there's people who need some help coping with it. I've never done that. I've never
really needed to... I mean, I go to counseling, but on a situation like that, I don't know
(22:17):
that it would stop my day. And so social media sometimes I think exacerbates this type of
thing. It exacerbates the ugly and it exacerbates the drama. That's the best way for me to put
it.
And you know, social media right now, I think that if you're having to go into counseling
because of the election or if you're having a problem with it, it may be time to pause
(22:39):
social media for a little while because I can tell you, I'm on there and I told you before
this Connie, I'm about ready to pause mine because I watch both sides right now and I
can tell you, I'm not on either of these sides to be quite honest with you. And I watch the
hatred from both sides. You know, if you voted for this person, I can never be your friend
again. And the other side is gloating sometimes. Sometimes they're not, but I mean, I'm watching
(23:03):
this and it's... I feel like I'm watching a football game instead of an election, you
know, it really feels like that. It feels like we're voting for teams here and it's
just, it's sad. It really is sad that we've stooped to this level in my...
You know, there are a lot of therapists who have... This is kind of an offshoot, but a
lot of therapists who have come out and they're like, in a marriage, you're a team. Well, we
(23:26):
need to think of our country that way too. We're a team.
At least your neighbors.
Yeah. If the person you thought was best for the job did not get the job, yes, that's
sad. That's not fun, but now where do we go? What do we do? How do we, you know, get together
and figure it out?
(23:48):
Yeah.
That's my thought.
So let's jump into what happened and what they're actually starting to say out there.
And I say them, you know, once again, I read a lot. I watch a lot of videos and I do. I
promise you, I watch on every side of it, but the big thing that I'm hearing right now,
Connie, is there is a need to evolve all the political parties to what's needed today.
(24:12):
And it's so interesting the conversations they're having. So I want to take you to...
And I know I sent this to you, but there was a video and this video had, if anybody knows
these people, they'll probably know these are hardcore political people in their own
parties. One of them is Harold Ford Jr., Democrat, and the other is Carl Rove, which
(24:33):
is Republican. Everybody's probably heard Carl Rove. I don't know why, but I've heard
that name more than the other of Harold Ford.
But they actually got up beforehand and they went through the map and the electoral votes
and how it all broke down. What shocked me, Connie, was there were several states. There
was one that they talked about in... I'm not state, sorry, counties. There was one county
(24:56):
in Florida, one county, I believe, in one of the Carolinas. It may have been North Carolina.
But the one that really keyed in, that I keyed in on, was there was a county in Texas that
was at the down at the very border and they showed that this county had not voted Republican
since 1896. This election, they voted Republican. But they also showed a few other counties
(25:19):
that did the same thing. And it was interesting, the guy that went from the board come over
and then started talking to this Harold Ford Jr. from the Democrats and Carl Rove. And
I want to tell you, I think a lot of Harold Ford Jr., because what he said, he's the one
that started this conversation, he said, you know, we missed the mark. And he's the one
that said, our party is going to need to evolve to today's standards, basically. We are not
(25:45):
connecting with the people. If you've got a county that has voted Democrat since 1896,
that has switched to Republicans, there's something wrong with our party. And he said,
basically, we have 36 months before this all starts over again, to figure out what we can
do to connect with our people because we are supposed to be for the people, not just for
(26:07):
our party. So that was such an interesting conversation they had. Give me your thoughts,
Connie.
Oh, yeah. I mean, I think both parties have, I think that's the reason Trump won is because
he is this outsider who, okay, he's not, he's not a lifetime politician. And I think that
was the hope. People want to feel seen and heard. And I don't think either of the political
(26:32):
parties are offering that. I think the hope was Trump would be that. I think a lot of
people have realized that he's closer than a lifetime politician, but is he really?
It's a wild card.
Yeah. Is he going to really be that good? And I agree absolutely. I think if somebody
(26:53):
handed, if one of those political parties handed us a really smart, solid talk to the
people candidate, I think they'd sweep it at this point because I am not seeing, I don't
see staunch Democrats anymore and I don't see staunch Republicans anymore. I'm sure
everybody has them somewhere, but I think our generation for sure has gotten to the
(27:16):
point where we go. Let's hear what they have to say. Who is it? I mean, I think there's
so many people who want a median candidate instead of these extremes that if one of the
parties handed you something like that, I think that that would be a way to win over
everybody. Yeah. I don't think you see very many people that vote a straight ticket of
(27:39):
Republican or Democrat anymore. I can tell you, I've got a very good friend of mine that
really leans to one side a lot that ended up voting for the other side for one of the
officials or for one of the positions. And I was impressed with that, but talking with
that individual basically said, I just didn't believe in the other person, even though that's
(27:59):
typically the party I swayed or it just didn't feel right and liked the views of the other
person better. So you're right, Connie. It's not like you go to a household and you say,
okay, they're completely Republican, completely Democrat, or it shouldn't be, I should say,
because I think you need to look at the individual person and what they're trying to do for the
(28:19):
country or the state or the local government. Right. Absolutely. I think so too. You also
told me something, we were talking at the beginning, that you had researched that there
was a expert out there that was basically saying that they had a reason why they thought
Trump appealed to more people and had to deal with that tagline. Can you share that?
(28:40):
Yeah. So that's funny. I thought I already said this. There is a marketing man. I followed
Donald Miller and he was talking about how Donald Trump had a very clear message, which
was make America great again. That was his tagline. And what that plays into is I get
to decide what made America great. And so in my mind, Donald Trump is going to do that.
(29:04):
Now, he may not. He may think everything opposite of what I think, but that tagline, which is
what we've heard constantly from him, makes people go, oh, he's going to make us all live
easier, bring up the unemployment, I mean, just all the things where we, you and I actually
had to look up Kamala's tagline and it was a new way forward. And so Donald Miller was
(29:32):
talking about how, what does that mean? A new way forward. It focused more on her. She
was the new way forward. When the reality is, is we don't want to see a person. We want
to see like the big picture America. It's going to be great for everybody, not just
following her, like moving her forward because she's the new way. He was kind of talking
(29:55):
about that. And he also attributed that to Donald Trump losing in the last election because
the tagline was keep America great. There were millions of people who didn't think America
was great because they were not affected by his or not affected much or affected negatively
in his first presidency. So for him to say, you know, keep America great, people were
(30:21):
going, what? It's not that great. How are we going to keep it this way? No, let's keep
moving forward. Let's do better. And so he attributed the taglines and the messages to
failure or success of the candidate. It was really interesting.
Well, we all know marketing plays a big role in everything and anything you buy, if you
(30:41):
see it enough time on TV and it looks appealing, you're going to go look at it in person. So
I mean, I hate it. I hate to think that marketing can drive that much, but it absolutely does.
This is the reason the super PACs end up, you know, putting so much money into these
candidates and help them with advertisements, I believe.
(31:01):
Well, Trump sold the dream.
Yeah, of course he did.
And we'll see, you know, he's got four years. And I'm going to tell you right now, I am
really excited what's going to happen in four years. If we've really got the Democrat and
the Republican side saying we've got to evolve our political parties to meet more what are,
you know, what the common person or what our people want, that's exciting to me. That
(31:24):
this was a wake up call and I don't think that's a bad thing. And once again, if we
go back to the beginning, I don't think that in the next four years, we're going to have
all this devastation and that the US is going to go under because of it, because I do think
that we have enough checks and balances to keep that from happening. So I am excited
to see what happens four years from now and what happens to both political parties.
(31:46):
But let's talk a little bit about that. It may not happen in the next four years.
Oh, that's true.
Kind of bypassing that. But you brought up some financial issues and I think that is
something that concerns me because if we're unable to pay back our debt or if we're just
printing money, we're not doing ourselves any good. So talk about that part. You and
(32:08):
I talked about how that was worrisome to us. Okay. Yeah, let's talk about two sections.
So let's talk about the government, country in general. And then I want to go back and
talk a little bit about prices at the store and locally what we're seeing. But once again,
these are numbers that I researched. They're not my numbers. Of course, I can't get numbers
except from what I researched. But today we are $32 trillion in debt. Our government is
(32:33):
$32 trillion in debt. If you try to write that on a piece of paper, the number of zeros
will scare you. It really will. But that's a number. We see it going up and I know that
you remember this and I hear it all the time. We hit our debt selling and they have to vote
to add $6 trillion more or $3 trillion more. Otherwise, the government's going to go into
(32:54):
standstill and basically it shuts down the government. It's scary. I don't know right
or wrong what we should be doing there. But I can tell you right now, for me, for me moving
forward, we have to figure out how to balance the budget. And that's something we've heard
for years and I don't think we even understand what that means. But let's dig it more into
the numbers. $32 trillion in debt. Per year, our government pulls in in revenue $3 trillion.
(33:19):
So we pull in $3 trillion. But now also think about it, we're pulling in $3 trillion, but
we're given $890 billion to military. So almost $1 trillion, not quite, but almost $1 trillion.
Each state gets money to work on roads, to fund whatever program. I mean, all of our
military bases, we've got Fort Leonard Wood, we've got the Whiteman Air Force Base, all
(33:41):
of those. The government funds those. So that's money out of that $3 trillion.
Okay. Today, our interest payments, and I say today, these numbers were from about three
months ago, our interest payments today is $640 billion a year. That's just interest.
So we only make $3 trillion. So $640 billion only pays interest, doesn't pay anything off
(34:05):
our principal. On top of that, they're saying at the rate we're going, because we keep adding
to it, within five years, they're projecting that our interest alone will be $1 trillion.
The big thing they're worried about, Connie, is what happens to our country when our interest
rate or our interest that they call in from us is more than our revenue we pull in GDP,
(34:31):
basically. What happens when it's $3.1 trillion is our interest, but we only pull in $3 trillion?
It doesn't work. You can't function that way.
So why do you feel like, because we've seen it, we've seen the government shutdowns, and
then they have to decide to raise that debt ceiling.
Oh, yeah, all the time.
(34:51):
And then I would imagine there's more money printed, and then we have, we devalue our
dollar.
The more money they print, that causes inflation if we wanted to get it all. I mean, this is
just this catch 22 that if anybody understood, I mean, right now, our country's doing everything
with a credit card innocence, and you would never support your whole household on a credit
(35:14):
card, because this $3 trillion in revenue, if we take all of our interest payments off
of it, we are giving out more money than $3 trillion a year.
So we are asking people fund us every year so that I can fund everybody else. We have
to stop doing that. I think, I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I believe we have to.
And did you know, so out of the $32 trillion in debt, and the sources went back and forth,
(35:38):
so I'm going to apologize if they're a little bit off, but we're between 20 and 30% of that
is foreign owned debt from Japan being number one and China being number two. It's really
neat how we hate China, but we want to borrow from them in my mind. It's just weird to me.
So that's part of that interest that we have.
Yeah. Yeah. And if you take 30% of that between Japan, China, which are the top two, and then
(36:03):
there's several others in there, but we owe $9 trillion in foreign money. Everything else
is internal, and that's things that some of the big financial institutes, the bonds, I
mean, there's several ways internally that they get funded, but think about that. No
household could live off of that. So all I'm saying is for me, when I look at a candidate,
(36:24):
I'm thinking, do you have the ability to try to balance a budget? And I've never found
a candidate, I don't think since I've almost been alive that has done that, but we have
to somehow get our finances in order for our country because we base everything off of,
or everybody in the world bases everything off of reserve currency. That's how oil and
(36:46):
everything else that's globally is priced. And that's based off the US dollar because
we have reserve currency. That's the reason Japan and China loves our money and they're
willing to take it because we're a good risk because we are the reserve currency. When
that goes away and it becomes something else, they're not as interested in us.
So what would cause that to go away?
What would well,
(37:07):
Yeah, so a few things can cause that to go away. One thing is our dollar weakened against
another currency and enough of the country's getting together saying they don't want to
use the US dollar as the reserve currency. And it can happen. And then they'll choose
another currency, whatever it would be they'll choose. And then we start getting compared
to the reserve each year basically or each month. So it's interesting because I don't
(37:31):
see anybody on social media concerned about that, but I also don't hope I don't see anybody
on social media that's using their credit card every month to pay their house payment,
their car payment, everything and just hoping that next month it looks better because it
won't. And I have a lot of concern there.
Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. I mean, when we talk about leaving, you know, not
(37:51):
just a great earth for our kids, but what about our country? You know, I don't want
my kids. I saw a report the other day that said our children is the, it's the first generation
who will not be able to do better than their parents.
Oh, wow.
And after hearing those numbers, it makes me go, this needs to change because we, I want
(38:14):
to give my kids a chance, you know, I definitely want to give my kids a chance.
Well, and I think everybody does. So let's jump into, and this was one of the things
that both the candidates was really big on this year, I think everybody has felt the
hurt whenever you go to the store today and you check out and whatever you used to buy,
that was $72 is now 114 or something. And you're like, holy shit, the price of everything
(38:39):
is one up. So once again, I am not saying I'm 100% correct. I would love to be challenged
on this and talk through it with somebody if I'm not correct. But all of the candidates,
all of them, both of them, they had the solution that was so, so easy. I mean, I think Harris
was talking about all she had to do was, you know, the first thing she's going to do is
price gouges. She's getting rid of price gouging. I'm going to call bullshit on that. Not every,
(39:02):
not every manufacturer of a food type product is price gouging. And I'm going to just tell
you, I don't think Walmart's price gouging. I don't think Hivey's price gouging. I think
that was just a bullshit, easy way to say I'm going to do something and make everybody
think, oh, she's going to get these big companies. On the other side, Donald Trump's like, we
got to, we got to figure out inflation as soon as I get inflation down, I'm going to
(39:25):
work with these companies. We're going to, I think that's bullshit. I'll just be honest
because this is, I did a lot of research and I can tell you what, where this starts, let's
start at the very top. I have got 401ks. Most of their listeners probably do too. If you've
got 401ks, you're invested in companies. I may be invested in Walmart. I may be an invested
(39:45):
in Procter and Gamble or whatever. Next year, I need their stock to go up. I need to make
money off of their company. If I don't make money off of their company, I'm going to another
company. I say I am. My investors hopefully will because I am paying them in a sense to
make me money. So at the very top line, what we have is we have corporate expectations.
(40:06):
They have to make more money every year. You agree with that?
Yes.
Okay. So
And as a business owner, that is the truth.
You have to, yes. So let's think about Walmart or our products and there are high V or wherever
you end up going. Think of the products in there. Most all of those are corporations.
It's got to make more money next year. Okay. So that's the first thing that's going to
(40:26):
cause prices to possibly go up. How they can keep that from going up is they produce more.
They produce different products or they cut the cost of a product. Well, how do they do
that? Well, first of all, we have higher interest rates today. Do we not?
Yes.
Okay. If they want to add additional lines to production, if they want to add additional
(40:48):
facilities, most all of these companies get loans for it. Those loans cost them a lot
more than it used to cost them.
So guess what? That money has to go somewhere. They can't absorb it. If they absorb it, the
stock owner is going to get pissed because their stocks are going to go down. So let's
keep going though.
Yep.
Labor cost. Labor cost keeps going up and minimum wage, I know went up, not only minimum
(41:10):
wage, but all the added benefits that everybody's needing, the price of insurance is going up.
I mean, it is insane, honey, you know this. And these companies are taking this on their
self. They have to because an employee can't pay. And I can tell you, I worked at a small
place for a period of time. My insurance was 900 a month for a family. Most companies or
(41:32):
most individuals can't do that. So think about these companies are absorbing all this additional
cost. Okay. Once again, remember, stock holders are pushing them. I need more money next year.
I'm pushing them because I got their stock on top of that. Then they've got this supply
chain. If there's any disruptions, if there's global trade and we know Trump's talking about
putting a global or a tariff on China, well, that's going to cause some problems could.
(41:55):
And I'm not going to say I don't know his plan, but it could cause some problems. Fuel
prices has fuel prices went up.
Yes.
Well, hell, our supply chain, guess what? They run off fuel prices and everything else.
Also, there's been a lot of weather events. We've had a lot of hurricanes. We've had a
lot of weather impacts. All of that combined together contributes to the price you're paying
(42:17):
at the supermarket today. And what I'm trying to say is whenever you hear one of our political
candidates tell you that they're going to say it's price gouging or it is bullshit answers,
what they need to tell you is we're going to get a team together to figure this out.
Because I can tell you right now, if you take all of the problems in the world today or
(42:37):
in our country, not the world, Kamala Harrison or Harris, sorry, or Donald Trump, neither
one of those by themselves could fix that problem. They're going to have to have a huge
team of people that understand these industries, understand what happens, and they have to
be able to implement these solutions.
So what I'm saying is Donald Trump can probably not tell you exactly what it's going to take
(42:59):
to get those prices down. Neither could Harris. That's unfair to even ask them to do it because
they're going to have to do more research. But what I hate is when they throw out these
one answers and act so confident that this one thing is going to fix it because it's
not.
So backing up, what I think is going to end up having to happen, we got to get lower interest
rates. We've got to figure out the cost of having labor. There's a company in, I believe
(43:24):
it's San Francisco County that I found, they're 100% automated as a small restaurant. They
basically do hamburgers and French fries and stuff. It's a very simple organization.
But they found that if the labor inside was more than $20 an hour average, they could
automate 100% of the restaurant and make more money. So we've got to watch this balance
(43:49):
of when and if we keep pushing wages too high that automation makes sense. Can you imagine
what's going to happen if 50% of the restaurants automate half of what they're doing and a
lot of that labor goes away? And I know whether it's Trump or Harris, they can say, we'll
make sure that doesn't happen. They don't have the right to make sure that this is capitalism.
They have no right to make sure that happens.
(44:11):
And I think that's where the younger generation, well, and I say younger generation, I think
that's where so many people are really terrified of so much of what they see coming down the
pike is we can't pay a living wage. And yet, like you said, these restaurants can start
getting it done cheaper. You know, our products can get made in China cheaper. We can it's
(44:33):
getting to the point to where that part needs to be solved. We need to be able to pay our
people a living wage. And again, I am not on that committee. I couldn't solve that problem
unless I did a ton more research. But it's scary. And these candidates do that thing.
He you know, he was Trump was big on terrace. Yes. And I saw I saw a thing where they were
(44:56):
asking people, you know, well, the terror, what do you think about the tariffs? They're
like, Oh, it's great. And they said, Do you realize that you're the one who actually pays
for tariffs? And they're like, No, the other countries pay for tariffs. And they had to
explain that to them. And there were so many people who were like, Oh, no, no, no, no, no,
that's not the case. You know, a ship comes in from China with product, tariffs are placed
(45:20):
on it. The company who gets that product is the one who's charged. And then, or I guess
China's charged. And then they charge the company. You know, I mean, it all falls down
to the consumer. Yeah, absolutely does. I'm like, but you know, at the top, what's terrible
is I know this, I'm going in and bitching about the price I'm paying at the store. But also
(45:41):
on the other side on my 401k, I've got I'm bitching if it's not making money, which means
the companies are there they're in this middle saying, What the hell do you want me to do?
You want me to make more money for you, but you don't want me to sell it for anymore.
I mean, it's, it's tough on these companies. It's not fair, the position we put them in.
And then we point the spotlight at them and say they're being crooked and evil because
I don't believe they all are. The other part that you're you, you know,
(46:05):
what about the people who don't have the 401ks? So they're not getting the benefit of the
positive of their stocks going up. All they're getting is the negative of the prices going
up. You're absolutely right. So I do understand
why people want the minimum wage to go up and better benefits and all that. But just,
I mean, but just realize that when that happens and we go into McDonald's and our hamburger
(46:29):
goes up 50 cents or something. I mean, it's hard for us to complain because that company
has to figure out how to balance everything they do. And I don't know. I don't know the
answer to this equation. I promise you I don't. And but I'm going to also tell you one thing.
If Harris was in office, I would say the same thing as Trump being in office right now.
You know, I hope to stand behind him and say he's going to put a great team. I hope, I
(46:53):
hope she would have too put a damn good team together. Let's figure out how to make this
work, how to get our prices down a little bit, how to lower our debt, how to make our
country more appealing. And I say more appealing internally. I think there's more people internally
in the U S right now that is unhappy with the situation we're in for one reason or another.
(47:13):
If we can start showing some positive progress, if we can get our fuel prices down, if we
can get our prices down to store a little bit. And once again, I don't care what candidate
it was, I truly don't. I am for the person that can actually get an action done.
Let's take, so I know this is going to be a weird question. Let's take the whole government
aspect out of it. How do we as human beings with our neighbors start moving forward after
(47:37):
this election?
Yeah. So first of all, I'm not, I'm not saying everybody has to go apologize to everybody
because we're all, we're all big people and understand that, you know, we, we're not going
to like everything that everybody says, but I just think the election's over. Quit gloating.
Let's stop it. The gloating. And let's, let's be a little more kinder and say, you know,
Hey, if you're having any hard time with anything, if there's anything I can do to help, you
(47:59):
know what I mean? Be kind. We, we really are. I mean, I think that, that the U S we're very
kind people or can be. And I think that we just need to switch that from being competitive.
Our football team one, in a sense, is what I feel back to you are my neighbors. And I
want to make sure everybody's okay, you know, if I'll mow your grass, if you mow my grass,
(48:20):
we need to get back to being civil to everybody. And that's on social media too, because believe
it or not, when you criticize one person on social media, a lot of time, or I say one
person a party like that, it can make a lot of people feel like it's directed towards
them because I live right next door to him. I know this is pointed toward, you know what
I mean? And it may not be, but really be thinking about what you're posting and why and what
(48:43):
fucking purpose does it serve? Is it to gloat? Is it to just say, look at what has happened?
Because that's bullshit. We should all stand behind who was voted for president and why?
Because 50.2% of the population voted him popular vote. 47% over that was for Harris.
So half of the people you're going to meet at work and maybe not where we live as much
(49:05):
as some other place, but half the play or half the people in your neighborhood, half
the people you work with may have voted for that other person. I guarantee that you can
still have a great conversation with them at lunch. You can still have dinner with them.
Just be kind when you're talking politics because I just don't think we need to cause
all this havoc we're causing right now. That's where these counselors are coming from.
(49:27):
Well, and I think that's the other thing, you know, at the beginning I had said, I don't
understand why people need counselors. Well, a lot of that comes from, you know, I don't
have a huge ego. I really don't. I don't care whether I'm right or wrong. I mean, yeah,
I like to be right, but if I'm wrong, do I have a problem saying to somebody, oh, I was
wrong about that. Absolutely not. And so if somebody, if I sat down with somebody and
(49:51):
they said, well, I had to go to the counselor today because this really, really bothered
me, my question would be really tell me why. And a lot of that would not be judgment. It
would be, I really truly want to find out where your emotional state is. Why? Because
if they are so scared, guess what? I as a human being want to make sure the next human
(50:13):
being feels some love and some safety and some security. I don't have to agree with
them. Absolutely. But guess what? That is a basic, basic human right is to feel that.
And you know, I want to, you know, you need to be really cautious, I think, because what
we're seeing around locally where we live, Connie, some of the politics is generational,
(50:36):
some of the odor really see something one way where the younger generation sees it.
And that could be your son, your daughter, it could, maybe it's not your son, but it
could be your daughter-in-law. It could be, you know what I mean? These are people, I
don't think everybody hates them, but man, they can sure spread hate and say that if
you voted this way, you could never be a friend of mine or you could, it is horrible. It is
(50:58):
horrible. I just think we need to get back to the basics of let's all be good to each
other. Right. Yep. And don't indict people. I saw that go around. There was a meme that
said something like, if you have a gay friend and you voted for Trump, you don't really
have a gay friend, you have a gay acquaintance. And I was like, oh, you just indicted that
(51:20):
person. Like you, because somebody thought that the things that were important to them,
which may be completely different than what's important to you, but because of something
that was important to them, they voted a certain way. You just indicted them and used shame
and guilt. And I think that's what really, really causes a lot of problems in this political
(51:44):
world is that we don't have to use shame and guilt. I mean, I have so many different family
members who disagree with my stance or I disagree with their stance, but guess what? When you
sit down and talk to them, ultimately we all have the same goal. It's just looking at the
way you get there. Absolutely. And that's the difference. And it's, oh, it's been eye-opening
(52:07):
to me over as an adult that I go, oh, we're really not that different. It's true. It's
the way we want to get there. All right. Let's close it with this. We've got the holidays
coming up, Connie. Let's all be kind to each other. We've got Thanksgiving. Guess what?
Someone sitting around your table probably didn't vote the same way. You may have to
give a present to somebody that didn't vote your way, but you know what? It's the holidays.
(52:30):
The election's over. We either won or lost. Let's just move forward and let's try and
help everybody move forward in a positive manner. Absolutely. I agree with that. Well,
hopefully Scott, in the next couple of weeks, we can dive a little bit more into this. And
the only thing that I'd like to see is I would like to see different party lines like somebody
(52:51):
who voted for Harris, the thoughts behind that. Sure. And I'd like to see the people
who voted for Trump, the thoughts behind that and why they did it. And I want to do it in
a way that's just really, truly valuable. Like I want no judgment. I want to know these people.
I want to know their heart. I want to know why. Yep. I think you can do that. I think
(53:14):
that can open some people's eyes, or at least I hope. Maybe I'm looking for a utopian world,
and I'm going to try either way. All right. Well, with that, thank you for the talk. I
mean, you definitely have more to say about politics than I do. Now, you balance me a
lot, Connie, and I don't say it enough, but I definitely appreciate your views. And I
(53:37):
appreciate you so much. All right. Well, everybody have a good week. We will talk to you soon.
Okay. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Our Life Beyond. We really hope
that you found our discussion insightful and inspiring, or at least brought us a smile
to your day. If you did enjoy this episode, please consider subscribing to the podcast
(53:58):
on your favorite platform and leave us a review. For more information, resources, or show notes,
visit our website at ourlifebeyond.com. You can also follow us on social media, search
for us on Facebook at Our Life Beyond. We would love to hear from you, our listeners,
so feel free to reach out with your questions, comments, or suggestions through our Contact
(54:20):
Us page at ourlifebeyond.com or on social media. And once again, thank you for joining
us on this journey. Till next time, remember, Life Beyond, any challenge is possible and
we're here to navigate it with you. Stay strong, stay positive, and keep moving forward.
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