May 2, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 4 of A&G features...
- Manufacturing jobs & C.O.W. Clips of the Week!
- Guy who fell from the stands at the Pirates game
- Trump's doll comments and meaning
- Final Thoughts!
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Ketty Armstrong and
Getty and he Armstrong and Getty. I'm at home, not
(00:26):
at the studio because I'm sick.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And I just went and said to Henry, I said,
we're gonna go to Thunderbolts tonight, the movie. And he
said we would be like people on Wheatie's Box, which
is one of the funny lines from one of the trailers.
But Hansen, how did you go out of your way
to pick a trailer that didn't have a joke in it,
since that's the whole thing is it's a comedy.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Oh and he's not shot gunning snakes. He's yelling at
the staff over perfectly understandable.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We will be like people on Wheatie's Box. I wanted
this thing you said you're gonna do later.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm fascinated by this. Yes, the question of cheap Chinese
crap is not great, and we've given away our manufacturing jobs,
et cetera, et cetera. What the President has been talking
about versus the fact that we have an incredibly high
standard of living because of a lot of those things,
(01:17):
and I will illustrate through statistics, not arguing one side
or the other. But if we were to sacrifice a
significant chunk of that standard of living to create a
few manufacturing jobs, is that a good idea?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And again, my favorite stat is there are one hundred
and forty thousand plus manufacturing jobs available right now that
they can't fill. There is a bit of a that's
like pretending like that's the magic job that everybody's really
wanting if only they could get it, which may be way,
way untrue.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And I think some of this nostalgia is a little
twisted as well. You could have a good, well paying
job right out of high school and realize the American dream,
which was a nine and fifty square foot house and
one car maybe one car, and your vacation was down
at the lake that was a two hour drive. You
(02:14):
never flew anywhere, right, So I just I would like
to deal with reality and not slogans and hazy uh
you know, versions of yesterday.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Right?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Excuse me, let me do I cough button? Yes please?
Oh boy, bring the cough butt into the theater with
you tonight. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I might be in the lobby, but I saw a
stat the other day that I thought was interesting.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
So, I I hate the.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Point of view that some pundits have around this that, oh,
we're going to bring back sewing up sneakers, like Americans
are too good to do those kind of jobs.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I hate that point of view. Yeah, but if there are.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Manufacturing jobs available out there that Americans aren't doing now,
the idea that bringing more is going to fix that
seems weird. And then you've got the adjusted for inflation
service what do you call it?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Service? Extra jobs are.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Paying more than manufacturing jobs, So it's not like manufacturing
jobs are some ticket to wealth compared to what we've
got now.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, yeah, true. And we didn't even touch on the
idea of we also need radical welfare reform to beat
the bushes and get all of those hundreds of millions
of workers who are sitting on their asses out to
a job. Is it because.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Politicians have kind of led us to believe that when
you talk manufacturing jobs, it's all going to be like
you're a worker at General Motors in the fifties.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, there's at patina around it, that kind of halo
around it when people talk about it.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Where the United Auto Workers was able to get you
unbelievable salaries and benefits, and you retire early and et cetera,
et cetera, as opposed to you're going to be so
Nike's somewhere for very little money, which is more reality.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I think you're right, Yeah, more more drone jobs, if
you will. And I don't you know, I don't use
that in a pejorative way. I've had those jobs, but yeah,
you're You're pretty replaceable, and the work is not what
you would call mentally stimulating nor terribly satisfying, but it
puts food on the table. But again, man, we would
have to have a whole of society reordering of certain things,
(04:48):
which I would love to see, but it's it's fairly unlikely.
More on that topic to come later on the hour.
But first, it's the Friday tradition. Let's take a fond
look back at the week that was. It's cow clips
of the Week, America on st Land or water. I
need a lot of water.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Take that your stupid hosers.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Whips of the week?
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Yutda die yutta die.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
Dougie's here too.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
I could code talk to white guys watching football fixing
their trucks.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Thank you, right here, man. Yeah, let's doesn't. But you're
gonna have to wait a little bit longer.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
That Robert De Niro's twenty nine year old child, Aaron,
has come out as transgender.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
When the press asked.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Her for comments, she said, you're talking to they them.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
How did you guys meet? Not talking about this? No,
President Trump's call to the founder and executive chair of
Amazon peeved.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Maybe the children will have two dollars instead of thirty dollars.
You know, they have ships that are loaded up with stuff,
much of which said, but much of which we don't need.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan faces multiple charges for
allegedly obstructing ICE.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Agents while a state prosecutor and victims of domestic violence
are sitting in the courtroom.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It is a sad reflection on the state of our
media that you obsessively try to shill for this MS
thirteen terrorists.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Let's move on.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
Wait a minute, Terry, he did not have to letter
MS one. It is MS one three and that was
a photoshop. Hey, they're giving you the big break of
a lifetime. You know you're doing the interview. I picked
you because, frankly, I never heard of you. But that's okay.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
This is really stunning news that Mike Waltz, the National
Security Advisor, pushed.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Out but now in for the United Nations ambassador.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I think you can make a good argument that its promotion.
He likes Mike. President Trump, I know, really likes Mike.
I read President Trump's move. They aren't the adjetle.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Pwton thinks that America has taken the bullet train to
jump down.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but
we should never forget the lessons.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
Learn it well, behaved as their goodie two shoes brother Canada,
who by the way, has never hit a girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Just say.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I love when Trump says to interviewers he's attacking the
free press.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I love when he says, that's a stupid.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Question, because they often are stupid questions.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Sure, yeah, yeah. By the way, I've never heard of
you before. There are some conventions that I think are
better left intact. But yeah, don't dignify a stupid question
with a response. Yeah, I love that. So a couple
(08:03):
of notes from the world to campus. These days, from
college campuses, Princeton has not really been in the spotlight
of the campus madness and the controversies and the woke crap.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Should be amount of money from various places like Dubai.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Oh yeah yeah. But Chris Ruffo, who's doing fabulous work
in campus reform, has turned his gaze in that direction
and he has just come out with a report on
how the school tried to discourage hiring white men and
how Princeton faculty were hilariously open about it. Quote, you
can't shortlist this person. We can't hire a white guy,
(08:41):
just like that. No weird phrases like of minority experience
or preference to underrepresented racial groups. Just flat out we
can't hire a white guy, a man.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
You got to twist yourself into knots to have that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Quoting Nelly Bowles, quoting Chris Rufo. Anotherrofessor told Rufo that
administrators tore down portraits of former faculty chairs because they
were white. Quote it's just a bunch of white faces.
So they removed all the photographs and no one objected.
That's that is just something. Where do you.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Think that will lead that out and out obvious, perfectly
comfortable with it, racism.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Where do you think that will lead? No, we will
do racism and we will do it in the right
way for the right reasons, but the rest of you
must refrain from it. Yah. Well, these people seriously, they
have no connection with reality. And meanwhile, at Harvard Law School,
the most prestigious law journal in law schools may DEI
the first priority. That's a quote of its article selection
(09:44):
process for editors. That's number one over Comperence in sight
significance to American society. DEI is the first prioritary. How
well written it was. Over four years worth of documents
show that submissions were routinely rejected because of their author's race.
The negative feedback on one submission reads quote. Lastly, this
(10:06):
author is not from an underrepresentative background. He is from
a non T fourteen school, but his resume includes many
articles in top tier journals. Blah blah blah. Wow, you
can't publish him because he's white. That is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
How can you possibly, Like I said, you've got to
twist yourself in the knots to make this worldview make sense.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I feel like that. I guess you're just so.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Into the whole oppress or appressed thing you feel like
you're gonna balance it out somehow, but not go too far.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
You'll never go too far to where it'll be, Hey,
what are you talking about? Racism? It's an academic theory
that's fueled by a religious energy, a religious devotion, and
so you just you become a zealot. And if anything
(11:01):
around here, we're underestimating how screwed up our colleges in
the university and the awful effect that they've they've had already.
Apparently those are two amazing stories.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
So you're not gonna try to put out the best
articles about law you can come up with at your
prestigious university.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
You're more.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Into the idea of who wrote it based on skin color.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That's insane. Again, it is quote the first priority of
article selection. Yeah, I'm picturing a house or a building
that's got to mold in the walls in a lot
of it because it's been let go for a very
long time. And I think our colleges and universities are
(11:49):
I mean, they're near the point where you can't clean
it all out. It would take far too long. It's
just that we're much better off tearing it down in
store ard. And again the problem being what does that
even mean? I just the infection is so awful. I
guess all we can do is our best, but it's
(12:11):
really disappointing that we the greatest country on earth let
this go as far down the road to crazy Villa
as we did. But here we are got to do
something about it.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So we've got an update on that guy who plunged
to the field at the Pittsburgh Pirates game, and then
another person that plunged to their death.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Did you hear this story? And a bunch of other
stuff on the way Stay here the terrifying moment a
man fell from his seat at Pittsburgh's PNC Park, landing
on the field.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
When you look at it like in slow mo, he
just looked like he was like like jolting up because
it was a huge play.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Pittsburgh Public Safety says the incident is being treated as
accidental and the man remains in the hospital in critical condition. Wow,
so wasn't on purpose, although and you feel like perhaps
it was on purpose.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Some people have looked at the video, Katie.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
It looked intentional. I've got something that will back that
up in a second.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
But let me go on the record as saying that
assertion is ridiculous and in fact free. It's it's based
on nothing but sort of irresponsible speculation, which I condemn. Well,
it might be fact free, but I don't think it's ridiculous.
It's not ridiculous if somebody who had kill themselves that way,
is it? Yes, you think it's ridiculous. I'm gonna hurl
(13:33):
myself twenty feet to an outfield. Yes, I am ridiculing
it right now, which is the definition of ridiculous. It
is being ridiculed in my verbiage. If it turns out
that you and Katie are correct, I will sit and
be ridiculed and deserve it. Hands Here, Hanson says, you've
(13:55):
never seen the Pirates play. They're bad.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
So I've got this story which might fit in with it.
Here's an experienced, well known skydiver. It's in Great Britain,
but doesn't make any difference. A thirty two year old
hottie who had, like some had some attention in the
world of sky diving, probably partially because she was hot
in the way that world works, apparently killed herself the
other day. She had done eleven jumps over the weekend,
(14:22):
and then on the next jump she just didn't pull
the shoot and crashed straight into the ground. And they've
determined it was not being treated as suspicious in any way.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
They think she just decided to end it all. That's astonishing, right,
So she did eleven jumps trying to decide whether to
do it or think about how it would feel, or.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Or this is what I really enjoy. I think I'll
do it a few more times. But I want to kill.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Myself doing something I love.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
But anyway, so some people commit suicide and not the
most normal. So you think it's impossible that the guy
at the Pirates game dove onto the field.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
That is putting words in my mouth do not bes
a bs or I see what you did there? No,
I said it was ridiculous, not impossible. How about this
caveat that?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
As we all know, if you commit suicide, we know
from watching late night TV dramas, if you commit suicide,
your family doesn't, you know, necessarily get your insurance payoff.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You're at a baseball game and you fall.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Over the stands, and your family gets the money, and
you know you're a decent guy that everybody misses, not
a somebody who abandoned their family and killed themselves.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, generally it's just a couple of years after you
sign the policy. But no, I just find the idea
of hurling yourself twenty feet onto an outfield to be
such a ludicrous attempt. I just I don't believe it, Okay,
I mean, come on, he had like half a dozen
better choices on the way too, and well not from
(16:01):
the stadium. He's in the hospital. But how come there's
no reporting on how much he drank?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Because that's got to play a role, doesn't I have
never almost fallen over a railing or out of my
seat at a game.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Ever, not at a game. Certainly you've dealt with stumbling
drunks before, though, Well yeah, but I.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Mean completely sober. Have you ever almost fallen over a railing?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Just? Oh is this by completely sober? Has that been?
I'm gonna trying to.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Figure out how come nobody's talked about how much he
was drinking, because I think there's got to be a
part of the story.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well a hundred percent, yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I mean the idea.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I mean, if you're at a baseball stadium, you decided
to offer yourself go up to the top deck and
throw yourself into the parking lot if that's physically possible
or something like that. You don't go down to twenty
feet above the outfield which is grass and dirt and
hurled yourself onto the dirt. Just not buying it.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
No, okay, okay, well that's skydiver. She none not been investigating,
so oh yeah, she clearly killed herself.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
So yeah, well, sometimes the authorities aren't forthcoming. So what
about the cheap Chinese crap versus hey, we have abundance
a great standard of living argument. We'll present both sides
next to Crown, Armstrong and Getty. One of the speaks
to President of China. Well we all have it.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
We look right now, and I told you before they're
having tremendous difficulty because their factories that are not doing business.
They made a trillion dollars when good by a trillion
dollars even a trillion one good Biden selling us much
of a leader. I mean, you know, somebody said, oh,
the shelves are they're going to be open. Well, maybe
(17:44):
the children will have two dollars instead of thirty dollars,
you know, and maybe the two dolls will cost a
couple of bucks more than they would do.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Really but hmm, yeah, And the question is was he
talking about on the shelves or under the tree, because
if you're saying your kids get too many presents already,
that's not cool.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, he did make a resference reference to the shelves there,
but it's not clear. Rich Lowry, the National Review, who
will quote in a minute a little more, said dun
Trump must be the first president in history to say
that his policies will deprive American children of toys the president.
Let the President elaborate for just another second.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
They have ships that are loaded up with stuff, much
of which not all of it, but much of which
we don't need, and we have to make a fair deal.
We've been ripped off by every country in the world,
but China, I would say, is to leading the leading one,
the leading candidate for the chief ripper offer. There has
(18:47):
never been There has never been a country that's been
ripped off more than the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
The key to this negotiation, and many negotiations, but the
key to the whole thing might be Trump has got
to convince she and everybody else is coming along for
the ride, that he's willing to take this thing clear
to the end, no matter what I mean. That's really
the only way it will work is if she's convinced, well,
this freaking lunatic. No matter what happens, no matter what
(19:15):
happens to his polls, no matter what the stock market does,
no matter what his party says, He's going.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
To continue this. Yeah. So, on the topic of thirty
dollars instead of two in whatever context, Trump Mianute Rich
of the National Review, who I like personally, and also
he's a terrific writer, and he has a very armstrong
and gettyish approach to Trump. When Trump's right, he says
Trump's completely right, and when he thinks Trump's wrong, he
(19:43):
says Trump is wrong. And his article is tongue in
cheek entitled we need cheap stuff and lots of it,
But his article is actually really really interesting. He starts
it with the potential empty store shelves, that the president
played much of it. We don't need the child to
have two dollars instead of thirty, et cetera. At that moment,
(20:06):
Trump surely made history. He must be the first president
in the history. He says, policies will deprive American children
of toys, the American Girl, Disney Princess Cinderella doll Maybe
collateral damage in a trade war to reduce our strategic
dependence on China. But then he gets down to the
more serious and interesting stuff. I thought what Trump was
ultimately dismissing is abundance, which is one of the marvels
(20:27):
of our system. Fewer choices at a greater cost, whether
of dolls or other goods, simply means a lower standard
of living. And yeah, there are counter arguments to this.
In fact, we got a great email from Ryan who said,
you know, Trump is right. My wife and I have
(20:48):
four kids, and our kids do get way too many toys.
So much of our house is flooded with crapp equality
toys from China. But my parents and my wife's crap,
it's crap, it's crap, and my wife's parents buy for them.
I'd love for there to be some significance to getting something.
Too much expectation and entitlement for something new immediately being
(21:08):
done with too quickly. He goes into some detail, But
my wife and I often wish it were easier to
find quality, more expensive products that would last longer and
be more satisfying for a longer time, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, as I've been saying for years, I wish they
would substitute or add into when you're talking about people
accepting fewer choices at higher prices, if it means higher quality,
I'm fine with that. If there are gonna be fewer
choices on the shelf at a higher price because it's
higher quality, I think that'd be.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Better for everybody in every way. But are you going
to engineer the free economy so that's the only choice. No,
I mean that's your preference, and good for you.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
But we had that when more things were manufactured here.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I'm not exactly sure why, because we didn't have any
other choice, But why was the quality high? Why were
we when we were manufacturing stuff?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Why were we not just cranking out the cheapest crap
you could crank out?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
America commihu make a toaster that.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
The handle, the little plastic, flimsy handle is gonna break
off in two months, but it's really cheap.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Why didn't we do that before? No, you're making an
excellent point. The culture has changed absolutely toward more consumerist,
immediate gratification, feel the endorphin rush of getting something new
than chuck it two weeks later. Society. It's absolutely true.
And Ryan goes on to say it may be more
of an American consumerist mindset problem and less of a
(22:35):
China chamming jamming, cheap crap down our throat problem. Right then,
he says, I could go on and on about this,
but I won't because you're not my wife and you
don't have to listen to anyway. I love the note, Ryan,
thanks to so much for writing it. But getting back
to rich Lowry, here's the part that I found most compelling.
He says Trump is dismissing abundance, which is one of
the marvels of our system. The Human Progress Project at
(22:58):
the Cato Institute calculates the time price of various goods.
That's how long you have to work to buy them,
typical salary, that sort of thing, and specifically Cato has
been doing it from twenty I'm sorry the year twenty
to twenty twenty four. The time price of toys dropped
(23:19):
by more than eighty eight percent over the period. In
other words, the work that it took to afford to
buy one toy a quarter century ago would buy almost
nine toys today. This is important not because we want
children to have nine times as many toys as they
did in two thousand, although as Ryan and other parents
would tell you it kind of did happen. But the
(23:39):
important part is the reduced time devoted to buying a
toy can be used to buy something else. Clothes, sports equipment,
art supplies, work less, invest save what have you. Same
dynamic holds across the board. Mark Perry of the American
Enterprise Institute looked at the time price of eleven basic
household goods from nineteen the nineineteen fifties to twenty thirteen. Now,
(24:02):
this is eleven basic household appliances. They don't list them,
but it's it's minor and major appliances, from a washing
machine and a fridge to an iron and a a
box fan.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I'll only say it one more time, as I've already
crossed the line into being a pain in the ass,
But I.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Feel like quality's got to be thrown in there. Toys.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Sure, they've gotten so much cheaper, but you know, the
metal Tonka truck that I still have from when I
was a little kid, versus the just crap that falls
apart immediately that your kids get.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Now, it's not just less expensive. Yeah, I would say,
at least in some categories as Alio, but washer dryer
that you're about to get into huge difference dryer.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
At the rental I'm in, they bought new washer and
dryer when I moved in. I've been here, what going
on a year. The washing machine crapped out yesterday. Because
that's the way washing machines are in the modern world.
Not the ones my parents got that you could have
for thirty years before you had a repairman come look.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
At them, right, and or the repairman would just change
out a belt which you could do yourself essentially and
to be up and run and as good as ever.
But so in a lot of categories. Yeah, the one
flaw of this, and I should probably do the numbers first,
but is that it does not measure satisfaction across time
for the product. A washer is not a washer is
(25:27):
not a washer. And if you're talking about you know,
the sort of you know it'll be found by a
future civilization still washing clothes appliances sometimes in the past,
although I did see a comparison that some of that's
the rosy glow of history. You remember it better than
it was really, but some of us anyway, But this
(25:50):
is interesting, even given that they looked at the time
price of eleven basic household goods appliances from nineteen fifties
twenty thirteen. Typically, factory worker in nineteen fifty nine would
have to work from January first to the middle of
June to earn enough income to purchase those eleven appliances
(26:10):
half the year. A worker in nineteen seventy three would
have had to have worked from the first of the
year until the second week of April, and today's factory
worker would only have to work until the end of
January to earn enough income for those eleven appliances. Now
I see your point, Jack, but that the modern person
(26:32):
is working this a little more but one sixth of
the time that it took to buy those things in
the fifties. And you can't tell me they last six
times as long on average, or or have six times
the features or six times the quality in general. BOYD.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So I might disagree with that on some stuff. I
keep using toasters, but I know the answer in some
of these because I remember we had the same toaster
my whole life when I was a kid.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
You can't do that now, at least not with the toasters.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I get a target, so it could last six times
as long twelve years instead of two I absolutely think
that could happen.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's in that example. Yeah, I haven't owned
a toaster. I don't think in twenty five years. It's
kind of outing. It's kind of funny. I'm at home
because I'm sick. I don't feel very good.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
During the commercial break, I smelt burning toast, which is
one of the things you're supposed to watch out for.
I go out in the kitchen, there's toast burning. It says,
that's the problem with working from home. It might actually
be burning Christmas. Yeah, that's like the sign of a
massive stroke.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Anyway, my son was actually burned. Or alternatively, someone has
left the toast in too long, right, It's one of
those two things. Yeah, so make sure you check so anyway.
Rich Lowry's point is that you have to work a
fraction of the time to have the same lifestyle as
back in the day, with all the caveats Jack has
(27:52):
has lashed us with repeatedly. Uh, this is the process
of a society getting richer. Trump spoke of what we
really need. At at the end of the day, we
don't need anything except food and shelter. That doesn't mean
we should be content to settle for less rather than more.
The United States, for instance, he writes, has a higher
standard of living than Greece. According to CIA figures, US
(28:12):
had seventy four thousand dollars per capital blah blah blah,
Grease had thirty six nine per capita. That doesn't mean
that people that are dying in the streets of Greece,
they just have less and lower quality stuff. Until now
everyone would have agreed that that is a bad thing
and should avoid taking any steps back down the ladder
of prosperity. And then is you know, he goes into
(28:35):
dolls for a minute, Well, grocery stores and the bins
in the produce section, all the choices we have, the freshness,
and you look at apples. Oh, there are too many
varieties to choose from or considered dolls. Among the major
brands that are Barbie, American Girl, Lol, Sprize Brats, Cabbage
Patch Kids, Drafts, dolls look like Horse and Rainbow High
(28:56):
all with a Disney variety of dolls and all sorts
of prices. We don't need a central authority telling us
which dollars are more necessary than others. The market does that.
All of this is off brand for President Trump, associated
with business success and consumersaccess. It's more natural for him
to be boosterish than to talk people into attempting accepting scarcity.
The sooner he can get out of the position of
(29:18):
explaining away might be imminent shortages and higher prices, the better. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
I think the whole quality thing might just be almost
entirely cultural. And maybe the Chinese figured it out before
we figured it out in America, and we might have
figured it out earlier because quality was so big. I
remember Joe and I are old, but when we are kids,
everything was advertised as quality, not price. It was just quality, quality, quality,
for everything you're gonna buy. Somebody figured out that now
(29:45):
people don't give a crap about the quality.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
They don't care if it's going to last a month
as long as it's cheap. And I love arguing about
ideas and what comparisons are valid and invalid, and how
a statistic might be misleading. I've enjoyed the conversation, but
it occurs to me as you get down to the
end of this conversation that in terms of policy, the
idea that what Trump is doing will yield American made
(30:11):
washing machines built by Americans with great jobs and Americans
will buy those significantly more expensive washing machines that last longer.
It's all a pipe dream.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
What can happen, even in this random case if it did,
which I don't think it would. You can't have central
planning doesn't work. It's been tried a gazillion times.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah. Yeah, the minute you try something like this, one
hundred things change and you're so far behind you'll never
catch up trying centrally plan. On the other hand, are
there strategic industries, products, etc. That we cannot, for the
love of George Washington be dependent on our greatest adversaries
(30:56):
to supply us one hundred percent? Yes, oh my god.
The fact that our ain't it.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
No pharmaceuticals, yes, computer chips, yes, variety of other things.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
We'll finish strong next.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Strong. An overturned truck covered a Texas highway and eight
million dimes, sparking a wild frenzy of drivers picking up
like three dimes and saying, this is actually hard.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Let's just go no kidding, right, how many dimes? Eight million?
Is that? Okay? Joe's what do we got coming up?
Oh right? A major breaking plunging out of the stands
into the outfield.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Update Okay, I wanted to get this on one more
time because it's so stupid. Here's a Democratic house member.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
First, they came for the Latinos outside of the home depots,
and I didn't say anything about it because I'm not
a Latino at the home depot.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I feel like that pause was him thinking it sounded
better when I said it to myself.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
This kind of sounds hmm. Oh no, I take it
the opposite way I thought he thought it. He was thinking,
you know, I'm riffing here. I'm rapping, I'm rhyming this.
I'm like Jesse Jackson over here. There will be a
statue to me because of this. Yeah, that was what's
what's his crank? What's his crank's name, John Johnson of Georgia. Yeah, beautiful.
(32:28):
So so we.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Argued violently over whether this guy tried to kill himself
by falling out of the stands on the baseball field.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Yeah. So, this guy, who all of his friends and
former coaches are saying is a hell of a nice fella.
He was sitting out there when Andrew McCutcheon hit a
two run double to put the Pirates ahead four to three.
Video appears to show Mark Woods. That's the gent's name,
springing up, toppling over the railing and somersaulting through the
air before crashing onto the warning track below. Pittsburgh newspaper
(32:59):
reported that winnesses because they asked everybody around him what
was going on, described that twenty year old mister Markwood
was growing exciting, excited that the pirates were rallying quote,
and had taken off his shirt and poured beer on
himself before mccutcheons at bat. Yes, this is the detail
I needed. Yes, so not only was he drinking, he
(33:22):
was drunk enough that he was taking off his shirt
and pouring beer all over his head because the pirates
were rallying in a freaking April game.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Huh yeah, so alcohol may have been involved.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah you think loud? That is funny. Hey kids, it's
that time again with Armstrong and Getty. It might be
a nice guy, but he's the.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Kind of guy that pours takes off his shirt and
pours beer on.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
His head when his team makes a comeback. So let's
think this through. When you dry off this stickiness, the
smell come on. Now, here's your host for final thoughts,
Joe Getty. Let's get a final thought from everybody on
the crew, Michael Angelo let us off. Final thought.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Yeah, you know, if I was going to end my
life at a baseball stadium, I'd make sure I had
a giant foam finger on each hand and then dive
off to make sure viral video.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
You know, that's dark and stupid. Moving along Green nurse
teemed and use woman As a final thought.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Katie, I don't now I don't because now I have
the visual of Michaelangelo doing that, and everything that I
was just going to say left my brain.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
So there we go. Oh boy, yeah, way to go,
Michael Hi Jack. Final thought for us.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So I'm going to a new Marvel movie tonight at
the theater, Thunderbolts, which looks great and funny to me,
but the National review says it's anti American, anti Trump,
and very depressing.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
So I have that forward too. We'll see. I'll give
you a review on Monday. That sounds like a great
Friday night. Right. You can be really misled by trailers? Yeah, yeah, gosh.
My final thought economies. Markets are complicated. Let them be
as free as humanly possible. Central planning is terrible. It
(35:12):
never works.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Armstrong and Getty wrap pick up another grueling four hour workday.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
And look, your baseball team's gonna play a lot of games.
All right, drink the beer, stay in your seats, stay shure,
but to get home safely, stay shirt. Nobody wants to
see her nipples, sir. Wow, so good Armstrong Egeddy dot com.
Would you have a lot of great reasons the hot lane
(35:38):
Katie's corner, get some swag, drop us a note. He's
gonna have to change his name and move. I mean
if he's okay, I mean he has serious head injuries. Wow.
But we'll see you on Monday.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I'm sure there'll be many updates on a whole bunch
of different major stories. See you then, God bless America.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Armstrong and Getty is an unpredictable East. What a powerful metaphor.
I was wondering, you know what you felt about that?
Whatever you say that in child, listen Blue Kalay.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
We're a look.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
It's one final message.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
Aron is well behaved? Is there goodie two shoes brother Canada,
who by the way, has never had a girlfriend. Just
saying a great Friday, you mother, Armstrong and Gaddy
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Ketty Armstrong and
Getty and he Armstrong and Getty. I'm at home, not
(00:26):
at the studio because I'm sick.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And I just went and said to Henry, I said,
we're gonna go to Thunderbolts tonight, the movie. And he
said we would be like people on Wheatie's Box, which
is one of the funny lines from one of the trailers.
But Hansen, how did you go out of your way
to pick a trailer that didn't have a joke in it,
since that's the whole thing is it's a comedy.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Oh and he's not shot gunning snakes. He's yelling at
the staff over perfectly understandable.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We will be like people on Wheatie's Box. I wanted
this thing you said you're gonna do later.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm fascinated by this. Yes, the question of cheap Chinese
crap is not great, and we've given away our manufacturing jobs,
et cetera, et cetera. What the President has been talking
about versus the fact that we have an incredibly high
standard of living because of a lot of those things,
(01:17):
and I will illustrate through statistics, not arguing one side
or the other. But if we were to sacrifice a
significant chunk of that standard of living to create a
few manufacturing jobs, is that a good idea?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And again, my favorite stat is there are one hundred
and forty thousand plus manufacturing jobs available right now that
they can't fill. There is a bit of a that's
like pretending like that's the magic job that everybody's really
wanting if only they could get it, which may be way,
way untrue.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And I think some of this nostalgia is a little
twisted as well. You could have a good, well paying
job right out of high school and realize the American dream,
which was a nine and fifty square foot house and
one car maybe one car, and your vacation was down
at the lake that was a two hour drive. You
(02:14):
never flew anywhere, right, So I just I would like
to deal with reality and not slogans and hazy uh
you know, versions of yesterday.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Right?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Excuse me, let me do I cough button? Yes please?
Oh boy, bring the cough butt into the theater with
you tonight. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I might be in the lobby, but I saw a
stat the other day that I thought was interesting.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
So, I I hate the.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Point of view that some pundits have around this that, oh,
we're going to bring back sewing up sneakers, like Americans
are too good to do those kind of jobs.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I hate that point of view. Yeah, but if there are.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Manufacturing jobs available out there that Americans aren't doing now,
the idea that bringing more is going to fix that
seems weird. And then you've got the adjusted for inflation
service what do you call it?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Service? Extra jobs are.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Paying more than manufacturing jobs, So it's not like manufacturing
jobs are some ticket to wealth compared to what we've
got now.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, yeah, true. And we didn't even touch on the
idea of we also need radical welfare reform to beat
the bushes and get all of those hundreds of millions
of workers who are sitting on their asses out to
a job. Is it because.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Politicians have kind of led us to believe that when
you talk manufacturing jobs, it's all going to be like
you're a worker at General Motors in the fifties.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, there's at patina around it, that kind of halo
around it when people talk about it.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Where the United Auto Workers was able to get you
unbelievable salaries and benefits, and you retire early and et cetera,
et cetera, as opposed to you're going to be so
Nike's somewhere for very little money, which is more reality.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I think you're right, Yeah, more more drone jobs, if
you will. And I don't you know, I don't use
that in a pejorative way. I've had those jobs, but yeah,
you're You're pretty replaceable, and the work is not what
you would call mentally stimulating nor terribly satisfying, but it
puts food on the table. But again, man, we would
have to have a whole of society reordering of certain things,
(04:48):
which I would love to see, but it's it's fairly unlikely.
More on that topic to come later on the hour.
But first, it's the Friday tradition. Let's take a fond
look back at the week that was. It's cow clips
of the Week, America on st Land or water. I
need a lot of water.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Take that your stupid hosers.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Whips of the week?
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Yutda die yutta die.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
Dougie's here too.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
I could code talk to white guys watching football fixing
their trucks.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Thank you, right here, man. Yeah, let's doesn't. But you're
gonna have to wait a little bit longer.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
That Robert De Niro's twenty nine year old child, Aaron,
has come out as transgender.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
When the press asked.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Her for comments, she said, you're talking to they them.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
How did you guys meet? Not talking about this? No,
President Trump's call to the founder and executive chair of
Amazon peeved.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Maybe the children will have two dollars instead of thirty dollars.
You know, they have ships that are loaded up with stuff,
much of which said, but much of which we don't need.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan faces multiple charges for
allegedly obstructing ICE.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Agents while a state prosecutor and victims of domestic violence
are sitting in the courtroom.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It is a sad reflection on the state of our
media that you obsessively try to shill for this MS
thirteen terrorists.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Let's move on.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
Wait a minute, Terry, he did not have to letter
MS one. It is MS one three and that was
a photoshop. Hey, they're giving you the big break of
a lifetime. You know you're doing the interview. I picked
you because, frankly, I never heard of you. But that's okay.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
This is really stunning news that Mike Waltz, the National
Security Advisor, pushed.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Out but now in for the United Nations ambassador.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I think you can make a good argument that its promotion.
He likes Mike. President Trump, I know, really likes Mike.
I read President Trump's move. They aren't the adjetle.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Pwton thinks that America has taken the bullet train to
jump down.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but
we should never forget the lessons.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
Learn it well, behaved as their goodie two shoes brother Canada,
who by the way, has never hit a girlfriend.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Just say.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I love when Trump says to interviewers he's attacking the
free press.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I love when he says, that's a stupid.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Question, because they often are stupid questions.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Sure, yeah, yeah. By the way, I've never heard of
you before. There are some conventions that I think are
better left intact. But yeah, don't dignify a stupid question
with a response. Yeah, I love that. So a couple
(08:03):
of notes from the world to campus. These days, from
college campuses, Princeton has not really been in the spotlight
of the campus madness and the controversies and the woke crap.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Should be amount of money from various places like Dubai.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Oh yeah yeah. But Chris Ruffo, who's doing fabulous work
in campus reform, has turned his gaze in that direction
and he has just come out with a report on
how the school tried to discourage hiring white men and
how Princeton faculty were hilariously open about it. Quote, you
can't shortlist this person. We can't hire a white guy,
(08:41):
just like that. No weird phrases like of minority experience
or preference to underrepresented racial groups. Just flat out we
can't hire a white guy, a man.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
You got to twist yourself into knots to have that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Quoting Nelly Bowles, quoting Chris Rufo. Anotherrofessor told Rufo that
administrators tore down portraits of former faculty chairs because they
were white. Quote it's just a bunch of white faces.
So they removed all the photographs and no one objected.
That's that is just something. Where do you.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Think that will lead that out and out obvious, perfectly
comfortable with it, racism.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Where do you think that will lead? No, we will
do racism and we will do it in the right
way for the right reasons, but the rest of you
must refrain from it. Yah. Well, these people seriously, they
have no connection with reality. And meanwhile, at Harvard Law School,
the most prestigious law journal in law schools may DEI
the first priority. That's a quote of its article selection
(09:44):
process for editors. That's number one over Comperence in sight
significance to American society. DEI is the first prioritary. How
well written it was. Over four years worth of documents
show that submissions were routinely rejected because of their author's race.
The negative feedback on one submission reads quote. Lastly, this
(10:06):
author is not from an underrepresentative background. He is from
a non T fourteen school, but his resume includes many
articles in top tier journals. Blah blah blah. Wow, you
can't publish him because he's white. That is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
How can you possibly, Like I said, you've got to
twist yourself in the knots to make this worldview make sense.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I feel like that. I guess you're just so.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Into the whole oppress or appressed thing you feel like
you're gonna balance it out somehow, but not go too far.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
You'll never go too far to where it'll be, Hey,
what are you talking about? Racism? It's an academic theory
that's fueled by a religious energy, a religious devotion, and
so you just you become a zealot. And if anything
(11:01):
around here, we're underestimating how screwed up our colleges in
the university and the awful effect that they've they've had already.
Apparently those are two amazing stories.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
So you're not gonna try to put out the best
articles about law you can come up with at your
prestigious university.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
You're more.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Into the idea of who wrote it based on skin color.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That's insane. Again, it is quote the first priority of
article selection. Yeah, I'm picturing a house or a building
that's got to mold in the walls in a lot
of it because it's been let go for a very
long time. And I think our colleges and universities are
(11:49):
I mean, they're near the point where you can't clean
it all out. It would take far too long. It's
just that we're much better off tearing it down in
store ard. And again the problem being what does that
even mean? I just the infection is so awful. I
guess all we can do is our best, but it's
(12:11):
really disappointing that we the greatest country on earth let
this go as far down the road to crazy Villa
as we did. But here we are got to do
something about it.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So we've got an update on that guy who plunged
to the field at the Pittsburgh Pirates game, and then
another person that plunged to their death.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Did you hear this story? And a bunch of other
stuff on the way Stay here the terrifying moment a
man fell from his seat at Pittsburgh's PNC Park, landing
on the field.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
When you look at it like in slow mo, he
just looked like he was like like jolting up because
it was a huge play.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Pittsburgh Public Safety says the incident is being treated as
accidental and the man remains in the hospital in critical condition. Wow,
so wasn't on purpose, although and you feel like perhaps
it was on purpose.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Some people have looked at the video, Katie.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
It looked intentional. I've got something that will back that
up in a second.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
But let me go on the record as saying that
assertion is ridiculous and in fact free. It's it's based
on nothing but sort of irresponsible speculation, which I condemn. Well,
it might be fact free, but I don't think it's ridiculous.
It's not ridiculous if somebody who had kill themselves that way,
is it? Yes, you think it's ridiculous. I'm gonna hurl
(13:33):
myself twenty feet to an outfield. Yes, I am ridiculing
it right now, which is the definition of ridiculous. It
is being ridiculed in my verbiage. If it turns out
that you and Katie are correct, I will sit and
be ridiculed and deserve it. Hands Here, Hanson says, you've
(13:55):
never seen the Pirates play. They're bad.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
So I've got this story which might fit in with it.
Here's an experienced, well known skydiver. It's in Great Britain,
but doesn't make any difference. A thirty two year old
hottie who had, like some had some attention in the
world of sky diving, probably partially because she was hot
in the way that world works, apparently killed herself the
other day. She had done eleven jumps over the weekend,
(14:22):
and then on the next jump she just didn't pull
the shoot and crashed straight into the ground. And they've
determined it was not being treated as suspicious in any way.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
They think she just decided to end it all. That's astonishing, right,
So she did eleven jumps trying to decide whether to
do it or think about how it would feel, or.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Or this is what I really enjoy. I think I'll
do it a few more times. But I want to kill.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Myself doing something I love.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
But anyway, so some people commit suicide and not the
most normal. So you think it's impossible that the guy
at the Pirates game dove onto the field.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
That is putting words in my mouth do not bes
a bs or I see what you did there? No,
I said it was ridiculous, not impossible. How about this
caveat that?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
As we all know, if you commit suicide, we know
from watching late night TV dramas, if you commit suicide,
your family doesn't, you know, necessarily get your insurance payoff.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You're at a baseball game and you fall.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Over the stands, and your family gets the money, and
you know you're a decent guy that everybody misses, not
a somebody who abandoned their family and killed themselves.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, generally it's just a couple of years after you
sign the policy. But no, I just find the idea
of hurling yourself twenty feet onto an outfield to be
such a ludicrous attempt. I just I don't believe it, Okay,
I mean, come on, he had like half a dozen
better choices on the way too, and well not from
(16:01):
the stadium. He's in the hospital. But how come there's
no reporting on how much he drank?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Because that's got to play a role, doesn't I have
never almost fallen over a railing or out of my
seat at a game.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Ever, not at a game. Certainly you've dealt with stumbling
drunks before, though, Well yeah, but I.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Mean completely sober. Have you ever almost fallen over a railing?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Just? Oh is this by completely sober? Has that been?
I'm gonna trying to.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Figure out how come nobody's talked about how much he
was drinking, because I think there's got to be a
part of the story.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well a hundred percent, yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I mean the idea.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I mean, if you're at a baseball stadium, you decided
to offer yourself go up to the top deck and
throw yourself into the parking lot if that's physically possible
or something like that. You don't go down to twenty
feet above the outfield which is grass and dirt and
hurled yourself onto the dirt. Just not buying it.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
No, okay, okay, well that's skydiver. She none not been investigating,
so oh yeah, she clearly killed herself.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
So yeah, well, sometimes the authorities aren't forthcoming. So what
about the cheap Chinese crap versus hey, we have abundance
a great standard of living argument. We'll present both sides
next to Crown, Armstrong and Getty. One of the speaks
to President of China. Well we all have it.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
We look right now, and I told you before they're
having tremendous difficulty because their factories that are not doing business.
They made a trillion dollars when good by a trillion
dollars even a trillion one good Biden selling us much
of a leader. I mean, you know, somebody said, oh,
the shelves are they're going to be open. Well, maybe
(17:44):
the children will have two dollars instead of thirty dollars,
you know, and maybe the two dolls will cost a
couple of bucks more than they would do.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Really but hmm, yeah, And the question is was he
talking about on the shelves or under the tree, because
if you're saying your kids get too many presents already,
that's not cool.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, he did make a resference reference to the shelves there,
but it's not clear. Rich Lowry, the National Review, who
will quote in a minute a little more, said dun
Trump must be the first president in history to say
that his policies will deprive American children of toys the president.
Let the President elaborate for just another second.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
They have ships that are loaded up with stuff, much
of which not all of it, but much of which
we don't need, and we have to make a fair deal.
We've been ripped off by every country in the world,
but China, I would say, is to leading the leading one,
the leading candidate for the chief ripper offer. There has
(18:47):
never been There has never been a country that's been
ripped off more than the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
The key to this negotiation, and many negotiations, but the
key to the whole thing might be Trump has got
to convince she and everybody else is coming along for
the ride, that he's willing to take this thing clear
to the end, no matter what I mean. That's really
the only way it will work is if she's convinced, well,
this freaking lunatic. No matter what happens, no matter what
(19:15):
happens to his polls, no matter what the stock market does,
no matter what his party says, He's going.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
To continue this. Yeah. So, on the topic of thirty
dollars instead of two in whatever context, Trump Mianute Rich
of the National Review, who I like personally, and also
he's a terrific writer, and he has a very armstrong
and gettyish approach to Trump. When Trump's right, he says
Trump's completely right, and when he thinks Trump's wrong, he
(19:43):
says Trump is wrong. And his article is tongue in
cheek entitled we need cheap stuff and lots of it,
But his article is actually really really interesting. He starts
it with the potential empty store shelves, that the president
played much of it. We don't need the child to
have two dollars instead of thirty, et cetera. At that moment,
(20:06):
Trump surely made history. He must be the first president
in the history. He says, policies will deprive American children
of toys, the American Girl, Disney Princess Cinderella doll Maybe
collateral damage in a trade war to reduce our strategic
dependence on China. But then he gets down to the
more serious and interesting stuff. I thought what Trump was
ultimately dismissing is abundance, which is one of the marvels
(20:27):
of our system. Fewer choices at a greater cost, whether
of dolls or other goods, simply means a lower standard
of living. And yeah, there are counter arguments to this.
In fact, we got a great email from Ryan who said,
you know, Trump is right. My wife and I have
(20:48):
four kids, and our kids do get way too many toys.
So much of our house is flooded with crapp equality
toys from China. But my parents and my wife's crap,
it's crap, it's crap, and my wife's parents buy for them.
I'd love for there to be some significance to getting something.
Too much expectation and entitlement for something new immediately being
(21:08):
done with too quickly. He goes into some detail, But
my wife and I often wish it were easier to
find quality, more expensive products that would last longer and
be more satisfying for a longer time, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, as I've been saying for years, I wish they
would substitute or add into when you're talking about people
accepting fewer choices at higher prices, if it means higher quality,
I'm fine with that. If there are gonna be fewer
choices on the shelf at a higher price because it's
higher quality, I think that'd be.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Better for everybody in every way. But are you going
to engineer the free economy so that's the only choice. No,
I mean that's your preference, and good for you.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
But we had that when more things were manufactured here.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I'm not exactly sure why, because we didn't have any
other choice, But why was the quality high? Why were
we when we were manufacturing stuff?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Why were we not just cranking out the cheapest crap
you could crank out?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
America commihu make a toaster that.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
The handle, the little plastic, flimsy handle is gonna break
off in two months, but it's really cheap.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Why didn't we do that before? No, you're making an
excellent point. The culture has changed absolutely toward more consumerist,
immediate gratification, feel the endorphin rush of getting something new
than chuck it two weeks later. Society. It's absolutely true.
And Ryan goes on to say it may be more
of an American consumerist mindset problem and less of a
(22:35):
China chamming jamming, cheap crap down our throat problem. Right then,
he says, I could go on and on about this,
but I won't because you're not my wife and you
don't have to listen to anyway. I love the note, Ryan,
thanks to so much for writing it. But getting back
to rich Lowry, here's the part that I found most compelling.
He says Trump is dismissing abundance, which is one of
the marvels of our system. The Human Progress Project at
(22:58):
the Cato Institute calculates the time price of various goods.
That's how long you have to work to buy them,
typical salary, that sort of thing, and specifically Cato has
been doing it from twenty I'm sorry the year twenty
to twenty twenty four. The time price of toys dropped
(23:19):
by more than eighty eight percent over the period. In
other words, the work that it took to afford to
buy one toy a quarter century ago would buy almost
nine toys today. This is important not because we want
children to have nine times as many toys as they
did in two thousand, although as Ryan and other parents
would tell you it kind of did happen. But the
(23:39):
important part is the reduced time devoted to buying a
toy can be used to buy something else. Clothes, sports equipment,
art supplies, work less, invest save what have you. Same
dynamic holds across the board. Mark Perry of the American
Enterprise Institute looked at the time price of eleven basic
household goods from nineteen the nineineteen fifties to twenty thirteen. Now,
(24:02):
this is eleven basic household appliances. They don't list them,
but it's it's minor and major appliances, from a washing
machine and a fridge to an iron and a a
box fan.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I'll only say it one more time, as I've already
crossed the line into being a pain in the ass,
But I.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Feel like quality's got to be thrown in there. Toys.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Sure, they've gotten so much cheaper, but you know, the
metal Tonka truck that I still have from when I
was a little kid, versus the just crap that falls
apart immediately that your kids get.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Now, it's not just less expensive. Yeah, I would say,
at least in some categories as Alio, but washer dryer
that you're about to get into huge difference dryer.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
At the rental I'm in, they bought new washer and
dryer when I moved in. I've been here, what going
on a year. The washing machine crapped out yesterday. Because
that's the way washing machines are in the modern world.
Not the ones my parents got that you could have
for thirty years before you had a repairman come look.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
At them, right, and or the repairman would just change
out a belt which you could do yourself essentially and
to be up and run and as good as ever.
But so in a lot of categories. Yeah, the one
flaw of this, and I should probably do the numbers first,
but is that it does not measure satisfaction across time
for the product. A washer is not a washer is
(25:27):
not a washer. And if you're talking about you know,
the sort of you know it'll be found by a
future civilization still washing clothes appliances sometimes in the past,
although I did see a comparison that some of that's
the rosy glow of history. You remember it better than
it was really, but some of us anyway, But this
(25:50):
is interesting, even given that they looked at the time
price of eleven basic household goods appliances from nineteen fifties
twenty thirteen. Typically, factory worker in nineteen fifty nine would
have to work from January first to the middle of
June to earn enough income to purchase those eleven appliances
(26:10):
half the year. A worker in nineteen seventy three would
have had to have worked from the first of the
year until the second week of April, and today's factory
worker would only have to work until the end of
January to earn enough income for those eleven appliances. Now
I see your point, Jack, but that the modern person
(26:32):
is working this a little more but one sixth of
the time that it took to buy those things in
the fifties. And you can't tell me they last six
times as long on average, or or have six times
the features or six times the quality in general. BOYD.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So I might disagree with that on some stuff. I
keep using toasters, but I know the answer in some
of these because I remember we had the same toaster
my whole life when I was a kid.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
You can't do that now, at least not with the toasters.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I get a target, so it could last six times
as long twelve years instead of two I absolutely think
that could happen.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's in that example. Yeah, I haven't owned
a toaster. I don't think in twenty five years. It's
kind of outing. It's kind of funny. I'm at home
because I'm sick. I don't feel very good.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
During the commercial break, I smelt burning toast, which is
one of the things you're supposed to watch out for.
I go out in the kitchen, there's toast burning. It says,
that's the problem with working from home. It might actually
be burning Christmas. Yeah, that's like the sign of a
massive stroke.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Anyway, my son was actually burned. Or alternatively, someone has
left the toast in too long, right, It's one of
those two things. Yeah, so make sure you check so anyway.
Rich Lowry's point is that you have to work a
fraction of the time to have the same lifestyle as
back in the day, with all the caveats Jack has
(27:52):
has lashed us with repeatedly. Uh, this is the process
of a society getting richer. Trump spoke of what we
really need. At at the end of the day, we
don't need anything except food and shelter. That doesn't mean
we should be content to settle for less rather than more.
The United States, for instance, he writes, has a higher
standard of living than Greece. According to CIA figures, US
(28:12):
had seventy four thousand dollars per capital blah blah blah,
Grease had thirty six nine per capita. That doesn't mean
that people that are dying in the streets of Greece,
they just have less and lower quality stuff. Until now
everyone would have agreed that that is a bad thing
and should avoid taking any steps back down the ladder
of prosperity. And then is you know, he goes into
(28:35):
dolls for a minute, Well, grocery stores and the bins
in the produce section, all the choices we have, the freshness,
and you look at apples. Oh, there are too many
varieties to choose from or considered dolls. Among the major
brands that are Barbie, American Girl, Lol, Sprize Brats, Cabbage
Patch Kids, Drafts, dolls look like Horse and Rainbow High
(28:56):
all with a Disney variety of dolls and all sorts
of prices. We don't need a central authority telling us
which dollars are more necessary than others. The market does that.
All of this is off brand for President Trump, associated
with business success and consumersaccess. It's more natural for him
to be boosterish than to talk people into attempting accepting scarcity.
The sooner he can get out of the position of
(29:18):
explaining away might be imminent shortages and higher prices, the better. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
I think the whole quality thing might just be almost
entirely cultural. And maybe the Chinese figured it out before
we figured it out in America, and we might have
figured it out earlier because quality was so big. I
remember Joe and I are old, but when we are kids,
everything was advertised as quality, not price. It was just quality, quality, quality,
for everything you're gonna buy. Somebody figured out that now
(29:45):
people don't give a crap about the quality.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
They don't care if it's going to last a month
as long as it's cheap. And I love arguing about
ideas and what comparisons are valid and invalid, and how
a statistic might be misleading. I've enjoyed the conversation, but
it occurs to me as you get down to the
end of this conversation that in terms of policy, the
idea that what Trump is doing will yield American made
(30:11):
washing machines built by Americans with great jobs and Americans
will buy those significantly more expensive washing machines that last longer.
It's all a pipe dream.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
What can happen, even in this random case if it did,
which I don't think it would. You can't have central
planning doesn't work. It's been tried a gazillion times.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah. Yeah, the minute you try something like this, one
hundred things change and you're so far behind you'll never
catch up trying centrally plan. On the other hand, are
there strategic industries, products, etc. That we cannot, for the
love of George Washington be dependent on our greatest adversaries
(30:56):
to supply us one hundred percent? Yes, oh my god.
The fact that our ain't it.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
No pharmaceuticals, yes, computer chips, yes, variety of other things.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
We'll finish strong next.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Strong. An overturned truck covered a Texas highway and eight
million dimes, sparking a wild frenzy of drivers picking up
like three dimes and saying, this is actually hard.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Let's just go no kidding, right, how many dimes? Eight million?
Is that? Okay? Joe's what do we got coming up?
Oh right? A major breaking plunging out of the stands
into the outfield.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Update Okay, I wanted to get this on one more
time because it's so stupid. Here's a Democratic house member.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
First, they came for the Latinos outside of the home depots,
and I didn't say anything about it because I'm not
a Latino at the home depot.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I feel like that pause was him thinking it sounded
better when I said it to myself.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
This kind of sounds hmm. Oh no, I take it
the opposite way I thought he thought it. He was thinking,
you know, I'm riffing here. I'm rapping, I'm rhyming this.
I'm like Jesse Jackson over here. There will be a
statue to me because of this. Yeah, that was what's
what's his crank? What's his crank's name, John Johnson of Georgia. Yeah, beautiful.
(32:28):
So so we.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Argued violently over whether this guy tried to kill himself
by falling out of the stands on the baseball field.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Yeah. So, this guy, who all of his friends and
former coaches are saying is a hell of a nice fella.
He was sitting out there when Andrew McCutcheon hit a
two run double to put the Pirates ahead four to three.
Video appears to show Mark Woods. That's the gent's name,
springing up, toppling over the railing and somersaulting through the
air before crashing onto the warning track below. Pittsburgh newspaper
(32:59):
reported that winnesses because they asked everybody around him what
was going on, described that twenty year old mister Markwood
was growing exciting, excited that the pirates were rallying quote,
and had taken off his shirt and poured beer on
himself before mccutcheons at bat. Yes, this is the detail
I needed. Yes, so not only was he drinking, he
(33:22):
was drunk enough that he was taking off his shirt
and pouring beer all over his head because the pirates
were rallying in a freaking April game.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Huh yeah, so alcohol may have been involved.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah you think loud? That is funny. Hey kids, it's
that time again with Armstrong and Getty. It might be
a nice guy, but he's the.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Kind of guy that pours takes off his shirt and
pours beer on.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
His head when his team makes a comeback. So let's
think this through. When you dry off this stickiness, the
smell come on. Now, here's your host for final thoughts,
Joe Getty. Let's get a final thought from everybody on
the crew, Michael Angelo let us off. Final thought.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Yeah, you know, if I was going to end my
life at a baseball stadium, I'd make sure I had
a giant foam finger on each hand and then dive
off to make sure viral video.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
You know, that's dark and stupid. Moving along Green nurse
teemed and use woman As a final thought.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Katie, I don't now I don't because now I have
the visual of Michaelangelo doing that, and everything that I
was just going to say left my brain.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
So there we go. Oh boy, yeah, way to go,
Michael Hi Jack. Final thought for us.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So I'm going to a new Marvel movie tonight at
the theater, Thunderbolts, which looks great and funny to me,
but the National review says it's anti American, anti Trump,
and very depressing.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
So I have that forward too. We'll see. I'll give
you a review on Monday. That sounds like a great
Friday night. Right. You can be really misled by trailers? Yeah, yeah, gosh.
My final thought economies. Markets are complicated. Let them be
as free as humanly possible. Central planning is terrible. It
(35:12):
never works.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Armstrong and Getty wrap pick up another grueling four hour workday.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
And look, your baseball team's gonna play a lot of games.
All right, drink the beer, stay in your seats, stay shure,
but to get home safely, stay shirt. Nobody wants to
see her nipples, sir. Wow, so good Armstrong Egeddy dot com.
Would you have a lot of great reasons the hot lane
(35:38):
Katie's corner, get some swag, drop us a note. He's
gonna have to change his name and move. I mean
if he's okay, I mean he has serious head injuries. Wow.
But we'll see you on Monday.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I'm sure there'll be many updates on a whole bunch
of different major stories. See you then, God bless America.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Armstrong and Getty is an unpredictable East. What a powerful metaphor.
I was wondering, you know what you felt about that?
Whatever you say that in child, listen Blue Kalay.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
We're a look.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
It's one final message.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
Aron is well behaved? Is there goodie two shoes brother Canada,
who by the way, has never had a girlfriend. Just
saying a great Friday, you mother, Armstrong and Gaddy
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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