August 14, 2026 • 36 mins
The A&G Replay Hour 2 on Friday, August 14,2026 contains:
- Joe: Disputing Notions of American Slavery
- Jack Soap Opera
- Fewer Teens Seeking Employment/ Economic Poll
- New Dating App: Hobbies & Interests in Common??
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe, Katty.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Armstrong and Jetty and He Armstrong and Getty Strong's Armstrong
in Jeddy.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yes, indeed, and you have a unique and special opportunity.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That's a little We're done there.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Anyway, to enjoy a carefully curated selection of Armstrong and
Getty replays.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Enjoy me.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I almost lost my nerve for this segment, for reasons
I'll explain in a minute. I was reading last night
Tim Sander for his favorite fabulous Proclaiming Liberty John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and the section
I was reading, and it's worth mentioning the sixteen nineteen Project.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Is a cynical, awful work of fiction.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
The idea that the revolution was held to perpetuate slavery
is so completely, wildly, cynically untrue it's hard to believe
anybody believed it. But the book's absolutely wonderful because it
talks about all of the things that are in the Sixteenation.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Project's not wonderful, that's the book is wonderful.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, sorry, The book is wonderful because it describes all
of the specifics in the Declaration of Independence and what
they were talking about. He has sent forth the swarms
of officers to you know, plague our people and eat
on our substance. He has forced legislatures to convene in weird,
out of the way places, and I've never really understood that.
I'd never gotten that as like he did or they did,
(01:46):
because it was all about parliament. And yeah, sure enough,
and it's just such a wonderful story of the lead
up to the revolution. But last night I was reading
the section about Thomas Jefferson in the late seventeen sixth
and very early seventeen seventies and how he was Thomas
Jefferson crusading against slavery, and the reason I almost lost
(02:12):
my nerve was I just kept reading, thinking, this stuff
is great, we need to talk about this on the show.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
This is fabulous.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And then this morning is I'm about to start this,
I realized just like eight pages of like fine print,
single space, and I had not like rewritten it and
highlighted it and stuff like that. But I'm going to
give you the general version of it, and I think
it would be an absolutely wonderful excuse to have Tim
back on the show to talk about this specifically.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But I am going to start. He loves this topic.
Oh yeah, well, and it's so interesting.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I mean, never mind, you know, my feelings and patriotism
and my point of view or whatever. It's just it's
much more interesting than the idiotic, oversimplified story that y'all
have been fed a lot of you. Anyway, I'm going
to start at the end, or nearly at the end.
What is extraordinary, indeed unprecedented about the American revolutionaries was
that time and again they conceded that the principles for
(03:11):
which they thought would require the liberation of the enslaved,
even if racial prejudices, including their own, still seemed like
an insuperabole barrier. They talked a lot, they wrote a
lot about Hey, this all men are created equal.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We've got slaves going on. That doesn't work. They were
utterly open about it. They talked about it all the time.
They wrote brilliant treatises on it. Thomas Jefferson was a
young crusading lawyer who kept trying to roll back slavery.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Why did he keep his slaves? Why didn't he turn
him loose?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
There's a partial explanation for that, But why he didn't
follow the example of George Washington, who in his will said,
by the way, all my.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Slaves are free when I died. It's not clear.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
It's a bit of a mystery, but the idea that
they were just kind of hammon and hawn and ignoring
the obvious, you know, inconsistency. I don't want to call
it hypocrisy, because they called it out to themselves, but
why it existed. A couple of tidbits for you. First
of all, a young Thomas Jefferson tried to in a
(04:24):
case in seventeen sixty nine, I think it was, tried
to limit slavery and was absolutely slapped down and humiliated
by it, or in the case rather by the powers
that be and the judges and the other attorneys and
uh and that, and you know those folks. And Tim
goes on to point out that slavery and other forms
of compulsory servitude were ubiquitous in America and all over
(04:47):
the world, hundreds of thousands of people. Ben Franklin was
an apprentice, He was a forced laborer for a limited
amount of time. That was one of the several different
kinds of that sort of thing and suffered so severely
as an apprentice that he had run away breaking colonial law.
Some of the other interesting points that Tim makes, and
(05:10):
he cites all of the contemporary documents, is that, well,
he goes into a fair amount of detail about you know,
their entire philosophy made slavery look absolutely terrible. But every
time they tried to limit it, roll it back emancipate slaves,
Parliament and Britain said no, you can't. They would not
(05:34):
let the colonists pass laws to liberate slaves under any
circumstances except very very narrow ones. And Parliament, which at
the time was claiming it had ultimate, unchecked power over
the King, over the colonists, over everybody. If they said
it was the law, it was the law. You have
no rights. Parliament will tell you what your rights are.
(05:55):
That's the reason. Really, if you want to, you know,
encompass it in one sentence, why we broke away from
England because of parliamentary supremacy. But anyway, every time we
tried to do something, they said no. The Royal African
Company is you know, approved and supported by the by England,
it's part of the government, and you would be doing
injury to them.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
That was the great slave importer. So no, you can't
do that. Sorry.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So the Founding Fathers tried over and over and over
it again to limit the scope of slavery as much
as they could and were told no by the Crown
or I'm sorry, really by Parliament, which I found very
very interesting. The other part of it that nobody wants
to talk about because a it doesn't serve their purposes
or be it's uncomfortable and I'm sorry, Jack, I don't
(06:42):
mean a monologue on this.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Feel free to bust in any time.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I was just thinking about Tim and I were talking
about when you were gone. This was around the fourth
of July time. I had rewatched the first couple episodes
of the John Adams mini series that they're running on
HBO or Netflix or someplace anyway. I'd seen it before,
but episode two of the first season, that's when they
(07:05):
get into the Declaration of Independence, the voting, and he's
sitting in the attic there it's Tim and Franklin and
Thomas Jefferson had just written it and there reading it
for the first time, and John Adams gets to the
you know, the we hold these truths to be self
evident part, which was like they weren't when when uh
uh Thomas Jefferson, When TJ was given the task, you know,
(07:27):
write up a declaration of independence, it didn't include and
you know, form a new kind of government that nobody's
ever done. And before he kind of gave on his own,
gave it back to him all men of creative and
John Adams says, this isn't just a declaration of independence.
This is a declaration of a new way of structuring
society completely.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Right in different that. Well, that's what I think.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
So uh to the question of Okay, so the founding
Papa's understood that slavery was incompatible with you know, the
the truths that we hold most sacred as Americans. So
why didn't they turn all the slaves loose? I get
why people ask that. It's a legitimate question, and the answer,
a good answer would be long and complicated, but I'll
(08:10):
give you just a couple of tastes of it. Only
a few years after the declaration, Jefferson published Notes on
the State of Virginia, in which he set forth his
quote suspicion that the blacks are inferior to the whites.
A later generation seized on his words to justify slavery,
and although Jefferson himself denied this connection. Quote, whatever be
their degree of talent, it is no measure of their rights,
(08:32):
he said. He did come to the conclusion that biological
as well as historical differences between the races made it
impossible for them to live together permanently.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
In North America.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Jefferson was one of many white Southerners who, while regarding
slavery as evil, found it impossible to imagine a peaceful,
multiracial democracy. Such a thing had no historical precedent. The
record with which the founding fathers were familiar suggested that
racially and religiously diverse societies could only be governed by emperors,
as with Rome, or through legal segregation, as with medieval Jerusalem.
(09:07):
No civilization known to man had ever successfully abolished slavery.
History seemed instead to prove that mass emancipation led inevitably
to deadly reprisals in Civil War. Even Yankees such as
John Adams agreed on this point. Immediate emancipation, wrote Adams,
quote would probably excite insurrections among the blacks to rise
against their masters and imbrew their hands in innocent blood.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So you've got the combination of.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Fear of what emancipation would look like just on a
practical level, there will be a civil war and incredible
blood shed. You got the Crown saying or I'm sorry again,
Parliament saying you're not allowed to do that. We're not
going to let you and then you've got the pressure
as they're trying to put a country together of the
southern colonies saying our economic system depends on this, so
(09:59):
we're put that.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Over there, you know, to the side.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
We're going to table that until we tell you or
we will not sign on. Combined with the fact that
none of this was had any precedent, what do we
do now? And so you know, if you want to
do lambast them for not being aggressive or fast enough
in answering what seems like the unanswerable. That's fair, and
(10:26):
historians can argue about that. But the idea that it
was just some sort of winking I don't see anything
hypocrisy among Thomas Jefferson and the Founding fathers. The contrast
between our founding words and slavery. It's not true. In fact,
it's the opposite of true. They were sickened by it.
They wrestled with it constantly and didn't know what to do.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Yeah, I don't like that Jefferson had slaves and kept
slaves while writing that.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I wish that weren't a fact. Oh yeah, it's awful and.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Eh and especially given Washington's example, nobody can really explain
why he did what he did in the way he did.
It's it's a blot on his legacy because of his
idea for.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Not just declaring independence from England, but for forming an
entirely new way of the government. Just a new idea
that we have were born with natural rights, that a
new idea. I don't think you were here for this
conversation that Tim mentioned that he he said, he decided
and he told his wife. He said, Thomas Jefferson is
(11:43):
not only my favorite founding father, he's my favorite person
who's ever lived.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
And his wife said me too.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Wow. Wow, that's something you get two people who get
married or in love with each other who both their
favorite person who ever lived is not each other. It's
Thomas Jefferson and that is their bond.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Wow. Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
My wife and I bonded over Supertramp. But you know,
to each their own each other.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, that is so.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
For you.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
It's Thomas Jefferson, me too, me too. So it's a
bit of a throutle.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So if there's one takeaway I want you to take away,
hence the term takeaway, it's that far from pretending it
wasn't the case. The founding generation wrestled with this question.
I think it's safe to say every single day from
the seventeen sixties through the eighteen sixties, every day they
(12:48):
thought slavery's evil. Nobody's outlawed it on Earth. Oh, the
Brits get credit for ending the slave trade. That's partly well,
let's say company, that's another story. The Arabs, the African themselves,
the Native Americans all had slaves like crazy and considered
it normal Muslims slave.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
What do you mean, how lost slavery?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Mohammad himself says slavery is great, no freaking way we're out.
The Americans were unique and saying we've got to find
a way to do this. Burnn Hell sixteen nineteen project
you lying Liars.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Which is probably in your kids school library or maybe
even in the classroom.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
They're teaching him right now.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
You know what, I will commission to him, I will
pay his princely fee to write a children's book on
this very topic.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
That'd be a good one. I could write it, but
I'm a man who craves leisure.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Also, the percentage of black slaves that were purchased from
black people who had enslaved other black people is so
left out of the whole conversation.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Oh yeah, yeah, well, and you could make the well,
it's like the drug control argument. There was a voracious
appetite for black slaves in America. So that's why the
black people enslaved the other tribes of black people or
whoever they beaten war or whatever, and send them to
America for profit. It's America's fault for wanting slaves, right,
(14:16):
But that's that's not a strong argument. If you're making
a moral argument, you can't go to that argument.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Jack Armstrong and Joe, The Armstrong and Getty Show, The
Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Agent Jacks Wall was insured, but she will pull fruit.
Don't call her that, but that's what she is. A
WSB agent by choice.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
It wasn't by choice.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
And I can't get into a room to check on
her because your agents won't let me.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
An ovasight I'll have your name outed to the list
of approved visitor. I don't want to be outed to
the list. I want my daughter back. Then, let me
put this in language that you will understand. That ain't
gonna happen. Wow, what was that traumatic thing?
Speaker 5 (15:04):
John Oliver as a cameo on General Hospital.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So comedian John Oliver of that HBO show that he
does he used to be on The Daily Show, was
on General Hospital.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Yeah, he's always wanted to be on a soap opera
and he finally got his chance.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
And he played it straight. Yeah, they gave him a
part and he acted. He's always wanted to be in
a soap opera. General Hospital is still on the air.
It was on the air when I was a kid.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Started April first, nineteen sixty three.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
It started before I was born.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
Yeah, sixty three years has been on.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
He got a hospital setting. Other than that, you can
do anything you want. So it's a pretty pretty broad category.
So what would be the point of having a new
soap opera? Did you ever get into soap operas ever
in your life?
Speaker 5 (15:47):
No, but my mom did I remember as a kid?
Which one is she into General Hospital?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
One life to live?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Yeah, all my children I was the Days of Our
Lives guy, yep, like Sands for the hour glass. And
the reason I got into soap opera's ever was I
had a period of my life where I was in
the hospital every year for like a week or so,
like I don't know how often I actually did it.
My memory is I was in the hospital for a
week like every year, which was true for a while,
(16:15):
but I don't know if it was three years or
five years or what, but like first grade, second grade,
third grade, fourth grade, something like that, I was in
the hospital for a week. Never really figured out why.
I would just get really sick and I would have
too many white blood cells or not enough white blood
cells or I don't remember. The problem was I'd get
fevers and I'd be really sick, sick enough to hospitalize
(16:35):
a kid. Anyway, I'd been in the hospital for an
entire week, and several times I got hooked on soap
operas because I would have to share a room with
an old person and they would watch. This is obviously
pre smartphones and all that sort of stuff. The only
thing you had to do is watch what it was
ever on one of the three channels, and I got
into Days of Our Lives one year, Like, I was
(16:56):
watching it every day, and I got to the point
so when I was health and I went back to school,
I'd come home from school and asked my mom, you
know what happened?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Did Randy and Elizabeth get back together? Are they a part? Still?
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Sure? It wore off quickly as a little kid watching
Days of Our Lives with like an eighty year old
who was dying next to me in a hospital room
has a fun week. Armstrong Getty Show, The Armstrong and Key.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
Show, Armstrong and Getty, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, The
Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 7 (17:39):
One report predicts this summer could mark the lowest level
fourteen employment since nineteen forty eight, when the government began
tracking the data. Fewer employers are hiring sixteen to nineteen
year olds for a variety of reasons. Many starter jobs
have been taken over by technology, and there's more competition
these days from older, more experienced workers.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah. Is there anybody that thinks that's good that we
have the.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Lowest teen participation work right of all time? Maybe there
are some people. I certainly don't think so.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Roland Fryar, the Young Economist and Harvard researcher who writes
for the Free Press did an interesting piece the other
day when he was explaining why fewer and fewer teens
are seeking employment. One of those reasons being their time
is better spent like getting an SAT tutor, because the
economic rewards later in life.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Theoretically, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
The other reason, though, I think, and this is a
good setup for what we're going to talk about, is
that the family doesn't need the money in the same
way that like our generation, the teenagers did, because if
I wanted a luxury, I had to have a job,
and like everything was a luxury other than roof food, clothing,
(18:58):
and not very good clothing either. So that's probably part
of it, because we're so affluent compared to a couple
of decades ago. But that is the opposite of people's attitudes,
which is interesting.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
That's interesting. I only don't know my own microworld. In
my microworld, everybody's team is working except mine, who has
sloganing off the line in applying, though he had been
pushed by his parents a lot. Any who has applied
at a whole bunch of different places, and that hasn't
occurred yet, But he and all his friends will be working.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Hopefully his friends already are. But that's interesting the whole.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Yet, it doesn't surprise me that if technology eliminates fast
food jobs, that's a lot of teen jobs in urban
areas particularly.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
And in a related story, artificially high minimum wages. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yeah, different economic story that I found interesting came across
some analysis that said a democracy can't survive based on
these numbers.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
This is a Wall Street Journal poll.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Think that America's political economic systems are stacked against people
like me?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
That's the topic.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Do you think that is true or not that America's
political and economic systems are stacked against people like me?
And the best thing is they've got a comparison to
a decade ago and now, and they break it into
three categories for all the questions they asked working in
lower class, middle class, upper.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And upper upper middle class.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
One interesting point about this is for approval of Donald Trump,
numbers are almost exactly the same through working class, middle class,
and upper class. But I suppose that is don't make
any difference for economic situation. The same percentage of people
back Trump or don't back Trump.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
It may be partly because of the drop and support
among the working class, that number has come down.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Maybe I don't know, think.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
That America's political and economic system are stacked against people
like me. For the upper and middle class, it has
more than double. It has gone from twenty nine percent
to sixty five percent. A upper and upper middle class
think that the economic political system is stacked against them.
(21:25):
For the middle class, it has gone up thirty points
from forty two to seventy two. Yeah, so it went
up well, thirty six points for the upper class, thirty
points for the middle class, and it has gone up
thirty four points for the working lower class. Wow. Again,
(21:45):
the analyst was actually Ian Bremer, who said, our country
can't survive this attitude. If two thirds to three quarters
to ninety percent of people, depending on your class, think
the political classes stacked against them.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
It's just that's no good.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Wow, that is so interesting, I say, I mean, it
would require one to three books to tease out everything
that's happening well, and particularly the change, the change in
a decade. Oh yeah, that is incredible. Well, what's your
off the top of your head thinking why why why
(22:26):
does everybody feel like the economic system is stacked against
people like me? Because it's because it seems to be
stacked against everybody. Tax right are high and you get
nothing out of it. That's right, everybody of the world, unite.
The system is against all of us. Now that's a
revolutionary slogan. All right, off the top of my head,
here's your three explanations. Number one selling Economic resentment and
(22:49):
discontent is the number one motivator in politics these days.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
That's a pretty good one.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
I've got some forsegulous analysis that could be a reflection.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Is that the least eating people thinking that way, or
politicians catching on to the fact that people feel that way,
so they're just trying to reflect back their needs.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Sure, yeah, it's it's kind of a self you know,
promoting a couple of it. It's a swirl of a
perpetual cycle, of a whirlwind of doom or something anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
To that point.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Great piece by Andy Kessler, I think it was in
the Wall Street Journal talking about how Bernie and his
ideological his mind meld Mini me AOC said not long
ago that an entire generation came of age and never
saw American prosperity. And then AOC said, I've never seen
(23:46):
that or experienced it really in my adult life.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
What I know nothing could be more false.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
What but huge numbers of people, particularly young people, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm getting cheated. Right, So that's explanation number one.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Big a house? How many TVs? Cars?
Speaker 4 (24:03):
How many vacations would the average person have to take
before you Bernie Sanders and AOC would feel like you're
surrounded by prosperity?
Speaker 3 (24:11):
How sophisticated a mini computer slash entertainment complex must you
hold in your pocket at an affordable price before you
feel like.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Seting out would have to occur before you feel like
you're surrounded by prosperity, drinking an expensive milkshake every day,
et cetera.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
So I want to talk more about that perception later
on because it is absolutely hand in glove with the
rise of democratic socialists, which I want to talk about.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
But so second figure, so part of it.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Is selling economic resentment is incredibly important politics right now.
Second thing I think is there is a perception, and
it is not incorrect, that you've got your connected tech
world types who are printing money and inventing the future,
and the rest of us are utterly perplexed and intil
(25:00):
mimidated by what's going on over there.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That's part of it.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
And the super sophisticated money changers of the world, I
mean the uh you know the Wall Street types that
can that were the money traders.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Essentially, I'm going to overturn their tables. What I'm gonna do.
It's a good idea. H So you know that that crowd.
We've always looked at.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Them with a mix of envy and resentment and dislike
you know, the the Wall Street to barons and the
day trader well, the like the hedge fund managers babba
that make more money than we could possibly imagine. Well,
with the adventuge, I'm going to look at her with
a mixture of envy on we and arousal wow wow
to each their own. But those guys have and become
(25:43):
so efficient and are making so much money right now.
It doesn't really affect me much except during like the
crash of seven A A. But there's a lot of
resentment there, I think, because it is amazing how they
seem to be printing money.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
And what was the third factor?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
I can't even remember a third factor to be named
later second round jet and draft choice in twenty twenty eight.
But it's a stew of things like most things, Well.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I wonder so that idea that it doesn't mean.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Third factor is that we're living to the limits of
our means and beyond.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
As a society, all of us, all the time.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
We've got this wonderful lifestyle, but we go even further
than that and stack up charges on our credit cards.
So in the Wall Street Journal again had a great
piece on this the other day about how everybody at
every level lives a lifestyle that puts them under financial
pressure to sustain that lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Nobody lives less than their means.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
So you combine all those three things and you get
a feeling like the system stuck against me and people
like me, And I'm gonna vote for AOC because she's cute.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
Beyond a certain salary, And you can figure that out
for yourself. Financial pressure is a choice, because if you
lived in a smaller house and drove a cap crap
your car and took less expensive vacations, you wouldn't be
feeling the financial pressure we you everyone. Maybe that's why,
fitting in with this poll, more than forty percent of
(27:16):
Americans who call themselves upper and upper middle class, more
than forty percent say they haven't saved enough money to
retire comfortably. Yeah, if the upper and up upper class
and upper middle class say they haven't retired saved him
money to retire comfortably, then that's a you know, I
touted the new John Hamm vehicle her a vehicle made
(27:40):
of ham on Apple TV Our our friends and neighbors,
really fun funny drama, uh drama y, And the opening
ninety seconds of it is exactly what we're talking about.
He talks about he got an entry level gig at
a Wall Street firm, which brought house number one, and
(28:02):
he talked about struggling to pay the bills and all,
and then they had a baby and then another baby.
But then I got this breakthrough which led to house
number two and an elevated lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
But he's still chasing.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Because that new lifestyle was expensive, and he's like, holy crap,
I got to really kill myself at work, which brought
house number three, which is a really affluent lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
But then he's like, holy as the liberty, I gotta
just devote all my attention to work.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
And then his marriage falls apart, and which leads to
house number four, which is this crappy rental house, but
it's a perfect example of what we're talking about, always
living about twenty percent more than you can truly afford.
Try the opposite. And I'm not lecturing out of some
high horsishness. Okay, Judy and I lived the lifestyle I'm
(28:49):
about to suggest, because Jack and I have lived like
this scam was about to blow up since day one,
because it was since the it's likely to the fact
that it hasn't is something like a miracle. But so
from day one we lived our lives like this is
going to end next week, and it is. It's a
(29:11):
good way to live if you can figure out how. Again,
I didn't do that because I'm better and more disciplined
than you.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I did it because I had to. But looking back,
it was a really good idea.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
So before we take a break back to that original
poll that is so horrifying, the jumps and numbers being
the biggest difference. Only twenty nine percent of upper upper
middle class people thought the economic system was stacked against
them ten years ago. Now it's two thirds. For middle
class it was forty two, it's now seventy two. Thirty
(29:43):
point jump for working classing it went from fifty two
to eighty six. See got nearly ninety percent of working
in lower class who feel like the politics and economic
system are stacked against them. That's revolution material right there.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Right.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
My point was, I feel that way, and I just
feel like everybody else is overreacting, but I feel like
for me it's true from my station in life, I
feel like the economics is a mistypist me.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Wow. Wow.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I would love, love love to hear y'all's take on this,
whether you want to text us at four one five
two nine five KFTC or mail bag at Armstrong and
Getty dot com if Emil's more your speed, including if
you want to take a look, guys, the system is
more stacked than it used to be for these reasons,
go ahead, that's fine. I'm curious what your perceptions are
of this.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
I think a lot of it, though, is the algorithms
feeding us the bad news over and over again. That
that's the big change that could be, that could be
the main thing.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
In our politics.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
It figures out can be off our change unless you
have discontent. Never forget that in politics, it's the coin
of the realm.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
You talk about clickonomics, I mean, if you click on
stories that matter to you, find Angelie and it feeds
you constant negative barrache of stuff, which is what the
algorithms do.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Damn. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Okay, man, we're right now, hour into a new week,
and already we're the most depressing radio show in America.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Well, bottom line is humanity cannot endure the Internet.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah, that's the bottom line. There you go, there you go,
figured it, unplug it. Okay, we got mail bag on
the way. Next Armstrong and Getty. Oh, the most depressing
radio show ever. Where's the latter?
Speaker 6 (31:36):
The Armstrong and Getty Show or Jack your show?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Podcasts and our Hot Lakes.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
So we were talking about earlier how this is the
hot thing in California college campuses.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Is this dating APPI is it kind a clever name?
I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
It doesn't matter that instead of like flipping through pictures,
you fill out questionnaires of your interests and your favorite thing.
AI matches you up amazing, and they are claiming an
astounding ninety plus percent level of let's do a second date,
which is a pretty good measure of success if you
believe the numbers.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
And I don't, although you know, it's probably a pretty
good system.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
But my immediate reaction when I first read about this,
and I think the writer writing about it said the
same thing is there's this funny assumption that you need
to have like hobbies and interests, musical tastes in common
and to fall in love with.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
I know, where does that come from. I've never found
that to be true. It's not even true with my
male friends, right. Why we become friends and enter into
personal relationships doesn't seem to have anything to do with that.
Sometimes it's because you both play golfs, but you might
hate each other's music or whatever. I mean, there's just
there's some overlap, but they just kind of accidental. It's
(33:04):
usually not why you're close.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah, and you know, I've I've been with Judy now
for forty years. We just took a couple of weeks
off to celebrate it. I remember in the early days,
I mean, we had some common interests. We met doing
quitting there. It was nineteen eighty three, believe it or not,
when we met and we were both doing musical theater.
(33:28):
She was in the cast, I was in the band.
But yeah, that it's she had no interest in golf.
It plays a little now. It did not like most
of the music I liked, had no interest in sports
in general, and I was obsessed. You know, I could
go on down the line, sure, But we hit it
off as friends, found each other to be attractive, made
(33:52):
each other feel safe, and made each other laugh. And
I couldn't have given a crap whether she like gardening
or opera.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
But in online dating, which I did for like six months, Uh,
if you're not into if you're not a foodie who
wants to do stand up paddle boarding, well then why
would I want to date you? Okay, Well that denies
all your friends who are happily married, who don't necessarily
have those things in common.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Ryan, for all of human history, and anytime anybody says
that you really ought to think about it. For all
of human history, virtually all romantic connection was proximity based.
And what we're trying to do now, and oh man
rolland friar a grow great piece about this in Friendship.
(34:41):
But anyway, what we're trying to do is, Okay, we
never brush up against real human beings anymore.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
We're all on our screen. So let's let's figure out.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Let's try to figure out what attracted people to each
other without like the circumstance. We're it always to place
that you rubbed it, you brushed up against them, you
were in the same room with them, you saw them
across the room, blah blah blah, or he asked you
if you knew where the number three bus ran or whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Let's remove all proximity.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
In actual contact and try to figure out how people
get and I think we've done a.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Poor job of it. Yeah, I actually like any of
those things.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Whatever that's called that speed dating thing where everybody gets
together in a room and you sit down for two
minutes and.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Talk to each other.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
That seems like a way better idea then that whatever
that magic is, whether it's pheromones or something in the
brain we don't understand or whatever, where you show interest
in a person based on something other than just looks,
That makes more sense to me.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
I think you're right. I remember when the speed dating
thing first came out. It seemed like, well, why are
you in such a hurry? Seemed kind of silly, But yeah,
I think compared to the online thing, is probably a
way way better idea.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Jack Armstrong and Joe The Armstrong and Getty Show
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe, Katty.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Armstrong and Jetty and He Armstrong and Getty Strong's Armstrong
in Jeddy.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yes, indeed, and you have a unique and special opportunity.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That's a little We're done there.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Anyway, to enjoy a carefully curated selection of Armstrong and
Getty replays.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Enjoy me.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I almost lost my nerve for this segment, for reasons
I'll explain in a minute. I was reading last night
Tim Sander for his favorite fabulous Proclaiming Liberty John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and the section
I was reading, and it's worth mentioning the sixteen nineteen Project.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Is a cynical, awful work of fiction.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
The idea that the revolution was held to perpetuate slavery
is so completely, wildly, cynically untrue it's hard to believe
anybody believed it. But the book's absolutely wonderful because it
talks about all of the things that are in the Sixteenation.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Project's not wonderful, that's the book is wonderful.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, sorry, The book is wonderful because it describes all
of the specifics in the Declaration of Independence and what
they were talking about. He has sent forth the swarms
of officers to you know, plague our people and eat
on our substance. He has forced legislatures to convene in weird,
out of the way places, and I've never really understood that.
I'd never gotten that as like he did or they did,
(01:46):
because it was all about parliament. And yeah, sure enough,
and it's just such a wonderful story of the lead
up to the revolution. But last night I was reading
the section about Thomas Jefferson in the late seventeen sixth
and very early seventeen seventies and how he was Thomas
Jefferson crusading against slavery, and the reason I almost lost
(02:12):
my nerve was I just kept reading, thinking, this stuff
is great, we need to talk about this on the show.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
This is fabulous.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And then this morning is I'm about to start this,
I realized just like eight pages of like fine print,
single space, and I had not like rewritten it and
highlighted it and stuff like that. But I'm going to
give you the general version of it, and I think
it would be an absolutely wonderful excuse to have Tim
back on the show to talk about this specifically.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But I am going to start. He loves this topic.
Oh yeah, well, and it's so interesting.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I mean, never mind, you know, my feelings and patriotism
and my point of view or whatever. It's just it's
much more interesting than the idiotic, oversimplified story that y'all
have been fed a lot of you. Anyway, I'm going
to start at the end, or nearly at the end.
What is extraordinary, indeed unprecedented about the American revolutionaries was
that time and again they conceded that the principles for
(03:11):
which they thought would require the liberation of the enslaved,
even if racial prejudices, including their own, still seemed like
an insuperabole barrier. They talked a lot, they wrote a
lot about Hey, this all men are created equal.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We've got slaves going on. That doesn't work. They were
utterly open about it. They talked about it all the time.
They wrote brilliant treatises on it. Thomas Jefferson was a
young crusading lawyer who kept trying to roll back slavery.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Why did he keep his slaves? Why didn't he turn
him loose?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
There's a partial explanation for that, But why he didn't
follow the example of George Washington, who in his will said,
by the way, all my.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Slaves are free when I died. It's not clear.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
It's a bit of a mystery, but the idea that
they were just kind of hammon and hawn and ignoring
the obvious, you know, inconsistency. I don't want to call
it hypocrisy, because they called it out to themselves, but
why it existed. A couple of tidbits for you. First
of all, a young Thomas Jefferson tried to in a
(04:24):
case in seventeen sixty nine, I think it was, tried
to limit slavery and was absolutely slapped down and humiliated
by it, or in the case rather by the powers
that be and the judges and the other attorneys and
uh and that, and you know those folks. And Tim
goes on to point out that slavery and other forms
of compulsory servitude were ubiquitous in America and all over
(04:47):
the world, hundreds of thousands of people. Ben Franklin was
an apprentice, He was a forced laborer for a limited
amount of time. That was one of the several different
kinds of that sort of thing and suffered so severely
as an apprentice that he had run away breaking colonial law.
Some of the other interesting points that Tim makes, and
(05:10):
he cites all of the contemporary documents, is that, well,
he goes into a fair amount of detail about you know,
their entire philosophy made slavery look absolutely terrible. But every
time they tried to limit it, roll it back emancipate slaves,
Parliament and Britain said no, you can't. They would not
(05:34):
let the colonists pass laws to liberate slaves under any
circumstances except very very narrow ones. And Parliament, which at
the time was claiming it had ultimate, unchecked power over
the King, over the colonists, over everybody. If they said
it was the law, it was the law. You have
no rights. Parliament will tell you what your rights are.
(05:55):
That's the reason. Really, if you want to, you know,
encompass it in one sentence, why we broke away from
England because of parliamentary supremacy. But anyway, every time we
tried to do something, they said no. The Royal African
Company is you know, approved and supported by the by England,
it's part of the government, and you would be doing
injury to them.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
That was the great slave importer. So no, you can't
do that. Sorry.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So the Founding Fathers tried over and over and over
it again to limit the scope of slavery as much
as they could and were told no by the Crown
or I'm sorry, really by Parliament, which I found very
very interesting. The other part of it that nobody wants
to talk about because a it doesn't serve their purposes
or be it's uncomfortable and I'm sorry, Jack, I don't
(06:42):
mean a monologue on this.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Feel free to bust in any time.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I was just thinking about Tim and I were talking
about when you were gone. This was around the fourth
of July time. I had rewatched the first couple episodes
of the John Adams mini series that they're running on
HBO or Netflix or someplace anyway. I'd seen it before,
but episode two of the first season, that's when they
(07:05):
get into the Declaration of Independence, the voting, and he's
sitting in the attic there it's Tim and Franklin and
Thomas Jefferson had just written it and there reading it
for the first time, and John Adams gets to the
you know, the we hold these truths to be self
evident part, which was like they weren't when when uh
uh Thomas Jefferson, When TJ was given the task, you know,
(07:27):
write up a declaration of independence, it didn't include and
you know, form a new kind of government that nobody's
ever done. And before he kind of gave on his own,
gave it back to him all men of creative and
John Adams says, this isn't just a declaration of independence.
This is a declaration of a new way of structuring
society completely.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Right in different that. Well, that's what I think.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
So uh to the question of Okay, so the founding
Papa's understood that slavery was incompatible with you know, the
the truths that we hold most sacred as Americans. So
why didn't they turn all the slaves loose? I get
why people ask that. It's a legitimate question, and the answer,
a good answer would be long and complicated, but I'll
(08:10):
give you just a couple of tastes of it. Only
a few years after the declaration, Jefferson published Notes on
the State of Virginia, in which he set forth his
quote suspicion that the blacks are inferior to the whites.
A later generation seized on his words to justify slavery,
and although Jefferson himself denied this connection. Quote, whatever be
their degree of talent, it is no measure of their rights,
(08:32):
he said. He did come to the conclusion that biological
as well as historical differences between the races made it
impossible for them to live together permanently.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
In North America.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Jefferson was one of many white Southerners who, while regarding
slavery as evil, found it impossible to imagine a peaceful,
multiracial democracy. Such a thing had no historical precedent. The
record with which the founding fathers were familiar suggested that
racially and religiously diverse societies could only be governed by emperors,
as with Rome, or through legal segregation, as with medieval Jerusalem.
(09:07):
No civilization known to man had ever successfully abolished slavery.
History seemed instead to prove that mass emancipation led inevitably
to deadly reprisals in Civil War. Even Yankees such as
John Adams agreed on this point. Immediate emancipation, wrote Adams,
quote would probably excite insurrections among the blacks to rise
against their masters and imbrew their hands in innocent blood.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So you've got the combination of.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Fear of what emancipation would look like just on a
practical level, there will be a civil war and incredible
blood shed. You got the Crown saying or I'm sorry again,
Parliament saying you're not allowed to do that. We're not
going to let you and then you've got the pressure
as they're trying to put a country together of the
southern colonies saying our economic system depends on this, so
(09:59):
we're put that.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Over there, you know, to the side.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
We're going to table that until we tell you or
we will not sign on. Combined with the fact that
none of this was had any precedent, what do we
do now? And so you know, if you want to
do lambast them for not being aggressive or fast enough
in answering what seems like the unanswerable. That's fair, and
(10:26):
historians can argue about that. But the idea that it
was just some sort of winking I don't see anything
hypocrisy among Thomas Jefferson and the Founding fathers. The contrast
between our founding words and slavery. It's not true. In fact,
it's the opposite of true. They were sickened by it.
They wrestled with it constantly and didn't know what to do.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Yeah, I don't like that Jefferson had slaves and kept
slaves while writing that.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I wish that weren't a fact. Oh yeah, it's awful and.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Eh and especially given Washington's example, nobody can really explain
why he did what he did in the way he did.
It's it's a blot on his legacy because of his
idea for.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Not just declaring independence from England, but for forming an
entirely new way of the government. Just a new idea
that we have were born with natural rights, that a
new idea. I don't think you were here for this
conversation that Tim mentioned that he he said, he decided
and he told his wife. He said, Thomas Jefferson is
(11:43):
not only my favorite founding father, he's my favorite person
who's ever lived.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
And his wife said me too.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Wow. Wow, that's something you get two people who get
married or in love with each other who both their
favorite person who ever lived is not each other. It's
Thomas Jefferson and that is their bond.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Wow. Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
My wife and I bonded over Supertramp. But you know,
to each their own each other.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, that is so.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
For you.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
It's Thomas Jefferson, me too, me too. So it's a
bit of a throutle.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
So if there's one takeaway I want you to take away,
hence the term takeaway, it's that far from pretending it
wasn't the case. The founding generation wrestled with this question.
I think it's safe to say every single day from
the seventeen sixties through the eighteen sixties, every day they
(12:48):
thought slavery's evil. Nobody's outlawed it on Earth. Oh, the
Brits get credit for ending the slave trade. That's partly well,
let's say company, that's another story. The Arabs, the African themselves,
the Native Americans all had slaves like crazy and considered
it normal Muslims slave.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
What do you mean, how lost slavery?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Mohammad himself says slavery is great, no freaking way we're out.
The Americans were unique and saying we've got to find
a way to do this. Burnn Hell sixteen nineteen project
you lying Liars.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Which is probably in your kids school library or maybe
even in the classroom.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
They're teaching him right now.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
You know what, I will commission to him, I will
pay his princely fee to write a children's book on
this very topic.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
That'd be a good one. I could write it, but
I'm a man who craves leisure.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Also, the percentage of black slaves that were purchased from
black people who had enslaved other black people is so
left out of the whole conversation.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Oh yeah, yeah, well, and you could make the well,
it's like the drug control argument. There was a voracious
appetite for black slaves in America. So that's why the
black people enslaved the other tribes of black people or
whoever they beaten war or whatever, and send them to
America for profit. It's America's fault for wanting slaves, right,
(14:16):
But that's that's not a strong argument. If you're making
a moral argument, you can't go to that argument.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Jack Armstrong and Joe, The Armstrong and Getty Show, The
Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Agent Jacks Wall was insured, but she will pull fruit.
Don't call her that, but that's what she is. A
WSB agent by choice.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
It wasn't by choice.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
And I can't get into a room to check on
her because your agents won't let me.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
An ovasight I'll have your name outed to the list
of approved visitor. I don't want to be outed to
the list. I want my daughter back. Then, let me
put this in language that you will understand. That ain't
gonna happen. Wow, what was that traumatic thing?
Speaker 5 (15:04):
John Oliver as a cameo on General Hospital.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So comedian John Oliver of that HBO show that he
does he used to be on The Daily Show, was
on General Hospital.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Yeah, he's always wanted to be on a soap opera
and he finally got his chance.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
And he played it straight. Yeah, they gave him a
part and he acted. He's always wanted to be in
a soap opera. General Hospital is still on the air.
It was on the air when I was a kid.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Started April first, nineteen sixty three.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
It started before I was born.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
Yeah, sixty three years has been on.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
He got a hospital setting. Other than that, you can
do anything you want. So it's a pretty pretty broad category.
So what would be the point of having a new
soap opera? Did you ever get into soap operas ever
in your life?
Speaker 5 (15:47):
No, but my mom did I remember as a kid?
Which one is she into General Hospital?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
One life to live?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Yeah, all my children I was the Days of Our
Lives guy, yep, like Sands for the hour glass. And
the reason I got into soap opera's ever was I
had a period of my life where I was in
the hospital every year for like a week or so,
like I don't know how often I actually did it.
My memory is I was in the hospital for a
week like every year, which was true for a while,
(16:15):
but I don't know if it was three years or
five years or what, but like first grade, second grade,
third grade, fourth grade, something like that, I was in
the hospital for a week. Never really figured out why.
I would just get really sick and I would have
too many white blood cells or not enough white blood
cells or I don't remember. The problem was I'd get
fevers and I'd be really sick, sick enough to hospitalize
(16:35):
a kid. Anyway, I'd been in the hospital for an
entire week, and several times I got hooked on soap
operas because I would have to share a room with
an old person and they would watch. This is obviously
pre smartphones and all that sort of stuff. The only
thing you had to do is watch what it was
ever on one of the three channels, and I got
into Days of Our Lives one year, Like, I was
(16:56):
watching it every day, and I got to the point
so when I was health and I went back to school,
I'd come home from school and asked my mom, you
know what happened?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Did Randy and Elizabeth get back together? Are they a part? Still?
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Sure? It wore off quickly as a little kid watching
Days of Our Lives with like an eighty year old
who was dying next to me in a hospital room
has a fun week. Armstrong Getty Show, The Armstrong and Key.
Speaker 6 (17:25):
Show, Armstrong and Getty, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, The
Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 7 (17:39):
One report predicts this summer could mark the lowest level
fourteen employment since nineteen forty eight, when the government began
tracking the data. Fewer employers are hiring sixteen to nineteen
year olds for a variety of reasons. Many starter jobs
have been taken over by technology, and there's more competition
these days from older, more experienced workers.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah. Is there anybody that thinks that's good that we
have the.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Lowest teen participation work right of all time? Maybe there
are some people. I certainly don't think so.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Roland Fryar, the Young Economist and Harvard researcher who writes
for the Free Press did an interesting piece the other
day when he was explaining why fewer and fewer teens
are seeking employment. One of those reasons being their time
is better spent like getting an SAT tutor, because the
economic rewards later in life.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Theoretically, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
The other reason, though, I think, and this is a
good setup for what we're going to talk about, is
that the family doesn't need the money in the same
way that like our generation, the teenagers did, because if
I wanted a luxury, I had to have a job,
and like everything was a luxury other than roof food, clothing,
(18:58):
and not very good clothing either. So that's probably part
of it, because we're so affluent compared to a couple
of decades ago. But that is the opposite of people's attitudes,
which is interesting.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
That's interesting. I only don't know my own microworld. In
my microworld, everybody's team is working except mine, who has
sloganing off the line in applying, though he had been
pushed by his parents a lot. Any who has applied
at a whole bunch of different places, and that hasn't
occurred yet, But he and all his friends will be working.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Hopefully his friends already are. But that's interesting the whole.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Yet, it doesn't surprise me that if technology eliminates fast
food jobs, that's a lot of teen jobs in urban
areas particularly.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
And in a related story, artificially high minimum wages. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yeah, different economic story that I found interesting came across
some analysis that said a democracy can't survive based on
these numbers.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
This is a Wall Street Journal poll.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Think that America's political economic systems are stacked against people
like me?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
That's the topic.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Do you think that is true or not that America's
political and economic systems are stacked against people like me?
And the best thing is they've got a comparison to
a decade ago and now, and they break it into
three categories for all the questions they asked working in
lower class, middle class, upper.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And upper upper middle class.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
One interesting point about this is for approval of Donald Trump,
numbers are almost exactly the same through working class, middle class,
and upper class. But I suppose that is don't make
any difference for economic situation. The same percentage of people
back Trump or don't back Trump.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
It may be partly because of the drop and support
among the working class, that number has come down.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Maybe I don't know, think.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
That America's political and economic system are stacked against people
like me. For the upper and middle class, it has
more than double. It has gone from twenty nine percent
to sixty five percent. A upper and upper middle class
think that the economic political system is stacked against them.
(21:25):
For the middle class, it has gone up thirty points
from forty two to seventy two. Yeah, so it went
up well, thirty six points for the upper class, thirty
points for the middle class, and it has gone up
thirty four points for the working lower class. Wow. Again,
(21:45):
the analyst was actually Ian Bremer, who said, our country
can't survive this attitude. If two thirds to three quarters
to ninety percent of people, depending on your class, think
the political classes stacked against them.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
It's just that's no good.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Wow, that is so interesting, I say, I mean, it
would require one to three books to tease out everything
that's happening well, and particularly the change, the change in
a decade. Oh yeah, that is incredible. Well, what's your
off the top of your head thinking why why why
(22:26):
does everybody feel like the economic system is stacked against
people like me? Because it's because it seems to be
stacked against everybody. Tax right are high and you get
nothing out of it. That's right, everybody of the world, unite.
The system is against all of us. Now that's a
revolutionary slogan. All right, off the top of my head,
here's your three explanations. Number one selling Economic resentment and
(22:49):
discontent is the number one motivator in politics these days.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
That's a pretty good one.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
I've got some forsegulous analysis that could be a reflection.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Is that the least eating people thinking that way, or
politicians catching on to the fact that people feel that way,
so they're just trying to reflect back their needs.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Sure, yeah, it's it's kind of a self you know,
promoting a couple of it. It's a swirl of a
perpetual cycle, of a whirlwind of doom or something anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
To that point.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Great piece by Andy Kessler, I think it was in
the Wall Street Journal talking about how Bernie and his
ideological his mind meld Mini me AOC said not long
ago that an entire generation came of age and never
saw American prosperity. And then AOC said, I've never seen
(23:46):
that or experienced it really in my adult life.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
What I know nothing could be more false.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
What but huge numbers of people, particularly young people, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm getting cheated. Right, So that's explanation number one.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Big a house? How many TVs? Cars?
Speaker 4 (24:03):
How many vacations would the average person have to take
before you Bernie Sanders and AOC would feel like you're
surrounded by prosperity?
Speaker 3 (24:11):
How sophisticated a mini computer slash entertainment complex must you
hold in your pocket at an affordable price before you
feel like.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Seting out would have to occur before you feel like
you're surrounded by prosperity, drinking an expensive milkshake every day,
et cetera.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
So I want to talk more about that perception later
on because it is absolutely hand in glove with the
rise of democratic socialists, which I want to talk about.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
But so second figure, so part of it.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Is selling economic resentment is incredibly important politics right now.
Second thing I think is there is a perception, and
it is not incorrect, that you've got your connected tech
world types who are printing money and inventing the future,
and the rest of us are utterly perplexed and intil
(25:00):
mimidated by what's going on over there.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That's part of it.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
And the super sophisticated money changers of the world, I
mean the uh you know the Wall Street types that
can that were the money traders.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Essentially, I'm going to overturn their tables. What I'm gonna do.
It's a good idea. H So you know that that crowd.
We've always looked at.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Them with a mix of envy and resentment and dislike
you know, the the Wall Street to barons and the
day trader well, the like the hedge fund managers babba
that make more money than we could possibly imagine. Well,
with the adventuge, I'm going to look at her with
a mixture of envy on we and arousal wow wow
to each their own. But those guys have and become
(25:43):
so efficient and are making so much money right now.
It doesn't really affect me much except during like the
crash of seven A A. But there's a lot of
resentment there, I think, because it is amazing how they
seem to be printing money.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
And what was the third factor?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
I can't even remember a third factor to be named
later second round jet and draft choice in twenty twenty eight.
But it's a stew of things like most things, Well.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I wonder so that idea that it doesn't mean.
Speaker 7 (26:15):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Third factor is that we're living to the limits of
our means and beyond.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
As a society, all of us, all the time.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
We've got this wonderful lifestyle, but we go even further
than that and stack up charges on our credit cards.
So in the Wall Street Journal again had a great
piece on this the other day about how everybody at
every level lives a lifestyle that puts them under financial
pressure to sustain that lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Nobody lives less than their means.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
So you combine all those three things and you get
a feeling like the system stuck against me and people
like me, And I'm gonna vote for AOC because she's cute.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
Beyond a certain salary, And you can figure that out
for yourself. Financial pressure is a choice, because if you
lived in a smaller house and drove a cap crap
your car and took less expensive vacations, you wouldn't be
feeling the financial pressure we you everyone. Maybe that's why,
fitting in with this poll, more than forty percent of
(27:16):
Americans who call themselves upper and upper middle class, more
than forty percent say they haven't saved enough money to
retire comfortably. Yeah, if the upper and up upper class
and upper middle class say they haven't retired saved him
money to retire comfortably, then that's a you know, I
touted the new John Hamm vehicle her a vehicle made
(27:40):
of ham on Apple TV Our our friends and neighbors,
really fun funny drama, uh drama y, And the opening
ninety seconds of it is exactly what we're talking about.
He talks about he got an entry level gig at
a Wall Street firm, which brought house number one, and
(28:02):
he talked about struggling to pay the bills and all,
and then they had a baby and then another baby.
But then I got this breakthrough which led to house
number two and an elevated lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
But he's still chasing.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Because that new lifestyle was expensive, and he's like, holy crap,
I got to really kill myself at work, which brought
house number three, which is a really affluent lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
But then he's like, holy as the liberty, I gotta
just devote all my attention to work.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
And then his marriage falls apart, and which leads to
house number four, which is this crappy rental house, but
it's a perfect example of what we're talking about, always
living about twenty percent more than you can truly afford.
Try the opposite. And I'm not lecturing out of some
high horsishness. Okay, Judy and I lived the lifestyle I'm
(28:49):
about to suggest, because Jack and I have lived like
this scam was about to blow up since day one,
because it was since the it's likely to the fact
that it hasn't is something like a miracle. But so
from day one we lived our lives like this is
going to end next week, and it is. It's a
(29:11):
good way to live if you can figure out how. Again,
I didn't do that because I'm better and more disciplined
than you.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I did it because I had to. But looking back,
it was a really good idea.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
So before we take a break back to that original
poll that is so horrifying, the jumps and numbers being
the biggest difference. Only twenty nine percent of upper upper
middle class people thought the economic system was stacked against
them ten years ago. Now it's two thirds. For middle
class it was forty two, it's now seventy two. Thirty
(29:43):
point jump for working classing it went from fifty two
to eighty six. See got nearly ninety percent of working
in lower class who feel like the politics and economic
system are stacked against them. That's revolution material right there.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Right.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
My point was, I feel that way, and I just
feel like everybody else is overreacting, but I feel like
for me it's true from my station in life, I
feel like the economics is a mistypist me.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Wow. Wow.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I would love, love love to hear y'all's take on this,
whether you want to text us at four one five
two nine five KFTC or mail bag at Armstrong and
Getty dot com if Emil's more your speed, including if
you want to take a look, guys, the system is
more stacked than it used to be for these reasons,
go ahead, that's fine. I'm curious what your perceptions are
of this.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
I think a lot of it, though, is the algorithms
feeding us the bad news over and over again. That
that's the big change that could be, that could be
the main thing.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
In our politics.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
It figures out can be off our change unless you
have discontent. Never forget that in politics, it's the coin
of the realm.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
You talk about clickonomics, I mean, if you click on
stories that matter to you, find Angelie and it feeds
you constant negative barrache of stuff, which is what the
algorithms do.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Damn. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Okay, man, we're right now, hour into a new week,
and already we're the most depressing radio show in America.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Well, bottom line is humanity cannot endure the Internet.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah, that's the bottom line. There you go, there you go,
figured it, unplug it. Okay, we got mail bag on
the way. Next Armstrong and Getty. Oh, the most depressing
radio show ever. Where's the latter?
Speaker 6 (31:36):
The Armstrong and Getty Show or Jack your show?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Podcasts and our Hot Lakes.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
So we were talking about earlier how this is the
hot thing in California college campuses.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Is this dating APPI is it kind a clever name?
I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
It doesn't matter that instead of like flipping through pictures,
you fill out questionnaires of your interests and your favorite thing.
AI matches you up amazing, and they are claiming an
astounding ninety plus percent level of let's do a second date,
which is a pretty good measure of success if you
believe the numbers.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
And I don't, although you know, it's probably a pretty
good system.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
But my immediate reaction when I first read about this,
and I think the writer writing about it said the
same thing is there's this funny assumption that you need
to have like hobbies and interests, musical tastes in common
and to fall in love with.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
I know, where does that come from. I've never found
that to be true. It's not even true with my
male friends, right. Why we become friends and enter into
personal relationships doesn't seem to have anything to do with that.
Sometimes it's because you both play golfs, but you might
hate each other's music or whatever. I mean, there's just
there's some overlap, but they just kind of accidental. It's
(33:04):
usually not why you're close.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah, and you know, I've I've been with Judy now
for forty years. We just took a couple of weeks
off to celebrate it. I remember in the early days,
I mean, we had some common interests. We met doing
quitting there. It was nineteen eighty three, believe it or not,
when we met and we were both doing musical theater.
(33:28):
She was in the cast, I was in the band.
But yeah, that it's she had no interest in golf.
It plays a little now. It did not like most
of the music I liked, had no interest in sports
in general, and I was obsessed. You know, I could
go on down the line, sure, But we hit it
off as friends, found each other to be attractive, made
(33:52):
each other feel safe, and made each other laugh. And
I couldn't have given a crap whether she like gardening
or opera.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
But in online dating, which I did for like six months, Uh,
if you're not into if you're not a foodie who
wants to do stand up paddle boarding, well then why
would I want to date you? Okay, Well that denies
all your friends who are happily married, who don't necessarily
have those things in common.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Ryan, for all of human history, and anytime anybody says
that you really ought to think about it. For all
of human history, virtually all romantic connection was proximity based.
And what we're trying to do now, and oh man
rolland friar a grow great piece about this in Friendship.
(34:41):
But anyway, what we're trying to do is, Okay, we
never brush up against real human beings anymore.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
We're all on our screen. So let's let's figure out.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Let's try to figure out what attracted people to each
other without like the circumstance. We're it always to place
that you rubbed it, you brushed up against them, you
were in the same room with them, you saw them
across the room, blah blah blah, or he asked you
if you knew where the number three bus ran or whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Let's remove all proximity.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
In actual contact and try to figure out how people
get and I think we've done a.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Poor job of it. Yeah, I actually like any of
those things.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Whatever that's called that speed dating thing where everybody gets
together in a room and you sit down for two
minutes and.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Talk to each other.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
That seems like a way better idea then that whatever
that magic is, whether it's pheromones or something in the
brain we don't understand or whatever, where you show interest
in a person based on something other than just looks,
That makes more sense to me.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
I think you're right. I remember when the speed dating
thing first came out. It seemed like, well, why are
you in such a hurry? Seemed kind of silly, But yeah,
I think compared to the online thing, is probably a
way way better idea.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Jack Armstrong and Joe The Armstrong and Getty Show
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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