June 8, 2026 • 25 mins
(June 06, 2026)
AI is training you for ‘instant answers’ and that is ruining everyone’s patience. Boomers are hoarding most of America’s wealth because they’re terrified of outliving their money. RFK Jr’s food overhaul is getting jammed up because food is becoming too expensive. Broken? Don’t throw it away, come to a ‘repair café.’
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty. Go Handle here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
It is a Monday morning, June eighth. Some of the
big stories we are covering the Philippines. Yesterday a seven
point eight magnitude earthquake hit thirty two people so far
have been reported killed, over two hundred injured. And the
cease fire, of course, is going on. Iran and Israel
fired missiles at each other yesterday and today the President
(00:30):
has told both of them stop shooting at each other.
Iran this morning said it will halt its offensive, and
the President says if we don't get a deal soon,
then it's going to be terrible for Iran, which he
has said over and over again. So I don't know
how much credibility he is there the Iran. The longer
this takes, the stronger Iran Iran comes off.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Now. I want to spend a moment.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Talking about AI, but in a way that it's not
being covered and the word patience is being talked about
with AI.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
First of all, I don't know much about patients.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Michelle gave me this topic and I don't know why,
but she did because patience is my life.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
If you ever listen to handle on the law. When
I do phone.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Calls after the show off the air, what I do
say is I'm about to take phone calls off the air.
There'll be no commercials, there'll be no traffic, there'll be
no weather, and certainly no patients because I simply don't
have any. So here's AI. Back in the day before AI,
teachers would assign research papers. This is cool, requiring you
(01:46):
me to go to the library searching for relevant material,
even on the Internet, coming through piles of material, weaving
through coherent arguments, or creating one supported by evidence. Now
AI does everything school with signments, legal writing, sermon preparation,
that's a big one, vacation planning, work, emails, academic research.
(02:11):
And AI is certainly eroding critical thinking skills. But also
AI is talking about patients. That is disappearing patience and patients.
Actually in these are studies, Okay, this is science telling
(02:31):
us this because I love, I love referring to studies
patients have has been linked to good outcomes, including healthier lifestyles,
greater emotion, regulation, more fulfilling relationship, each increase caring about
equity and justice, increased cooperation, greater purpose in life, lower depression,
(02:55):
higher life satisfaction. If you put in front of that,
not handle, you will describe me in detail. I don't
have patients, but I always never have. But if you
are lacking in patients, which most people are, you want
to stay away from AI or use it minimally. AI tools.
(03:21):
What it does is foster a culture of immediacy. Immediacy
diminishing the capacity for patients. I mean instant gratification because
AI delivers fully developed answers.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Here's the answer.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I mean I get copy all the time from the
salespeople that are running through AI, which I have to
redo completely because it's AI reduces the delays that people
used to experience as you search assetsed integrated and integragated
and integrated information. Now, research is still in its infancy,
(03:56):
but expectations are changing, and patience is well. Patience is
a virtue, and we are losing patients. What we are
gaining in immediacy, in instant graphification, that is the opposite
of patients.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
And as the.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Studies are showing more and more patience and simply living better, longer,
being happier, being more healthy, that has a lot to
do with patients and then their story about sermon preparation.
Pastors usually take hours a week to examine original language
(04:37):
of their texts, consult commentaries, develop illustrations and examples, talk
about practical applications.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
All that has gone.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Now the entire process is done in a matter of
seconds using AI, and people are saying that is not
a pastor's real job or what a pastor should do
should be well thought out, it should relate. AI turns
it on its head. So here are ways to cultivate patients. Again,
(05:09):
this is what the study show and what can be done.
Deliberately choose a slower path. Okay, don't rely on AI
summaris or shortcuts, but try to come up with the
answers on your own. That is not easy to do
because we go to instant gratification. And can you imagine
you've been given a research assignment and now you're going
(05:31):
to spend hours combing through texts and other research and
really trying to figure out what's important what's not.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Boom.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
AI comes up with it in thirty seconds or ten
seconds or five seconds, and you are finished. It's really
screwing up schoolwork because critical thinking is disappearing completely, and
is it going to be the future like Wally where
everybody flies around, you're really fat, Everybody flies around in
(06:01):
those flying saucers and no one even walks. Is that
going to be what's happening intellectually to us where we're
not going to have any choice because we're not gonna
be able to make a choice, because it's all going
to be done for us. Design your environment, remove AI tools,
(06:22):
carve out dedicated time free of distractions, and notify and
just notifications.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Now here's what I would do. I have no problem
doing that.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I with no problem creating distractions, but I would go
to AI to help me create distractions. What kind of
distractions can I have when I get an entire list?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Okay, good for me?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And encourage and reward intellectual in uh well, engagement. And
so I don't know how you do that other than
saying don't use AI.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And it's impossible.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
As a matter of fact, come to the point now
where some test that's done is done. We're talking about
school in the classroom, no computers, no cell phones. Here
you go, let's see how well you think. And I
can't wait for the studies to come out. And right
now they're anecdotal comparing the two AI users. We're talking
(07:20):
about critical thinking, just that topic right now, AI users
and those that are on their own all right, A
story about baby baby boomers. And I love these stories
because I am a boomer and we have we boomers
have more money as a generation than any matter of fact,
(07:41):
than any in history.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
We certainly have more money than exers.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Or millennials or any group out there, which I've never
understood how the dates work between nineteen and twenty seven.
I've never understood that. In any case, some economic data
has just been lease in recent weeks. And here is
the problem. We know this, but again this is surveys
(08:06):
and data, and what's happening is they're trying to understand,
which is some of it is easy to understand, just
confirming what we know, housing affordability, household formation, economic motibility
has just turned around completely. And there is an article
(08:26):
that was written in Fortune magazine and the author is
looking at the emails. No balance in the world we
live in. Another said, a golf ball is a golf ball,
no matter how you put it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
That's funny.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So is the economic or so is the economy so
adapt and what is the going on?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
What is happening. Well.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
A lot of boomers, keep in mind, more money than
any other generation. A lot of boomers are poor, scared,
and anxious about the life they have left. They were
led to believe, yes, we were, that if we worked hard,
we climb the corporate ladder, we'd be able to financially
secure and retire at sixty five and enjoy our golden years. Yeah,
(09:14):
a lot of misfortune along the way because there was
a layoff at fifty five or sixty years old, massive layoffs.
The last few years, health issues have exploded, and have
the cost has just exploded too, and so we live longer. However,
(09:34):
are we living better? That's the problem. So it's not
unusual today to live into the nineties. I look at
the obits. I love o bits in the paper. I
just read the La Times, New York Times o bits
religiously because they are little biographies of people, and it's always,
for some reason, it's always winners there, scientists and corporate people.
(09:59):
They're never Joe Smith was a plumber that no one
buys that oh bit. But the point is they all
live into their nineties, or a lot of them. Then
there are some in the fifties and sixties and seventies,
and they die after a courageous battle with cancer. No
one dies after a miserable battle, screaming I don't want
(10:22):
to die.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I don't want to die. That just doesn't happen in obits.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
But the point is is that we have been screwed.
I can't imagine for those of you who are boomers
and why, because our anticipation has changed completely. We really
did think we were going to retire with enough money.
The reality is we are never going to retire with
enough money. I mean, keep in mind, most people have
(10:47):
under two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in savings across
the board, including equity and homes. Well, two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. You know what that gives you at
five percent, twelve thousand, five hundred dollars, and your Social
Security let's say, is two thousand dollars. There's another two
thousand dollars. So twenty five you're still talking under forty
(11:08):
thousand dollars a year. You're now living on that, and
most people make a lot more than forty thousand dollars.
So the bottom line is the way you live, right,
the level of just existence changes dramatically, and that's most
(11:28):
of us and why pensions have disappeared for the most
part in terms of living longer. Here's one personal story.
I happen to have a very good pension because I'm
with AFTRA and I have been for a long time,
and I'm grandfathered in, and so I get a hell. Well,
when I retire, I'm going to get a healthy pension.
(11:50):
The problem is, if I live twenty years longer, the
pension is going to be worth twenty five or thirty
percent of what it's worth now. Unless I get a
cola increase, cost of living increase, which very few pensions have.
Social Security, We're not gonna get any more money. We're
(12:12):
gonna get less money on Social Security. I mean, we
are looking at a quality of life that is not terrific.
How many people do you go out there? There's a
in and out Burger up the street from me that
I tend to go to a whole lot, strangely enough,
and there are it's a substantial number of people who
work there that are past sixty five. Now, how many
(12:35):
of those say it's because I want to keep busy?
I should ask? My guess is there are a big percentage.
Now this is anecdotal, but the studies are going to
prove out this is the case that probably the majority
because they have to work because their standard of living collapses.
(12:58):
Even people that own homes, they can't sell those homes
because they're sitting on three more percent mortgage. And even
if selling the house buying someplace else, the taxes, the maintenance,
the insurance just goes crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
So what do we do well? You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I started planning in my thirties for retirement. I should
have started planning in my twenties. It is a very
difficult way that we're going to retire, and boomers are
probably the best off. So is this an answer to
all this? And keep in mind social Security? You retire
to sixty five. The plan was for you to retire
(13:38):
at sixty six, or the plan was to retire sixty
five and die at sixty six. We're now living through
our nineties. My mother died at ninety eight. She ran
out of money completely in her eighties. If I wasn't
there feeling Jewish guilt about supporting her, I got a
(14:00):
gold medal in the Jewish Olympics and I supported her.
She would be living in a dumpster. For she would
have been living in a dumpster for the rest of
her life after hitting eighty five, which would have been
fine for me because she wouldn't know the difference. Hey mom,
you're enjoying yourself. Hey, you live in a great place.
How the hell would she know the difference. Is there
(14:22):
an answer to this?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah? I think there is. I think there is an answer.
You retire, then just kill yourself.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
What's it? Knock yourself off, you'll be happier. Okay, so
much for advice that I give you. All Right, moving on,
what's happening with R. F. K. Junior, who I have
said is completely crazy. You know, there are some good
(14:53):
parts to what he has asked his maha make American
healthy again. His full pilosophy actually, in many ways is
good for us. The problem is is that the White
House and administration officials are slowing progress on some of
his hallmark initiatives. And they're good initiatives, efforts on ingredient oversight,
(15:15):
ultra processed food, and he's right, it is dangerous for us.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
It is not healthy. And here's the problem.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Why his initiatives are falling flat or they're slowing down
because his concerns and his policy could further drive up
food prices, and that's something the administration is fighting like crazy.
Food industry groups representing companies like PepsiCo and Calloggs and
(15:44):
other major ones have been delivering a similar message to lawmakers, saying, hey, guys,
food prices are simply going to climb, and they're going
to climb really fast, really hard. And that's gained traction
with White House staffers. Why, because the White House is
hyper focused on affordability. That is where the Republican Party
(16:08):
and those candidates that are on the Republican ticket coming
up and are in the general election on the ticket
coming up, are going to be hit pretty hard affordability,
including food prices. President Trump became president this time around
arguing that affordability was everything. We were just going broke,
(16:30):
and he won the election and that was one of
the big reasons. Well, guess what, we are paying some
big prices for food. The increase has been more than healthy.
In April, grocery prices were twenty six percent higher than
they were five years ago, and that is far higher
(16:51):
than the wage increase. And so the Trump administration has
made some big moves on food. One of them is
securing voluntarily military commitments from companies, for example, to remove
artificial dies, completing a system for reviewing the safety of chemicals.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
And the problem is.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
The officials and those involved in doing all that is
that these efforts are difficult, They are time consuming, They
require a lot of conversation between agencies, companies, the public.
And the rise to prominence that is Kennedy's rise to
(17:31):
prominence and the birth of MAHA Make American Healthy Again
caught the food industry off guard. He said he's going
to strip chemicals, some chemicals from the food supply chain,
wage war on chronic diseases, urging individual states to pass
laws tightening food regulation, all good stuff. No one is
(17:53):
going to argue that he's in the wrong on this one.
He is absolutely in the right. And even those detractors
are saying, how do you argue with the science out
there that says ultra processed food, which I live with constantly.
My ham and cheese sandwich. Yesterday I actually had a
(18:15):
turkey and cheese sandwich, which is very unusual. I live
on ham and cheese and the locks and bagels in
the morning. I wonder if if smoked salmon ultra processed.
Is it considered ultra process No, it's not, Michelle, Is
that considered reasonably healthy? The smoked salmon, yes, okay, it's
just smoked.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
It's not like run through a bunch of stuff with
a bunch of stuff in it.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Well, I mean the color of smoked salmon. Is that's artificial?
You know?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Maybe? But yeah, no, I don't think it's considered.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Ultra all right, fair enough. So officials, including Kennedy, have
been very supportive. There's a petition requesting the FDA crackdown
on refined carbohydrates, research showing elevated health risks.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
And so the fight.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
That RFK Junior is engaged in, by the way, crazy,
is his vaccine stuff okay, completely nuts? However, arguing the
safety of food and ultra processed food and chemicals, now what,
No one can argue that that's not a good idea.
The problem is, practically speaking, what are you going to do?
(19:28):
That fight is going to take years, and he wants
it right now, and it translates into higher food prices.
And can the administration or Republicans deal with this and
deal with higher food prices? No one wants to hear
why even if it makes sense, the voters don't want
to hear why and a long explanation of how ultra
(19:50):
processed food hurts you and you're going to die sooner
and it's going to cause medical issues with you.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
All you're going to see is the price.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And as it goes up, well, what does that translate into?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Politically?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Okay, now something going on, and I guess this makes
a point more than anything else. There is something called
repair cafes that started in the Netherlands with just one.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
What's the repair cafe.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Well, it's a long table where a bunch of technical
folks repair items household items that people bring in. And
there are relatively few, I mean, you know, compared to
what is being bought out there.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
But it's a philosophy.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
It's saying that consumerism, we should repair, we should recycle,
we should not go into the disposable world, which we have.
For example, Neil is undergoing bariatric surgery, as I went
under bariatric surgery twenty five years ago, and so they
take out the scalpel. They open up a package a
scalpel and all of the tools and just all of it,
(21:04):
and it's a huge pile of it. You know, the
scissors and whatever they call those little gadgets, those tweezers,
And what they do at the end of it is
they throw it away.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
They throw it away. And what happened to the autoclave?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
That device that sterilizes instruments that they used to buy
once and then sterilize them so they can be used
again and again. The autoclave made a lot of sense
for two reasons. Number one, it didn't make the tools disposable,
and number two, because of the steaming process. It really
worked for dim sum so you could have lunch. It
(21:46):
made sense. And now it doesn't exist. It just doesn't happen.
Things are not made to be repaired. And what these
repair cafes do. And by the way, it is a movement.
It started in two thousand and nine. It's now a
global nonprofit. Fifty nine thousand members, four thousand cafes. Last
(22:09):
year eight hundred and fifty thousand items fixed. Not bad
why because all things can be used. They were just
built differently. Now cars are certainly better today. But well,
let me give you example. I have a microwave oven
that was given to me when I had got married
(22:31):
first time around. That was thirty years ago. It's made
of steel. There isn't one there isn't one piece wrong
with it, and I've had it for thirty years. When's
the last time you had a microwave that lasted for
thirty years? Today it's life is disposable.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You know what. They don't have anymore television repair shops.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Why well, because of the cost of labor, the cost
of spare parts, and it's just cheaper to throw away
the TV that's broken and buy a new one. That's
our society and this group of people are saying, whoops,
we shouldn't go that way.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The reality is are they doing a whole lot? Well,
there's one in New Pulse that's up in New York.
And so there was the day of the repair cafe day. Okay,
during the day the experts, and these are technical people
that have expertise and they volunteer. They fixed six seventy
(23:45):
one items, four needed more work, and ten of them
were beyond repair. Now, I mean, come on, the numbers
are tiny, but the movement is growing and it's a
philosophy saying maybe we should build in a way that's
not disposable. Look at the landfill, look at the environment.
(24:12):
Look at the amount of energy it takes and products
that it takes, and what it takes to create something
out of plastic today. Well that disappears if you take
old equipment and repair it.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
And that's what repair cafes are all about. All right.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
And when Neil comes back, incidentally, I want to ask
him about the disposable everything and I'm talking about thousands
of dollars.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Incidentally, this is not cheap.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
These companies have manufacture this stuff to be thrown away
after one use. That's no joke. All right, guys, we
are done. Tomorrow we come back once again. Amy is here,
Michelle filling in for Oh no, Amy is gone, She's
gone for the week. That's right, Sorry about that. At
any Heather, Heather Brooker is filling in. And Heather always
(25:05):
does a great job. That actually, can me argued a
better job? And I do, I know, I mean, you
know what, I'm honest.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
What can I tell you? Brutal but honest.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Kno is here, Will is back, Michelle is in for
Ann and I'm here for me. And that's tomorrow, same time,
same station, Gary and Shannon up next.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
KFI A M six.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show, Catch My
Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty. Go Handle here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
It is a Monday morning, June eighth. Some of the
big stories we are covering the Philippines. Yesterday a seven
point eight magnitude earthquake hit thirty two people so far
have been reported killed, over two hundred injured. And the
cease fire, of course, is going on. Iran and Israel
fired missiles at each other yesterday and today the President
(00:30):
has told both of them stop shooting at each other.
Iran this morning said it will halt its offensive, and
the President says if we don't get a deal soon,
then it's going to be terrible for Iran, which he
has said over and over again. So I don't know
how much credibility he is there the Iran. The longer
this takes, the stronger Iran Iran comes off.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Now. I want to spend a moment.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Talking about AI, but in a way that it's not
being covered and the word patience is being talked about
with AI.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
First of all, I don't know much about patients.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Michelle gave me this topic and I don't know why,
but she did because patience is my life.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
If you ever listen to handle on the law. When
I do phone.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Calls after the show off the air, what I do
say is I'm about to take phone calls off the air.
There'll be no commercials, there'll be no traffic, there'll be
no weather, and certainly no patients because I simply don't
have any. So here's AI. Back in the day before AI,
teachers would assign research papers. This is cool, requiring you
(01:46):
me to go to the library searching for relevant material,
even on the Internet, coming through piles of material, weaving
through coherent arguments, or creating one supported by evidence. Now
AI does everything school with signments, legal writing, sermon preparation,
that's a big one, vacation planning, work, emails, academic research.
(02:11):
And AI is certainly eroding critical thinking skills. But also
AI is talking about patients. That is disappearing patience and patients.
Actually in these are studies, Okay, this is science telling
(02:31):
us this because I love, I love referring to studies
patients have has been linked to good outcomes, including healthier lifestyles,
greater emotion, regulation, more fulfilling relationship, each increase caring about
equity and justice, increased cooperation, greater purpose in life, lower depression,
(02:55):
higher life satisfaction. If you put in front of that,
not handle, you will describe me in detail. I don't
have patients, but I always never have. But if you
are lacking in patients, which most people are, you want
to stay away from AI or use it minimally. AI tools.
(03:21):
What it does is foster a culture of immediacy. Immediacy
diminishing the capacity for patients. I mean instant gratification because
AI delivers fully developed answers.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Here's the answer.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I mean I get copy all the time from the
salespeople that are running through AI, which I have to
redo completely because it's AI reduces the delays that people
used to experience as you search assetsed integrated and integragated
and integrated information. Now, research is still in its infancy,
(03:56):
but expectations are changing, and patience is well. Patience is
a virtue, and we are losing patients. What we are
gaining in immediacy, in instant graphification, that is the opposite
of patients.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
And as the.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Studies are showing more and more patience and simply living better, longer,
being happier, being more healthy, that has a lot to
do with patients and then their story about sermon preparation.
Pastors usually take hours a week to examine original language
(04:37):
of their texts, consult commentaries, develop illustrations and examples, talk
about practical applications.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
All that has gone.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Now the entire process is done in a matter of
seconds using AI, and people are saying that is not
a pastor's real job or what a pastor should do
should be well thought out, it should relate. AI turns
it on its head. So here are ways to cultivate patients. Again,
(05:09):
this is what the study show and what can be done.
Deliberately choose a slower path. Okay, don't rely on AI
summaris or shortcuts, but try to come up with the
answers on your own. That is not easy to do
because we go to instant gratification. And can you imagine
you've been given a research assignment and now you're going
(05:31):
to spend hours combing through texts and other research and
really trying to figure out what's important what's not.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Boom.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
AI comes up with it in thirty seconds or ten
seconds or five seconds, and you are finished. It's really
screwing up schoolwork because critical thinking is disappearing completely, and
is it going to be the future like Wally where
everybody flies around, you're really fat, Everybody flies around in
(06:01):
those flying saucers and no one even walks. Is that
going to be what's happening intellectually to us where we're
not going to have any choice because we're not gonna
be able to make a choice, because it's all going
to be done for us. Design your environment, remove AI tools,
(06:22):
carve out dedicated time free of distractions, and notify and
just notifications.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Now here's what I would do. I have no problem
doing that.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I with no problem creating distractions, but I would go
to AI to help me create distractions. What kind of
distractions can I have when I get an entire list?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Okay, good for me?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And encourage and reward intellectual in uh well, engagement. And
so I don't know how you do that other than
saying don't use AI.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And it's impossible.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
As a matter of fact, come to the point now
where some test that's done is done. We're talking about
school in the classroom, no computers, no cell phones. Here
you go, let's see how well you think. And I
can't wait for the studies to come out. And right
now they're anecdotal comparing the two AI users. We're talking
(07:20):
about critical thinking, just that topic right now, AI users
and those that are on their own all right, A
story about baby baby boomers. And I love these stories
because I am a boomer and we have we boomers
have more money as a generation than any matter of fact,
(07:41):
than any in history.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
We certainly have more money than exers.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Or millennials or any group out there, which I've never
understood how the dates work between nineteen and twenty seven.
I've never understood that. In any case, some economic data
has just been lease in recent weeks. And here is
the problem. We know this, but again this is surveys
(08:06):
and data, and what's happening is they're trying to understand,
which is some of it is easy to understand, just
confirming what we know, housing affordability, household formation, economic motibility
has just turned around completely. And there is an article
(08:26):
that was written in Fortune magazine and the author is
looking at the emails. No balance in the world we
live in. Another said, a golf ball is a golf ball,
no matter how you put it.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
That's funny.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So is the economic or so is the economy so
adapt and what is the going on?
Speaker 1 (08:46):
What is happening. Well.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
A lot of boomers, keep in mind, more money than
any other generation. A lot of boomers are poor, scared,
and anxious about the life they have left. They were
led to believe, yes, we were, that if we worked hard,
we climb the corporate ladder, we'd be able to financially
secure and retire at sixty five and enjoy our golden years. Yeah,
(09:14):
a lot of misfortune along the way because there was
a layoff at fifty five or sixty years old, massive layoffs.
The last few years, health issues have exploded, and have
the cost has just exploded too, and so we live longer. However,
(09:34):
are we living better? That's the problem. So it's not
unusual today to live into the nineties. I look at
the obits. I love o bits in the paper. I
just read the La Times, New York Times o bits
religiously because they are little biographies of people, and it's always,
for some reason, it's always winners there, scientists and corporate people.
(09:59):
They're never Joe Smith was a plumber that no one
buys that oh bit. But the point is they all
live into their nineties, or a lot of them. Then
there are some in the fifties and sixties and seventies,
and they die after a courageous battle with cancer. No
one dies after a miserable battle, screaming I don't want
(10:22):
to die.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I don't want to die. That just doesn't happen in obits.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
But the point is is that we have been screwed.
I can't imagine for those of you who are boomers
and why, because our anticipation has changed completely. We really
did think we were going to retire with enough money.
The reality is we are never going to retire with
enough money. I mean, keep in mind, most people have
(10:47):
under two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in savings across
the board, including equity and homes. Well, two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. You know what that gives you at
five percent, twelve thousand, five hundred dollars, and your Social
Security let's say, is two thousand dollars. There's another two
thousand dollars. So twenty five you're still talking under forty
(11:08):
thousand dollars a year. You're now living on that, and
most people make a lot more than forty thousand dollars.
So the bottom line is the way you live, right,
the level of just existence changes dramatically, and that's most
(11:28):
of us and why pensions have disappeared for the most
part in terms of living longer. Here's one personal story.
I happen to have a very good pension because I'm
with AFTRA and I have been for a long time,
and I'm grandfathered in, and so I get a hell. Well,
when I retire, I'm going to get a healthy pension.
(11:50):
The problem is, if I live twenty years longer, the
pension is going to be worth twenty five or thirty
percent of what it's worth now. Unless I get a
cola increase, cost of living increase, which very few pensions have.
Social Security, We're not gonna get any more money. We're
(12:12):
gonna get less money on Social Security. I mean, we
are looking at a quality of life that is not terrific.
How many people do you go out there? There's a
in and out Burger up the street from me that
I tend to go to a whole lot, strangely enough,
and there are it's a substantial number of people who
work there that are past sixty five. Now, how many
(12:35):
of those say it's because I want to keep busy?
I should ask? My guess is there are a big percentage.
Now this is anecdotal, but the studies are going to
prove out this is the case that probably the majority
because they have to work because their standard of living collapses.
(12:58):
Even people that own homes, they can't sell those homes
because they're sitting on three more percent mortgage. And even
if selling the house buying someplace else, the taxes, the maintenance,
the insurance just goes crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
So what do we do well? You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I started planning in my thirties for retirement. I should
have started planning in my twenties. It is a very
difficult way that we're going to retire, and boomers are
probably the best off. So is this an answer to
all this? And keep in mind social Security? You retire
to sixty five. The plan was for you to retire
(13:38):
at sixty six, or the plan was to retire sixty
five and die at sixty six. We're now living through
our nineties. My mother died at ninety eight. She ran
out of money completely in her eighties. If I wasn't
there feeling Jewish guilt about supporting her, I got a
(14:00):
gold medal in the Jewish Olympics and I supported her.
She would be living in a dumpster. For she would
have been living in a dumpster for the rest of
her life after hitting eighty five, which would have been
fine for me because she wouldn't know the difference. Hey mom,
you're enjoying yourself. Hey, you live in a great place.
How the hell would she know the difference. Is there
(14:22):
an answer to this?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah? I think there is. I think there is an answer.
You retire, then just kill yourself.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
What's it? Knock yourself off, you'll be happier. Okay, so
much for advice that I give you. All Right, moving on,
what's happening with R. F. K. Junior, who I have
said is completely crazy. You know, there are some good
(14:53):
parts to what he has asked his maha make American
healthy again. His full pilosophy actually, in many ways is
good for us. The problem is is that the White
House and administration officials are slowing progress on some of
his hallmark initiatives. And they're good initiatives, efforts on ingredient oversight,
(15:15):
ultra processed food, and he's right, it is dangerous for us.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
It is not healthy. And here's the problem.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Why his initiatives are falling flat or they're slowing down
because his concerns and his policy could further drive up
food prices, and that's something the administration is fighting like crazy.
Food industry groups representing companies like PepsiCo and Calloggs and
(15:44):
other major ones have been delivering a similar message to lawmakers, saying, hey, guys,
food prices are simply going to climb, and they're going
to climb really fast, really hard. And that's gained traction
with White House staffers. Why, because the White House is
hyper focused on affordability. That is where the Republican Party
(16:08):
and those candidates that are on the Republican ticket coming
up and are in the general election on the ticket
coming up, are going to be hit pretty hard affordability,
including food prices. President Trump became president this time around
arguing that affordability was everything. We were just going broke,
(16:30):
and he won the election and that was one of
the big reasons. Well, guess what, we are paying some
big prices for food. The increase has been more than healthy.
In April, grocery prices were twenty six percent higher than
they were five years ago, and that is far higher
(16:51):
than the wage increase. And so the Trump administration has
made some big moves on food. One of them is
securing voluntarily military commitments from companies, for example, to remove
artificial dies, completing a system for reviewing the safety of chemicals.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
And the problem is.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
The officials and those involved in doing all that is
that these efforts are difficult, They are time consuming, They
require a lot of conversation between agencies, companies, the public.
And the rise to prominence that is Kennedy's rise to
(17:31):
prominence and the birth of MAHA Make American Healthy Again
caught the food industry off guard. He said he's going
to strip chemicals, some chemicals from the food supply chain,
wage war on chronic diseases, urging individual states to pass
laws tightening food regulation, all good stuff. No one is
(17:53):
going to argue that he's in the wrong on this one.
He is absolutely in the right. And even those detractors
are saying, how do you argue with the science out
there that says ultra processed food, which I live with constantly.
My ham and cheese sandwich. Yesterday I actually had a
(18:15):
turkey and cheese sandwich, which is very unusual. I live
on ham and cheese and the locks and bagels in
the morning. I wonder if if smoked salmon ultra processed.
Is it considered ultra process No, it's not, Michelle, Is
that considered reasonably healthy? The smoked salmon, yes, okay, it's
just smoked.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
It's not like run through a bunch of stuff with
a bunch of stuff in it.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Well, I mean the color of smoked salmon. Is that's artificial?
You know?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Maybe? But yeah, no, I don't think it's considered.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Ultra all right, fair enough. So officials, including Kennedy, have
been very supportive. There's a petition requesting the FDA crackdown
on refined carbohydrates, research showing elevated health risks.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
And so the fight.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
That RFK Junior is engaged in, by the way, crazy,
is his vaccine stuff okay, completely nuts? However, arguing the
safety of food and ultra processed food and chemicals, now what,
No one can argue that that's not a good idea.
The problem is, practically speaking, what are you going to do?
(19:28):
That fight is going to take years, and he wants
it right now, and it translates into higher food prices.
And can the administration or Republicans deal with this and
deal with higher food prices? No one wants to hear
why even if it makes sense, the voters don't want
to hear why and a long explanation of how ultra
(19:50):
processed food hurts you and you're going to die sooner
and it's going to cause medical issues with you.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
All you're going to see is the price.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And as it goes up, well, what does that translate into?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Politically?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Okay, now something going on, and I guess this makes
a point more than anything else. There is something called
repair cafes that started in the Netherlands with just one.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
What's the repair cafe.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Well, it's a long table where a bunch of technical
folks repair items household items that people bring in. And
there are relatively few, I mean, you know, compared to
what is being bought out there.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
But it's a philosophy.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
It's saying that consumerism, we should repair, we should recycle,
we should not go into the disposable world, which we have.
For example, Neil is undergoing bariatric surgery, as I went
under bariatric surgery twenty five years ago, and so they
take out the scalpel. They open up a package a
scalpel and all of the tools and just all of it,
(21:04):
and it's a huge pile of it. You know, the
scissors and whatever they call those little gadgets, those tweezers,
And what they do at the end of it is
they throw it away.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
They throw it away. And what happened to the autoclave?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
That device that sterilizes instruments that they used to buy
once and then sterilize them so they can be used
again and again. The autoclave made a lot of sense
for two reasons. Number one, it didn't make the tools disposable,
and number two, because of the steaming process. It really
worked for dim sum so you could have lunch. It
(21:46):
made sense. And now it doesn't exist. It just doesn't happen.
Things are not made to be repaired. And what these
repair cafes do. And by the way, it is a movement.
It started in two thousand and nine. It's now a
global nonprofit. Fifty nine thousand members, four thousand cafes. Last
(22:09):
year eight hundred and fifty thousand items fixed. Not bad
why because all things can be used. They were just
built differently. Now cars are certainly better today. But well,
let me give you example. I have a microwave oven
that was given to me when I had got married
(22:31):
first time around. That was thirty years ago. It's made
of steel. There isn't one there isn't one piece wrong
with it, and I've had it for thirty years. When's
the last time you had a microwave that lasted for
thirty years? Today it's life is disposable.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You know what. They don't have anymore television repair shops.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Why well, because of the cost of labor, the cost
of spare parts, and it's just cheaper to throw away
the TV that's broken and buy a new one. That's
our society and this group of people are saying, whoops,
we shouldn't go that way.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The reality is are they doing a whole lot? Well,
there's one in New Pulse that's up in New York.
And so there was the day of the repair cafe day. Okay,
during the day the experts, and these are technical people
that have expertise and they volunteer. They fixed six seventy
(23:45):
one items, four needed more work, and ten of them
were beyond repair. Now, I mean, come on, the numbers
are tiny, but the movement is growing and it's a
philosophy saying maybe we should build in a way that's
not disposable. Look at the landfill, look at the environment.
(24:12):
Look at the amount of energy it takes and products
that it takes, and what it takes to create something
out of plastic today. Well that disappears if you take
old equipment and repair it.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
And that's what repair cafes are all about. All right.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
And when Neil comes back, incidentally, I want to ask
him about the disposable everything and I'm talking about thousands
of dollars.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Incidentally, this is not cheap.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
These companies have manufacture this stuff to be thrown away
after one use. That's no joke. All right, guys, we
are done. Tomorrow we come back once again. Amy is here,
Michelle filling in for Oh no, Amy is gone, She's
gone for the week. That's right, Sorry about that. At
any Heather, Heather Brooker is filling in. And Heather always
(25:05):
does a great job. That actually, can me argued a
better job? And I do, I know, I mean, you
know what, I'm honest.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
What can I tell you? Brutal but honest.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Kno is here, Will is back, Michelle is in for
Ann and I'm here for me. And that's tomorrow, same time,
same station, Gary and Shannon up next.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
KFI A M six.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show, Catch My
Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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