Episode 147: The American Dream

0:10 Welcome back to another episode of Record of My Font. We're going to talk about the meaning of America since we're both Americans, You know, I think we are we are American, right? I think so. And I don't know, I think that you came up with this idea. And what I first think about is the American dream and the the white picket fence, the dog, the 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 kids, you know, in the. Owning your home in the. House, yeah. Owning, Owning a home, yeah. Owning a home, I think to me is is always been at the core of the American dream. It, it, it that it doesn't really matter of all the other stuff. It's sort of like that's the typical American family. It's, it's cool that it excludes anybody of any race or any different sexual orientation. That's the American dream.

0:58 And but I mean other than that. Well, that was funny that that reminds me of when we were at that one Great American restaurant with somebody who I will not name. And she said, man, it was so much better when I was a kid. And you said, oh, yeah, when segregation existed. It's just I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean it like that. And I still think about that moment to this day because I don't know, we, we often think about in the past and we, we think of ourselves before anybody else. We missed. These were so much better back then because they were better for us and not better for other people, Right? And maybe I don't know what is it to be American other than to be selfish. You know, I think that that might be a part of it. What Hunter S Thompson said were a bunch of used car salesman ready to kill anybody who makes us feel uncomfortable. And I think that that might be a part of it. There's a, there's a portion of that I'm, I'm, I'm absolutely sure when you, when you listen or you, or you think about the, the way the population is today.

1:58 But I don't think it's any different than it was before. I think the, the reason that we, we come out as being meaner in, in my eyes today than say 20-30 years ago is that now, I mean, when I was in the 60s and 70s when, when somebody did something wrong, 6 people knew about it, they heard about it and it impacted their lives. And it might have been positive or negative or whatever. Now when somebody does something horrible, the whole world knows and, and it, and it impacts you. And the thing that the unfortunate thing is, is that horrible things travel faster than good things.

2:40 So it, it seems to me that everybody's going to be somewhat affected by more horrible things because that's what news is. It isn't about what happened. It's about what, what's happened that's horrible that we can point to or and say, hey, look at this, you know, how will this change your life? Because you will click on it 'cause you want to know, 'cause you want to know that somebody else in the world is worse off than you. You know what I mean? I think, I think that's like a big part of it is that whole idea of, well, at least we're not, I mean, at least I'm not, you know, at least I'm not living in Iran right now. I mean, hey, it could be worse, right? You know, at least I'm not in Somalia.

3:20 At least I'm not, you know, for the. Time being, we can still critique the government, or so it seems. Maybe because we have a slightly less large. Well, they're following the most. But, you know, I don't know, it's kind of, it's kind of interesting. Yeah. Yeah. But as we get old, I mean, I think the capitalism has always been the illusion of choices. I don't know, you know, but I don't know you. When you were in college, you could pay for tuition if you worked this summer. Is that what you used to say? Right. I could, I paid for. I went to old domain college, old domain university and it was like 1700 bucks a year or nineteen. It was state supported, not state funded or something. It was like a partial.

4:06 They had a little bit of money that came from the state and I could work a summer job as long as I did overtime like every week I could make, you know, I think I had to average about 50 hours to be able to pay for all tuition, room and board. And I lived in a place that cost 100 bucks a month, you know, and my utilities were usually utilities and and that's when cable was just starting, you know, do we even have phones? I don't even remember if we had a phone or not. It was pre sell. You know, there's no cell phone. Did we have a phone in the house? That's funny. I don't, I don't remember having one at all. That's kind of weird, you know, that we didn't have a phone. We didn't need to talk to anybody. If I need to talk to somebody, I go to school and call on the pay phone, you know, and back then, you know, it was long distance. And so why would I call you?

5:04 You know, we would write letters or, or, you know, there wasn't e-mail and things like that. But but you could do that. You could pay for school by working a summer right now you would have to make for just to go to Oldham and and to live indoors you'd probably make have to make 15 or 20 grand over a summer which I don't think is realistic if. Not more than that, realistically, for the entire year. Yeah. Yeah, I mean per semester it's like 15. Isn't it 1520? No, I mean in state though. No, it's in state because Virginia has really good in state discounts. I forgot. About that, we're trying to compare apples to apples, you know? So for me, it would be Old Dominion University tuition, huh?

5:54 And that's a good bearing. Well, and but but also like when you look it's 11/7. Oh, really? OK. Oh OK. In state is 11 about 11,700 and out of state is 32. Maybe that's why. OK. I was comparing it to out of state prices. Is what I was thinking. Total estimated annual costs, including housing and books, ranging from roughly 31 six. Wait, SO316 for in state or out of state? There we go. Also, it wasn't crazy. So they're saying, they're saying 20,000 on addition to see it's 11790 and they're saying 11680 is that would be they just add 20 grand on to it. They say your living expenses for a year of going to school there would be 20 grand.

6:44 Well, that's why. Funny, but I can't imagine that it would cost that much 'cause you figure it's I mean you're going to have a roommate. 1000 bucks a month. Well, the reason why I quoted it so high is because your first year, your first two years usually are mandatory on campus and they pump how expensive living on campus is. It's more expensive than just renting your own apartment. It's kind of crazy 'cause then it's like, oh, you have to buy the meal pass, you have to buy this, you have to buy that. Yeah, 'cause it's, it's of quote UN quote convenience, when in fact they're just kind of screwing you over. I mean, that's really what it is. It's more of a profiteering thing than an actual teaching thing to me at least. I don't know.

7:27 Yeah, yeah. Well, this is not, I mean average 32 grand. OK, so it wasn't crazy. I feel better about myself. Now so let's say let's say you get a crazy job and you work I I mean May, June, July, August, right, you get 4 months. So that is 4 * 416 weeks. Let's say you get what do you make 15 bucks an hour? If that in Virginia, what did? Virginia. Raise it to 1550 yet. So let's say 15 an hour, 15 an hour times 40. Man, I remember when we were at 7:25 until recently, that was crazy. 600 a week a week times 16. That's 9600 bucks.

8:23 There you go. That's not even that's, that's not even a third. Oh my God. I will say they have a great Community College system, but even then, I mean like when you're in Community College, you're still paying for college. So it's like you got to take out loans. I mean, that's really the only way that you're going to be able. To do it. Do you think this goes to the American Dream being out of reach for many people? Well, I think also at the same time, master's degrees aren't even looked at as sealing the deal on a job anymore. And I think that that is crazy. That's a little. Crazy. Yeah. When I was a kid, anybody that went to school, with the exception of my parents, had an opportunity, good jobs, But you had to have confidence in yourself and what you were doing and the stuff that you learned. You know, I mean a crazy world.

9:11 Sometimes, I mean, if you have a business undergrad now, you might be able with the correct networking, depending on what school you went to as well, get into wealth management. You could, you could, but it's like it's very difficult. It's also GPA requirements are a 37. So for wealth management, yeah. To work at some of those top firms. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's hard to get in, but that also is really a high consideration of what school you went to as well, 'cause I don't think they're hiring Edible Dominion, you know, like I don't think that they're hiring out of a lot of these others, these other schools. But yeah, I don't know, I think that undergraduate degree is not considered very valuable anymore.

9:53 And people are often wondering like, why wouldn't I just go get the trade? And I would say, I mean HVAC is going to be around. Forever LG learns what is your learners are going to. Be around forever. What did I learn? Yeah. To think pragmatically, to think and according to many different people's ideas that wrote throughout time, to be amiable, to read people is really what I learned. In the English degree, interact with people that disagree with you. That's 100% what it is, but I'm saying that a lot of people, unlike myself, are not as privileged and they're looking for an actual job and.

10:34 Practice living. Practice living with other people. Yeah, that as well, but I'm saying H back things, an elevator repair and electrician electricity is going to be around forever, you know and it's like. It's I. Think that those trades are, I mean, they're going to actually. Give you a job, Well, I think at some point they'll just have in their modular housing. It will be fully. I mean the wires were already been. I mean, it's going to be a long, long time before that happens, you know? Power. Power eventually will not run over a wire. It's still going to be power there, electrician, the job will change. But I mean, it's still a job.

11:14 You know, it's like like the elevator is a hover elevator. It's still an elevator, you know, like it's still, you're still going to have to fix it at some point. And it's like, yeah, everything breaks, you know. And until then, I mean, those are some pretty solid jobs. Yeah, but. I can't imagine that. I think the the if a job is all you're looking for, that's one thing. And I think. Most people are though, I mean with $200,000 in loans. That's all I wanted was a job. I wanted an opportunity. I wanted to be in a business field I didn't want to work for. I didn't want to work for Giant. I didn't want to work for Safeway. I didn't want to work for, you know, Ralph's, none of the supermarkets.

11:56 I didn't want to be that guy working as a checker. And the checkers made good money and they were union, you know. But those checkers today are no longer exist, you know. Well, that's what I wanted to. Do I wanted to work at a clothing store? That's why I got an English degree? No. No. That's a great idea. The whole reason I got an English degree was one, I didn't want to do a Cal advanced calculus. That was going to be a requirement and I was having a difficulty with that. And I also like to read. And I was, and he told me, I think very early on, he said, why don't you just do what you want to do? And I said, I do have the privilege to do that. And, and then I did, you know, and I think it really did pay off because I, I enjoy reading and it really added a lot to my life. I feel that there is a internal difference from now as opposed to seven years ago in my life.

12:48 I feel much more well off and intellectually, yeah, I don't know. Smarter things can push you, but you'll you can. You can think your way through them. There's a level of self actualization that comes with education too, that you realize where you are in the world and how other people have accomplished these great things. And then you put yourself, if you want to accomplish these great things in line with those people. And I think that that's a valuable thing. Or you just degrade them. Or that, yeah. Or you just say, well, he actually was a liar in a cheat. I'm smarter and I can't be a liar in a cheat. That's why I can't be successful. I mean, that's a lot of people do that too. Or the only reason they got to the top is because they killed people along the way.

13:35 But we used to, I mean, I would, I would tell you that most of the big companies I worked at that a lot of them did work that way. You you were looking for the next position above you, and the way you would get it is you wouldn't necessarily have to sabotage the person that had it, but that was one way the other. Next Gen. I step on is a very common thought process today, I would say. So I would say that moral integrity is really, really falling apart. I would say that it's in lieu of the last 10-15 years of this country. You know you. Think it's you. Think there's integrity is less today than it was 15 years ago or 20?

14:16 Percent, without a doubt, yeah. Really. Why we're? Too distracted. We're way, way, way too distracted. We don't have something that was in Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle called the contemplative thought process. You know when you go to a mall, right, and there's music everywhere and it's meant to be distracting because then you can't think and then you just buy. And therefore, when there's no music and you have silence in your life, you have something called the contemplative thought, which allows you to contemplate your life and where you are and who you are. But without that, we are just constantly distracted by what's in our pocket, which is our phone, is it not? Right. So that, I mean, Aristotle said this a long, long time ago. And I mean, when was the last time realistically, that even in the general thoroughfare Republic, that we had silence in which we could look at the world?

15:05 Now it's all noise. There's so much noise that has accumulated, you know? And walk the dogs. The. Woods nothing there in the backyard when I walk the backyard and The funny thing here's The funny thing I never take out my phone if I go to any office, doctor's office, any place else where I'm sitting and doing nothing. I don't look around like we used you used to say hi to people, what you in for and all that kind of stuff like that. And you don't do that anymore. And, and in Group settings, I'm I'm more friendly, but I have to be careful because I'm older. So, you know, as the wife says, you know, it's good to be friendly, but it's not good to be creepy. So, so don't be creepy, don't be creepy, you know, So hey, there is that.

15:53 And then but I think that, you know, that's, that's really shut people off a lot, you know? Pandemic. I mean, what? What is? What is? I mean the meaning. The meaning of life to me is to, when I think about it, and I mean, it's changed. It's really changed. All I wanted when I was a kid and was to go to college, when I was working instruction, all I did was want to make enough money to be able to live on my own and without a roommate or anybody, just mine. I wanted mine when I, when I went to college and I was there and I shared rooms and I didn't, I didn't really have a problem with anybody.

16:38 I never, I mean, I'm an easy roommate. I don't give a shit. You know, as long as you're reasonably clean or you want to be clean, I'm OK with that. Cleaner than what I grew up with. I I, I couldn't be and more filthier, you know, 5 pack a day smoker and that kind of just nasty anyway. That's difficult. Yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't deal with that. But but then, you know, when I got out of school, all I wanted to do was pay my rent and get hammered and hook up. I mean, there was really nothing that was, that was it. There was no. So my dreams and my aspirations kind of changed as they went along. And then when I started the first business, it was basically if, if I think back to that time, it was I need a job.

17:26 And this looked like the easiest job that would make the most money that I could possibly imagine, you know, And The thing is, is that I am have been and have always been incredibly hard worker. And once I learn how to do something and I can replicate it, I can do it twice as fast, three times as fast, five times as fast. And that's why I could do research really, really well because I'd done it 3000 times, you know, it's that kind of stuff. And then you would commit it to memory and, and I have a really good like, you know, encyclopedia type bullshit. You know, what was the last double dummy merger that you remember, You know, and it's like, Oh well, Walt Disney, DC Holco, you know, those kind of things, weird stuff anyway. And then, and then I never really thought about getting married, never even never even crossed my mind until like, you know, I just tripped over your mother. It happens when you're not looking for it. Yeah, we, I mean, we tripped.

18:30 There was no, there wasn't this. Hey, I'm going to get married and have a house and live in the woods. So I was living, I had a roommate and I was living with him and you're, you're, I was dating your mother at the time. And she was worried that because my, my roommate at the time wanted to buy a house, so we should invest in a house. And she was like, well, if you buy a house with a hemp, she didn't say this, but she was thinking it. Then you've told me where I stand, which I would have been true. And that's why I wouldn't do it. And that's why I was like, well, Lisa's coming up at the end of the month, what am I going to do?

19:11 And then that's when we decide to move in together with the idea that something more permanent would happen. And I mean, I look to the future. And it's like, I mean, I never really had set out to get married. I never set out. You know, I think we, we we thought kids would come along, but, you know, at some point we didn't. And then you came along, you stopped looking. And then, yeah, you stopped looking for it. And it just sort of shows up and it just like every wonderful thing that I've ever had happen to me. It's been, you know, it's been not through, I don't want to say not through planning because the, the business entities and things that I did, we we did extensive planning, but the personal stuff was basically, oh shit, this is silver now It's a.

19:59 Certain lesson behind. Massaging and relaxing the intuition and wanting for things in your life and specific milestones, I think, and for accomplishments, because I don't think you're ever going to be able to accomplish certain things if you really, really, really, really try overtly hard because there's something about the world that doesn't want you to do that. That it, it doesn't, it isn't an inherent lesson unless you forget about it for a little bit. You know, I don't know what it is. It is because when you forget about it, then you're really doing it subconsciously. And I think that is important. I it's, it's, it's weird.

20:40 It's like I think about our business and the growth and the growth in each and every one of them. And I had a, a person that I met and he was telling me how much he mired me and that I was the, the first guy ever to do in legal tech what no one else could do. And I was like, what are you talking about? Because you're the first one to get, you know, to break out of the $2,000,000 bubble. Like what do you mean? He goes like there's, there's no other legal tech companies that get past 2 million in revenue. That's like, I never realized that. And he said, and you did it twice, like, oh, and I never looked to like we didn't look, we would set goals for the next year and we would do like, oh, we want to go 34568, whatever numbers we would set, but we would set a pathway and a structure and all this kind of stuff. And it wasn't, it wasn't the idea that we were going to do something somebody else wasn't doing. It was we wanted to grow.

21:35 And it was all about we just want to grow. And the faster we grow was fun, you know, And that was, it was bigger or bigger. Bigger means more choice. That's what we thought. And until you get bought and then you don't have any choice. That should Americans in general, just to generalize this a little bit, I think the government has a responsibility to keep a healthy population, to keep a population that 75% of it shouldn't have to live paycheck to paycheck, you know, and I think that. This maybe that. Fear of socialism is what really is keeping us back from people, just allowing to be helped because even when you were growing up impoverished, you told me multiple times that you would never accept government assistance because. That's what my mother said she would. She would rather be, she would, she would rather if she said sell myself before I would take a hand out. And that's more people than you think. I think that's a lot more people than you think. I was like, you know, thinking like, wow. I mean, there were times when we went to the pantry and there was nothing there, you know, I mean, and it was, it was like the last day.

22:44 So you would, you know, make it or break it by going out and hunting for bottles. And that's how you ate. So, but it was that that was few and far between for food now, you know, the heat was always low. The there was no air conditioning. We didn't use the dryer because it cost a dollar. You know, we had a dryer, but we didn't use it because, you know, only rich people used a dryer. You know, you think about those things and I guess it was really, it was tight. You know, it was, it was real tight. But like I've always said, when, when she, one of the things I said is like, we didn't know we were poor until we weren't.

23:29 I mean, that's, that was mine. This is like, oh wow, you mean everybody's meat's not slimy? Until you realize where you came from. Yeah. Yeah. Then then you start to realize and you do that and you and stuff. But I mean, we were chasing, we all chased the American dream. We all, we all did the education, we did the education round. Every single one of us paid for our own education. We had help here and there. You know, we lived at home during the summer. We did certain things like that, but it was we were driven. We were all driven and we didn't have help from high school. I mean, high school counselors did nothing for us, which is kind of sad. You know, you would think that they would, you know, I, I, I was at, went to a high school for four years and I never even talked to a counselor once, once. How sad is that?

24:15 I wasn't only. Counselors, but they tried to funnel people to a college 'cause they were getting paid under the table to do so. Right, right. But at least they, but at least they had a a motivation to do that. I mean, mine didn't even have a motivation to talk to us and it was just like. They were forced to though by, well, there's only 70 people in my school, so it's kind of like. What are you really? Paying for to go to private school, if not an absolute guarantee to get into college, right? That's kind of the whole point of a private high school is the absolute guarantee, right? But at the same time, man, I don't know what a weird, what a. Weird, they were filling Vermont. Well, that and then like the with all of the people that worked there, it was just like, in hindsight, just so moronic. A lot of moronic individuals teaching that did not deserve to have a pen in their hand 'cause they were so ignorant and also overzealous and frankly very comparative to Neanderthals. And I think that, yeah, you learned in spite of that. Learned about my own health, what it means to feel good when exercising.

25:26 I think that that's probably the largest thing that I learned. That's the biggest thing I would say. That was definitely the largest thing. I think a no cut team is definitely funny. I think it's a funny thing, but I think it's, it might be an important thing in some aspects, in some aspects specifically for just running. I mean, being able to have, to have to move every day is, is a lesson in itself. I mean, even Thomas Jefferson said an hour of muscular workout a day and an hour of cardiovascular workout a day is what a man needs. And I think that's true. And I. Think Thomas Jefferson said that. He did. It's on the I thought. It was Ben Franklin. It's on the thing in one of the gyms at UVA. Yeah, really. Yeah.

26:07 Every. Day. Yep. Wow. Used to see it all the time man it is. Amazing how? Many people are on anabolics in general that are below the age of 19. I think that's crazy, yeah. Chasing the American Dream. I just can't imagine pinning testosterone or trying to learn right now and being so torn out in about 3 years 'cause I'm not getting regular blood tests and then I'm on TRT for the rest of my life. And then like because you can never make back the naturally the testosterone 'cause you really out your level so hard. And it's like and even like the professionals that are competing like it's you don't the biggest, like most paid bodybuilder in the world is not like making that amount of money to destroy your own physical health and die at the age of 50. Like I don't, you know, I.

26:55 Don't, well, there's AI think there's a mindset that you look at something like that and it's gorgeous and it's gorgeous to you. I think it's incredible. I I do think it's an incredible feat, don't get me wrong. Yeah, right. And then you look at that and you're saying I want to be that because then people will just look at me naturally and think that I'm great looking and all this stuff. But in reality. It's only men that look at you. It's if you're if you're a. Decent person. You can. You can get there, Yeah, you know. No, that's for sure. You know, see how wonderful you are or how wonderful you're not. You know, from that perspective, here I go, yik. I would really like to see the American people have access to affordable healthcare in the next 20 years. I would really like to see that.

27:38 And I think that that is a part of the dream when mommy and daddy don't have to worry about their wages being garnished by a large healthcare company because when they were at the hospital, they didn't get an itemized receipt for a concussion that a bandit that was put on their head that was $900. I, I don't want to and I don't understand why we even have to ask for itemized receipts at hospitals because I find that frankly a little ridiculous that somebody went to school for 10 years to scam people. I don't know. I think that's interesting. Yeah, there's, there's lots, there's lots of that. The healthcare, the I mean, I'm a healthcare education because I think a healthy population and an intelligent population and the whole and the thing you're when, when, when you see it now when you talk about the trades and how people are pushing the trades in a very big way is so it's some way to answer for people that wanted to learn.

28:31 And I think I'm in opposition to making learning bad. I think I completely. Agree, I think we should make it affordable I. Mean well, I was going to just. Doesn't make sense for the average American to take out $150,000 in loans, no. Community College. And get a liberal arts degree. It just doesn't. It's not. It doesn't make sense for those that aren't of that privilege, you know? Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't. Yeah, you could. You could if you get a liberal arts though, you learn. I mean, as you said, you learn you, you have a wide variety of things that you know, I mean, you see. The cogs in the world more so than you do if you were to become an electrician, 100% couldn't. Agree more no and your and your writing capability is just so much better.

29:16 I mean I did business. So for me, the thing I understood is like, you know, what are the four basic building blocks of every single business, you know, marketing, sales, product and drug dealing, You know, that's just it. Drug dealing is always a good one. I think that that should always be fitted in there, especially for a liberal arts degree, because when you get out you're going to need a profession and you're going to want to go into business for yourself and I think that that is really of importance. I digest, but yeah. So the meaning of America is to be a drug dealer but be educated. Yes, yes. That's what we need to do is we're trying to get to the point where where it matters. And when we say the meaning of America, do you think one of the things I like about it is is we I was saying earlier is the devil entendre was the idea that people are meaner today than they were.

30:10 And I don't I don't see I don't buy that. I, I feel like it's only because maybe we are a little meaner. Maybe we're a little meaner because we're exposed to, well, everybody else is doing it. There's no hardship like financial hardship. And I feel like financial hardship inherently makes people harder. I mean, like at Russian people, right? I think that that is interesting. But you were talking about educated drug dealers before and what is that but the Sacklers? And I think that that is that is kind of the definition of the American dream and instituted this whole heroin epidemic and now fentanyl epidemic. Isn't that kind of interesting? And none, none are well, I mean, the weird thing about the fentanyl is if you look it up, it's Chinese, you know, we're. The Chinese manifold, it is there xylazine as well, which is trank, yeah.

30:59 But but the number one manufacturer of fentanyl for the United States, you know who it is? Pharmaceutical companies. Oh yeah, definitely the the illegal fentanyl is only a couple ton over. I think it's 86 tons of fentanyl is distributed by pharmaceutical companies every year and you're just. Like tons. Tons, tons. They use it all the time in hospitals. So I mean, I, I keep feeling the idea that it's going to turn into another oxy thing, you know? It already is. It already has. Except people are actually dying this time.

31:39 Yeah, the issue, too. I mean, if you go back, I really think about the whole Yale study in 2009 when they were doing in vitro for women. They were taking their eggs out, and they were freezing them. And women would say, wow, like, I don't feel the pain medication, can you give me more? And the nurses would be hesitant, say, no, we can't give you more. We can't do this. And they're like, they would give them more. And they're like, why isn't it working? And it turned out that even at one of the most highest esteemed universities, Yale, that the nurses were backdooring the morphine for these women that were going through the NVITRA. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. So I mean, it's it's even in your highest institutions and people act like, oh, so I can't, couldn't possibly be there. And I'm like, well, yeah, they.

32:25 Were backdooring. Morphine and all of the nurses were fired from that program. Didn't AM go to jail? I don't believe so. Yeah, I mean, if if I held you down and I cut you and didn't give you any pain. Miller Medicine, It's. Far worse than that. I'd go to jail. It's a needle that pierces your cervix. Yeah, yeah, the the what I've heard. Is I hit you with a hammer? It's worse than giving birth, apparently. It's worse than my God, Oh my God, it's like about 5. It's like 4 or five times worse than giving birth, which is like to some women that is, but like man like that is at the one of the highest institutions in the medical world and.

33:10 You still you think about that? Yeah. You still have things that are terrible to go on. Yeah, yeah. Well, crime pays and you know, and the more that it pays, the less that you'll ever be held accountable. Oh 100% it does seem like evil always wins now doesn't it? Yeah, that's the thing that kind of bothers me the most about the American Dream being smashed is the idea that it seems like evil's ahead of it right now. And just everywhere you turn, there's, you know, this is bad. That's bad. We're, we're going to, we're now going to put fluorocarbons back in the water. We don't care anymore. We're, you know, we're going to have, we're not going to use red dye in our Cheerios, but we're going to pollute the water. There's a weight here that you feel. I think on a daily basis I can feel myself getting meaner as well and caring less about other people. It's funny because that's why you're saying I'm tired. I'm tired of yeah, I, I just feel it internally and it's, it's a weird feeling cause I've never felt this way 'cause I was raised different than that.

34:18 And even I still feel it though. You feel this way 'cause when you travel, like of my recent travels, you feel like the celebrity, like, oh, like that's the people are nicer. Like I remember when we went to London not that long ago and the people were not nearly as hard as it was very interesting. It was very, very interesting because they're eating the the jacket potato from Subway, you know, And if we had jacket potatoes here at Subway, I think that we'd be a little bit bit better off, you know, you think, I think so. If we had Ben's chili on Ben's Chili Bowl. Do you remember when we went to the second location for that?

34:59 That was. Fast. Nasty. That was so nasty, really bad. Oh my God, that was incredibly disappointing. Well, your mom bought some Turkey chili the other day from for from Ben's from Giant. It's now carried in Giant Ben's Chili. Bowl chili is. Ben's Chili Bowl Chili and their hot dogs or their Polish sausages or whatever you call them. I like Polak. Johnny's my is my. That's also my favorite as well. You know, but she bought the Turkey chili and it's, it's OK. Well, tell me the answer to this question. What's the difference between a red hot and a Polish sausage? Red hot is just the color of the hot dog. They're they're just, it's the skin. It's just a regular type of skin. It's not hot.

35:43 It's not spicier. Or whatever it had to be spicy, no? Interesting because I have these red hots that are really hot. Really. Yeah. And that's the difference. Louisiana Red Hots is what they're called at Costco and that's what I've been eating recently. Really. Yeah, and I'm enjoying them, I'm not going to lie. But it's like you can only eat them every so often because they light you up. They light you up on the inside. They do. I I've been doing the Chicago dog thing where you take a gorilla's pickle, though you put it in the bun and. Then you put spicy bright red finely ground pork or beef sausage pickled while Polish sausage kielbasa is a traditionally smoked coarse ground pork and beef sausage seasoned heavily with garlic. Red hearts are generally smaller snacks, whereas Polish sausages are giant large things that make you go Hey, I would have thought I will.

36:42 You know I'll mail you a Louisiana red hot. Hopefully I'll use some dry. I'll get some dry ice. Don't do it. Don't don't get dry ice. Put them on that dry. Ice, you want me to send it over? Yeah, I was. This is an interesting thing because I was, was I talking to you about this, that I thought it would be really cool if we were to start mailing stuff like, you know, a sandwich through the mail. I think that would be cool. Yeah, and just put it into a brown picker bag and and send it and see what happens. I remember the trend months ago where people were vac or what is it? It's like when you dehydrate, when you dehydrate something. Somebody dehydrated an In-n-out burger and then brought it to their front on the East Coast and then they rehydrated it and it tasted like in and out, but it was not great and.

37:24 It was, it was not great. I was thinking about pork and beans, just dumping it, not the can, just the beans into a bag and sending them to you and just like a Manila envelope, the the brown ones, the big brown ones, those. How do you feel about English breakfast? What do you think? I think very. Wet. Yeah, Wet, greasy, nasty. Probably a little bit better than the breakfasts that my father used to cook for me when I was a kid. Not by. Really, it's a low review and I know the depictions of those. They're just, yeah, yeah. The with the, we had the grease tub on the stove with two or three roaches dead in it and pour the grease in.

38:09 But don't, don't let the roaches that are in the grease go into the pan, heat it up, pop the 2-2 pieces of eggs on there chain smoking, flip them and then they're still wet and then throw them on your thing and then and throw the bacon in at the same time. Bacon, it's hot. It's like you ever seen like the white until it just as it starts to change color from white to less greasy, pick that up and throw it on your plate with the grease. No, no straining, nothing on, and then that's your breakfast. Well, that's an explanation for why you like extra crispy bacon right there. That's an explanation is why in your adult. Life you like the extra crispy?

38:54 Like that's why you like it almost burnt. Sunnyside eggs The Sunnyside eggs were I can't. Do those. Chili crispy on one side. OK, that's not You could never flip them. You couldn't flip them because his hand was shaking so much in the morning, you know? So there was. It's funny, but it's not. You know it's funny, but it's not the end of. Your We were chasing the American Dream, OK? I mean, that man was working on a doctorate at Harvard, so it's. Like that's weird. That's like so weird. I told my girlfriend that the other day and she's like, what? Like he was educated. I'm like, yeah, he really was. Like, really. Well, that was the. Strangest thing is, is that I, I until you know, and we talk about education and it's like where we were, and they were very, you know, big about pointing out how uneducated everybody on the block was.

39:46 And then if you were to, when I got older, I was like, well, why'd you live there if you're so damn smart? What were you doing living there among the poors, you know? Hey. Guess not. Why would often say the least intelligent are ones that classify others as stupid, you know, And I think that because if you're thinking about other people that much and you're comparing yourself to other people that much, then there's something they have that you don't, you know, And it's it's, I don't know, That's a very important lesson, I think. Yeah, I was at at dinner last night and the IT was the last time for many moons Pizza round went there and it's in Stafford.

40:33 I think it's going out of business. But I was there with a bunch of friends and and and I said one of the things that my mother didn't like was Yankees and Catholics and a good friend Jane is there and she's a Yankee and a Catholic. So it was just kind of like just hate it. There's only two things she hated in this world, Yankees and Catholics. And and it's like, and you know what? She was married to a Yankee who was a Catholic. That's really. Funny, it was a. Strange. Well, he came from a Catholic family, whatever the hell that means, you know. And my brother married. Yeah. My, I mean, my wife is Catholic. You know where she was started out with Catholicism, but not really anymore.

41:18 We haven't been, well, non, non churchgoers. We're horrible. We're those people. We yawn late at night, too. This is, we're doing this at 2:00 AM because that's how important our audience is. And we lie. So yeah. We're doing a 24 hour podcast right now. It's actually it's kind of an hour long podcast. We might go for multiple days here, you know, maybe well. We're talking about the American Dream. There's a lot of things. I mean, you know, I got to the point earlier where I was saying I was about getting married and then we want to get a house and that was like the natural thing. And then but it wasn't that I never, when I was 22, I didn't think about being married or having a house.

42:06 And here I am 2930, just getting married and it's like I want to own a house. Don't know why. You know what I keep thinking about? It's a 7 foot 2 jar jar bink statue I keep seeing on Facebook marketplace and it's like. How much does it cost? We should buy it. It's like 1500 bucks and it's like man it's it's expensive but it's 7 foot 2. Do you know guado? Do you know who Guado is from *? Wars. No. No. You remember the the first one when it's like baby or not, babe, but he's child. He's a pod racer, the Jedi, he's a child, he's pod racing, right, and the guy the blue like bug man and he's like get start your engines, pod racers or whatever. You remember the blue dude.

42:48 That's who Guado is, that's Iguado's the fat blue bug guy and they they're selling Iguato for like 500 who's like 4 foot tall or something. And it's like, man. What are they made out of? I think they're all like cast in something I can't remember. Of course they're cast. It's not plastic. It's something that's not breakable. I think it's like a heavy plastic. You can put them in the garden. I don't know. That's a good quiet. I don't know if they're like in the backyard. Well, you know what I would do is I'd take those and I make a mold. I'd make a mold out of them, cast them in iron. That would be crazy. Then you could resell them, double or triple your money, then you can make his. Yeah, there's a lot of people that would spend 10s of thousands of dollars on a 7 foot jar. Jar Binks I'm.

43:37 You never know. You know your market. It's a huge audience. I know your market. Find the niche. When you, when you, yeah, when you got to find the right people. I mean, that's almost like you'd want to have a custom job where they come in and say, I mean, I knew Doggy's brother really, really good with metal, and he had a person come to him and wanted to do a lightsaber. Duplicate silver, all out of aluminum, a solid aluminum ingot, and with all the little controls and all that kind of stuff like that.

44:20 And he made it, you know, it's like 500 bucks. But I'd love to see what it looked like. Yeah, he said it didn't light. And I said, well, what's the point? Because that is kind of cool. He was going to, he he made a place for something to be inserted to make it do that. I was like, Oh my God, this is really kind of cool, you know? He's a machinist, right? Yeah, he's a machinist. Really. Really I that's a lost art that I hoped it continues on and as machinists, I think that we're really. Good, we hope the the custom parts and custom things. And I mean, the other brother was a woodworker Carver made just incredible pieces. And you know, it's it's like some people have a skill and they have the opportunity to work at it and develop it and make, you know, many wonderful things. Are they still alive?

45:14 That could be. No, that could be part. Of they're dead. No, one of them is. OK, is the one that I met that one time still alive? Yeah, OK. That's yeah. Because I didn't meet the other one ever. I only met one one time. No, you wouldn't have met him. He was. He was probably you. I mean, he only saw him a few times and I, I met him. I think I. Remember what he looked like too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's the dog. He's wedding. I I was not there. Yeah, I don't think you were. I missed that one, man. Were you? No, no, I missed that one if you were. But I was there when his dad died, I remember. That yeah, I went down looking at the blue. Bathroom and the they had a blue toilet in there or something and green Oh it was green toilet. And it was The toilet was green, the sink was blue. The there we go, different stuff. And it's funny when you remember because when you're a kid, it seems like everything's kind of blue. I don't know why there's like a blue hue because it was very early in the morning.

46:10 I remember. And you took me over there on like, a Saturday. It must have been because I wasn't going to school. And. And then they wheeled the dead dad out and the blanket blew off of him. And then I got to see my first dead guy. That was cool. I remember that, Yeah. What a good time. Yeah. You were looking out the window. I was looking out the window. Yeah, I was looking out the window. I didn't see the. I didn't see the. I didn't see the dead guy. I went in and saw him in the in the back bedroom. But I've seen, I've seen a lot of dead people. I've helped dead people. And it's, it's, it's, it's not part of the American Dream. No, that is definitely, I wouldn't say, a part of the American dream.

46:51 Well, something that we often talk about. I mean, I don't think seeing your parents degrade mentally is a thing that makes you stronger. I don't know counter to what a lot of people believe I guess is. Yeah, that's, yeah, I think I would. Say, Hospice industry in the US is frankly disgusting, and I think that we'd be a lot better off if we had legal euthanasia. Yeah, it would be a lot. I, I would agree with you as far as me chasing the American dream. That would be a great way to end. But I know a lot of people that that couldn't do it because of their faith or for other reasons, you know, and maybe that's always like they're always they.

47:32 Always question those guys and they're like, what do you do? You believe in gay marriage? And then they say no. And then it's like, well, you shall beat your slave if he doesn't yield to you. Do you own any slaves? And then of course the guy says no. And then it's like, why do you choose to be cruel then to specific people? Because you. Can. Yeah, it's kind of interesting how people's cruelty resides in a faith-based acumen. I don't know. I think that that is very, very. You see, they would argue that abortion, stopping abortion is not being cruel. It's saving a, you know, proposed life. You know, that's, that's the argument. And then the the other side and other side is like they're always saying, it's not this, it's not that, but it's like, it doesn't really matter.

48:21 I don't care what it is. It's, it's her body and it's her life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those, those are three guarantees we have in the Constitution and she has those rights and you know that that thing in her, that thing in her, whatever you want to call it, is not a legal entity. So stop exactly. If you want to make it a legal entity, make it a legal entity and shut up and insure it and charge anybody and all that kind of stuff. I love old white men policing other people's bodies in which they should have no rights over.

49:05 I think that that's insane. I think that's particularly crazy, I mean, because, you know. Healthcare. Healthcare they pay for, They pay for Dick pills, right? Yep, gender affirming care is what that's called, Yeah. No, no, can't be called that. You can't call it that. No, can't call it that. Make sure we we hard, you know. And they're really advertising those to young men now, which is scary all the time. On the Facebook I see Blue chew. Well, do you? Which is. Insane. Advertising to like 1718 year olds, my people my age too. And I'm like, man, are there 26 year olds out there that can't, can't get it up? And it's like, if they are, then that's a societal problem. That's not their problem.

49:51 That's. Correct. I think no, there's there's, there's When you're that age and you're not comfortable around women, you'd be nervous and you're worried you're going to get old, you know, You know, softy Wiener. It is a mental thing. I will say that all. It's more a mental thing. Yeah. So you want to, you want to cheat and be ready. And, and I understand that, you know, because it's a, it's a really big pride issue if you're going to have sex with someone and then, you know, the, the woman doesn't really have to do anything. You know, there's no part of her body that it has to change in order to function to have sex other than to be lubricated, You know, whereas the men, we we need a stick.

50:38 And if we don't have a stick, well, we ain't having any, you know, it's not going to happen. That's fair. But at the same. Time too. I think it's a pornography issue. I think that that's a huge problem in the US, not in the US, in the world. I mean, maybe specifically the US, but like, I don't know, I think that that is really damaged a lot of young men in this country a lot because it's one, it's unrealistic expectations from the time that you're first introduced to it, which for me, I was way too young. That's crazy to think. About well, you were like second, third grade. Yeah, yeah. And that was the advent of the Internet. And when people realized, oh, wow, the Internet is absolutely an all-encompassing being, which is, oh, in my opinion, we created God.

51:19 I mean, is that not what we did? Is that not what we did? Every album, every story, every written thing is there and every sex act. I remember 2nd to 3rd grade when the when he or was it 3rd to 4th grade. That's when you guys learned about. Red to 4th. Oh, red tube, Yeah. Yeah, and the 4th graders told you, you know, and they're like Redtube, Redtube. And then and I remember the one of the teachers saying Zachary is the one that told everybody. And it's like. Was not me what I mean? People blame they, you know, you were, you were a, you were a trouble person. Well, I remember some you were beat up on the bus and they were like, they were blaming me for it. Right, you were an outsider.

52:04 And I was in the front of the bus and it happened. You were an outsider. And I still, I was thinking about this the other day too. I had to go to her retirement party and I was so mad about I'm still kind of. Upset about Who is that? This is Waddle. Waddle. Yeah, Yeah. Mom was coming with me and I'm like, how really. Really. You're going to make me go to this woman's retirement party? Tormented me for six years. I didn't realize that she may just sign the confession. That was the worst one. And I hope that she's in a terrible place that I really do. Because if it's not, if it's me, if I experienced that by myself, imagine how many other kids experienced that by her, by her, you know, a.

52:45 Lot. A lot, I imagine. Yep. Yeah, sadly. You get older and then you realize how lazy adults are, truly. Yeah, we are. Yeah. Yeah, we should have done something. Well, no, not not that you were lazy that in order to satisfy or satiate other parents's opinions or things like that, they were so quick to just make something up and just say blame it and scapegoat it. Cause scapegoating is so much faster than actually caring about the situation. You know as. Long as we can find someone to blame, yes, is is we we can point the finger at someone else. I mean, that was the one thing that that here I go back to the whole company analogy with everything is like we, we would always focus on what can we do to fix it.

53:38 When we fixed it, then we can figure out who to blame. But right now we need to fix it. And usually by the time we fixed it, we forgot about blaming anybody and no one gave a shit. So it was a really good place and a way to work was when something went wrong or went sideways. You wouldn't like spend all this time arguing over whose fault it was. You would spend all this time fixing the issue and then and by the time you moved on, by the time it was fixed, you didn't really care. It's very, you would just fix it. And how can we make this not happen again? You know that was it. Yeah, well, that's like Tylenol when somebody died of a drug overdose because the Tylenol was poisoned and they pulled every single bottle.

54:29 One of the one of the greatest business. You would see a business use case. I I read this, it was business. One O 1 is where I saw that, yeah. And they do it. The Tylenol did it. And what's the one? What's the Perrier did not. Oh, I didn't realize, Perrier. Yeah, Perrier was, Perrier was the other side of that. Perrier had benzene. They found benzene in the in the in the water and they didn't tell, they didn't poured it, they just kind of hit it and they found it. And like 6 months later it came out that it was benzene in it and it was such a small trace, but it was enough that it would, it could somewhat affect you. They instead of pulling the soda, I mean sparkling water, they discounted it.

55:14 That's crazy. That's so crazy. And, and and three or four months, nobody would touch Perrier. It went from the only soda water that people would drink only, you know, it was the rich people drink was Perrier, that was it to nothing. It's still kind of they had hundreds of millions of revenue just up in smoke just like that. But Tylenol, they spent like $50 million pulling it all off the shelf and throwing it all out and milled in a new capsule that was plastic along with the connection. I mean, everybody was like whoa and so plastic. Seal.

55:58 Yeah, that's where it came. It came from you had to open it and you had to and it and the top was sealed because it used to be when you open up about bottle of aspirin, there was just a, there was just a cotton ball stuck in there and you could get right at the pills. I can't do that anymore. Can't do that with a lot of. Things I miss being able to take pills in the grocery store, you know, and just leave the bottle on the shelf. Right. I miss the I miss going to the the food bar and taking a bite of something and putting it back. That's what I miss. Man, that is just foul. Oh my gosh, did you notice how? Wait, that is actually an interesting point. Salad bars don't exist anymore right? Because of COVID.

56:41 No, no, they still, they still. They do. They do all over New York. They have food bro. In New York. Food Bar. Yeah, My God, that's crazy. Yeah, they're all. Oh, wait. Whole Foods definitely hasn't. What am I talking about? Yeah, Whole Foods, Wegmans, all of them. And you know, I go through what? I'm thinking about. Yeah, I go through and I, I usually I go to bathroom, don't wash my hands and then I go and I just pick some food out of the bowls. Handfuls, right? Yeah. Yeah, well, I don't I. Put it in your pocket. I let I lick it and I drop it back in. That's what I do. I remember when when that guy did that. Oh my gosh. Oh my God, that was crazy. Never. And the and the and the retort that he gave me, that's what I said. But everybody does it.

57:25 But everybody does it. And I was just like, Oh my gosh, that's the end of the world for me. I can never go to because I was really hooked on the whole salad bar theme. You're an avid salad park. Yeah, you just destroyed it for me, you know, I was like, wow. Well, that you know what I immediately thought what is even worse than that is the soup, because I immediately thought about the soup after that in the spoon that you dip in, how many people think lick the soup? How many people do you think lick the soup spoon? You know, like. OK, I you just now you've you've ruined another person ever since that. It not only ruined it for you, I have never eaten at a hot bar ever again.

58:07 And you know what? I'd rather the guy behind the counter, I don't know, not use his, not wash his hands and finger my chicken or whatever, then somebody in the general public do it. I don't know why that's better. But they just. Why? Is it because the general public, they're all pigs, but they're all seeking the American Dream? They all are. That's what this is, and the guy behind the counter is probably imported and he's trying to get citizenship, so that's the difference. Right, but he's also seeking the American Dream. That's the most. Important part? Well, that's what it used to drive people here. It's funny. I would be curious how yeah, quote UN quote high immigration is these days because I don't believe that it's as high as it used to be. No, I think a lot of people are frightened of this country.

58:50 No, I mean, we're literally going to be grease if we refinance our debt. It's going to be crazy. You're looking at people that are that are it's, it's, it's a sad thing. It sure is that it's, it's what it is, is I think it's let's not think about the future. Let's think for today. What can we get for today? So you owe me a salad bar salad. What can we get for today? Not a salad bar salad. We're not getting 1 today. Gosh, maybe not tomorrow either. Geez. Well, I think that's pretty much our episode for this week. We're about an hour here. Yeah. You're right, you. Are I actually got the time right for once, which is cool. Wow, looked at. My clock here and we started at 59 and it's 658, right?

59:32 Now I think I need to lick the top of a catcher bottle. Oh, I remember that one too. I was going to mention that one with me said that. Oh my gosh, she said. She's in a Cracker Barrel and she sees a guy put ketchup on his hash Browns in the morning and then he licks the top of the ketchup. Bottle. I've never used the ketchup. After never used it again after that I'm like no, no, I need packets. What do you need packets Sir? It's like, sorry. Can you lick the bottle in the back and just pour it into a cup or something? That's OK, I'm fine with that. Long as I don't see it as long as I that's. That's it. That's it exactly. No lick in the ketchup. Pop pop. Well, as always, check out our socials. They're growing. We went from 60 followers on Instagram to 88. I'm happy about that.

1:00:16 Yeah, and we got. You. No, no, we're between. Streams out there, so thank you guys for listening. Really, it seems like we're getting some new new listeners and I know we're obnoxious, but join us on this obnoxious journey and check out the new episodes and follow what Instagram. We have a TikTok now TikTok. We do Facebook go go like the Facebook. I've been sharing it. I've been sharing that quite a bit. Have you been doing the LinkedIn at all? They don't. They don't have. They don't control the LinkedIn, just you. No. And then for both, both, both ones, I've been posting it on both sites, mine and sharing. Yeah, well, this one's I also do Facebook. This Friday after what is what is today, 426-2026 going out this week, this upcoming Oh wow, see you guys soon.

1:01:01 Bye bye. Bye.