Based Camp - Indians Run 7-Elevens; Vietnamese Run Nail Salons... WHY？!

00:00:00.000 Hello, Malcolm. I'm so excited to be talking with you today, especially because I just learned about

00:00:04.340 this thing. It's really weird. From Arctotherium, he writes, did you know that Chaldeans own 90%

00:00:10.080 of the grocery stores in Detroit? 40% of the truck drivers in California are Sikh and about a third

00:00:15.500 of US Sikhs are truck drivers? And that 95% of Dunkin' Donut stores in Chicago in the Midwest 0.63

00:00:22.340 are owned by Indians, mostly Gujarati Patels? Welcome to your official working day headquarters. 0.92

00:00:28.580 I've hidden a snake somewhere in the store. The first one to whack it gets a free squishy.

00:00:39.740 Oh, I should have put more thought into my promotion. And then in New England and New York,

00:00:47.280 60% of Dunkin' Donuts are operated by Portuguese immigrants. 90% of the liquor stores in Baltimore

00:00:52.980 are owned by Koreans. And all of these are apparently what Arctotherium calls and other 1.00

00:00:58.980 people, other people's had called nonlinear ethnic niches. And that like, these are these weird

00:01:03.800 industries that are dominated by ethnic groups, but not like, because obviously those ethnic groups

00:01:10.840 should dominate them. No, I think it is obvious. I think that they were just bred. I think Indians are 1.00

00:01:15.060 bred to run convenience stores. It's an entire country breeding experiment to create the perfect

00:01:22.100 convenience store owner. I'm going to put like an Apu thing here.

00:01:26.620 Well, no, liquor stores in Koreans, there are more like Cambodian donut shops. Why Cambodians and 0.99

00:01:32.880 donuts? There is no, and like, by the way, in all the research on nonlinear ethnic niches,

00:01:38.420 they remove all the ones that should be considered obvious, like Chinese people and like Chinese 0.99

00:01:45.200 restaurants. Cause obviously like, duh, of course they would maybe dominate that. Although I feel

00:01:49.400 like actually they don't. So you might like, aren't Chinese restaurants mostly like Korean run or

00:01:53.840 something? They're mostly run by Koreans. Yeah. Or Mexicans. I feel like I've seen more in Mexicans 1.00

00:01:57.780 running. No, no, no. It's mostly Koreans because white people can't tell the difference. And so they're 0.96

00:02:01.340 like, oh yeah, this makes sense. It just seems authentic. Yeah. But no, they've actually parsed this out.

00:02:06.900 And here's the thing. Okay. Arctotherium who introduced me to this concept and we've done

00:02:11.600 some podcasts and other essays he's written. He's, he's, he's fun in that he's spicy takes.

00:02:15.700 We don't necessarily agree with all of them, but they're quite interesting. He thinks they're

00:02:19.800 terrible. And I think they're freaking awesome. Okay. Okay. Go explain. The regression of everything

00:02:26.060 that we've ever done as society. And I'm like, this is exactly what we need right now. You want to

00:02:31.760 create some sort of like ethnic carve out for my family. I want to make a nonlinear ethnic 1.00

00:02:36.760 niche. I want to engineer one. And so what I want to do with this episode is I want to walk

00:02:41.460 you through some of the examples here that Arctotherium describes. Cause it's one, this

00:02:45.780 is just super interesting. I, I like, I guess we've, we've kind of seen it, but I never really

00:02:50.360 thought about it. Cause you know, I don't see race, Malcolm. I don't, I don't know. I didn't

00:02:55.760 know. Yeah. I only, I only see race. That is the only thing I use to judge people. It's just

00:03:01.900 race. Just like Jack Donaghy just sees numbers on top of people's head. If everyone could see the

00:03:06.940 world the way I see it, it would be a better place to live. I bet that's true, Tracy.

00:03:15.500 But I guess I just see the world the way I see it.

00:03:20.360 Is he letting me keep this? I think so. I wish I was there so I could play with it.

00:03:32.760 Hi, Ms. Lemon.

00:03:35.440 You just see like their, their race. Have you played Ethnoguessr? This is a little off topic.

00:03:40.700 No. What? What is Ethnoguessr? Oh God. We shouldn't go into it too much.

00:03:44.080 No, tell me. It's a game.

00:03:45.060 No, you like this new game where you see men and women, I think composite faces and

00:03:51.400 you're supposed to like choose. Razeeb would be really good at this. He can like.

00:03:54.760 No, he is. Like he, yeah, no. He obviously is going to be like the world-class Ethnoguessr

00:03:59.460 winner. But like now everyone can try to become like Razeeb Khan.

00:04:02.520 Get better at judging people's ethnicities upon sight.

00:04:06.140 Yeah. He's, he's, he's insanely good. I don't know how he does it. But anyway, now you can become

00:04:10.200 good at that too through the game Ethnoguessr. But anyway, yeah, I don't see the world like that.

00:04:14.660 I just see, I just see like the number of actions that I might need to complete to end an interaction

00:04:20.900 with someone and get away. I think that's probably how I see the world. Anyway, though, I want to walk

00:04:25.200 you through some of his examples. Then I want to walk, walk you through the, the unifying elements,

00:04:30.320 like how these form, because what these, we, these niches are, are essentially like industries that

00:04:36.520 come to be owned by a group of people that thereby create high barriers to entry and have a distinct

00:04:42.380 advantage in an industry. And while Arctotherium thinks these are awful in a post-demographic

00:04:50.220 collapse, post AI world, where we end up with techno feudalism, this could be the thing that saves your

00:04:55.660 people. You know what I mean? Like you want to own an industry and he's just assuming that we're

00:05:01.420 going to like continue with globalism, that we're going to continue with open markets. And I don't

00:05:06.220 think we can depend on that. So I'm like, all right. I mean, he's like, oh, it's like this

00:05:11.080 horrible caste system. And I'm like, I mean, yeah, but if the shoe fits, wear it, right? Like this is

00:05:16.400 what we're headed towards. You are for ethno caste systems. No, I'm not for it. But like, if that's

00:05:22.780 what we're headed to, wouldn't you rather make sure you're in a good group? Surely he has some

00:05:27.140 hypothesis here. Okay. Yeah. So let's, let's, let's just to quote him and why he thinks they're bad.

00:05:32.620 He says non-linear ethnic niches are harbingers of the reversal of centuries of social progress

00:05:38.420 toward interpersonal cooperation and economic progress toward larger, more homogenous and

00:05:43.200 better integrated markets. I don't know if I'd like homogenous markets, but anyway, they are super

00:05:47.840 interesting. So he quoted, and he didn't come up with this concept and in 1999 and New York times

00:05:53.680 article, they are defined as a certain ethnic group becomes entrenched in a clearly identifiable

00:05:59.720 economic sector working at jobs for which it has no evident cultural, geographical, or even racial

00:06:05.160 affinity. Again, like Cambodians and donut shops. He starts with this example that actually Albanians 0.99

00:06:11.280 own cocaine smuggling in the UK. Like it's an issue with like, why did they, you know?

00:06:16.960 How did that happen? Okay.

00:06:18.060 Yeah. He gave all the examples that I cited above. And then he goes into a couple of case studies,

00:06:22.580 which is interesting. He talks about Cambodian donut shops, which is interesting. He talks about

00:06:28.220 Patel motels. Go into it. What, what about them?

00:06:32.660 Yeah. Okay. I can, if you want to, it's, it's, it's, it's actually so interesting. He says Cambodians

00:06:37.660 run about 80% of the donut shops in Southern California. Cambodians, just to give you perspective,

00:06:43.500 are 0.17% of the population in California. 80% of donut shops, right? Okay. Yes. This is

00:06:50.500 don't like, so he sees that and he's like, Oh, end of society. And I'm like,

00:06:54.960 how do I get that percentage? What next? What next? The Cambodian donut empire got its start with 1.00

00:07:00.260 refugee Ted Goy, who first learned the trade thanks to an affirmative action program to increase

00:07:06.000 minority hiring at Winchel's donuts. The Cambodians were able to totally dominate this traditional 0.98

00:07:11.520 American culinary sector through a mix of extended family credit and the use of dong tines and informal

00:07:17.080 lending club. So basically he explains it like, because they gave each other cheap credit and we're

00:07:21.720 sort of like in with each other, they were able to take over this industry. Now Patel motels,

00:07:26.720 Gujaratis mostly with the surname Patel run an estimated 42% of hotels and motels in the United

00:07:32.420 States. I just like, that is so mind-blowing. This is a huge industry. 42% are run by Gujaratis.

00:07:37.860 What are Gujaratis? I think Gujaratis are a subset of the Indian population. Let's look it up.

00:07:43.340 Gujaratis is a state of India. So it's like saying Californians, I guess, you know?

00:07:51.340 Okay, great.

00:07:52.140 Yeah. Just again, for like perspective, Gujaratis are about 0.3% of the U.S. population.

00:07:57.900 40% of the hotels.

00:07:59.460 Yeah. 42% of hotels, 0.3% of the U.S. population. And he writes, and this number was much lower back

00:08:06.300 in 1999 when this phenomenon was first noticed. This rises to 80 to 90% of motels in small-town

00:08:13.560 America. The Patel motel cartel, oh, sweet, sweet Arctotherium. I love that. Got its start 1.00

00:08:19.560 with an illegal immigrant, Kanjabai Desai, in the 1940s. So this goes way back. The initial

00:08:26.320 attraction to Patels was that motel ownership did not require English proficiency. As is with the

00:08:31.820 Cambodians, Patel motel owners were able to use informal ethnic loan networks and

00:08:36.080 immigrant family labor brought in via family reunification from India to undercut their 1.00

00:08:40.560 American competitors. See this? This is something I can play with. And now Patel's labor. We can do 0.64

00:08:46.920 that too. Yeah. And we're going to go through it. I have a whole plan. All right. Patels now

00:08:52.760 totally dominate the hospitality industry in the U.S. outside of being chains, Patel writes. So now

00:08:58.680 let's go to Vietnamese nail salons, which are such a thing, apparently. Over half of the nail 1.00

00:09:03.760 salons in the United States, Arctotherium rights, are run by Vietnamese, which rises to 0.99

00:09:08.240 more than 80% in California, whereas Vietnamese people are 0.7% of the U.S. population.

00:09:14.600 As soon as I walk in, they greet me right away. Hi, honey, what you need to do? Oh, um, can

00:09:24.720 I get my nails done? Okay, honey, do you lie pedicure too? Again, like this is just so mouthwatering.

00:09:32.320 Like as people who've worked in private equity and VC, this concept of like that kind of level

00:09:38.120 of market domination, mind-blowing, mind-blowing. Like no one would ever even like propose that.

00:09:43.800 Like I could take over this much of the market, but you can with the right, with the right tools.

00:09:49.400 Just like the Patels and the Cambodians, Arctotherium rights, Vietnamese immigrants were able to finance 1.00

00:09:54.200 nail salons more easily than American competitors because they had access to below market credit from

00:09:58.360 family and friends. Pro-immigration conservatives often celebrate the small business ownership

00:10:02.600 characteristics of non-linear ethnic niches as a route to assimilation, but that's backwards.

00:10:07.000 As with the Patels, Vietnamese refugees were attracted to nail salons because they didn't 1.00

00:10:11.240 require English proficiency. In fact, this enabled ethnic separation from America. 0.93

00:10:16.120 And I see his point here, like that kind of sucks. He also points out though later in his essay 0.86

00:10:22.280 that this phenomenon actually diffuses a couple generations in. So this mostly is kind of stuck

00:10:28.120 to first-generation immigrants. And then once these people have kids, the kids don't want to do it 1.00

00:10:33.400 anymore. And I think that that's, you know, so like his arguments around assimilation, I'm not

00:10:38.200 too concerned about. Well, it appears to me to be because they are running these companies in ways

00:10:43.320 that is strictly worse as a lifestyle than just getting a normal job. And this is, you know, obviously

00:10:50.680 Simone and I work with a lot of immigrant families. We've worked in other countries a lot, Japan, Korea,

00:10:55.400 Peru. And, you know, so I've talked with particularly Korean immigrants who went into these types of

00:11:01.960 industries, like the restaurant industry. And what they said is they're like, look, it's not like it's

00:11:07.880 a better job to be running a restaurant. It's actually pretty risky. It's pretty long hours.

00:11:13.640 Lifestyle. It's pretty tough. They're like, but because of my language skills, I couldn't get

00:11:20.440 hired at any English speaking restaurant. Yeah. Like who else is going to hire me? Yeah. Or give

00:11:25.880 me autonomy. And they're like, well, and they're like, well, no, no, no. A lot of them, they came in

00:11:30.200 and they were like doctors and stuff. And they're like, I couldn't get hired because of my language

00:11:34.040 skills as a doctor. So what I had to do was start my own company. And I knew a lot of people in this

00:11:40.520 industry. So I started in this industry. Well, and so what, what Arctotherium points out happens

00:11:45.640 here is what the characteristics of the niches entered is they are low prestige, but they offer

00:11:53.080 high social mobility. So no one else wants to take them on. And they have typically like sort of a cap

00:11:59.980 to market size. Like you can't get too big in them. So like big investors aren't throwing in money

00:12:05.560 because kind of like you see with like mail salons, hotels, donut shops. Like, yeah, you're,

00:12:11.400 it's, it's really hard to grow super big in that, unless you have a big chain and you need tons of

00:12:15.900 financing. So they go in, but it still enables them. You know, if you work at a restaurant and

00:12:20.700 you're not, it's like renting, you know, you're not putting equity into anything. If you own the

00:12:23.880 restaurant, you will get that equity over time. So that's those three characteristics, small-ish

00:12:28.480 market, very not, not romantic, not, not ideal. Like no one wants to work there and still it offers

00:12:35.720 upward mobility. So here's the, the, I tried to make a list going through various cases and

00:12:41.520 observations that he threw in. Cause he has a lot of citations in this. I do recommend reading his

00:12:46.400 article, his sub stick article on this subject, but here's why they form one labor arbitrage from

00:12:51.900 first generation immigrants, where they sort of access lower cost labor from abroad is big. Cause

00:12:57.260 they're able to hire, like, you know, we have to hire people who speak fluent English in addition

00:13:02.700 to Spanish, right? They just need to hire someone who speaks Vietnamese or Cambodian or whatever.

00:13:06.400 Right. Also first generation immigrants are willing to do higher hard work that second gens and native 1.00

00:13:11.600 borns just aren't. So you're also able to hire people who are genuinely hungry. And I think, 0.98

00:13:16.340 especially, so when you look at all these bougie people going into food service and making like 1.00

00:13:19.980 crumble cookie or like all this, like I worked in food service at a cupcake shop owned by two wealthy

00:13:26.640 Canadian women. And they just hired a bunch of like entitled university students. And it was, 1.00

00:13:33.880 it, you know, the turnover was really high. The students didn't work that hard. They didn't do a

00:13:37.600 very good job. Like it's, I think when you, when you hire native born Americans or even, yeah, like 1.00

00:13:43.560 you're just not going to get that quality of labor and like immigrants are hungry, especially if they

00:13:48.260 don't have other options. Then the micro micro loans, like he kept pointing out, like all of these,

00:13:53.560 these groups were basically providing below market credit and loans and liquidity that you just

00:13:59.800 wouldn't get from a bank, even like an SBA loan. And so there's something about the access to capital

00:14:05.800 here. That's really giving these businesses a leg up when other people, what it is, is access to

00:14:10.400 capital within industries that these traditional capital sources aren't willing to invest. Yeah.

00:14:16.320 Yeah. You're like a bank loan to start like a nail salon. You're going to struggle to get a bank loan 1.00

00:14:21.300 to start, you know, a motel in a small town America. Cause they're going to be like, where's

00:14:26.120 the demand? How would I, you know, where are the, the, the assets that are going to continue to have

00:14:31.460 value. And yet the people within the industry are, are really well positioned to determine if

00:14:37.260 someone's worthy of a loan because you get, you know, personal references, like their cousin who grew

00:14:41.080 up with them. Also like you understand the industry because you're in it. So you know it.

00:14:44.820 And so, I mean, there's really something very smart about understanding an industry and you

00:14:48.660 being the one to provide the financing because we've, we've gone through the process of having

00:14:52.840 banks to do diligence on us to loan money to our businesses. And they like, just totally don't

00:14:57.080 understand the business and their key bets on our loan payback are based on the stupidest things. 0.99

00:15:03.600 And they think that it's like smart and they're like, Oh good. Like based on our calculations, 0.97

00:15:07.020 everything's going to be okay. And we're like, yeah, you think that like, you really should be

00:15:10.360 looking at this thing over here and you're not, and that's incredibly dumb, but we're not going to say 0.97

00:15:13.660 anything. So I think it's really smart. Then there's of course, like even more informal things 0.91

00:15:18.000 like equipment loans and access. Like, you know, if you all own seven 11s and someone's slushy machine

00:15:22.060 breaks, like you could, you know, if they, they, he quoted someone in his article about how, like

00:15:27.560 you can just get, you know, a solution really quickly. If you need a machine fixed, you get the

00:15:32.400 machine fixed. You know, you're not depending. It very much like the whole issue of the atomization of

00:15:37.200 the family where now you have to like pay a babysitter and like find, you know, find someone,

00:15:42.420 you pay someone to do everything. And they're not necessarily motivated to help you. And they're

00:15:45.500 like, ah, I don't know. Like, I don't feel like it's, I can't come out. Like you have people who

00:15:49.700 will be there for you because they are your cousin or they're your uncle, or they know that they need

00:15:54.060 your help too. And so it really is a community in that kind of corporate family way that also we

00:15:59.800 really appreciate. Speaking of corporate family, you also get informal employment. Now, sometimes this is

00:16:06.480 like very not okay, not legal. It sounds like what it is, is it's a few people somewhat profiting

00:16:15.320 off of a lot of people working in the types of jobs that wouldn't, you wouldn't legally have in

00:16:20.280 America. Yeah. Or like, like literally they're undocumented, illegal immigrants kind of doing 0.95

00:16:25.820 indentured servitude slash slave labor for you. Like that's, that's the bad end of it. But then the better

00:16:30.960 end of it is, is family labor where like, you know, your kids are helping out, et cetera. And like, to a

00:16:35.920 certain extent, this can lead to some like tax avoidance or wage minimizing. So that's, that's

00:16:42.140 big. It, you know, it enables you to be very lean in terms of your costs while also really supporting

00:16:46.560 an extended family. Plus in terms of, of team members, you have much easier vetting of good

00:16:52.520 match employees. Like you have family references, people vouching for others. And we know this from a

00:16:58.160 firsthand standpoint, because we've, we've seen the value in hiring siblings and cousins of our

00:17:05.580 existing employees when they get referred, like they just work so much harder and trust. Like we go

00:17:10.540 through the normal vetting process. We do open hiring. We, we put ads in papers, we put ads on

00:17:15.420 indeed and on LinkedIn, and we interview hundreds of people and we hire across the board, the most

00:17:21.640 qualified people, but the people who have stayed and who have done the best and performed the best

00:17:25.500 fricking family. Cause there's the dual thing of like, yeah, we, we've leaned into just hiring

00:17:30.860 through family networks. It's amazing. It's, it's, it's one of the best source of referrals

00:17:34.560 because there's, there's two elements of it. One, you have the pressure of the person who referred

00:17:38.620 them. Who's like, don't screw up. This is my reputation and my job. And then the other person

00:17:42.500 who's like, wow, I can't screw up. You know, like there's, there's, there are reasons. Cause I think

00:17:46.200 right now participating in this right now, do we only hire through, through the thing is like,

00:17:50.620 I'm like, Oh yeah. Like this is great. We already, but we don't do the whole, you know, informal labor

00:17:55.280 thing. And then, you know, there are then barriers to entry, which are created by all this, right?

00:18:01.900 Like if you are trying to enter the nail salon business in California, you know, it's, I think

00:18:09.240 it could be kind of tough when it's kind of dominated by all these other people. In fact, some

00:18:13.060 nail, like a cosmetology schools that, that certify people for this, that way you need to do,

00:18:18.540 to do nails, whatever that is, teach their classes in Vietnamese. Like they've just given

00:18:22.560 up on English. Like screw that. That is hilarious. Yeah. So in, and it's this, so just in general,

00:18:29.280 then there are lower transaction costs around the board, you know, getting things fixed,

00:18:33.040 getting equipment, getting, getting employees, getting financing. And we've seen this with other

00:18:38.840 friends. Like one of your friends who started kind of restaurant store business, I think leveraged

00:18:44.060 family a ton for that. Yeah. His family worked at the business, his family manned the stores,

00:18:50.000 his family helped with sourcing equipment, et cetera. Like that's huge. And I think, you know.

00:18:58.040 But what was funny is it was one of those cases of his family was all Peruvian and the business

00:19:04.900 that he was specializing in was like Jamaican style food.

00:19:07.860 I mean, but again, not linear ethnic niche. Oh, I don't know. I mean, I, it's just so cool, but,

00:19:15.800 ah, but no, no, no, no, no. Not cool, Malcolm, because Arctotherium says so.

00:19:20.140 And Arctotherium says so. What, what, what, what's the complaint here? Why, why is it bad?

00:19:25.120 Once a niche has taken over, outsiders can no longer compete within it, which I'm like,

00:19:29.300 yeah, that sounds great. Like from an investor standpoint, that's what I'm, that's when we have

00:19:33.460 to raise money for something. Investors always ask like, well, are there barriers to entry? Like

00:19:38.080 what's, how, how defensible are you? Like, this is, this is the dream. Okay. But he says non-linear

00:19:43.440 ethnic niches exist on and are able to sustain themselves in the face of market competition.

00:19:47.540 This might hurt some Americans, but so do a million other problems. Does it really matter?

00:19:52.160 Yes. Western civilization has been different for so long, more than 700 years that we've forgotten

00:19:58.040 what this looks like. But non-linear ethnic niches are a throwback to pre-modern forms of social

00:20:03.040 organization with all that implies. And he, so he's like, this is the worst.

00:20:07.300 Okay. I just disagree with him here. If you look at ancient Rome, it was well known that certain

00:20:12.420 industries were dominated by specific ethnic groups. If you look even at, for example, pre-Nazi

00:20:19.200 Germany, we know that certain markets were dominated by Jews. Like I mentioned like pediatricians 0.99

00:20:23.520 and orthodontists. So the idea of ethno like specialized careers is actually like,

00:20:33.040 a continuous strain from modern Western countries to, if you go back to the colonial period,

00:20:39.760 you will see specific ethnic groups dominating particular niches. As we've mentioned before,

00:20:46.520 by the way, much to their chagrin, the Quakers and dominating the slave trade.

00:20:51.300 Quakers were, I love it.

00:20:52.940 The Quakers were anti-slavery. And I'm like, well, I can look at Quaker wills and 45% of Quakers 0.96

00:20:59.300 owned slaves compared to like at the height of the deep South. It was like 22, 23%.

00:21:05.180 To be honest, I'm a little surprised that he doesn't appear to know that there have always

00:21:08.500 been non-linear ethnically controlled industries. If we look at early America, we can, for example,

00:21:14.940 look at in colonial America, particularly in Pennsylvania, German immigrants played a

00:21:18.660 significant role in certain industries. For example, in Germantown, now part of Philadelphia,

00:21:22.540 Germans were heavily involved in papermaking. Was William Rittenhouse building the first mill in

00:21:28.060 the British colonies in 1690? They also dominated printing. Was Christopher Sawyer and his son

00:21:34.160 establishing a major press in 1738, printing America's first European language Bible in 1743?

00:21:40.020 Additionally, German immigrants were known for their craftsmanship in weaving, tanning,

00:21:43.660 and wagon building, reflecting their cultural emphasis on skilled trades. Now, if you go for

00:21:48.540 other periods, you can look at ancient Rome. In ancient Rome, the medical profession was notably

00:21:53.040 dominated by Greek physicians. So was the tutoring industry. Starting with Archegesis of Sparta around 0.87

00:22:00.160 218 BC, Greek doctors like Galen, Diocese, and Sorenes of Ephesus brought advanced medical knowledge to

00:22:08.680 Rome. Their influence was due to the advanced state of Greek medicine, which Romans valued, leading to

00:22:13.600 reliance on Greek expertise for both public and private medical care. Greeks also dominated the

00:22:18.460 theater industries.

00:22:20.100 No, no, no. This arctotherapy of nonlinear ethnic niches are slowly dragging Western society back 1.00

00:22:26.020 into the default human world of tribes, clans, extended families, and middlemen minorities we

00:22:31.380 escaped 700 years ago. So he basically thinks that they undermine individualism and that nuclear

00:22:37.920 families support individualism, which, I mean, just the fact that he is putting nuclear families on a 1.00

00:22:42.940 pedestal, of course, is like a trigger for us, right?

00:22:45.540 Like nuclear families, as we've mentioned before, they only really started as a thing in like the

00:22:50.900 1920s and they basically stopped being a thing in the 1970s.

00:22:54.280 No, but get this. He actually seems to be, and I'll quote him on this, like he seems to be

00:22:59.380 actually pedestalizing and thinking that the atomization of the family was a good thing.

00:23:06.140 And like, here's what he actually says. He says, by breaking extended kin-based structures into nuclear

00:23:11.440 families. So by breaking up the corporate family, this is what he's saying, all right?

00:23:15.480 The Western European marriage pattern facilitated interpersonal cooperation based on the task at

00:23:20.680 hand rather than kinship. Again, what? Atomization. Go buy it from a store. Go get it from a babysitter.

00:23:25.900 Go, you know, put your grandma on and home. 0.61

00:23:28.160 This is a really bad take.

00:23:29.900 I know, I know. This is so fun though.

00:23:31.840 Rather than kinship instead, which both enabled cooperation at much larger scales and greatly

00:23:36.640 improve the efficiency of learning. See, he's like gone. He's like, drink the Kool-Aid. He

00:23:42.020 thinks the atomization is good.

00:23:43.260 He's completely urban monoculture too. And this is the thing, he's-

00:23:45.860 This is our dozerian. This is the one who was like, you know how to solve demographical lapses.

00:23:50.200 You disempower women. 1.00

00:23:52.240 Right. But now he's like, you know how to solve all these problems. We need to split up the family

00:23:58.040 unit. As we've pointed out-

00:23:59.880 I know.

00:24:00.440 The quality rates started falling. It was not when the woman left the household. It was the man left the

00:24:04.900 household. That was the beginning of the nuclear family. The concept that the man would leave the wife 0.90

00:24:10.740 and the kids at home and go out and earn wage labor. That is when fertility rates started falling.

00:24:15.700 That is the core toxin that we are dealing with as a society is the atomization that he is talking

00:24:21.460 about. All of the problems we have today are downstream of that. It is these extended family

00:24:28.660 networks and specialization that made our ancestors great.

00:24:32.880 No, but get this though. This is where it gets even crazier because this just seems so antithetical

00:24:37.360 to like the space in which Arctotherium is moving. But he literally with this quote is arguing for the

00:24:44.080 urban monoculture and for homogenization of culture. He writes, genetic and familiarly

00:24:49.920 transmitted cultural adaptations do not diffuse from endogamous, endogamous, sorry,

00:24:55.840 endogamous ethnic groups into the broader population. Market dominant and middlemen

00:25:01.520 minorities are thus problematic for national development. He's basically saying because they

00:25:06.000 don't integrate, they are not diffusing into the sludge of the urban monoculture.

00:25:12.800 This is objectively wrong and we can see this in history. There is a famous case of one of the Ayatollahs. 0.93

00:25:18.840 One of the Spanish emperors at one point was during one of these periods where they kicked

00:25:23.560 out the Jews. And one of the Ayatollahs sent a letter, I was going to say an email, but a letter. 0.58

00:25:31.800 There was basically a mocking, have fun being poor. Thanks to all the Jews. 1.00

00:25:36.360 And that's what happened. Spain did suffer economically after this. You know, you don't

00:25:45.080 kick out a group that is uniquely good at something. These groups provide these goods at lower costs.

00:25:52.040 That is why they have been successful, right? I don't want to pay some, you know, dilettantish, 1.00

00:26:00.680 neoliberally educated white woman to do my damn nails. All right. That's what the Vietnamese are for. 1.00

00:26:07.720 Oh boy. Well, so there are some criticisms that he brings up and I'm like, I hear you,

00:26:12.200 but also like this doesn't have to be

00:26:15.640 made, retained in new non-linear ethnic nations. So he pointed at the very large example of India,

00:26:22.600 it, when he talks about how they encourage discrimination, how entire swaths of the population

00:26:28.360 aren't even given consideration. He writes in a way, India's unique social structures keep

00:26:33.160 pre-industrial economy, even within modern technology with cottage industries, dominating

00:26:37.240 factories. He cites, for example, that like studies have found that people would like just pay to not

00:26:42.440 do anything that would put them in proximity with different castes. And that India is sort of one of

00:26:47.080 these places that continues to force this sort of caste system that he associates with non-linear ethnic

00:26:52.280 niches. But let me, let me walk through why they're actually awesome. And specifically, I alluded to it

00:26:57.480 before, free market competition is going to go haywire with the rise of AI and as demographic

00:27:03.000 collapse plays out. So like this whole, the whole underpinning of his argument here is like, well,

00:27:08.600 we all do better when there's globalization and free trade and markets at scale, but he's just assuming

00:27:14.920 that that's somehow going to continue to be facilitated. But as governments falter and fall apart,

00:27:20.600 as demographic collapse plays out and become more isolationist, and as AI plays out and disrupts the way that

00:27:27.080 businesses and markets work, leaving a huge number of workers unoccupied, we will not have that world

00:27:32.760 anymore. As cool as it was while it lasted in many ways, it wasn't cool in all ways, it's just not

00:27:38.600 going to last. So my whole thing is we're going to lose this. And here's this weird like molecule of

00:27:49.960 human configuration, the nonlinear ethnic niche, that actually has a lot of defensibility and

00:27:55.400 advantages. How can we replicate this to our advantage? And I really think we can't. One,

00:28:01.480 because he points out in two of his case studies that these cartels started with just one person.

00:28:06.360 The Cambodian donut empire got its start with the refugee, Ted. 0.97

00:28:10.920 There are some who call me Tim and that the Patel Motel got its start with an illegal immigrant, 0.99

00:28:20.360 Mr. Desai. So here's what we need to do. And here's what I'd say we do differently. So to replicate,

00:28:27.080 like the good stuff I would keep is focus on a small industry. I'm going to say niche biotech,

00:28:32.360 right? Let's modify some humans here. Focus on an industry that other people don't want to be in 1.00

00:28:38.600 due to what in this case, not because it's unromantic, but because they think it's like,

00:28:42.360 it's not low prestige. It's anti-prestige, right? People are like ethical considerations and

00:28:48.200 abominations and stuff, right? So like us going into that niche, I would specifically say is great.

00:28:54.200 But I mean, if I were encouraging other people to look at this, find something other people don't

00:28:58.120 want to enter, that's kind of small, but I think niche biotech for us would be amazing.

00:29:02.600 Cheap credit. And you know how we talked about with the index that we would have like,

00:29:05.960 Simone, by the way, by the way, what you are suggesting here is that we become the Kaminoans.

00:29:13.480 Very impressive. We take great pride in our combat education and training programs.

00:29:20.040 You mentioned growth acceleration. Oh yes, it's essential. Otherwise,

00:29:24.280 a mature clone would take a lifetime to grow. Yes. From Star Wars, by the way, the Kaminoans are 1.00

00:29:30.280 the species that they go to, to clone all the soldiers that live on like the water world. 0.58

00:29:34.520 Yeah. You're like, just be the Kaminoans. Okay, great. Continue.

00:29:39.160 Non-linear ethnic niche. I mean, although they kind of, they kind of look, you look ethnically, 0.86

00:29:43.320 like somehow they have an advantage in that. I don't know. Like maybe they are just

00:29:47.080 somehow. Although all the Kaminoans are clones. 0.55

00:29:49.400 Oh, well, yeah. So then maybe they're not a non-linear, maybe they're just an ethnic niche.

00:29:53.800 But anyway, cheap credit. Like we would provide, we would create, because we plan to like later

00:29:59.000 in life, once our kids are all in order, we're going to really get the index in order.

00:30:01.720 Or find a way to like pull a lot of money in it. And then that money will be lent out,

00:30:08.280 like low, low cost financing to businesses that are then part of the index.

00:30:11.880 Within the techno puritan network.

00:30:13.880 Either techno puritanism or the index. Yeah. Or maybe they're going to be the same thing. I'm not

00:30:18.120 really sure. But also fast tracked hiring. So if you're in the index, or if you're in the techno

00:30:22.440 puritan network, like you, we understand those values are aligned and also probably is going to

00:30:27.960 select for skill sets that are quite useful. So already you have that fast tracked hiring.

00:30:32.920 Values aligned employees, right? Because if you're in the index, or if you're a techno puritan,

00:30:36.600 like we know that you care about pluralism, you care about long-term human flourishing,

00:30:41.000 like you're going to be into also this kind of biotech acceleration of them stuff.

00:30:44.760 And then family involvement. Like I want our kids to work in this. I want our kids to,

00:30:49.160 you know, be involved in that. Low cost apprenticeship has for thousands of years,

00:30:54.520 been how one, like people who are very junior get their training and their career started,

00:30:59.400 but to how business owners gain access to very affordable labor because half the time you were

00:31:05.480 indentured. I think even during colonial times in the United States, you literally signed an indenture

00:31:11.880 to your, let's see, if you're the apprentice, what's the boss called?

00:31:17.080 And anyway, you were indentured to them basically. And it was very low cost labor, but it was,

00:31:23.960 it was a, it was a worthwhile exchange because you were getting training, often housing and food as

00:31:27.720 well. Here's what I want to make it different. I want to make it cultural and not ethnic. And I 0.94

00:31:32.760 think you can already see examples of this where it's a lot more inclusive. It's like an opt-in thing.

00:31:38.360 It's not like, oh, you don't look the right way or you're not like Catholics in the legal profession. 1.00

00:31:43.960 I was going to say, yeah, like look at the Catholic church. This is a very diverse, like

00:31:47.880 people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all countries, all races, all ethnicities.

00:31:54.520 And they're all opted in. They're all very ideologically aligned. The LDS have gone kind

00:31:58.360 of halfway there also with like temple recommends cards. Like there's a little bit of this like

00:32:01.800 inside network. The LDS applicants are also significantly discriminated against within normal

00:32:06.760 jobs. Yeah. Yeah. So there's also BYU versus other equivalent schools. And this basically is like

00:32:12.280 a blacklist for hiring, which I don't understand. Like I, yeah, what's with the, that takes back to

00:32:17.400 that polling you'd found where like the LDS is like, you love everyone. I mean, I would be really

00:32:21.560 scared to work with like a Scientologist, for example. And you're like, yeah, this is worrying,

00:32:26.040 but like a Mormon, like, come on, man. I know, seriously, like great hires. At least the CIA has figured 1.00

00:32:32.840 that out. A lot of government agencies are huge on hiring Mormons. So someone loves Mormons and it's the

00:32:38.520 US government, but now the US government's firing everyone. So I don't know. So also I would, I would

00:32:43.480 leverage labor arbitrage, not from refugee desperation, but from ideological alignment,

00:32:48.440 just like the Catholic and church does. Right. And I mean, to a certain extent, the LDS does too,

00:32:53.080 but like when you become a priest, when you enter the church in service, you're not making a lot of

00:32:58.280 money and they're, they're definitely benefiting from your labor, but also you don't care because

00:33:04.120 one, they take care of you. And there's a lot of just, just memetic alignment. Like you're happy.

00:33:10.920 So it's not a problem. I feel like it's, it's a lot less ethical what's happening with refugees. 1.00

00:33:14.920 Cause you're, you're just stuck. You don't have other options. You're trapped. I want opt-in not

00:33:18.840 opt-out. Like, I mean, I want opt-in not you're there. Cause you have no way to opt-out. And I would also

00:33:24.680 leverage apprentices and not refugees for low cost, but high training employees. Like I would want our 0.81

00:33:30.040 children to apprentice in this. And it's, I think it's just so much more valuable than like going

00:33:34.600 to college. So also like, you don't end up in permanent debt. And I don't think that you can

00:33:38.600 study like real genetic science in college anymore because there's no, not with ethics boards, not

00:33:45.320 with like this, this consensus that CRISPR, you know, gene editing and multiplex gene editing.

00:33:51.160 They're like, Oh, scary germline gene editing. Oh God. Yeah. So like, exactly.

00:33:56.200 We will create the hominoid, the rise of the hominoid. 1.00

00:33:59.880 Well, that's the other thing is another thing I'd want to do differently is obviously

00:34:03.800 what exists with non-linear ethnic niches now, because they are actually ethnic in nature is

00:34:09.960 they'll look a certain way. I would like, I wanted to bring everyone in, but also like,

00:34:16.920 because we're biotech, it'd be like really cool if like you enter, but like, you know, 80% of the

00:34:23.320 people who enter opt in to have like their eyes turn purple, you know what I mean? Like

00:34:26.680 irises are like, Oh, you know, you know that they're part of the biotech cartel. Cause they

00:34:30.520 have lavender eyes, which would be really cool. Something like that. You know, like you, you can

00:34:35.880 tell you're me. Oh, they're different. Yeah. Yeah. It becomes ethnic, but it's also a feature.

00:34:41.160 Like you're showing off your wares, you know, or that like your heartbeat shows up as a tattoo

00:34:45.320 on like your cheek, you know, all sorts of crazy things or something. Right. And I would also want to,

00:34:49.160 one thing that I didn't really get into, which he does bring up as a legitimate concern in his

00:34:53.320 article is that most of these ethnic niches, they, they, they compete and they build barriers to

00:34:58.760 entry just by being very low cost and like undercutting costs for everyone else, sort of

00:35:04.600 making it just too hard for anyone else to compete. But in turn, they're also pretty conservative and

00:35:10.120 not innovative. And they're not also like, there's not a lot of competition and variance,

00:35:14.040 which of course is antithetical to innovation. And I, I agree. That's bad. Like I I'm with

00:35:19.080 Arctotherium on that. So I'd want to create incentives that encourage competition. And I

00:35:24.120 think it's really easy to do that, especially based on like how we would provide more funding and,

00:35:29.240 and how also the index is designed to encourage in intercultural competition and remixing.

00:35:36.280 And also just to, to be very clear, I would want it to be inclusive. Anyone should be able to

00:35:41.000 opt in if they're ideologically aligned. And again, like, I just better than other people,

00:35:45.400 like we are going to end up in a, a, a, what do we call it? Tecno feudal world.

00:35:52.360 Tecno feudal world. Yeah. That's what we're heading into. 1.00

00:35:54.440 So like, you need to sink or swim here, you know, like, I love this idea that like,

00:36:00.680 globalism will last forever, but we are headed towards that.

00:36:05.400 And you don't love it. Come on. Do you really love it? Or are you just like?

00:36:08.120 I don't know. I don't know. There were things about it that I love.

00:36:13.560 And there are, there are things about it that aren't so great, but yeah, I mean, I think it

00:36:17.960 doesn't matter whether I liked it or not. It's not going to last like the signs point to it,

00:36:22.040 not lasting. So we have to plan for something better. So is there anything else that you would

00:36:26.200 try to replicate or do differently? No, I love everything you're saying here. I want to play it

00:36:31.480 out. Let's do it. Let's cut the rest of the world. I mean, I might add like two industries.

00:36:36.600 I was going to have two industries that I would really focus on. Okay.

00:36:39.320 It would be the, the human genetic research and augmentation and human AI integration or

00:36:47.080 human computer integration, like brain computer interface and stuff. Like that's what I got my

00:36:50.760 degree in. That's what I started my career in because I think those are the two areas where

00:36:54.600 a lot of people are squeamish about, you know, engaging. And I think that, you know, you can create a

00:37:01.000 family that's just like a hundred percent all in, in this stuff. And you're going to get a lot of

00:37:05.880 people and their fields that are going to exist in the future. You know, like these are, these are

00:37:10.840 persistent fields that are going to have a persistent degree of societal squeamishness around them.

00:37:15.800 Yeah. Well, we've long dreamed of having a city state that's devoted to something like this.

00:37:22.600 I just, I never thought about it as a cartel per se. And I had never thought about the fact that

00:37:27.880 this has been done for thousands of years. And that there are many examples of this

00:37:33.640 already around the world. I also didn't realize just how strong these non-linear ethnic niches are.

00:37:40.120 I mean, what that, that, that Chaldeans own 90% of grocery stores in Detroit. That's just,

00:37:46.120 that's insane. And I've heard about who they are yet. The Chaldeans. 1.00

00:37:49.640 Yeah. Let's figure this out. That's what the internet is for a modern Aramaic

00:37:56.120 speaking Catholic, Syriac community, primarily from Northern Iraq. Hello, specificity.

00:38:03.720 Detroit grocery stores. Good for you guys. But yeah, I mean, there's absolutely no reason

00:38:09.400 why a modern Aramaic speaking Catholic, Syriac community, primarily from Northern Iraq,

00:38:14.200 would be really good at grocery store management. But they are. They're really good at getting

00:38:20.600 very inexpensive labor from Northern Iraq. Yeah, apparently. Anyway.

00:38:26.120 It's just fascinating. Very interesting topic. I appreciate you

00:38:29.560 prepping this episode, bringing this up. Fans can like and subscribe if you appreciate when

00:38:35.560 Simone does an episode. Yes. Yes. Do you, do you like the, the dumb female speaking more, 1.00

00:38:43.000 or is it very annoying? I could, I could imagine it grates on, on many, but. Yeah. I mean, 1.00

00:38:47.800 I can understand people not wanting the dumb female talking. For what it's worth. For what it's worth, 1.00

00:38:52.920 the grist for the mill came from Arctotherium, who also is highly critical of the professional 0.99

00:38:59.160 worth of dumb females. So I don't even know. I don't, I don't, I imagine he doesn't think women 0.99

00:39:05.320 are dumb. He just thinks that they're toxic for what it's worth. Yeah. Don't, don't mischaracterize 0.99

00:39:11.080 him. I know. I'm sorry. I love him. I love you, Arctotherium. I don't think you're watching this,

00:39:15.240 but you know, we've done like three episodes. At this point, we're pretty big. I wouldn't be

00:39:20.520 surprised. I guess. Yeah. I'm just, I'm always surprised even if like family is aware of what

00:39:26.120 we're doing. I just, we live in our own little farmhouse world. And I think I just love thinking

00:39:31.560 that, you know, we're out like on, on the prairie. Nobody knows what we're doing. In the wilderness.

00:39:36.680 Yeah. Just like. By the way, I don't know if you saw Simone, but Aria Babu, who's been on the show,

00:39:40.840 just sent us a wedding invite. It's in the UK, so I don't think we're going to go, but.

00:39:45.240 Really cool that she's getting married. She needs to start pumping out those kids, right? 1.00

00:39:51.000 Oh, oh, this is such a pretty, oh, it's a pretty website. Oh, oh my God. What?

00:39:59.800 Oh, ceremony, photos and fizz, lunch, speeches and cake. Oh, and this is a nice timeline. Ceremonies at

00:40:08.920 noon. You're having cake by 4 p.m. Do you understand? That's how you do it.

00:40:13.560 The weddings we go to, like, we just want to get the cake and get out of there, but it's like 9 p.m.

00:40:18.840 It's so sad that I won't be going because I like get invited to weddings so rarely.

00:40:22.280 I know. I don't really invest in making friends because, you know, they're gross.

00:40:27.400 And this, though, this looks really nice.

00:40:32.200 You want to go? I mean, if you want to go, I can make it happen, you know?

00:40:35.960 Looking at the dates. I don't know.

00:40:38.920 We don't have any money, especially if I'm throwing it into a hole to save our investors.

00:40:43.480 Are you really sure that's a good idea, Simone?

00:40:48.040 Listen, we'll let the, if the board has an aneurysm, we won't. But I just want to do well

00:40:55.160 by everyone. I just want everyone to be happy. Yeah, well.

00:41:00.520 And like I was saying, like, listen, your, like, number two Google search suggestion is

00:41:05.320 Malcolm Collins billionaire. Maybe don't put our kids at risk trying to make other people.

00:41:09.800 But if everyone thinks you're super wealthy, you've, like, made it. Like, that's, that's,

00:41:13.640 I think the only reason why Donald Trump kept, like, trying to prove that he was wealthy. So

00:41:18.200 they got on those lists. So if everyone thinks you're wealthy, it's like one of those, like,

00:41:22.760 if a tree falls in a forest, if a man is Googled to be a billionaire, who's to know that he isn't?

00:41:30.760 You know? I love you. All right. Have a good one, Simone. I love you, too.

00:41:35.080 Okay. I'm going to, yeah. Yeah. Blow it all on this, this load.

00:41:42.760 Well, come on. I'm sure you're glad to be talking about something other than me

00:41:46.840 blowing our savings to protect our investors. But that's our way. It's your family's way.

00:41:52.920 Who was the family member who lost their hand, like, hanging off a roof to avoid interrupting?

00:41:58.920 I'm actually one of my, my namesakes and lost. Yeah. That, that, that happened in the family.

00:42:04.360 And we are taught that the investors come first. Yeah. So I don't know. I would rather lose our

00:42:11.400 savings rather than our integrity, our hands, you know, I mean, losing our integrity with investors

00:42:20.040 is a non-negotiable. You do not, you do not wrong people who do place to bet on you. You do not

00:42:26.120 double cross or not even cross. You don't cross with double cross. Oh my God. Like, don't, don't even,

00:42:30.680 you know what I mean? Do you like your blueberries? Yeah. They're the color of the ocean. They're the

00:42:37.480 color of the ocean. Step on a crack and you break your mama's back. Do you like your muffin titan?

00:42:47.320 Yeah. Don't step on a crack or you break your mama's back. Okay. Well, please guys,

00:42:53.720 don't step on cracks. Okay. Okay. Okay. You're going to be very careful about cracks, right? Yeah.

00:43:00.040 Yeah, because we can fall on them.

00:43:02.040 I know.

Based Camp - May 23, 2025

Indians Run 7-Elevens; Vietnamese Run Nail Salons... WHY？!

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