Real Coffee with Scott Adams - Episode 1570 Scott Adams： Let's Talk About the Build Back Better Plan Because You Are Being Bamboozled

00:00:00.000 Well, welcome to the best thing that ever happened to you in your entire life, possibly

00:00:10.660 the best thing that ever happened to anybody in the history of the universe since the Big

00:00:16.400 Bang.

00:00:16.960 We don't know about before the Big Bang.

00:00:20.180 I have some speculation, and my speculation is that this is the best time, even including

00:00:26.640 before the Big Bang.

00:00:28.320 And time didn't even exist then, so that's how good it is.

00:00:33.500 What?

00:00:37.520 YouTube video is bad?

00:00:41.000 Huh.

00:00:42.160 Audio is crappy.

00:00:44.340 There's got to be reason for that.

00:00:47.100 Watch this.

00:00:49.000 Boom.

00:00:49.940 Fixed.

00:00:53.560 This is why I have a checklist.

00:00:56.780 Right?

00:00:57.380 It's better now, right?

00:01:01.440 Yeah.

00:01:02.700 That's why I have a checklist.

00:01:04.560 On my checklist is to check my other microphones to make sure that they're not doing this.

00:01:11.760 Literally, it was on my microphone.

00:01:13.780 And by the way, Paul, your logo just saved me, so that actually is really good.

00:01:19.620 On the Locals platform, there's somebody who, Paul Collider, who posts a meme to tell me

00:01:26.620 if my audio is good every time.

00:01:28.240 It's actually really useful.

00:01:31.480 So, was there something we're supposed to do now?

00:01:33.840 I believe there is, yeah.

00:01:35.100 To take it up to another level.

00:01:36.540 It's called the Simultaneous Sip.

00:01:39.660 And it's going to happen now.

00:01:41.080 All you need is a cup or a mug or a glass, a tank or a gel, a sysdine, a canteen, a jug,

00:01:44.160 a flask, a vessel of any kind.

00:01:47.260 Fill it with your favorite liquid.

00:01:48.920 I like coffee.

00:01:51.280 And join me now.

00:01:52.260 For the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine here of the day, the thing that makes everything better.

00:01:58.760 Accept your taxes, apparently.

00:02:00.660 It's called the Simultaneous Sip.

00:02:02.420 And it happens now.

00:02:03.180 Go.

00:02:07.380 Mmm.

00:02:08.620 Good.

00:02:09.440 Good, good, good.

00:02:12.720 Well, China continues to be awful. 0.92

00:02:17.040 And now they're doing these hostage videos with their Chinese tennis star.

00:02:22.920 Peng Shui.

00:02:24.980 Peng Shui, I think. 0.69

00:02:27.300 So, as you know, there was a Chinese tennis star who spoke out against the government.

00:02:33.260 Specifically, one member of the government who raped her, allegedly.

00:02:38.180 And then she got disappeared.

00:02:40.900 But now she's been seen on an official Chinese video.

00:02:45.100 So, we know she's alive.

00:02:48.240 But I don't think she'll be talking to us on her own.

00:02:52.260 I don't think.

00:02:54.680 So, will it work?

00:02:56.320 Will China make us forget that they are the rapist regime?

00:03:02.560 The Shitu regime? 0.96

00:03:04.320 I think they will, actually.

00:03:08.500 To me, it looks like this will totally work.

00:03:11.020 China will just treat it like it didn't happen. 0.99

00:03:14.100 They'll make her disappear. 1.00

00:03:16.180 The athletes will complain about it for a month or two.

00:03:19.340 And then we'll just go on like it never happened.

00:03:22.800 Because it sort of doesn't feel like your problem, right?

00:03:27.540 Now, part of the story that I didn't know until recently is that the tennis star who claimed to have been raped by a high-ranking Chinese official had been in a long-term relationship with this guy.

00:03:42.020 Did you know that?

00:03:42.620 So, she was raped by an ex-boyfriend.

00:03:45.640 That doesn't make it less rape, of course.

00:03:47.520 That's not the point.

00:03:48.760 But I feel like that's a piece of context that I missed in the story.

00:03:54.040 Again, rape is rape. 1.00

00:03:56.040 But I feel like that was somehow, you know, changes it a little bit because it, you know, it tells you how they got in the same place, anyway.

00:04:07.460 So, I saw a meme yesterday that told me, it's probably true, I don't know, but it's fun, even if it's not true, that Kyle Rittenhouse and Greta Thunberg have exactly the same birthday, January 3rd, 2003.

00:04:22.020 And I tweeted very briefly a witticism about that.

00:04:29.700 But I tweeted it only long enough to do a screen grab of my own tweet before deleting it so I could post it on the locals' platform where I won't get cancelled.

00:04:39.780 Because I knew I would get cancelled, or at least I'd get a bad blowback on Twitter.

00:04:46.420 I probably wouldn't get cancelled.

00:04:48.000 But I didn't want the blowback on Twitter because it was definitely a case of a joke that was too soon.

00:04:54.580 Too soon.

00:04:56.040 But the locals' people can handle it, and I think you can handle it here today, so I'll tell you what it was.

00:05:00.940 And by the way, after I deleted it, Twitter user Ian Miles Chiang was fast enough to grab it, I guess, in the 15 seconds it was live.

00:05:14.760 And he asked if he could retweet it, and I said yes.

00:05:20.260 So you'll see my tweet under his name on Twitter, just because he was braver than I was.

00:05:25.560 I should probably tell you what the tweet is instead of talking about it all the time.

00:05:30.940 I think this first part was like people telling you about their dream last night, and you're like,

00:05:35.520 don't tell me about a dream, just get on with it.

00:05:39.300 All right, here's the joke.

00:05:40.500 When I saw the meme that said Kyle Rittenhouse and Greta Thunberg were born on the same day, I said,

00:05:45.620 it's a ridiculous comparison.

00:05:47.640 Greta only talks about reducing the carbon footprint, whereas Kyle actually did it.

00:05:52.400 So that's why I deleted it from Twitter too soon, too soon.

00:06:02.100 What about that supply chain problem?

00:06:04.520 Do you remember the biggest problem in the country?

00:06:08.100 Was that the ports were all stopped up, and everything was going to come to a halt,

00:06:14.620 and the economy was going to grind too close?

00:06:17.460 What happened to all that?

00:06:18.720 It just disappeared, right?

00:06:22.400 It's just not in the news anymore.

00:06:25.140 Now, I still feel it, like when I go to the store, it's very clear that there are some items missing.

00:06:31.400 But so far, I've pretty much been able to work around it or find an alternative item for a while.

00:06:39.560 I can't buy the shampoo I use, for example, that hasn't existed for months.

00:06:43.840 But, you know, there are other shampoos, so it's not the biggest problem in the world.

00:06:49.640 But apparently, here's what happened.

00:06:52.840 A big improvement was made when they started fining companies for leaving their empties, the empty containers.

00:07:01.180 So they put a substantial enough fine on it that people figured out how to solve it.

00:07:06.000 So apparently, it wasn't that there were no solutions.

00:07:10.320 It's that there were no solutions that were economically favorable.

00:07:14.720 So as soon as they put a fine on companies for leaving their empties clogging up stuff,

00:07:20.060 they figured out how to get rid of them.

00:07:22.900 So apparently, they knew how to get rid of the empties.

00:07:25.480 They just didn't have a financial incentive to do it.

00:07:28.080 Yeah, I know, shampoo is weird, isn't it?

00:07:32.180 There's a long story to that that you don't need to hear.

00:07:35.700 But it's a medicated shampoo, blah, blah, blah.

00:07:39.380 All right, it's more than you used to know.

00:07:41.780 So yes, and I use the shampoo on other parts of my body, such as under my arms.

00:07:51.100 Weird, huh?

00:07:53.860 Here's a little aside for you.

00:07:55.140 I had a horrible rash under both of my arms that lasted, I don't know, five or ten years, I think.

00:08:05.420 So every day, like, I'd be, like, itchy and scratching under my arms,

00:08:09.360 and it was just some kind of permanent rash.

00:08:11.820 I didn't know what the hell it was.

00:08:13.720 And one day, I went to my doctor at Kaiser.

00:08:17.040 He said, well, use that medicated shampoo you use in your head.

00:08:20.720 Just use it under your arms.

00:08:23.160 And I said, what?

00:08:25.140 I said, yeah, just use the shampoo you use in your head, under your arms, and that'll go away.

00:08:29.740 And I said, are you telling me that a rash that I've had for ten years is going to go away if I rub some shampoo under my arms?

00:08:38.440 My doctor says, yeah.

00:08:40.560 And I went home and rubbed some shampoo under my arms, and a problem I'd had for ten years went away and stayed away.

00:08:47.200 That's all it was, just some kind of, I don't know, skin issue.

00:08:51.160 So, as I was saying, the supply chain problem just went away.

00:08:57.520 Now, I would like to add this to my list of what I call the Adams Law of Slow-Moving Disasters.

00:09:05.140 But this one was sort of an edge case, wasn't it?

00:09:08.740 Because the port problem kind of snuck up on us, so it actually kind of happened fast.

00:09:14.940 But even though the initial shock of it happened fast, it looked like we'd have enough time to sort of, you know, waltz our way around the solutions.

00:09:27.160 So, I don't think it was just the one fine that made the difference, although maybe that was a big part of it.

00:09:33.600 But my guess is that everybody working at the port just found a way to do things ten percent better.

00:09:40.260 Don't you think?

00:09:41.500 Just sort of everybody figured out, all right, if I work an extra hour, if I put this where I wouldn't usually put it, you know, that sort of thing.

00:09:50.040 And problems like this, if you can reduce them by, I hear it's reduced by a third now.

00:09:55.260 The problem has been reduced by a third, and I think it's still moving in the right direction.

00:10:01.640 But that's usually enough to get something completely solved, if you can get a third of it out of the way.

00:10:08.320 You're usually on your way.

00:10:10.680 So, this is really an edge case, because we didn't have much time to solve it, and nobody knew what the solution would be exactly, right?

00:10:21.760 Everybody had ideas, but it wasn't obvious.

00:10:25.260 But we had, I guess, a few months, and that was enough.

00:10:29.880 Look at the pandemic and Operation Warp Speed.

00:10:35.700 Apparently, I think I have to modify the Adams Law of slow-moving disasters.

00:10:40.940 In the 70s, if you had a disaster, you needed maybe, I don't know, 10 years to, you know, change your economy or, you know, find new ways to frack or whatever to solve a problem, to take care of the ozone, etc.

00:10:57.820 So, I think we've gone from a world in which you need 10 years of notice to solve a problem that everybody sees coming, to a point where, if you look at the year 2000 bug that got solved in about six months, maybe a year, I'll say a year.

00:11:14.280 And that was a problem that we didn't think was even solvable.

00:11:17.620 But, in the final year, it got solved.

00:11:20.200 So, we may have reached a point where the economy and communications and everything are so fast that the Adams Law of slow-moving disasters could be compressed from, well, if you have 10 years to solve a problem, you'll probably do it.

00:11:36.820 And we may have gone all the way to, well, if you've got a good month to solve a problem, and it's a world problem, the world's really good at solving problems, it turns out.

00:11:54.740 If you have the access to all the resources and knowledge of the world on your problem, maybe a month is enough.

00:12:02.920 So, I guess I modified the Adams Law of slow-moving disasters to say that the amount of time you need to solve a disaster is compressing over time.

00:12:12.720 Logically, it would. It makes sense, right?

00:12:15.920 All right.

00:12:17.280 We can't not mention the tragedy in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

00:12:21.420 Somebody drove a Ford Escape into a crowd of people who were celebrating and killed some and injured a bunch, and it was just horrible.

00:12:34.540 So, I don't want to dwell on horrible stories.

00:12:36.520 But I will say that I'm waiting for it to turn into a white supremacist story.

00:12:42.520 Now, we think the driver was probably not white based on early reporting, but that's too early to know for sure.

00:12:49.780 Well, I would just like to add this note from the simulation.

00:12:55.800 Of all the vehicles in the world, that somebody could be driving to allegedly get away from some other crime.

00:13:05.320 So, the thinking is it wasn't a terrorist act, it was somebody trying to escape another situation and went through the crowd to do it.

00:13:12.840 The name of the vehicle is a Ford Escape.

00:13:18.120 Really?

00:13:19.220 It had to be an escape.

00:13:23.980 I think the simulation just made that happen.

00:13:26.340 But as also Paul Collider mentioned in a tweet, the worst part of this story is that that Ford Escape, that was, the Ford Escape was created by a white CEO and was transported across state lines in the cover of night before any of this happened.

00:13:45.940 So, I think that's got to be part of the story, as Paul mentions.

00:13:49.960 Here's a question for you.

00:13:54.780 Is inflation going to crush us, or is economics a bullshit?

00:14:03.280 Because I feel like only one of those two things can be true.

00:14:06.320 If we do not get crushed by debt and by inflation, then nothing we know about economics is right.

00:14:18.420 Am I wrong?

00:14:20.040 Now, by the way, if there's anybody new to my live streams, in addition to my cartooning career, I do have a degree in economics.

00:14:29.340 And I've got an MBA from a top business school, Berkeley.

00:14:32.540 So, I kind of know my way around economics, at least as a citizen level, you know.

00:14:41.080 And I don't understand how something could be so obviously bad, meaning gigantic trillion dollar increases in debt and everything that that will do for inflation with pumping money into the system.

00:14:55.280 Everything I know about economics says it will destroy the country.

00:15:02.060 But it looks like it probably won't.

00:15:07.300 What does that say about economics?

00:15:10.700 Now, actually...

00:15:15.280 All right.

00:15:20.020 Okay, we've got a little fight going on over on Locals in the comments.

00:15:25.200 I'll let you work that out.

00:15:26.580 Work that out on your own.

00:15:30.020 But a serious question.

00:15:33.260 Have we not been relying on economists to give us a heads up on whether something's going to be bad for us or good for us?

00:15:39.960 And have we not put the economists now to the ultimate test?

00:15:45.160 We've done something that I think every economist would say should crush the country.

00:15:50.240 That amount of debt and that amount of money pumped into it.

00:15:54.200 But it seems like most of the economists are saying,

00:15:56.640 Ah, well, yeah.

00:15:58.480 We've got some inflation problems, but we'll get over it.

00:16:02.960 Now, what if they're right?

00:16:05.540 What if they're right?

00:16:06.620 What if we can get over it?

00:16:08.980 And we'll have some inflation, obviously.

00:16:11.340 Nobody's saying we won't have inflation, by the way.

00:16:13.960 Everybody, the people who are talking about it seem to be saying,

00:16:16.220 Well, yeah, there'll be inflation, but it'll work its way out.

00:16:22.020 Correct me if I'm wrong.

00:16:24.200 Five years ago, if you talked to every economist and you said,

00:16:28.780 Can we add $5 trillion of debt and we'll be fine?

00:16:34.180 Who would have agreed with that?

00:16:36.620 Besides Bernie Sanders.

00:16:39.120 Was Bernie Sanders right all along?

00:16:43.960 We might find out he was.

00:16:46.340 I mean, he probably would have spent $10 trillion.

00:16:48.440 But, you know, the reason I've always, you know,

00:16:51.920 rejected the super socialist ideas,

00:16:56.020 you know, a little bit of socialism is fine,

00:16:57.900 because pretty much every country has that.

00:16:59.600 But the reason I've resisted the, you know, full socialism is not just because

00:17:03.860 it takes away incentives and it's a system that doesn't work.

00:17:07.460 It's I didn't think we could afford it.

00:17:09.880 It didn't seem possible.

00:17:12.200 But what if it is?

00:17:14.480 All right.

00:17:15.200 Let's go through this Build Back Better thing.

00:17:17.660 And I'll try to do this in a non-boring way if it's possible.

00:17:20.760 Number one, in the comments.

00:17:24.200 How many of you feel you have a good grasp on what the Build Back Better bill has in it?

00:17:30.360 Now, we're not talking about the infrastructure part, because that already got passed.

00:17:34.300 But what does the Build Back Better have in it?

00:17:36.460 Most citizens don't know, right?

00:17:39.580 Because it's a long laundry list of things,

00:17:42.060 and each of them would be its own entire conversation.

00:17:45.580 And you don't really have much transparency.

00:17:50.420 But I looked over it today, and here's the first thing.

00:17:54.180 Yeah, it's a confusopoly, right?

00:17:56.860 Cassandra, I was going to talk about that.

00:18:00.440 So you've got the government who puts on its website,

00:18:03.800 here's what our plan is.

00:18:04.880 And I went to the website to read it today.

00:18:07.660 In the government's own words.

00:18:10.680 So I read what the government said about it,

00:18:12.860 and then I asked people on Twitter,

00:18:14.600 what do you not like about it?

00:18:16.220 Tell me the bad things in it.

00:18:18.960 The things that people said they didn't like,

00:18:22.340 I couldn't find in the plan.

00:18:25.880 Now, I think the problem is,

00:18:28.220 not that they're not in the plan,

00:18:29.920 but that the government's website that describes the plan is a summary.

00:18:35.880 I don't think I found it there.

00:18:38.800 So do this.

00:18:40.400 Go to Google,

00:18:41.220 and just Google something like Build Back Better,

00:18:44.860 and see if you can find a list

00:18:48.040 that very clearly tells you all the things,

00:18:51.200 but importantly,

00:18:52.780 includes the things that people are talking about

00:18:55.460 that they don't like,

00:18:56.420 such as a cap on the SALT.

00:19:01.800 Now, SALT is the state and local taxes deduction.

00:19:06.480 Now, I've read different accounts about what that is,

00:19:10.040 or how big it is,

00:19:10.880 or whether it exists,

00:19:12.260 and whether it will be in the final one.

00:19:14.340 So you've got your original plan,

00:19:16.660 which they took the real infrastructure out of and passed.

00:19:20.980 So the original plan,

00:19:22.300 and then we've got the modified plan that went through the House.

00:19:25.640 So if you're Googling,

00:19:26.940 it's hard to know if you've got the first plan or the modified plan.

00:19:31.140 And if you look at Wikipedia,

00:19:32.540 you're not sure if they updated it for the new stuff.

00:19:35.320 And then you realize that there's a reconciliation process,

00:19:38.420 which I don't fully understand,

00:19:40.280 but my understanding is that the Senate can basically change the plan

00:19:44.540 fairly substantially,

00:19:46.740 and then just give it back to the House and say,

00:19:49.480 do you still like it?

00:19:51.120 And if they still like it,

00:19:52.780 something happens and then it can pass.

00:19:55.440 But we don't even know what that plan looks like.

00:19:58.400 Because I can't easily Google to find out what it is,

00:20:02.280 and I certainly don't know what it's going to turn into.

00:20:05.280 Because the Senate will fuss with it. 0.81

00:20:06.940 So how can I be in favor of it or against it?

00:20:12.540 So, yes, it's a confusopoly.

00:20:15.520 So between the government and the press,

00:20:18.740 there does seem to be some...

00:20:20.480 I'm not going to say it's coordinated,

00:20:22.120 but there's nobody who's working against it.

00:20:25.480 So it's coordinated by default

00:20:27.880 that nobody wants to tell you the details.

00:20:31.040 Or to give you, let's say, a debate on each of the items.

00:20:34.640 All right, here's the plus, here's the minus of this item.

00:20:37.900 This one will be cash positive.

00:20:40.700 This one will be cash negative,

00:20:42.180 but we like it for social reasons.

00:20:44.280 Put them all together and they cancel out or they don't,

00:20:48.140 whichever it is.

00:20:50.000 So we're about to spend probably trillions of dollars

00:20:55.280 that the public is completely shut out of the decision.

00:21:00.060 Now, I don't know if that's a bad idea, by the way.

00:21:02.280 Do you think you could really add to this?

00:21:07.200 Let me ask you this.

00:21:09.600 I'll give you a fact and then I'll ask your opinion.

00:21:12.500 17 Nobel-winning economists

00:21:15.340 signed on to say that the Build Back Better thing

00:21:18.560 is a good idea for the country,

00:21:21.860 that economically speaking it's positive.

00:21:25.300 Are you convinced?

00:21:27.660 17 Nobel economists say this is a good deal.

00:21:32.280 Are you convinced?

00:21:36.340 Well, how many of the 17 studied it?

00:21:40.840 What do you think?

00:21:42.160 How many of the 17, say, did an economic model

00:21:45.940 of each of the items and then summed it up?

00:21:50.440 The answer is zero, I'm pretty sure,

00:21:55.480 because there's nothing even to study.

00:21:58.100 Even if you wanted to study,

00:21:59.360 you wouldn't know exactly what it is

00:22:00.860 because you don't know what it was, what it is,

00:22:03.600 what it's going to turn into.

00:22:05.080 How could an economist possibly say it's good or bad?

00:22:08.560 It's ridiculous.

00:22:10.360 So when you see 17 economists sign on,

00:22:13.540 this is exactly like the...

00:22:14.440 How many intel agencies said the Steele dossier was correct?

00:22:21.900 Was it the same number?

00:22:23.480 Like 17 or something?

00:22:26.500 Was that also 17?

00:22:28.120 Or am I misremembering that

00:22:29.600 because I'm conflating it with this?

00:22:32.300 It's the same number, right?

00:22:33.560 17.

00:22:34.760 Because when you hear 17,

00:22:36.180 you say to yourself,

00:22:36.820 well, even if 12 of them are fake,

00:22:39.760 you've got five left, right?

00:22:42.480 Doesn't your brain do that?

00:22:44.360 If you hear 17 experts

00:22:46.100 or 17 intel agencies agreed,

00:22:48.900 your brain says,

00:22:50.100 well, even if most of them are full of shit,

00:22:54.760 that still leaves a lot of them.

00:22:57.460 So this is sort of that laundry list persuasion.

00:23:01.460 I'll bet of the 17 economists,

00:23:03.360 none of them really looked into it much.

00:23:05.460 What do you think?

00:23:06.120 I think there were just Democrats who said,

00:23:10.160 well, I'm a Democrat.

00:23:11.780 It's a Democrat bill.

00:23:12.900 It looks good for the public.

00:23:14.280 It looks good for bad people.

00:23:15.940 I'm all in.

00:23:17.260 I don't think anything beyond that happened.

00:23:20.760 But,

00:23:22.360 now, as I said,

00:23:23.780 I have a background in economics.

00:23:25.720 So I looked at just the government summary,

00:23:28.260 which leaves out all the stuff like,

00:23:30.980 I mean, I didn't even see anything about amnesty in there

00:23:33.220 or parole, they're calling it,

00:23:35.420 or whatever that is.

00:23:36.460 So we don't know what's going to happen with amnesty,

00:23:38.840 parole, who knows.

00:23:40.980 So it's all just this big mess of crap

00:23:44.420 that I can't discern.

00:23:46.240 But let me give you my

00:23:47.920 semi-uninformed opinion,

00:23:52.880 based on my background in economics,

00:23:56.120 of whether this looks like a good deal overall.

00:24:02.660 And the answer is,

00:24:04.600 it might be.

00:24:06.600 Certainly, anything this big

00:24:08.460 is going to be 20% absolute horrible bullshit.

00:24:12.080 Can we agree on that?

00:24:15.100 Can we agree that

00:24:16.240 no matter how good or bad it is,

00:24:18.960 that there's a,

00:24:19.820 there's sort of a,

00:24:21.240 let's say a floor

00:24:22.320 or a ceiling

00:24:23.680 to how good it could be?

00:24:25.580 Because it's a big government thing, right?

00:24:28.000 So let me,

00:24:29.220 let me concede

00:24:30.800 that there's no way

00:24:32.980 it's 100% good.

00:24:35.080 Everybody on board?

00:24:35.980 I think we all are bored

00:24:37.940 that we would all agree

00:24:39.120 that nobody thinks

00:24:40.240 it's 100% good.

00:24:42.260 So we would only be talking about,

00:24:44.140 you know,

00:24:44.380 on average,

00:24:45.120 is it more good than bad, right?

00:24:47.820 Now, at least 20% of it

00:24:50.140 is absolute crap

00:24:51.220 that needs to be fixed

00:24:52.980 by the, you know,

00:24:53.880 the Republicans if they can.

00:24:55.240 And maybe it will be.

00:24:56.260 Maybe the worst parts

00:24:57.120 will get adjusted.

00:25:00.220 But,

00:25:01.000 there's something very big

00:25:02.860 about this

00:25:04.520 that you're going to hate.

00:25:07.100 And when I say you,

00:25:08.040 I mean,

00:25:09.060 those of you

00:25:09.740 who are pro-family,

00:25:11.640 which is,

00:25:14.200 I imagine,

00:25:14.880 most of you.

00:25:16.920 Here's the uncomfortable truth.

00:25:20.920 Sometimes you have to deal

00:25:22.180 with reality

00:25:23.040 instead of what you want

00:25:25.080 reality to be.

00:25:28.060 Will you agree with me so far?

00:25:30.560 That sometimes

00:25:31.220 you just can't make reality

00:25:32.760 what you want.

00:25:33.500 Sometimes you just have to deal

00:25:34.840 with the one you have, right?

00:25:36.720 So withdrawing from Afghanistan,

00:25:38.560 for example.

00:25:39.600 There was no good way

00:25:40.800 to do that.

00:25:41.380 We probably did it

00:25:42.040 the worst possible way.

00:25:43.360 But it was going to get messy,

00:25:45.660 right?

00:25:46.000 There's some things

00:25:46.780 that are just,

00:25:48.020 you know,

00:25:49.080 just bad,

00:25:50.600 naturally.

00:25:52.520 All right.

00:25:54.020 But,

00:25:54.540 here's what I think

00:25:56.520 this Build Back Better thing does.

00:25:58.480 I think it removes

00:25:59.860 the family structure

00:26:01.020 from being

00:26:01.660 the essential,

00:26:03.260 the essential system

00:26:06.200 in the United States.

00:26:08.240 I would say

00:26:09.000 that outside

00:26:09.460 of the government itself,

00:26:11.100 the most basic system,

00:26:13.200 if I will,

00:26:13.840 that held the country together

00:26:15.040 was the family unit.

00:26:17.600 Now,

00:26:19.300 wouldn't you love,

00:26:20.820 you conservatives

00:26:21.620 who are watching,

00:26:22.980 and other people too,

00:26:24.580 wouldn't you love

00:26:25.540 for the government

00:26:26.460 to help families,

00:26:29.640 right?

00:26:30.460 And that would encourage

00:26:31.980 more families to form

00:26:33.140 and stay together.

00:26:34.340 It's a pretty good unit.

00:26:37.100 I believe that this budget

00:26:38.680 is separating family

00:26:40.620 from,

00:26:42.620 let's say,

00:26:43.220 a required institution

00:26:44.940 to an optional one.

00:26:47.220 That it's evolving.

00:26:48.560 I think the country

00:26:49.380 is trying to evolve

00:26:50.480 into a world

00:26:51.220 in which

00:26:51.720 you don't need

00:26:52.880 two parents.

00:26:54.600 Or any.

00:26:55.540 maybe.

00:26:56.840 But I think

00:26:57.720 the biggest part

00:26:58.720 of this

00:26:59.080 is moving

00:26:59.560 to a support structure

00:27:01.440 that is especially good

00:27:03.360 for single parents.

00:27:07.180 Now,

00:27:07.940 if you create

00:27:08.900 an incentive structure

00:27:10.140 that makes it easy

00:27:10.980 to be a single parent,

00:27:12.440 what's going to happen?

00:27:15.300 You'll get more of them,

00:27:16.520 right?

00:27:17.100 If it becomes easy

00:27:18.260 to be a single parent,

00:27:19.500 and right now

00:27:20.200 it's super hard,

00:27:22.320 you'll get more of them.

00:27:24.080 Now,

00:27:24.380 some of you would say,

00:27:25.080 oh my God,

00:27:25.660 that's the end of the country.

00:27:26.960 Because then

00:27:27.920 people won't form families

00:27:29.340 even if they,

00:27:30.800 you know,

00:27:31.040 maybe they would have otherwise.

00:27:32.460 But now it's just so easy

00:27:33.420 to be single,

00:27:34.000 you might as well

00:27:34.360 get that divorce.

00:27:36.500 Here's the tough part.

00:27:38.940 I don't think

00:27:39.680 a family works

00:27:40.380 for everybody.

00:27:42.140 I think a family unit

00:27:43.600 is the best possible

00:27:45.160 solution

00:27:45.980 for a lot of people.

00:27:48.620 A lot,

00:27:49.340 a lot of people.

00:27:49.860 Tens of millions of people.

00:27:51.440 It's absolutely

00:27:52.100 the best thing.

00:27:53.860 And people

00:27:54.500 who have done it

00:27:55.120 would tell you

00:27:55.520 the same thing.

00:27:57.020 But there has to be

00:27:58.260 a solid 40%

00:27:59.520 of the public

00:28:00.240 that will never thrive

00:28:01.940 in a family situation.

00:28:03.780 In other words,

00:28:04.200 they just can't be married.

00:28:06.180 There are a lot of people

00:28:06.880 who probably could be

00:28:07.860 an okay parent,

00:28:08.960 but never could be

00:28:09.720 an okay spouse.

00:28:11.840 Am I right?

00:28:12.520 The world is full

00:28:14.940 of all kinds

00:28:15.400 of different people.

00:28:16.780 Some people

00:28:17.540 would be great spouses 0.58

00:28:18.820 and terrible parents.

00:28:20.800 Some people

00:28:21.620 would be the opposite.

00:28:23.960 So if what this bill does

00:28:25.960 is make it possible

00:28:28.040 for people to thrive

00:28:29.480 outside of the family unit,

00:28:32.780 you're going to get

00:28:33.400 more unfamilied,

00:28:35.480 but it might be

00:28:37.600 economically positive.

00:28:40.020 That's my take.

00:28:43.440 It might be

00:28:44.460 really good economically.

00:28:47.580 Because here's the argument.

00:28:49.440 If you have a single parent

00:28:50.620 and they can't afford,

00:28:53.300 let's say,

00:28:53.940 child care

00:28:54.440 or whatever,

00:28:56.420 you basically take them

00:28:57.900 out of the workforce

00:28:58.560 forever.

00:28:59.860 You just crush them.

00:29:01.060 There's nothing they can do.

00:29:02.040 They've got to get

00:29:02.460 under welfare or something.

00:29:03.360 But if you create

00:29:05.640 a solution where,

00:29:06.520 let's say,

00:29:06.900 you had a kid

00:29:07.520 and the child care part

00:29:11.260 makes it impossible

00:29:12.060 to work,

00:29:13.420 well,

00:29:13.780 maybe the government

00:29:14.380 solves that for you.

00:29:15.700 It gives you health care

00:29:16.640 and food security too.

00:29:20.120 Maybe.

00:29:21.460 So,

00:29:22.800 you don't,

00:29:25.980 I hear all of your

00:29:27.400 objections.

00:29:29.140 And let me say,

00:29:30.160 if you disagree

00:29:31.400 with big government

00:29:32.160 in general,

00:29:33.300 I'm with you,

00:29:34.280 you know,

00:29:34.580 in general.

00:29:36.040 Sometimes you need

00:29:36.940 big government

00:29:37.460 to form a military

00:29:39.280 and stuff like that.

00:29:41.100 But,

00:29:41.800 you can't love

00:29:43.240 everything about

00:29:43.840 this Build Back Better bill.

00:29:45.680 However,

00:29:46.860 I do think

00:29:47.680 they're taking

00:29:48.460 a clear-eyed view

00:29:49.900 that the world

00:29:51.080 isn't going to be

00:29:51.680 a family unit

00:29:52.760 exclusive world

00:29:54.100 in the way

00:29:55.280 it almost was

00:29:56.120 in, say,

00:29:56.500 the 40s or so.

00:29:57.380 I think

00:29:58.640 it's a practical

00:30:00.020 look at the fact

00:30:02.220 that we just

00:30:02.940 can't keep families

00:30:03.720 together.

00:30:04.420 We don't have

00:30:04.880 that kind of world

00:30:05.540 anymore.

00:30:06.740 And, you know,

00:30:07.620 you could lament that

00:30:09.800 and you could wish

00:30:10.720 it were otherwise,

00:30:12.000 but I don't think

00:30:13.240 you're going to get

00:30:13.740 40% of the country

00:30:14.840 ever to be

00:30:15.600 in a family unit.

00:30:16.640 I just don't think

00:30:17.220 it'll ever happen

00:30:17.820 with any kind

00:30:19.200 of incentive.

00:30:20.860 You know,

00:30:21.380 short of jailing them,

00:30:22.560 I guess.

00:30:22.780 Now,

00:30:28.320 here's some

00:30:28.900 other parts

00:30:29.600 that I love about it.

00:30:30.640 One of them is

00:30:31.280 food security

00:30:32.440 for kids.

00:30:34.680 If you remember

00:30:35.520 when I was talking

00:30:36.740 with Hawk Newsome,

00:30:39.420 notably of

00:30:40.200 Black Lives Matter,

00:30:41.820 now he's quite

00:30:42.580 provocative

00:30:43.080 in a number of ways,

00:30:45.380 so I certainly

00:30:46.080 don't agree

00:30:46.560 with his take

00:30:47.460 on everything.

00:30:48.520 But one of the things

00:30:49.380 that Hawk

00:30:50.000 was promoting

00:30:50.740 was food security

00:30:52.080 because in the

00:30:53.500 black community

00:30:54.120 especially,

00:30:55.340 it's a big deal.

00:30:56.700 And I don't think

00:30:57.400 that that gets

00:30:57.940 enough attention

00:30:58.840 because if you

00:31:00.100 don't eat right,

00:31:00.840 you're not going

00:31:01.320 to learn right.

00:31:02.940 Are you with me?

00:31:03.960 If you don't eat right,

00:31:05.600 you're not going

00:31:06.080 to learn right?

00:31:07.380 I think everybody

00:31:08.320 would agree with that,

00:31:08.980 right?

00:31:10.080 So,

00:31:11.480 I think that

00:31:12.560 that part,

00:31:13.780 I would say,

00:31:14.240 is economically

00:31:14.980 positive

00:31:15.740 because you might

00:31:16.460 be turning

00:31:16.920 bad students

00:31:17.880 into good students

00:31:18.700 and that has

00:31:19.840 a huge economic

00:31:20.600 upside.

00:31:22.080 so that looks

00:31:26.000 good.

00:31:26.860 So I would say

00:31:27.380 that,

00:31:27.900 and then there's

00:31:28.560 a number of

00:31:28.880 health care things.

00:31:30.340 One of the reasons

00:31:31.040 that I describe

00:31:31.900 myself as left

00:31:33.000 of Bernie,

00:31:34.160 but better at math,

00:31:35.920 meaning that I always

00:31:37.080 thought his programs

00:31:37.760 were impractical,

00:31:39.060 math-wise.

00:31:40.220 But as a goal,

00:31:41.840 wouldn't you like

00:31:42.480 everybody to have

00:31:43.100 health care?

00:31:43.880 You just don't want

00:31:44.460 to be the one

00:31:44.820 to pay for it,

00:31:45.420 right?

00:31:46.420 But as a goal,

00:31:48.500 I want everybody

00:31:49.320 to have quality

00:31:50.160 health care in this

00:31:50.880 country.

00:31:51.520 And I don't think

00:31:52.180 we could call

00:31:52.680 ourselves a great

00:31:53.380 country if not

00:31:55.200 everybody has

00:31:55.920 good access

00:31:56.860 to health care.

00:31:58.320 I mean,

00:31:59.060 that feels like

00:31:59.640 a minimum to me.

00:32:01.400 So I like,

00:32:02.600 I generally like

00:32:03.560 how the Republicans

00:32:04.880 solve problems,

00:32:06.680 you know,

00:32:06.860 build systems

00:32:07.620 that take into

00:32:08.460 account human

00:32:09.860 motivation and

00:32:10.900 such.

00:32:11.920 But I like the

00:32:13.440 goals on the left.

00:32:15.220 They just don't

00:32:16.100 know how to get

00:32:16.600 there.

00:32:17.560 Now,

00:32:17.900 if it turns out

00:32:18.860 that they can

00:32:20.240 get there just

00:32:20.860 by raising taxes

00:32:22.120 and on the

00:32:24.160 super-rich,

00:32:25.140 and if they can

00:32:26.120 get there without

00:32:26.820 causing an

00:32:27.620 inflation that

00:32:28.300 crushes us,

00:32:30.000 maybe there was a

00:32:31.080 path after all.

00:32:32.900 Maybe I've been

00:32:33.900 wrong about

00:32:34.440 everything.

00:32:35.500 I don't know

00:32:36.260 that I'm wrong.

00:32:37.720 I mean,

00:32:37.940 I still think it's

00:32:38.620 a big risk to

00:32:39.920 put that much

00:32:40.460 debt on the

00:32:41.080 country and

00:32:41.620 throw that much

00:32:42.840 money into it

00:32:43.380 all at once.

00:32:44.060 But I also don't

00:32:44.900 know if it'll work

00:32:45.520 out.

00:32:46.320 And I don't think

00:32:46.920 you do either.

00:32:52.040 So I would say

00:32:53.100 if all you did

00:32:53.800 is read the

00:32:54.380 top-line

00:32:55.140 descriptions from

00:32:55.980 the government

00:32:56.460 of what this

00:32:57.180 Build Back Better

00:32:57.980 thing does,

00:32:58.640 it looks

00:32:59.140 terrific.

00:33:02.940 But,

00:33:03.660 hold on.

00:33:06.500 So let me

00:33:07.020 back up and

00:33:07.820 say that again. 0.71

00:33:08.640 If you just

00:33:09.300 read the

00:33:09.820 government's

00:33:10.420 own description

00:33:11.260 of what it's

00:33:11.920 doing,

00:33:13.140 without any

00:33:13.980 knowledge of the

00:33:14.940 details below

00:33:15.700 the top-line,

00:33:16.720 if that's all

00:33:17.280 you saw,

00:33:18.580 it actually

00:33:19.100 looks pretty

00:33:19.580 terrific.

00:33:21.140 And in fact,

00:33:22.120 if that's all

00:33:22.680 it was,

00:33:24.300 I feel like

00:33:25.300 I could almost

00:33:25.820 back it.

00:33:28.440 But,

00:33:29.500 you know the

00:33:30.760 government and

00:33:31.500 the media are

00:33:32.080 lying to you,

00:33:32.680 don't you?

00:33:34.320 We don't know

00:33:35.220 really what's in

00:33:36.000 that shit,

00:33:37.100 do we?

00:33:38.340 They're selling

00:33:39.100 it as soup,

00:33:40.400 but it might

00:33:41.500 not be soup.

00:33:43.140 It might be a

00:33:43.960 bowl of piss, 0.67

00:33:44.680 and you

00:33:45.620 can't tell

00:33:46.320 because the

00:33:47.860 government's not

00:33:48.520 being clear,

00:33:49.700 we don't know

00:33:50.400 how it will be

00:33:50.980 reconciled and

00:33:51.880 tweaked by the

00:33:52.520 end,

00:33:53.180 and the news

00:33:54.120 is completely

00:33:55.080 worthless in

00:33:55.940 describing this

00:33:56.620 stuff.

00:33:57.400 And if you

00:33:57.880 said,

00:33:58.240 okay,

00:33:58.500 well,

00:33:58.680 the news is

00:33:59.200 bad,

00:33:59.820 but we'll

00:34:00.240 listen to

00:34:00.680 all the

00:34:00.980 economists,

00:34:02.340 the economists

00:34:02.960 are all just

00:34:04.000 lying fucks. 1.00

00:34:05.980 17 Nobel

00:34:07.600 lying fucks. 1.00

00:34:09.800 Basically,

00:34:10.600 they didn't

00:34:11.240 look into it,

00:34:12.360 they liked the

00:34:13.080 social element

00:34:14.080 of it,

00:34:14.640 probably,

00:34:15.560 and said,

00:34:16.020 oh,

00:34:16.160 yeah,

00:34:16.300 it's fine.

00:34:17.520 We'll just

00:34:18.220 tax rich people

00:34:19.020 more.

00:34:21.220 All right.

00:34:22.240 Can you believe

00:34:23.240 that I looked

00:34:23.840 at this plan,

00:34:24.760 and as of

00:34:25.380 today,

00:34:25.720 I can't tell

00:34:26.400 if it will

00:34:26.880 raise or

00:34:27.880 lower my

00:34:28.540 taxes?

00:34:30.480 Think about

00:34:31.160 that.

00:34:31.980 I looked into

00:34:32.700 it today,

00:34:33.540 and I can't

00:34:34.680 tell if my

00:34:35.860 taxes would go

00:34:36.660 up or down.

00:34:38.460 I can't tell.

00:34:39.980 That's a pretty

00:34:40.440 basic question,

00:34:41.340 right?

00:34:41.520 At my

00:34:42.920 income level,

00:34:43.640 does it go

00:34:44.040 up or down?

00:34:45.320 Now,

00:34:45.640 at one point,

00:34:46.280 there was talk

00:34:46.860 about this

00:34:47.340 SALT deduction,

00:34:48.760 the state and

00:34:49.460 local taxes.

00:34:50.840 So if your

00:34:51.340 state has high

00:34:52.160 taxes, you can

00:34:53.480 use that to

00:34:54.060 offset your

00:34:54.840 federal taxes.

00:34:56.360 It never made

00:34:57.060 sense to me that

00:34:57.780 that was the

00:34:58.160 case, by the

00:34:58.640 way.

00:34:59.960 I don't think

00:35:01.220 there's any

00:35:01.620 justification

00:35:02.220 whatsoever for

00:35:04.560 getting a

00:35:05.200 state deduction,

00:35:05.900 but if I

00:35:08.180 can get one,

00:35:09.400 wouldn't it

00:35:09.840 be terrific?

00:35:11.140 And one of

00:35:12.360 the plans,

00:35:12.900 and I think

00:35:13.240 the Republicans

00:35:14.260 will probably

00:35:15.040 fight for this,

00:35:16.200 is that you

00:35:16.900 would get back

00:35:17.920 your SALT

00:35:18.420 deduction in

00:35:19.940 California,

00:35:20.500 where I live,

00:35:21.800 if you're under

00:35:22.640 a certain income,

00:35:24.240 which I am.

00:35:26.280 So I think it

00:35:26.880 was under $10

00:35:27.600 million of income

00:35:28.940 a year or

00:35:29.440 something.

00:35:30.200 So I'm under

00:35:31.080 $10 million of

00:35:32.180 income per year,

00:35:33.040 so it looks

00:35:33.540 like my taxes

00:35:34.340 would actually

00:35:34.980 go down.

00:35:38.480 I mean, if the

00:35:39.460 SALT deduction

00:35:40.120 cap is taken

00:35:41.340 off.

00:35:42.320 So think about

00:35:43.140 how basic these

00:35:44.380 questions are.

00:35:45.320 I don't even

00:35:46.040 know if my

00:35:46.520 taxes will go

00:35:47.280 up or down.

00:35:48.300 I don't even

00:35:49.120 know if these

00:35:49.680 plans would be

00:35:50.940 economically

00:35:51.440 positive or

00:35:52.320 negative.

00:35:53.640 You don't even

00:35:54.480 know.

00:35:55.760 But I would

00:35:56.920 say, if you

00:35:58.060 don't know,

00:35:59.500 if feeding

00:36:01.160 children and

00:36:02.280 giving people

00:36:03.020 good health

00:36:03.700 care and

00:36:04.740 housing and

00:36:05.360 some of the

00:36:05.740 other good

00:36:06.100 things, if

00:36:06.740 you don't

00:36:07.160 know if

00:36:07.520 they're good

00:36:07.880 or bad,

00:36:09.580 should you

00:36:10.000 do them?

00:36:10.840 Here's your

00:36:11.880 decision-making

00:36:12.920 test.

00:36:14.220 Let's say you

00:36:14.920 legitimately

00:36:15.560 don't know.

00:36:16.660 And I feel

00:36:17.140 like that's a

00:36:18.180 fair point of

00:36:19.260 view.

00:36:20.200 Let's say you

00:36:20.760 legitimately

00:36:21.420 don't know if

00:36:22.140 it's a good

00:36:22.540 idea or a

00:36:23.080 bad idea.

00:36:24.940 Do you

00:36:25.540 approve it?

00:36:27.480 Do you

00:36:28.080 like it?

00:36:28.480 It's not

00:36:33.280 as obvious

00:36:33.740 as you

00:36:34.220 think.

00:36:35.120 Because if

00:36:35.680 you don't

00:36:36.020 know if

00:36:36.320 it's a

00:36:36.600 good or

00:36:36.880 bad idea,

00:36:37.560 your first

00:36:38.040 instinct should

00:36:38.680 be conservative,

00:36:39.900 right?

00:36:40.900 Well, if you

00:36:41.600 don't know if

00:36:42.020 it's going to

00:36:42.380 work, don't

00:36:42.920 do it.

00:36:44.080 But that

00:36:44.620 applies to

00:36:45.220 literally

00:36:45.600 everything we

00:36:46.440 do.

00:36:47.740 There's

00:36:48.220 nothing we

00:36:48.720 do that we

00:36:49.400 know is

00:36:50.100 going to

00:36:50.320 work, right?

00:36:51.420 We don't

00:36:51.900 know.

00:36:53.060 We just

00:36:53.480 have a good

00:36:54.640 idea it'll

00:36:55.100 work.

00:36:56.340 And I

00:36:57.500 wonder if

00:36:58.760 maybe we

00:36:59.320 shouldn't take

00:36:59.840 the obvious

00:37:00.380 benefits that

00:37:01.180 come with it

00:37:01.720 since we

00:37:02.200 don't know

00:37:02.600 if it'll

00:37:02.860 work or

00:37:03.180 not.

00:37:04.260 I mean,

00:37:04.500 the fact

00:37:04.800 that we

00:37:05.200 can even

00:37:05.880 discuss that

00:37:07.240 we could

00:37:07.560 pump $3.5

00:37:08.760 trillion into

00:37:09.380 the economy

00:37:09.860 and maybe

00:37:10.860 we'll be

00:37:11.300 fine is

00:37:13.540 kind of

00:37:14.160 interesting.

00:37:16.700 Thank you,

00:37:17.400 Mark.

00:37:18.780 All right.

00:37:22.180 Now,

00:37:23.420 I pay,

00:37:24.120 as it

00:37:24.480 turns out,

00:37:24.840 the highest

00:37:25.440 tax rate

00:37:26.100 in the

00:37:26.300 country,

00:37:26.840 I saw

00:37:27.160 something,

00:37:27.780 I don't

00:37:27.980 know if

00:37:28.220 this is

00:37:28.520 true,

00:37:29.320 but it

00:37:29.560 says the

00:37:29.960 combined

00:37:30.340 California

00:37:30.960 tax bill

00:37:31.580 would be

00:37:31.920 64.7%.

00:37:33.880 Let me

00:37:35.460 round that

00:37:35.960 off for

00:37:36.380 you.

00:37:37.240 In

00:37:37.520 California,

00:37:39.860 two-thirds

00:37:40.400 of my

00:37:40.720 income is

00:37:41.540 taxes at

00:37:44.200 my income

00:37:45.160 level.

00:37:46.300 Did you

00:37:46.880 know that?

00:37:48.280 Am I

00:37:48.720 paying my

00:37:49.140 fair share?

00:37:51.000 Is there

00:37:51.340 anybody here

00:37:51.860 who thinks

00:37:52.380 that two-thirds

00:37:53.940 of my

00:37:54.360 income?

00:37:54.820 And keep

00:37:55.100 in mind

00:37:55.400 that I

00:37:55.700 work seven

00:37:56.240 days a

00:37:56.660 week in

00:37:57.900 two completely

00:37:58.820 different jobs,

00:37:59.820 you know,

00:38:00.040 this plus

00:38:00.600 cartooning.

00:38:02.000 So I'm an

00:38:03.180 example of

00:38:03.780 exactly what

00:38:04.460 the country

00:38:04.860 wants,

00:38:05.480 right?

00:38:06.500 People who

00:38:07.220 can work

00:38:08.500 hard in a

00:38:10.020 productive thing

00:38:11.240 that people

00:38:12.540 want to

00:38:12.920 purchase,

00:38:13.480 et cetera,

00:38:13.800 or pay for

00:38:14.520 in some

00:38:14.800 way.

00:38:16.640 And two-thirds

00:38:17.680 of my income

00:38:18.380 will just go to

00:38:19.680 the government.

00:38:22.240 Shouldn't I

00:38:22.820 just retire?

00:38:24.160 Because this

00:38:24.780 is a pretty

00:38:25.240 big incentive

00:38:25.840 to retire,

00:38:26.960 and I'm at

00:38:27.760 that age

00:38:28.240 where I

00:38:28.620 could if I

00:38:29.400 want.

00:38:30.660 But the

00:38:31.880 government's

00:38:32.380 basically retiring

00:38:33.340 me.

00:38:34.520 I'm not going

00:38:34.940 to pay two-thirds

00:38:35.600 of my income.

00:38:37.600 I mean,

00:38:37.880 50% is crazy,

00:38:39.740 and I'm

00:38:40.100 probably at

00:38:40.640 60%.

00:38:41.420 I think I'm

00:38:42.300 at around

00:38:42.600 60%.

00:38:43.260 I don't think

00:38:43.740 it's 65%.

00:38:44.560 But if you

00:38:45.240 added the

00:38:45.600 other kinds

00:38:46.000 of taxes,

00:38:46.540 it would be

00:38:46.840 65%.

00:38:48.100 But, you

00:38:49.560 know, I

00:38:50.560 feel as

00:38:51.060 though, I

00:38:53.180 don't know

00:38:53.440 how you

00:38:53.740 calculate

00:38:54.180 what's fair.

00:38:56.040 Because fair

00:38:56.580 is subjective.

00:38:58.160 So take me

00:38:58.720 in California.

00:39:00.300 Granted, I

00:39:00.980 have the

00:39:01.660 highest tax

00:39:02.720 rate in

00:39:03.440 the country

00:39:03.840 in California,

00:39:04.500 the highest

00:39:04.840 tax rate of

00:39:05.400 all.

00:39:05.840 Is that

00:39:06.220 fair?

00:39:07.480 Is it

00:39:07.860 fair that

00:39:08.320 every dollar

00:39:08.920 I earn,

00:39:09.740 I pay

00:39:10.400 two-thirds

00:39:11.900 of it?

00:39:12.920 Whereas the

00:39:13.580 person, you

00:39:14.240 know,

00:39:14.380 a block

00:39:15.240 away, could

00:39:17.360 pay 10%.

00:39:18.640 Is it

00:39:19.560 fair that

00:39:19.880 I pay

00:39:20.160 two-thirds

00:39:20.600 of my

00:39:20.940 money?

00:39:22.740 Well, I

00:39:24.100 think it

00:39:24.480 is.

00:39:25.320 And I'm

00:39:25.760 going to

00:39:25.920 surprise you.

00:39:27.620 Because in

00:39:28.560 California, we

00:39:30.420 get a lot of

00:39:31.220 benefits that

00:39:31.840 you don't get

00:39:32.300 in other

00:39:32.680 states.

00:39:33.760 Let me

00:39:34.080 give you

00:39:34.340 one example,

00:39:35.280 and then you

00:39:35.660 can generalize

00:39:36.640 from that.

00:39:37.480 In

00:39:37.740 California, I

00:39:38.920 can go

00:39:39.260 outside and

00:39:40.000 take a

00:39:40.380 stroll on

00:39:41.600 a sidewalk

00:39:42.160 that is

00:39:42.680 more turd

00:39:43.480 than concrete,

00:39:44.200 you can't

00:39:45.780 do that.

00:39:46.840 Try doing

00:39:47.260 that in

00:39:47.520 your state.

00:39:48.960 In

00:39:49.420 California, I

00:39:51.260 can go

00:39:51.720 take a

00:39:52.760 walk, and

00:39:53.360 when I

00:39:54.360 come back, my

00:39:55.260 house might be

00:39:55.940 full of

00:39:56.320 strangers.

00:39:57.720 Can you

00:39:58.180 do that?

00:39:59.360 Now, those

00:39:59.680 strangers might

00:40:00.300 be removing

00:40:00.840 things through

00:40:01.460 the windows,

00:40:02.540 because that's

00:40:03.020 been happening

00:40:03.460 quite a bit in

00:40:04.000 my neighborhood

00:40:04.440 lately, but

00:40:05.640 I don't pay

00:40:07.000 for that.

00:40:07.880 That happens

00:40:08.420 for free.

00:40:09.340 So I'm

00:40:09.660 meeting nice

00:40:10.140 people, I'm

00:40:10.800 walking on

00:40:11.260 turd sidewalks.

00:40:12.260 These are

00:40:13.040 things you

00:40:13.440 don't get.

00:40:15.140 Now, suppose

00:40:17.020 I was over

00:40:19.100 hydrated.

00:40:20.680 Well, I

00:40:21.080 live in a

00:40:21.480 state with

00:40:21.960 severe water

00:40:22.860 restrictions, so

00:40:24.800 that helps

00:40:25.260 me.

00:40:26.560 Suppose I've

00:40:28.160 been getting

00:40:28.500 outside too

00:40:29.140 much and

00:40:29.520 getting a

00:40:29.840 little bit

00:40:30.120 too much

00:40:30.500 sun, a

00:40:31.240 little bit

00:40:31.460 of sunburn.

00:40:33.020 In

00:40:33.500 California, for

00:40:34.740 half of the

00:40:35.320 year, we

00:40:36.160 have so many

00:40:36.680 forest fires

00:40:37.320 that it

00:40:37.700 blocks out

00:40:38.140 the sun.

00:40:38.560 Can you do

00:40:40.320 that in your

00:40:40.740 state?

00:40:41.280 No.

00:40:41.900 In your

00:40:42.180 state, you

00:40:42.560 have to

00:40:42.780 put on

00:40:43.060 sunscreen and

00:40:43.920 slather it

00:40:44.540 on before

00:40:44.900 you walk

00:40:45.320 outside.

00:40:46.340 In my

00:40:46.560 state, you

00:40:46.940 can't even

00:40:47.280 tell if it's

00:40:47.680 daytime half

00:40:48.300 the time.

00:40:49.760 So I

00:40:50.560 think that

00:40:51.000 that is

00:40:51.400 worth two

00:40:52.140 thirds of

00:40:52.660 every dollar

00:40:53.160 I earn to

00:40:54.100 walk on

00:40:54.620 turd sidewalks

00:40:55.540 and have

00:40:56.440 no sun

00:40:56.920 exposure

00:40:57.380 whatsoever and

00:40:58.300 have new

00:40:59.440 friends coming

00:41:00.020 in through

00:41:00.280 my windows on

00:41:00.980 a daily

00:41:01.280 basis.

00:41:02.480 That's

00:41:02.960 something you

00:41:03.360 can't do.

00:41:06.280 All right.

00:41:06.620 I feel

00:41:11.640 like I

00:41:11.920 had some

00:41:12.200 other things

00:41:12.580 to talk

00:41:12.980 about, but

00:41:13.360 they weren't

00:41:13.660 terribly

00:41:13.960 important.

00:41:16.380 Am I

00:41:16.920 missing any

00:41:17.360 topics?

00:41:20.340 Is there

00:41:20.860 anything else

00:41:21.340 happening today?

00:41:22.780 I feel as if

00:41:23.800 the news that's

00:41:24.660 not being

00:41:25.100 reported is

00:41:25.820 all the

00:41:26.180 important stuff.

00:41:28.220 Doesn't it

00:41:28.800 feel like

00:41:29.140 that?

00:41:30.460 That we

00:41:32.440 don't understand

00:41:33.120 the build back

00:41:33.740 better thing,

00:41:34.660 but that's

00:41:35.040 like a huge

00:41:35.740 deal.

00:41:36.620 We don't

00:41:37.000 really know

00:41:37.460 what's

00:41:37.640 happening at

00:41:38.120 the ports

00:41:38.620 with the

00:41:39.620 supply chain,

00:41:40.300 but that's

00:41:40.540 a big deal.

00:41:43.680 Oh, the

00:41:44.180 Epstein trial.

00:41:44.960 Has that

00:41:45.180 started?

00:41:47.180 I just saw

00:41:47.960 something trending

00:41:48.780 about that,

00:41:49.280 but we don't

00:41:49.680 know anything

00:41:50.000 about that yet,

00:41:50.660 do we?

00:41:51.420 Until they

00:41:51.880 start naming

00:41:52.420 names.

00:41:53.680 How many of

00:41:54.160 you, oh,

00:41:54.420 the jury

00:41:54.720 selection?

00:41:56.400 God, I'd

00:41:56.940 love to be

00:41:57.300 on that jury.

00:41:58.800 Can you

00:41:59.180 volunteer for

00:42:00.140 jury duty in

00:42:01.580 another state?

00:42:04.520 How much

00:42:05.120 would you love

00:42:05.640 to be on

00:42:06.120 the Ghislaine

00:42:07.680 Maxwell

00:42:08.240 trial?

00:42:09.300 It's going

00:42:09.640 to last

00:42:09.980 forever, so

00:42:11.000 that part's

00:42:12.220 bad, but at

00:42:13.160 least it'd be

00:42:13.560 interesting.

00:42:14.200 It would be

00:42:14.460 the most

00:42:14.760 interesting trial

00:42:15.680 you ever

00:42:16.020 had.

00:42:19.140 Yeah, just

00:42:19.720 think of the

00:42:20.080 per diem.

00:42:20.880 $15 a day,

00:42:22.000 baby.

00:42:24.800 What's this?

00:42:26.400 Daryl for

00:42:27.280 federal hate

00:42:27.780 crime?

00:42:28.080 I don't know

00:42:28.340 what that's

00:42:28.660 about.

00:42:30.760 What am I

00:42:31.380 doing for

00:42:31.740 Thanksgiving?

00:42:32.800 I actually

00:42:33.680 don't know.

00:42:35.400 I don't

00:42:35.700 have plans

00:42:36.200 for

00:42:36.380 Thanksgiving.

00:42:39.220 Strangely

00:42:39.740 enough.

00:42:44.220 So I

00:42:45.000 imagine,

00:42:46.020 yeah, I'll

00:42:46.700 probably just

00:42:47.100 order pizza

00:42:47.840 or something.

00:42:50.760 Scott

00:42:51.280 stole

00:42:51.580 Dilber from 0.58

00:42:52.160 Mike

00:42:52.420 Judge

00:42:52.900 office space

00:42:53.720 cartoon.

00:42:56.180 Dr.

00:42:56.800 Johnson, my

00:42:57.400 private troll,

00:42:58.420 come over here.

00:42:58.860 Let me tell

00:42:59.920 you a story

00:43:00.280 about office

00:43:00.840 space, the

00:43:02.080 Mike Judge

00:43:03.380 cartoon, or

00:43:05.660 movie.

00:43:06.800 So most of

00:43:07.360 you saw

00:43:07.660 office space

00:43:08.320 and probably

00:43:09.220 loved it.

00:43:10.600 It was a

00:43:10.820 pretty awesome

00:43:11.240 movie for at

00:43:11.980 least the first

00:43:12.420 part was

00:43:12.880 awesome, then

00:43:13.340 it got

00:43:13.560 boring.

00:43:14.940 But Dilbert

00:43:16.600 was already a

00:43:17.540 well-known

00:43:17.980 comic at that

00:43:19.000 point, before

00:43:19.780 that movie

00:43:20.320 came out.

00:43:21.980 And unknown

00:43:24.200 to me that

00:43:25.100 the movie was

00:43:25.680 in production,

00:43:26.220 I was

00:43:27.540 looking for

00:43:28.140 some advice

00:43:29.120 on hiring

00:43:31.320 an art

00:43:32.440 assistant or

00:43:33.120 something, I

00:43:33.540 forget what

00:43:33.940 it was, and

00:43:35.460 I wanted to

00:43:36.420 ask Mike

00:43:37.200 Judge a

00:43:38.060 professional

00:43:39.100 question, just

00:43:40.940 a cartoonist

00:43:41.880 to cartoonist

00:43:42.440 question.

00:43:42.860 I had never

00:43:43.200 met him, but I

00:43:43.780 thought he

00:43:44.020 might know

00:43:44.280 the answer.

00:43:45.140 So somehow

00:43:45.620 I got his

00:43:46.180 phone number

00:43:47.180 and called

00:43:47.860 him and left

00:43:48.280 a message, and

00:43:49.740 he never

00:43:50.540 called back.

00:43:52.180 Now, how

00:43:53.960 many of you

00:43:54.460 ever leave a

00:43:55.200 message and

00:43:55.680 never get a

00:43:56.200 call back?

00:43:57.640 Is that

00:43:58.180 common in

00:43:59.080 your world?

00:44:00.600 To leave a

00:44:01.240 phone message

00:44:01.860 to, let's

00:44:02.600 say, a

00:44:02.860 professional in

00:44:03.660 your field?

00:44:05.600 Is it

00:44:06.180 common to

00:44:06.620 not get a

00:44:07.040 call back?

00:44:07.740 Now, it's

00:44:08.380 common for

00:44:08.960 your friends,

00:44:10.000 right, or

00:44:10.400 your spouse or

00:44:11.160 something, but

00:44:12.540 in the business

00:44:13.240 world, if

00:44:15.160 you're asking

00:44:15.760 a colleague,

00:44:17.420 somebody who's

00:44:18.060 at the same

00:44:18.500 level you

00:44:18.980 are, ish,

00:44:20.880 do you ever

00:44:21.820 just not get

00:44:22.540 a call back?

00:44:26.200 It's all

00:44:26.640 over the

00:44:26.920 board, I'm

00:44:27.300 seeing lots

00:44:27.700 of, anyway,

00:44:29.320 so he

00:44:29.580 never called

00:44:30.400 me back, so

00:44:30.900 I've never

00:44:31.220 spoken to

00:44:32.300 him.

00:44:33.120 But, not

00:44:34.740 long after

00:44:35.380 that, Office

00:44:36.260 Space came

00:44:36.820 out.

00:44:38.520 Now, when

00:44:39.440 Office Space

00:44:40.020 came out, that

00:44:41.100 cost me

00:44:42.120 probably

00:44:43.660 $20 to $50

00:44:47.140 million,

00:44:48.020 personally.

00:44:50.140 Do you know

00:44:50.960 why?

00:44:51.220 Because, at

00:44:53.400 the time, it

00:44:53.920 was very

00:44:54.260 obvious that

00:44:54.860 there would

00:44:55.100 be a

00:44:55.360 Dilbert movie.

00:44:56.980 Dilbert was

00:44:57.480 so popular at

00:44:58.200 the time,

00:44:58.620 already, it

00:44:59.580 was already

00:45:00.400 being talked

00:45:00.940 about for a

00:45:01.480 movie.

00:45:02.340 Do you know

00:45:02.620 what happened

00:45:02.980 every time I

00:45:03.760 went into a

00:45:04.740 meeting with

00:45:06.900 anybody in the

00:45:07.720 movie business?

00:45:09.220 Do you know

00:45:09.500 what they said?

00:45:11.200 Oh, you mean

00:45:12.040 you're trying to

00:45:12.540 make Office

00:45:13.060 Space?

00:45:14.860 And I'd say,

00:45:15.860 well, no,

00:45:16.580 actually, Dilbert

00:45:17.180 came before Office

00:45:18.120 Space, and it

00:45:19.460 would be its own

00:45:20.020 thing.

00:45:20.360 And then the

00:45:21.380 movie, people

00:45:21.940 said, so,

00:45:23.520 basically, Office

00:45:24.340 Space with 0.98

00:45:24.980 Dilbert.

00:45:25.620 And I'd be

00:45:25.940 like, no, it's

00:45:27.020 different.

00:45:28.120 It would be my

00:45:28.780 own thing.

00:45:30.420 And they would

00:45:30.880 look at me and

00:45:31.340 say, well,

00:45:32.460 basically, Office

00:45:33.140 Space, the movie

00:45:34.220 that's already been

00:45:34.880 done.

00:45:36.500 That was it.

00:45:37.920 So, Dilbert was

00:45:39.080 sort of an obvious

00:45:40.140 thing that would

00:45:40.640 become a movie

00:45:41.320 property, and a

00:45:42.400 lot of studios

00:45:43.040 were interested,

00:45:43.860 et cetera.

00:45:44.420 But because Mike

00:45:45.520 Judge front-ran

00:45:48.480 it,

00:45:48.720 it probably

00:45:51.120 cost me $20

00:45:52.240 to $50

00:45:52.700 million.

00:45:53.980 Now, some

00:45:55.880 said that the

00:45:58.400 Dilbert cartoon

00:45:59.040 made Office

00:45:59.860 Space possible.

00:46:01.540 What do you

00:46:01.920 think?

00:46:02.740 Because the

00:46:03.600 Dilbert comic

00:46:04.120 was the first

00:46:04.740 time anybody

00:46:05.300 had taken a

00:46:06.120 sort of a

00:46:07.240 realistic office

00:46:08.420 cubicle world

00:46:09.460 and showed that

00:46:11.620 it had commercial

00:46:12.920 potential.

00:46:14.380 before Dilbert,

00:46:16.800 nobody believed

00:46:17.620 that an

00:46:18.060 office-y movie

00:46:19.120 could have

00:46:20.180 market potential.

00:46:21.640 I proved it 0.84

00:46:22.560 did, and

00:46:24.060 Mike Judge

00:46:24.880 absorbed that

00:46:26.260 market potential

00:46:26.980 and made a lot

00:46:27.460 of money.

00:46:29.240 Now, of course,

00:46:30.120 it's a competitive

00:46:30.720 world, and

00:46:32.200 who knows if he

00:46:33.960 was even aware

00:46:34.580 of Dilbert or

00:46:35.440 it was his own

00:46:36.060 experience.

00:46:36.600 I have no idea.

00:46:37.820 But I certainly

00:46:38.600 made it possible.

00:46:40.460 I think I can

00:46:41.140 say that for sure.

00:46:42.340 I have no

00:46:44.460 direct knowledge

00:46:46.860 that he even

00:46:47.600 knew that

00:46:47.940 Dilbert existed

00:46:48.640 at the time.

00:46:49.740 I assume he

00:46:50.200 did, because

00:46:50.620 everybody did.

00:46:52.760 So, to

00:46:53.980 Dr. Johnson,

00:46:55.300 just so you

00:46:55.960 have a correct

00:46:57.060 understanding of

00:47:00.100 what came

00:47:00.560 first.

00:47:05.860 No, by the

00:47:07.780 time I sent

00:47:08.260 my voicemail,

00:47:09.020 it was already

00:47:09.540 under production.

00:47:10.500 It had to be.

00:47:12.340 All right,

00:47:16.480 anything else

00:47:17.000 that I'm

00:47:17.260 missing today?

00:47:17.980 I don't have

00:47:18.440 to run today.

00:47:22.280 Not the movie.

00:47:23.300 It came out

00:47:23.660 before the

00:47:24.220 Dilbert comic strip.

00:47:25.620 There was an

00:47:26.360 office space

00:47:27.040 cartoon that

00:47:28.880 nobody ever

00:47:29.340 heard of.

00:47:30.500 Well, apparently

00:47:31.240 it was not

00:47:31.720 commercially

00:47:32.120 successful.

00:47:32.700 fake news

00:47:42.540 responsible for

00:47:43.480 the truck

00:47:43.960 attack.

00:47:46.440 Best show

00:47:47.100 ever.

00:47:49.200 Oh, so a lot

00:47:50.520 of people ask me

00:47:51.080 why I don't

00:47:51.560 move out of

00:47:52.040 California.

00:47:52.660 And I'll

00:48:00.140 give you the

00:48:00.500 answer to that.

00:48:02.280 I built my

00:48:03.240 home here to

00:48:03.900 be, let's

00:48:05.940 say, crisis

00:48:07.120 proof.

00:48:09.020 So, you

00:48:10.300 know, I could

00:48:10.800 survive a whole

00:48:11.680 bunch of natural

00:48:12.600 disasters where I

00:48:13.740 live, and it

00:48:14.860 would be hard to

00:48:15.420 replicate that.

00:48:17.120 But also, you

00:48:17.800 can't match the

00:48:18.380 weather.

00:48:18.620 Even if you

00:48:19.560 throw in the

00:48:20.300 smoke and

00:48:21.940 everything else,

00:48:22.860 it's hard to

00:48:23.220 match the

00:48:23.560 weather.

00:48:24.080 But on top of

00:48:24.700 that, if you

00:48:25.140 have roots here,

00:48:25.820 it's just hard

00:48:26.260 to move.

00:48:26.780 So it's more

00:48:27.340 about the

00:48:27.660 human part.

00:48:28.720 If you took

00:48:29.340 away the

00:48:29.640 human part,

00:48:30.280 I'd probably

00:48:30.700 be looking to

00:48:31.280 move.

00:48:34.020 What is

00:48:34.540 Drew Carey's

00:48:35.200 story?

00:48:35.560 Oh, that's a

00:48:36.260 good question.

00:48:37.140 So Drew Carey,

00:48:38.240 some people also

00:48:39.260 saw the similarity

00:48:40.620 between his

00:48:41.280 characters and

00:48:42.000 the Drew Carey

00:48:42.720 show.

00:48:43.420 I'll give you a

00:48:43.980 little background

00:48:44.560 on that.

00:48:45.980 So Dilbert came

00:48:46.640 first before the

00:48:47.900 Drew Carey show.

00:48:49.720 And a lot of

00:48:51.000 people probably

00:48:51.840 said to him the

00:48:52.580 same thing they

00:48:53.080 said to me.

00:48:53.640 He's like,

00:48:53.860 hey, Drew

00:48:55.600 Carey looks like 0.97

00:48:56.320 Dilbert, and he's

00:48:57.060 in an office, and

00:48:57.900 it's an office

00:48:58.560 comedy kind of

00:48:59.560 thing.

00:49:01.660 But the Drew

00:49:02.360 Carey show wasn't 1.00

00:49:03.160 really so much

00:49:03.820 about the office.

00:49:04.760 It was just a

00:49:05.380 setting for human

00:49:06.560 interactions.

00:49:07.280 It wasn't really

00:49:07.740 about office-y

00:49:08.500 things.

00:49:09.340 So that was

00:49:09.940 very different.

00:49:10.800 But one day I

00:49:11.460 was at home, and

00:49:12.400 Drew Carey just

00:49:15.140 called me at

00:49:15.680 home, which is

00:49:17.060 the coolest thing

00:49:17.700 about being

00:49:18.200 semi-famous, that

00:49:19.780 famous people will

00:49:20.660 call you at

00:49:21.080 home.

00:49:21.980 Like the phone

00:49:23.200 will ring, and

00:49:23.880 it'll be just

00:49:25.100 some world-famous

00:49:26.180 person.

00:49:28.080 So Drew Carey

00:49:29.080 called me at

00:49:29.540 home, and he

00:49:31.100 was, of course,

00:49:31.960 aware that people

00:49:33.340 were making

00:49:33.780 comparisons.

00:49:38.300 Oh, Justin's

00:49:39.240 saying more in

00:49:39.740 the filters.

00:49:40.300 Well, there's

00:49:40.720 more stuff like

00:49:41.380 that on my

00:49:42.140 micro-lessons within

00:49:43.160 the locals

00:49:44.080 subscription world.

00:49:46.380 Anyway, so Drew

00:49:48.100 Carey called, and

00:49:49.000 he offered me a

00:49:50.620 job writing for

00:49:52.820 his show.

00:49:55.240 And I said,

00:49:56.500 really?

00:49:58.760 I've got a job

00:49:59.800 already.

00:50:00.500 This Dilbert comic

00:50:01.560 thing is working out

00:50:02.400 pretty well, because

00:50:03.040 by then it was

00:50:03.580 already pretty hot.

00:50:06.540 And he said, well,

00:50:08.340 you wouldn't believe

00:50:09.400 how much writers get

00:50:10.320 paid.

00:50:11.260 And I said, how

00:50:12.680 much?

00:50:13.060 And when he

00:50:14.220 told me how

00:50:14.720 much a successful

00:50:15.980 TV writer gets

00:50:17.000 paid, I have to

00:50:18.100 admit, I was

00:50:18.640 tempted.

00:50:20.380 Because I think

00:50:21.620 at the time, it

00:50:23.560 would have been

00:50:23.960 something like

00:50:24.460 $400,000 a year.

00:50:27.120 If you just

00:50:27.860 forward that, I

00:50:29.740 don't know, 20

00:50:30.160 years or whatever

00:50:30.780 it's been, it's

00:50:32.800 like $1.2 million

00:50:33.940 a year for a top

00:50:35.500 writer.

00:50:36.440 And probably,

00:50:37.140 just based on my

00:50:38.220 success with

00:50:39.200 Dilbert, I

00:50:39.760 probably could be a

00:50:42.020 TV writer for a

00:50:42.860 million dollars a

00:50:43.560 year.

00:50:44.780 I'd hate that

00:50:45.520 job, because I

00:50:46.440 did that job.

00:50:47.480 You know, I

00:50:47.680 wrote a lot of TV

00:50:48.400 scripts for the

00:50:49.160 Dilbert TV show.

00:50:50.360 And I don't like

00:50:51.160 that work.

00:50:52.180 I just didn't like

00:50:54.240 doing it.

00:51:02.240 Okay.

00:51:02.640 All right, just

00:51:06.160 looking at some

00:51:06.660 comments.

00:51:09.800 Sounds like no

00:51:11.340 family unit thing

00:51:12.140 is another LBG

00:51:13.000 great society thing.

00:51:14.220 Yeah, kind of.

00:51:16.820 Do you give to

00:51:17.640 charities, or what

00:51:18.660 kind?

00:51:19.760 Let me give you an

00:51:21.220 answer to that that

00:51:22.060 is surprising.

00:51:25.340 Do you know how a

00:51:26.360 lot of celebrities

00:51:26.980 have a pet charity?

00:51:29.380 Like Jerry Lewis was

00:51:30.580 the, you know, the

00:51:31.540 telethons, and various

00:51:33.440 people say, okay, this

00:51:34.580 is my charity, and this

00:51:35.980 is my thing.

00:51:36.800 Do you know why famous

00:51:37.840 people do that?

00:51:38.580 Do you know why

00:51:39.860 famous people,

00:51:41.000 celebrities usually,

00:51:42.460 do you know why they

00:51:42.980 usually pick a specific

00:51:44.240 charity?

00:51:45.900 Now, sometimes it's

00:51:46.960 because they have a

00:51:47.620 family member or

00:51:48.560 somebody they're close

00:51:49.300 to, so it's close to

00:51:50.720 them, and that's part

00:51:51.840 of it.

00:51:52.820 It has nothing to do

00:51:53.860 with taxes.

00:51:54.780 Now, everybody who

00:51:55.780 thinks that charity,

00:51:57.420 that, first of all,

00:51:58.560 there's no such thing

00:51:59.260 as a tax write-off that

00:52:00.380 makes sense.

00:52:00.900 A lot of people who

00:52:03.880 don't study finance

00:52:05.080 don't know that.

00:52:06.180 You can never make

00:52:07.060 money by writing things

00:52:08.360 off, because you spent

00:52:10.240 more than you wrote

00:52:10.940 off.

00:52:12.140 So it's either good to

00:52:13.200 spend it or it's not,

00:52:14.160 but nobody does things

00:52:15.000 because of the taxes.

00:52:17.160 They're either good or

00:52:17.920 they're not, including

00:52:19.300 taxes.

00:52:20.800 All right.

00:52:26.800 The liberal blind spot

00:52:28.500 that Scott has.

00:52:30.420 What liberal blind spot

00:52:31.880 do you think I have?

00:52:34.560 Please read my mind

00:52:35.820 incorrectly in public

00:52:37.240 here so I can see

00:52:38.140 exactly what you're

00:52:39.020 saying.

00:52:39.780 Tell me my liberal

00:52:40.940 blind spot.

00:52:42.840 Go ahead.

00:52:43.900 You got time.

00:52:45.720 Yeah, just shut up, 0.95

00:52:46.980 because you know I

00:52:47.640 don't have one.

00:52:49.060 All right.

00:52:50.280 What was I talking

00:52:51.140 about?

00:52:52.760 Oh, why celebrities

00:52:53.880 choose one charity?

00:52:55.000 Here's the reason.

00:52:56.300 Because if they don't

00:52:57.080 choose one charity,

00:52:57.980 they get pecked to

00:52:59.140 death by other

00:52:59.860 charities, of which

00:53:00.700 there are many.

00:53:03.220 Here was my day early

00:53:05.120 in the Dilbert world.

00:53:07.480 Somebody said to me,

00:53:08.280 hey, how would you

00:53:09.780 like to participate to

00:53:11.120 this local charity?

00:53:13.080 And I'd say, you know,

00:53:14.220 I'm doing well, and I

00:53:16.220 think I should give

00:53:16.960 back.

00:53:17.940 So I'd say, yes.

00:53:19.340 All right, yeah, I

00:53:19.920 will do that.

00:53:20.760 So I'd participate in

00:53:21.800 the local charity.

00:53:22.920 How do you think that

00:53:23.660 turned out for me?

00:53:25.540 Did you think that

00:53:26.220 turned out well for me?

00:53:27.060 What do you think

00:53:28.200 happened when I

00:53:29.620 participated in a

00:53:30.780 local charity?

00:53:34.140 What do you think?

00:53:36.560 Turns out that people

00:53:37.740 who participate in any

00:53:39.000 kind of a charity, I'm

00:53:39.900 talking about the other

00:53:40.620 people, not me, also

00:53:42.660 have some connection with

00:53:44.520 other charities.

00:53:46.960 And the next thing, your

00:53:48.800 email and your phone just

00:53:50.720 blow up. 0.92

00:53:52.240 Hey, I got a charity.

00:53:53.740 I got a charity.

00:53:55.880 I got a charity.

00:53:57.160 And I was spending maybe

00:53:58.740 25% of my entire day

00:54:00.940 saying no to charities

00:54:03.240 because there were just

00:54:05.000 too many of them.

00:54:06.340 So what the celebrities

00:54:07.760 will often do is say, I

00:54:09.060 give all of my attention

00:54:10.340 to my one charity.

00:54:12.280 It's how they say no.

00:54:14.280 It's not just about the

00:54:16.100 one charity.

00:54:17.060 It solves two problems.

00:54:18.720 One is they probably

00:54:19.560 genuinely care about the

00:54:21.140 charity.

00:54:21.420 It's often based on a

00:54:22.840 family member or

00:54:23.640 something.

00:54:24.340 So I do think they care

00:54:25.320 about the charity.

00:54:26.720 But it solves one of

00:54:27.620 their biggest problems,

00:54:28.560 which is saying no to

00:54:29.420 stuff.

00:54:29.840 No, I have a charity.

00:54:31.860 I put all my attention

00:54:32.860 there.

00:54:33.780 Did you know that?

00:54:35.240 You didn't know that,

00:54:35.960 did you?

00:54:38.240 So since I don't have a

00:54:41.060 named charity, here's how 1.00

00:54:44.080 I answer the question.

00:54:44.980 Somebody asked if I give

00:54:45.880 to charity.

00:54:46.760 And the answer is I

00:54:47.840 don't disclose.

00:54:48.600 I don't disclose.

00:54:52.780 Because if I did, other

00:54:55.560 charities would peck me to

00:54:57.840 death.

00:54:58.860 So when somebody says, and

00:55:00.600 I also give only

00:55:01.500 anonymously.

00:55:02.940 So when somebody says, can

00:55:04.340 you give to my charity, I

00:55:05.400 say, nope, because you

00:55:07.400 would know I did it.

00:55:09.080 And then it's not

00:55:10.000 anonymous.

00:55:11.520 So I can say no to

00:55:12.740 anybody because they can't

00:55:15.060 guarantee anonymity.

00:55:16.200 Nobody can, really.

00:55:16.940 Is there a mutual fund

00:55:24.200 equivalent for charities?

00:55:27.760 Not that I know of.

00:55:30.800 Yeah.

00:55:33.000 So I will tell you that over

00:55:35.080 the course of my successful

00:55:37.000 career, I've given a lot

00:55:41.420 away.

00:55:42.880 So, you know, you can use

00:55:44.160 your own imagination.

00:55:45.260 But my goal was always

00:55:47.060 to die broke. 0.54

00:55:49.240 And if I didn't give it

00:55:50.360 away while I was alive,

00:55:51.600 then I kind of suck.

00:55:53.220 That was my feeling.

00:55:54.420 Sort of the, not too far

00:55:55.660 from the Bill Gates

00:55:56.440 thing.

00:55:57.820 If you die with a

00:55:58.920 billion dollars, you did

00:56:01.520 something wrong.

00:56:03.720 You really did something

00:56:04.820 terribly wrong.

00:56:06.260 So I would say that by the

00:56:08.500 time I die, I will have

00:56:09.860 personally consumed 10% of

00:56:12.940 my wealth.

00:56:14.420 And all the rest will have

00:56:15.920 gone somewhere else by

00:56:16.940 then, including to heirs

00:56:18.820 because, you know, they

00:56:20.420 spend it too.

00:56:22.000 But very little of the

00:56:23.380 money that a rich person

00:56:24.740 owns gets spent by the

00:56:26.000 rich person.

00:56:27.380 You know, how much of

00:56:29.840 Elon Musk's wealth do you

00:56:31.580 think he spends on

00:56:32.540 consumption?

00:56:35.480 Tiny, tiny, tiny bit.

00:56:37.300 All the rest is going to

00:56:39.120 end up somewhere else.

00:56:40.960 Either heirs or donated

00:56:43.080 or starting more

00:56:45.100 businesses or something.

00:56:49.060 All right.

00:56:49.720 Have I chatted long

00:56:50.520 enough?

00:56:52.460 And it creates jobs.

00:56:54.140 That's correct.

00:56:56.440 Aliens are back in the

00:56:57.540 news.

00:56:58.600 Don't hold your breath.

00:57:00.720 So I'm predicting no

00:57:03.020 aliens.

00:57:03.960 But I'd love to be wrong

00:57:05.000 about that.

00:57:07.580 And when I say no

00:57:08.580 aliens, I mean no 1.00

00:57:09.580 aliens anywhere.

00:57:10.840 No aliens on other

00:57:11.840 planets.

00:57:13.120 No aliens will ever be 0.99

00:57:14.360 found in our current

00:57:15.880 simulation, is what I

00:57:17.200 think.

00:57:22.720 Will Build Back Better

00:57:23.840 help the Dems keep

00:57:24.860 Congress?

00:57:25.640 I don't think so.

00:57:28.480 Well, help, I guess I

00:57:30.540 should answer more

00:57:31.080 specifically.

00:57:32.060 It might help, but it's

00:57:33.920 not going to be enough.

00:57:34.600 No.

00:57:36.480 All right.

00:57:37.040 That's all I've got now

00:57:37.880 for now.

00:57:38.960 And I will talk to you.

Real Coffee with Scott Adams - November 22, 2021

Episode 1570 Scott Adams： Let's Talk About the Build Back Better Plan Because You Are Being Bamboozled

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