The Ben Shapiro Show


Robert Kiyosaki | The Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special Ep. 128


Summary

Robert Kiyosaki is the bestselling author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, a now iconic book on growing up faced with two opposing mindsets toward money that s still on the charts and still acclaimed 25 years later. In this episode, Robert tells us about discovering business and capitalism as a young boy, the difference between good debt and bad debt, and how the Biden administration compares to that of his longtime friend and frequent collaborator, former President Donald Trump. Robert s newest book is The Capitalist Manifesto, the latest in more than 25 finance books Robert has published, and it s the latest installment in his groundbreaking series on the role of the father figure in his life, his own father, the late Joseph Biden, in shaping his son Robert s understanding of money and how he became a financial guru. He s also a frequent collaborator of President Trump s and a close friend of President Biden s, and a frequent supporter of former Vice President Joe Biden s. This episode is a special bonus episode produced by Dailywire. Subscribe to Dailywire to get 25% off your first month with discount code: RICHDAD. You ll have access to all of the full conversations with every one of our awesome guests, and get access to access to the full conversation with every member of the Dailywire community. Protect your data at ExpressVPN. Protect Your Data: Protect your Data at ExpressVpn.com/ProtectYourData at Parcast Connect with Ben Shapiro: Parcast: Ben Shapiro is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and The Dailywire Podcast. He is a writer, editor, podcaster, and podcaster. He has written for The Financial Times, and is a frequent contributor to the Financial Times Square, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post, and many other publications. He can be found on social media, including LinkedIn, and other platforms. He is an avid reader, and can be heard on the airwaves, too. . He also tweets at and has a blog at . He is the author, is an at , on , and he is a fellow, and his . His podcast is can be reached at . and ( ) or has a . . is a in also ? a podcast on the blog tweet


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Humans learn by making mistakes.
00:00:02.000 You know, you play golf.
00:00:04.000 I'm sure Tiger Woods has hit more bad shots than me.
00:00:08.000 He's failed more than me.
00:00:09.000 So when you look at the real reality of the world, the biggest failures are the most successful.
00:00:13.000 They failed their way to success.
00:00:17.000 401Ks, the American dollar, even the stock market do not provide actual wealth, says Robert Kiyosaki.
00:00:23.000 So, let's dig into the idea of financial success in this episode.
00:00:27.000 Robert is the bestselling author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, a now iconic book on growing up faced with two opposing mentalities toward money that's still on the charts and still acclaimed today, 25 years later.
00:00:37.000 Our economic landscape is dramatically changing, including a new recession, cryptocurrency, and an education system not only neglecting students on finance, but now going as far as turning young people against capitalism and the values of free markets themselves.
00:00:49.000 So, how does Rich Dad philosophy apply in the year 2022?
00:00:53.000 On Current Federal Policy, Robert references the Communist Manifesto, beliefs that were well regarded in his childhood home by his biological dad, his poor dad.
00:01:01.000 His newest book is a response, The Capitalist Manifesto, the latest in more than 25 finance books Robert has published.
00:01:07.000 In our episode, Robert tells us about discovering business and capitalism as a young boy, the difference between good debt and bad debt, and how the Biden administration compares to that of his longtime friend and frequent collaborator, former President Trump.
00:01:19.000 Hey, welcome.
00:01:30.000 This is the Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special.
00:01:32.000 This show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.
00:01:34.000 It's time to stand up against big tech.
00:01:35.000 Protect your data at expressvpn.com slash Ben.
00:01:38.000 Just a reminder, we'll be doing some bonus questions at the end with Robert Kiyosaki.
00:01:41.000 The only way to get access to that part of the conversation is to become a member.
00:01:45.000 Head on over to dailywired.com slash Sunday.
00:01:47.000 You can click that link in the episode description and use code Ben for 25% off.
00:01:51.000 You'll have access to all of the full conversations with every one of our awesome guests.
00:01:55.000 Robert, thanks so much for stopping by.
00:01:56.000 I really appreciate it.
00:01:57.000 My honor.
00:01:58.000 I've watched you for years, and congratulations on all your success.
00:02:02.000 Hey, thank you so much.
00:02:03.000 And you're a very controversial young man.
00:02:05.000 Yeah, well, you know, it pays the bills.
00:02:08.000 So, you know, I first encountered your work the same way pretty much everybody did, with Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
00:02:14.000 So, the main question to start with is, how do you become a financial guru?
00:02:18.000 How do you get into, like, the financial guru business?
00:02:21.000 What is the career path that takes you there?
00:02:23.000 Well, the same way you became successful, you just go against the grain.
00:02:27.000 You know, everything my school taught me to do, go to school, get a job, work hard, save money, get out of debt, and invest in the long term in IRA or 401k, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, I don't do.
00:02:42.000 How do you come to those conclusions?
00:02:44.000 Because, I mean, the truth is, for a lot of people, that's not horrible advice.
00:02:46.000 I mean, you can do okay that way.
00:02:49.000 You'll never become immensely billionaire wealthy that way.
00:02:51.000 But a lot of people lead a pretty solid, upper-middle-class lifestyle that way.
00:02:54.000 You could.
00:02:55.000 But that was a story of a rich dad, poor dad.
00:02:57.000 See, my poor dad was one of these guys where PhD, went to Stanford, University of Chicago, Northwestern.
00:03:04.000 But he was poor.
00:03:05.000 I used to tell him when I was a kid, PhD stood for poor, helpless, and broke.
00:03:09.000 You know, desperate, desperate.
00:03:11.000 And my rich dad was a man who never went to school, so his mind wasn't affected by academics.
00:03:18.000 And so when it came to the subject of money, you know, he thought differently.
00:03:24.000 So having both men as teachers and mentors, I could see both sides of their worlds.
00:03:31.000 And as I grew older, I liked what my rich dad was saying because he was an entrepreneur.
00:03:37.000 My poor dad was an employee.
00:03:38.000 Go to school, get a job, steady paycheck, job security.
00:03:43.000 It didn't make me happy, you know, so I went to become an entrepreneur.
00:03:47.000 See, in 1971, when Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard, right?
00:03:51.000 Violated, broke, you know, just broke all the rules.
00:03:55.000 And my poor dad kept saying, save money.
00:03:58.000 Well, why would you save money when they can print it?
00:04:00.000 You know what I mean?
00:04:02.000 Why would you do that?
00:04:03.000 So I went to Vietnam twice as a marine pilot, and I came back and I couldn't listen to my poor dad anymore.
00:04:10.000 He wanted me to fly for United Airlines and get a job in a 401K.
00:04:15.000 I don't know that United Airlines pensions are gone.
00:04:20.000 They got looted.
00:04:22.000 So I couldn't listen to my poor dad anymore.
00:04:25.000 But this is in 1970, 74.
00:04:25.000 And in 74 was when ERISA was passed.
00:04:26.000 70, 74, and in 74 was when ERESA was passed.
00:04:31.000 ERESA was Economic Income Retirement Security Act.
00:04:36.000 Anything the government says they're going to protect, you know you're in trouble.
00:04:39.000 So I'm just like you.
00:04:40.000 I'm going, what are they pulling here?
00:04:43.000 That ERESA became the 401K.
00:04:46.000 And what happened then, so this is 1974.
00:04:49.000 I'm just getting out of the Marine Corps.
00:04:52.000 My father wants me to go fly for United or Hawaiian.
00:04:56.000 And I go, I don't think I want to do that.
00:04:58.000 I feel set up.
00:05:00.000 So I'm just like he, I just don't trust the sons of a bitches.
00:05:03.000 Do you know what I mean?
00:05:04.000 And then I noticed all these school teachers leaving the school system to become financial planners.
00:05:12.000 And the more I saw that, I went, oh my God, they're being set up.
00:05:17.000 So I am just like he, I go, why are they doing this?
00:05:21.000 And so when I saw my father's compadres, you know, these schoolteachers with master's degrees, PhDs, becoming financial planners, they were treading into my rich dad's territory.
00:05:32.000 And I got more suspicious.
00:05:34.000 My rich dad finally says, you know, schoolteachers becoming financial planners are like the poor leading the blind.
00:05:43.000 I am just like you.
00:05:45.000 I think a little deeper.
00:05:46.000 I want to know what's really going on behind the scenes.
00:05:49.000 So do you think that, you know, what sort of attitude people adopt is more instinct?
00:05:54.000 Or do you think that it can be bred?
00:05:56.000 In other words, can people change what they are?
00:05:58.000 Some people I know are just more risk-seeking by nature.
00:06:01.000 They look at the world and they feel like the drive to go out and take a risk.
00:06:05.000 And some people just don't feel comfortable doing that.
00:06:07.000 They feel like they want to receive the salary.
00:06:08.000 They want to put their money here, let it sit there for 20 years.
00:06:11.000 They don't want the kind of hurly-burly.
00:06:13.000 Do you think that's an attitudinal thing that is natural to people?
00:06:16.000 Or do you think that you can train yourself to become more risk-seeking over time?
00:06:19.000 That's a tough question.
00:06:22.000 I more agree with you.
00:06:23.000 You kind of inherently know it.
00:06:26.000 And I just went out and I went on two tours in Vietnam as a gunship pilot.
00:06:32.000 And I read the Communist Manifesto in 1965.
00:06:37.000 And everybody should read that book because you can see it happening here today.
00:06:43.000 And so in 1965, I read the Communist Manifesto.
00:06:48.000 66, I'm in Vietnam for my first time, went back in 72, and I could see communism spreading.
00:06:55.000 So I become cynical.
00:06:56.000 So I don't know if it's curious or what it is, I just became cynical and distrusting of my own government, and schools, and teachers, and Wall Street.
00:07:07.000 But I said, I think I'll start questioning everything.
00:07:09.000 So in a second, I want to ask you, you know, what that sort of led you to in terms of your own investment strategy.
00:07:14.000 First, let's talk about making sure that your online activity is safe from prying eyes.
00:07:19.000 I'm sure you've heard me talk about Biden's infrastructure bill.
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00:07:31.000 I'm not sure the government needs to know what's happening in my car at all times.
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00:08:31.000 So let's talk about what this sort of realization that a lot of these institutions were not telling the truth and many of them were setting up, what this sort of led you to?
00:08:38.000 What was your new strategy for how to address the world and get involved in the economy?
00:08:42.000 Well, I'm a student of Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller from Harvard, and Harvard claims he is their graduate, but Fuller never graduated from Harvard.
00:08:51.000 He got kicked out twice for behavioral problems, as we understand.
00:08:56.000 And Fuller was my teacher, and he's considered one of the greatest, greatest futurists.
00:09:03.000 But he said, all coins have three sides, heads, tails, and the edge.
00:09:10.000 And it says intelligence has found the edge.
00:09:13.000 And so what you do and what I do is we look at both sides.
00:09:17.000 Then we decide what's, There's good and bad on both sides.
00:09:21.000 But we have to look at both sides.
00:09:23.000 And most people only look at one side.
00:09:25.000 Like, there's this one guy who says that the problem with Americans are we're dysfunctional optimists.
00:09:32.000 You know, don't worry, be happy.
00:09:35.000 That's Americans.
00:09:36.000 And we're being raped, robbed, and stolen.
00:09:38.000 Our freedoms are being taken away.
00:09:40.000 Do you know what I mean?
00:09:41.000 So, you and I are very similar.
00:09:43.000 I go, why are they doing this?
00:09:44.000 Why are we letting them do this?
00:09:46.000 That's what gets to me.
00:09:47.000 And my specialty is not politics, but money, the financial systems, the Fed.
00:09:53.000 You know, people say, well, don't fight the Fed.
00:09:55.000 Well, who told you that?
00:09:57.000 Why not fight those bastards?
00:09:58.000 You know what I mean?
00:09:59.000 I mean, can the Fed print oil?
00:10:02.000 Can they print food?
00:10:03.000 Can they print water?
00:10:04.000 No.
00:10:05.000 They print that fake stuff called the U.S.
00:10:07.000 dollar.
00:10:08.000 So that's why I'm suspicious all the time.
00:10:10.000 So, when you talk about, sort of, your own investment strategy, you say that the stock market is inflated, that the dollar is not a good source of value, that bonds are going to get paid back in inflated dollars.
00:10:20.000 So, where do you recommend that people put their money?
00:10:23.000 Just like you, I do the opposite.
00:10:25.000 I'm 100% debt.
00:10:27.000 You see, in 71, when Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard, breaking the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement, he just broke the, he just screwed the whole world.
00:10:38.000 The dollar became credit, debt.
00:10:41.000 So if we hold up a credit card, is there any money in it?
00:10:44.000 No.
00:10:45.000 All credit is, is the agreement to pay it back.
00:10:48.000 That's all it is.
00:10:50.000 So at that point, and so that was in 71, so 72, I'm flying in Vietnam, and I said, what is the gold standard?
00:11:01.000 I didn't know what it was.
00:11:01.000 In 72, it was illegal for Americans to own gold.
00:11:05.000 I went, that's interesting, but they don't teach that in school.
00:11:10.000 You know, so I went shopping for gold in Vietnam.
00:11:13.000 The trouble was, it was behind enemy lines.
00:11:16.000 You know, the NVA, the North Vietnamese had overrun the gold mine, and marine pilots are not the brightest guys in the box.
00:11:22.000 You know what I mean?
00:11:24.000 My co-pilot and I, we create this partnership, say we're going to fly behind enemy lines and we're going to buy gold.
00:11:31.000 So we got there, we're at this gold mine, we took all our guns off, we walked through the village saying, we come as capitalists, we're not Marines, you know, we're unarmed.
00:11:39.000 I just want to buy gold.
00:11:41.000 And the two of us were college graduates, academy graduates.
00:11:45.000 We walk up, and we don't even know what gold is.
00:11:50.000 And this little Vietnamese woman there, bright red teeth, because they eat beetle nuts, and gold had floated from 35 to 50 that day.
00:12:00.000 And so I offered her 40, and she went, and she goes, spot!
00:12:05.000 I go, what is spot?
00:12:07.000 I said, I'll give you a 40.
00:12:08.000 Spot!
00:12:09.000 And I'm going, what the hell is she talking?
00:12:12.000 I was getting educated.
00:12:14.000 Gold is money.
00:12:15.000 The Fed cannot print it.
00:12:17.000 And at that point, I became more cynical.
00:12:21.000 I own gold mines now.
00:12:22.000 Yeah, so you recommend people investing in hard assets that can't be manipulated by the government?
00:12:27.000 I don't recommend anything.
00:12:29.000 I recommend studying.
00:12:30.000 Do you know what I mean?
00:12:31.000 Be a student of what you ever... But most people haven't read the Communist Manifesto yet.
00:12:36.000 Do you know what I mean?
00:12:38.000 You should start with that.
00:12:40.000 You know, it was Marx who said, a graduated income tax is essential for the spread of communism.
00:12:47.000 Then you have AOC, you know, I think she's one of your favorites.
00:12:52.000 And she says, tax the rich.
00:12:54.000 I go, she's hardcore Marxist as they come.
00:12:57.000 Do you know what I mean?
00:12:58.000 But we don't know.
00:13:00.000 And then if you look at taxes, America was founded as a tax-free nation.
00:13:05.000 1773 was a thing called the Boston Tea Party.
00:13:09.000 And now we're taxing everything.
00:13:11.000 But that could only happen because the gold, I mean, the dollar became credit, and the only way you can pay that credit back is via taxes.
00:13:20.000 And so today, America is the largest debtor nation in the world.
00:13:24.000 Our debt to GDP is like $125,000.
00:13:25.000 In 1990, we were bankrupt, $125,000.
00:13:29.000 And, you know, Powell, the Fed chairman, says, we're going to raise rates.
00:13:34.000 He does that.
00:13:35.000 He'll kill us.
00:13:36.000 They know that.
00:13:38.000 But we still go to school, get a job, and learn nothing about money.
00:13:41.000 Yeah, I mean, there is obviously, when it comes to America's fiscal sanity, nothing there.
00:13:47.000 They're not thinking long term.
00:13:48.000 Everything seems moment to moment, and yet we're told that we're supposed to grant extraordinary levels of authority to these people behind closed doors who are going to fix the economy.
00:13:56.000 It was reported this week, actually, that Joe Biden is now going to extend the authority of the Federal Reserve.
00:14:03.000 Before, they were tasked with keeping inflation under control, which they've done a stellar job.
00:14:08.000 And they were tasked with keeping unemployment low.
00:14:10.000 And they've now been tasked with achieving racial equity.
00:14:12.000 So giving them more authority, given their excellent and stellar track record to achieve racial equity.
00:14:19.000 And this is precisely the opposite of the sort of free markets that you require in order to succeed.
00:14:24.000 Communism.
00:14:25.000 I thought I said the Fed is Marxist.
00:14:27.000 Central Bank.
00:14:29.000 If you understand, when you look at the macro-macro of the economy, the central bank or central controller of the economy is the primary reason for Marx.
00:14:40.000 You know, he says, the abolition of private property.
00:14:44.000 And that's why, who's that other character, Klaus Schwab says, someday you'll own nothing and you'll be happy.
00:14:50.000 It's seeping into us every day via academics.
00:14:55.000 So if you read the Communist Manifesto, it started to come true, because what Marx says, communism would come into America in two stages.
00:15:06.000 So stage one was 1930.
00:15:07.000 It's when the Frankfurt School sent teachers to Columbia University's Teacher's College.
00:15:15.000 So that was 1930.
00:15:16.000 That was stage one.
00:15:18.000 So they had to infect us via academics.
00:15:20.000 That's why there's no financial education in school.
00:15:24.000 Stage two is a 2020 election.
00:15:27.000 You know, it says, as Stalin said, it's not who votes that counts, it's who counts.
00:15:34.000 So, let's talk about President Trump.
00:15:36.000 You obviously have a very warm relationship with President Trump.
00:15:38.000 You co-authored a couple of books with President Trump.
00:15:41.000 So, you know, the widespread perception of President Trump is that he is a man without a plan.
00:15:45.000 And that he is sort of, you know, bouncing around doing what he wills at any particular moment.
00:15:50.000 You know him pretty well, obviously.
00:15:52.000 How did you get involved with President Trump in the first place?
00:15:55.000 Well, like, we used to speak at these large real estate events.
00:15:59.000 I'm not political.
00:16:00.000 Do you know what I mean?
00:16:01.000 I vote for the person.
00:16:04.000 I've done that, but I've now had to become political, if you know what I mean.
00:16:08.000 I was kind of forced.
00:16:09.000 My friend here, Kenny McElroy, and I, we do debt financing.
00:16:13.000 We borrow our asses off.
00:16:15.000 We're a billion dollars in debt.
00:16:17.000 So is Trump.
00:16:20.000 And we became good friends.
00:16:21.000 We sit in the green room, and he goes, he goes, who are you?
00:16:24.000 I said, I wrote a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad.
00:16:26.000 He goes, ah, bullshit, you know?
00:16:28.000 And I think the reason I love that man There's no two Donald Trumps.
00:16:33.000 There's one guy.
00:16:34.000 What you see... That is true.
00:16:36.000 ...is what you get.
00:16:37.000 And if you don't like it, that's your problem.
00:16:39.000 But he's got no problem being Donald Trump.
00:16:42.000 And my respect for him went up.
00:16:43.000 And so, as the years went on, I wrote two books with him, and his two sons are about your age, you know, Don Jr.
00:16:50.000 and Eric.
00:16:51.000 They're brilliant young men.
00:16:52.000 Their daughter, Ivanka, oh my God.
00:16:55.000 They're hardcore capitalists.
00:16:58.000 And I have tremendous respect, and that's what their father and mother taught them.
00:17:03.000 So that's why, you know, rich dad, poor dad, is what I say is that we have to teach capitalism at home because we're teaching communism in schools.
00:17:13.000 So let's talk about debt for a second.
00:17:14.000 So there's a widespread perception on the part of many on the right that taking out debt in order to finance X, Y, or Z is a bad idea.
00:17:22.000 That in order to, you know, achieve your financial goals in the future, the first thing is to get out of debt.
00:17:28.000 I mean, this is like a whole school of thought on the right.
00:17:30.000 And for many people who, you know, I know a lot of people have had credit card trouble, who have gotten themselves in real trouble with debt.
00:17:36.000 What you've advocated with regard to debt for entrepreneurs, though, Obviously, there's truth to that.
00:17:40.000 The vast majority of companies start with somebody actually having to take out a loan against something in order to get a company started.
00:17:46.000 So, how do you recommend that people draw that balance between working off of debt and also not getting themselves in so much trouble that it destroys them?
00:17:54.000 Well, there's two kinds of debt.
00:17:55.000 Now, this is basic financial education or financial literacy, they call it.
00:17:59.000 There's good debt and bad debt.
00:18:02.000 Good debt is debt that somebody else pays off for you.
00:18:06.000 So when I buy an apartment house with my friend Kenny, I don't pay for it.
00:18:11.000 The bank lends us the money, and debt is tax-free, right?
00:18:16.000 So let's say we put a billion dollars down to buy a $5 million apartment house.
00:18:20.000 So we now have a $5 million asset, and our tenants pay for this.
00:18:27.000 That's good debt.
00:18:28.000 But I take out my credit card to go eat sushi, that's bad debt, because I gotta pay for it.
00:18:33.000 And it's that simple.
00:18:35.000 So, you know, when people talk to their children, they say, look, is that good debt or bad debt?
00:18:41.000 And it forces them to think discerningly.
00:18:44.000 Like, every time I watch you and you're debating somebody, I feel for them because you surgically remove everything.
00:18:53.000 You are surgically vicious.
00:18:56.000 I sit there laughing my ass off.
00:18:56.000 I love it.
00:18:59.000 But you see what postmodernist education is?
00:19:03.000 So, in a second, I want to ask you about Joe Biden's economic policies versus Trump's economic policies.
00:19:12.000 And you say that you weren't political, but you've sort of been forced to become political.
00:19:18.000 education and taught in our schools today.
00:19:20.000 So in a second, I'm gonna ask you about Joe Biden's economic policies versus Trump's economic policies.
00:19:24.000 And you say that you weren't political, but you've sort of been forced to become political.
00:19:27.000 First, let's talk about your investment portfolio.
00:19:30.000 Well, in case you missed it, last month, Treasury Secretary, Jenny Ellen, openly admitted to having completely blown it when it came to This human, who is supposed to be the authority on our nation's economic policy, by the way, said, quote, I was wrong about the path inflation would take.
00:19:44.000 There have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly, that at the time, I didn't fully understand, unquote.
00:19:53.000 Well, there you have it.
00:19:55.000 Straight from the Proudfoot's mouth.
00:19:57.000 It goes without saying that you can't trust these so-called authorities on economic policy, which is why you should probably invest at least some of your money in gold and silver with Birch Gold Group.
00:20:05.000 Protect your savings from a highly turbulent economy by diversifying your 401k or IRA into physical gold.
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00:20:24.000 Text BEN Okay, so let's talk about the differences that have kind of cropped up over time.
00:20:40.000 You say that you weren't particularly political.
00:20:42.000 Now you found yourself in a position of having to be political.
00:20:45.000 So first of all, what made you have to be political?
00:20:47.000 What was that big shift for you?
00:20:49.000 When I realized that, like I said, in 1965, I was living in Hawaii.
00:20:55.000 I was a terrible student, but I got a nomination to Naval Academy, Merchant Academy, and Army.
00:21:02.000 And so I went to military school.
00:21:03.000 And in military school, the economist we studied was Marx, and Stalin, and Mao, and Hitler.
00:21:11.000 And in the military, when you study, know thy enemy.
00:21:16.000 And so I knew Marx probably very well.
00:21:18.000 I knew Stalin fairly well.
00:21:20.000 Mao, I didn't understand, probably because he's Chinese and I'm Asian.
00:21:25.000 But when you have information in your head to think critically, you can see it.
00:21:32.000 But as long as Americans are dysfunctionally optimistic, don't worry, be happy, they can't see anything.
00:21:40.000 So when I see AOC stand up there and say, tax the rich, that's 100% Marx.
00:21:47.000 You've talked about the national debt.
00:21:48.000 You said the national debt is a real problem.
00:21:50.000 I mean, to a certain extent, isn't the national debt having... I mean, you see why the government's taking out the debt.
00:21:55.000 I mean, for the government, that's their apartment building.
00:21:58.000 I mean, we pay it off, right?
00:21:59.000 They don't pay it off.
00:22:00.000 All the politicians get to take debt from us, then they get to spend it on whatever they want, and then we're the ones who pay it off.
00:22:05.000 So you see why, actually, both parties have engaged in massive spending boondoggles.
00:22:09.000 I mean, I voted for President Trump in 2020.
00:22:12.000 I support him in 2020.
00:22:13.000 But the amount of spending that the United States government did under President Trump was exorbitant.
00:22:17.000 And then, of course, that's been doubled down on by President Biden.
00:22:22.000 What would it take for the U.S.
00:22:24.000 government to rein in the spending?
00:22:25.000 Or do you think that it's just going to come crashing down as a matter of course?
00:22:29.000 Because as you point out, the minute they start raising the interest rates, they're going to have to pay back a lot of that debt at higher rates.
00:22:34.000 That's just unsustainable.
00:22:36.000 Yeah.
00:22:36.000 Like I said, all coins have three sides, heads, tails and the edge.
00:22:40.000 And as a free individual, we stand on the edge looking at both sides.
00:22:44.000 Do I think they can pay off that debt?
00:22:47.000 Personally, no.
00:22:48.000 So the question is not what the government is going to do about that.
00:22:51.000 What am I going to do about that?
00:22:54.000 Because I'm not going to change the government.
00:22:56.000 I mean, it's so corrupt as you know.
00:22:58.000 I own gold mines and silver mines.
00:23:02.000 I invest in cattle, water, oil.
00:23:05.000 Everything the Fed cannot print, I'll invest in.
00:23:09.000 But that's my philosophy.
00:23:11.000 I don't recommend what I do because I'm a billion dollars in debt.
00:23:15.000 But debt is money.
00:23:18.000 But the government uses it to pork barrel stuff and social welfare and all these stupid programs.
00:23:25.000 That's why I pay zero taxes also, legally.
00:23:29.000 And I can do that because I understand macroeconomics and finance.
00:23:33.000 So what do you think about investing in the stock market?
00:23:35.000 So, for example, credit was extraordinarily loose until the last five minutes or so.
00:23:40.000 And people were basically arbitraging the credit.
00:23:42.000 They were taking out money from the bank and then they were investing it in the stock market.
00:23:45.000 You get this massive stock market bubble in which the P.E.
00:23:48.000 values are completely out of whack.
00:23:50.000 The price to equity value is wildly, wildly insane.
00:23:54.000 And so you can see why people are doing that.
00:23:56.000 I mean, the debt at that point is free and the stock market is increasing.
00:23:59.000 But the problem is that In pretty much every area, when doesn't that create bubbles?
00:24:04.000 What's the limit to that?
00:24:06.000 Yeah, I mean, you're exactly correct.
00:24:08.000 But then there's good debt and bad debt.
00:24:10.000 I'm not going to change.
00:24:11.000 You know, the CEOs were borrowing money to buy back their own stock.
00:24:16.000 They couldn't grow their companies, so they just jack up the stock price.
00:24:19.000 And all the baby boomers like me get all happy and all this stuff, you know, don't worry, be happy.
00:24:24.000 And we finance our social problems with debt that'll never be paid back.
00:24:30.000 So that's what I think about.
00:24:31.000 So why don't I invest in the stock market?
00:24:34.000 Because I don't have to.
00:24:35.000 Let me say it again.
00:24:36.000 The Fed cannot print oil.
00:24:38.000 I own oil wells.
00:24:39.000 I don't own oil stocks.
00:24:41.000 They can't print cattle, so I own cattle and I breed cattle.
00:24:47.000 They can't print real estate, so I borrow the printed money to buy real estate, and my tenants pay it off.
00:24:53.000 And because I use borrowed money, which is tax-free, and my tenants pay off my asset, I'm allowed to depreciate it, amortize it, and what's one more thing?
00:25:05.000 All of it's tax-free.
00:25:05.000 Appreciation.
00:25:07.000 America is a tax-free nation, but you have to be a capitalist.
00:25:12.000 And that's why there's no financial education in our schools, because academics are primarily socialist Marxists.
00:25:19.000 So, given that fact, what do you think the future of the country looks like?
00:25:23.000 I mean, right now, one of the things that I think a lot of people are optimistic about, if you're on the right, is that there's a wild level of institutional distrust that's now taking place.
00:25:30.000 The kind of institutional distrust that you're talking about experiencing in the 60s and 70s, looking at what Nixon is doing, taking us off Bretton Woods.
00:25:37.000 That didn't sink in for a lot of people.
00:25:39.000 For several decades, there's been sort of a baseline level of trust in our institutions.
00:25:43.000 And since the 2007-2008 crisis, it's really cratered.
00:25:47.000 And particularly since 2016, it's completely cratered with the realization that so much of our financial system is controlled by people who really are not fans of capitalism.
00:25:56.000 With the realization that so many of the institutions of law enforcement are controlled by people who have a political agenda.
00:26:02.000 That could be a good thing.
00:26:03.000 It could also be a really bad thing because you see sort of society bifurcating.
00:26:06.000 On the one hand, you have people who are on the right saying these institutions are bad.
00:26:10.000 They need to have their power curbed.
00:26:11.000 We need more individual freedom.
00:26:12.000 On the other hand, you have people on the left who are saying these institutions are bad.
00:26:15.000 They should be given more power to control the people I don't like, and then maybe they'll be good.
00:26:20.000 Well, there was a book by Anne Rand called Atlas Shrugged, and I read that book.
00:26:25.000 She said, where did they go into hiding?
00:26:28.000 And so I already bought my hiding place.
00:26:32.000 And again, I don't tell people what to do because I can do what I do, but I study hard to do it.
00:26:39.000 It's like a doctor studies hard to be a doctor.
00:26:41.000 It doesn't mean you should be a doctor yourself.
00:26:43.000 But there's five things called the five Gs.
00:26:46.000 Number one is goal.
00:26:48.000 Grub for food, that's why I invest in cattle.
00:26:52.000 Ground, real estate.
00:26:54.000 Gasoline, I don't invest in.
00:26:56.000 I used to work for Standard Oil, but I don't invest in oil stocks.
00:26:59.000 I invest in the oil in the ground.
00:27:01.000 And then, guns.
00:27:04.000 The 5Gs.
00:27:05.000 And that's what I basically say to people, and then I'm considered one of these right-wing wackos.
00:27:10.000 But I also have a private island, where armed guards and defensible marine, defensible positions.
00:27:20.000 I use full automatic weapons.
00:27:22.000 I don't use Glocks.
00:27:24.000 Do you know what I mean?
00:27:26.000 You know how education can screw you up?
00:27:28.000 Well, it screwed me up being a marine and going to military school because I saw the dark side.
00:27:33.000 I'm going, you know, I don't live in the don't worry, be happy world.
00:27:38.000 You know, I want to see all heads and tails, light and dark.
00:27:43.000 So in a second, I want to ask you sort of how you think, very critical of the educational system, how you think kids should be educated?
00:27:49.000 How do they learn about this stuff properly?
00:27:51.000 Is it sort of life experience or are there actual lessons that are easy to inculcate?
00:27:54.000 We'll get to that in a second.
00:27:55.000 First, let's talk about your sleep quality.
00:27:57.000 So here's the thing.
00:27:58.000 My kids keep me up like all the time.
00:28:00.000 If I did not have a Helix sleep mattress, I would be about as brain dead as our current president.
00:28:04.000 Helix Sleep has a quiz that takes just two minutes to complete.
00:28:07.000 Matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you.
00:28:10.000 Why would you buy a mattress made for somebody else?
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00:28:15.000 Everybody is unique.
00:28:16.000 They have several different mattress models to choose from.
00:28:16.000 Helix knows that.
00:28:18.000 They have soft, medium, and firm mattresses.
00:28:20.000 Mattresses are great for cooling you down if you sleep hot.
00:28:22.000 Even a Helix Plus mattress for plus-sized folks.
00:28:25.000 I love my Helix Sleep mattress.
00:28:26.000 Again, it was made just for me.
00:28:27.000 It is firm, it is breathable, and that is what I need.
00:28:29.000 If you're looking for a mattress, you take the quiz, order the mattress you're matched to, the mattress comes right to your door, shipped for free.
00:28:34.000 You don't ever need to go to a mattress store again.
00:28:36.000 Helix is great, but you don't need to take my word for it.
00:28:38.000 Helix was awarded the number one best overall mattress pick of 2020 by GQ and Wired Magazine.
00:28:43.000 So, head on over to HelixSleep.com slash Ben.
00:28:45.000 Take that two-minute sleep quiz.
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00:28:51.000 You can try it out for $190 risk-free.
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00:28:54.000 The answer, of course, is nothing.
00:28:55.000 For a limited time, Helix is offering up to $350 off all mattress orders, plus two free pillows for our listeners.
00:29:01.000 That's their best offer yet.
00:29:02.000 Hurry on over to helixsleep.com.
00:29:05.000 All right, so let's talk about the educational system.
00:29:07.000 Obviously, the educational system, they don't even teach basic econ.
00:29:10.000 I mean, not econ 101.
00:29:12.000 It seems like most of the education you get about economics is rooted in what do we think is fair?
00:29:17.000 You know, we're in a room and we have a pile of money.
00:29:19.000 How should we distribute the money?
00:29:20.000 There's always this assumption that there's a pile of money to begin with and that somebody has produced it and now we get to control it.
00:29:25.000 But, you know, it's notoriously difficult to teach people Not only basic econ, but also just how to make good financial decisions, especially unless you're using simple rubrics like don't take out debt.
00:29:37.000 Because again, good debt versus bad debt is a more subtle distinction than no debt.
00:29:42.000 So what's the best way?
00:29:43.000 You have a kid who's five, six, seven years old.
00:29:45.000 You want to create an educational program for them that's going to lead to them being a very successful entrepreneur someday.
00:29:51.000 How do you start that process?
00:29:52.000 OK, but that's why I wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
00:29:55.000 Like you're a parent.
00:29:56.000 You're the child's most important teacher.
00:29:59.000 And that's what I say, but if you're an idiot and you're broke and, you know, you can't pay off your credit card debt, what are you teaching your kids?
00:30:07.000 So that's why my wife and I created the Cash Flow Board Game, you know, to teach income, expense, asset liabilities, cash flow.
00:30:14.000 But the financial statement, people may not know this, is really blockchain.
00:30:19.000 When they talk about blockchain today, when you look at a financial statement, it's income, expense, asset liability, statement of cash flow, auditor.
00:30:30.000 In the real world of crypto, the auditor is blockchain.
00:30:34.000 You've got to verify your numbers.
00:30:37.000 Trust, but verify.
00:30:38.000 So that's why in 1996, my wife and I created the Cash Flow Board Game, because as Maria Montessori said, what the hand does, the mind remembers.
00:30:48.000 What that means is you can't become a golfer reading a book.
00:30:52.000 You know, you gotta pick up this club and hit bad balls and all that.
00:30:56.000 But our schools punish you for making mistakes.
00:30:59.000 So if I get up there and hit a bad shot, they'll say, oh, you're a stupid golfer.
00:31:03.000 Well, no, take more lessons.
00:31:05.000 And that's the most important thing for the parent is to be the child's most important financial educator.
00:31:12.000 But if the parent is an idiot or is broke, you know what I mean?
00:31:16.000 They can't control their spending.
00:31:20.000 That affects the child.
00:31:22.000 So the parent is the child's most important teacher.
00:31:25.000 So that's why I created board games and write books to stay away from the school system.
00:31:29.000 Education's important, but be careful what you're being taught.
00:31:34.000 You know, Thomas Sowell, he's a fantastic human being, marine also.
00:31:39.000 He says, school is now indoctrination.
00:31:43.000 It's not education.
00:31:44.000 I mean, I've talked about this with my wife because my kids are still very young.
00:31:47.000 They're eight, six, and two.
00:31:48.000 And so we've talked about the possibility of what to do when the kids get to college age.
00:31:51.000 And what I've said to her before is, unless they're doing something in STEM, right, where you actually have to have classes in order to become a doctor or become an engineer.
00:32:00.000 If they're looking at liberal arts or if they're just looking at business, I'd rather take all the money that we're talking about and just give it to them to start a business.
00:32:06.000 And I'd rather they try and fail and lose all the money and learn the lessons of failing than go to school and learn how to fail perennially and forever.
00:32:13.000 Because it seems like that's mostly what is being taught at the college level.
00:32:17.000 The number of entrepreneurs who are people who never went to college, it seems like is really disproportionate to the number of people who went to college.
00:32:25.000 The expectations are wildly out of Context from, from where people end up.
00:32:29.000 I mean, I look at my own company and my own company, you know, I'm a law school educated guy.
00:32:33.000 My two business partners, neither of them finished college.
00:32:35.000 One of them didn't even go.
00:32:36.000 And so, you know, those are people who started off working with their, one of them started off working with his hands and literally handling the gardening on an estate.
00:32:45.000 And another one of them ended up that when I met him, he was volunteering for a 501c3 group making $0 a year.
00:32:52.000 And the way he learned business was actually doing the business.
00:32:54.000 And we had to try a couple of times before we actually Succeeded in building daily wire.
00:32:59.000 I don't think there's necessarily a substitute for that.
00:33:01.000 And we don't give our kids enough chance to take the risk and then fail.
00:33:04.000 But you said it accurately.
00:33:04.000 Yeah.
00:33:05.000 You're going to be a doctoral lawyer.
00:33:07.000 You better go to school.
00:33:08.000 Of course.
00:33:09.000 I want to be a pilot.
00:33:11.000 It's best to have a good instructor who can fly the plane so I can learn to fly the plane.
00:33:17.000 So I say to parents, you know, choose your teachers wisely.
00:33:20.000 But today, I mean, Biden and all those guys are calling parents terrorists.
00:33:25.000 How far down has education gone?
00:33:28.000 How can the teachers allow that to happen?
00:33:31.000 How can they teach critical race theory, saying that America is a systemically racist country?
00:33:37.000 That's a racist remark.
00:33:39.000 You know, and I'm Japanese-American, a fourth generation.
00:33:43.000 My family was locked up in concentration camps in California.
00:33:47.000 We had all of our property taken, and all this stuff.
00:33:51.000 But America is not systemically racist.
00:33:53.000 There are racists here.
00:33:55.000 Obviously.
00:33:56.000 But most of them are in school today.
00:34:00.000 So I say to parents, you know, what are you teaching your kids when it comes to money?
00:34:05.000 And then, what are your schools teaching your kids about money?
00:34:10.000 And for most people, it's zero.
00:34:12.000 So how old are your kids now?
00:34:14.000 They are 8, 6, and 2.
00:34:15.000 Okay, I'll send you a cash flow board game.
00:34:17.000 That sounds great.
00:34:18.000 Now, my son would be very into it, particularly.
00:34:20.000 My son is already asking me about, like, what money is, and I have to explain to him that, you know, the differences between money that's backed by the full faith and credit of the United States and actual, you know, tradable and fungible gold, for example.
00:34:32.000 And it's interesting trying to explain those concepts to small kids, particularly, because It requires you to have a little bit more specificity in how you think, for sure.
00:34:41.000 Right.
00:34:41.000 So the game teaches both parents and kids.
00:34:44.000 And a lot of people say, well, how come my kid's kicking my butt?
00:34:48.000 I said, because they don't have brakes put on you.
00:34:51.000 You know, kids just make mistakes.
00:34:53.000 Parents still have what they're programmed to think.
00:34:56.000 Don't make mistakes.
00:34:57.000 Make sure everything, you know, I mean, they're slower.
00:35:00.000 Kids are faster.
00:35:02.000 And so they learn faster.
00:35:03.000 So I learned, you know, when I was 10, my rich dad started teaching me about entrepreneurship and investing with a game of Monopoly.
00:35:13.000 And my poor dad, the academic, is going, what are you doing?
00:35:15.000 I said, I play Monopoly.
00:35:18.000 And he says, well, that's a waste of time.
00:35:19.000 Go back and study.
00:35:21.000 And so he says, well, ask your friend's father, Rich Dad, why are you studying Monopoly?
00:35:26.000 And so I asked Rich Dad, I said, why are we studying Monopoly?
00:35:29.000 He says, "'Cause one of the greatest formulas of wealth is found in this game board, idiot." I said, what is it?
00:35:33.000 I'm 10 years old going like this.
00:35:35.000 Four greenhouses, 1031 tax deferred exchange into a red hotel.
00:35:42.000 And so I'm a kid going, and my old man, the PhD from Stanford and all this stuff, you know, and he's broke.
00:35:49.000 He's broke.
00:35:50.000 He's broke.
00:35:52.000 And Rich Dad goes from his little dinky little store, and now the property he owns is called the Hyatt Regency on Waikiki Beach.
00:35:59.000 So he followed the four greenhouses, one red hotel.
00:36:03.000 And again, the greatest educator of our times could have been Maria Montessori, who said, what the hand does, the mind remembers.
00:36:12.000 So my Rich Dad, from my education, he says, you want a real education, kid?
00:36:17.000 Of course, of course.
00:36:18.000 So he owned My father, poor dad called them slums.
00:36:23.000 My rich dad said, I'm a low-income housing provider.
00:36:26.000 I mean, it's just definitions.
00:36:27.000 He says, go knock on doors and collect rent.
00:36:31.000 I'm like, what?
00:36:35.000 Everybody wants to invest in real estate, but they don't want to collect rent or fix the toilet.
00:36:39.000 You know what I mean?
00:36:40.000 So I'm a 10-year-old, 10 to 12.
00:36:43.000 Your rent is due.
00:36:46.000 And I heard more bullshit than I've ever heard.
00:36:52.000 These are grown adults, like, hey, kid, beat it up.
00:36:55.000 You know, I don't have money.
00:36:57.000 It's you sons of a bitches, you capitalists.
00:36:58.000 I'm 10 years old.
00:37:01.000 So we can't afford it.
00:37:02.000 They got a big screen TV in the room.
00:37:03.000 They're watching TV.
00:37:05.000 But they can't pay the rent.
00:37:08.000 And they have kids.
00:37:10.000 What are they teaching their kids?
00:37:12.000 knocking on doors, asking grownups for overdue rent.
00:37:17.000 Frightened my brains.
00:37:20.000 Said, I don't want to be like you.
00:37:22.000 So to sort of radically shift topic, you mentioned earlier blockchains.
00:37:27.000 So obviously Bitcoin is a hot topic now.
00:37:29.000 I'm actually a kind of a fan of Bitcoin.
00:37:32.000 I like the idea of the blockchain.
00:37:33.000 I own some Bitcoin.
00:37:34.000 I own some Ethereum.
00:37:35.000 I've invested in what I think are the most well-established coins because a lot of the speculative ones are just purely that speculative.
00:37:41.000 What is your take on Bitcoin?
00:37:42.000 You think that there's a future there?
00:37:43.000 Well, the same as you.
00:37:48.000 It ran from zero to 20 and dropped, right?
00:37:51.000 So, I studied... Actually, zero all the way up to, like, 60, and now it's down back to 20.
00:37:54.000 Yeah, but the first top was 20.
00:37:56.000 I had to retrace.
00:37:57.000 I said, okay, if it rebounds, it's got momentum behind it.
00:38:00.000 It's got something behind it, because I don't know.
00:38:02.000 I barely use my cell phone, you know?
00:38:05.000 So, technically challenged.
00:38:07.000 And so, when it hit 6,000, I struck.
00:38:10.000 I got 30 at 6.
00:38:11.000 Then it hit 9.
00:38:12.000 I said, okay, it's going to move.
00:38:14.000 So, I bought 30 at 9, and I stopped.
00:38:17.000 So I'm watching, I think today's at 21,000.
00:38:20.000 If it goes back to 11, I get interested again.
00:38:23.000 Buy low, sell high.
00:38:26.000 If it moves up again, it's got legs.
00:38:29.000 It's like Amazon went down several times, and Apple, and they all go up and down.
00:38:34.000 That's what entrepreneurs know.
00:38:36.000 But most of these coins won't make it back, as you know.
00:38:40.000 1,800 of them.
00:38:42.000 Yeah, I mean, and I think that that is, as you say, the difference between good debt and bad debt, but also the difference between a good asset and a bad asset.
00:38:47.000 I mean, the fact is that once it receives a certain level of market buy-in, then it's not going back down to zero.
00:38:52.000 And that's what I see.
00:38:53.000 People have asked me about Bitcoin, and that's what I've said.
00:38:55.000 I've said, look at the ones that have enough market buy-in that they're not going back to zero.
00:38:59.000 Because they're a network.
00:39:00.000 Right, exactly.
00:39:01.000 And with Bitcoin, it ain't going back to zero.
00:39:03.000 It's not even going to come close to going back to zero.
00:39:05.000 Well, my rich test, you know, he's a great teacher.
00:39:07.000 No college education.
00:39:10.000 He didn't go past the eighth grade, and he said, the problem with bull markets is stupid people look smart.
00:39:21.000 And as you know, there's a lot of stupid people right now finding out they're not that smart.
00:39:27.000 So let's talk about the economy in one second.
00:39:29.000 I want to ask you about the recession, where you think things are going.
00:39:31.000 First, let's talk about what you need to do if you're a responsible human being.
00:39:34.000 You need life insurance.
00:39:35.000 You could be walking down the street and suddenly we're in Florida and an alligator just attacks you.
00:39:39.000 Well, as that alligator is sinking its jaws into your arm, you're thinking to yourself, man, should have listened to Shapiro.
00:39:44.000 Gone over to Policy Genius.
00:39:45.000 Having life insurance through your job might not be enough.
00:39:47.000 most people need up to 10 times more coverage to properly provide for their families.
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00:40:45.000 Okay, so let's talk about the economy and where things stand right now.
00:40:49.000 So obviously, I think we're already in a recession.
00:40:52.000 You can only measure a recession retrospectively.
00:40:55.000 We keep hearing from people, we're not in a recession because we haven't had two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.
00:40:59.000 It's like, well, you're not going to find that out until we actually measure the GDP growth at the end of the second quarter.
00:41:03.000 But it seems like The policies of the Fed, the policies of Joe Biden have brought about what I thought was almost the unthinkable.
00:41:11.000 I thought it was pretty much unthinkable that we'd be in recession at this point in time or close to it, given the fact that we are coming out in January of 2021 with a working vaccine, with people getting back to work, with an artificially induced economic coma that was now being broken.
00:41:27.000 And how do you blow that?
00:41:29.000 And somehow we seem to have blown it.
00:41:31.000 Where do you think the economy is?
00:41:32.000 Do you think that we're going to see a recession, stagflation?
00:41:35.000 Where do you think things are now?
00:41:36.000 Where do you think they're going?
00:41:38.000 I'll go up and down.
00:41:38.000 Do you know what I mean?
00:41:41.000 And the question I ask people is, if we go into a depression, how will you do?
00:41:46.000 That's the question.
00:41:47.000 So I set it up since 1971 when I saw Nixon take the dollar off the gold standard.
00:41:52.000 And I started getting smarter.
00:41:54.000 So I'd say, I don't trust my government.
00:41:56.000 Like, don't fight the Fed.
00:41:58.000 And I was like, can the Fed print oil?
00:42:01.000 Can it print gold?
00:42:02.000 Can it print water?
00:42:03.000 Can it print food?
00:42:04.000 No.
00:42:04.000 But people go, oh, don't fight the Fed.
00:42:07.000 So the thing I always say is, in a worst-case scenario, how will you do?
00:42:11.000 So that's why I own oil wells, not oil stocks.
00:42:15.000 I own cattle for the food.
00:42:18.000 I own gold mines.
00:42:20.000 I own my own company.
00:42:22.000 My company, you know, Rich Dad did better in the downturn than ever before.
00:42:27.000 So it's not recession-proof, but people wake up more and they say, I better get financially educated.
00:42:32.000 And number six, I never stopped studying.
00:42:36.000 You know, it's the most important thing you can do.
00:42:38.000 That one guy said, I think it was a Russian guy, he says, the problem with Americans is we're dysfunctionally optimistic.
00:42:44.000 You know, we live in a don't worry, be happy world.
00:42:47.000 And you know, that's not the real world.
00:42:51.000 So one of the things that you also say is that people in America don't tend to emulate the successful.
00:42:55.000 We don't spend enough time looking at the successful and figuring out how they did it.
00:42:58.000 We instead sort of try to tear them down.
00:43:00.000 Obviously, that's true.
00:43:01.000 I mean, you can even see that in the difference between how people used to dress back in 1950 and how people dress now.
00:43:07.000 It used to be that if you were homeless, you tried to dress like a millionaire.
00:43:09.000 Now, if you're a millionaire, you try to dress like you're homeless.
00:43:11.000 Right.
00:43:12.000 And that seems to be the common pattern.
00:43:14.000 It's the one thing, actually, of all the things about Trump that I liked, the thing I liked best is that he was unapologetically wealthy.
00:43:19.000 I love the idea that he was just like, yeah, I have a jet.
00:43:21.000 And yeah, my taste is gauche, but I'm going to coat everything, including the toilet in gold.
00:43:25.000 And you know what?
00:43:26.000 Tough.
00:43:26.000 Like being rich is better than being poor.
00:43:28.000 I mean, that happens to be just a thing that is true about the world.
00:43:31.000 Being rich is, in fact, better than being poor, which is why you'd like to be rich and you want your kids to be rich and you want your nation to be rich.
00:43:37.000 So why do you think it is that so many Americans Refuse to emulate the successful and instead seem to fall into this fallacy of thinking that it's a matter of the fortunate or the unfortunate, or as they like to put it on the left now, the privilege versus the underprivileged.
00:43:52.000 Well, again, you said earlier, it depends on the person, you know what I mean?
00:43:56.000 And I recommend to anybody, if you want to find out why America's in trouble, go knocking door to door in a low rent neighborhood and ask for the rent.
00:44:04.000 You'll hear the American attitude coming out.
00:44:07.000 It's horrifying.
00:44:08.000 The rich are evil, taxed are rich, and all this stuff.
00:44:11.000 But the thing that's funny about Trump was his private jet is a 727.
00:44:18.000 Mine's a Lear 60.
00:44:19.000 And his jet goes like this, and my jet goes like this.
00:44:26.000 Well, he's just bigger than mine.
00:44:27.000 And a capitalist like you and me will go, someday I'll have a 727.
00:44:32.000 That's a capitalist.
00:44:33.000 But a communist will say, screw the rich.
00:44:37.000 They're bastards.
00:44:37.000 They steal from us.
00:44:39.000 So it starts with the attitude of the individual.
00:44:42.000 And that's why, you know, that's why I created Rich Daddism.
00:44:46.000 We have to teach people to be capitalists because our schools are teaching us to be communists.
00:44:52.000 So one of the things that I found most disturbing in sort of the where we are in the world of econ talk and people who who live in sort of the halls of free markets is that many of them preach the ideas of free markets, but they don't actually like free markets very much.
00:45:07.000 You see this at the World Economic Forum every every year, right?
00:45:10.000 You have Klaus Schwab and company basically talking about the wonders of free markets and we need free trade, we need free markets.
00:45:16.000 And then at the same exact time, they'll be talking about how we in this room, we should set the rules.
00:45:20.000 We can remake the world.
00:45:21.000 We can we can change everything.
00:45:23.000 And then when things fail, people tend to blame capitalism.
00:45:27.000 You saw the same thing in 2007-2008.
00:45:28.000 You have an entire government-sponsored industry of giving out subprime loans to subprime borrowers, who obviously are not going to pay them back, backed by the government.
00:45:38.000 And then people take those and they mix them into the economy and they create these credit derivative swaps and mix them with a bunch of other assets that are higher rank and suddenly these are A-assets when they really should not be A-assets.
00:45:47.000 And then it infects the entire economy.
00:45:49.000 And then when things go south, We're told by the media that capitalism has failed, as opposed to what really happened here, which is the combination of profit-seeking people and government failed.
00:46:00.000 And profit-seeking people and government is not capitalism.
00:46:02.000 Capitalism is a profit-seeking person without the government.
00:46:05.000 Well, I was raised as a Christian.
00:46:09.000 My family actually are Buddhists, and they converted.
00:46:13.000 And so I had to go to Sunday school.
00:46:15.000 And so, you know, being Japanese, I'm sitting in a little class, and my little Sunday school teacher's over there.
00:46:20.000 She goes, I was bored stiff, you know?
00:46:24.000 I was like seven years old.
00:46:25.000 What am I doing here?
00:46:26.000 I could be swimming or something.
00:46:28.000 And she asked this question, which interested me.
00:46:30.000 She says, why were the three wise men wise?
00:46:34.000 Naturally, I raised my hand.
00:46:35.000 I said, because they were rich.
00:46:39.000 And the Christian church, the love of money is the root of all evil.
00:46:42.000 So naturally, she goes like this.
00:46:43.000 You know what I mean?
00:46:45.000 Wash your mouth out, you little sinner kid.
00:46:48.000 You want to get rich.
00:46:49.000 She says, well, you ask, why are the three men rich?
00:46:52.000 Why?
00:46:52.000 She says, Frankincense, gold, and myrrh.
00:46:55.000 They're rich guys.
00:46:56.000 She goes, shh.
00:46:58.000 I got the love of money is the root of all evil, you know, again and again and again.
00:47:02.000 That's the Christians, which is our problem.
00:47:05.000 But anyway, I won't go there.
00:47:07.000 So she finally says, the reason the three wise men were wise is they always sought the best teachers.
00:47:19.000 And that's what I say to people today.
00:47:21.000 Always consider the source of your information.
00:47:24.000 Consider who's teaching.
00:47:26.000 I mean, I think I like about YouTube is I listen to the communists also.
00:47:31.000 This guy Richard Wolff makes my skin crawl.
00:47:35.000 I mean, he's a hardcore communist.
00:47:37.000 Of course, he's a teacher.
00:47:42.000 But I listen to both sides.
00:47:44.000 And YouTube now gives us that luxury or that advantage we didn't have before.
00:47:50.000 Before, you'd have to go to Harvard to listen to those guys.
00:47:53.000 Now you can sit on YouTube and listen to, I mean, like Jordan Peterson got kicked out of academics because he ran into the Communist Teacher Society.
00:48:03.000 So the beauty of YouTube and this new social media, it's got some faults to it, obviously, but it gives us access.
00:48:11.000 And I listen to all sides, and then I choose, then I know who I am.
00:48:15.000 And that's when I became political, is because I could see what the left was doing.
00:48:21.000 And I went, oh my God.
00:48:23.000 So, obviously, as someone who knows President Trump, I have to ask you the obvious question.
00:48:26.000 You think that he's going to run again?
00:48:28.000 I would like to have him run again, because I think he's... I mean, I know the man personally.
00:48:33.000 He's a good man.
00:48:34.000 His sons and I are good friends.
00:48:36.000 But I think he would destroy the country.
00:48:38.000 This country is already divided.
00:48:41.000 So, earlier you mentioned YouTube and the ability to watch everything.
00:48:46.000 You have had your own personal experiences with censorship and big tech and big tech coming after you.
00:48:50.000 Maybe you can talk about that a little bit.
00:48:52.000 Well, that's why I have my assistant Sarah's here.
00:48:56.000 You're always on the offense and defense with them.
00:48:59.000 You've got to be careful.
00:49:01.000 The saddest thing, Ben, is we've lost our freedom of speech.
00:49:05.000 Then they're going after our guns.
00:49:08.000 But I think the worst thing of all is our sense of humor.
00:49:11.000 If I laugh about something, I'm attacked.
00:49:15.000 Just laughing gets you attacked.
00:49:18.000 You know what I'm saying?
00:49:19.000 There's something very sick and rotten inside this country, or the world right now.
00:49:24.000 So when we can't laugh anymore, we're in serious trouble.
00:49:28.000 So in a second, I want to ask you about something you mentioned earlier, which is that obviously you're Japanese, your family has had a history of being- Samurai.
00:49:37.000 Unfairly, yeah.
00:49:38.000 We're samurai.
00:49:40.000 I have the family sword.
00:49:41.000 Oh, really?
00:49:42.000 That's cool.
00:49:42.000 It's passed on to first son, to first son, to first son, to first son.
00:49:46.000 Oh, wow.
00:49:46.000 Well, but your history in the United States, obviously your family suffered oppression during World War II.
00:49:50.000 And I want to ask about, you know, the fact that we've become such a society focused on past oppression as opposed to what we can do for the future.
00:49:57.000 I'm going to get into that in a second.
00:49:58.000 But first, let's talk about how you recruit the best employees to your company.
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00:51:11.000 Okay, so you mentioned earlier briefly that your family history is that they were actually interned during World War II.
00:51:19.000 And a concentration camp, their property was taken away.
00:51:22.000 And yet you didn't end up bitter at the United States.
00:51:24.000 You're very positive about the United States.
00:51:26.000 What do you think has changed?
00:51:27.000 Because this seems to be a real generational difference.
00:51:30.000 It seemed like for a while there, we were on the right track where people realized that America's past, you know, had a lot of horrific things about it, but that we were moving in the right direction.
00:51:37.000 There was a lot of freedom for individuals.
00:51:38.000 And now it seems like we're moving directly in the opposite direction.
00:51:40.000 How did you get past that as an individual?
00:51:42.000 Well, that's a great question.
00:51:43.000 First of all, education is more important.
00:51:45.000 You want to be a doctor, lawyer, you know, accountant.
00:51:48.000 School's important.
00:51:50.000 But it's what we're teaching kids now is to be victims.
00:51:53.000 It's a victim mentality.
00:51:55.000 That's where Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Theory, and all the other garbage you're pumping out.
00:52:00.000 You're victims.
00:52:02.000 You must get even.
00:52:03.000 So when my family had everything taken away, they were locked up in Manzanar and all this other stuff, it inspired us to fight more.
00:52:12.000 So during World War II, they formed the 442nd All Japanese American Infantry Battalion is today the single most highly decorated infantry battalion in U.S.
00:52:25.000 Army history.
00:52:26.000 And I had three uncles serving that in the European campaign, and two uncles fought against the Japanese.
00:52:35.000 And one was captured.
00:52:37.000 And he was, you know, so the Japanese captured another Japanese guy.
00:52:41.000 He's not a welcome home brother.
00:52:44.000 And so I asked, why was my uncle who was captured by the Japanese so bitter?
00:52:48.000 He wasn't bitter.
00:52:49.000 He was tracking down the prisoner of war.
00:52:53.000 It was like Hogan's Heroes.
00:52:55.000 He was after the guy.
00:52:57.000 So I said, why?
00:52:57.000 He says, because he was Japanese fighting for the Americans.
00:53:02.000 He publicly castrated him.
00:53:06.000 I said, I'd be a little bit bitter on that one, too.
00:53:08.000 Do you know what I mean?
00:53:10.000 So he never had kids.
00:53:12.000 He was married, happily married, and all this stuff.
00:53:16.000 But we fought harder for our country.
00:53:18.000 That's the difference.
00:53:19.000 And our schools are teaching kids to be victims.
00:53:23.000 It's a horrible, horrible thing we're teaching kids.
00:53:26.000 So, you know, in my own career, I can see that, you know, every failure leads to a lesson that you can then apply forward.
00:53:33.000 And so, you know, before we started Daily Wire, Jeremy Boring, my business partner and I, we had worked together on a couple of failed enterprises.
00:53:39.000 He had run a company called Declaration Entertainment, which was basically the idea that we're going to make conservative movies, but crowdfunded.
00:53:45.000 Well, I think you get into how do we learn?
00:53:46.000 We started working with David Horwitz Freedom Center and founded Truth Revolt, and that started going well, and then it sort of fell apart.
00:53:52.000 And then we started Daily Wire, and we had learned a lot of lessons over the course of the prior years, and that really led to our success.
00:53:58.000 What were some of the most important failures to you that allowed you to kind of?
00:54:02.000 Well, I think you get into how do we learn?
00:54:05.000 Humans learn by making mistakes.
00:54:07.000 You know, God designed us, so when a baby learns to walk, baby crawls, stands up and falls, stands up and falls, then finally takes the first step, and the next thing, they're running, then flying.
00:54:19.000 But what our schools do, when a child falls, they punish them.
00:54:23.000 You're stupid.
00:54:24.000 You make mistakes.
00:54:26.000 Smart people don't make mistakes.
00:54:28.000 And when I look at the way humans were designed to learn, we're designed to learn from mistakes.
00:54:34.000 So that's why you can't, you know, when you play golf, I'm sure Tiger Woods has hit more bad shots than me.
00:54:41.000 He's failed more than me.
00:54:43.000 So when you look at the real reality of the world, the biggest failures are the most successful.
00:54:47.000 You know, like, what's his name?
00:54:49.000 Steve Jobs never went to school.
00:54:51.000 He dropped out of, I don't know, Reed College.
00:54:55.000 Gates dropped out of Harvard.
00:54:57.000 Michael Dell at the University of Texas.
00:55:00.000 But they failed their way to success.
00:55:02.000 What our academics say, That's greedy.
00:55:05.000 They're capitalists.
00:55:07.000 Don't make mistakes and do as I tell you.
00:55:09.000 Do as I tell you.
00:55:11.000 And don't question anything I say.
00:55:13.000 That's called tyranny.
00:55:15.000 So in your own life, what do you think were some of the failures that have been most informative to you?
00:55:19.000 I crashed three times in Vietnam.
00:55:22.000 And you know how I crashed three times and lived?
00:55:24.000 Because the Marine Corps, I was flying right next to the top gun school in San Diego.
00:55:29.000 And we had to crash three times a day.
00:55:34.000 Every single day, you know... Because we knew that in 1972, when I was going to get going over to Vietnam, life expectancy of a gunship pilot was 30 days.
00:55:50.000 So the lesson the Marine Corps taught us, the more dangerous the mission, the more you have to prepare.
00:55:57.000 So every day we had to log in how many auto-rotations we shot.
00:56:03.000 So every day we kill our engines and we learn to fly without engines.
00:56:07.000 So I got to Vietnam, went down three times.
00:56:10.000 It was like practice.
00:56:12.000 So the lesson I learned from the Marine Corps was the more dangerous the mission, you must prepare.
00:56:20.000 So when you look at other countries around the world, where do you think the United States places in terms of sort of our international economic readiness?
00:56:27.000 I mean, the bet that a lot of people are making right now is that the United States is still the strongest weak horse, meaning that there are a lot of other countries out there.
00:56:35.000 The United States still is one of the freest.
00:56:39.000 Unlike a lot of the European countries, our demographics are not quite as in market decline.
00:56:43.000 Well, the first most important thing about America is freedom.
00:56:45.000 less than replacement rates, but it's not like, say, Japan, which is now reproducing at like point eight or point nine.
00:56:50.000 And and as long as we're the strongest horse and people are still going to buy up our debt, people are still going to finance the dollar.
00:56:57.000 People are still going to get into bonds.
00:56:59.000 And, you know, I wonder how long that's going to last or where you think that the any other nations that you think are are sort of biting at our heels.
00:57:06.000 Well, the first most important thing about America is freedom.
00:57:10.000 So you can be a capitalist, you can be a communist.
00:57:13.000 I have a lot of friends who are communists, but they don't know it.
00:57:17.000 They never read the Communist Manifesto, so thank you.
00:57:20.000 Or you can be Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim.
00:57:24.000 That's probably our greatest asset, is that freedom.
00:57:28.000 And even when I come here, you have to have guards around your building, but at least you can have a guard and arms.
00:57:33.000 I'm armed to the teeth all the time, so don't take my guns away, is what I'm saying.
00:57:37.000 You know what I mean?
00:57:38.000 So that gives us our strength.
00:57:40.000 But we have to fight back.
00:57:41.000 That's all I'm saying.
00:57:43.000 So I wrote a book, Capitalist Manifesto, to counter Communist Manifesto.
00:57:47.000 People haven't read Communist Manifesto, so I wrote Capitalist Manifesto.
00:57:51.000 You know, I just want to fight back.
00:57:53.000 And I think the freedom to fight back is essential.
00:57:57.000 In this next coming election, you and I are very optimistic that it's going to be a trouncing of the worst president we've ever seen, Biden.
00:58:06.000 I'm not political, I just think he's the most incompetent.
00:58:09.000 He and I are the same age, but I still have some brain cells left, you know?
00:58:14.000 But I can't believe he opens the border and lets all that fentanyl through.
00:58:18.000 I can't believe he cuts down the Keystone XL pipeline, then blames Russia for raising gas prices.
00:58:25.000 And Americans believe the idiot.
00:58:27.000 I'm not saying, don't listen to what he says, watch what he's doing.
00:58:32.000 He opens the borders, he cuts down our oil supply, he calls parents terrorists for questioning the school system, and then he blames Putin for our problems.
00:58:45.000 That's a weak precedent.
00:58:47.000 I would say the good news about him is that he's creating a really massive backlash.
00:58:50.000 And that's made me very optimistic.
00:58:53.000 That's the best news ever.
00:58:54.000 Yeah.
00:58:54.000 I mean, I think that a lot of us were very depressed in November of 2020.
00:58:57.000 And the fact that, again, if you go back and you listen to my podcast, I was saying that Biden was going to have a real easy time of it, because by all extraneous circumstances, he should have had an easy time of it.
00:59:07.000 We weren't in the middle of any serious foreign wars.
00:59:10.000 We had an economy that was going to naturally rebound because it had been booming before COVID, and now COVID was going to come to an end.
00:59:17.000 And somehow he blew it so badly that he's going to usher in the people he hates most back into office, I think.
00:59:22.000 That seems the direction the country is moving.
00:59:24.000 I agree 100% with you.
00:59:25.000 I think the Republican Party should pay him to campaign harder.
00:59:27.000 Because the more he opens his mouth, the more votes come to the Republican Party.
00:59:34.000 He's the best advertiser the conservatives have.
00:59:38.000 So I want to ask you a few final questions, starting with why you think that so many Americans are just completely ignorant of capitalism and what you think the main fundamental things about capitalism people should know are.
00:59:48.000 But if you'd like to hear Robert Kiyosaki's answers, you have to be a DailyWire member.
00:59:52.000 Head on over to DailyWire.com slash Sunday.
00:59:53.000 You can click that link in the episode description.
00:59:55.000 Use code Ben for 25% off.
00:59:56.000 You can hear the rest of our conversation over there.
01:00:00.000 Well, folks, that is Robert Kiyosaki.
01:00:02.000 Robert, thank you so much for stopping by.
01:00:04.000 It really is a pleasure.
01:00:05.000 Don't forget, everyone, make sure to go out and get a copy of Robert Kiyosaki's new book, Capitalist Manifesto, How Entrepreneurs Can Save Capitalism.
01:00:11.000 Don't forget to check out his YouTube page, The Rich Dad Channel.
01:00:14.000 Robert, thanks so much for joining the show.
01:00:15.000 It's great to have you here.
01:00:16.000 Thank you.
01:00:16.000 Congratulations.
01:00:18.000 How did a young guy like you get so smart so fast?
01:00:20.000 That's why I keep asking this.
01:00:21.000 That's very nice of you.
01:00:22.000 The Ben Shapiro Show Sunday special is produced by Mathis Glover.
01:00:33.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boren.
01:00:35.000 Production manager, Brandon McGuire.
01:00:37.000 Associate producer, Savannah Dominguez-Morris.
01:00:39.000 Editing is by Jim Nickel.
01:00:41.000 Camera and lighting is by Zach Genta.
01:00:43.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Carmina.
01:00:45.000 Hair, makeup, and wardrobe is by Fabiola Cristina.
01:00:48.000 Title graphics are by Cynthia Angulo.
01:00:50.000 Production coordinator, Jessica Kranz.
01:00:52.000 The Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special is a Daily Wire production.