The Charlie Kirk Show - How Neoliberalism Failed the American Economy

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, today on the Charlie Kirk show, we ask the question, is the economy working for you?

00:00:06.000 This is a comprehensive economic-minded episode.

00:00:10.000 And if that interests you, I think you'll really enjoy this.

00:00:12.000 We don't just go about jobs being created, not being created.

00:00:14.000 We go deeper about what does it mean to actually structure an economy using market principles for the pursuit of the betterment of the nation.

00:00:22.000 Plutocrats love inflation.

00:00:24.000 We talk about that.

00:00:25.000 Email us your thoughts.

00:00:26.000 Freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:28.000 Hope to see you at AmericaFest.

00:00:29.000 We have Tucker Carlson, Kaylee McEnany, Greg Gutfeld, Ted Cruz, Jesse Waters, Candace Owens, Jim Jordan, Donald Trump Jr., Pete Hegsteth, Madison Cawthorne, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Rand Paul, Jack Postobic, Benny Johnson, Kat Kamack, Lauren Bobert, Matt Gates, Louis Gummert, Burgess Owens, Dennis Prager, Sebastian Gorka, Sean Foyt, Sarah Palin, Brandon Tatum, Michael Chandler, and more.

00:00:48.000 Pastor Jack Kibbs, James O'Keefe, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, tpusa.com slash AMFEST.

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00:00:58.000 Promo code Charlie for 25% off December 18, December 19, December 20, December 21, Phoenix, Arizona.

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00:01:08.000 And also, thank you for those of you that support us at charliekirk.com slash support.

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00:01:25.000 Email us your thoughts as always.

00:01:27.000 Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.

00:01:28.000 Buckle up. 0.96

00:01:29.000 Here we go.

00:01:30.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:01:32.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:01:34.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:01:37.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:01:41.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:01:42.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:01:43.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:01:45.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.

00:01:50.000 Turning point USA. 0.65

00:01:51.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:02:00.000 That's why we are here.

00:02:02.000 Hey, everybody.

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00:02:30.000 A lot of stories I want to get to today as we wrap up this week.

00:02:33.000 Jesse Smollett found guilty on five of six counts.

00:02:36.000 We might go into that.

00:02:37.000 I think we went into that rather extensively yesterday.

00:02:40.000 But there's one clip I saw that was so outrageous.

00:02:43.000 And you really have two competing teams in America.

00:02:46.000 You have team thankful and team unthankful, but also team reality and team utopia and insanity.

00:02:54.000 The division between the two are rather dramatic.

00:02:58.000 News reports have come out that shows that the Biden regime has been working the activist news network to try to get more positive coverage.

00:03:06.000 You see, they've been very worried that the amount of reality that's been covered as far as when it comes to economic conditions is hurting them with their voters.

00:03:18.000 Now, even the New York Times came out this morning and said, quote, America's weak economy.

00:03:25.000 This is the New York Times by David Leonhart.

00:03:29.000 Good morning.

00:03:30.000 Why do Americans, why do Americans think that the economy is in rough shape?

00:03:35.000 Because it is.

00:03:36.000 The New York Times says this.

00:03:38.000 Offices remain eerily empty.

00:03:40.000 Airlines have canceled thousands of flights.

00:03:42.000 Subways and buses are running less often.

00:03:44.000 Schools sometimes call off entire days of class.

00:03:47.000 Consumers waste time waiting in store lines.

00:03:49.000 Annual inflation has reached the highest level in three decades.

00:03:52.000 Does this sound like a healthy economy to you?

00:03:55.000 The New York Times says.

00:03:56.000 Now, I can't believe that I will be kind of complimenting the New York Times for saying that they are actually seeing things as they are, which is an economy that has totally fallen apart.

00:04:13.000 Levels of stress, sadness, and loneliness are at record high levels.

00:04:19.000 Interestingly enough, Republicans, when polled, 79% say they feel enjoyment on a daily basis.

00:04:28.000 Only 70% of Democrats do.

00:04:32.000 Democrats are more stressed, more sad, and more lonely.

00:04:37.000 It's really interesting.

00:04:38.000 That kind of actually fits their politics.

00:04:40.000 And by almost double digits, by the way.

00:04:43.000 Democrats are 9% less enjoying of life.

00:04:46.000 Democrats are 7% more stressed.

00:04:48.000 Democrats are 7% sadder and 5% lonelier.

00:04:54.000 The New York Times says that the economy is in rough shape.

00:04:59.000 Anyone who goes to buy anything right now, they see double-digit inflation.

00:05:03.000 You could barely pay for gas, not to mention the rising price of health care and the lowering of the quality of health care.

00:05:10.000 Gas is up 58.1% since last year.

00:05:13.000 Bacon is up 21%.

00:05:14.000 Eggs is up 8%.

00:05:16.000 Steak is up 24.6%.

00:05:18.000 Firewood is up 34.3%.

00:05:20.000 Furniture is up 11.8%.

00:05:22.000 Used cars are up 31.4%.

00:05:24.000 Coffee is up 7.5%.

00:05:26.000 Cigarettes are up 9.5%.

00:05:28.000 Couldn't care less.

00:05:30.000 Hotels and motels are up 25.5%.

00:05:34.000 And bikes are up 9.4%.

00:05:36.000 These are just some of the numbers.

00:05:38.000 If you go to CNBC and you say, hey, what does Jim Kramer have to say about this?

00:05:44.000 Jim Kramer says this is the best, strongest economy I've ever seen.

00:05:52.000 It's Jim Kramer.

00:05:53.000 Play cut 90.

00:05:55.000 All right, first of all, to me, we have the strongest economy perhaps I have ever seen.

00:05:59.000 She had a number this morning, unemployment.

00:06:01.000 It's the best in years.

00:06:02.000 They're not best in 69.

00:06:04.000 We have all spotted the endless help-wanted signs, the housing and apartment shortages, the tremendous demand for goods and services, a marvel to behold.

00:06:13.000 Oh, people are confident about their jobs.

00:06:14.000 I say fantastic.

00:06:16.000 And the ability to even get better ones if they want to.

00:06:18.000 They're spending more than I've ever seen, but they're doing it with cash down on credit.

00:06:21.000 They're doing so in a roaring 20s style.

00:06:24.000 This guy's on TV giving you economic advice.

00:06:27.000 The strongest economy I've ever seen.

00:06:30.000 Meanwhile, just to fill up the tank of gas is 58% higher than last year.

00:06:39.000 Used cars, 31.4%.

00:06:41.000 Inflation is at a 39-year high.

00:06:44.000 And for Jim Kramer, he's actually right.

00:06:48.000 For the people that Jim Kramer represents, the plutocrats, they have had a great year.

00:06:53.000 It is the strongest economy if your net worth is over $250 million.

00:06:57.000 Forget for a second CNBC on the same network saying that this is the highest level of inflation that we've seen since June of 1982.

00:07:05.000 Play cut 89.

00:07:06.000 Here's the money ball numbers year over year.

00:07:08.000 Year over year, up 6.8, up 6.8.

00:07:12.000 And this, of course, is a new record.

00:07:14.000 That is the highest level since June of 1982, 1982.

00:07:20.000 And if we look at X, food, and energy year over year, it's up 4.9.

00:07:25.000 And that also is a high watermark.

00:07:28.000 That is the highest level since June of 1991.

00:07:31.000 We'll call it 30 years.

00:07:33.000 Now, this show, our show, we predicted inflation early.

00:07:36.000 You can go back in the archives to March of 2020.

00:07:40.000 And we said that we are about to hit a massive inflation cycle.

00:07:44.000 And we were mocked and we were ridiculed and no one listened to us.

00:07:47.000 People in Wall Street even emailed me, say, Charlie, you don't know what you're talking about.

00:07:50.000 Don't mislead your audience.

00:07:52.000 Now we have the highest inflation since 1982.

00:07:55.000 But you see, inflation is a gift to the corporations and to America's ruling class.

00:07:59.000 Do you know that the corporations, major corporations, expanded their balance sheets by over $600 billion last year?

00:08:07.000 Do you know that corporations went on a borrowing spree?

00:08:11.000 Because they knew that low interest rates will never come back again.

00:08:14.000 And when you have this opportunity and double-digit inflation is about to come, by default, your debt does not change.

00:08:20.000 Your debt agreement is the same.

00:08:23.000 This is the way that I guarantee it, by the way, just wait.

00:08:27.000 This is how the activist press is going to frame inflation coming in the next year.

00:08:33.000 You ready?

00:08:33.000 Inflation is good for people who have mortgages.

00:08:36.000 Just wait.

00:08:37.000 I'm telling you, that article is going to come out soon.

00:08:40.000 Inflation is actually a gift for people that have a bunch of debt.

00:08:44.000 This is one of the main reasons why the leftists and the collectivists, they want to have inflation because it's the only way that they can get out of the massive debt burden that they've put on future generations, now approaching over $30 trillion.

00:09:00.000 $30 trillion.

00:09:02.000 We owe more money than our country is even collectively worth.

00:09:06.000 And what is the Biden regime and Mitch McConnell's solution?

00:09:09.000 Spend $1.2 trillion on infrastructure and another $2.7 trillion on whatever you want, not to mention the $3.5 trillion on continuing resolution and the $3 plus trillion dollars that we've borrowed of just deficit spending this current year.

00:09:23.000 But for Jim Kramer to say this is the best economy that we've ever seen, it is the best economy if you're the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Google, or Amazon.

00:09:33.000 It is the best economy if you're not working with your hands.

00:09:37.000 It is the best economy if you're Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, who have seen their net worth go up by hundreds of billions of dollars.

00:09:46.000 Elon Musk's net worth has gone up 612%.

00:09:52.000 Elon Musk's net worth has gone up by $150 billion in the last 17 months.

00:10:00.000 Bill Gates' net worth has gone up $32 billion.

00:10:04.000 Larry Page, $66 billion.

00:10:06.000 Sergey Brin, $64 billion.

00:10:09.000 Warren Buffett, $37 billion.

00:10:11.000 Steve Ballmer, $33 billion.

00:10:13.000 Jim Walton, $14 billion.

00:10:16.000 Alice Walton, $14 billion.

00:10:19.000 Phil Knight, $32 billion.

00:10:21.000 Mike Bloomberg, $11 billion.

00:10:23.000 Mackenzie Scott, $18 billion.

00:10:26.000 You know what's so funny?

00:10:27.000 Mackenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos' ex-wife.

00:10:33.000 She was like, oh, I'm going to spend all my money. 0.99

00:10:34.000 It doesn't look like you're spending all the money, Mackenzie.

00:10:36.000 You're giving it all away.

00:10:37.000 You're richer than you ever have been.

00:10:39.000 It's interesting how they talk a big game at the beginning.

00:10:41.000 She likes hoarding that wealth. 1.00

00:10:45.000 I recently received a question from a listener.

00:10:47.000 She wanted to know if it was possible to avoid digestion problems by eating only healthy organic food.

00:10:52.000 It was a nice thought, but unfortunately, it's just not possible.

00:10:55.000 You see, your natural ability to digest food declines with age.

00:10:58.000 This is because your body produces fewer enzymes, which are proteins responsible for digesting food.

00:11:03.000 Fewer enzymes mean more difficulty digesting food.

00:11:05.000 Even organic foods won't provide enough enzymes to properly digest them.

00:11:09.000 This is especially true if you cook your food because cooking kills enzymes.

00:11:12.000 This is why you have digestion problems even after a healthy meal.

00:11:16.000 Your body just can't produce enough enzymes to get the job done.

00:11:19.000 That's why you need to supplement with a high-quality enzyme supplement that could be a huge help.

00:11:23.000 I personally recommend Mass Zymes by Buy Optimizers.

00:11:26.000 It is the best-in-class supplement loaded with full-spectrum enzymes for digesting protein, starches, sugars, fibers, and fats.

00:11:32.000 Taking Mass Zymes daily helps top off your enzyme levels and replace the enzymes your body is no longer producing.

00:11:39.000 Listen, life is too short to suffer from digestion problems.

00:11:42.000 If you want freedom from your food, especially this holiday season, go to MassZymes Risk-Free and experience the magic of high-quality enzymes.

00:11:50.000 For an exclusive offer, my listeners can go to masszymes.com slash kirk, m-a-s-s-z-y-m-e-s.com slash kirk.

00:11:59.000 Again, that's masszymes.com slash kirk.

00:12:02.000 Masszymes.com slash kirk.

00:12:07.000 Jim Kramer is a spokesperson for the plutocrat class.

00:12:11.000 Now, let's have a conversation about this.

00:12:13.000 We as conservatives, traditionally, never want to get in the way of someone getting rich.

00:12:21.000 I think that's a good thing.

00:12:23.000 I think that's a generally good rule.

00:12:25.000 I think it's a generally good rule to say that if someone has a good idea and they take a risk, they borrow money, they work weekends and nights, and they leverage themselves to get towards the place of value creation, you should be able to keep the profits of what you have created.

00:12:47.000 I think we as conservatives should never get away from that.

00:12:50.000 I think that's a good tradition to generally defend and believe in.

00:12:56.000 But I suppose it also warrants the question, though, of are all experiments in the market created equal?

00:13:06.000 Every entrepreneur should be treated with the same moral approach or the same moral footing, I guess you could say, as all others.

00:13:17.000 For example, Jeff Bezos being worth $188 billion, should that be a celebration of the American free enterprise system?

00:13:31.000 Or instead, is that a celebration of how an individual was able to game a package delivery system, pay almost $0 in corporate taxes, benefit from a massive lockdown, and then use his wealth to not make America more free or to defend our customs and traditions, but instead try to disintegrate them and try to enter into a global compact.

00:13:54.000 What I'm getting at is we as conservatives should never get in the direction of, obviously, Bernie Sanders, like, oh, there should be no billionaires.

00:14:01.000 But when Phil Knight, for example, who has seen his net worth go up by 108% in the last 17 months, Phil Knight, who has added $32 billion to his net worth, that's right.

00:14:14.000 Phil Knight, the head of Nike, $32 billion.

00:14:18.000 Phil Knight then comes out and the CEO of Nike says that Nike is a Chinese company, not an American company.

00:14:24.000 That's a direct quote.

00:14:25.000 How should we look at that?

00:14:27.000 Should we say, you know what?

00:14:29.000 Markets are markets.

00:14:31.000 You go, Phil Knight.

00:14:32.000 No, I think that there's a big difference between someone who makes their products in the country, like Mike Lindell from MyPillow, just one example, and someone like Phil Knight, who gets ridiculously rich from a massive labor arbitrage with the Chinese Communist Party, and then doesn't even use his net worth to make America a freer, more durable, or stronger country.

00:14:58.000 And so while we as conservatives should always be appreciative, supportive of markets, markets are the best way to organize human behavior.

00:15:09.000 Guess why?

00:15:10.000 Because that's generally not centrally organized, because centrally organizing things doesn't always work out.

00:15:15.000 With that being said, we should not be afraid to take precise and prudent and targeted action towards certain outcomes that we want to see.

00:15:26.000 For example, we should make it easier to have children in this country.

00:15:29.000 It's that simple.

00:15:30.000 Some conservatives, they start to say, oh, that's market interference.

00:15:33.000 Of course it is.

00:15:35.000 It's obviously market interference.

00:15:37.000 It's market interference that will hopefully have a result of more American children. 0.93

00:15:42.000 Therefore, we need less people coming from different countries that might not share our values, deteriorate our wages. 1.00

00:15:48.000 Just small things like that.

00:15:50.000 I'll give you another example of market interference.

00:15:54.000 We should prioritize necessary pharmaceutical production in America and not in Wuhan. 0.99

00:16:02.000 For example, vitamin C needs to be made in America.

00:16:06.000 How about that?

00:16:07.000 Penicillin needs to be made in America.

00:16:10.000 Now, some people on the libertarian side will say, Charlie, that is not puritanical.

00:16:15.000 You are in violation of the free market dogma.

00:16:17.000 I say, hold on a second.

00:16:18.000 Markets should serve a purpose, they should serve human beings and a national project.

00:16:24.000 When all of a sudden we have externalities like penicillin being made in Shoshong and not in Cincinnati, I think a prudent and precise public policy package is appropriate. 1.00

00:16:39.000 Look, stocks are at all-time high.

00:16:41.000 People are saying things are going well, but you know they aren't.

00:16:44.000 Interest rates are at zero, and the government just printed $5 trillion.

00:16:47.000 What could possibly go wrong?

00:16:49.000 Consumer confidence just hit a 10-year low, and inflation hit 6.8%, with parts of the United States seeing rates as high as 8%.

00:16:56.000 Something is not adding up.

00:16:57.000 Inflation is here, everybody, and you've got to do something about it.

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00:17:29.000 That's noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:17:34.000 I've been telling you guys about Relief Factor for quite some time.

00:17:36.000 And the truth is, I know millions of people are, in fact, 100 million people are in some kind of pain.

00:17:40.000 Look, producer Andrew, he couldn't walk.

00:17:42.000 He was a hobbled individual. 0.96

00:17:44.000 He was bedridden in his chair, complaining all the time.

00:17:48.000 And then all of a sudden, we got this call from Relief Factor.

00:17:51.000 They said, hey, we want to partner with your show.

00:17:53.000 We're going to send you some Relief Factor.

00:17:54.000 Producer Andrew got it.

00:17:56.000 He took it, got a little bit better, took some more, got a little bit better.

00:17:59.000 Next thing you know, he's doing the Fallsberry flop like you wouldn't believe.

00:18:02.000 In fact, he might be training for an Ironman.

00:18:06.000 It's pretty incredible.

00:18:07.000 Now, he says it's thanks to Relief Factor.

00:18:09.000 I ask him all the time, Relief Factor?

00:18:10.000 He says relieffactor.com, 100% drug-free supplement.

00:18:13.000 You can get it for less than the cost of a cup of coffee a day.

00:18:16.000 So go to relieffactor.com, and I'm suggesting you order their three-week quick start to see if we can get you out of pain.

00:18:21.000 And then after that, it's less than the cost of a cup of coffee a day to stay out of pain.

00:18:24.000 So go to relieffactor.com.

00:18:26.000 That is relieffactor.com.

00:18:28.000 I'm telling you, a lot of people are in pain.

00:18:29.000 It's 100% drug-free.

00:18:30.000 Don't go to opioids.

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00:18:33.000 Check it out at relieffactor.com.

00:18:38.000 I think this is a really important conversation because we have to be able to have this with maturity.

00:18:43.000 And I want to re-emphasize this.

00:18:44.000 I love markets.

00:18:45.000 I love markets when they serve people.

00:18:48.000 I love entrepreneurs and people starting new things.

00:18:51.000 I love when I get to meet people that have come from halfway across the world and they wanted to start a trucking business or something really exciting.

00:19:00.000 I think that's unique, and we should never lose that ever.

00:19:03.000 But I think we can also agree that, in all things, balance and moderation.

00:19:09.000 And one of the major problems when it came to unfettered markets the last 20 or 30 years is the people that were the most, let's see, enthusiastic about the idea of markets, they actually didn't like markets.

00:19:26.000 They wanted an excuse to re-domicile labor from wheeling West Virginia to Wuhan China.

00:19:35.000 You see, in the late 70s and early 80s, there was massive inflation in America for a variety of different reasons. 0.82

00:19:44.000 There was inflation because of stupid monetary policy and also Jimmy Carter confiscatory fiscal policy. 0.89

00:19:51.000 Too high of taxes, sluggish regulation. 0.99

00:19:54.000 The American entrepreneur was depleted.

00:19:57.000 And the way that the conservative movement tells the story of Ronald Reagan is not inaccurate, but it's incomplete.

00:20:03.000 First of all, Ronald Reagan was a cheerleader.

00:20:06.000 He was able to excite new entrepreneurs.

00:20:08.000 He did lower taxes.

00:20:09.000 But Ronald Reagan also was unafraid to impose tariffs on our competitors.

00:20:18.000 Los Angeles Times headline: 1987: Reagan imposes 100% tariffs on Japan goods on the semiconductor industry.

00:20:29.000 Now, some would say that Silicon Valley's semiconductor boom was largely made possible thanks to Ronald Reagan's protection.

00:20:41.000 That's right, because we always get to say, oh, you don't want to be protectionist.

00:20:44.000 Well, why wouldn't we want to be protection against some core industries?

00:20:48.000 Now, I've become rather, let's say, opinionated on this topic.

00:20:56.000 I think that we should protect a lot of different industries.

00:20:59.000 But I don't think any puritanical person would say, you know what?

00:21:05.000 I think it's a good idea for China to have all the access to rare earth minerals.

00:21:11.000 Well, that's what's happened because of this unfettered flow, an unchallenged flow of markets for the sake of markets over the last 20 or 30 years.

00:21:23.000 But here's what ended up happening.

00:21:25.000 In the early 90s, all of a sudden the internationalist Wall Street crowd started to heavily lobby the Federal Reserve, and we started to see the lowering of interest rates.

00:21:36.000 Alongside of that, people from companies like McKinsey and other consulting companies started to be brought in towards these places that were having long, protracted labor disputes in the heartland of the country.

00:21:50.000 So I will probably have the most nuanced, balanced, and neutral view of this topic because I think everyone is to blame.

00:21:57.000 I think labor was far too arrogant, corrupt, and cocky in the early 90s.

00:22:04.000 And I think Wall Street was far too money-grubbing, was way too internationalist, and not patriotic enough.

00:22:12.000 Both sides are to blame for why we saw the erosion and the depletion of the American industrial heartland.

00:22:20.000 Connor, get the exact numbers.

00:22:21.000 I think it's something like 10 million jobs that were sent overseas.

00:22:25.000 So what ended up happening in the 90s is you would take a plant, for example, at General Electric.

00:22:32.000 Let's just use a nice American company like General Electric.

00:22:35.000 And maybe refrigerators were made in Ohio.

00:22:39.000 Or maybe a washing machine was made in Indiana.

00:22:42.000 Something super simple.

00:22:44.000 What ended up happening is because of an overly aggressive, a hyper-aggressive union posture, there were unrealistic and quite honestly profit-compromising demands that were being made by a lot of the unions that would be making refrigerators or whatever, textiles.

00:23:06.000 And so therefore, you'd have companies like General Electric bring in these consultants from New York City, from McKinsey and Company or Deloitte, and they would come in and they'd say, hey, I know that all of your workers are on strike right now because they don't want to make things for $12 an hour.

00:23:27.000 They want $14 an hour.

00:23:29.000 I know that all the workers in Fountain City, Indiana are on strike.

00:23:33.000 We get that.

00:23:35.000 But here's an idea, Deloitte would say.

00:23:38.000 Here's an idea, McKinsey would say.

00:23:41.000 Why don't you move your manufacturing facility from Winchester, Indiana, or from Troy, Ohio, to mainland China?

00:23:56.000 Now, this was resisted at first by the corporate class of these companies because they felt some loyalty, they felt some connection, they felt some anchoring to the American heartland.

00:24:10.000 At first, in the 90s, when this was proposed by the McKinsey and the Deloitte types, the number-crunching, penny-pursuing, Harvard and Stanford-educated finance people that had no loyalty to the country whatsoever, this was rejected.

00:24:26.000 But understand, this all worked together.

00:24:28.000 You see, the very same people that were encouraging the offshoring of American jobs from Troy, Ohio, or from Columbia, Missouri, they were educated at Harvard to believe America's not a great country.

00:24:45.000 You see, the introduction of critical race theory from Derek Bell in the early 90s and a very radical political agenda, all of a sudden we started to see the American consulting and financial class started to become increasingly internationalist-minded.

00:25:04.000 We then started to see slogans introduced through public awareness campaigns.

00:25:08.000 Remember the one that we are all citizens of the world, we are one of the world?

00:25:12.000 This was to try to liberate the American consciousness, move the Overton window, that it really isn't a bad thing.

00:25:20.000 In fact, it's a good thing that your refrigerators will now be made in Shanghai.

00:25:27.000 That it's a good thing that your washing machines will no longer be made in Indiana.

00:25:33.000 So you had a combination of the consultants advising General Electric and some of these other companies, and then they finally got textiles is where they started first.

00:25:42.000 That was the easiest one to offshore because people said, yeah, okay, whatever, shirts, I'm paying too much for a t-shirt.

00:25:47.000 But then they went for the critical stuff.

00:25:50.000 And at first, the CEOs of these companies were, they're like, I don't know, maybe we can get to a negotiation.

00:25:55.000 But then on the other side, you had increasingly unfair labor demands.

00:26:01.000 You had labor unions that were like, what?

00:26:04.000 You need us.

00:26:05.000 Leave?

00:26:05.000 What are you going to do?

00:26:07.000 What are you going to do?

00:26:07.000 Like, leave the country?

00:26:09.000 And they did. 0.95

00:26:11.000 Labor was way too arrogant and short-sighted. 0.94

00:26:17.000 They just were.

00:26:18.000 Not to mention we had in conjunction NAFTA, which offshore tons of jobs to Mexico, which if I were to choose Mexico or China, I'd choose Mexico in an instant, obviously.

00:26:28.000 But China was the one that offered a very compelling deal to actually subsidize the construction of these new manufacturing plants.

00:26:39.000 But then remember, we were told that this is actually kind of like an international charitable project.

00:26:45.000 That when you go buy a Nike shoe, you're actually helping some sort of poor infant be able to eat in Western China.

00:26:56.000 Then not to mention China's entrance into the World Trade Organization, I think that was in 2001, right?

00:27:04.000 Which then just further accelerated the nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs that were eroded due to trade and offshoring.

00:27:13.000 Now, at no point throughout this entire process did our leaders, except a couple people, credit to who?

00:27:21.000 Ross Perot, Donald Trump, believe it or not, Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders used to talk about this before he realized that he was on the wrong side of this.

00:27:33.000 Did any of them say, hold on a second, we know things will cost more in America.

00:27:40.000 But did you ever, making it in America, but did you ever consider these three factors?

00:27:45.000 Number one, it might be a higher quality product if you make it in America.

00:27:49.000 Number two, what are you going to do with the people that you displace from this?

00:27:52.000 Number three, what about those people then going on government benefits, being addicted to opioids?

00:27:59.000 Number four, are all products the same?

00:28:02.000 For example, the t-shirt I'm wearing, it's annoying that it might be made in Vietnam or China, whatever.

00:28:14.000 It's irritating.

00:28:17.000 But it's nowhere near as important as, oh, you're trying to tell me that we don't make rubber gloves in our country anymore?

00:28:26.000 That we don't make N95 masks in our country anymore?

00:28:31.000 You see, what happened is that we treated all products for offshoring the same, which of course can only be described by a ruling class that cared simply towards the promise of profits from McKinsey and Deloitte.

00:28:48.000 And then it became, guess what?

00:28:51.000 It became a pro, it became almost a machine.

00:28:57.000 Then all of a sudden, Harvard Business School started to teach classes on this.

00:29:01.000 How to offshore a company in six months or less.

00:29:04.000 You think I'm kidding?

00:29:04.000 That was a real type of class that was taught to the next generation of corporate types.

00:29:09.000 Then it became, hey, you're trying to tell me I can move a manufacturing facility from Montgomery City, Missouri to China, and then I can maximize profits by four cents on every t-shirt, even though there's costs of shipping things back and forth?

00:29:23.000 They said, yes.

00:29:24.000 Who cares about the external cost?

00:29:26.000 Who cares about the erosion of the American heartland? 0.93

00:29:29.000 Those people are deplorable anyway.

00:29:31.000 They own guns. 0.99

00:29:32.000 They're mostly Christian.

00:29:33.000 We don't like them anyway.

00:29:35.000 And Republicans never mentioned this.

00:29:38.000 In fact, it was Obama that actually did a better job of talking about the erosion of American manufacturing than Mitt Romney, who actually did this himself.

00:29:45.000 Mitt Romney actually went to literal plants in Indiana and told them, you no longer have jobs.

00:29:54.000 This is all going overseas.

00:29:57.000 And then we look around and we wonder why we have supply chain issues.

00:30:02.000 We wonder why all of a sudden the Chinese Communist Party is as strong as they are. 0.56

00:30:06.000 We did that.

00:30:07.000 The American ruling class did that. 0.97

00:30:09.000 But people like Jim Kramer, who say that, oh yeah, the economy is so wonderful.

00:30:13.000 No, no, no.

00:30:13.000 That is the failed muscle memory and the failed prism of looking at things, in fact, rather corrupt, from the 1980s and 1990s, where all you cared about was corporate profits and an inflated stock market.

00:30:24.000 And what the conservative movement is now saying, hold on, time out.

00:30:27.000 There's other things that are more important than that.

00:30:30.000 There are things that are much more important than just a $36,000 stock market.

00:30:35.000 Do we make things that matter in our country anymore?

00:30:38.000 Is it easier to have children?

00:30:40.000 Is the muscular class stronger or weaker?

00:30:45.000 As we celebrate the Christmas season, we often pause to consider our many blessings.

00:30:49.000 Hillsdale College wishes to thank you for standing with them as they celebrate over 177 years of blessings.

00:30:55.000 Since 1844, the Beacon of the North, the last college, Hillsdale College, has held fast to its mission to provide the kind of education essential to preserving free government.

00:31:04.000 And for decades, the college has extended its educational mission on behalf of liberty through a variety of outreach programs.

00:31:09.000 Perhaps you receive in Primus for every month or have taken one of Hillsdale's excellent online courses or attended one of Hillsdale's free regional events.

00:31:16.000 You know of Hillsdale's refusal to take even one penny of government money.

00:31:20.000 This independence allows the college to focus on promoting its core purpose, learning, character, faith, and freedom without government interference.

00:31:27.000 And no time in our nation's history has there been a greater need for this kind of classical liberal arts education that Hillsdale offers on its campuses and nationwide.

00:31:34.000 So during the season of blessings, Hillsdale thanks you for partnership in extending its mission to the country.

00:31:39.000 To learn more about Hillsdale College and take their online courses, the Aristotle course, the Winston Churchill course, the Dying Citizen course, which I'm about to wrap up with Victor Davis Hansen.

00:31:48.000 It's incredible.

00:31:49.000 Check it out.

00:31:50.000 New Victor Davis-Hansen course.

00:31:51.000 Go to charlieforhillsdale.com.

00:31:53.000 For parents out there, require your children to take at least one Hillsdale course before they get any Christmas gifts.

00:31:59.000 You see, I'm a very big fan of parents withholding good things unless kids do the necessary things.

00:32:07.000 Kids shouldn't just get Christmas gifts because they exist.

00:32:10.000 They should get Christmas gifts because they've earned them.

00:32:13.000 And by earning them, they need to take Hillsdale online courses to learn about Western civilization, learn about God, learn about Genesis, the book of Genesis, the Constitution, and more.

00:32:22.000 Charlie4Hillsdale.com, Charlie F-O-R-Hillsdale.com.

00:32:30.000 I'm texting back and forth with a friend from Chicago who makes a great point, which is we should not have unfettered trade with countries that do not believe the Constitution is the greatest political document ever written.

00:32:42.000 It's a really simple litmus test.

00:32:44.000 Do you believe in natural rights?

00:32:45.000 Do you believe in naturally God-granted rights?

00:32:48.000 Do you believe in the pursuit of liberty for individuals, separation of powers, consent to the governed, independent judiciary?

00:32:54.000 If you don't, then excuse us when we don't want to make you super rich and trade with you.

00:32:59.000 The Constitution needs to be the centerpiece for that.

00:33:02.000 No serious country would have tolerated this.

00:33:04.000 No serious country would have had cooperative trade with a nation that doesn't share that.

00:33:10.000 And what's so interesting is that one of the lies of the neoliberalism agenda, one of the lies of the internationalists was this.

00:33:19.000 I heard this all growing up, that the more we trade with China, they're going to become more like us.

00:33:28.000 This was the most compelling promise, by the way.

00:33:32.000 And it made sense because you had people say, hey, if we trade products, next thing you know, Beijing, it's going to look more like San Francisco.

00:33:43.000 And the opposite has happened.

00:33:44.000 San Francisco now looks more like Beijing, and Beijing's only become more authoritarian.

00:33:50.000 They played us.

00:33:51.000 They took the cheap products and the cheap money, and they've only become more nationalistic in a bad way, not a good way, more regime-oriented, and more authoritarian.

00:34:02.000 So, Jim, we started the show with Jim Kramer's commentary all about how wonderful the economy is going.

00:34:08.000 You could only believe the economy is going well if you have a simple, simply and strictly, let's say, basic focus on corporate growth.

00:34:21.000 Corporate growth can be a component that we should look at.

00:34:26.000 But is that the most important thing?

00:34:27.000 Is GDP growth the most important thing to a nation?

00:34:30.000 How about this?

00:34:31.000 It seems as if Jim Kramer and some Republicans think that if we have corporate growth and strong GDP growth, but an erosion of liberty, everything is fine.

00:34:40.000 Guess what?

00:34:40.000 I couldn't care less if GDP numbers are so high while we also have inflation and vaccine mandates and mask mandates and people who hate their country.

00:34:50.000 We are a country that has an economy in it.

00:34:55.000 We are not an economy that happens to be in a country.

00:34:59.000 Jim Kramer thinks that we're an economy that's just in a temporary placeholder place called America.

00:35:05.000 No, no, no.

00:35:06.000 We're a country that then establishes an economic system, one that's based largely in markets, and we should continue that tradition, private property, which is a moral good, trade and commerce, entrepreneurship, but we're not one that wants to elevate, protect, and defend plutocrats for the sake of Bezos being worth $200 billion.

00:35:29.000 I care much more about whether or not our liberty is being protected, the pursuit of virtue is being protected, whether our natural rights are being protected, whether the Constitution is going to remain intact, and whether or not we're going to be able to have more children share our values and more children in general than whether or not Jim Cramer's price to earning ratios are complete.

00:35:52.000 Economics are important, but economics are a part of a broader analysis of whether or not our republic is strong or falling apart.

00:36:06.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:36:07.000 Email us your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:36:10.000 And if you want to support our show, you can do so at charliekirk.com slash support.

00:36:14.000 Thank you so much for listening, everybody.

00:36:16.000 God bless.

00:36:19.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - December 10, 2021

How Neoliberalism Failed the American Economy

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