00:00:00.000Hey everybody, today on the Charlie Kirk show, we ask the question, is the economy working for you?
00:00:06.000This is a comprehensive economic-minded episode.
00:00:10.000And if that interests you, I think you'll really enjoy this.
00:00:12.000We don't just go about jobs being created, not being created.
00:00:14.000We go deeper about what does it mean to actually structure an economy using market principles for the pursuit of the betterment of the nation.
00:00:29.000We 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.
00:00:48.000Pastor Jack Kibbs, James O'Keefe, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, tpusa.com slash AMFEST.
00:00:55.000Full concerts by Brantley Gilbert, Dustin Lynch, and more.
00:00:58.000Promo code Charlie for 25% off December 18, December 19, December 20, December 21, Phoenix, Arizona.
00:01:51.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:02:37.000I think we went into that rather extensively yesterday.
00:02:40.000But there's one clip I saw that was so outrageous.
00:02:43.000And you really have two competing teams in America.
00:02:46.000You have team thankful and team unthankful, but also team reality and team utopia and insanity.
00:02:54.000The division between the two are rather dramatic.
00:02:58.000News reports have come out that shows that the Biden regime has been working the activist news network to try to get more positive coverage.
00:03:06.000You 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.
00:03:18.000Now, even the New York Times came out this morning and said, quote, America's weak economy.
00:03:25.000This is the New York Times by David Leonhart.
00:03:56.000Now, 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.
00:04:13.000Levels of stress, sadness, and loneliness are at record high levels.
00:04:19.000Interestingly enough, Republicans, when polled, 79% say they feel enjoyment on a daily basis.
00:06:04.000We have all spotted the endless help-wanted signs, the housing and apartment shortages, the tremendous demand for goods and services, a marvel to behold.
00:06:13.000Oh, people are confident about their jobs.
00:08:37.000I'm telling you, that article is going to come out soon.
00:08:40.000Inflation is actually a gift for people that have a bunch of debt.
00:08:44.000This 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.
00:09:02.000We owe more money than our country is even collectively worth.
00:09:06.000And what is the Biden regime and Mitch McConnell's solution?
00:09:09.000Spend $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.
00:09:23.000But 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.
00:09:33.000It is the best economy if you're not working with your hands.
00:09:37.000It 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.
00:09:46.000Elon Musk's net worth has gone up 612%.
00:09:52.000Elon Musk's net worth has gone up by $150 billion in the last 17 months.
00:10:00.000Bill Gates' net worth has gone up $32 billion.
00:10:45.000I recently received a question from a listener.
00:10:47.000She wanted to know if it was possible to avoid digestion problems by eating only healthy organic food.
00:10:52.000It was a nice thought, but unfortunately, it's just not possible.
00:10:55.000You see, your natural ability to digest food declines with age.
00:10:58.000This is because your body produces fewer enzymes, which are proteins responsible for digesting food.
00:11:03.000Fewer enzymes mean more difficulty digesting food.
00:11:05.000Even organic foods won't provide enough enzymes to properly digest them.
00:11:09.000This is especially true if you cook your food because cooking kills enzymes.
00:11:12.000This is why you have digestion problems even after a healthy meal.
00:11:16.000Your body just can't produce enough enzymes to get the job done.
00:11:19.000That's why you need to supplement with a high-quality enzyme supplement that could be a huge help.
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00:11:26.000It is the best-in-class supplement loaded with full-spectrum enzymes for digesting protein, starches, sugars, fibers, and fats.
00:11:32.000Taking Mass Zymes daily helps top off your enzyme levels and replace the enzymes your body is no longer producing.
00:11:39.000Listen, life is too short to suffer from digestion problems.
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00:11:50.000For an exclusive offer, my listeners can go to masszymes.com slash kirk, m-a-s-s-z-y-m-e-s.com slash kirk.
00:12:25.000I 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.
00:12:47.000I think we as conservatives should never get away from that.
00:12:50.000I think that's a good tradition to generally defend and believe in.
00:12:56.000But I suppose it also warrants the question, though, of are all experiments in the market created equal?
00:13:06.000Every entrepreneur should be treated with the same moral approach or the same moral footing, I guess you could say, as all others.
00:13:17.000For example, Jeff Bezos being worth $188 billion, should that be a celebration of the American free enterprise system?
00:13:31.000Or 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.
00:13:54.000What 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.
00:14:01.000But 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.
00:14:14.000Phil Knight, the head of Nike, $32 billion.
00:14:18.000Phil Knight then comes out and the CEO of Nike says that Nike is a Chinese company, not an American company.
00:14:32.000No, 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.
00:14:58.000And so while we as conservatives should always be appreciative, supportive of markets, markets are the best way to organize human behavior.
00:15:10.000Because that's generally not centrally organized, because centrally organizing things doesn't always work out.
00:15:15.000With that being said, we should not be afraid to take precise and prudent and targeted action towards certain outcomes that we want to see.
00:15:26.000For example, we should make it easier to have children in this country.
00:16:18.000Markets should serve a purpose, they should serve human beings and a national project.
00:16:24.000When 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.
00:16:57.000Inflation is here, everybody, and you've got to do something about it.
00:17:00.000Put some of your assets into precious metals, and it will keep your money away from the volatility markets and inflation to let you sleep at night.
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00:18:45.000I love markets when they serve people.
00:18:48.000I love entrepreneurs and people starting new things.
00:18:51.000I 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.
00:19:00.000I think that's unique, and we should never lose that ever.
00:19:03.000But I think we can also agree that, in all things, balance and moderation.
00:19:09.000And 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.
00:19:26.000They wanted an excuse to re-domicile labor from wheeling West Virginia to Wuhan China.
00:19:35.000You see, in the late 70s and early 80s, there was massive inflation in America for a variety of different reasons.
00:19:44.000There was inflation because of stupid monetary policy and also Jimmy Carter confiscatory fiscal policy.
00:19:51.000Too high of taxes, sluggish regulation.
00:19:54.000The American entrepreneur was depleted.
00:19:57.000And the way that the conservative movement tells the story of Ronald Reagan is not inaccurate, but it's incomplete.
00:20:03.000First of all, Ronald Reagan was a cheerleader.
00:20:06.000He was able to excite new entrepreneurs.
00:20:09.000But Ronald Reagan also was unafraid to impose tariffs on our competitors.
00:20:18.000Los Angeles Times headline: 1987: Reagan imposes 100% tariffs on Japan goods on the semiconductor industry.
00:20:29.000Now, some would say that Silicon Valley's semiconductor boom was largely made possible thanks to Ronald Reagan's protection.
00:20:41.000That's right, because we always get to say, oh, you don't want to be protectionist.
00:20:44.000Well, why wouldn't we want to be protection against some core industries?
00:20:48.000Now, I've become rather, let's say, opinionated on this topic.
00:20:56.000I think that we should protect a lot of different industries.
00:20:59.000But I don't think any puritanical person would say, you know what?
00:21:05.000I think it's a good idea for China to have all the access to rare earth minerals.
00:21:11.000Well, 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.
00:21:25.000In 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.
00:21:36.000Alongside 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.
00:21:50.000So I will probably have the most nuanced, balanced, and neutral view of this topic because I think everyone is to blame.
00:21:57.000I think labor was far too arrogant, corrupt, and cocky in the early 90s.
00:22:04.000And I think Wall Street was far too money-grubbing, was way too internationalist, and not patriotic enough.
00:22:12.000Both sides are to blame for why we saw the erosion and the depletion of the American industrial heartland.
00:22:44.000What 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.
00:23:06.000And 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.
00:23:41.000Why don't you move your manufacturing facility from Winchester, Indiana, or from Troy, Ohio, to mainland China?
00:23:56.000Now, 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.
00:24:10.000At 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.
00:24:26.000But understand, this all worked together.
00:24:28.000You 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.
00:24:45.000You 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.
00:25:04.000We then started to see slogans introduced through public awareness campaigns.
00:25:08.000Remember the one that we are all citizens of the world, we are one of the world?
00:25:12.000This was to try to liberate the American consciousness, move the Overton window, that it really isn't a bad thing.
00:25:20.000In fact, it's a good thing that your refrigerators will now be made in Shanghai.
00:25:27.000That it's a good thing that your washing machines will no longer be made in Indiana.
00:25:33.000So 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.
00:25:42.000That was the easiest one to offshore because people said, yeah, okay, whatever, shirts, I'm paying too much for a t-shirt.
00:25:47.000But then they went for the critical stuff.
00:25:50.000And at first, the CEOs of these companies were, they're like, I don't know, maybe we can get to a negotiation.
00:25:55.000But then on the other side, you had increasingly unfair labor demands.
00:26:01.000You had labor unions that were like, what?
00:26:18.000Not 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.
00:26:28.000But China was the one that offered a very compelling deal to actually subsidize the construction of these new manufacturing plants.
00:26:39.000But then remember, we were told that this is actually kind of like an international charitable project.
00:26:45.000That when you go buy a Nike shoe, you're actually helping some sort of poor infant be able to eat in Western China.
00:26:56.000Then not to mention China's entrance into the World Trade Organization, I think that was in 2001, right?
00:27:04.000Which then just further accelerated the nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs that were eroded due to trade and offshoring.
00:27:13.000Now, at no point throughout this entire process did our leaders, except a couple people, credit to who?
00:27:21.000Ross 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.
00:27:33.000Did any of them say, hold on a second, we know things will cost more in America.
00:27:40.000But did you ever, making it in America, but did you ever consider these three factors?
00:27:45.000Number one, it might be a higher quality product if you make it in America.
00:27:49.000Number two, what are you going to do with the people that you displace from this?
00:27:52.000Number three, what about those people then going on government benefits, being addicted to opioids?
00:27:59.000Number four, are all products the same?
00:28:02.000For example, the t-shirt I'm wearing, it's annoying that it might be made in Vietnam or China, whatever.
00:28:17.000But 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?
00:28:26.000That we don't make N95 masks in our country anymore?
00:28:31.000You 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.
00:29:04.000That was a real type of class that was taught to the next generation of corporate types.
00:29:09.000Then 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?
00:29:38.000In 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.
00:29:45.000Mitt Romney actually went to literal plants in Indiana and told them, you no longer have jobs.
00:30:13.000That 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.
00:30:24.000And what the conservative movement is now saying, hold on, time out.
00:30:27.000There's other things that are more important than that.
00:30:30.000There are things that are much more important than just a $36,000 stock market.
00:30:35.000Do we make things that matter in our country anymore?
00:30:40.000Is the muscular class stronger or weaker?
00:30:45.000As we celebrate the Christmas season, we often pause to consider our many blessings.
00:30:49.000Hillsdale College wishes to thank you for standing with them as they celebrate over 177 years of blessings.
00:30:55.000Since 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.
00:31:04.000And for decades, the college has extended its educational mission on behalf of liberty through a variety of outreach programs.
00:31:09.000Perhaps 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.
00:31:16.000You know of Hillsdale's refusal to take even one penny of government money.
00:31:20.000This independence allows the college to focus on promoting its core purpose, learning, character, faith, and freedom without government interference.
00:31:27.000And 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.
00:31:34.000So during the season of blessings, Hillsdale thanks you for partnership in extending its mission to the country.
00:31:39.000To 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.
00:31:53.000For parents out there, require your children to take at least one Hillsdale course before they get any Christmas gifts.
00:31:59.000You see, I'm a very big fan of parents withholding good things unless kids do the necessary things.
00:32:07.000Kids shouldn't just get Christmas gifts because they exist.
00:32:10.000They should get Christmas gifts because they've earned them.
00:32:13.000And 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.
00:32:22.000Charlie4Hillsdale.com, Charlie F-O-R-Hillsdale.com.
00:32:30.000I'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.
00:32:45.000Do you believe in naturally God-granted rights?
00:32:48.000Do you believe in the pursuit of liberty for individuals, separation of powers, consent to the governed, independent judiciary?
00:32:54.000If you don't, then excuse us when we don't want to make you super rich and trade with you.
00:32:59.000The Constitution needs to be the centerpiece for that.
00:33:02.000No serious country would have tolerated this.
00:33:04.000No serious country would have had cooperative trade with a nation that doesn't share that.
00:33:10.000And what's so interesting is that one of the lies of the neoliberalism agenda, one of the lies of the internationalists was this.
00:33:19.000I heard this all growing up, that the more we trade with China, they're going to become more like us.
00:33:28.000This was the most compelling promise, by the way.
00:33:32.000And 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.
00:33:51.000They 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.
00:34:02.000So, Jim, we started the show with Jim Kramer's commentary all about how wonderful the economy is going.
00:34:08.000You could only believe the economy is going well if you have a simple, simply and strictly, let's say, basic focus on corporate growth.
00:34:21.000Corporate growth can be a component that we should look at.
00:34:31.000It 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.
00:34:40.000I 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.
00:34:50.000We are a country that has an economy in it.
00:34:55.000We are not an economy that happens to be in a country.
00:34:59.000Jim Kramer thinks that we're an economy that's just in a temporary placeholder place called America.
00:35:06.000We'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.
00:35:29.000I 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.
00:35:52.000Economics are important, but economics are a part of a broader analysis of whether or not our republic is strong or falling apart.
00:36:06.000Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:36:07.000Email us your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:36:10.000And if you want to support our show, you can do so at charliekirk.com slash support.
00:36:14.000Thank you so much for listening, everybody.