Latest / The Sense and Senseless Podcast / EP: 72 Cheap Labor to $770 Car Notes and Why We’re All Still Underwater
Transcript
- Bryan: the whole thing is to give money to the shareholders. We've become I don't even know if we care about customers that much anymore. I think we care about shareholders more than we care about customers now. And it's even though the customers pay the bills, it's what the shareholders need because they need that extra money coming in so they can reinvest it into something else. All right, you ready? Do this last one. This this is sense and senseless. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: Welcome back to the Sense and Senseless Podcast. I am Brian. Jason: No, I'm Chase. Bryan: Yeah, Jason. It's your first time joining us. Welcome to the family. We're just two guys discussing shit in a way that everyone can understand. Well, we hope you can understand us at least anyway. Tonight we're going to discuss how dirty floors and a condo sent me down a rabbit hole of cheap labor, All right, let's get into it. Last week I was on vacation. And the condo we Jason: Sucker. Bryan: were staying in, it wasn't clean very well. not not like it was like dirty dirty, you know. It Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: was it wasn't it wasn't clean either. You know what I'm saying? It's like Jason: Yeah. Bryan: the floors could have used some love. Let's just put it that way. Anyway, this got me to thinking about the cheap labor we have here in the United States. And how the cheap labor pool has evolved over generations. And before I get too deep in the weeds, I want to give you some back more background into my thinking and how I got to where we're going to go to discuss tonight. So my wife had made some comments about the cleanliness of the condo and that we pay for a cleaning fee to have the place clean, not half-assed clean. Right. And I I agree with her, you know, but instead of calling the property manager, I started to think about. How did this happen? In my mind, of course. I don't know exactly how the fuck it happened, but this is how I thought it happened. How do we get to a point to where cleaning services are doing shitty work is what I'm thinking about. And I, again, I have no evidence on what I'm about to talk about or other than the way I think. However, I I will show you the evidence of how cheap labor of different ethnic groups is generational. I don't know this to be true, but for the sake of this discussion, let's just say the cleaning crew that cleaned the condo we were staying in was Latino. Let's just, all right. I'm sure when they first started cleaning condos, they worked their ass off to make sure everything was perfect. They wanted to make sure that they kept their job and that the people knew that they were hard workers. And this was good for a while. Not sure how long, but you you can imagine that you you come from a place of hardship. And now you have a way to make a good good money compared to where you were at, right? So you want to do a good job. Jason: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Bryan: But as years go by, you realize that you're being underpaid. And not only you're being underpaid, but you're being asked to clean more condos in the same amount of time than you're already working. So you devise a system to manage what your boss wants. And while you're not happy with your pay, you need your job. So you keep pushing forward every day. Then just like all bosses. Since you're efficient at with your work, well, you know what? You can do more work. Therefore, they add more condos Jason: Yeah. Bryan: on you. All right. Until Jason: Right. Bryan: you realize doing a good job is only hurting you. You're busting your ass to do half ass work to please a boss that's always wanting more. And it that it's just not worth it. Jason: Right. Bryan: Then someone like me comes to town, checks into the condo, not satisfied with the cleanliness of the condo. While I didn't call the manager of the place. If I did, I'm sure they would have sent someone over to take care of any issue I had, you know? Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: But they would have likely berated the team or the person that previously cleaned the condo because it wasn't clean to their satisfaction. Even though it will it likely wasn't clean correctly because the boss is overloading his or her workers. Therefore, the workers getting their ass chewed because the boss is too cheap to pay even either overtime or more workers to do the job correctly. So eventually these workers understand the game and move on from companies like this. It may take a couple more generations for the new ethnic group that has been taken advantage of to move on to better opportunities, but it does happen. This is why we have so many ethnic groups that claim they can build America. They aren't lying. The U.S. had many ethnic groups help build America. Not one has done it all alone. The need or want for cheap labor has always been around. And when the ethnic group That has been providing the cheap labor pushes back for proper wages and treatment, they're replaced with another ethnic group that will work for the wages offered to the current group or even lower wages. Now, I can't prove that this is something that corporations do on purpose. But when you look at history and how new ethnic groups that came to America were exploited for cheap labor, you can draw a line to this as very possible strategy by these corporations and companies. Show you this graph. Here's some examples over time. Now, this is just simplified and it's a high level to show a turnover in cheap labor. There were numerous ethnic groups that were part of building America, but for discussion, I'm trying to keep it simple. some people will say, well, we need all these immigrants, and and I'm not gonna argue that we don't need immigrants. Do we need legal immigrants today? No, I think we have enough workers in here. But Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: yet we still bring in workers here. And JD Vance is telling us about a disturbing incident dealing with being replaced at work, and this being replaced at work was by an immigrant. Listen to what happened. Pretty fucked up, huh? Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: Gotta train your replacement. Jason: I'm not saying that that don't happen. You think he made that story up or if that was true? Bryan: I heard from multiple sources that telling that story. Jason: Okay. Bryan: So I would assume that it's true. if he made it up it's pretty powerful story. Jason: it yeah, I mean it's messed up. Bryan: and that was the H one B. And we we we're gonna talk about that real quick. So we have major companies that's still laying off people and replacing people with slave labor through H one B. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: And here's some examples. Walt Disney World in twenty fifteen, about two hundred and fifty IT workers were laid off and had to train replacements. a lot of these workers come from India and there was a lot of fraud involved in this system. Amazon's the bigger offender of this. In 2022 and 2023, they let off 27,000 people. They turned around and hired roughly 19,000 H1B workers between 2022 and 2025. Meta laid off 21,000 to 31,000 in Twenty twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three and turned around and hired forty eight hundred H one B workers between twenty twenty two and twenty twenty five. And why are we doing this to our people? You know, it Jason: Make a dollar. Bryan: it's sad that we're just getting rid of our people. But here's Trump, and I played this before. when Trump first came into office, this was in the first few months, and he sat down and had this interview with Laura Ingram, and it it shocked the shit out of me. This is w whenever When I heard him say this, this was the first signal to me that yeah, this ain't the guy that I voted for. Jason: Mm. Bryan: That's the leader of our country. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: We gotta bring in foreigners 'cause our people aren't good enough. Fucked up. Jason: We're gonna bring in foreigners that he says we're getting rid of foreigners. Bryan: Yeah. Jason: They went and took all they went and raided that factory in Georgia and man, we can't be doing that. Then Bryan: But we gotta have mass deportation. Jason: He was the one telling to do it. Bryan: I don't know. I don't know, dude. Jason: I I d I don't see these interviews, so I had no idea. Yeah, I'm like sitting there listening to him. I'm like Tell me somebody w had you go back and watch that and listen to yourself. Bryan: Yeah, that was early on in this it was right after he got a came into office, not elected, but came into office. And that was like that's not the guy that I voted for. Jason: I thought that wasn't like too long ago. Bryan: No, that was twenty twenty five. That wasn't long Jason: Okay. Bryan: ago. I mean it was l little more than a year ago. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: But I think now he's he I think he might even put a price tag on H one B and shit like that if you want to get in the front of the line. But we're gonna talk about how corrupt this shit is. So he's saying that we need to get these people from overseas because basically they're better, right? I want you Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: to just keep that in your mind because I'm gonna show you some shit. But f Jason: Yeah, they're more talented. Bryan: but first, let's look at some of this shit. The H one B is It's a temporary work visa. It's meant for jobs that normally require at least a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in a specific field. Things like software, engineering, data science, accounting, architecture, medicine, and certain scientific roles. It is not for ordinary, unskilled, or general labor jobs. So how is this supposed to work? This is a simple form of it. A U.S. company wants to hire someone who is not a U.S. citizen or a green card holder. The company files paperwork with the government saying the job requires a college level skill. They will pay at least the prevailing wage with similar U.S. workers in that area, job typically earned. Hiring this person will not harm the wages or working conditions of U.S. workers. If more companies apply than there are visas available, the government runs a lottery. If selected, the worker can come to or stay in the U.S. and work. Only for that sponsoring employer in that specific job. The worker is tied to the employer. If they lose the job, they usually have a short time to find another H1B sponsor or they must leave the country. The visa is usually valid for three years and can be extended another three years, six years total in most cases. Many H1B workers later apply for a green card. through their employer, but the H one B itself is temporary. Now that's how it's supposed to work. They basically a slave, well I can't say a slave. They held to the company because that's the only company they can work for, right? So it's it's basically slave labor. However you want to fucking look at it. Jason: Yeah, the company owns them. Bryan: So that's how it's supposed to work. Jason: Pulse to Bryan: Post to this is a Indian lady that Absolutely not. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: So Trump's telling us that our people aren't smart enough. This lady's saying there's nothing special about the H1B workers. Not to say that you can't get, you know, the H1B workers and have great talent. I mean, I'm sure that's quite possible. And I'm sure there Jason: Right. Bryan: are all ones that come through. But to say that's the status quo, I think you would be lying based off of what that lady's saying. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: And to add this issue, I mean, as we all know, the U.S. is currently a well welfare state. And The problem is here in the U.S., we made the welfare system a fucking way of life. And we're given no incentives for people to get off welfare. There are labor studies that show when offered proper wages and safety, Americans are willing to take these so-called quote, unwanted jobs that are given to foreign workers. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: But when you can sit at home and collect from the government more than you can make working in a hard job, the choice becomes easy for a lot of people. On average, the H one B employee earns fifteen to sixteen percent less than the US employee. The H one B employees are taking good paying jobs as they often have jobs with a salary of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year on average. That's the H one B. Well above the median wage of sixty five thousand for the US worker. Just for comparison, first generation immigrants normally earn roughly eleven percent less than the US worker for doing the same work or working on the same employer. In twenty twenty three, About twenty one percent of the population lived in a household that received any amount from welfare, snap, or social security at some point during the year. we got a lot of people that need these benefits. I'm not gonna say we don't, but I'm sure it has a lot of people that's on it just because it's easier than going out and working your ass off, Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: you know, for less money in some cases. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: These people are having to work and use government assistance to help subsidize their income due to having a low income job. This is what government assistance is for, correct? To help families Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: grow and succeed, to give the poor a chance. Jason: Yep. Bryan: However, there's little to no advantage for them to move up the ladder because that normally comes with more money, but not enough money to cover the bills. But just enough money to cross the threshold of not being able to collect government benefits. Jason: Uh-huh. Bryan: Which in turn leaves the worker poor by being more successful, keeping your nose Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: right below the waterline. I mean is this shit by design? Yeah. I don't know. But here's a video explaining it. To make any sense? Jason: makes a lot of sense. Bryan: It's fucked up, huh? Jason: Yeah, but that's an easy one though. Bryan: What's that? Jason: Just it's like keeping just their head above water just enough to because you you give those programs, then isn't that how you get votes? Bryan: yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You make believe that yeah, you the one helping Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: And without you if you if you don't vote for me then they gonna get rid of your benefits and you you know, you can't Jason: It's it sounds like a pimp to a hoe, don't it? Bryan: Yeah, it's pretty fucked up when you think of it like that. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: Now, this does doesn't benefit the worker. Companies benefit from this shit too though. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: so let's look at how some of our major corporations are subsidizing employee pay with government benefits. Well, like like I was telling you earlier, I I can't honestly tell you that's what they're doing, but that's what's happening. Have you heard of the low wage twenty? So this is from Meta Intro, and it's America's 20 largest low wage employers who's paying workers the least in 2026. I didn't know anything about what this was, the low wage 20. just something I run across. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: So it says a March 2026 Institute of Policy Studies report on the low wage 20 offers the most direct. Recent analysis. It identifies 20 S P five hundred companies with primary US based workforces that reported the lowest median wages in 2024. These companies collectively employ about six point seven million US workers. Okay. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: Here's the full list, and you'll recognize pretty much all of them. The full list of the low wage 20 include, Amazon, AutoZone, Best Buy, Chipotle, Costco Wholesale. You got Darden Restaurants, and in case you don't recognize Darden restaurants, they own Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Ruth Chris, Cheddar's Chewy's, and a few other restaurants. We got Dollar General, the Dollar Tree, FedEx, Home Depot, Kroger, Lowe's, MGN Resorts International, O'Reilly's Automotive, Ross Stars, Starbucks, Target, the TJX companies, that's your TJ Maxx and Home Goods and shit like that, those stores. Tyson Foods and Walmart. That's the top 20. The median pay across the group averaged roughly $29,087 a year. It ranged from about nine, $9,600 and From Raw stores to $47,000 at MGM Resorts. Walmart's median wage was around $29,469 per year. Amazon's was higher, around $37,000. 15 of 20 had median pay below the $35,631 income threshold for family of three to qualify for Medicaid in most states. 13 of the 20 fell below the thirty-three thousand five hundred and seventy six snap food assistance threshold for a family of three. And all twenty had medians below the fifty nine thousand six hundred needed to afford average US two bedroom rent. Now, the kind of autumn of this is these companies don't receive the subsidies from the government, therefore they're not subsidized by the government, the employees are. But it sure looks like they're getting away with lower wages by the employees relying on the government to get them to the level of surviving. Jason: That's what I mean. It's it's almost like what I think we were talking earlier. This company can like make record high profits because their overhead is whoop down there at the bottom because the government the government isn't hooking that company up. But by God, they're taking care of the people. And what did they just say? If that woman gets a raise, she's not that they're not going nowhere. And they don't want nothing else because they'll lose their benefits. government subsidy is guaranteed unless somebody comes in there and wrecks it and no how long's it been around? That that'd be a a thread to pull. How long has this been around and nobody has wrecked the system yet? They keep threatening to clean it up, but they never do. So these people know Bryan: Yeah, they're not gonna take it but like you said, it it's it's a political pawn. Jason: Yeah, it is. And it buys votes. That's a that's the quickest way to buy votes from from people. D look at all these dollar stores popping up, dude. Bryan: it's some money, you know? Jason: I'm saying Bryan: I keep it Jason: that they pop up all over the place. Like they're all over the rural area and all that. Who's more who who who pushes welfare more? The Dems or the Repubs? Bryan: I'd say the Democrats do. Jason: Okay. If the Democrats want want to infiltrate the rural area more on votes and stuff like that, then you you get businesses like that to infiltrate those areas to offer jobs that you can make some money and you still get your damn government benefits. Bryan: I could tell you the fan Jason: I know that's deep. I know that's deep, but Bryan: not arguing that but I can tell you the family dollar and the and the dollar tree that we have close to the house, those poor people that work there, I mean their companies work the shit out of I mean they very Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: understaffed. Every n very seldom you go there and see more than one person in there. Jason: Yeah, dollar store is like two people in there. Bryan: Yeah, and I mean they're trying to stock shelves and they're trying to do all this stuff. And it's like, are you serious? Gotta unload trucks. And Jason: And w yeah. And wait on customers. Yeah. Bryan: they like, yeah, we are only allowed to work so many hours. And Jason: Well, when when Holly worked at Walmart before she got on with where I worked, right, they would only allow her to work so many hours and then they cut her off because they didn't want to pay her benefits. Or they wanted to have some wiggle room too to have her come in if like to call her in if somebody calling in and not have to pay her overtime. Bryan: I can see that. Jason: So they wouldn't give her forty hours, they give her thirty two. Bryan: So she stays part time and she don't get any benefits and everything. Jason: That's right. Bryan: I can see that. All right. So as a group, the CEO to median employee income of that twenty stores they have right there. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: Or twenty companies, should I say? I'm not twenty stores, twenty companies. Jason: I don't even y you're probably gonna piss me off with this one, aren't you? Bryan: The CEO to median employee income, eight ninety-nine to one. That's the average. Jason: So for every one dollar the employee makes, he's making eight hundred ninety nine. Bryan: With Starbucks being the highest at six thousand six hundred and sixty six to one. And Amazon was the lowest at forty three to one. The average on the SP five hundred's two eighty five to one. Just FY, the companies we work for in the middle range of the S P five hundred. I I Jason: Are they? Bryan: I ran the number in that also. Yeah, so we we middle. We we we we both doing all right. We're not out there Jason: Or do not I Bryan: and we're not Now, and don't get me wrong, I understand these aren't technical jobs. You know, some people say, well, damn, you know, it's you know, they they're not making these, they're not doing these hard jobs. I I get it. You know, I'm I'm not arguing for a higher minimum wage, but there's gotta be a better way. Yeah. And I I get we all have to build our worth. We just do, you know. Well, most people do. The people I know and associate with, they they had to build their worth. Imagine Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: some people probably just get a good job 'cause somebody gave it to because they knew somebody. Jason: Yeah, they know something or their family knows somebody. I mean, I never had that. Bryan: No, I'm sure anyone that's listening to this ain't fucking had that. Jason: Yeah. You talk about having that go with your parents like, why couldn't y'all known anybody? Why couldn't y'all had something? Bryan: Yeah. Jason: Has our family been pieces shits our whole lives or what? Was there nobody in our family tree that didn't own a business or Bryan: What what do you call a business? Is it a pimp a business? Jason: Yeah. I mean, the way you sounded earlier, maybe your family owned a dildo factory or something. I don't know. Little little black dildos with eighteen Yeah. Little black Bryan: That's right. You don't know. You don't know. We we don't own We we own a test factory. We just test them. Jason: ones with blended in buttons that do eighteen features. Bryan: Think about it, when a CEO of a company like Starbucks makes six thousand times more than the average worker, that that's a little Jason: Yeah. Bryan: fucked up. Jason: It is. Bryan: And to me it's just another part of history with just cheap labor and we just watching it be written in in real time. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: that's something else I found while I was looking at all this shit. 24% of Americans have no emergency savings at all. An additional 30% have some savings, but not enough to cover three months of expenses. The US news surveys have found 40 to 43% of adults are unable to cover a thousand dollar emergency from savings in cash. Empower research has reported median emergency savings around five hundred to six hundred dollars, with twenty-one to thirty-two percent having no savings at all. So about twenty-four percent of US adults have no emergency savings at all. Twenty-nine percent have more credit card debt than emergency savings, and roughly nineteen percent have neither credit card debt nor emergency savings. According to transunion data for second quarter 2026, the average credit card balance per person is roughly $6,500 to $6,700. Other recent estimates put averages balances for those carrying debt in around seven thousand to seventy seven hundred range. And the total, and we talked about this before, the total US credit card debt has hovered near or around one point two to one point two six trillion dollars. That's how much money Jason: Gosh. Bryan: we're holding on credit card debt in this country. So we don't have enough, say, for a thousand dollar emergency and we have seven thousand dollars in credit card debt. It sounds like we're doing great as a as a country. Showed you earlier that our government's forty trillion dollars in debt. We're tracing one point two trillion dollars just in interest alone every fucking year. What we were spending was like what three point five billion dollars a day just on interest or some shit like that. And the people in this country are are broke too. Now, you you found what you wanna talk about? What you got? Jason: yeah. So my CEO it says that it would take me about twenty and a half years earning to equal one year of his pay. Bryan: Twenty years for one. Jason: Twenty and a half years for of my earning to equal one year of his pay. Bryan: So twenty to one, huh? Jason: And I made good money. He made He makes his base salary is two point five million a year. Bryan: Is it? Jason: His target annual bonus of three hundred percent of salary is up to seven point five million. And his target long or his target long term incentives of twenty three million annually. So this puts his target annual compensation package at roughly thirty three million dollars. Bryan: Damn. And we think we made it. Jason: So he made six point four seven million total reported compensations in twenty twenty five. Six point four seven million, dude. And I'm like Bryan: That's crazy. Jason: Yeah. He made it says that I make that I gross like Telling on myself here. I gross a certain amount per month, double digit, low, low double digit, and he grossed two hundred and eight thousand three hundred and thirty-three per month. I mean that's crazy. I know. I know. That'd take Bryan: In a month. I won't make that in a few years. Jason: me two years to make what he makes in a month. Bryan: That's the fucking unreal. That's like Jason: It's crazy. But I mean he's he's got a lot on his hands too, so I mean he's a go go you. I mean he I'm just saying he he doesn't own the company. He's the CEO. I'm the stairholders own the company. We're publicly traded. So I mean, go you. Good for him. I'm I'm being honest. I mean Bryan: I'm not mad at any of them. My whole it's just is a can we close the gap a little bit? Jason: Can we can we can can we gap y just a little bit? Bryan: I mean fuck. Do we have to get fucked so bad all the time? Jason: Yeah, yeah. Bryan: And he's getting you know why he's getting paid that kind of money? It's because most CEOs get paid that kind of money because the shareholders pay him to keep everything down to make them more profitable. Jason: Yes. Bryan: Yeah, it's nothing about the company and this the whole thing is to give money to the shareholders. We've become I don't even know if we care about customers that much anymore. I think we care about shareholders more than we care about customers now. And it's even though the customers pay the bills, it's what the shareholders need because they need that extra money coming in so they can reinvest it into something else. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: Now we've talked about the cloud pivot strategy before, but I wanted to play the video again because I think it fits here also. Here's Cloud Pivot Strategy. People are fucking crazy, dude. Jason: Look how old she is. So that has Bryan: And she's still just Jason: nothing to do with generation. Bryan: No. Jason: You know what I'm saying? Her generation wasn't it it's just w people like like people talked about your grandpa you knew that girl but your grandpa knew women. You know what I'm saying? It Bryan: Yeah. Jason: it everybody's the same every there's differences, don't get me wrong, but for the most part it's it's just groundhog day every generation. Bryan: It is. And like we discussed in the elders thing, I think it's because, you know, we we don't listen to what history was. We don't listen to people tell us what the what the history was. We we Jason: Yeah, but where did she get her damn history from? yeah. Bryan: That's what I'm getting at. None of us do. Jason: Well I get yeah. Bryan: You know, each generation, like what you know now in your mind from your Jason: Right. Right. Bryan: life experiences is important to you and would probably be very important to your son and other people. They're not going to listen to you no more than you listen to your dad. You know what I'm saying? Jason: I know. I know, but I'm just saying when grandpa or your grandparents or somebody was trying to give you advice and now you look back and see it was sound advice, you just want I wouldn't want to be giving advice from that woman there that was just on that Bryan: Well, Jason: thing. Bryan: I I think with her though, and I I think this is for like the lot of people that we were looking at earlier at the Trump rally and they were asking questions and he was saying how they're devoted to to whoever there it is, whether it's red or blue, they're devoted. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: That lady's half of that strategy that wrote that strategy, Jason: Right. Bryan: so she's devoted her life to that. So she's a straight activist. Jason: Right. Bryan: You know, so she's not gonna change. Jason: Yeah, I'm just trying to see where your mindset comes that that's a good good way to live, like socialism. I just don't understand that. Bryan: I don't. I d I don't no. I don't think socialism is a good I think when you do socialism, you just have a bunch you end up with a bunch of people that just quit trying. Jason: Right. Bryan: You know, I it's like why? Why do I you're almost there now? Cause Jason: Right. Bryan: you got you you go to work, you bust your ass, that guy over there is not doing a whole lot, and you're still getting paid the same. So it's like, why do I have to bust my ass, especially if you work for a big company? I mean socialism is different from that, but it's gonna have the same effect because if I gotta bust my ass and give that guy my money, why do I wanna bust my ass? You know, it's so I Jason: No, I understand. No. Bryan: don't get it. I don't get it at all. Now having said that, would I be happy if a billionaire just gave me a bunch of money? Because that's Jason: I'm not gonna turn it down. Bryan: yeah, you know. But it's not gonna stay that way. Jason: Right. Bryan: You know? Eventually they're gonna quit doing shit too, because they just don't want to give you their money. Jason: Okay, so I'm not asking for this to happen, but I'm telling anybody right now and if you're gonna call me a liar, then it is what it is, but if my parents something was to happen to my parents tomorrow, I don't care if they left me a dime. Bryan: I'm so Jason: I don't I don't need their money. My dad showed me his portfolio once. I'm like, okay. And he goes, Well, this is what we're gonna do with this, and this is what and then we're gonna probably try to leave this to you kids. Dad, I don't want your money. Go spend it, go blow it. I don't want it. Watch Bryan: Yeah. Go enjoy yourself. Jason: my wife bust in here and say, Shut the hell up. I w Yeah, she's like, Yeah, I want that money. Give me that money. But Bryan: Shit like the Kool-Aid man come busting the door. Ooh Jason: anyways, no, I don't want their money. And I told my kids, don't sit there and plan on me leaving you money. Bryan: Yeah, e I think. Jason: I'm not living for that. Bryan: No, but if you end up with the money it is Jason: I've got a life insurance policy that my kids will get some, right? But I'm not I'm talking my savings and Bryan: I plan on living my leaving my kids receipts. You know? That's right. Be like Jason: I'll use Bryan: I I enjoyed myself. I am trying my best to enjoy myself while I can. You know, 'cause I don't know how much Jason: Yes. Yes. Like these like going to Orange Beach every year and and you go you go with Bryan: d doing everything I can. Jason: your family separate and then you know, we just went to Nebraska for two weeks to see my son and we flew my daughter out there at the on the on a whim, right? We were just Bryan: Yeah, you Jason: talking, we're like, Hey, why don't you talk to your boss, see if you can take like a couple of days off and come up here for a four day weekend? And we flew her out there. That's expensive last minute plane ticket. But you know what? I can't take it with me when I die. And it was priceless to have both my kids up there at the same time. Bryan: Yeah, you don't know next time you'll be able to get all that together. Jason: yeah, my daughter. I mean I got pictures. You can just or she's just cheesing being with her nieces and nephews. You know what I'm saying? she loved it. It it it was good for her soul. Bryan: But we we sit here and we we grind so hard every day that we think that that's what life is supposed to be. And it's not. Life's supposed to be Jason: Yeah. No. Bryan: your family. Life's supposed to be for you to enjoy yourself. Life's Jason: Yeah. Bryan: not supposed to be for you to get there and just kill yourself or somebody that Jason: And getting the machine. Yeah. We're the machine kills us, dude. I wish I could go to Taiwan or whatever these you see on TikTok where these people are these Americans are going. Now, I think they're on like education visas where they're teaching over there. I'm not a I don't have a teaching degree, but Yeah. You just open the door wide open for that be we're gonna get comments that that's on a real. Bryan: I don't have an education. That's all good. I'm I own that shit. I know what I am. Jason: Like, no shit, Sherlock. I can tell by the way you talk, you ain't got an education. You know what's funny is like I I forgot to say this in the last one, but my wife taught me into listening to this and other stuff in one 1.25 speed. Bryan: Mm-hmm. Jason: dude, we sound so much we don't sound as slow and drawn out when we're one point two five. We sound really intelligent, So anybody out there, I'll hopefully I can cut this one too. If you watch our full thing, do it one point two five. It's awesome. Bryan: We sound a little more intelligent. We don't we don't talk so slow. And that that's Jason: Yeah, we do. Yeah. You might be able to understand that coonass and this redneck here. Bryan: what's sad is I talked slow on this because I know that they couldn't understand me if I talked fast. Cajun mumble. Well, you you know that I had to go l look for a car, right? And and last week Jason: Yeah, yeah. Bryan: we we discussed the housing prices and they were housing prices as high as fucking draft pussy. And that that's crazy in itself. Well, with the car and all the vehicles I looked at, fucking vehicles are fucking expensive. Jason: they're bad. Bryan: So I started thinking there's no way people are purchasing these vehicles and don't have this high ass note. And and I started thinking this because salesmen were comfortable open and talking. And I didn't I didn't want to know what my note was going to be. But they were comfortable saying, Hey, look, you know, we can do this, this, and this, and be about a $700 car note. And I'm looking at my what fucking seven hundred dollar car note? The fuck's wrong with you? You know? Jason: All right, for all you people outside of Louisiana, and some of the surrounding areas, that's a car payment. He's calling it a car note, it's a car payment. Bryan: Is that a car note? Jason: No, no, th I've never heard that until you said I think I heard you say that back in the day. Bryan: It's a car note. It's a seven hundred dollar car note. You pay it once a month until you're fucking done paying it. Jason: No, and notes what your parents write you when you're late for school or Bryan: it's a car note. Jason: It's a car payment. Bryan: So I had to I had to look into this shit to see, you know, what Jason: Did y'all find one? Bryan: yeah, I got one. to to see exactly what people are paying these days. So according to Expedient and Edmunds, new vehicles are roughly seven hundred and seventy to seven hundred and seventy seven dollars a month. And some July estimates are around eight hundred and eight dollars a month. That's for a new vehicle. Used vehicles, they're paying around five thirty one to five seventy six a month. I just can't understand that. they got payments of a thousand dollars plus account for nineteen to twenty percent of new vehicle loans. Jason: Please. Bryan: Thousand fucking dollars a month on a car. Jason: For six years or five? Bryan: seventy months with a growing share of eighty four months help keep the payments from rising even faster. Eighty four months. The new car average is often forty three to forty four thousand dollars. So or ten years ago in twenty sixteen, the average new car payment was roughly five hundred to five hundred and six dollars a month. And then twenty years ago, a typical car you finance was in the mid twenty thousands with terms near sixty months and lower rates in some periods. Now, this all sounds like we're being fucked. All right. And you know how I gotta go deep with numbers, but check this out. In nineteen seventy-one, the average monthly payment was roughly $104 a month. Okay. Today adjusted for inflation, that would be $820 a month. Jason: So it's close. Bryan: It's pretty close. The interest averaged ten point two percent back then. But they were financing thirty six to forty eight months. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: So nominal seven hundred and forty to seven hundred and fifty dollar range in that series, real inflation adjusted payments are actually somewhat lower than the early nineteen seventies. Today the average interest is six point four percent and they are financing these vehicles for sixty-nine to seventy months. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: God. We're paying less per month, but we're paying more paying for a lot more months. So that's how that fell out between the nineteen seventies, once I worked all the numbers up. One more stat that I found that was roughly thirty percent of Americans trading in vehicles for a new car or underwater. They have negative negative equity. With Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: the average start shortfall of sixty eight hundred to seventy two hundred dollars. So now you're carrying that to your next law. Jason: Yeah, I mean, you know how bad a vehicle loses. A d a brand new vehicle leaving the lot loses. You take it off the lot, take it down the road, and have buyer's remorse and and you turn that car around and bring it back. I forget what they said. It's crazy. It's that's a gotta be a percentage. It's not a certain dollar. It's a percentage of that vehicle depreciated from you signing the paperwork and and driving off in it. Bryan: Well, we bought we ended up with a camera. So we bought a twenty six camera used one. And she bought it and she she wanted to look at something different. And the guy told her, Look, he he even brought it to her. We even drove this son, bitch, by this point. He said, Bring it back, we'll put you in a new car. And Basically it's gonna cost us twenty five hundred dollars to bring it back. And then since we didn't have a car to trade in, now we have a car to trade in, we're gonna get credit for our taxes. Because, you know, when you trade a car and you get all these taxes. So Jennifer's telling me all this shit. And she says, When I get home, can you at least look at the numbers? I said, Yes, I saw it doing all the numbers. I said, We're not doing this. And she's like, why? He said it was going to be a great deal. It's a great deal for him. So we ain't owned this car more than you know four hours by this point. We drove Jason: Right. Bryan: this car maybe 10 miles. All Jason: Right. Bryan: right. We just paid the taxes on the son of a bitch today. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: And he's going to give us a tax credit tomorrow and call that a deal. Plus, he's taking Jason: Yeah, no. Bryan: thirty twenty five hundred dollars from what we already paid on it. No, zero this shit out. The starts fresh, and then we can talk. But I'm losing money and you trying to tell me that well, you're gonna get a tax credit. I just paid those fucking taxes yesterday. You giving me a credit you ain't giving me shit. Jason: Right. Bryan: You know it's like Jason: Yeah, if they would have paid the taxes, that'd have been different. Bryan: Yeah, you well, you're getting a tax credit now because you got the car. Motherfucker, I just paid the taxes. I mean it all sounded good when he was holding all the sales speech and shit. No, like, no, no, hold on, give me a second. I gotta write this shit down. I you you talking too fast. Yeah, no, we ain't doing that shit. They say twenty to twenty twenty-five to twenty-seven percent of people that have negative equity or underwater in their vehicle carry ten thousand dollars whenever they traded in. So they're putting another ten thousand dollars on top of what? A fucking eighty thousand dollars. Shit's expensive. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: Yeah, buyers rolling this debt into a new loan face higher average monthly payments, often around nine hundred dollars a month. I just trying to make sure that everyone understands how great we have it right now. You know, just I I could not fathom whenever they would just Yeah, you they would because you you would tell them what you want and they see that you have good credit. we could put you in this, this this is a seven hundred dollars a month. Who the fuck wants to pay seven hundred dollars month? I mean, like that was normal. Like that don't make any Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: sense. I don't want to no. I don't I don't want to pay them. I don't want to finance for a hundred months. Saying a house? Jason: Right. And it's seven yeah, and that's seven hundred dollars. So Bryan: Yeah. Jason: if you try to finance that at four four years. Bryan: Yeah. What is it like twelve, fourteen hundred dollars a month? Jason: Yeah, I'll just tell my damn work to just transfer my full paycheck to your damn dealership. Damn. Bryan: That that was unreal. And no, I wasn't spending a lot of money. You know what I'm getting at? Jason: Yeah, where's the where's where's the four hundred dollar car a month? Dude, Bryan: Yeah. Jason: it's some shitbox. I'm just being honest. Bryan: it is definitely. Well, no, I can't say that depends on how much money you put down on it. You know. Yeah. yeah, you ain't getting nothing. Jason: That's what I'm getting at, Brian. Go in there with nothing to put down. Yeah, you could get out of that seven hundred dollar payment too, that one car if you put enough money down too. Bryan: Yeah. Jason: I'm saying go in there with nothing down and say that's seven hundred. Where's the four hundred? It'll be some fucking piece of crap Geo Metro, like Gary Bowman. Bryan: If you can get yeah, even it Jason: I missed that car. We had a good time in that car. Bryan: even if you can get that now. You know? 'Cause everything out there is expensive. Everything. It is I don't know even no way you get a cheap car anymore. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: Even Hyundai and fucking Kia and all them expensive Jason: Yeah. Bryan: now. Jason: Yeah, Kia was like the knockoff version, like the damn generic version of of Honda and Nissan or Nissan, I think, 'cause Honda was the generic version of Honda. And Kia now's got the tell you ride and that carnival that we had up there that we rented. Bryan: Well, yeah, Kia and Honda are basically the s sister companies. Jason: Yeah. Bryan: And wh we went test drive at Kia, I don't know. Well, my sister has a telluride and she says she likes it. Jason: Them tell you rides are nice, dude. My Yeah, my daughter in law's got one. Bryan: And we went what we test drive, the G five or the K five or whatever it is, a little this little sedan. That was a nice ride vehicle. and they Jason: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They've come a long way. Bryan: had a nice fucking panoramic sunroof and everything. We just couldn't get through like just buying Kia, but I was surprised, you know, that I did not a cheap car anymore. It used to be, you know, you can go get a little cheap car and no not no more. Jason: Yeah, no. We don't make a cheap edition now. Bryan: Nothing. All right, one last video before we wrap up. Here we go. Jason: Yeah. All right. Bryan: You fucking spot on, huh? Jason: Yep. Bryan: You know, there was a while back I was looking into something about Washington DC. I don't remember what it was. But anyway, I seen that Washington, DC is one of the richest areas in the United States. Now that's nothing but government people there. That should not be one of the richest areas in the fucking United States. Jason: Hey, you know how Trump is renaming like the Lake Ontario to Lake America or Lake Mich or or what is he gonna call it? Lake America? Bryan: Lake America, yeah. Jason: Yeah, and then Gulf of Gulf of America and he's renaming everything. Nett and Yon BB's over there like, Hey, we're gonna rename Washington DC Little Italy or Little Israel or whatever. Yeah. So Bryan: Low Israel. Jason: sorry I said Little Italy 'cause I that's where we stayed in Nebraska Bryan: I'll f Jason: was Little Italy. Bryan: I'll fix that. But yeah, I d you know, whenever he did Golf of America, I th I thought that was kinda corny, but I can get on with it. This right Jason: Yeah. Bryan: here is like Jason: Dude, leave it alone. Bryan: No, yeah, I don't care. I I seen that, you know, he was pissing Canada off and then I seen Canada I I read earlier and not I'm not had the full story, so I I didn't bring it up, but Canada and and China was actually having conversations on you know on helping each other. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: It's like do we really need China just north of us? You know? Do we really need that? Jason: And then it starts. Bryan: So I don't I don't know how all that plays out, but I didn't get Jason: Yeah. Bryan: a chance to really dig into it. But we piss on everybody to fuck off. Jason: Yeah, when your enemy makes friends with your neighbor. Bryan: We so we yeah, we pissin' everybody off. We we're we're fucking paying a thousand dollars a month on car notes and things that's normal. Jason: Right. Bryan: I I I don't know. So Jason: The machine to Bryan: it does nothing but a straight machine. That's all it is. And you know what's sad is most of us are pretty much one big all shit from becoming homeless when Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: you really think about the grand scheme of things. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: Most of us have just enough to survive, but not enough to be comfortable without killing yourself for a company that will replace you tomorrow. Jason: Mm-hmm. Bryan: Yet we're more concerned about our differences than we are about what we have in common. That's just another way to keep us fighting each other. And just remember we all are better together, whether you believe it or not, we are. All right, dude. You got anything? All right. Thanks everyone for joining us tonight. It was a pleasure spending time with you. Until next time, this is the Sense and Senseless Podcast. I am Brian. He is Jason Deuces. Jason: I'm Jason. Peace.