Latest / The Bill Handel Show / Most Narcissistic Countries | Myths about Insurance in California
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
- 0:04Speaker 1: six forty. I want to talk about me. I want
- 0:07Speaker 1: to talk about I want to talk about Mama.
- 0:12Speaker 2: I am six forty Bill Handle on a Thursday morning,
- 0:15Speaker 2: July twenty three.
- 0:16Speaker 1: Man, is it going to be hot? Hot? Hot? Today?
- 0:20Speaker 1: The heat wave is here. Lindsay just told me.
- 0:22Speaker 2: Ae hundred degrees here in Orange County and up in
- 0:26Speaker 2: the valley is going to be hot, and Inland Empire
- 0:29Speaker 2: it's going to be hotter. And on tomorrow I'm off
- 0:33Speaker 2: to Las Vegas, actually visiting my friend Sable, and we're
- 0:37Speaker 2: going to actually fry eggs on the hood of the car.
- 0:42Speaker 2: It's going to be fairly warm there too, Las Vegas
- 0:45Speaker 2: in the go figure, Okay, I want to talk to
- 0:49Speaker 2: you about something that I hear and I always say,
- 0:53Speaker 2: and that has to do with being an exceptionalist, and
- 0:56Speaker 2: I say I am not an exceptionalist when it comes
- 0:59Speaker 2: to the noted States. Because of the bottom line, America
- 1:04Speaker 2: is the greatest country in the world, and there it is.
- 1:07Speaker 2: It's a generic statement that says we're the greatest country
- 1:11Speaker 2: in the world. So you would think that we'd be
- 1:13Speaker 2: at the top of the list as far as narcissism
- 1:16Speaker 2: is concerned, by the way, I do think America is
- 1:19Speaker 2: the greatest country in the world on some levels, because
- 1:23Speaker 2: that question is pretty broad. Are we the greatest country
- 1:26Speaker 2: in the world in terms of our healthcare? Probably not.
- 1:31Speaker 2: How about in terms of our mortality rate? No not,
- 1:36Speaker 2: We're near the top at all. As far as opportunity,
- 1:40Speaker 2: absolutely near the top, if not at the top overall.
- 1:43Speaker 2: As far as the democracy is concerned, you bet we're
- 1:47Speaker 2: up there. And because we are the beacon, we were
- 1:50Speaker 2: the first country on the planet to have a democratic
- 1:54Speaker 2: republic because remember when we were founded. When the country
- 1:57Speaker 2: was founded, there was no democracy anywhere in the world.
- 2:02Speaker 2: It was all kingdoms and dictatorships. So America is an
- 2:06Speaker 2: extraordinary place and we are narcissistic. We are number one. Well,
- 2:12Speaker 2: guess what, we're not number one in terms of narcissistem
- 2:16Speaker 2: You know which country actually is the most exceptionalist. We
- 2:19Speaker 2: are the greatest country in the world. The survey was
- 2:22Speaker 2: just not of course, and the country that is more
- 2:25Speaker 2: we are the greatest country in the world, thinking happens
- 2:29Speaker 2: to be Germany, followed by China, followed by Iran. We
- 2:36Speaker 2: actually place sixteen out of fifty three countries. Those research
- 2:42Speaker 2: done from Michigan State University, where they surveyed forty eight
- 2:46Speaker 2: thousand people across the world to determine how nationality, gender,
- 2:50Speaker 2: perceived social studies fuel narcissistic traits. Is how it's described,
- 2:57Speaker 2: and so we often come up in public discourse around
- 3:00Speaker 2: the world and to ourselves and as an example of narcissism.
- 3:03Speaker 2: Look who we are, and so we might expect us
- 3:06Speaker 2: to be far and away the highest. Now we were
- 3:09Speaker 2: toward the higher end, but we were not at the extreme.
- 3:15Speaker 2: At the extreme were Germany, China, Iran, and we were
- 3:20Speaker 2: well below that.
- 3:23Speaker 1: Now.
- 3:23Speaker 2: The least absorbed absorbed countries that don't think they're the
- 3:27Speaker 2: greatest country in the world were Serbia, Ireland, where everybody
- 3:33Speaker 2: was drunk when they did the survey, so no one
- 3:35Speaker 2: really knows where they sit. The UK, everybody is trying
- 3:39Speaker 2: to get to a dentist. The Netherlands and Denmark great place,
- 3:43Speaker 2: wooden shoes, I mean a really great place to go,
- 3:46Speaker 2: great flowers, grape cheese. During the study, researchers asked questions
- 3:53Speaker 2: like I'm the center of attention with my outstanding contributions,
- 3:58Speaker 2: and i want my right to fail oh yeah, if
- 4:02Speaker 2: they ask me that, Oh yeah. I love the fact
- 4:05Speaker 2: I feel more successful when you fail. I'm very big
- 4:09Speaker 2: on that philosophy. I like hanging around poor people. You know,
- 4:13Speaker 2: I don't have rich friends, only poor people. I hang
- 4:15Speaker 2: around because it makes me feel richer. And that's why
- 4:20Speaker 2: it's a question of how you deal with and look
- 4:25Speaker 2: at reality. So researchers then ranked for signs of narcissistic admiration,
- 4:32Speaker 2: and that's attention seeking, desire to impress others, need to
- 4:36Speaker 2: self enhance. We're very big on that. We do a
- 4:39Speaker 2: lot of self enhancement in this country. We do well, Lindsey.
- 4:43Speaker 2: You know it's self help books. I got dozens and
- 4:46Speaker 2: dozens of them here. And younger adults actually were found
- 4:52Speaker 2: to have more grading personality disorders than older folks. Why
- 4:57Speaker 2: because younger folks are these selfie snapping generation. Look at
- 5:02Speaker 2: what is put up on YouTube and what's put up
- 5:05Speaker 2: on Instagram. It's all videos of you showing your friends.
- 5:11Speaker 2: Here's what I'm doing. Look at this here I am
- 5:14Speaker 2: pettying my dog. Who gives a rats ass what your
- 5:18Speaker 2: dog looks like. Lindsay has five thousand photos of Tommy,
- 5:27Speaker 2: our dog. I'm not exaggerating either. We are that kind
- 5:32Speaker 2: of generation. So men were found to be more self
- 5:37Speaker 2: obsessed than women. Oh and the research, by the Way
- 5:42Speaker 2: show that roughly one in twenty Americans meet the criteria
- 5:46Speaker 2: for the narcissistic narcissistic personality disorder. It is considered a disorder,
- 5:53Speaker 2: now recognizable disorder. Huh, that's interesting. So we are the
- 6:00Speaker 2: greatest country in the world. I think so. In many
- 6:03Speaker 2: many ways. I am the greatest talk show host that
- 6:07Speaker 2: has ever lived. Yeah, I think so. The Morning crew
- 6:13Speaker 2: we are the best morning show in radio, notwithstanding Neil
- 6:19Speaker 2: and Amy and Will who try to bring it down
- 6:23Speaker 2: as much as possible. But we're six. Don't give me
- 6:27Speaker 2: the I don't want to hear that. We do very well.
- 6:33Speaker 2: And why do we do very well? Because everybody else sucks? Okay,
- 6:39Speaker 2: we're done with that, all right. A story I've shared
- 6:42Speaker 2: with you several times has to do with home insurance,
- 6:46Speaker 2: my insurance, and how insurance companies are simply canceling. So
- 6:51Speaker 2: when I sold the Persian Palace, my insurance lapsed three
- 6:56Speaker 2: weeks before escrow closed, and I was there. I couldn't
- 7:01Speaker 2: get insurance. Man, was I happy waking up in the morning,
- 7:05Speaker 2: knowing I didn't have home insurance and I finally got
- 7:08Speaker 2: it at twice the rate I was paying twice.
- 7:13Speaker 1: And here I am.
- 7:15Speaker 2: At my house and my insurance my new house, which
- 7:17Speaker 2: is less than half of the square footage, I'm paying
- 7:21Speaker 2: far more than I used to pay. Insurance has just
- 7:23Speaker 2: gotten out of hand. And a couple of myths I
- 7:25Speaker 2: want to share with you about our rising costs, less availability,
- 7:30Speaker 2: other issues with insurance, delays, denial of claims. That's getting worse.
- 7:35Speaker 2: And why is insurance going south? Well, the risk of wildfires.
- 7:41Speaker 2: Look at the wildfires the last few years, other disaster.
- 7:46Speaker 2: How does insurance play a role? Well, it plays a
- 7:49Speaker 2: huge role in our life and the health of the
- 7:52Speaker 2: insurance market affects our ability individuals and communities to replace, rebuild,
- 8:00Speaker 2: recover after a catastrophe. I did not have earthquake insurance
- 8:04Speaker 2: for a while. I am now getting my earthquake insurance
- 8:06Speaker 2: policy and I'm waiting for the quote. Cannot wait to
- 8:11Speaker 2: see how much that's going to cost. But I am
- 8:14Speaker 2: anticipating the big one hitting, so I want to be insured. Okay,
- 8:19Speaker 2: So here's a couple of facts. Everyone needs insurance. Landlords, renters,
- 8:23Speaker 2: small business owners. Anyone who drives auto, who drives needs
- 8:27Speaker 2: auto insurance by law, Well, the state doesn't require renters
- 8:32Speaker 2: to buy insurance. There's a loophole. But I don't know
- 8:36Speaker 2: of any landlord that would rent without without the leaseholder,
- 8:43Speaker 2: without the renter not getting insurance. And so what's going
- 8:47Speaker 2: on here in California, Well, affordable insurance is bailing. Insurance
- 8:53Speaker 2: companies have said no, and they've said no to both
- 8:56Speaker 2: home and commercial properties. And some people then turn to
- 9:01Speaker 2: what are called non admitted insurance companies, not licensed, not
- 9:06Speaker 2: regulated by the state. One of the things that makes
- 9:08Speaker 2: California so unique in an outlier, is that in nineteen
- 9:12Speaker 2: eighty eight we approved an insurance law and it is.
- 9:19Speaker 2: What we do now is elect an insurance commissioner, and
- 9:25Speaker 2: the commission regulates how much an insurance company can charge.
- 9:30Speaker 2: And since it's an elected commissioner, guess what where do
- 9:34Speaker 2: you think the loyalties lae towards being re elected or
- 9:38Speaker 2: helping out the insured? Well, of course they're going to
- 9:40Speaker 2: go for re election. I think it has backfired big time. However,
- 9:44Speaker 2: insurance in California is right in the middle. You know, Florida,
- 9:48Speaker 2: which very low regulation, actually is the most expensive state
- 9:53Speaker 2: in the United States have insurance. And the bottom line
- 9:56Speaker 2: is insurers, if they don't need money, they're gone.
- 10:00Speaker 1: They just bail.
- 10:02Speaker 2: And that's what they're telling the insurance commission and they're
- 10:06Speaker 2: taking on their telling Laura or Ricardo, Laura, our insurance commissioner, saying,
- 10:14Speaker 2: if you don't get our rates, we're bailing out of here.
- 10:17Speaker 2: And so based on that, the rates have not increase dramatically,
- 10:24Speaker 2: but increase enough for the insurance company to make to
- 10:28Speaker 2: make some money. Insurance companies generally do very well, even
- 10:32Speaker 2: in California.
- 10:33Speaker 1: And why is that Well, because.
- 10:34Speaker 2: They're not ensuring people, they're ensuring businesses, they're not ensuring homeowners.
- 10:42Speaker 2: I had a bitch of a time getting home insurance
- 10:45Speaker 2: and it's insanely expensive. It's we are in a rough
- 10:52Speaker 2: time when it comes to insurance just because we live
- 10:54Speaker 2: in southern California. I mean, you have to get a
- 10:57Speaker 2: separate earthquake insurance policy. Good news on that one one
- 11:00Speaker 2: for the insurance company. So they're going to collect premiums
- 11:04Speaker 2: just for that. But fire insurance because of the wildfire risk,
- 11:08Speaker 2: is insanely expensive. One of the myths that I have
- 11:12Speaker 2: been telling you about is the insurance companies are losing money.
- 11:15Speaker 1: They are not. Why is that?
- 11:18Speaker 2: Because they're only insuring places and people and businesses where
- 11:22Speaker 2: they can make money. There's another reason California is such
- 11:27Speaker 2: a great place to live because of insurance costs. And
- 11:30Speaker 2: let's not talk about the traffic and if you live
- 11:33Speaker 2: down near Tijuana, the Tijuana River, where you're going to
- 11:36Speaker 2: get very.
- 11:37Speaker 1: Ill because it's all sewage.
- 11:39Speaker 2: There are a lot of advantages disadvantages.
- 11:43Speaker 1: Insurance is one of the big ones for sure.
- 11:46Speaker 2: Okay, oh, tomorrow Tomorrow we sort of have a modified
- 11:50Speaker 2: show and just eight o'clock. We're reversing what we normally do,
- 11:54Speaker 2: and that is Ask Handle Anything. Will be at eight
- 11:58Speaker 2: o'clock till eight thirty and then at eight thirty nine
- 12:01Speaker 2: it'll be Foody Friday, and we for ask Candle Anything.
- 12:05Speaker 2: We need you to jump in because if you don't
- 12:08Speaker 2: do it, we don't have ask Candle Anything. And so
- 12:10Speaker 2: during the show, you go to the iHeartRadio app, you
- 12:14Speaker 2: click on to KFI. You'll hear this show streaming, and
- 12:17Speaker 2: you go to the upper right hand corner there's a microphone.
- 12:20Speaker 2: Click on that you'll have ten fifteen seconds to record
- 12:23Speaker 2: a question, and it is the primary reason is to
- 12:27Speaker 2: embarrass me.
- 12:28Speaker 1: Neil chooses those questions which do.
- 12:30Speaker 2: Exactly that, and then I answer those questions in real time,
- 12:35Speaker 2: having not heard them before. Now, every week or every month,
- 12:39Speaker 2: we get the unemployment figures, and what are the unemployment figures?
- 12:43Speaker 1: What do they tell us?
- 12:45Speaker 2: They tell us how many people have applied for unemployment,
- 12:49Speaker 2: how many claims are there?
- 12:51Speaker 1: And it goes up and down.
- 12:53Speaker 2: And then there are the economists who guess, federal economists
- 12:58Speaker 2: as well as private economists, who guess what the figure
- 13:02Speaker 2: is going to be, and if it comes in below
- 13:04Speaker 2: that figure, then the economy is not doing well. If
- 13:08Speaker 2: it comes in above what they anticipate, then oh boy,
- 13:10Speaker 2: were in good shape. Well, the reality is that number
- 13:14Speaker 2: really doesn't matter because there are so many aspects to
- 13:19Speaker 2: that number, and one of them I'm going to share
- 13:21Speaker 2: with you, and that is the number of adults who
- 13:25Speaker 2: are not in the labor force nilphs, not to be
- 13:29Speaker 2: confused with milts, that is entirely different. Now, the number
- 13:36Speaker 2: of nilhs not in the labor force has reached an
- 13:40Speaker 2: all time high in June to one hundred and five
- 13:43Speaker 2: million dollars one hundred and five million people according to
- 13:47Speaker 2: the Federal Reserve of Saint Louis, the Bank of the
- 13:51Speaker 2: Federal Reserve Bank. And this comes after this massive surge
- 13:55Speaker 2: of eight hundred and thirty thousand workers dropping out of
- 13:58Speaker 2: the labor force in June. Keep in mind, when someone
- 14:02Speaker 2: drops out of the labor force, not only are they
- 14:05Speaker 2: no longer employed, they're no longer looking for work, and
- 14:11Speaker 2: they don't exist anymore in terms of the stats, and
- 14:15Speaker 2: that is a problem. The overall number of nylphs is
- 14:19Speaker 2: higher than at the height of the Great Recession or
- 14:22Speaker 2: COVID or the pandemic. Now it's pretty broad. The number
- 14:29Speaker 2: of nylphs that is not in the labor force covers
- 14:32Speaker 2: all Americans age sixteen and over who aren't currently working,
- 14:37Speaker 2: not only those who are not looking for work or
- 14:42Speaker 2: on unemployment who are eligible, but also you're looking at
- 14:47Speaker 2: retirees and students who are legitimately not looking for work.
- 14:52Speaker 2: So we have two kinds of people looking for work,
- 14:55Speaker 2: those who should be working and are not working or
- 14:59Speaker 2: not looking those who should not be working retirees and students.
- 15:04Speaker 2: Labor economist Nicholas Eberstadt, and he's the one that is
- 15:08Speaker 2: the big expert here. He said that if you go
- 15:11Speaker 2: down into the data, we've got a startling pattern of dropouts. Boy,
- 15:16Speaker 2: this doesn't look good, particularly among men. He said, We've
- 15:19Speaker 2: got a big problem, and that's the flight from work
- 15:23Speaker 2: of prime age men, the people that should be working.
- 15:27Speaker 2: And that's what's been carrying the overall prime age labor
- 15:31Speaker 2: force participation. And that has and I'll tell you what's
- 15:34Speaker 2: made it strong, well at least partially strong, is the
- 15:38Speaker 2: number of women, not men, who are now working.
- 15:42Speaker 1: Men are not interesting stats.
- 15:46Speaker 2: Over five million workers, that's five percent of Nylph's and
- 15:49Speaker 2: we're still talking millions of people. They've dropped out because
- 15:53Speaker 2: they're discouraged, because they're not even bothering to.
- 15:56Speaker 1: Look for work.
- 15:57Speaker 2: AI has effectively wiped out their jobs. And there are
- 16:01Speaker 2: plenty of jobs that don't exist anymore because of AI.
- 16:06Speaker 2: Entry level jobs, for example, in the computer industry, which
- 16:09Speaker 2: used to be so available you just walk across the
- 16:12Speaker 2: street and get more money and you can do that
- 16:15Speaker 2: every week. Those jobs have all disappeared. And twenty two
- 16:20Speaker 2: percent of American milk populations are on long term illnesses, disability,
- 16:25Speaker 2: or benefits. That's twenty three million people. So these numbers
- 16:32Speaker 2: while they're all over the place. So when we hear
- 16:34Speaker 2: about unemployment numbers from the government that really mean almost nothing.
- 16:38Speaker 1: When you dive into.
- 16:39Speaker 2: The data, now it means a lot. Okay, we finish
- 16:43Speaker 2: up the entire issue of unemployment, where employment seems to
- 16:47Speaker 2: be pretty good if you look at the numbers, even
- 16:50Speaker 2: in light of what AI is doing to entire industries,
- 16:55Speaker 2: and it's and I have to tell you.
- 16:59Speaker 1: It is very rough. My daughter's in the middle of it.
- 17:01Speaker 2: She's getting your master's degree in computer sciences and works
- 17:05Speaker 2: at a bakery because there's no entry level jobs available.
- 17:08Speaker 1: And she's not alone.
- 17:10Speaker 2: Now, this is a story, an economic story about nilphs.
- 17:15Speaker 2: As I said, not to be confused with MILFs. And
- 17:18Speaker 2: that's the number of adults who are not in the
- 17:21Speaker 2: labor force. That is an all time high, to one
- 17:24Speaker 2: hundred and five or almost one hundred and nine million
- 17:27Speaker 2: people in June. We've never had that high number. Actually
- 17:33Speaker 2: before that it was the labor force only dropped this
- 17:39Speaker 2: low before or during the Great Great respresh recession. And
- 17:46Speaker 2: so one of the reasons this is happening is we
- 17:50Speaker 2: have a rapidly aging population. Now, keep in mind unemployment.
- 17:54Speaker 2: If you dive into the numbers, and all we get
- 17:56Speaker 2: is how many people may claims, how many people don't
- 17:58Speaker 2: make claims. And if the number of claims are down
- 18:02Speaker 2: relative to what expectations are, then it's horrible. If the
- 18:07Speaker 2: numbers are up, things are great. Well, it's a little
- 18:08Speaker 2: more complicated in that to say the least. And here's
- 18:12Speaker 2: an interesting fact. If you go go to Europe in Japan,
- 18:14Speaker 2: which also have the problem of aging, that is the
- 18:18Speaker 2: big issue. Baby boomers are just aging and they're out
- 18:21Speaker 2: of the workforce. That has a huge influence. Well, you
- 18:26Speaker 2: go to Europe and Japan, they're both aging faster than
- 18:30Speaker 2: we are, and their workforce participation is going up. So
- 18:36Speaker 2: how is this possible? I mean, what makes this work well?
- 18:41Speaker 2: Or why is this happening? Well, the two big reasons
- 18:46Speaker 2: are aging and people not being able to find work,
- 18:50Speaker 2: and because of that, they're just out of the labor force.
- 18:53Speaker 2: And as I told you in the last segment, people
- 18:55Speaker 2: who are no longer working don't count. Are no longer
- 18:58Speaker 2: looking for work, don't count. The unemployed, they are not employed,
- 19:01Speaker 2: they just don't exist. And so the other reason, of course,
- 19:05Speaker 2: the baby boomers are retiring and the number of people
- 19:08Speaker 2: are on. Disability is huge, and we have a lot
- 19:10Speaker 2: of loopholes in our system, and that seems to be
- 19:14Speaker 2: one of the big issues, and the researchers are looking
- 19:20Speaker 2: at the loopholes we have. We have a sprawling disconnected
- 19:27Speaker 2: program or a group of disability programs that offer a
- 19:31Speaker 2: whole lot of blind spots, allowing people to fall through
- 19:35Speaker 2: the cracks, or allowing people who are basically dishonest to
- 19:42Speaker 2: apply for and get unemployment benefits, and so it's the
- 19:46Speaker 2: numbers are completely skewed. Also, you have people, and this
- 19:50Speaker 2: has a lot to do with it, because retirees don't
- 19:54Speaker 2: have enough money to retire on a huge number of
- 19:58Speaker 2: people who should be retired and not be working anymore
- 20:02Speaker 2: are working part time. That has to be considered too.
- 20:05Speaker 2: I mean, I go to Costco, as you know, twice
- 20:06Speaker 2: a week, that's my therapy. And you look at the
- 20:09Speaker 2: people they give you samples. How many of them are
- 20:12Speaker 2: now elderly? How many people are not so young anymore?
- 20:18Speaker 2: I've noticed numbers increased traumatically. And of course you go
- 20:22Speaker 2: to Walmart, welcome to Walmart, or.
- 20:25Speaker 1: Well Loo, get them to Walmart.
- 20:27Speaker 2: Did I do a good job of making myself sound old,
- 20:29Speaker 2: not bad. All right, We're done, guys.
- 20:31Speaker 1: You already sound old.
- 20:33Speaker 2: I know well, thank you, I already sound old. Incidentally,
- 20:38Speaker 2: tomorrow's show we will have another board op in place
- 20:43Speaker 2: of knoh and let's kno. It has been a pleasure.
- 20:46Speaker 2: You have done a great job. All right, we are done.
- 20:48Speaker 2: Gary and Shannon are up next tomorrow. It's ass handle
- 20:52Speaker 2: anything at eight o'clock instead of a thirty. And we're
- 20:55Speaker 2: gonna do foody Friday at eight thirty to nine. And
- 21:00Speaker 2: in the meantime, of course, we start again five am
- 21:03Speaker 2: with Will Cole Schreiber and Amy our newsperson, and Kono
- 21:09Speaker 2: and Ann always here to make the show work, and
- 21:12Speaker 2: Neil and I are here from six to nine where
- 21:14Speaker 2: the show generally doesn't work. This is KFI AM six
- 21:19Speaker 2: point forty.
- 21:20Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
- 21:22Speaker 2: Catch my show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
- 21:25Speaker 2: and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.