Latest / Freedom Flip / Taxes, Government, and the Problem With Waiting to Be Saved - EP022

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Taxes, Government, and the Problem With Waiting to Be Saved - EP022 · Freedom Flip

• 0:00
  Nobody speaks about this and I find it fascinating. It's just insane. Inflation is basically theft. Governments around the world, they print money for free. You need to work on something that they can print for free because they are printing money. They dilute their shares, the amount of currency in circulation. So that means your money that you hold or the digits in your computer that you have, they are worth less than before.
• 0:24
  You bought $100 of Apple stock 20 years ago. When you sell it today, you have to pay capital gains. It's not inflation-adjusted. You have to pay from the beginning. I find this so insane. Politicians just grab something, they twist it, they create emotional revolution inside of people and so they can get votes. It's just theater and Americans are waking up.
• 0:45
  I think that before with this pandemic in 2020, there was a big before and after. Before, Americans were just very brain dead, trusting everything that the government was telling them. Now they're starting to question things. You should be able to question things, why not? Hey, wait a second, how is this politician that makes $150,000 a year has 20 million bucks? That doesn't make sense. Hey, how is it possible that we are spending billions of dollars to fix homelessness, and homelessness is not fixed, and we just keep spending more money? How is that a problem?
• 1:14
  I believe that the USA is the last hope of the West. Europe is gone. It's a great place to go for vacation, but it's gone from a creation, from an innovation point of view. They allow the government to be the dictator and the government now decides over the people. And I think that it should be the other way around, right? Aren't they representing us? How is this possible?
• 1:35
  You're going to laugh at this so much. I did this scalp, some kind of massage brain thing that my friend who's a doctor was like, you got to do this. It's really legit. You know, they showed me my scalp and I had all these issues and they helped. I was like, sure, I'm opening anything. Scalp? Like, wait, wait, tell me more. Like scalp where your hair is. They analyze your scalp. They're analyzing the scalp. They're looking at, do you have...
• 1:58
  bacteria, are you oily, are you dry, all of these things. And they show you with this microscope and then they treat it with supposedly natural things to help create balance there. She looks at me and she's like, hey, you're going to love this actually, Pablo. She looks at me and she's like, so when's the last time you used shampoo? And I was like, I don't know. It's been a really long time. But how do you wash your hair? How do you wash your hair? This is her. I use water and nothing else.
• 2:28
  Yeah. Wait, wait, wait. You don't put soap or anything? Come on, Peter. When I'm in the ocean or pool water, yeah. But otherwise, no. Seriously? I'm 100% serious right now. Wow, I didn't know that. That explains the smell. Okay, got it. Wait, is it? No, I guess. What about deodorant? Do you use deodorant?
• 2:54
  Yeah, yeah. I use deodorant and I use soap. Now, I don't use soap every single shower. If I worked out or I'm doing something where I'm sweaty, of course, I'm always using soap. If I feel dirty, I'm using soap. But if it's like a quick shower to wake me up or a warm shower to go to bed, my skin gets very dry. I don't want to make it more dry. Same with, I think, my scalp. But dude, I think we're crazy on the shampoo stuff. And I think we're actually ripping away a lot of really good minerals, oils that are natural.
• 3:19
  And it was so funny because it was just so foreign to how she thinks. She was like, what do you mean? She kept going wise. Like, well, are you worried about X, Y, and Z? And the only thing she could get to, she's like, yeah, but your hair, your scalp can get dry. Are you worried about dandruff? And I was like, no. What is dandruff? It's where your skin cells get dry on your scalp, die, and then they can, you know, there's just like little pieces of skin that are dead.
• 3:42
  You know, like you're wearing a black T-shirt. Oh, this is the white thing. Yeah, we call it caspa in Spain. Yeah, I get it. What do you call it in Spanish? Caspa. Caspa. So I might get some caspa on my black. I had a black T-shirt or colored shirt at the place. It's like, well, you'll get dandruff on the shirt. I was like, yeah, not worried about it.
• 3:58
  And it's creating this fear, creating these concerns. This is like saying that people that have dandrum, they don't use shampoo. All of them use shampoo. In fact, they use the most likely the brand anti-dandrum, whatever. I am surprised that you don't use anything to clean your hair.
• 4:16
  I think the question would be, is water not sufficient to clean away the dirt? My argument is in most scenarios, yes. Now, when I was swimming in the ocean last week, no, I don't think it was. I wanted something more. When I was swimming in a highly chlorinated pool...
• 4:31
  Okay, but what's the problem with the salt of the water? I don't think it's just... The salt of the water is not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about all the other stuff in the ocean. It feels like I can feel my hair and it doesn't feel... All right. Now, question here. What kind of water do you shower in? We have a whole house water filter, so... Got it. So it's already filtered out. Oh, yeah. So it's not... Oh, yeah. It's not spring water, but does that go in the 14 bathrooms that you have? Or it's just... Man...
• 4:58
  Uh, four, four bathrooms are all serves. I think we have an old house. So it is some stuff's weird where like some pipes or ACs don't hook up because it's a hundred year old house. And then they just did a small addition on the side. Yeah, I think all four, four and a half baths, four baths, three baths, whatever it is, are serviced by it.
• 5:16
  We all notice a difference in our hair after the whole house water filter. But here's a way to flip it. Let's flip it back. I need to use the really strong shampoo every single morning when I take a shower. And then I get out of the shower and I need to use the really good gel to put in my hair. Poor Billy. You keep making fun of him. This is it. Billy's like, I got to do this and that. Yeah.
• 5:40
  Why am I adding all these chemicals? Do I actually need, no, I definitely don't need them. Do I actually want them consciously? And here's my challenge, right? Find your challenge, buddy. Hopefully you've got a friend that's interested in new things and seeing. Just try for a week, see if there's any difference. Question for you. I am working out. I am playing pickleball. I am playing paddle. I'm sweating. Should I use any kind of soap to wash my body? Let's just start there. Okay, you will recommend that.
• 6:08
  I want to follow Peter's system for a week. Okay. I'm a big fan of the soap bars. So you can get like the old school soap bars, something weird with our age. We've got into liquid things, but it's cheaper. It lasts longer. It has less plastic around it. And you just use a soap bar.
• 6:26
  Well, the soap bar, unless you're talking about a brand that I am not aware. So in Argentina, we don't use liquids. We use bars. That's all we use. When we went to Europe, that's when we started seeing people using liquids for whatever reason. But the bars, they can still be made with a lot of crap. So not all bars are made equal.
• 6:44
  I use the Dr. Bronner's soap bar. Got it. Yes. It's Castile, like Spanish. By the way, not a sponsor of the video. Go to their website. Buy it now. We need Dr. Bronner's. At the promo code. Peter doesn't shower. Stinky Peter. For a minus 10% discount. You will pay twice the price. We'll pay more. We flipped it. You're paying more.
• 7:10
  That one, I think that it seems to be a good brand. It seems to have clean ingredients. There is still a lot of ingredients when I look at it. But anyhow, let's just not even go there for one second. Let's just, I want to understand the system. So I go, I work out. If I'm working out, let's say I don't sweat. Okay, I'm fine. But I go play paddle. I sweat. I'm like one hour running. So you're saying, come back here, shower, use soap. No problem. What about the hair? Yeah.
• 7:37
  I had this hairstylist woman and I was like, man, your hair looks so great. Do you use all the girl stuff, sprays and all this and that? I hate when I get the hairspray in my face from my girlfriend and wife, like spraying it and I'm like swallowing all this stuff off of her head. What can go wrong? Yeah. And so she goes, no, I don't use anything. I go...
• 7:56
  You don't spray anything in your hair? She goes, no. I go, what do you do? And she goes, I just use the natural oils that build up that have for a million years in my hair. And if I need to take a shower, I'll use water. And her hair looked clean and looked strong. Oh, so this is about hair or about you? Hair. Her hair. Her hair. Okay. And then when she said this, it was like a brick hit my head.
• 8:16
  She looks at people's hair all day, every day. And she's made this conscious decision. I'm going to do less. I'm going to flip it. Instead of using the thing that's going to make my hair healthy, what if it's not? All right, wait a second. I'm still sweaty after paddle trying to understand what you are saying. Do not wash your hair with soap.
• 8:35
  No, for a week. Most likely, being completely honest, no. And this is where I challenge people to, we've been told this, see how your hair looks. So, okay, but for how long? Like how many, like until I look like Bob Marley or what?
• 8:49
  No, I mean, dude, you see me a lot. Does my hair, you're going to make a good joke of, yeah, you always look dirty. But like, let's excuse your joke. I already read your mind. I would never make a joke about that. Never. It probably ties back to being in 20s and having no money and being like,
• 9:08
  why do I need this shampoo? I'm spending 10 bucks in the US, it's all liquid, 15 bucks, I don't remember what it was. I'm going through it, I have to travel with it. It's just, there's extra friction in every level of it. What if I don't do it? Let's flip it, let's just not do it and see. And I don't think my hair looks greasy, dirty. I just feel like it's dirty, and it may just be in my head after I'm in the ocean or in a chlorinated pool.
• 9:33
  Got it. Sweat. I'm not worried of my sweat. It's coming out of my body. The water is pushing most of it off, running through my hair. I still run my hair through the water. I lean back. I don't feel like it's dirty.
• 9:44
  Yeah, I would say your hair does not look dirty at all. That's why I'm surprised. Dude, if I tell you how many times in a year, the honest answer is probably between six and ten times. That you put soap in your hair. Any kind of soap or some healthy shampoo. Six to ten times. At most. Most of those are because I got out of the ocean. No, you go more than six times to the ocean per year.
• 10:06
  Yeah, yeah. So no, no, I'm just saying of the 60%. So not always. Oh, yeah. I don't always do it out of the ocean, especially if I'm in the ocean every day. Okay, got it. I want to understand a little bit more the system of the water thing. Like how much of the water, do you do anything? I'll dip behind the faucet and let it drip like straight through my head or kind of like run it through my head.
• 10:26
  Wow. In my case, my hair is extremely oily, but one week, I'm just going to look whatever I'm going to look. Let's go. Try it for a week and see. Yeah, exactly. The big freedom flip is I think my hair might be way healthier than my peers who are losing hair, thinning hair, everything else, because it's not getting bombarded by benzolite, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, words I don't understand in all these shampoos, but even the healthier ones.
• 10:52
  Now, why do you do soap then with the rest of your body? On my body? Yeah. Because I physically smell, like under my armpits. Okay, but that's just three places. Like, why do you run soap over the rest of your body? I'll do a little bit, like spread across my chest, but those are the only places I'm really worried about. Like the places that... That smell. That smell or create... I mean, the smell is... Wait, why do you smell? Is that normal? No.
• 11:18
  Yeah. Dude, if you read back over hundreds of years, humans always were smelly. I mean, I think. It's a good question. I don't know. I mean, think about that. Dogs don't really smell. Well, yeah, they do. They do. Breath. Cats don't. And they are just leap. They are licking themselves all the time.
• 11:35
  So we just start licking ourselves. Yeah, exactly. There you go. You want to save money? Forget your deodorant. Use your toes. Just lick your eyes. There we go. There's a flip. If I'm honest about it, I was traveling a lot building a business and I didn't want to have to carry shampoo.
• 11:53
  I remember being like, this is a scam. I stopped using it. I heard the hairdresser say this thing. And I realized, I don't know why. Oh, one other example. I had a childhood person, friend I knew, a girl. And she had a little OCD tendency. She would use five shampoos a day. Even in teenage years, it just looked like her hair was thinning. In teenage years, 16, 17 years old.
• 12:14
  And I remember that just stuck in my head of... And now she's bald? I mean, she's in her 30s and she kind of looks balding. Is it genetic? Maybe. Is it five shampoos a day for 30 years? I don't know. But it definitely is not what I want. I don't think it's healthy. All right. I'm not going to shower. Sorry, I'm going to shower with water, but I'm not going to clean my hair. Let's see how the next podcast... How do I look next week?
• 12:41
  It'll be fascinating to see. Yeah. All right. Cool.
• 12:49
  I just had an interesting conversation with a guy about the problems of being a parent. So he's getting woken up by his daughters who are 20s. One of them's in Spain. And she, you know, had some issue at 4am when she was still out at the bars. And he's getting a call in the US at, you know, 10, 11pm. And then his daughter who's in the US loses her cell phone at 2am. And he's getting woken up by that. And we were laughing because I'm getting woken up 1am with a nine month old that can't sleep or a three year old with nightmares.
• 13:19
  It doesn't really end. And I think that's a fascinating thing. One part of me says your kids should be independent. But another part of me says it's pretty cool that he has a relationship with his kids and their worst moments are still calling him, knowing he'll be there and available. And I don't have an answer of do I want that, do I not? It's just a fascinating thought topic.
• 13:36
  Yeah, I think that most people would want that, even if they say that they don't want that when they're having it. I think that having the kid that you raised calling you when they want to brainstorm something, they want to share some ideas, they want something that's not going in the right direction, whatever that is, I think that that is a very cool moment.
• 14:03
  Rather than I cannot really trust my father, my mother, I'm not going to ask for advice about this thing. Zero. I don't remember calling my parents for stuff like that ever. Like imagine, now let's just separate for a second. I guess that if you raise the kid and the kid is very undeveloped by you, I'm just going to put back the responsibility on the parent.
• 14:25
  I could understand that the parent is like, come on, dude, you are 25 years old, just fly away. He's like, well, maybe you didn't do a very good job raising them. Maybe. I have no idea. I wasn't there. Only you know, but maybe you didn't do a very good job. That's why they are coming back with stupid things. Now, if you raised a very competent adult, now imagine that person coming back to you to ask you for critical feedback in certain areas or to talk about different things. To me, that would be like, shh.
• 14:53
  Such a cool feeling. Why wouldn't you want that? Because he's getting that information from he or she. He's getting that information from someone. Somewhere. So why they're not calling you? Spot on. And I think it all comes back to your one key point, which is, do you look at a child you raised as...
• 15:08
  you know, capable, relatively independent. Some parents might say that, but the actions of kind of daily calls, requests, needs, don't align with that of the child. I think that's the interesting question because you simplified it and I think you're right. It's how do you judge, how do you make that judgment as a parent?
• 15:25
  Yeah, I was the other day speaking with a friend and she has, their kids are maybe 25. I was like, oh my gosh, my daughter just keeps calling me about this thing. And she was kind of complaining. She was not kind. She was complaining about it. Not in a terrible complaining way, but she was complaining about it.
• 15:39
  And I said, like, well, let me share with you the other side. This is how the flip looks like. She never calls you about anything. Any big decision, any meaningful thing, does not care, does not want your feedback, your input, your opinion. What do you think? How would you feel? I think that's very tough, yes. I mean, it's kind of a deep thought of where they're solving. I love my parents.
• 16:02
  They had six kids. They just had a lot on their plate. I felt I didn't want to burden them. They already had all these other children things. So it just always felt, hey, I need to go solve this myself. Do you think most other entrepreneurs similarly just said, I'm going to go do this stuff on my own? And that was part of the trait they were building or the muscle they were developing?
• 16:20
  Difficult to say as most, I would say most entrepreneurs grew up with some kind of hardship. That for me is obvious. Most, not everyone. Most. I don't know. That became a chip in the shoulder or I want XYZ because I did not have that when I was growing up. And I'm going to make it happen no matter what. It's going to happen.
• 16:42
  I don't care about the naysayers, the people that are going to tell me no. They're going to tell me I'm wrong. They're going to tell me that. I don't care. I'm going to make it work. I'm going to make it happen. That for sure. I see that pattern. Now, in regards of the parents, it's difficult to say about, I think that if both parents are super loving and super supportive and produce no struggle whatsoever in the kid, I don't think that that's going to create a very resilient kid.
• 17:09
  Now, the challenge as a parent being self-aware of all these things going on is how do you create struggle, manufacture struggle for your kids so your kids become hungry. So that is a whole different conversation. I have definitely seen people growing up where they were given a lot of things. And those people, I wouldn't say that they are very resilient. They are very successful in the way that they thought that they were going to be 30 years ago or 25 years ago.
• 17:39
  Did you see that in Argentina as well? I mean, it's an age old tale, but I'm just thinking about there may have been less, even in a society where there's less because the economy is declining because of government intervention.
• 17:50
  It's very difficult to say because in the USA, you could be born, let's say in the USA, with a family that has a very limited mindset and let's say believes in communism and thinks that all the entrepreneurs are shit or whatever. But when you look up and look around, you see the real example and you see what's possible. Now in Argentina, you look up and you're like, okay.
• 18:15
  I guess that is true because I don't see anything. I see a person running an ice cream shop, pizzeria shop. Are they successful in the way that I thought about freedom, entrepreneurship, financial independence? Like, no? Then maybe this is true. So I think that that is the big difference. In the U.S., you have to be very brainwashed, very dumb, to be honest, to believe in communism. Yeah.
• 18:42
  Because it's right there. You have it right there in front of your eyes what's possible. You can see a normal person that came out from nothing and achieved XYZ by betting on themselves, by taking risks. Now, when you come with a country that has a socialist communist mindset, it's a bit more difficult because you don't really see the examples.
• 19:01
  Do you think that the Americans, though, are missing out because they aren't seeing the pain of the country? Like the perspective you got in Argentina where you look left, look right, and it's like no one can get out of this unless you're bribing in the government's orbit. That's just not something most Americans understand, have seen. You know, I've been in Cuba. I've been in the edge of North Korea. I've been in some of these countries. I've been in Russia, some of the countries where you have less freedoms. But knowing that almost...
• 19:30
  None have, and I have nothing compared to your lived experience. Do you think that's the thing that most need to actually have the breakthrough in knowledge? Are Americans confused because they're not feeling the pain of a communist government in their lifetime or understanding what it would be like? I think you need to rephrase the question because Americans, you are including now everyone in the USA that is an American. Most Americans. I don't think that most Americans are stupid communists. I think there is a small, loud, ignorant minority that,
• 19:57
  Yeah. That believes that communism is the solution, which I am sure that there is still people that believe that they should follow the path of the KKK because that's the solution, or that they are skinheads and they believe that being a Nazi is the solution. You always have radical people that is a small minority that they usually tend to be very loud because they are very extremists. That doesn't mean that it's most Americans. That's a great clarification. One may say, how is it possible...
• 20:25
  that the mayor in New York, New York that you may think about if you think, okay, where is the mecca of capitalism? I mean, it's like New York. And all of a sudden the mayor of New York is a communist. How did that happen?
• 20:40
  I have no idea. It's a heck of a flip. It doesn't matter because it's just going to become so obvious. Like, oh, you want to do these things? Okay, cool. It's going to be so fun to watch it. It's going to be so fun. I think there's an interesting parallel to... It's going to be fun to watch because...
• 20:57
  In the USA, there is this incredible thing, which is every state works on their own. So there is a lot of independence of how things are done on a state-by-state basis. So that means when you are living in a state, and this happened a lot in California, and now all of a sudden you don't like getting f***ed on the ass anymore, then you say, you know what, I'm out.
• 21:21
  I'm going, I'm going to Florida, I'm going to Texas. And eventually things are going to change. And eventually the governments or the places that you are thinking that they're the best, eventually they become. We really lose perspective. Just zoom out. If you like Germany today, just zoom out. Like 80 years, go and live in Germany.
• 21:40
  Like seriously. And your point there is basically it's going to create pain, which is then going to change the place for better. And then it's going to be better. And people are going to come along and change it for the worse. And that up and down and up and down is a natural cycle.
• 21:55
  And also everything gets very distorted with the media, because the media is going to put the focus in whatever they want to put the focus. So they are really controlling a lot of things because they're controlling the minds of how people think. Anyhow, this is why I believe that the USA is the last hope of the West. I believe that Europe is gone. It's a great place to go for vacation, but it's gone from a creation, from an innovation point of view. They allow the government to be the dictator.
• 22:22
  And the government now decides over the people. And I think that it should be the other way around, right? Aren't they representing us? How is this possible? So the USA is, to me, is the last hope of the West. And I think that is the only country that is established in a way that allows for continuity. Now, will this continue forever? I don't think so. Nothing is forever.
• 22:47
  And sometimes then I go like, what does it matter? At the end of the day, when you look at your life, my life, any of you watching your life, your life is very tiny, usually. It's just focus on not even one city. It's like one neighborhood, usually. That's where your life happens 90% of the time. Just focus on that.
• 23:06
  You don't like it, became violent, just moved somewhere else. Dude, that's beautiful, especially as someone speaking that's moved across three continents over your lifetime. Born, lived, moved. That's powerful. And look, I'm the guy who's still in the neighborhood that I was, you know, close to the neighborhood I was born. There's beauty and also sadness. You could look at it two different lenses. Well, I don't think so. Depends. Depends because it depends how much it changed or how great it was from...
• 23:32
  to begin with. If it was amazing and it's still amazing, then why would you move? And that's my perspective. I saw 85 countries and loved learning and growing and finding something unique in each culture, but realized ultimately what I grew up with is what I would want to give children. I think if someone didn't consciously think about it, didn't consciously explore options, that's when it's the sad or pathetic option of
• 23:57
  Well, you know, I'm Billy and my grandpa was born here and my mom was born here. And so I should just stay here. That to me is a without consciously saying, I want to be here to improve the community. I want to be here because it's a great community. And I think your point on the government is so powerful. Another great flip is the government there to serve the people such as I'd say the United States. And there's first principles rules that require that that I'll mention.
• 24:20
  Or are the people here to serve the government, right? Where these governments are expect and demand that you are doing everything you can for them. And I think that gets very scary very fast. It goes down dangerous paths on this who is serving whom. How are they serving each other? And why is America structured in a beautiful way? Well, you have freedom of speech. And that's a line that they said cannot be crossed other than very rare instances like screaming fire in a...
• 24:47
  you know, busy place that causes harm immediately. But if you have freedom of speech, what that means is I can always speak on my behalf and my expectations that the government should serve me and other people, other taxpaying citizens. That's powerful. Well, yes. I think that the most powerful thing is the Second Amendment.
• 25:09
  Look what happened with Great Britain. You have freedom of speech until I say, until we change the law. And now all of a sudden this thing is illegal. And oops, I am the only one that is allowed to have weapons. I was going to use that as a second one. We do not condemn school violence, all these crazy people just going and shooting. Like, no, no. But you know what? The bad guys will always get the weapons. Always. Just show me.
• 25:35
  One single time where the bad guys do not have the weapons. Show me. Give me an example, please. They always get the weapons. Dude, you just flipped it so hard. Think about that. It's just so dumb to be like, oh, let's put a rule against weapons.
• 25:49
  But guys, they're breaking all the laws. So brain dead. And here's the problem is, okay, what's the problem that you are really trying to solve? Well, we don't want any mass shootings in schools. Wonderful. We agree. Let's figure out how do we solve that problem. Of course, as always, politicians just grab something. They twist it. They create emotional revolution inside of people. And so they can get votes. But it's just theater. It's just theater. And Americans are waking up.
• 26:16
  I think that before with this pandemic in 2020, there was a big before and after. Before, Americans were just very brain dead, trusting everything that the government was telling them. Now they're starting to question things, which is the way that it should be. You should be able to question things. Why not? What's wrong with question things? What's wrong to say like, hey, wait a second. How is this politician that makes $150,000 a year has 20 million bucks? How does that? Why? Huh? That...
• 26:45
  In two years. Hey, how is it possible that we are spending billions of dollars to fix homelessness and homelessness is not fixed and we just keep spending more money? Wait, I want some answers here. How is that a problem to say that? So before, anyhow, I really like the change.
• 27:05
  I think that there is been, after this pandemic, which was a big scam that really put a lot of people out of business when they shouldn't have gone out of business. I think that that started to open up a lot of eyes in people and asking more questions.
• 27:22
  I love that because questions are theory. It's challenging theory. It's trying to hopefully come up with better theories or better practices by learning. I'm reading a great book. You mentioned what's on my mind. It ties in all of this. It's called A Vision of the Anointed. A really cool black dude, Thomas Sowell, grew up in New York with nothing, parents gone or dead, was Marxist his whole life. And I've told you about him before.
• 27:44
  but Marxist his whole life studied under Milton Friedman, the godfather of kind of classic economics. And then he interned in the federal government during his PhD or master's at the University of Chicago. And he was like, Oh my gosh, there's so many bad decisions. And, and,
• 27:59
  misalignment and this department spending money on this. And so is this. And they don't want to work together because they're protecting their budgets. And it, after 25, 26 years, however old he was of fighting for Marxism, it all broke down in a second. And now he's the most prolific writer about politics.
• 28:16
  This book, for example, A Vision of the Anointed, he explains, it would all make sense to have these kind of views, this government control, if you could trust the people at the top and they, they all, and it's this vision of anointing, hey, there are our leaders. I can trust them. The problem is we're all untrustworthy. We all have our problems. We all, there ends up being the politician that went from 200 grand to $20 million in a year.
• 28:41
  and you're scratching your head, those people exist. And the only way against it is what you said, asking questions and trying to make empirical results. Did this work? Did this change and get better? Business is very focused on that. Okay, this is working, do more of it. This isn't working, kill it. Politics, you get more of the challenge because people try and create emotion and say, well, this would be nice. Yeah, of course it'd be nice, but it's actually hurting those people, like the homeless. These policies aren't helping them. Well, X, Y, and Z. Well, let's test a different one.
• 29:10
  No, no, we need to do more of this. We just need to do 10 times more. Do we? Should we flip it? Should we try the exact opposite and see how that's going?
• 29:17
  Yeah, and maybe something that is going to resonate more is what you are saying. We need to do 10 times more. Just change that to we need to charge you more taxes. Wow. That's what's really going on. You know what? I know that I told you that we needed X amount of money to do this. Just trust me, bro. Just give me. I need a little bit more. Also, there is another thing that nobody speaks about this, and I find it fascinating. It's just insane. So inflation is basically theft.
• 29:45
  So the governments around the world, they print money for free, which is something that you need to work on to get, right? You need to work on something that they can print for free because they are printing money. They dilute the shares, the outstanding shares, so the amount of currency in circulation. So that means your money...
• 30:04
  that you hold, the paper that you hold or the digits in your computer that you have, they are worth less than before. Now, interesting enough, if you hold a stock for, let's say you bought $100 of Apple stock 20 years ago, when you sell it today, you have to pay capital gains. It's not inflation adjusted. Yeah.
• 30:28
  You have to pay from the beginning. I find this so insane. How come it's not inflation adjusted? And I'm not saying using the real inflation numbers. Let's just use the fake numbers from the government. It doesn't matter.
• 30:43
  But at least something. Wow. I've never thought about that. Exactly. There you go. That's a great example. Because I've thought about how I need to beat it to survive. This is a person that has paid so much money in taxes. I've paid a lot of money in taxes. Exactly. And I think the flip side is I'm proud to have paid a lot of taxes. I really am. I think that's one of the worst phrases ever. Seriously. That's such a horrible word to say. Same word. You flipped it.
• 31:12
  Yeah, but I want that you finish and then I can... Yeah, the statement is because a lot of those are local taxes, and I'm very impressed with and proud of most of my local city and state government. I think that it's... Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, the way they operate, the community they created for me, the roads I'm on, the safety environment, the police officers we have, like, there is a lot I'm very proud of in...
• 31:37
  local governments. And I think on the whole, the large majority of local city, county, and state governments in the U.S. are run well and are people that are very passionate about their community. I think where I'm not proud or I get concerned or worried about the additional spending is on the federal level because the
• 31:57
  It's this book, A Vision of the Anointed, as Thomas Sowell, this amazing dude, black dude, Marxist, grew up with nothing, wanted it, he said, when you appoint someone to think they know everything and will solve all your problems, they're detached. And people in just the center representing everyone become very detached and make bad decisions and try and go top down with the decisions. And those are the cost, decisions, expenses that concern me on the local level of...
• 32:24
  I'm proud of how those dollars and what it creates. Yeah, so saying I am proud of the money that I paid in taxes, to me that is wrong because I believe most likely if you were allowed to put whatever, you could create
• 32:41
  your digits, your percentage of taxes that you would pay. Very weird that you would choose the amount that you end up paying, right? I think that most people would go with a lower one. So I think that it's good to say I'm very proud of the local government, the city government, because they have done an incredible job. And I wish more of the money that I am already paying goes to them, because they are much better allocators.
• 33:07
  than the people at the federal, okay, that's a different statement. But to me, it's a brain-dead statement to say I am proud of paying 40% taxes. Meaning that's too much. Yeah, let me just showcase this very simple. Do you use any legal, of course, strategies to lower your tax rate according to the tax law? Not really. I mean, depreciation is a legal strategy on if I have some real estate.
• 33:33
  That creates depreciation. That's a legal strategy. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. And sorry, there's plenty of legal. Like I have a tax credit for a child. Yeah. You get to decide in your tax return to put that number or to not to put it. So you are taking as much deductions as possible as you legally can.
• 33:51
  I meant more of the complicated tax strategies. Why are you doing that? Because you want to pay less taxes. Because you know, Peter, 40% taxes, it's insane. It's literally half of your year. And this is not inflation adjusted, which is even crazier. This is half of your year almost working. Goes directly to the government. And you have no say of where that money goes.
• 34:14
  And the government doesn't even balance the budget. This is, let's just take this as if we are running a business, right? Just imagine, Peter, you and I, we are running a business, okay? We are entrepreneurs slash politicians, right? We are running this business. We have shareholders, right? They give money to our business. Well, we get to decide how much money they give us. They have no say. And also, we get to decide we have 100% authority to do whatever we want.
• 34:43
  single year. How does that make sense? And now I hear the comments for the brain and people, but who's going to create the roads? Yeah, got it. Cool. Just go and look where the money is really spent in the government. Just go and look. Just go and see where the money is being spent. You've never looked at where the money is going. So it's, I understand you were born in,
• 35:09
  in a country which is amazing. And then if I can point at one of the negative things is that you cannot really escape the tax net, which I think that is one of the most smart decisions done in the USA because that forced people to stay in the USA. Just go and look what's happening in Canada, what's happening in the UK. Tons of people are saying like, sayonara, motherfucker.
• 35:33
  I'm out of this place. That's it. I am done with you raping me. That's it. I'm done. Now I'm going to be resident in another country that I can feel that I am treated in a better way and that things are more fair here. This is the main reason also why people move from one state to another. Like, you know what? It's not really worth it, the extra whatever, 16% or 17% that I get in California.
• 35:55
  Not worth it. I'm going to Texas. Bye, California. Think of that. That's a perfect example of a consumer voting with their feet. I don't really like your product. I'm going to return that. I'm moving on to new product, which is really what is saying of having choice, a voluntary decision to interact with as a customer. That's what the United States created with 50 different options, along with territories like Puerto Rico or California.
• 36:19
  cities like dc that aren't part of those states like those are a lot of a lot of options we don't do anything timely which i love but it was tax day last week in the united states so in honor of tax day i'm gonna ask you a couple questions because we're digging in on this do you know what the one percent of earners pay in federal income tax what percentage of the total collected it's like 60
• 36:43
  40%. Do you know the top 10% pay of total? 80. 65. And it changes a little bit year to year. Okay, now let's flip it. Let's go the exact opposite. What do the bottom 50% of income earners pay in annual income as a percentage of the total? 10%. 2%. 2%.
• 37:06
  Jesus, 50% of the bottom earners in the country, they contribute 2% of the total tax revenue of the country. Let that sink in. Wow. So, okay, what does that mean?
• 37:22
  Top 1% pay about 40%. Top 10% cover about 70% to 72%. And the bottom 50% pay just 3%. Now this waivers. So like my numbers were right, I don't know, a year ago, and they'll be wrong in the next year. But it's basically a line of since 2001, the bottom 50% were at 5%. And they're trending down towards 2% or 3%. The top 1% were at 33% in 2001 are trending up to 45%.
• 37:50
  as of 2021, according to the tax foundation. And then the top 10%, I'm not seeing that line on here, but it claims about 70 to 72% of total taxes paid by the top 10. Yeah, it's maybe a little bit lower than that. So if the top 1% is 33%, oh, no, okay, because in the top 10% is included, is includes the 1%, okay. That's where I was like, somebody's going to destroy me, because I forgot. It's just, it's accumulating on top of that.
• 38:15
  Yes, so let's just take the other side on this, which if we look at the trend based on what you are saying, so I'm just going to take you as face value here on your research, very deep research with GPT and Grog. So the trend is going in this direction where the people that have more money have even more money. The people that have less money have even less money.
• 38:41
  I understand what you're saying, but as I dig into this, it actually just doubles down of why people should be focused on the entrepreneurship, tying together everything we said. This is the reason why you should become an entrepreneur. Because this income tax, it doesn't matter if you're the top earner. This doesn't have anything to do with assets or capital gains. This is solely your W-2 income, I think. Well, actually, I don't know. Yeah, but then the question is, can anyone become an entrepreneur? Can anyone...
• 39:10
  Not only that, I'm not talking about having the skills. I think that the skills is something that you can get, but do you really want to have the desire that this is, you are where the back stops? Not everyone has that thick skin. They don't. I think what it means to be an entrepreneur can be different for different people. What I'm saying is if you're earning $400,000 a year in the U.S. and in
• 39:34
  Wait, wait, 400K is a lot of money. It's a lot of money. Okay, that's top 1%, I think, right? For sure, for sure. Okay. So you're earning a lot of money in your job as a lawyer, a doctor, a dentist, a business executive, whatever. And that means 40 to 50% of that goes to the government in taxes. Yeah, depending on where you're living.
• 39:52
  You're part of this 1% that's paying 40% of the total income taxes. For you, it might be, hey, I'm going to own a couple rental properties that have some depreciation benefit that I'm managing in short-term rentals that offset all of this.
• 40:07
  That doesn't mean you're managing 100 people. It just means, hey, you know, this is a college town that I like, or this is a vacation town. We can go two weeks a year to the house. That's great. The rest of it, we're going to rent it out. I think it's the idea of, and it comes back to serving others, right? Entrepreneurship is finding a problem that people have and serving them well enough that they want to voluntarily give you money.
• 40:29
  because you gave them a solution to their problem. Always searching for that, whether or not it becomes a big business, is a beautiful gift that we as humans should always be doing. Because guess what? We always were doing that. We were part of a tribe. Pablo, you go get the food, I'll get the water. Okay, together we're going to hunt the lion to eat. It was a communal effort to solve the problems, to then serve each other and then survive. The fact that we're losing this, where we're like, I'm just going to sit at a desk and do-do-do-do-do-do-do,
• 40:59
  And I just know like clockwork, this drug of a paycheck is going to show up. I think that that's hard on your soul and not, even if you never pursue it, thinking about it, testing ideas, owning a rental property, these are good for the soul to solve problems. It could be a store on Etsy where you sell some crafts you made. I don't care what it is. Those are positive things is my, my belief.
• 41:21
  What I think that is very interesting is that the USA allows you to play with all this stuff, all these things, which you don't have in other countries. The challenge, looking at these numbers, right, what is the current tax rate and in different income levels in the U.S. federal? Tax rate 2025 federal marginal tax brackets for a single file or $1.
• 41:44
  On taxable income. 10% on the first $11,900, 12% on the first $11,900 to $48,000, 22, 48 to 103. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Go slower. So 10% to $11,000, then 12% to $48,000? To $48,000. So if you are making less than $48,000, you're paying 12%?
• 42:05
  It's progressive. So you pay 10% up to the 11 and then 12% between 11 and 48. Okay. So just 2% more. Is that what you're going to say? 2% more on the amount between 11 and 48. Then you're paying 22% from 48 to $103,000 you make.
• 42:23
  24% from $103,000 to basically $200,000. 32% from $197,000 to $250,000. 35% $250,000 to $626,000. And 37% everything over $626,000. This must have gone up a lot because of inflation. So this is most likely also another place where...
• 42:45
  you are getting robbed with inflation because you all of a sudden, it's not that you are making $200,000 because you are incredible. It's just that the salaries are going up because inflation is eroding the value of money. So that's that.
• 43:01
  And I think the deep part to understand, tying back to what we just talked about, was if you and I both make $400,000, we've got a good salary. Pablo's big balling, buying clothes that he gets rid of, buying the flashy car, the things that don't hold value. And I'm just stacking short-term rentals. After 10 years, I'm going to have some really serious assets, and you're going to really regret the clothes that don't fit anymore. Yeah.
• 43:27
  Well, yeah, but that's because you are optimizing for long term. I am optimizing for short term. I don't really understand what you're talking about. I don't care. So that just comes, I don't know if it's education, if it's childhood. I don't know exactly where that's coming from. Totally. The only point I'm saying is the government can always or has since Benjamin Franklin's time.
• 43:48
  when we instituted the income tax, it's easy to say, you're earning this, so I'm gonna snag it. You know, I think at some point it'll come, but we don't have a wealth tax yet, which is a tax based on your assets, unless you sell it, which is the capital gains long-term. And even at that, it's half of the rate on income. So this is the compelling reason for those that aren't aware, to think about anything as an entrepreneurial benefit, because you basically are paying half the taxes on any of those sales for long-term capital gains.
• 44:17
  The government is recognizing it's important for people to do these activities because it gives more tax dollars, it gives more jobs, everything. So when you say bottom 50% contributes 5% of the tax revenue, what is the amount of money that these people make when you say bottom 50%? What is the number here? $10 annual salary.
• 44:39
  Pablo, great question. The bottom 50% of taxpayers have a annual gross adjusted income AGI of about 53,800. That's the cutoff for the latest IRS data. That's for year 2023.
• 44:53
  Yeah. So this makes me think, why the hell these people pay any taxes? They should pay zero. You have 50%, half of the country is contributing 5% of the tax revenue. These people are stuck there. Now, I'm sure that they lack education. I'm sure that they have no idea what depreciation is. I'm sure that they have no idea what deductions are.
• 45:17
  They are stuck. Why tax them? And I understand. Yeah, incentives. I get it. It's great to have incentives, but just the way that it's done, I think that only this is just going to... I think that it's much easier. Let me put it this way. It's much easier to become a little bit more healthy.
• 45:36
  in the spending, adjusting 5% or something like that, and then be able to liberate a lot of people to give them more space. Let me build on the idea. That 10% taxes, you made 11,000, that 10% tax is not going to be a tax. That money goes directly in an investment account and you need to invest it in the market.
• 45:57
  That's it. That's it. You cannot touch it for 10 years. And when you sell it tax-free, no problem, or something. You pay 1%. You pay 2%. Now, all of a sudden, we are aligning incentives here. So I'm not saying go and buy more Coca-Cola and Doritos. I'm not saying that. Go on and buy another bullshit thing that you don't need. No, just, okay, invest it. Build your assets. That's a beautiful idea.
• 46:20
  Just context. So the bottom 50% under annual gross income, that's 53 grand and under. They pay about 3% of the total federal income tax, and it's $900 on average. They receive far more in benefits transfer, Medicaid, food stamps, housing, et cetera. It's often $10,000 to $30,000 per household annually. Yes, the benefits exceed taxes paid.
• 46:43
  by the group. So it's interesting. They're already receiving more. And I was going to counter with that. And I'm practicing this shut up, close my mouth and just listen, because I would have cut you off on a beautiful point, which is, and I agree with your point, which is because my only challenge or concern when I flipped what you were saying was, I think people should get in the process of paying taxes. So we don't have tax evasion and people that aren't supporting the government. And so I was going to be like, I don't know, because then they're going to just never want to pay taxes. And
• 47:09
  I love yours because it's actually just forcing their hand to do something that's slightly painful, but so powerful for their future, but for only them to benefit. Not only that, just again, picture, I have not run the math, but if you say you have to invest it and you can only sell it after 10 years if you want. And after 10 years, if you sell it and you have capital gains, you pay taxes on capital gains. Yeah. Pablo for president. Let's go.
• 47:37
  I mean, we should just get you a chainsaw and on stage. That'd be, nobody's ever done that. No. For anybody who doesn't know, it's a reference to the Argentina's new president who is cutting away all the fat.
• 47:50
  I know I may be coming across as a person that I don't believe that we should pay any taxes. It's like, well, every time that I swipe my credit card, my debit card, I am paying taxes. Every single time. I don't really remember the last time that I was in a country that I was not, I did not pay taxes every time that I swipe my credit card. So think about that. Whatever you're buying, whatever you're buying, whatever.
• 48:15
  You're paying taxes. The merchant tends to collect those taxes and they remit those taxes to the government.
• 48:23
  Now, there are different levels of government and whatnot, but I think that is an important question. It's like, where is my money going? You are paying, let's say, 40% of your income. That means you are 60% of the year you are working for you, 40% of the year, almost half of the year. If you live in California, then more than half of the year.
• 48:46
  You are working for the government. You're literally, you're a slave of the government. I think that makes sense to be able to ask a question. Powerful flip, man. I think about our conversation of it's flipping when we realize the top 1% of earners are paying for this deficit of all of the bottom 50%.
• 49:07
  because the 50% are paying $900 a pop. And I didn't know this. I was like, yeah, people can pay more. The problem is a lot of these people have assets. It's not their earning. So it's actually a lot of the middle classes who I think is getting squeezed the hardest because they're getting taxed at high rates. They don't have assets. It's just income. The government's ripping as much as they can of income. And I think how powerful it is that...
• 49:31
  This amazing black American, Thomas Sowell, born without parents or parents were in his life, full Marxist, right? Like writing papers, dissertations on Marxism, flips to be the most clear writer I've ever seen on market-based economics, on understanding that it's not just our feelings, but let's go test the theories, the strategies to see what helps people. He really wants to help people. Let's test the strategies and forget tying just to emotionally or fear-based theories.
• 50:00
  beliefs, but have true questions and answers. Because most of this is you test it, you invest in this, does it improve outcomes? Yes or no? Oh, let's look at the data. And there's a lot of vested interest to fight that. It's so neat, right? So it's flipping, okay, maybe these one percenters are helping a little bit paying some of the, oh, 40% of the entire expense, right? And then think about that 50% of all government income is coming from this income tax. So what
• 50:28
  Roughly, let's call it what then, that makes it like 25% of all government spending of the 5.2 trillion comes from that 1% group. I mean that's pretty wild and eye-opening for somebody like me. I just didn't know. I had no idea. I knew taxes go up, but I didn't realize the extent of what the outcome is on that. And Thomas Sowell, again, fighting Marxism, he's such a beautiful example of showing he grew up –
• 50:54
  as that. He was in America, as you said. He created a great life for himself, and he wanted to give back with clear thought, and he's now the opposite of what he was as a kid. You know, whether it's believing in Marxism or being poor, you can suddenly be the opposite in America, and that's a beautiful gift.
• 51:10
  Yeah, I think that growing up, especially if you are not in the USA, it makes sense. If you grow up and you don't have some, let's call it socialist tendencies or ideologies, it would be weird, right? Because you are pure heart, right? You want to help. And the headlines are awesome. The promises of communism, of socialism are incredible. Now, growing up, if you still believe in that, it's not about heart.
• 51:40
  I love that. I heard this great comedian. She goes, you know, my friends who are different on a different political party than her, they all think I'm evil. And they, you know, just say, oh, you're evil. You're horrible. And I just think they're all they haven't figured it out. They're just dumb.
• 51:56
  And just for her to like simplify, which I think both groups, right? It's like you get too far and extreme, you just hate everyone else, right? But it was a funny simplification and I love your head and heart. And really the idea is you blend it together where you say, I wanna help them from the heart. I know that requires me to think as well, logically what is going to be the solution that helps the most people. And I'm open to testing those. And I'm humble enough to be wrong and be like, I didn't know, I didn't know I was completely wrong here.
• 52:25
  So, Peter, too much blah, blah, blah here. So how do you solve this? Pablo for president. Done. It's all downstream of that. Come on. I cannot be president. I was not born in the U.S. I forgot about that. There's been some presidents that may or may not, you know? You never know. What are you saying? Pablo will be the first alien president, too. Well, just... He wasn't even born on Earth. I actually really like your idea. I mean, sincerely, I don't... I haven't thought about it ever before. It's a creative idea I've never heard, which is...
• 52:53
  You're flipping people who don't own any assets to be acquiring assets every year in a compounding way. That's cool. That's really cool. Let me ask you in a different way. What is the real problem, the core problem? And let's just keep the conversation focused on the USA right now. But I guess that this applies to all Europe also. What is the core problem, the core reason why we have this problem, this result?
• 53:19
  I like your mentor, Charlie Munger's comment on this, where he said, it is not greed that rules the world. It's actually envy. And I think at a root problem,
• 53:33
  it's people's envy of others in other situations. And you have social media that shows the life everyone's living now, or most people are living. It shows someone what they get. Whereas if you look back 50 years, we're living every, every American's living better than with air conditioning, everything else,
• 53:49
  the richest person in the world 50, 60, 70 years ago. We're so lucky, but we lack this appreciation of being the moment to see we're in the safest, healthiest, most exciting technological time ever. My friend teaches history at a high school, one of my best friends, and he has, I saw this great message that this high school teacher came in and goes,
• 54:11
  500 years ago, you would have been having kids at this age, fighting off the invaders, seeing your kids die of infection, and worried about whether or not you're going to eat today every single day. Instead, you're in a class that's warm, safe with someone who cares about you at the front, and all you need to do is the homework. I don't want to hear your complaints.
• 54:32
  good as this reminder that we are all in the most thankful, we should all be thankful every hour for this incredible moment. And myself included. Look, I can be a whiny little complainer as well, just as good as anybody. I think that is the root problem. And this fear and grasping for everything else drives us to do crazy things on all levels. As government employees, as people being elected, as people demanding more, all of this stuff just compounds in a
• 55:01
  What would be the one solution for this? The one thing that can be implemented that creates a solution or at least steers the ship in the right direction? You're going to laugh so hard when I flip this so hard on you. This is going to blow your mind. Ready? You got your adult diaper on? You might wet yourself. You ready? Ready?
• 55:22
  I think it's actually being a country going down a dark path like Vietnam, Cuba, these other countries. Now, it creates a solution for a generation or two. Because when you see the worst, as you saw in Argentina, it changes your soul and your brain. It wakes up your brain that's been offline.
• 55:42
  and it connects it to your heart rather than just letting your heart believe these lies of what could be. Do I want that to happen? Absolutely not. But it's the solution because people see how absolutely miserable life is.
• 55:55
  when you control outcomes and don't allow, you know, God's intention, plan, someone else, a controller of the matrix to direct outcomes. The challenge with that is that this just puts us in a cycle and also believing that a cycle is always the case that it should be. And maybe it is, maybe it's not. I also go back and think, is this what the founding fathers envisioned? Is this the size of the government that they envisioned? Definitely not. You can read the constitution.
• 56:23
  Well, okay, there you go, right? And this is something, yeah, we can go in the dark ages for 100 years or 200 years and maybe never come back or maybe whatever. I'm just thinking much more about what should be done now that could really, again, not fix because there's a lot of things, but steer the ship in the right direction.
• 56:44
  I think the second thing I would say is so much of this spending and opportunity is on a local level. And this is something I heard from a friend that was really powerful, which is go get involved locally. We live in this beautiful country that is a republic and has the opportunity to input. And go make sure your local government is not doing a terrible job.
• 57:05
  Go run for an office or support somebody that's doing it because that change on the local level of getting your – you said this earlier, I think, on this podcast, like getting your neighborhood in good order, making sure your neighborhood is a safe, good, hospitable, friendly community through for-profit, nonprofit, volunteer, political.
• 57:23
  that make your house fix your house be in a good place with your family your kid get your neighborhood get your city get your town that's the way that most people can change a world in a way they have no idea yeah that is a great step that i guess that anyone can do something about yeah
• 57:40
  I think that the biggest problem here is the lack of accountability for the people running the show and the lack of alignment of incentives. So what do I mean with this? If we are running a business and we have an infinite credit card that somehow someone needs to pay, definitely not us, but someone needs to pay. And literally, I don't really get penalized much.
• 58:07
  for screwing it up, for keep running a deficit, for keep losing money. I don't think when I look at the spending or the P&L of the USA, I don't think that this is a revenue problem. I think that this is a spending problem. If you spend 1.8, 1.9 trillion dollars, what's the difference? Well, let me tell you, that's a hundred billion dollars difference. That's a lot of
• 58:31
  money this is why i think it's important to use real numbers this is a lot of 100 billion dollars how does your career changes what is what is the impact in your career and some people say like well they don't get elected really these guys are mommies they have like 80 plus years old like not right not everyone but it's thinking that they don't get re-elected if they suck come on they still get re-elected most of them i thought you said mommies i just want to make sure it came it was mommies for anyone else i was like wait how are they someone's mom
• 59:02
  That's exactly what I said, Peter. Just because you have a dirty mind doesn't mean that my English is not proper here. All my traumas are coming out. Because there is, one more time, there is no alignment of incentives. If they spend $1 billion more or $100 billion more or $200 billion more or $500 billion more, what happens? Yes.
• 59:25
  Nothing. I mean, the bomb is going to explode at some time, at some point. But you know what? Especially, I mean, I can only reference Argentina. It takes a long time to explode. It takes way more time than you think to explode. Way more. And it takes even more time for people to say enough is enough. It may take a hundred years in the USA.
• 59:51
  For people to say, okay, that's it. We are just going to take on the streets and we're going to take on this. Because this is not... We are done with this sport. Why? Because, well, you still get your McDonald's. You still get your TV. You get your sports. You get the Roman Circus. You get your bread. You know, you're good. You get your hot dogs. What else? I got everything I want. What about beer? I get beer. You get your beer. You get your baseball. You get your football. All right.
• 1:00:20
  You're good. You're good. Everything's super cheap. You're fine. You know what? Just keep eating. Forget about it. Just give me the credit card. I mean, it is, it is powerful to talk through this. And I think about, I didn't know a lot of this over the last year and started kind of poking around and trying to understand. And it makes so much sense when you look at it from the greatest entrepreneur ever.
• 1:00:45
  at least so far, of Elon saying, oh, I'm going to try and fix the bottleneck of this government thing. Oh, got my hands slapped by these people that are vested, that are...
• 1:00:55
  that are taking from the system or doing illegal things and create these campaigns. Oh, I'll just switch to be pure growth mode. I'll just grow our way out of it. Like if those receipts go up, then at least there's a chance that things work out fine. It's powerful. I hope he's right. But I think that he's forgetting that there is no cap on the credit card. So you can grow the receipts as much as you want. I am pretty sure just because of the incentives, the way that the incentives are misaligned,
• 1:01:23
  the spending is going to go up and we're going to be in the same story.
• 1:01:31
  Do you know what Singapore did? Not exactly. They have basically the coolest economic, some call it a miracle ever. But what he did was, he basically said, if you steal or corrupt, I think you get killed or you go to jail for life. And if you're in a government position, they pay like 150% of normal wages. So they recruit the most impressive people because you make a really good salary. But it's so stringent to get a job in the government.
• 1:01:57
  Like getting a job in the government's like, whoa. It should be like that, 100%. And I like a lot the incentives. Like if you're in government, if you're anywhere, right? Okay, you are anywhere except government and you steal. What happens? No, no, but most likely, let's just say, yeah, exactly. You go to jail, right? If you get sued, you go, you stole, you go to jail. Why that's not the case in the government? And some people are like, oh, it is. Okay, seriously? Okay.
• 1:02:23
  Come on. Like, I know that a couple of idiots went to jail, right? But it's like 2008. How many people went to jail after the banks did what they did? Like five? I don't know. Seriously? Yeah, very, very few. In the years that followed, hundreds of bankers and rating agencies' executives went to jail. The SEC was completely overhauled, and Congress had no choice but to break up the big banks and regulate the mortgage and derivatives industries.
• 1:02:53
  Just kidding. Banks took the money the American people gave them and they used it to pay themselves huge bonuses and lobby the Congress to kill big reform. And then they blamed immigrants and poor people, and this time even teachers. And what all was said and done, only one single banker went to jail. So it's all about accountability. It's all about aligning incentives. The same way that when a big company, let's just take about the biggest CEOs in the world,
• 1:03:23
  they have a clear alignment of incentives. If the CEO of whatever, Apple,
• 1:03:30
  steals. It's not going to steal peanuts, right? It's going to steal hundreds of millions of dollars. What happens to that CEO? Goes to jail, right? Why we don't have this in the government? I don't get it. It's insane. DC has voted, I believe, as high as 90.3% Democrat. I've never seen statistics like that. Never seen a statistic like that. What was the result of the last election in Russia in terms of percentage?
• 1:03:59
  Vladimir Putin, Russia in 2024, official result, 87.3% of the vote. You showed that to an American. What's the answer of the American? He's a dictator. It's not an election. These results are fake. He's stealing votes and whatever. And by the way, I have no clue, right? If he's or he's not. But the numbers are very high. And well, even how much you said DC? 90 what? 95? 90%? Very, very similar.
• 1:04:26
  Now I get it, massive difference, right? Massive difference in population size between DC and Russia, of course, but it's crazy. I went to DC one time and I couldn't believe when we were flying over almost about to land, I couldn't believe the size of the states, the houses. It was, I was like, holy, now I get it. Three of the top 10 richest suburbs are outside of DC. Now I get it. This is very hardworking people.
• 1:04:55
  That was a joke, Peter. It's just so fascinating to get numbers. So in 2016, 90.9% voted Democrat, 4.1% voted Republican, and 5% voted for Independent candidates.
• 1:05:09
  I really want that one day, hopefully soon, the elections in the USA are everything is on the same day. Everyone votes in person on the same day, except if you are abroad that you go and you vote in the consulate, like it works with all the other countries or most other countries. And then I would really, I'm very curious to see what's the real result.
• 1:05:29
  What I think is fascinating is anytime you see that, you have to wonder, is this a natural margin? Like 80-20 is kind of Pareto's principle. Should there be margins that are as large as 90%, 91% ever, or is that an unnatural or manipulated result? And I'm not saying in terms of voting, that's not what I'm hinting at. I'm voting at, I'm talking about, you are incentivized to continue a certain operation.
• 1:05:57
  And I thought about, man, what if in D.C. they made a rule which was like, hey, for one year or one month, if you come forward on any illegal activities you witnessed or been involved with, you'll be absolved on your part of it. And I was like, I don't think that the system could handle that overload. Like, I think people would be like, oh, no, everyone would freak out because there'd be. And I don't know if you saw this, but when the election did turn from Democrats, all these houses went for sale on Zillow. Like, all these people were ready to get out of.
• 1:06:24
  It was like a record number of homes people went up for listing and were like, I got to get out of here. Is that because of the economy? Is that because of somebody getting ready to flee or expecting to get fired? I don't know. Do you know who is the president that got the most amount of votes? Not percentages, but most amount of votes, like single votes in the history of the U.S.?
• 1:06:53
  Hillary Clinton, I'm guessing. 2016. No. Obama. No. Oh, Trump, most recent election. No. I'm out. I'm out. Three guesses. I fail. It was Joe Biden. The elections were in 2020, which was the moment where people were out the list. And he got, not a couple more, like out.
• 1:07:19
  What are the actual numbers? Trump got in 2016, he got almost 63 million votes. Biden in 2020 got 81 million. Trump in the last election got 77. Now, keep in mind, this is four years, four years, four years.
• 1:07:35
  But 77 versus 81 is close. Four years after in an economy that is totally open, where people can go and travel and move freely versus the closest it's ever been in history, maybe. I don't know. I mean, I know there's a lot of skeptics. It's not something I know enough to have any opinion. I'm not saying that the election was rigged at all. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, isn't that interesting? Interesting.
• 1:07:59
  Biden got almost 20 million votes more than Trump in the last election in 2016. And he still got 4 million more votes than Trump in this one, in the last one in 2024. And by the way, so if you think that I am a Republican or whatever...
• 1:08:18
  Good for you. Think whatever the fuck you want. I don't care. I am anti-corruption. I am pro-truth, anti-corruption. So when I look at certain things, I'm like, how does this thing add up? Oh, got it. Oh, so you don't really need to go to vote anymore?
• 1:08:37
  Okay. Huh. So you don't really need an ID to vote? Okay. Not everywhere. Huh. So I don't know if you know this, but for example, in Argentina, what many politicians do is they, let's call it, they run buses. So they have big buses, let's call it school buses, and they pick up people and they take them to the place where they are allocated to vote. So we vote in schools in Argentina.
• 1:09:06
  So you can search where you are and you have to vote in, okay, I vote in this school that is close to my house. And you go there and you vote there, right? So what these populist, usually populist or left-leaning, and left, I mean communist-leaning. I'm talking about Democrats. It's like communist-leaning. They taste like they just pick up all these people and they drive them there. And they give them what we call like a choripan. So this is like a sausage, right? So you give them some food.
• 1:09:35
  And then off you go, right? Yeah, well, so wait a second. I get a free ride. I get some food. And they are telling me to vote for whatever. Yeah, I don't give a shit. I vote for that. So that is something that happens. And I believe that that's something that will keep happening. I don't think that is illegal. Because at the end of the day, you are...
• 1:09:54
  going on your own, alone with your ID that proves that you are a citizen of the country and therefore you are already allowed to vote there. Another example, I don't need to register myself to vote. I am automatically registered to vote.
• 1:10:10
  I, when I was in college, Obama was running and there were buses. And I can't remember, I was like pretty moderate then. What is moderate? Moderate's like, I don't want to label or I'm somewhere in the middle. And I think it's important that people, I'm proud. I wouldn't say that it's the same decision I'd make now that I voted for presidential candidates from both parties. I think when we get too far in the label, it's bad because similar to what you said with the states, if I stay in California long enough, it's going to become bad.
• 1:10:36
  Comey-fornia, yeah. And then, you know, Texas is great. And then suddenly it becomes communist because all these commies move in. I think it's the same with parties. I think it's the same with politicians. It's like, man, it's flawed. We create entropy problems, right? We just bring problems that things start to break down.
• 1:10:53
  So being free enough as a thinker, flipping things to realize, I think of all these dictators, right? In a lot of these countries they started, and they're like, I'm gonna free us as a people. And they truly, I think, had the intention to be like, I'm gonna do great things for us and everyone's gonna be happy.
• 1:11:08
  And I was like, yeah, let's take over the government. And they do it. And they're like, this is great. And then he ends up being murdering millions, taking all the money for himself. Whether or not he had that plan for beginning or his heart changed and his head changed, I don't know. But it's a common theme. It's happened hundreds of times in history. So the requirement is you have to plan and realize all men are flawed. All men will go down this path. All parties will go down this path. Yeah.
• 1:11:35
  So tying myself to say, I am always a Democrat, I am always a Republican, I am, you know, to me, it's crazy, because that's actually putting that group above the country. And then people start doing crazy where they're like, we have to win, because if we don't, it's the end of the country forever.
• 1:11:52
  And I can't let this person. So it validates me cheating and stealing and doing whatever it is because I have to. It's the end of the world scenario versus having the humility. And now I voted for both sides. I voted for winners and losers on presidential. It's like I've been wrong. Like I voted for somebody I regret. Actually, sorry. I've regretted everyone I voted for because they're men and they've made really dumb decisions. And at some point, did you ever voted for a woman? Yes, I voted for a woman.
• 1:12:21
  How did that go? Did not, did not result in the way I expected. Or frankly, I think... Clearly, right? Because she didn't get elected. I voted for Hillary Clinton in the election. I remember my wife was just like, you know, raised Republican, voted for Donald Trump. She's kind of like, okay, I'm... And, you know, she just did this. I woke her up at like 2 a.m. and I was like, you just elected Donald Trump. And I told her this and she's like, what? What?
• 1:12:49
  He won? I thought he was going to get killed. And then the wildest part is, I don't know if you've heard this. I thought he was going to get smoked, meaning lose by a lot, because everyone was saying he was going to lose. But the funniest part was, if you heard the reports, supposedly, when someone came in and was like, hey, it looks like you might win this election, he and Melania went pale. Is this real or not? I don't know. It makes me laugh just to imagine him being like, wait a minute, I didn't know we were going to win this thing.
• 1:13:18
  Like it was a surprise. And whether you like him or don't like him, it's still an interesting fact to think he didn't know he was going to win. He was surprised and thrown off by it. We end up a political podcast today. Well, I think that let's just remove all the labels and all the things. Let's just stay very high level. It's at the end of the day, what do we want? We want to be able to be proud of the work that we do. And we want to keep the money that we make
• 1:13:48
  And we want to be able to look back and say we are in a way better position than I even thought that was possible. And unfortunately, in many places of the world, the governments are kind of in the middle. And I'm not saying that we should remove all governments, but governments, let's say, are a little bit obese nowadays. And they're consuming much more than they should.
• 1:14:09
  And I think that not understanding that is going to put you in a very, very weak position and delegating your life to a politician that doesn't really care about you. That's not a really good idea. So taking matters on your own hands, that's the way of going. And I'm not saying go and take over the government. That's not what I'm saying. But you have the skills. And nowadays, everything is free.
• 1:14:34
  You can get any information or any knowledge for free. So go, as I always say, know yourself and invest accordingly. Figure out what you like, figure out what you love, figure out what you are passionate about, because that's where you're going to be spending time. And then figure out a way to make a career out of that. And do not wait for the government because the government will not save you.
• 1:14:57
  Anytime I can't have conversations with people on the quote other side of any topic of sports, a sports team, a political, I've probably been brainwashed to some extent. And I should be open enough to open dialogue with this other group and humble enough to learn from them and try and figure out where I'm wrong.
• 1:15:14
  because I'm going to switch sports team fans, political parties, businesses, ways to be done. Men are flawed and things will change. And if you're not preparing for that, I'm going to feel like an idiot, right? I'm already going to feel like an idiot because I make mistakes. But not keeping that open mind is so important. And I think the same way we're challenging you to find a partner that your growth partner, find a growth partner, someone that you respect with a different opinion and try and understand what are the life experiences or
• 1:15:44
  Use it as a journey. Ask questions out of curiosity, not trying to drag them to your belief. And it'll just be super interesting to have those conversations. Boom. That's a flip. There we go. Love you, brother. Love you, man. Okay, see you soon. Bye.