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The Hidden Reasons Why Grocery Prices Are Still Rising · The Matt Walsh Show

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  Speaker 1: It was just a couple of years ago that the
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  Speaker 1: price of eggs was the single most important issue in
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  Speaker 1: American politics, and for good reason. When a dozen eggs
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  Speaker 1: cost nearly $ 8, it's not easy to make the case
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  Speaker 1: that the economy is fine or that we're still a
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  Speaker 1: first-world country, even. It's also difficult to convince people to
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  Speaker 1: hold on to power, which is why Donald Trump hammered
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  Speaker 1: the issue at every opportunity. Even if Democrats hadn't nominated
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  Speaker 1: a dementia patient and an alcoholic in the same year,
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  Speaker 1: there's a good chance that, all by itself, the price
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  Speaker 1: of eggs would have sunk the party. A couple of
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  Speaker 1: years later, there's some good news and some bad news.
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  Speaker 1: The good news is that the price of eggs has
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  Speaker 1: returned to earth. Retail egg prices are now around 40%
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  Speaker 1: lower than they were in June of last year. And
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  Speaker 1: they're continuing to decline every month. So problem solved on
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: that front, I guess. There's evidently no more bird flu
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  Speaker 1: to worry about, and people can once again.
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  Speaker 2: Cook breakfast, or at least part of breakfast.
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  Speaker 1: The bad news is that the price of basically all
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  Speaker 1: of the other groceries in your refrigerator has been going
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  Speaker 1: in the opposite direction. And I'm not just talking about
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  Speaker 1: a small increase here. As you've probably noticed, it's very
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  Speaker 1: significant across the board, but it's probably even worse than
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  Speaker 1: you realize. So here are some hard numbers to give
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  Speaker 1: some historical context. This is from the New York Post. Quote,
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  Speaker 1: Food prices in the U.S. have shot up by 33
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  Speaker 1: percent over the last seven years, the biggest jump in
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  Speaker 1: grocery prices in half a century, with no relief in sight.
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  Speaker 1: While rampant inflation was to blame for the biggest surge
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  Speaker 1: during the pandemic, prices have continued to soar since, with
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  Speaker 1: ground beef best demonstrating the out-of-control market as it hit $ 6. 82
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  Speaker 1: a pound in June, a 79 percent increase from 2019,
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  Speaker 1: according to the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: Bureau of of labor statistics.
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  Speaker 1: Now, a big part of the reason why beef is
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  Speaker 1: so expensive is that the supply of cattle has dwindled
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  Speaker 1: by some estimates to its lowest levels in many decades.
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  Speaker 1: And that's in part because of years of droughts, which
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  Speaker 1: have killed the grass that keeps the cattle fed.
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  Speaker 2: And we'll talk more about.
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  Speaker 1: The root causes in a moment, because obviously it's very important,
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  Speaker 1: but beef is not the only problem. Food prices in
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  Speaker 1: general increased by more than 2% in 2024, nearly 3%
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  Speaker 1: in 2025, and food purchased away from home at restaurants
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  Speaker 1: and drive-thrus, for example, has been even worse. So-called food-away-from-home
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  Speaker 1: prices increased by roughly 4% in both 2024 and 2025,
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  Speaker 1: which is much faster than the historical average. And all
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  Speaker 1: of these increases, of course, are stacked on top of
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  Speaker 1: the previous increases. So it's a compounding problem. New York
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  Speaker 1: Post article continues, quote, Between 2012 and 2019, the U.S.
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  Speaker 1: saw a total increase in food prices of just 6.4%.
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  Speaker 1: with the cost skyrocketing once the pandemic hit in the
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  Speaker 1: early months of 2020. Following the pandemic's damaging effects between
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  Speaker 1: January 21 and January 23, food prices surged by about 21%,
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  Speaker 1: and costs have continued to go up by nearly 10%.
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  Speaker 1: It's yet more evidence demonstrating that the COVID lockdowns ruined everything.
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  Speaker 1: The lockdowns had second-order effects that no one in power
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  Speaker 1: considered at the time, or at least they didn't care about,
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  Speaker 1: even though they were obvious to anyone who'd.
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  Speaker 2: Ever worked a real job.
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  Speaker 1: But before we get into all of those second order effects,
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  Speaker 1: and there are a lot of them, and how our
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  Speaker 1: leaders caused this crisis, the most important takeaway here is
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  Speaker 1: that food prices are worse than they've been in memory.
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  Speaker 1: And this is not merely a political problem. You know,
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  Speaker 1: it's not simply bad for Republicans in the midterms, just
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  Speaker 1: like the price of eggs was bad for Kamala Harris
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  Speaker 1: in 2024. History shows that when food becomes harder to obtain,
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  Speaker 1: people get restless and they get angry.
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  Speaker 2: Very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: If you drew up a list of every revolution that
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  Speaker 1: ever took place, by far, the number one cause is that,
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  Speaker 1: or one of the number one contributing factors anyway, is
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  Speaker 1: that food suddenly became too scarce or too expensive. Now,
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter where you look, from France to Russia
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  Speaker 1: to Africa to Europe, imperial China, in every single region,
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  Speaker 1: in every single era, people have had a rather strong
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  Speaker 1: and understandable desire to eat and feed their families affordably.
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  Speaker 1: Prevent them from doing so or make it considerably more
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  Speaker 1: expensive and difficult for them to do so, and you
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  Speaker 1: will have created a powder keg situation and the worst
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  Speaker 1: people in the world will be ready to take advantage.
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  Speaker 1: In their desperation, the citizenry won't hesitate to vote for
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  Speaker 1: charismatic foreign-born socialists who promise to resolve the food shortages,
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  Speaker 1: even though everybody with a grade school education understands that
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  Speaker 1: socialism is how you cause food shortages, not how you
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  Speaker 1: solve them. Socialist leaders won't merely make things worse. They
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  Speaker 1: will destroy the country, which, of course, is their goal.
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  Speaker 1: This is not a hypothetical scenario. In New York, Zoran
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  Speaker 1: Mamdani just announced that five city-owned grocery stores will be
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  Speaker 1: open by 2029, with the first one opening by the
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  Speaker 1: end of next year. Now, he promised that the stores
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  Speaker 1: would simply set prices so that they're 30 percent lower
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  Speaker 1: than you can find anywhere else.
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  Speaker 2: So that's the plan.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, the government is going to implement Soviet style price
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  Speaker 1: fixing and undercut the market by running and subsidizing its
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  Speaker 1: own grocery stores. Now, the discount will apply to, quote,
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  Speaker 1: all fresh produce, meat and seafood, along with roughly 20
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  Speaker 1: additional categories of pantry staples, dairy and refrigerated goods. Everyone
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  Speaker 1: will be able to access the discount without regard for income.
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  Speaker 1: The mayor's office says that combined, the savings are projected
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  Speaker 1: to cut New Yorkers' average grocery bill by 15%, about
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  Speaker 1: $ 90 a month or roughly $ 1, 000 a year.
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  Speaker 2: Allegedly. Watch.
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  Speaker 3: Today, I am proud to announce a collection of essential
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  Speaker 3: staples that will be predictably 30% cheaper at all five
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  Speaker 3: of our city-run grocery stores. This core set of goods
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  Speaker 3: will include all fresh produce, meat and seafood, along with
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  Speaker 3: 20 other essential items like cheese, milk and bread. Here's
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  Speaker 3: how it will work. Once a month, Our five city-run
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  Speaker 3: grocery stores will set prices for this core set of
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  Speaker 3: goods at 30% below typical retail prices. No exceptions, no gimmicks.
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  Speaker 3: The savings will last for the entire month. That means
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  Speaker 3: no weekly fluctuations nor sticker shock at the checkout line.
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  Speaker 3: Not for our seniors living on fixed incomes, nor for
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  Speaker 3: the parents who rely on a regular supply of apple
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  Speaker 3: slices to keep toddler tantrums at bay. Now, can we
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  Speaker 3: all see This incredible example of produce in my hand.
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  Speaker 3: Now you will see these plantains here, so for anyone
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  Speaker 3: wondering how much these beautiful plantains might cost, you can
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  Speaker 3: use this QR code or head to grocery.nyc to access
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  Speaker 3: our policy report. I'm going to demonstrate exactly what that means.
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  Speaker 3: Ladies and gentlemen, the QR code does work. You can
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  Speaker 3: see this here.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: So it's so simple, you know, just set the prices
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  Speaker 1: to 30 percent cheaper than. Well, he doesn't say exactly,
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  Speaker 1: but 30 percent cheaper than anything else we can assume.
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  Speaker 2: It's ingenious.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, if stuff is too expensive, just have the
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  Speaker 1: government come in and require that stuff be not too expensive.
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  Speaker 2: Why didn't anyone else think of that?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, other than the Soviets and the Cubans and
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  Speaker 1: the Romanians and the Vietnamese and the Cambodians and the
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  Speaker 1: Ethiopians and every other third world population that's ever existed.
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  Speaker 1: Aside from all that, this is a truly novel idea.
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  Speaker 1: While we're at it, why does the government just take
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  Speaker 1: over every industry and undercut the market by 30 percent?
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  Speaker 1: In fact, why stop there? I mean, why not undercut
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  Speaker 1: the market by 50 percent? Why not 75 percent? Why
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  Speaker 1: not 99 percent? Why not 100 percent? Why not give
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  Speaker 1: everything away for free? Imagine a city-run Apple store or
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  Speaker 1: a city-run Porsche dealership. You know, just walk in and
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  Speaker 1: buy a luxury vehicle for 10 bucks. Nobody should ever
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  Speaker 1: have to pay more than $ 10.
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  Speaker 2: For a vehicle. I mean, that's a human rights violation.
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  Speaker 1: If cars cost more than $ 10, just make them be
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  Speaker 1: less than $ 10.
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  Speaker 2: Pass a law.
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  Speaker 1: Saying they're not allowed to be more than $ 10. Problem solved.
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  Speaker 1: Who could possibly complain? Now, this is the extent of
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  Speaker 1: the logic on display here. To call it childlike would
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  Speaker 1: be an insult to children. I mean, really, the historical
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  Speaker 1: comparisons to other countries aren't even relevant. You don't need
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  Speaker 1: to study other countries to understand on its face how
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  Speaker 1: disastrous this will be. If you think for a second
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  Speaker 1: that this is a good idea, then you should immediately
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  Speaker 1: self-deport to other countries that are already governed like this.
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  Speaker 1: Go visit Cuba sometime, where a $ 10 tip is more
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  Speaker 1: than most people make in an entire month. And by
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  Speaker 1: the way, as the National Review pointed out, Mamdani was
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  Speaker 1: holding up some bananas, plantains or whatever during.
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  Speaker 2: That press conference.
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  Speaker 1: A banana currently goes for 23 cents at Trader Joe's
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  Speaker 1: in Manhattan. So he picked maybe the least expensive food
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  Speaker 1: item in any grocery store to illustrate why we need
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  Speaker 1: state run grocery stores. And there's no universe in which
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  Speaker 1: 23 cent bananas could possibly be difficult for anyone to
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  Speaker 1: afford in New York, especially given that everybody in the
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  Speaker 1: city is on some form of welfare anyway.
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  Speaker 2: But we're supposed to pretend otherwise.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, he's legitimately trying to make the case that
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  Speaker 1: if New Yorkers only have to pay 16 cents per
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  Speaker 1: banana instead of 23 percent because other New Yorkers are
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  Speaker 1: being forced to subsidize the cost of bananas, then somehow
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  Speaker 1: life is going to get a lot more affordable.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the exact opposite is true.
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  Speaker 1: You know, bananas, like virtually every item in the grocery store,
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  Speaker 1: with the exception of alcohol and lottery tickets, are extremely
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  Speaker 1: low margin items. The typical net profit margin on purchases
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  Speaker 1: at a grocery store is between one and three percent.
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  Speaker 2: And bananas are no exception.
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  Speaker 1: If the government opens up enough of its own stores
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  Speaker 1: where everything is subsidized by taxpayers, then the existing grocery stores,
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  Speaker 1: including the crappy ones, which they call bodegas in New York,
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  Speaker 1: will be unable to compete. People will stop buying the
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  Speaker 1: more expensive bananas when a subsidized option is available, which
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  Speaker 1: means before long, bananas will become much harder to find
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  Speaker 1: outside Mamdani Marts. Privately owned stores will have no reason
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  Speaker 1: to sell them anymore. And then, because the only place
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  Speaker 1: to get bananas will be the Mamdani Marts, before long,
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  Speaker 1: as this process repeats with every other grocery item, the
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  Speaker 1: lines will stretch out to the street just like they did.
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  Speaker 2: In the Soviet Union.
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  Speaker 1: Now, the only argument in defense of Mamdani's plan is
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  Speaker 1: that it's limited to five grocery stores at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: By themselves, these stores won't serve enough customers to destroy
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  Speaker 1: the market for food in New York. And this is
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  Speaker 1: always the best possible argument for any left-wing policy, by
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  Speaker 1: the way. The best argument is always that the policy
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  Speaker 1: won't be as destructive as everyone thinks, which means even
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  Speaker 1: the best argument still acknowledges that the policy will be
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  Speaker 1: destructive to some extent. And in this case, the hope
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  Speaker 1: is that people will see lines going out the door,
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  Speaker 1: they'll see the homeless people doing drugs in every aisle,
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  Speaker 1: and they'll notice that the shelves are empty all the
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  Speaker 1: time and everything is mismanaged.
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  Speaker 2: And they'll just go back to Trader Joe's.
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  Speaker 1: But if Mamdani's program expands, which is obviously the long-term goal,
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  Speaker 1: that's the long-term goal with any government program is to expand,
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  Speaker 1: then the result will be catastrophic. And that's not even
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  Speaker 1: getting into what will happen if the subsidies run out,
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  Speaker 1: meaning if the few remaining taxpayers in New York decide
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  Speaker 1: to stop funding this insanity and leave the city, at
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  Speaker 1: a certain point, a death spiral begins and.
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  Speaker 2: It's impossible to pull out of it.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, socialists, particularly the female and foreign-born Mamdani supporters,
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  Speaker 1: reject all of these complaints. They're convinced that Mamdani has
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  Speaker 1: the magical ability to set prices 30% lower without any
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  Speaker 1: negative consequences whatsoever.
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  Speaker 2: There are no trade-offs.
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  Speaker 1: You know, one of the main things you learn in
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  Speaker 1: life as an adult is that there are trade-offs for anything.
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  Speaker 1: There are always trade-offs for anything. And yet, according to
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  Speaker 1: Mamdani supporters, he's like a genie, right?
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  Speaker 2: He's magical.
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  Speaker 1: He is the one exception to that rule of life.
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  Speaker 1: For him, there are no trade-offs. He can just do
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  Speaker 1: stuff and it's fine.
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  Speaker 4: Watch.
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  Speaker 2: I don't understand how.
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  Speaker 4: Mamdani can afford to sell groceries at 30% less if
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  Speaker 4: most grocery stores operate at a 1% to 2% profit.
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  Speaker 4: You said it yourself. You don't understand. The products that
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  Speaker 4: you sell at a grocery store don't have a 1%
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  Speaker 4: to 2% profit margin. They have a 40 to 60%
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  Speaker 4: profit margin. And logically, you understand that because you could
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  Speaker 4: go to the grocery store right now, get all the
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  Speaker 4: ingredients to bake a loaf of bread, and sell that
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  Speaker 4: loaf of bread for more than a 1% profit margin.
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  Speaker 4: The reason why the net profit for grocery stores is
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  Speaker 4: 1 to 2% is because their overhead costs are extremely high.
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  Speaker 4: What Mamdani is doing is removing the overhead costs that
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  Speaker 4: these grocery stores have. He's just changing the business model.
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  Speaker 4: It's the same reason why Aldi can afford to sell
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  Speaker 4: groceries for cheaper than your local grocer. They have a
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  Speaker 4: different business model. Mamdani's grocery stores are selling select items
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  Speaker 4: at a reduced rate, just like Aldi doesn't have everything
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  Speaker 4: your regular grocery store has. They only have items they
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: can afford to sell for less there. Mamdani's grocery stores
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  Speaker 4: don't pay rent because the building is owned by the
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  Speaker 4: city and they don't pay taxes because they are the city.
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  Speaker 4: That takes a huge amount of your operating costs off
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  Speaker 4: of your business every year. That money, you're able to
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  Speaker 4: put those profits back onto the consumer.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: First of all, You know, credit to this woman for
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: sticking with just one camera angle, even if it is
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: a weird one, instead of 20 different cuts with 50
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: different poses. So that's a genuine improvement in TikTok production
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: from the typical liberal woman on the app.
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  Speaker 2: And so we should applaud it.
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  Speaker 1: At the same time, it needs to be said that
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  Speaker 1: the beginning of her video just doesn't, I mean, no part,
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  Speaker 1: nothing she said works. You know, if somebody says, I
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: don't understand how Mamdani's plan is going to work. Seems
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: like communist nonsense that will destroy the economy. It doesn't
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: work to reply with, well, you said it yourself.
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  Speaker 2: You don't understand.
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  Speaker 1: So if you're going to sass an imaginary person who
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: you made up for the video, the quip needs to
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: make some sense. Yes, he admitted he doesn't understand this
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: hypothetical person because it doesn't make any sense. So the
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  Speaker 1: act of not understanding something doesn't mean you're an idiot.
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  Speaker 1: Just as easily, it could mean you're dealing with an
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  Speaker 1: incoherent concept. So when someone says they don't understand Mamdani's
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: socialist policies, they don't mean they don't understand in the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: way that, like, they don't understand calculus or some other coherent,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: though complex topic. They mean they don't understand in the
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: way that they don't understand the gibberish ramblings of the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: homeless crackhead on the subway platform. They don't understand it
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: because it's nonsensical. There is nothing to understand. Now, she
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: tries to make the case that if you buy up
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: all the ingredients for a loaf of bread... You could
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  Speaker 1: sell the loaf for more than a 1% to 3%
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  Speaker 1: profit margin. And therefore, we're supposed to conclude that the
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: grocery stores are raking in big bucks. But the ingredients
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: themselves are not the only input that creates a loaf
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: of bread. Labor counts as an input. Someone has to
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: mix those ingredients. These people always forget that part of it.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: And then there are, and you have to pay for
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: that unless we're going with slavery. I mean, that's one
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  Speaker 1: way to get around the labor costs because they never
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: factored into their calculations. Oh, you know, profit margins are
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: much higher than that. You know, because labor is free apparently. Yeah, well,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: if we're gonna, I mean, are we bringing slavery back?
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Is that what you're advocating? Probably. And then there are.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Many different fixed costs like an oven, a building for
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: the oven, you know, stuff like that. It's actually more
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: work and more money than people like this apparently think. Now,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Mamdani's plan to short circuit these overhead costs, contrary to
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: what this woman says, is not remotely similar.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: To Aldi's model.
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  Speaker 1: Aldi maintains its profit margins by selling Aldi brand slop
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: and making the shopping experience as unpleasant as possible. They
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: market themselves to people who don't care about variety or
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  Speaker 1: shelves that are stocked properly or employees who will bag
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  Speaker 1: their goods or have any will to live. But Aldi
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  Speaker 1: does not force New Yorkers at gunpoint to subsidize any
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: of the items they sell. They don't demand that New
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Yorkers pay for their rent and their tax bills and
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: their employees' salaries and everything else.
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  Speaker 2: So this is a very important distinction.
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  Speaker 1: It is not a different business model that Mamdani is proposing.
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  Speaker 1: He's not proposing a business model. He's proposing no business
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  Speaker 1: model at all. He's taking people's money and redistributing it
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  Speaker 1: using a grocery.
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  Speaker 2: Store as a mechanism.
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  Speaker 1: He's taking people's money by force at gunpoint, which is
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: how the government operates, and redistributing it.
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  Speaker 2: That's it.
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  Speaker 1: And the cost, again, cannot possibly be matched by competitors.
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  Speaker 1: Mamdani stores won't convince Trader Joe's to lower their prices
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  Speaker 1: on bananas because they can't go any lower without losing money.
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  Speaker 2: They actually have to pay for the labor and the
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  Speaker 2: building and all that other stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Instead, this operation will quickly drive countless grocery stores out
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  Speaker 1: of business to the point that people have no choice
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  Speaker 1: but to form bread lines at their local Mamdani Mart.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: And this socialist woman does the same thing that socialists
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: always do by pretending that, you know, things that are
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: government subsidized are somehow free. She says that Mamdani Marts
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: don't pay rent. And that's true, but that's only because
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: the taxpayers are forced to cover the cost. Yes, it's
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: incredible just how cheap everything suddenly becomes when you put
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: a gun to the head of the taxpayer and force
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: him to pay for it for you.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: But cheap for who exactly?
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Not for the taxpayer. He's the one whose pockets you're
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: wringing out. So this is cheap specifically for people who
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: aren't paying taxes. For the leeches, the non-contributors, it's cheap.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: You're not erasing any burdens. You're just shifting more of
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the burden onto the dwindling group of people who are
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: already forced to carry almost all of it. There's another
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: massive problem, too, which is that these stores create an
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: incentive for members of the public, including people from outside
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: New York, to buy up everything from the shelves in
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: order to resell it. You know, there's a guaranteed 30
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: percent margin after all. That's already what happens very often
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: with merchandise in third world cities like Los Angeles. People
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: steal from CVS and then sell the merchandise on the
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: sidewalk and then go buy drugs with it. In this case,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the city is making it very easy to do the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: same thing. They're inviting theft. Mamdani was asked about his
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: plan to prevent this from happening. And his answer or
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: answer or, you know, really the answer from one of
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: his stooges is is great. I mean, it belongs in
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: a museum, really.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Watch.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: How are you going to keep people from taking advantage
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: of that, you know, that.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Deal, basically?
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: And is there going to be a limit on the
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: number of items that someone can take that are discounted
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: at that level from that essential basket? So our RFP
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: makes very clear that this is a program for New
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: Yorkers to be able to put food on the table,
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: not a program for people to be able to make
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: a quick.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Buck through reselling.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: I'm going to pass it over to our EDC head,
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Jay Pack, to add some additional details.
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: Yes, if you look at our RFP for the operator,
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: we are looking to make sure that we target New Yorkers,
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: whether it be at sort of a library card exit,
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: and also we manage who's buying and that is focused
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: on everyday New Yorkers. So we are mindful of that,
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: and so we're going to make sure that we have
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: all the things in place to ensure that that does
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: not happen.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: So they're going to require an ID. By the way, so.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: The question is, how are you going to stop people
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: from buying the cheap items and reselling them? And her
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: answer is, well, we're going to make sure it's only
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: New Yorkers. who are able to buy things at the store.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: That doesn't solve the problem at all. That doesn't answer
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the question. But are you implying that New Yorkers would
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: never do this? Well, no, only outsiders would come in
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and buy up cheap items and resell them. Actual New
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Yorkers would never scam. They would never steal or scam. No,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: not New Yorkers. New Yorkers are saints. So yes, Mamdani
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Marts will require ID. So now your library card won't
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: just buy you a front row seat to hobos doing
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: indecent and unspeakable things at the library. Now it will
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: get you access to state-funded grocery stores too. Now, of course,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: you still don't need your ID to vote. That would
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: be preposterous. You know, you don't need your ID to
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: vote because voting is a right, which means for some
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: reason that we shouldn't need to do anything. We shouldn't
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: do anything to protect it. But hold on a second.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Mamdani also says that access to affordable food is a right.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: And yet, in that case, he will require an ID.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: So if you didn't know any better, you get the
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: distinct impression that socialists just make up the rules as
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: they go. What they said five seconds ago has no
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: bearing on what they're saying in the present moment.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Which is exactly the case.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: And by the way, since we're on the subject, Mamdani
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: hasn't limited himself to increasing grocery prices for New Yorkers.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: He's also doing everything in his power to make takeout
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: and fast food delivery even more absurdly expensive than it
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: already was. Last week, Mamdani posted on social media bragging
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: that since he took office, tips for food delivery drivers
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: have gone up by tens of millions of dollars.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Actually, like $ 100 million or something.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: And it turns out that this was actually thanks to
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: a piece of legislation that was passed before he took office,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: or a policy mandating that Uber Eats, DoorDash, and other
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: food delivery apps set default tips at 10% and make
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the tipping options more prominent so that people are more
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: likely to click on them. And thanks to this change,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: $ 104 million have gone back into delivery workers' pockets, as
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Mamdani puts it. Which is a funny way to say
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: that food delivery has become even more expensive for New Yorkers.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: And keep in mind, of course, that food delivery apps
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: already charge a premium for all the taxes.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: And fees, the delivery fee, the service fee.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they have like a small order fee or a
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: long range fee or the priority delivery fee. And if
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: users are hesitant to add a tip after all those fees,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: it's because their $ 14 burrito, which is already too expensive,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: is gonna run them $ 27 without tip. Not to mention
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the tip is added as a percentage of the grand total,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: including taxes and fees. So they artificially inflate the price
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: to an absurd degree, and then expect you to give
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: a tip based on the artificially inflated price. So by
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: this bit of voodoo magic, a 20% tip on a
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: $ 14 burrito ends up being $ 6, even though 20% of $ 14,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: last I checked, is actually like $ 3. So it's all
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: a giant scam, and Mamdani has intentionally made the scam
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: worse and more expensive, and he's proud of it. Actually,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: he wasn't even responsible for this particular scam, but he's
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: taking credit for it, which is somehow even worse. Now,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: it's all so obvious and so demoralizing, you have to
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: wonder how we got to this point. Mamdani's election is
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: largely the result of the foreign takeover of New York City,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: as we've discussed many times before. In the third world,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: socialism is an attractive ideology because people aren't bright enough
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: to realize that it doesn't work. You know, morality is
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: often a foreign concept to them. There's a classic Polish
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: book called In Desert and Wilderness that makes this point
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: using something called Kali's Morality Project. In the book, an
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: African boy named Kali tries to explain his understanding of
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: right and wrong. He says, if somebody takes Kali's cow,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: it's a bad deed. If Kali takes somebody's cow, it's
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: a good deed. And that's the end of that. And
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: that's actually how much of the world operates. All the same,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: it's too simplistic to say that foreign invaders are the
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: only explanation for what's happening. The fact remains that Americans,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: especially white liberal women, are lining up to support socialist
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: candidates all over the country. And many people, regardless of
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: their politics, understandably and justifiably furious that groceries are now
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: so expensive. So how did this happen? Why exactly did
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: groceries get to be so expensive? One explanation, which you
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: rarely hear, relates to the wars in Iran and Ukraine.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: There's been a ton of price pressure on fertilizer, which
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: just so happens to be made from the same precursors
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: as explosives and propellants used in ammunition, artillery, etc.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Natural gas in particular is.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: A huge part of the production for nitrogen fertilizers, and
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the wars have made the fertilizer and the gas far
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: more expensive. Farmers can pass the cost along to consumers
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: in the form of higher prices, or they forego some
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: fertilizers in exchange for smaller yields, which has the same effect,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: higher prices. This was a report from the beginning of
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: the Ukraine war by the Wall Street Journal.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Watch.
• 24:49
  Speaker 7: Fertilizer prices have hit record highs. driven by supply shortages
• 24:54
  Speaker 7: caused by the Ukraine-Russia war, along with a host of
• 24:57
  Speaker 7: pre-existing factors.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: It's a challenge for all of U.S.
• 25:00
  Speaker 8: Agriculture right now. For farmers who are just walking in
• 25:04
  Speaker 8: to buy fertilizer today, they're twice as expensive as they
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: would have been last August, close to three times as
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: costly as they would have been in early 2021.
• 25:15
  Speaker 7: Fertilizer is typically among farmers' biggest expenses each year. And
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: the rising costs are creating cascading impacts for farmer incomes,
• 25:23
  Speaker 7: crop yields and food prices. Fertilizer is about three to
• 25:27
  Speaker 7: four times costlier now than in 2020. And farmers around
• 25:31
  Speaker 7: the world are feeling the pinch.
• 25:33
  Speaker 8: High fertilizer prices has affected really the flow of how
• 25:36
  Speaker 8: our operation does business.
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: And really it comes down to timing and how much
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: risk does the retailer take?
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: How much risk does a farmer take? Now, this war,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: as you may have noticed, never ended.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Instead, we now have a new war, one involving Iran,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: a major global energy producer that holds the second largest
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: natural gas reserves in the world. So we have simultaneous
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: wars involving the biggest fertilizer exporter, Russia, and two of
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: the biggest energy producers in the entire world, Iran and
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the United States. This is a recipe for exactly what
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: we're seeing in grocery stores and every other sector of
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the economy that's dependent on these particular inputs. Add in
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: disease and droughts and you get the perfect storm. As
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Douglas Holtz Eakin told the New York Post, quote, the
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: spike in grocery prices has remained persistent due to shrinking U.S.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: cattle herds and the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Grocery prices have gone up, especially in 21, but they
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: have stayed high due to cattle disease and bad growing conditions.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: He said the war in Ukraine hurt as well because
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: it's essentially the grain basket.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Of the world.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: But the wars are only part of the problem. As
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier, the COVID lockdowns were the beginning of
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the decline. We were all forced to stay indoors and
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: businesses were forced to close down, even though all the experts,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: including Johns Hopkins, now concede that the lockdowns serve no
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: purpose whatsoever. In exchange for suspending our personal freedoms and
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: destroying the livelihoods of tens of millions of Americans, the
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: federal government started mailing stimulus checks and funding other welfare
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: programs that cost around $ 5 trillion. And additionally, because the
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: markets were crashing, the Fed spent trillions of dollars buying
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: up assets to artificially keep the markets afloat. This money
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: was essentially created out of thin air. The Treasury borrowed
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: the money, and the Fed in turn bought Treasuries from
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: the market.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: It's like we fired up the money printer.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: And naturally, when you introduce all of this new money
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: into the economy, the value of every dollar goes down.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: That's basic supply and demand. Therefore, prices go up across
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the board, including at grocery stores. Now, I should note,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: because not enough people mentioned this, that a lot of
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: this money was created specifically to fund pension programs for
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: the elderly, as well as welfare for non-white foreigners and
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: emergency top-ups for hospitals during the lockdowns. We weren't generating
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: nearly enough tax revenues to cover these obligations, so we
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: simply created the money. Congress carved out all kinds of
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: exceptions for illegal aliens with the Families First Coronavirus Response
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Act and the CARES Act to ensure that foreigners would
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: receive preventative care for COVID as well as COVID testing
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: and treatment for acute emergencies and so on. Community health
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: centers received billions of federal dollars in exchange for treating
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: anyone who walked in the door. States received even more
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: money to help ensure that foreigners, in case they came
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: down with the flu, you know, I mean COVID, would
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: be okay. And on that note, since he's been in
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: the news lately, here's Tony Fauci talking to.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: A random guy in DC about COVID. You may remember this.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Clip, but notice what Fauci says at the end of
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: it concerning the number of fatalities from the flu.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: Listen.
• 28:47
  Speaker 9: The people in America are not settled with the information
• 28:51
  Speaker 9: that's been given to.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Us right now.
• 28:53
  Speaker 9: So I'm not gonna be lining up taking a shot
• 28:56
  Speaker 9: on a vaccination for something that wasn't clear in the
• 29:00
  Speaker 9: first place. And then you all create a shot in.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: A miraculous time.
• 29:05
  Speaker 9: It takes years to create vaccinations.
• 29:09
  Speaker 6: Well, it used to take years. You know how many
• 29:13
  Speaker 6: years were invested in this approach? About 20 years of
• 29:17
  Speaker 6: science to get us to be able to do it.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: 20 years is not enough.
• 29:20
  Speaker 9: And nine months is definitely not enough for nobody to
• 29:23
  Speaker 9: be taking no vaccination that you all came up with.
• 29:26
  Speaker 10: The only reason I'm talking to you right now, as
• 29:28
  Speaker 10: close as we are, is that I've been vaccinated.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 29:31
  Speaker 10: But if a lot of thousands of people like you
• 29:33
  Speaker 10: don't get vaccinated, you're gonna let this virus continue to
• 29:36
  Speaker 10: percolate in this country and in this world.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Something like the common flu, then, right?
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: Basically.
• 29:42
  Speaker 6: It's much more serious than the flu.
• 29:44
  Speaker 9: Well, the flu kills a lot of people annually, too.
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: You know how many people died of the flu the
• 29:48
  Speaker 6: last year?
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, not this year. Virtually none.
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: But the previous year, about 20,000 to 30,000. You know
• 29:54
  Speaker 6: how many people have died from COVID-19 in the United States?
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: 600,000 Americans.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Hey, has Fauci ever stopped by that guy's house to
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: apologize because, you know, that guy was right about everything
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: he said and Fauci was.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Wrong and lying?
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: If you listen closely, he admits that the death count
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: from the flu was virtually none during COVID, which is
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: amazing when you think about it. At precisely the same
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: moment COVID was spreading like wildfire for the first time
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: in recorded history, no one in the entire country managed
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: to die from the flu.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: You know, many of us made this point at the time.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: It's almost as if we started counting all deaths from
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: the flu and many other diseases as COVID deaths. It's
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: almost as if hospitals had a financial incentive to count
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: as many COVID deaths as they possibly could because they'd
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: receive more federal funding if they did. More specifically, if
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: hospitals documented that they were treating someone on Medicare for COVID,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: then they'd receive a 20% increase in Medicare payments. In
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: other words, if a hospital was treating an old person,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: The population most likely to die, by far, they'd have
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: a massive incentive to claim that the person was suffering
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: from COVID. If they did that, they'd get more money.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: That was another invention of the CARES Act, which paid
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: out hundreds of billions of dollars. Now, all this spending
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: with money the government didn't have for the benefit of
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: a very specific subset of the population has led to
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: the higher prices that we're seeing right now. This is
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: part of a much broader issue, which is that our
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: leaders have a perverse incentive to provide an extraordinary amount
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: of entitlements for the elderly and illegal aliens. The elderly,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: of course, are one of the most powerful voting blocs
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: in the country. They show up to the polls in
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: greater numbers than anybody else. Many of the politicians they
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: vote for are also elderly. Retirement does not exist as
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: a concept for our elected leaders. Mitch McConnell has been
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: essentially catatonic and bedridden for months, if not years.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: And he still has not resigned.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: And there's a lot of self-interest here among both the
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: elderly politicians and the people who vote for them. That's
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: why older voters refuse to consider the possibility of Social
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Security reform, even though Social Security is a giant Ponzi
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: scheme that forces every working American to waste a portion
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: of their paycheck every two weeks, money that they could
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: have invested themselves for infinitely better returns.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, we should respect our elders, obviously.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Yes, people who paid into Social Security should ideally have
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: their money returned. But many of our policies favor older
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Americans at the expense of young families who are in
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: the process of being economically strangled and nobody seems to care. Again,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: our politicians have no incentive to tell the truth about
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: any of this because any politician who.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: Does so will immediately be expelled from office.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: As for illegal aliens, of course, they're vital to the
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: globalist campaign of mass demographic replacement, so they're entitled to
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: infinite spending as well. To the extent that our elites
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: panicked during COVID, it was because they feared illegal aliens
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: might get wiped out, reversing the effect of years of
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: their open borders policies. So we had to spend hundreds
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: of billions of dollars making sure that illegal aliens had
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: emergency room care, masks, fake vaccines, and on and on
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: and on. Now, the result is that interest payments on
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: the national debt are now more expensive than defense spending.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: The defense budget is around 900 billion, and the CBO
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: expects that interest payments on our debt will exceed a trillion.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Dollars this year.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: In just the first quarter of 2026, the interest payments
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: totaled more than $ 270.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: Billion, so we're well on our way.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Other than Social Security payments, nothing is more expensive for
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: this country than interest payments on our debt. Since the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: COVID lockdowns, for context, We've more than doubled our interest payments.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: In all of 2019, we only spent something like $ 375
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: billion in interest payments.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: Only.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Only $ 375 billion. But now the Fed refuses to lower rates,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: and we've spent so much more money that the payments
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: are now completely out of control. In related news, we're
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: losing control of our ability to manage interest rates. Now,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: you can sense this from the tension between the White
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: House and the Fed, which refuses to change interest rates.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: despite a lot of pressure from the president, as well
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: as the new appointment of a new Fed chair. And
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: the problem is pretty clear. A single percentage point increase
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: in the interest rate now means that we'll owe $ 3
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: trillion more over the next decade. Raising rates could have
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: disastrous consequences for our finances. And meanwhile, if the Fed
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: cut rates as the president wants, there's a legitimate risk
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  Speaker 1: of making inflation even worse. And this inflation risk is
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: higher because the government is already spending far too much
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  Speaker 1: money and injecting far too much money into the economy.
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  Speaker 1: So we boxed ourselves into a position where there's no
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  Speaker 1: clear right answer. In the meantime, some of the most
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  Speaker 1: prominent commentators and podcasters in the country are busy every
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  Speaker 1: pay for their ever-increasing grocery bills. As long as the
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  Speaker 1: left is responding to this crisis while the right obsesses
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  Speaker 2: That's how socialists have always risen to power all over
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  Speaker 1: slash Walsh. In February of 1917, International Women's Day, female
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  Speaker 1: textile workers went on strike demanding bread. And in a
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  Speaker 1: matter of months, the Bolsheviks quickly rose to power with
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  Speaker 1: the slogan, Peace, Land, and Bread. They were forcing people
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: to empty out their bank accounts at gunpoint soon afterwards.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: And we discuss all this in our latest Real History special,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: but it's hardly the only example. The Hungarian Soviet Republic
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: formed after severe food shortages in Budapest. Ahead of the
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: French Revolution, bread prices cost something like 80% of the
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: typical family budget. Rioters stormed the Bastille, in part to
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: find grains. The German Revolution of 1918 followed failed potato harvests,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: which led to mutiny strikes and the ouster of the Kaiser.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: The Paris Commune of 1871 followed food shortages after the
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Franco-Prussian War, in which people were reduced to eating zoo.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: Animals and household pets.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Hundreds of thousands of people died in Greece during the
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Great Famine following Axis occupation, leading to the rise of
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: a communist party called the National Liberation Front and setting
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: the stage for a civil war. In America, following the
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Great Depression, Democrats began trying to pack the Supreme Court
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: and destroy our institutions, which was the closest we've ever
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: come to a genuine leftist revolution here.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: Until now.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Well, less than a century later, suddenly a large-scale leftist
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: revolution is once again plausible.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: All the elements are there.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: The foreign wars, the days of rage, the constant left-wing
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: assassinations and domestic terrorism, inflation, an affordability crisis that's making
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: groceries more difficult to obtain than they've been in memory,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: all of it stacks, all of it compounds. Now, the
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: left has no solution to any of this. All of
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: their ideas would make the problem far worse. But unlike
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: the leaders of the right, these socialists have one major advantage,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: which is that they understand that these problems do exist.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: They're speaking to an audience about issues that actually matter,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: even if their solutions always involve creating more of the
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: exact kinds of problems they're supposedly trying to solve. If
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: we spend the next five months focused on foreign affairs
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: and intro right-wing squabbling while the left talks about groceries, well,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: the truth is it doesn't matter if they propose Soviet-style
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: grocery stores that will obviously fail. They'll win anyway. because
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: at least they're doing something. They might be doing the
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: worst possible thing, but generally the people who do something,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: even the worst thing, tend to win over the people
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: who do.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Nothing at all.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: That's the lesson of every socialist revolution throughout history. And
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: unless we start taking some legitimate action to reverse this trend,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: starting with an immediate end to these foreign wars, and
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: a refocus on the most important domestic matters, starting with
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: the price of food, it'll be a lesson that we
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: inevitably learn as well.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: And we're going to learn it the hard way. That'll
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: do it for the show today. Thanks for watching. Thanks
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: for listening. Talk to you tomorrow. Have a great day. Godspeed.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Once upon a time, there was a country, not just
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: a country, but a big one, an empire. And in
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: that empire, there was an upper middle class family where
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: two boys were raised by their mother, loved books, Uncle
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Tom's cabin, and the Bible. Their father admired the country's leaders.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: They were patriotic and happy. Both sons went to universities
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: where they were radicalized. One of the brothers read a
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: book and convinced him to try to shoot the country's leader.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: He was hanged. The other brother read the same books
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: but decided to lead a movement.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: First, they came from the universities, and no one seemed
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: to care. Then they took over the unions, and again,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: no one seemed to care. Then they created their own
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: media organizations and took over the cities. And again, most
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: people just ignored it. Change, after all, was something they
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: could believe in.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Until it was too late. Sound familiar? This is the
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: real history of communism, the Russian Revolution.