D.O.G.E, The American Dream, Google's billion trillion dollar fine

Speaker 1 This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network Production.

Speaker 1 We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month,

Speaker 1 taking the BS out of business for over six years in over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.

Speaker 3 Right About Now. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now.
It's our weekly business news of the week here on November 15th, 2024.

Speaker 3 Wherever you are, however you are, thank you for listening. We appreciate you and I appreciate Mr.
Chris Hansen. What's up, Chris?

Speaker 4 What's up, Brian? How are you?

Speaker 3 I am good here in a little chilly South Carolina, but I'm good. A little cooler today moving in.
But Brianna, how are you?

Speaker 5 I'm good. It was colder than expected this morning.
I really wasn't expecting it when I walked out of my house with my jeans got a little holes in my knees today.

Speaker 3 I don't know. Does it get this cold, in California?

Speaker 5 Definitely does not.

Speaker 5 Um, not until like January, then it gets

Speaker 5 cold.

Speaker 3 All right, so it's a little early, but we've been spoiled. It's been beautiful here, so I've been enjoying it.
We have like 80 degrees.

Speaker 3 That's the funny thing in South Carolina, but 80 to 50, really in a hurry. So nothing like talking about the weather.
Everybody loves the weather.

Speaker 5 I heard that we have all four seasons in one day here.

Speaker 3 That's about right. That sounds right.
Chris, how sunny Miami?

Speaker 4 It's been beautiful, man. This is the best time of year.
It's sunny, breezy.

Speaker 4 I love it.

Speaker 3 Does it hover right around 80? But the low humidity? Low word.

Speaker 4 The humidity can

Speaker 3 vary.

Speaker 4 It was a little wet the other night.

Speaker 3 Still tropical, right?

Speaker 3 What's happening in Miami this time of year?

Speaker 4 Got our basil coming up. in December.

Speaker 4 That's kind of what everyone's preparing and talking about.

Speaker 4 I'm getting a lot of buddies reaching out that are coming down, wanting to connect.

Speaker 5 I just have one thing to say, and that is that I will be wearing this cozy, warm, soft sweater.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 For the rest of winter, as it is too cold for me here.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 3 Hey, it does get cold. Hey, oh, you're a spark too.
We're both sparks. You know,

Speaker 3 and

Speaker 3 you know, you know how you stay warm, though? You got to go to brandobills.com. They've got all the merch you want.

Speaker 3 And look, hey, it's all about bills, about hats, but their hoodies and their t-shirts will surprise you. This is,

Speaker 3 I will,

Speaker 3 I don't just say this, you know, their sponsor, you know, probably know that by now if you've been listening to the show, but these are the most comfortable hoodies I've ever worn.

Speaker 3 They have that perfect amount of softness. And they aren't

Speaker 3 like you can oversize it and make it fit how you want, but I love how they fit. Like not too bad, it doesn't, like I'm a big dude.

Speaker 3 Anything too baggy and I look like, you know, walking, you know, Barney the Clown, I don't know, like just round and

Speaker 3 round and proud.

Speaker 3 But it fits tighter on me at the size that I wear, which I like. It's fitted.
A little more fitted, but still being a hoodie. So anyway, great merch.

Speaker 3 I heard, Chris, that you actually got a package delivered.

Speaker 4 We finally made it happen, and it honestly was perfect timing because it's hoodie weather at night, walking the dog. And I

Speaker 4 consider myself a hoodie connoisseur. And I will say, these have that good weight to them.
Like they feel expensive. Premium.
You know, you can tell it's quality.

Speaker 4 And I love when on the inside of the hoodie, it feels completely like, you know, like fleece, soft, buttery.

Speaker 5 They are buttery.

Speaker 4 So it's like post-workout, hit the shower, throw that on, go take a nice walk with the dog. I'm freaking chilling, man.
It is, it's cozy. It's nice.

Speaker 4 I, too, do not like baggy because I look stupid because I have little legs.

Speaker 5 Have you been skipping leg day?

Speaker 3 Hell no. I've been hitting leggings.
Miss leg day, bro.

Speaker 4 But like what Ryan's saying, I just don't look as like roly-poly. I just look more of like a treetop, you know, if I wear a real baggy hoogie, hoodie.

Speaker 3 So.

Speaker 4 And obviously I'm rocking the Brandon Bills hat right now. Another business of mine, vacay with Ryan.

Speaker 4 Literally, every hat I have in my house is Brandon Bills because they're awesome.

Speaker 3 Yes, that's what you see here on set. When we're here, I'll hold one up that's got a right about now logo.
As soon as a DM, we'll send you some merch. And again, go check them out.
BrandonBills.com.

Speaker 3 Click that button in the right corner. It says custom.
Give your brand a boost.

Speaker 3 They will customize it. That's the thing.
They don't just throw your logo on it. They'll do something funky, fun, interesting, patches, leather patches.

Speaker 3 Their design team is more than just a logo, throw it on their team. They actually design and they'll do some things and push the envelope.

Speaker 5 And they'll mock it up for you. I had them mock up a couple months ago.
Ryan was saying no beta men. So we had a mock-up done of the no beta men shirts.
So, yeah, they're a fantastic team over there.

Speaker 3 Yeah, no beta men.

Speaker 3 Friends don't let friends order merch from anyone, but brandobills.com, official sponsor of right right about now.

Speaker 3 Yep.

Speaker 3 Tell if you're, hey, you need to be watching if you're not watching. So if you're listening, we appreciate you, but you need to go check out the YouTube channel and or

Speaker 3 on Spotify. You can watch the video because you need to see.
And I want Chris to explain his glasses, which make him look really cool, but I think there's a specific use for those, isn't there?

Speaker 4 The blue light blockers.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 4 it's a very important topic. You guys should get educated.
We have a show called Vibe Science, and and we just had a great guest on that told us all about it, Andreas Cristo.

Speaker 4 The UV light can play a lot in your circadian rhythm, and that's,

Speaker 4 me myself, learned a lot of lessons from it. So go check out that.

Speaker 3 Have you noticed a difference? Because I've seen you in pictures and like on social. And when I catch up with you, I see you having one more on video.
So have you noticed any difference?

Speaker 4 I do feel.

Speaker 4 Like yesterday, I was pretty consistent. And this is, again, I'm experimenting.
This is my first time doing this really.

Speaker 4 I did feel feel a little bit more calm into the evening,

Speaker 4 you know, kind of that like my body was adjusting to the natural rhythm, right, of the sun and the moon.

Speaker 3 Yep.

Speaker 4 So I do feel like I was feeling a lot more relaxed and ready for bed earlier than I usually would.

Speaker 3 I did notice on TikTok, your breakdancing rhythm had gotten a lot better. So is that the kind of rhythm it improves?

Speaker 3 Yeah, baby. Whatever rhythm you want.
Circadian

Speaker 3 break dancing rhythm.

Speaker 4 Put it this way. We know blue light is bad.
We start our phones too much. Can't hurt to rock a pair.

Speaker 3 Yeah. No, I will say this.
I'm going to age myself. You guys probably don't remember this.

Speaker 3 I'm the old man in the group. But they had this infomercial back in the day, either late 80s, early 90s, blue blockers.
And they were these big, huge, square, like bifocal.

Speaker 3 And this was, this was the early, man. This is late.
It was early 90s. Go look it up blue blockers.
They were a thing.

Speaker 3 They were the ugliest, big, bifocal looking things, but they were i think my dad had a pair

Speaker 3 1995 whatever it was back in the day that is a vibe they got oh yeah again in like 2008 yeah but i mean i think maybe they were ahead of their time doing a similar thing right i don't know they were

Speaker 3 who knows those infomercials some of them out you know some of those products actually turn out to help

Speaker 3 And then they're not just end up in the

Speaker 3 you I tell you what, we were a yard sale family. We had yard sales like three times a year.
You know, that's what happens when you're poor. You have yard sales a lot.
And so,

Speaker 3 but a lot of those infomercial stuff would be in our yard sales.

Speaker 3 Like,

Speaker 3 my mom and I dad were suckers, I think, for that stuff. And then I think it passed on to me because I'm, I'm kind of a sucker for that.
Oh, man, look at that. Holds 8,000 batteries case.

Speaker 3 You know, like that looks so like organized, but you never put those things in those things. They just have been a drawer.

Speaker 3 The crappiest drawer ever. Like, everybody's got that drawer.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 Everybody has that drawer.

Speaker 3 Don't act like you don't have that drawer. You got that drawer.
Oh, I do. Mine's bad.

Speaker 3 This was at night.

Speaker 4 I got a tray in my kitchen instead.

Speaker 3 Oh, man.

Speaker 4 Your keys and everything, but it's like a mountain of keys, mints, pocket knives.

Speaker 5 Yep. Yes.
We've got a drawer and a tray. So.

Speaker 3 Oh,

Speaker 3 drawer and a tray.

Speaker 3 We have, look,

Speaker 3 four kids. There's six of us.
We have like five of those drawers. Yeah.
One in every room.

Speaker 3 I'm a pretty neat person, like on the surface, but I have at least 12 of those drawers going on. You know, like you open up the doors and the chaos.
Nothing falls in.

Speaker 3 You know, I think that's my mom taught me that or something. Because if I go to my mom's house, it's spotless, but you'll, if you look around enough, you'll find a closet.

Speaker 3 It's like, don't open it too fast.

Speaker 3 You never know. Oh, what's happening in the news?

Speaker 5 Well, we are doing good here in the U.S. I've got a record-breaking Bitcoin surge to $90,000 on Trump's win.

Speaker 5 It's actually interesting because Chris had told me and us and all the listeners to invest in Bitcoin.

Speaker 5 And pre-election, I noticed that it was trending right around $75,000. I think we talked about it last week.

Speaker 5 And I was like, oh, I should buy some or whatever. And I didn't.
And then yesterday I got the notification. It was up to $89,000.
And I was like, dang it, could have made 10 bucks.

Speaker 3 Get off the sidelines, Brianna, and get in the game.

Speaker 3 You could have bought 0.00001 of it.

Speaker 5 I know.

Speaker 3 Did Chris, what's it? What are we at now? Are we still holding it like that? 89.90? Is it going back down?

Speaker 4 It's ripping today.

Speaker 4 I mean, honestly, Dogecoin is the real big hitter right now.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Would you get in on it?

Speaker 4 Yeah, honestly, I just took a much larger position in it this morning.

Speaker 3 Oh,

Speaker 3 so here we go.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I decided to jump in a little heavier myself, you know, because I've been in it for a while now. And I had a conversation with my family last night.
You don't need to be complicated, right?

Speaker 4 Get on Coinbase, set it for $20 a week into Bitcoin or whatever it is, like you would an investment fund. Take 10% of your income and do that

Speaker 4 and just chill. And you, you know, check every month and you're going to be happy.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 It's funny because last night my mom goes, how do I get into that Coinbase account you set up for your father?

Speaker 3 They haven't looked at it in four years, right?

Speaker 4 Four years ago, they're like, How do I get out of this thing?

Speaker 4 So, again,

Speaker 4 history repeats itself. Everyone's happy again.
The news is talking about it. Everyone wants to buy it.

Speaker 4 It's not too late, people.

Speaker 3 Set your tithes for Bitcoin.

Speaker 3 Yes. You know.

Speaker 3 Say your prayers, send your tithe, and

Speaker 3 set it and forget it, and walk away and look back in a year with this administration that's pushing it and Elon Musk around and see what happens.

Speaker 5 Yeah, speaking of Elon,

Speaker 5 we have Elon heading up the Department of Government Efficiency.

Speaker 3 Doge it is. Yep.

Speaker 3 How awesome did that?

Speaker 3 How awesome is it that that just happened to work out to the acronym? What are the chances?

Speaker 5 Yeah, I don't know. I was actually wondering if that was on purpose or a coincidence.

Speaker 3 Oh,

Speaker 3 it was convenient that those, because I think that's similar wording to what I think he was going to have Elon do no matter what. But you shit.

Speaker 3 That's nothing accidental.

Speaker 3 That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 4 They're like, dude, I'm just saying we can capitalize on this.

Speaker 3 Yeah, marketing.

Speaker 4 What do you call it? Borrowed interest.

Speaker 3 Borrowed interest. Yeah, shared interest here because good for both.

Speaker 3 High tide raises all ships

Speaker 3 both directions. You know, they want good marketing of the new department of government efficiency.
And then, of course, the Dogecoin going up. I'd like to know privately

Speaker 3 how much Doge Trump owns.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I'd like to know, too.

Speaker 3 I don't think we'd ever learn that, but.

Speaker 3 Betty owns some.

Speaker 5 The team did bring it to my attention that Elon, he made a post on x says the department of government efficiency the merch will be fire

Speaker 3 oh yeah you know what the you know how the government you know how the doge department could get started invest in doge

Speaker 3 and use the the earnings to pay down the the national debt yeah

Speaker 3 Brilliant.

Speaker 5 The memes.

Speaker 3 Yes, gamble with government money.

Speaker 5 The memes are amazing on X right now. If you are not seeing them in relation to Elon and the election, they're hilarious.

Speaker 3 It just goes to show you, like, I mean, even with Elon, he didn't take himself too seriously. Like, he posts himself with the gold chain, like, doge on it.
Like, he's,

Speaker 3 I think at some point. Because I'm not sure he was always that way.
Like, 10 years ago, I'm not, I don't know.

Speaker 3 I'm not saying he wasn't brilliant and different and all those things, but I feel like he loosened up and just said, I'm going to embrace all this shit and, you know, and own my different.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 it's worked out for him.

Speaker 5 He is like showing us kind of a lovable side of Elon,

Speaker 5 which I'm enjoying.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 5 He's a dork and I like it.

Speaker 3 He is. So I want to see what the Department of Government Efficiency.
He's doing it with Ramzove. I can never say his name right.
Vivek. Vivek.
Vivek. Rams.
Ramze.

Speaker 3 something someone say it that's better than me Ramaswamy I love the guy I just wish I could say his name better Ramaswamy yes yeah he's cool I like him every time I see him talk I'm like that dude's smart

Speaker 5 yeah it looks like um so they'll be regulating federal spending um in a statement released Tuesday Trump referred to the new agency as Doge Department of Government Efficiency

Speaker 5 and

Speaker 5 it says it's not clear whether this entity will exist within the federal government or outside. So we're going to have to see what the two of them come up with.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 I'm here for it.

Speaker 3 You know, like, let's try something different. Like, we've been doing the same shit in politics and in government for, you know, 100 years.

Speaker 3 Like, let's, let's try some different things and see if, you know, some true entrepreneurs can figure it out or if, hey, they might all cry, Uncle.

Speaker 5 He might all probably doge and go home politically yeah yeah it's going to be really interesting uh ramaswame here said we will not go gently um in a post on x um and then elon musk said this is going to send shockwaves through the system and everyone involved in government waste which is a lot of people

Speaker 3 yeah

Speaker 4 yeah well anyone that's been to a dmv knows that

Speaker 3 oh god

Speaker 3 not in south carolina they're so fast here hey it gotten better Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 Oh, you should go to one in California.

Speaker 3 Used to be, they, I don't know what happened. It's like five years, six years ago, maybe.
I mean, it used to be probably what you experienced.

Speaker 3 And they've entered, put in the number system and take a number and all that. I don't know.
Somebody got that shit in order.

Speaker 5 They should get a raise. They really did because, well, I went into the DMV when I went to transfer my license from California to here.
And I walked in and she was like, what are you here for?

Speaker 5 Like the lady at the front, what are you here for? Before you even get to pick a number. And I told her and she's like, okay, do you have this, this, this, and this? And I was like, nope.

Speaker 5 She's like, okay, go. Like, you can't even get a number.

Speaker 3 You're not even getting no suit for you. I mean, they're the number Nazis, you know, like, no, no, no, no, no license for you.
Like, it's like, they don't mess around. They know what you need.

Speaker 3 They're like, we're not, don't get in these lines. Because it used to be a model of inefficiency.

Speaker 3 I would be behind 10 people and they'd get to the thing and eight of them didn't have what they were supposed to. And they got that shit in order.
I give them credit. Yeah.

Speaker 3 I'm thinking, you know, the government got right in South Carolina. The roads, let's not go there, but the DMV.
The roads aren't that bad.

Speaker 5 Are you kidding? No, they're not that bad. Come on, they're really not.

Speaker 3 All right, you don't drive a sports car.

Speaker 3 I'm gonna drive my Audi.

Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah, they're not bad. If I'm driving my husband's lifted Tundra, they're fine.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I have my road driver's been in the shop, and I can't wait to get it back because I'm done with the Audi and these roads.

Speaker 5 Interesting news article here to share with you guys.

Speaker 5 Mattel, the toy manufacturer, they had to pull a bunch of their wicked dolls off the shelves after somebody misprinted the web address that's on all the packaging.

Speaker 5 So it was supposed to go to wickedmovie.com.

Speaker 3 Oh boy.

Speaker 5 And it went to a different web address that was showing, it looks like adult entertainment videos.

Speaker 3 Cool.

Speaker 3 You had, this is like on, you know, ESPN, they have a segment. You had one job to do.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah, the, like the, the, the snapper, you know, like one job to do and you screwed it up.

Speaker 4 And so it's hard to believe it's a mistake.

Speaker 5 I thought that's where my mind instantly went, you know, my conspiracy theory brain. But then if it was like cinderellamovie.com, okay, I could kind of see how this was a mistake.

Speaker 3 But being wicked, you think, okay, they paid somebody off.

Speaker 4 Like, no one did a double check on that before they like were like, all right, let's send it to the assembly line.

Speaker 3 Let me just say this.

Speaker 3 I used to, like, my first job,

Speaker 3 you know, how things change, but I worked on my first marketing job with Verizon and I proofread brochures.

Speaker 3 I literally the junior AE,

Speaker 3 like 200-page fine print brochures

Speaker 3 and other things like that. And that went through tons of checks.

Speaker 3 We got a lot more right than we did wrong. And by the volume,

Speaker 3 our percentage was awesome.

Speaker 3 However,

Speaker 3 you would be surprised at how shit like that can and does happen. I'll just say.
Now, we never, luckily, I probably wouldn't be sitting here today,

Speaker 3 printed any porn sites on any of those. But at the same time,

Speaker 3 there was a couple of ads that actually went out that we worked on that were print ads like newspaper.

Speaker 3 And it went through to the top of the mountain to the bottom like the food chain of of people looking at this and proofreaders and you'd have a you'd have a word with like 40 point font and it was misspelled and no one fucking caught it yeah like it was like once in a blue moon and it's like i don't know i could i could believe the conspiracy totally but at the same time having worked on high volume like high profile stuff like this you would be surprised i think they probably just put wickedmovie.com or whatever and everybody just assumed it was right one person probably put it on there and nobody ever double checked it or typed it into google

Speaker 5 but yeah don't don't put out um adult entertainment sites on children toys not a good not a good look no please don't

Speaker 5 I thought this one was interesting.

Speaker 5 Russia has decided to fine Google

Speaker 5 an amount of money I don't even know how to say um it has it's a two followed by 36 zeros the equivalent to around 20 billion trillion trillion

Speaker 3 man

Speaker 3 that's quite a lot of money i

Speaker 3 here's where my head went is this enforceable will they ever see a penny of this like i i get that Russia has a lot of people and Google's a multi-continent, you know, multinational corporate, global brand and provides services in these countries and is liable on some level.

Speaker 3 I just

Speaker 3 don't think they're going to write that check.

Speaker 5 No, no. It's very interesting.
You know, I think that, especially like, you know, with this number, yeah, to your point, like, is that enforceable? That's not even a number that

Speaker 5 wouldn't even fit on a check.

Speaker 3 I don't even know. And even Google, I don't think has that sitting somewhere.
Like, they have a lot, you know, more money than God, but, you know, like it's, they don't have that much, I don't think.

Speaker 5 Well, it says that this number is significantly larger than Google's market value of $2 trillion.

Speaker 3 That's, well, it's larger than the entire global economy.

Speaker 4 The global economy is $110 trillion.

Speaker 3 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 So, you know, this is $20 billion, trillion, trillion.

Speaker 3 The funny part is Google's response. Google referred to the fine in its recent earnings reports, mentioning ongoing legal matters.

Speaker 3 So, you know, you and I, anybody, we have some ongoing legal matters.

Speaker 3 Those things can be very different.

Speaker 3 You know,

Speaker 4 have the time and money to stretch this indefinitely.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Russia's got a lot of money.
I mean, don't, don't mistake some of this dumb shit going on over there. Like, there's a lot of, a lot of money over there.
And we, but here's what they said.

Speaker 3 The company noted, we do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect on earnings.

Speaker 3 Oh, that'd be like the equivalent of me getting like a $2 million fine from the government and being like, uh,

Speaker 3 not really going to affect much.

Speaker 3 Maybe.

Speaker 3 But all that tells me is they know that they're never going to write that check.

Speaker 5 Yeah. And it sounds like they ceased most of their operations in Russia and, you know, they're not going to probably go back to doing business there.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 I mean, was Google like if you searched for Russia like were they putting up like pitchforks or something like in the search results like Putin and like you know Satan like having you know lunch together like what what what

Speaker 3 what earned what earned the uh the fine this high I guess just I think they said that it was blocking they were like blocking

Speaker 3 pro-Russian channels oh wow that that that then what's the fine in the US for censoring the Rogan you know Trump uh episode exactly so honestly russia is being a good model of what we should all be thinking about yeah where yeah private companies are censoring vital information from the public yeah that's right

Speaker 3 hmm

Speaker 3 that's just google no big deal

Speaker 5 well it is interesting i mean this is a number that most

Speaker 5 people can't even fathom uh americans searching for the american dream

Speaker 4 yes you like that segment segue i did like that uh you know what it is it's a number big enough to get us talking about it if it was 20 million we would no one would even pay attention yes it's almost you have to be so ridiculous to create the conversation

Speaker 3 i mean

Speaker 3 the american dream has become different we're doing a segment with our good partner independent center and we wanted to bring it to life here on the show and really thinking about what the American Dream is today and how attainable it is.

Speaker 3 I mean, when you hear those things, Chris, like, what do you think?

Speaker 3 I guess I'm going to ask you to think about it from two sides, like you personally, and then maybe what your sentiment might be for how other people think.

Speaker 3 I know I'm not asking you to guess, but maybe just your assumption of what people think the American Dream is.

Speaker 4 I think the assumption of the American Dream is what we,

Speaker 4 you know, what we grew up thinking, right?

Speaker 3 A house, kids,

Speaker 3 dog, you can pay for your kids' school,

Speaker 4 debt-free, right?

Speaker 4 Um,

Speaker 4 at least that is to me.

Speaker 3 Well,

Speaker 4 I'm, I have larger dreams than that. And I, I feel like I'm just not cut for that life, to be honest with you.
I've tried domesticated life.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Um, I mean, everybody's dreams different, you know, like right, but I do think it's much harder to attain with the tools we were taught and the resources, right?

Speaker 4 And that's where I think forward thinking, I had a call this morning with a younger guy who's just launching kind of his own company and doing fitness training and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 You know, and he's talking about, do I do a t-shirt?

Speaker 3 I said, no, dude, you, you're the brand. Because if you're,

Speaker 4 if you're pursuing that and you're building yourself,

Speaker 4 you can do all that other stuff, right? If people know who you are and you say this all the time, you know, the power of being known, where I'm like, you know, a supplement, all this stuff.

Speaker 4 Plus from an earnings standpoint, I always think of residual, right? That's the residual income is going to get you the American dream faster than one off, two off stuff.

Speaker 3 So,

Speaker 4 you know, I think,

Speaker 4 I still think the American dream is the American dream. I think it's, I don't even know if I want to say harder to attain.

Speaker 4 I just think the way of getting there has changed and we all need to pivot and learn new tools. explore new things.
The world, I mean, even

Speaker 4 in the marketing world, everything's evolving, changing. AI is coming into play in every industry.
So it's,

Speaker 4 you need to just be actively pursuing and trying to learn and evolve with that. You know, nothing is stuck in time.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 4 totally. You just got to change up your perception.

Speaker 3 Yep. I have some thoughts, but I'm going to wait.
Brianna, what are your thoughts on here?

Speaker 5 Okay. So I think I have a unique perspective on this, right? Because

Speaker 5 I've been married for five kids, five.

Speaker 3 Five kids.

Speaker 5 I've been married for five years. I have two kids.
We just bought a house this year.

Speaker 5 We, you know, have been saving up to be able to do that, you know, college-educated couple. So we did everything quote unquote, like right, you know, and like how we have been raised.

Speaker 5 Go to school, get good grades, go to college. Then you'll be able to get out of college, get a good job, buy a house, have 2.5 kids, get a dog, go on vacation once a year, save for retirement.

Speaker 5 That is what I would argue has always been the American dream that you can, whether you're an immigrant coming to America or you are born and raised here, that that is the pathway to success.

Speaker 5 Go to school, get educated, work hard, you'll have success. It is not attainable in that way anymore.

Speaker 5 It is only attainable if you are smart to your point, you can pivot, you can open a business, you can become an entrepreneur.

Speaker 5 Because here's the deal, in America today, you could make $7 million becoming a YouTube star as a six-year-old playing with toys faster than you could go through the path of becoming a doctor or a lawyer, you know, or

Speaker 5 any other kind of profession. And so

Speaker 5 that seven-year-old or six-year-old who, you know, made $7 million on YouTube is more successful potentially than somebody who spent 25 years honing their craft and becoming, you know, a cardiovascular surgeon.

Speaker 5 So how do you rectify the fact that the American dream is just different now?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, it's different, but I think it's also a slippery slope that that's still a one in a million.

Speaker 3 Like, yes, it happens, but like, let's use Ryan, the kid that has all the toys and the YouTube and all that. It's multi-million, you know, 20, 30 million now, maybe more.

Speaker 3 Yeah, there's a handful of those examples, but there's how many million children in the

Speaker 3 so yes, you can, there's a lot of different ways to do it, but I think the glamour of that sometimes outweighs the reality of doing it is, is sort of the danger. I can understand how,

Speaker 3 but I think the equivalent would be like our parents watching

Speaker 3 someone that was a gifted athlete that was a more clearer path to like the wealth that you're talking about, you know, 30 years ago.

Speaker 3 Like that's still a one in a million athlete that had that path and now there's more channels but i do think i think it's a combination of what chris said we do have these tools now and anyone can unlock them and go watch youtube videos or come watch some of our content because we talk about it a lot and learn how to make themselves more known

Speaker 3 and if you're willing to do that if you're willing and and it's not for everyone not everyone's going to take advantage of it because either self-doubt either worry of judgment or I'm not good enough, like, or whatever it is, that's fine, but it's an equal opportunity.

Speaker 3 It's just as American as anything, the opportunity to become your own,

Speaker 3 and I hate the word personal brand, but your own microphone because you couldn't buy your own TV ads, you know, 20 years ago. You couldn't afford to do that.
But we have this democratization of

Speaker 3 awareness generation that you have with social media, which allows you to then get more likely. I mean,

Speaker 3 to hit the jackpot socially, like you described, that's a lot more likely if you're playing the game

Speaker 3 and you learn the game. So,

Speaker 3 and there's nothing holding anyone back from doing that. I mean, cameras are easy.
You just got to be creative, want to do it, put stuff out there.

Speaker 3 And I'm not saying it doesn't take more creativity than that, but it's equal opportunity. I mean, is it what's keeping you from being more social, like giving yourself more at-bats to that?

Speaker 5 Yeah. Well, and like everything, I think becoming successful with the American Dream, it's just like a, you know, repetition, right? Yeah.

Speaker 5 If you do it over and over again, eventually you'll become good at it.

Speaker 5 But if you try something and then it doesn't work right away and you give up and you keep switching gears, then it's going to take you a lot longer to get there.

Speaker 3 My bigger issue with like, you know, what I was going to say, like with the American Dream is

Speaker 3 I don't want to paint with a too broad a brush here, but this is my perception and not how I feel.

Speaker 3 But, you know, there used to be the saying with the American Dream, and it was kind of like with the, you know, what can you do for your government, with for your country? What can you do?

Speaker 3 What can you add? Like be additive. And in finding the American Dream, you know, you do a job that adds to the greater good and yourself.

Speaker 3 I feel like we've come to the what can the government do for me? Yeah. To help, how can the government help me reach the American dream? It feels like we've gotten a little bit like

Speaker 3 the younger generation maybe. And again, I don't want to paint too broad of a brush.

Speaker 3 This is just my perception at a really high level of, you know, well, the government's in my way of the American dream or the government's not helping me reach.

Speaker 3 Well, the government was not put there to necessarily help you reach the American dream. It was to stay out of your way.

Speaker 3 And so,

Speaker 3 but to govern and keep things licensed and agreed to that, you know, for just a greater good.

Speaker 3 And so we don't really supposed to be reliant on the government to reach the American dream.

Speaker 5 The only thing that was promised, you know, is promised to everybody is right, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Speaker 3 And, you know, pursuit being the right word. Yes.
Pursuit is something you do.

Speaker 5 That's not, not that's handed to you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 It's not handed to you or expected,

Speaker 3 you know, and I think,

Speaker 3 again, that's not everyone, but I think there's a fair amount of people, though, that are like,

Speaker 3 I don't, I haven't been given what I needed to reach that.

Speaker 5 Well, and I think that people have a different baseline. This is my perception, in my opinion, but I think people have a different baseline.

Speaker 5 Everybody assumes that they are owed housing and a car and food. And I don't think that that was necessarily the

Speaker 5 belief in maybe our parents' generation. It was like, well, if you want those things, you better work hard to get them.
Otherwise, you're going to be on your own on the street.

Speaker 5 And now it's like, oh, well, somebody's going to provide that all for me.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 5 And if those basic needs are met, you have a less incentive to work hard.

Speaker 3 Yes, I think you're right. I mean, I have certain family members.
And I, I mean, I hope my, I don't feel like my kids are this way, but they certainly could be

Speaker 3 at times times where I've had certain family members that absolutely, I, you know,

Speaker 3 I'll be getting a car. I'll be getting, I'm like, okay, like, you know, I certainly asked for one and my parents

Speaker 3 helped me out on the first one, but I don't know that I was like

Speaker 3 guaranteed, you know, to be given it.

Speaker 3 If the moon's aligned and my grandmother's car is available, I might get lucky. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Well, and then how

Speaker 5 many people are

Speaker 5 hurting their children without realizing it because they're making the path too easy for them.

Speaker 5 And this is a topic that has come up, you know, for me in parenting over and over again, is that if you take all of the adversity away from the next generation of children and of people and you take the adversity away,

Speaker 5 they don't know how to handle rejection. They don't know how to handle hitting a wall.
They don't know how to problem solve because you know, the adversity has never been there.

Speaker 5 They haven't had to navigate their way around it.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And I think it's going to be fascinating. I'm actually going to play a few of the street interviews that I did where he asked this question to people that just randomly on the street.

Speaker 3 You know, what is the American dream to you? And is it still attainable today? So take a listen to those now. All right, man.
What do we think about the American Dream today?

Speaker 6 I think it's alive and well. It's more exciting than ever to be an American.
The time to get stuff done is right now. You just got to be creative and thoughtful and make stuff happen.

Speaker 6 And remember, the more you can do it for other people, the more you can get out of life.

Speaker 3 Love it. Love it.
And

Speaker 3 how attainable is it today?

Speaker 6 It's attainable as you want to make it. I mean, there's always been challenges in this world.
And, Ryan, there are going to continue to be challenges.

Speaker 6 No matter what you think, challenges are going to happen.

Speaker 6 There's a book I like to read called Rhino Success, and it talks about how in life you just get up every day and go as hard and as fast as you can and realize that you're going to get some barbara every once in a while calling you.

Speaker 6 Just keep on going and get up and get do it the next day.

Speaker 3 We need more guys like this guy. Yes.
What are you talking about? All right. All right, ladies.
So, what do we think and what does the American dream mean to you today?

Speaker 7 To me, it is equal opportunity for people, not necessarily equal outcome, depending on a lot of variables, hard work, where you come from, how much you're willing to put into things.

Speaker 7 But to me, the American Dream is everybody has opportunity here. It's a free country.
Lots of freedoms we can take advantage of. The question is, will you? Love it.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I mean, I kind of want to balance off that, but I think ownership, there's a lot, especially in Greenville, we have a lot of entrepreneurs.

Speaker 7 i think having ownership in your business and your life taking control of you know how much you're making and what you're able to do with that um and just having the opportunity to do so i think um

Speaker 3 so yeah check that those were fascinating interviews we've been enjoying that we really enjoy this segment brought to you by independentcenter.org go check them out sign up for their newsletter you'll get all kinds of interesting i was actually looking at uh one of their latest polls they asked millennials you know, some things specific to the American dream, and it played in line to a lot of things that we were talking about.

Speaker 3 But I did, I was sort of encouraged by the percent that still felt like they could go after it. I thought it was going to be lower than that.
So that's a really interesting.

Speaker 3 They send out that poll data. Go to independentcenter.org, check out the newsletter, sign up.
All you got to do is your email and zip code. They'll get it to you, and they don't overemail you.

Speaker 3 This is like every couple of weeks. If it's interesting stuff, it's not about politics.
It's about policies and what the American people think. IndependentCenter.org, Brock, to you.

Speaker 3 This segment about the American dream.

Speaker 3 Very good. Chris, any final words today?

Speaker 4 Everyone have a good week. Buy your cryptocurrencies.

Speaker 3 There you go. Said it and forget it.
Brianna, any final thoughts?

Speaker 5 Go doge.

Speaker 3 Go doge.

Speaker 3 Doge for the win. We appreciate you.
Find us at ryaniswright.com. Highlight clips, full episodes, links to all the social media.
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Speaker 2 This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities.

Speaker 2 Thanks for listening.