The American Dream Costs $4.4M, Trump & Elon Unite, Google Faces Regulation

This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month.
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What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It is our weekly business news of the week.
Whatever the hell else we get into, you never know what road we're going down here on Right About Now. It's October 11th, 2024.
Joined, as always, here in studio, we have Sawyer Rice behind the board. We've got Brianna Hall.
What's up, Breonna? Hey, how's it going? Hey, it's going. It's going.
What's up, Chris? What's good, brother? Oh, hey, you got your umbrella ready? I hope you got your wind farm started or something. I don't know.
Can we turn any of this madness into positivity? I know, not to make light of it, it's just getting so sad with all the destruction. I know it's coming through at any moment.
We record here a couple of days early before this releasing on Friday. So how's Miami handling it? We're good.
We should be good to go. It's going to really be on the Gulf Coast, get slammed.
Yeah. I know your parents are in that area.'re on the text thread yeah my dad's sending videos right now it's starting to roll in so pray for the best and sending good vibes out to everybody that's being affected by this yes by the time this is airing we'll we will have known the devastation which it looks like is unavoidable unfortunately it's It's just going to be, I hope, and Chris, you'd know this better than me.
I feel like the other one was somewhat prepared for. I don't know that we knew in the Carolinas that it was going to come up as high as it did, as strong as it did.
But I mean, I guess if you're ever going to be ready for it, they're ready for this one. I don't know how much planning you can do, though.
Yeah. Not everyone I know for the last two, three days has been planning.
Even in Miami, we're expecting some. Trader Joe's was madhouse last night.
I literally heard the staff saying, oh, we don't even get restocked until Friday. So, I mean, people are doing what they can.
I read before, and again, some of these stats are meaningless now that it's already hit for when this airs. But 1,500 gas stations were already out of gas, I guess, today.
Yeah. It's wild.
Do you guys, in Miami, are people going crazy with gas or is that mainly just in that Tampa area? Definitely Tampa, Sarasota. I know my dad told me yesterday they were out of gas.
We've been fine as far as I can see. I mean, maybe today, but it's looking like Miami is really just going to get some wind, a little rain.
So I think a lot of people were preparing last night. Yeah.
Well, hopefully they're as prepared as possible, and let's hope for the best. And our thoughts with anyone that's struggling with whatever came through, and especially here in the Carolinas where they're still, you know, it's like we can't sort of get over one, and you don't want to share the stage of the attention.
Like you wish you could have a little bit of gaps here so that, you know, the people in the Carolinas can sort of still get the support that they need. I think they will.
As Americans, we'll take care of everybody. But, you know, I know there's a lot of struggling still happening,

especially in North Carolina where the devastation's been crazy.

So thoughts out with everyone.

And to turn it, yeah, we like to think about action, positivity,

and things that are going on.

So we're going to try to focus on that today,

at least just telling you more of what's happening around.

And look, if I want to kick off the show in a positive way,

and I didn't even wear a hat today, but if I would, it would have been one of these guys. Brandon Bills, longtime official sponsor of Right About Now and Ryan Offord, always been a hat guy and always thought I kind of knew what, okay, my favorite hat is, best hat and all that.
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Miss Brianna, what's on our agenda today? Hey, guys. So today we're talking everything from, you know, business news, what's going on in a little bit of the political landscape.
Not too much this time. But our first news article here is talking about Trump returning to Butler, Pennsylvania, where the assassination attempt took place.
And he went back with Elon. So fans of that duo were kind of, you know, enjoying seeing them together.
And I did see, I don't know if you guys saw this on X, but Elon had tweeted a picture of him kind of of jumping in the air and he said something like there's a very autistic expression that i'm making he is autistic so he's on the spectrum at some point um so i thought that was really funny i don't care who you vote for i mean it's that's why i hate it we're free country you know i, but I don't, it's your decision. But comparing and contrasting Donald Trump and Elon Musk, there's some excitement.
I talked about it before. I thought like the Democratic campaign or convention might've had more emotion and interest and all that.
But now I feel like comparing Kamala, you know, on trying to answer, non-answer questions questions and sometimes Donald Trump just saying too much. Like you've got one candidate that's not saying anything and then another one that's clearly not a lifelong politician that probably says too much.
And you've got Elon Musk, the last person that I would have expected, dark MAGA. It's just, I don't know, hard to believe.
And, you know, I try to like back my way into thinking like if Elon, Elon Musk is a highly, highly intelligent person. And I would think, you know, given like what we talked about with his electric cars and all this, where it's sort of like this left-leaning for the longest time, what would be his motivation if he didn't really believe, and in his intelligence, that one candidate was better than the other? He doesn't really gain a lot from this.
Anyway, Chris, I don't know what you think about those two on stage. I love it.
We talked about it before. It's a wild duo.
I mean, and kind of what you said where for someone who runs, you know, the most successful electric car company on the planet to be endorsing Trump, you, it's not necessarily pro electric energy, right? We've talked about this before. And I know Elon's talked about, you know, his son and feeling like he lost he lost his son to you know the transgender movement and the hormone blocker type stuff so with all that being said i think it's a very exciting duo that you a year ago you would have never expected for sure but america's wild right now but i think it's uh it's an exciting time and i'm glad elon is is endorsing Trump.
Yeah. And ultimately, I think of Elon as more like your classic independent, probably.
And that's where I fall. And good push for our other sponsor, Independent Center.
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Go check them out, independentcenter.org. Yeah, I don't know

what this all means at the end of the day at the voters, you know, the office or a poll place.

It sure feels to me like Trump's got the momentum here. And I'm really, again, just using a lens of non-biased because of where I'm voting this year.
I really mean this. If I watch her on these shows, how odd and how disconnected she feels.
You only vote for Kamala if you hate Trump. Yeah.
I mean, and that's why that's all you ever hear. Like I haven't, there's not a single person that tells me why Kamala.
It's just why not Trump. So I mean, sometimes you're running from something harder than you're running to something.
I, I don't know. Like I have been kind of delving into this this week.
You know, Kamala Harris has been super busy. She has had a series of high profile media appearances this week.
So she went on the Call Her Daddy podcast. She was on CBS's 60 Minutes.
She is kind of out and about. She shared a beer on, you know, screen with Stephen Colbert.
And it's just really interesting. I feel like she is masquerading around

as everyone's best friend or like the fun aunt.

And it's just like, I don't know,

there's not a lot of depth there.

No, it's the metaverse, man.

It's not real.

It's like, it is AI.

Artificial intelligence is, yeah, it's what it feels like i.e made up i i'm sorry i wish there was like six other candidates sometime you know it's like we had like all this selection of choice so it wasn't just so binary so that i wish but we don't and she she ain't it. Sorry for me.
I wish I do wish that there were more candidates. Chris, do you have any thoughts to share before we move on to our next tech related article? The only one thing I've heard outside of disliking Trump is she's a woman.
Yeah. And look, I look.
That's cool. I'm going to say something.
I don't know if I if I. I did not want Nikki Haley ahead of Trump, but I liked Nikki Haley in a lot of ways.
And I want and support a woman becoming president. I think a woman will make an amazing president one day.
It just ain't her. It has to be the right woman.
You know, it wasn't Hillary. I think we all can agree with that.
It's the same thing like with Barack Obama. You know, I supported Barack.
I voted for Barack Obama once. And I don't mind saying that.
Like then once I sort of certain things came and I was,

I think, maturing as an adult business person and seeing some of the true impacts of some of the voting. Like I don't I didn't support necessarily everything after the fact, but I thought it was time.
You're like, it didn't matter if it was an African-American. It doesn't matter if it's a woman.
It just needs to be the right one.

The right person. Period.

And I just, but I don't, she just, there's something amiss here or a lot. I just can't vote for someone because I hate someone else.
Yeah, 100% agreed. And I think at the end of the day, I mean, everybody has to dig into like the policies that they believe in and the things that they believe in.
But voting one way or talking about somebody one way just because you hate something so much, it's just not healthy. I mean, there's a little bit of open mindedness that needs to happen.
Yep. Moving on.
Moving on. DOJ's Google breakup remedy puts tech world on notice.

So the Department of Justice is considering breaking up Google because Google has quite, I mean, a monopoly on the search engine market. So the DOJ has outlined several remedies, including breaking up parts of Google's business, limiting its contracts that favor Google

search and potentially forcing Google to share its search data with competitors. So here's a quote.
It says breakups are hard to do. It's an unusual remedy and doesn't occur very often from the former FTC commissioner, Mr.
Thompson. So what do you guys think about that? I mean, we use Google day in and day out?

I don't know. It's like I understand.
I'm knowledgeable enough to understand why they would consider something like this, but I don't necessarily agree with it. It's like, now do I think they should wield the power that they do at times no but it's complicated and you know the company has invested and done things and built this competitive advantage and so is the the government's job to break that part because they've been too successful it's a really good question and i don't i don't here.
I think anyone that sits here and fell on a sword of what the exact right answer to this is, because I understand both sides of it. It's just my personal opinion is you just don't mess with the success.
You just need to be having not control, but there does need to be an understanding of what they do and don't wield power over. And they can't be meddling in elections and, you know, helping hold back information and things that we've heard like that.
When you start doing that and it's proven, then maybe you deserve to be broken up.

But if you're not doing that, I don't think by the fact of your success alone is the government's place to divide your company up.

But I don't know, Chris, what's your thoughts?

I've got mixed feelings as well.

I mean, I don't like the idea of a monopoly.

And I do think Google has been super powerful. They have a lot of people's data.
I don't know if they've been honest with that. You know, they can kind of drive information.
Right. So I would like to see more competition.
So you could see maybe different access to information, but let's be real. I mean, it's kind of like a little too late to, to break up this party.
And it says that in that quote, like, you know, radical and sweeping, it doesn't occur often. I mean, I would have to imagine Google is probably so ingrained in every part of our country's tech systems, government, everything, that it's like, kind of like, yeah, this sounds ideal, right? But I'm sure Google is very tied with our military, our financial systems.
There's no way it's not. So it's kind of like, my question is how much of the government is run by Google in a way, probably with the technology being used.
Yeah. For some subsect of Google, right? Yeah.
It's definitely interesting. And you brought up the data, you know, and the consumer impact and, you know, how a breakup would also alter like, you know, how all that consumer data is handled.
And, you know, if there were more players in the marketplace, would that mean that data was potentially more compromised? Or, you know, would it be more secure? It's definitely a lot of questions that are above my pay grade. I just think there have been competitors, but they just haven't been as good as Google.
So are we going to penalize Google because they developed a superior product and it's remained superior over the competition? Yeah. I was saying the same thing.
And so it's like. Don like forced me to switch from yahoo or netscape i just naturally yeah it was easier to use the results seemed more accurate like i'm thinking back to when i first you know 10 15 whenever it was years ago switched it's because like i'm a mac guy but the safari browser sucks Maybe it sucks now because I'm just used to Google and the familiarity, but I can tell you when I made the switch, it was because it was just light years better, faster, more easy to navigate, and just a better overall experience.
And so we're going to penalize a company that continued to make a dominant product that then became a quasi-monopoly because the competition sucked and couldn't develop a feature that beat them out. Yeah.
That doesn't seem right either. Now, I get, you know, like sometimes we start talking about things that become so powerful.

It deserves a bigger discussion than just the nuance that I just described, which is why I do think, unfortunately, though, I don't love regulation, but sometimes you get too big, you're going to have to have some third-party, non-biased people making sure you're playing by the rules and doing the right things and not using your platform and your data for nefarious reasons. But I just think about like, if I develop being a business owner and I come out with a product ahead of anyone else, I keep it better than anyone else.
And as long as I'm doing that on the up and up, then someone's going to come in and take go nah, you've been too good for too long, baby. Get out of the way.
We got to spread this pie around. I don't know if I'm not okay with that.
But I also get that this is a lot of sensitive information and a broader thing than just like a pizza shop. It know, it just happens to have better tasty pizza than someone else.
I mean, it's more complicated than that, but you got to be careful. This is a slippery slope.
I'll just say that. It's very interesting in this article, it said here that some of the other major entities include like Meta, social media, and you know, if they're going to start breaking up and regulating Google, what's the stop?

You know, where does it end?

Yeah.

Definitely interesting.

Our next article is coming to us from ABC News and is the main reason why I have to read the news articles today to tell you that McDonald's sues the top meat packers for allegedly, allegedly colluding to inflate the price of beef.

Thank you. articles today to tell you that McDonald's sues the top meat packers for allegedly allegedly colluding to inflate the price of beef.
So McDonald's is suing four of the largest U.S. meat packers, Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef Packing Company, accusing them of colluding to inflate beef prices through anti-competitive measures.
So this kind of goes back to the monopoly thing, right? So, you know, monopoly of Google, monopoly of meat packers,

the government has to regulate in this, you know, article is talking about McDonald's

suing for regulation purposes, but, um, breaking up monopolies is a tool, right. To ensure that

markets remain competitive,

consumer friendly and free from domination

of any one single entity.

I think that it's interesting from a business standpoint.

What do you guys think on, is it fair?

What do you guys think about McDonald's

and the meat packers, right?

There's inflation questions here with the price of beef. I'll say this on a lighter note, not going where you think, not going where you think, but there was like a 1980s campaign by Wendy's, I believe.
Where's the beef? We might get back to that because they have to use less beef. You're gonna be like, you know, that burger that has like, you just a little old lady that went there and was like, where's the beef? And because the patties were so small.
So maybe we'll get another campaign like that from this. But with that said, nothing like I like talking more about than meatpacking deficiencies.
And Chris is better informed on that topic than me, but I'll give you my opinion. So I don't know enough about the meatpacking business to know like truthfully where, to know like, okay, if they really have been controlling that much power to control the meat meat cost but i also have a hard damn time feeling sorry for mcdonald's yeah you know like any of it was somebody else it's like they're i thought ryan i thought you were our resident meats you know expert because every time that we're in studio or in office he's always eating like steak like that's what I had before I came, actually.
I had some top round that had been seasoned, and it was just pure me. Nothing else.
I eat like 16 ounces. Yeah.
Yeah. He eats like three steaks a week.
I'm a carnivore. Three steaks a week.
Like 20. Oh, my God.
You're not 20. Probably 10.
I never eat steak. Oh, steak oh yeah i mean i ate the equivalent of three steaks this morning no it's not all fancy steak either some of it like the top round i ate was not that expensive it was like the same price like ground beef but like yeah you mean one of those have you seen those bumper stickers or like beef it's what.
It's what's for dinner. Oh, yeah.
That's what I'm saying. Back to it.
If you're listening, go on YouTube and look up Where's the Beef? The campaign. I can't remember if it's as funny now as it was then, but it was funny.
I think this whole day, where's the beef? Anyway, because the patties are so small. The buns overtook the entire thing.
Chris, how many steaks are you eating every week? Probably like five. Jeez Louise, you guys.
I bought seven last night and two dozen eggs for my hurricane prep. Seven rib eyes.
He already ate four of them this morning. Storm might have gotten into one.
I'll eat like two steaks a day sometime. I'm like, yeah.
What? A doctor doesn't want to hear that. Yeah.
Maybe I need to get on like a steak kick. I don't, I never eat steak.
I know some girls doing carnivore diet that are telling me good things about it. I'm not on carnivore, but.
I am a carnivore, but I'm not on carnivore. It's not all I.
Not all eight. Okay, moving on.
You know, I just don't know that I have an opinion on necessary or know the meat market well enough to know. I just think ultimately I have a hard time feeling sorry for McDonald's, but I don't know enough about the economics of this particular situation to

like speak for an educated standpoint on it.

I don't know what Chris have, you know, with all your meatpacking history,

if you, uh, I just see some big number of settlements.

So that to me tells me like there's probably some,

some questionable activities going on if they're settling for $221 million.

That doesn't happen by mistake.

I mean, lawyers are good, but not that good.

So like you said, man,

they're all on bigger profits.

McDonald's is pissed because they're losing business

because they're raising prices

and they're losing business, right?

Their margins are going down.

Meat packers probably are affected,

but it says it's going back to 2015

and they're talking about the COVID supply chain.

And it's like,

Thank you. and they're losing business, right? Yeah.
Their margins are going down. Meat Packers probably are affected, but it says it's going back to 2015, and they're talking about the COVID supply chain.
It's like, dude, 2015 was way before that. It's funny you say that, Chris.
I was thinking the same thing. I was like, how long are we going to have to hear about the COVID impact? Like, is it going to be like 2031, and we're going to be like, you know, we're still dealing with the, and I know, look, it was, it was a major event.
I'm not putting light on it. I know that it still has impact, but it's just, come on, man.
Like I wish I could use that as an excuse. Well, you know, I didn't pay my employees this week, still deal with COVID impact.
And I mean, what that, would that be cool? No, that wouldn't be cool. It's like, all right.
I mean, it is kind of fascinating when you look at where the economy and where the world is in this. What are we? Five years, almost five years post COVID.
Right next year is 2025. So it's a long we're quite a ways removed from COVID at this point.
And I feel like things are still a little bit wonky, but mostly back to normal. Speaking of normal, I have an article here from USA Today that says, Dream On! The American Dream now costs $4.4 million over a lifetime.
I thought this was really interesting to include, just as we kind of have listeners from all different walks of life, whether they're an entrepreneur or they're just starting out or they're a business owner or they own a multimillion dollar company. It's always good to kind of get a handle on where the economy is and what does it cost your employees to have that American dream? What does it cost you and your family members and the people that you love? So pretty expensive these days.
Ryan, we've got to double the raising two kids budget for you. Yeah, four kids.
So that'd be a 1.6 bill on the raising the kids and wedding. I don't know.
Is that like own wedding? Or is it like for your kids? The wedding budget seems low to me. Yeah, exactly.
I'll say this. The biggest number I saw here that was like, whoa, inflation of costs.
A report done in 2023 estimated that the American dream was $3.4 million. A one mil increase.
In a year. In a year.
That's a different way to think about that. Like, hey, your dream in your mind just got a million dollars more expensive.
In a year. Because, like, of what? Inflation.
I mean, it's inflation, but, like, where does that inflation come from? Yeah. And how do we fix your vote yeah but hey vote the same stay the same vote vote the same and it'll be two million dollars next year exactly you can get more if you like that you like the way that tastes you can get more it's all you can eat baby eat some more you want some more of that A financial planning expert's trusted part of saving an investment.
Okay, yeah. I mean, I get it, but 4.4 mil.
I mean, that American Dream's getting expensive. That American Dream is unattainable.
I mean, I think I like that American Dream, that baby. Isn't there a doll? Name of the American doll.
American Girl doll. American Girl doll.
Oh, yeah. She didn't get pricey to be that American dream.

I don't know why tying those two things together,

but it's like the first thing I think of is like,

think about that gift, like when your baby's born,

the new gift you're giving them.

Like their first gift, day one.

Here you go.

4.4 mil.

Yeah.

Just for you.

That's an IOU.

You might want to hold on to that one. You got to triple down on the 529 or something.
Yeah. Well, Chris, it's a good day to be a dog, Dad.
You're telling me, man. 1.6 mil.
The pets only cost $37,000. That's fine with me.
I want another dog. You can tack me double on that pet expense.
It's all the other stuff i'm good on like i'm good right now yeah i mean 37 i i don't know if this reflects the true inflation of dog costs and how much i see people that they spend on their dog most people spend

like two grand on the dogs now it's like if they're you know any kind of one of these

hyperallergenic breeds hyperallergenic don't say know what I'm saying, right? Yeah. Two grand for that.
They got the dog food. I've seen the dog food.
Look, it's the real food commercials. You see that delivered stuff on TV? It's like how much more than what you pay for your own food? Farmer's dog or something, yeah.
I bet if you polled like the 20 people closest to me that have dogs, they spend half that 37 a year. They probably spend 18 a year on their dogs.
That seems low for like lifetime on pets. I'm sure it's just averaged out because not everyone has a pet, but more people have pets than don't now.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I definitely think like it just depends. Like, right.

My dogs were, I think we spent

10 to 15,000 on my dogs

in the first year we had them.

It's between like how much they cost to buy them.

And then my one dog ate like a puppy pee pad

when he was like six weeks old.

I'd get like all the things, you know.

All right, let's see. Ryan, do you want to finish out with anything? Oh, I don't think so.
I think we're good. We're going to keep it light today, guys.
Keep it light. We got a hurricane in.
Know a lot of people out there thinking about that. Oh, my God.
I got a bee on my leg.

Oh.

Where did that come from?

Get out!

Do those even stink?

It looks like a wasp.

The big ones that get burl holes.

Thanks.

I hate bees and yellow jackets. Me too, bro.
I've been stung so many times. I sat on them before.
I st bees and yellow jackets.

Me too, bro.

I've been stung so many times.

I sat on them before.

I've stung my ass.

What the hell's happening?

The world's crumbling.

I know.

I'm like, what?

Okay.

Would you like to close us off?

Sure.

You need a... drops.
All right. I think that's all for today.
Chris, any final words there from Miami? Everyone have a great weekend and sending good vibes to all the hurricane warriors. For sure.
Brianna? Buzz? Be all you can be. Very good.
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