Episode 223

full
Published on:

26th May 2026

The Lazy Myth, Crime Data, and Why Social Security Is Fraud

Crime drops exponentially when money enters poverty — Jerremy Alexander Newsome calls the data nearly unarguable. Dave Conley and Jerremy work through the laziness question and land in the same place: most people aren't lazy, they're searching for purpose, and what looks like disengagement is distraction from a deeper problem. The conversation sharpens into a direct comparison between Alaska's oil profit-sharing model and AI companies — which pocket gains while socializing losses onto displaced workers, as hundreds of OpenAI employees averaged $11 million each in cash-outs while the people they displaced go on unemployment. Jerremy calls Social Security outright fraud: you pay in, politicians borrow it, and if that same money had gone into the broader market the returns would be astronomical. Both are on record: replace it with UBI for anyone under fifty-five and don't look back.

Timestamps:

  • (00:00) Lazy or motivated – the question the data already answers cold
  • (05:23) Crime tied directly to poverty – inject money, crime drops exponentially
  • (13:49) Social Security is fraud – Jerremy makes the case and Dave agrees

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Transcript
Alex:

The question sounds designed to be unanswerable: are people lazy,

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or waiting for permission to matter?

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The data lands hard in one direction.

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And what it implies for Social Security

is probably the MOST uncomfortable

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takeaway in this entire series.

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Jerremy Newsome: Are people inherently

lazy or motivated at their core nature?

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You said,

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Dave Conley: let's...

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Jerremy Newsome: on vacation,"

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Dave Conley: For a way, I also

said for two weeks, right?

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Jerremy Newsome: I know, I,

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Dave Conley: cause I haven't had a vac-

I g- I, I saw something that Elon said.

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He, like he takes one va- one day vacation

every year, and I'm like, "Oh my God."

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So in a sense, I, my life is geared...

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I don't believe in

work-life balance, right?

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Because I feel like they're always

competing with each other, and it

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leaves s- a certain amount of misery.

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So I just live my life, and

no matter where I am, I work.

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I work every day.

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Like there isn't a day that I

don't work in some capacity.

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Some days I work a lot more on some

things, and some things I don't.

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And that's how I like it, right?

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I have liked that for years.

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And, yeah I really am looking at it

like, wow, I, I really haven't taken

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just a solid two weeks and just had

complete spaciousness or gone out

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into the woods and just just had no

phone or no computer or no nothing.

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And I'm like I think I...

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there's a, it reminds me that I don't

need 15 grand a month to do that.

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I should just

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Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.

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Dave Conley: And do what you did and just

lock myself in a dark cave for a week

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and be like, "Okay, I need that reset."

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But y- when I think about are people

fundamentally lazy or fundamentally

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motivated, I believe that, people will

find their purpose and that people will

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do work aligned with their purpose.

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And if they don't have that purpose,

then they're hunting around it

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and they might be stalled for it.

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And so there's there is what appear--

what I perceive as a laziness for

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people who are, If you motivate those,

that laziness, yeah, that's a problem.

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And I think that most people will be

like, "Okay, if you have this freedom of

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UBI, then of course they're gonna work.

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They're gonna have the freedom to do

things, and they're going to be-- they're

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gonna have the freedom to focus on things

that don't necessarily make wages," right?

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Like it's getting out

of that wage economy.

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Taking care of your parents or taking

care of your kid is valuable work.

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Like we can focus that on valuable work.

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It's not wage work but it's valuable.

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I think people will naturally

gravitate to the areas where it's

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being pulled at them the most and

where they feel the most magic.

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Are there gonna be people who are

like, "Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna

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watch video games and figure out

how I can be at $1,500 a month"?

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Yeah, but that's gonna be the exception.

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People love being, working and doing

and contributing and thriving and,

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Like I I don't know anybody really who

doesn't have that in them, and I do

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know that there are people that, that

placate their inner sadness, their inner,

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their inner child, their inner, their...

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like the problems in their life

manifest by drugs and being

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online and playing video games.

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It's all distraction, and it's

distraction from a bigger problem, and

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that shows up in, in in their paycheck.

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So I don't necessarily...

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Yeah, there's totally gonna

be lazy folks out there.

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It's gonna be the exception

rather than the rule.

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What about you?

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Jerremy Newsome: Yeah I agree.

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it's kinda like most people

aren't inherently greedy.

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That's one of my ethos,

it's one of my ethos, right?

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Where to your point, if, again, we live

in a magical world, $1,500 just shows

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up in your bank account every month

for no reason, or sorry, 15,000, right?

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15,000 every single month.

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: Don't

worry about why or how.

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: Just let's just daydream

for a moment, everyone's there, and

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that happens to everyone, and the cost

of everything stayed the exact same.

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How do you live differently?

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And I like playing in that world

because you said it perfectly, bro,

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and this is also why we're brothers

from another mother, is you're

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like, "I wanna give some away."

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It's Yeah.

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dude, when you start living in a

place of excess and abundance, you

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do truly give to others, right?

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Which is the antithesis of greed.

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That's, I would say 99, 98% of people

are gonna kinda operate from that vein of

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"Sure, I make a bunch, I give a bunch."

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Sounds great to me.

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And I also believe that

most people are motivated.

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They want to do something.

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Doesn't matter what it is, and

that's the good news is it...

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they wanna do something.

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Dave Conley: There's also gonna

be people who are gonna use that

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and do terrible things with it.

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So they'll be doing something,

but they'll be sociopaths.

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Jerremy Newsome: That's...

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I know that's

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A funny f- funny not funny joke, but yeah.

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: sociopaths out there.

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There are actual mental

diseases in people that

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: And, rapists.

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Yeah, dude.

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That's gonna happen.

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There are

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Dave Conley: D-

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Jerremy Newsome: people out there, for

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sure.

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Dave Conley: and to

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Jerremy Newsome: would decrease.

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Dude,

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Dave Conley: for sure.

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Jerremy Newsome: That's my biggest,

that's my biggest win over this is

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the data is almost not even arguable,

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: if you inject money

into poverty does tend to go away.

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Sorry, not poverty.

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Obviously, poverty would go away.

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Crime

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Crime decreases exponentially.

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Dave Conley: Totally.

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Jerremy Newsome: as that, right?

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You give people more access to resources,

and then their crime goes away.

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Doesn't mean that they're gonna

make good financial choices.

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That's not what I'm saying.

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I'm not saying that they're...

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I'm saying that regardless of skin

color, regardless of background,

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regardless of religion, and regardless

of geographically where you're located,

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That geographical region has

more income, crime Other things

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may increase, but strictly crime

is directly tied to poverty.

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Dave Conley: Yeah and, I know

education is so key to your heart

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on so many things, and that freedom

of time is a real thing, right?

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Like you can learn

anything online now, right?

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Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.

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Dave Conley: the freedom of time in

order to do that, there are gonna be a

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lot of people who'll be like, "Man, I

have always wanted to learn and do this,

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and like I don't know anything about it.

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I'm gonna go do it," right?

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I have, the blessings of freedom

of some time, and I spend a

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lot of going to the gym of AI.

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This is something I do every single day.

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And like that's, that's my obsession and

how that's force multiplying the work that

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we do and the difference that we can make.

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And plenty of people are gonna

be like, "Man, like I've always

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wanted to learn to do this, and

now I have the ability to do that."

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It's not gonna necessarily

happen in a in a state school.

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I think the biggest thing that it gives

I believe to people is some dignity.

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I think that there's a lot of paternalism

that comes with all of these government

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programs of "Okay, you can only

spend this money on these things."

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And like I, I get it.

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If you don't want, government

money going to buying garbage

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food, it makes some sense.

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But also if the government was telling

me what I can and can't do, I think

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everybody naturally like bristles at that.

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I'm like, "Ah," like I'm gonna decide,

what's best for me and the freedom I have.

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It shouldn't-- Freedom

shouldn't be a luxury.

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Jerremy Newsome: Shoot.

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I like that, dude.

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I like that.

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Great example.

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About it briefly, but Alaska pays every

resident a check from oil revenues,

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Dave Conley: Bang.

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Jerremy Newsome: natural resources.

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: AI is now generating

productivity that no individual ever

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created specifically on the speed, right?

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Is there a meaningful difference

between those two things?

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The question of that is essentially

if you live in a state a geographical

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region that is rich in XYZ, doesn't

matter, and also granted that resource

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is being used or materialized ethically,

f- for the most part, and you're there

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and you're just getting money, right?

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Because, again, use Alaska.

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I live there.

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It's rich with oil.

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We're taking the oil.

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We're sending it to other countries,

other places, other cities, other states,

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and we're receiving money from that.

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And since we live here,

we're getting a stipend.

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We're getting some type of cash.

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The question is, how is that different

than if you create a YouTube channel

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And this YouTube channel is entirely

made of AI agents and robots and

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avatars that are making you content.

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And that content is compelling

enough that people watch it.

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they watch it, Google, which we just

talked about earlier, at some stage has

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revenue increasing, profits increasing

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: more people are

using the traffic and they're paying

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the ads to be on your YouTube channel

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: an ad revenue of $3,000

a month essentially doing nothing.

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Is there any real distinctive difference

between live in a place and I'm getting

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money for free versus I have computers

and software is making me money for free?

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: there's

not really a difference.

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Because the difference is okay,

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: a

physical, tangible thing

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And the other one is still created,

but just because it's not tangible

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doesn't mean it's not real.

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And that's a very, gravity, right?

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There's so many applications to that.

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It's almost unbelievable.

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Dave Conley: Here's how I'm hearing

this and tell me if you agree or

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not, is that Al- Alaska has this

bounty of natural resources that

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are, is under the ground, right?

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And it leases that bounty-

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Jerremy Newsome: Under the sea.

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Dave Conley: It lease, it

leases that out, right?

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Jerremy Newsome: Yep.

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Dave Conley: and the oil companies come in

they s- you know, they suck the dyna-jor-

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dinosaur juice out of the ground, and they

sell it And that leasing money that they

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get, the state of Alaska says, "Great, you

know, like, not only are we gonna be able

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to pay for, you know, like what we do in

the state, we're also gonna cut everybody

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a check from it because it's A-Alaska's

resources, and you are an Alaskan."

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And so, like, the, it's profit

sharing on the bounty of the state.

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And what I'm-- I get from AI is that

they're coming through with, like, the

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largest social disruption in probably

human history and that they are taking

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all of the money that they're making

and all of the money that, that is

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being invested in them, and they are

pouring it into making more money.

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It's this...

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and buying each other and causing

a, you know, a bicycling of, of

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cash and using stock to buy company.

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Like, the value that they're creating

is this immense destruction that's,

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that's coming everybody's way.

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It's already happening.

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And they are happy to socialize their

losses because the people who are

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losing their jobs are the ones that

you and I are actually paying for.

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They're the ones that are going and,

uh, having to sell their homes, have

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disruptions in their lives, having,

uh, you know, issues in their lives,

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maybe going on, on, um, on temporary

you know, like, uh, uh, government, uh,

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programs for unemployment insurance.

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And that isn't coming out of any of

these companies that are, are doing

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and generating, a, a trillion dollars.

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You know, like, they've

taken so much money.

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And in the meantime, if you are an

employee of OpenAI, you know, even

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though they're, they're not publicly

traded, they do have an internal

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stock, and you are able to sell those.

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And they, over the course of the

last year, the number I just saw was

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hundreds of employees have cashed

out their OpenAI stock, and on

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average, on average, each one of them

walked away with about $11 million.

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So there's nothing in there that says,

"Hey, by the way, of that $11 million

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going to, like, your developer," you

know, like maybe there needs to be

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some money in there that is actually

going to the greater good, the

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resources of the United States, the

resources of the people who are...

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You know, like, that's the

money that could be going there.

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Instead, it's this intense this, "The

money is mine, but the costs are yours."

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And that is a, a failure in,

in, in social capitalism for me.

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I, I don't, I don't get it.

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I don't wanna pay for the, uh, the

problems that OpenAI or Anthropic or, or

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xAI creates just because they want all

of the money in order to build the gr-

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next great economy when they are causing

issues today That look, we could, we can

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just like have a fund that they pay into.

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It doesn't have to be,

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you know, like onerous or anything

and be like, "Okay, you know, like

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you guys keep doing you, but it's

not costless for you and me, so it

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should be costless for you and me."

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You know?

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Like it, like they should thrive

on their own in this capitalism

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market, and they're not.

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We are subsidizing OpenAI right now.

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Jerremy Newsome: And that's a new tangent.

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but yes.

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Y- yeah, I agree.

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speaking of subsidita- subsist- would

you support replacing Social Security

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with the US, with universal basic

income for everyone under fifty-five,

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eliminating the unfunded liability?

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Is something that you would stand behind?

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Check mark of approval

from Dave DC Conley.

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Dave Conley: I think that's it's almost

a loaded question because it's only an

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unfunded liability because of the, there's

an artificial cap on top of it for wages.

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and, so and then the government

has decided to borrow against it.

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So it's un- it's supposed to be fully

funded, much like a lot of things that are

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on the books of states and get the, and

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Jerremy Newsome: guy over here

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Dave Conley: The politician said,

"Hey, look at all that money.

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We should grab it, and

we should use it for...

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Jerremy Newsome: there.

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Dave Conley: that's so much money.

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We should use it over here."

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Like it should be a it should

be funded and it's not.

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And so I think that, like it

could be easily funded if we

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just, take the wage cap off of it.

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Now, saying that, I'd be totally down

with eliminating the Social Security

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tax that is out of everybody's wages

and then transitioning over to this.

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I think that's fine.

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And like another thing is that,

very th- there is a certain they

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call it a good that, like everybody

receives Social Security no matter,

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if you fully paid into it like I did.

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I've, I maxed it out for, the number of

years because of I was making, good money.

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And so everybody gets their

quote-unquote Social Security check.

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I'd i- and it doesn't matter if, if

you're a multimillionaire and you

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have all of this, that you still

get a Social Security check, right?

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You get your UBI, and if you

are struggling as somebody who's

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over 65, like you're gonna get

that same, that same check.

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Like in a sense, like it's a screwy

system, and I'm okay with getting

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rid of a screwy system and being

like, "Yeah, instead of a screwy

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system, here's your UBI," and and

call it a day on Social Security if

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you eliminate the tax on the wages.

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I don't know.

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Would you keep Social Security?

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Jerremy Newsome: Oh, hell no.

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: No, it's toast.

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It's totally...

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Yeah, it's actually a fraud,

fraudulent system, in my opinion.

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Dave Conley: No, s-say more.

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I don't disagree but ma- what,

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Jerremy Newsome: yeah

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: fully, dude.

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Yeah.

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almost fully.

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So it's okay, you work and

you put money into this

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Dave Conley: Pile.

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Pile of

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Jerremy Newsome: that the government

borrows from, that they use perpetually,

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: then they're gonna

pay you, as long as you're And

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The money that if you as a citizen took

that and invested into, oh, I don't know,

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Dave Conley: Anything.

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Jerremy Newsome: p- pick something.

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Dave Conley: Any, anything.

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Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: baseball cards.

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But prefep- you know, preferably

the S&P 500, the Dow Jones,

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: the

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: Any broader

market stock, like the return of

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your money is astronomically more.

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And so even if the government

was like, "Hey, guys, you suck at

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investing," cool, not a big deal.

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Money.

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We're going to invest it for You and

then you get that as a fund Now that I,

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can start getting behind.

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the semicolon after that's gonna be

like, okay, but you can't politicians

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borrow against it or use it for your

own endeavors can't trade individual

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companies because you guys are liars and

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you're insider traders, and all you

do is make all the money for your

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own family based on the policies that

you create for the companies that you

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inter- interact with on a daily basis.

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So other than that Yeah we

need an investing policy

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Dave Conley: I would be way more

supportive of that if it wasn't just

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publicly traded companies, right?

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Like that you could invest in anything

that would have a potentially a return

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or a return on your capital, right?

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At a percentage.

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Be like, "Okay, I want to invest

in my local bo- bodega," right?

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It's like I, I wanna, cut, a portion

of my, my, my monthly salary,

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before taxes to a local investment

or, like some other, y- investment

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that, that has an potential, right?

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Like maybe it's it has to

have these sort of things.

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Like even if it's a private, private

investment I'd be down with that.

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There is a risk that goes

into all of that, right?

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So I...

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in some sense, if we have that Social

Security and that Social Security

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investment aspect, like it, it does need

to be de-risked a little bit and, like

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now it's de-risked in the wrong way.

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So but eliminating it,

yeah, I'm down with that.

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Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.

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Dave Conley: forget it.

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Don't need it if we have a UBI.

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Jerremy Newsome: Yep exactly, precisely.

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And I think there's just a, once

we dial that system in and we get

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really more crystal clear on the

funding and the investing and the

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saving and the protecting of it,

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: you can't get the

grimy hands of the politicians inside

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of this thing, 'cause remember,

Congressman Newman, she, that she was

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like, "Listen, bro, if it ain't working,

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Dave Conley: Yeah.

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Jerremy Newsome: moving, it's

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Dave Conley: Yeah,

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Jerremy Newsome: It's a

m- it's a money thing.

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It is-- We need to create as much

separation of that as we can.

377

:

It's an entirely different product,

entirely different series, but

378

:

ultimately it's listen, if you

go into the the office, you're

379

:

doing that as a role of service.

380

:

Dave Conley: Yeah.

381

:

Yeah.

382

:

Jerremy Newsome: And you can make

a certain amount of money, and you

383

:

can invest that certain amount of

money into a broader market, S&P 500,

384

:

whatever, but there is no way you are

investing into individual companies,

385

:

especially since you're meeting

386

:

Alex: Jerremy calls it what it

is: Social Security is fraud on

387

:

paper, and the math backs him up.

388

:

But every fix they sketch runs into

the SAME wall—if you build a system,

389

:

someone powerful will try to own it.

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About the Podcast

Solving America's Problems
Solving America’s Problems isn’t just a podcast—it’s a journey. Co-host Jerremy Newsome, a successful entrepreneur and educator, is pursuing his lifelong dream of running for president. Along the way, he and co-host Dave Conley bring together experts, advocates, and everyday Americans to explore the real, actionable solutions our country needs.

With dynamic formats—one-on-one interviews, panel discussions, and more—we cut through the noise of divisive rhetoric to uncover practical ideas that unite instead of divide. If you’re ready to think differently, act boldly, and join a movement for meaningful change, subscribe now.