Destruction of America’s Middle Class, Perspectives From A Blue Collar American with Gary Garneau

In this episode, I bring in my Uncle Gary to talk about the gutting of the American blue collar worker. Gary Garneau is a well-read, opinionated person who shares his amazing perspectives about a lot of things including tariffs and policies that have been happening.

√ Walmart.com
√ Amazon.com
√ A book recommended by a listener: The Trap by Sir James Goldsmith
√ A video recommended by a listener: Sir James Goldsmith Interview on GATT
√ If you enjoyed this podcast, listen to one by Laurence Brahm, search for Shangri-la

Thank you so much, Gary. 

Hope you still plan to come to the cross-border summit our fourth annual first time in Guangzhou China during the whole trade show season, October 22nd and 23rd of 2019.

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gfa267

Episode 267 of Global From Asia my uncle Gary and I talked about the gutting of the blue-collar American. Welcome to the Global From Asia podcast where the daunting process of running an international business is broken down into straight-up actionable advice and now your host Michael Michelini.

[00:00:23] Hope everybody’s having amazing August. It’s been a wild summer. It has been exactly a year since I moved to Thailand and I think I’ve said it on previous shows seems like maybe a wow. I don’t want to say I had a feeling but you could feel stuff like this building up and Hong Kong airport’s closure and and a lot of insanity happening.

[00:00:47] The tariffs. I’ve been talking to Bloomberg quite a bit Shelly there reporter and Hong Kong has been fascinated by my stories and she also brought up on a conversation about how my family back home is, is responding to this and you know, she’s followed some of the progress. We’ve been talking a few times over the last couple of months and she said that you know, she was always intrigued because I think my

[00:01:16] Family didn’t really like that I moved to China and today I bring on my uncle Gary. I’ve not had a family member. It’s full disclosure, family member, but he’s a he’s well-read person and he’s got amazing perspectives and I thought the listeners today might enjoy this perspective might not be a perspective everybody here might agree with. But he actually supports the tariffs and he supports you know, what some of the policies have been happening.

[00:01:47] He talks about how all this Outsourcing he saw happening in the 90s to China to India, you know all these free trades opening up the borders and kind of really he feels which I also have a feeling, you know did kind of as I said in a preview of the show, Gutting American blue collar workers, you know, I mean, I was I had a little sneak peek working in a machine shop in high school.

[00:02:11] That whole thing got shut down. I saw factories in my hometown getting shut down in, Connecticut. Um, so Gary is a very opinionated person. He knows that himself. He says it in the show and after the show in a blah blah blah section, I will talk about some of my family discussions and some of my perspectives. You know, I grew up in a blue-collar American society and I know some listeners in this show gets published in WeChat in China and other places around the world anybody in the world can listen to it and I think it might be interesting to get this perspective.

[00:02:47] I think we all got to keep open eyes open ears. So let’s let’s listen to my uncle Gary talking about the Gutting of the American Blue Collar Worker. Are you trying to get your money out of Hong Kong are these protests kind of driving you crazy? And are you wondering what to do with your money? You might want to look at goremit.hk a cross-border payments solution for your HongKong banking’s needs if you need to get money into mainland China into other parts of Southeast Asia and more and more countries getting added to the list.

[00:03:18] Our friends and sponsors and supporters here of the show goremit.hk have a cross-border payments solution to keeps very low fees and they make a small cut of the FX exchange between countries much more fair than traditional banking as well as their support of the show. Check them out at www.goremit.hk.

[00:03:38] Tell ‘em GFA sent you. All right. Thank you everybody for tuning in. This is going to be a very fun one. My uncle Gary, Gary Garnell. Thank you. Thank you for coming on Gary. Well, thanks Mike for asking me you know me, I’m very opinionated. Yeah, I want to give to get ahead. I want to give to you.

[00:03:59] I’m sorry Mike, what was that? So go ahead. Go ahead. I, I want to give the public a basic rundown of who or what I am before I go into my tirades about politics and all this other stuff. First of all, I’m a blue-collar man. I don’t have a college degree. I worked as a, as a machinist to dye maker. I worked as a welder in the shipyard for couple years.

[00:04:22] I was a carpenter as a young man and even was a contractor for a few years. I drove truck around the nation. I was OTR. So I’ve done a little of everything. Yeah. I was in the military for six years National Guard engineering, which were the construction workers in the Army and I was involved in politics.

[00:04:41] I ran with an independent party in Connecticut. I’m going to tell the folks a few things you’re calling a probably won’t believe me, but I did run for US Senate in Connecticut. I was supposed to be on every ballot machine in the state. Notice, I said supposed to. I also ran for congress I petition myself on the, for Congress and I was on the ballot in District 1.

[00:05:01] 1992 I ran for US Senate in 94 against Lieberman and Labriola. I ran against Barbara Connelly who was the incumbent and Steel Son was was running as a Republican and then I ran for lieutenant governor in 1998. The party I was affiliate what was called the concerned citizens party. We were basically a pro-life party.

[00:05:27] Now Connecticut is very pro-choice. One of the most Pro-choice states in the union. Yeah. And it’s odd because Connecticut is predominantly Catholic and how can that be? Well, it took me years to figure it out, but it was education. A lot of kids, young people that go to Catholic school go to college, and one college people are very big supporters of legalized abortion.

[00:05:50] So I was involved in the pro-life movement for a couple years with that political party. I would also did some sidewalk counseling outside abortion clinics and I was not the screamer, I was the talker. I remember. Yeah, you remember Mike driving by? Yeah. I remember you be standing here with Virginia or Auntie Lich and the other good people there and as I’ve done a lot of weird things in my life, I guess not weird, but different things I should not. I will always remember when I was a kid, you are always the one like you said, you’re on the ballot you were in all these you’re always running for office and you like you said you were pro-life and you’re at the the clinics, you know, like I said the sidewalk sidewalk.

[00:06:29] Talking and yeah, I’ve always known you as the one in the family that would always, you know not be afraid to speak your mind and and and take those chances. That got me in trouble more times in one second. You know today, there’s so much we can talk about maybe we will maybe we can have you come back on the show again, but we were chatting, you know, I try to keep in touch with you and and family as much as I can.

[00:06:55] It’s very hard being on the other side of the globe like we said, but we had a great conversation about you know, of course to talk about tariffs and China and Amazon and it’s kind of like the world I live in and I’m surea lot of listeners are in this in this space. So I just thought it’d be really fascinating conversation.

[00:07:12] You know, you mentioned at the machine shop and tooling I got I was working as an intern if you remember for a little while at. We worked on the same company for a while. You’re amazing. You worked every department and it was one boss there to, everybody would go through him like a. he would go through people like like tissue paper.

[00:07:28] I mean it was. And yet he bumped into me in the hallway and said Mike’s the best guy I ever worked with. I’ve seen enough about you Mike. I don’t know what you did you got along with it? Because nobody else could you know, yeah. You also worked every single Department. Here you are a high school kid, and you were designing our tool.

[00:07:45] Yeah, I did.  I remember that the boss come in with you and you tell you what you’re doing and you dropped a. I might have that one of the tools I made. You drew complicated tools too so you were amazing. You know, that’s next. But yeah, I mean, I remember that place shut down and then you mentioned I didn’t know but there was a clothing textile Factory upstairs that closed down.

[00:08:05] So that wasn’t enough. That was your job. That was in the 90s and I think you mentioned that was also the I didn’t really know. I just remember it was an engineer there that told me all the jobs will go to India and China, you know, he was saying already when in 90s when I was there. He said people are emailing those CAD designs you’re talking about they’re emailing it to India.

[00:08:28] And India is to draw on and while we’re sleeping and then we’re sending them back, you know the next morning so. You know you said it was a lot investments into China rate, you know overseas in the 90s. That was like when I was yeah, I would remember. I was running for office. I happen to read this article.

[00:08:48] I think it was National Geographic and we had already scored a hundred billion dollars into China invested a hundred billion dollars in industrial jobs and Investments and that was in 92 crazy. So what does that mean? Invest. Well, they do factories over there and you know, they what I was I think it’s my opinion is they’re trying to break down the middle class in this country.

[00:09:11] They’re trying to you know, what we had a lot of manufacturing in Connect- in US at one time. I want to throw a statistic at the people out there. I just I just learned this statistic recently and it tells you everything about what’s going on. 1944, I’ll do it the other way around, in 2013, between the ages of eighteen and thirty seven thirty seven percent of Americans have degrees now a two-year or four-year degrees 37 percent take a guess what the percentage was in 1945.

[00:09:43] I might have guessed last time. I’m thinking around your pretty close. I think I said 5% I was thinking 5%. 4% 4% of the people had college degrees in 1945. What does that tell you that tells you everything? It tells you where a totally different kind of economy. We’re not an industrial based economy anymore.

[00:10:00] We have some industry. I’m not sure we don’t know that all but in you know, this college thing is a bad thing in a way because it divides the people. You have the college people and the non College people and then you got the Tradesmen, you know, when you had a lot of manufacturing a lot of unions, people.

[00:10:16] I remember as a kid somebody that worked in a union shop made more money than the school teacher about 20 to 30 percent more. Mmm. I admit teachers were underpaid but what I’m driving at is I’m trying to compare how things have changed so much, you know. And you know in a way it’s good for the kids because they have to go out and learn a skill being a union factory worker your kind of vulnerable because if you get laid off unless you learn some kind of skill.

[00:10:43] Of course your skill is is that you go to work every day and you’re and you’re reliable. That’s a skill too. People, any good company will take a person like that and train them I would if I had a company you want reliability and good attitude. That’s almost more important than anything else, you know. But

[00:10:59] So things have changed, you know, we’re you know, I always said this to a lot of my friends.  The West is constantly changing, you know, there’s all kinds of things that cause changes rippling effects in our society, you know, like super highways destroyed the cities made the suburbs, which I don’t like. Air conditioning made Florida.

[00:11:19] Legalized abortion has changed everything. The bankers made so much money with that and the 1% when they put the women to work and have the women and now you take two incomes to make to support a family when it took one before how much money they made with that. Mmm. 1973 Raise Ranch 73 no, excuse me, one for $49,000 and the interest rate was 7 percent mortgage rate. 1983 10 years later that same place.

[00:11:46] House was a hundred and thirty thousand interest rate was 11%. Hmm. I mean, you know a lot of money was made with legalizing abortion. I’m telling you how I don’t know any tell me how I guess I’m listeners are probably wondering how to make that connection of that one variable. I mean, there’s so many variables right that. There is a lot of variables.

[00:12:07] You’re right about that too. Well, just like you hear people say, well American labor is too expensive. We can’t make anything in America anymore. What they don’t tell you is, American labor, it’s much more productive. I’ll give you an example. I was in a machine shop, but we had this partly used to make those donut shape and have all kind of cones on it and took a week to make this part. You had to put it on five different machines and each operation took about a day or half a day to do.

[00:12:31] Well, they bought a tape machine. One of these modern state machines automatically goes to the tools and has a program computer. They could put that part in that one machine clamp it down. Push the button come back five hours later, the part was complete. Now you take that same guy you put them on three machines because he doesn’t have to do too much.

[00:12:49] The machine does all the cutting he just watches to see if the tool gets dull because though he stops the machine or the machine are coming down. Machine probably shut off automatically when the Tool gets dull and they replay going to the program and you know, pull the tool out change of putting get it running again.

[00:13:04] So they put them on three machines right each machine replaced five workers. He put him on three machines you replace 15 workers. You could probably pay the guy $100 an hour. You’d still make money, you know. Mmm, so you see not that don’t the latest thing is they say, well, we can’t bring industry back to America because we don’t have the backup system that we had 50 40 years ago.

[00:13:25] Again, that’s a lie. There were building factories in third world countries. You mean you could build a factory in third world country and you’re telling me you can’t build a factory in America because there’s not enough support. Was a, was there any support in China when they started putting the factories in there.

[00:13:39] Was there any support when they put a factory in Timbuktu, you know, it’s all propaganda and lies, nobody in my opinion. Anyway, I’m on my tangent my question. This is good. This is good. I mean, it’s true. We want to get the, you know emotion here in the feeling and. Yeah, so I mean the point is yeah, I mean I felt I could feel it in the 90s when I was like you said working at Bear down in that machine shop in Connecticut.

[00:14:06] It just felt like that’s the future to see if a why I came out to China and oh my my mom’s never happy I came here. But you know, I think it’s it’s also just the way where the world was going. I mean. I remember this free trade. I remember the you know, the family discussions about NAFTA to free trade opening the borders.

[00:14:29] I don’t really know much about China tariffs before I remember the discussions in the 80s and 90s when I was like when I was a kid and about you know the free trade with NAFTA and Exco and I don’t know was China involved in that. I mean when now there’s tariffs. Oh, yeah. Thanks. A lot of they moved a lot of plants into China, you know because they wanted the cheap labor, but see China is different than America. China puts China first.

[00:14:55] You know, they’re concerned. They’re Chinese doing the opposite of what we’re doing in my opinion. Chinese wants to get I read their 10-year plan ahead and add in the paper. I should have cut it out talking about what they plan to do in China. They want to eliminate poverty. They want to increase manufacturing they want to and they want to do something about green.

[00:15:13] I really think I think if I was in China first thing I want to do is get off that damn oil. Get into electric cars and get into hydrogen, geothermal hydrogen, you know and get away from oil, you know as much as you can. Be oil Independence what our country is doing the opposite. We’re trying to make poverty.

[00:15:30] We moved all the jobs out. The manufacturing jobs for the low working classes that are working since you know, and now these people don’t have jobs or good paying jobs. And one of the big problems in America is going to be affordable housing. You know the rent you’re going. You’re making seven dollars an hour and your rent’s $800 a month.

[00:15:49] What do you do? Yeah, I mean, I guess I just remembered I always would, stories like when I was in school or you know college or what they’re all just like you said about the education and go, you know, everybody has to go to college. I’ll just get a job in office working on Excel or something, but they would just say that the jobs.

[00:16:09] would just change it wouldn’t be a, you know, you’re talking about doing tooling and machining. I think they’re just trying to say it would be white collar jobs, not blue collar jobs if you want. Which is stupidity because you know II respect a college degree, but it doesn’t grow corn. It doesn’t make tractors.

[00:16:25] It doesn’t produce tooling. It doesn’t make shoes and clothing. It doesn’t make airplanes and ships. I mean, you know this thing about Google a hundred billion dollars this weekend has turned out what 200 billion dollars are a paper tiger for God’s sake you don’t produce any product or they do provide a service, but you know.

[00:16:45] That’s my opinion. You know, what’s your opinion? I mean, I I see the you know AI is coming even these you talk about outsourced jobs, even the outsourced workers. I read article, you know, actually we have people in the Philippines helping out with this show listening and there’s a lot of Outsourcing to Philippines or India.

[00:17:05] For for like call centers, but that’s getting eliminated or reduced because AI is able to like listen to the question from the customer and answer it automatically. So, I mean, I do see the technology kind. You were mentioned about the tape machine replacing the Machining requirements. So I mean anyone machine.

[00:17:25] Yeah are they are trying to you know, I think jobs will come back. Manufacturing might come back to the US sooner, but it would be all done through just big machines and they would just have a few few humans kind of like overseeing machines and. Get the revenues from. You don’t like have two factories came back unless they they were doing provide many jobs.

[00:17:45] We would provide us with Revenue. Anyhow, you know, the revenue would be here, you know. Got it, you know, I think it’s even face you talking about these internet companies. I don’t I don’t know specifically ones. I think it’s like Facebook is supporting universal income so that people just get paid paid to paid a base income right?

[00:18:05] I mean, how do you. What would you have to be done? Because if they keep modernizing a modernizing modernizing that you won’t need people after a while everything be done by machines like take Amazon now Amazon had an article in the paper, but I’ve been saying this for years that they want to train their warehouse people themselves, which I respect which is nice.

[00:18:23] They want to train your people to do computer work, you know or what it called coding which. And the thing is, you know, what’s going to happen with this guy the same as I guy, this Bezos he’s going to take and he’s going to build huge warehouses and different sections of the country will probably be a square mile and you’ll be completely computerized. You’ll punch your computer for your part of computer or automatically with the code numbers that you punch for the part will get the part and know where your location is and get the part.

[00:18:50] I don’t know where I wasn’t loaded on a truck. It’ll probably be a handful of people in you’re just running keeping the machinery and there’s computers running and this is this is sad, you know. Amazon’s going to do a lot of damage to our society. I think we should boycott them really because a lot of stores are starting to close now.

[00:19:07] They’re going to build an Amazon in our area. I live in Port St. Lucie, Florida by the way, folks. And, they’re going to build one over here and they’re already talking about it. Some stores are going to close be no it because if during your neighborhood, they’ll probably deliver at afternoon. You probably call him up in the morning.

[00:19:21] They’ll probably delivered to your house that afternoon and it’s sad because it takes something away, you know, I even read to some of the stores in New York City, are closing on Madison Avenue and Park Avenue noodles famous stores for the rich women. They go out take a walk and go to beautiful store.

[00:19:36] Some of them are closing up. Yeah, I mean it is sad but then even Amazon does open these pop-up stores if there’s a couple of these stores where they don’t really have stock you just order it at the store and it’ll deliver. Maybe those Park Avenue shops could adapt to it just being more of a showroom and not have an inventory and haven’t delivered if you just hit the nail on the head now, that’s a point to make a lot of stores don’t have into inventory.

[00:20:02] You come in. I went to a music store a couple months ago. So I play fiddle. I’m an amateur Fiddler, you know, and she said well, we don’t have this. We get it to you tomorrow. I want a violin strings, you know, she had no selection of violin strings. She had nothing in the store practically. She sold lessons, you know, that’s what room should make them.

[00:20:20] But if you wanted something she order to get it to the next day. She didn’t cover it for inventory. She didn’t have it in stock. Got it. So I think that’s what they have to you know. I’m sorry Mike what’s that. That means they have to do that. I mean just to financing the cost of holding all this. You know. The inventory taxes.

[00:20:39] Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. You got a point there. So what do you think of Walmart? I mean, I feel like people are saying this about Walmart 10 20 30 years ago. You know, I never. True, true Walmart, all are saying about Amazon instead of. Is it just Amazon changing instead of Walmart. Walmart, you could walk to but the thing about Walmart’s I noticed they eliminate probably one Walmart, probably eliminates 20 stores and yet you go in and there’s nobody in.

[00:21:02] Store, you have to run around to find somebody if you need to need help, you know, it’s amazing. I think is these managers are cost-effective. You know that there’s a greeters at the front. I don’t know. They used to have sometimes they have. Sometimes they don’t but you can tell they’re really cut into the bone.

[00:21:17] I went to one Walmart and I went down one aisle is all the same item in one aisle. I couldn’t believe it is it would put all I couldn’t believe that Isis what it’s like they don’t care. They don’t have to worry anymore. Go to look at their, go to their tools section where they sell tools. It’s if you were a carpenter or Tradesman, you’d be in trouble, you know, they got enough slack hand tools and stuff, you know.

[00:21:39] Oh no what so, you know, it’s it’s just a were constantly changing society, you know example what how we have these suburbs today. Suburbs to me, I don’t like I don’t like suburbs. I think they do they separate people and they disrupt the system and here’s why I say that. All through centuries, cities.

[00:22:00] You have City and Country. The cities the people lived in the factories. All the work was under Tradesman and all that and in the country you had the Farmers every day to Farmers would loader carts and roll them into the cities, you know, and if people would go to the farmers market and buy fresh food right. Now, you got suburbs all the countries surrounding country around the around the city is all suburbs.

[00:22:24] I remember in Glastonbury we had a lot of tobacco companies have tobacco farms around Glastonbury and developers love Farmlands, because they don’t have to plow. I mean, excuse me, they don’t have to really trees or anything like that to go I have to do is start pouring the foundation’s, you know, and all the tobacco Fields were turned into subdivisions.

[00:22:44] Okay. you know it’s you know all the Farmland the rich Farmland along the along the valleys and the results were suburbs. So no one of these people do they have to get their food for a hundred two hundred miles or in a thousand miles away has to be shipped in and mind if I switch to another subject sure we can I got it.

[00:23:05] I got a new thing I call a delocalization in the modern world. I don’t know about China but in America we de- delocalize everything at one time 50 60 years ago. You had a lot of local factories. You had a lot of local farming your Banks were local. You know, they they made it work. We’re so dependent, like to take gasoline.

[00:23:31] For example, if we get off a gasoline at localize our energy that’s going to take a lot of people, a lot of people I think you know and it also focuses the wealth on a small handful of people that own the oil companies and we’ve become dependent and this is not an accident, my opinion. It’s not an accident because when the people become dependent they have less power.

[00:23:53] You know what I mean? Let’s say about door locks or anything else America couldn’t go, couldn’t have a revolution right now. I don’t think if we wanted to all they have to do is cut our oil. Now in the 70s before you weren’t born they had to boil shortage. My poor brother told me once and he needed to he saw a line of cars and he needed five gallons of gas.

[00:24:13] So that line with cars and waited two hours to get to five gallons of gas. That is panic. And you know, I never forget the feeling I felt like a junkie looking for a fix. I really did because without that gasoline I couldn’t go to work. I couldn’t go anywhere. Everything was gasoline and I lived in the country, you know.

[00:24:29] Yeah. It was a horrible feeling. Now, what it is is the globalist wants this. They want us to be delocalize because look what they’re doing in Venezuela. They don’t like Venezuela for several reasons and they’re squeezing them, you know, which they I feel they have no right to do. These people have the right to determine themselves, you know, but the globalist don’t like that.

[00:24:52] They don’t like social democracy, you know, you don’t like a system that empowers the people they don’t like that. See Venezuela, the people have some say to poor people the way to political system is set up. They don’t like that. They want to go to a system where no one percent totally controls the country.

[00:25:07] They’ve been trying to switch that thing over for 40 years. Now since Chavez came in there. She first got rid of all the foreigners so that Venezuela could capture resources for their country. Got. Help the oil goes to the poor. They use it for housing and to feed the poor before Chávez. Am I saying that right as as me my things?

[00:25:28] I think I’m bad with names bowels and downs. Yeah, it’s funny how often before he came in 71% of people live in poverty and it was mass starvation in Venezuela after he was there several years. They, the poverty what way down to starving the people weren’t starving anymore and you use the oil rub noses plowed back into the country and the citizens because the oil belongs to the people even in this country.

[00:25:52] We have to get the oil companies have to get permission because the oil belongs to the people and what it is the one percent don’t want that. They want that oil and they don’t like the system of government. They don’t like social democracy, which is basically our constitution. Our constitution is basically a socialistic back.

[00:26:10] Got it. The Constitution says the country serves the people. The right for,for Liberty Pursuit of Happiness. What’s the pursuit of happiness Social Security,  an employment, you know the government serves the people but you know, if you if you look at Congress you you don’t get that feeling. You know what I mean?

[00:26:31] Yeah, I’m gonna get back to delocalize, you know. Yeah, because this is don’t think I’ve been harping about lately delocalization because we have no power in anything anymore. Our jobs are I’ll give you an example what happened in Connecticut. I saw the effects almost right away. I was a young kid.

[00:26:49] Just saw a high school and I was working, I got into the tool and dye tree and I got a lucky some guy hired me in West Hartford. Ernie Rondo a little shopping really helped me along. He got me started and I did that for years. I was a machinist tool dye and all because of him he gave me that opportunity and when I first entered a trade, I remember I gave a notice and he left a job, but I didn’t have anything lined up.

[00:27:15] So I went out and applied for work. I had three job offers. Now, I only had two years experience which isn’t much for tooling and I you don’t really know something to you’ve been about 10 years. It takes a long time to learn that trade if you really get into it the right way and I had three job offers.

[00:27:30] Now what happened is in the 80s Connecticut change thinking loss before all the money had to stay in this state. There was no out-of-state banks in Connecticut. Well, they passed a banking laws and some politicians went to jail because there was a lot of corruption involved but they didn’t change the laws almost overnight everything changed.

[00:27:49] Now, the big banks are coming in from New York and they’re sucking the money out of Connecticut. Was much harder to get a job almost immediately. Within a couple of years you could see the whole change in the economy. As many jobs because the money was being sucked out and this is what’s happening.

[00:28:03] We’re having the money so out, you know, you got Walmart’s Amazon big Banks and all this money. I was in a bank the other day and this lady wanted $20,000. I guess she had 20,000 dollars in savings, come they said no, they said you have to wait a week or two weeks for approval. If you want cash.

[00:28:20] They would give her a check. They wouldn’t give her cash. I call then my bank and they said the most I can pull out cash is $5,000. Wow. And I’m going to go onto another tangent here. We’re going to talk a little bit about the banks. Is that okay? Yeah, I think it’s related. I mean we get will still talk about like Barnes and Noble and Amazon tariffs.

[00:28:42] I really want to talk about tariffs and trade War still like just quick. On my way to the bank the other day funny thing happened. I walked into the doors and I saw something that I never saw a 50 years ago. The banks have glass doors 50 years ago when you walk through a bank that glass doors were covered with mortgage rates interest rate for.

[00:29:04] for savings account. They were proud to be plastered all over the doors walk into a bank today in America. There’s no interest rates listed anywhere on it doors. True. I have a checking account. And I have a savings at different bank. The checking account pays .01% now I’ll get into that in a minute what that means but my savings is gone.

[00:29:24] The other bank is point zero five percent. Let me explain to the public what that means 100% is 150 percent. Is 1/2 okay or 0.5? Five percent is five percent of a hundred which is five hundredths or .05 now there. Five percent, five is .05 mathematically you have now if you go to point 5 percent, it’s .005. But that’s not what they’re giving us your giving us point zero five percent which comes out to point zero zero zero five, which is five ten thousands, which means if you have $10,000 in the bank, you will get five dollars in interest that year five percent you would get $500.

[00:30:19] If you had $5,000 in the bank, you would get $250 a year within 10 years. You double your money. I think I you you’re the math guy. You course with compound interest. It might be even sooner at point zero five percent, it would take you probably a couple hundred years to double your money and I sat down and figured it, but I’m at least a hundred years maybe more in other words, you’re getting nothing for your interest nothing and on top of that your charge cards are like.

[00:30:46] 29% they started 15 you make you miss one payment. They wacky up to 29 percent. Credit cards are the worst. That One Bank didn’t do car loans the other one did Car loans and here’s what she told me. In the old days when you went to get a car loan, you pay two rates, used car was a certain rate new car was another. They don’t do that no more.

[00:31:07] They vary it from one to fifteen percent. Which means, if you’re a doctor making a hundred fifty thousand year and you’re going to buy a Mercedes for 60,000, they’ll give you 1% if you got good credit. But if you’re a minimum wage or low wage earner and you’re buying a used car you’re going to pay 15%.

[00:31:23] Don’t you see how the banks?  Yeah, yeah. All banks, kind of lost now. Florida has a law now if you. Don’t touch your bank account. We can’t get a hold of you. If they take money out give it to the state and state holds the money. What if you bring a lot of money to the bank they want all kind of forms of papers to fill out.

[00:31:45] I guess that’s because they’re drug dealers, you know. The old days your blood Money in the Bank, you just put it in now. What is it? You want to pull it out? You took it out there changing laws all the time these Banks. It’s incredible. But anyhow, I just wanted people to be aware of that. Awesome banking goes nuts.

[00:32:00] I mean, we don’t have we don’t have capitalism where you really don’t I mean capitalism is the bank page of 5% They loan it for seven. They kept 2% 2% Don’t sound like much but if you got a hundred million dollars it comes out. Okay don’t have that no more. We don’t even actually in actuality.

[00:32:16] America is a bankrupt country. Hmm. We’re bankrupt. We really are we print money and the money is not backed up by gold anymore as long as the world buys our money, we will progress but when they stop you trade with the dollar we’re done we’re big trouble because we the de-industrialised. We need leadership leadership to understand these problems, you know.

[00:32:39] Yeah, you know, when you don’t produce product if you’re. It is scary for sure. Well, you know, here’s the thing Mike when they started industrializing the nation. They told the American people, it’s the modern economy. We gotta have an information economy. Manufacturing is obsolete. Yes. I couldn’t believe and if people believe that they ate it up and we got experts on the radio and they’re gonna say, manufacturing is obsolete, we need a modern information economy.

[00:33:11] Any country that doesn’t produce product is going to become insignificant. All world powers all powerful Nations produce product. You don’t produce product, you’re right. Now, we’re living off of the momentum of our financial district, which is a paper tiger really, you know, just flipping money in these derivatives of all that crap, you know, excuse my language, but they’re having trouble understanding that jerk.

[00:33:37] India, you know everybody talking about Russia and China, what about India? And he’s going to be a pretty powerful Nation already getting into producing product and they’re you know, they’re going to be our democracy. There’s a couple topics of India. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody’s talking about China China China.

[00:33:51] India is a is climbing real quick because they understand the importance of producing product and having a society. I don’t know what’s happened to this country. There’s absolutely no common sense about anything. It really is. Yeah. I mean we grow food nobody wants to buy. I read US, a hundred billion dollars in export on just corn alone because nobody will buy our corn because you have this GMO corn that makes animals sick everybody sick, you know, so we do we put it to gasoline.

[00:34:20] No through the prop brought up to 10% to go to put 10% corn or corn alcohol. That’s to subsidize the farmers, which is the right thing to do. But you know, I would rather us grow healthy food and be able to ship it out and get a hundred couple hundred billion dollars in the next what we lost. Yeah.

[00:34:36] It’s been a big problem China stopped buying an aggregate, a lot of of American Agricultural that with this trade War. Well I heard that before the trade war with China had a shipment of quantity found out it was GMO corn. They wouldn’t take it. We are starving country in Africa? I forget which one it was. We were going to ship them are corn.

[00:34:52] They wouldn’t take it. Well, you don’t like that GMO corn. You see the GMO food is not doesn’t have the normal chromosome count that normal nature food has nature what did done is they take the the seed or whatever they whatever the however they do it they put in a mutated genes to change the gene.

[00:35:12] So they could spray herbicide on the plants that it makes them resistant to herbicides. Okay, but. It’s not genetically, correct. The chromosome count in all GMO food is infertile. If you take the seeds from GMO food, it will not grow. It’s a mutated plant. It’s not as hearty. It takes more water and more fertilizer and they say in three generations of might have you might actually start having fertility problems.

[00:35:38] mmm. people will start having trouble getting women get pregnant male sperm counts are way down in America. You know minute hundred years ago a much higher sperm counts in the men today because people were fatter that’s probably has a lot to do it. But you see there’s all kind of things going on. It’s from all different directions, you know, and I’m going on tangents here, but you want to once we talked about Barnes Noble closing down Amazon kind of taking over a little bit already, but we talk more about Walmart.

[00:36:08] But like I know you mentioned in our previous call last week about you know, Barnes and Noble. He has some friends that work there and they’re feeling in the in the neighborhood or in a community. Well, one of the things these companies are doing these big companies and it’s real sad, you know, and it goes for most big companies corporations is that they hire part-time work and they give them lower wages.

[00:36:32] No benefits. You don’t qualify for unemployment. They get nothing wage, but they won’t even give them a. You go there and say well I I went to a parts place, you know, and they had a sign out front when I look help wanted, you know someone and I talked to the manager and he says look I says I like to work Friday Saturday Sunday because I’m retired and a lot of people probably don’t want to worked weekend’s.

[00:36:54] Nobody says me. It ain’t going to happen. I said, what do you mean he says we don’t give we don’t schedule anybody everybody’s the schedule changes every week. Why is it because that’s what everybody in retail does now? I remember when I was a kid. You got a part-time job you go and you tell him what she’s I like to work Wednesday Thursday or you tell him your hours.

[00:37:14] I think you were one with you. Now, they won’t even give you the decency of a schedule. What if you want to go to school now, they say well people some people got three part-time jobs. I don’t know how you can do that because he’s part time jobs. If you work for these corporations will not give you one not work with your schedule.

[00:37:29] They won’t do it. I don’t know what your reason is that fear. Grocery store remember that and they were work on my schedule. Yeah, everybody did in the old days you go get a part-time job now, especially with the big Corporation. I’ll maybe with a small businessman. You might give you a schedule you probably but some of them do it too it.

[00:37:49] It’s just like, you know, we do it they do it we’re going to do it, you know, but anyhow, I just wanted to make that point. I’m a little disappointed with that, you know. You know, let’s say you want to do volunteer work or you have hobbies or you want to have a couple days off and every week you got a call and you don’t know when you’re going to work or if you’re going to work.

[00:38:07] It’s terrible what they do to people. Yeah, I don’t know what it’s like in China. Maybe they passed laws but employers can’t do that. They’d rather have 40 part-timers and 20 full-timers. It’s much cheaper to have a whole bunch of part-time people. You don’t have to pay many benefits, you know, it’s pay them wages.

[00:38:22] Not sure how yeah, everybody’s doing it. All the big retail companies are doing that now everybody’s part-time and flexible and no schedules. Interesting. So yeah, I mean you were saying remember Barnes & Noble like I guess they’re closing down all over the place in the US.nNow the bookstores.

[00:38:41] Yeah, it’s getting scary, you know, but you know Amazon might have up there might be a repercussion for Amazon. It might bring back to small stores because when Barnes Noble closes Dennis Small out of small book stores are open. There’s a bookstore. They just open it. I knew the guy he used to work at Barnes Noble.

[00:38:57] He’s called is called Poetic Justice and I go there and I buy a lot of my books from him. He’s small and I want to give him my business and he’s a good egg. You worked at Barnes Noble for 10 years and they laid him off. Oh that place is revolving door. He just laid off a manager. It’s terrible. It’s not their fault.

[00:39:16] So we corporations think today they have absolutely no loyalty to. Hmm, you know even at my brother was it somebody was working somewhere. Oh, it’s some lady. She was having all kind of problems. He was working in a restaurant and they let her they didn’t fire. Any corperation would have fired her in a heartbeat.

[00:39:33] Got it. It’s sad so yes these guys are but I know you’ll want to other about trade deals while we’re talking about here from we talked a lot here. I want the folks understand and I’m not an expert in all these subjects, but I’m a man and I am an opinion opinionated person and I’ve been her I’m 68 years old.

[00:39:53] So I’ve been around a little bit and so I’m expressing my opinion as a as a as a US citizen would have right to free speech. As long as we got it, but getting on to trade deals, I think tariffs are very important for America. Don is trying to bring them back and every and you know the globalist, they don’t want tariffs, you know, they want to be able to build a factory in Timbuktu and pay people three bucks a day and bring back the product and make huge profits, you know.

[00:40:20] So they’re going to fight tariffs and there’s got this thing what it’s going to cost us almost money to have if we don’t if we have Tariffs from going to pay more money for everything and everything.  That might be true at first but you know the modern jobs we bring back you have people have to understand we I think was figure 60,000 factories.

[00:40:41] You know what that is, when you lose a factory? Few you know, first of all the factory pays taxes to the town it pays taxes to the state and to the government the people working in a factory pay taxes to the town the state and the government, the suppliers that Supply to factory pay taxes to the town is and also skill factories have tool and die makers designers engineers.

[00:41:09] Machinists welders production workers all that’s gone and those talents and all those skills are gone. You know, what’s happening to America right now. We’re falling behind right now. Do you know we don’t build the best cars in the world anymore? You know, we don’t, Boeing is behind Boeing still behind Airbus.

[00:41:29] They tried to hurry up to catch up with. And meanwhile, they cut quality control. And now that things are changing probably had a couple of years. I hope not. What else the electronics Industry, you know, all all of my trucks is made in China, you know, and there’s a lot of skill that goes evolving all the tool and die makers and and of course the engineers over here designing I guess maybe not anymore.

[00:41:52] But when you were you make product is where you’re going to develop a lot of innovation. All the tool and die makers are in China now. They’re not in America are some here in America, but not like there’s in China right now. Yes, and you know, we’re falling behind Electronics. How was it Huawei how he is ahead of us on one Huawei?

[00:42:11] Yeah. Yeah, and I don’t blame trainers are doing the right thing or taking care of China. We have people in this country to work against our country. It’s unbelievable who deindustrialize us, what country would do deindustrialization. It’s Insanity. I don’t know who’s running this country. Yeah, they would try to say it’s like white collar jobs and creative jobs and educated jobs.

[00:42:31] And I remember this stuff when I was there. They don’t produce productsdon’t roll up your sleeves and get on overlays and make a part. They don’t know but I heard it. I heard GDP doesn’t include service has though. I’ve heard they put Services into the into the. Into the account account, you know, all these different metrics of exporting count exports u.s.

[00:42:56] Services export I’ve heard but but but yeah, I mean, I remember you said you so you support you know, you think tariffs are good. Right? I mean these tariffs that are happening. I don’t know if they’re good or bad. I’ll cherish see here’s the situation how I see in my opinion American people have a higher standard of living at least we did.

[00:43:17] We still believe we do unless you have a college degree making a hundred. I want to throw in something, the foreigners know more about what’s going on in this country. I think the Americans I have a foreigner tell me from Poland. She says America is a great place to live if you have a good job. And another one told me the trouble about America is insurance companies.

[00:43:36] We don’t get it. That’s another whole subject. But getting back at tariffs, our founding fathers knew we had to have tariffs. They started tariffs because they knew we wouldn’t have an industrial base. They didn’t like factories either because they fit factories would make two classes of people, the workers and the owners they didn’t like that whilst being concentrated in one person.

[00:43:57] He wanted everybody be a shopkeeper small shopkeeper, but getting back to the subject. You have to have Tarrifs in America to have your industrial base. We cannot have an industrial base without tariffs. We can’t unless we give up our standard of living. You know Americans want to have a house, they want to buy new cars.

[00:44:13] they want to go on vacation. That costs money and to do that you have to pay higher wages to so to in order to protect your industrial base you have tariffs and that way there if somebody tries to go overseas and it shut the factory down the move it to Timbuktu and bring back the product. You’re not going to gain anything cause you’re going to hit the door.

[00:44:32]You have To protect your jobs now people slow. We got to compete against the world. You don’t see doctors competing against doctors in Taiwan. You don’t see lawyers or state people working for the state competing against the world, but they expect our manufacturing to compete with the world. It’s baloney.

[00:44:48] You know if we want to be a world power we have to have our industrial base. We don’t answer. It’s going to catch up with us sooner or later writing off the momentum of our wealth. What was it again? Some of those doctors are competing against people overseas. I mean a lot of those a lot of that work can be outsourced, you know online and like we’re talking about engineering and CAD design.

[00:45:06] I mean, That was being outsourced time. You’re not sure you can have somebody in China and India design a tool and just put it on the internet and ship it to the company and they don’t even have to have a design Department anymore to get this job at out there. Yeah, that’s true. We have you do a lot of things can happen.

[00:45:20] That’s a good point. So, yeah, I never thought of that so that’s yeah control and I you know, I. I don’t really know. I mean so I have talked a lot of you know, to different all different sides of this but you know for many years a lot of our listeners and even me, I mean, I mean, you know, I make a living selling products.

[00:45:43] I buy in China and sell in America, I mean, it’s just kind of the way it’s been for the last 10 15 20 years, you know, and you know, there’s a lot of business owners that are. Everything is made in China Mike. I mean, I don’t care what you do you go on any store in American pick it up and look at everything and I mean everything is made in China now, it’s incredible.

[00:46:04] Go ahead. Like I’m sorry. So I guess what’s going to happen for especially Christmas there? You know, I don’t know. It’s 10% 25% or whatever is coming up, you know, these tariffs are hitting but you know who is, who’s gonna pay for that. That’s the question who pays for the tariffs is the consumer.

[00:46:19] Is it the Importer like, you know, the isn’t, you know, the isn’t a factory you’re going to make yeah. That’s true. That’s what a lot of women asking who put I don’t know a lot of people think it’s at least and at least for Christmas. It’s going to be just a more expensive Christmas. I think for consumers in the US.

[00:46:41] Well Mike, you have to understand that my opinion. Of course that Don is trying to protect our Industries. You got to remember the American companies are fighting buying American Steel right. Now. Somebody said the American steel companies are taking advantage of the tariffs for jacking up the prices.

[00:46:56] Well, then that should be stopped. But anyhow, the thing is in my opinion. If we don’t do something pretty soon, steel or not be made in America aluminum will not be made in. We have to be careful. We have to protect these Industrials. We have to bring back more industry. We have to otherwise we’re not going to be a significant Nation.

[00:47:17] We’re not going to becoming significant because you look at any country. That’s a world power, it make product. You don’t make product. You’re not going to be a powerful Nation. You can sit there with all these financers, these people flipping dollars and all that. It doesn’t make. You know True, they make they have their own the purse strings in China, but it’s still your nation loses something.

[00:47:40] You don’t have tool and die makers anymore. You don’t have factories. And I’m when I first went into machining trade all the machines in the shop were made in America Shipley Lodge leads Monarch leads Pratt Whitney machines, Bridgeport. It was all a Kearney Tucker. All these Milling machines, trading was made in America, to grinding machines in Norton grinding machines and they had a Herrick and they had all these different companies All American made.

[00:48:06] You know where you going to a machine shop and everything is made in China. All the Machines are made in China now. Scary. It really is scary. You know Mike. Yeah it is. I mean that’s you know, I like I kind of hinted a little bit. I mean I keep you know, I’m not I’m technically in Thailand. No, but I left about a year ago as of recording and I spent 10 years in China and.

[00:48:28] I was kind of like if you can’t beat them join them. You know, I wasn’t like I was happy to do it but I saw everybody manufacturing here. I felt like I was really having trouble trying to make my own products for my e-commerce business. I was selling on eBay and yeah, I just I just feel like it’s gonna it’s gonna be a little hard.

[00:48:46] I mean, I I’ve seen other business owners saying it’s just give me a hard a hard, you know, you can’t want Don and the tariffs and it’s just give me a transition. I think it’s going to be really hard. Like you said, you can’t just turn on the switch and create these factories again, there’s infrastructure.

[00:49:01] There’s machines. There’s there’s I mean, it can be done. It can be now might happen overnight, but you gotta look at the war economy how quickly we adjusted to that factories over making cars switched over to. I’m not discouraged you Mike. You’re like it’s not going to be easy. No, I’m not saying that but it can be done.

[00:49:19] It has to be done. If it is that or we’re going to become an insignificant Nation in my opinion. I hope I hope I’m wrong. I pray I’m wrong, you know because I don’t want to see America fall, you know, we don’t. I’m a little disappointed in their policies or foreign policies right now. Yes bombing Nations.

[00:49:37] It gets me really upset. I mean, I guess it’s how countries make money right countries or businesses and businesses make money by you know, I actually like, you know expanding or getting more we’re not getting more rights to more resources cheaper. That and also the war so it makes a lot of money for people.

[00:49:57] War is the first rule is that one percents best friend? It makes them Rich because they make money selling it at all. So they can take away your democracy during a war in your free speech and everything else it’s their best friend, you know, it’s their best friend. So, I mean, that’s my opinion, you know?

[00:50:15] Yeah. So what? There’s always going to be problems Mike but we got to try to have a.  I’m very disappointed with American really the way we’re set up right now. I don’t know if you want to switch over to politics. You want to take that another time. Maybe I was very heavy solid. Yeah. I got all kind of theories about politics and economy.

[00:50:33] I know I’m a College graduate high school graduate but you know, you hear these people would all these big degrees telling you the lies, you know lies, you know, you don’t know who to believe who the experts are the experts will sing any song to 1% wants him to sing. You know. Yeah, if they don’t sing that song then they probably won’t be a professor at a university, you know.

[00:50:54] Yeah, I understand. So I guess I’m yeah, I think we should just get towards start to wrap up for today just it’s about I can’t have me on it’s been great. It’s mine or my everybody’s not going to agree with I’m sorry. Go ahead. No, I mean, yeah, I guess it’s true some people we want have different perspectives.

[00:51:11] I think I think some of the listeners are you know, I think entrepreneurs business owners that are you know kind of like not a not big fans of tax and tariffs and they feel more open, you know, and stuck in the Middle is what some people are saying because you know, we’re at as a business owner you kind of just you know,un less you’re some big one percent.

[00:51:39] You don’t really have any influence like you can Lobby the government’s or whatever to do what you need. So we’re just kind of stuck in the middle trying to adjust to this and now I’m sure how much our price of the product that we’re selling on Amazon or we’re selling on to Walmart or whatever should be because.

[00:51:53] You know, it is last few months have been really stressful with the Don’s tweets. And you know, we don’t know what’s going to happen with the tariffs and attacks and to policies and and then there’s this a lot of a lot of work a lot of big changes. You know that I don’t know if you read a news yet, but Hong Kong airport was shut down today from protest.

[00:52:13] Oh, yeah, they’re really mad at the Chinese right now, huh? Well, yeah. Yeah. It’s getting scary into. So we’re all just figuring out what to do, but it’s also coming down especially right now people going to be putting in orders for Christmas, you know, you know, yeah the elves are in China really and you know, how much do you gamble because jobs were trying to that’s a good one.

[00:52:35] Yes about it. You know, it hasn’t that North Pole and it takes a few months. You know how manufacturing got to put in a production order and then you put that production order when you don’t know what your cost of goods, you know imported landed cost will be you know, so it’s just a really scary time for a lot of listeners that are you know, because it’s a gamble.  Business is a risk and you know it obviously but the risks have been increasing a lot lately so I don’t know what you you would you know, what your final thoughts are on the whole, you know.

[00:53:11] Tariffs trade Wars and you know Amazon. Well, you know these people screaming against China right now China’s that’s right China to they’re the ones invested all my money over there there once I moved all the jobs out of America and put them in China Chinese only doing what this good for China. See China is not like America China Works in for the good of China.

[00:53:31] We don’t do that here. We work for the good of the corporations in a one percent. The American, America and the people don’t matter. It’s the one percent of people on the stock market and the people with the money. That’s who this country Services. It’s not the general welfare of the nation. It’s not that well people but China, and I thought I want to live in a communist country.

[00:53:49] I don’t because China has something very there’s no free speech over there, and control the Internet. It’s not a free Nation, but then again if you have more freedom, maybe the damn rich or take over any how, but I’m not saying aye. It’s just that they at least work in favor of China, what’s good for China.

[00:54:06] We don’t do that here. One of the big problems in America is going to be affordable housing know all these little get the Democrats right now. They’re concerned about the Border people are more concerned about the Border people in our own poor. They’re basically throwing the poor people of America under the bus right now by letting all these people into the country.

[00:54:26] It keeps the wages down. And worst of all it takes up all the affordable housing what’s little left in and I don’t understand the Demographics. I guess they figure they can change demographics and get more people to vote Democrat or something to going to throw the country under the bus. That’s one of the things our founding fathers did not like we’re political parties.

[00:54:46] Yeah. I remember they said it was picking the parties would put themselves over the nation and to people. Yeah, they always said warned against that I remember reading that. That the founding fathers warned against political parties if I remember, right? Yeah it is and they’re going to be in for a big surprise with their liberal with their policies on immigration.

[00:55:06] That’s a very powerful policy Jimmy Carter Watson election over that. I think when he had Miami there if you look at demographics of Jimmy Carter his first election, he was a southerner from from Georgia he won most of the South do you know the second election? He lost most of the South. That Miami immigration thing really hurt him.

[00:55:28] I think he hurt the Democratic Party in the South but Democrat Southerners. Don’t trust the Democratic party. I think the blacks are going to vote for Don because the Democrats are throwing them under the bus right now. You do know you’re bringing in all these immigrants when there’s no jobs.

[00:55:44] Yeah, I guess that’s their you know, why keeping a wages down there taking up all your affordable housing you’re basically throwing these people under the bus, you know why they’re doing it because they’re a minority you’re 40. We have 340 million people in this country 40 million are poor now the group that they that they fear the most is the educated group.

[00:56:05] Remember when Obama used to talk? They always talked about education education education your life. You got to go to college and I’ll tell you what happened to me. We should be closing this up , I could go for hours.  Like yeah. We’re I think we’re going to wrap up make one more. So I was a kid working in these machine shop.

[00:56:21] You know what I had happening to me. What are you doing working in a place like this? You should go to college like my kids are you don’t want to work in a place like this go to school and get a good job and everybody was singing that song, you know, yeah. So you shouldn’t have a say on the drill press or charts or daughter could go to college.

[00:56:41] That’s not a makeup. That’s the truth. She told me she had that jobs are she’s put a kid through college sit in front of a drill, press all day doing parts. Yeah meeting them some of those people and the Machine shop. Oh, well, yeah. It’s. I guess it’s almost sad though in a way because America was kind of built on immigrants.

[00:56:58] Right? I mean, you know, I’m yeah we might this is the whole thing Mike. This is the whole thing. We’re, I’m not against immigration. That’s just it we do have immigration policies, but we can’t let hundreds of thousands called crossing the border. It’s costing us billions of dollars to keep encamped at what’s called as billion dollars to put them in front of judges what lawyers that we pay for it’s costing us all this money.

[00:57:20] Yeah, you know see it legal and problem not the intended what the Democrats want to do. They want to make it so it’s not against the law to cross the border. Let’s say well that’s not open borders. Of course that’s open border just saying it’s not against the law to cross over you so I don’t know, you know, I’m aggressive.

[00:57:36] I really am but they’re forcing me to vote Democrat Republican with their policies Elizabeth warming a big thing about gun control. I was scared of her now, but you don’t take my right to own guns away from you pretty soon. Yeah, you know. And then this thing about abortion any issue on life to Democrats are always for death.

[00:57:56] No matter what the issue is. Okay, I can go into that but I’m talking to when you shoving something in the politics next time we’re wearing it. We had a good conversation about the business stuff and the histories and yeah, it’s great. I just think about ideas about this. I have ideas what to do for economies.

[00:58:13] We can talk about that a little bit to get you on the show next time. I appreciate you letting me talk. I hope some people I don’t expect everybody out your degree we but maybe I’ve sparked watch out there. Are you always stimulate my you know, my thinking and I think some listeners got some other perspectives to you know, there’s it’s a it’s an online show.

[00:58:32] So people around the world can listen to this and get some more insights. So world. Yeah. I mean it’s online so anybody can really stream it or download it and. But I mean, I think my summary and I think I’ll talk about after the recording and I’ll do a little summary but it’s just like you said it’s the middle class.

[00:58:53] It’s the hard-working blue-collar middle class that’s just wants to earn you, make an honest living and that’s kind of getting that’s kind of getting gutted right now in America, right? There’s a that’s something you know. When I ran for office might think people are concerned about three basic things a good-paying job a decent pension and medical coverage.

[00:59:11] That’s the three things people worry about the most. Yep, you know, okay. Alright, thank you so much, Gary. Okay. Oh Mike. Thanks for having me on your show. Hope you still plan to come to the cross-border summit our fourth annual first time in Guangzhou China during the whole trade show season, October 22nd and 23rd of 2019.

[00:59:34] We have 20 plus amazing speakers that are flying in from all different parts of the world as well as inside China to bring together top sellers business owners in cross-border e-commerce and Amazon FBA for two full days. It’s been amazing. My wife Wendy has been helping which is very much needed and we have a great great response so far so you might not want to fly it in Hong Kong airport, but there are other airports into China such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

[01:00:03] Hopefully Hong Kong airport opens up again, by the time this show goes live, especially for the cross-border summit. Hope to see you there. It’ll be a really amazing and it’s also a way to support the show crossbordersummit.com/china. Okay, so episode 267 Uncle Gary Gary Garneau. He’s always been the opinionated person in the family and I hope you enjoyed the show is really honored to be on a show but I think he deserves it.

[01:00:34] He’s he’s run for office. He’s really taken a lot of shots at a what most people in life wouldn’t even try to do and I remember that being a kid as an eighth grade and he was at the abortion clinics and he was running for different offices and. He’s not afraid to say how he feels and I just like I said, I remember these arguments in my family on Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and all this stuff about politics and policies and tax policies and immigration and abortion and all these things and I remember I don’t know if it was he he was an 80s or maybe the 90s.

[01:01:17] I remember being in my grandfather’s house. Nana and Poppa I call them and we had you know, the family over the uncles my dad my mom sister everybody and there be arguments about NAFTA the North American Free Trade Agreement. I think it means basically it’s like when good to come in and out like Canada US and Mexico for free and then all these policies.

[01:01:43] That were happening. And I remember the the really passionate anger, you know while I was passing the gravy for the stuffing in the turkey of you know, the gutting of American jobs blue-collar Factory workers, you know, I think most of my family. You know hasn’t, doesn’t have a college education or maybe had a two-year degree.

[01:02:08] You know, I think a lot of like, like Gary said most most people maybe it was my generation that got the college degrees. But before that most people didn’t go to college even in the US I know it’s also less common in other parts of the world and I just remember these arguments and I remember I worked at a machine shop like I mentioned in the interview.

[01:02:31] And in high school, I was doing CAD design. I was doing quality control. It was a leaving and milling machine shop for a subcontractor for Pratt Whitney making are. Plane engine parts. I was even the driver some time since you have for a baby a year or two and I just remember talking to the people working there like yeah, we’re going to get we’re going to get our fight when you get fired. This place to get shut down.

[01:02:58] There was a factory upstairs to did like clothing to got that got sent to Mexico. Like Gary said I didn’t even know that till this interview actually, but I just I just remember the all these jobs going away, and I also remember. You know the news are and whatever to say. No, it’s we’re getting rid of the low quality jobs and we’re going to have like higher quality jobs office jobs.

[01:03:22] We’re going to have you know, intelligent working jobs owning the brands and we don’t need these jobs and I don’t know. I don’t know how to feel about this because you know, well Gary definitely feels that you need to make a make a product in your country if you’re not making a product, you’re going to be at a big disadvantage later.

[01:03:47] There’s a comic book comic picture. I remember from 10 20 years ago of all these different care cartoon characters drawn. It’s like one of those newspaper cartoons and black and white and it has. You know the Germans like engineering and it has like the French cooking and it has like the Chinese manufacturing and it has all these different people from other parts of the world.

[01:04:09] And then in the middle is like a fat American that’s eating everything or receiving and consuming everything and it says like America’s job is to eat and consume and that is that has to be a problem. I think GDP maybe includes services. You know finances but even Wall Street, you know my old job.

[01:04:30] I worked on Wall Street. I worked at Deutsche Bank. If you read the news they’re there. They’re firing her laying off most everybody in the u.s. It seems I don’t really have many friends still working on Wall Street anymore. I could reach out to them. But I know a lot of even in Hong Kong other person World Finance is getting gutted.

[01:04:49] So I don’t know where these jobs are going to go. I mean, maybe we’ll get this universal income that that I’ve been talking about but it is it is dangerous to think if you don’t make stuff, I think if you just buy and import and consume stuff sounds like a big problem, but I just remember the awkward fight sometimes between you know, it’s like my dad my uncles my grandfather mostly was the males arguing about politics and policies and taxes and immigration and you know all this stuff and.

[01:05:22] But I haven’t been back to the US almost two years. I saw Uncle Gary and others I was down in Florida, but I just I’m not sure what’s the what’s the right answer but even as of recording this, you know, of course, I can’t record this right when the show was live on Tuesday. So after of course a few days ahead, you know, Donald Trump just read.

[01:05:49] Kind of backtracked it seemed maybe we call called his bluff. He’s not he’s delaying the tariffs or there certain tariffs. It’s really really confusing. How much what what products are going to be taxed at what rates and when but I think he just announced he’s pushing it back until mid-December instead of September 1st, because I think.

[01:06:10] It’s going to be American consumers that are going to pay for those tariffs. You know, it’s not like you can just switch off China. I mean Frederik from try to import all I appreciate him listening to the show. I believe he listens regularly. Thanks Frederick, you know, I think you can’t just get rid of Chinese manufacturing can’t you just find a factory in

[01:06:31] Southeast Asia or you know your hometown of America and go down the street and we pretty convenient right? If you could just walk down the road and order from a factory and then bring your pickup truck and pick up the goods and put them in your garage and sell them on line. Don’t be pretty pretty awesome.

[01:06:50] But I don’t think something like that is possible to happen so fast and you know, I just some of the arguments back to my family was just really horrible and then hearing about it, you know free even days after in my my family Circle, but I don’t want to open them open the kimono too much to my family life, but it did a course in me.

[01:07:14] Give me my impression to guess everybody’s childhood affects your a or your thinking. And you know as a I consider myself, of course, I’m college educated but I most of my friends and my hometown is is a quote unquote normal blue-collar kind of workers and I don’t really know what they’re doing.

[01:07:35] I mean, I followed their Facebook’s a little bit and. We’re going to see what it does. But like Gary says that’s not going to happen right away. Especially these Hong Kong protest. You know, it’s really gonna over time change people’s thought process of where to manufacture their products and where to position their company.

[01:08:00] So thank you so much for listening. I hope these are intriguing and you know, I’m trying to try something different, you know, bringing my own uncle on the show never thought I would do that.  I hope my family the rest of my family get upset about that but. He’s got great opinions great perspectives.

[01:08:16] And especially if you’re like a Chinese person listening or somebody in Asia, you know, of course a lot. Our team is amazing. I have an amazing team in the Philippines. You can call it outsourcing but I call it my team. Yeah, I call it human beings, you know people India China America Philippines, you know.

[01:08:36] We’re all humans. And I think it’s not going to go away until we have a bigger common enemy, you know like until we’re Mars versus earth and its earthlings and it won’t be like, oh we’re Outsourcing all of our jobs to to Mars. You know, what’s earthlings going to do Martians are taking our jobs martians are taking our taxes.

[01:08:56] Suddenly China and America will just be States in a country of Earth I think that’s the big problem is the the war of who’s going to be the king country. You know, I think a country by definition wants to experience, just like a business wants to grow and push their influence. Push their laws get more people to grow their population.

[01:09:19] And you know, it’s of course becoming really two big superpowers is America or United States of America not America, I know there’s South America. But you know the States. And China, PRC People’s Republic of China. I don’t know. I don’t want to get into Political things about what is PRC. But anyways, these two are getting stronger and they want to they want to maybe push their policies and get more resources.

[01:09:47] That’s what businesses do. That’s what governments do and that’s just the way it’s going to be right. So thank you so much for choosing to tune in to listen. If you like this show, you know reviews I do try to check our reviews. I don’t get many reviews on iTunes. But if you like that, hit the review button there give us some feedback or you know, I know a lot of you send me an email or let me know you’re enjoying the shows feel so.

[01:10:13] Thanks for that. Also. We’re working on a book, fourth book for for me. The e-commerce Gladiator book of course had the series and I know like Alex Peycock enjoyed it misses the show, but we’re going to make a book out of it. It’s the Final Chapter I think was with the acquisition and that we had announced a couple weeks ago.

[01:10:35] So. I love writing honest. I love documenting and the book will be coming out soon, too. So thank you again for choosing to listen here and feedback is always appreciated. What kind of content you all like and y’all come back now you hear? Take care. To get more info about running an international business, please visit our website at www.globalfromasia.com that’s www.globalfromasia.com.

[01:11:05] Also be sure to subscribe to our iTunes feed. Thanks for tuning in.