10/23/25: Amazon Replaces Workers With Robots, Yang Says To Ban Phones In School, Zohran Debate, Health Insurance Death Spiral

23:24And so I thought, well, geez, if we can solve those two problems, we'd go a very long way. And folks who follow me know that I'm deeply concerned about polarization. And that's a lot of it through social media and our smartphones. So Noble Mobile, the first carrier that will actually pay you if you use your phone a little bit less, it's$50 for unlimited. But if you use a little bit less data, we'll give you up to 20 bucks cash back every month and then pay five and a half percent interest on any savings. So your phone plan becomes your friendly angel nudging you to doom scroll a little bit less.

23:59All right. I kind of like it. I like it. So this comes at a moment when there's obviously heated debate over screen time and cell phones in schools. There's actually a little bit of new research out that I wanted to get your reaction to with regard to the school cell phone bans, which my kids public schools just implemented last year. So this is the second year where we've had a cell phone ban. They're very opposed. I'm very supportive. You can put this up on the screen. So schools that banned phones saw surprising results beyond fewer distractions. And what they found is that initially there was an adjustment period.

24:30Disciplinary issues spiked because kids were getting in trouble for having their phones and using their phones when they weren't supposed to be. But they said by the second year, suspension rates returned to normal and test scores actually rose significantly. According to the researchers, student scores in the school district notably increased by about two to three percentiles in the second year of the ban compared to the year before the ban. So what do you make of the study and do those sorts of results surprise you? Crystal, I'm so glad that you're trying to get smartphones out of your kids' middle school or junior high.

25:03I'm friends with Jonathan Haidt, who obviously has made history with the anxious generation. And any parent knows I'm a parent. We used to think that the internet and these phones would help your kids learn, but the truth is it's shortening their attention span. It's making it harder to retain new information because they just think they can get it from the internet at all times. So if you circumscribe smartphone use, your kid reads more, gets smarter, not surprised at all, and thrilled that so many schools are making this move. They're finding astounding results generally within one or two years.

25:38Yeah, one of the things that we looked at, not only with the studies, is that there has been a bifurcation, in my opinion, Andrew, which I'm a little worried about. I think higher income parents are pretty aware of this dynamic. People who are a little bit more neurotic, private schools and others are taking charge. But I haven't yet seen it in terms of the statistics. It does look like it's still widespread use of iPad, smartphone, as well at the lower levels and of ages. So what is the way societally to attack this problem? Is state regulation the only answer, as some states are currently saying, saying they're banning it statewide in all schools?

26:13What's fun, Sager, is that someone called this the last bipartisan issue because parents that are conservative and parents that are liberal are both freaked out about what these devices are doing to our kids' brains. 39 states, red and blue, have moved to get smartphones out of schools, and I think it's going to keep going up. I mean, you might get to all 50. And imagine that in this day and age where you have literally a shut down Congress and the states are just making this happen because so many families can see it every day. I'm a parent and we all feel outgunned by these screens. Andrew, I wanted to get a little bit of your reaction to the discussion we were just having on AI, because, I mean, these are separate but obviously incredibly related issues.

26:58And I just want to know your sense of where things are heading and what the solution is, because on the one hand, you have Amazon announcing they're going to replace 600 ,000 workers with robots, which, hey, is something you've been sounding the alarm about for a few years now at this point. On the other hand, you see some people coming out and say, you know what, AI is not really living up to the promise. It's certainly not living up to its financial expectations at this point. These LLMs are still really clunky. Even, you know, I've played around with Sora, still has a lot of limitations. So what do you think of this tech, where it's going, and how we should be thinking of it as society?

27:34Crystal, you're totally right. I was sounding the alarm back in Iowa in 2019. Imagine standing at the truck stop saying AI is coming. Back then, folks weren't, let's say, embracing that reality. But now it is real. I rode in a Waymo a number of weeks ago. And it was a trip the first time you get in, but then the second or third time, and I did use it multiple times, you start to get used to it. So the AI tools definitely have their problems and limitations, but they're also getting better all the time. And they are going to replace tons of warehouse workers, customer service workers, analysts, lawyers, unfortunately.

28:17I have friends who are partners at law firms who say they're going to hire fewer associates. So both things are true. I'd say that that these tools have problems, but that they're finding commercial applications that are going to do a number on, unfortunately, millions of American workers. And when I ran for president, I said, look, we need to just start putting money into people's hands. I mean, it's one reason I started Noble Mobile is like I can't get a thousand bucks a month into your hands, but I can save you about a thousand bucks a year and get you looking up more. And that seemed like a direct approach to try and solve this problem while I'm not president, obviously.

28:54I mean, if I were president, then you guys would be, I suppose, I don't know. I don't know what the equivalent is. Take some administration roles in the Yang presidency. Yeah, I was just saying. But you might be press secretary, Crystal, and then Sager. You could do whatever you wanted. Okay. But yes. I'll take that role. Yeah, minister at large under the Yang administration. Welcome to the A-Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had both been assassinated. And Black America was out of breaking point. Writing and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale.

29:29In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution. I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

30:15This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Trainor, disappeared from a commune. It was hard to wrap your head around. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. So no, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to my parents. I lied to police. I lied to everybody. There were years, Ryder, where I could not say your name. I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can to try to find out what actually happened.

30:53Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend? They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you sons of bitches to come around here and my wife. Boom, boom. This is The Red Weather. Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

31:36What? And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. The guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's? Played poker with Harry Truman. And had a long affair with a congresswoman. And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote.

32:10Listen to The Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Andrew, I do think while we have you, though, we would love to get your reaction, since you did run for mayor of New York to the current mayoral race. Before we get you to react to some of the clips, what's your general assessment of the race here so far? No, I see the same things you all see. Zoran is on track to win. And to me, the question really is whether he gets a majority against both Cuomo and Sliwa, which I think would be very helpful for him to have a mandate to head up to Albany and say, look, guys, I'm the new mayor.

32:48Let's get some stuff done. If he gets less than 50.1 percent in the November election, then it's going to be easier for folks to push back and say that he doesn't have as broad support. So to me, he's going to be the next mayor. And the question is the margin of victory. So let's take a look a little bit at they had a debate last night. So on stage you had Zoran, you had Cuomo and you had Saliwa as well. And Zoran, let's start with this one. Zoran having a good moment here knocking Cuomo for his former leadership of the state of New York. Let's take a listen. Shame on you. It is always a pleasure to hear Andrew Cuomo create his own facts at every debate stage.

33:30We just had a former governor say in his own words that the city has been getting screwed by the state. Who was leading the state? It was you. Governor Hochul. You were leading the state for 10 years, screwing this city. You cut homelessness funding. You as a legislator. You cut funding for the MTA. You as a legislator. You did all of these things, my friend. That's you. That's the past four years. It's the past four years. I mean, there's a few things to say about it. First of all, he's just really good at this, right? Second of all, he's using the fact that this guy, you know, had lots of experience as a weapon against him.

34:05Like the idea that, oh, you come in with all of this pedigree and all this resume and that's going to set you up, which is clearly what Cuomo thought. I mean, he thought this was a shoo-in. He thought he'd barely have to show up and they would just coronate him as the next mayor of New York City. That dynamic has flipped on his head. So I wonder what you made at that moment and some of those dynamics in general. It is fascinating, Crystal, because Cuomo has sky high name ID, but not all of it's positive. I mean, if you look at the numbers, there is a very deep ambivalence about Cuomo's time as governor.

34:36And so when he runs on that experience, it is something of a double edged sword that Zoran can use against him, as we saw in that clip. It is interesting to me as someone who is on that particular debate stage, I mean, sometimes physically, where there was a time when you're you kind of know people are going to come after you. You know, you know attacks are coming and then you literally talk to the folks on your team to say, OK, if they come at me with this, like, what am I going to respond with? But Zoran clearly both has that and he also has spontaneity. I mean, some of the stuff he's coming up with in the moment.

35:15One of the things I'm curious for your view, Andrew, having run in the race is that you ran in the Democratic primary. The Democratic primary base seems much more open to an outsider than, let's say, at the time that you ran. What happened? Why do you think that that is? No, I think these last four years have not been kind to establishment candidates or a sense that things are going well and that there's a constant recipe for someone who might represent a turning of the page. Yeah, that's a stronger argument now than it was a number of years ago. And I will say I walk the streets of New York. Obviously, I live here and people are very enthusiastic about Zoran.

35:55And people also talk to me about like there seems to be like, you know, a pro outsider sentiment in the air. And that does not bode well for Andrew Cuomo, who seems like the consummate insider because of his, you know, his ubiquity over the last number of years. So another issue that was significant at the debate was how they would approach Donald Trump. And we've got a bit of a mashup here. Cuomo talking about that and Zoran talking about it as well. Let's take a listen. Donald Trump, I believe, wants Mondami. That is his dream because he will use him politically all across the country and he will take over New York City.

36:32Look, Donald Trump ran on three promises. He ran on creating the single largest deportation force in American history. He ran on going after his political enemies and he ran on lowering the cost of living. If he wants to talk to me about the third piece of that agenda, I will always be ready and willing. But if he wants to talk about how to pursue the first and second piece of that agenda at the expense of New Yorkers, I will fight him every single step of the way. So, Andrew, we've already had some big Trump admin shows of force. There's a big immigration raid on Canal Street. Trump is threatening to pull any sort of funding that goes to New York City if Zoran is elected mayor of New York, which he very likely is going to be.

37:09You know, as not only a former mayoral candidate, but as a New Yorker, what are some of your concerns about this almost inevitable clash, I think, that's coming between Zoran and Trump? Yeah, it's not good, Crystal, because the reality is that there are a lot of relationships and resources that you actually could use if you are the mayor of New York and you don't want to be on the other side of a battle line with the head of the federal government. But I think this is one of the potential hazards of not just this era, but also of, and the truth is Andrew Cuomo is going to present himself also as like a Trump foil or antagonist.

37:51So I'm not sure if this is a negative case for Zoran in particular, but the Democratic base is not going to want you to work with Trump or his administration in any way, shape or form. And I do think that Trump is going to enjoy trying to stick it to whoever the mayor is if the mayor is not bending the knee. And obviously, if you bend the knee to Trump in this city, then your political life as a Democrat is going to be short-lived. Yeah, totally agree. One more for you, Andrew. Let's take a look. Zoran was on with the guys over at Flagrant. I had a fun moment. I don't know if you were aware of the whole bench press situation with Zoran.

38:28Looked like he, what was the amount of wave that he was trying to bench press 135. I guess it didn't work out all that well. In any case, they were joking around about it on the podcast. Let's take a look at that. Joey, bring in the bench press because he has to. Every year, I'm going to do one pound more. Next year, 136. Let's go more. I saw you got it in the bench. I was like, you fucked up, dude. Let me tell you. You shouldn't have done it. I knew I fucked up when I saw that. You think I thought I was going to kill it? I knew there was a problem. And this guy was like, you've got to do it. I was like, hey, you've got to do it.

39:07I was like, I really don't. You should have put the big 10-pound weights on. You know them big 10-pound weights? I was trying to get out. Now you got it. But next year, 136. Okay. Watch this. Hey, watch this camas I can keep. 136. 136. You didn't keep 135. I promise I can. 136, the Zoran challenge. I mean, I think there's a lot to me that's interesting about this. But, I mean, it's crazy to me, Andrew. Like, the dream is always to change the electorate and bring out more young people and be able to appeal. Now the conversation, how do we appeal to young men? And here you have a candidate who does it, right?

39:46He's charismatic. He built this grassroots movement. Started at 1 % in the polls. Skyrockets and destroys Andrew Cuomo. is able to go on these podcasts, that there's all this handwritten, oh my God, Democrats can't go on these podcasts anymore, is able to do it, make fun of himself, be very charming, etc. And you still have Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and others who refuse to endorse this man who is the Democratic nominee and is probably the most interesting and charismatic figure that you have in the entire party. Like, is this self-sabotage? What is going on here? How is this in any way sensible?

40:24I have to admit, I was fascinated by the entire bench press thing. And I'm thoroughly out of sense of humor about it because when you're a candidate, people are constantly putting pressure on you to do things. And sometimes you're just like, oh, no, I really don't want to do this. But it's almost impossible to say, I don't want to do this because then you seem like a dud. And so I used to joke with my team that it's like the the presidential Olympics where, you know, you just do whatever the event is, whether it's like corn dog eating or, you know, or like feats of strength or whatever the heck it is.

41:04And so when Zoran was in that situation, I was like, oh, my God, I've been there. Like I've been in front of that bench, figuratively speaking. I mean, heck, when I ran for mayor, they were like I was at a gym and then they like challenged me to do pull ups. And then you can't not do them because you're like oh god like i you know i don't want to see like what did you do and that's the question zyre and i was like how many effing pull-ups am i going to be able to do because i don't even do one right now i don't know and so that but then you also get adrenaline in you because they're filming it yeah right um so so i felt doran's pain deeply um and and bench benching is something that like you either are experienced in doing or you're not it's like if you're like a normal person who is not bench pressed a lot, then it's going to be really hard to bench press, like, you know, 135.

41:54And people will be like, oh, 135, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like, anyway, I mean, Sagar, you probably can relate to this, but it's like when the first time you go to the gym, you can't bench press anything. And then eventually, if you do it for a while, they're pretty much guys who bench and guys who don't bench. And asking a guy who doesn't bench to bench is very, very bad, bad look for that guy. So I felt Zoran's pain because it's like, oh my God, like he had no choice but to say yes. And then, but I'm just thrilled that he has a sense of humor about it and that he can joke about it.

42:22To your point, Crystal, it's like, that's what people want. You know, the word that gets bandied around a lot is authenticity. And the disease is like, you literally have consultants being like, how do we get authenticity? So if you have a candidate who has it, then you have a candidate who has it. And, you know, to your point, that's very, very powerful in 2025. It's very powerful. And it's again, again insane that democratic leadership wants to sandbag this guy and refuses to endorse again the democratic nominee and is i guess you know low-key holding out for the guy who was accused of sexual assault by 13 different women and had to resign a disgrace and killed old people in nursing homes etc you know i mean it is the party primary you guys know that i'm i'm for opening up the primaries but uh to me this this means that they're really like flavors of dems in New York.

43:13And so the pitch I'd make is like, look, your problem is that you probably should be different parties.

43:22But totally agree with the fact that, look, this guy is super talented. And before this primary and this season, you would have been trying to dream up someone like him. There you go. Thank you very much, Andrew. We appreciate your analysis, man. Great to see you, Andrew. Great seeing you guys. let me check out noble mobile for the two of you i don't know who you're using right now but we could definitely uh save you some money and there's no free wi-fi on an airplane it's game over bro all right see you later bye guys welcome to the a building i'm hans charles i'm menelik lamova it's 1969 malcolm x and martin luther king jr have both been assassinated and black america was at a breaking point.

44:05Rioting and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest. It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr. and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. To be in what we really thought was a revolution. I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone. The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago. This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should. And it will blow your mind. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

44:54This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Trainor, disappeared from a commune. It was hard to wrap your head around. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. No, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to my parents. I lied to police. I lied to everybody. There were years right where I could not say your name. I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can to try to find out what actually happened.

45:32Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend? They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you sons of bitches to come around here and my wife. Boom, boom. This is The Red Weather. Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know Roald Dahl, the writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roald Dahl, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life.

46:12His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. What? And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's, played poker with Harry Truman, and had a long affair with a congresswoman? And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids?

46:46The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to The Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Turning now to healthcare. There's been a lot on the horizon. in this talk about Obamacare subsidies that are expiring. That's part of why the government is shut down right now, at least the Democratic justification. But behind the picture is not just Obamacare. It's a genuine health care crisis in the U.S. I'm going to put this up here on the screen. The average cost of a family health insurance plan is now$27 ,000. So you can watch here that employer and worker contribution has dramatically gone up from some$10 ,000 back into 2010 to$27 ,000 today, in addition to an increased worker contribution and employer contribution.

47:35This is hurting the businesses, the smaller businesses in particular, that have to increase the amount that they give in, and as well as the workers who are paying large parts of these premiums. So let me just read here. This is from the Kaiser Family Foundation survey. A 6 % increase in healthcare just from the year before, outpacing inflation, builds on two prior years of 7 % gain. So you have seven, seven, and six. The cost is rising faster than inflation, and they say it will bite into employment and wage growth. That's a pretty obvious statement. If health care costs go up faster than the economy in general, that means there's no money left over to go to wages, which is exactly what's happening.

48:11They are facing, in some cases, a 15 % health insurance increase, year-over-year increase. They say that from their survey of their detailed snapshot that the family premium has gone up 6%, worker earnings has gone up 4%, overall inflation has gone up 2.7%. Now, the actual – this is what – I was talking to Matt Stoller about this because how is this possible? And because there's a sell here about health insurance and even with Obamacare and all of that in the system is that when you consider where the costs are going, you should say, well, it should make sense with health care prices, with hospitals.

48:51Now, what I talked to Stoller about was that if you look at drug prices, hospital prices and others, there has not been that dramatic of an increase. So why is it so dramatic? And what he calls it is, let me get the exact term because I really liked the way that he phrased it. He said it's corporate sludge. And so, for example, he talks about how private equity and others who have taken over hospital billing departments, and they will scrap for a$1 ,000 increase in services because their billing fee is some$10. But at scale, that's billions and billions of dollars. The$1 ,000 in cost is passed along to you, the consumer.

49:29It's also passed along to the health insurance company, who just passed it on, obviously, to everybody else. But it's just so that these people can make a profit. The other thing that they flag in there, which I thought was fascinating, is GLP-1 drugs. So the cost of these semaglutide drugs is very high, obviously, because these are very profitable drug companies. Everybody wants them. So health insurance is covering them or they're finding different ways, doctors and others, to negotiate. Ironically, there was a theory that all of these GOP-1 drugs would reduce the amount of health care services in the long run because people would be less obese.

50:03But in the immediate term, it's actually driving up the price dramatically of overall health services. I also, as people know, I never let the doctors off the hook here because what they talk about is that health care providers are now negotiating higher wages for themselves through the hospitals. and the hospitals are passing that on to the insurance. Now, it's not the doctor's fault. I get it. You guys have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. It's not necessarily on you, but that financing structure, the American Medical Association and the cartel of residency, which they've created artificial scarcity in so that they can all get paid more to pay off their enormous debt, is also being passed on to us.

50:39It's just like when you put it all together from the drugs to GLP-1 to hospital services, this can't last. Like$27 ,000 is crazy. The average family income is less than$100 ,000 per year. So after tax income, yeah, I understand employer contribution and all of that, et cetera. But it's$27 ,000 for the workers for a family premium in addition to a$2 ,000 to$3 ,000 deductible, which is the normal amount that people have in savings for a rainy day, which means you're dead, right? And then you and I are on Obamacare. I mean I've shared this. Family of three, Obamacare. I think it's like$9 ,000 to$10 ,000 per year.

51:17You have a$14 ,500 deductible. Like you're dead if you ever get hit with something like that. Yeah, childbirth, boom, all right? That one hurts in particular. And then think about that for all of these other people who are out there. So this is just more of a value neutral thing of like this can't go on. Like somebody has to do something about this. And Obamacare is not the answer, as we are all learning, because the health care subsidies that are expiring are making it dramatically unaffordable for every person who is actually on the plane. The only reason it worked is because they started throwing money at the plans during COVID.

51:52But before that, the reason there was an uptick is because it was crazy expensive. I think what's going to happen is a vast number of people will just go uninsured. Like we talked about, I was talking about this, Ryan. There was a couple who was 60 years old. They make 80K. Their premiums are going to go up 18 ,000. I'm like, yeah, you know, if you're relatively healthy, I'm rolling the dice till Medicare for five years. That's not a good place to be, right? If you get hit by a bus, it's not going to be good. But is$25 ,000 a year in disaster insurance really worth it? Not really. Ask people in San Francisco who own homes.

52:20A lot of them don't pay for earthquake insurance for this exact reason. It's crazy high. This is what happens. It's insane. And that's a really bad outcome. I don't know if you remember back during the Obamacare debates, but we talked all about this death spiral potential. And the scenario you're sketching out is what leads to that death spiral. Because what happens is people who are younger and healthier, they say, like, Zagras are like, I'm not paying for this. This doesn't make sense. And so the younger, healthier participants get out of the pool. You're left with more, like, older people with more chronic illnesses who are much more expensive.

52:56And guess what that means? Everybody's premiums go up. And then when those premiums go up, then the next layer of people who are, like, you know, some relatively healthy and relatively young are like, you know what, I'm not doing this either. And then the premiums go up again. So we are facing that sort of a death spiral situation. And let's keep in mind, like we're covering the people who have employer. They get health insurance through their employers like those are the lucky ones. And still, it's unaffordable and unsustainable. And so, you know, listen, I'm long been a Medicare for all gal back when the Obamacare debate was happening.

53:32I was very much pushing for a public option like our health care system at every level is so fucked. I mean, like you said, even just starting from the way that doctors are trained, all the expense and the debt that they have to take on. We have a shortage of doctors too, by the way. You know, go and try to get an appointment at any kind of specialist or even a general practitioner and go to the hospital and try to get care. You're going to be facing a long line. We are, all these rural hospitals are going to be closing because of the big, beautiful bill, quote unquote. You have these subsidies that are going away that are going to make all of this hit home very aggressively.

54:05I was just looking at some polling. You've got four in 10 Americans who say they are deeply concerned about being able to afford health insurance, care, and the prescriptions that they need. And what happens too when people go with, how does it work when people go without insurance? What that means is that they don't go to the doctor. So any conditions that come up, they're waiting until they are, you know, in a dire circumstance, and then they go to the emergency room. And then that is the most expensive care that you could possibly get. So that's how we end up. That's one of the reasons why we end up with a system where we spend more than any other country on health care and we get worse results than virtually any other developed nation because every aspect of this for profit system is broken.

54:49broken. So, you know, the trajectory that we are on is fundamentally unsustainable. Someone is going to have to actually address, they're going to have to confront the insurers, they have to confront private equity, they're going to have to confront the hospital system. Like, they're going to have to radically transform this system if we're going to get out of this death spiral. I totally agree. And, you know, before we, you don't even have to, I know you're a Medicare for all person. There are many countries, even with universal-ish healthcare, Stoller, again, enlightening me. In Japan, apparently, they have tons of private insurers if you want them.

55:26But the government has a literal list. This is how much a treatment costs, right? MRI, flat rate. You can be in Kyoto. You can be in Hokkaido. Wherever you are, this is how much the MRI. So there's no pharmacy, what is it, the PBMs and all these middlemen. Yeah, price controls. Yeah, there's literally price control. You're like, this is how much the MRI costs. Figure it out. I'm even willing to give you cost of living inflation. So it can be higher in New York City than it can be in Wichita. I'm even fine with that. But right now, the price of a drug itself is not even set. It's negotiated between the health insurance people, the pharma people, the drug people.

56:03And that's how people get priced out of their cap on the amount of prescription drug care. This is another reason why I know this is long winded, but on the Medicare point, right, this is why I'm like, I'm not willing to sign up for any. First of all, put the cultural questions aside, like illegal immigration and trans. I'm saying even in the current way that we are right now about Medicare, we cannot live in a system where we allow these people to bilk the federal government. So, for example, I've talked about dialysis. One percent of all U.S. federal spending is dialysis. that people do not understand hundreds of billions of dollars spent on dialysis and end stage renal disease that is astronomical it is a huge percentage of all medicare spending now a big part of that is people are fat uh another part of that is that a lot of people are poor a lot of people are also irresponsible they don't take their insulin for some reason but at the end of the day we end up paying for it there's also cardiac what is it failure like heart failure alone, one of the most expensive phases of healthcare could be dealt with through preventative care, which obviously I support.

57:13But at the very least, why does nobody come in? This is the whole point about Medicare negotiating prices. And like, yo, if we're going to pay 1 % of dialysis spending, we're setting some prices here. If that's going to be 1 % of the US federal, but that's more than we spend on the national weather, on stuff that does a lot of things that are actually good for the country, right? So that's why I'm like, these cartels, they need to be broken to the ground. Yes, support. Support that comment. I will say Medicare and Medicaid do negotiate on the price of care. They do not negotiate by and large on the drugs, which is outrageous.

57:46And Biden, they pass like, OK, we have a list of 10 drugs we're now going to negotiate on, which is so characteristic of them. Like, we'll make some progress, but not nearly, you know, do what is required. But yes, that's one of that would be one of the benefits of moving to a Medicare for all system. And I don't have like a total philosophical objection to having the ability to, you know, if you don't want to be on Medicare to purchase a private plan or whatever for wealthy people who want to do that. You just want to make sure that the pool is large enough so that the government can benefit from having healthier people in the pool so you can benefit from those economies.

58:18And also the exactly what you're saying, if you have a large Medicare pool, it makes it so you have so much more pricing control and power in terms of controlling costs at every single level. So, but yeah, it's, I don't know. It's funny because this, you know, healthcare was really back burner during the last presidential election. And nobody really did. Remember Trump got asked about it. He said he had a concept of a plan. So we'll have great healthcare. Yeah, and I think, I don't know. I guess it's because there were so many other things going on. Kamala Harris didn't really make it a focus or an issue because she kind of was left in no man's land.

58:52You guys will recall in 2020 when she thought it was the thing to do, she signed on as a co-sponsor to Bernie's Medicare for All. Then when she got pushed back from rich donors, then she like ran away from that. It became a real weakness for her in terms of the Democratic primary. You have a Biden administration that didn't he ran on a public option. Of course, they didn't even try. Like as soon as he got the nomination, he just stopped talking about health care altogether. It was clear he never cared about doing anything with regard to, you know, any sort of significant transformation of the system.

59:21So she really didn't raise it as an issue. And it just went unresolved. and now you can see what an incredible mess it is and how something dramatic does have to be done here at some point. Yeah, well, I hope so. I don't know. Because everyone says that every year and it just continues to go up. Or things will just get worse and it'll become just like a luxury for the ultra rich. Well, let's stick with that because I can't tell you how much this bothered me. Let's go and put this up here on the screen. And this is, by the way, if you're a Democrat, this is why you should be mad. So Amy Klobuchar put out her example of rising Obamacare premiums.

59:53She says early retirees like Bill and Shelley will see their health insurance premiums increase nearly 300 percent from$442 to$1 ,700 per month. If Congress refuses to extend the enhanced tax credits, that's an extra 15K a year families cannot afford. Put the article up because this is why it's so perfect. Could you not find literally anybody else than two early retirees who are, these are Gen Xers in their 50s who apparently are early retired earning a six-figure pension income. Now, I want to be clear. I don't begrudge anybody for early retirement. But you're not exactly a sympathetic test case for why we should be paying more in ACA premiums.

1:00:37So this is the current messaging. I saw the same thing actually from Jeff Merkley where they find some boomers who are like right on the edge around Medicare and they're like, oh, these poor people are going to have to pay more for health care. I'm like, yeah, you know, get a fucking job. Like I'm sorry. I don't feel sorry for you whenever the family health insurance premium is going up to some$27 ,000 per year. And actually, the least sympathetic people in the world are early retirees who presumably, if you're willing to retire at some 50 years old and you have$130 ,000 a year pension income, you're sitting on some serious assets, not only your homes and your stocks.

1:01:12This is the issue that I find with a lot of the current messaging is that they have found like these least sympathetic test cases of elderly folks when even people who are not on Obamacare, let's say the average family of four making$110 ,000, less than the pension income of these early retirees, their premium is some$27 ,000 for a family. So that's just my personal thing. And she was getting dunked on quite a bit for this. But I'm sorry. I don't want to hear about the plight of the early retired middle class, upper middle class rich. That is not the sympathetic test case for who we should be thinking about.

1:01:48Fair. Could have chosen a better example. And this is the problem. But what you're describing is actually – not to go too deep or philosophical or overthink it or whatever. But this is actually the core problem with neoliberalism. is like when you have this piecemeal system where some people benefit and some people don't benefit and it's not universal, then yeah, you can create a lot of resentment against Bill and Shelley who retired early and wanna be able to travel more and are about to get hit very hard with high premiums and their lifestyle is going to be curtailed. People are like, well, fuck them.

1:02:23I don't wanna have to subsidize their lifestyle. The idea of a universal program and why social security is so popular, why Medicare is so popular, is because everyone, by and large, benefits. Everyone feels like they pay in. Everyone feels like they benefit. And so it doesn't create these weird resentments, which allow people to divide and conquer. Because that then gets used to say, well, then we shouldn't extend the subsidies for everyone. Well, you're mostly gonna be not hurting Bill and Shelley. They're actually gonna be okay. You're mostly gonna be hurting a lot of other people who are just gonna be kicked off of health insurance because they cannot afford it, who are gonna end up with some catastrophic situation in the emergency room.

1:03:00And by the way, it's penny-wise and pound-foolish because we're going to end up paying at the end of the day just for a care that's wildly more expensive than it would be if they had just been in the insurance system. So that's why we need to support universal programs and not this piecemeal nonsense of, like, you know, Obamacare is a good example of a neoliberal solution. Which, by the way, Obamacare, which is a disaster, is still better than what we had before. You know, in key ways, it is significantly better than what we had before. but it's still wildly insufficient and still creates you know these insane incentives and at bottom is a for-profit system that's completely failed the thing is when people say that what they mean is in the aggregate so yeah it's better that more people are uh insured but then everybody else's prices are higher and that's the issue you know broadly why people get mad i take your point about universalism but having seen how politics progresses bill and shelly get everything they want okay bill and shelly are getting their property tax their governor of the state of Florida is comparing property tax to buying a television and renting it from Best Buy.

1:04:03That is the level of intellectual analysis that we have on their behalf. They get tax breaks in every state in the country and all their social security. Now they literally get social security tax-free, which is crazy. So it's like you get tax-free social security, you get free health care from the government when they eventually become 64. Bottoms, the limited pocket or unlimited pockets when it comes to dialysis, end-of-life care, cardiac health insurance. If you are a family of four with two children, you're paying$27 ,000. In theory, it'd be nice if we had some sort of universal coverage. But in practicality, what it always comes back to is Bill and Shelley and - Are you arguing then that the subsidy shouldn't be extended?

1:04:41What's the point you're making? To be honest, in the interim, from the data that I have seen, while there are families that will benefit from it, a huge portion of the benefit pool actually are boomers. They're boomer retirees, people exactly like this. And I do really philosophically, I'm like, man, I don't want to be subsidized. I'm just sick of paying for these folks. You're talking about 15 million people who will lose their health insurance. But see, that's in the aggregate. So then let's look at the data for a lot of these early retiree types who, to be honest, again, probably paid off health care, probably have paid off house, probably have decent number of stock portfolio.

1:05:17Yeah, it's hard to stomach whenever there's when people who are families are paying$27 ,000 through$30 ,000 in health care. But again, the fact that like it's all a mess, right? So you just want them to suffer more so that we all suffer. Well, I think I think it should have to pay more. The thing you're ignoring, too, though, is let's say that, you know, the 15 million that that cannot afford health insurance because the premiums hike. And it's not just boomers that it's not just, you know, people who are not particularly sympathetic. You're talking about families. You're talking about small businesses.

1:05:47You're talking about a lot of people, right? Talking about you and your family, you know? Those people get out of the system. Prices are going to go up for everyone, for everyone, including the people you find sympathetic. And like I said, you're not saving money because ultimately they're going to end up in the emergency room. You're receiving the most expensive care. So that's what I'm saying is like they picked a poor example, sure. But this is a problem that has to be dealt with. And in the interim, the best thing we can do at the moment is extend the subsidies so that we don't have this, you know, mass sort of casualty event.

1:06:22And it doesn't look like that's happening. It looks like the premiums are going to go up in an astronomical way. I think it's going to be Democrats are betting that it's going to be politically disastrous for Republicans. It may be. I don't know. I don't know how politics works anymore. We'll see. but um you know there's there's no doubt that it's going to create pain like across the board not just for the people that you like hate and have contempt for yeah it's it's not that i have contempt it's that they oh well okay maybe i do uh yeah i mean i just i i continue to watch people who i know who are my age have unaffordable health care unaffordable housing and then i see these people take to the cnbcs and the msnbcs of the world lobbying for no property tax lobbying for more free health care, lobbying for free dialysis.

1:07:04I'm like, man, this is making me angry because they get every single thing that they want. And a lot of the people I see struggling don't really get it. And it just seems that the system is designed for the people who are old. I would also say, though, that the precariousness is creeping up and up, like with education being so expensive, with health care being so expensive, with housing being so expensive. You're right. Like boomers who were able to establish themselves in their career, go to college at a time when it was wildly less expensive and get a house when it was much less expensive. Like they are doing better than younger generations.

1:07:37But that precarity with the cost of food, with the cost of energy going up, that is really creeping up not just ages, but in terms of also income levels. Yeah, you know, and so you have more and more people who you would look at their income and be like, oh, they should be fine. Who are struggling because the cost of everything? Now, are they the most empathetic case? No. But in a lot of ways, they're not in such a different boat than, you know, a lot of people that, you know, people would find to be more compelling. Again, which is why I think we need universal programs so that you don't have the ability to pit different, more or less sympathetic groups against each other in order to block any sort of a beneficial solution for everyone.

1:08:18Because if the subsidies go away, it's going to be bad for almost everyone. The ultra rich, of course, they're going to be completely fine. But for people across the income spectrum, it's going to be a real problem for them. And, you know, another another big blow to our health care system. I don't dispute it. You're right. It's going to be bad for the health care system. I just I'm more thinking broadly, like, to be honest, I think that these people should have to pay the most. I think that early retirees, people who were in the 60s and all, they should pay more than people who are families. I think that especially if you already have your kids out of the house, paid off, and the casualty or whatever is coming from your ability to travel, I'm like, man, I do not want to hear that.

1:09:00When I can see people who are 25, 28, can't buy a house, not able to afford anything, I'm like somebody eventually does have to pay for something. It can't all just be kumbaya where they're OK and these people down at the bottom are all supposedly exactly the same. At the end of the day, like if we want to talk about who the subsidies should come from, right now it's bottom up, quite literally from a generational level. And I think it should be fine. But they lobby dramatically against it. How about we reverse all of the tax cuts to the rich from the one big beautiful bill and we use it to pay for health care subsidies so that everybody can afford it.

1:09:32Well, here's the irony though. Who's the rich in this country? It's old people. They're the ones who are going to lobby against it the most. Look at their overall net worth. Everything they do. That's why it's more important to have a class analysis than an age-based analysis because there are plenty of people who are older who are struggling as well. I'm not – in terms of accuracy, just in terms of understanding the structure of society and who we should actually be positioning ourselves against and what sort of divides we should be striking. I don't think it's a generational war. It's a class war.

1:10:05Now, you're right. Boomers tend to have more wealth accumulated. Certainly the billionaire class. it's not even like i'm not even sure i could say the billionaire class is disproportionately boomer probably but um but in any case it's i'm thinking of the tech guys like elon and zuckerberg and whatever but you know that's the people who get their way especially with this administration are the oligarchs that's who actually has the power and so those are the people that we need to be taxing more those are the people whose power we need to be constraining this goes back the AI conversation as well.

1:10:38Yeah, I think that's true, but a little bit limited because it's not all going to come from them. It's like I said, I mean, you have this entire state of Florida who is run by a cartel of elderly who do everything in their power to bilk the federal government for health care, for bailouts every time they get hit by a hurricane and doing everything in their power on the state level to make sure that families visiting Disney have to subsidize their entire way of life and they don't have to pay a dime in property tax, in school tax, in nothing. As long as those people are also included in this. You want to hate on Florida, I will join you in that crusade.

1:11:11OK, good. Great. All right. All right. Let's get to Israel.

1:11:29Over the last couple of years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by black people because of what happened in Alabama. After Montgomery Brawl. This Black History Month, the podcast Selective Ignorance with Mandy B unpacks Black history and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo. The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:12:021969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in Black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Traynor, disappeared from a commune.

1:12:40It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. No, I am not your guru. Back then, I lied to everybody. They have had this case for 30 years. I'm going back to my hometown to uncover the truth. Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.