The Apple Vision Pro, Being Present, and Scott’s Hair

24:18We know that our parents, like a lot of boomers, do not have enough money saved for retirement, and that caring for them will largely fall to us in the very near future. Do you have any tips we're providing for parents while achieving our own financial goals? Our parents are incredibly humans, and we feel like they deserve to have a nice life. It hurts to think of them having to scrape by after all they did for us. Thanks. That is a good question. I think about this all the time, and you do right now, Scott. I know you're in LA. You have money to deal with this, and I do too, not as much as you, but it's a looming specter trying to figure it out because this is a big deal for a lot of people.

24:57I don't know if there's an answer. Scott, why don't you go first, and I'll think about it a little bit more. It's a tough one, and people don't like to talk about actual money, and I think that that's a, I don't know, a DNA or a certain level or a certain dictum in our society such that people don't know how much other people make money. Corporations do it to create asymmetry of information, which benefits them. You know, never talk about your salary and you're not supposed to talk about money. And I think that's been promoted by people who have money. So you don't know how much money they have and how unfair our economy is sometimes.

25:31Anyways, my point is, I'm about to share my numbers. My dad lives in a nice home, an assisted living facility. It's nice. It's not anything super luxurious. And he's been falling. He fell this weekend. And so now we not only have a woman who spends time with him during a day who's wonderful. Now I have to have someone there at night. I will spend$270 ,000 this year on my dad's care. That is about$450 ,000 pre-tax. So me trying to take care of my dad is a half a million dollars in salary a year. Okay, so how many people in America can do that? And the answer is very, very few. And so what happens is the parents end up living with the family and it's almost always that the woman in the household becomes the primary caregiver, taking care of kids and aging parents.

26:27Old people are living much longer and sometimes that quality of life isn't extended as great as the extension in just their lifespan. This is a huge issue. And my only solution here is that the government, I think we need to look at non-traditional ideas. And it would cost$40 billion a year to give everybody who's born$7 ,000. And I would treat them like infants and say, we're going to put this$7 ,000 in a variety of index funds and you get it when you're 65. And what that means is by the time they're 65, they would have over a million dollars. But this is a big problem for our society because the reality is a lot of boomers haven't saved enough money.

27:09And they become liabilities not only on the kids, but on the government. And they're living much longer than they anticipated. So this is a big issue. And we need to look at nontraditional forms of financing their retirements because it's a huge strain on families. It is. My dad died when he was 34. So, but one of the things, and of course, it would have been amazing if he could have lived. But even having one parent, and your mom is no longer living, is hard. My mom, of course, escaped assisted living, but it was very expensive. It was not just expensive in terms of money, but also time and worry and trying to figure it out.

27:49And especially when you're dealing with some older people who just are obstreperous about the lack of control, which I get completely. So it's an emotional thing. It's difficult. She has three kids and we all struggle with it together, right? It's expensive. We hope she doesn't run out of money. You know, she has some money. She has over the course of her life. But it's definitely without money makes it easier. It doesn't make it easy. but without money oh my god with or with limited funds it's just uh it's and there's nothing you know i have a friend um who's always saying america you know uh because the way they do it in other countries there's bigger groups of community and larger families that stay in the same place and even my grandmother had that she had all her family all her sisters she had i think seven or nine brothers and sisters i think it was nine in the same town and so she ended up being the last person to die of that era, which was harder, but she had a big family around her.

28:49I just, you're going to have to pay. Our country does not care about old people or young or babies, you know, in terms of our education of everybody. And so I don't, you're going to have to pay. So seniors get a lot in the form of social security, but kind of the last 10 years gets so expensive because they just need a lot of care. And people are living longer. This is a debate going on within the Republican Party of suddenly not paying younger people, not guaranteeing them Social Security, but continuing to pay the old people so you can get the votes. It's just a really, right now, go look at some of the stuff going on around this issue.

29:27It's going to run out of money in 10 years or something like that. 40 % of all government spending goes to people over the age of 65, and it's going to go over 50 % about 20 years. It's unsustainable. I literally think for$40 billion a year, You give every baby$7 ,000. They can't touch it until they're 65. Because a lot of this does come down to money. But it's going to get worse. It would actually be more than a million. But it's going to get worse because with the lower birth rates, you're just going to have fewer young people. There's going to be a lot of only children supporting, trying to figure out how to take care of mom and dad.

30:01Yeah, it's true. That's why I had so many kids. I joke with my kids all the time, but it's 100. It was totally in the back of my mind was, okay, at least one of them. That's why I wanted a girl. I have no idea who's going to take care of me. Nothing new. You. Oh, your son's will. Oh, come on. I will. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll wheel you around in a wheelchair, everything else. All right. Because you know I'm going to live to 112. All right. Here's another one. I'll read it. Scott likes to say that no one will want to wear a product unless it increases their attractiveness to potential mates.

30:29In fact, he says that a lot. Apple Vision Pro may look dorky, but does it signal to those around you that you are tech savvy and wealthy? When you're waiting in an airport lounge or a Starbucks and you see someone wearing it, What does that say about that person? They aren't just dorky, but they have a lot of disposable income. Tom Boardman. They also have no shame. I would totally do that, Tom. Scott, why don't you answer this? Does it not say, does it not signal they have some dough to spend? If they could sit around with this thing on their face publicly, they don't care? What? No, it says they've given up all hope for a random sexual experience.

31:05Oh, God, give me a break. You're going to put on your Apple reality, your Apple mixed reality headset as a means of communicating wealth. I'll stick with my Panerai and my Range Rover. And that gives me a one in a hundred chance of a random and sexual encounter. You have a one in none. This thing is literally, I didn't kiss a lot of people as a young man or woman, but I made some money and now I can afford this thing. This literally will save marriages. Okay. There is absolutely no opportunity you will have sex with anyone outside of someone who has agreed to have sex with you once you start putting this thing on your head.

31:42Okay. I think it's going to be used in the office. It's not going to be signaling anything out in the wild world. In the office. Tim Cook wouldn't put it on. Okay. He wouldn't get near it. Okay. He wouldn't get near it. Tim Cook, by the way, is a very good looking guy. He works out a lot. Yeah. I don't know if he has a partner. He's very private about that stuff. Good for him. I don't believe he does. He wouldn't get near the thing. He wouldn't get near it. Okay. All right. Next time I go to your apartment, I'm going to get my hands on one. I'm going to wander around your apartment and talk to you the whole time.

32:12That's an image. It's going to be great. That's an image. It's going to be great. We're going to have so much fun. Yeah. Well, and I'll turn on my laser disc. Right. Exactly. Scott, one more quick break. When we come back, a listener wants to know about your hair. Interesting.

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34:34Okay, Scott, let's listen to another one. Hi, Karen. Scott, Steve from Madison, Wisconsin. I'm a high school AP statistics teacher with a longstanding passion for public education. In my over 35 years of teaching, I've noticed a concerning trend, which maybe you can help me with. The trend is, number one, fewer students seem to be considering teaching as a profession. at the beginning of my career. I'd ask at the end of the year, how many kids want to become teachers? And I would have a third of them raise their hand. None of them are now. And many of my colleagues are struggling to make ends meet.

35:12You know, they have second and third jobs just to make ends meet. My question is, what do you see the future of public education given these challenges? And how do you think we address the growing disinterest in teaching as a career choice, both financially and professionally. As a fourth generation teacher, I thrive for this education and am passionate about it. I just want to know what your thoughts and potential solutions on these issues are. Thank you. Thank you. Nice, Steve from Madison, Wisconsin. I just want to say I have a, my aunt was a fourth grade school teacher, retired since, always had a second job, by the way, to make more money.

35:50And my sister-in-law is a very committed teacher here in California in a public school. She's in the elementary area. I have to say it's a passion for my sister-in-law, for sure. I've talked to her more about her job, not for financially. I think that's one of the things. It is frightening. It's not just with teachers. There's been a spate of articles about policemen. It usually was often a family thing or the military, also a family thing, not necessarily anymore. People are encouraging them not to go into it. I bet a lot of teachers are doing that. My niece is a teacher too, also passionate about it.

36:26I don't think she's thinking about money-making as a career choice in that regard. So I don't know what to say. You can't say just be passionate. I think they should pay teachers more and they should make them responsible for every mental health problem our kids are undergoing. Both of them are committed to their jobs and I have to say they love their jobs more than most people. Scott, any thoughts? Yeah, I think that something needs to happen on a federal level And that is, so people in the armed services don't make a lot of money But they get really strong benefits They usually get their housing paid for They work 20 years and they get just 20 If they serve 20 years, they get a decent pension They get access to, I forget what it's called The store on base that's subsidized They get real federally subsidized benefits They get veterans benefits I think we need some sort of program similar for primary and high school teachers.

37:23Because as much as we talk about paying them more, whenever you call someone a hero, it means that we think they're fucking idiots from an economic standpoint and we don't pay them. When you're making a decent living, you don't need to call someone a hero. Scott, you're my hero. Thanks for saying that. I make as much as you, I think. Anyways, there needs to be some sort of federal program, whether it's student loan forgiveness, access to federally backed mortgages at a lower interest rate, matching contributions to retirement. Because on a local level, it just ends up that the supply and demand of teaching ends up with underpaid teachers.

37:57The issue I've been thinking a lot about, because I'm writing a book on masculinity, is the single point of failure you can point to when men come off the tracks is a lack of a male role model. And where we have almost no male role models is in our education system. 80 % of elementary school teachers are women and 70 % of high school teachers. And it results in what I'll call fewer and fewer people championing and taking an interest in a young boy's life because you're going to just naturally champion and develop reward behaviors that you see in yourself. And so you have this whole generation of young men coming of age in America who between the second highest rate of single parent households in the world and no male teachers or few, there are some men who literally come into this world having never had a male role model.

38:50And so not only is that, so one, federally subsidized programs that raise the compensation and benefits for all teachers in public schools. And two, we need to recruit more male teachers into elementary and high school educational programs. I would agree with that. My older sons and my younger kids now have had a lot of both female and male teachers that they've been lucky to have. That's been a real boon. And there was one teacher that both Alex and Louie had that really had a significant, a male teacher, a science teacher, that had a significant impact on them, although they've had great teachers of both genders.

39:28And so I think you're right. You can't call them heroes. Just pay them better. Because there is an element of certain jobs that people do have a passion for, and they love it. I think both my niece and my sister-in-law just love their jobs. You can feel it off them, right? And I think if they just got paid a little more and got a little bit of the, I think, mental health issues, every teacher I talked to said that's the thing that really has been a real burden. I think police officers have the same issue, just getting handed a bag of trouble that they're not necessarily qualified for, but it just adds to learning, making learning as easy as possible for kids and becoming, you know, having roles they didn't expect.

40:11that are very, they're very emotionally committed. Teachers, teachers changed my life. They changed yours. My fourth grade teacher, I'm sure she's dead now. Her name is Mrs. Forsinth. It's changed my life. So did my seventh grade teacher, who is not Mrs. Gilbert, my English teacher. I absolutely point to them as people change my life in terms of just who I am today. I would say you have the same thing. Call out your teacher. Who was it? Oh, Mrs. Banta, Mrs. Heil, Mrs. Golding, my English teacher in 11th grade. I had a lot of people who, I had a baseball coach who was really good to me. Perry Jones, my history teacher, he opened my eyes.

40:51In college, I had a Father Chiafi taught existentialism of all things, changed my life completely. Yeah. Yeah. The question is, what do we do about it now? And it just isn't working. The supply I demand dynamics of teaching are just not working for teachers. So similar to the military, we just need some federally subsidized programs to make it more attractive. And again, I'd say the same thing with police and other nurses and things like that. They make good money, though. They do. Police and nurses actually make pretty good money. They do. But I'm talking about families encouraging people to go in the military, et cetera.

41:24Here's another that came in via email. I'll read it because we've been short on dad jokes lately. Oh, my God. So many dad jokes. This is one of them. I sincerely wish I had a unique insight, a probing question or enlightened commentary I could share that would elevate the level of discourse on your terrific show. Unfortunately, I have none. I do, however, have an addition to Scott's collection of dick jokes. Oh, thanks so much. Did you hear John Wayne Bobbitt changed his name to what, you ask? Les Johnson. You're welcome and sorry. Keep up the good work, Steve. That's good. Scott, you're datacalizing our listeners.

41:58That's a word that I just made up. That guy's my brother in arms. But I do want to ask him a question. Why couldn't Lorena Bobbitt be a successful film director? Every time she yelled cut, the male actors fled the set. That's good. You know, Lorena Bobbitt, this is tragically, it's tragic. You know, she died in a car accident. Apparently some dick cut her off. Oh, no. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I thought that was real for a second. I hate you. You know, they both were, but she literally, it's a true story. She served in the same prison as Jeffrey Dahmer, where he said to her, are you going to eat that?

42:34Okay. I could do this all day. Why do you have so many Lorena Bobichos? For those who don't know, this is a woman who cut off her husband's penis for cheating on hers and then threw it out the window. And then they got it and they put it back on. Thank you. And men still cheat. Even knowing that's a possibility, men still cheat. And they sewed it back on. They sewed it back on. That's the good news. Oh, it's not good news. None of this story. We're moving on from Lorena Bobbitt jokes. All right, Steve, you should be ashamed of yourself. You should be ashamed. Did you hear the next person that tried to do this didn't actually kill her husband, but nonetheless, she was charged with a Mr.

43:08Wiener? Okay. All right. That's the last one you get. Scott and Steve, you need to go away. You're a shameful pair. Anyway. Okay, last one. I'll read it. I thought I'd ask you two personal questions because I noticed for both of you, that's when you get your guests a little off kilter and then get the conversation after to go somewhere interesting. Oh, we're not interesting otherwise. Interesting. Kara, you are famously cool and focused in your interviews. When was the last time you blew your top and lost cool professionally? I just don't. I am Chris Hensworth in extraction. Give me a fucking break.

43:41I don't. I can't think of one time where I lost my cool in a professional setting. Mm-mm. Maybe the parlor interview. I got annoyed at him, but I think that worked well for the interview. I knew what I was doing. I haven't lost my cool professionally in an interview. When have you lost your cool personally? All the time with you. Well, here, I get mad at you, I guess. But that's good for us. That's a good thing. That's not true at all. I don't lose my cool that much. Sometimes, unfortunately, with my kids every now and then, I get frustrated. And I have dialed that back rather significantly. I was talking to Louis about that.

44:14I got sort of irritated at Clara for something. And he's like, don't yell. And I'm like, oh, you're right, because I yelled too much at you when you were a kid. But I've dialed it back. So I say I haven't. Sorry, Scott. I can't think of one. I don't think I have. Can you think of one? I don't think I've ever. When you've lost your cool? Professionally, no. No, you're pretty much ice, man. I am Chris Hemsworth in extraction. I do the job. All right, Scott. This is the same letter. Scott, speaking of top, Scott, when was the last year of good hair? Love the show. RR. Go ahead. I remember the moment.

44:50In my first year of business school, I was 26. I had a ponytail. I used to ride a skateboard around. Yeah. And I was studying. Full head of hair. Full head of hair. Granted, it's a low bar. But at one point, my best features were my hair and my abs. And I've lost both those things. But I remember reading my finance book and thinking, I don't remember underlining this chapter. I'm like, oh, my God, it's my hair. No. And I started losing my hair so fast. What was it? Do you know why it just came out? It's called genetics. Okay. All right. Okay. Up until like the age of 20, like 1920, I was really unattractive.

45:27I joined crew. I took Accutane. I got very big and muscular and my skin cleared up. And all of a sudden, like my world changed. So 21? So from like 19 to 25, I was modestly attractive, see above 19 to 25. And then I started losing my hair. And one of the nicest things that ever happened to me was I shaved my head and it just made everything so much easier and so much more efficient. What was that moment? Let's have that moment. Let's have the Scott. Let's go back. In history, what was that moment when you shaved? What made the decision to do it? And then what was that like? Give us a picture. I was with a girlfriend in Hawaii and she said she actually bought me a clipper and she shaved my head and it was actually a very kind of central erotic moment for me.

46:09And I've never had hair since. Why did you, why there? Because she bought you a clipper, really? That's what happened? Well, I think she probably sensed I was anxious. See, here's the thing. There's nothing better than having a full head of hair. That just rocks. I like mine a lot. Having a shaved head is fine. It's actually become sort of in vogue. When I did it, it was considered aggressive. And I'm convinced that I was able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars based on the fact that I had a shaved head because it was unique back in the 90s. Having a shaved head is good. Having a lot of hair is the best.

46:38It's the in-between that sucks. It's losing your hair. Because the reality is you'll be much more focused on it because it represents a loss of youth and vitality. And you can't do anything about it. It's totally uncontrollable. The in-between is the hard part. So what I would say to any man out there that's losing their hair is just shave your head. It feels, it's kind of liberating. Go Kojak. There you go. Go full. That's an old reference. Telly Savalas. You have great hair. I do. You have great hair. You know, I was looking at Louie's hair the other day. I'm like, what frigging fantastic hair he has, too.

47:09The Swisher ventries, whatever, fantastic hair. Although Jeff and David both have hair loss, I would say, just sort of receding hairlines, which is on the mother's side from what I understand. But yeah, we have good hair. We have good hair people. Only one out of 10 men maintain hair volume their whole life. And the thing to remember about hair, and I say this to a lot of young men, it was yet another thing I was self-conscious about when I started losing my hair, is that the amount of attention you place on your hair loss, it's about 0.1 of that across everyone else. No one notices your hair loss as much as you do.

47:46No, that's true. They're going to know, as a man, they're going to notice, first and foremost, if you've got a plan and you're executing against it, they're going to notice your height, the depth of your voice, how broad your shoulders are, and quite frankly, whether or not you're killing it professionally. And your kindness and your intellect, your hair, they may notice it. It's pretty far down the list. But when you're losing your hair, you think that everyone's just staring at your hairline. And it's not true. You do bald well. Let me just say, you do bald well. Thank you for saying that. Shaved well.

48:13I guess shaved, right? Shaved. Anyway, those are great questions. And now I know more about Scott's hair loss situation and what he did about it. So nice to know that. Send us more. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. Okay, Scott, that's the show. Go back on your vacation, whatever you're doing right now, all balled up in a closet, missing me probably is what you're doing in the dark, crying and weeping quietly. The only reason I go away is so people miss me because you'll have all this fucking Woka-stan mediocre guests. But anyways, we're really happy they're here.

48:49Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and Jertod, engineer in this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Neil Silvero. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. We'll be back later for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Whatever you feel about your own looks, other people just really don't care. It's about you. It's about your character. It's about your success.

49:39ever need. Odoo is an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that handles everything. That means CRM accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR, and more. No more app overload, no more juggling logins, just one seamless system that makes work easier. And the best part is that Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you're just starting out or you're already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable, and designed to streamline every process. It's time to put the clutter aside and focus on what really matters running your business.

50:10Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you? Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com.

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