Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - 088. Is Capitalism really the way to Financial Freedom?

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

My family came to the United States from the Soviet Union to escape communism and embrace the freedoms offered by Capitalism. In this episode of the Bedros Keuilian Show, I share why you should choose Capitalism over Socialism. And how Capitalism creates innovation, economic growth, and personal freedom. BEDROS KEUILIAN LIVE 2024 | September 13-14, 2024 in Scottsdale, AZ https://live.bedroskeuilian.com/bk-live-2024 REGISTER FOR THE LEGACY TRIBE Get the Life, Money, Meaning & Impact You Deserve https://bedroskeuilian.com/legacytribe JOIN MY FREE 6-WEEK CHALLENGE: Transform into a Purpose-Driven Man https://bedroskeuilian.com/challenge TruLean Supplements | https://www.trulean.com/pages/bedros Get 50% Off Trulean Subscribe & Save Bundle Use Code: BEDROS Few Will Hunt Apparel | https://fewwillhunt.com/ Get 20% Off Your Entire Order Use Code: BEDROS OPEN A FIT BODY LOCATION A High-Profit, Scalable Gym Franchise Opportunity Driven By Impact https://sales.fbbcfranchise.com/get-started?utm_source=bedros BECOME A MODERN DAY KNIGHT: Join the MDK Project https://www.themdkproject.com/ PODCAST EPISODES: https://bedroskeuilian.com/podcast/ STAY CONNECTED: Website | https://bedroskeuilian.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/bedroskeuilian/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/bedroskeuilian Twitter | https://twitter.com/bedroskeuilian

Capitalism is good for the economy. It creates innovation. It creates efficiency and marketplace because of competition. And competition drives efficiency. It is economic freedom, which leads to political freedom. And, of course, what it really does is economic growth. Welcome to the Bedroft's Koolian show. Back when Q was rolling with Lorenzo and a Benzo.

I was banging with a gang of instrumental. Hey, my family and I escaped the Soviet Union to come to the United States for one simple reason, capitalism and the freedom that it allows. citizens. Hey guys, welcome to the Bedros-Cooleon show. I'm Bedros-Colian, and today I'm going to make a case for capitalism and why you might want to consider being a capitalist instead of thinking like a socialist or a communist. Now, I should let you know that as a former communist who escaped the Soviet Union and came to the United States, I've seen both capitalism and socialism, communism. However, I know that capitalism is the way to go. And I am a capitalist, and I'm going to tell you

why capitalists are the backbone of a free country, of a sovereign country. And we are one of the few countries in the United States that allows capitalism at the highest level. So let's dive into it because I realize that the school system, universities are constantly pumping propaganda into the minds of our youth, encouraging them to be socialists, communists, and think in the Marxist ways. In other words, if you're probably wondering, like, what do you mean socialism and Marxism? Well, it's simple. When you're thinking about socialism and the communist way, you really have to imagine that the government owns everything and there is no the rich.

Everybody gets paid the same. It's equality across the board. And on paper, the ideology of that might sound. good. But I'm telling you, it never works out well because any time the government has control on how money is distributed to its citizens, the bigger the government gets. And the bigger the government gets, the slower it moves, more bureaucracy exists. And there is no competition and innovation to create better products because the government is not willing and looking to fire people who are underperforming in a particular industry to bring in more efficient and effective

and creative people to make the product or the service better. So if you are living in a socialist, communist, country or a system, then you are always going to have the lesser products or services and quality of life will be lower, even though everyone makes the same amount of money and their lifestyles are somewhat similar. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that we should reward people for their effort. I think we should reward people for the work they do. I think we should reward people who try harder to innovate and create. And that is what capitalism is built on. In fact, as a gentleman named Milton Friedman who died in 2006, this man was an American economist. And he said, a society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. However, a society that puts

freedom over equality will get a high degree of both. And that is absolutely true. And the reason is when we have freedom as the number one factor that we're chasing, that means we are free to have competition. We are free to innovate. We are free to start thinking of efficiencies, right? Think about all these different things that capitalism has brought on to us. In fact, if you're watching this on YouTube right now, you're probably watching it on some kind of smart device. That That smart device was a byproduct of a capitalist who said, aha, I've got an idea and I can make things better. And I can create a phone that doesn't have a hinge and doesn't fold.

And it could be glass and it could be connected to the interwebs. And through the interwebs, you can watch content that is educational and value stimulating and really moves people towards a desired action. Think about that. A capitalist thought of the phone, right? Steve Jobs. A capitalist thought of Tesla, Elon Musk. A capitalist thought of so many things, like the internet and the the the stuff that you buy. Think about Uber for a minute, right? We used to have where transportation was concerned. Your main option, if you weren't going to get a car service, right? Meaning a black car service to come and pick you up from somewhere. Your only option was a taxi. In fact, if you go somewhere and you land in an airport, you're probably going to go hala cab some 10, 11, 12 years ago, right? But,

inherently cabs are dirty. They had no competition when you really think about it. And so they kept the cabs dirty. The price was the price and the experience was shitty. And that's that. Until one day someone's like, hey, what if we can use all these people who have cars

and have them pick up people and take them to their destinations? And we can have a rating system. And if we do this Uber thing right, then we could actually put the cab industry on their heels and make the cab industry improve their product, their service, and their deliverables, right? Now, if you ever land anywhere and you decide to take a cab, it is a much better experience than it was a decade ago because of services like Uber and Lyft. If we didn't have capitalism and the ability to have choices and options, you would never have moved away from the cab

from a taxi company. So, in fact, Lyft was created as a byproduct. of people wanting more choices than Uber was offering. So when you have Lyft and Uber competing, guess who wins? The customer, you and I, because the product has to keep innovating and getting better. So there's four things about capitalism that I love most. Now, you have to understand that I'm a free market capitalist. I believe that if I have a better product and I could market it better to humanity out there, then I will make more money.

and I should decide what I do with my money. If I want to buy 10 homes and five yachts and three private planes, good for me. And if I want to pay my employees a really good wage and make sure that they're taking care of and they have great health benefits and financial benefits, then good for me. But I should not have the government telling me how my wealth should be divided because that would be socialism or communism, right? So with that in mind, if there's four things about capitalism that I love, let me share that with you. So thing number one is economic freedom, right? And you have to understand,

economic freedom equals political freedom. In other words, the more private industries have control of industries and economies, the less control the government will have over you. And you show me a government that has its citizens, health and financial well-being as a top priority. You're not going to find it. You're not going to find it anywhere. That's just not the case. Because governments are designed to tax you and to continue to grow and to continue to get bigger and more bloated because that's how they add more regulation. That's how they add more laws. I mean, think about this. Every year, every January, new laws are created. There's never a new year that comes by where they actually go, hey, we're going to give people more freedom by taking away

laws and regulations. Every January, there's more federal and state laws and regulations that are created, which means the government's job is to tighten the noose on the citizens. So why would we give the government the ability to control economy and industry, right? So understand that capitalism creates economic freedom, which is a byproduct, helps us create political freedom as much as possible, helps us keep government as small as possible. Now, if you're watching this, you know, government is big and bloated already. And because it's so big and bloated, it moves slow. It taxes you heavily.

And it is very inefficient. Moving on to thing number two that I love about capitalism, which is efficiency, right? Think about this. I created Fit Body Boot Camp. It's a international gym fitness franchise, right? And if you want to open up a gym, you might be looking at Fit Body Boot Camp as well as other fitness franchises and comparing Fit Body Boot Camp. Camp and these other fitness franchises to see which is a better option for you, right?

Which has better systems, which has better support, which one you can make more money with, which one you can impact more lives with. I, as the founder of Fit Body Boot Camp, have a duty and an obligation, along with my team here to make Fit Body Boot Camp franchise the best possible product ever because I'm in competition with all the other franchise brands out there in the fitness space. And I want to make sure that I can sell the most Fit Body Boot Camp locations and deliver on the promise of a great product and a great system that helps people through health, fitness, and a positive mindset while making our franchisees really good income, right? Well, guess what? If the competition creates something that now they've got something above me, I have to then innovate and get more efficient and create something better.

So competition creates efficiencies. That means that my employees, my team members here have to work more efficiently. They have to work more diligently. I have to be more creative and work more efficiently. And when there is efficiency in a business model because of competition, guess what? Everything comes down in terms of pricing, right? If you only had one phone that you could choose, then you would find yourself in a position where that one phone is very expensive.

But because you have the choice of an Apple iPhone, or an Android, right? Now they are competitive. Now, not only does price go down on the lower quality, or I guess I should say the lower model phones, but also look what happens in terms of efficiency. More storage, faster memory on these phones. You've got better cameras,

and they do more things because of the competitive nature. And that creates that efficiency that we are looking for. So competition is good and it's a byproduct of, of a capitalistic environment. What else? Well, how about innovation, right? When you are in a capitalistic environment, now you have to constantly innovate and make better.

If you are in a socialist or a communist environment where the government decides the phone we use, the cars we drive and the lack of competition, then why would we want to innovate? I mean, you can go to Armenia, which is a former where I come from, Armenia is a former communist country, but because it recently, when I say recently in the last 20 some odd years or so, it came out of communism, it still runs a bit like a communist country.

The cars there, some of the cars there from the communist era, the socialist era, are old and their manual transmissions and roll up windows because when it was communist, you couldn't bring in BMWs, Mercedes, Toyotas, Nisons. There was no options. You're buying what the system, the state, the government created, which was a lower quality product because they didn't have any desire to innovate because they had no competition to innovate for, right? But think about the innovations that we've had in transportation.

Hell, we've got self-driving cars that are about to come out now because of Tesla, right? You've got cars that are so smart now that they will keep you in your lanes. Windows go up and down. Windshield wipers are automatic. you. There's so much safety systems built in that it's rare that you're going to rearend someone in a car that has a safety system where it could tell if you're about to hit that car in front of you. It'll smash the brakes preemptively for you. That is all a byproduct of innovation because Ford and Chevy and Dodge and Toyota and Nissan and Honda, they're all competing

for your dollars. And so they're like, hey, if this person is going to spend $50,000 for a vehicle, How can we innovate and make our product better so they buy mine and not theirs? So innovation not only keeps costs down, but it also creates quality and really a lot more options in terms of creativity. Guys, quick interruption to the show. If you are passionate about fitness like I am and you want to be an entrepreneur, then FitBody Boot Camp might be the right business model for you. I started the Fit Body Boot Camp franchise years ago because I knew we could help more people live healthy, active lives across every community in the country. through group personal training, and that's exactly what Fit Body Boot Camp is. We have created a model that is going to make you a profitable and a happy business owner.

We give you all the systems done for you, and you just have to follow the systems. So if you want to see if a Fit Body Boot Camp territory is available in your area, then I want you to go to Fit Body Boot Camp.com. Click on franchising and apply to become a Fit Body Boot Camp owner. Back to the show. The fourth thing is economic growth. So think about this, right? When there is a capitalistic environment like the United States, you will find yourself in a place where there's economic growth.

You show me like a country like Argentina, North Korea. Any country that is socialist or communist, the unemployment rate is through the roof. Economic growth has come to a screeching stop and the people are starving. The people are starving. I mean, look at Greece right now. Unemployment rate is through the roof. the entire country is practically bankrupt. And they don't know what to do.

And they want to start taxing more people so that they can make more money to be able to take care of their roads that are just full of potholes and upgrade the airport and make things safer in the country. But who are you going to tax when unemployment is north of 20% in Greece? How are you going to tax them when no one's making enough money to even feed their families and pay their rents? You can't, right? And so in a capitalistic environment,

it creates opportunities for more jobs, right? Because of Elon Musk decides like he did that he's going to leave California, right, a socialist, somewhat of a socialist state. And he went to Texas to create the batteries and to move Tesla there. Because he moved to a more free country where capitalism or a more free state, I should say, where capitalism is not frowned upon. And because of that, he created more jobs. Think about how many jobs are created when someone comes up with a great idea.

right like I thought I had a great idea back in 2009, 2010 when I was like, you know, we can take that outdoor boot camp and bring it indoors and call it fit body boot camp and then make it a franchise and people who are passionate about fitness and want to start a gym business now can use the systems that we've created to create a predictably profitable business that serves their community, right? Like all of a sudden, boom, I create the corporate office, I have employees, I give them jobs. We are creating economic growth. We're pumping more money into the government by way of paying our taxes because we're making money as we sell our franchises and gain more franchisees all over the world. And think about the economy growth that happens in every single state where there's a

fit body boot camp, every single city where there's a fit body boot camp, right? Now all of a sudden, you know, you have personal trainers that get hired to work at a fit body boot camp. You have front desk people. You have sales reps to get hired. You have facility leaders that get hired. And so economy continues to grow in a capitalistic environment. It will shrink or stay stagnant in a socialist or a communist environment. Now, you might be thinking, hold on, B, but I've heard that capitalists are greedy. And you would be right. Some capitalists are greedy, right? Some capitalists are greedy. Like, I might say, well, I heard someone died once before by taking Advil. They took an excess amount of Advil, a handful of Advil, to kill their headache and then end up killing

themselves because they overdosed on Advil. Now, should we ban Advil or should we maybe put instructions on that bottle and make it bold and highlight it and say, hey, look, only take two or three at a time because if you take a handful, you're going to burn a hole in your stomach or you're going to poison your liver and die, right? And so when people say that capitalists are bad, it's because they see like one fringe section of capitalism where greed does exist and nothing is perfect. Capitalism is not perfect. And there are greedy entrepreneurs. Look, you've heard about big companies that dump barrels of oil into a river. I think this happened back in Michigan, right? There was a whole lawsuit and Cindy Crawford played a character in a movie about that whole situation. Like, obviously,

they took advantage of capitalism and the people who worked in that corporation dumping toxins into the river that flowed into the drinking water was a very bad idea. But does that mean that we should then say, forget it? We have to take all business away from, you know, free market capitalists, from people like private business owners like myself and maybe like you? Absolutely not. What we need to do is punish the idiots who are doing things wrong. But that's a small percentage of the capitalistic world. And so when you make a blanket statement, like capitalistic pigs are bad for our economy

or bad for our country, or they are creating a monopoly, also understand that they're not creating a monopoly as long as the government doesn't allow them. The government does have a lot of say whether a company starts buying out all their competition, the government can stop them, right? The Federal Trade Commission, the SEC,

and Securities and Exchange Commission can stop them. say, hey, whoa, you're about to create a monopoly. And so we're not going to let the sale of those two different companies happen. Because if they do, then you become a monopoly. And therefore, you can now raise the price or reduce the quality of the product and raise the price at the same time because you've got no competition. So there is government entities that are there to police corporations. Like as a franchisor, right, that's what I am, a franchisor. I started FitBody Bootcamp. the Federal Trade Commission oversees franchises. And so whether it's a subway sandwich headquarters or Fit Body Boot Camp headquarters

or 7-Eathing headquarters or Jiffy Loob headquarters, like all of these headquarters of different franchises all have to adhere to the government standards to operate in a certain way. Now, if we operate in a shady way and we do things that are illicit, then obviously we get fined or they stop us from selling franchises. And that happens. That happens in every industry. There's a fraction of shady entrepreneurs whose greed glands secrete, over secret,

and they begin to do shady shit and justify it as righteous. We have to police those people. But I dare say, 98, 99% of entrepreneurs, capitalists out there are paying their fair share of taxes and then some employing good people moving the needle for the economy and innovating so that the products keep getting better the service keeps getting better while the price keeps getting lower like when in your life could you have a supercomputer like

this like this iPhone where in your life can you have a supercomputer in your pocket this fucking thing has more computing power than the Apollo rocket that delivered men to the moon. And it's in our pocket for about a thousand bucks. You can do math. You can get information at your fingertips. You can access things. You can literally run a business off your iPhone for $1,000.

I mean, when you think about what this iPhone should be worth, like $5,000 to $10,000 is what I would pay if someone's like, hey, I've got this device, glass screen, connected to everything. and you can pay with it, you can create a business with it, you can access knowledge and videos and content, and you can communicate with it. I can. Dude, I'll pay you $15, $20, $30,000 for that supercomputer to keep it in my pocket. And they go, no, no, no, it's just about $1,000. That's it. I'm like, are you for real? Why is it so cheap? Well, it's so cheap because it's, you know, it's made by capitalists who are competitive in the way they market so they can sell more of it.

And because they have Android as a competitor, they try and keep the price low. And it keeps like getting better and better and better. Like, I don't know if you know this, but the newer iPhones, like iPhone number, I think, 14 and 15 and beyond, the glass rarely cracks because they were able to figure out how to put flex in the glass so that when you drop your iPhone, there's a higher probability of your glass not breaking. Like, that is pretty fucking rad. That is a byproduct of a capitalist going, how could I make my phone better than the other

guy's phone and make that a benefit bullet to the consumers while keeping the price to same, right? So imagine Apple goes to their glass supplier and goes, hey, I need you to figure out a way to create glass for our screens that has some level of flex so they don't break as much when these phones are dropped. And oh, by the way, figure out how to do this without raising the price on us so that we don't have to raise the price on our consumers. Like, that's pretty fucking cool, right? When you think about the number of people that had broken phones, like three, four, five years ago as far as the glass was broken and today you look at people's phones and you're like shit hardly hardly any broken glass on phones you know yes there were cases since the apple iPhone first came

out so it ain't the case the glass has improved without the price going up that is a byproduct of capitalism so i share this with you because capitalism is good for the economy it creates innovation it creates efficiency and marketplace because of competition and competition drives efficiency It is economic freedom, which leads to political freedom. And of course, what it really does is economic growth. This is why the United States will probably never have, well, as long as our political figures, both on the left and right side, don't fuck it up. The United States will never find itself in a position like Argentina or Greece where unemployment is, you know, in the double digits, you know, 15, 20, 25 percent. And the economy is shot, right?

So there's tremendous value in that in this capitalism method. And so if you are wondering if capitalism is the right way to go, the answer is yes. Now, if you're one of those people who are of the mindset that, well, you know, I think the government should create a fair economy for everyone, then I'm going to argue that you're probably lazy. You're probably lazy. You don't want to work much. And what you want to do is work as little as possible, be as, as, as, you're probably lazy. disconnected from humanity as possible but still make as much money as you can because you want daddy government to disperse an equal amount of money to you and everyone else and as far as I'm

concerned that makes you a lazy fuck who's a liability to humanity because if every single one of us saw ourselves as assets and I want to work and I want to innovate I want to create I want to serve humanity, then now that puts you in the mindset of a capitalist. So with that said, guys, I want to also invite you to Bedrose Coolean Live taking place September 13th and 14th and beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. If you don't have your tickets yet, check the link in the description box on YouTube and, of course, across all the iTunes platforms or go to bedroscoolion.com forward slash live and you will find your tickets, three different ticket options for Bedroscrucrucuhnian Live.

We've got a lineup of amazing speakers for you. And on top of that, two days of money, meaning, and developing a higher level of self-mastery. So with all that said, always remember this, that average is the enemy, that success is your responsibility. And change can take place in an instant if you are willing to flip the switch. I'll see you next time.