Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Crypto jumps back up, Americans are more illiterate and who is the world's richest man?

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

In this episode of Weekly Business News," Ryan Alford and Brianna Hall tackle some of the hottest business topics. From the highs and risks of cryptocurrency investing to Ryan’s personal strategies,... they explore how to navigate this volatile market. They also dive into the controversial Albertsons-Kroger merger, unpacking its legal roadblocks and what it means for consumers. To top it off, they discuss Elon Musk’s financial triumphs, including SpaceX’s soaring valuation and the future of space exploration. With sharp insights and relatable stories, Ryan and Brianna make complex topics accessible and fascinating.TAKEAWAYS Personal experiences and insights on cryptocurrency investments Discussion of recent political changes affecting the cryptocurrency market Strategies for diversifying cryptocurrency portfolios Legal issues surrounding grocery store mergers, specifically Albertsons and Kroger Implications of monopolization and competition in the grocery industry The impact of rising grocery prices on consumers Insights into Elon Musk's net worth and the valuation of SpaceX Exploration of the economics of the space industry and government contracts Current events related to drone sightings in New Jersey and their implications Concerns about literacy rates among U.S. adults and the influence of technology on reading habits If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:23 Clickgranger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a radcast network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over one million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cash in checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys?
Starting point is 00:00:54 Welcome to Right About Now. It's Friday to 13th. Friday, December. 13th, 2024. Jason may not be here, but Brianna is. What's up, Brianna? You're much lovelier than and you look lovely there in your studio at home than Jason. Forhees from Friday the 13th, by the way. Yeah, hopefully. I hope so. Although I am a little tired, so maybe I'm putting on the Jason look. That's what kids do to you, you know. They send you home. You got to pick them up early. Oh, God, I remember the days.
Starting point is 00:01:32 That still happens. My 80 year old has it every now and then. He's bad. Yeah. Oh, he's the worst kind of sick. He's like me, like men, you know, like one little stuff. You know, oh, I'm not feeling good, Dad. He's a big baby.
Starting point is 00:01:45 Suck it up. Suck it up. Then I'm the same way. I'm like, if I don't get, I'm not going to wish and say that. I'm not going to say that loud. But when I am sick, which is not that often, I'm definitely a big baby. I think men are worse. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:59 Yeah, I never have time to be sick. Yeah, exactly. So we hope everyone is doing well wherever, whenever, however, you're listening here on right about now. We've got your weekly business news of the week and all kinds of good stuff. I'm going to start with the good news. So I've gotten into the crypto thing. And let me just say this. This is not financial advice.
Starting point is 00:02:24 Please go to your financial advisor for risk counsel, risk talk. tolerance and, you know, how much you can afford to lose. So that's not for me to determine. I'm just want you to have a little fun with me testing the market. Brianna had something to say there. I'm not sure what. Just laughing. I thought it was funny that you said, like, how much you're willing to lose.
Starting point is 00:02:49 Yeah. Well, you never know. Or when. It's all about, hey, you cannot make any shots you don't take. So there you have it. I have been putting in a couple thousand dollars every week or two, just taking from other investments, doing it and like taking, you know, moving over to the crypto. Now that we have a crypto friendly president coming into office. And I am not the expert, Chris, who is on Escapade in Houston, is more of the, quote, expert in house.
Starting point is 00:03:25 But, you know, you can learn a lot. So I'm on the Crackin app. The names of this stuff is like doesn't help with some of their legitimately sometimes. Like I'm on that cracking. It starts with a K. So I'll give them some free support. Maybe they should be a sponsor. That'd be a good one for Natalie to reach out to.
Starting point is 00:03:44 Get the Cracken. Get the Cracking in here. Anyway, I'm on there. Very easy to buy and sell. They make it super easy to take your money. Let me tell you. So one click away, your bank account. You know, whatever.
Starting point is 00:03:58 You got your wallet going on. And again, much better than college football lately. So I, you know, I quit a bit on college football probably 10 years ago. So this is not a recent thing. But I will say it's riding the wave. And it's been an interesting week with crypto because I'm riding it. You know, I've bought, I probably have like 20 coins that I'm in now or different crypto. Whatever.
Starting point is 00:04:23 There's a lot of terminology again here. So I've been buying them. XRP, that's what you need to get on. I'm going to go ahead and tell you that. That's the one. That one I bought for like 40 cents. It's up to like 250. So that's helping the old cause a lot. While some of these other coins are dragging a little bit, I'm smacking them across the room going to get your shit together.
Starting point is 00:04:44 The old XRP up. But here's the thing. Monday and Tuesday, this is what happens with crypto. For at least no reason that I understand, we took an old dip. like 20% like off the top. And they say they do that because the big investors like start, they sell something. They kind of create this swirl and people like the smaller buyers,
Starting point is 00:05:12 like the people that have, you know, $300, 400, 400 and $500, you're a few hundred dollars, but there's a lot of them. So it's a lot of money. They get nervous, they sell out of everything. As soon as they see it start dropping. So they say they do that on purpose because then the big investors swoop in on the dip. buy the dip Chris has said that a lot
Starting point is 00:05:28 and so I just watch it I didn't buy or sell just watch it because I know there's too many positives in this space happening that I knew the dip was temporary
Starting point is 00:05:37 oh we're back baby we're back hard here today on the record day I just finished reading a book all about like financial investing and yeah it's very interesting like how anything
Starting point is 00:05:50 that can happen like probably like when big stuff in the news happens things dip down or they jump, they skyrocket. Yep. And so the entire market was down. I mean, a lot of the ones I had were down 10 to 20 percent money and Tuesday. I'm just going, all right, whatever.
Starting point is 00:06:07 Again, I have in here what I can afford to lose. I don't want to lose it. I don't like to lose. But I'm not like, I'm not jeopardizing my kids' future here on the old cracking. But I will say this. So the entire market here today, we recorded on a Wednesday. So it is Friday the 13th for you when you're listening, hopefully, because you do listen on record day. We know our release day.
Starting point is 00:06:32 We know it. Our loyal ones do. The entire market is up 6% today. And let's just say I got 19% up, 20% up 10%, 12%. Like I'm averaging like a 10.2% up on every one of the ones that I own just today alone. And I'm just going to tell you that XRP, is the one you want to get on. It's $2.43.
Starting point is 00:06:57 It's expected to like double or triple here like next year. So we're all in on that one. XRP ripple. And don't ask, don't be sitting there. Somebody's listening and judging already. They're going, this guy's not a crypto expert. I am not a CRISPO expert. I'm just telling you if I was betting on certain coins.
Starting point is 00:07:20 And I do like to read a lot. I research everything. my wife. Whenever we're going to vacations, I do all the reviews. I read every one of them. There will be 4,322 reviews on TripAdvisor. I read 4,100 of them. And so knowledge absorption, I am good at. So I've been reading a lot, absorbing a lot, trying to learn a lot, because I like to make a lot. And so far, so good. We're up to about six grand. I have put in about 3,500, and we're right about 5,800 today. That's over about a month. So I've almost double.
Starting point is 00:07:56 You know, that's not, hey, not typical. These results are not typical. But when you're the crypto heavy guy like me, you know, you get lucky. I have no idea. I'm just, I sometimes choose the names because I like the name of it. It's a brand marketing guy. I'm like, that's a pretty good branding decision. Oh, my gosh.
Starting point is 00:08:17 You're just picking crypto because you're like, oh, that one sounds good. Chris will tell me if you, but then I pick the. one of the three that he gives me based on if I like the name. Yeah. You know, then I'll go read some of the data. And hey, here's the trick. Don't go to the first page of the search results on something. Good like page five.
Starting point is 00:08:36 Because the first page, I've, here's my strategy is the first page has been, let's just call it bought, which means they may not be, they might be giving you certain tips because they want you to take it as the sort of amateur our investor. So I go to page five of the search results and see what they say about certain coins. Hey, just an odd tactic. Don't know. But so far so good. Up like 80%.
Starting point is 00:09:03 So suck it. Crypto is so interesting to me because like there's a whole demographic of people that like won't accept it. Oh yeah. Real currency. I don't know if I accept it or not. I just accept that people smarter than me are standing. standing behind it and holding it up to be a good investment. And there's so much money now in it by the bigger, like, in, like, institutions that I'm like, okay, if these guys could be in it, I can, you know, I need to be in this.
Starting point is 00:09:39 It's not going to go to zero. Yeah. And again, you got to only bet or invest, whatever you want to call it, gamble, invest, whatever makes you feel warm and fuzzy. what you can afford to lose. Yep, 100%. When are you getting in, Brianna? You got to get in on this game. Guys, I have gotten my account on Coinbase, which was one that Chris recommended, all the
Starting point is 00:10:04 way to like the point where you have to like log into your bank account. But I don't know if I shouldn't say this on the podcast. I just don't know my passwords to anything. So I'm like, well, I can't log in because I don't know my password. It's just auto saved. Mason on our team and I had this discussion yesterday. we were doing something. The amount of time that I spend, like, looking up passwords and, like, dealing with, like, password
Starting point is 00:10:27 management. And, yeah, I know there's apps for that now, but they don't all solve all the issues. It's like, it's a pain in the ass. There's two-factor stuff. I get it. It's security. It's protecting us. I don't want all my shit taken.
Starting point is 00:10:39 But, like, damn. How could, how? In 2024, how can we solve the password stuff? Can we use retina? Like, something that's only identified by us. You know, I, I don't. probably give a blood sample to like like in the morning like a finger prick most people are babies about that i don't care of that. Give me that finger prick if i could if that would give me clear unlimited
Starting point is 00:11:01 passwords for the week i'll prick the finger. Oh my gosh. I would not. I would not and also I need all of your passwords too so I can't be pricking your finger every time I need you to sign into something. Oh damn it. All right. Let's let's figure that out. But yeah no I mean that's honestly my only hang up and And it's just like I just need to sit down for 10 minutes and do it. But, you know, I have other things going on. So you got to do it. Like when you wake up in the night, you need to like, you know, and you can't go back to sleep.
Starting point is 00:11:32 At least you do something productive. Yeah, exactly. Get in on that money. Well, what I've been working on every time I wake up and pick up my phone is I have a client right now that I'm really honed in on growing their social media. So every time I log in anything, I'm just like trying to grow this social. Well, we'll allow that. We'll allow that. It keeps the bills paid.
Starting point is 00:11:55 This will be allowed. What's happening in the news? So, a few different things. Looks like the big grocery store companies are suing each other. Albertsons and Kroger, they were going to do a merger. And it sounds like, according to this article from NBR, on Tuesday, a federal district court judge in Oregon blocked the 24.6. billion dollar deal, just basically saying it would monopolize the grocery industry and reduce competition, which would harm shoppers.
Starting point is 00:12:29 As soon as, so that was on Tuesday, as soon as that merger was blocked by the judge, Albertsons abandoned the merger and filed a lawsuit against Croker. So, interesting. You know, we don't even really have Crogers or Albertsons around here. Like, Croger's in other parts of South Carolina, Albertsons might be. but I don't think so. So this, like, I'm speaking, like, pure, like, local, like, impact, very little. I do understand these are two of the largest change.
Starting point is 00:13:00 I, you know, who knows? What's your reaction to this? Like, do you think they should block it? I mean, we had an Albertsons where I lived in California, and it was fine. It says Albertsons owns Safeway and Vons. Kroger owns Ralph. Harris, Harris, Teeter,
Starting point is 00:13:22 Fred Meyer, and King Shoppers. So you might recognize some of those names. So I think that's where it's more impactful. That's right. Kroger does own a bunch and the other names.
Starting point is 00:13:32 That's right. I don't know how an hour since messing up my Harris Teeter now. I know. I'm not jam. So, all right. This does impact me.
Starting point is 00:13:42 Damn it. It does. I don't know. The whole competition argument is a hard one to wrap your head around. And I do think choice is a good thing. I would need to see the list of like all grocery stores across the country,
Starting point is 00:14:03 all the brand names that fall under each one of these, if there's obviously, Croger has multiple. And think about what that would mean. Yeah. Well, I don't like, I just don't like the government getting involved in business for the most part.
Starting point is 00:14:20 So, and here's what their, their argument for the merger was that they could only together, only as a merged conglomerate, Kroger and Albertsons, only then would they be able to survive competing against Walmart, Costco, Amazon, and all of those. Yeah, and that's a, that's a good point. That's, I mean, Amazon and Walmart, between dot com and brick and mortar for Walmart is, they have such scale. So to say that this, you know, puts them at some competitive advantage over them is hard to believe. I mean, who has more scale than Amazon or Walmart?
Starting point is 00:15:02 So I don't think it, this is where I'd have to get into the data a little bit more. And, but now that they're like throwing mud at each other so fast, it's like that, I don't know that most people have a lot tolerance for it. And it's like, it just seems so fucking petty. Well, it is interesting here at the end of this article.
Starting point is 00:15:24 It says the FTC's case prevailed in U.S. District Court, delivering a big win to the outgoing Biden administration who made tougher scrutiny of mergers a central plank of their administration. Yeah. Let's see. I would be curious what, like, Trump's position on this is. Something tells me you wouldn't have fought it, being more prohibitive. business and probably more thoughtful of that Walmart, Amazon, everything else, reality. So we'll see where it goes. I think we can all agree that groceries costs too much for the most part.
Starting point is 00:16:05 So anything that can get it cheaper. Here's how I would pragmatically, I am for this or against this if it will lower grocery costs. You tell me which side it is. I'll support that. because, hey, we can't do what the independent center is trying to do. And that's further the American dream if our grocery costs keep going up. We talk about the American dream a lot. And I consider we're more well off than most Americans, but we feel it.
Starting point is 00:16:42 I mean, it's expensive. I go to the grocery store. I feel like I walk in and it's like I got a $75 pill, like just to grab. have the shopping cart. Oh, yeah. I can't get out of there. I have four things in the cart and it's like, uh, 43.79. What?
Starting point is 00:17:02 Yeah. Four items. I went into the grocery store last week and the brand of mayonnaise that I like to buy is almost $9 for a container. And so I sat there and I was like, hey, I have a coupon for this. Let me find it. And I was like, oh my gosh. Like this is crazy.
Starting point is 00:17:19 Like I'm having to like coupon but get my groceries. cheaper. And I feel like we are definitely living the American dream. And even then, it's like, it's still tight. I ain't too proud to use a coupon. I'm not pulling out a 50 cent coupon, but I see, but four or three, four dollars off, I'll put that in my pocket. I mean, you know, here's what will happen. I'm not too proud to use it, but I fucking forget it every time. I go, oh, dang it. I walk out of the store or get home, like, and I'm digging my pocket or whatever I did with it. That's how they get you.
Starting point is 00:17:55 You know, if not in the habit of like, I don't have the, man, you remember that woman that'd be in line in the shopper store, they'd bring out the wallet,
Starting point is 00:18:01 you know, like that thick, full of coupons. And, you know, I was probably, I haven't seen that a long time, but I would probably,
Starting point is 00:18:08 I didn't make fun of that. I was more annoyed because, like, I said, oh, God, we got to wait on her to use her coupons. That was not judging. It was more just like,
Starting point is 00:18:15 I'm, we all want to get through the line as fast as possible. Yeah, but, yeah, If groceries go up anymore. I think adds up there.
Starting point is 00:18:25 It adds up. So whatever brings grocery store costs down lower, I will vote for that side of it. We'll just keep it that simple. Yep. The American Dream feels increasingly more complex than 2024. Yeah. Hopefully it gets easier in 2025. We'll see.
Starting point is 00:18:44 If it will, if Independent Center has anything to do with it, go check out our partner, or Independence Center.org. Again, it's not about the right. It's not about the left. It's not like blue. It's not about red. All that shit. No, that matters.
Starting point is 00:18:55 Here's what matters. All that matters is that policy impacts your pocketbook in a positive way. And they're helping bring studies, surveys, voter data that kind of remove all the party bullshit and bring it to the people, which is what we need. Go to independent certior. or sign up for that newsletter. You'll be thankful that you did. And let's get the politics out of the way. Let's get the policies at the forefront.
Starting point is 00:19:25 What's next? Elon Musk, who we talked about, I think last week on weekly business news, that we were talking about him not getting this paycheck. And then now we're talking about this week, he has surpassed the $400 billion net worth mark. Wow. Yeah. So this is mostly due to SpaceX.
Starting point is 00:19:51 You know, it says, well, this is an article from NBC News and the value in Tesla has gone up. It's Musk's privately held stake in SpaceX that has catapulted his wealth beyond this threshold of $400 billion. It says that SpaceX is the most valuable private startup in the world. Jeez. I mean, in one way, I'm like, why is it worse so much? And then another way I get it because space is sort of the next frontier and where a lot of money spent and a lot of like security with like U.S. I don't get it. I mean, I think it's back to the a lot of the technology, the propulsion, rocket propulsion, all that stuff. I think the, I don't know, patents and everything that goes into whatever it takes.
Starting point is 00:20:42 And the fact that, I don't know, maybe we are going to colonize somewhere one day. And it's hard to know the economics, though, of why it's so valuable. Like, where is their revenue made? That's past my pay grade. I know, I think it's contracts with the government. And the fact that the government and NASA are pretty much relying on SpaceX now in a lot of ways. and you got to also remember being one trip up baby is like 10 million you know it's it costs a lot of money to bring all that together and all the fuel everything else you
Starting point is 00:21:24 that gets i mean you talk about up and smoke like jokingly but like is there anything more up and smoke than a rocket ship taken off it's just like when it's all the money that's spent making that happen and but all but we don't don't realize all the satellites, all the stuff that keeps us secure. There's a lot of stuff that happens in space with that we're probably a little, myself certainly included ignorant to that keep us protected and control some of our military stuff. So I can't totally get my head around what makes it worth 300 billion or whatever. But it's crazy.
Starting point is 00:22:08 It's hard for me to even like imagine what. like people way smarter than me have figured out, like how to put satellites up there and like control all sorts of things. Yeah. They might be the one sitting all these crazy drones everywhere. Yeah. That stuff's crazy. Like understanding how the most developed country in the world has things flying around that we don't know who and what it is.
Starting point is 00:22:38 Yeah. Yeah. Come on now. Like, we got all this technology. You can't. And we can't shoot those. I mean, I know it's illegal, like, shoot a drone down, I think. Obviously, for, I think it is.
Starting point is 00:22:51 Is it? Airspace, you can't. You're not, like, for me or you to shoot a drone down, I think it's illegal. But the government can shoot one of those things. Like, get out there and shoot it down and take it apart and figure out where it came from. So the drones, so numerous sightings of drones have been reported hovering all over New Jersey. Is that what you're referencing?
Starting point is 00:23:10 Yeah. Okay. So local and federal law enforcement have worked together to find some answers, but it's still kind of a mystery. I hadn't heard of this. Yeah. It's crazy. And they're all over it, but it's,
Starting point is 00:23:26 and I read an article like right before we came in, I debated bringing it up, but we kind of were talking about spaceships and satellites and all that stuff. So it read, they assume now that it's adversarial. I'm like, great. This is the same thing that happened with that balloon, remember? Yeah. I feel like we never got all the answers on that balloon either,
Starting point is 00:23:47 other than it was China and got shot down. And somehow it was drifting over here, a weather balloon. Shooting down a drone is illegal. See? I told you. Yeah. Because you know why I know? I got my shotgun out to shoot one out that was over our house a couple weeks ago.
Starting point is 00:24:05 It was because we had a huge parade here in Greenville. And there was one that was just hovering over our house because we're right downtown. And it was bothering me being right in my sort of airspace over my house. And I went out there. I was going to shoot it. And my wife quickly corrected me and said, you know, it's illegal to shoot a drone now. I'm like, you're kidding. Right.
Starting point is 00:24:24 It's kind of crazy that that's illegal, especially on your own property because they can be, they have cameras on them. So they could be taking pictures of, I mean, I don't know in the air. So that would be, it's to be the argument. Yeah. But I'm like, well. what keeps some weirdos from just flying your drones right up in your shit, you know? Like, I don't know. Or what if you have like a property out somewhere and?
Starting point is 00:24:47 If I had a property out somewhere, let's just say my wife wouldn't stop me. If I didn't live in downtown Greenville, let's just say that drone would have seen about a thousand pieces. I would have been like, kids, you got a gift for Christmas. It's called a jigsaw puzzle. It's 1,500 pieces. Oh, look, it's a DJI drone. He's got to put it back together. Yeah, it's like flying at the top of my house.
Starting point is 00:25:15 Like sitting like 30 feet up and I'm like, I knew he wasn't like, care of us about anything we were doing. And we were doing nothing but sitting inside watching TV. But I heard it. And then. But still, what are you like walking around your house naked?
Starting point is 00:25:28 I might have been. But, you know, I gave him a little show. I was thinking when I had a shotgun out. Oh, God. I'm kidding. Sort of. But no. No one needs that visual.
Starting point is 00:25:43 Yeah, I know. Shotgun. Are you kidding? Hey, this down like 25 pounds around here. I got a one pack. Come on now. Oh, gosh. But yeah, that drone stuff in New Jersey, they,
Starting point is 00:26:00 does it, does it blow your mind that, that we don't know what that, is or who's causing it? It's a little weird. Yeah. And that the FBI is saying like, hey, if you have any information, please report it to us. You're the FBI. You're supposed to know. Like, come on, man. It's going to sit flying around. Oh, me. But luckily, Elon, back to the old article, was worth $400 billion. Congratulations. I was worrying about where his next billion was going to come from. And good for him, man. It's a lot of fucking money. I mean, what do you? you can do with 400. I would take, I was telling Sawyer before we launched. I would take one of those. Yeah, one bill. One bill. You'd be all right. Yeah. A hundred, a hundred million. Was it?
Starting point is 00:26:47 A thousand million is what a billion is. You wouldn't even notice. Yeah, he wouldn't even notice. Not, you know, a million here, a million there. A lot of money. That's why what was he doing for the election. This shows you that's how much money there is to be made. You know? Like, that's why this cracking app is going to do it. You know, we're going to a billion, baby. It's that. Or, I mean, for all of our listeners out there, there's so many different ways to make a million dollars and to launch, you know, businesses or drive your business forward or 4X your business in 2025. Yes.
Starting point is 00:27:20 And we know a marketing agency that can help with that. Oh, yes, we do. Radical.compan. But you know what? Do you know how we're able to do it? Because we stay energized. You know how we stay energized? X marks the spot.
Starting point is 00:27:36 Yeah. Exponent. Hey, this isn't energy. This is fusion energy. You notice we're talking rocket ships. We're talking nuclear power. And we're talking fusion energy. Zero sugar, plant power, adaptogens, neutropics, electrolytes, all the stuff you want. None of the stuff you don't. X marks the spot. Exponent. This is the sector C. They got all the coolest names. Sector C here. We got Eclipse. Everyone's favorite is the blue ones at the office. It's like blue. raspberry or something. This is lemon, lime, and arms. We tried those new flavors on air. I'm ready for those song and I were talking the other day. We're ready for those new flavors to come out. Strawberry lemon stuff, whatever, all kinds of new stuff.
Starting point is 00:28:19 It can't be giving away trade secrets. But all kinds of flavors coming out. And again, the best part is, and I've been bad about this. So, you know, I drink a lot of energy drinks. I just don't like coffee, really. And so got to get that pep, but you need it to be healthy. Don't need all the bad stuff. Got to stop.
Starting point is 00:28:38 I got to wake up and read the labels. My good friend, Jits Molly tells me that, you know, you got to do that. So you read the labels and you go to Exbonate. Drink Exponent.com as well as on Instagram.
Starting point is 00:28:49 Go give them some love. And look, I only promote the products that I like and that I actually use. And there's no bigger user of energy drinks than this guy. So where do you think all this energy comes from? Oh, I want one of those right now. I had an ice cold orange one yesterday afternoon, and it just really helped me get through the day.
Starting point is 00:29:14 No, I was at work. Was there some vodka in it? What's your point? Yes. Well, what's the final article today? A growing number of U.S. adults are lacking literacy skills, kind of a scary one coming to us from M.B. DC News says, according to a study of adults by the National Center for Education Statistics, 28% of U.S. adults now perform at the lowest measured literacy levels, up 19% in 2017.
Starting point is 00:29:54 Let's see. It means we're using our phones too much. Yeah. I think that's what it is. Or it's the YouTube Nation, right? You're watching everything. You're not reading anything. And so...
Starting point is 00:30:06 You know, and if you're watching YouTube, that's fine. Just make sure you're watching the Radcast Network YouTube channel. That's right. You got to look that up. You got to see all the shows on our network. But I will say my wife would probably... Her school, like, ranks like one of the top 10 or 20 in the whole state. So she would call that out while also going.
Starting point is 00:30:31 This doesn't surprise her, I'm sure, with just... that it's sad though yeah like what why is it it makes you want to know the what the underlying reasons for this is it because of some variable you know what i you know what i would consider and i don't have all of the research on this but how much of this is because of immigration so maybe they are not illiterate maybe they just english is their second language and so maybe that could be part of it. Scoring low on these tests because it says that those are the lowest levels struggle with tasks like reading instructions, filling out forms or managing simple calculations. So I'd be curious to see if there's any data on that.
Starting point is 00:31:21 Yeah. What's said, whether when asked about potential causes for the decline, Carr stated that it's difficult to say. So further. Pun intended. He didn't have the answer. He couldn't read it out loud. Oh, sorry. That's the worst quote.
Starting point is 00:31:44 I know. It's like I read that. I had a double take. Like you when I said it out loud. I was like, is this a judge? Did he say pun intended after it? Like, what's the reason for the decline? You'll read about it later.
Starting point is 00:31:58 I couldn't really, I couldn't read the report. Oh, geez. Who knows? So the, uh, I do think, unrelated, related, reform in exactly how and what we learned that better match the world we live in today is something I could get behind. I have had this discussion with my wife. And it's not because I feel like what she does and what teachers and administrators are doing every day is not highly important. I just think there could be a better alignment to what are the skills and learning that,
Starting point is 00:32:37 you need in the classroom. Yeah. I think it's somewhat related to this. I mean, literacy and understanding the language, though, is a little different than what I'm suggesting, but it might go hand in hand in some ways because we evolve and maybe we need to teach it differently. I don't know. That's past my pay grade on how to teach it.
Starting point is 00:32:57 I just think what we learn, though, needs to evolve with where AI and all the other things that are happening are taking us. so that we are productive. Oh, I totally agree. And I think that there's, we have so much data and we have so much information. And there's no excuse for us not to be reforming the way that we're teaching things and giving students the best, you know, access to information and access to help and, you know, mental health resources. And, you know, all of these different like resources that we have full access to with, you know,
Starting point is 00:33:36 chat GPT and AI and everything that exists now and just making sure that, you know, young people also have that access and know where to find help and know, you know, how to, how to learn maybe for their own personality or their learning style. I think that there is so many ways that we can adapt to better serve our children. So I have big opinions on this. Yes. Agreed. Oh, lastly, I want to say today, you know, it's the biggest news story in the U.S. has been the shooting
Starting point is 00:34:06 and killing of the United Healthcare CEO. And that story is so, you know, we do one time a week. When we move to more, you know, multiple day news story, we'll probably cover more of that. There's definitely an impact business-wide, culturally. You know, everything becomes political today, including stuff like that. But the reality is that story is kind of unfolding. So moment by moment, I don't want to come on here when we record this and it's not live. and news already be out because it seems to be a very developing story.
Starting point is 00:34:44 And so, but my own thoughts are just some of the language and the reactions from certain news people and certain people about like in some way like thinking this is okay because they, you know, the healthcare system is broken and like all these things that taking another person's life and not. honoring that in some way is just despicable behavior and unacceptable. And I think this guy's complete, if this guy that's Luigi, whoever that got apprehended, ends up being the one, he's clearly lost a screw somewhere. And because nothing has made sense from what I've seen coming out on his background. But as a society to in any way. not acknowledge the crime when someone gets gunned down on the street and the severe like just the lack of humanity in that act is just unfordivable.
Starting point is 00:35:52 Well, I totally agree. And, you know, Brian Thompson is a man who, who passed away, who was killed. You know, and condolences to his wife and his family. I know he was married with young children, I think, or youngish children. And I totally agree. And, you know, I saw articles on it and, you know, I would go through the comments section of those articles. And the comments were very inappropriate on people saying like,
Starting point is 00:36:19 okay, what companies like CEO is next? Or, you know, just making comments on health care companies that they were saying that this should happen to them as well. Yeah. I mean, reprehensible. And so, yes, thoughts with his family. and, you know, with the authorities that are trying to get this handled in the right way and learn what we need to learn. But again, some things, there'll be things unfolded by the time this episode even goes live.
Starting point is 00:36:48 So I don't want to pretend, you know, that we have the latest, the greatest, other than it's unacceptable. And a true bad moment for us when people are getting, I mean, CEOs are accompanied getting gone down in the street. I mean, what is the, we're a civilized nation. And I know crimes happen every day, but this is unacceptable. It needs to be handled swiftly in the right way. So we'll see where it goes, but that's all I got today. Anything else today for Brianna? Nothing for me.
Starting point is 00:37:24 Great. Well, happy holidays. Keep saying it. Just, hey, you're halfway through December almost already. You got 12 days. If you're watching this or listening on the 13th. and so hey, you better get that shopping done. I'm not ready when you say it like that.
Starting point is 00:37:42 12 days. 12 days of Christmas. Yes, left. Aye, aye, aye. I know. Ryan is right.com. Find the highlight clips, all the articles, everything that we do on this show at the website.
Starting point is 00:37:56 We appreciate you for making it's number one. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll write about now. This has been right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit Ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.

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