Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - D.O.G.E, The American Dream, Google's billion trillion dollar fine

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

In today’s Weekly Business News, hosts Ryan Alford, Chris Hansen and Brianna Hall dive into a range of timely topics. They discuss the recent surge in Bitcoin prices following a political event, Elon Musk’s new government position, and a mishap involving Mattel’s toy packaging. The conversation also covers a hefty fine imposed on Google by Russia, sparking discussions about its potential implications and the broader issue of censorship. Blending humor with insightful commentary, the episode delivers an engaging mix of serious and light-hearted perspectives on current business news.Don’t miss the new segment, where Ryan takes to the streets to interview random people, asking them, “What is the American Dream and is it still attainable today?”TAKEAWAYS Recent surge in Bitcoin prices following a political event. Elon Musk's appointment to a government position and its implications. Mishap involving Mattel's toy packaging leading to an inappropriate web address. Discussion on the significant fine imposed on Google by the Russian government. Skepticism about the enforceability of the fine and its implications for multinational corporations. The absurdity of the fine in relation to Google's market value. Google's response to the fine and its impact on their operations in Russia. Censorship by private companies and its broader societal implications. Evolving concept of the American Dream in the context of modern career paths. The disparity between traditional career success and new opportunities in the digital age.   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.

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? Welcome to Write About Now. It's our weekly business news of the week here on November 15th, 20. 24.

Wherever you are, however you are, thank you for listening. We appreciate you. And I appreciate Mr. Chris Hansen. What's up, Chris? What's up, Brian? How are you? I am good here in a little chilly, South Carolina,

but I'm good. A little cooler today moving in. But, Brianna, how are you? I'm good. It was colder than expected this morning. I really wasn't expecting it when I walked out of my house with my jeans, got a little holes in my knees today.

Yeah, I know. Is it get this cold in California? Definitely does not. Not until like January. Then it gets, then it gets cold. All right. So it's a little early, but we've been spoiled. It's been beautiful here.

So I've been enjoying it. We have like 80 degrees. That's a funny thing in South Carolina. I go 80 to 50 really in a hurry. So nothing like talking about the weather. Everybody loves the weather. I heard that we have all four seasons in one day here. That's about right.

That sounds right. Chris, how sunny, Miami? It's been beautiful. Man, this is the best time of year. It's sunny, breezy. I love it. Does it hover right around 80, but the low humidity? Lower.

The humidity can vary. It's a little wet the other night. Still tropical, right? What's happening in Miami this time of year? Got our basil coming up in December. That's kind of what everyone's preparing and talking about. I'm getting a lot of buddies reaching out that are coming down and wanting to connect. I just have one thing to say, and that is that I will be wearing this cozy, warm, soft sweater.

Oh, yeah. For the rest of winter, as it is too cold for me here. Yes. Hey, it does get cold. Hey, oh, you're a spark too. We're both sparks, you know. And, yes. And, you know, you know how you stay warm, though?

You got to go to brand of bills.com. They've got all the merch you want. And look, hey, it's all about bills, it's about hats. But their hoodies and their t-shirts will surprise you. This is, I will, I don't just say this, you know, their sponsor, you know, probably know that by now if you've been listening to the show. But these are the most comfortable hoodies I've ever worn, if that perfect metal of softness.

And they aren't, like you can oversize it and make it fit how you want. but I love how they fit like not too bad it doesn't like I'm a big dude anything that's too baggy and I look like you know walking you know Barney the clown I don't know like just round and round and proud but it fits tighter on me at the size that I wear which I like it's fitted a little more fitted but still being a hoodie so anyway great merch I heard Chris that you actually got a package deliver yeah we're fine made it happen and it's honestly it's perfect timing because it's hoodie weather at night walking the dog and i consider myself a hoodie connoisseur and i will say these have that good weight to them like they feel

expensive premium you know you can tell it's quality and i love one on the inside of the hoodie it feels completely like you know like fleece soft buttery they are buttery so it's like post workout hit the shower throw that on could take a nice walk with the dog i am freaking chilling, man. It is, it's cozy. It's nice. I, too, do not like baggy because I look stupid because I have little legs. Have you been skipping leg day?

Hell no. I've been hanging. You miss leg day, bro. But like what Ryan's saying, I just don't look as like roly-poly. I just look more of like a tree top, you know, if I wear a real baggy, hoody. So, obviously, I'm rocking the Brandon Bill's hat right now. Another business of mine, vacay with Ryan. Literally, every hat I have in my house is Branden Bills because they're awesome.

Yes, that's what you see here on set. When we're here, I'll hold one up that's got a write about now logo. Send us a DM. We'll send you some merch. And again, go check them out. Brand ofbills.com. Click that button in the right corner. It says custom.

Give your brand a boost. They will customize it. That's the thing. They don't just throw your logo on it. They'll do something funky, fun, interesting patches, leather patches. Their design team is more than just a logo, throw it on their team. They actually design and they'll do some things and push the envelope. And they'll mock it up for you.

I had them mock up a couple months ago. Ryan was saying no beta men. So we had a mock up done of the no beta men shirts. So yeah, they're a fantastic team over there. Yeah, no beta men. And friends don't let friends order merch from anyone. But brand ofbills.com official sponsor of Right about. now.

Yeah. Tell, hey, you need to be watching if you're not watching. So if you're listening, we appreciate you. But you need to go check out the YouTube channel and or on Spotify. You watch the video because you need to see. And I want Chris to explain his glasses, which make him look really cool. But I think there's a specific use for those in there. The blue light blockers.

Yes. Yeah. It's a very important topic. You guys should get educated. We have a show called Vibe Science. and we just had a great guest on that told us all about it, Andreas Christo. The UV light can play a lot in your circadian rhythm,

and that's, I, me, myself, learned a lot of lessons from it. So, do go check out that. Have you noticed a difference? Because I've seen you in pictures and, like, on social. And when I catch it with you, I see you having one, but we're on video.

So have you noticed any difference? I do feel like yesterday I was pretty consistent. And this is, again, I'm experimenting. This is my first time doing this, really. I did feel a little bit more calm into the evening, you know, kind of like my body was adjusting to the natural rhythm, right, of the sun and the moon. Yep. So I do feel like I was feeling a lot more relaxed and ready for bed earlier than I usually would.

I did notice on TikTok your breakdancing rhythm had gotten a lot better. So is that the kind of rhythm it improves? Yeah, baby. Whatever rhythm you want. Circadian breakdancing rhythm. But it is right. We know blue light is bad. We said our phones too much.

Can't hurt to rock a pair. Yeah. No. I will say this. I'm going to age myself. You guys probably don't remember this. I'm the old man in the group. But they had this infomercial back in the day,

either late 80s, early 90s, blue blockers. And they were these big, huge square like bifocal. And this was early, man. This was late, it was early 90s. Go look at it. Blue blockers.

They were a thing. They were the ugliest big, bifocal looking things, but I think my dad had a pair. 1995, whatever it was back in the day. Oh, that is a vibe. They got popular again in like 2008. Yeah. But I mean, I think maybe they were ahead of their time doing a similar thing, right?

I don't know. They were. Who knows? Those infomercials, some of them out, you know, some of those products actually turn out to help. And then they're not just end up in the, I'll tell you what, We were a yard sale family. We had yard sales like three times a year.

You know, that's what happens when you're poor. You have yard sales a lot. And so, but a lot of those informational stuff would be in our yard sales. Like, my mom and I had average suckers, I think, for that stuff. And then I think it passed on to me because I'm kind of a sucker for that. Oh, man, look at that holds 8,000 batteries case, you know, like that looks so like organized, but you never put those things in those things. They just haven't a drawer.

The crappiest drawer ever. Like, everybody's got that drawer. Oh, yeah. Everybody has a camera. Don't act like you don't have that drawer. You got that drawer.

Oh, I do. Mine's bad. So this was that night. I got a tray in my kitchen instead. Oh, man. Your keys and everything,

but it's like a mountain of keys, mint, pocket knives. Yep. Yes. We've got a drawer and a tray. So. Oh,

drawer and a tray. We have, look. We have four kids. There's six of us. We have like five of those drawers. Yeah. One in every room.

I'm a pretty neat person like on the surface, but I have at least 12 of those drawers going on. You know, like. You open up the doors and the chaos. Everything falls in, you know. I think that's my mom taught me that or something. Because I'm going to my mom's house. It's spotless. But if you look around enough, you'll find a closet.

It's like, don't open it too fast. You never know. Oh, what's happening in the news? Well, we are doing good here in the U.S. I've got a record-breaking Bitcoin surge to 90,000 on Trump's win. It's actually interesting because Chris had told me in us and all the listeners to invest in Bitcoin and pre-election. I noticed that it was trending right around 75,000. I think we talked about it last week. And I was like, oh, I should buy some or whatever. And I didn't.

And then yesterday I got the notification. It was up to $89,000. And I was like, dang it. Could have made $10. Get off the sidelines. Get in the game. You could have bought 0.001 of it. I know.

Chris, what are we at now? We still holding it like that 89. 90 or is it gone back down? It's ripping today. I mean, honestly. Honestly, Dogecoin is the real big hitter right now. Yeah. I mean...

Would you get in on it? Yeah. Honestly, I just took a much larger position in it this morning. Oh. So... Here we go. Yeah. I decided to jump in a little heavier myself, you know, because I've been in it for a while now.

And I got the conversation with my family last night. You don't need to be complicated, right? Get on Coinbase. Set it for $20 a week into Bitcoin or whatever it is, like you would an investment fund, and take 10% of your income and do that. And just chill. And you know, check every month and you're going to be happy. Yeah.

It's funny because last night my mom goes, how do I get into that coin base account you set up for your father? If it looked at him four years, right? Four years ago, they're like, how do I get out of this thing? So, again, history repeats itself. Everyone's happy again. And then you're just talking about everyone wants to buy it. It's not too late, people.

set your tiths for Bitcoin. Yes. Say your prayers, send your tithe and set it and forget it and walk away and look back in a year with this administration that's pushing it. And Elon Musk around and see what happens. Yeah, speaking of Elon, we have Elon heading up the Department of Government Efficiency. Hmm.

Doge it is. Yep. How awesome that it just happened to work out to the acronym. What are the chances? Yeah, I don't know. I was actually wondering if that was on purpose or a coincidence. Oh. It was convenient that those,

because I think that's similar wording to, what I think he was going to have Elon do no matter what. But you, shit. Nothing's accidental. They're like, dude, I'm just saying we can capitalize on this. Yeah, marketing. What do you call it borrowed interest? Borrowed interest.

Yeah, shared interest here because good for both. High tide raises all ships, both directions. You know, they want good marketing of the new department of government efficiency. And then, of course, the Doge coin going up, I'd like to know privately what, how much doge trompones. Yeah, I'd like to know, too. I don't think we'd ever learn that. But I bet he had some. The team did bring it to my attention that Elon, he made a post on X, says the Department of Government Efficiency, the merch will be fire.

Oh, you know what? You know how the government, you know how the Doge department could get started? Invest in Doge and use the earnings to pay down the national debt. Yeah. Brilliant. The memes. Yes, gamble with government money. The memes are amazing on X right now if you are not seeing them in relationships.

to Elon and the election, they're hilarious. It just goes to show you, like, I mean, with like, Eon, he didn't take himself too seriously. Like, he posts himself with the gold chain, like, doge on it. Like, he's, I think at some point, because I'm not sure he was always that way, like 10 years ago. I don't know. I'm not saying he wasn't brilliant and different and all those things.

But I feel like he loosened up and just said, I'm going to embrace all this shit. and, you know, and own my different. And it's worked out for him. He is, like, showing us kind of a lovable side of Elon, which I'm enjoying. Yes. He's a dork, and I like it. He is.

So I want to see what the Department of Government Efficiency. He's doing it with Ramsovae? I can never say his name, right? Vivek. Vivik. Vibik. Rems. Something.

Someone say that that's better than me. Ramoswamy. I love the guy. I just wish I could say his name better. Ramaswami. Yes. Yeah, he's cool. I like him.

Every time I see him talk, I'm like, that dude's smart. Yeah, it looks like, so they'll be regulating federal spending in a statement released Tuesday. Trump referred to the new agency as Doge Department of Government Efficiency. And it says, it's not clear whether this entity will exist within the federal government or outside. So we're going to have to see. what the two of them come up with. Yeah, I, uh, I'm, I'm, I'm here for it. You know, like, let's try something different.

Like, we've been doing the same shit in politics and in government for, you know, 100 years. Like, let's, let's try some different things and see if, you know, some true entrepreneurs can figure it out or if, hey, they might all cry uncle. He might all probably cry doge and go home. Politically. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be really interesting. Romo Swami here said we will not go gently in a post on X.

And then Elon Musk said, this is going to send shockwaves through the system and everyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. Well, anyone who's been to a DMV knows that. Oh, God. Not in South Carolina. They're so fast here. Hey, it's gotten better.

Oh, yeah. Oh, you should go to one in California. Used to be, they, I don't know what happened. It's like five years, six years ago maybe. I mean, it used to be probably what you experienced. And they entered, put in the number system and take a number and all that. I don't know. Somebody got that shit in order.

They should get a raise. They really did because, well, I went into the DMV when I went to transfer my license from California to here. And I walked in and she was like, what do you hear for? Like the lady at the front, what do you hear for it before you even get to pick a number? And I told her and she was like, okay, do you have this, this, this. does in this. And I was like, nope, she's like, okay, go. Like, you can't even get a number.

You're not even getting no, no suit for you. I mean, they're the number Nazis, you know, like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no license for you. Like, it's like, they don't mess around. They know what you need. They're like, we're not, don't get in these lines. Because it used to be a model of inefficiency. I'd be behind 10 people and they'd get to the thing and Aido didn't have what they were supposed to.

And they got that shit in order. I give them credit. Yeah. I'm thinking, you know, the government got right in South Carolina. The roads, let's not go there, but the DMV. The roads aren't that bad. Are you kidding? No, they're not that bad.

Come on. They're really not. All right. You don't drive a sports car. Don't drive my Audi. Yeah. Yeah. They're not bad if I'm driving my husband's lifted tendre.

They're fine. Yeah. My road driver has been in the shop and I can't wait to get it back because I'm done with the Audi in these roads. Interesting news. article here to share with you guys Mattel, the toy manufacturer, they had to pull a bunch of

their Wicked dolls off the shelves after somebody misprinted the web address that's on all the packaging. So it was supposed to go to Wickedmovie.com Oh boy. And it went to a different web address

that was showing it looks like adult entertainment videos. You had, this is like on ESPN they have a segment you had one job to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Like the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, it's hard to believe it's a mistake. I thought that's where my mind instantly went, you know, my conspiracy theory brain. But then if it was like Cinderellamovie.com, okay, I could kind of see how this was a mistake. But being wicked, do you think, okay, they paid somebody out. Like, no one did a double check on that before they, like, we're like, all right, let's send it to the assembly. line. Let me just say this. I used to like my first job, you know, how things change. But I worked on my first marketing job with Verizon and I proofread brochures. I literally did junior A.E. Like 200 page fine print

brochures and other things like that. And that went through tons of checks. We got a lot more right than we did wrong. And by the volume, our percentage was awesome. However, you would be surprised at how shit like that can and does happen. I'll just say, now, we never, luckily, I probably wouldn't be sitting here today, printed any porn sites on any of those. But at the same time, there was a couple of ads that actually went out that we worked on that were print ads like newspaper. And it went through to the top of the mountain to the bottom, like the food chain of people looking at this and proofreaders.

And you'd have a word with like 40 point font and it was misspelled and no one fucking caught it. It was like once in a blue moon. And it's like, I don't know. I could believe the conspiracy totally. But at the same time, having worked on high volume, like high profile stuff like this, you would be surprised. I think they probably just put Wickedmovie.com or whatever, and everybody just assumed it was right. One person probably put it on there and nobody ever double-checked it or typed it into Google. But, yeah, don't put out adult entertainment sites on children toys.

Not a good, not a good look. No, please don't. I thought this one was interesting. Russia has decided to find Google. An amount of money I don't even know how to say. It has, it's a two followed by 36 zeros, the equivalent to around 20 billion trillion trillion. Man, that's quite a lot of money. Here's where my head went.

Is this enforceable? Will they ever see a penny of this? Like, I get that Rose has a lot of people and Google's a multi-continent, you know, multinational, corporate global brand and provide services in these countries and is liable on some level. I just don't think they're going to write that check. No, no. It's very interesting. You know, I think that especially like, you know, with this number, yeah, to your point, like, is that enforceable? That's not even a number that wouldn't even fit on a check.

I don't even know. And even Google, I don't think, has that sitting somewhere. Like, they have a lot, you know, more money than God. But, you know, like, it's, they don't have that much. I don't think. Well, it says that this number is significantly larger than Google's market value of $2 trillion. That's what, yeah. Well, it's larger than the entire global economy.

The global economy is $110 trillion. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, this is $20 billion trillion, trillion. The funny part is Google's response. Google referred to the fine in its recent earnings reports mentioning ongoing legal matters. So, you know, you and I and anybody, we have some ongoing legal matters. Those things can be very different. You both have the time and money to stretch this indefinitely.

Yeah. The rest has got a lot of money. I mean, don't mistake some of this dumb shit going on over there. Like, there's a lot of money over there. And we, but here's what they said. The company noted, we do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect on earnings. Oh, it would be like the equivalent of me getting like a $2 million fine from the government and being like, eh, not really going to affect much.

Maybe. But all that tells me is they know that they're never going to write that check. Yeah. And it sounds like they ceased most of their operations in Russia. And, you know, they're not going to probably go back to doing business there. Yeah. I mean, was Google like if you search for Russia, like, were they putting up like pitchforks or something? Like in the search results?

Like Putin and like, you know, Satan, like having, you know, lunch together. Like, what earned the fine this high? I guess just. I think they said that it was. blocking. They were like blocking. Ah, okay. You're censoring pro-Russian channels. Oh, wow. Then what's the fine in the U.S.

for censoring the Rogan Trump episode? Exactly. So honestly, Russia is being a good model of what we should all be thinking about. Yeah. Yeah. Private companies are censoring vital information from the public. Yeah, that's right.

Hmm. Hmm. That's just Google. No big deal. Well, it is interesting. I mean, this is a number that most people can't even fathom Americans searching for the American dream. Yes. Do you like that segment? I did like that.

You know what it is. It's a number big enough to get us talking about it. If it was 20 million, we would know one would even pay attention. Yes. It's almost you have to be so ridiculous to create the conversation. I mean. The American Dream has become different. We're doing a segment with our good partner,

Independent Center. And we wanted to bring it to life here on the show and really thinking about what the American Dream is today and how attainable it is. I mean, when you hear those things, Chris, like, what do you think? I guess I'm going to ask you to think about it from two sides, like you personally, and then maybe what your sentiment might be

for what other people think. I know I'm not asking you to guess, but maybe just your, assumption of what people think the American dream is? I think the assumption of the American dream is what we you know what we grew up thinking right, a house, kids,

dog, you can pay for your kids to school, debt free, right? At least that is to me. Well, I have larger dreams than that. And I feel like I'm just not cut for that life to be honest with you. I've tried to

domesticated life. Yeah. I mean, everybody's dreams different. You know? Right, but I do think it's much harder to attain with the tools we were taught in the resources, right? And that's where I think forward thinking. I had a call this morning with the younger guy who's just launching kind of his own company and doing fitness training and stuff like that. And he's talking about, do I do a T-shirt? I said, no, dude, you.

You're the brand. Because if you're pursuing that and you're building yourself, you can do all that other stuff, right? if people know who you are and you say this all the time, you know, the power being known, where I'm like, you know, a supplement, all this stuff, plus from an earning standpoint, I always think of residual, right? That's the residual income is going to get to the American dream faster than one off, two off stuff. So, you know, I think, I still think the American dream is the American dream. I think it's, I don't even know if I want to say harder to attain. I just think the way of getting there is changed and we all need to pivot

and learn new tools, explore new things. I mean, even in the marketing world, everything's evolving, changing. AI is coming into play in every industry. So it's, you need to just be actively pursuing and trying to learn and evolve with that. You know, nothing stuck in time. So you just got to change up your perception. Yep. I have some thoughts.

I'm a way to. Brianna, what are your thoughts on here? Okay. So I think I have a unique perspective on this, right? because I've been married, I've been married for five kids, five, hello, la, kid, I have five kids. I have been married for five years. I have two kids.

We just bought a house this year. We, you know, have been saving up to be able to do that, you know, college-educated couple. So we did everything, quote-unquote, like, right, you know. And like how we have been raised, go to school, get good grades, go to college, then you'll be able to get out of college, get a good job, buy a house, have. 2.5 kids, get a dog, go on vacation once a year, save for retirement. That is what I would argue has always been the American dream, that you can, whether you're an immigrant coming to America

or you are born and raised here, that that is the pathway to success. Go to school, get educated, work hard, you'll have success. It is not attainable in that way anymore. It is only attainable if you are smart to your point, you can pivot, you can open a business, you can become an entrepreneur. Because here's the deal. In America today, you could make $7 million becoming a YouTube star as a six-year-old playing with toys faster than you could go through the path of becoming a doctor or a lawyer, you know, or any other kind of profession. And so that seven-year-old or six-year-old who, you know, made $7 million on YouTube is more successful, potentially, than somebody who's spent 25 years honing their craft and becoming, you know, a cardiovascular surgeon. So how do you rectify the fact that the American dream is just different now? Yeah.

I mean, it's different, but I think it's also a slippery slope that that's still a one in a million. Like, yes, it happens. but like let's use Ryan, the kid that has all the toys and the YouTube and all that. It's multi-million, 20, 30 million now, maybe more. Yeah, there's a handful of those examples, but there's how many million children in the, so yes, you can. There's a lot of different ways to do it. But I think the glamour of that sometimes outweighs the reality of doing it is sort of the danger.

I can understand how, but I think the equivalent would be like our parents watching someone that was a gifted athlete that was a more clearer path to like the wealth that you're talking about 30 years ago. Like that's still a one in a million athlete that had that path. And now there's more channels. But I do think, I think it's a combination of what Chris said, we do have these tools now. And anyone can unlock them and go watch YouTube. videos or come watch some of our content because we talk about it a lot and learn how to make themselves more known. And if you're willing to do that, if you're willing, and it's not for everyone. Not everyone's going to take advantage of it because either self-doubt, either worry

of judgment or I'm not good enough, like, or whatever it is, that's fine, but it's an equal opportunity. It's just as American as anything, the opportunity to become your own And I hate the word personal brand, but your own microphone, because you couldn't buy your own TV ads, you know, 20 years ago. You couldn't afford to do that. But we have this democratization of awareness generation that you have with social media, which allows you to then get more likely, I mean, to hit the jackpot socially like you described, that's a lot more likely if you're playing the game.

Yeah, definitely. And you learn the game. So, and there's nothing holding anyone back from doing that. You mean, cameras are easy. You just got to be creative, want to do it, put stuff out there. And I'm not saying it doesn't take more creativity than that, but it's equal opportunity. I mean, is what's keeping you from being more social, like giving yourself more at bats to that? Yeah.

Well, and like everything, I think becoming successful with the American dream, it's just like a, you know, repetition, right? Yeah. If you do it over and over again, eventually you'll become good at it. But if you try something and then it doesn't work right away and you give up and you keep switching gears, then it's going to take you a lot longer to get there. My bigger issue with like, you know, what I was going to say like with the American dream is, I don't want to paint with the too broad a brush here. but this is my perception and not how I feel. But, you know, there used to be the saying with the American dream, and it was kind of like with the, you know, what can you do for your country?

What can you do? What can you add? Like, be additive. And in finding the American dream, you know, you do a job that adds to the greater good and yourself. I feel like we've come to the what can the government do for me. Yeah. To help. How can the government help me reach the American dream?

It feels like we've gotten a little bit like the younger generation maybe. And again, I don't want to paint too broad of a brush. This is just my perception at a really high level of, you know, well, the government's in my way of the American dream or the government's not helping me reach. Well, the government was not put there to necessarily help you reach the American dream. It was just stay out of your way. And so, but to govern and keep things licensed and agree to that, you know, for just a greater good. And so we don't really supposed to be reliant on the government to reach the American dream.

The only thing that was promised, you know, is promise to everybody is right, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And, you know, pursuit being the right word. Yes. Pursuit is something you do. That's not, not that's handed to you. Yeah. It's not handed to you or expected, you know, And I think, again, that's not everyone, but I think there's a fair amount of people, though. They're like, I don't, I haven't been given what I needed to reach that. Well, and I think that people have a different baseline. This is my perception, in my opinion, but I think people have a different baseline. Everybody assumes that they are owed housing and a car and food.

And I don't think that that was necessarily the belief in maybe our parents. generation, it was like, well, if you want those things, you better work hard to get them. Otherwise, you're going to be on your own on the street. And now it's like, oh, well, somebody's going to provide that all for me. Yeah. And if those basic needs are met, you have a less incentive to work hard. Yes. I think you're right.

I mean, I have certain family members. And I mean, I hope my, I don't feel like my kids are this way, but they certainly could be at times where I've had certain family members that absolutely like, you know, I'll be getting a car. I'll be getting it. I'm like, okay. Like, you know, I certainly asked for one and my parents helped me help me out on the first one, but I don't know that I was like guaranteed, you know, to be given it. If the moon's aligned and my grandmother's car's available, I might get lucky. Yeah. Well, and then how many people are, like, hurting their children without realizing it because they're making the path too easy. for them. And this is a topic that has come up, you know, for me in parenting over and over again,

is that if you take all of the adversity away from the next generation of children and of people, and you take the adversity away, they don't know how to handle rejection. They don't know how to handle hitting a wall. They don't know how to problem solve because, you know, the adversity's never been there. They haven't had to navigate their way around it. Yeah. And I think it's going to be fascinating. I'm actually going to play a few of the street interviews that I did where we asked this question to people that just randomly on the street. You know, what is the American dream to you and is it still attainable today? So take a listen to those now. All right, man. What we think about the American dream today? I think it's alive and well. More exciting than ever being American

at the time to get stuff done is right now. He's got to be creative and thoughtful and make stuff happen. Remember, the more you can do for other people, the more you can get out of life. Love it. Love it. And how attainable is it today? It's attainable as you're going to make it. I mean, there's always been challenges in this world. And Ryan, there will continue to be challenges,

no matter what you think. Challenges are going to happen. There's a book I like to read called Rhinoceros Success, and it talks about how in life you used to get up every day and go as hard and as fast as you can and realize trying to get some bar every once in a while calling you. Just keep on going and get up and do it the next day. We need more guys like this guy.

Yes. That's what I'm talking about. All right, ladies. So what do we think and what does the American dream mean to you today? To me, it is equal opportunity for people, not necessarily equal outcome, depending on a lot of variables, hard work, where you come from how much you're willing to put into things. But to me, the American dream is everybody has opportunity here. It's a free country. Lots of freedoms we can take advantage of.

The question is will you? Love it. Yeah. I mean, I kind of would bounce off that, but I think ownership. There's a lot, especially in Greenville, we have a lot of entrepreneurs. I think having ownership in your business and your life, taking control of, you know, how much you're making and what you're able to do with that. And just having the opportunity to do so, I think, um, it's in our degree.

So, yeah, check that. Those were fascinating interviews. We've been enjoying that. We really enjoy this segment. It's brought to you by independent center.org. Go check them out. Sign up for their newsletter. You'll get all kinds of interesting.

I was actually looking at one of their latest. polls. They asked millennials, you know, something specific to the American dream. And it played in line to a lot of things that we were talking about. But I did, I was sort of encouraged by the percent that still felt like they could go after it. I thought it was going to be lower than that. So that's a really interesting. They send out that poll data. Go to independent center.org. Check out the newsletter. Sign up. All you do is give your email and zip code. They'll get it to you. And they don't over email you. This is like every couple weeks. If it's, interesting stuff. It's not about politics. It's about policies and what the American people think. Independent Center.org brought to you this segment about the American dream. Very good. Chris, any final words today?

Ever and have a good week. Buy your cryptocurrencies. There you go. Set it and forget it. Breonna, any final thoughts? Go doge. Go doge. Doge for the win.

We appreciate you. Find us at Ryanisright.com. Highlight clips, full episodes, links to all the social media. Hey, tell a friend that you listen to us and pass the love on. We appreciate you. We'll see you next time. Right 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.