Yannis Pappas Hour - Are Xi & Putin Billionaires? | YP Hour

Episode Date: November 16, 2025

Yanni breaks down billionaires, when they rose, when they fell, what enables them, what they contribute (and what they don’t). Plus, a hard look at whether Putin and Xi are solidly middle class… or just a bit above. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. You can see me on the road in Bozeman, Montana, November 22nd, Stanford, Connecticut, December 5th, and 6th, Austin, Texas, December 11th through 13th, West Nyack, New York, December 19th through the 21st, San Francisco, January 2nd, and 3rd, Calgary, Alberta, January 9th, and 10th, Michigan, Royal Oak, which is Detroit, January 15th, through the 17th, Morris, Plains, New Jersey, February 7th, and unfortunately, Bakersfield, California, February 20th, and 21st, all tickets, at Janus Pappascom.com, that's where you could come out and experience me live. You can experience me live not doing this. I don't do this. So this is an odd place to promote. If you only watch this,

you're going to go, I don't want to see this live. And I wouldn't want to either. What I do is stand-up comedy. I'm a comedian. This is my side job. Is it more of a job or is it more of a hobby? If we look at the final balance sheet, you'd say it's more of a hobby. But we all have to be amateurs. The word amateur comes from the word for the love of the game, for the love. So come see your boy. Come see your boy. Young language, come see you boy. Today we're going to be talking about something light. You guys want to go light for dinner? You want to get a little sushi, just one or two rolls? Whenever I say I'm going to go light, I get 10 rolls. So I go light, but I go big.

Whenever I say I go light, I'm going to get a salad. And then I get a side of burger. That's what I go light. Do you guys want to go light? Let's go light like Yanni goes light. You want to talk about something just non-controversial. Let's talk about something that can unify us all. Is there a thing?

Is there a thing? Yes. And we're not doing it today, but there's one thing. and that is Keanu Reeves. The only thing left that everyone can agree on, right? Great guy puts his hands out when he takes pictures with girls, rides the subway, right? Excuse the limelight, just chills is to himself.

His wife's got gray hair, right? I think his wife is his age, which is like, what? You're in Hollywood and your wife is your age? Talk about breaking the mold. Talk about breaking tradition. Talk about the Martin Luther revolution of dating in Hollywood. Breaking from the pack. Talk about a real revolution.

His wife is barren, has gray hair, and is his age or older. And he's Piana Reeves. A beautiful hybrid, a beautiful hybrid Asian mixed with weight whose acting skills are above par. But we all respect the commitment. We all respect knowing he must have had to do some awful things to get cast in some of his earlier work, as all child starts have to do. I like to call that the Corey's rules. Something must have had to go down. that made him a quiet, reserved man.

And it probably had to do with something inside of a slacks and belt buckle that he doesn't want to talk about. But that's the only thing we can agree on is Keanu Reeves. Can you think of one other thing that's not polarizing where you're going to get a group of people to hate you? That's just the era.

I think when Dane Cook came out, everyone loved Dane Cook, and then you just saw people hated Dane Cook, right? And then I think that was just Dane Cook at that point. Like everyone loved and then hated. And then the internet was just like, that's just what we're going to do from now on with everything. Right? Because you're not going to get any traction if you just come along and you say, I'm a fan of something.

But if you come along and you say, I have proof that Taylor Swift is running a underage child sex slave operation, I'm stopping. I'm stopping. My neocortex knows it's not true, but my reptilian brain wants it to be true. That's what we're doing, right? You leave a major network, you start a show, you go, turns out chemtrails are real. And you go, I didn't hear that announcement. And you go, well, we're living in a post-Ebsteed world. Nothing is being told to the people that is true.

And you go, go for it, baby. We have free speech. There's no veracity laws. Is this dangerous? I don't know. I tell you what, we're either going to have to go authoritarian or we're going to have to educate people quickly. Which one of those two things do you think is more viable? Which one of those two things do you think is more realistic?

Are we going to educate each and every person to think for themselves and to use scrutiny? and to do their own research, which you don't have to do much of, to realize that maybe this isn't true. And I even feel like I have to say maybe because I'm on the internet. I don't know. It's all up for grabs.

I mean, he did have a guy on who claimed a convicted con artist who claimed to have smoke cracked and had gay sex with Obama. So things have changed. a little bit since the Fox News days. We go from Nick Fuentes to some geo-engineer who says they're hiding the truth from us, baby, and chem trails are real. I don't know what they're doing up there.

They're manipulating weather or something, or they're spraying us with chemicals that are very harmful to us, because that's what they want. I'm very confused. We got certain oligarchs who are saying we need to reproduce more. reproduce more. And then you got other ones saying that there's a whole conspiracy to kill a whole bunch of us with chem trails. I don't know.

Are the chem trails over a Jewish neighborhood? If they are, I don't believe the conspiracy. Just like with the vaccine. Did the Israelis use the vaccine? Then it's safe. That's how I go. Right? So today we're going to talk about billions.

And it's true. I can't think of one thing that wouldn't be polarizing besides Keanu Reeves, right? Doesn't mention anything about politics, keeps to himself, says when he does interviews on late night shows, he says thoughtful things, he's got like a shy kind of, he's got like a molested glow personality. He seems like he's been molested into being introverted. You know those types of people? like people are you introverted it's like nobody just is automatically introverted something slams their personality back into their body and it's usually traumatic everyone when they're a kid you don't meet any quiet kids even those kids said one thing loud and somebody smacked them and they became an introvert nobody's just born an introvert people want

to dance have you ever met a dog puppy who was an introvert no they want to play but what happens is you start playing and someone goes, sit down. This is a white's only playground. And then you become an introvert, right? Or they go, hey, I'm from, I just immigrated from Pakistan. I want to play. And they go, okay, you dress like you just got out of the shower. You go over there. And then you become an introvert. You get bullied and you become an introvert or you start taking jujitsu lessons, and you become the person who you're scared of. You become Batman, protecting bullies. Just like Tucker Carlson, nicotine's always done good for me.

I've been on the air for 40 years, plenty of energy. So, I don't know. You tell me. Billionaires is the topic of the day. Something that is in the milieu. something that is constantly in the zeitgeist? German words, by the way, could make a huge comeback. We're going to talk about billionaires.

What is the deal? One billionaires. I would love a Seinfeld to ask one-liner comedian who instead of talking about soap dishes, talked about billionaires, that would be great. Wonst and genocide, but with one-liners, just misdirects. I have nothing against joke writers, misdirect, but like, if you're a misdirect guy, if you're one of those guys who performs tweets, don't talk about other comedians.

Just don't. You don't reveal anything about yourself. You know, you go up there and you do tweets, and I like it. I can watch it for 10, 7 to 10 minutes. I can be tintillated by the wordplay, but you're not revealing anything about your yourself, there's nothing really truthful, honest about it. So don't, don't, don't throw stones in other people. Okay?

Because who knows? You may be in the closet. You may not be who you, you may be hiding behind a persona. You may be cosplaying a confident, masculine guy with dirty mad libs. So don't fucking throw arrows because you may get arrows back. And I do like that type of comedy. I do. minutes. Once you get the formula down, you're going, this is tickling my cognitive, my cognitive

capacity. This is tickling me cognitively, but I want to feel something, baby. I want to feel. Let me know about your pain. Okay, John Mullaney. I wasn't referring to John Malini, but I'm saying John Malini, I want to hear about the drugs. And when he did that special, that was finally the special where I was like, I felt that. When he was like, I was a drug. I got. He's like, that's you. That's you, baby. Stop giving me to fucking late night Johnny Carson on network. I want to know about the Johnny Carson who was stumbling into garbage bags on the way home and had to have his assistant drive next to him because he's fuck, told him fuck you, he's walking home when he was the most famous person in the country.

And he would go to Dangerfields and squeeze wives' boobs in front of their husbands because he was drunk. That error's over. I don't think you could be that guy anymore. Like, hey, I'm Mr. Perfect. I don't think that's possible because we all know Mr. Perfect or whoever is being all buttoned up, the more buttoned up you are, the more you're hiding, right? We just know it now.

Vince Champ, don't curse on stage. but if you're on a college tour make sure you sodomize students stalk them and sodomize them and then make you pray with them afterwards but don't you dare say shit anyway that's a tangent I don't know where that came from

and I don't even know who I'm referring to just don't throw stones if you live in a closeted house if you live in a closet, don't throw stones. I am an evil billionaire. We may have to cut all that. Billionaires are an interesting thing, right?

Some people say the richest man on the planet is Putin. Here's the beautiful thing about Putin. We don't know. That's why I dig him. We don't know how much money he has. I assume it's a couple of shecks. I assume the kids got a couple of bits. He got a couple of Bitcoins.

I would assume, but we don't know. He's never on the list because he's officially the state leader. But people say he's worth like trillions of dollars because he has sole control over Russia. and they're a, um, they're a, you know, gas. They're a petrol empire. Um, but his public disclosures, and this is how beautiful and perfect and neat, you know, someone with a communist conditioning is, right?

He only earns $140,000 to $175,000 a year officially. So when he does his taxes, That's all we're talking, sweetheart. We're talking, he's a friend of the working class. He gets it. He gets it, dude. He's not some guy living in a $5 million house screaming about Luigi. He's not some guy.

He's just, he's the working man still. He is just a upper middle class guy, but only in 1996. Because make zero mistake, you make $140,000 to $175,000 a year. You are solidly middle class in any part of the country that matters. If you make $140,000 a year and you're in Kansas City, congratulations. Start a fucking harem of sex slaves. But if you're in New York and you make $140,000 a year, prepare to shower in the kitchen.

Putin doesn't even make enough to live in. Williamsburg. And that's what you got to love about communist authoritarian countries. And there really haven't been any countries that are communist and not authoritarian. They go hand in hand. They go hand in hand. They go hand in hand. You can always count on them to say exactly what they mean. Right. So when Putin said, we're going to Ukraine. train to denazify it, you can make sure that that's what it is. And when he says I make $140,000 a year, you can make sure that that's what he makes. And then when he changes it and he says, we're invading because NATO is threatening us,

then you can be sure that that's what it is and it has nothing to do with his need to reacquire trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and dollars of produce in the form of rare minerals and fucking bread and all the other shit. Pipelines and the list goes on. Tech infrastructure.

You can be sure. Now, Xi Jinping Xi Jinping. he is modestly worth just a little more on the books. He's only worth only a net. He only has a net worth of about one million American dollars, the equivalent.

That's all he's got. It's got one million, dude. Just one million bucks. I mean, this is a guy who you have to split the check with. It's only got one million. Now, one million dollars gets. you what gets you a junior one bedroom in brooklyn jing pink hassan piker who is fucking oh he's in china at tinaman square um would like me to believe that jingping is officially worth only one million

bucks. What are the chances? Who, what, what, what is, what, what, what, what, what, what is, what, what, what, what, what is, what, what, is hidden wealth, maybe around 700 million. Who the fuck would suggest such a thing? I tell you who, American propaganda about China? That's who. American propaganda, baby. Putin, same thing. That guy is, worth how many years he been in power he's worth a couple of hundred thousand dollars that's the great thing about authoritarian communist dictators you can they they're very they're into openness they're into people saying what they feel they're into being open and honest with you about things they run their countries open because communism is such a good and beautiful system that everyone can freely express themselves and have opinions. For example, if you don't like

something Putin has done, all you have to do is write an article and publish it. All right? And just make sure you live in a house that doesn't have windows. You want to do it from a windowless room. Xi Jinping, if you have something to say about Xi Jinping, it's such an open and beautiful society and everyone tells you how much they're making honestly and how much they're making honestly and how much they're worth, honestly, that you can say, Xi Jinping, I don't like when people disappear and come back with a molested glow. I don't like how Jack Ma just stopped talking. I don't know what happened.

And that's only something we heard about that made the international press. I don't like the fact that the numbers on how many people got COVID is fudgy. I don't know. Why? You say only seven people died from COVID in the country, but I lost 15,000 members of my peasant. village family, is there something not being reported right? You can say that because communism is an open, loving, honest, altruistic society where there's nothing to hide and there's no force needed.

The only reason you need force is because of America over there trying to noodle in our shit and our perfect utopian society. Right? Like David Koresh had created a perfect utopian society where everyone was fucking happy. And who ruined it? Who ruined it? United States government.

Down there in Grenada or wherever where they killed the senator who went there. What was that? The congressman who went down there. In the Caymans or whatever one of those islands I didn't know Indian people lived in. Do you know what I'm talking about? you know what I'm talking about

Jim Jones, baby Jim Jones had a perfect utopian kibbutz it was perfect what ruined it fucking America snooping their nose in there

some noodling family member who hadn't spoken to their daughter in 20 years ruined it R Kelly had a perfect utopian society where young 15, 14 and 15 year old girls with R&B dreams.

Dreams of being a star. Contacted him and he said, I need you to come live under my tutelage and never talk to your parents again. Throw out your phone. Don't leave your room. Move when I tell you to move. And don't forget to eat my shit out of a bucket. When I film you being degraded sexually.

who ruined it of course the fucking fbi i america is a categorically evil i've been to all countries and let me tell you where the cops are the worst the cops are the worst in western more west you get the worst they are okay all right i went to time square and screamed screamed a slur i wasn't even arrested. I got punched in the face, but I wasn't arrested. I did no time. Nothing. I go to China. I have my phone out at a protest. I get stopped by a bunch of police who want to look at my phone. Which one is worse to you? China, they do keep you safe. And here's the deal. If you want to come to China, if you're trying to escape to China because your country's war-torn, guess what?

Guess what? The door's double-bolted. It's double-boated. They don't take too many immigrants from the Middle East. You can get a visa for employment, for students, for business, for family visits. You must apply in person at a local exit and entry administration where they put a bug in your phone.

It's always very open. All the communist countries have always been very open and they let you be who you want to be. That's the best part. There's a harmony between the individual and the group and it works perfectly. and innovation is through the roof. It's through the roof.

And I like talking about China because we live in this culture now where, you know, trolling and saying something really outrageous is where people are at because they know that's what gets people to talk about them, right? So if you just say these boring old things, like, yeah, you know what?

I think Hitler was a bad guy. Oh, but the Jews, and you go, all right, even if you hate the Jews, he killed other people, too. So even if you're the worst anti-Semitic, you know how many anti-Semitic people back then hated Hitler? You know what I'm saying? People think it was just this Jew thing. He went and he killed Russians. He starved. He went into Poland.

He went to Czechoslovakia. He went into Greece. He murdered all my relatives. None of them were Jewish. A lot of my relatives, without a doubt, didn't like Jews. They're Greek. They don't like anyone. Jews are definitely at the top of the list.

But you know who they hated more than Jews? Hitler. Because you know who never invaded their country and took it over? Jews. I can't remember one country that Jews took over. In the comments right now, they talk over the country of Palestine. Okay.

I don't even want to get into that. No empire. No proselytizing. No force conversions. These are things people romanticized. Now, it's not down so bad. You know, when someone comes into your house with a gun and says, you're Muslim now or else we take your daughter and we cut your head off.

That didn't happen. It was all side by side. It was this fucking, it was just fucking Muslim expansions, a morning stretch. It's one of the wildest things about history in American universities. The more you learn about, you go, how come none of that was in school? because nobody wants to appear

as I'm not forbeck even though you're not saying anything about them that the Christians didn't do we all did it anyway back to China which is what I love to talk about and I've taken some notes and you tell me

you tell me and I say we're in this era now because people are saying like these outrageous things trolling and you know and they're doing it for visibility because this isn't going to get viewed just like reinforcing what is? It's just because there's nowhere to go

and people need, this is an economy. People's checks depend on their outrageous takes. So nobody's coming back to reason because there ain't no money in reason, baby, there's money and emotions. Look at my numbers. You'll see. So when we talk about,

about China. China is a very interesting example because China was a country that was communist. Mao, millions of people died under Mao, right? Millions of people starved to death under Mao. Dissidents, goodbye. You didn't agree, you're gone. But that doesn't have the same cachet, you know? Like, it's, it doesn't have that same evil cachet as, uh, other people, the cause

celeb. It just doesn't have that same, you know, you got to really murder people for them to be dead. In order for them to really be dead, you got to murder them. You can't just starve them to death. So we go from 1949 to 7, 1970. Now that's Maoist China, okay? This is 30 years after the communist revolution where we have zero billionaires, no billionaires, zero.

They don't exist. There's zero private companies. All wealth is owned by the state, and Mao probably took a paycheck of $53,000 a year, and that was it. That was it. because you know if you if you have all the power and you can assign yourself whatever like if i have my company you know what i like to do is make sure my employees are making

just as much as me that's fair i don't go to bed at night and go what the fuck am i doing i go you know what that makes sense we're all equal in this So there's strict inequality, of course, strict and equality, when I mean strict, I mean strict. But you can say that the equality is at a very low level, right? People are pretty much all the same poor. As per yuge, the economy is mostly agrarian, agrarian. There's a few state-run factories, of course. The government owns everything.

There's no private markets, none, no entrepreneurship, no foreign investment. communist paradise communist utopia for 30 years is this not data I just want to reference the last episode how is this not data how can we rationalize this is not data what was the United States doing

CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA CIA is bad can be bad they also can be good Right? Like most things.

They've probably prevented a lot of bad things from happening. They've also done some bad things that didn't turn out great. Because that's reality. More of a mixed bag than anything. I mean, even Hitler loved dogs. Everyone's a little bit of a mixed bag. I give them points for that. But that's about where it ends.

But CIA! But here you have it. You have your 30-year run. And what is the outcome? The per capita GDP was extremely low. Among the poorest on earth. Among the poorest. Top five, top ten poorest.

Massive famines during the grape leap forward. And when I say massive famines, it's estimated tens. You know, have you ever noticed the bigger the number, the less emotionally connected you are to it? Just like with Mao? We all become mal. Tens of millions, millions. Tens of millions of people died at this time from starvation. The levers of communism were not motivating people enough

to feed their fellow man out of love. Because the only person who loves you is your fucking mother. They don't tell you that in the communist mind of Festo. Frederick Marks Frederick Engels and Karl Marx were a couple of fucking latent homos They don't tell you that either There were two boys who liked to hang out with each other

And fucking had plenty of time to do it Because they came from rich families Just like Lenin and Trotsky And Castro and Che And to a certain extent Mao Who was middle class but like had more than most And the list goes on I respect Xi Jinping because at least he's a Manchurian candidate.

The communists killed his father and then raised him up like a janissary. He's basically a Chinese janissary. And then he became the thing that killed his dad, which I love his story. He became Darth Vader. Like seriously, right? Is that analogy wrong? It's not wrong. We'll research it in a second.

But his story is very fascinating because the communist took his father, threw him in a re-education camp, you know, fucking killed him. and then they raised him. So he's basically a Manchurian candidate, which is so fascinating to me. But, so tens of millions died, not a big deal, right? Cultural revolution seemingly destroyed education, science, and expertise. We don't want anyone excelling. We don't want anyone learning any new stuff.

Very paranoid about outside influences. And we'll get to that in a second. Black markets flourished. Whoa. What hapah! You make prostitution illegal. What happens? Black market.

What happens even if you don't make prostitution illegal? Black market. Why? Why? Have you met people? Has anyone met people? Has anyone met a person? Has anyone met another human being?

so black markets flourished they did um so everyone was all the same poor no billionaires and all equal but no prosperity obviously then we get to ding joping ding jopin ding dong ping pong comes in and he says let's us Some people get rich first famously, right? That's his quote. He comes in and he gives the green light to create Chinese billionaires. Right. So China introduces what?

Capitalism. Market reforms, special economic zones, entrepreneurship, foreign investment, which they welcome in. Remember, when they're communist, they want that out. It's not just CIA, CIA, CIA. it's get all that out, keep it out, close it down. We don't want anything corrupting our society. We want the whole world to be communist, you know, and if they're not, keep them out.

Private property is introduced. Whoa, nobody had their own crib. Nobody had their own crib. It was the government gave you a unit. And what do you know? A stock market. And the government gave incentive and you know what incentives are?

Shuckles. Financial motivation for innovation. What was the result? Again, this isn't data because of CIA. CIA something. CIA, Kessinger, CIA. Fucking CIA. China went from zero billionaires in 1980.

We were both alive. We were both alive. for this transformation. That's how short it was. And in, this is crazy. In 43 years, they have the second most billionaires. Yes, your beloved communist country,

Hassan Piker, has 600 billionaires, the second most in the world behind the, you guessed it, red, white and blue, just like at the Olympics. Fastest economic growth in,

human history becomes America's factory, right? They grew at 9 to 14% per year. Hundreds of millions of people were pulled out of poverty. Hundreds of millions. It's like the universe. When you get numbers that big, people can't grok it because it's the universe. So they prefer their genocides to be in the 30, 40, 50, 60,000. That's the outrage when it comes to, that's the,

thousand, you know, 1.5 Armenians killed, you know, by Turks. It doesn't really, it's too much. Once you get to a million, it's too much. They like it in a nice 30, 50, 70, 90, 300,000. Once you get millions, one million Greeks forcibly removed from their homes that they live for in thousands of years in Anatolia, it doesn't register, right? It doesn't register to Hassan Piker when he's saying, I don't like any quasi-ethnic states. You go, aren't you from one?

So chronically poor villages transformed, obviously, into manufacturing hubs. And Chinese billionaires founded Alibaba, a good friend's squarehead, Jack Ma. And I think he has that head because while he was getting rich, they still put his head in a vice. Pony Ma, intestant, Ziyomi, howie,

B-Y-D, electric cars, ping-ang insurance. These companies made China a major tech player, private companies created nearly 80% of China's urban jobs. The government, you can quite literally, needed billionaires in order to survive. China would have been prime for a revolution or everyone just fucking living in mud and dead. Why do you think they did it?

Why do you think they had, why do you think they opened them? Why do you think Bing Ding Dong did that? You think he did it to be altruistic? He did it because desperation. Necessities of other invention. He's going, we're at the point where these people are going to just come into my foyer.

They're going to store my foyer and murder me Because you notice those guys always live pretty chill I've never seen a communist leader who's living on a rice paddy Have you ever seen one who's just chilling in a rice patty With no shoes and wooden sandals You know stirring Eating fish heads or whatever the fuck they eat Dog meat?

Not really So they built the largest middle class in the world, the largest middle class in the world in 40 plus years. I'll say that again, the largest middle class in the world. Of course, there was urbanization. That's capitalism's all about. And with that rising incomes and a inevitable improved life expectancy. People started getting a little bit more bang for their buck if you want to make time, the ultimate currency. But, of course, inequality crept in. Now, is inequality inevitable? I'm trying to think of something where it's not. We eat the same meal, right? We eat the same meal. I shit solid, you shit liquid.

You ever have that happened? Me and my wife have had the same meal and she goes, is your stomach hurting? And I go, no, I got better genes than you. My shit's a rock solid. And she's got diary. When is there equality? Can you, can you name me one place? One, where is their equality? Have you ever gone to two pizza places and gone, this pizza is the same? Same pizza, two people making sauce, how different could sauce be? But somehow, for some reason, one is much better than the other. I guess orange, oranges? Is there a better? Yes, some oranges. What are the women doing when they're moving them around. Where is their equality?

I don't know. I don't know. I'm asking. It's not a rhetorical question. I'm hiding the rhetorical question, just like Putin and Mao hide their real worth and pretending this isn't a rhetorical question. It is a rhetorical question. And I love rhetorical questions because they're just an asshole's way of state and a fact. Can we just be honest?

about what a rhetorical question is, it's just an asshole's way of state and a fact because he knows he's got fucking retards listening to him. So he's trying to protect himself a little bit. Where is there inequality? You ever get a fucking bunch of bananas? You sift through whichever one's not black

and there's nothing to do it race. You want the fresh or what? Not saying extreme inequality is good. That's not what I'm saying. Why do I even have to qualify. So from 1921, 1924, China, much like the United States launched a campaign to reduce billionaire power, rain in big tech, redistribute opportunities, and it wiped out hundreds of billions

in market value. So the dance begins. The dance begins. So now China is obviously trying to engineer. or like some sort of like hybrid version. Well, it's always been a hybrid version, but they're trying to go for rich and equal. Good luck with that.

Good luck with that. Seriously, good luck with that. Good luck with that. I hope that works out for you. Let's see if we can get rich and equal. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see if we can get everyone holding hands as they run the race.

It's just everyone hold hands and run the race. And good luck with that. That's what they're going for. Jack Ma disappeared for a while. Do you remember that? Let's see how they do. How is China doing now? So I went through the lists of billionaires,

and of course, every single one of American billionaires was Jewish. Of course. And if he's not Jewish, he's hiding it. We figured out a way to make them Jewish, because it does not compute to me if they're not Jewish. It just doesn't, right now, it just doesn't compute. And I was surprised at how many weren't

and that the first one wasn't. I just, it didn't compute to me. I don't know about you, it didn't compute. I was like, what? Who the fuck is John D. Rockefeller? And where's his Yamika? Where are these Zionists? 1916 you get the first American billionaire

His name was John D. Rockefeller He owned Standard Oil It was an oil company And at his peak He owned 90% of American oil Little extreme Definitely a little extreme

But they say if you adjust for inflation I think John D. Rockefeller is still considered maybe the richest guy of all time, right? Then you have Andrew Carnegie, or as I like to call him, Andrew Carnegie Berg, Andrew Carnegie Stein. You know he cut his name.

He was worth about 300 Billy in today's money. Then you got Cornelius Vanderbilt. Again, Vanderbilt Steinerberg. And Henry Ford, Henry Fordleberg, Henry Ford, big time anti-Semite. J.P. Morgan, another Jew. There was no Jew billionaires back then.

These were all good old fucking Catholics and Wasps. And this was equivalent to the tech revolution now. This was the industrial revolution, right? So you had these barons. But this was the period. of the late 19th, early 20th century and then of course we have the mid-century

when furniture gets very uncomfortable I mean really nice looking in Danish but very uncomfortable everyone's smoking cigarettes and sitting uncomfortably in chairs drinking whiskey very hot right because they're wearing like wool suits

in summer. A lot of sweating I imagine a lot of feet problems walking in shoes. Nobody's allowed to wear sneakers. We have major antitrust laws between 1930 and 1970, and the government breaks up monopolies. They tax top earners and estates were taxed extremely high. How high? How high? What do you think how high is? Do you think it's 72% at the top? How many Mondami voters do you think know that the top 10% percent?

percent New Yorkers pay 72% of all the taxes. You think they knew that before they cast their ballot? How much higher can you go? I mean, how much higher you would go than 72% of the taxes? 82? Will that fix it? Let's try it. We'll see.

We shall see. Some of the stuff is just easy to bet against because of the data. It's like having a friend who fucked you over like a hundred times and being like he's different this time my good friend communism is different this time but he's not a communist cut the bullshit okay nobody can say they're a communist and get elected but if you look back at some of the things he said like we're going to seize the modes of production i don't like capitalism and what are we talking about here i didn't say he said it he said sees the means of production in a tweet when we seize the modes of production

these kids love communism they're trying to see what they could get away with um but loving communism is like loving it's like loving a uh a blanket that you think keeps you safe it's like thinking that if you know everything about aviation you're not going to be susceptible to a plane crash. It's a idea. That's what it is. The more I control this situation, the less chance I have of being hurt.

You got to let go. You got to go with the flow. You have to have radical acceptance. So they do that in America, and I didn't tell you the number. In World War II, the top earners and its, states were taxed 94%. They were able to keep 6% of their money. And of course, there was a global

wealth destruction from these two wars funding it. And after that, there was almost no billionaires. They were gone. And wealth inequality, of course, temporarily decreased. Which, you know, I guess. Yes is nice. I mean, I don't know. I mean, does this guy having a, this guy having a billion dollars make me feel better about if he doesn't and he's here with me? What does that have to do with me? We're going to talk about all the things billionaires add. It's a mixed bag is the point of this episode. Okay. The point of all my episodes kind of have become like, where does binary come from? It's very childlike thinking. It's very freshman year of college like thinking, you know the discussion is not starting from an adult place have you noticed that

it's starting from a place of the some guy going Hitler was cool and then the discussion started come on the guy had rid that's where it's starting from so then 1980s and 90s come and you know we got the finance boom technology boom and then again the Republicans come in they lower taxes operations. And then by 87, we got a billionaires list, right? Because they invent the internet, which is often what billionaires do, which creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and transforms your economy into one that works in the modern world and leaves other countries behind, right? We were the first there. Bill Gates, Microsoft, Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, Sam Walton and Family Walmart, and the Koch brothers.

Again, no Jews. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, San Walton, and Coke. This is a fucking Jesus Fest of billionaires on the Forbes list initially. No Jews still. In the upper echelon billionaire, I'm sure there was maybe a Jew with one billion. So we go from... And now in 2024 to 25, we have something like 2,700-plus billionaires. So the Internet, the stock market grew, private equity, of course, expanded on the back of that.

And other countries started creating billionaire classes in the same way. China, India, middle class. China, India, and Middle East. Sorry, I say middle class. Middle East. Middle East starts to have their billionaires. Oil! And then we finally get some Jewish names.

Jeff Bezos, not yet. Have, uh, start singing it. Nagila have, uh, Elon Musk. Not yet. Have, uh, Mark Zuckerberg. Uh, Larry Page, Mazeltoff. Sergei Brin. But then we got some finance and hedge fudge billionaires.

No mazeltoff. Ray Dalio. Hey, how you doing? Ken Griffin. Hey, Griffin? No mazel. Luxury goods. Bernard Arnold.

No mazzle. And then, of course, Jack Ma, pony my, zong, shan, shan. And here we are in this new era of billionaires. We have wealth inequality, of course. We got large donations to politicians happening from that class. But from Rockefeller, really, to now, you can go over a lot of philanthropic good that was done for the world, the country, by billionaires in global health, education policy, right?

If you choose to, if you choose to see the whole picture, you know, billionaires have founded AI, space industry, green energy, biotech, crypto and web three, which is very volatile and I still don't understand. But some economists do say that by 250, we might see some trillionaires. And Elon Musk now could be the first trillionaire if he delivers on what the shareholders say you need to deliver on. And if you do, and you may. make us rich, we'll let you be richer than us.

But if he doesn't, what happens? He gets zero of the new package. Is that what it is? So it's an incentive base. Centive-based promotion. So over time, it's estimated that billionaires have donated like $1.5 to $2.5 trillion foundation grants, endowments. You know that from going to.

museums and I mean the list goes on um uh warren buffett has donated 55 billion dollars to mostly to the gates foundation so you may not like that for a bunch of reasons i'm sure the gates foundation does do some good as well um and bill and milling the gates vaccines vaccines i know malaria sanitation education i know the bad gets the spotlight or the controversial gets the spotlight, but sanitation and education is good. George Soros. 32 billion to Antifa. Under the moniker of democracy, human rights, and universities.

McKenzie Scott, you could just put the son of the Bill Gates fucking umbrella. She's donating 17 billion of her husband's money to 2,000 nonprofits. Chuck Feeney. no frisbee he gave way 100% of his wealth this guy and he operated

anonymously for decades giving away his wealth good guy Michael Bloomberg Havana Gila 17 billion Zuckerberg Hava Nagila

6 to 8 billion Mark Zuckerberg can give away a little more for the amount of fucking damage he's done to society Azim Prenji has given away 10 billion and has pledged to give away

21 billion, and he's not in America, he is in India. So on average, billionaires donate about 3 to 6% of their total wealth over their lifetime, but very few give away 50% or more. And yes, billionaires do hide their wealth in stocks. Yes, they do. So it's a mixed bag. It comes with good and bad. But over one, Trilgin has been pledged, global health.

Poverty relief, education, scientific research, arch and culture. I mean, think about how much Epstein gave to the universities. Right? I mean, the Cosby Show was still good. Am I not supposed to like the Cosby Show? I can still watch the Cosby Show and separate from him. Epstein's money, no matter where it came from, did some good at some universities.

But of course, they also used their money for, political influence, tax breaks, all that shit. And they hide their money in stocks, not cash. We all know that. So can some things be done to even the playing field a little bit more? Yes. Do billionaires have to do something? You should before your Stoyer gets, your Foyer gets stormed.

I combined Foyer and Stormed. Can we do that? We can make it. This is the era of Stor, Foyer, Stoyard. You're going to be steward. You will be steward if you don't figure out how to make it, make it, all your customers, you've got to make them a little more happy. Give them a little bit of a buyback.

Every bartender has to do that. You got to give a little bit more of a buyback. So, I don't think they're inherently good or bad. You know, they've done a lot of good, just as much good as they have bad. And I think the bad is less intentional than the good in a lot of ways. It's just a consequence of wealth being able to continue making wealth because of the system. And maybe that's a big flaw in capitalism. We know the flaw in capitalism is at some point, you're going to have to break up the party, right?

You have to reshuffle the deck at some point. You have to break up monopolies at some point. at some point inequality gets so bad which is probably where we're at right now where you got to restart the monopoly game

you just have to do that to some degree you have to do something or give everyone I don't know create a income do something but I don't think

we should be putting them down like dogs they've done a lot of good especially the ones that let you know how much they're worth, right? Who don't hide it. So it's one of those things. It depends on how you look at it

and what end of it you are on, right? So if you're broke right now, you're going to hate billionaires. But if you weren't broke right now, you wouldn't care as much about them. It's all personal interest. It's all, your perception is based on your situation, tied to your interest.

Much like if you were a billionaire, you'd put your wealth in stocks too. Let's not lose our humanity here and start demonizing. Don't, if you were born Muslim, you'd be Muslim. If you were born Christian, you'd be Christian. We're basically just like our parents or friend group. And if we're not like our parents, we're definitely like our friend group. We're wired for connection, not for truth.

We're wired for connection, not for efficiency. AI is wired for efficiency. We're wired for connection. It's deeply tied to our. need to survive. We survive in a group like we have for hundreds of thousands of years. So billionaires do create wealth for others.

They do create jobs. They do create entire supply chains, ecosystems for small businesses, right? It all, people start, it's a it's like a planet it starts to have many satellites around it and let's be honest when it comes to innovation and the need to push forward what is your confidence in what the government will do right what's your confidence that the government what do you have you ever Have you ever wondered that a senator may not be on the most up and up

because they don't have term? You can't really get them out of office, right? Government's hard to fight. It's a big slow moving fucking cruise ship where everyone gets their guaranteed pay and nobody's incentivized. When it comes to innovations, break up. like AI, vaccines, which most people that think still think are good. Electric cars, spaceflight, that's all billionaire created.

E-commerce. Things that remade the economy and saved us in some way. Maybe you could say, oh, it saved us because we shipped the jobs overseas. Yeah, okay, but they're overseas. So what do you want me to do? At the time that all this stuff came, they were overseas. So they gave us something else to do. Play cards online, go gamble on Kelshi, podcast.

We gave us ways to make money and make a fucking living. Some of us adapted, some of us didn't. The ones who did it, we know how they vote. The ones that did, we know how they typically vote. They want to keep what they have and not give it to them. And those people want to take what they have and give it to themselves. I mean, can we understand this? like we're fucking sitting outside of social club on the fucking street,

because that's what it is. And I'm not saying it's good or bad. I'm just saying it's all too human. Who is more likely to take risks to try something new? The government or someone trying to get rich? Who's thinking more about long-term horizons? The government? or someone trying to get rich?

Why so often is Spake's X fucking flying around and rescuing astronauts and fucking giving war-torn countries, internet, and all these stuff that someone who's in the anti-Elon Tesla owning club wouldn't admit. Mixed bag. But ultimately, yes, wealth inequality does create. some instability and it's destabilizing and we've got to do something. But can we start the conversation from a realistic place, right? Not a political slogan place, not a reactionary devoid of data place.

When you say you're going to raise the income 2% on people who are already paying, 72 to 74% of the city's taxes. Was that well thought out? I mean, if the whole country becomes what you are, that's the only way it's going to work because a lot of people are going to go, I like my lifestyle. It's time for us to go to North Carolina.

Again, look at Seattle. Is that not Dana? I want to do it like Sebastian Bada Scalco. Seattle, what happened in Seattle? That's what happened. The transplants left after they voted. You know? For fucking bail and run,

whatever the fuck they did when the guys come out and they raid the right aides. They come on and they just fucking raid the right aids. The business is left because of all the riots and shit. This stuff doesn't make the algorithm of the left-wing paper.

They don't travel a lot. But you see what happened? I remember going downtown San Francisco even like six, seven years ago. There was people on the street. There were stores everywhere. Now it's like, I'm barred it up. They're all gone.

All the companies pulled out. And guess who's left holding the bag? Native gays and hippies. Not all the tech transplants that came in. They just went to Austin. They went back to D.C. After they came in and they voted and they voted their conscience. And they voted and they voted to agree with the people.

They were hanging out at the bar. Well, they went back to their $7,000 a month apartment. But they were able to do it with a straight conscience because they said, I side with him, but oh my God, there's a guy in the street following me. But also, we have to do something for the poor. Let me go back to my fucking condo and think about it over a glass of wine. And then when the whole thing goes bust, I'm going back to Washington, D.C.

I'm going back to Bethesdo, where my parents are to be a little closer. My parents were having kids. So I'm moving back. That's what happened in San Francisco. Businesses left. Transplants left. Natives were held left holding the bag. Crime, homelessness.

skyrocketed. They recall the DA, right? Progressive San Francisco is like, enough of this shit. What was his name? Pepe Lippe Lepew. They recall him. And they say, enough of this shit. I saw a guy shit in his own hand. He was eating out of a fucking ramen bowl, his own shit. And that was it. The internet right now has Gen Z. who, are, have been raised by robots. This is the first generation that's been raised by robots. They spend more time with a robot than they do their friends or they do their parents.

They're more, spend more time here with a robot conditioned by a sociopathic, not even sociopathic, a psychopathic robot. That psychopath has given them sociopathic tendencies. And as you can see, they're both great. gravitating towards very destructive erstwhile used philosophies. Nazism and communism are back. Remember when we look back at our cringe photos from college, we had baggy jeans, we were drinking 40s,

and we were listening to Chris Cross. When they look back at their old college photos, they're going to be doing this in their fucking sickle red, shirt. Want to give a shout out to for the free. Art music in Hawaii. Go check them out. Local bands, artists, shows, Forthefree.org, go peruse the site. Nate Linder. Check out his podcast, entrepreneurship unlocked with Nate Linder. Or go to Indigo Labs Agency.com for your marketing needs. Want to give a shout out to rebels dash raters.com. New copy. I love new copy. All his gear uses NIR resistant. That's near infrared solution dyed material.

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