Episode 83- The Future Isn't What It Used To Be

Rich kicks off the new year and  talks about what we could do right and what could go dreadfully wrong in 2021, and where there's hope.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to Richard healthy's common bridge. The fiercely nonpartisan discussion that seeks policy solutions to issues of the day. Rich is a successful entrepreneur in the technology health and finance space. He and his wife, Leslie are also philanthropists with interest in civic and artistic endeavors with a primary focus on medically and educationally underserved children.

Speaker 2 0:23

So, Brian, Hey, it's January 3rd. And we finally

Speaker 1 0:29

Made it through 2020 Reggie. Yes

Speaker 2 0:31

We did. And now we're going to go on to YouTube. The podcast has been doing pretty well. Yes, it is. We're happy about that. And look, I think we've got a great year coming up. There's certainly plenty to talk about. We have some terrific guests and thanks to the guests and the audience. We now get about 1300 downloads a day and that's rising when over 200,000 downloads and many of that happened in recent months. So, you know, I think that there's just going to be a pivotal time in the country in the world, and it feels good to be participating in it in some small way.

Speaker 1 1:07

Enrich you serendipitously picked an amazing year to develop your podcast. I know it started in 2019, but 2020 saw the real explosion if you will, of your audience base. And, um, it's really been, you know, obviously a, an historic year with COVID and the elections. And also anyway, how we usually start these, what do you have for us today? Rich?

Speaker 2 1:33

Well, you know, some things just haven't changed that continued to look at the Republican party and the democratic party and say, I don't think anyone reasonably can say that the answers to the issues of the day or the way to seize the opportunities of the moment is resides in either one of those parties. They're still continuing to, uh, attack each other. Uh, although in a bipartisan way, both Mitch McConnell's and Nancy Pelosi's houses were vandalized over the weekend, I guess we're uniting on something or somebody is uniting on something someplace that would be biting sarcasm, Brian, for what it's worth, but that fundamental is still there. And that's what the common bridge is about. And people continue to be frustrated by the news reporting that they, their lack of trust is taking small problems and making them frankly larger. And that's something that we're better people than the news reporting or the parties. And, you know, we look, we may be coming out of COVID-19 perhaps. And, you know, I think about the future and we've got a lot of things exposed in terms of how we're doing for healthcare and education and commerce, and people's ability to have a, a better future and improve their life. Um, we're going to put up an essay from a friend of mine, Peter McElroy on the website about it being okay to try to build a better life for yourself and your family. And we want to make sure people have those opportunities. And we are at the intersection now, something that I think pretends a lot of change. So I think about, you know, who are some of the great philosophers and of course, Charles Kettering, who said that the opportunities of humankind are eliminated only by imagination. But so if you have imagination that there are 10,000 fiddlers to one composer. So I think we're going to continually be looking for leadership. And of course, no matter of philosophy would be complete without Yogi Berra, who said, it's very tough to make predictions, especially about the future. How weird is it? How weird has it been, how much damage has been done? We know for sure there's economic winners and losers. That is a topic we'll go into even more detail. And I'm not going to get started on that today, but you also have to look at and figure that supply chains have to be at risk. Uh, not only because of the global pandemic, but because of international relationships that are going to be in flux with the new administration coming in. And again, over the weekend, you saw that there were empty shelves in France because they had blocked trucks coming in from the United Kingdom, with dairy products and that type of thing. And that's rippling through the economy. We're seeing through shortages and delays in getting certain kinds of products. I don't think we can expect to have a economy shut down without, you know, more severe consequences. It clearly our government is not up to things. They seem to be doing some good things, but, you know, I think we're going to see some symbolism. We're going to see some kid glove handling of a new administration at a time that we need clarity and we need to be facing our issues directly. And look, we had a man elected president who barely left his basement and didn't appear in front of a crowd of more than a few people. Of course, now he's running against the guy that apparently just won't leave in medicine. We have thrust telemedicine probably 10 years down the road. I think that's a very good thing in terms of some of the stresses on the healthcare system. Uh, that's uh, very, very good in terms of education. Look in K through 12, the educational disparities are on full display. And at the same time, you know, we're getting more reports of, you know, college camps. I just saw that they want to ban, you know, the Elliot and the Odyssey that because Homer, apparently wasn't a pristine enough human being and people that don't study history of course are doomed to repeat it in terms of our Academy. Look, it's not going to be, Oh, we're through the pandemic. Everybody back to your places, let's keep doing what you were doing. I think that the restart is going to be much more thoughtful. Uh, commutes will surely be a lot shorter because are a lot less frequent because many places have figured out that they don't need to bring everybody together and clog the freeways and, and burn all the fossil fuels to get to work socializing. You know, I think that's something people are really hungry for. I know that for me, if I had to list the three things that I miss most about the world, the way they used to be would be, you know, for, for seeing my family and friends, that would be one live music would be two. And thirdly would be, you know, frankly Redwing hockey.

Speaker 1 7:08

So they started working out yesterday.

Speaker 2 7:09

Yes, indeed. They did. I still, don't worry though, on whether they'll let somebody come in. I think some of the other profound changes look at the cities. Okay. And we've been through this before some, you know, 50 years ago and the cities were really starting to get back on their feet. I don't know, like use Portland as any kind of an example, but finally, after basically a year of writing, uh, the mayor finally admits that gosh, there was an organization called Antifa more than an idea. Apparently there are Anacortes and artists and that stronger measures have to be applied, you know, because apparently he just woke up to the fact that if people break things, set things on fire and break the law without consequence that somehow they're going to stop doing it magically.

Speaker 1 7:57

Right. Finally calling it a riot and not a peaceful protest. Yeah.

Speaker 2 8:01

And, and saying, he's going to do something about it to Seattle. I like to call them they're building blanket forts again, they're the cargo 769 homicides in 2020. That's incredible. I mean, come on, It's carnage over and over and over again, New York city, I've been talking to some people that are related to the police force. The police officers are leading the force in groves. The city is becoming by some reports, increasingly dangerous. And that we have, then the tone, deaf mayor DeBlasio, a dancing, I new year's Eve and a lock down times square. Nobody can come here. But my wife and I are going to times square to dance, you know, as we move into 2021, you know, we turned to Washington and I think people are generally relieved that we're going to have change. I hope that Joe Biden's wise. I hope again, as I've said before, I hope he becomes a creative president. We ever had. I always straightforward and looks at American people in the eye and says, look, I'm here because people didn't want to. Re-elect Donald Trump, 80 million people came out and said, you know what? We don't want that anymore. They didn't rally behind Joe Biden. It's just that they didn't want Trump. I hope that Joe Biden says we have a mandate for centrism and that that's reflected in the house votes, the state votes. And that this is not a radical agenda to the right or to the left, but it's about dealing with the issues of the day. And of course, we've talked about Washington. We have Donald Trump who is saying, I'm still here because I have no idea how this works.

Speaker 1 9:54

Am I supposed to leave? Now? Look, you're lost. Okay.

Speaker 2 9:57

It's over. You've had challenge after challenge and you've had opportunity. You've had your say and now it's time to leave. So here you have the American now with looking at fundamental things, am I going to have a job? Am I going to have a roof over my head? Am I going to be able to get health care when I need it? Can I educate myself or my children? And what does the Congress do? This is actually some of the rules of the hundred and 17th Congress. I want to read to you. All right. This is rule 23. Want to strike the words? I, I want to read this verbatim strike. Father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt first, cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife. Father-in-law mother-in-law son-in-law daughter-in-law brother-in-law sister-in-law step-father step-mother stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister half-brother half-sister grandson or granddaughter and insert parent child, sibling, parents, sibling first cousin siblings, child spouse, parent in law, child in law, sibling in law, step parents stepchild, step sibling, half sibling or grandchild. I mean, I think it's okay for people to have favorite aunts and uncles and grandfathers and grandmothers, except that our actress for Pete's sake. Yeah.

Speaker 1 11:32

I'm not sure why that, why that sort of language role as being imposed, who made

Speaker 2 11:38

That a priority

Speaker 1 11:41

In SIM is not a good idea. We just need to come to that.

Speaker 2 11:45

You have to deal with, this is where you're going to play your hand. And I looked at a hundred and 17th Congress, which was sworn in by the way, and just elected, uh, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house house of representatives, not the house that had the pig's blood on it from the anarchist in California, going to be more women and more women of color than any other Congress in history, a native American woman or Republican, uh, Korean born Iranian born member. And there are 18 new Republican women and they're common for a variety of reasons, but more than one said, I'm not going to do socialism. It's a motivating factor. Um, Maria Elvira Salazar from Florida, her parents fled Cuba in the revolution and I love her quote. I lived the American dream. I needed to make sure that my children live the American dream. And so that leaves me, Brian, some of the big questions that I've been thinking about immigrants were trending toward Trump. And if you think about it, who would want to flee a totalitarian regime or a stifling government to go to another place of the same? You know, this is still the land of opportunity. If we don't mess it up and it should be equal opportunity, regardless of, you know, personal identification, characteristics and ancestral history, and that's something we need to really strive for and that's different than equal outcomes. Again, I had lots of opportunity to play basketball. I wasn't good enough to play in the NBA, but it wasn't because I didn't have the opportunity is because of just when I'm going to be a basketball player, right

Speaker 3 13:31

On another subject. What are we going to do about the polarizing news industry

Speaker 2 13:36

And who doesn't want honest news reporting. And yet you never have a conversation with someone and have them say, you know what? I'm really glad that we have slanted biased news coverage. That's designed to fit a particular ideology or outcome who would want to invest their toil and exercise their thrift in a system where they can't get to the first rung of home ownership or their kids can't get to that level. And so when you look at things like the West coast, the cost of a starter home versus wage levels, you know, even before taxation, how can you honestly go to someone and say, invest your labor in this system to save money, be thrifty so that you can buy that first home. We have to address that it's you're right the way it is and who thinks it's a good idea that we have students saddled with literally loan, shark debts, while universities have billions billions in tax advantage endowments, and they pay academics, handsomely for doing very, very little work. Okay. It's just not right to do that. That needs to change. And similarly, who wants to send their children to a school where the basic facts of the country's founding are denied or cast in a horrible light, you don't look, the declaration of independence was written. The constitution was written the bill of rights, all that happened, battles of bunker Hill Concore Lexington, all happened. The winter at Valley forge happened, the civil war was fought. The civil rights act was implemented. That's all part of our history. And yet there are other aspects of history that deserve reporting. And I applaud that, but societies that change their language societies, that don't offer opportunity and hope for a better future and, and societies that deny their history are doomed to fail.

Speaker 1 15:45

I agree. And also limit speech free speech is being shrunken up a little bit too, right? What you can and can't say,

Speaker 2 15:51

Well, that's, that's part of the destruction of history and part of the language policing that's going on. And again, that ties into some of the situations we have on the college campuses. And, you know, look as a baby boomer, we certainly don't have all the answers. And we came of age at a very, very unique time in history. When the United States had really the only modern plants on the face of the earth and consumers had money in their pocket because they had been working during the war years and there was rationing and that we were protected by two oceans. And that, you know, 1945 to 1980 period was not normal. It was awesome, but that is not the way the world typically works. And now you're seeing rising middle classes, yea in India and in Vietnam and in Thailand because they've applied themselves, become educated, made sacrifices for their future. And now they're, that's coming to fruition. We need to do that too. And part of it's, you know, our government is continuing to try to perpetuate that baby boom period as if that is a permanent state. And so now we have a generation that thinks zero interest is normal, that there's no cost of money and that there's really no incentive to save. And those are the things that we really need to address. But as I think about the future, again, I'm, I know this has been a little more pessimistic, but I think we need to bet on capitalism, okay. Free enterprise and the rule of law, nothing else has worked yet. We've all heard by the way that the end has been declared and that's happened over and over. But you know, capitalism in a law abiding society is the thing that has the structure to achieve and adapt. Just say what the businesses have done during the pandemic. All the changes restaurants have made and delivery systems and work life. You know, we have great power in taxation, right? If you tax something, you get less of it while less fossil fuels let's tax it. You want more solar w that is something that can be subsidized. If those are good public policies, capitalism, once given the rules will be incredibly innovative. And just this technology, this set of technologies that we're working on right now are testimony to that. And while I've said that us boomers, you know, don't know all the answers, look, if you're 20 something, you haven't done anything yet, you haven't fed a person or created a job yet. And you don't know. So study your history, take some risks, apply yourself. And hopefully everybody will do that with talking to each other. We'll have a great outcome.

Speaker 1 18:49

That sounds good rich. And that there was pessimism in your message, but there was, I also found, uh, optimism in your message too. I think this year, I don't, I don't think it's going to be, hopefully it's not quite as chaotic as last year or just strange as last year, but I think we're in for a continuation of the rollercoaster to some extent, would you agree with that?

Speaker 2 19:08

Well, there's some wildcards out there, Brian, and in the interest of time, we'll go into them in too much detail, but you know, the vaccines, um, are they going to work and are we going to have a society that recognizes that they are very dangerous to some people, you know, I personally know people that nearly died from childhood vaccines because of the unique makeup of their physiology. And now they have children that are displaying the same thing. So, you know, hopefully the vaccines will do the job and, and knock this out. There could be another rebound and another strength. I'm hopeful that those strains will be like most viruses and get weaker. We have the us Senate coming up, uh, in the Georgia elections. There is some craziness plan for January 6th and January 20th that hold the potential of making the 2016 riots and up runs against the president, looked like child's play, you know, the bar keeps going down and I don't know where the cooler heads are. That will prevail.

Speaker 1 20:10

Yeah. Yeah. Let's keep our fingers crossed that that doesn't go too far off the rails. I fear it will, but we'll see what happens.

Speaker 2 20:16

Yeah. And look, I've mentioned the fractures and the supply chains. What happens if people can't get the basic products that they need, we don't know what will happen in terms of new slanting. And then that, that big overhang with a big tech and privacy and censorship that's going on. And what's the way for us to socialize these technologies.

Speaker 1 20:39

We have some big, uh, big monopoly trials coming up to this year, right?

Speaker 2 20:43

Indeed we do. And the, I get a recommend watch the movie, social dilemma. This is something that people need to be really paying attention to, uh, when they're online and you're online all the time and your phone being tracked and so forth, a really bad wildcard would be an out now civil war. I hope it doesn't occur, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities. So look, this is what we're going to be doing on the common bridge. This year is unwrapping each of the policy items. I will be calling on people of my generation to understand that the world has changed. And that while the lessons that we learned that led to good lives are applicable, that not everything is. And for those that are in other generations, we look to make sure you're equipped and realistic about what you've done so far and what you can do. And if we can all come together on that common bridge, we can make an awesome future that we deal with the challenges of the day and seize the opportunities in the moment. Sounds good. Rich. Well, thanks. And this has been a cool kickoff to your YouTube channel. Um, look forward to some more and you won't see my ugly mug so much as I'll be a guest on the other side, but for now, um, you know, we get to launch it this way, but uh, happy new year. And I look forward to the next episode of thanks, Brian, happy new year to you. Happy new year to our listeners. And this was Brett Shelby signing off.

Speaker 4 22:14

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