Welcome back to Dont get this Twisted

Robb and Tina discuss the decline of the middle class, the impact of AI on jobs, rising living costs, and societal changes across generations. They explore how economic shifts affect lifestyle, employment, and future prospects.

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This podcast and website represent the opinions of Robb Courtney and Tina Garcia and their guests to the show and website. The content here should not be interpreted as medical advice or any other type of advice from any other type of licensed professional. The content here is for informational purposes only, and because each person is so unique, please consult your healthcare or other applicable licensed professional with any medical or other related questions. Views and opinions expressed in the podcast and website are our own and do not represent that of our places of work. While we make every effort to ensure that the information, we are sharing is accurate, we welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors. Privacy is of the utmost importance to us. All people, places, and scenarios mentioned in the podcast have been changed to protect confidentiality. This website or podcast should not be used in any legal capacity whatsoever, including but not limited to establishing “standard of care” in a legal sense or as a basis for expert witness testimony related to the medical profession or any other licensed profession. No guarantee is given regarding the accuracy of any statements or opinions made on the podcast or website. In no way does listening, reading, emailing, or interacting on social media with our content establish a doctor-patient relationship or relationship with any other type of licensed professional. Robb Courtney and Tina Garcia do not receive any money from any pharmaceutical industry for topics covered pertaining to medicine or medical in nature. If you find any errors in any of the content of this podcast, website, or blogs, please send a message through the “contact” page or email [email protected]. This podcast is owned by "Don’t Get This Twisted,” Robb Courtney.

And welcome to another show of Don't Get This Twisted. I am Rob along with my co host as always, Tina. How you doing, Tina?

I'm here and I was ready on time. So I'm I'm good and I'm not stressed. It's a good thing. I don't know. I'm not throwing you as you put your thumbs to your chest. This guy

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and who wasn't on time today? This guy, and I'm pointing

This guy, yeah. Unfortunately, I got home and I walked my dog. I was way ahead. I got home at like twenty minutes to five. Walked my dog, came back. and as soon as I got home, my kid was like, Hey, let's go get food. And I was like, All right, 'cause I totally spaced on this. And then you text me while I was at the place and I was like, shit, I gotta go. Yeah, but

That's funny.

It's all good. It rarely happens with us. We're pretty good these days.

We did it. We're here and the hell with it being on time. We don't need a stinking clock. No

Yes, ma'am. So

Right. Yeah, that's all that's all nonsense. so I threw a couple of things off the air at you for podcast topics. And this one this one was I talk we talk about this at my work all the time because where we're at financially as people. and

That's it. Nonsense.

Did

Everyone at my work is pretty much in this and so are you because of what you make. But it says, Is the middle class disappearing?

Yeah. I mean I think the middle class that our parents knew is gone.

Definitely.

Because when when we were growing up, if you had two parents in the household that both worked, you were extremely middle class.

Yes.

I think my dad, who is a single dad, he worked for Caltrans, he worked for the state of California, he did pretty well. So I don't know if he was middle class because he also had some boys to raise, but I think if he l if he would have had no children, he definitely would have been middle class because he I think he did pretty well for himself. but for us, it's it's disappearing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, you you look at all the things that have changed since we were younger. I was talking to hmm somebody the other day. I I can't recall who it was, but we were talking about gas prices.

Yeah.

And I told them what I paid the first year I started driving. I don't know if you remember, but I I think I I drove later than you. I didn't drive and I paid ninety nine cents a gallon. Okay. Yeah. So because I think it was ninety nine cents for quite a l a while. 'Cause I didn't I didn't drive until eighty nine. So I was eighteen when I drove.

So what did you pay? I did too when I started, yeah.

yeah it was.

Okay. So I was eighty seven I guess when I turned sixteen, 'cause as soon as I turned sixteen I was on it. It was happening.

Be I I think d during our time it was like between eighty nine and ninety nine cents and it kind of fluctuated. and and there was somebody at my I know who I was talking to. a young guy at my work. He he couldn't believe that it was ninety nine cents. He's like, It was what? I was like, Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it was.

And that's w when during that time when it was ninety nine cents, nobody was complaining that it was too much money. It was actually like a good rate for the time of what we had to spend. It was actually kinda nice. I mean

It it was yeah, he he couldn't believe because I had a I had a beat-up ass old Ford Escort at the time. And I it o it only could take eleven gallons. I could r fill up my car for eleven dollars. Now, to be fair, in nineteen ninety-one, I was only making six fifty an hour. So there is something to that. So it would take me two hours of work to fill my car up.

Right. Yep.

That's not bad though. Only two hours of work. Like 'cause now I I I filled my car up today and I have a ten gallon tank and it was sixty two dollars. But I ran it to where there was only like six miles till empty, but

Yeah. Where now it takes

Yeah.

A hundred percent. But you're that's well, beside you kind of work on you're an independent contractor, so like you can make sixty two dollars in an hour.

yeah. But I don't work every hour either, like it's there's that yeah.

So

That's what I mean. Exactly. So there's something to that. You you're more a daily rate person. Like you could make this in a day, or you could make this in a day. So yeah, so it's a little different. Most people are not making at this time period are not making, you know, thirty dollars an hour. So

Mm.

Yes.

No.

No, I was shocked that people still weren't making twenty five starting a new job. I have a friend that just went to apply for a new job and it they're not even paying twenty five bucks an hour or or t is it twenty or twenty five? Twenty.

It's twenty four fast food workers. Think about that.

Yeah, but it wasn't even that doesn't even make sense to me. If if you're a fast food worker, I always imagined that you would be a younger student, college student, whatever, trying to, you know, do whatever. That would be a job that I would have gotten back in the day during those times. And and I would expect, you know, that twenty dollars an hour would be a good rate for that.

But now it seems like everywhere you go they're not they're under twenty five bucks an hour everywhere. And that just blows my mind.

And look, we can I think we can argue I guess it all matters how you look at things. There are people who think that fast food should be a living wage. Okay. My argument to that is is if fast food is a living wage, like you should be able to pay rent on that, do you know what a hamburger is going to cost?

Yes.

Your hamburger, just the burger, is gonna cost like sixteen dollars at McDonald's.

Yeah. Well shit, when you buy their food it's almost that for a meal.

No, but for it it will be sixteen dollars for the hamburger itself. It it there's no way that you know, look, and we come from the era that fast food was an entry-level job that you got after high school. Like you could go after school, you could work a few hours, get some work experience.

Hamburger, yeah.

Yes.

Or in high school, yep.

And then you afterwards would hand that to the next young person. It was supposed to be a job. Now, now go to a fast food place. There's 50 year old people working in there.

Yeah, it's true.

So they've now killed the market for young people.

Well, it seems like young people don't wanna work, which is why older people are taking entry level jobs.

I I do agree to a

I sort of agree with that.

I have so many friends whose kids are in their late twenties, early thirties and they're not working. And they don't want to get their license. What the hell is that?

Yeah. A and don't get me wrong.

Yeah, yeah. I I don't understand that either. I think we come from that. Get your license now and start driving. Look, my son got his license at eighteen. He waited until eighteen so he didn't have to have anyone in the car with him or you know, any of that nonsense. Yeah. He has other friends that didn't get their license until they were like twenty-two.

He didn't have to go through that bullshit, yeah.

What?

And he was he was yeah and he was pressing them and pressing he's like what is wrong with you like you have no idea the freedom that that you're yeah that and and look I I get it like but once you have that fr like I saw it in my kid once he got the freedom he was a different he was like this is the greatest thing in the world yeah he would come home and be like I'm leaving

Yeah. What is wrong with you?

Hell yes, yes.

okay. Like cool. So I think there's something to that.

The not having employment for young people. Look, yes, let's say some people don't want to work. I'll be I'll agree with you there to a degree, right? I I I don't wanna I don't wanna argue that fact too much. Okay. But the flip side of that is there are young people that do want to work.

And now can't work in fast food because adults are taking that. And I think that they're I would say it's probably not helping their situation to be able to go, well, there's no jobs. And and that is probably true. Sure, there's still retail, but even that has been ruined by.

Amazon. So now you can only be a Amazon warehouse employee. You know, or a driver. But even you know, even that takes something because you have to have a decent driving record. And you know, there's a lot of things that go with that. But these jobs are disappearing because, for one, adults are taking them, because there's so many unemployed adults. And

Right. Or a driver. Mm-hmm.

W you know, th there's it's a it's like an avalanche, right? It it kills a lot of people on the front end, but it slowly still creeps down the mountain. So it's getting all these people to where they're unemployed and now the middle class is extremely disappearing. So I wanna see I'm gonna look up something while we're talking about that. what?

Yeah, I hear you.

Maybe like what percentage of the United States is considered the middle class?

Mm. You know what I was r I was watching the news with my father the other morning 'cause he watches news all darn day. And they were talking about how people are having a really hard time. Our generation is having a hard time with buying houses or, you know, problems with keeping keeping up with the market and everything because of

you know, just the way things have gone lately. And that that people are using their houses not as something to have for, you know, like an end game, but they are using it

in a way to get money out to subsidize their their lifestyle now. And that's not how it was when we were younger. Parents did not touch their houses. They did not get seconds. They didn't and if they did they were normally the people that were really reckless with their money. And

Yep.

Like hearing the news this morning I like, Wow, that's really sad that it's come down to this you know, because you buy a house, never touch the money and that was how you helped build your retirement, you know, your your purse for when you retired. But now it seems like it's getting to the finish line, getting to retirement and not having a house payment is almost not feasible for people these days.

Correct. Yeah, because they have to borrow against it to survive. Yeah. So I'm gonna give you a little bit just so middle class through the years, and I'm gonna jump a couple of years because I'm I'm only using I'm using Google. I'm using Google C.

Absolutely.

Let me see. I'm gonna try it on Google and see. Because I want I wanna do what it what is the percentage. So it says in the year 2026, in the year of our Lord 2026, 50% is the middle class in this country as a whole. 50%. this, I'm trying to find it across a few decades because I want to see.

Fifty percent. Okay.

So the year that we were born, I think you were you were born the same year as me, right? Seventy one?

Let's not talk about that. We went to school together.

So in in fifty, so between nineteen seventy one and two thousand twenty-one, it has dropped from sixty-one percent middle class to fifty percent. Yeah, eleven percent, that's a massive drop. And and that's what just under fifty years. Right? That's

Okay.

That's a huge drop.

Yeah.

That's a pretty big drop. So

I would agree with that.

So that being said, you know, percentage points are going to matter a lot.

Right.

and I'm sure that the the demographic shifts, you know, between race are going to be a lot different. 'Cause like people in this country think that that the white folk, like me, make the most money. They don't. Not anymore. Asian Americans make the most money in this country. Mm-hmm. By by by a good amount. Yeah.

Really? Okay. Nice.

So, and then it's followed by there's somebody else, I forgot who it is, and then white folk. So I'm gonna yeah, but there's I think there's only like the the top three out of the like the seven things that they you know what I mean, like yeah. That's like being the, you know, the number three in the ugliest person contest out of five. You know what I mean? Like, yay.

Okay. So you're in the top three.

Yeah, I get ya.

But basically, a let's see, the US Census says in 2021 the medium household income was seventy thousand seven hundred and eighty-four dollars. Okay. So meaning most American households who earn between forty-seven thousand and a hundred and forty-one thousand is called the middle class, which kind of makes sense. Kind of the middle of a hundred and forty-one thousand.

Okay.

Right.

So basically, we're the middle class for now. it's definitely it's falling off. That well, because look, you you look at the costs of things, we're we're at a part in our lives, and and I mean everybody, it's going to be hard for young people to become the middle class because there's no jobs. So, and then

For now.

Yeah.

A lot of the people who are getting educations, some of those jobs are going to be dissolved by either AI, because AI never stops working. It's already happening. I told my son the best thing you can do is is learn a trade. Because most trades you have to work with your hands. And hard to AI to build a house. Or, you know, or fix plumbing.

Yep.

Yeah, but are they really gonna be able to do that? I mean that doesn't seem like

So

You mean get rid of people b with AI?

Well, and like you're talking about certain things like building a house. Are they really gonna be able to get to that point where they could do that?

No, I that's what I mean. I I think trades like plumbing and electricity and and you know, building homes, like there's no way. And I mean unless it's robots building it, but then robots can't think about how the ground works or how to you know I I think trades are gonna be okay. Like, is a robot gonna cut people's hair? I don't know if I would trust that.

I don't know these I don't know. It'll be interesting to see what's coming up next. I don't know. I really don't think anything is is off limits though.

Yeah. I just I just read something.

No, no, I agree. But here's the thing.

Our j our parents in our generation I think would be less likely to sit in a chair and let a robot cut its hair.

Just because of trust.

This is a bad

I mean, yeah, I guess so.

It's hard to say though. It's hard to say.

I don't know. It's hard to say. But let's just say we don't trust the robot with a sharp object in its hand.

Right. So maybe they won't do it. So then your your clientele becomes Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha. I think the future, they might be okay with that. Don't know. But I do believe that that AI is going to hurt jobs that are like

writing or math or you know things of that nature where these things can just never stop working and can compute and compute and compute. So, you know, who knows really.

Yeah.

The way AI's going is I don't know if there's gonna be much it can't do. Like let's just be honest. It's it seems like that's what's gonna happen. And and the people that have designed AI are already warning us about how powerful this is becoming and how it's going to change our lives in extreme ways. So

It's hard to say. I mean, it could get to the point where there's just not enough jobs for the amount of people that need I mean, I think we're we're we're not there yet. If you want a job here, you could find a job, but will you want to do the job? I doubt it. Like, you know, there's so many things that you could get paid to do, but you're not gonna wanna do it. It's not gonna it's not gonna feel good to do. You know, it's I don't know. It's gonna be interesting.

Good point.

Now I'll give you the flip side because I was talking with my boy and I brought that up. I was like, what do you think of AI? Like, well, and this is what he said. This is someone who's he's what? He's Gen Z. Right? Yeah, I think he's Gen Z. He is Gen Z. So, his thing, this is what he told me. He goes,

I can see where it's cool right now, but I think it's just gonna go away. Cause he goes he goes, younger people are already protesting it, like get rid of AI, we don't want it. So h he thinks his generation will be the one to stomp it out.

Mm.

Okay, well that would be nice.

Now, I mean, I have seen some c college graduations. they were kind of showing some ones where they had like a you know, a keynote speaker that comes and says something like, Hey guys, get ready for your future, blah blah blah. Two of them had people from the Silicon Valley and they talked about AI and they basically got booed off the stage. Yeah.

Really?

So I think people look, I use Chat GPT. It's fun for creating pictures. It's fun for some writing. Like I I had it redo my resume. Right. But I gave it all the information of my real resume. So I had already done all the legwork. And I said, hey, can you spruce this up a little bit? And it changed a couple things here and there. Yeah, really cool. It and it worked really well.

Yeah.

Okay.

Interesting.

But it all it really did is take existing text and and like get rid of certain things and and you know it really didn't s make it say anything different, it just gave it a different look, which is great. But look, it I mean, that's all I would ever use it for. It's fun to make pictures, fun to make things look like a cartoon, but that's just a filter to me, or sort of.

Okay.

Yeah.

It is.

Even even and I've used it for the show, but limit like very sparingly. And and I don't let it because like here's the thing about using it for a podcast. It's great for bullet points, but I would never have it write a script for me. Because then everything sounds fake. Right, but some people do.

Well, we don't go on scripts anyway. Like this is not yeah.

Or or maybe not a script but a really well detailed thing. Like I like bullet points, bullet points work.

Right.

But I've heard what it does like Hollywood is already thinking about writing full scripts for movies using AI. Yeah, and the writers are pissed, and they should be. Right? I think that's fair if you're a writer.

Really?

Mhm. Well, the yeah. The whole thing with theater is that it's your creativity, that you're the one doing it. Not that some machine is just gonna pump out whatever you're gonna say and do and then just go and do it like you're the robot. Like that's not what art is.

This is kind of what so I've I've heard both sides of this argument. And look, I'm a photographer. I like to take pictures. There's there is something to be said about someone who takes one person's face and then turns it into a real picture. You know, it's like, hmm. I have, you know, the there's something about creating a picture or creating a drawing or a or a painting.

Right. So I do agree. Look, AI, at least right now, or at least how I look at it, because I could be wrong, it doesn't understand emotion. So what Hollywood's idea is, is have AI write a script and then give it to a writer and have them clean it up. Correct. Pretty much.

Add the human factor? Okay.

So I think AI could be great and go like, hey, I wanna make a movie that's sci-fi, has these type of villains and this type of hero, and it's three of them and they're on a plane. You know, you could inflate it and go, Hey, what do you think? And it could give you some points. You know, and go, Hey, this is maybe how I would do it.

But you're really getting rid of the human factor of things. And once we get rid of the human factor, what's the point? Because and and that's where we're at with a lot of these jobs that are gonna go away that are gonna get rid of the middle class, right? not that Hollywood writers are middle class, because they're not. But let's just say you're an entry-level, you know.

Sure. What's the point?

That's for sure.

you just joined the union, you're you're probably only making about fifty-five thousand a year, right? 'Cause you're you you work for a company who hasn't given you the break yet. Is that gonna go away because a computer that you throw a bunch of information into is going to make you not be a writer? That's that could get rid of the middle class quick. You know?

Yes.

Sure could.

And we and we both know that the entry level jobs, fast food, retail, those aren't middle class jobs now.

true. It's all changed. Like everything from when we were younger is way different.

So ri Yeah.

So a and you know, we were talking about like off-air, like what are things that could could make you middle class and and really it's a a really, really great job or a two-person income in the household. That's it. That's the only way. So either a couple who both have jobs, or you and a roommate that

have a decent living that are paying the rent.

Well, I I personally think that that's where things are going is is people are living together to kind of s you know, they're if they're not in a relationship and they don't have that situation going where both are are breadwinners, that people are now moving in together as roommates and you know, that's how it's working right now. You know, either moving in with their family or, you know, with somebody that

Yeah, I think older folk. I think you're gonna see you're gonna see our generation that are just gonna live as roommates. They'll be sixty year old people.

Well, you know, that kinda if you think about it, because kids and and, you know, adults or parents aren't staying close with each other anymore. So it seems right that the older generation would stick together to try to take care of each other and and feel that that

that void that where the family's not coming together and the kids aren't gonna be there and the you know, the extra income from having, you know, a spouse or whatever isn't there. Like it it makes sense to me that that's where it's going. And I and I notice that with with me and my couple of my friends, like we've talked about it, you know, getting a place together or doing things, you know, together because we need to. It's out of necessity.

Right.

Here's something for you that and and only because we come from the same generation. So do you think and I know you you do you remember the odd couple? I don't remember the demographic of why they started living together, but I think one of them got a divorce. I I believe. I would have to look at the

yeah.

Okay.

the storyline, but I think the original odd couple in the seventies, one of them got a divorce or something and that that's why they moved in together. Because, you know, it was a fresh start and money was tight. So maybe that maybe this is something that really is just kind of always been around, but we we had the eighties where things were good. Yeah, the eighties were great.

Okay.

Right.

They're very good.

The i the eighties were really good. Actually. Yeah.

Everybody made money and everybody was okay.

Yeah, we we were we didn't doing all right. But but it was also a lot of excess, to be fair. You know what I mean? Like not that not that I was around that, but I remember the 80s. You know, the eighties were the were the cocaine cowboys. Like this is where like you know what I mean, like all that shit really came up. So

Ha ha ha

Yeah.

like, wow. I I didn't I almost didn't remember that.

Because we were young. But but as you look back on like documentaries on the eighties, you're like, shit, like cocaine was everywhere. Yeah. And and everyone was making such a good living that it was easy to get.

Right. Well

It was.

Yep. And it was also, it was accepted. People did it all the time. Like I remember going to parties and I I never did it. That was not my thing. But I remember like nobody seemed to care. You know, it was like, okay. You don't have a problem with it, then I'm not gonna say anything, but it wasn't for me and it wasn't for my friends. My friends and I also we all stayed kind of away from that, but it was it was definitely around.

You know it's

So here's here's something that's funny. This was the odd couple. it was from nineteen seventy to seventy five, and both the guys were divorced men, and that's was the the what the show was about. Mhm. And which is kind of shocking because I don't think divorce was really big in the early seventies. So it was probably something that was you know Yeah.

The premise of it, yeah.

They felt it coming.

Yeah. Yeah, because our our parents, you know, generation they the eighties was full of doors. maybe the mid seventies. Mid seventies and eighties. I mean, I knew a lot of people in high school that that had divorced parents, so I think you know, you look at you look at that time period and you

Well, still is

Yeah.

That's probably where the middle class really started to deteriorate is the late eighties to the nineties, I'm assuming. Because a lot of single parents, a lot of you know that was kind of the beginning, I probably think, for our parents that became single parents again, started feeling the

Yeah, you're probably right.

First wave of rent going up, property becoming more expensive to buy. Cause look, I mean the reality is is even us and I I couldn't afford to buy a house. I've been single for so long. Like even and I have a decent job. I couldn't buy a house, at least not in this state.

That's what everybody seems to be saying too.

Yeah, and I think that's why everyone is trying to get out. 'Cause there's there's still states that have decent prices. But here's here's the problem with that as well. Most of those states you can't make a lot of money in because the economy is, you know. People in California make a lot of money because we have to to be able to afford the rent. I I I heard where I used to live in Camarillo.

Yeah.

For a two-bedroom apartment down the street, not too far where I from where I used to live, a two-bedroom apartment is three thousand dollars. Yeah. No, I lived in a I lived in a pretty decent area in Camarillo with a friend of mine. So but but even I I was talking to a guy at work today, he is from Oxnard.

Wow, really? Shit.

Right.

He was looking maybe to buy a house in Oxnard just 'cause they were thinking about buying property. a piece of property in Oxnard and not the greatest neighborhood, about seven hundred thousand.

Mm-hmm.

Who can do that? So it the middle class is going away when it comes to what our parents had. They're not we we can't they are not gonna be able to own property because they can't afford it. the

Mm-hmm.

I mean most people even to to have a car now you know the the price of a car is so expensive. I remember let's see I mean I hate to date myself, but like any car now is thirty thousand dollars. Any car. I mean I'm talking about an entry-level car is thirty grand.

Mm-hmm.

Easy.

So unless you got money to put down, who can afford you you're gonna have an eight, nine hundred dollar payment.

Definitely.

So, you know, you look at that and then obviously grocery prices have been I would say for at least the last five years. The a from COVID on where groceries started getting out of hit crazy.

Yes, I would agree with that. Well, I would say it was even before COVID started. I remember prices were going up and my ex was like, Why are you spending so much at the grocery store? and and I was like, You don't have any idea what anything costs to you And he didn't really, 'cause he didn't have to. I di I handled that for him, you know. So he said said that I was right, but you know.

It's a little bit on the later side than when we were going through it together. But

I went and bought some ground beef the other day. Okay. I I couldn't believe the price. It's it's almost seven dollars a pound.

I I I remember two years ago it was like three eighty. So you're and that was high.

Mm-hmm. And that was high. That was high.

So this is one of the things that I think is it's just it it it's killing everybody. It's it's taking it's taking what we here's the problem. W you know, we were so used to a certain lifestyle. And again, I I'm gonna say the middle class lifestyle, which is, you know, we didn't have lots of crazy shit.

But we had things. Like we had we had a TV in the house. We had, you know, whatever. What we had clothes. We had shoes on our feet. There was you know, we didn't have to worry much about that. and again, I I'm not the poster boy for that because I had a s I was a single dad and like I've said on here before, I had a pair of shoes for five years. But my son never went without clothes. So

You know, like I understand the give and take of making sure that your child has what they need.

But I think if I didn't have a kid, I would have I would have been close to that middle class demographic. Close. I'd have been close. You know, there was a couple of years where, you know, I was I changed jobs and had to start at the bottom again. But all in all, I did pretty good. so but I think

You would have been there.

our kids are going to have a problem.

No, we'll see. 'Cause they're s they're saying now that also there's not enough people being born to even you know, to even fulfill all the jobs that we're gonna need fulfilled when when they're of age. So that could totally change things as well.

That you are correct.

That you're you know what? I didn't think about that. You're right. Yeah, they said the birth rate is really bad right now. Really low. So it right now and and and it's so funny 'cause I always like to use the point. I wanna say that the birth rate right now is like one point four something. But it's supposed to be two point five. So everyone's supposed to have two point five kids to keep to keep what we need going.

Way love.

To keep going. It's like so you are probably right at some point there's going to be jobs that we need to be filled, but we won't have people to fill I mean, I think we'll be long dead. I hope.

We'll see. Or we won't be in the market for working anymore for sure.

Right, but I I think I think we'll be gone because you know, give or take, we only have let's say on our the high end we have about forty years. Right? Which I don't either. I I for for sure I don't want to. Yeah. I'll I'm I'm thinking thirty years might be too much, but you know.

Yeah. I'm still with you on that.

Yeah, so let but let's say thirty years, that would put my son close to my age right now. So, you know, his generation.

Unless they start having kids at a better time, like like twenty six years old.

Rate.

Yeah, but those those are the those are also the people that aren't they don't even leave their houses. They're they don't their relationships are with people they've never met, that they don't touch, that they don't have any sort of interaction with on a personal level. So how is that how is the population gonna go up? They're not even talking to each other.

Well, I think th this is the thing. The people who are will have to fix it. They're gonna have to consummate relationships. Here's the thing too, that this younger generation is I think a tad smarter because we're not having as many babies at a wedlock. You know, like like I think we

You know, they're smart enough to use birth control. Or abortions, one of the two. I mean, that's be that's being real. I'm not trying to be a dick. That's

Okay.

No, I know a lot of people that had several and I was like, That's not what you do to control having kids. totally is. Totally is.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and that's our generation probably. So now they look at it like it's you know, it's like going to get a box of rice krispies at the market. I mean, I've seen videos of younger people that were proud they've had seven.

Yeah.

Are you serious? You know I'm not one to judge, but that's that's it's disgusting. And and God forbid one day they have to answer for those souls that they took out of this world that could be changing things, fixing things, making life better. The karma that they're creating from that is intense. And I know a lot of people don't think like that and I don't care. Like you

Yeah. Yeah.

That's disgusting. Yeah.

You just gotta look at what the hell are you doing that you that you think that taking a salt like that is is okay. On how many rounds do you need to go before you know to put a condom on? I mean, come on.

Well, and then here's the flip side of that. Heaven forbid they wanna have children later on and then now can't.

So there's a lot to be said to that. But I but I do think that they're probably a tad smarter, at least using birth control devices. So there's probably not having because I remember hearing when my stepdaughters were young, you know, there were girls having babies at 14. Yeah. yeah. It was and that was like let's see, two thousand two thousand.

no.

Two thousand, two thousand one. You know, there was a not an epidemic, but there was a lot of young girls having children. So I look, did have they got a little smarter? Absolutely. But I also think I was just talking to my kid about birth control the other day. because of, you know, look, being a guy.

You're a little jaded, right? 'Cause you're like, get on the pill, whatever. Like it's good for everybody.

Yeah, you do it. The you do it mentality.

But but see, that's the thing. Like here's what I've found out since then. It is the pill is a great invention, but man, what it does to young ladies. Is

Well, we grew up in the realm where everybody was on the pill. So and then you wonder why our birth rates are so much lower than they were. You know, it makes you wonder.

Well yeah, be well not only that, what it does to you hormonally is absurdly crazy. So, you know, when we Yeah, and you know, and when you say, that chick is crazy, it could be that she's just her hormones are so out of balance that you know, you've you've gotten to that place, so

Yeah. And continues to.

You know, I I as a person, 'cause I look at my kid and I like I wonder, like, where is he going to be in the next ten years? You know, that would put him around thirty-four years old. You know, is he gonna be in a good place financially? Is he gonna be part of the middle class? Is he still gonna be struggling? Like at thirty-four, I already had him. So I you know what

I'm good where he's at now. I mean, is he a little like we moved out early, or at least I you know, I was gone by twenty one.

He's not, and I don't see him d going anywhere anytime soon because he can't afford to go there.

Get it.

so but I I'm hoping at some point, you know, and it's probably gonna be a year or two, I think, you know, maybe he'll find, you know, some homie to be with and they can go and get an apartment together and he can start living a you know, somewhat single life. Yeah. The homie lifestyle was great. I I've done it several times. Yeah.

Homie lifestyle.

I think it's fantastic.

And and the flip side of the homie lifestyle is like getting a good roommate. The best roommates I've ever had are female. The best. If you have absolutely no sexual desires to them, it's the best. It's great because you can talk to them about life. You can talk to them about girls. You're the you know psychotherapist for them.

Okay.

It's good time, huh?

Both the both the roommates roommates that I've had that were girls would come and we'd sit on the couch and they would just tell me about all their shit and I'd tell about all mine. It was great. Best roommates ever. dudes are hard when men get together, you you're either really, really, really good or really, really, really bad. Because I think the testosterone gets in the way. And then heaven forbid one guy brings a girl home. Mm.

then then things get all sketchy. but I I I would never not tell my kid I'd go look if you can find a good roommate, always do it. Because it in the right in the right places you're going to be able to afford more stuff.

You're going to put yourself in a more middle class lifestyle and you're going to have a a bud that you can hang out with and still do things and, you know, have brotherly type relationship. or sisterly, whatever, you know, whatever tickles your pickle.

Do that you're gonna have one wild ride, so

Yeah. Yeah. It's I'm telling you, I there was one that I was my roommate that I knew for many, many, many, many, many years had crushed had a crush on me. No, I didn't go there. I didn't go there until like fifteen years later. Yeah, yeah. But I I th I but

Yeah.

okay.

looking back on it, I kind of because when we we talked about certain things years later and I told her, I go, Man, I kind of wish we would have tried something then, only because we had we have a great relationship and we talk well and like all these things. But it probably wouldn't have been the same because I was a 25 year old that didn't think the same way.

No, you were different when you were younger.

Yeah. So, you know, things are meant to be the way they are, but she's always been a great friend. And then later on we we tried and I think it probably could have worked out. Some other things kinda didn't fall into place, but she was probably one of the best roommates I've ever had. Just a great a great

She's a great friend. And I think that friends are part of that. And and we did very well together. And and and I mean financially we did well together. Because at the time I was making like, you know, $8 an hour. Now, to be fair, rent was only, I think we paid on a two-bedroom, we only paid like $7.50. Yeah, it was in Canoga. It was in Kanoga Park. It was great.

Yeah.

Wow, that's great.

But so we we did well together. But but th those are the things that make the middle class or a a leap into the middle class great. Get a roommate. If you can if you can do it, it's a good good experience. And it's great to have I I think I ended up with people that will always be my friend from that. Cause I didn't I I never burned a bridge on on roommates.

That's good. You shouldn't.

But it it's easy to do it. Because all of a sudden, you know, like here's the thing. I met a girl during that and I knew she the other girl did like me. So she really didn't like that. And not that it got it didn't get weird, but she did tell me later on that she's like, it was the worst thing. I was like, Okay, well. Yeah, it is what it is. But so what do you think

yeah.

Mm.

Who knew?

What do you think about the real middle class? Where do you think we're going to end up? Not us, because we're past that. What do you think the next generations? Do you think it's gonna go away? Or do you think it'll just be hanging on by a thread?

I just think it's gonna be way different because people in this that are coming up in in these generations are just way different. maybe they will have roommates, maybe they will maybe they'll still be in mom and dad's houses. Who knows? I mean who knows? It it could go any way. But it would be nice to get a break. I mean, I think everybody's at a place right now where it would be nice if

if we could live a little bit easier and struggle a little bit less. Doesn't seem like people have less stuff though. You know what I mean? It's like there's still people got shit everywhere. They got more than they need and they buy way more than what they're they're they're not living in within their means, let's just put it that way.

I agree.

Yes. Correct. I I also think that things j have just gotten cheaper that we grew up with that weren't. Like people are like, You have a big ass TV? It's like, Yeah, but big ass TVs are cheap now.

Yeah, they used to be a lot more expensive.

That used to be thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars where now you can go get a seventy five inch at Walmart for five hundred bucks. Yeah. I mean it's not a brand name, but it's a big T V nonetheless.

Can you really?

And do they work any longer or any less than the other ones? It seems like they're meant to go bad anyway.

I yeah, I think from when we were our TVs that we grew up with, they lasted forever. These ones I think are still good. We sell a TV at my place. It's a hundred inch TV, and I think it's like yeah, it's a hundred inch. You can and I wanna say it's like twenty nine hundred bucks. For a hundred inch TV, it's seven feet wide.

Stop it.

That is craziness. You gotta turn your head just to watch from one side of the screen to the next.

Mm-hmm.

Samsung makes one. It's a hundred and fifteen. It's it's thirty thousand dollars. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy shit. But people are still buying that shit, so there is a middle class.

There and that's the thing, like it people aren't living within their means anyway. So, you know, as long as they got the credit cards going, they could get whatever the hell they want to.

Yeah. I think that's what everyone should do. You should run up all your credit cards, pay the minimum you can, and then die.

Mm-hmm.

That will make things very expensive.

But you'll be dead. Yeah. Well, my kid would get the brunt of it. Yeah. But who knows.

The rest of us may not be though.

Right. Yeah, it's it's hard to say. I don't know. I think that we're gonna have to find some really creative ways, especially being single, on how we're gonna take care of ourselves going into retirement and and dealing with the way that that our economy is. It's definitely we're g we're just gonna have to get creative. There's no other way around it. Just isn't.

I think I think a lot of people will never be able to retire.

Well, there's that. But after a certain age we don't even want people working. You know, I they're gonna have to retire. There's gonna have to be I dunno. It's gonna be different. Like I said, it's just gonna be different. Yeah.

Unfortunately. I think that's what's

I Yeah. But I think it's gonna be very difficult for people to retire. You're gonna see a lot of a lot more people working, you know, cleaning tables at fast food or, you know, asking people how they're doing at the Walmart line. Unfortunately. It's not

And and you know what though? It everybody's so gloom and doom about when you retire you only live this amount of years and this and that and that. So maybe maybe having a little side hustle or or a a greeter job or whatever the hell it is, maybe that's a good thing because it's gonna keep you up and moving and and and keep your body going. So I don't know. You wanna be a greeter?

Good.

Yeah. That's right up my alley. I wanna do that. Yeah, 'cause I like to talk to people. I'd be cra I'll be the crazy old man at the at the window. See

You know, funny thing that you say that because now I kinda don't wanna talk to people. I don't the small talk and everything is not my vibe anymore where I could bullshit the shit out of anybody, but now I don't even wanna do that. So it's funny how you say that. We're definitely switching personalities.

But but I also think that it I think if you lived somewhere else, you might talk more. I look, we live in California and I hate to shit on the state that I live in, but I'm gonna shit on it anyway. when I walk down the street with walking my dog, most people never say hi to me. They're always they look down, they keep going, no one says hi. When did I go to North Carolina? Like

No.

Four years ago, something like that, four or five years ago. We would walk with my friend and her dogs in the morning. Every single person that walked by you would say good morning. All of them. So, you know, I I think there's a lot to be said with your environment.

Yeah.

Yes.

might be more likely to talk in a small town with an environment and you're like, hey, you know, you'd be you'd be Tina the hairdresser down where there's only two chairs in the place. Yeah. but you know what I'm saying though. I I d I think that's that's right up your alley. I think I think being in maybe not two chairs, but like four, like no more than four, and it was just like

But I could do that. I could do when I go to work I'm on and I'm a different person. Yeah.

Everyone in town is like, you know. I yeah. I mean, I don't know if I could live in that small of a town. That's a little much. I mean, I remember going to my mom's in in eighty nine and she lived in a town that had like fifteen hundred people in it. And it was odd. It was really odd. I

Where everybody knows your name.

I could look, I I I lived in Vegas for two years. Vegas at the time, I think, had like one and a half million people. That's a good you know, it's a city. If you live outside, you're still in a good neighborhood. There's tons of towns like that all over the country. So all right, teen. Wanna call it a day here?

Mm.

hey look, it's an opinion show. Don't get it twisted. Keep coming back every Wednesday. keep listening to us on all the podcasting places. Check us out on the social media. And we'll see you in a week. I'm Rob that's Tina. We'll talk to you later. Bye.

See ya.