Episode 953 Scott Adams: President Trump’s Coronavirus Performance, 4th Branch of Gov, More

Date: 2020-05-04 | Duration: 53:02

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Content: Whiteboard1: Trump Coronavirus Grades Whiteboard2: Who Dies?, Who Decides?, Solution Twitter has evolved to be the 4th branch of government

If you would like my channel to have a wider audience and higher production quality, please donate via my startup (Whenhub.com) at this link: https://interface.my/ScottAdamsSays

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## Transcript

[0:10]

ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba hey Carl well then do you know what time it is it's white Bordeaux clock no it's better than that it's double whiteboard time yeah - I boards one on each side it's gonna blow your mind full of tantalizing and provocative ideas that are gonna make you think make you hate make you cry well probably won't make you cry might make you do those other things though let's talk about some stuff this happened since the last time I saw you well I went shopping today pretty big news yes yes I did I put on my mask went to the grocery store I have not been to anything like a building with ceiling or anything except my house in quite a while and I gotta tell you I was

[1:14]

while and I gotta tell you I was thinking you know I was thinking to myself you know how bad is it gonna be shopping in the grocery store it's gonna be like some kind of dystopian nightmare or Waterworld end-of-the-world hellscape kind of situation but I had I had optimistically been saying in general that there might be some things that end up better after the virus crisis but there might be some things that we say hey let's just rethink this from scratch because we wouldn't ordinarily but since everything's broken let's rethink everything and let me tell you I just had the best grocery shopping experience of my life and I just wanted to continue let let me tell you how good this was as I approached the front door there were carts right by the door there

[2:15]

there were carts right by the door there have never been carts right by the door there usually you have to go hike over over yonder and get yourself a cart but they were right by the door for the first time not only were they by the door but - very nice employees with masks where we're sterilizing them as they the other customers dropped them off so for the first time in my life I picked up a sterilized freshly sterilized cart right by the door how happy was I before I've even walked in the door I said to myself I can't go back I can't go back to the days of dry me everybody has touched this cart I don't know which baby has drilled on it I can't go back to that but I figure okay but sure the there's one thing that's good about it but the rest of the shopping experience is going to be tough so I I got ready now I know most of you have been shopping already but you know I'm yeah

[3:18]

shopping already but you know I'm yeah I've been I've been hiding for a few months so it's the first time I've been in the store so I go in and I noticed first of all that everybody has a mask on including me as they shed and I said to myself will this be the first time I've ever purchased groceries that didn't have a thousand people's human spittle on them and I thought I think it is this might be my first spittle free shopping experience of all time now I don't have you know Howie Mandel OCD yeah I can I can shake hands I'm pretty anxious to wash my hands soon after shaking hands but I'm not you know I'm not too concerned about germs and whatnot I you know have a healthy regard for them but I have to tell you having now shopped in a store where all

[4:21]

having now shopped in a store where all the employees and the other customers have masks on I don't want to go back I mean I really don't want to go back I mean a lot I mean I'm not even joking if we can always wear a mask in the grocery store I just keep mine in the glove compartment of my car I'll wear my dad mask as long as you get all those other Yahoo's to wear a mask and all of my food we'll have you know only the pesticides on it that I like so much and not the humans middle so now I've got this sterilized cart I think I'm in heaven didn't even have to walk to get it
it there's no spittle on my food wait it gets better this gets better they're limiting the size of the crowds right I didn't even have to fight for anything nobody was in front of me oh sure there were some people passing by but they were much of my business and then I go

[5:22]

were much of my business and then I go to check out and they marked the floor I tweeted it you know and apparently a number of stores are doing this so they marked the store the floor with squares so you know what Square to stand on so you're six feet away from the next customer line and people were actually using it and I thought to myself oh my god I never have to be crowded again I never have to have the the the six-year-old who pushes the mom's cart into the back of my ankle while I'm waiting for to pay for the groceries I'll never have that that feeling again of being was just sort of pushed and somebody's breathing down my neck and a little tight and the Mobile's squeezed in there I'll never have that again I can stand six feet away from the nearest person I've never been happier it was the happe wait it gets better it gets better one of my pet peeves is that

[6:24]

gets better one of my pet peeves is that they'll always ask me if I want a paper bag or plastic I always say plastic because the paper bags they had those break off and I'd like to be able to you know pick up like two in each hand and you can do that with the plastic ones now it turns out that they only have the plastic ones because the paper bags were kind of less I guess there I don't less good or something so every time that I would go into a Safeway I would say I'd like a plastic bag please what do you think they say when there are two choices and you pick one of them clearly and without any even being asked I would like the plastic bags please well 75% of the time this is what would happen dum de dum dum dum tum tum this is time passing don't don't don't don't of what kind of bag would you like plastic or paper I just said plastic but of course they do this all day long and they

[7:25]

they do this all day long and they forget what you said and that runs in with the last four hundred people they waited on so they do have to ask again I totally get that but as the customer what is better not having to answer it or not having to answer it twice sometimes three times sometimes the beggar will come up and I'll have to answer the same question for the third time yep still plastic bag just like the last two times I was weighing in on this question but now no paper bags just plastic again one of the biggest annoyances of shopping wiped away I go out to the parking lot I was parked right next to the cart area where you you take the carts back because the store wasn't that full just best parking or the best shopping experience of all time I hope it never goes back anyway
that's not what I came here to talk about let's check your your hoax

[8:30]

about let's check your your hoax detection equipment how many of you fell for the hoax that was going around the internet too recently this head that the CDC mysteriously and quietly cut the number of people they estimated dying from coronavirus from the sixty some thousand to thirty some thousand effectively cutting it in half how many believed that that hoax that was going around for the last couple days if you believe that one you sorted need to check your your hoax detector here's what you should have known right away if that had been real it turns out it was just people were looking at a page this showed I don't know partial data or for a less than the entire period so it wasn't what people thought of us but if you believe that the CDC quietly cut the number in half you would

[9:31]

quietly cut the number in half you would have to ask yourself why none of the major news sources are reporting it because it would be the biggest story in the country immediately so if you waited a few hours you know first few hours you might say to yourself hey they haven't covered it yet maybe they're looking into it but after about a day is going by and you and neither CNN Knorr Fox News or Breitbart nor often good post nor anybody if nobody's covered it and it's only on Twitter it probably didn't happen okay so if you're one of the people who got taken in by that the test that you should have put on it is that there's no major news source reporting it if even one of them reported it then you'd be on at least reasonable grounds because a major news source was agreeing with you that doesn't mean it was true but we should have a little bit of support all right I'm gonna give a trump

[10:32]

support all right I'm gonna give a trump report card on how he's done on this coronavirus business are you ready for this you ready controversy provocative if you can handle it I know you can all right let's see how Trump did on I tried to break it into sort of logical categories and let's see how we did how'd he do an early awareness it was reported that his security briefings which they say he doesn't read or pay attention to that they had been warned four out of weeks and weeks about this coronavirus is that true probably here's the context a lot of people get worn well the president gets warned about a lot of stuff what is just sort of an early indication that doesn't mean he needs to do something his experts were telling him he didn't need to worry so early awareness I give the president who is not himself an expert on biology and a because he took you

[11:35]

on biology and a because he took you seriously at exactly the same time as the top experts in the world ouchy Burks etc so he didn't he didn't go you didn't take you seriously before they did that would be bad performance nor did he take it not take you seriously after they talked to him and talked to him so the best you could perform as a not expert is that you got it as early as the experts got it now should the experts have gotten it much earlier yes but they have an excuse too because China may have been you know concealing some of the information but even still maybe the experts could have been a little bit more on the ball yeah you could imagine the the experts only get a I don't know a see would you say grade of a see because even though China was hiding the information there should have been enough warning signs it feels like that the experts should have seen

[12:36]

like that the experts should have seen this a little bit earlier but not the president the or not the politicians I know I wouldn't put anybody else in that category either because if the if they if they took the same path as the experts did that's as good as the politician who can do at Trump close travel early I think he deserves credit for that now we're all getting tired of him reminding us of that but it's also completely fair I think it's completely fair to say that he took an action that was super unpopular and I don't think there were many people in the room who agreed with him when he did it so that's an A+ probably his best grade is that and you can't take that away from I'm gonna give him some lower grades as we go so this isn't all going to be good news but I do agree that you just have to you just have to give them the A+ on that closing the Travel ventilators a plus I'm gonna say a plus

[13:37]

ventilators a plus I'm gonna say a plus now you could argue hey where were all the ventilators ahead of time but I would argue that being prepared means that you don't run out of ventilators did we run out of ventilators we did not did we have extra ventilators in the long run we did so I would say that the president yeah you could argue that he should have had a warehouse bunch of warehouse of ventilators but nobody else did you know were there are other countries that warehouses full of ventilators the fact that he got private industry to serve to whip up a bunch of ventilators and facts so many of them that we have three times more than we'll need I gotta say pretty good pretty good I'm gonna give them an A for ventilators because I don't think it was reasonable that he knew we would need so many ventilators that's a hard ask to think that the president knew that but we were prepared enough to respond to it so i given Binet and also American industry now there's a

[14:39]

and also American industry now there's a real question whether it was ever important I mean there's a real question to whether the ventilators are hurting people more than they're helping and those are good questions but this it was identified at one point as being critical the president made it happen we have tripled the ventilators we need a plus PPE my biggest complaint with PPE is that we did to have visibility we couldn't tell if we had enough where we had enough etc I would say that after an additional bad start it looks like we have enough so it looks like whatever the government's were doing the states were doing most of the buying the the federal government that was back stopping it I would say that this was a little bit of a closer to a pass/fail situation if you run out of PPE you failed if you didn't run out well I think you passed so I'm not sure that's a given an a B or

[15:40]

so I'm not sure that's a given an a B or C or D whatever it feels like that was pass/fail and he passed we in the end we have enough and I think that they did a lot of smarter stuff and I think that they spared spared nothing to get it done and I think that also I give him an A for cutting red tape it seems to me that there was a tremendous amount of red tape that just got you know washed off just with a brush of a hand and it hasn't come back to bite us you know so far you know knock on wood so far there's no damage from any red tape that got caught there we know now I would say that you could argue that the PPP payments didn't have the controls they needed up front but we quickly are adjusting it looks like you know there's some clawing back to the money etc and I've told you from the start that when everything is sort of a type of war and it's fog of war and you've never done things before that the way you should

[16:42]

things before that the way you should judge everything is how quickly you can correct that and how do you how do you respond to something that it didn't work and I would always I would always look at that over the first attempt because the first attempt sometimes it's a gas in these murky situations did trumpet take expert advice yes in fact Trump has taken expert advice so so clearly and I would say it's such a such a consistent and dedicated manner that it's even becoming a problem there's some because there are some people who wish he were not taking their advice and maybe could you know loosen things up and go back to her so but if you have to say that does the leader take the advice of experts yes you know if you think that's important you could argue whether he shuddered out that's a separate separate argument don't you think but you can't argue that he

[17:43]

argue that he and that you can't argue that the that the population of the United States by an overwhelming majority wants that to happen so most of the country wants to happen he did it I gave the name hey alright the financial relief it's harder for me to judge I would say again the smart thing that's happening is I would say that Steve minuchin is very qualified as far as I can tell if anybody has a counter-argument to that I'll listen to it but every time I see see if out you do I'm sorry uh minuchin do something I feel like he's he's good at this am I wrong I feel like he's sort of the right guy in the right place at the right time so that's great but you know Congress has a big role with this it's not all it's not all Trump or a blue chip and I think that there were some missteps and it was slow you know clunky didn't get to the right people

[18:45]

clunky didn't get to the right people and stuff but a lot of that is just built into how hard it is it was just a hard problem with a very short deadline so how do you grade somebody who is just part of a lot of people you know trumpism Congress Trump is a minuchin but mizuchi work sort of so what's Trump's grade for a sort of a messy process I'd say the process itself I'd give a solid b-plus to again using the same standard which is that it was very messy when it started but did they adjust and it looks like they did it looked like there were lots and lots of adjustments and it looks like they're still adjusting and will continue to adjust so as long as you see them monitoring and adjusting that feels like the right stuff right it feels like they've got a system that makes sense you don't know how quickly things should have been you know would some other president have

[19:46]

know would some other president have gotten a different result and you don't know so I'm going to say that's at least a B but that's you know also involve Congress etcetera but it's at least a B
testing I would give a mere failing grade I would say I would say Adi maybe generously ideas a dog so this is probably the the worst area not only because we don't have much visibility but I'm just annoyed at this part I saw Senator John important he was tweeting how the the US had done out of a six-point sum of a billion tests and that was a lot we tested more than anybody has ever tested but if you dig down just a little bit you know and you factor the fact the fact that our our population is large compared to most oh you really haven't done much testing and I can't tell you that we have a plan to

[20:47]

I can't tell you that we have a plan to do more testing or enough testing obviously there'll be more but we don't really have any visibility on it and I don't think we're close and even Bill Gates said no we're not even prioritizing things right to be useful so I would say testing would be a that's the lowest grade I would say the therapeutics of the vaccines it does look like the federal government is do it oh let me one more thing about testing the president has said that that was the state's responsibility and helped them know what resources were available for the states to contact you know in terms of labs and getting test kits and stuff like that which I don't think was as helpful as it could have been so even though you would say well that was more what the states were supposed to do you can't blame Trump he's the federal government but I can't because it because it's a an emergency so in an emergency there's no such thing really as job responsibilities you know

[21:47]

really as job responsibilities you know not really if the federal government can't do something that can't be done by others and I think that was the case with testing then they sort of are obliged to do it because of urgency right you know you just are obliged to do it because you can so that's the low-grade I think the therapeutics of the vaccines I don't know we'll see we haven't seen it
it thing yet so it's hard to give a grade for that but it does look like the federal government is clearing the deck and doing everything they can to make it easy so I would say other things we know they've done probably a probably really good psychology I would say the president does a good job of this of being optimistic and keeping the economy talked up while still being realistic enough you know in terms of his actions so I think that the president actually hits a really good balance and he's blamed for being too optimistic and he

[22:47]

blamed for being too optimistic and he definitely was in the early days of the crota virus so I think he was too optimistic early on as often as pointed out but at the moment he's hitting a really good note of yeah you know it's tough every life is important but we're on the good side of this you know he's just it's exactly what you need right now so I'm going to give him an a for managing the economy and our stress in terms of how were thinking about it I don't think he gets enough credit for that I think the government did the federal government did a good job with the guidelines even if you don't love them I love the fact that the federal government sent a states let us take the heat we'll do these guidelines you can have a little bit of flexibility within it but you know but we'll take the heat so as long as you stay within these that each of you government government the governors are not going to be individually as responsible for how it turns out so I think that's I think that

[23:49]

turns out so I think that's I think that was really really smart so I'm not gonna say it was Trump's idea necessarily to have guidelines I doubt it was but I would say that the federal guidelines I hate that this is so nerdy and wonky and it's like a cubicle point it's like guy in cubicle kind of a point but I think these guidelines were a huge hint in the sense that they really let everybody focus and understand what mattered now you could argue about the details of it but just the fact that they executed it as well as they did I think really strong give it a name I'm messaging I think the president's been spotty you know his whole disinfected thing I thought he could have cleaned that up and he didn't I thought a lot of his press conferences could have been shorter now he it looks like he's adjusted now and I think he's on the right track he probably bragged a little bit too much and some of them what do we just wanted to hear what the numbers were and

[24:51]

wanted to hear what the numbers were and I thought that the communication about the you know the sufficiency of the PPE and all that stuff I thought that was terrible so I would say that the president always hits home runs but he had a lot of strikeouts too so they were proud he was sort of Babe Ruth on this one you know Babe Ruth I think had records for home runs but also strikeouts because he swings for the smoothies he would swing for the fence so much so those are my grades so I would say overall the president gets strong grades now some of you are going to say but but but but you know shouldn't we be going back to work and didn't he take into serious too seriously just some of you saying not seriously enough maybe but he is following the experts and if you're just going to degrade the president's performance on coronavirus it's a quite strong unless you think testing is the key in which case quite bad alright but here's

[25:53]

which case quite bad alright but here's a fun point I tweeted this tweeted earlier I'm going to tie this into the other topic I tweeted earlier that twitter has become the fourth branch of government and what I mean by that is the Twitter acts as a check and balance on the the other parts of government so if and also on the press so in the old days the the press and the government who often were together a little too well could control what you knew and if it didn't come through the news it didn't come from the government well how would you know what was happening because Twitter allows everybody to be weaponized you you know just yesterday I think the Tara Reid story but Tara Reid gave some interview or something the AAP published a headline and within a minute Tara Reid is reading the headline gets

[26:54]

Tara Reid is reading the headline gets on Twitter and tweets that they had like this false would you have known that without Twitter you heard it right from the actual source now there's more to this story but that's not important to my point my point is that Twitter has allowed you to see behind the curtain because there's always somebody who was there yeah the news the news could report one thing but it takes five minutes to say uh but I was there I I was actually there and that's not what happened so I think Twitter somewhat accidentally has evolved to be like a fourth branch of government now when I said that on Twitter a lot of people said hey you can't say that because they're we didn't elect them they were not elected Twitter is not elected to which I say have you heard of the Supreme Court they're not elected you could say well but they're appointed by people who are alright but you the point is yeah you know we can

[27:57]

you the point is yeah you know we can make the government anything we want there's no rule that says every part of it has to be elected I would say that the twitter is essentially an extension of the population the voters so the voters were always part of the Constitution the voters always had the right of free speech so Twitter is just magnifying really the the power of the public to be a check and balance of the government but let's take that idea and take it to the rotavirus situation here's the problem with our form of government at the moment let's say if you let's say are three branches of government could the existing three branches of government get us to a good outcome with AK rotavirus I would say no I think you need a fourth branch of government let's say Twitter to get us a good result and here's why because we have the wrong system for this specific problem our system of government is

[28:58]

problem our system of government is really really good for a bunch of stuff for example if your country is attacked your federal government is a really good choice for putting an RV together to defend your country all right so federal government real good national defense and armies but you know the who decides depends on what what the question is some things that are driven down to the the city or the state some things drove it down to the individual etc so the who decides is a big deal and this is more important because of the coronavirus story somebody is going to have to die meaning that no matter what we do in terms of either going back to work soon or not going back to work soon those two decisions will determine who dies now specifically but it will determine which group gets the most impact so they any elected official given our

[30:02]

so they any elected official given our three branches of government tell me which official within our existing three branches is capable of making a public decision about which of these three groups is going to be the victim in order to get to the other side so do we make a decision that's bad for poor people which elected officials going to do that I'd say that which elected official is going to say well we're going to make some decisions it's going to be really bad for unhealthy people nobody can do that our system doesn't let you do that because you can never run for office again do you do it it's just impossible you couldn't do it so you can't to go after old people unhealthy people or poor people but this coronavirus situation unfortunately has put us in the situation where you absolutely have to choose you actually have to choose are we going to screw the poor people screw the unhealthy crew to screw the old and of course there's of overlap right the poor the poor

[31:04]

of overlap right the poor the poor people have more health problems so they're also unhealthy so so which politician gets to decide who to screw we don't have that system and the problem is that leadership doesn't work for the coronavirus because no leader can say yeah I'm gonna screw the poor people but you old people and unhealthy people you win it's the poor people who are gonna have a problem can't do it so what's the opposite of leadership since leadership can't work and we have a system with three branches of government and leadership and it's just the wrong system it can't make a decision like this so what's the opposite I don't know if this is a word but let's call it a follower ship maybe things depend on public opinion baby twitter is a big part of that because twitter is building public opinion I'm sure even the you know the protests probably get organized on

[32:05]

protests probably get organized on social media probably a lot of them on Twitter so Twitter and opinion polls become sort of that fourth branch of government which can actually make these decisions because Twitter is sort of forming its own opinion if you will and people are starting to take matters into their own hands if you will now would you what is it that gives any kind of government moral authority I would say the eddying government no matter what level of government you're talking about the only thing that gives the moral authority is capability if they demonstrate that they're capable that people will say ah okay you're capable you know I might be able to come up with some complaints about you I might not you know love what you do maybe it's not what I would do but I do admit that you're very capable with this now being

[33:07]

you're very capable with this now being capable is what gives you moral authority you know this assumes that your intentions are right as well and my point is that our federal government in our government in general is not capable of making a decision about who dies except in terms of war but that's a little more clear-cut and so I believe our government is losing moral authority not because they're bad people not because they don't try not because they don't want to have it do an outcome not because they are bringing the best minds of the you know the smartest people and the best experts of the world they're doing everything right I mean everything that you can imagine they would do they're just the wrong tool for the job you can't ask your elected government in this Democratic Republic system you just can't ask them to be a screwdriver when you need a

[34:10]

to be a screwdriver when you need a hammer you know it's just the wrong tool but you can you ask you can ask the public you can ask the public what do you want to do and then the public because we are capable will actually decide now it may not look like a moat with a majority or anything like that but the public is going to start taking things into its own hands in other words there is some point and you're starting to see the the first suggestions of it there is a point at which the public will simply say government I gave you every chance government I gave you every chance and I even allowed you moral authority because this in the initial stages it appeared to us us the public that you were capable and in fact the government did many things I just gave them high grades and a lot of them they were very capable in fact nothing short

[35:11]

were very capable in fact nothing short of impressive amazing really you know in some aspects or what the government's did just amazing but they are not capable of making the go back to work decision in a way that allows them to keep their jobs etc so the public is going to need to do that for them I've said it before in a weaker form now I'm gonna say it in the stronger form you as a citizen of the United States need to help your leaders you need to help your leaders follow you because if you think it's time for the United States to go back to work and your eyes are wide open you know that you might die you know there's somebody in your family might die as the president said today on his Town Hall which I thought he did quite well I thought this Town Hall was a strong performance for the president but the president was noting that he knows

[36:12]

president was noting that he knows personally three people I think he said three you have died from coronavirus and he said he'd lived his whole life had never heard anybody you know who died over the regular flu and I've said the same thing like how could I get to this point in my life I don't know anybody who died in the flu but a hearing of all these people dying of coronavirus even in my life people of hearing of them dying of it so the president made that point I thought it was good anyway the public does get to decide this one and you did you need to get to the public needs to get to the point where it's driving the car we're not quite there because I don't think the public knows that it's gaining moral authority by the let's say imperfect actions of its government and I think where the government's lose their moral authority is with all these gray areas you know it's sort of a gray area is that whether

[37:12]

it's sort of a gray area is that whether you could go to the beach go to the park or go to a drive-in Church service or something I mean you could say those are gray areas but not really I think those have to have to default toward freedom now now that I've said that let me tell you the worst argument I'm hearing for why we should be allowed to go back and do everything we want and that's the argument for freedom it's really a bad IQ but freedom is the worst argument upset youth this way to get you all worked up before I tell you what I mean yep everybody who's saying that we should we should go back to work the government shouldn't stop us since our constitutional right and it's now freedom that is the worst argument and again I want to go back to work too but safely I say that because I'm blocking people who say but safely like there's

[38:14]

people who say but safely like there's anybody who doesn't want to go back safely there's anybody on the other side have you heard anybody say I'd like to go back to work but if we could find it unsafe way to do that I think I'd choose that no we all want to go back to work we all want to do it safely maybe we could just stop saying it we don't need to say it anymore we've all said it let's get back to work anyway freedom is the worst argument and here is my argument why because both sides are fighting for freedom who in the world believes that the only people want to freedom are the people marching do you think that the governor doesn't want freedom really do you think that all the people who think well maybe we should stay inside for another month do you know you don't think those people want freedom after what world is there only one side that was freedom can you at least admit that that's the wrong frame it's not the freedom lovers versus the

[39:16]

it's not the freedom lovers versus the people he freedom that's the dumbest thing you could ever think about this what it is is the people who think the best way to get to freedom is to just let us happen you know let us go do our thing and suffer the consequences that's one version of freedom and the other people say it's going to be a lot better for you know like a real freedom if we beat this thing with a little bit of stick-to-itiveness now then that might be right it might be wrong I personally a little bit more aligned with the let's get going proud at least the young people you know for god sakes let the young people go back work that's just crazy thought other than what I've never heard a water argument for why the young people can't go to work and I think that has to do with the government being the wrong instrument as well because I don't think the government can discriminate by age or or health ability so that's another reason the government can't make the decision we have to we have to push them

[40:17]

decision we have to we have to push them for it anyway the freedom argument is ridiculous because everybody wants freedom they're only talking about different ways to get there and the other one reason is ridiculous is that you live in a thing called civilization civilization exists almost entirely to rob you of your freedom can you can you drive your car on any side of the road you want No can you drive on any side of the road you want without a license when you're 10 years old with no insurance no civilization is nothing but when do it down your rights into this little generic group that won't kill anybody and that's all we do is take away rights you know you don't have many rights at all if you were to consider all the things that a person could do you know you can't move into your neighbors spare bedroom you can't hit people you can't say sort of things about them I mean if you

[41:21]

of things about them I mean if you looked at as a percentage of all the things that could be done the things that you're free to do is almost a vanishingly small and I would argue that we're basically ok with that because I don't hear a lot of people saying Scott I want my freedom to drive on the other side of the road I know it's dangerous I know it's dangerous but freedom freedom no nobody argues that because it simply just sort of works better if we drive on the correct side of the road and don't run into each other alright this coronavirus thing is temporary bias nature are we gonna be so dubbed that we'll make permanent changes that were Dublin's well maybe a little but we'll fix it are you concerned that the Democrats are going to take advantage of the crisis and you know get their universal healthcare or whatever well they might but taking taking advantage of a crisis is what everybody's doing you know the people were making buddy I

[42:23]

you know the people were making buddy I just saw that the line at the bicycle shop my local bicycle shop because bicycles are essential their transportation it's got a light around the corner there probably have the best year ever because they're a bicycle shop so yeah some people are doing great I don't even do I brought that output where has Scott been the last 50 years don't know what you talked about so let me give you the better argument for going back to work freedom is a intellectually empty argument it is however a persuasive emotional argument so when I watched the protesters and I see that I have to admit when I see them with their flags and with their you know their rifles I kind of like it I kind of like it I'm not gonna lie I love I love watching these Patriots come demonstrate for

[43:23]

these Patriots come demonstrate for freedom I love that they bring their legal firearms I love that the bohr Trump supporters are with guns the lower the level of violence is and it works every time oh yeah I'd probably jinxing myself but I love the fact that the people who actually know how to use firearms and you know they go to the gun range and they take it seriously you know you could pack you could pack the protest with those people and it just gets safer like every every gun you add just makes it safer because those are the kinds of people there so do I love those people yeah I do kind of do I kind of love those people I love their protest I love their American flags I love their patriotism I love their love and freedom I love their guns I don't I don't mind saying so
but that's emotional that that's a purely emotional reaction which I think most you share right don't worry you're

[44:26]

most you share right don't worry you're kind to love it when you see in protests even if you think maybe they should even if you wish they wore their masks don't you still just emotionally don't you guys love it you do alright admit you do but that's emotionally intellectually the reason to go back to work is that there's a crossover point and nobody knows where it is nobody knows the exact right time to go back to work you know I feel like we're there at least where I live you know your your town may be different but in my opinion the best the best argument for going back to work is that you have to eventually nobody knows the exact right time and let's just try it yeah you know it's time to try it for sure so I don't think you have to make it or you don't have to say people die from the bad economy too we know we know we know a bad economy kills you we have to go back

[45:27]

bad economy kills you we have to go back but we have to do it safely we know we know we know we get it well let's just let the people do their thing right let's take the decision away from the politicians I'm not suggesting I'm not suggesting you civic disobedience I'm saying that the public has a limit to their patience and that that that limit will be expressed by let's say more and more civil disobedience in terms of the guidelines but I think people are still going to be respectful because even people who want to do civil disobedience still have a you know deep love for their country in most cases they're still gonna wear their masks because they still you know they still love their fellow humans some may some may not but you get to choose where you go you know you do have that freedom

[46:29]

so that's my advice to you if you want to persuade use the freedom argument but just know it's it's about emotion if you want to be intellectually honest about it say nobody knows what to go back but let's try it see how it works there's no reason not to send young people back hospitals seem to be in good shape let's just try it and I would argue that you know if you're looking at the log arc of history the people who are arguing that we should definitely go back right now versus four weeks from now I don't know if you were to look at this from outerspace that there's really a difference between now and four weeks from now there's there's a big difference now it feels at the moment there's a big difference under stress level yeah there's you know so the clear financial difference but I think if you're looking at it from you know 10 years from now you're gonna say yeah I think I faintly remember it was longer than I wanted it to be I just don't know this will be the thing that makes a

[47:29]

this will be the thing that makes a difference so I would go sooner than later but if if you know my state we're gonna lock down until the end of May and it's not my choice it's not my choice but I also don't think in the end that anybody will starve yeah we'll make sure we'll make sure that no it nobody's gonna let anybody starve all right somebody says great job Scott what is your preferred astrayed well it depends if it's the morning or the afternoon
newsome's tweed is totally ratioed to do so do something they got into trouble Scott that case why aren't you calling for a suspending rent and mortgage payments you haven't heard me say that let me say this as clearly as possible I don't think anybody should pay rent or mortgage payments during the period of

[48:30]

mortgage payments during the period of the clothes damage I think it would be almost immoral to pay your rent or to pay you or your mortgage now I know there in different situations so there's a big difference between a rich landlord who can absorb it and you know you're renting from one person who's all the income is that you pay the rent so yeah people are gonna have to work it out at the individual level but given that it's a gigantic problem with a million variables if you can push that problem on to the banks that's where you want to push it because if you push it to the banks the banks are literally too big to fail meaning that the government has to save the banks you just asked him so you can just sort of consult you could you could take a hundred billion individual problems which is the people who couldn't pay the rent couldn't pay their mortgage you could take all a hundred billion of them and Bachelet bit to sort of one much bigger problem that moves to

[49:30]

of one much bigger problem that moves to the banks because you don't pay your landlord and then the landlord can't pay the landlord is owed mortgage and then the bank doesn't get their buddy but it's easier for the government to bail out the bank if it has to be done the banks could also probably survive by just saying just take three months off for a payment and we'll go back to where we were like it never happened they probably would be okay because all the the only thing that they lost was three months of operating operating income and their expenses were probably down at the same time so yes as clearly as I can say it I'd love to ask you economists for a second opinion but I would love there to be no rent and no mortgage payments for these periods now maybe you could adjust it for only people who lost their jobs that would be fair right I would say that unless you lost your job you should still pay your

[50:31]

lost your job you should still pay your rent you know if you still have a salary you should still pay your rent that's our really only talking about the augment point all right or the people got just whacked by the by it do I have a mortgage I do not
deflation will be a big problem going forward baby could be nephew in Michigan says everyone is out doing normal running around normal in the sense of using stores because even if I wanted to go even if I wanted to go to a store most of them are closed renters will never pay back the rent but owners will always have to pay principal but they will always have to necessarily pay it on the same schedule could be pushed out yes ok yes I've got

[51:32]

could be pushed out yes ok yes I've got to limit my answer to the unemployed or financially strapped I should have said that off right off the bat do I adore believe I buy own groceries today was the first day since the the virus so I I had told myself that on May 1st I was going to personally start making my own decisions about what I'm doing so if a store were open I would go to it but there's not much open so I have there's very little that I can do individually that I'm not very doing maybe I'll be as careful as I can all right somebody says seventy thousand Americans are dead Scott you're saying that like there's a point to it that is not entirely obvious
Snickers mostly that's my intruder that's where intruder Abart can you hear

[52:34]

that's where intruder Abart can you hear it Snickers is very upset about something do you want to see what it is you want to go with me might be an intruder you you might you might you seem to get killed on camera that's quite a bar she doesn't do that unless there's something really all right well if you don't hear from me in the morning the intruder got me I'd better go see what that's about now we'll see you in the morning bye for now