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Mr. President says he needs four more years to break the country, so we at Ricochet thought we’d bring in a few guests that believe we aren’t quite done for. First up is the spritely and ever-exuberant Kevin Williamson to make the case that things aren’t quite as bad as some would have us believe. And Andrew Gutmann returns to tell us about his bold campaign in the Sunshine State to take Lois Frankel’s seat in Congress. (Support the effort to take back our future here!)
It turns out James was a-way last week. He’s still a dude as far as we can tell. The reunited trio chat about his couple weeks in Europa.
Song of the Week:
- Sound clip is from Biden’s speech to the North America’s Building Trade Union’s Legislative Conference
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Kevin hates Americans
That helps visualize the problem. To further clarify, the typical employee here works about 2000 hours per year and has a large chunk of his earnings confiscated by our broke state and federal governments.
Offhand, I cannot point to a graph, but the size of the median house is significantly larger now than in 1965. As Kevin pointed out, people’s expectations are higher now. So they don’t always realize the change in standard of living over time.
Yes, but, markets matter too. One of my uncles passed just over a year ago, and the little house where he lived – which had previously been owned by his/my mother’s/my aunt’s parents, but he was allowed to live there until he died and then the house gets sold and the proceeds divided among them/their estates – is a tiny little thing, just over 700 sq ft, two bedrooms barely, the bathroom is so small that when the toilet was replaced years ago with a newer model, they had to start sitting sideways to use it. And it needed a lot of work, including a new roof. It sold just over a year ago for $285,000 which was MORE THAN the original asking price, and the buyer thought he got a good deal.
It is true that houses are bigger, but condos are more common. Quality is better for some materials but worse for others. The important thing is that people can only buy what is available for sale and today’s wages don’t make houses much less affordable. If the biggest and most important expense a family has doubled in price, then people feel poor. The fat cats at the dispatch are either ignorant or don’t care. KDW probably still thinks UT is charging $6 per credit hour.
I wonder if he’s priced a new Ford F150 lately.
Simple despair is feeing optimistic…..If we have not, in fact, passed the tipping point then there may not be one and in that case Kevin W may be correct.
When I look at the raw objective facts of the Nation and the world as I approach 77 years of being pretty optimistic, I must recognize that $31Trillion in Debt—and growing!, the leadership of the Left in ALL vital institutions, and the flaccid response from those who were on the Center-Center Right of the continuum, the fact that our kids DO NOT KNOW nor really seen to care about the circumstances that created America –and so have no pride of place nor sense of ‘destiny–when they praise celebrities who are famous for being famous and when all of this is happening at breakneck speed….I would be a fool to NOT bet on the realization, finally dawning on the masses, that ‘we killed it!’
I agree and, as an economist, will not argue with the positive data KW set forth BUT what is very different and what is too often ignored is the degree to which the Left has infiltrated into EVERY institution. As such, the positives can become ephemeral almost over night—look at Canada. Look at Germany. Look at Argentina—they even decided that the Venezuelan model is the way to accelerate their decline! The Left’s cancer has metastasized in Australia, France, the UK. Chile has decided the Chicago School—which saved them–needs to take a back-seat to Xi. India hates China BUT will likely move to RMB denominated transaction.
(Is anyone besides Italy’s Giorgia Meloni fighting the trend?)
Look at what the success of The Left has done to The Golden State!
Do not say ‘It can’t happen here!”–I live in California. And it did not take long.
America 2023, with what passes for religious, cultural and political leadership, has become the last scene in the first Planet of The Apes movie….it ain’t pretty.
Kevin asserts that Republican candidates who dump on the urban areas are not going to win those voters. Okay, point taken. But then he turns around and dumps on rural or socially conservative voters. Do you see a contradiction here Kevin?
He seems to think there aren’t enough people in the rural areas especially, to matter.
I had forgotten Halls of Ivy and it certainly should be included in any list of Britons on American radio. I did remember another Briton Harry McNaughton who was a cast member on the show It Pays to be Ignorant. The show had a long run despite the groan quality of its humor. I am not sure if there were many British actors on American radio as there were many American actors who could do a passable British accent when needed- such as John Dehner. Dehner’s co-star on the radio was the British actor Ben Wright who played Hey-Boy. Wright was also in many other radio series. That’s it. Can’t think of any others so over to James for the definitive roll call.
Well, there was that one guy… what was his name? Ski nose, danced a little… Claimed he was born in London but talked like he was from the streets of Cleveland… Bob something or other…
I guess if you go into a podcast expecting to hate what a guest says, you’re going to find a way to be offended. I didn’t find anything particularly objectionable in Kevin Williamson’s interview.