Chad Adams Fills In For Pete Kaliner (12-27-24--Hour 1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] I do want to continue a little bit about what Nick was talking about earlier, and that is this H-1B visa program. Because if you're on the political left, you are having the best time right now. Because this H-1B visa issue has erupted.

[00:00:46] Now, one thing that is interesting to me, let's step beyond that. The issue itself is fascinating. I would agree with Nick in this way. I didn't agree with everything. But it is a great debate. Don't think that it's not. It is a phenomenal debate. It is what we anticipated and what we like.

[00:01:03] Trump has a diverse cabinet. And many people on the political right are illustrative of the fact that it's not a cult. It is a lot of folks with different ideas that all believe that we have an America First agenda.

[00:01:17] And the H-1B program, it can be argued in multiple ways that it's an America First program or that it's anti-American First.

[00:01:26] So it is a good, healthy debate because ultimately it is about the freedom of free enterprise. It is about the way in which free enterprise can best be achieved by free men.

[00:01:36] You know, excuse me, freedom can best be achieved that way by free men through free enterprise.

[00:01:39] So – or economic justice, I guess you could say, can best be achieved. It's a weird line. It's a line from the J.C. Creed that's absolutely true.

[00:01:46] And when you break all this down, it's – how does a company go about finding the best workers?

[00:01:53] Are we interested in only finding the best workers in America?

[00:01:57] Are we interested in finding the best workers or most innovative people from around the planet?

[00:02:02] You could argue Elon Musk has benefited personally from such a program.

[00:02:07] I mean he's South African. He's not native-born American. I think he has dual citizenship now.

[00:02:11] But a lot of these – Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon kind of tore the Band-Aid off about 48 hours ago on social media, and it went flipping crazy.

[00:02:22] It is gone. It is not abated. It has not – Laura Loomer's gotten involved.

[00:02:26] Millions of people are getting involved.

[00:02:28] Now, one of the beautiful aspects of this entire debate is how marginalized the regular historic media has become.

[00:02:39] ABC, NBC, CBS, they don't keep up with this stuff in real time.

[00:02:43] They have kind of this bottled way.

[00:02:44] Even Fox and Newsmax, I think, is coming on very strong.

[00:02:48] Newsmax is eager to replace Fox as the rights way to go and get news.

[00:02:54] But all of those legacy – the real time, whereas talk radio is topical and timely.

[00:03:00] It is a way for us to discuss things as they're happening every day.

[00:03:04] And the legacy media doesn't have that, especially print.

[00:03:08] Print is often outdated by the time you would ever get it and be able to read it.

[00:03:11] And I think news – if you ever watch news media, whatever you choose to watch, CNN, NBC, whatever, or Fox,

[00:03:17] you kind of see the package every 30 minutes updated and regurgitated back to you.

[00:03:22] So after about 30 minutes, you're getting ready.

[00:03:24] You're like, I need to turn it to another station, see if they're not talking about that.

[00:03:26] And even worse, day by day, the topic tends to get repeated ad nauseum over and over.

[00:03:33] I mean – and I'll say this, and I'm not belaboring it because we all care about the immigration issue.

[00:03:38] But how many times do you turn it on and they're still talking about how – the immigration system – the situation on the border.

[00:03:43] It's horrible. It's bad.

[00:03:44] But when you hear it enough times, you don't want people to get – to tune it out.

[00:03:49] It is important. It is relevant.

[00:03:50] But you overdo it. You get things tuned out.

[00:03:53] So we will talk about that.

[00:03:54] We'll talk about some of the ridiculous things that happened this past year.

[00:03:58] My friend John Tamney has a great article today about how freedom always beats authoritarianism,

[00:04:04] much to the chagrin of the folks on CNN and the political left who like to scream that somehow freedom brings about authoritarianism.

[00:04:11] It's just the opposite.

[00:04:12] Some economic predictions that are out there, just a fascinating time.

[00:04:18] So we will get to all that here on News Talk 1110-993-WBT.

[00:04:22] See if the voice sounds different. It is. It is. Because it's mine.

[00:04:25] It's not Pete Calleners. Pete's enjoying himself, I hope, getting rested up.

[00:04:29] And he will be back as the new year begins.

[00:04:31] I'll be here this – today and much of next week, New Year's Day notwithstanding.

[00:04:37] So thank you for tuning in and being a part of things here.

[00:04:39] And if you want to get in on the conversation, you're welcome to do so.

[00:04:41] It's 704-570-1110. 704-570-1110.

[00:04:46] Now, to break down the H-1B, it is too easy to jump in on one side of this debate.

[00:04:55] And it's very heated. It's very complicated.

[00:04:58] There are people that want to simplify it.

[00:05:00] Well, I think Newsweek – I don't always agree with Newsweek,

[00:05:03] but I think they did a fair job of teasing this out a little bit.

[00:05:08] So I'm going to go with that version of this debate.

[00:05:11] One side note.

[00:05:13] Gunther Engelman, who is a very prolific guy out on Twitter, or X –

[00:05:19] it is now the X platform.

[00:05:20] And there's a lot of different platforms.

[00:05:21] But X is now the number one news app in 140 countries, including the U.S.

[00:05:30] Number one in 140 different countries.

[00:05:33] That's – you talk about a transition that you, one, couldn't have predicted.

[00:05:38] Number two, that is just proof that there is nothing –

[00:05:41] there is nothing in news or the free market that is etched in stone forever.

[00:05:47] I mean, you and I have talked about this many, many times.

[00:05:51] If you look back, you look at where Sears and Roebuck was or JCPenney,

[00:05:55] you looked at where Kmart was, you look at these great –

[00:05:57] these iconic pieces of American history.

[00:06:00] We had someone calling yesterday say,

[00:06:02] we shouldn't forget the Vanderbilts and all that.

[00:06:03] Well, they faded from grace.

[00:06:06] Things change, and we evolve.

[00:06:08] And the next person that builds the better mousetrap

[00:06:11] dominates from an economic standpoint or dominates from a market standpoint.

[00:06:15] And we saw that with the rise of Amazon and Apple.

[00:06:18] I can remember when you couldn't give Apple stock away

[00:06:20] just for about $2 a share in the late 90s, early 2000s, about 2001 or so.

[00:06:24] But I was a big believer in Apple back when the 2E came out in the 80s.

[00:06:28] And then you saw that progress and became great,

[00:06:30] but they had their own OS and people made fun of them.

[00:06:32] And then all of a sudden, after the image of the iPhone,

[00:06:35] they become the largest company on the planet.

[00:06:38] That's the beauty of the free enterprise system.

[00:06:40] You constantly have to revise and become better and become better and become better.

[00:06:43] And news media did not do that.

[00:06:47] They evolved, but it was creaking.

[00:06:50] It was being bogged down.

[00:06:51] And instead of becoming very innovative and keeping their objectivity,

[00:06:56] they became partisan propaganda.

[00:07:01] And there's nothing unique about partisan propaganda.

[00:07:03] The Soviet Union tried it.

[00:07:05] Everybody became Pravda.

[00:07:07] The View became Pravda.

[00:07:08] CNN became Pravda.

[00:07:09] Whatever the government wanted to say,

[00:07:11] they would echo and act like it.

[00:07:13] They wouldn't question it.

[00:07:15] And curiosity is what makes a great media.

[00:07:17] And they lost their curiosity and they lost their objectivity.

[00:07:21] And people went to where they could get that.

[00:07:23] And Twitter is one of those places.

[00:07:26] X platform.

[00:07:28] But so much of social media, it's not just there.

[00:07:30] There's multiple versions of it.

[00:07:31] I mean, Trump has Truth Social.

[00:07:32] And there's just a plethora of places that people get their media.

[00:07:36] And that's going to continue to be the case.

[00:07:39] I don't know what will be next.

[00:07:40] The other thing we're seeing is the evolution of these things in a much more rapid fashion.

[00:07:44] Instead of things taking, you know, 50 years to change and then down to 20 or 10,

[00:07:49] now it's four or five.

[00:07:51] The switchover for you to digest new ways of getting information can be at 18 months.

[00:07:57] When Elon Musk walked in with that sink, which was odd.

[00:08:01] He does odd things.

[00:08:01] He's an odd fellow, an amazing individual, but an odd.

[00:08:04] When he walked in with the kitchen sink and he took over Twitter that morning,

[00:08:07] that iconic moment where he bought Twitter and the media lost their minds

[00:08:12] and many people tried to stop him, it changed.

[00:08:15] That was the beginning of we're not going to start being a one-sided media.

[00:08:21] He turned Twitter around.

[00:08:22] And in a very short period of time, it has become the number one app, news app in 140 countries.

[00:08:29] That's what the chaos of the free market and the focus can bring.

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[00:09:36] This H-1B, I love debate.

[00:09:39] For anyone who listens to me for any length of time, I love it.

[00:09:42] I love it when listeners disagree and we have these discussions about, you know, what's going on?

[00:09:46] What do we do?

[00:09:46] How do we solve problems?

[00:09:48] I happen to believe very strongly that those ideas typically are less government, smaller government,

[00:09:54] more entrepreneurship, more free markets, more local control.

[00:09:58] Those are the things that I believe truly do matter.

[00:10:01] Constitutional frameworks where you look at what the Constitution says the government should be doing.

[00:10:04] That tends to work and has worked for 200 and some odd years.

[00:10:07] I think we get sideways when we get away from that.

[00:10:09] I think the framework, oddly enough, persists, you know, a quarter of a millennia later that we continue to see it work.

[00:10:17] And the outline there is a delineation of what government should not be doing.

[00:10:23] They're a list of rights that you have as an individual.

[00:10:25] So the H-1B, if you – and this is interesting because I did listen to what Nick had to say,

[00:10:30] and he made some valid points.

[00:10:32] The debate in the Republican Party right now, the Democrats are largely sidelined on this.

[00:10:37] They're not really – the one thing they would ultimately do if this becomes a debate in Congress

[00:10:42] and a real schism, a real split between the Republicans in the House or the Republicans in the Senate,

[00:10:46] the Democrats have the real opportunity to pick one side or the other, not be divided themselves, and sway the debate.

[00:10:55] So one of two things would happen with the Democrats.

[00:10:57] They would – if this does persist, I think there will ultimately be some kind of hybridized solution here

[00:11:02] that will keep – at least on this issue, that will keep the Republicans together.

[00:11:07] But the Democrats have one of two choices.

[00:11:09] Should it persist and should it produce a schism, at least on this immigration – and I'll get into what those issues are –

[00:11:16] they could pick the side that will cause the most harm.

[00:11:20] In other words, they look at the two options that the Republicans put forward.

[00:11:23] They pick the one they believe will make Americans most unhappy and then vote on that side and then say,

[00:11:31] hey, look what the Republicans did to you.

[00:11:33] See, we want to make it better.

[00:11:35] Or they could put all that aside and they could say, you know what, here's what we think is best for the country

[00:11:40] and side with that moving forward.

[00:11:43] Now, I don't know what they'll do, but we'll see.

[00:11:45] So this is how it breaks down with Newsweek.

[00:11:47] A heated debate within the Republican Party over highly skilled – and that is in quotes – immigrants and H-1B work visas

[00:11:55] has broken out over the otherwise quiet holiday week.

[00:11:58] And it did.

[00:11:58] It erupted on social – it absolutely has been an eruption.

[00:12:02] Reflecting the deep divisions within both the GOP and the Trump base, which, by the way, are the same,

[00:12:08] Elon Musk, backed by tech allies like Vivek Ramaswamy,

[00:12:13] Elon's finding himself at odds with the MAGA true believers.

[00:12:17] Who have long pushed for stricter immigration policies within a carve-out,

[00:12:21] without a carve-out for the so-called high-skilled workers that they argue are taking well-paying jobs for Americans.

[00:12:27] So, to summarize that part, you've got an H-1B work visa that allows companies

[00:12:34] to use highly skilled workers from other countries to help fill their ranks.

[00:12:39] Now, an argument that some people would make is that's taking American jobs.

[00:12:42] You could also say that that's the one side.

[00:12:46] You're taking American jobs.

[00:12:46] You could also say you can get those people for less money.

[00:12:49] So, it's in a company's best interest to find the cheapest skilled labor they can find to fill those jobs.

[00:12:55] So, there would be a – you would make the argument that this has a corrosive effect,

[00:12:58] that it's kind of unfair.

[00:13:01] The other argument you can make on the other side, and that's why I see validity on both sides,

[00:13:05] is that the job of a given company, reporting to its stockholders,

[00:13:09] is to provide the highest level of service or the best product for the lowest price.

[00:13:15] So, if you can get those skilled workers, what if they're better than their American counterparts?

[00:13:21] And I would call your attention back to how we developed the atomic bomb.

[00:13:25] We didn't do it with just American scientists.

[00:13:26] We brought in German scientists.

[00:13:29] We got scientists from all over the world to do the Manhattan Project and built the bomb.

[00:13:33] That's an overly vivid example, but it works and it functions.

[00:13:37] So, Vivek Ramaswamy kind of jumped into this, and he threw out there that, hey, look,

[00:13:43] we can get better workers that are driven differently in many ways than the workers here.

[00:13:51] We can get a lot of skilled workers from India that are highly skilled.

[00:13:55] David Sachs, the South African-American venture capitalist, came to –

[00:13:58] the person that's been promoted to this is Trump's AI policy advisor.

[00:14:04] I'm sorry, Sharam Krishman's appointment as Trump's AI policy advisor is being criticized

[00:14:10] because he's kind of on the side with Elon and Vivek.

[00:14:13] And high-tech companies do benefit from this, and Elon Musk benefited from this.

[00:14:19] He came to this country on a J-1 academic visa.

[00:14:23] He then transitioned into an H-1B, and Tesla is one of the largest companies benefiting from this.

[00:14:28] They've hired 724 people on this program just in 2023 alone.

[00:14:34] But you look at that, and so the concern is it does take American jobs.

[00:14:38] The other side of it is we're getting workers that you otherwise would not be able to get without that program.

[00:14:44] So that being said, a company like Apple, it was mentioned earlier in the broadcast, or Tesla, or any other company,

[00:14:50] you could say, well, if they don't have that program, they could just, in their facilities overseas in other countries,

[00:14:56] hire those people and move those jobs and move that portion of their tech operation overseas, which doesn't benefit the country.

[00:15:03] All right, hey, real quick, if you would like to get your product or service in front of about 10,000 people multiple times a day,

[00:15:11] send me an email at Pete at ThePeteCalendarShow.com and ask me about advertising.

[00:15:16] It's super affordable, it's baked into this podcast forever,

[00:15:19] and podcasts have a higher conversion rate than other social media platforms, making it the best bang for your buck.

[00:15:25] Send me a message, Pete at ThePeteCalendarShow.com, and I can show you how it works, run the numbers with you.

[00:15:30] Again, that's Pete at ThePeteCalendarShow.com.

[00:15:34] It's a remarkable journey life is, and the pitfalls and the ups and downs.

[00:15:39] And this H-1, this H-1B visa program, it, you know, it's, it's, it's,

[00:15:48] it's a shame that it's become, I'm, I'm looking at the personal insults being thrown at people like Vivek and stuff.

[00:15:56] And, and Vivek said he waded into it in a very bad way, and we'll talk a little bit about that.

[00:16:01] So, this is about, quote unquote, highly skilled, very specific subset of workers.

[00:16:07] They have to have very specific skill sets, and allows companies to hire them on that work visa.

[00:16:12] You know, and, and typically you're going to get them cheaper, 10 times what they're making in their country,

[00:16:17] but cheaper than a comparable American worker.

[00:16:21] So, the argument is made, hey, you're hiring people in front of Americans,

[00:16:23] but you could also make the argument that you're hiring people that may have a superior skill set to their American counterparts.

[00:16:29] Now, I'm not saying that they're better, but if you're building something,

[00:16:33] if you were building a boat or if you were in a surgical room,

[00:16:37] and you were assembling the best team to operate on the patient or build the boat,

[00:16:40] you would want unfettered access to the best minds or the best engineers, regardless of where they were.

[00:16:47] If they were highly educated, the best of the best, that's what you wish you could hire.

[00:16:51] And that's what the H-1B visa really was created for, was to fill in gaps.

[00:16:56] But where it got kind of crazy, and this is when it starts becoming very personal for a lot of folks,

[00:17:02] and I get it, you know, on the one side you want much more strict,

[00:17:06] like a lot of folks that are Trump supporters, want far stricter immigration controls, period, across the board, no exceptions.

[00:17:15] But we are in a global economy.

[00:17:17] And at a certain point, you, at least with the H-1B visas, those people are here legally.

[00:17:24] You know who they are, where they come from, why they're here, what they're doing.

[00:17:28] All of those things are known and documented.

[00:17:30] So it is a legal path to work in the country.

[00:17:33] But when, so Laura Loomer's been really on this, and she's attacked everyone and said that anyone who disagrees with Vivek and Elon, they're wrong.

[00:17:43] But when you looked into this, Vivek Ramaswamy, who's not someone known to just hold back, he weighed into this.

[00:17:50] And when he did this, his post really set people off.

[00:17:55] And what he said was that the H-1B are needed because American culture, and I use that phrase the way he did,

[00:18:04] culture doesn't prioritize a work ethic the way Indian culture does.

[00:18:10] And when Indian, we're talking about the country of India.

[00:18:12] Indian immigrants received nearly 75% of all of the H-1B visas in 2023.

[00:18:19] That allows a U.S. company to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.

[00:18:23] Since Trump was elected last month, discussions about reforming the program have intensified,

[00:18:28] with some advocating for removing country-specific caps on green cards to address backlogs.

[00:18:34] So the people that attacked those folks, they're saying, well, it's really like Laura Loomer and others,

[00:18:39] were saying, hey, this benefits Musk, and he's doing it to serve his own self-interest.

[00:18:44] That he is, that Box CEO Aaron Levy and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who want this H-1B,

[00:18:50] they're benefiting themselves.

[00:18:51] Now, I would argue those people have more than enough money.

[00:18:54] It's not about the money for them anymore.

[00:18:55] It's about innovation and opportunity.

[00:18:59] And if it sounds like I'm in favor of this program, I think you can always make a program better or get rid of it.

[00:19:06] And in this instance, I think it certainly needs to be looked at.

[00:19:09] It needs to be reviewed.

[00:19:09] But if you've got unbelievably gifted individuals that have a place to make our companies more innovative,

[00:19:17] we should have an opportunity to do that.

[00:19:20] Now, what Vivek did that really ticked everyone off was saying that America's culture didn't have the same work ethic.

[00:19:27] Now, for any of you who've lived around, and I worked closely for the past 10 years with someone from India's culture,

[00:19:36] and he is one of the most remarkably driven individuals I have ever known in creating a medical travel company that we called it importing tourism,

[00:19:46] importing medical competition.

[00:19:48] So if a given area only had one hospital, we said, well, heck, if you want to, we'll take you to another country.

[00:19:54] You can have top of the line physicians look at you, operate on you for about a fifth of the price,

[00:19:58] and have at least as good, if not better outcome.

[00:20:02] So we wanted to bring medical costs down in this country because it is running a protectionist racket.

[00:20:07] That company has since been expanded massively to include about 22 countries now.

[00:20:12] So some of the co-founders of Amazon have come on board, and it's a huge international company,

[00:20:17] and that work ethic was there.

[00:20:19] So to say that there is something to the Indian work ethic that Vivek hit,

[00:20:24] but when he did that, it struck a nerve.

[00:20:26] And when it struck that nerve, it was titanic in proportion.

[00:20:29] He hit the iceberg, and Twitter exploded on him.

[00:20:33] And when it did, it was – I mean, and the memes and the trolls came out in force,

[00:20:38] and they've really gone after him.

[00:20:40] And even Nikki Haley got in and said a culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ

[00:20:46] or the jock over the valedictorian will not produce the best engineers.

[00:20:50] That's what Ramos Fahmy wrote.

[00:20:51] And then, of course, Nikki Haley weighed in on that and said there is nothing wrong with American workers

[00:20:56] or American culture.

[00:20:57] We should invest in and prioritize Americans, not foreign workers, she wrote, going back after Vivek.

[00:21:05] So if you're looking for that schism in the Trump world, that's it right now.

[00:21:09] And I think there's good points on all sides of this thing.

[00:21:12] That's why I'm kind of agnostic on it because I think there's – does it need to be reformed and made better?

[00:21:17] Are there people that are slipping through the cracks?

[00:21:19] Yes.

[00:21:19] Does it allow companies to probably prioritize cheaper foreign workers over American counterparts?

[00:21:24] Yes.

[00:21:25] Is there a way to make it deferential to Americans?

[00:21:27] I think there is.

[00:21:29] And still, if they can't find – if there is an absence of qualified candidates, then that program should kick in.

[00:21:36] So there are ways, and I think you ultimately will see a rather remarkable solution out of this.

[00:21:42] I'm not one of those that's going to say, oh, both camps – this camp is absolutely wrong in that camp.

[00:21:47] On this particular issue, there's a lot of good debate that needs to be had.

[00:21:50] And I think in many issues, except for a lot of the left throws out there, they're just – man, I was looking through my notes that I didn't even get through from the last show and talking about the way in which the left wants to operate just with more governments.

[00:22:04] Their goal is more government spending and more government power.

[00:22:06] So I don't regret it.

[00:22:08] It's an easy – that's an easy – it's often very easy to shoot the left's ideas down because they seek to divide people amongst a victim mentality, that somehow every group is a victim and thus government is the great equalizer.

[00:22:22] And we can redistribute people's assets or people's work and redistribute that and give it to people they feel are entitled.

[00:22:31] I don't know what amount of your work someone else is entitled to, but that's the argument that often is made from the left.

[00:22:37] So, John, welcome to the program.

[00:22:39] How the heck are you today?

[00:22:42] Greetings and salutations to you as well, good sir.

[00:22:46] Howdy.

[00:22:46] I wanted to talk about the H-1B and work ethic in different – in different –

[00:22:54] Cultures.

[00:22:55] Groups.

[00:22:56] Yeah.

[00:22:57] Yes.

[00:22:59] I have to agree with they because I've had the opportunity to – I was in Afghanistan.

[00:23:08] We had third country nationals and we also had Americans that were assigned to the base that I was on.

[00:23:16] And I actually had a team that was mixed with Americans and third country nationals from India and Pakistan.

[00:23:25] And I had to do more babysitting and applying boots to seats on the Americans in one day than I did to the third country nationals my entire tour in Afghanistan.

[00:23:48] John's point was he had served overseas in Afghanistan and when he did so, he had various people that were working on his team in, I assume, life and death situations over there.

[00:23:58] And that the work ethic of the Indians and the Afghans that he was working with was far superior to the Americans that were under his command.

[00:24:06] And he had to really work a lot of extra time to get the American troops that were working with him to kind of get the job done on a regular basis.

[00:24:16] Now, that is not an indictment of America.

[00:24:18] The point I would say – and this is interesting because you can look at the history of the country in many different ways.

[00:24:23] And there are people that choose to look at it in a very negative way.

[00:24:26] I choose to look at it, and there's never been anything like this with respect to entrepreneurship, with respect to innovation, with respect to overcoming obstacles and getting rid of negative things that have occurred.

[00:24:37] But let's take it a step further and say it was the drive and the work ethic that built this country.

[00:24:44] It was the sacrifices made since then that have kept this country.

[00:24:48] And one could make – and I would be one of these that – and I don't – it sounds very curmudgeon-y.

[00:24:54] It sounds very – like an older individual would say.

[00:24:58] I'm trying not to be that, but I am.

[00:25:01] So it is that you've got to be concerned about the work ethic now.

[00:25:06] If you're concerned about public education over the past 30 years, part of what you've seen come out of that is this entitled mentality.

[00:25:13] And an entitled mentality is not a competitive one.

[00:25:16] An entitled mentality is not one that innovates.

[00:25:19] An entitled mentality doesn't push a company to the limits and overcome tremendous obstacles to become better, bigger, faster, stronger, cheaper, more efficient, everything.

[00:25:27] It doesn't build better mousetraps.

[00:25:29] It's very comfortable, and it also believes it deserves things.

[00:25:33] That isn't everyone.

[00:25:35] A lot of these arguments, unfortunately, become about everyone.

[00:25:38] If Vivek Ramaswamy says, hey, there's an Indian work culture that is different than the American work culture, people instantly say, oh, he just said that about all Americans.

[00:25:47] He didn't say that.

[00:25:49] In general, though, and you see it if you're in a very mixed community, if you're in a Cary, North Carolina, or you're in parts of the Mecklenburg County area where you have these very diverse pockets.

[00:25:58] Cary's very Indian.

[00:26:00] You see that.

[00:26:01] You see the Asian work ethic.

[00:26:03] You see that.

[00:26:03] You can go to any high school graduation.

[00:26:06] You see it.

[00:26:07] You see it when they walk across stage.

[00:26:09] It's a high propensity of overly, overly worked.

[00:26:14] That sounds terrible.

[00:26:15] I don't mean to say overly worked, but people who have worked strategically hard to be the best, and they carry that work ethic into college.

[00:26:22] They carry that work ethic into their professional life.

[00:26:24] So when Vivek is referring to that kind of work ethic, America, I think, in many ways was that way, has the capability of being that way.

[00:26:35] But many times when they're looking for workers, there's a lot of workers that when you enter, and you know if you've been in management, you've interviewed people that kind of just sit across the table as if they deserve the job.

[00:26:44] It's one thing if they actually do deserve it, but it's another when they feel entitled to it, and that's where the debate is.

[00:26:49] Now, one thing Trump said when he was on the campaign trail, he said it before, and it is that what – he says what I – and you can hear him saying, I can't do a Trump imitation.

[00:26:57] There's many I can do.

[00:26:58] That one I have not mastered.

[00:26:59] But he says what I will do, and this is literally you can hear him say, what I will do is you graduate from a college.

[00:27:05] I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma a green card to be able to stay in this country.

[00:27:10] What he's saying is if you made the effort, you were here legally, you jumped through the hoops, you found a way to get into a college, you earned that degree, and you should have an opportunity to stay here to work because America benefits from a highly skilled workforce.

[00:27:29] Now, it sounds like I'm picking a side here, and what I'm saying is can that program be made better?

[00:27:33] Yes.

[00:27:34] Do I believe it will be made better?

[00:27:36] Yes.

[00:27:36] Do I think that the past 50 years of degraded public schools and entitled youth has an impact on the workforce?

[00:27:46] Yes, I do.

[00:27:47] I do believe that many of the very loose policies – because we've gotten away from the discipline in schools.

[00:27:53] We've gotten away from requirements.

[00:27:56] We don't teach technical reading – I mean, I'm sorry, technical writing.

[00:28:00] We don't teach the highly skilled – we don't teach economics in schools.

[00:28:05] We don't teach basic economics.

[00:28:07] A lot of our kids graduate from school, they can't read at grade level.

[00:28:10] So if you've got a bunch of Irish kids that are over here that are competing at the highest levels because they teach technical writing, and they teach them how to read, and they're highly skilled and competent, how do you say they shouldn't have an opportunity?

[00:28:22] And again, I used Irish for a variety of reasons, not the least of which you completely understand without me spelling it out or showing you a picture.

[00:28:28] But the same thing for Indian kids or young people.

[00:28:33] If they are valedictorians at MIT and they want to work and drive the next innovation forward and they're part of the team to do that, should there be an opportunity for them to do it here in this country?

[00:28:48] To make this country bigger, faster, stronger?

[00:28:52] You know, when I'm watching sixth-generation Chinese fighter jets, you know, video from all over the world where we can't compete with that, do I want the best and brightest helping to build sixth-gen fighters that can take them out of the sky?

[00:29:05] Or seventh-gen that are superior?

[00:29:07] Yes.

[00:29:09] But this debate needs to happen, and I appreciate that it's coming from all sides of the right right now.

[00:29:16] I think the anger hopefully will tone down and we'll get away from the name-calling, which unfortunately becomes, you know, kind of parcel to the way we do things.

[00:29:26] We love to attack people.

[00:29:27] Vivek's being, you know, just a sale for saying some of the stuff he said when really what he's trying to say is if you find people with comparable work ethics and comparable values, yeah, take the American first.

[00:29:37] And there should be an advantage for Americans, no doubt.

[00:29:40] America first.

[00:29:40] I'm all for that.

[00:29:41] But I'm for American companies first, too.

[00:29:43] And if we can advance that company cause without bleeding to other countries, the brain drain.

[00:29:49] We've seen it, I can tell you, in a small island like Puerto Rico, it's 100 miles by 30 miles.

[00:29:55] And looking at what government's done there and the brain drain, quarter of 300, 350,000 of the best and brightest have left.

[00:30:03] So what you've got left behind is less educated, less capable, lazier.

[00:30:08] And that's not an indictment on Puerto Ricans because many of the best and brightest and hardest working left.

[00:30:13] Then Puerto Rico's left with a different work ethic, isn't it?

[00:30:17] And if we've abandoned teaching people the work ethic, who do we really blame for that?

[00:30:21] You can't blame another country for our lack of work ethic.

[00:30:25] You can't jump for vacancy.

[00:30:26] He's all wrong.

[00:30:28] So we'll see.

[00:30:29] As this goes forward, Trump wants to keep people that are making some kind of sacrifice here in this country for this country.

[00:30:38] I don't know where it all shakes out.

[00:30:40] But it's an ugly, ugly debate right now, and that's because it just started.

[00:30:45] So we will see.

[00:30:47] So when you have Elon Musk that's arguing for – so the one thing I will say is I don't sense – this will make you feel a little better.

[00:30:54] I do not sense from Vivek.

[00:30:55] I do not sense from Peter Thiel or Elon Musk that their narcissism or their ego or their desires are anti-American in any way.

[00:31:03] I really don't sense that.

[00:31:05] I don't see that.

[00:31:06] They're not plants.

[00:31:07] These are people.

[00:31:08] And, again, Elon Musk doesn't need any more money.

[00:31:10] I think he's in the fight.

[00:31:11] And everything I see is he's just in the fight to make the country better.

[00:31:14] If anyone believes in this country, it's someone like him.

[00:31:19] And look at what he's built.

[00:31:20] I don't think he would have built SpaceX if he didn't have this country's interest.

[00:31:24] I don't think he wants to go to Mars to put a Chinese flag on it.

[00:31:27] I don't think any country has said, hey, Elon, come to our country.

[00:31:30] We'll give you a better deal.

[00:31:31] He's not going to pick up shop and leave.

[00:31:33] Where he did pick up shop and leave is he left California and he went to Texas.

[00:31:36] Why?

[00:31:38] Because it was a much better regulatory environment.

[00:31:40] It was a much better tax environment.

[00:31:41] It was a much better freedom environment than California.

[00:31:45] But he kept it in America.

[00:31:46] He didn't abandon the country.

[00:31:47] And these other people aren't either.

[00:31:51] So how are these sides going to work together?

[00:31:53] What kind of ideology will win out in Trump's eyes?

[00:31:57] And I don't think just Trump's.

[00:31:58] I think Trump likes this.

[00:31:59] I think Trump likes a healthy debate amongst the people that are close to him.

[00:32:04] That's the question, though.

[00:32:05] Where is that going to shake out?

[00:32:06] And I think you're going to be – I think you're going to see a lot of this.

[00:32:09] But I think it's good and healthy and productive for the country.

[00:32:12] Now, when we get on the other side of the break, there are a number of – we're getting to the end of the year.

[00:32:16] So it's a lot of lists.

[00:32:18] Like what's the best?

[00:32:19] What happened this year?

[00:32:20] And some of the fun ones are kind of what were some of the ridiculous things that happened this past year?

[00:32:27] So we'll get to that.

[00:32:29] We will talk about freedom beating authoritarianism.

[00:32:32] That's kind of the debate we're having this previous hour.

[00:32:35] We'll talk about how does your dog – scientists are actually looking at ways to increase your lifespan, really, because they're finding ways to increase your dog's lifespan.

[00:32:45] Now, I don't know how you feel about that.

[00:32:47] I think most people would love to keep their dog – imagine keeping your dog around for 40 years like a parrot.

[00:32:52] I don't know.

[00:32:53] I don't know.

[00:32:54] Would the dog get bored?

[00:32:55] My dog just likes to sleep a lot after he got to a certain age.

[00:32:58] So I don't know about that.

[00:32:59] So we also want to get to some of the economic predictions that will probably take place over the next year, and certainly your calls, your thoughts, and how you think things should, could, and might shake out.

[00:33:12] And then also, I do want to say on the final note on the H-1B visa, did you know – and this is from Stephen Horn – did you know that the state government in North Carolina is one of the largest H-1B visa applicants, and it's in the UNC system?

[00:33:30] UNC members made over 500 visa applications last year with an average base salary of $91,757.

[00:33:40] Most common job title for those in the state government through the UNC system was assistant professor.

[00:33:48] So don't think that North Carolina is removed from this and government does – government, the UNC system benefits from that.

[00:33:55] All right, that'll do it for this episode.

[00:33:57] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:33:58] I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:34:03] So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

[00:34:06] You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com.

[00:34:12] Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.