Democrat caller refuses to say how much of Musk's money he would seize | Hour 2

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three 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 of the links, become a patron, go to thepeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet, And again, thank you so much for your support. It was not intending to spend. More time on the Elon Musk millionaire story, but we have a lot of text messages and we have a phone call. So let's start with the phone call. Hello, Mike, Pete. Try to contain your excitement please, Okay, gosh, I mean, do what I was telling Bernie. He was asking mog what do you want to talk about? And I said, well, tell, tell Pete. I'm looking to demonstrate my dumb assy because you know you're always so good at pointing that out. Yes I know, yes I know, and so let me know how it is dumb astery to be just focused on a couple of just things that exists, and it's not so much whether Elon is good or bad, or whether it's good or bad. But he has his wealth. The question is what do we do in response to it? Nothing? Right exactly, that's what you're saying. Yeah, well you what, well, Mike, what do you do in response to my wealth? It's not your wealth? We're talking about why not? No, no, Michael, But but like, do you do you ever consider what to do in response to Pete callaner's wealth? I look and focus on the fact that in terms of everybody's wealth, it's. Not everybody's wealth. It's a it's an individual's well it's no. But see, Mike, you're trying to you're trying to frame this discussion in a way that I am challenging the framing. So that's why I'm not letting you go further down this argument because you want to hop and skip past the fundamental assumption that you're making that somehow or another, this wealth belongs to you. And that's my point is it does not. But you don't focus on my wealth. But you're focusing on on Elon Musk's wealth. I am focusing on the nation's wealth and how over fifty five percent of it is owned by less than one percent of the wealth owners in the country. And so the question is what do we do in response to that, especially in light of the fact that we live in a nation which thirty million people don't have health insurance. We live I thought everybody got Obamacare. Forty million people on food sand. You gave way. Wait, you gave everybody obamacare. A court of the children, a court to the children in poverty. So the question is what do we do in terms of it's not that we don't have the wealth, is it what is a fair way? What is appropriate way? Or is there an appropriate way? Yeah, you're not going to like my answer to. Look at the serious problems that we have, Pete, and to say, you know, is this a wealth problem? No? Or is it okay? No, No, it's no, it's a government problem, Mike. And I know you're not going to like the answer to this. You guys, your Democrat Party has blown through tens of trillions of dollars to address these very things that you still complain about that you still cite, right, No, yeah, yeah, you still talk a noot. You still talk about all the poverty and the people starving in the streets, and healthcare and all of these things. And we have blown through trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars, and I would submit the problem is what you guys have created, what government has created that you guys have championed. I got a story right here. Social Security is going to be insolvent in six years. Right? Why is that right? Why is that? Would these subties include the hundreds of billions of dollars that Elon Musk has received. He hasn't received subsidies. He got government contracts. He got government contracts and then delivered on those contracts early. That's what happened. He got government contracts and he delivered them, and he delivered them earlier and cheaper than what the contracts allowed for. That's what he did. And the question becomes whether. So there's a different question now there's a. Question as to whether that's worth my point. No, no, no, we were talking about poverty, Mike. Well, first we were talking about whether or not whether or not his wealth is something that you should be concerned about. Then we moved on to poverty and all these. Other things as if one is that one is connected to the other. Right, you don't know how much. Elon Musk has donated charity, For example, right. You don't know that. And if Elon Musk decides to donate nothing to charity, that's still his prerogative. It's it's his money, it's not your money. So you don't get to sit around and think up creative ways to seize people's property. That's what you're talking about. You're trying to figure out ways to make it altruistic to take from people. Pete, I love when I call how you interpret what it is. I'm saying yes, right. And right because you say things in a way to make yourself sound morally superior, when in fact you're espousing a really evil sin, which is envy and covetousness. I am saying things talking about that we have certain decisions and how we can evaluate those decisions and make these tough choices about you know, we have we have the wealth. Who's weak? Who's we? We is a country, We as a country, it's not yours. Though. You don't get to take from people because they've got more than you do and give it to somebody else because you perceive them as having less. We as a free society can make decisions as to how is the best way, in the fairest way to fund those things that we decide are important to us. All right, and that's all. That's my question. It's not that I'm wanting to seize anything. Oh, what do you think taxes are? Exactly? What's the best way of taxing things? No? No, no, no, no, no, Mike, Mike, you said you're not looking to seize anything, and I said, what do you think taxes are? That's seizure? Well, yes, okay, so okay, So when you come. Out here, when you start up taxes, Mike, So when you come out and you start talking about how you're not advocating the seizure of any wealth or anything, and then you pivot into let's look at the tax rates, you recognize that taxes are a seizure of wealth. And so therefore, this is why I said what I said about like, you're trying to dress this argument up as some sort of altruistic argument, when in fact, what you're talking about is. End let's put it in your language. Then all right, So the question is that adults have to have what's the best way of seizing the assets in the income I. Would argue you should do that. I would argue you should not, so you. Eliminate all taxes, So we don't just we don't tax, well, limit taxes. Is that what Pete's saying. Yeah, for the income tax and wealth taxes that your party is espousing, especially these wealth taxes wealth tax idea. Absolutely, there shouldn't be that. So you fund so there's no funding of the government, there's no government. Well no, I would say there, no, I would say I would say that there should be some form of revenue that the government does generate. Absolutely, you could do. That in various Yeah, you could do that in sales taxes. You could do that in sales taxes. So you're seizing some of the consumers. Sure, you're consuming some. Of the Sure, but I can avoid those if I would choose, if I choose to. And that's the only question I'm trying to put forward, Pete. How we want to discuss it, whether you want to say it's taxes or seizures. I'm simply pointing out is that you're you're saying, well, we've already determined what you are, so therefore we're just negotiating over price. That's your argument, right, And so when you start saying this thing like, oh, well, we need to go after more money because these people are too rich, right, that's what you're saying. Well, you're saying they're. Too rich, and I can say the same thing in reverse, which is saying they're not rich enough, or we need to leave them alone, or that the best thing is leave the wealth in the hands of a few. Let the rest of us who are listeners to your show that having a tough time affording health insurance, having a tough time, you know, maybe putting a down pain on home. Sorry, we can't do anything about that. Okay, we can't. No, Mike, we can do something about that. But you're not going to like the answer to this either, because you guys told us that the Affordable Care Act was going to make health care affordable. Right, That's what you guys promised everybody like fifteen years ago. It has not. No, it is not, Mike, it has not. No, Mike, it has not. You just got through saying, oh, so unaffordable. People can't afford healthcare. The whole pitch was it was going to bend the cost curve down, it was going to make it more affordable. And people like me were saying, you cannot have the government take over and and regulate all of the plans and all of the offerings. You're going to put the private insurers out of business, which has happened, and then you're going to create a essentially a government regulated monopoly in the insurance industry. You're going to end up with fewer choices and it's going to be more expensive. And that's what occurred. That is exactly what we have now. That is exactly what we have now. That's a whole other It's. Not you brought up health care. You brought up healthcare. Point is you're can have these discussions about what the best things to do are. That's all I'm suggesting, and it's not done right. And I would say it's your It was your policies, these dumb ass policies that you guys pitch with the very same language that you're using right now, dressed up in this altruistic language. We're going to make sure everybody got health insurance. And all of this, and you sell people this bill of goods and then you can't deliver because economics doesn't care about your altruistic language. This is why Social Security is going to be insolvent in six years. You guys have been demonizing anybody who came along and said, hey, why don't we make some reforms to this program while we still have time, and you guys pitched a fit and would not allow any kinds of reforms because they're trying to kill old people. And now what's going to happen. Everyone's going to get a cut. Everybody in Social Security is going to get a twenty two percent decrease in about six years because you guys won't let anybody take a look at these programs. You won't let anybody make reforms to these programs. You don't like what I'm going to say, But it's less government, that's the answer. It's to get the government out of so many things. Pete, there are very few folks who are better at demonization than what I hear from twelve to three most days on WBT in terms of any point of view that is not in keeping with your you know, right wing conservative, libertarian point of view, and it's it's a bad point of view. But in terms of demonization, there are very few folks who are more talented and do that more than you have. I claimed that that you're trying to kill people. Have I claimed Democrats for trying to kill people? When has that occurred? Burning down cities? They do that, we're doing that right, and that basically. Who's doing that? Who's burning down the cities? Mike? Basically? What what I hear? And I know you got to go up against the break, but what I hear is that, Uh, it's you start with communists are so evil they are communists, right, and communists are really just socialists. Do you agree communism is evil? Do you agree that martialists are really Democrats? Yeah? Which democrats? Yeah? Well that you be your party commun Yeah, your party has become your party has become infested with Democrat socialists of America. You know that. You know that your party is moving further and further to the socialist left. You know that. And that's not demonization, that's not That's just the truth. Correct. So tell me I'm wrong, Mike, tell me I'm wrong that the Democrat Party has not been moving further and further to the democratic socialist left. Not any more than the No, no, no, no. It's not right. See there's your what about ism. I'm asking about the health of your party because that, to me, is the bigger threat. Communism Marxism, that's the bigger threat. So tell me I'm wrong. Tell me that your party is not moving more towards the Marxist left. Through partisan jeremndering. Both parties have moved to more trains. I haven't got about that. So your party is adopting your party. Best led to more demonization. So your party has adopted more Marxist ideology. And your party has adopted more right wing nationalists, in some cases even racist points of view as well. All right, yeah, Actually, if you look at the trend lines, the Republicans have not actually moved. It's the it's the left that has moved further and further to the left. Pete, When I'm what I'm looking to do, and it's and I really appreciate the time you shared with me on this is to have these discussions where we don't get into shouting actions. We can talk about healthcare and go back and forth with issues as to what the best solutions are. If these things were easy, you know, they would have been taken care of long ago. So all right, So real quick, Mike, how much of Elon's wealth should should the government take? Give me like a percentage, what's fair? What's fair to you? God? You'd have to look at the different types of wealth that they have. It's worth our discussion, is all I'm saying. Yeah, Well, what's That's what I'm asking and that's what we're having. We're having the discussion. So I ask you, what's a fair percentage? Look at how much he's received. Just I'm asking you for a number. I'm asking you for a number. What's the percentage that's fair to you? And I can't give you a number because I don't know. Kind hard to have the discussion. That's kind of hard to have the discussion that you are claiming you want. Mike, It's always good to hear from you. I appreciate the call. You know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. 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From the text line awesome, Andy says, all right, let's put it to a vote, and then we'll take five percent of the net wealth of everybody that votes in favor of taking other people's money. Problem is, there won't be much wealth to tax in that pool of geniuses. John says, in order to tax or take money from Elon Musk, he would have to sell stock. Once Elon starts liquidating the other stock, or once he starts liquidating it, the other stockholders will panic and sell theirs as well, driving the prices down drastically, causing his and everyone else's net worth to drop. They couldn't take half five hundred billion, because it wouldn't be worth that by the time he started liquidating. In fact, yes, this is a point made by David Strom at hire dot com with Democrats talking about what they could do with notional money because it's not it's not gold bars like Elon's wealth is in stock, it's in the companies. Okay, it's not money, it's potential wealth. But if they actually tried to take it, the result would be most of the value evaporating before they could even touch it. Either they don't understand this or they think you don't. Kathy, Welcome to the program. Hello, Kathy, Hey, p how are hey? I'm good? What's my husband? And I had the honor of meeting you at the News and Brews. So that was a good time. Yeah, yeah, So I wanted to just call because where every time I hear these people whining and complaining about the wealth gap. Wealth is relative. There's always going to be someone who has more than someone else and someone who has less than other people. You know, Pokemona says a lot of nerves because she's going after Elon Musk, but her net worth is somewhere between seven and twelve million, and that's a heck of a lot more money than I have, So she didn't she give me her money? And then I have more money than some people, so then I should give it to Mike. I'm sure he has more than other people. You know, there's always going to be that gap. And you know, when they're talking about redistributing and stuff, how much wealth is too much wealth because again, someone always has more. You know, in this country, we all have the same right to you know, be successful. You know, the problem is the Democrats and their policies have kept the poor people poor, and the reason is because they want to stay in power. They do not want people to succeed. So that's what I've been thinking about, and I finally just had to give you a call. And say that, yeah, well, I mean, look the programs that Mike espouses, not only are they riddled with fraud, waste, corruption, right, which you would think he would be like, he would be most incensed about because that would be depriving the people that are supposed to benefit from those programs and services. They're being deprived of those resources, right. But for some reason, Democrats are never really concerned about waste, fraud, and abuse. They usually just deny that it even exists, but like this is this is part of the problem. The amount of money that is wasted through those programs going to organizations that are they pay their you know, their administrators, they're they're top people get paid you know, large salaries, and they're not incentivized to actually fix the problem because if the problem got fixed, they would not have an income. And so absolutely yeah, so. Like you're going to come here and you're going to say, oh, well, we need to take more wealth to fund what more of the same, right, more programs, more services, more government and all of this. Yet it hasn't fixed the problems. It's made things worse. Well, and that's why people, you know, the left was so upset about DOGE because there's you know, these NGOs and stuff. Well the NGOs they're making their money off that and those Again it goes towards the democratic policies that have really you know, harmed this country more than helped it and harmed individual people you know, and. Foreign and foreign countries. I mean they're like, have you noticed, like the USAI D cuts came along, right, we they defe under all of the USAID stuff and all of a sudden you got a whole bunch of quote unquote right wing electoral victories through Latin America and such. Gee, I wonder if there's a connection going on there, you know, Yeah, Yeah, it's a brain buster, Kathy. Yeah, I appreciate the call. Nice, take care this is. I don't know if it's the same Kathy on the text line. If people spend half the time trying to earn money as they do complaining about other people having money, maybe they'd be able to get out of their mom's basement. Also, why aren't they trying to get George Soros's money? A bunch of bums? Danny says, Uh, where does the envy start and stop? One could say, Folca haunts Rocanna. You guys drive in super nice cars and drink Starbucks every day. That could pay for half a trailer parks internet cable bill, and the folks in the trailer park have ac an internet, and that could pay for the guy living in the tents power bill, and the guy in the tent eat every day, and some of that could pay for the guy who eats very little. See it's all relative. Where does it end? These people disgusted me? Daryl says, most people in poverty in the US would be considered middle class in many of the countries of the world. Yeah, I mean, this is the thing is, you know, it's all part of this black pilling, this idea that everything is terrible. The fish doesn't know it's wet. We live in the wealthiest society ever. You can be anything you want to be. But people have convinced themselves because well they have been convinced also by others, that the only reason you're not a millionaire or a billionaire is because somebody is preventing you from being that, and there isn't And even if there is somebody that's standing in your way, you can go around them, you can go over them, you can go through them. Right, that's the point. You can be anything you want to be. And if you are willing to work the hours that Elon Musk has worked his entire adult life, if you were blessed with the brains that he had, you could be successful too, right, discipline, applying yourself. Everybody has different skill sets here, and so when he becomes the trillionaire on paper because of all the stock and all the different companies that are doing all of these amazing things, people see that, and they are envious. How come I'm not that smart? How come I didn't have that kind of success? How come my brilliant idea wasn't a brilliant idea? Uh? Seven oh four number says Mike's argument is totally based on emotions, not logic. You're completely right, it's about envy. I'm sure he'll have a different outlook if he had Elon's money. The kids call this pocket. That's interesting. Would Mike agree to a limit of welfare that somebody can receive? Why should we continue to endlessly reward bad decision making? Right? And this is the thing too, it's it's always the same. And Mike, Mike had no he had no answer for the Social Security insolvency question, which, by the way. The projection is now six years. That's when that's when these uh that's when the trust fund quote unquote runs dry and it's insolvent. And at that point Congress is going to have to do something. So the people that are standing for election to the US Senate today, guys like Roy Cooper, my good friend Ray cut him lose Cooper, they're going to be in that office when this stuff starts coming down The Pike, Who do you trust, Who do you think is going to make a decision that is going to help to write the ship or who was going to kick the can further down the road, Who's going to ignore it, Who's going to make it worse? Who's going to give you the same kind of pap that we keep hearing from Democrats and have been for forty to fifty years when it comes to reforming social security, it is insolvent, by the way. One other point regarding Mike's call at the beginning of the hour, and I did not linger on this point. When I asked him whether or not his party had been, you know, has drifted and incorporated more and more Marxism, he did acknowledge that to be true, and then did the what aboutism? Basically, yeah, but the Republicans have become more nationalist. So this is one of the charges that, you know, nationalism is a bad thing because the way the left uses it, they're coding that to be some sort of racist thing. But nationalism is simply devotion to the interests of a nation state. So if you want to call me a nationalist because I love America, I'm fine with that. This is again It's another one of these examples where you know, democrats either try to corrupt the language or they don't understand what the word actually means, and they use it as a slur like, oh, you're a capitalist, Like yep, guilty ist. Charged love me some capitalism, free market guy right here, because it's actually freedom. It's right there in the name. Jennifer says, Mike just talks in circles, searching for some virtuous reason to take what he has not earned and give it to people who contribute almost nothing to society. Every person born in this country has the same opportunity to make money that Elon Musk did. I just had a revelation too. I think Mike is a narcissist who calls to argue with you just so he can have the pleasure of being talked about for thirty minutes afterwards. Well maybe, I don't know. We disagree with Mike's suggestion lol, and therefore he can only try to obfuscate the original premise of his comments, which was Elon owes him a piece of his pie. The Hellians says, Mike bailing himself out knowing a commercialist coming. Yeah, he does that. Bernie Sanders said for years millionaires shouldn't exist until he himself became one, and now it's billionaires shouldn't exist. Carol says, Mike doesn't want to admit Democratic Party does anything wrong. He mentioned we had to distribute money fairly. But who defines fairly? Oh, I know the answer to that, Carol, it's Democrats. Democrats determine what is fair. If Republicans attempt to determine what is fair, then they will be accused of not funding adequately. That's the rule. Eric says. Every time you hear Mike say my point is or what I hear, you know you just made the argument that he cannot refute. So he's trying to pivot and run away from his own words. Those are his two crutches. Jeff says, Jimminy Cricket's that last caller must have. Been a lawyer. He is actually a lawyer, so you are correct. Jeff Beth's favorite, Russ says man Mike with this we we we and fairness. My healthcare policy went up ten times due to his party's fix. Well, we have decided that we think Mike has too much, so we think it's totally fair to confiscate what he has worked for to pay for the things that we want. Boyd, does that feel good? I can see why they do it, although it's wrong and evil. Todd says, it's funny to me the Democrats suddenly think a trillion dollars is a lot of money. It's never bothered them when they're spending it. Though, that's true. Oh what happened? Oh there it is? Oh there, Yeah, to wait for it, okay, and says worse than talking to the wall Pete. The left progressives whatever they or us want to call them, don't want a reasonable discussion. They just want their way. That's correct, right, that's correct. Which is and you heard that at the end of the call, you know, the whole time advocating that we have to have an adult discussion. They have to have the discussion. And I said, okay, well then how much of Musk's wealth do do you think is a fair percentage to take? And he wouldn't answer. It's like, well, how do you have a discussion then about what the number should be? That's the because that's the discussion. That's the discussion, right, you guys, have you've laid out your rationalization, your justification for taking other people's stuff. Right, you've already you've already made your piece with that. Psychologically, you're like, I'm noble for doing this because I'm gonna help these other people. Look at me helping, I'm better than you. Okay, Well, how much do you take? Well, we would have to have that discussion. Well, what what number do you think is a reasonable number? Well, we have to have that discussion. Three one, three number, says Every time I hear that guy, I think he has reached the height of stupidity. And then he calls again and raises the bar even further. That's right, great call with Mike, says Jason. People on the left can never answer the question or define what a fair share is. It is a problem, yes, and David says taxing unrealized gains like what the left would like to do to elon to give money to the unproductive so they can feel wealthier. As like a farmer eating his seed for the next season. It only makes you worse off in the long run. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the business that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecalanarshow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.