Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of the Chicks on the Right podcast,
where we have friend and a sponsor of the show,
Zach Abraham from Bulwart Capital Management, with us to talk
about all things that are economic and financial related. And
of course, this was the weekend that we just had
where Snap benefits ended for forty two million freakin people.
Oh my god, which is a whole thing that we
need to get into. But now, word on the street
is that a federal judge has told Trump and Trump
is saying that he will comply that there needs to
be at least partial funding of SNAP benefits from some
emergency funds, which also makes me nervous because like, what
if there's a huge disaster that happens and then all
that money is gone because it's gone out to SNAP people.
Speaker 2: That's a whole other thing.
Speaker 1: But like, really, I think what we wanted to just
ask you about today, Zach, is why are so many
people on it? What have we done so wrong that
this many people rely on taxpayer funded food?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So, okay, I've actually spent a good deal amount
or a good deal of time looking into this and
researching at different times, and I am a believer that
there should be a public safety net of sorts, right,
absolutely to help out people, you know, help families, bridge gaps,
all that kind of stuff. And how to do that
is always going to be tricky because anytime you have
a government program, you're going to have fraud of some kind. Right,
it's part and parcel. But the way that we have
structured the public safety nets in this country is deeply flawed.
And it's been deeply flawed from the very beginning, for instance.
And I hate how this metric gets politicized, but it's
nonetheless the truth, and it should precipitate a lot of questions,
and it doesn't because it gets identified as racist. But
if you look at the Civil Rights Act of nineteen
sixty three, which I'm married to a black woman, so
I'm a big fan of the Civil Rights Act of
nineteen sixty three, but there's very there's something really curious
that really catches you off when you're looking at this data.
Prior to the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty three,
something like ninety three percent of homes black homes were
two parent homes. It was actually a higher percentage than
it was for whites at the time. You go to
where we are now, and I think you're at about
seven or eight percent of black homes are two parent homes. Yep, Okay, Now,
is that all because of the Civil Rights Act of
nineteen sixty three. No, But with the Civil Rights Act
came the Great Society and all the other kind of
stuff that came along better or later. And one of
the things that if you look at the beginning of
the welfare system, one of the things that certainly contributed
how much, I don't know because we haven't been able
to look into it because it's been deemed racist, but
you got paid more if you were a single parent.
And so what started happening is dad started leaving around
the time of the month, the social workers would come check. Well,
eventually Dad's quit coming back, right, And so you see
a similar dynamic. Will I will never forget there was
this time where my wife and I were in college
and we were going through the grocery store like nine
thirty at night, and you know how it is back then,
like you've got like eighteen dollars and seventy three cents,
that's how much you have to spend because you know
exactly how much you know you're going through with your
calculator on your phone, writing things down, all that kind
of stuff, and you get we get up to the
checkout and we see this woman that is like decked
out and designer stuff top to bottom, like brand new Jay,
you know, Michael Jordan's shoes on, and like the Juice
Secretur outfit. She's got her kid there all decked out.
And what caught our eye more importantly was her cart
because it was stuffed, and we're just like, man, you know,
it's like at that time, you're broke, you're call you know,
finishing no college, you're newly married, and you're like, dude,
that's living, right, Like that's living. And sure enough, man,
she whips out her EBT card. We walk out behind her,
getting in our beater cars. She's getting into her Lincoln Navigators.
Speaker 2: Going to you know, a nice car. I've seen that, ye.
Speaker 3: And so and so. Whenever you say things, I know
that there are people and families out there that are
in desperate need for those snap benefits. I also know
that there are a ton of people that aren't. And
I know that there are a ton of and I've
seen it firsthand. I know of people and know them
that literally don't get married because the benefits they get
for being a single parent effectively afford them the ability
to be at stay at home parent.
Speaker 2: And the more kids you have, the more you get.
Speaker 3: Right, right, So at the bottom of this, and we
have to as a society like remove these things from
Oh that's racist or that's mean or what. No, guys,
of course we need a public safety net, but it
should be more like a this is kind of corny,
but like I say, it should be more like a
public safety trampoline as opposed to public safety west Cement, right,
because you get in this quote unquote safety net and
it's like a roach motel. You don't get out.
Speaker 2: Oh totally yeah, and there's no shame tone anymore. Like
like that woman that was like buying that stuff in
front of you and your wife. I mean, I would
assume she had no shame. She's walking out to that
nice car, she had her nice stuff on, she had
her juicy couture. She didn't have any shame, She wasn't embarrassed.
Speaker 3: She was like, it's a cheat it's a cheat code.
Like like I said, literally, I have heard it described
and I have been in the same room when people
were describing this story. As that's how I that's how
I can be a state o mom. It's great the
state pays for me to be a state home.
Speaker 2: Mom, right. And now it's like, but you look at
kids like, say, you're in the public school system and
kids that have to eat a peanut butter sandwich. I mean,
I remember, like being in school kids that had to
do that. My kid has actually had to do it
because I've forgotten to give her lunch money before. But
it's embarrassing, right, it used to be, or it should
be that it's kind of embarrassing for the kid that
has to eat the peanut butter sandwich, she doesn't have
a lunch or there's you know what I mean, Because
it used to be that that was a there was
a stigma attached to it. Now I don't think that
there's a stigma attached to it. Now, it's just like
we're taking advantage of the system because we can suffer well.
Speaker 1: And now there's this big you know, there's discussion about
what really should be covered by SNAP because apparently you
can get lobster tail, you can get caviar, you can
get all this ridiculous stuff, and people are like, well,
we want the folks that are on it to have dignity,
and they should be able to choose whatever they get.
But I kind of feel like I love the idea
that I saw on Twitter where someone was like, you
get a box of staples that you need to survive,
because that's the point you're supposed to be getting fed
to survive, not to like be living it up on
the taxpayer goal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and also and not and not getting set that's
going to make you sick in the long run. It's
where we have to pay your health bills. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Dignity, yeah right, Like, how about enough dignity, dignity not
to lie so you take from the public kitty to
give yourself a one up undeserved advantage over your neighbors dignity.
I am so tired of people dig Okay, so has
Why should I be paying for high fruit toast, corn syrup,
fruit snacks and candies so your kid can develop diabetes?
Speaker 2: Right? And you also have diet answer? Right?
Speaker 3: Which is going to like that? It is so ridiculous
once again. And here's the thing, people go, You're not compassionate,
No nonsense. It is compassionate because every person you see
doing that is taking money and food off the plate
of somebody that actually needs it. Right, those EBT things
should be confined to protein, dairy, and vegetables, period, full stop.
If it's in a package, it doesn't apply unless maybe
it's like top ramen or something like that. You know,
foods that you can extrapolate out. But like when you
see people, I mean, what in the world would you
make that tree? Why would you be able to buy
ice cream and Coca Cola with an EBT card? That
is ludicrous.
Speaker 2: Plus, I think of all the people, you know, food aside.
You said, what was the number, mock You said forty
four million, forty two million, forty two million. Yeah, okay,
so forty two million people are doing this. Not all
of them are doing it maliciously, right, I mean, let's
just say that twenty million are doing it maliciously. Let's
just say half. Right, they're they're cheating the system. Like
I look at those people, the people that are, they're
just not living up to their full potential. We're allowing
them to do it and they're not living it. That
to me is cruel. It's cruel when you allow people
to do that kind of stuff because you're making it
so easy. For them to just be lazy.
Speaker 3: And I love the fact that you brought that up
because it is it is so, it is such a neighbor.
It is adjacent to the soft bigotry of low expectations, right,
because what you're doing, anything you do that makes being
on the bottom more comfortable is toxic. Right. There is
a huge delta between treating somebody with dignity and assisting
their failure. Right. There is a huge delta between that
and when you pat when you make failure too comfortable,
and you there should be a remember the movie, Oh
about the bock Cinderella man, Remember remember that movie Cinderella,
Remember when is so good? And remember when he has
to go get public assistance and then man, I could
get choked up talking about it, and then he goes
back and pays pays it back, right, Like, there is
an element that should involve, for lack of a better term,
a little bit of embarrassment shame because because that yes,
because that means that you don't want help. And as
a man you shouldn't want help. As a grown woman
you shouldn't want help, yes, And it should be a
little bit of that hesitancy to accept that handout but
more importantly, don't rob like necessity is the face that
has launched a thousand successful careers, right Like necessity like
getting tired of staring at these four walls and I've
got to bust out. I got to make something of myself.
But when you make it comfort, I just it is.
Speaker 2: It's notifie terrible behavior. You get more of that behavior.
Speaker 1: And that's why you've seen all the videos going around
socials of people just being like, I need my EBT
and you got to pay for it, and you know,
the entitlement is like off the charts. And then add
to that all the people who are saying I'm selling it.
I'm selling my food stamps to get cash. I mean,
it's such a racket at this point.
Speaker 2: It's really interesting too, because those are the same people
who would have participated in the No King's rally like
a week prior. And you're like, wait a second, so
now you want a king to like feed you. I
don't get it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, yeah, no Kings. Even that cracks me up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's it's all pretty yep.
Speaker 3: It literally is people living in their own little echo
chambers that they've designed, and they just tell themselves what
the truth is. And you're like, okay, so no Kings
and you're protesting a guy that had the whole system
weaponized against him and won the popular vote.
Speaker 2: Right exactly.
Speaker 3: So, so is this like a celebration approach?
Speaker 2: The approach Zach like what we're saying, it's it's a lot.
It reminds me a lot of how all of us
view and we've talked about so many times on this show.
We've talked about parenting, and it's how you want your
kids to do well. You want them to fall down
and get back up. You want them to I mean, granted,
they're going to fall and they're going to fail and
they're going to do things, but you don't want it
to you don't want it to be too comfortable for them.
And we're it's essentially the same thing with people on Snap.
It's like, you don't want them to get too comfortable
because if they do, they're gonna stay there.
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny you bring that part of it
up because I was thinking about it and it was
one of those moments where I was sitting there going,
you know, you need to be really honest with yourself.
You need to be honest with yourself as a parent,
and you need to look at your own life, you know, truthfully,
the older I get, I don't know if it is
possible to raise a kid that really actualizes and realizes
their full potential if they grow up in an environment
it's as comfortable as the one that my kids grow
up in. Totally, yeah, I don't know that it's possible.
And it's something that I've been asking myself lately. And
I know that I look back at my own life
and my own development in my own progress, and I
had wonderful parents that loved me, and that was a
key part of it, and we had a wonderful life
growing up. Like it was an idyllic childhood life, but
it was. It was a normal, like eighties childhood life, right.
It wasn't rich or you know, anything like that good
old days. Yeah, but if but being honest, man, if
I look back on it, it was it was the
things that I didn't yet. It was the nose, it
was the hardships. It was totally That's what That's what
propelled me, ye is failures. It was not wanting to
be at the bottom. It was desperate to claw my
way out. It was all of those things. And I
think you know, and I well, like I said, I,
I say that just as much I don't. My kids
have a much easier existence than I did.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of ours do. And it's and
I look at these people who are getting, you know,
these benefits that don't necessarily need their able body, people
that can work, and it's we're doing them a disservice.
We're doing all of us at disservice, obviously because we're
paying for it, but we're doing them a diservice. It's
it's like, it's such a lack of humanity to make them,
to put them in that position, because it's like you're
not living up to your full potential. It's not no,
it's not cool.
Speaker 3: No. And like you said too, it was one of
the things that I was so passionate about about, even
like the racism discussion generally speaking, right, which is the
simple truths that we have a culture that we've just
decided don't apply anymore and that we've thrown out. Right.
For instance, if you see, like let's say you're a
minority group and you hear two parties arguing for your vote.
One party is telling you all of the things that
are going against you, all of the reasons you can't
succeed and why you're screwed. Right, and then the other
party is telling you, no, no, you can't succeed. Look
at this over here, what about this? What about like
enemies tell you that you can't do it and give
you all the reasons why you can't. Right, friends tell
you can and show you how.
Speaker 2: That's right, exactly, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3: What I see over and over and over again, and
we've talked about it, you know, it's I'm not hardly
the first person to bring this up, but it truly
is a culture of victimization, meaning if you're not subjugated
to a lower area of life, if you are not losing,
they don't have any use for.
Speaker 2: You, right right. They definitely don't have control over you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, they don't have control over you. And more importantly,
that's where they want you totally, that's where they want you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: They don't want you getting to have financial retirement planning
discussions with well we're capital management for example, that's.
Speaker 3: Right, they do. And they don't want you to develop
like serious Major League World Series transition skills God.
Speaker 2: Like Miriam, I know, I mean the best right world.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm feel like I'm shooting free throws
with Michael Jordan here right, No, but go for transitions.
Speaker 1: Tell people how they can listen to all of your
pearls of wisdom and actually get financial retirement planning help.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well all of my prosa wisdom. I think my
wife would have a different way to categorize that. But
so you can get us all the time. But Workcapitalmanagement
dot com and Know Your Risk Podcast dot com. We
do our daily show, the Daily Dots everything applicable and finance,
investing and politics. I fit, well, it's been interjecting a
lot lately, so that's that's been hot topic. But yeah,
just google Know your Risk Podcast. But Work Capital Management
not hard.
Speaker 2: To find, all right, Thank you as Zach.
Speaker 3: All right, ladies, thanks to Think all fun as always.
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