All right, forget about all this government data stuff because
we know it has.
They have no clue what's going on.
There's some serious issues in this economy and some maybe
not so serious issues in this economy.
Let's bring in Lydia Hewitt and Lawrence and I need
to have a discussion,
ladies, about the economy and what's really happening.
And I thought the most intriguing thing I saw this
week,
the number one issue for young Americans this election,
not student loans, not abortion,
not guns, It's housing or the inability to own a
house.
I just want to remind the American public just what
it's going to take to get housing affordability down.
OK, one of three things have to happen.
Home prices have to come down
41%. Incomes have to go up 69 percent,
or mortgage rates have to come down
4.3 percentage points. So from 7:00 to like
3 1/2, I mean, I guess mortgage rates coming down,
but that means a Great Recession.
I mean, the only way you could buy a house
to mean Lauren is if,
if you wait for after the next major recession.
Oh, God, I don't even know where to begin because
I'm very depressed by hearing all of this.
And I think that explains the state of the country,
why young people are, are changing their feelings about how
they're going to vote.
And on the economy. I see around me
houses that I know the people who bought them just
a few years ago and they're selling for double.
Is it worth it? I,
I don't know who's going to trade in as most
Americans have,
70% of Americans have like a 3%
mortgage. You're not going to let go of that even
if you can make money on your house because you
got yourself into a new house and you can't afford
that new house. So I mean,
for young people especially, they want,
they want to own some of the American dream and
they can't.
I think that there's it's definitely a,
a dream deferred. But I see TikTok videos of like
these old folks dancing and they like people who bought
their house like 20-30 years ago for for
$100,000, never did any upgrades.
And now selling it for 2 million.
Like there's resentment out there about this.
Lydia. Well, God bless those folks because they deserve it,
right? They should get their opportunity to celebrate that and
enjoy their golden years.
But it doesn't mean that younger people can't also have
a problem too.
You know, we, we are having an increasing demographic of
folks that are stuck at home living with mom and
dad.
I talked to one young woman just the other day.
I was on with you on Barney illustrating her story.
She moved home four years ago thinking it was going
to be temporary.
And because of escalating rent as well,
she still can't get back out on her visa.
It's not just owning a home,
it's just living on your own.
That's becoming more elusive for the younger generation.
I can't really fault them for being angry about this.
Well, here's the thing, people making adjustments.
I want to talk about this,
supermarket brands, because people are buying supermarket brands.
You know, folks are love to buy supermarket brands,
disc air supermarket brands up
16%, home air freshener up
13%, pet food up 8 1/2 percent.
I mean, the list goes on and on.
Although there's some things like baking supplies,
I don't know why that's not up that much.
But but
you're you're saying that people are buying generic pet food.
Yeah. Whoa. I thought we didn't spare any expenses on
that means it's tough. My question to you,
is there anything that you draw is there?
Do you draw the line on any product where you
say I will never buy the store brand
version? I want the brand name.
Yes. I'm a loyalist when it comes to my diapers.
I need a quality diaper that you can trust
children. For my kids, yes.
Not for myself. Thank you for clarifying.
I'm a mother of two.
My son is still in diapers
and he needs the good.
He needs the best quality ones.
That has saved me in many a situation.
Yeah, I don't blame you on that one.
I have a lot of things.
I won't really. Yeah, like little pet peeves.
But there are. I find myself buying store brand for
many things these days,
embarrassingly so at times. And the store brands are getting
better and more expensive.
Like Walmart has this premium food line,
better goods now. Great. You've you've you've tried it.
Yes, I like it. The packaging is great,
too. So you don't really know it's store brand.
Like back in the day,
you knew it was store brand.
It was a white box set
brand X, brand X underwear,
huh? Isn't it like a badge of honor?
Now when you buy something cheaper,
it's like, yeah, I know how to deal with this
inflation problem.
I'm trading down and I'm proud of it.
So corporation is trying to find ways to make money.
The airlines all have come up with something least United
Airlines.
They're talking about putting ads in the seat in front
of you.
I mean, it sounds like I'm going to get it.
Nightmare. Love it, hate it.
I mean, they need a new stream of revenue.
So you're sitting there, the average flight is 3 1/2
hours and you're looking at the,
the, the seat back in front of you,
which has the screen on it.
You got nothing else to do.
So you're going to sit and you're going to watch
the ads and the airline or the company is going
to bring in more revenue and you might buy something
as a result of it.
We have accepted ads. We buy the cheaper Netflix for
the ad tier one because it saves US money.
But this is going to,
but they're not going to discount your ticket,
though that mean that's a,
you know that they entice us with that.
With the Netflix thing, you can opt out of the
whole program.
So you can say, don't use my data to show
me certain advertisements.
What really intrigued me is that they're also going to
distinguish the ads based on whether you're in a me
or first class.
So I would love to know what the first class.
I'll let you know. Yeah,
You let me know.
I'll let you know. I'll let you know.
Wait, Charles,
do they have ads in private jets?
The robo, the robo taxis are getting better.
They've got a new one called Zook.
It really looks pretty hip.
Although, you know, listen, I
they've come a long way.
Are you guys ready? We're I think we're going to
have some on the show.
There's a there it is right there on the screen.
It looks kind of hip,
right? It looks kind of cool.
I mean, this is the future.
Yeah. This is the future.
Robo taxis. Lydia, do you want to go first?
You know what I was not crazy about when I
was reading about the the Zook
is that there are no windows on the front or
the back.
So you don't have clear visibility of where you're going
as you're moving forward.
I think it's asking for a lot of trust from
your passengers.
I kind of want, still want to see the road
as we are moving down.
Can I underline that in the real Zooks,
not sometimes the test vehicles,
there is no steering wheel.
Like there will be no human safety driver,
not even for protection, just in case.
Yeah, no. Well, in the real autonomous world,
there won't be any of that.
Steering wheel, pedals, nothing. But no option.
No option. I can't let you guys go without.
Did you see this with Tesla?
We got 30 seconds. They're in the alcohol business.
They have they have a
mezcal that they were selling outside this country.
Look at this. That looks so cool.
It's 450 bucks, though. Would you buy it for the
bottle?
Yeah, Keep it as a display.
Wow. Wow. I know what I think.
I think they should compromise.
I think if you bought Tesla stock in the last
year,
they should sing you a bottle.
That's a good idea idea.
Kind of, you know, drawing away your sorrels for a
little bit or your cyber truck is like,
super delayed. Here's the bottle of our
$450. Oh, man, I love the bottle.
I don't even drink that stuff,
but the bottle is kind of cool.
It's cool. I like the bottle better than I like
the cyber truck.
Ladies, thank you both very,
very much.