At some point the basic economics really matter, and they matter because not that it's bad that rich people are getting richer. It's bad that everyone else is getting poorer. And it's especially bad the young people can't afford homes. Let me just put a very precise point on this. [00:00:18] During his appearance at Turning Points Student Action Summit over the weekend, Tucker Carlson made some comments about the housing market that may have caught some people in the room off guard. Let's take a look at what else he had to say. GDP no. I don't know what even that is. [00:00:35] The total economic activity. Oh no no no. My measure is really simple. I got a bunch of kids. Can they afford houses with full time jobs at like 27, 28? And the answer is no way. And the answer is that 35 year olds with really good jobs can't afford a house [00:00:50] unless they stretch and go deep into debt. And I just think that's a total disaster. That's a complete disaster. Why? Two reasons. One, if people don't own things, they don't feel ownership of the country they're in, and the country gets super volatile because people feel like [00:01:08] they've got nothing to lose. When you have a lawn, trust me, you're thinking long term. Second, it's really hard to have a family without a house. It is. It's like super fun to live in an apartment if you know there's, like, a bar downstairs. You're in a cool neighborhood. I'm in the East Village. It's so cool. [00:01:24] Try to have three kids. You're not going to have three kids there. You can't. Nobody wants to raise their kids in that neighborhood. Nobody wants to raise their kids in an apartment. People do it because they have to. Nobody wants to. People want a little house. Not some McMansion. Just a little normal house. That is the actual American dream. [00:01:40] And that is what is totally unattainable for young people. And in some ways, he's spot on. We'll get into where we may disagree or take a different approach later, but let's look at some of the data. According to a recent study from Realtor.com, the median list price [00:01:57] for homes for sale in the United States was $440,950 last month. These trends have continued over the past few weeks, data from real estate brokerage Redfin shows. In the four weeks ending July 6th, pending sales in the nationwide market [00:02:15] fell 3.5% from a year earlier, the second biggest decline since February. Instead of taking a hit, home, prices went up bafflingly so in the same time frame, the median US home sale price hit an all time high of 399 633, [00:02:32] up 1% year over year. And this is from another realtor study. A home buyer now needs to earn at least $114,000 a year to afford a $431,250 home. [00:02:47] The national median. The national median listing price in April, according to data released by realtor. Based off the latest US median home listing price Homebuyers need to earn $47,000 more a year to afford a home than they would have just six years ago. [00:03:07] Of course, wages have not increased by that much. But back to Carlson's comments on the housing market after he correctly diagnosed the problem. - This is what he said. - So that is a national emergency. [00:03:23] And I know that there are certain cable channels that are spending all this time talking about, oh, they're about to elect a socialist in New York City, which obviously I'm opposed to it. He's not even a real socialist. He's like a trainee vax, you know, rich kid, liberal guy. Mom. Donnie. He's a fake leftist, but whatever. Why do you think that's happening? [00:03:41] One of the reasons it's happening is because normal people with normal jobs no longer believe they can win in this system, and that all the money is going to the worst people. And no one even stops to ask what the hell is going on. [00:03:59] After taking a swipe at Mamdani, he resorted to the same. Tucker Carlson We are so used to seeing attacking big cities, attacking the homeless and specifically zeroing in on diversity. - Take a look. - I'm not radical. [00:04:14] What I am is very worried that if we don't do something really soon, we're going to wind up like New York City. That there's going to be actual radicalism and that radicalism will take very unhelpful forms, and you're going to see race and ethnic hatred that's real, [00:04:32] and that you're going to see people behaving in hard to control ways. Why are my cities disgusting? I don't even want to go there. It smells like weed and halal food. This is the issue for me. Whenever Tucker Carlson says something that's semi true, or he identifies [00:04:47] a problem, typically where he ends up with his diagnosis and a policy prescription or some sort of solution. That's usually where I break. But what do you make of his comments overall? Yeah, so I think it's super telling, important and interesting that he is [00:05:04] at least arriving at the correct problem, if not the correct solution. So I've got a lot of thoughts on that, but I want to start with one of our members who wrote in, Art Guy and he said, Titcomb, you can join through Titcomb join as well. And our guy said, I have zero faith that Tucker and all these guys [00:05:21] suddenly saying the right things or doing so out of the goodness of their hearts. It's pure opportunism, especially for Tucker, who will use this to boost a run for the presidency. So what I want to have you guys understand from my perspective is I don't [00:05:37] really care what's in their hearts at all. And so do I agree with you that it is less likely to be. Shucks. You know, I really out of the beauty and goodness that is flowing from my heart, want to help people? [00:05:52] In my experience with both politicians and unfortunately, media that is less likely, Much less likely. Right. So what I care about is, have we all found the right problem to address? And then even more difficult, the right solution. [00:06:08] But you would be surprised at how hard it is to get to agreement on the right problem. So right now, I mean, the left has been saying this for ever and ever about housing prices, drug prices, etc.. And when we used to make this argument back in the day, we would get Republican [00:06:27] talking points from Fox News, etc. And they'd be like, no, there is no housing problem. There are no drug price problems. You know, and with all the money should go to the rich and tax cuts and it'll trickle on you in 40 years from now. And there's still like not only huge portion of the Republicans doing that. [00:06:44] They just passed a bill, the budget bill that does exactly that. Right. So goodness of my heart, my ass. Right. So I don't I don't believe that. I don't need that. That's not required for me to get to a point where we get some positive results. [00:07:02] So if Tucker in the right wing and this is how all this started from my perspective, was when Charlie Kirk came on our show during the Republican National Convention and I said, hey, housing prices are too much. We should prevent private equity from buying homes. [00:07:20] It's driving up the prices. And he said, I totally agree. And I was like, I didn't expect that at all. I thought he was going to go, how dare you? Private equity is golden and the greatest guys on earth, and we have to give them more tax cuts and eventually that'll trickle on you. And he didn't say that. [00:07:35] He's saying similar things to what Tucker just said there. So what does that mean? That doesn't mean that all those guys developed a conscience overnight. What it means is their own audience is telling them 24 over seven, [00:07:53] we can't pay for houses anymore and we're super mad about it. So now the left wing audience and voters and the right wing audience and voters agree. The house has cost too much. Right. And it's. [00:08:08] And it went up in our lifetimes. Don't tell me, like Joe Biden did. Like. Oh, yeah. Young kids. You don't know anything. You don't know how tough we had it. We bought my house for in Scranton for $37. I bet you guys are paying 35 now, right? [00:08:24] So, I mean, that happens to be a Democrat, but every Republican says the same thing, right? So, Jordan, I find it to be excellent news that we are beginning to agree on what the problem is. Obviously, I think the solution is, among other things, banning private equity [00:08:40] from buying residential real estate. I mean, over $400,000 for the average price of a house that includes Kentucky and Mississippi and the hollers of West Virginia includes the whole country, 440,000. That's insane. That's insane. [00:08:55] And so private equity. And they're like, oh, I don't know why it's still going up. Well, no, it should be going down. Yeah. Because there's a giant buyer in the market. And it's and so it's creating more, you know, demand for the houses. [00:09:10] And it's pushing up the prices because it's not just us competing against each other. Hey, I'll pay 110,000. I'll pay 111,000 for that house. This Wall Street goon is coming in and going. I'll pay 125,000. I'll take you. I mean, these are again prices from the old days. Now, you can't buy a house like that. [00:09:26] Like two bedroom apartments in Compton are going for at least half $1 million straight out of Compton. Like a millionaire these days, right? So? So I give a funny example there, but, like, is it does it matter that there [00:09:43] that there's a giant buyer in the market? Of course it matters. Of course it matters. And when they and there's one thing that Tucker didn't mention that I think is even more important, once they turn us all into renters, We will not be able to collect wealth in the most important asset [00:09:59] that Americans have their houses. Once you cannot create wealth like that, you're screwed for the rest of your life. You just become an indentured servant of the corporate class. So we have to end it. By the way, here's another guy who agrees and had it in his platform. [00:10:16] Robert Kennedy Jr. So like you can say, you can just throw up your hands and go, I hate RFK Jr. I hate Tucker Carlson. So I won't work with them or anyone on. I won't even acknowledge that they're right about the problem. Forget the solution right now. That's just crazy. [00:10:32] No thank God. Other people also realize it. And once we have a conversation about the solution, our solutions are better. What do you think, Jordan? Well, totally. With you on the private equity front, I wrote a column in Newsweek a few years ago on this problem. [00:10:48] Specifically, they were buying in all cash deals, massive amounts of homes and driving the price up. And the problem has only gotten worse. There isn't a. There isn't a large enough contingent in Congress [00:11:03] to meaningfully fight back and stop this. So the problem is just going to continue. And yes, of course, he is correctly diagnosing the problem. And this is my concern with many of these right wing populists, because, yeah, [00:11:19] they start with a kernel of truth. And where they go with it is dangerous. I mean, how do you go from people can't afford homes to there's going to be racial resentment in the cities. And New York smells like halal food. [00:11:36] I mean, we have to acknowledge that he is reaching a racist point. And this is the problem with right wing populists. I would argue that. Yeah, sure. He talks about, some element of greed. But the problem is not with diversity. [00:11:52] The problem is not with any sort of alleged racial animus. And to be clear, what he means is anti-white sentiment that we've seen that throughout his right wing populism for years, and they'll scapegoat the most marginalized. He talks a little bit about the credit card companies, [00:12:09] but like, name names, the Republicans. And you're there at a Republican conference. It's it's that party's problem, too. And yet he's talking about the problem. The problem and the culprit is not multicultural groups. The problem is not people of color. [00:12:26] And I think this is where I always break with him. Yeah. Okay. Good job finding something in like your 50s that I identified in my 20s. Like, I don't know, I was telling you earlier, I had a friend last night who was talking about it with me [00:12:42] and laughed at the idea that this guy keeps discovering new things about his own politics every couple of years. Sure, we want to applaud some sort of growth, but when he's doing it like you like our viewer pointed out, like I expressed to you this morning, clearly opportunistic with many of these right wing populists, [00:12:58] and when they routinely scapegoat marginalized communities, I really don't want anything to do with them, because if they are in a position to take credit for any sort of change at any point, and I'll be clear, my cynicism reigns. I don't have a whole lot of hope that we'll see a change. [00:13:13] We need a change. But if there is any sort of adjustment correction in this market, I don't want the same people who are blaming marginalized groups to be in a position to lead going forward on other problems. Yeah. So I'm going to ask you a question about that in a second, Jordan. [00:13:29] But you know, it's funny you mentioned that because the very first comment on today's show, now almost an hour and a half ago, was by a member on Time.com called Sassy Dragon, which is a fun handle, by the way, be part of the show. She, they wrote in, Tucker getting all the hype for saying what Jenk has [00:13:47] been saying for 1 billion years lol. It's just weird, bro. So. Well, so there's a phenomenon that explains why that happens. And that's why I'm excited that the Tuckers of the world are saying this. [00:14:02] Okay. Mainstream media that might be liberal on social issues, but they're very conservative on economic issues. And they're also obsessed with the right wing media. And they loathe the left. Okay. [00:14:19] The populist left. So this is a phenomenon that happens all the time. So I'll say, hey, what about private equity buying all our homes. Mainstream media will be like, who cares? Who cares? No. Oh, you guys have 29 million subscribers. Largest network on the left. Who cares? [00:14:35] No way. No way. Charlie Kirk says they're like, oh my God, what an interesting genius idea. Did you guys know private equity was buying up the homes? It's so frustrating. Right? And went on her take the show that's on Valuetainment or whatever. [00:14:50] Right. So all the stuff she says on this show, she says on that show and, you know, and, and a lot of people are writing in like, man, she makes a really compelling case for the left. Like, maybe we should go left wing populism. So she's doing a great job there. You know what happened? [00:15:05] CNN calls and they're like, okay, hey, we saw you on her take. She's been on the largest progressive show for 18 straight years, right? So like, you can't if you're on the left. This sucks. This reality sucks. [00:15:21] But you cannot get a message out unless you get it through the right wing. Because our mainstream media is the worst of the worst. They hate us so much and they have no idea they hate us, right? They're like, oh, what do you mean? Well, the right wing is legitimate. They're left wing is illegitimate. [00:15:37] I only listen to right wing shows. I don't know why you say that. I don't listen to you guys. I loathe them anyway. So, now, Jordan, we got Marjorie Taylor Greene and, Tucker Carlson on their show talking about Mamdani. [00:15:52] I don't know if you saw it on on Tucker's show, but they were like, you know, the establishment is attacking Mamdani. Mamdani. But he won because he ran on affordability. And that was the correct strategy. So it's interesting, like if you say they're copying our strategy, [00:16:11] they might be right in terms of figuring out what the correct problems are. Right. And they're even acknowledging it in the case of Mamdani, which is a bit shocking, right? But if you if they say, here's the question, Jordan, if they say, okay, I got this, the correct answer to housing prices in America [00:16:29] is that New York smells like halal food. So we should ban halal food. That's easy. You and I are going to say no, dumbass. That's not the problem. It's not even close to the problem. And we're going to fight them on that, right? What if they say, oh no, you guys are right. It's private equity that's causing the problem. [00:16:45] We'll join you in fighting against private equity buying residential homes. Do you still say I'm wary? I don't trust them. No. Or do you go. Oh, okay. Sure. Let's work together on that. I mean, for me, it's looking at it from an advocacy standpoint. [00:17:00] What does that look like? If it's just, you know, Tucker Carlson talking about it on his podcast, you know, once or twice in all, I don't really care if it was actually standing up an advocacy campaign with a coalition of groups, which I don't think he would ever be part of. [00:17:17] That'd be something I would have to deeply think about, because there are risks there, especially if you lend your credibility as a as a progressive organization or an advocacy organization, say, oh, yeah, this is our ally in this fight. You're then bringing you're vouching for this person. [00:17:34] And he while he can identify one part of the problem, like we know how he feels about other aspects of society, and he is incorporating his animus toward those groups and those people into his rhetoric on this issue. So it'd it'll be a strategic decision. [00:17:50] I'd have to think about it deeply and I probably would lean. No. Yeah, I really disagree. And so because I mean, look, I, Joe Biden did some good things. I like that the infrastructure bill, we're going to rebuild roads, bridges and bring more Wi-Fi to rural areas, etc.. [00:18:06] I'm not cosigning, with Joe Biden on Israel, his fealty to corporate donors, his deep immorality. Why do I have to cosign to the person? I don't have to cosign the person. I just have to cosign on that thing that he's agreeing with me on. [00:18:24] So Marjorie Taylor Greene saying, stop funding Israel. I cosign right away, I don't care like the other things I'll fight her on. Like, you're not wrong, Jordan. Like in another part of that speech, Tucker Carlson had viciously anti-immigrant, verbiage. [00:18:39] Right. I hated that part of the speech. Right. But when he was questioning Mossad, I like that part of the speech when he's questioning the housing prices being too high. I like that part of the speech. And I don't need to say, okay, Jenks, you know, Good Housekeeping stamp of approval on Tucker Carlson on his entirety. [00:18:59] Right. And by the way, here, I don't cosign on anything because he hasn't proposed a solution. At least Charlie Kirk said yes. Ban private equity that I agree with. And does that mean I cosign Charlie Kirk's saying the most viciously anti-Muslim things right now. Of course I don't cosign on that. Right. [00:19:14] But and I guess maybe what we can agree on, Jordan, is that at the end of the day, we have to deliver Democratic votes and they have to deliver Republican votes. Otherwise, all this coalition building isn't going to amount to a hill of beans. [00:19:33] Yeah. I mean, it's for me, whenever he talks about these types of things, it's okay. Well, what are you doing beyond that? And of course, you have for years gone to work after identifying a problem, talking about a problem, reporting on it, covering it. Then you've gone to work. [00:19:49] Tucker Carlson just talks. So sure he can acknowledge it. Good job. We we we already knew that. Do something else. Put your money where your mouth is, like, let's see you actually try to fight for this change. If you care so deeply about the future of young Americans and their ability to afford homes. [00:20:04] Let's see something. I know you would fight for it, and I know our viewers would fight for it, but I want to see any of these right wing populists actually fight for something beyond just talking about it. Yeah, super. Last thing. I mean, to your point, the Young Turks audience, along with us, has already come up with a populist plank, and this issue is already in the populist plank. [00:20:23] And, so populist plank. Com but also then we asked the rebellion pack candidates to sign on to the populist plank, which includes banning private equity from buying residential homes. And all four of the candidates so far have signed on saying, yeah, [00:20:39] we're not we don't just agree with that. We're going to fight like hell to make sure that that happens when we're in Congress. So we're doing something about it. I'd love to see the right wing. If they're earnest, do something about it. Okay. Propose a. I hope you agree with us. [00:20:56] And it's perfectly reasonable thing. Or if you have a different idea, then have that idea and try to push it forward. But at the end of the day, guys, you know, as we try to be as productive as humanly possible, go join rebellion, come be part of the rebellion, right? Fight back. Pick people who are going to actually fight for you. [00:21:12] But if you if we can't get enough votes, all of this is going to be academic. I like that Tucker is telling his audience, and I like that Charlie's telling his audience, because now they think, yeah, there's a housing problem. They already thought that to begin with. [00:21:28] But when Charlie says, yeah, it is private equity that's causing the problem, they now begin to realize that it's private equity, even if he's wrong on everything else. So but we've got to take that energy and actually turn it into votes. Otherwise none of us win. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. [00:21:43] Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.