Republicans, pay close attention to GenZ

Part 2

And now we get into the meat of the conversation. How many of you in this audience know about the four letters, BNPL? Brian, do you know BNPL? Buy Now Pay Later. You probably know it. You know, tickets from Klarna or Affirm or Afterpay. I wanted to bring something to this conversation with Tucker Carlson that was new, that was not yet covered, something that is important to the next generation, but has not getting the attention it deserves. I talk about the issues that Generation Z actually cares about. Economics, home ownership, and owning things. You see, the globalists, they want you to own nothing and to be happy. I make the argument that if you own nothing, you get radical politics and you get very unhappy people. Watch.

T- So, you are—I think, well, you are, uh, more in touch with young voters than any other single person um in American politics. Certainly on the Republican side, you're way more effective than the RNC, though I think they have a bigger budget than you.

C- We get along great with them.

T- I’m not quite sure what they —Well, then I don't want to cause you problems. I have no idea what do—

C- Back when Ronna was running things, we did not get —we we were very— uh vocal about getting rid of Ronna, Mitt Romney,

T-I think you're the most effective Republican organizer— certainly among young people you are— and you deal with them and you wait into the crowd and you go to college campuses and you debate people, and you have a tactile sense, I think, of what younger voters care about, and so I'll just ask you the obvious question what do they care about?

C- So, there's a race against the clock that's happening right now, and I think President Trump is uniquely suited to fix it. He has to fix it —which is— can we reorder the economic reality of under-30s before dark, political radicalization sets in?

T- The economic reality? It's —there— there's a topic that's never broached.

C- Well, here we go.

T- No, but it's just interesting before you— it's interesting that's your first answer. The economics. I have always noticed—and I am insulated from a lot of that stuff— I'll admit I don't really notice—

C- I would be otherwise if I didn't spend as much time, because we do very well. We're in the top income bracket. So,

T- Well, I just noticed no one talks about it. So I think that's weird. People used to talk about economics. They don't anymore.

So you think that that's economics is the number one issue for young people. If we don't address it, we go to dark places. What does that mean?

C- So a couple things. Number one, the rise of Mamdani should be a— it's a coming attraction of what is coming next.

T- Who’s Mamdani?

C- Zoran Mamdani, the um the the Muslim-communist that is running for mayor in New York City who obviously— there's a whole rabbit hole we can go down there. He just looks —kind of be like— central casting and you know his ideas are terrible.

He wants the city to run the grocery stores, all that. But I think everyone's kind of —not everyone— but most people are missing the point of really what this is. This is yet another distress signal by young people to say, “Hey, if you're not going to fix our life economically, we're going to get very radical politically.”

Now, let's take a step back. President Trump won the youth vote in many states across the country, in many battleground states. Now, Tucker, 12, 13 years ago when I started Turning Point, if you would have told me that a Republican running for the presidency would be winning the youth vote in Michigan and in Arizona, I'd say —no way. It was— it's an incomprehensible accomplishment of what President Trump was able to do.

One of the reasons he was able to win younger voters and younger men especially in big numbers, is that they were trying to get their leaders’ attention. They said, "Hey, this guy Donald Trump, he is pledging to go fix our economic anxiety. He is loud. He is going to get your attention."

Donald Trump was a distress signal by a lot of young people, especially young men, that were stuck in a credit-centric, renter economy. And again, this is what is the rise of Mamdani— It's just another iteration of this —only from the left, which is

T- A credit-centric, renter economy.

C- Yes— which is the way that we need to focus that we need to kind of frame this. And conservatives, I think I know why, are just so unwilling to have this conversation. And I'm not even to get into what we should do about it. I think I have some good ideas. And trust me, I'm not a socialist. I'm a market guy. I like capitalism. I think markets are good. I think entrepreneurship is good. But we need to kind of paint this picture first, because I think so many— I know this for certain— so many people in DC have no idea what I'm talking about when I bring this up to them.

And secondly, a lot of people over 50 think this is a foreign concept and they think quite honestly this is just the complaining of young people that don't want to work.

So let me kind of paint this picture. It is harder than ever to own a home. We know this, but how much harder? Back when my parents had to go own a home, the price of a home,

T- How old are your parents?

C- Um they’re early '70s, so late 60s, early 70s. Um— so baby boomers— and great parents by the way. Phenomenal upbringing, great values. So back when they wanted to go buy a home in their beginning income years, you know, 1970s, 1980s, home prices were on average about three times the average income in America. They are now seven times the average income in America.

Rents have gone up, inflation-adjusted, from about $900 a month to now about $1,500 a month.

T- Inflation adjusted.

C- Inflation adjusted. The age of a first-time home buyer in 2008 was 30 years old. It is now 38 years old. First-time home buyer. So when we have a picture of a first-time home buyer and

T- That's scary.

C- You think of, you know, kind of a toddler in one arm, a dog. You're trying to figure it out. 38 years old. So what is causing this? Well, number one, I don't want to get like, too Ron Paul libertarian, but the Federal Reserve pumping in cheap money post 2008 has just been a catastrophe. We have spent too much money, borrowed too much money. We have deteriorated our currency, and the purchasing power every generation is getting weaker. So your dollar is actually going —it's going um— it's going less and less as far.

T- Yes.

C- As it has year-over-year. So then what is the consequence of this? So you have a generation that is renting a lot more than it's owning. So when you do not own something, why would you defend it? So when—so you find then, political radicalization start to seep in, because an entire generation is getting routinely cynical year-over-year, as their net worth either stays at zero or goes into negative.

We talk more about BNPL here, the new financial scam, and it's secretly enslaving Gen Z. If you're a young person out there, be very careful taking out this ‘pay things in four parts’ type collateralization. It's a scam. Stay away from it. We are a debt-financed society and increasingly a debt-financed generation. This is a major problem that is enveloping young people all across the country and we need to proceed with caution and I think we need to talk about this forcefully and openly. Watch.

C- Now my question for every Republican senator and congressman watching this. If you do not know these four letters, then you are not doing your job. BNPL. Do you know what that means?

T- No clue.

C- Buy now pay later. Buy now pay later is how 60% according to surveys of Generation Z is paying for things month-to-month. They're not credit cards. So they're not this is not regulated by credit bureaus. It's not regulated with credit checks. It's basically it can anything from Amazon to Instacart, groceries, clothing, furniture. You can finance anything. It's BNPL.

It's run by three main companies. Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay. And essentially, you're 21, 22 years old— You can split a pizza into four payments. Sounds great, right? This is the modern tech economy.

T- Buy a pizza on credit?

C- Yes. You —

T- Happening now?

C- Yes, you can go to Instacart right now and either through Klarna, Affirm, or Afterpay. Those are the three big actors. These are noncredit regulated bureaus.

T- Shut those [expletive] down tomorrow. No, I'm serious. I'm so offended.

C- And by the way, two of them are foreign companies, one is a Swedish company and one is an Australian company. I did a deep dive into this.

T- You can buy a pizza on credit.

C- Yes, you can buy almost anything on credit. Concert tickets— You can buy —So when I, like I'm a big sports fan, a huge Chicago Cubs fan, you know, it's just fun. I grew up in Chicago. When I go to buy tickets at Wrigley Field, they say, you know, finance this over the next 3 years using Klarna.

T- Actually?

C- Yes. Concert tickets, Taylor Swift tickets. I mean, so what you have is a workaround.

T- What's the collateral?

C- There's no credit score. So it's just you. It's like your social security. They're collateralizing you. So, it's very high risk for the quote-unquote lender, but they have the late fees —and the penalties these companies eventually hold because they know they got you. And again, this is not regulated by traditional credit bureau. So, the federal government has not really waded in on this yet. And again, you could just— your younger folks— can affirm everything I'm saying. I mean, am I correct? I'm not making any of this up. It's BNPL. So when I sit down with a Republican senator,

T- I never think of myself as out of it or not in touch or whatever. I flatter myself that I've got my thumb on the pulse of the country. I am shocked. I've heard people refer to this. I didn't realize you could —If you can buy a pizza on credit, someone needs—

C- So— but but here’s— here's the kicker. And your groceries. The belief is that Gen Z is doing this to live above their means. Some. Most are actually doing this to meet their needs.

T- But that's that's the definition of predatory,

C- Right. And so again, this is not structurally healthy debt. So there's an argument for debt if you have a mortgage because the whole system is kind of rigged towards mortgages. You could deduct the interest. The asset price goes up.

T- It's hard to get off the mortgage addiction. I did it. But um

C- there's an argument for it

T- you take your lumps if you don't have a mortgage.

C- And I think there's an argument that's actually an okay and yeah, you could reconcilable type of debt.

T- I know smart people have mortgages.

C- If you are in investment banking and you have student loan debt and that student loan certificate, you know, that credential got you the investment bank. Okay, you bet on yourself. Maybe that's just filed. Again, I'm very anti-college as you know. There's really no place where you can make an argument that financing your Whole Foods order is good for you.

T- But to do that to young people who really —I mean I'm 56 and I'm still terrible with money. I mean, it's hard. It's hard. And I don't think I'm lazy. I'm not lazy and I don't think I'm profligate. But I also think I'm easily fooled because I'm distracted. And if I was 21, imagine how much more unsophisticated I would be, and how much more vulnerable to predatory behavior like that and everything is so easy because everything is digital now. I mean, that's an awful thing to do to young people.

C- And it creates a subterranean debt market that a lot of these young people think— this is how you pay for stuff. They haven't been educated else otherwise, like, oh, pay for that meal in five installments.

T- What are the interest rates like?

C- They can get very high. I don't want to speak out of turn but they can get to be double digits right and so that's really where they get you is the late fees.

T- This is bonkers.

C- And so it's not it's not regulated by traditional APR. So this is a very— it's a gray area. And I think people are finally waking up. So hey Republicans

T- Can you tell me the name of the three companies again?

C- So it's Affirm, Klarna and Afterpay; Afterpay,

T- which is the American one

C- I believe. So yeah so one of them was bought by Box and is operated by Square, which I believe is Klarna, I don't want to speak out of term here. One of them was a it's still Australian run but it's run by Box. It might be Afterpay. Someone can fact check me on this, but those are the three big actors and they've kind of just gone below the surface. So we create all this economic anxiety by pumping the system with cheap money. Everything gets more expensive.

Meanwhile, we have millions of young people that are financing their Coachella tickets, but it's not through credit cards ‘cuz in credit cards, we have a very regimented regulated system. I think credit cards are a disaster and we need to kind of figure that out. But this is a totally different thing.

And so what they've done is tried to create a loophole, and federal regulators are slow as they typically are, and they're like, "Oh, no. This is not credit cards. This is something else. This is like a repayment thing. It's like buy now pay later." And it's the opposite of what built the West. What built the West is Work Now, Pay After. That's what built the West. This is like, ‘enjoy things now and pay for it later.’ It is a —

T- You know what I don't like about conservatives and I am one, is that it would never occur to some of them, that there are two sides to the story. It's like immediately— they blame the people who are -you know- buying Coachella tickets on credit, which I get, you shouldn't buy Coachella tickets on credit or your pizza or your Whole Foods order. I totally agree with that. That's stupid.

But they never— it doesn't occur to them that there's another side that the people loaning the money are taking advantage of the dumb people borrowing the money. That both are culpable. And by the way, I think the people with more power and more wisdom are probably more culpable, morally, than the people who are— In other words— like, are we madder at the drug user or the drug dealer? Typically the dealer. But conservatives look at all economic arrangements and they never blame the dealer, and I don't know what that is. Like— how about we'll blame everybody? It's bad.

C- I think the reason and —it's a tik within the conservative movement— is that all of a sudden we're Marxists if we do that. I'm not saying I believe that.

T- No, no, but you're absolutely right. I'm a racist if I don't like mass immigration. Well, I don't like mass immigration, but I'm not a racist. I don't like this, and I'm not a Marxist. It's just name calling to stop you from raising the question.

C- It's thought-terminating cliches— is what it is.

T- So good! right.

C- It's stop thinking it —‘cuz we're going to we're going to terminate your thought by calling you a Marxist or whatever. And do I think this should be illegal? I don't know. Probably. I need to learn more about it. All I'm saying is I am here as a messenger of the next generation. I'm telling you this is bad. This generation can't own anything. They owe so much more money than generations prior. This is the most indebted generation in history. And I double checked that.

Gen Z owes the most money in any generation in history. So, we wonder why, then, all of a sudden, hey, you want to go buy a home—now at the age of 38, your credit score is destroyed. Your spending habits are terrible. You don't want to save and you don't think you should save.

And you know what I hear from some of them is— they say, "Well, why should I save when what I saw around me is that you need to get into this economy and spend, spend, spend because the savers got wrecked in 2008." Again, that's an oversimplification, but there is economic nihilism that has set in to a lot of this next generation where they're not participating in any of the upside right now, any of the upside of the last 5 years. In fact, they're only seeing the downside. They're seeing their apartments get smaller, their rents go up, their groceries get more expensive.

Now, mind you, I think President Trump is again, he's uniquely positioned to solve this. I think that his one Big Beautiful Bill is going to help, and I think growth will help this and lowering interest rates. But let me just say though, why do I say it's a race against the clock? And here's why it should concern conservatives because when I'm at dinner parties raising money, some of our donors are a little indifferent about this. They'll have kind of like a, hey, pull yourself up by the bootstraps attitude that's hard to shake. I don't have that attitude. I actually have a lot more compassion for the 23-year-old that is working a double shift and can't afford anything. But even if you don't care about them, you're not going to like the politics that come next.

T- But how do we wind up on the side of the money lenders? I mean, at no other time in history is that considered a virtuous business at all. I know a million people in that business, finance we call it, but I don't understand why they became immune from criticism, and that’s— I mean— there are places where I borrowed a lot of money in my life and I'm grateful for it and all that, but I don't think it's virtuous and I don't think we should say that it's virtuous and I don't think the people who should do it who do it should be above criticism. I don't know why the right is participating in basically a cover up of a crime against people,

C- Or even, like, from my perspective- why is the right so blind to the suffering of the young people that just gave you a Senate majority?

T- Oh fair- good question.

C- This is a generation that just put you in charge of all your committees. Young people, thank you. They should be saying, "Thank you, younger voters. You voted Republican in overwhelming numbers." That's one of the reasons, again, I like Dave McCormick a ton, so I'm not throwing him into this, but younger voters help put Dave McCormick as a US senator. And I think he gets this more so than most.

Donald Trump built this movement of younger voters that galvanized the nation. And again, this is the untold story of the 2024 election — how Donald Trump won the youth vote in so many parts of the country.

Okay, so what are they experiencing? They own nothing. They're renting constantly and they're involved in this scam of a credit-based economy. Everything is based on credit. And so then what it does is it deteriorates your capacity to have equity. And so again, I'm not here to propose like a solution of all these different policy requirements. All I'm saying is, how about some national attention for this?

Can we have a conversation about it?

T- There's going to be a policy solution imposed on the rest of us which is just stealing your stuff.

C- Well, that's the thing. So that's what I'm —This is where the continuum, whatever you want to call it, the spectrum, you know, whatever DC term, we're here again, I am a market guy. I like private property. I like trading. I like when I meet someone good at their craft and they're a carpenter or they're a small business owner. I actually want to save markets. And if we don't do something about this, you're going to get a Venezuelan style youth-led revolt. And I am not exaggerating,

—‘cuz what I see right here is— with this young next generation— younger voters, young men in particular, they're going right. They hate all the cultural stuff. The trans stuff's driving them crazy. The hyper-feminization of the economy, which we should talk about because I want to talk about that. The whole economy has become feminized the last couple decades and no one has the courage to really talk about it.

T- And that's not just female empowerment. It's more than that.

C- No, because we went from blue collar jobs to pink collar jobs.

T- Okay. I don't want to I I can't wait. But I —sorry to interrupt.

C- We could talk about pink color in a second, because that's super important ‘cuz male unemployment is significantly higher than female unemployment. But let's put a little button in that and just revisit in a second.

So if you if you want so if we want to prevent more Zohran Mamdanies, we want more people to own stuff. The more that we own homes, the more that you are able to own property, the more likely that people are going to embrace conservative policies and reject the more radical fringe elements of society.

What is the driving force of Zohran Mamdani? The driving force of AOC and Bernie Sanders is they are capitalizing on economic resentment and bitterness. If you don't pay a mortgage, you're much more much more likely to go burn down a Wendy's, march in a BLM parade, become a radical environmentalist. It fills a purpose void that you have in your heart. Right now, young people, their entire lives are disordered and it's up to us to try to reorder them.

This is a very important part of the conversation that has gone significantly viral. Watch.

C- Political radicalism needs a catalyst. Political radicalism does not come out of peace, prosperity, rising wages, stable families, church attendance, and happy people. Happy people, grateful people do not get behind Vladimir Lenin and they certainly don't get behind Chavez or Castro.

T- That's right.

C- People that own nothing, that feel like their property is diminishing, they don't have property or their dollars diminishing in value, they start to look for alternatives. And so the political project in front of us as conservatives should be— how do we actually de-radicalize the country in the next couple of years?

That's my obsession. That's why I say I try not to think about all this other stuff because it just, you know, it's so much brain space. My number one obsession is — I know what is coming next because nobody spends more time on college campuses than me. I hate to like pull rank on that, but I spend a hundreds of hours a semester on college campuses.

T- And you're getting no credits?

C- No, I get no credits for that. I still don't have a college degree. No,

T- I love that.

C- No, but I but I listen more. And that's the thing. I know you say— hey, you know, why people ask all the time, hey, why do you do these campus events? Why don't you just give a speech? Because I listen as much as I talk, and I put my microphone down. And these videos have been seen around the world and people have grown familiar, but almost all of them are like— Charlie, I don't know what to do. —like- trading crypto till 2 a.m. and kind of, you know, betting that the Green Bay Packers are going to win the Super Bowl. That's not enough for me, Charlie. What can we do?

And one of the reasons they voted for Trump is— they said, "President Trump, please reorder this economy for us because it's severely disordered." And so, the Republican party currently is focused on a lot of stuff. I get it. You have a lot of constituencies to serve, but we have participated, we— being the body politic, the last 20 years, especially the last 10, in a concerted effort of intergenerational theft. And if you don't if you if you don't care, Mamdani is just the beginning.

T- So, someone in the next 10 years is going to shut it down because the public doesn't want this at all. They don't want

C- Shut what down?

T- Shut down the parasite economy because, yeah, it's going to get shut down. This is and everyone participating in it knows that they're trying to steal as much as they can before it gets shut down. So the question is, is it shut down by Teddy Roosevelt or is it shut down by Hugo Chavez?

C- Well, and here's the brilliance of Teddy Roosevelt. So there's a lot of anti- Roosevelt fervor on the right.

T- There is?

C- Yeah. Yeah.

T- Why?

C- Well, not not a lot, I should say, amongst the intellectuals.

T- They're the worst. Why do they dislike Teddy Roosevelt?

C- So part of it I get— part of it is that he was —

T- the war craziness?

C- Well, actually, it's funny. He actually ended the Russo-Japanese war. I think he got a Nobel Prize for it if I'm not mistaken. Did he get a Nobel Peace Prize for it?

T- I don't know,

C- but anyway, he deserved one. Um, it was a bloody war. No. Some would say that Roosevelt began the progressive era. I think that's an over description. I don't want to get into that because I'm not that interested in that. What I'm interested in though is how Roosevelt was one of the few, we were one of the few powers to successfully manage the transition from the farms to the factories. And that's hard when you think about it. You have your entire population that is moving into cities. That transition, if done incorrectly, creates a ruling class that is untouchable. So Roosevelt was like, actually, I'm here to save capitalism. I'm here to save markets.

T- And he did.

C- And he did. And that is the enduring legacy of Roosevelt. Obviously, the national parks, which my wife and I are enjoying right now. And the untouched beauty, which I think is amazing. And just the fact that he was a hunter and outdoorsman and a man's man and super masculine, and all that was awesome. I don't love the fact he ran for president in 1912 out of bitterness, but that's a whole separate thing. He gave us Woodrow Wilson because of that.

T- It's hard to decelerate for guys like

C- No, I mean, he's No, you know, I know the type.

T- Yeah, I do too.

C- But his legacy that I want us to— the Rooseveltian whatever. I don't think it's the right term. You know, let's coin it. Let's coin the Rooseveltian energy or aura to use a GenZ term is —hey— don't be ideological —have a prudential aim.

What do we want —we want an ownership economy —want people that feel invested that have real equity. So how do we get there non-ideologically, because we actually want to preserve markets; because we want a country. What I commonly

T- Are people listening to you I hope people in charge are listening to you.

C- I don't —well the president listens to me— he's amazing. People on Capitol Hill don't listen

T- They need to listen to you what you're saying is true. Well, thank you. And again—this is going to sound really cringe, but in some ways, people have compared me to Paul Revere and it's like I'm warning of something that is coming like the Bolsheviks are coming. The Bolsheviks are coming.

T- I wrote a book on this and no one paid any attention.

C- Well, I did.

T- No, but I'm saying it's gotten so much worse and your explanation is so much more vivid than anything I came up with. Um, and you're you have the credibility that I did not have, which is someone who's well —doesn't have a college degree and is constantly college campuses. Uh, I just hope they're I hope they're listening cuz this is the story.

C- This is this is the biggest story happening that has not yet happened. And that's what I always say is that it's happening, but it hasn't yet happened on the front page. And when it does, don't be shocked when all of a sudden people are calling for a 75% wealth tax and they want an 50% tax on capital gains.

T- Totally right. And and and so what Roosevelt— just to complete the Roosevelt point— is that when you know what you want and you can aim towards it, you can shed yourself of the bumper sticker logic.

T- Yes.

C- And you can get towards something practical and prudent, real and beautiful. The best leaders in American history, the ones that are underrated, honestly, the Roosevelts and the Eisenhowers, they were non ideological.

T- Exactly.

C- They were nationalistic. They were America-first. They loved the country. And they weren’t- like- caring about whether or not they were fitting a mold of a think tank white paper.

T- And TR was a sincere Christian, a sincere.

C- Yes. And I believe Eisenhower was as well. I actually don't know. Um, so the statesmanship dilemma of today is— can you either challenge or convince the ruling class— that this is necessary, and I don't think convincing is going to work.

T- No.

C- So you have to challenge them and hilariously it's actually the best thing for them, because otherwise they're coming for their mansions and they're coming for their assets and they're coming for their companies, and I don't want to live in that country. I do not want to live in South Africa. I don't want to live in a resentment bitterness country where I have to drive around in armored cars all the time and I can't leave my house after 10 p.m.

We are seeing a potential immigration emergency. Tucker and I talk about how we must be very clear. No amnesty. No amnesty. No amnesty. Let me say that again. No amnesty. By the way, if you want amnesty, can you just email me? Like, what is your argument? We didn't run on it. We don't need it. It's bad for the country. It's bad for workers. It's bad for young people. So, please, if you are for amnesty, I'd love to hear from you and what strange contorted view that is. I'd love to understand where possibly you're coming from, other than maybe you run a big hotel chain or a massive farm.

Amnesty would break the back of this country and it would tear apart our coalition. So watch this about the immigration emergency.

T- We don't even know who lives here.

C- Well, that's a whole other-

T- No, but I'm just saying that makes it more volatile. So if there is a severe economic contraction and of course at some point there will be. It's you're not going to have a civilian conservation core. It's like because the country is inherently not united and citizens have nothing in common with each other and like we're nation.

Who are my neighbors? doesn't even speak my language. They don't know what the Civil War was. We're not on the same page on any level. And they have expectations that are totally unrealistic ‘cuz they were getting free stuff the second they got here.

So like, man, you could have— this is an emergency, I think.

C- Yes. And it is a volcano waiting to explode. I mean, any one of your metaphors that you could put in, but we are a nation of strangers. The ties that bind us together are purely economic. If you think about it, it's not language, it's not culture, it's not religion, it's not, you know,

T- Shared history,

C- it's not any of that, we have— and this is the distinction. It's the economy. I ask Republican leaders all the time, ‘cuz voters get it. That's the thing. Do you want to be a country or a colony? What do you mean? Well, tell me the difference. ‘Cuz I could tell you what a colony is. A colony is a place where everyone just kind of comes and they trade stuff and you have a good time and you kind of go in your own little corner, but you have nothing in common.

We are —it is the it is the reverse colonization of America which is the greatest of all ironies, right? Because we tried to do the colonization thing but we are colonizing ourselves you think about it because we really don't have much in common anymore. We're kind of in our own little corner and all that unites us is the dollar bill, and we're told that that is the most important thing. Well, what happens when the dollar bill then shreds? You see, economic volatility is survivable if you're a nation of neighbors.

T- Exactly.

C- Because then you go to church and then you have commonality and you're like you kind of bind together and you figure it out. Like the Great Depression, for example, we survived that because we were a different people demographically. We were different religiously. But when you're a nation of strangers filled with third world-ers that don't really understand what this country is about and they're just here for free stuff socialism, watch out.

I don't like the term ‘emergency.’ I'm not challenging on it only because I don't want to do the Greta Thunberg thing where like— the sky is falling. It just drives me crazy— the over-catastrophization of American politics needs to be addressed immediately. But it will become an emergency. It is a canary in the coal mine. It's a harbinger. It is a sign. It's a warning of things to come that if I get 10 minutes with somebody, I think I can convince them it's kind of —a problem-ish. But then as a step further, it has all these other secondary problems and third and fourth tier problems like birth rate collapse and marriage issues and young men not participating in the labor force and then you don't have a civilization.