Jason Hartman starts the show today with Kerry and Carmen as he prepares for a trip to South Korea and mainland China. They discuss recent Federal Reserve rate hikes and what they’ve done for real estate investors. Jason goes into a report about a trip he had in an Uber. The driver was a former employee of Amazon and gives us insight into the relationship between him and his former company.
Investor 0:00
The markets were buying in a robust markets there, the population is stable and growing, and the values are stable and growing. It’s not like we’re just buying residential anywhere. We’re buying into the market.
Announcer 0:13
Welcome to the creating wealth show with Jason Hartman. You’re about to learn a new slant on investing some exciting techniques and fresh new approaches to the world’s most historically proven asset class that will enable you to create more wealth and freedom than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine self made multi millionaire who’s actually been there and done it. He’s a successful investor, lender, developer and entrepreneur who’s owned properties in 11 states had hundreds of tenants and been involved in thousands of real estate transactions. This program will help you follow in Jason’s footsteps on the road to your financial independence day. You really can do it. And now here’s your host, Jason Hartman with the complete solution. For real estate investors,
Jason Hartman 1:03
welcome to Episode 1174 1174. Thank you so much for joining me today. And for most of the show, we’re going to have a segment investigative report from an Uber driver. Yes, that’s coming up here in a moment. But it’s not an investigative report about Uber. It’s about another company. I’ve got two of my favorite people with me. And that is Carmen and Carrie and Carmen will talk a little bit about our upcoming trip. And Carrie, we got to talk about the economy and a few other things. Right.
Kerry 1:34
Yeah. Well, look, we’ve seen interest rates were headed up for a while. And they worked on Whoa, they were going to be for more in 2019. For more rate hikes. You met up for more rate hikes. That
Jason Hartman 1:47
was a little too aggressive. I
Kerry 1:49
yeah. Well, the whole intention was to supposedly to normalize interest rates so that you could go back to the bank and open up a 5%, passbook account and 40 Actually A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to normalization. And that is the new normal. And basically, employment numbers have been weak economic numbers, performance numbers, growth numbers around the globe have been weak. The US has been the only bright spot literally. And now with those employment numbers getting down, and then there was the fear of the stock market going down, which it did the end of last year, that has caused the Fed to reassess and say, Alright, Happy days are here. Again, we’re not cutting rates yet. But for the time being no more rate hikes. And now the employment numbers were a little stronger last month, but not overly strong, not outrageous. It looks like we could be coming to the peak for employment numbers,
Jason Hartman 2:49
how much of the rate hikes that they were doing, and thankfully they’ve cooled off on this. How much of that do you think is based on the feds need? to reload the gun, so to speak, to be ready for the next recession, because if rates are too low, then the Fed has no ammunition to battle, the next recession, the next cycle, right? It needs those rates to be higher. So it can make them lower, which is kind of an odd. Yeah, sort of thinking to a lot of people. Listen, Carrie, you and I both. I think you’ll agree with me here that I don’t like this centrally planned economy. I don’t like central bank’s very much. I think that the market should just set the rates and everything should be kind of libertarian, but that’s not what we have. So who cares? How much of that do you think is the reload mentality the reload concern?
Kerry 3:43
Well, I think that’s real because of interest rates are close to zero. The only thing you can do then is buy bonds, you know, QE four, which they don’t want to do that that set the stock market going up, set all of the asset bubbles that we have now. Between the market trophy real estate in Manhattan, etc. They don’t want to do that if they can avoid it. Plus, we’ve got inflows coming into the US from other countries who are worried about their own banking systems in
Jason Hartman 4:14
flows of capital, because the US is always the safe space. It’s the Brinks Truck of the world. And capital comes here, because capital goes where it’s treated best. And it’s not always treated best here from a taxation perspective, but from a political perspective, in terms of the fear of seizure of your capital, the US is a pretty safe place.
Kerry 4:38
Yeah. And also in terms of if you’re a foreign national, you get treated a lot better in the US than as a American citizen taxation was us is really the world’s largest tax haven for everyone except the American.
Jason Hartman 4:53
Yeah, by the way, that’s a really I’m glad you mentioned that because I’ve talked about that before, but especially on my holistic survival. jetsetter shows, where we talk about survivalism and holistic survival as the name would imply. But on the jetsetter show where I interview guests that talk about, you know, lifestyle friendly destinations worldwide and a lot of expat interviews and things like that. So it’s been interesting to learn from them. Most people don’t think of the US as a tax haven. They think of Caribbean islands they think of Jersey they think of and that’s not New Jersey, that’s jersey part of the British Empire. You know, the Cook Islands, the Cayman Islands, obviously, which by the way, we have a cruise coming up to the Cayman Islands in November. Join us Jason hartman.com, slash groose, shameless self promoter, but the US is a tax haven, like a lot of people don’t realize that
Kerry 5:44
for everyone but us.
Kerry 5:46
For us, it sucks,
Jason Hartman 5:47
but it’s good in other ways.
Kerry 5:49
And then the other thing of inflows is there’s a trillion dollars a year that nobody talks about in dollar denominated, that was loaned out dollars that were loaned out to companies. And countries that were playing the dollar short think will borrow from the US long term and pay it back and cheaper dollars. What they didn’t anticipate was the dollar was going to depreciate rapidly against their local currencies. So this is driving the world like nuts. It’s an economic disaster.
Jason Hartman 6:20
But the fact is economic disaster for whom?
Kerry 6:22
Well eventually for us, but right now for the countries that have to pay back that dollar denominated debt because
Jason Hartman 6:29
like I talked about inflation induced debt destruction, their debt has actually become more valuable, I guess I’ll say. So in the studio, I was about to say that, but I want to say more valuable first because the dollars more valuable. So that’s the opposite of inflation induced debt destruction. So the debt has become, as Carrie said, more burdensome.
Kerry 6:50
Now, what’s interesting about this is in the real estate world, and that’s what we’re about here, mostly, because we think income property is the most historically proven out asset class in the world in the real estate world, a lot of foreign nationals bought American real estate. Of course, this has been happening forever. But what’s interesting about it is they not only can play the real estate game like we do, but they also play the arbitrage between the currencies. Now, sometimes that works for them, sometimes it works against them. So that’s just something to think about. We saw a lot of Australian investors do this in years past. So after the crash, they were buying up our foreclosures by the boatload, and I thought they were like total suckers. But then what happened? They were like bringing in planes full of Australians to Arizona, and they bought up 10s of thousands of foreclosures that have quadrupled and quintupled in price. So even though I thought it was a bad deal for them at the time, it turned out to be a phenomenal deal. Plus, they were investing overseas. So there were all of these Australian taxes that they were legally able to avoid And it turned out to be a great deal for them shows what even though you think real estate is down, it’s never really out. That’s true because it’s multi
Jason Hartman 8:07
dimensional. So you get to play the multi dimensional stuff. But one of the other beautiful things about it is that, you know, we had Meredith Whitney on a few years back, we need to get her back, she wrote that book state of the states are highly recommended. Her predictions turned out to be very right, in that capital always goes where it’s treated best. And when you think of it from an international perspective, capital is treated pretty darn good in the US it like Gary said, you know, especially for non Americans, but even for Americans, of course, do that makes the us very much open for business in a very attractive place for foreign investors. Any tie ins for the real estate investors that we carry, yeah,
Kerry 8:49
yeah, well, for sure, because when you look at what’s happening, you’re so you know, when rates go up, that’s obviously not great for Real Estate, it actually will bring prices down over time in any market, it’s going to happen. So, but it will bring prices down,
Jason Hartman 9:09
but rents up. Okay, so as those are counter cyclical,
Kerry 9:13
yeah. And you know, effectively your monthly carrying costs aren’t really going to change significantly over time, because prices will come down. So you’re paying higher rates. So it equalizes. But here, you know, this is an example where rates are coming down. And prices really are not raising, not going up at this point. So effectively, you’re getting a better return on your investment. rents are still going up, because there’s still a record number of renters in the country, and interest rates coming down. So your return is going up. And you’re not doing anything. You’re just buying. And you’re seeing your return go up.
Jason Hartman 9:54
Yeah, dramatically. Yeah, very interesting stuff. What we have now is what I call the tunnel tale of two markets Of course, it’s really three because, you know, we look at the world in terms of linear, cyclical and hybrid markets. But the tale of two markets to coin the famous Tale of Two Cities phrase to ride on those coattails is basically about the linear markets versus the cyclical markets, cyclical markets, all the high priced markets that you know, New York City’s the South Florida, the Los Angeles, the West Coast, you know, that kind of stuff. Those markets are suffering, you know, in terms of price, softness and expanding inventory dramatically. But the opposite is in the linear markets, the markets. We like those inexpensive kind of bread and butter markets, where prices are strong. I wouldn’t say they’re going through the roof inventory is very constrained. It’s not as bad as it was last year. So inventory is loosened a little bit. There’s a little more selection now. But again, it’s not nearly as good as it was three years ago or before that there was a lot more inventory. Then. Oh, sure. So, yeah, these factors all interplay, interestingly. But you know, as we talked a lot about the international perspective on some of this stuff, a couple things, Carmen and I leave for South Korea and then China. This is going to be an interesting trip. You know, I’ve been to 81 countries so far. Never Mainland China, never South Korea. So I’m going to hit number 82 and 83 on this right.
Carmen 11:24
Excited sports kitten, the major the pages are getting used up there. That’s the
Jason Hartman 11:29
that’s the idea. And you know, I gotta tell you, Carmen, you were helping me get my Chinese visa. That was a pain. That was a hassle.
Carmen 11:37
Yeah, I thought it’s so easy. You click a picture, send them your passport, sent them 250 bucks. And it came back in to stamp
Jason Hartman 11:45
the application had a zillion questions. It was I thought it was a pain, but whatever. You know, that’s an idea of putting up a berlin wall around your country. Like why would you want to do that? It’s like I want to bring my money into your country and spend it and tourism is expensive. So why don’t you just let people in? It’s it’s silly. You know, it’s it’s it’s what they do, Carmen, you go to China every year for the Canton Fair because you are an e commerce seller. Tell us a little bit about it.
Carmen 12:11
Well, I mean, first of all, I’m surprised there’s still a country you haven’t been to. So it’s interesting. We’re going to
Jason Hartman 12:17
I haven’t been to Venezuela, your homeland? Well, you won’t be going there anytime soon. Or Brazil. So yeah, I’m not gonna go to Venezuela. I hear Russia have a holiday there. Tell us about China
Carmen 12:28
and everything. I mean, China does have it’s going to be a very interesting place to visit. I’ve been there three times I go there for business mostly to source products. I meet with my vendors, and you just have to realize that the way they do things or maybe the way things were done in the past, so using the visa example, you know, it’s a very long application where you know, they ask you even was your mother and father’s name and you know, all kinds of information that is so irrelevant, but they’re probably been doing it that way for long and you know, they’re stuck with it. Even being in the country just you know, booking hotels and flights, it’s just so much more complicated any here because I don’t they just do things a different way. And
Carmen 13:10
it’s easier for them to sell to Amazon than it is for the average Chinese citizen to buy from Amazon. Forget it. They won’t even attempt it.
Jason Hartman 13:20
Interesting. Yeah, I don’t know about that. But what about, you know, the economy, these ghost cities, Carmen, I can’t wait to see a lot of this stuff. I mean, when my mom did a china tour, and she did it with an investment group, not a real estate investment group, but a stock market Investment Group. Maybe I want to say that was about 16 years ago, I’m thinking, she said, Jason, it’s amazing when you go there, you know, you come in on the plane landing in these Chinese cities. And it’s like, looking out of the window. It’s seven New York City’s it’s so big, the cities are massive, and there were so many massive cities. The population is just huge. I mean, they’re not just big or there’s just people And construction is everywhere. I remember one of the traits, you know, when she said Carmen, she said the national bird of China should be the crane rain, just construction everywhere.
Carmen 14:09
Yeah. I remember one of the trips, I took a train going from, I think one Joe to Hong Kong. And I was looking forward to that trip thinking that I was going to see the countryside. Well guess what the countryside is more buildings and more population and he just it just up there’s no houses, you know, there’s no land. I mean, there’s land but just from one town town to the other. So it’s unbelievable. I mean, the biggest cities on the world are there.
Carmen 14:32
Shanghai is 64 million people in the metro area. Why don’t even Picture My God. And yeah, the crowding. And yeah, I’ve been there twice. I was there once. 20 years ago. I wouldn’t eat anything. They’re going back two years ago, you could pretty much identify where the food came from. It didn’t taste much better though. But the growth that took place during that time So literally, the first time I flew into Hong Kong was the old Arabic port is right in the middle, you flew between skyscrapers. I did that under clothes lines scary and you could look into people’s houses the apartment buildings. And you know, like they’re eating dinner. You saw this with such detail I saw, frightening, frightening airport had one runway, how would ever function was a mystery to me. But somehow they got it running function with skilled pilots, and air traffic controllers. Oh, man, it was like all the planes would come in in 15 minutes, and they’d all leave in 15 minutes. And it was quite an experience. But now it’s so different. I don’t want to say it’s sophisticated, but it’s certainly more modern. And it’s just surprising. What’s going on there
Carmen 15:45
will carry to that point. I think what you will notice there is that it’s a it’s a place of extreme contrast. So you will see the highest luxury you’ve ever seen anywhere in hotels and restaurants and anything you can imagine the perfect We have it, you know, twice or 10 times as more as we have here. But then you will see also, I don’t know if he’s poverty but they’re used to living in conditions that you would never even imagine. I was watching a show the other day about Hong Kong and actually they were referring to this guy that rents a closet. He’s leaving his space is the size of a closet. And he pays $150 or pounds I think equivalent for renting that space. All this space. All he can fit there is a bed, so it’s believable.
Carmen 16:31
Well, they rent cage space. If you ever saw that Seinfeld, where Kramer is renting up drawers. I remember that you Asians, I think they were I think they were Chinese. Yeah. Japanese careers. Yeah, that’s almost what it’s like there. You got these cages and they’re like three to six cages high.
Jason Hartman 16:52
It’s frightening that is really wild the way they stack people in basically. Okay, so I want to switch gears and Come back to what we’re talking about with China and this economic growth that we’ve seen around the world the past couple decades, truly amazing what globalization is done. And I want to take that back to Jeremy Siegel, who I’ve cited that article many times about the looming asset shortage. I think it’s amazing, and I think it bodes really well for real estate investors. But before we do that, let’s just switch gears quickly to our Amazon tour last week, because we didn’t get a chance to talk about this on the podcast cat. I want to play the Uber driver clip, I interviewed our Uber driver. So Carmen, last week, when we were in Phoenix, you set up a tour of an Amazon fulfillment center for us and I thought that was really cool. I mean, going in there was like going into a whole city in and of itself, but under a roof. It was mind boggling. The digital sweatshop.
Carmen 17:49
Yeah. It was very interesting. I mean, having been in you know, selling on Amazon for seven years now. I I known how their operations work, I’ve seen the videos, but it’s never the same. Just been there. And I don’t think this was one of the most modern fulfillment centers because they didn’t really have robots or anything like that. I didn’t see that. But probably the number one thing I have to point out is just the size of this place. I mean, issues. Giant, it’s unbelievable. How can they just have and that’s just one of them. I don’t know if you remember they were talking about how they named their fulfillment centers. And these was number six, seanix. Six, yeah,
Carmen 18:30
yeah, check six,
Carmen 18:31
they use the airport code, and then a number and this was number six, just in that area. And they have them everywhere.
Carmen 18:37
Yeah, they’re all over. Sure.
Jason Hartman 18:40
So Amazon, I have criticized them a lot and I think rightfully so. I think they deserve the criticism. Here. We’ve got basically one of the richest companies on planet earth, and certainly the richest man on planet Earth. Even post divorce. They say he will still be the richest man and his wife soon ex wife, Mackenzie will be the richest woman. So it’s ridiculous to me that they have the conditions they do for their workers and finally, increase the wages to $15 an hour for the factory workers. But that wasn’t really true, as you’ll hear from the Uber driver. So let’s cut to the you know, Carmen, it was amazing. We were picked up at the Amazon fulfillment center after our tour, we took a tour was about an hour long. And then the Uber driver who picked us up, we got to talking with him and he said, Oh, hey, I used to work there.
Carmen 19:33
That fulfillment. I mean, what are the chances, right, what a coincidence.
Jason Hartman 19:36
And so I said, Hey, can I interview for my podcast? Well, here’s the interview. So we just took a tour of an Amazon fulfillment center and it was truly amazing. Pardon the sound here we’re in the ride sharing car. I don’t even want to say which company because the driver coincidentally happened to work at the center before. You know we got in the car and said that we just took the We’re in Well, it’s totally amazing. You know, Amazon has been criticized a lot about underpaying people overworking them. You know, I hear that some Amazon workers going through the warehouse will walk up to 15 miles a day where motion trackers, and if they don’t move fast enough their supervisors get on their case. And ultimately, I’m sure they don’t keep their jobs if they’re not, basically, it’s gets. I mean, the comparisons have been made to a modern version of slavery. And I think there’s some fairness and in that comparison, but everybody’s got a different opinion, of course, and just wanted to talk with her driver a little bit because he actually worked at I think, a couple of the fulfillment centers over the years. And this is Jose How you doing, Jose?
Carmen 20:42
I’m good How you guys doing?
Jason Hartman 20:44
names may have been changed to protect the innocent here. So tell us about it. How was it working there?
Carmen 20:49
It’s an experience. It’s worked for sure. But um, I worked for as a picker when I first started. And within three to four months, I transferred department so I ended up doing
Jason Hartman 21:00
So Jose, you started as a picker, meaning you pick the items and then put them into the packages to be shipped out. Is that what that means?
Carmen 21:08
Or no as a picker, you’re basically a order filler. You’re just you’re basically shopping. You have a car, you know, you scan the item. Well, first of all, the gun will give you the location of where to go. The scan gun that they use, yeah, there’s a scanner gun, RF unit, the gun will give you a location ago, you go to the location, you scan the location, a barcode, the gun will show you the item that you’re looking for. And you just basically put the item in your car and just take off with it. You know, just keep going and you are walking over two miles a day. There are a number in rates to maintain.
Jason Hartman 21:44
Yeah, yeah. So so the criticism has been about you know, when people don’t maintain those numbers and they don’t move quickly enough. And they don’t feel enough items in the cart, you know, going shopping as you say, which is a good metaphor for it, that their supervisors really come down on them. Hmm.
Carmen 22:00
Yeah, it’s it’s all about numbers. You know, if you don’t have those numbers, then you know, they kind of give you like a coaching and it just goes on from there. It just gets escalated to first right? Oh, first verbal, then we’ll first right up and so on.
Jason Hartman 22:16
Yeah, yeah, our guy kind of slough that off because someone did bring that up. And then I chimed in with saying, well, they have to wear motion trackers, right. And he was just kind of like, oh, everybody works at their own pace, blah, blah, blah, which I thought was, he really avoided the question.
Carmen 22:33
Yeah, the RF unit, which is the gun will tell you where you’re at, and it will track the last time you scan the item. It’s not really a motion tracker. They just know where you’re at. It just locates you. It doesn’t show you every single motion that you’re doing, and just locate you every time you scan item.
Jason Hartman 22:51
So finally, Bezos agreed to raise the minimum wage for warehouse workers to $15 an hour. It looks like you have something to say about that. Oh, Do
Carmen 23:01
actually it’s not really a raise, all the workers feel like we should have been getting that from the get go. Because these other warehouses in the area are paying way more than Amazon’s a billion dollar, multibillion dollar industry company. And
Jason Hartman 23:14
they’re giant, like one of the richest companies in the world. And 500
Carmen 23:16
the rays wasn’t really a raise, because they just took away some benefits that we had to compensate the pay raise. So, at first, before any of this happen, we’re getting stocks. soon as you get hired on to the company, they give you stocks, and they also give you like a bonus call VCP. Like the whole warehouse is on a rate. And if we hit those production rates and all departments, then we get a bonus. Well, they got rid of all that. So
Jason Hartman 23:49
So basically, it wasn’t really a raise. All they did is rework some stuff and move the benefits around so that they could do a press release to say they gave a radio It sounds like
Carmen 24:00
Yeah, exactly. Everybody was mad about it, what it did for the employees that were there long, it just really took away from them. And with these new employees that are barely getting hired on, they don’t know anything about no VCP or any stock. So it’s all new to them. And they just saw it as the wind because it starts the pay rate is starting off higher than what it used to be.
Jason Hartman 24:21
Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. What else can you say about working there? I mean, obviously, you left. But would you recommend that job? Is it better? You know, I mean, the comparison is always the question is compared to what, right? Amazon is a super rich company. And I think people are making that comparison of, you know, here we’ve got Jeff Bezos, even post divorce, he’s still going to be the richest man in the world. It looks like you know, so they’re making the comparison with the success of the company versus what the workers are getting paid, saying, you know, share the wealth, which is a reasonable argument for sure. But the other comparison one could make is what would all those people working for Amazon have been doing before Or if Amazon didn’t exist, what job would they be doing? Would they be working at another kind of warehouse? Would that be better? Or worse? I don’t know. Do you have any thoughts on that? Jose?
Carmen 25:10
I really don’t have anything to say on that. I probably would be doing some type of collections or just a different environment wouldn’t be in our house. But
Jason Hartman 25:20
yeah, yeah. So and you’re doing ride sharing now? Is there anything else you want to share with people about the Amazon working experience? I mean, you gotta admit like, it’s still a pretty amazing operation, isn’t it?
Carmen 25:33
It is. There’s so many different departments and different functions of the company. So you’re just if you’re in one department, you only you’re only seeing that one side. But once you get to a different department, and you just see the whole process of how everything’s done, like from the product coming into the building and how it leads to building, it goes through many different levels from the ordering. Been pig take going down all these different conveyers There’s conveyors going throughout that whole building. And that buildings, three stories. So there’s millions of items in it. And everywhere you go in the warehouse, you’re going to find something new. Including odd as you’re in the warehouse.
Jason Hartman 26:14
Yeah, yeah, it was pretty amazing. Our guides said that they have 15 miles of conveyor belts have facility and that it’s the size of 28 football fields. It’s just the scale is mind boggling. It’s it’s like a city inside that building, isn’t it?
Carmen 26:28
Yeah, it is. It’s, it’s amazed, you can get lost in there. And you’re definitely walking miles in there. So it does put a lot of wear and tear on you with those concrete slabs that you’re walking on.
Jason Hartman 26:41
Yeah, yeah, no, I can understand that. Hey, thanks for being on the show and sharing some some insider information with us. We appreciate it.
Carmen 26:48
Yeah, no problem anytime.
Jason Hartman 26:52
Soon way, I hope you liked that little investigative on the street man on the street interview in the Uber car Carmen You know What amazed me at that Amazon fulfillment center? What a PR machine that that tour really is. Right?
Carmen 27:06
Yeah. I mean, it was especially interesting because we heard all the wonderful benefits that they offer and what a great thing is to work there. Well, we’re in the tour. And then we read the articles to the contrary, right? And then we go on these override, and we hear the exact opposite. And you know, all these true things that nobody told us during the tour.
Carmen 27:27
Yeah, it’s like a trip to the Soviet Union and in the worker’s paradise, and everybody’s happy and content and everybody’s thrilled. But the reality, it’s a Potemkin village, and the reality is something wholly different.
Jason Hartman 27:41
Yeah. That you do not see, you know, the, yeah, it’s a total PR machine. But hey, what can you expect? Of course, they’re going to be doing PR all the time. And they talk about all the good they’re doing for the community and this and that, and listen, I don’t hate them. I think they do incredible things too. So it’s a you know, it’s like everything. It’s a Love hate thing, but when you’re that big, and you’re impacting this many people, you deserve to be looked at and criticized. Okay. I mean, you should stay
Carmen 28:09
out of politics. Yeah.
Carmen 28:10
as well. It’s a bad thing and stay out of the Washington Post. Yeah.
Carmen 28:14
Stay away. And their biggest profit center is their CIA cloud business. So there’s a lot of things to not like about Amazon, you know, they really spoke or all the rest.
Jason Hartman 28:25
Yeah,
Carmen 28:26
they made 11 billion and paid no taxes. So I see a OCS point. You don’t want to be subsidizing wealthy corporations for no reason. But on the other hand, if New York didn’t do it, somebody else would do it as well. So that story’s been told.
Jason Hartman 28:41
So yeah, good point. Okay, so back to China here for a moment. The amazing thing about the riches of China and India and all these other countries that have just done incredible things over the last couple of decades. The amazing thing is this, I want to go back to this article. That I used to talk about in my creating wealth seminars years and years ago, where Jeremy Siegel, financial guru, Jeremy Siegel talked about the looming asset shortage. He says, look, we’ve globalization has lifted at the time now it’s even more 275 million people out of poverty. Carmen, you talk about the cities in China where, you know, these people used to be dirt poor, rural farmers, and now they’re moving into the middle class. This is not just happening in China. It’s happening in many places around the world. And as bad as things are in so many ways, the question is always compared to what I mean look at a lot of these people weren’t dirt poor and Okay, maybe there will be another economic cycle. Maybe things aren’t so great overall, in looking at the perfect world and the utopian idea, but they’re better than they used to be. Okay, so here’s the thing. The question is like Jeremy Siegel said, Where will all the Assets be for these people around the world, these hundreds of millions of people moving into the middle class. And then there’s this talk about the rising billion, you know, people that live on a couple of bucks a day that are becoming more and more prosperous, guess what? They all need resources. They all need a place to live the three basic human needs food, clothing, and shelter, and look at listeners, you own the shelter. And you don’t just own the shelter. You own the commodities that make the shelter, the concrete, the lumber, the glass, the spiel, the copper wire, the petroleum products, all of those resources are the ingredients of every house or apartment you own. Okay, and you’re playing the commodities game. You’re essentially a packaged commodities investor, as I call it, as resources become more and more in demand. Look at Remember, we’re looking at the big macro picture here. We’re not looking at little trends. What’s the price of copper today or oil today or yesterday? Who cares? Nobody lives like that, except a trader, we look at big macro trends. And the big macro trend is a rising middle class around the world, more prosperity, and more demand for scarce assets. So get as many of those assets as you can. That’s what we’re all about in the show. And at Jason Hartman, calm helping you do that. Any final thoughts?
Carmen 31:33
Just that half the world’s copper is consumed by China. And copper is an essential metal, everything that we have automobiles, iPhones, computers, anything electronic copper, but the amount of copper that goes into a house, it’s hundreds of pounds of copper. So you always say Jason, you’re playing the commodity markets. When you buy a home when you buy a building. Because it’s got all of these assets, these commodities built into it, copper is a big one. And they’re just not finding new major sources of it. So that’s just an area where your theory holds totally true. And think about it, folks. You’re sitting on all of that copper, lumber, concrete, petroleum products, glass, steel, the ingredients of your house, right? You’re sitting on that with probably only 20% in the deal 80% financed by a bank debt, outsource to a tenant, you’re not even paying your own debts, the tenant is probably giving you 150 bucks extra per month, that’s called positive cash flow. The government’s giving you tax benefits, you’re being subsidized in so many ways, and it’s such a great deal.
Jason Hartman 32:45
So income property is the most historically proven asset class in the world. Go to Jason hartman.com slash properties, or just look around the website and everything. Join us for an upcoming event. And we will talk to you tomorrow and Until then, happy Investing. Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss any episodes. Be sure to check out the show’s specific website and our general website heart and Mediacom for appropriate disclaimers and Terms of Service. Remember that guest opinions are their own. And if you require specific legal or tax advice, or advice and any other specialized area, please consult an appropriate professional. And we also very much appreciate you reviewing the show. Please go to iTunes or Stitcher Radio or whatever platform you’re using and write a review for the show we would very much appreciate that. And be sure to make it official and subscribe so you do not miss any episodes. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode.