Corner Boys and Plugs

alibi and sitting in the living room. And while I'm sitting in the living room, there's bricks and packs being broken up and repacked and getting prepped, you know, while she's you know, checking up on her man's or one of her man's. Are you sitting there? And one of the big jee's would be like, hey, little man, what's your name? You're like Jason, you know, your little brother Like yeah, it's like, hey, you wanna make a hundred dollars? And when you were a kid, a hundred dollars that

hundred dollars that sounds it's not a real number. Your hundred guy pulls out of hunted out a bill or five twenties. Most money you ever seen in your life. He's like, hey, look and listen. This man is shining. I mean, Jules. His gear is dupe, he got the you know, I'm from the nineties and you got the starter jacket. Like, Homie is crisp man. His car outside is dep you know what I'm saying, Like, it's the person you want to be. Then he say this, take

this bag across the street. We're gonna be right here, so all you gotta do take it across the street. See them standing over there, Take it across the street. Sit like a hundred. That's it to just walk across the street. Yeah, And you know, I'm trying to be cool. Lucky for me, my sister comes running out from them back being like hey, hey, hey, hey hey, and then she starts checking the dudes, don't be asking my brother to be a part of all this. She coming and

defend me. And then they're like, hey, man, let the little man talk. He all right, he all right, hey, little man, can you speak for yourself or your sister gonna tell you what to do? You know, And obviously I'm frozen because I got to go home with my sister and I'm like, no, I'm good, and they're like, now you're cool. Hey, look I saw good, honey, here's twenty dollars. They still give you twenty dollars, They say, are you little wrapping as nigger man? You got flow?

And then you know, I try to wrap for him, And so I got out of the situation. You know, I ain't make the hundred, but I got the twenty. And my sister looking at me like lot n if you do not, And I'm like, all right, well, I trust my sister more than EAST make it with that hundred dollars. That seemed real easy. I think I may want to be a corner boy, but every corner boy needs a plug. Every plug needs a corner boy. Politics, y'all, it's so good right now, little politics, y'all so good.

So today has a lot to do with economics and the role economics plays in policy and how that relates to us and what we can do in a system that we exist in. I'm gonna talk about unemployment, unions, Amazon jobs reports, and really wighs that you and I, as just regular folks, interact with all these things. A corner boy is I mean, it's a drug dealer, but he's the guy standing on the corner. Now it's a

it's an East Coast term. We don't necessarily use it out here what we do now because you know, the world is so connected. But as you probably know, because I'm pretty sure you've seen a movie, you know, the corner boy don't have He has to get the product from somebody, you know. And I know you've listened to rap music, which probably makes you think you know how this works. And I mean, shoot me too, you know, But I know enough to know by being around here

and know enough guys who pushed a weight. I knew. I had a friend in high school always had cash. Didn'tybody know he got his cash from I just always had money in his pocket. He would never tell us. He would always be like, man, if I tell you, I gotta kill you. I'm positive he was moving real silent and was probably somewhere around the city getting product

into people's heads. But the product gotta come from somewhere, and the product comes from the connect or the plug, and and and and sometimes those can be two different people like the connect oftentimes is might be in Mexico, might be a cartel, might be in Colombia, like somewhere far away. And then there could be a middleman, but most of the time the goal is to not have one. I mean, we can use pimps and house as a as a motif. Now, obviously I've never in my right

mind ever referred to a woman as all. I'm just saying for this explanation, there's a product being moved, and there's someone that has to move the product. And in prostitution and the really interesting it's not necessarily the woman that's the product. It's the the feeling of being aroused and satisfied is the actual product. Like you could talk to I'll talked to a number of women who kind

of came out that life. I got some we got some homies that work with girls transitioning out of that, and they're like, yes, some nights is just like they just wanted somebody to talk to. You know. Some dudes just I want to be cuddled, you know, but they have to have a connect. You gotta have a supplier, and the supplier is the pimp, you know, and the

pimp lives a very interesting life. There's there's In my opinion, obviously I'm not one, but in my opinion, um, the process of breaking your ho just the type of si up you have to do to get a woman to function against her own best interest is you know, enough talking too much, talking, not enough while getting you know, the pimp hand, you know, backhand is pimping, pimping, you know, using fear and danger to make sure that this person keeps doing this is a very interesting I just I

think some part of you gotta you gotta have a little bit of sociopathy, I think to actually do this job, because it requires of you to look at this person and be like, your job is to walk these streets, give me my money. But back to the motif. The idea is what keeps a kid on the street because the cornerboys is a very dangerous your imminent danger all the time. One from the outside might ask themselves like

why a kid could choose this? I actually understand, can empathize as to why somebody would choose to do this, because again I'm, you know, just from here. Obviously I didn't choose it, but I understand why some did. And I think there's two things. There's fear and there's the dream,

like the possibility. There's a possibility to become the cartel boss, to become Escobar, you know, to to have those you know, million dollar planes and you know, in your jets, and and you know, because because because the connect be shining, you know, this idea that like if I do this, I could move up in this in this game, you know, and put and put young dudes under me, so that I don't have to be out here three days under lightpoles,

you know, no shower, you know, serving these fings. I don't have to be running from the police, hiding hiding stuff in my pocket, like no, I could say lovely out in the valley, you know, and just have a little homies out on the streets with me, so you I could be shining. You. Let the jay Zs and Nipsies of the world start convincing you that that might be you. You know what I'm saying, because it worked for them. They got in, got out, and they became starts,

and you start thinking maybe I can do this. You know. It's kind of like the kid that I swear he going pro. You're playing basketball, I'm going pro, and it's like, well, there's not many slots there just everybody don't make it, you know, But the possibility is alluring. But before that, like I said, this man said, I just I could have made a hundred dollars for two minutes of work.

I mean that's basic economics. Like you want me to go work at some job slaving for some white man you know, he don't respect me, and I'm making pennies. Y'all know what the minimum wage? You know, the minimum wage has not changed in a long time. Hey, And if you're if you're in a job that it has tips, minimum wage still two thirteen cents an hour. It's not a it's not a lot. You know. President Biden ran on changing this. He ain't done it yet, which means, look,

we need to put his feet to the fire. You said you was gonna raise minimum wage. It has not raised minimum wage. We did a little bit, but that's not what we asked for. So it's like, if that's the other option, you mean to tell me I could stand out here and just stand here and the product sells itself. They addict. These people are addicted. All I gotta do is just have it on me, lay it low.

And you're telling me I can walk home with a percentage of the twenty dollars that's in my pocket right now, I'll just pay you for the product, pay you your your cut. Let's just say your cut is ridiculous. Now again, I'm making these numbers up. But your cut is you get to keep fifty. So you're telling me one night I made ten dollars, Why in the hell would I?

Why would I? This is well, this is ridiculous. But there's also a possibility that if I play my cards right, I couldn't make fifty dollars tonight because I got five little vatos on the corner doing this for me, and they just bring me the money. But this is glorious to the possibility. But why would you just accept this? Danger? Is also the fear? What else you're gonna do? What are you gonna You gonna stand up to a boss?

You're gonna stand up to your plug. You'll connect, You're gonna stand up to this this have you Dan dangling your bodies off the cranes and San Pedro you better get his money right? That man tell he tell you the numbers. She tell you the numbers because sometimes to connect them trying to plug a she she tell you what it is. Sometimes to connect with the connect you got to go to another city. A lot of times

when you get involved in this sort of life. The gang banging kind of like slows down because we were protecting the bag. You're securing the bag, So you may have to go over there with them, vatos. You if you black person, you may have to go over everything, Vatos because the connect coming from Mexico, right or the other way around. Like, if y'all really want to move this weight, if you you know, as a you know, if you're a lot, you know, you're like, man, I

gotta go mess with these black folks. You know that you usually don't really don't really mess with them, but let's get this money. Why would you just allow yourself to be treated well because you're scared? What else you're gonna do? You haven't signed up for this. I mean, if you want to get out, you're gonna what you're gonna tell the police? Oh, your whole family diet. Yeah, you know. But the only way for you to actually get out of the situation is to become the plug.

You have to become the connect, right, That's how you get off the corner, or you go to prison. And you don't want that's gonna go to prison. Plug and going to prison unless they run some sort of rico thing, but they're gonna be fine, So the goal is to become that right. Or let's say that's not an option, and you just start figuring out this is super hypothetical. You and all five of the other corner boys start to organize and say, hey man, we're gonna make sure

this man treat us right now. You're you'd informed the drug dealer union. Wow. Or you figure out ways to wash the money, to launder it until it becomes legit, you know, and uh, move away like that because you've you've figured out a way out where you you don't. But basically what you're saying is it's almost like I'm buying my way out, like you bought your way into a position to where now you don't have to do

these things. But if you've existed under a code that says that there's a lot of stuff you just have to keep to yourself or everything goes wrong. But the way that the business works is it's one way. If you're a worker, be you're a worker, be. That's how it works, and you better stay in line. There is no one you can call, but to actually succeed in this business, you have to be remarkably good businessman, unbelievably terrifying.

There has to be a part of you that's like, I'm not I'm not afraid of this danger, and I will defend myself two the death. You know, if you're gonna if you're gonna make it out. You know. So anybody that like I know now who either swareed in there or was like, really did it? Did a bid came out? Our homeboy, um right from Grateful Apparel. He this is a clothing line of you know, one of my friends out of New York. He was his story is super amazing. He was like, yeah, I was a businessman.

I had the tools and he was like, I mean he was doing all right. You know my homeboy Fern from the school calls Social Club, Yo, he was, he was working. You know what I'm saying. And these both of these dudes are like, yeah, they're incredible, incredible businessman. But what I want to land on is this symbiotic relationship between the worker and the boss, the corner and the plug. I think the corner boy knows they need to plug, but what the plug don't ever want to

acknowledge is you actually need the corner board. And there's a thing In economics theory, it's called elasticity, which has to do with like how how high of a price you could charge for something. And I think I'm gonna stretch that idea to your worker. You can only push your worker so far before make their calculation that this is not worth it anymore. But that relationship is symbiotic. I want to talk to you all about unions and

unemployment benefits. You're ready to pivot, all right after the break, all right back, So I'm gonna connect something for you. Back in April, there was this huge thing that the news was watching about Amazon in Bessemer, Alabama, of all places, that was voting on whether they were going to unionize or not. And I used to always wonder, like why who cares? Like why is the union such? And why is this such a flashpoint in culture? It's it just why?

I mean, if I'm running a business and somebody say, hey, can you pay me this? And then I tell you, now, I can pay you that, and I know my upfront cost, I know my cog like how much it costs to get the widget and employ everybody, And if I'm businessman, I feel like I'll be transparent about it, like Yo, this, how much this costs me? This? How much I gotta pay this person? If we're on the street, I gotta pay your muscle to make sure you don't die. I'm

paying them this. That's why I can only afford to pay you that. Now you're trying to do this or not, you know what I'm saying. So with the job, I feel like it's the same thing. But for some reason, corporations find themselves businesses find themselves to be very opaque about their numbers. Obviously, I think it's because transparency worker works against them. Then we can't maximize our profits because maybe you could possibly pay somebody more. And of course

there's some exceptions. Some companies understand that, like a happy worker works harder, a happy worker stays. If we treat people right, they're gonna stick around, and then you make more money. I mean, I don't whatever. Either way, apparently that's not the norm. But yeah, Amazon Bessemer, Alabama. Before I go to that, you know what a union is. So union and its history began in the nineteenth century in the response to like the social and economic impact

of the Industrial Revolution. Basically, it's like this, we got all these factories and we got all these workers and we can pay them whatever the hell we tell them. We want to pay them, and you're gonna do whatever the hell job I tell you to do because you need a job. Right post civil war, and now we got to pay the workers because the slaves is free and people need to make money so they could survive.

Now as a derailing, but I think it's important understand like what the industrial revolution did, like how that really changed culture. Remember when we lived in farming agrarian society's you grew your own food, grew your own potatoes, you made your own clothes, you did all your own stuff. There was no what's called specialization. So you didn't go off to a work to take care of yourself. You went outside in your own land to care of what you did. If you need the tools, you went to

the corner store. Right. Culture is different. There's a specialization now. Now you don't grow potatoes, you go to the store. The store got potatoes. Right, So rather than working your own land, now everybody went off to work, so we have to go buy those things that like, like it terror formed the world so much differently. Eventually the people working here was like your I can't even afford this job,

like you, it's not even enough. I have to go do something else so I can afford the food and buy the clothes, so I could come to your store and work for nineteen twenty hours a day and there's nobody to tell you what to do. Because I'm in a situation where I need this job. It's not enough jobs for me to have, right, So you need to start, man, you can't just be treating us like this. Now. This is the labor unions of the United States. There's a

lot of different types of unions. Um, the police union, which is one that we always see in the news because they're the ones that guarantee after after the officer had this failure and conduct and probably kill the person the color, that they still get their golden parachute or don't lose their job. It's the union. So ultimately the union in that sense is not doing us justice, but

they're doing their role, which is protect the worker. And unions, I think America has had like a love hate relationship it with them because they seem to be tied to communism and socialism, and you know, America sweared that like

those are two of the four pale horses. You know what I'm saying that of the apocalypse that are You know, if we have any sort of semblance of that, then that mean that, like democracy and capitalism, is is collapsing because we believe our own propaganda pun intended that if you work hard, you'll succeed. This is the land of opportunity. You just you know, by the sweat of your brow, you you you go get it. But all of us who have existed in the real life knows that it's

not that simple. You were you're telling me the person right So now outside mo and yo law and ain't working harder than you. You listening to a podcast you find we've believed that this idea of this unionizing thing undermines that. Now, that's one way to look at it. This conservative, free market economy. The best rises to the top.

Competition drives innovation. If you just let the market have the competition, it's going to drive in a vation to which I would respond, then how come every fast food restaurant got the same chicken sandwich? It don't seem like

it's innovated to be anyway. On the other side of that is no one's gonna move your product if your workers aren't happy if you're if they're not treating you don't have a factory if you're treating if you're not treating your workers well, So the workers could get together and be like, well, listen until you do right by us, we're not coming to work, to which the company men respond, okay, fine, go home. There's a trillion person line outside looking for

this work. We're gonna find somebody to do it. If you don't want to, Okay, they're not pressed for workers, but we press for jobs. Now. Obviously, throughout American history, the unions have been exploited by organized crime to make sure that certain jobs go to certain groups. And if you get a guy from your said, from your you know, crime family into that, you can start muscling the city to make sure. This is how this stuff gets mixed up, where you can start muscling the city to make sure

that like who's gonna build this skyscraper. You're gonna make sure we build this skyscraper because we're gonna run this twenty million dollars to the hood, but we're gonna get it this clean way, like rather than us just pushing way dying on the streets. It's like, nah, we're gonna get it. We're gonna get it nice. In corporate organized crime kind of figured it out. They just that was the end to make sure that the government does whatever the hell they want them to do and they keep

this money going. But that's a certain element of it. The other hand is, I mean, the system don't work if we don't work. I you're gonna pay me a fair wage, and there's power and numbers if none of us show up. Right, it was a way for those out of power, the corner boys, the workers, if you will, to respond to those in power. It was our only, our only way to get our voices heard was a collective work. So there's things called collective bargaining to make

sure that, like you're paying us a fair wage. You know, unions are the reason why you have a five day work week, why it's eight hours a day, why you have to have a lunch break. Those as unions. We can get into some of those stories. Is Behind the Bastards episode about the Virginia coal miners and they had a government responded to that, but that's all other story.

The Pinker Tins, we did an episode on the Pinker Tins with the Behind the police situation where when these poor white Northerners who were working for Carnegie and the steel mills decided that this was unbearable. Carnegie and him was like, listen, we'll just go get freed slaves. They'll come work. And that was their way of breaking a power.

Breaking apart the union's power. They used somebody who was poorer than the poor, who was like, damn, that's a job, y'all bugging, I'm gonna go get this job because we've been working for free for so long. At least I have the dignity of a paycheck. It was just a way to keep poor people down and you know, divide and conquer. It's the same same bag. But anyway, they have these things called union breakers, where they would hire

people to just beat the crap out of folks. Since the history of unions is to make sure that the worker is treated well, and unions really only exist because there's such thing as capitalism. Now let me talk about capitalism. I'm gonna get to bestum or I promise capitalism is a moral, not im moral. A moral it's not concerned with morals, good or bad. The morality of capitalism is how you do it it's not the what, but the how. Capitalism is math. It's input output least amount lower the

investment to hire the rewards. What's the least I can put into to yield the highest rewards at the lowest cost for myself. It's numbers, it's profit. So if there's a higher risk in my investment, then that means the rewards need to be that much more. It's concerned with yields, return on investment. That's a r O. Why. That's what capitalism is. There's a product that you want, I'm gonna

be the guy to get it. I'm gonna get it at the lowest cost to myself, and I'm gonna sell it if I'm doing capitalism right, because again, it's a moral at the highest price that possibly can to maximize the numbers and get the greatest yields. So the system by definition says, I want to be the best product and the only one. I need to get a lot of them to the market, and I need to be the only place you can get it or the best

place to get it. How do you get yourself to get a profit on something that means the product had to cost you nothing, which means you don't pay the workers or for the raw materials. That's I mean, if I'm doing capitalism, the way the numbers work, the best labor is free labor. I mean, that's just how the numbers work. Because the more I pay my employees, the

lower my profits are. I'm incentivized to pay them less. Now, once you add humanity to it and the reality city that, like capitalism exists among people, you can't just treat people that way because they'll stop working. Right then you have to come to a place of understanding that here is what's called a fair minimum wage. Follow me, But if that minimum wage is only decided by the owners, by the plugs and the corner boys, us don't ever get no saying it. We're just subject to whatever you tell

us to do. Because what's the alternative to be unemployed? And I mean where you're gonna go. We'll talk about unemployment later. But Bessemer, Alabama. This was very special because for a long time, somehow or another, Amazon was able to dodge the need to have a union, mainly because they pay very well and their argument is we treat you all right. I don't understand why you would need one, but it was a big push and they were like, yo,

if if this happens. This was back in April, like, if this happens, this might be a big watershed of it. Because what's bigger than Amazon right now? So if they have to go the way of union, this may tell us something about our economy later. Right, So look this one spot at Bessemer, Alabama voted. They voted eighteen hundred no to seven hundred yes. So they shot the union down. And it's always interesting to me where maybe this is

just my cynicism. I'm generally like not on the corporation side because I just feel like you're just trying to maximize your numbers. But this was very interesting when you listening to the people. There were workers there that was like, listen, this is a great job. I mean, I don't see anything wrong. And they have this view of unions as being you know, corrupted money grabbing. Maybe now listen listen. Amazon went extra hard though a loss, but like that

loss is questionable. They did some stuff like his thing when you're dealing with bosses like this. They got pulled with with the city, with the state. There's like a little best of Alabama. They ain't but like four five street lights. They got the street light that was in front of their building. They got the pattern changed because that's where labor organizers were organizing. People would stop at the stop like they were passing about flyers like hey,

this is what's going on. We're going on the strikers, and they got the lights changed so you wouldn't be long enough to do that. Crazy. You know what else they did, Look, it's supposed to be one of those blind votes where you mail in your ballot for whether you're gonna vote for unionizing or not unionizing. Amazon had to nerve hit the post office and was like, look,

put a box in front of our place. And then it would harass people like yo, you put your you put your vote in, put your vote in, put your vote in, Like this shouldn't be legal. They was doing things calling mandatory meetings during the work day and would hire these people that was like anti union people. They were saying, he's other facts. We're just gonna give you the information. They make their work or sit around and listen for hours the people telling them union is wrong.

They just look, these are just bullies bad. This is corporate bullies. Dog so you should already have your antenna's up. When a company is so hell bent on you not doing something, that should make you think, okay, now, wait a minute, now, why why is this so bad? And there is a collective term for trying to stop companies from unionizing, and it's called union breaking. Under the the laws for you know, labor in America, there's a lot of a lot of leeway, a lot of wiggle room. Yo,

get this right down the street. We're not right down the street. Further into the sticks is a coal mining strike having it right now. It started April one. I listened to this this sister Kim Kelly Man she um, I think she was on worst year ever recently. She had this reporting on it on the same thing that there's this this coal mine down there way out in the stix. Ain't no cell service right. They've been striking

since April one. And then look look here, how gangs to this situation is there was a coal mining company down there that ran out of money. It went belly up. This venture Capitalless company bought it. Now, since the company went belly up, they just fired all their workers. And then then these new people came in and was like, yo, we got you now we all now, yeah, we'll hire you. Here go your contract. And the contract was awful. They're

making way less, way way way less. You gotta work six days a week, twelve hour days, but what you're gonna do not work. So they signed this horrible contract, was working on it for a while. Then finally they was like, Yo, this is wild, doc. We can't be working like this. We're striking. So they unionized and strike.

But why this story ain't so sexy is these is like sticks redneck white dude Trump folks who are pro union, and I don't fit the narrative right because the Republicans is supposed to be, you know, anti union because in our stories out here, union is all commy right. But no, it's just folks saying you can't just treat me however you want to treat me. This ain't no common like damn man. And so it's like is baffling the sea, these right wing Trumpers all about this union, but it

shouldn't be. If you just understand what it's like to be po to be up under somebody's power, you just can't let nobody work you like this. And listen, since they way out there in the sticks that company do what they want. Man, They've been driving cars into picket lines and carrying on harassing people. They got drones floating over and you can't say nothing because you pour what you gonna do. Look pimping. Let's talking more walking. Get your ass back on that curb and go give me

my money. I mean, what else you're gonna do. I don't understand how this ain't red meat to the Fox News in them, And like why if I'm Johnny red State, I'd be out there right now because this is a great story, these these hard working you know as salt of the Earth American Americans standing up to the corporate elites and they're being treated now. But it don't fit cause because listen, they unionized that you look, you said,

don't ride for you. I know, I know I'm not talking to people that would listen to Fox News on this, but I'm trying to tell you right now, you're set, don't ride for you now. Uh. I am on my side personally. I'm pro union to the extent that a union is needed. You know what I'm saying. I don't like being forced into it. I was a teacher forever, so when I was a teacher. I didn't know the union was, but I realized they told me how much I was gonna get paid a year. I was like,

all right, cool, that's dope. And then they said do you want to get a union rep? And I was like what is that? And it was like, oh, they'll negotiate your salary for you. And I was like, oh, word, so they could get me more. Well damn, okay, I mean I didn't. I mean, I didn't know I'm gonna do the same amount of work. You mean I could get paid more for it that you get a rep that come in there and make sure they're paying you, right, I mean I thought, I mean, this was all I knew.

I was like, this sounds good to me. But that collective understanding of like nah, homie, like you don't have to be treated this way, like you understand this place need you just as much as you need them. And then there's then the power dynamic shifts, because at the end of the day, is that not what we're talking about. We're still talking about a power dynamic again. Capitalism is a moral so is power. Power just wants to feed itself, and I mean socialism in the same way, it's no different,

it's a moral. It's it's still concerned with power. That mean, it's no how you do these things, in my mind is where the humanity panity falls. But unions exist because of capitalism. Capitalism is a moral. Now what does all this have to do with us? I want to talk to you about unemployment and the concept of scarcity right

after this, Braine. So look, this was back in April, this unionizing thing, because I don't know, if you know, throughout the pandemic, Amazon wasn't hurting, Like a matter of fact, they was offering a lot of jobs, you understand what I'm saying. And they set themselves up with as a situation to say, well, we treat your fair, so leave us alone. But the relationship I'm arguing is still symbiotic.

I'm not sure they're out the water. I think maybe there might be a time that once people really really realize really how much money Amazon made and how little and how hard they work in these people that like something may something may crack, but why Amazon made so

much is something that's like a monopoly that uh. Elizabeth Warren was kind of running on and just kind of saying that like they shouldn't be able to be the grocery store and the groceries basically saying Amazon has its own products and it's the store, so like men of because there's no you can't compete. It's it's the Netflix model. Netflix is where you see movies and Netflix makes movies.

So like, there's no it's capitalism. Where else you're gonna go like and of course they're going to throttle their own stuff because of this idea of scarcity. What scarcity means is there's only so much of something there's own. There's only a limited amount in a limited way to get to that. Does that make sense? Now when you stretch that too, jobs, there's only so many jobs available.

So when you hear things like a job's report unemployment rate, what we're saying is like, how many people in the world or in America don't have jobs that want one? That's your unemployment rate? A percent? Ten percent? What Obviously when the pandemic hit, it's shot up. Nobody had worked because stores were shutting down, but but the jobs weren't

weren't available. Now some would argue that this, this economic stance, this this job's report, is really part of the incentive to never do any prison before walk with me, y'all, because the more again scarcity. There's only so many jobs available, So if there's more people competing for those jobs, then there's less jobs available for the children of those in power.

I mean it might feel like a jump, but could you imagine if all these non violent of corner boys who were selling weed out they backpack, got their records expunged and didn't have to tick felony on their applications, who have all these skills as brilliant businessmen because there was corner boys at one time totally more prepared for the corporate experience or the political experience that these kids

who just learned in school have. What's my incentive, It's a moral Remember, I need to keep you out the jobs market because there's only so many to go around. But that's a side note. But onto the note I do want to talk to you all about is this unemployment rate and unemployment benefits. Now, the government does have a role in all this now pending on where you land on small government in large government, which is a

whole other conversation. The question basically about that is like what it should government be your first resort or your last resort. Now, traditionally, your conservatives believe that the government should be the last resort. So we was in a global pandemic. Therefore, there ain't no jobs out there, so we need to boost the unemployment the amount of money people can get when they sign up for unemployment. Now

that the pandemic over. Remember, I don't know if you'll remember, they was fighting over how much it was gonna be three hundred dollars a week, six hundred dollars a week, you know. Then we got that funky little twelve hundred dollars stimulus check that was supposed to last the whole year. Right, y'are playing games, But anyway, we still talking about this symbiotic relationship between the plug and the corner board, between the the employer and the employee, and how does power

game kind of work. Now, some of y'all may know a bunch of states actually are ending their unemployment benefits early. June twelfth is Alaska, Iowa, Mississippi, and Missouri. June nineteenth is Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South or North Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming. I don't know if you notice these are clearly Republican states Arkansas June Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah. June is Montana, Oklahoma,

July three in Tennessee, in July tenth in Arizona. Your unemployment benefits are ending. Then, So if you lost your job because of the pandemic or for any other reason, and you've been collecting unemployment and you wanted these states, it's finn end. But that's only besides the point. Their argument for ending this is the idea that this is going to to make you go get a job. It's a power play. But what's been happening is, according to

it's so funny. According to the CEO of Indeed, he said, in these states that ended their unemployment early, the national the numbers of clicks for job searches on their website really only went up a little bit, and only for a couple of days. And in some states it dipped, meaning you in and needs unemployment and people still ain't

looking for jobs. Why, conservative pundits would argue, because the unemployment is too high, foods is begging, there's so many jobs available, right, they say, we're having our our workforce is struggling because nobody wants these jobs. And their argument is it's because unemployment is too good. Why would I go work if I get this money for free. The problem is that's just not what the data is showing. The data showing actually that in states where people don't

have unemployment, they're not clicking more jobs. In states that do, it's pretty much the it's the same. I saw a thing that Applebee's was offering free appetizers if you come get this interview. People don't show up for interviews or apply for or actually come in and try to get these jobs because unemployment. To continue to get it, you have to show that you're trying to get work. So maybe you apply, go get a thing, and then just like walk away. Why are people doing this? They're saying

because unemployment is too high. But here's what's interesting to me. But I'm like, look, is unemployment high or is your job trash? Maybe you're not offering enough money for us to work so you can look at yourself in the mirror at all. Maybe it really ain't worth it like it used to be, standing out on this corner. Maybe

there's other ways to do this. You know what I'm saying, rather than saying, okay, well let's raise the minimum wage, meaning maybe we should pay people more because the relationship ship is symbiotic. If y'all don't want to work, is it because you're getting money from somewhere else that's too much? Well, then what should the market? What does market tell you? What does market rules tell you? That tells you you need to pay more? You can't tell them to pay less,

or can you? Because that's exactly what happened. Government went in there and said, well, you need to stop paying them so they'll come work for me. That's a power play. Rather than paying more, they saying lower unemployment because at the end of the day, in their pocket they saying, listen, it's only so many jobs available. And what's what's being shown right now is oh crap, We've been telling them for centuries they need us. Turns out we actually need them.

Mhm right, wrong or and different. I'm just saying this is pretty hood y'all. Do muggle with your corded and edited by me propaganda right here in East Low Spoil Heights, Los Angeles. Y'all can follow me at prop hip hop on all the socials you could follow the Hood Politics Pod itself at Hood Politics Pod, where we'll be trying to make takes on stuff that aren't really big enough for a whole episode, but definitely needs a little bit of clarity. This mug was scored, edited, mixed, and mastered

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