Podchaser Logo
Home
Slate Money: Why America’s Internet Sucks

Slate Money: Why America’s Internet Sucks

Released Saturday, 13th April 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Slate Money: Why America’s Internet Sucks

Slate Money: Why America’s Internet Sucks

Slate Money: Why America’s Internet Sucks

Slate Money: Why America’s Internet Sucks

Saturday, 13th April 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

0:10

Hello and

0:12

welcome to Slate Money, your guide to

0:14

the business and finance news of the

0:17

week. I'm Felix Ammon of Axios with

0:19

Elizabeth Spires of New York Times and

0:21

places like that. Hello. I'm

0:23

here with my colleague Emily Peck of

0:25

Axios. Hey Felix. We

0:27

have a tech-heavy episode

0:30

today and it is

0:32

a particularly wonderful and

0:34

brilliant tech-heavy episode because

0:36

we have the smartest person

0:39

in tech on the show.

0:41

Shira Oviday, welcome back. Thank you. Smartest,

0:45

really? Smartest, 100%. I'll take the compliment.

0:49

Shira, who are you? Introduce yourself.

0:51

I am Shira Oviday. I write the

0:54

Tech Friend newsletter at the Washington Post.

0:56

Google it, sign up, it's free. And

0:59

you are going to help walk us

1:01

through the fuster cluck that

1:03

is internet service in the United States and

1:05

why it's so terrible. We

1:07

are going to talk about

1:09

YouTube and how mind-bogglingly enormous

1:11

it is. We

1:14

have a segment on the AI

1:16

hype machine and how it's gone

1:18

out of control. We have a

1:20

whole Slate Plus segment on where

1:22

the AI is getting their data

1:24

to train themselves on. It's

1:27

all coming up on Slate Money.

1:34

Slate Money is sponsored this week by

1:36

Progressive Insurance. If you are a podcast

1:39

listener, and I know you are, you

1:41

might like True Crime or you might

1:43

like comedy or you might like celebrity

1:45

interviews or you might even like wonkish

1:47

podcasts about business and finance. What

1:50

is certain is that you are the one

1:52

calling the shots on what's in your podcast

1:55

queue and guess what, now you can call

1:57

them on your auto insurance too with the

1:59

name you your price tool from Progressive.

2:01

It works just the way it sounds.

2:03

You tell Progressive how much you want

2:06

to pay for car insurance, and they'll

2:08

show you coverage options that fit your

2:10

budget. Get your quote today at progressive.com

2:13

to join the over 28 million

2:15

drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive

2:18

Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, price

2:20

and coverage match limited by state.

2:23

Hey there! Hey

2:26

there! Did you know Kroger always gives you

2:28

savings and rewards on top of our lower

2:30

than low prices? And when you download the

2:33

Kroger app, you'll enjoy over $500 in

2:35

savings every week with digital coupons. And don't

2:37

forget fuel points to help you save up

2:39

to $1 per gallon at the

2:41

pump. Want to save even more? With

2:43

a boost membership, you'll get double fuel points

2:46

and free delivery. So shop and save big

2:48

at Kroger today! Kroger, fresh

2:50

for everyone. Savings may vary by

2:52

state. Restrictions apply. See site for details.

2:57

I am so happy that you are on the

2:59

show this week because you can explain to

3:01

me, I have asked this question on the show

3:04

many, many times and I've never

3:07

received a decent answer, why

3:11

is internet in America

3:13

so fucking expensive? Look,

3:16

it's a great question and I

3:18

have often referred to internet service as

3:20

the worst essential

3:22

consumer product in the United States because

3:25

there's no information about what

3:28

is a good or fair price

3:30

to pay. You can find out

3:32

today what's a fair price

3:34

to pay if you want to fly

3:36

to Los Angeles in May. But

3:38

you really have no idea what's a good or fair

3:40

price to pay for internet service. The

3:43

government collects almost no information about

3:45

the speeds that people typically get

3:48

and it might be very different than the

3:50

advertised speeds that the companies promise. We

3:53

don't really have a good handle,

3:55

although that's improving on how many

3:57

people can't afford internet service

3:59

or... or lines simply don't reach

4:01

them. So it's totally maddening. And depending

4:03

on who you ask, the problem is

4:05

there's no competition or little competition, that

4:08

these are kind of local monopolies or

4:10

duopolies. To other people, the

4:12

problem is ineffective regulation, that internet

4:14

services may be a natural

4:16

monopoly product, like electricity or

4:18

something like that, and it should

4:21

be regulated like that. And generally, regulation

4:23

of internet service in the United States

4:25

has been poor to non-existent. And

4:28

I think there's some people who think

4:31

we should mirror the approach taken in

4:33

other countries, which is internet lines are

4:35

kind of publicly owned infrastructure. And maybe

4:37

you get private companies that

4:40

offer service, build service on top of

4:42

shared publicly owned internet lines. So for

4:45

whatever reason, we kind of have the

4:47

worst of all worlds. We have a

4:50

you know, basically private

4:52

market driven internet service

4:54

in the United States, that is kind of a

4:56

failure of free markets. But it's

4:58

also heavily subsidized by

5:01

the government. And

5:03

it's also a failure of sort of

5:05

government oversight and investment. It's amazing. It's

5:07

amazing to me that like we can

5:09

have heavy subsidies and high prices. Like

5:11

when do you ever get that? Healthcare

5:14

too. This is a lot of things

5:16

that we... Yes, exactly. Health insurance. The

5:18

model that I always thought made sense in

5:21

the United States is the one that you find quite a lot in

5:23

Europe, which is where

5:26

you do get private companies building out

5:28

those lines to

5:30

individual houses and owning

5:33

those lines. But then they have

5:35

something called local loop unbundling, which

5:37

means that absolutely anyone can offer

5:39

internet service over those lines. And

5:42

we're kind of seeing that now

5:45

in mobile telephony.

5:47

Like lots of different

5:49

brands are offering service over any

5:52

given network. Right

5:54

now, we I guess

5:56

care more about making

5:58

mobile accessible

6:01

than we do internet plans.

6:04

And maybe that's just the way

6:06

things are going. Kind

6:09

of internet isn't necessary anymore if you have

6:11

a phone, so why do we even care?

6:13

Well, we're here today to talk

6:16

about these new ISP nutrition labels.

6:19

That's the big news, right? I mean, that

6:21

would signify that there is some caring going

6:23

on this week after some

6:25

really long battle with the FCC

6:28

and the ISPs. Internet

6:31

service providers now have to actually

6:33

tell you how fast the

6:35

internet service is going to be, how much it

6:38

costs, what the extra fees are, all that kind

6:40

of stuff. And the very cute little nutrition labels,

6:42

they look like the food ones and they say

6:44

broadband facts at the top and all of this.

6:48

Does that signify, Shira, that something's changing?

6:50

Yeah, for sure. Something is changing. Just

6:52

to Felix's earlier point, there are many

6:55

countries, China and India among

6:57

them, the biggest countries in the world

6:59

by population, where home

7:01

internet service is not a priority where

7:03

the internet basically means the internet you

7:06

access on your phone. And

7:08

I don't think we're there in the United

7:10

States, but I think we do still have

7:12

this legacy of home internet and computers being

7:15

essential services, but we'll see if

7:17

that changes. And to

7:19

Felix's point about these broadband air quotes nutrition

7:21

labels, it took, depending

7:23

on when you start the clock, maybe 15 years

7:26

to get this done. And again, it

7:29

seems like a no-brainer that it basically

7:31

is a standardized list of information of

7:33

the kinds of things Emily talked about,

7:35

right? The monthly cost of service, if

7:37

you're on a promotional plan, okay, what's

7:39

the real number that you'll be paying

7:41

in a year or two years? All

7:44

kinds of fees that are sometimes hidden, right,

7:46

for renting a modem from your cable company

7:48

or things like that. And it

7:51

was remarkable. I talked to several, a bunch

7:53

of people this week about the broadband nutrition

7:55

labels and people who normally disagree about everything

7:58

involved in internet service over the internet. representatives

8:00

of giant companies and small

8:02

internet providers and consumer advocates,

8:04

they all agreed that these

8:06

nutrition labels are not perfect,

8:08

but useful for consumers and

8:11

really a win for transparency

8:13

in an industry where transparency

8:15

has been wildly lacking. But presumably

8:17

the giant companies are the reason

8:19

why it took so long because

8:21

they didn't want this, right?

8:25

Yes, I think large internet providers in the United

8:27

States fight literally

8:29

any single change that is

8:31

proposed to improve internet service

8:33

because they're happy with the status quo. And how

8:35

much of this is really driven by consumer rage

8:38

that what you pay for may not be

8:40

what you get? I can't think of another

8:42

product where you pay as much money as

8:44

you do for internet service and whether you

8:46

actually get the product is up in the

8:48

air. It is maddening. And you

8:50

can see that reflected in the

8:52

consumer satisfaction scores for

8:55

internet and phone service that people are

8:57

generally furious for all the

8:59

reasons that Elizabeth just said and many more

9:01

right that wait, I thought

9:03

I signed up to pay $60 a month.

9:06

And actually my bill is $100 a month or

9:08

they jacked up my bill by 40% and

9:11

there's nothing I can do because I don't have a I don't

9:14

really have a realistic alternative provider at

9:16

my address. And there's there's no better

9:19

service for that either. No

9:21

better service for that. You know, if you call

9:23

I think I would rather go to the

9:25

gynecologist than call my internet provider, right?

9:27

So it's just a terrible

9:30

customer service experience. The product

9:33

can be unreliable. My

9:35

internet service at home is generally good. But

9:37

I remember very distinctly when I was applying

9:39

for the job that I currently have the

9:42

Washington Post, there was one weekend when I

9:44

had a deadline to meet to apply for

9:46

this job. And one Saturday, the

9:48

internet just cracked out in my house, right? And

9:50

there was nothing I could do about it. I

9:52

had to go find free Wi Fi somewhere else.

9:55

But you know, that was extremely

9:58

anxiety producing and inconvenient. and

10:00

for me and there's really no recourse,

10:02

right? That if you're a

10:04

business customer and you lose internet service, you

10:06

get payments for that. You

10:08

have guarantees of minimum service and

10:11

home internet customers don't get those guarantees.

10:15

So who is the regulator?

10:17

Who is the government agency in charge

10:19

of making sure that we don't all

10:21

get ripped off and pay a fortune

10:23

for crappy service?

10:26

It's an interesting question because on paper,

10:29

the Federal Communications Commission regulates

10:31

internet service. But if you

10:33

ask some particularly Republican members

10:35

of Congress, the FCC

10:38

does not have oversight to regulate internet

10:40

service in the United States. And if

10:42

it's not them, it's no one. Oh,

10:44

no. So, you know, the

10:47

FCC is really a disempowered regulator and

10:49

it acts that way historically. And that's

10:51

one of the reasons it took 15 years for them

10:53

to come up with a nutrition label. For sure. But

10:56

Chira, I had a good experience,

10:58

I thought, with Verizon Fios, so I'll just

11:00

tell you what happened. Is this story

11:02

time with Emily Peck? Yeah. Everyone

11:05

gather around and I'll

11:07

tell you the story of our shaky

11:10

streaming. We've been watching, you

11:12

know, TV through YouTube TV. That's

11:14

a teaser for our next segment. And

11:16

it's been shaky. And I think even when

11:19

we're watching like football games or Super Bowl,

11:21

like it would just freeze up. It was

11:23

really annoying. And, you know, we

11:25

were just kind of like putting up with it. We

11:27

thought maybe our neighbors were also using Verizon Fios and

11:29

like, oh, this is just how it is now. I

11:31

don't know. And then one afternoon I said, you know

11:34

what, what if we just call and ask Verizon

11:36

Fios? So we called, we found the number,

11:38

not easy. We got through all the hoops,

11:40

like we had, you have to remember a

11:42

pin number. Why? I do not know. They

11:44

know who you are, you know? Why do

11:46

you have to have a pin number? Anyway,

11:48

got through all of it. Didn't

11:50

talk to a human being. Finally got on the

11:52

line with a robot who was like, what is

11:54

the issue? And I was like, our internet doesn't

11:56

work well. And they were like, we will check

11:58

your internet, the robot said. And the robot

12:00

was like, hang on. And it was like, beep, boop, beep,

12:03

boop, beep, boop. And then it came- I love that

12:05

they make little beep, boop, beep, boop, plows. And they're

12:07

like, this is the sound of a robot thinking. Boop,

12:09

boop, boop. I might be adding the

12:11

beep, boops myself. No, the beep, boop, beep, boop, beep.

12:13

They really do do that. How

12:16

would you know it's working if you don't hear people?

12:18

I mean, then you're like, oh, the robot is checking

12:20

things. And then the robot came back and

12:22

was like, we have found an issue. Hold

12:24

please while we fix it. And I was

12:26

like, oh my God, they're just going to

12:28

fix it? What is this magic? And

12:31

again, beep, boop, beep, boop, beep, boop. We

12:33

think we fixed it. And we were like, OK.

12:36

And then I hung up. And since then,

12:38

our internet has been a lot better. So I

12:40

thought this is a positive story. But

12:43

then I'm hearing feedback that if

12:45

they could have fixed it all along, why didn't

12:47

they? Why did I have to call, jump through

12:50

80 hoops, talk to a robot, et cetera, et

12:52

cetera? So is it a good story, a bad

12:54

story? It sounds like the hallmarks of an abusive

12:56

relationship. If somebody has been

12:58

in an asshole to you for a really

13:00

long time, and then they start being slightly

13:02

less of an asshole, you're like, oh, that's

13:04

nice. They're so nice. I just

13:07

had to ask. So Sheri,

13:09

can you just explain, on a conceptual

13:11

level, what would

13:13

be the incentive for

13:16

Verizon to wait for

13:18

someone to complain before fixing their service,

13:20

rather than just fixing all of the

13:22

service that is broken? It's a

13:24

good question. I mean, I don't want to put myself

13:27

in the position of Fios. But I

13:29

think the people who want there to be

13:31

more competitive options for internet service

13:34

would say, look, if you

13:36

have relatively little competition in providing internet

13:38

service, you don't have to make a

13:40

good product or offer a good customer

13:42

service. There's no incentive for you. There's

13:45

no upside to you to make service

13:47

available to Emily Peck's home on

13:50

a regular basis. Why not

13:52

wait for them to call instead of you

13:54

proactively fixing whatever the heck went wrong? I

13:57

do think that the first set of beep, boop, beep,

13:59

boops was a real

14:01

thing. When Emily said, like, I think

14:03

my service is bad, and they were

14:06

like, let's check that, and it took

14:08

them, I don't know, 15 seconds

14:11

or something to check it.

14:13

I think that was a

14:15

genuine test that was targeted

14:17

straight at Emily's house. And

14:20

it took 15 seconds and they were like,

14:22

yes, it's broken. And doing

14:24

that test for every single

14:26

house, every single day, just to

14:29

make sure that every single house is working okay,

14:31

I can see how that could add up and could be

14:33

expensive. And they wouldn't want to do that on a continual

14:35

basis. Yeah. And obviously, we

14:37

don't know where that what the problem

14:39

was, right? Were they restarting Emily's router

14:41

or something like that? Was the problem

14:44

on on at Verizon's infrastructure, right?

14:46

So that is something that, you

14:49

know, Verizon could and probably should have been

14:51

proactively monitoring their own equipment. So we just

14:53

don't know what the problem was on this

14:55

particular case. And the weird thing

14:57

was that the robot just didn't tell us. Yeah,

15:00

I don't think the robot told me the robots

15:02

just not forthcoming on such things. It wasn't

15:04

like we're sending you our analysis. And no,

15:06

there's no autopsy or anything like that. While

15:09

we are on this subject, you can

15:11

you also explain this whole question of what's

15:14

going on with subsidies? You did mention

15:16

that the government does spend quite a

15:18

lot of money subsidizing internet service. And

15:20

there's one in particular that isn't

15:23

being renewed or might not be renewed.

15:25

Yeah, there's a program that was

15:27

that was passed by Congress during the

15:29

pandemic, to basically provide

15:31

consumers some relief when all of us were

15:33

or many of us were stuck at home

15:36

and needing to access many

15:38

things over the internet. Called

15:40

it's called ACP. That's the shorthand. And,

15:43

you know, like many COVID

15:45

era, pandemic era, government spending

15:47

programs, there's sort of uncertainty

15:49

now about whether it should or might

15:51

be renewed with additional funds and the

15:54

way it's generally worked as households

15:56

who are eligible, lower income households who

15:58

meet eligibility requirements. requirements, they're getting

16:01

like a $30 a month or so credit on their bill. And

16:06

there's supposed to be these kind of

16:08

lower price plans that people can use

16:10

this money for. And the

16:12

money is basically running out and the Biden White House has

16:14

basically said, blamed Republicans in

16:16

Congress for not renewing this money.

16:19

And we'll see what happens. I just have no

16:21

sense of, particularly in this

16:23

Congress, they have a lot of priorities and not

16:25

much time left during the

16:28

session to do all the things

16:30

they want to do. And I don't know if ACP

16:32

is on their to-do list. If

16:34

I have any hope that things might get

16:36

better, I would say

16:38

that it is in wireless

16:41

internet services that companies like T-Mobile

16:44

are pushing quite aggressively. Just put

16:46

a wireless hotspot in your house

16:48

and get broadband that way. Does

16:50

that have the potential to provide

16:53

the level of competition necessary to

16:55

bring prices down more broadly? Maybe.

16:59

I agree with you that you can see in the

17:01

numbers that that service that's called

17:03

in the industry fixed wireless, which

17:05

as Felix said, it's basically home internet

17:07

service that's delivered over 5G mobile internet

17:10

lines. It's growing part

17:13

of the internet service market.

17:15

It's stealing market share from

17:17

traditional cable internet offerings. It's

17:19

been very disruptive. And

17:21

for some people, depending on where

17:24

you live and which direction your walls face

17:26

and things like that, that can be a

17:28

really good option for lots of people. But

17:32

there's just problems of physics. And the same

17:34

is true of Starlink, the Elon

17:36

Musk company that again,

17:38

beams internet service through satellites, that

17:40

it can be a great option for

17:42

people who in many cases live in

17:45

rural parts of the country and don't

17:47

have good alternative options, existing options for

17:49

internet service. So I don't

17:51

want to discount how important fixed wireless and

17:54

Starlink are to America's

17:56

future internet. But it's

17:58

not a, nothing is a fix

18:00

for. all problems. That there's problems

18:02

with physics, you're beaming internet from

18:05

space, right? There's some problems with

18:07

that. Anything that involves mobile internet

18:09

lines, you can see this in your cell

18:12

phone, it flakes out sometimes, right? Again, if

18:14

you don't face the right way, if you

18:16

live in an area like lots of trees

18:18

or buildings, it might not work right. So

18:20

it's not a solution for everybody, but it

18:22

is definitely good that because of these technological

18:24

changes, we do have more options

18:26

than we did even a few years ago.

18:28

I mean, you mentioned like rural

18:31

internet, and we definitely saw

18:33

this in the pandemic when suddenly everyone

18:35

needed internet at home and they were

18:38

like, I live in rural

18:40

Maine and my internet has always been shit,

18:42

but now I really need it. And the

18:44

local internet companies would say, your internet is

18:46

fine. And they're like, come here and you

18:48

can see that my internet is not fine.

18:51

And it strikes me that one of

18:53

the reasons why American internet

18:55

is so much worse and so much

18:57

more expensive than say Korean internet is

18:59

just a sheer density question. Like Korea

19:01

is just a much denser country. You

19:04

don't need to run nearly as

19:06

many miles of internet cable as you

19:08

do in America. Everyone in America is

19:11

so spread out that there's just a

19:13

lot more infrastructure necessary to reach everyone.

19:16

For sure. You know, the United

19:18

States, you're right, is a spread out country.

19:20

And that does make it more difficult both

19:22

to build internet lines and to make money

19:25

from internet lines, right? If you're in an

19:28

area where you might only have, I don't know,

19:30

1000 households and 10 miles,

19:32

that's less revenue for

19:35

the internet company or companies that are

19:37

offering you service and have to spend

19:39

to build out those lines. So that's

19:41

definitely an issue. The way that we've

19:43

addressed that or tried to address that

19:45

in the United States is by subsidizing

19:47

building of access lines, right? So again,

19:50

America does have these challenges of being

19:52

spread out. But the way

19:54

we try to address that is through taxpayer

19:56

spending, it's just that that money has not

19:58

been spent very effectively. historically. And

20:01

we're trying it again. The

20:03

Biden administration pushed and Congress passed

20:05

an infrastructure spending bill a

20:07

few years ago that's delivering tens

20:09

of millions of dollars through the

20:12

states to again build out internet

20:15

lines where it currently doesn't

20:17

exist and hopefully make service

20:19

affordable. So we're just going

20:21

to keep trying and hopefully one or

20:23

more of these solutions will improve

20:26

things. And I will say things are getting better

20:28

than they were at the beginning of

20:30

the pandemic for all kinds of reasons. What

20:33

about the dumb fees that these

20:35

internet companies lard on internet

20:37

infrastructure fee, network enhancement fee, that doesn't mean

20:39

anything. It's just a way to jack up

20:41

the price. Isn't the Biden administration going after

20:44

fees like that? Has it done anything in

20:46

this arena? Yeah, you're right. This is

20:48

all part of the junk fees push

20:50

that the Biden administration is working on.

20:52

And I think the broadband nutrition labels that

20:55

are starting to roll out

20:57

this week, that's part of it. You

20:59

know, they're, they're supposed to say very

21:01

clearly, we'll charge you $10 a month or whatever

21:03

$5 a month to rent a modem. If you go over this

21:05

self imposed

21:10

totally unnecessary cap of data usage

21:12

every month, we'll charge you an

21:14

extra 10 bucks.

21:16

You know, consumer reports has

21:18

found things like internet

21:21

companies labeling their own

21:23

self imposed junk fees

21:25

as that look like government taxes, and

21:28

they're not taxes, it's just a fee they have

21:30

chosen to charge you. So you know,

21:32

part of the idea of this nutrition

21:34

label, this broadband label is to force

21:37

the companies to stop

21:39

masking fees as something other than

21:41

what they are. Even if

21:43

they do that, you know, at 83 million Americans

21:45

have only one choice for broadband. I

21:48

mean, what real recourse does a consumer

21:50

who absolutely needs it for work or

21:52

whatever really have? Yeah, again, I think

21:54

that is one of the fundamental challenges

21:57

in a lot of people's minds

21:59

that the real The problem here is that

22:01

if you hate your internet provider, if they treat you like

22:03

crap, if they jack up your bill by 50%, a

22:06

lot of people don't have a choice. They

22:08

don't have a realistic alternative provider. And

22:11

so what incentive is there for your internet

22:13

provider to treat you well and to charge

22:15

you a fair price if you're a captive

22:17

customer? You should just all go off the

22:20

grid. For some net heads

22:22

and geeks, and that's what they call

22:24

themselves, the crash of America online left

22:26

them feeling lost in cyberspace.

22:35

So before we get to the break, I want

22:37

to tell you about our Slate Plus segment this

22:40

week because it's really good and we really dig

22:42

into AI. We're talking about

22:44

this great New York Times piece

22:46

that came out about a week ago about how

22:49

tech giants are harvesting immense amounts of

22:51

data for AI, particularly from YouTube. And

22:53

we kind of get into, like, is

22:56

this okay? Is this not okay? Is

22:58

it a copyright violation? What does it

23:00

all mean? Felix mentioned something about the

23:03

Habsburgs. So I mean, Slate

23:05

Plus members get to hear that after

23:07

the regular show. And if you're not a Slate

23:10

Plus member, you should probably sign

23:12

up so you could hear it and

23:14

other great bonus Slate Plus segments like

23:16

it. You also don't hear

23:18

any ads on all the Slate

23:20

Plus podcasts. You get unlimited access

23:22

to slate.com content and there's the

23:24

newsletter. So sign

23:26

up at slate.com/plus. That's

23:29

slate.com/plus. When

23:32

you're hiring for your small business, you want to

23:34

find quality professionals that are right for the role.

23:37

That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn

23:39

Jobs has the tools to help find

23:41

the right professionals for your team faster

23:44

and for free. LinkedIn

23:46

isn't just another job board. It has a

23:48

vast network of more than a billion professionals,

23:50

which makes it the best place to hire.

23:53

It gives you access to professionals you cannot

23:55

find anywhere else. And LinkedIn does

23:57

all that while making the process easy and and

24:00

intuitive. Hiring is easy when you

24:02

have that many quality candidates. So

24:04

easy. In fact, that

24:06

86% of small businesses get a qualified

24:08

candidate within 24 hours. They

24:11

even just launched a feature that helps you

24:13

write job descriptions, making the process even

24:15

easier and quicker. All

24:17

of this is why 2.5 million

24:19

small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring.

24:22

Post your job for

24:24

free at linkedin.com/Slate. That's

24:26

linkedin.com/Slate to post your

24:28

job for free. Terms and

24:30

conditions apply. Your

24:33

pet is one of a kind and

24:35

so is their journey. While every playful

24:37

moment is a memory in the making,

24:39

sometimes cats and dogs are a little

24:41

too good at getting into trouble. That's

24:44

why you should check out ASPCA Pet

24:46

Health Insurance. The ASPCA Pet Health Insurance

24:48

Program offers customizable accident and illness plans,

24:50

making it easier for pet parents like you to help

24:53

your pet get the care they may need. The

24:55

ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Program has been around

24:57

for over 18 years and they've helped more

24:59

than 600,000 pets during

25:01

that time. They allow you to customize

25:04

your plan, helping ensure your pet's plan

25:06

is as unique as they are. Because

25:08

vet bills can really add up, especially

25:10

when you're least expecting it. It's simple.

25:13

Use their app to submit a claim and

25:15

they'll receive reimbursement for eligible vet bills directly

25:17

into your bank account. To

25:20

explore coverage, visit

25:22

aspcapetinsurance.com/Slate Money. That's

25:25

aspcapetinsurance.com/Slate Money. Again,

25:28

that's aspcapetinsurance.com slash

25:31

Slate Money. This is a paid

25:33

advertisement. Insurance is underwritten by either

25:35

Independence American Insurance Company or United

25:38

States Fire Insurance Company and

25:40

produced by PTZ Insurance Agency

25:42

Limited. The ASPCA is not an

25:44

insurer and is not engaged in the business

25:46

of insurance. to

26:00

YouTube TV. This is a significant

26:02

chunk of change that you pay

26:05

over and above the amount that you pay for

26:07

your internet. Yes, we subscribe to

26:09

YouTube TV. I don't know how much it

26:12

costs because I don't do that bill. But

26:14

it was this year that they started showing

26:16

NFL games. And it was

26:18

a huge thing. I mean, YouTube

26:20

TV really took off this year. A lot of

26:23

people I know started paying for it because you

26:25

can watch multiple games at one time on your

26:28

screen. Very cool. Whoa.

26:31

Picture in picture technology. I

26:33

remember that. And it's, you know, it's

26:35

good. It's basically just like TV and you

26:37

can record stuff. And yeah, no, there were

26:39

no issues until, you know, I already mentioned

26:42

my streaming problems. But YouTube TV is great.

26:44

And Shira has a great piece out this

26:46

week that made me think about the

26:49

fact that YouTube is a media company. It's

26:51

not tech company. It's a big media company.

26:53

And it's eating the lunch of all the

26:55

other media companies that we're constantly talking about.

26:57

Yet we never talk about it. The

26:59

big insight, the thing that struck me

27:01

really was that if you compare the

27:04

size of YouTube to the

27:06

size of Netflix, which everyone thinks

27:08

of as the big streaming behemoth,

27:10

like Netflix is maybe half the

27:12

size of YouTube. Who just

27:15

came out and said YouTube? We had this

27:17

a couple of weeks ago, that YouTube as

27:19

a standalone offering would probably be worth

27:21

400 billion dollars. That's like

27:23

way more than Netflix. Yeah, I think

27:25

Michael Nathanson at Bernstein Research and at least

27:27

one other analyst had some numbers like that.

27:29

Right. It's a, you know, hugely valuable

27:32

company inside of Google.

27:34

It strikes me as also one of the

27:36

great M&A deals of all

27:38

time. Google bought YouTube for what was it

27:40

like just over a billion dollars. They had

27:43

this terrible offering called

27:45

Google Video, which they were trying

27:47

to make happen. And like most

27:49

Google built social networks, it

27:52

was terrible and no one used it.

27:54

And then they're like, okay, well buy

27:56

YouTube. Then they really incorporated

27:58

YouTube deeply into the ecosystem,

28:00

it learned a lot about users

28:03

and the personalization

28:05

algorithm became very sophisticated and

28:08

they did a huge amount of things

28:10

that a standalone YouTube could never have

28:12

done. So Google added a

28:14

massive amount of value to YouTube

28:16

in much the same way that

28:19

Disney did a

28:21

bunch of things with Star

28:23

Wars that like Lucasfilm might not have been able

28:26

to do on their own. And

28:28

so it's the perfect M&A deal, it's the

28:30

perfect acquisition where you have like a really

28:32

great core business which you

28:34

can then add to by being bigger and

28:36

more powerful. I thought you were

28:38

going to say Facebook buying Instagram because that's

28:40

a lot. And Facebook buying Instagram as well. Yeah, Instagram would

28:43

not be the power that it is today if it wasn't

28:45

owned by Facebook. And both of these

28:47

cases, you know, these were very early transactions,

28:49

especially in the realm of

28:51

video and things like that. Shera,

28:54

do you think that part of the reason why it's

28:56

not as apparent to people that YouTube

28:58

is the behemoth that it is, is just because

29:00

it's been around for so long and you know, it's

29:02

easy to look at things like TikTok

29:05

and imagine them as being much bigger because of

29:07

the novelty and the extent to which you see

29:10

young people using it? Yeah, I think

29:12

that's a great question. I mean, maybe it's

29:14

just that YouTube, you know, it has been

29:16

around forever and we treat it like furniture

29:18

or like infrastructure, right? It's just the thing

29:20

that's there anytime you need to, whatever,

29:23

look up how to change

29:25

a flat tire or you're

29:27

looking for new music or

29:29

restart your cable modem. Restart

29:31

your cable modem. YouTube is

29:33

just there, right? And maybe

29:35

that it kind of blends into the background.

29:38

But just to Elizabeth's point about the popularity

29:40

of YouTube, if you look at Pew Research

29:43

surveys of Americans, YouTube is

29:46

by far, by a country mile, the

29:48

most widely used social app among both

29:50

adults and teens in the United States.

29:52

Like all the talk about teens on

29:55

TikTok. If you look at the numbers

29:57

by tens of percentage points.

30:00

YouTube is more widely used than TikTok among

30:03

teens. Is it a social app? Yeah,

30:05

I mean, it's a fair question, right? And I

30:07

think YouTube always says we're not a social network,

30:10

but it kind of gets lumped in with sort

30:12

of Instagram and TikTok and Facebook and the like.

30:14

Well, they now have this very

30:16

TikTok-ish product called YouTube Shorts, which

30:18

really is indistinguishable from TikTok. Yes,

30:21

and they've pushed Shorts very hard.

30:23

It's like impossible not to open the YouTube

30:25

app and not see Shorts. So if

30:27

TikTok is a social app, then YouTube

30:29

is a social app at this point.

30:32

Well, I think at this point, it's also,

30:34

you know, what Felix was saying

30:36

about the integration into the Google

30:38

ecosystem, it's the second most popular

30:40

search engine. And that's

30:42

responsible for the way a lot of

30:45

people just fundamentally understand reality, you know,

30:48

Googling or looking for things on YouTube.

30:50

And of course, it has

30:53

a built-in, uncomputeable advantage when it

30:55

comes to SEO. Like you search for anything,

30:58

YouTube results are gonna be right at the top of

31:00

the page. I wonder why Google would do that. But

31:03

I think of it as just a

31:05

pure media company. Streams videos, streams music,

31:07

it's a media powerhouse and worth more

31:09

than all, than Netflix. I think Peter

31:11

Kafka had, it's worth, if you take

31:13

Netflix, Add in Paramount, Warner Brothers

31:16

Discovery and Fox, you would

31:18

have a company with a market cap

31:20

of around $300 billion, that's

31:22

still less than YouTube. Yeah, and

31:24

again, if you look at it, YouTube

31:28

on TVs is the most popular streaming

31:30

destination in Americans living rooms. YouTube is

31:32

by far the most popular way. People

31:34

listen to music globally, right? Not Spotify,

31:36

not the radio. Not Spotify. YouTube,

31:38

that's how we both discover new

31:41

music and listen to existing music. And

31:44

it's a way that lots and lots of

31:46

people earn real income, right? That all the

31:49

influencers or creators or whatever you

31:51

wanna call them, they're basically many

31:54

media empires. And

31:56

a lot of them are on YouTube because that's,

31:59

YouTube is very. is

32:01

unique among internet companies in

32:03

sharing their advertising and subscription revenue

32:05

with the people who make the content.

32:08

It is also like the one thing we

32:10

don't like to admit here in Podcastville is

32:13

that it is by

32:15

far the most popular way by which

32:17

people listen to podcasts. More popular than

32:19

Apple Podcasts, more popular than Spotify. People

32:22

listen to podcasts, including Slate Money, on

32:24

YouTube. We run

32:27

ads for podcasts, we're like, where have you got your

32:30

podcasts? Yeah, that means

32:32

YouTube more than any other place. If

32:34

you look at all of the podcasts that have

32:36

really taken off in the past few years, maybe

32:39

not all of them, but the vast majority of

32:41

them, they over index

32:43

massively to YouTube. They're very visual podcasts.

32:45

They spend a lot of time caring

32:47

about their thumbnails and how they look.

32:49

There's a lot of visual production design.

32:52

That's been driven by the fact

32:54

that YouTube is a podcast

32:57

platform, is the podcast platform. I

32:59

have a theory about that that

33:01

says people are more engaged parasocially

33:03

if they can see you and hear you. But I

33:06

can't just sit still and listen to a podcast. I

33:08

would go crazy. I don't really get it at all.

33:10

I think people have it on in the background. They

33:14

put it up on YouTube on

33:16

their TV screen while they're... Yeah, listen to your podcasts

33:18

on your TV. You don't do that, Peck. Hard

33:22

enough getting it to work, so no. And

33:26

one of the reasons we is

33:28

kind of flown beneath the radar

33:30

is because Google has historically just

33:32

refused to break out numbers for

33:34

it. And so no one really

33:36

knows how big it is. But

33:39

I think one of

33:41

the big surprises to me is

33:43

the degree to which it's been

33:45

successful at persuading people to pay

33:47

cash money for YouTube. First of all,

33:50

like there was the sort of pay

33:52

off a few bucks and we'll stop

33:54

showing you ads, which I can kind of

33:56

see that as a value proposition.

33:58

But then they moved on. moved aggressively into

34:01

a much more, much higher

34:03

priced product that Emily has, which is, you

34:05

know, pay us like $75 or $100 a

34:07

month and we'll replace your TV. And it's

34:10

like, I'm paying that much? Yeah.

34:12

And again, if you, Peter Kofka wrote about

34:14

this, right? If you look at the numbers,

34:16

YouTube TV is the maybe third or fourth

34:19

most popular cable television service in the

34:21

United States now, right? So it's

34:24

big. I mean, it's way better than when I

34:26

had cable. I remember having cable and it was

34:28

terrible. And this would seem pretty seamless and easy.

34:30

No, no one had to come to my house

34:32

to set it up, which is huge advance. And

34:34

can you use your remote control to change the

34:37

channel? No,

34:39

I have to. Of course. How else would

34:41

you change the channel? I don't know how these things

34:43

work. Like for me, it's just like, it's a stream

34:45

from the internet. How do you change the channel on

34:47

the way to the remote control? It's an

34:49

app, you know, you, you go in and

34:51

you see the channels and what's on. The

34:55

wonders of modern technology, like Felix, at some

34:57

point, Felix is going to learn what a

34:59

television is and my mind is going

35:01

to get blown. Do you not own a television set? I

35:04

do own a television set, but

35:06

I don't I haven't subscribed to

35:08

linear TV in 20 years. So

35:12

your cord cutter, you've cut the cord. I cut

35:14

the cord back in like, yeah,

35:16

the 1990s sometime. How do

35:18

you watch football, Felix? I'm just kidding. We all know

35:20

he doesn't watch football. I

35:25

thought color TV. RCA Victor color TV.

35:29

I know what I've been missing now.

35:32

I thought color TV. Apple

35:37

card is the perfect cashback rewards

35:39

credit card. You earn up to

35:41

three percent daily cash on every

35:43

purchase every day. That's three percent

35:45

on your favorite products at Apple, two

35:47

percent on all other Apple card

35:49

with Apple pay purchases and one

35:52

percent on anything you buy with your

35:54

titanium Apple card or virtual card number.

35:57

Visit Apple dot C O slash.

35:59

card calculator to see how much you can earn.

36:02

Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA,

36:05

Salt Lake City branch. Subject

36:07

to credit approval, terms apply. This

36:10

episode of Slink Money is brought

36:12

to you by Wondery. They're

36:14

a podcast company and if you want to hear

36:16

about the $100 wedding dress that saved

36:19

Abercrombie or which real tech acquisition

36:21

is like Game of Thrones or

36:23

the one financial equation that can

36:26

finally solve climate change, then you

36:28

should check out the daily news

36:30

podcast The Best One Yet. Every

36:34

morning on The Best One Yet hosts

36:36

Nick and Jack serve up three of

36:38

the most interesting business news stories and why

36:40

you need to know them in just 20 minutes.

36:44

Be in the know this year by

36:46

starting your morning with The Best One

36:48

Yet every weekday. Follow

36:50

The Best One Yet on the

36:52

Wondery app or wherever you get

36:54

your podcasts. You can listen ad

36:56

free right now on Wondery Plus

36:58

and for more deep dive and

37:00

daily business content listen on Wondery,

37:02

the destination for business podcasts with

37:05

shows like The Best One Yet,

37:07

How I Built This, Business Wars

37:09

and many more, Wondery means

37:11

business. Slate

37:15

Money is sponsored this week by HIMS.

37:19

Who cares about the things you check before you

37:21

go out? You have your phone, you have your

37:23

wallet, you have your keys, how does your hair

37:25

look? If your hair is

37:27

thinning, you may not be so confident. Leaving

37:29

the house, that's why you need to check out

37:31

HIMS. HIMS is changing men's

37:34

healthcare by providing simple and convenient

37:36

access to science-based treatments that erectile

37:38

dysfunction, hair loss, weight loss, and

37:41

more. The whole process is 100%

37:43

online, online so

37:45

you can get the new routine

37:47

of improving your overall health faster.

37:49

They have a range of options,

37:51

including pills or chews. They have

37:54

serums, sprays, oral options, the hair

37:56

loss. If it's prescribed, your medication

37:58

ships directly to you for free.

38:00

In discreet packaging, there's no waiting

38:02

rooms, no pharmacy visits, no insurance

38:04

is needed. Just pay one low

38:06

price for your treatments, for your

38:08

online visits, for your ongoing shipments,

38:10

and even provider messaging. Start

38:12

your free online visit. That's

38:18

hims.com/money for your

38:20

personalized treatment options.

38:23

hymns.com/money. Prescriptions

38:26

require an online consultation with a healthcare

38:28

provider who will determine if appropriate.

38:30

Restrictions apply to hymns.com/money

38:32

for details and important

38:34

safety information. Subscription required,

38:36

price varies based on

38:38

product, and subscription plan.

38:43

Shira, how much am I going to pay for

38:45

my next toothbrush? I

38:48

wrote recently about

38:50

a $400 Oral-B electric

38:52

toothbrush. I'm

38:56

making air quotes with AI,

38:59

with artificial intelligence. I

39:01

noticed it because Mark Benioff, who's the

39:03

CEO of salesforce.com, and a

39:05

man who is basically Mr.

39:08

Hype, including Mr. Hype for

39:10

AI, he posted on

39:12

X about seeing this

39:14

toothbrush in the wild and basically said,

39:16

this is sort of peak AI hype.

39:19

So you know when Mark Benioff thinks

39:21

this is way too much, that

39:23

this toothbrush has really gone too far.

39:26

What exactly was the AI supposed to

39:28

do in this toothbrush? Look,

39:31

I tried to talk to Procter & Gamble,

39:33

which owns the Oral-B brand, and he said,

39:35

can you tell me exactly what is

39:37

in this that is artificial intelligence? Because

39:41

it seemed to me like it's a sensor. It

39:44

promises that it detects how long

39:46

or how often you brush in

39:48

what areas of your mouth. That

39:52

to me didn't seem like artificial intelligence. It

39:55

just seemed like we have sensors. It

39:58

gives you a report based on those sensor readings. I

40:00

got an email from somebody who said

40:03

they are involved in Proctor & Gamble R&D

40:05

that said, yes, there's patents behind this and

40:07

it really is artificial intelligence. So I do

40:10

not know. I can just tell you that

40:12

Proctor & Gamble on the record would not

40:15

say anything specific about the technology behind

40:17

this toothbrush. I do love the idea

40:19

that consumers might be willing to

40:21

spend $400 on a toothbrush just because

40:25

it has the word AI on the package.

40:27

I do think that's

40:29

clearly false though. For all of the

40:31

AI hype out there, I haven't seen

40:33

a lot of evidence

40:36

that consumers are willing to pay for

40:38

it. The amount of people paying for

40:40

chat GPT is just a very small

40:42

number of early adopter nerd types. There's

40:45

been reporting this week that

40:48

Apple is going to be building these M4

40:50

AI chips into all of its new MacBook

40:52

Pros that are coming out at the end

40:54

of the year. Everyone

40:57

is like, oh, are people going to get excited about that

40:59

and buy this new computer because

41:01

it has an AI chip in it? Everyone is looking

41:03

at each other going, yes, no.

41:05

Why would they? Is

41:09

there anything yet which is this

41:11

consumer facing application of AI that

41:14

people have been shown to be willing to pay for? I think

41:16

like many technological

41:19

changes or phases, the

41:21

real money is probably going to be made

41:24

in selling the stuff to businesses and not

41:26

to consumers. We'll see

41:28

what happens. I was at a dinner this

41:30

week with some tech executives and one of

41:32

them said, the real place where

41:34

people are paying for AI and it's

41:37

having an impact is in customer service

41:39

functions. You can imagine if you're

41:41

a company, if you're Fios, you

41:43

spend a lot of money on this cost center

41:45

of customer service. It's not bringing you revenue in

41:48

many cases. If you can

41:50

automate that with hopefully

41:52

good AI, that's a

41:54

significant cost savings and that's worth spending

41:56

money on. The same executive also said

41:58

all the tech companies and other kinds

42:01

of companies, they're spending tons and tons. I

42:03

mean, I can't even tell

42:05

you billions, maybe trillions of dollars, investing

42:07

in building their AI capabilities.

42:10

He said, in

42:12

terms of ROI, there's a lot of I and

42:14

not a lot of R right now, meaning that

42:16

the return on investment is minimal to

42:19

none. Don't you think part of that is just the

42:21

market ban for investors? Puts

42:24

pressure on consumer-facing companies to add

42:26

AI to anything. It almost seems

42:29

very similar to the

42:31

Internet of Things peak hype,

42:34

where anything that you could possibly own needed

42:36

to be connected to the Internet. It's

42:38

exactly the same as every hype cycle. Yes, exactly that.

42:40

It's just, we will seem cool

42:43

and forward thinking if we are

42:45

into AI. And so what

42:48

you get is just, I mean,

42:50

I literally keep a list of

42:52

what I refer to as AI

42:54

Juicero, named after the ridiculous, nowadays

42:56

Silicon Valley over-engineered

42:58

juicer. That's basically

43:03

ridiculous uses of AI that cost a

43:05

lot of money and seems to have

43:07

almost no value for consumers or businesses.

43:09

And on that list are things like

43:11

Google made a big deal about a

43:14

Hellman's mayonnaise app that I

43:16

think gives you mayonnaise

43:19

recipes. I don't remember. Who knows? But I

43:21

was like, why do you need AI for

43:23

that? Literally, the best thing, the Internet

43:26

has basically solved recipes. They've made all

43:28

of the recipes you could ever want.

43:31

And why does AI, why is AI needed

43:33

for this? A bunch of fast food restaurants

43:36

are now talking about AI. So I

43:38

saw an executive of YEM Brands or

43:40

one of the other fast food chains

43:42

talking recently about all the ways they're

43:45

adding AI to their restaurants, including

43:48

things like somebody in

43:51

a fast food restaurant could

43:53

ask a chatbot, what's the

43:55

appropriate oven temperature for

43:57

this particular, to cook this particular food. And

44:00

I thought why? You know what I

44:02

mean? Like somebody could tell you the right temperature

44:04

You could write it down in a manual or

44:06

a digital manual that you can search. You could

44:09

look it up on YouTube You could

44:11

look it up on YouTube There's just so many so many

44:14

use cases that I've seen for AI

44:16

that just sort of seem like Answers

44:19

in search of a problem like overly

44:21

engineered overly expensive answers in search of

44:23

a problem Okay, the one

44:25

the one use of AI that I

44:27

have genuinely been excited

44:29

about which I've seen in the

44:31

past couple of weeks is

44:33

that Zillow will

44:37

take a look at all of the photographs of a

44:39

house and ingest them into

44:42

an AI and generate a floor plan

44:44

and so like floor plans have always

44:46

been a Weakness outside New York

44:48

City if you want a floor plan of a

44:50

house No one really has one to hand building

44:53

one is extremely expensive measuring everything and getting someone

44:55

to draw it But now it seems that they can

44:57

generate one street just by looking at all the photos

45:00

and sort of working it out from that I think

45:02

that's awesome. I think that like yeah, there were a

45:04

few of those but they are good the

45:06

one place I have seen Real

45:09

revenue from AI the one headline I saw

45:11

is that apparently? Accenture the

45:14

consulting company has had a billion dollars

45:16

of AI revenue in six months And

45:19

is that from their clients basically saying we

45:21

need an AI strategy? Here's all this money

45:23

to help us come up with a strategy

45:25

exactly. Yeah, yes I

45:27

see all this useless people are trying

45:29

to just throw AI into anything and

45:31

it's useless I think

45:33

this is just kind of what happens when you have a

45:36

new technology We just it

45:38

takes time to evolve it

45:40

to find the consumer product that is

45:42

going to be the revolution Like it

45:44

took time to get to the iPhone

45:46

and get to apps and you

45:48

know at first the internet was cool But it's like who

45:51

cares and you went to like ask Jeeves

45:53

But then Google happened and you were like,

45:55

oh I get it now. I get it

45:57

more and like it just It's just

46:00

It takes time for people to play around with this

46:02

tech and to figure out the consumer uses because the

46:04

people who invent the tech aren't thinking

46:06

like that. It just takes

46:08

a lot of time and so you're going

46:10

to have dumb stuff like AI toothbrushes or

46:12

the Internet of Things. Yeah, the stupid will

46:15

get weeded out. But I will say that

46:17

I've been through multiple cycles of new technology

46:19

and the stupid phase is

46:21

pretty stupid this time around.

46:24

I'm fascinated Emily that

46:26

you remembered Ask Jeeves

46:28

because that was really

46:31

the whole point of

46:34

it was put a question in

46:36

a box and we will give you the answer.

46:38

In a natural language. That's what we've

46:41

always wanted. It only took 25 years

46:43

before we actually worked out how to do that. Yes,

46:46

and eventually probably like Google probably goes away

46:48

the way we're used to it with returning

46:51

you all the links and it's a mess

46:53

and every you know we've talked about this

46:55

and then eventually we do have AI revolutionizing

46:58

the way we use the Internet and all of that stuff. But

47:00

in the meantime, it's just a lot

47:02

of dumb stuff. It already is in many ways,

47:04

but you know AI is not new and I

47:06

think part of the reason why there's so much

47:09

dumb hype around it is that most people can't

47:11

distinguish between different types of AI and

47:13

there's an assumption that you

47:16

know whatever AI is in your toothbrush is

47:19

something approaching general AI where you

47:21

really have a borderline cineant robot

47:23

telling you how to brush your

47:25

teeth and you know

47:27

most of our technology that already

47:29

has AI and has for years

47:32

has a kind of different type

47:34

of AI that really is more

47:36

about optimizing algorithms. So you

47:38

know machine learning natural language processing none of those

47:40

things are new, but the

47:42

issue is I think with chat GPT people

47:45

suddenly have a consumer facing example of

47:47

a bot that conforms to everything that

47:49

they've ever seen in a sci-fi movie

47:52

and I think that's part of why you know

47:55

the hype cycle is what it is. If

47:57

you think about the voice.

48:00

hype cycle which was never particularly hyped but

48:02

when everyone started it was very high to

48:05

Alexa but when people started talking to Alexa

48:07

and Siri and that kind of thing that

48:09

is all AI that is all generated

48:12

by machine learning algorithms and

48:14

you know we are now using those we're not using

48:17

them as much as we had

48:19

been hyped to believe that we would be

48:21

using them but it seems to be finding

48:23

its niche in the in the sort of

48:25

techno universe but I do want to talk about

48:28

basically the the current poster

48:30

child for AI the large language

48:32

models and where they're finding

48:35

their data and whether any of that was

48:37

legal so that I think we are going

48:39

to talk about in Slate Plus but before

48:41

we get to that we should

48:43

have a numbers round and

48:46

Elizabeth I believe you have a number I

48:48

do your my number is five hundred thousand

48:50

and that's euros and that's how much you can

48:52

pay for a golden visa in Portugal so

48:55

now it's a thing that people are

48:57

building what they call passport portfolios and

48:59

getting multiple passports in multiple countries so

49:01

that they can kind of take advantage

49:04

of an arbitrage on the

49:06

exit fees that you have to pay if

49:08

you're actually going to change your citizenship and

49:10

also you know there are some people who are

49:13

just Peter Thiel types you want a New Zealand

49:15

residency in case the apocalypse happens but a lot

49:17

of people seem to be viewing

49:19

it also as just a you know a

49:21

new tax strategy and hedging to

49:23

be clear this is this does not

49:25

reduce the tax payable by US citizens

49:27

US citizens have to pay tax on

49:30

their global income no matter what other

49:32

citizenships they have no matter where they

49:34

live yeah but the exit tax that

49:36

I'm talking about is when you renounce

49:38

your citizenship in the US and yeah

49:40

well when you and the exit tax

49:42

for announcing your US citizenship the one

49:44

that you know as well as sovereign

49:46

famously paid is absolutely

49:48

enormous and makes no financial

49:50

sense basically if you renounce your

49:52

you your US citizenship you have to pay

49:55

a lot of money a huge amount of

49:57

money the US government basically

49:59

says you're not going to be paying us

50:01

taxes for the rest of your life, so you have to

50:03

pay us all of the money that you would pay us in

50:05

taxes for the rest of your life. Go off America. Also,

50:09

wait, if it's the apocalypse, do

50:12

you really need a passport? It's the

50:14

apocalypse. You know what I mean? It's

50:17

all on the table. It's all off the table. Who

50:19

cares? I guess if you assume

50:21

that the US is the most likely failed state

50:23

situation, it's more of a localized

50:26

apocalypse, but I don't know

50:28

how to say that. Is the US the most

50:30

likely failed state? The crazy people, the preppers. The

50:34

Portugal story is interesting though. There

50:36

was this big push, I think

50:38

starting around 2012 or

50:41

thereabouts for Portugal. They were like,

50:43

let's get lots of high-tech people to

50:45

move to Portugal and invest in the country and

50:47

they'll get inward investment and that kind of stuff.

50:51

It became incredibly popular. This

50:54

is back when you could do it just by

50:56

buying a house basically in Portugal. It

50:59

became incredibly popular to the point at

51:01

which it just pushed house prices out

51:03

of reach for actual Portuguese people. You've

51:05

seen this in New Zealand as

51:07

well. The local population turns against

51:09

these schemes pretty quickly and they

51:11

wind up sunsetting. Emily,

51:14

what's your number? My number is

51:16

$1 million. It

51:19

is an estimate to mention

51:21

Peter Kafka again that Peter Kafka came up with

51:24

for the amount of money a man

51:26

named David Patton has made

51:30

on the song that goes. Let's see

51:32

who knows that. Oh,

51:35

oh, oh. It's magic, but

51:37

instead of it's magic, it's...

51:41

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

51:44

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, an

52:00

immense earworm ever since I learned about this. It's

52:02

been in my head and I think part of

52:04

the reason, I mean, most of the reason Ozempeg

52:06

is popular is because you lose a bunch of

52:08

weight when you take it. So Americans like that.

52:11

But the song really, really hits. They

52:13

used it, they licensed it. To make the

52:16

jingle, it became really popular. And then they

52:18

had this guy go into the studio and

52:20

actually record it himself. So

52:23

he's maybe made a million dollars just

52:25

from this all happening to him now,

52:27

which I guess is a dream for

52:29

an older musician. I

52:31

have this theory that like the

52:33

reason why Americans have incredibly high

52:37

internet costs is

52:39

somehow related to in

52:41

some obscure way to the fact

52:44

that America is also the only

52:46

country that advertises drugs. Oh, okay.

52:51

I've been in this country for what, 28 years

52:54

now at this

52:56

point, 27 years. And I still don't

52:58

quite, I still can't quite get my

53:00

brain around. People advertise drugs, people advertise

53:03

hospitals. Like what? People

53:05

advertise public high

53:08

schools on the telly.

53:11

Yeah, it's the whole thing. It's a huge business for

53:13

musicians. I mean, streaming, you know, you

53:15

don't make as much money these days.

53:17

It is like the dream. The dream

53:19

isn't like playing a stadium or having

53:21

a gold album or whatever. It's

53:23

having a drug ad. Yeah,

53:26

brilliant. An earworm drug ad. An

53:28

earworm drug ad, wow. Common side

53:31

effects are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach

53:33

pain and constipation. Some side effects

53:35

can lead to dehydration, which may

53:38

worsen kidney problems. My number is

53:40

$380 billion. This

53:45

is the amount of money

53:47

the IMF estimates has flown

53:49

into China since

53:52

about 2018 or so, just

53:55

as a result of index

53:57

changes. So, MSCI

54:00

and FTSE Russell, they

54:03

started including Chinese shares

54:05

in their big global

54:07

indices. Bloomberg Barclays, the

54:09

big global ag bond index

54:11

started including Chinese bonds

54:13

in their big index. There's

54:16

the Russell World Government Bond

54:18

Index, which also included China.

54:20

And because so many people are

54:22

passive investors and so many people are benchmarking

54:24

these indices even if they're not, even if

54:26

they're active investors, all

54:28

trillions and trillions of dollars

54:31

wound up getting benchmarked to China in one

54:33

way or another. And so $380 billion actually

54:36

flowed into China. As

54:39

a result, just like a bunch of index

54:41

designing technocrats changing their weights.

54:44

Shira, what's your number? My

54:47

number is 70 billion and

54:50

that's the average number of times

54:52

YouTube Shorts videos are viewed

54:55

every day according to Google.

54:58

70 billion. It's a number that is so large.

55:01

I have checked multiple times with

55:03

Google. Did I mishear

55:05

this number? How is this number

55:07

possible? But that's a real number, right? Which

55:09

shows you, you know, if YouTube has

55:11

billions of users on a regular basis.

55:14

So YouTube Shorts is a global

55:17

thing. It's not just an American thing. There's

55:19

no way that you could get that just

55:21

from America, right? Yes, great point. And obviously

55:23

they loop, right? So like TikTok videos, so

55:25

you might watch one and

55:27

then it counts as multiple views. But that is

55:29

wild. 70 billion a

55:31

day. A day, on average. That's 10 videos

55:34

per human being on the planet per

55:37

day. It is an insane number. And

55:39

look, we don't know what YouTube counts

55:41

as a view, right? All these internet

55:43

companies have these fungible metrics, but

55:46

still it's a lot of either

55:48

computers or humans clicking on

55:50

videos. How many humans on the planet

55:52

do you think Interact

55:55

with YouTube Shorts on a daily

55:57

basis? What percentage of the global

55:59

population? It's gonna be. It's gotta

56:01

be at least a billion people. So

56:03

if it's a billion, if it's a

56:05

billion people and they're doing seventy billion

56:08

view today than the than the typical

56:10

person interacting with you tube sure to

56:12

be viewing seventy of these per day.

56:14

Yeah, that doesn't seem possible, doesn't know.

56:16

And like this wild. It. Is

56:18

wild. How does that

56:20

compare? Like Tic Tac Instagram when? As yet

56:22

again, it's hard to know if these numbers

56:25

are comparable, right? Because. It

56:27

Again, these are all fungible metrics. or to my

56:29

knowledge, I don't think either Tic toc or Instagram.

56:32

He gives a comparable number of how many

56:34

times they're. Pieces of content or videos

56:36

are viewed on a daily basis. You tube

56:39

started doing that I assume because the numbers

56:41

are bananas large. To be fair, like seventy

56:43

billion. Views. For days. Pretty

56:45

much what we gotta excuse.com the mountains

56:47

of my stories alone. usually. Yeah, so

56:50

many listeners. We have a man. yeah.

56:52

Also that and that. Okay

56:54

I we are going to have

56:56

a sleepless on l a lamb's

56:58

hoovering up information from you tube

57:00

which they probably weren't allowed to

57:02

do that's coming up, but. If

57:05

you're not a sleepless member then thanks

57:07

for listening. So far thanks to Thera

57:09

Downing and Center Up for producing! Thank

57:12

for emailing us on Sleep Money at

57:14

say.com and most of all thanks to

57:16

Sure Over Day for coming on! The

57:18

show has been amazing having you always

57:21

fun! thank you and in case you

57:23

haven't haven't murph test content from Slate

57:25

Money this week. I will be back

57:27

on Tuesday talking to Ben Horowitz of

57:29

Andreessen Horowitz along with his colleagues Chris

57:32

Dixon and you get to find out

57:34

who won. The best about Bitcoin

57:36

I entered into five years ago.

57:38

Would bet. He

57:43

their did you know Kroger? Always easy

57:45

savings and rewards on top of are

57:48

lower than low prices. And. When

57:50

you download the program, you'll enjoy over

57:52

five hundred dollars in savings every week.

57:54

The digital coupons. And don't forget viewpoints

57:56

to help you see the to one dollar per

57:58

gallon at the pump. One. To save

58:00

even more, with a Boost membership, you'll get

58:02

double fuel points and free delivery. So shop

58:04

and save big at Kroger today. Kroger,

58:07

fresh for everyone. Savings

58:09

may vary by state. Restrictions apply. See site for

58:11

details. The winner is

58:18

Slow Burn Becoming Justice

58:20

Commons. Congratulations

58:22

to Joel Anderson and the entire team

58:25

behind Slow Burn Becoming Justice Commons on

58:27

their win for podcast of the year at the 2024

58:29

Ambez Awards. First

58:33

of all, thanks to the Academy.

58:35

Thanks to the many fans and supporters

58:37

of the podcast, especially the

58:39

people that subscribe to Slate Plus. We can't do

58:41

work without money and people that care about

58:43

the work that we do. So it's really helpful

58:46

to be able to go places like

58:48

show up in Savannah, Georgia at Justice Thomas's mother's house.

58:50

You know what I'm saying? We do that with the

58:52

money we make through Slate Plus. Join

58:55

Slate Plus for a behind-the-scenes look at

58:57

the making of the season and other

58:59

member-exclusive episodes. Subscribe now by

59:01

clicking Try Free at the top of the

59:03

Slow Burn show page on Apple Podcasts, or

59:07

visit slate.com/slowburn plus to

59:09

get access wherever you

59:11

listen.

Rate

Join Podchaser to...

  • Rate podcasts and episodes
  • Follow podcasts and creators
  • Create podcast and episode lists
  • & much more

Episode Tags

Do you host or manage this podcast?
Claim and edit this page to your liking.
,

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features