Cheyenne: Thank you for joining us for this episode of What the Finance. There are a few things we like to mention at the top of each episode.
Rachel: First, if you want to get in touch with us, you can email What_the_finance@protonmail.com or join the What the Finance discord server.
Cheyenne: Second, it would mean a lot to us if you could support our show through Patreon. Starting at $3 a month, you can get episode shoutouts access to topic polls and get to listen to some pretty hilarious outtakes.
Rachel: Third, as we seek to be a more inclusive show, we want to acknowledge that colonialism is an ongoing process and capitalism, which we regularly decry, is part of this process. We are recording this episode on the ancestral land of the Dakota and people, and we recognize our sovereignty and express our gratitude of being here. So this is our last episode before we take a little break, which sounds like much needed for both of us.
Cheyenne: I would agree. Also, as I was thinking about it, I'm pretty sure is this the first time that we've told that we've had a break? Because usually what we do is we kind of double up so that we have stuff that releases during that break. Did we do that last year? I know the first year we did.
Rachel: I want to say that we did last August that we took like a break break, but I'm not totally sure about that specific post.
Cheyenne: We can't remember when we were releasing the episodes and when we weren't.
Rachel: I don't think so. We both know. And at this point, our whole audience should also know this isn't our only job.
Cheyenne: Very true. I'm just going to mention that you and I have had a couple of conversations in which we've talked about breaks being super important for many reasons. Obviously, we just, you know, need the rest. And I think that we talked about this in our discord channel. Is that where we talked about it? But essentially, taking a break from recording every week allows us to kind of get back to a point of creativity. We have an opportunity to brainstorm a little bit differently than we do when we record every week, which is super fun if you're creating something.
Rachel: Yeah. To actually think about what you're making.
Cheyenne: Yeah.
Rachel: Slightly more thoughtful way.
Cheyenne: Yeah. To have that time. To have this, like, wild thought and then kind of see how it would play out instead of like, oh, I don't have time to do that right now because I have to focus on researching this upcoming topic. So it should be cool. I think that we've got some good ideas for the upcoming season, even. I mean, we've already started planning for our third season, and we haven't even finished the second yet.
Rachel: Yeah. We were also running a little low.
Cheyenne: Yeah. Truly, this came a kind of a perfect time for us.
Rachel: It really did. So I feel like something that has been new in this season has been our, um, fuck capitalism line that fit into every episode. And I felt like as we closed out the season, this is why we need to do a lot.
Cheyenne: It's true.
Rachel: Anyway, as we close out this season, I feel like that wine maybe deserves just a little bit more explanation, I suppose. Yeah, I think we've been giving it.
Cheyenne: Yeah, we could have just done an entire episode on stock capitalism.
Rachel: I mean, it is a hot take.
Cheyenne: That's true. We didn't introduce today's episode like we usually do. We've taken a weird route today. I feel, as you may have noticed by now, we're working on closing out the season, saying, See you later, and also just dropping some, um, hot takes related to finance. So the first one, I guess, is Buck Capitalism, which I agree, perhaps deserves a little bit of an explanation. Um, and my hope is that it did make it into a majority of the episodes. I don't know that I started the season saying it every single time, but towards the end there, it snuck its way in, every single one of them, and I don't even remember how it started. But essentially, capitalism, to be really dramatic, is the bane of our existence. When you get down to so many issues, the thing that makes people make a bad decision or not necessarily a bad decision, I shouldn't put it like that the thing that seems to make it so that humans treat other humans poorly, comes back to money or resources and either greed or not having enough. And so that's where that fuck capitalism comes from at a really base level. As I said, we could probably go into an entire episode about why fuck capitalism, but that's just like a baseline explanation of where that came from.
Rachel: And I think that in this season we also did a lot of policy-focused episodes. And really the other piece of it, at least to me, is like the government sanctioning of rampant greed. Right. That, uh, we are very much in this place where for decades now, we've been living with trickle-down economics. And like, okay, maybe initially, yes, the idea had said merit. Let's see if this thing is going to work. And it's super obvious that it doesn't at this point. But we are still at least in the United States, right? Like, we're living in this country where lawmakers still want to be like, oh, no, trickle-down economics is going to work. So we're going to cut taxes and we're going to make sure that people don't get the services that they need and it doesn't work. And it's painfully obvious that it doesn't work. But nobody wants to admit that has nothing to do with, hey, we want this thing to work and everything to do with unchecked greed.
Cheyenne: Right?
Rachel: So, um, yeah, that's a piece of it for me as well. It's not just that human beings suck. We built a system that's also enabled them to be fully realize the terribleness of their potential.
Cheyenne: Right. I think that kind of slides into another hot take that is, uh, super worth mentioning. And this actually somewhat recently came up. In my world, extreme wealth should not exist. No one person or group of people should, uh, have billions of dollars. And as I said, this kind of came up somewhat recently in my world. I think somebody asked or said something in passing about what I would do with hundreds of millions of dollars. And essentially my response was I would pay off my debt, my parents debt, to make sure that we have enough money to live comfortably. And then I would give the rest away because I don't believe that extreme wealth should exist. Now, do I know for sure that that's something that I would do if I got all of this money? I don't know. I'd like to think I would, but I don't know.
Rachel: Well, we're recording this episode hot on the heels of our favorite idiot billionaire buying Twitter. And that person had previously said, um, or had told the UN like it give me an itemized breakdown of how this dollar amount would end world hunger. They did that and he ignored it.
Cheyenne: Right.
Rachel: I'm with you. Right. I would also want to believe that I would just give it all away. Uh, but when I say that humans are terrible, I do also include myself in that statement.
Cheyenne: Right.
Rachel: Because it's so easy. I don't know, I just revert to the basest version of yourself if you're given the opportunity.
Cheyenne: It's hard to fathom giving up, uh, any amount of wealth because we have such a for many of us, we live in a state of. I don't know when I'll have access to this resource again, but I don't necessarily think that there is. It makes sense to have that resistance, to give it up. And I'm not saying that I wouldn't give up so much of it that my life stays like status quo as is, obviously, because I said that I would not pay off debts and stuff like that. But I would like to think that I would never keep money, that I would never keep money in excess, that I can just not feasibly spend in a lifetime, which there are people on the planet that have that much wealth, they cannot possibly spend the amount of money that they have. And instead of doing something good with it, they just fucking hoard. It like some status symbol. And that to me is like the height of fuck capitalism.
Rachel: As I'm thinking about it, I feel like that really is kind of like the main hot take from this, at least for me. What else do you have?
Cheyenne: You can't budget out of poverty.
Rachel: Yup.
Cheyenne: I don't know how else to explain that one. That's just.
Rachel: You can't.
Cheyenne: Next one is money management. Is not one size fits all.
Rachel: Turns out that personal finance is super personal.
Cheyenne: Weird.
Rachel: I know.
Cheyenne: Um, paying equity is actually a thing I don't think we've ever explicitly said this, but I think that, uh, and I don't know where you stand at or if you want to phrase it differently, but it is absolutely possible to change our systems in America. That is why we talk about policy change so much. It is absolutely possible. We just need to elect leaders that are willing to do it because the issue is not that it can't happen. It's just that the people who are in leadership positions don't want it to happen.
Rachel: Yeah, exactly. And you're backing on that the money that you do spend has a lot of power. Right. So not only voting on your actual ballot but voting with your dollars is a really effective piece of change for sure if you're in a position where you have the luxury.
Cheyenne: Um, of doing so because we've talked about this right sprinkled in through two seasons, we recognize that's not always possible.
Rachel: Yes, it is becoming more possible for people at different income brackets. We're not going to shame you for any of the things that you need at a price you can't afford.
Cheyenne: Right.
Rachel: But if you can buy local or buy from an ethical company or whatever, please do.
Cheyenne: I can't think of any other quote-unquote hot takes.
Rachel: That's it.
Cheyenne: Um.
Rachel: From my end closing us out. You'll hear this at the beginning of the episode too but we'll still be in discord and you can reach us via email so if you have episode ideas, we would still love to hear from you to talk to you.
Cheyenne: Definitely find us during the break. Discord best place. We're pretty active there throughout most of the day and, uh, if you have any, uh, thoughts on things that we should talk about or you want to come chat with us about something next season or let us know we’re awesome. We like that.
Rachel: Yes, very appreciate it. And if you're shy but you want to support the work that we do, uh, have a Patreon.
Cheyenne: We do.