Events happening today

1. ALL
   DAY

   

   

   Miss Evers Boys fr…

   
   

   28 January 2026

   This event began 01/28/2025 and repeats every year forever

   
   

   Miss Evers Boys from Movies That Move We -01/2/2025
   my thoughts and trasncript + video
   https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2835&type=status
   
    
    
   my thoughts
   1932 to 1972 the Tuskegee experiment went on.
   I learned of Tuskegee in the home and community centers at elementary age and in high school in the educational system.
   ...
   I remember a scene in the film Giant 1956 when the character played by rock Hudson says to the character played by Elizabeth taylor that the white doctor of the family is not for public use or use for other people, other people in this case were Mexican immigrants in Texas. That scene encapsulates the overall problem. The healthcare industry in the usa has always been a business that is used by whites to display biases toward the non white. The movie Alice 2022 shows this in multiple ways. And the problem with healthcare as an industry is it is historically expensive. Healthcare is not cheap. Consider that car company workers/steel company workers/government workers, the cost of their healthcare overtime is the biggest bill. 
   in amendment or commented
   Healthcare has always been historically for the have's not all, and you see that throughout humanity even today, even in countries in western europe deemed universal in care. I can't wait for your first show in black history month:) 
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJrcIlzfQhc
    
    
   TRANSCRIPT 0:13 [Music] 0:25 [Music] 0:30 hey everyone welcome back to another 0:32 edition of movies that move we today we 0:37 will be talking about Miss ever's boys 0:41 um now I hope you not not like me if you 0:43 hadn't heard about this film before and 0:45 thought it was about medar Evers and his 0:48 mom and them it's not it's not this is 0:52 um it's a fictionalized telling of the 0:58 Tuskegee uh project 1:00 and if you don't know what that is let 1:03 me tell you a little bit about it um 1:05 Tuskegee Alabama there was 1:08 a pretty decent population of black men 1:12 who had 1:14 syphilis and um you know the government 1:17 saw it and said hey perfect opportunity 1:20 for us to explore how this the progress 1:25 of this 1:27 disease and so they 1:30 setup shop in 1:32 Tuskegee told these men hey we're going 1:35 to treat you for the condition they 1:38 didn't tell them that they were research 1:40 subjects they didn't tell them they 1:42 weren't getting 1:43 treatment and these men did not give 1:47 consent to basically be used as guinea 1:51 pigs this project ran from was it 1:57 1932 to 2:00 19 no 1932 to 2:05 1972 okay so they were allowing men with 2:08 syphilis black men with syphilis to just 2:13 ride the disease out um and it's not a 2:16 comfortable disease you you can get it 2:19 it can go 2:21 dormant it can come back up there's like 2:24 five stages to the condition you'll end 2:27 up with skin lesions there are some 2:29 people who who survived it the biggest 2:32 problem here beyond the fact that they 2:35 were experimenting on black bodies was 2:38 that when it was found out that 2:41 penicillin was The Cure none of these 2:44 men were given the option never told 2:47 that some of them would die if they like 2:49 took it well no in reality no yeah but 2:53 I'm just saying in the movie like that's 2:55 what they were they were telling them 2:56 that if if you take it you you could die 3:00 which wasn't true but talking about the 3:04 movie this is it's not based on a 3:07 specific story but it is inspired by a 3:12 nurse who did work with some some 3:15 patients during that time so we have in 3:19 the role of nurse Evers um Alfrey 3:25 Woodard Caleb humph is her love interest 3:29 who is is played by Lawrence Fishburn 3:31 and I believe he's one of the producers 3:33 of the film um Dr Douglas is played by 3:37 Craig Sheffer and he is the white Doctor 3:40 Who is leading the um experiment um we 3:46 have Dr Sam brus who's played by uh Joe 3:50 Morton AKA Papa Pope those of you who 3:53 know no um he is the black doctor that 3:58 is leading it because of you have 4:00 something like this going on you got to 4:01 get black people to talk to black people 4:04 um Willie Johnson is played by Oba Baba 4:09 tund hodman Bryan is played by Van 4:13 couter Ben Washington is played by Tom 4:16 gosam Jr so 4:20 Caleb uh Willie hodman and Ben they're 4:25 referred to as Miss ever's boys and all 4:29 of them them were 4:31 participants in the study in this film 4:36 um and then the late great aie Davis 4:39 played um Alfrey woodard's father Mr 4:43 Evans so this is going back like I said 4:48 1930s 4:50 Tuskegee black people were still working 4:52 in the fields there were still 4:54 sharecroppers um and it was a big deal 4:57 that 4:58 she uh Unice Evers was a nurse you know 5:03 she's working in the hospital she's 5:05 working with doctors she wasn't a 5:07 servant or anything like that she 5:10 recognized it her father recognized it 5:12 it was the type of career that could 5:14 have taken her 5:15 anywhere um when this came up she was 5:19 the head nurse 5:22 under Dr broadis so Joe Morton she was 5:27 working with him and he said hey 5:30 I'm taking you with me we're going to to 5:33 Tuskegee there's something happening 5:35 down there that they want us to be a 5:37 part of that happened to be the area 5:40 where she grew up so Caleb she was 5:43 already familiar with because he used to 5:46 pull her Pigtails in 5:48 class so there was some relationship 5:52 there and her relation built with the 5:55 other three men to the point that you 5:57 know they were performers in the 5:59 community Comm they name their band 6:01 after her um the whole thing gets 6:05 sticky because at a certain point she 6:09 realizes that wait a 6:11 minute we're we're not treating them 6:14 we're just doing research and she was 6:17 excited at first because the 6:20 government's paying for it they're 6:21 giving these guys they're they're going 6:23 to help the black people and there were 6:25 a handful of people who were wey but 6:27 when they heard what I get a free meal I 6:31 can get free rides and all this other 6:34 you know the government is catering to 6:35 me they were like all right sign me up 6:38 so I'll let you take it from here what 6:40 what were your thoughts about well first 6:43 of all I'm going to ask the question I 6:45 usually ask is this something you 6:47 learned about in school no not at all 6:50 and what was crazy was when I when 6:53 I because I was actually the one that 6:55 chose the 6:57 movie when I saw it 7:00 I never even really heard about it but 7:04 when I saw it I was like oh you know 7:05 what based off the description I was 7:07 like this might be a good watch it seems 7:09 like 7:10 something that um might be educational 7:13 because this is something again we 7:15 weren't taught about in school so to 7:18 watch it and then like even down to the 7:22 way things were kind of broken down to 7:25 these men when they're coming into their 7:27 community and telling them what they're 7:29 going to do and how the government is 7:31 funding this and everything like that it 7:34 was 7:35 so it was kind of surreal for me to 7:38 watch cuz it's just like they really 7:40 kind of felt like they had to not only 7:43 bring Miss Evers and the doctor in the 7:46 black doctor in 7:48 to kind of facilitate or help facilitate 7:52 these conversations with these men but 7:55 it was almost 7:56 like oh we have to kind of dumb it down 7:59 for them too because whereas the white 8:02 doctor that came in was kind of like hey 8:05 you know I want to get technical with 8:07 these guys and let them know the exact 8:09 diagnosis Miss Evers and the other 8:11 doctor involved were like no we should 8:15 probably kind of tell them something 8:18 different I don't think they were 8:21 dumbing it down I 8:24 think okay let me not say that yes they 8:26 were but by saying blood like oh well 8:29 it's something in your blood like I'm 8:32 and she explained that what she said to 8:34 to the doctor 8:36 was you have to talk to them in their in 8:41 their language if you tell them that 8:45 they have a virus they're going to panic 8:48 and we won't have anyone to complete the 8:50 study with so they understand illness is 8:54 something in the blood so that's what 8:57 we're going to tell them that there's 9:00 something in the blood we're gonna give 9:02 them some treatments to to help heal 9:06 them and they'll be more willing to go 9:09 along with it if we phrase it in terms 9:11 that they comprehend okay okay that's 9:15 like a lawyer trying to speak to you in 9:18 legal vernacular and you're going my 9:19 rights or what and there was a scene in 9:21 the part or there was a scene in the 9:22 movie 9:23 where the the white doctor is like 9:26 telling them what he's about to do and 9:28 what testing they're about to kind of go 9:31 through and everything and why they're 9:32 being tested for this and they're just 9:34 all sitting there looking at him like 9:37 you going to do what and Miss Evers kind 9:40 of had to step in but I just felt like 9:42 throughout the whole 9:43 film there were so many things that and 9:47 what was crazy was there was kind of 9:48 like that little bit of a contrast 9:49 because here it is you know they're kind 9:51 of talking like that to the rest of them 9:53 they're not giving them full information 9:56 as to what's going on and Lawrence fish 9:59 Burn's character um Caleb Caleb 10:04 he he actually was kind of already 10:07 educating himself you know he let Miss 10:09 Evers know look like you don't think I 10:12 can read I'm going to the library and 10:14 I'm looking this stuff up myself yeah 10:17 and he asked for a book cuz he was like 10:19 I want to know more about this exactly 10:22 so he kind of even though he was also 10:24 not giv a lot of 10:26 information Miss Evers did kind of offer 10:28 up a little little bit of information to 10:30 him in the beginning 10:31 but he kind of already knew in the back 10:34 of his mind certain things and something 10:36 wasn't right yeah so he was kind of 10:38 already hip to what was going on but 10:42 unfortunately these other guys that were 10:44 involved in this process they just 10:46 didn't know and they kind of like leaned 10:49 on Miss Evers a little bit to kind of 10:51 take them through this process yeah um 10:55 and it's unfortunate because if they 10:58 were a little bit more 11:00 honest and even a little bit more 11:03 instead of using them as guinea pigs 11:05 actually got them the help that they 11:08 needed they would have been fine you 11:11 know they would have lived normal lives 11:12 you know um oh my gosh I keep drawing a 11:16 blank with his name Caleb when he went 11:18 to the military he said look I got that 11:21 penicillin shot because one this was my 11:24 only way to get into the military 11:27 properly but two like I'm not messing 11:29 around my health like I'm doing whatever 11:31 I have to do and he was kind of trying 11:34 to encourage the other men to do the 11:36 same 11:37 but the the the role of the medical team 11:42 in this 11:44 situation was to just monitor the 11:47 progress of the disease and keep them 11:51 from getting treatment elsewhere yeah 11:54 and there's a scene in the film where 11:56 one of the guys um he's like I can't 11:59 take it anymore Caleb takes him to a 12:03 hospital to get the penicillin and the 12:05 nurse turns around looks at the 12:07 clipboard and says no you can't have it 12:10 and they were like why can't he get it 12:14 and she said because you're on the list 12:16 I can't give it to you cuz he was a part 12:18 of this experiment so all of the 12:20 hospitals in the area had the names of 12:23 all of the the the men who were being 12:27 researched and they refused them care 12:31 when they came to it and in this 12:33 situation it 12:35 was uh Willie Willie was the dancer in 12:39 the group you know he was hopping up and 12:41 down you know dancing like they do at 12:43 the Cotton Club and he had dreams of 12:44 getting there and it started to affect 12:47 his Mobility so he was like I can't I 12:49 can't live like this I need to to have 12:53 it fixed Caleb didn't tell him exactly 12:57 what was going on even though though he 13:00 had an 13:01 ankling and he did try to talk to Unice 13:05 about it and say okay what aren't you 13:07 telling me and she was like I can't I 13:10 can't and I think part of the reason why 13:13 she said she can't a um she was told 13:17 that she can't she shouldn't and then 13:19 the other part was she was ashamed 13:21 because once she 13:24 realized what this really was MH she was 13:30 like I I can't tell anybody that I'm 13:33 knowingly a part of this and she was 13:38 offered an opportunity she was about to 13:41 take the opportunity to go back up north 13:45 for for 13:47 work and she changed her mind because 13:50 she was like these guys need me I can't 13:54 leave them in other words I help put 13:56 them in this predicament I can't aband 13:59 she went through a tremendous like 14:01 internal struggle to the point where it 14:04 even affected the relationship she had 14:05 with Caleb because it was like here it 14:08 is they were in love they kind of wanted 14:10 to go away together and all that but she 14:13 had the guilt of kind of how this whole 14:16 process started and then the guilt of 14:18 like kind of what happened after that 14:21 how these men were affected and then 14:24 here it is you know Caleb comes back 14:25 from the war and everything and he's 14:27 like look like you know it the deed has 14:30 been done this is already happening like 14:32 we need to just go start our lives and 14:34 she's like I can't leave these guys 14:37 behind like I just can't do it and it it 14:40 it unfortunately affected their personal 14:44 lives because it's kind of 14:46 like had this experiment not even 14:49 happened none of them would be in this 14:51 predicament at all so right and so um 14:57 back to reality 14:59 um a lot of things came out of this time 15:05 period rules were put in place um once 15:09 this was re was revealed and you know 15:13 the public expressed outrage over it new 15:16 policies were put into place to make 15:19 sure that you know people were aware of 15:24 when they were a part of medical 15:26 research so now you are in invited to 15:30 clinical studies you don't just become a 15:33 guinea pig because someone says you know 15:35 what I want to see how long this person 15:37 survives if they have XYZ disease you 15:42 have to be offered you have to be 15:44 compensated you have to be treated like 15:47 a human being and not a lab rat that's 15:50 required by law um there are 15:55 institutional review boards so one set 15:58 of do s can't come up with this 16:00 experiment run it privately and then do 16:04 what they want with the information if 16:05 you're going to have a clinical trial 16:08 then there's a review board to make sure 16:10 that you are following all processes and 16:13 protocols that are laid out to make sure 16:15 that the patient is cared for um and you 16:20 know this this movie kind of speaks to 16:23 and you being a Med medical professional 16:25 you're aware of some of this um it kind 16:29 of speaks to what impacts uh mortality 16:33 rate amongst 16:35 African-Americans and while it has 16:39 improved there's still room for 16:43 improvement plenty of room for 16:45 improvement because the mortality rate 16:48 birth rate between black women and white 16:51 women there's still a gap there same 16:54 thing for breast 16:57 cancer there's still a gap there and 17:00 even and I can speak from my own 17:02 experience when trying to get um 17:06 assistance with health 17:08 issues you probably going to have to go 17:10 through as a a black woman you're 17:12 probably going to have to go through a 17:14 few doctors before you can get yeah what 17:18 you need I had a talk with my doctor the 17:20 other day and she was like oh I 17:22 recommend this doctor and I was like 17:25 uhuh went to them and I didn't even get 17:28 into it with her about why how racist 17:32 this doctor was towards me I just said 17:36 no and I think that's where I related to 17:40 Caleb because he was like I'm advocating 17:44 for myself for myself I'm here but I 17:47 have a lot of questions that I need and 17:49 I love you know I love that about his 17:50 character because I feel like and I try 17:52 to kind of impress this upon the 17:54 patients I work with in general because 17:57 as a human being like you have to be you 18:01 have to be researching you have to be 18:04 thoughtful and thorough with your own 18:06 health care like you have to be 18:08 questioning these doctors you know and 18:10 asking them about this stuff because 18:13 they don't know it all they don't know 18:15 at all there are some doctors that go by 18:17 the book or they are just trying to sell 18:20 the these you know medications to to get 18:25 perks and things like that it's kind of 18:27 like you have to be your own Advocate 18:30 you have to research yourself because 18:32 here it is in this scenario it's like if 18:35 he didn't do that research on his own 18:37 and like kind of take that extra step 18:40 and try to figure things out on his own 18:42 he would have been just like some of 18:43 those men that that ended up dead 18:46 because it's like you know you got to 18:48 kind of ask more questions and care more 18:50 about your health and not just listen to 18:53 what a health care provider or whatever 18:55 is telling you all the time yeah there 18:58 was one guy and I I didn't write his 19:00 name down in the notes did all the 19:02 research looked him up his name was 19:06 Charlie I can't remember his last name 19:09 now I'll try and put up a picture of him 19:12 but he was one of the um last survivors 19:16 of the Tuskegee 19:19 experiment and the reason why I 19:22 remembered him is because they they did 19:24 a a report about him and he 19:29 wore a hat at all times because again 19:32 when you get syphus you if it's not 19:34 treated or treated quickly you start to 19:37 get lesions and they they kind of 19:38 represented that in the um in the movie 19:42 where these guys had like marks on their 19:45 face he had marks on his 19:50 scalp and so he used to wear a hat to 19:53 hide 19:54 it but he was and which president was it 19:58 I don't remember if it was no no no no 20:01 no no cuz this was in like the '90s 20:03 shortly before he passed but he was 20:07 given some kind of medal okay by the 20:10 president 20:11 for um his his involvement and survival 20:16 because black people are rewarded for 20:18 surviving um he was given a reward for 20:22 that but that man suffered through all 20:26 of that and you know I think he died in 20:30 I want to say he passed away in 20:33 2009 darn I wish I had notes on it but 20:35 I'll try and put that up at the 20:37 end all in all as far as historical 20:42 content I feel like this was pretty 20:45 accurate even though it's a 20:46 fictionalized movie I think it was 20:49 pretty accurate if you're not aware of 20:52 the Tuskegee experiment I definitely say 20:56 watch it go down the rabbit hole get 20:59 online do the research um and once again 21:04 sit your kids down to watch it you know 21:08 I think the news just broke today that 21:10 apparently at the federal level Black 21:12 History Month is being cancelled 21:15 so look don't let it be canceled in your 21:18 house celebrate educate make sure you 21:22 know about stuff like this because as we 21:24 can see history is starting to repeat 21:26 itself in a very backwards way so that 21:30 being said hope you enjoyed this review 21:33 don't forget to like share follow 21:35 subscribe to our YouTube page also our 21:39 Facebook page even though I'm trying to 21:41 move us off of meta completely because 21:45 reasons um our group on Facebook is 21:48 called movies that move we you can also 21:51 find me on the spill app download it 21:56 it's aiv it's nice and quiet over there 21:58 under my page which is Nay wres n i ke 22:03 wri I Tes and also on fan base same name 22:08 nay 22:10 writes and YouTube where movies that 22:13 movie is the name of the playlist we 22:15 have more than two years of uh movie 22:19 discussions that you can check out and 22:21 hey we like comments on the old stuff so 22:23 feel free but definitely let us know 22:26 what you thought of this movie and and 22:29 um what are we doing I don't think we've 22:30 decided on the next movie we haven't 22:32 decided on the next movie but there are 22:35 some Runner UPS I know the next two that 22:39 we're looking at is um the piano lesson 22:43 and fences those are like the top two 22:46 options for the next Go Round right and 22:49 so we'll keep you posted on that there 22:52 will be no show next week but the first 22:55 week of 22:56 February we're going all in we're 22:58 celebrating black history mon over here 23:00 we are we don't care who don't like 23:03 we're celebrating 23:05 ourselves anyway thank you so much for 23:07 joining us and until next week we'll see 23:10 you later bye bye
    
   

   Event details

   
   RMCommunityCalendar 0 Comments · 0 Reviews

   

   

   Economic Corner 09…

   
   

   28 January 2026

   This event began 01/28/2025 and repeats every year forever

   
   

   What she misses is a crossroads of three things. First, the studios want to maximize profit, which means they want to use media properties they already own and attract the most sales. Second, the properties studios own are quite old, decades old, centuries old and tend to be created by white people of european descent filled with mostly characters described in appearance or culture as white of european descent, which has the problem of not being as attractive to non whites than non white characters. Third, the modern buyers of media content are not overwhelmingly , overwhelmingly meaning seventy five percent or more , of white European descent and the studios want to cater to them. 
   The three elements show the problem. The studios always want to save money+ not risk money, which means the studios are not going to buy new non white European characters or use lesser known non white European characters that many, including many non whites of European descent, don't know. 
   So with the desire to maximize profits + risk least investment revenue this means changing white European characters they already own into non white European characters is most efficient.
   This is what I think many, Black or non black are missing.  When I think on most popular movies in the last thirty years, few are of a new property. Every star wars/star trek/marvel/dc film is of an old property. Every biopic is of an old property, that being a famous person. Little that makes the most money is new, is unheard of. 
   Even nosferatu which has made a splash is again, is old. So, if old properties are the fans are buying, and all the old characters owned by studios is white, simple arithmetic to save money or risk less revenue is to change characters already owned to fit the non white European buyer. 
   And again, prove the studios wrong, not with artistic judgement videos or human communal statement videos but by sales. 
   Consider DC has access to Milestone and yet, it never occurred to them to give milestone characters their own movies. Here is a comic imprint made by non white Europeans, mostly blacks, that has a gallery of non white European characters made by non white Europeans. DC made birds of prey changing white European descent characters. 
   Marvel treats black panther as their non white world movies. Black panther 1 had more black people in an action sci fi adventure than ever before. black panther 2 added first peoples of the Americas taking namor the submariner and changing his character's design dramatically. But this was cheaper, and the profits prove the studios right. 
   The biggest problem with this issue is, and I can speak of this as a writer. New characters or lesser known characters haven't proven to have big money legs. Notice I didn't say they couldn't they haven't proven it. 
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czf2k-WJ6iU
   
   
   MY COMMENT
   The problem the studios have is they want to always save money + risk the least revenue developing+ gain the most buyers in modernity which has many more buyers not of white european descent than ever before, and based on financial results of films, year in and year out, it only leads to one conclusion and that is race swapping. To restate my point, the financial returns of the film industry prove their race swapping actions correct, against other options. 
   TRANSCRIPT
   0:00 before we get started I have a brand new 0:02 short film that is releasing on this 0:04 channel very soon I love this short film 0:06 I think it's the best one I've done yet 0:07 and I really need your guys' help for 0:09 feedback for this short film so if when 0:12 I drop it which is going to be before 0:14 the end of January I would really 0:16 appreciate if you would give it a watch 0:18 and please I highly recommend you watch 0:21 this short film to the end because it's 0:23 the best one I've done so far so without 0:25 further Ado let's get on to the video 0:27 one of the big controversial things 0:29 that's been going on and talked about a 0:31 lot for years now is racebending 0:34 characters and I haven't really thrown 0:37 my hat in the ring to talk about it yet 0:39 other than saying you know talking about 0:41 things like Batman cape Crusader that 0:43 just because you race bend a character 0:45 does not mean that the show is going to 0:47 be bad or that it needs to affect 0:49 anything but there were a couple maybe 0:52 three things that I read and that had 0:54 happened that made me finally want to 0:57 make this video because something really 1:00 got under my skin regarding this entire 1:03 conversation now race bending characters 1:06 it's very controversial does it ever 1:08 affect story is it wrong to ever race 1:10 bend a character we've seen it happen a 1:13 lot with some very iconic characters 1:15 lately that they get race Bend and it 1:17 causes a lot of tension and infighting 1:20 over this now when I was growing up 1:22 there were a lot of projects that did 1:25 have technically race bent characters 1:27 that I loved one of my favorite movies 1:30 growing up and what I think might even 1:31 be the best adaptation of Cinderella 1:34 ever was with Brandy and Whitney Houston 1:37 when they did the Roger and Hammerstein 1:39 or Stein's version of it and that was an 1:41 insanely successful movie when it aired 1:44 on TV and I loved watching it growing up 1:46 also in my teen years getting into the 1:49 Avengers and all that you had Samuel L 1:51 Jackson as Nick Fury and that is a race 1:53 bent version of the character from the 1:56 comics but everyone seemed to love 1:58 Samuel Jackson as Nick I don't remember 2:00 there being any sort of controversy over 2:03 it and so you can see that in the past 2:06 there were these times when race bending 2:08 a character would not be a big deal and 2:12 most people I think just assumed you 2:13 must have gotten the right person for 2:15 the role and would go from there but 2:18 however I would like to point out for 2:19 something like Nick Fury in uh The 2:22 Avengers I don't doubt that there was 2:24 some conversation behind the scenes 2:26 going on about you know the Avengers the 2:28 original six were six white people let's 2:30 get somebody in here who's non-white 2:32 somebody like a high caliber actor so um 2:36 we can maybe get a different sort of 2:38 audience because Hollywood has had that 2:39 thinking of for decades that they need 2:41 to introduce non-white characters to get 2:44 different demographics to hopefully 2:46 watch their film so that was the way it 2:49 was it wasn't really seen as a big deal 2:51 and I think we just went through a 2:53 period of time when racebending any sort 2:55 of character like it it didn't really 2:57 seem to anger people enough or make that 3:01 much of a controversy for Hollywood when 3:03 they did it for example you had Jessica 3:05 Alba as a Latina actress um playing Sue 3:09 storm who's a white character they did 3:11 make her wear makeup to whiten her face 3:14 a bit and that would not fly today you 3:16 had oh I can't remember the name but 3:18 Michael Clark Duncan but he did a RAC 3:20 bement version of Kingpin for Ben 3:23 Affleck Daredevil and then you have um 3:26 ight Shyamalan decided for whatever 3:28 reason to get white actors to play the 3:30 characters in his Avatar movie which I 3:34 definitely do not approve of because you 3:37 know you should have gotten Asians to 3:39 play Asian characters but anyway uh for 3:42 whatever reason he got away with it at 3:43 the time and so I think that that just 3:45 shows that there was a time in history 3:48 where race bending was just like for 3:50 whoever it was being done to it was not 3:52 seen as such a huge deal that it would 3:54 prevent it from happening in the first 3:55 place and this was after a time where 3:57 decades ago it used to be very difficult 3:59 for for a non-white actor to get a good 4:01 role it there there were very very 4:03 limited roles back then decades ago and 4:06 if you go and listen to actors doing 4:08 interviews it was very limiting the 4:10 kinds of roles they were offered if you 4:11 weren't a white person so we can see how 4:13 it's changed over time but now uh the 4:17 race bending of White characters has 4:19 become super controversial and why is 4:23 that well because they've pushed it so 4:25 hard and they've pushed it in such a way 4:27 that it's in ently cause tension like 4:31 for example um another thing I can say 4:34 growing up is that there used to be some 4:36 cartoon characters that occasionally 4:37 would be raceman like Liz Allen from 4:40 spectacular Spider-Man that cartoon in 4:42 the original uh comic she is a Caucasian 4:45 blonde girl and they made her a Latina 4:48 in the cartoon and I never had a problem 4:51 with that I enjoyed that version of Liz 4:53 Allen and I never heard anyone who 4:54 didn't have a problem with that and why 4:57 well Liz Allen that look for the 4:59 character it isn't as well known and so 5:01 I don't think people notice it as much 5:03 also there was justification and once 5:05 again they've been trying to 5:07 diversifying things like that for years 5:08 now but there was justification for Liz 5:10 Allen because she was another white 5:13 blonde character from Spider-Man she had 5:15 the same look as Gwen Stacy so changing 5:18 her per race making her look different 5:20 that it just it just act added an actual 5:23 diversity to the cast so that every 5:25 character had their distinct look 5:26 different ethnic background and I think 5:28 that that really worked another 5:30 character that was race bent in a 5:32 cartoon X-Men evolution Amara AKA magma 5:35 she was a character who was another 5:37 Caucasian blonde from the comics but 5:39 there were already a lot of Caucasian 5:41 blondes on the New Mutants team that she 5:43 originated from and they made her Latina 5:46 in X-Men evolution and once again 5:48 probably trying to diversify with that I 5:50 thought it worked though you know it was 5:52 helpful the characters all have their 5:54 distinct looks I actually really like 5:56 that version of Amara so you see in the 5:58 past it can work and not cause 6:01 controversy so how did race bending 6:03 characters start to become so 6:05 controversial for a couple different 6:06 reasons number one you'll notice when it 6:08 comes to characters like magma or Liz 6:11 Allen these were characters that weren't 6:13 very well known or I would even say in 6:15 the case of Nick Fury it was a 6:17 combination of even Nick Fury wasn't 6:19 that well known also um back then they 6:21 didn't do race bending as much they 6:23 didn't push it as hard I don't think 6:25 that people expected anything other than 6:27 they probably just got the right actor 6:29 for the role 6:30 but the problem that has happened these 6:32 days is they have been doing it to more 6:34 and more iconic characters like Mary 6:37 Jane Watson that is a character who is 6:39 very very iconically a redhead a white 6:43 redhead that is an iconic look for the 6:45 character it is really it really defines 6:48 her so when you did that when you cast 6:51 Zena as the character in culture 6:53 Michelle Jones but she's sort of pseudo 6:55 MJ it caused a lot of backlash and this 6:58 is what you see 7:00 when they race Bend characters that are 7:02 more wellknown why well because people 7:04 have an expectation for the character to 7:07 look like they do in the source material 7:09 when it's that iconic like I would say 7:12 the same thing and I've talked about 7:13 this before when it comes to like you 7:15 know Brandy and Cinderella I love that 7:17 movie I love her take on Cinderella 7:19 Cinderella is a story that's been told 7:21 by every culture every ethnicity it 7:23 really doesn't matter fairy tales can be 7:25 a lot more loose than that and I would 7:27 say the same for a lot of the fairy tals 7:30 from Disney but and while I would say 7:33 please like no one should attack the 7:34 actors and actresses over this stuff I 7:37 do think that Disney has set up their 7:39 actors and actresses up to fail when 7:42 they choose to race Ben characters in 7:44 their liveaction Disney movies why well 7:47 because while you can tell a new story 7:50 with these characters and these versions 7:52 but there with the Disney Live Action 7:54 remakes with the people who watch them 7:56 they want the whole thing with them is 7:58 that they're shot for shot remakes of 8:00 the original they're supposed to be 8:01 remakes of the original so when you set 8:03 up the expectation that this is Ariel 8:05 for example in the RAS B that character 8:08 then you start to cause controversy 8:11 there is why doesn't this character look 8:13 the way she does in the original and 8:15 does it matter that much well in this 8:18 case when I'm talking about the little 8:19 mermaid no it doesn't there's no reason 8:21 why someone couldn't play a good version 8:23 of uh The Little Mermaid that's a 8:26 different race but the problem with it 8:28 is that here's what happens you'll get a 8:30 character like Mary Jane or Ariel or 8:33 whoever it is you'll get a character 8:34 where people have a certain expectation 8:36 of how they're supposed to look uh based 8:39 on how they were from the source and 8:41 people might be critical because it 8:43 doesn't look the way that it does in the 8:44 source and that's just fandom you know 8:47 like fans want things to look the way 8:49 they were in The Source material they 8:50 want events to play out the way they did 8:52 in the material uh we'll have more 8:54 examples of that in a minute but like 8:56 that is a part of fandom when they 8:57 things are iconic from the mat material 9:00 The Source material they want that to be 9:01 reflected and here's what I've seen 9:03 happen over and over and over again in 9:05 the past decade is that they will they 9:07 will race been an iconic character 9:09 people will get upset by it and then the 9:12 response will be like you're just racist 9:15 like the only reason why you could 9:17 possibly dislike this change or find it 9:19 questionable or just not be really into 9:22 it is because you're are racist you just 9:25 cannot stand seeing a black person get a 9:28 role like this get a big role like this 9:31 and that is the only reason why you 9:33 don't like it and so because disliking 9:36 something like that gets you called a 9:37 racist you know that's a very 9:40 inflammatory terrible word to call 9:42 someone or to be accused of that in 9:45 invites anger that invites Anger from 9:47 the people who initially perhaps just 9:49 wanted a character to look the way they 9:51 did in the source material and now all 9:53 of a sudden they are in have been called 9:55 an inflammatory term that creates anger 9:57 that feeds it back to more anger at the 10:00 person that they cast in the role where 10:02 it was race bent which indeed I I 10:04 imagine I can I don't have to imagine 10:06 the people who' have been casting these 10:08 roles do not like having anger pushed 10:10 back at them so that will come back to 10:12 the way that they communicate with the 10:14 fan base or the audience and so on and 10:17 on and on it goes on like that and the 10:19 tensions rise now once again be before 10:22 it wasn't really controversial to race 10:25 benen characters so much now part of it 10:27 once again is happening because they 10:29 started doing it to more and more iconic 10:30 characters they start doing more 10:31 frequently and the other problem is they 10:34 grandstand about it so much because once 10:36 again I think before people would just 10:38 assume that if you got a role it was 10:40 because you were the right person for 10:41 that role but now Hollywood has just 10:44 grandstand it so much about look at us 10:47 we we put uh non-white characters in 10:50 this project we're putting more 10:51 diversity more non-white characters look 10:53 at us aren't we good people aren't 10:55 aren't people just going to be so happy 10:57 to be represented it's always BR 10:59 standing from Hollywood posturing about 11:01 how good they are doing this stuff and 11:02 the more they've talked about it the 11:04 more they've called attention to it it's 11:06 made people realize this is not just 11:08 happening because they happen to find 11:10 the right person for the role it's 11:12 happening because they have institutions 11:14 behind the scenes that demand this 11:15 they're doing this because of agendas 11:18 not because they just found the person 11:20 for the role and that once again blows 11:22 it up to be much more than just you 11:24 wanted to see this character look the 11:26 way it was in The Source material it 11:27 starts to become about modern-day 11:30 politics it starts to become about 11:32 agenda pushing it starts to become about 11:34 something so much bigger than that there 11:36 people are now seeing that these things 11:37 are not happening just because they 11:39 found the right person for the role and 11:41 that makes you think you know you could 11:43 have gotten the right person for the 11:44 role maybe or the person who looks the 11:47 way you wanted that character to if they 11:49 didn't have these institutions if they 11:51 weren't posturing about this and once 11:53 again that feeds more tension that is 11:56 all that has happened with this stuff is 11:57 feeding more tension to the point where 12:00 we now see explosions if ever any person 12:03 is playing a race bent character whereas 12:05 before it didn't used to be such a big 12:08 deal now I've been of the opinion for 12:10 years that it doesn't it shouldn't 12:12 matter that much race spending a 12:14 character usually if it doesn't affect 12:16 the story if they found the right person 12:18 for the role like once again Jeffrey 12:20 Wright playing Commissioner Gordon he 12:22 did such a great job at that character 12:25 as that character but some things have 12:28 made me change my mind a little bit 12:30 because of the hypocrisy I see and these 12:33 are some of the things that made me want 12:35 to make this video for example the other 12:37 day I was talking about how I do not 12:39 understand why people want Kiki Palmer 12:41 to play Rogue not because of her race 12:44 but because I just don't see the 12:46 character in her maybe she's been in 12:48 something that I haven't seen where she 12:49 reminds people of the character I just 12:51 don't see it and the point of me saying 12:53 that it's not about her race is me 12:55 saying that if there was an actress that 12:57 just completely embodied the role and 12:58 she happened to be A different race then 13:00 I could understand it but I didn't 13:02 understand this one and someone under 13:04 that Community post wrote that um it it 13:08 should it that race never matters to a 13:11 white character story that it rarely 13:13 ever is relevant to a white character 13:14 story and that that's why it's okay to 13:17 race Bend White characters obviously 13:19 that's what we're talking about here 13:20 because in this day and age they would 13:22 never dare to try to race Bend uh or 13:25 outright race bend a black character and 13:29 that got under my skin a little bit 13:31 because I'm like but it has happened 13:33 when it's relevant to the story Snow 13:35 White that was a big one they had to go 13:38 in and you they already revealed this in 13:40 the international trailer completely 13:42 changed the story to explain a different 13:44 reason why she's called Snow White 13:46 because they had to ca cast a brown 13:48 actress to play her because um for a 13:51 character who's described as Skin as 13:53 white as snow that's how she's defined 13:55 as but Disney in the day and age when 13:57 this was made just would not have a 13:59 white lead as this character so they had 14:02 to change it to honor the day I was born 14:06 my father named me Snow White and this 14:09 is an example a prime example where they 14:12 had to change the story because they 14:14 couldn't cast a white actor for the 14:15 character and it got nothing but 14:17 ridicule once again I don't know what 14:19 they're thinking about this it got 14:20 nothing but ridicule this decision 14:22 another example they did is the 14:24 Fantastic Four uh years ago they cast 14:27 Michael B Jordan to play Johnny dorm and 14:29 that creates problems because uh 14:31 Invisible Woman They cast as a blonde 14:34 white woman like she was in the comics 14:36 but um they're supposed to be biological 14:39 brother and sister but they had to 14:40 change that for Fant for stick because 14:43 they couldn't have four white leads and 14:45 if you think that this isn't happening 14:46 this has been a major conversation stuff 14:49 happening behind the scenes in Hollywood 14:51 that is part of the reason why they had 14:53 such a hard time casting for the new 14:54 Fantastic 4 is they're having a hard 14:56 time with a movie that has four white 14:59 characters as they are in the comics and 15:02 they can't have that they can't have a 15:04 movie with four white leads anymore but 15:06 you see it did change the source 15:08 material this does happen when you're 15:09 changing the source material for me 15:12 personally though it's like you know 15:14 true diversity in real life is sometimes 15:17 imbalanced like in the 90s and and the 15:20 these are shows I grew up with Loving 15:22 Family Matters all black m cast Fresh 15:25 Prince all black main cast I think 15:27 sometimes they brought in a white 15:28 characters like a villain or something I 15:29 didn't care Disney was really patting 15:31 itself on the back of being like we 15:33 hired an all Asian uh cast for Mulan and 15:36 I'm like yeah you should have because 15:38 Mulan is set in China centuries ago you 15:41 know sometimes you're going to have it 15:43 where your cast is disproportionately 15:45 black or Asian or white in fact that's 15:48 just the way it is that's what diversity 15:49 truly looks like we don't all have 15:52 perfectly uh uh quotas filled out in 15:55 real life that's just the way it is and 15:57 if you're not a racist that shouldn't 15:59 bother you that's just the way life is 16:02 so it's like there shouldn't be a 16:03 problem if you just happen to have four 16:06 white leads for Fantastic 4 as is 16:08 accurate to the source material cuz 16:10 there's other stuff like black panther 16:12 that should be a black man cast like 16:14 that's what true diversity looks like 16:16 but you know that comment that person 16:18 made bothered me because it's like no 16:20 one would ever say that blade or cyborg 16:24 should ever be A different race and I 16:26 would agree cuz those are who the 16:27 characters are so it's like for example 16:29 with Rogue yeah I would like I could 16:33 like in the past I could completely 16:34 understand you found the right person 16:35 for the role the the super official 16:37 races the change but you found the right 16:38 person so it's fine but I'm like yeah I 16:41 would like Rogue to hopefully be played 16:43 by a white actress why because she's 16:46 been white in the comics for 40 years 16:49 yeah that that because it's accurate to 16:51 the source material I would like sorg to 16:53 be black because that's accurate to the 16:55 source material in terms of race 16:56 spending there has been controversy 16:58 about colorism about are they hiring 17:01 light brown skinned actors to play Black 17:04 characters uh there's been some 17:06 controversy about that like Sunspot in 17:08 the various adaptations he's had he's 17:10 supposed to be black in the comics and 17:12 it's important to his character and his 17:13 origin for him to be black and fans of 17:15 that character have been upset that he's 17:17 always lighter brown skin and AD ad 17:19 adaptations and I would agree with them 17:22 why because I know what Sunspot is 17:24 supposed to be in the comics people want 17:26 storm to be cast by a darker skin 17:29 black actress and I'm like yes because 17:32 she while storm and the comics was born 17:35 in Harlem she grew up in I think she 17:37 moved to Cairo Egypt she grew up in 17:39 Kenya for a time like that should be the 17:41 characters now from that I think that 17:43 it's okay for someone to also say I 17:45 would like this character to be white 17:48 solely because that's the way that they 17:50 are in the source material and that's 17:52 fine because all this race bending has 17:55 done is it's caused tension it's caused 17:57 hate to the actors that they do it to 18:00 it's caused a lot of division and and 18:02 things blowing up out of proportion to 18:04 become even bigger than just a simple 18:06 casting in a show you know here's the 18:08 real big Crossroads of thinking is for a 18:11 long time I've always been like you know 18:13 if you've just found the right person 18:14 for a role then race bending is okay but 18:17 the problem is that it only ever goes 18:19 Runway like back in the day when they 18:21 cast uh mostly non-puerto Ricans in fact 18:24 only one Puerto Rican to play a Puerto 18:25 Rican character in Westside Story um uh 18:28 one could also say that the actors did a 18:30 good job with their roles but would it 18:32 be was it still right for them to take 18:34 roles away from Puerto Ricans no and so 18:37 that's sort of the crossroads I come to 18:39 with my thinking on this stuff is that 18:41 there is a double standards with it and 18:44 recently the latest controversy over Ray 18:46 spending came over the upcoming 18:47 Spider-Man cartoon where Norman and 18:49 Harry Osborne are black and all I saw 18:52 for this was ridicule not from white 18:55 people so much but black people I just 18:57 saw so many people on YouTube or Twitter 19:00 and these accounts of from black people 19:02 making fun of this because they don't 19:04 actually want it and it was a completely 19:06 an unnecessary change and I watched a 19:08 video that was actually from a black 19:10 person and and he said something that 19:12 really stuck out to me in it and it was 19:15 that um they keep saying this doesn't 19:16 matter it doesn't matter it doesn't 19:18 affect the story so why should it bother 19:19 you and he said if it doesn't matter 19:22 then why do it and it's insulting 19:24 because it makes me feel as a black 19:27 person that you don't see me me as 19:29 legitimate unless I have to have 19:30 something else that came from a white 19:32 person it's annoying and there's going 19:34 to be people saying oh it doesn't matter 19:36 calling demingo is a good actor and he's 19:38 voicing the character you are 100% right 19:41 so if it doesn't matter why do it and 19:45 and that's the whole thing with this 19:46 race bending is so many times it's been 19:49 uh forced and unnecessary and people see 19:52 that and all it's done is drive up 19:53 tension so here is my proposal How about 19:56 if a character is supposed to be black 19:58 then cast a black person if a character 20:00 is supposed to be white cast a white 20:02 person and that way you won't have so 20:04 much tension from groups and and all 20:06 this infighting and arguing and and you 20:09 don't have to focus so much on people's 20:12 race all the time and I think that's 20:14 where we're headed right now you can 20:15 really see how Disney has been affected 20:18 by this and the Tangled live action 20:20 remake and I am completely against a 20:22 tangled liveaction remake but all of the 20:24 the rumored castings for it has then 20:26 Sabrina Carpenter or Florence Pew so a 20:29 white blonde woman to play a white 20:31 blonde woman good fine I think that 20:34 Disney has learned from the Snow White 20:36 movie that it is just ridiculous to 20:37 force it when it doesn't make sense and 20:39 at this point you know it's it is a 20:41 little crazy because as I said race 20:44 bending used to not be a big deal he 20:45 used to get away with it used to be able 20:47 to do it it used to not be a big deal to 20:49 see a non-white person play a 20:51 traditionally white character but they 20:53 made it a problem they made it so that 20:56 now people see it as Force they see it 20:58 as just agenda pushing they don't see it 21:00 as natural to the story they don't 21:02 assume that the person must have gotten 21:03 it because they were right for the role 21:05 they've spoiled it in effect because a 21:08 lot of this stuff that we've been seeing 21:09 this activism in media is just there and 21:12 it just spoils the very thing that 21:13 they're trying to promote so um yeah 21:16 that's my stance on Race bending 21:17 characters I think once again you could 21:19 have gotten away with this uh once upon 21:22 a time I think that there is a big 21:24 minutia in it and it just kind of 21:25 depends on the standards of the day 21:27 about um what is considered morally 21:29 acceptable or not but at this point it 21:31 would just be best to cast people the 21:34 way they were from The Source material 21:35 so you won't have such a fury about it 21:38 but that's all I got for you guys today 21:39 are you mad about me I was nervous about 21:41 talking about this topic but I figure my 21:44 maneuver ears resolution going forward 21:46 is to not be so scared of talking about 21:48 these hot button topics and the more 21:50 that we talk about it and they're just 21:52 normal about it I think the less the 21:54 people out there who will just scream 21:56 racist at you will be able to be 21:58 prominent but that's all I got for you 22:00 guys today what do you think of this 22:01 video yell at me in the comments thank 22:03 you patrons as always for supporting me 22:05 even as I'm covering these topics uh 22:07 once again new short film coming out 22:08 soon and I will see you guys next time
    
    
   Prior Post
    
   https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11424-economiccorner008/
   POST URL
   https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11444-economiccorner009/
   PRIOR EDITION
   https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/144-economic-corner-8-january-15th-2025/
   NEXT EDITION
   https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/166-economic-corner-10-online-divestiture- 01282025/
    
   
   

   Event details

   
   RMCommunityCalendar 0 Comments · 0 Reviews

   

   

   Economic Corner 10…

   
   

   28 January 2026

   This event began 01/28/2025 and repeats every year forever

   
   

   TikTok is the first non usa website to be the biggest esocial website in online humanity. If bytedance sells TikTok wholesale it is a financial mistake Bytedance should sell tiktokusa not tiktok. In Europe/South America/Africa/Asia tiktok is the big leader in the world, selling it completely to a usa buyer is a usa win. It is like the Japanese automakers making manufacturing plants in the usa, when they through competition won the economic car market, it is a usa win. Make TikTokusa TTU and make sure tiktokusa has contractual arrangements that demand an integration/association with TikTok.
   Profd , a member of aalbc cited below, said
   The next 4 years could be a wild ride in that regard as oligarchs get to pick and choose freedoms.
   This morning, I saw the handful of faces of people who could buy ByteDance i.e. TikTok.  None of them were Black.
   https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11431-tiktok-service-restored-ban-suspended/#findComment-71294
   Here is my issue. I don't mind a black buyer, though I think financially it is better to have a collection of black owners working together as a group. But for me the larger issue is the argument focuses on buying tiktok, instead of investing in a better online service for black people. 
   The film industry of Nigeria, commonly called Nollywood needs an online interface like a tiktok, I rather invest in that. 
   I know my words may seem like an attack to PRofd but they are not. My entire life, I have always heard the most financially capable blacks always emphasize investing in non black enterprises and never a word to owning a black owned enterprise. In my life, all to often, it is black people who are financially least capable or incapable who talk about owning black and not investing in non black. The internet is a huge place. Tiktok was not born because chinese were selling to the usa, tiktok is a clone of a chinese website to chinese people. 
   I rather a set of black investors invest in AALBC than tiktok. 
    
   Prior Post
   https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11444-economiccorner009/
   POST URL
   https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11445-economiccorner010/
   PRIOR EDITION
   https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/165-economic-corner-09-media-properties-dictate-01282025/
   NEXT EDITION
   https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/167-economic-corner-11-what-should-you-see-after-a-deepseek-01282025/
    
   
   

   Event details

   
   RMCommunityCalendar 0 Comments · 0 Reviews

   

   

   Economic Corner 11…

   
   

   28 January 2026

   This event began 01/28/2025 and repeats every year forever

   
   

   DeepSeek and the quality of usa finance
   MY THOUGHTS
   600 billion dollars. Nvidia lost 17th percent of its value in a day . Like many USA firms or industries outside military products, they are weak from the 1900s to today.  
   DeepSeek said it cost 5 million dollars to produce a product rivaling any comparative computer program in storage/speed/calculation at  1/20th of the cost. So this proves the value of the usa firms is incorrect. which is my issue. Tesla was given such a high value. The USA's financial environment allows for a bloating of firms, like Nvidia, like Tesla that to be blunt, have each lost huge market shares which they shouldn't. The fact that the best electric cars are made in china exposes Tesla's management to me. The fact that Nvidia who was part of an industry that biden gave billions of investment to and are playing catchup exposes the chip industry in the usa. The fact that OpenAI and Anthropic isn't open source, and have been outed for their financial dysfunction, demanding such investment while not making the code public exposes them. 
   Yes,  I will use this economic corner to share DeepSeek information as best I can. But my agenda is actually not about DeepSeek but the financial argument that the USA has a problem in the investment in technologies. There are those who believe that the one world has already been created and the USA is really the binder to all governments, in that mindset, no one is competing because the usa is really, the interchange between all governments. Human history proves fissures that are wanted, eventually become real, even if it takes a long time. The lesson in Chinese industries to all non white European governments, is to consider how they research , how they approach technological development. Is it about the Massachusetts institute of technology M.I.T. , is it about Stanford, is it about nepotism? I remember being a college student and I remember so often it was blacks who graduated from an oxford or an M.I.T. that would be given opportunities but didn't have the imagination or passion to do well with them. And the reason is simple, as anyone non white european knows, many people, including many asians that go to college in the usa are more interested with the appearance of intellect than being an ambitious creative. And for the record, the black people two generations earlier than mine, in my bloodline, earned multiple degrees or graduated from the ivy league schools, so my position is not about not going to an ivy league school or gaining multiple degrees, which i find so many black people love to suggest in a very enslaved way when another black person speaks of imaginations speaks of passion. Getting degrees for too many Black Descendent of Enslaved people is a Keeping up with the Jones act, to compare to other blacks in a view display to whites,  not an important act to creativity or learning. The second article below may convince you, of my point in this economic corner, which has been uttered by many Black DOSers since the end of the war between the states in the usa. 
   I quote the first article below, and the source article the quotes are from are present.
   Liang told Chinese tech publication 36Kr that the decision was motivated by scientific curiosity, not a desire to make a profit. “I couldn’t find a commercial reason to start DeepSeek even if you asked me,” he said. “Because it’s not commercially viable. Basic research has a very low return on investment. When OpenAI’s early investors gave it money, they probably didn’t think about the return they would get. Rather, they really wanted to do this business.”
   ...
   While OpenAI o1 costs $15 per million incoming tokens and $60 per million outgoing tokens, the DeepSeek Reasoner API based on the R1 model offers $0.55 per million incoming tokens and $2.19 per million outgoing tokens.
   ...
   To train its models, the High-Flyer hedge fund purchased more than 10,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs before the US export restrictions were introduced in 2022. Billionaire and Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang recently told CNBC that he estimates that DeepSeek now has about 50,000 NVIDIA H100 chips that they cannot talk about precisely because of US export controls. If this estimate is correct, then compared to the leading companies in the AI industry, such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, this is very small. After all, each of them has more than 500,000 GPUs.
   ...
    This also calls into question the feasibility of the Stargate project, an initiative under which OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank promise to build next-generation AI data centers in the United States, allegedly willing to spend up to $500 billion.
   
   Deepseek provides detailed technical reports explaining how the models work, as well as code that anyone can look at and try to copy.
   Code on hugging face
   https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1
   The code on GitHub
   https://github.com/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1
   referral
   https://fortune.com/2025/01/27/deepseek-just-flipped-the-ai-script-in-favor-of-open-source-and-the-irony-for-openai-and-anthropic-is-brutal/
    
   ARTICLES
   Where DeepSeek came from and who is behind the AI lab that shocked Silicon Valley
   Taras Mishchenko
   Editor-in-Chief of Mezha.Media. Taras has more than 15 years of experience in IT journalism, writes about new technologies and gadgets.
   28.01.2025 at 09:56
   A new artificial intelligence model DeepSeek-R1 from the Chinese laboratory DeepSeek appeared as if from nowhere. For the general public, the first mentions of it began to appear in the media only last week, and now it seems that everyone is talking about DeepSeek. Moreover, in just a week, the DeepSeek app has overtaken the well-known ChatGPT in the US App Store rankings. The model has also skyrocketed to the top downloadson the Hugging Face developer platform, asdevelopers are rushing to try it out and understand what this release can bring to their AI projects. So, logical questions arise: where did DeepSeek come from, who is behind this startup, and why has it made so much noise. I will try to answer them in this article.
   Where DeepSeek came from
   Given the history of Chinese tech companies, DeepSeek should have been a project of giants like Baidu, Alibaba, or ByteDance. But this AI lab was launched in 2023 by High-Flyer, a Chinese hedge fund founded in 2015 by entrepreneur Liang Wenfeng. He made a fortune using AI and algorithms to identify patterns that could affect stock prices. The hedge fund quickly gained popularity in China, and was able to raise more than 100 billion yuan (about $15 billion). Since 2021, this figure has dropped to about $8 billion, but High-Flyer is still one of the most important hedge funds in the country.
   As High-Flyer’s core business overlapped with the development of AI models, the hedge fund accumulated GPUs over the years and created Fire-Flyer supercomputers to analyze financial data. In the wake of the growing popularity of ChatGPT, a chatbot from the American company OpenAI, Liang, who also holds a master’s degree in computer science, decided in 2023 to invest his fund’s resources in a new company called DeepSeek, which was to create its own advanced models and develop general artificial intelligence (AGI).
   Liang told Chinese tech publication 36Kr [ https://36kr.com/p/2272896094586500 ] that the decision was motivated by scientific curiosity, not a desire to make a profit. “I couldn’t find a commercial reason to start DeepSeek even if you asked me,” he said. “Because it’s not commercially viable. Basic research has a very low return on investment. When OpenAI’s early investors gave it money, they probably didn’t think about the return they would get. Rather, they really wanted to do this business.”
   According to Liang, when he assembled DeepSeek’s R&D team, he also didn’t look for experienced engineers to build a consumer-facing product. Instead, he focused on doctoral students from top universities in China, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Beihang University, who were eager to prove themselves. Many of them had published in top journals and won awards at international academic conferences, but had no industry experience, according to Chinese technology publication QBitAI. [ https://www.qbitai.com/2025/01/241000.html ; identity of workers at DeepSeek] 
   “Our main technical positions are mostly filled by people who graduated this year or within the last one or two years,” Liang said in an interview in 2023. He believes that students may be better suited for high-investment, low-return research. “Most people, when they are young, can fully commit to a mission without utilitarian considerations,” Liang explained. His pitch to potential employees is that DeepSeek was created to “solve the world’s toughest questions.”
   Liang, who is personally involved in DeepSeek’s development, uses the proceeds from his hedge fund to pay high salaries to top AI talent. Along with TikTok owner ByteDance, DeepSeek is known in China for providing top compensation to AI engineers, and staff are based in offices in Hangzhou and Beijing.
   Liang positions DeepSeek as a uniquely “local” company, staffed by PhDs from leading Chinese universities. In an interview with the domestic press last year, he said that his core team “didn’t have any people who came back from abroad. They are all local… We have to develop the best talent ourselves.” DeepSeek’s identity as a purely Chinese LLM company has earned it popularity at home, as this approach is fully in line with Chinese government policy.
   This week, Liang was the only representative of China’s AI industry chosen to participate in a highly publicized meeting of entrepreneurs with the country’s second-in-command, Li Qiang. Entrepreneurs were told to “focus on breakthroughs in key technologies.”
   Not much is known about how DeepSeek started building its own large language models (LLMs), but the lab quickly opened their source code, and it is likely that, like many Chinese AI developers, it relied on open source projects created by Meta, such as the Llama model and the Pytorch machine learning library. At the same time, DeepSeek’s particular focus on research makes it a dangerous competitor for OpenAI, Meta, and Google, as the AI lab is, at least for now, willing to share its discoveries rather than protect them for commercial gain. DeepSeek has not raised funds from outside and has not yet taken significant steps to monetize its models. However, it is not known for certain whether the Chinese government is involved in financing the company.
   What makes the DeepSeek-R1 AI model unique
   In November, DeepSeek first announced that it had achieved performance that surpassed the leading-edge OpenAI o1 model, but at the time it only released a limited R1-lite-preview model. With the release of the full DeepSeek-R1 model last week and the accompanying white paper, the company introduced a surprising innovation: a deliberate departure from the traditional supervised fine-tuning (SFT) process that is widely used for training large language models (LLMs).
   SFT is a standard approach for AI development and involves training models on prepared datasets to teach them step-by-step reasoning, often referred to as a chain of thought (CoT). However, DeepSeek challenged this assumption by skipping SFT entirely and instead relying on reinforcement learning (RL) to train DeepSeek-R1.
   According to Jeffrey Emanuel, a serial investor and CEO of blockchain company Pastel Network, DeepSeek managed to outpace Anthropic in the application of the chain of thought (CoT), and now they are practically the only ones, apart from OpenAI, who have made this technology work on a large scale.
   At the same time, unlike OpenAI, which is incredibly secretive about how these models actually work at a low level and does not provide the actual model weights to anyone other than partners like Microsoft, these DeepSeek models are completely open and permissively licensed. They have released extremely detailed technical reports explaining how the models work, as well as code that anyone can look at and try to copy.
   With R1, DeepSeek essentially cracked one of the holy grails of AI: getting models to reason step by step without relying on massive teacher datasets. Their DeepSeek-R1-Zero experiment showed something remarkable: using pure reinforcement learning with carefully designed reward functions, the researchers were able to get the models to develop complex reasoning capabilities completely autonomously. It wasn’t just problem solving-the model organically learned to generate long chains of thought, check its own work, and allocate more computational time to more complex problems.
   In this way, the model learned to revise its thinking on its own. What is particularly interesting is that during training, DeepSeek observed what they called an “aha moment,” a phase when the model spontaneously learned to revise its chain of thought mid-process when faced with uncertainty. This sudden behavior was not explicitly programmed, but arose naturally from the interaction between the model and the reinforcement learning environment. The model literally stopped itself, flagged potential problems in its reasoning, and restarted with a different approach, all without being explicitly trained to do so.
   DeepSeek also solved one of the main problems in reasoning models: language consistency. Previous attempts at chain-of-thought reasoning often resulted in models mixing languages or producing incoherent output. DeepSeek solved this problem by smartly rewarding language consistency during RL training, sacrificing a slight performance hit for a much more readable and consistent output.
   As a result, DeepSeek-R1 achieves high accuracy and efficiency. At AIME 2024, one of the toughest math competitions for high school students, R1 achieved 79.8% accuracy, which is in line with OpenAI’s o1 model. At MATH-500, it reached 97.3%, and at the Codeforces programming competition, it reached the 96.3 percentile. But perhaps most impressively, DeepSeek was able to distill these capabilities down to much smaller models: their 14 billion-parameter version outperforms many models several times its size, showing that reasoning power depends not only on the number of parameters but also on how you train the model to process information.
   However, the uniqueness of DeepSeek-R1 lies not only in the new approach to model training, but also in the fact that it is the first time a Chinese AI model has gained such great popularity in the West. Users, of course, immediately went to ask it questions about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan that were sensitive to the Chinese government, and quickly realized that DeepSeek was censored. Indeed, it would be futile to expect a Chinese AI lab to not comply with Chinese law or policy.
   However, many developers consider this censorship to be an infrequent extreme case in real-world use that can be mitigated by fine-tuning. Therefore, it is unlikely that the issue of ethical use of DeepSeek-R1 will stop many developers and users who want to get access to the latest AI development and essentially for free.
   Of course, for many, the security of the data remains a question mark, as DeepSeek-R1 probably stores it on Chinese servers. But as a precautionary measure, you can try the model on Hugging Face in sandbox mode [ https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1 ] , or even run it locally on your PC if you have the necessary hardware. In such cases, the model will not be fully functional, but it will remove the issue of data transfer to Chinese servers.
   How much did it cost to develop DeepSeek-R1?
   To train its models, the High-Flyer hedge fund purchased more than 10,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs before the US export restrictions were introduced in 2022. Billionaire and Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang recently told CNBC that he estimates that DeepSeek now has about 50,000 NVIDIA H100 chips that they cannot talk about precisely because of US export controls. If this estimate is correct, then compared to the leading companies in the AI industry, such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, this is very small. After all, each of them has more than 500,000 GPUs.
   According to NVIDIA engineer Jim Fan, DeepSeek trained its base model, called V3, with a budget of $5.58 million over two months. However, it is difficult to estimate the total cost of training DeepSeek-R1. The use of 60,000 NVIDIA GPUs could potentially cost hundreds of millions of dollars, so the exact figures remain speculative.
   Why DeepSeek-R1 shocked Silicon Valley
   DeepSeek largely disrupts the business model of OpenAI and other Western companies working on their own closed AI models. After all, DeepSeek-R1 not only performs better than the best open-source alternative, Llama 3 by Meta. The model transparently shows the entire chain of thought in its answers. This is a blow to the reputation of OpenAI, which has hitherto hidden the thought chains of its models, citing trade secrets and the fact that it does not want to embarrass users when the model is wrong.
   In addition, DeepSeek’s success emphasizes that cost-effective and efficient AI development methods are realistic. We have already determined that in the case of a Chinese company, it is difficult to calculate the cost of development, and there may always be “surprises” in the form of multi-billion dollar government funding. But at the moment, DeepSeek-R1, with a similar level of accuracy to OpenAI o1, is much cheaper for developers. While OpenAI o1 costs $15 per million incoming tokens and $60 per million outgoing tokens, the DeepSeek Reasoner API based on the R1 model offers $0.55 per million incoming tokens and $2.19 per million outgoing tokens.
   However, while DeepSeek’s innovations are groundbreaking, they have by no means given the Chinese AI lab market leadership. As DeepSeek has published its research, other AI model development companies will learn from it and adapt. Meta and Mistral, a French open-source model development company, may be a bit behind, but it will probably only take them a few months to catch up with DeepSeek. As Ian LeCun, a leading AI researcher at Meta, said: “The idea is that everyone benefits from the ideas of others. No one is “ahead” of anyone and no country is “losing” to another. No one has a monopoly on good ideas. Everyone learns from everyone.”
   DeepSeek’s offerings are likely to continue to lower the cost of using AI models, which will benefit not only ordinary users but also startups and other businesses interested in AI. But if developing a DeepSeek-R1 model with fewer resources does turn out to be a reality, it could be a problem for AI companies that have invested heavily in their own infrastructure. In particular, years of operating and capital expenditures by OpenAI and others could be wasted.
   The market doesn’t yet know the final answer to whether AI development will indeed require less computing power in the future, but it is already reacting nervouslywith a drop in shares of NVIDIA and other suppliers of AI data center components. This also calls into question the feasibility of the Stargate project, an initiative under which OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank promise to build next-generation AI data centers in the United States, allegedly willing to spend up to $500 billion.
   But on the other hand, while American companies will still have excess capacity for the development of artificial intelligence, China’s DeepSeek, with the US export restrictions on chips still in place, may face a severe shortage. If we assume that resource constraints have indeed pushed it to innovate and allowed it to create a competitive product, the lack of computing power will simply prevent it from scaling, while competitors will catch up. Therefore, despite all the innovation of DeepSeek, it is still too early to say that Chinese companies will be able to compete with Western AI tech giants, even if we put aside the issues of censorship and data security.
   URL
   https://mezha.media/en/articles/where-deepseek-came-from-and-who-is-behind-the-ai-lab-that-shocked-silicon-valley
    
   Question and Answer excerpts from 疯狂的幻方：一家隐形AI巨头的大模型之路
   ...
   36Kr: What deductions and assumptions have we made about the business model?
   Liang Wenfeng: What we want now is that we can share most of our training results publicly, so that it can be combined with commercialization. We hope that more people, even a small app, can use large models at a low cost, instead of technology only in the hands of some people and companies, forming a monopoly.
   ...
   36Kr: In any case, it's a bit crazy for a commercial company to do a kind of research exploration with unlimited investment.
   Liang Wenfeng: If you have to find a commercial reason, it may not be found, because it can't be done.
   From a business point of view, basic research has a very low return on investment. When OpenAI's early investors invested money, they must not have thought about how much return I would get back, but really wanted to do it.
   What we are more certain now is that since we want to do this and have the ability, we are one of the most suitable candidates at this point in time.
   ...
   36Kr: How would you see the competitive landscape of large models?
   Liang Wenfeng: Large manufacturers definitely have advantages, but if they can't be applied quickly, they may not be able to continue to adhere to them, because they need to see results.
   The top startups also have solid technology, but like the old wave of AI startups, they have to face commercialization problems.
   ...
   36Kr: Talents for large-scale model entrepreneurship are also scarce, and some investors say that many suitable talents may only be in the AI labs of giants such as OpenAI and FacebookAI Research. Do you go overseas to poach this kind of talent?
   Liang Wenfeng: If you are pursuing short-term goals, it is right to find someone with existing experience. But if you look at the long term, experience is not so important, but basic ability, creativity, passion, etc. are more important. From this point of view, there are many suitable candidates in China.
   36Kr: Why isn't experience so important?
   Liang Wenfeng: You don't have to be able to do this by someone who has done this. High-Flyer's principle of recruiting people is to look at ability, not experience. Our core technical positions are basically mainly fresh graduates and those who have graduated for one or two years.
   36Kr: Do you think experience is an obstacle when it comes to innovating business?
   Liang Wenfeng: When you do something, experienced people will tell you without thinking that you should do it, but people without experience will repeatedly explore and think seriously about what should be done, and then find a solution that is in line with the current actual situation.
   36Kr: High-Flyer has entered the industry from a layman with no financial genes at all, and has become the head in a few years, is this recruitment rule one of the secrets?
   Liang Wenfeng: Our core team, even myself, didn't have quantitative experience at the beginning, which is very special. It can't be said to be the secret of success, but it's one of the cultures of High-Flyer. We don't deliberately shy away from experienced people, but it's more about ability.
   Take the sales position as an example. Our two main sales officers are both amateurs in this industry. One was originally engaged in the foreign trade of German machinery categories, and the other was originally written in the background of the brokerage. When they enter the industry, they have no experience, no resources, no accumulation.
   And now we may be the only big private equity firm that can focus on direct sales. Doing direct selling means that there is no need to divide the fees to the middlemen, and the profit margin is higher under the same scale and performance, and many companies will try to imitate us, but they do not succeed.
   36Kr: Why are many families trying to imitate you, but they are not successful?
   Liang Wenfeng: Because that's not enough for innovation to happen. It needs to match the culture and management of the company.
   In fact, they couldn't do anything in the first year, and only in the second year did they start to make some progress. But our assessment criteria are different from those of ordinary companies. We don't have KPIs and we don't have so-called tasks.
   36Kr: What are your assessment criteria?
   Liang Wenfeng: We are not like ordinary companies, we value the number of orders placed by customers, and our sales sales and commissions are not good at the beginning, but will encourage sales to develop their own circles, meet more people, and have greater influence.
   Because we believe that an honest salesperson who can be trusted by customers may not be able to get customers to place orders in a short period of time, but it can make you feel that he is a reliable person.
   URL
   https://36kr.com/p/2272896094586500
    
   Prior entry
   https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11445-economiccorner010/
   POST URL
   https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/11447-economiccorner011/
   PRIOR EDITION
   https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/166-economic-corner-10-online-divestiture- 01282025/
   NEXT EDITION
   https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/193-economic-corner-12-02122025/
    
   
   

   Event details

   
   RMCommunityCalendar 0 Comments · 0 Reviews

   

   

   AI Palooza Webinar…

   
   

   28 January 2026

   This event began 01/28/2026 and repeats every year forever

   
   

   AI Palooza Webinar (NABJ) National Association of Black Journalists video 01/28/2026 with Benét Wilson
    
   Something to learn
   Associated Press has been using AI for ten years
   
   
    
   LINK
   https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1JUMBFoZ5f/
    
   EMBEDED VIDEO
   
    
   
    
    
    
   

   Event details

   
   RMCommunityCalendar 0 Comments · 0 Reviews

   

   

   MLK jr day 2026 vi…

   
   

   28 January 2026

   This event began 01/28/2026 and repeats every year forever

   
   

   VIDEO
   REFERRAL
    
   https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/356-mlk-jr-day-good-news-calendar/
   COMMENTARY
    
   @Onderonable
   2 days ago
   The strangest thing I learned growing up was that blacks do not respect Martin Luther King Jr. or his message of non-violence. He is not held up as a hero by them.
   1
   Reply
   @richardmurrayaalbcassist7279
   0 seconds ago
   well in my experience most blacks, and all the black people I know of in my life including myself, respect Martin Luther King junior, the issue is, they don't concur that the strategy of nonviolence he lived by was best for black people to grow positively in the usa , or elsewhere. He is held up as a hero by most black people in the usa, but he isn't always deemed correct by most black people in the usa
   Reply
    
    
   ONLINE REACTION TO MLK JR DAY 2026
   thank you @Troy
    
   CONTENT
    
   I'm revisiting the 7+ year old post because it is ranking high in search the past couple of weeks (at least) and has attracted more than 31K visitors (@richardmurray this would be mostly real people, not bots).
    
   If folks with influence in the media cared about sites like AALBC viral posts, of which we have many, this would be newsworthy.
    
   It seems MLK's sexual predilections are of interest to a lot of people. I guess because of his recent birthday.  I just ran a search on the phrase was MLK gay and this post came up #6. 
    
   Reading some of the earlier posts on the conversation, I must have been in a mood (sorry @Delano I was bit critical over you use of the word illegitimate when referencing children.  I still don't like the word used in that context, but thanks fore starting this conversation 🙂
    
   Maybe I should return Google ads to the site.  I the crappy Ads Google likes to server here, but AI told me how to step up the quality... we will see.
    
   
    
   The site as a whole 
   URL REFERRAL
   https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/5546-martin-luther-kings-sex-life-and-his-legacy/page/2/#comment-79758
    
   MY COMMENT
   citation
   https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/5546-martin-luther-kings-sex-life-and-his-legacy/page/2/#findComment-79773
    
   ted just now
   thank you @Troy 
   this is very interesting to me. I used the link and yes, it did come up sixth. I have never once searched such a thing. hmm, very informative to the human condition online. I wish you could access demographic information on who is searching. 
   So many today, search for complaint, search for negativity.. hmm , thank you for addressing me in your comment. 
   

   Event details

   
   RMCommunityCalendar 0 Comments · 0 Reviews

   

   

   Economic Corner 32…

   
   

   28 January 2026

   This event began 01/28/2026 and repeats every year forever

   
   

   The Trumpaccounts + Trumpcard have begun. 
   https://trumpaccounts.gov/
    
   https://trumpcard.gov/
    
   Trump Accounts
   thinking on it reminds me of the bonds grandparents would get their grandkids in the usa in years past. The website says all a parent has to do is put in one thousand dollars for a child and it will grow for said child, even if said parent doesn't put any more money. But, five thousand dollars can be placed in as a maximum per year. 
   I see an interesting gap. The website says the money will be invested in firms in the usa and parents/guardians can see the valuation of the investment. They say, at eighteen a child can extract for a home or college.
   The financial questions I have are the following, what firms in the usa can guarantee a positive return on investment every year, no matter what? And, can the money when the child is eighteen be extracted as raw cash? the website doesn't give important specifics, but I did notice the following.
   
    
   The small text says, estimates are for illustration only and are based on an account opening at birth with $1,000 opening deposit and are derived from historical S&P [ standard and Poor's] 500 averages. Actual results may differ and are not guaranteed. 
    
   So, while the webpage suggest guarantees, the disclaimer for lawsuit suggest it isn't guaranteed. Essentially, this whole program is the federal government as a broker. A broker can't guarantee you money but a broker may provide a nice set of profits. But it all assumes, the broker will do well. I wonder what will choose the firms to invest in. I bet anything a large language model will be used to choose where the money is invested in... historically, the usa had a culture that mirrored this modern drive. It was the culture of stock market investment before the crashes before commonly called world war one. What many may not know is the usa before said war, had a huge culture of stock investment brewing. The crashes plus the war ended that culture, and led to the eventual Securities and Exchange Commission. 
   Well it is a risk, but I gather the larger idea. Many don't know but the United States of America demands a citizen pay $2,350  to revoke their citizenship. 
   https://www.usa.gov/renounce-lose-citizenship
   https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/us-citizenship/Relinquishing-US-Nationality-Abroad.html
   I argue this serves the reverse function. Tying people and children to the usa through investment. 
    
   NOTES
   What will the money be invested in?
   Funds will be invested in a diversified portfolio of low-cost index funds designed to maximize long-term growth while minimizing risk.
   When can funds be used?
   Funds can be accessed without penalty when the child turns 18 for qualified expenses like education, a first home purchase, or starting a business. Withdrawals may be subject to restrictions and would be taxed at ordinary income rates.
   Can I contribute to my own account?
   Once you start earning income, you can make contributions to your own account. This is a great way to develop good savings habits early in life.
   How can corporations participate?
   Employers may choose to contribute to the Trump Accounts for their workers or their workers’ children, supporting early savings and financial readiness. Employers may choose to offer employees a salary reduction program under a “cafeteria plan” so that employees can make pre-tax contributions to Trump Accounts.
   Are corporate contributions tax-deductible?
   Yes, corporations can contribute up to $2,500 to Trump Accounts on behalf of their employees' children. All contributions are tax-deductible.
   Can philanthropists make donations?
   Yes. Nonprofit organizations and local governments can contribute to Trump accounts of all children in a state or qualified geographic area.
    
   Trump Card
   for individuals
   gold card version- fifteen thousand processing fee plus one million dollars for US residency
   platinum- for foreign nationals,  fifteen thousand processing fee plus five million dollar contribution for the ability to spend up to 270 days in the United States without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. income.
   for business
   For a $2 million contribution, receive U.S. residency in record time with the Trump Corporate Gold Card for your employees. After a $15,000 DHS processing fee* and background approval, onboard your preferred candidate. Your Trump Corporate Gold Card allows your business to transfer access from one employee and grant it to another with a small, 5% transfer fee, which includes the cost of a DHS background check. A 1% annual maintenance fee will also apply.
   *Additional small fees to the U.S. Department of State may apply depending on the applicant.
    
   NOTES
   Can family members apply?
   Yes. If an individual applicant or corporate sponsor wishes for a spouse or unmarried children (under 21 years old) to join the cardholder in the United States, then each such family member should be included as part of the initial application. This will ensure that these family members receive all of the privileges conferred by the Gold Card Program, including expedited processing. Each family member is subject to an additional $15,000 DHS processing fee and $1 million gift.
    
    
   How do applicants pay?
   $15,000 nonrefundable processing fee: Credit Card (U.S. and international); ACH debit (U.S. bank accounts only).
   $1 million or $2 million gift payment (depending on type of applicant): Upon receiving an email after vetting is complete, applicants or their corporate sponsors should instruct their banks to use an ACH debit or Swift Wire Transfer (U.S. and international bank accounts) according to the instructions provided at that time.
   Visa-related fees: The applicant will receive information directly from the U.S. Department of State on how to submit the visa application fee and payments for the required medical examination.
    
   IN AMENDMENT
    
   Both are basically investment channels into the usa. the accounts goal is scale, if they get enough accounts they will influence the market, the same way, retirement funds, which are collections of individual investments have huge value. the cards goal is for the worlds rich, they can afford them easily but allows an ease through bureaucracy.
    
   On an aside both websites say they are official websites of the united states government.
    
   and something from warren buffett 1999 nebraska forum
   0:03 testing one million two million three million that's working okay 0:08 i i'd like to uh talk to you about your financial future and i hope those figures become applicable to all of you 0:15 as we go along at uh uh and i'd like to start 0:20 uh by posing a problem for you and instead i'm just gonna talk for a couple minutes and we'll do q a because 0:26 what we want to do is talk about what's on your mind but i'd like you to think about this for just a second 0:31 if as we walked out of here today i said i would like to buy 0:38 ten percent of your financial future i was going to write you a check today 0:44 and from this day forth you were going to give me 10 percent of everything you 0:50 earned how much would you want to charge me for that i'm going to buy one tenth of you 0:57 and i may take the low bid incidentally so be careful what you uh right now well i think if you thought 1:03 about that a little while i should you can contemplate that for a few minutes you know you're gonna get a check for me today 1:10 and you can do anything you want with the money but from this day forth you have to give me 1:15 10 of what you earn i think it would be very foolish of you any of you if you asked for less 1:24 than say thousand dollars now it's gonna be a few years before you're out earning money and so i've got a few years of dead 1:29 money there but then i would start getting this royalty on you as you went along so i really think that if you thought about 1:35 it you'd most of you would want a fair amount more than that i think you'd be right 1:41 fortunately i didn't make this deal with anybody when i started out so nobody's got a 10 royalty on me but i 1:47 think that 50 000 would sort of be the absolute minimum and if you think about that that means 1:55 that right today you are worth five hundred thousand because of ten percent of you is worth 2:01 fifty thousand in cash today your potential 2:06 is worth a minimum on 100 basis of 500 000 that is the big financial 2:12 asset you've got it's way more important what you do with that 500 2:17 000 asset that you own today than whether you decide to buy stocks or 2:24 bonds or whether you put your money in a mutual fund or pick your own stocks or anything of that sort 2:29 the biggest financial asset that you have going for you by miles 2:35 is the value of your own earning power over the years so that's really what you should focus on if you're focusing on your financial 2:42 future that means you should finance focus on you because whether you're 10 percent is 2:48 worth 50 thousand or a hundred thousand or three hundred thousand which would be five hundred thousand or 2:53 a million or three million for all of you whether it turns out to be one or the 2:59 other is really dependent uh in a very large part on what you do in the next few years 3:05 all of you in this room have the brains to do extremely well in life you've all 3:11 got the energy to do extremely well in life and then the question is how do you apply it if you've got a 200 horsepower 3:17 motor you get 200 horsepower out of it you get your full potential or do you get 100 horsepower 3:23 or 50 horsepower now there's two things that can hold you back 3:29 in getting the full horsepower out of your your engine whatever it may be all of you have big enough engines 3:35 and one of those is a lack of education but that probably isn't going to happen to very many people in this room 3:40 if you did have a lack of education if you didn't have a chance to get a decent education in life it wouldn't make any difference what 3:46 that potential was because you'd never unlock it but the second most important thing and 3:52 equally as important is in terms of the habits that you develop in terms of what you do with yourself 3:58 when we hire people we look for three qualities we look for integrity we look for 4:05 intelligence and we look for energy but if they don't have the first one integrity the other two will kill you because if 4:12 you're hiring somebody without integrity you really want to be dumb and lazy don't you i mean you know the last thing in the world you want forms to be smart energetic so 4:19 smart and energetic only goes with integrity but the nice thing about Integrity 4:26 you know you make your own decision on that you can't change your iq or how far you control football 4:31 or how high you can jump or the color of your hair very easily but you can 4:37 elect to have integrity that matches anybody else's and if you match that 4:42 with intelligence which you have and energy which you have uh you will get an extraordinary result 4:48 and you'd be very foolish to sell me ten percent of yourself for fifty thousand on the other hand if you don't match it with that your 4:53 potential will in a significant part go unused and i'll give you a little 4:59 simple test to apply in terms of thinking about the kind of habits you want to develop because you can have any habits you want to be you can be 5:06 you can be lazy you can be prompt you can be you can be late you can be honest you can cut 5:11 corners i mean you have all these choices and those are choices for you to make nobody else is going to make them 5:16 for you and i would suggest that you play this little game with me too uh think about the person you would most 5:24 like to be in life so maybe it's one of your contemporaries maybe somebody a little older but pick 5:29 out the person you admire the most the person that you'd change places with it if you could and then 5:34 write down why you admire them just put it on a piece of paper and then figure out the person that you would 5:40 least like to change places with you who really turns you off who do you find repulsive and list the 5:47 reasons why that person turns you off so much and put those down on the other side of the 5:52 paper and then look at that list and you'll find that everything on the left hand side 5:58 what you admire in other people the qualities they bring to life cheerfulness you know generosity all 6:05 kinds of things you'll find those are things you can do yourself it's very simple you gotta apply yourself but the habits 6:11 you form and doing that early on will carry you through life and on the other hand you'll find that 6:17 the things that make people repulsive selfishness obnoxiousness all these things egotism 6:22 are things that no one has to have if you find those in yourself you can get rid of them as long as you get rid of 6:28 them early so all i suggest is that you write you write down a list of what what you admire what you find uh 6:35 contemptible and decide that you know the ones on the on the 6:40 at admired side are ones you're going to acquire for yourself and if you do that when you're young it'll carry you through the rest of your life this 6:46 doesn't work if you do it when you're 50 or 60. by then the habits are too well formed 6:54 but if you do it early behavior becomes becomes a habit so if you do that two or three years from 7:01 now if you go through the same exercise you'll find out the person you admire the most is yourself that can be a 7:07 little dangerous under some circumstances but it uh but it's not it's not a bad thing i mean you want to be somebody you like 7:14 and you don't want to be somebody that you're that you dislike and and uh form those habits early 7:21 you basically can't miss now i'll give you one other small piece of advice that's just a corollary on this 7:26 and then we'll get to your questions and and that is as a general matters of one piece of 7:32 specific finance financial advice i would say you know 7:37 avoid credit cards just forget about them we're in various businesses that issue credit cards the american public loves 7:43 credit cards but if you start revolving debt on credit cards you're going to be paying 18 or 20 percent and you can't make 7:52 progress in your financial life going around borrowing money at 18 or 20 percent 7:58 you can make a lot of money by lending it out at 18 or 20 over time you know if you can find anybody that's good that 8:04 will borrow from you but you don't want to be on the side of the equation that's always behind in life 8:11 you know i was lucky i'd saved about ten thousand dollars by the time i got out of school that ten thousand dollars was 8:18 really worth millions i might have earned later on because after you get a family and everything the expenses roll in but but those were my 8:24 tools to work with but it was only because i was ahead of the game if you're behind the game by ten thousand dollars at some point and 8:30 paying 18 or 20 interest on it you will never you know you'll never get out of it so 8:36 the trick i've got a partner that says all i want to know is where i'm going to die so i'll never go there you know 8:42 and uh and that's true in financial matters as well you want to figure out where you don't want to be 8:48 uh ahead of time and avoid that and i get about a dozen letters a day from people who are having terrible 8:54 problems and there are two reasons why they have terrible problems one is a number of them have had health 9:00 problems of some sort i mean they have really been hit by some or somebody in their family has been hit by some kind of catastrophic 9:07 illness and that is a you know it's a terrible thing to happen to any family and they get in they run up bills they 9:13 can't pay and and really only society can solve that one uh uh in terms of protecting people against 9:20 that that's just plain bad luck but the other one is from people who run up credit card debt 9:26 and uh they're facing bankruptcy or they've been through bankruptcy once before and they owe a whole bunch of money and 9:31 they can't they can't even pay the interest let alone pay any principal and half of my letters come from people 9:36 like that and that that that problem is avoidable catastrophic illness is not but but uh 9:42 credit card debt is something you bring on yourself and it's way better it's way easier to stay 9:48 out of trouble than to get out of trouble financially and and i will guarantee you if you run 9:53 a big credit card that you will be in trouble uh probably the rest of your life in terms of uh your financial situation 10:01 on the other hand if you get ahead of the game uh even it's on a very modest scale so that 10:07 money is coming in from investing and you're you're people owe you money or equities owe you 10:14 ownership you'll be way ahead of the game compared to paying it being always being paying your creditors 10:20 every month so my advice to you is uh if you can't pay for it don't buy it and get yourself in a 10:28 position where you can pay for anything and then we'll be glad to see at borsheims or the nebraska furniture market 10:34 now let's uh let's have some questions do we have a mic out there that people 10:39 can either go to or that travels around and i can't necessarily see too well 10:45 from um we're gonna have one mic on each side so just raise your hand and wait for us to come to you 10:51 okay we have somebody up front like a mic [Music] 10:57 anything that's on your mind ask about don't don't don't be bashful Financial Advice 11:04 yeah how would you advise people who aren't necessarily going into a career field in which you would make a 11:10 large base salary such as like medicine or something like that maybe 11:16 performing arts or music how would you advise us to keep up financially with the rest of the 11:23 world well it is true that a market system 11:29 uh does not pay as well in some in some activities as as 11:36 might seem appropriate for the importance of those activities the society just take teaching for example i mean 11:43 teaching does not pay well and what could be more important i mean you know you've got to be as 11:48 as interested in who you're the teachers of your children are as who your accountant is or you know 11:54 whatever or who's winning the heavyweight title of the world or that sort of thing but but it doesn't it doesn't pay well and 12:00 and it's a fundamental choice uh whether you're going to go into something 12:06 that for many people it'd be a fundamental choice whether you're going to go into something you love or something to 12:12 to try and make a lot of money i think that generally it pays to go with what you love 12:18 i think that it's very hard to find people when they get to be my age who 12:24 say they're on that they've loved what they've done all their life and feel was very worthwhile uh but they're terribly sad they made 12:31 that choice because they didn't make a lot of money i i don't think anybody's ever ever said that to me that they wish they'd gone 12:36 into something else where they were uncomfortable doing it or didn't enjoy it didn't feel very productive but 12:41 made a lot of money so i don't think you'll find that so i would i would i would go to work 12:47 i would go to work in whatever turns you on it may turn out that it'll it'll be more 12:52 profitable than than you can think but almost everybody here will make enough money unless they get some terrible 12:59 habits along the way to do reasonably well and and doing reasonably well in this country 13:04 really is is uh is pretty darn good i mean it is it's not necessary to have 13:12 uh huge amounts of money in order to enjoy yourself i enjoyed myself when i was at my ten thousand dollars and i live in 13:18 the same house that i lived in when i was making when i had about that i bought it 41 years ago i like the house then i like the house 13:25 now i mean if you think about it if you have a reasonable job 13:31 you'll be eating at mcdonald's and i'll be eating mcdonald's so we're we're to push on on on food i mean you know in fact i 13:37 hope it's dairy queen actually and maybe and if you come to dairy queen you'll see me and you can order anything on the 13:43 menu i can order we both can afford it uh you know you'll you'll wear the same 13:48 clothes i wear i'll pay more for my suits but as soon as i put them on they look cheap on me so we'll look about the same and um 13:55 we'll both live in the same kind of houses i live in that house from 41 years ago and it's it's it's warm in winter and it's cool in summer and it's 14:02 comfortable and you'll live in a house that's that's similar and then and what difference does it make is if you 14:07 have 50 more rooms or you know guest houses or all that you know it'll probably just bring you problems i mean you have to worry about 14:13 the about the greenskeeper or something when you get through so i i i have been in the houses of people uh 14:20 where the houses are worth um oh probably 200 times what my house is 14:26 worth and i would not be any happier in those houses at all in fact i'd be less happy i just have one more thing to 14:32 to worry about and you know the dozens of people around the place and people quitting and people stealing from 14:38 you and all kinds of things to hell with it yeah we drive we'll drive the same kind of 14:44 car in fact you'll probably drive a better car i drive a car's about eight years old i don't know what it's worth now but it gets me around fine i mean i i'm 14:50 perfectly happy we'll watch we'll watch the same television you know we'll work on the same computer pretty 14:56 much the only difference will be how we travel long distances you know i will fly in a plane that's 15:04 more comfortable than than flying southwest airlines or something which i've got nothing against but 15:10 that's the one real big difference and other than that i do what i like every day i hope you you'll do what you like 15:15 every day to do and i work with nice people i hope you work with nice people uh and that's there's 24 hours in the day 15:22 and those are where the hours go so great wealth uh 15:28 is the tiniest bit different in a real sense than having just a 15:34 decent a decent income and and to trade 15:39 a decent income and something you love doing and something where you feel worthwhile doing it 15:45 for huge wealth where you trade off a lot of your principles would 15:51 be a terrible mistake Success 15:58 would you not acknowledge your success more on yourself or from the help and teachings of others 16:03 well i had i had i was very lucky in life uh if you tell me who your heroes are i 16:10 i will make a pretty good prediction about how what you're going to do and i i i had the right heroes i was very 16:17 lucky in life and my heroes never let me down and started with my dad and then i had others in business and so 16:24 i have had great teachers some formal teachers some that were just 16:31 informal teachers teachers by instinct or example and if i hadn't had those 16:37 uh you know my life i'm sure would have been very different if i'd been born anyplace else when i was i was born in 16:43 1930 uh and at the time 16:48 one out of 50 births in the world were in the united states so i came in against 50 to 1 odds against being born 16:54 in the united states i would have i would have been a disaster you know if i'd been born in afghanistan or 17:00 or peru or some place i mean i was i won i won the lottery the day i was born you know by being born in this country so 17:06 have you uh i mean you you the odds were 17:11 probably 40 to 1 against you being born in this country and that were five times more likely to have 17:16 been born in in china six times and four or five times more likely you've been born in 17:21 in in india or some other place where it would not have been as easy to exploit the full potential of your 17:28 talents so we've all won the lottery in that respect and and that's just plain luck i mean it uh 17:34 and i was lucky to be born at this time i mean capital allocation is something that pays off extremely 17:40 well in the society now but it doesn't pay off in other societies and it didn't pay off you know many years ago my 17:46 my friend bill gates says that if i was been born a few thousand years ago i'd have been some animals lunch 17:51 you know i i can't run very fast and i can't climb trees and you know i just happen those are talents 17:58 nobody asked me to climb trees now but uh there was a time when it might have been important and 18:03 incidentally bill would have been some animals breakfast i mean he can't run so fast either but uh in any event uh 18:10 you know we are lucky i mean just imagine being born a couple hundred years ago with exactly the same talents 18:16 and how far they would have taken you then you know the average person today lives so much better than 18:21 the richest person lived 100 or 150 years ago so uh i'm lucky in that respect lucky to be 18:29 born of terrific parents i was lucky to be raised in omaha in a in a great public 18:35 school system i got a start here in the first eight grades they gave me a foundation 18:40 that later when i went off the track a few times uh carried me through because i had a terrific grade school education 18:47 in right here in omaha rose hill and one of the reasons i had it incidentally is kind of 18:52 unfortunate but i had that great education in part because women were being 18:59 enormously discriminated against and so a woman at that time could be a teacher she could be a 19:04 secretary she could be a nurse you know and that was about it so he had a half the talent pool in the united 19:10 states limited to just a few jobs so you had an abundance of talent 19:16 uh in those activities like nursing or teaching because uh that talent with males was spread 19:22 across every act every form of work activity there was but with women it was concentrated in a few areas and that 19:29 that benefited me it's kind of sad because it didn't benefit those teachers but but i was very lucky and i've really 19:35 been that way all my life and what i do is what i do 19:40 is important as you know what a good teacher does or a good nurse does or something of the sort you know i think that's quite 19:46 questionable it pays off enormously well in a market economy like the united states and 19:51 but that's an accident didn't have anything to do with any innate ability of mine Technology 20:00 my name is marinatsed and i attend omaha central high school good for you fine institution now mr 20:07 buffett technology has been a great factor in um stimulating the world economy 20:12 what are your predictions for the future of the technology industry and what what is its future role in 20:19 world economy and the united states economy yeah well it's there's no question it's turning the world upside down it's 20:25 it's done done it somewhat already but it will you know it's just beginning but it's 20:30 moving very fast i met gates on july 15 1991 i was out 20:36 there for a fourth of july uh celebration with a friend and 20:41 uh who subsequently died in greenfield with the washington post and she took us down to visit the gates family 20:47 and he tried to educate me about high tech and he had better luck with chimpanzees 20:53 i mean i i was i was really a disaster but but he's a good teacher but one thing he he told me was that 21:00 at the time he said you know you've got this model in your head of the world and your model has 21:08 time and distance as very limiting factors and he said they aren't limiting factors anymore he said you know 21:14 the cost of talking to somebody around the world or getting your message in front of 21:19 somebody or publishing is it's going to be zero and they're so close to zero it doesn't make any difference and 21:25 you know that was revolutionary but it's happening already in a in a very very big way and it's just uh what eight 21:32 years later and and it's it's exploding so 21:38 high-tech information technology whatever you want to call it is changing the world and it's going to 21:45 change it in a very very big way it'll change i mean that's one of the things i think about in businesses we buy 21:50 uh we announced the purchase uh yesterday of a uh furniture retailer in in in 21:56 boston in the boston area and you know i think to myself what effect does this new world have in terms 22:02 of the internet on furniture retailing i mean you have to think about questions like that the changes will be huge i will i played 22:08 bridge yesterday uh with people uh all over the country but i played it with people all over the 22:14 world i just sit down on my computer and i've got some popcorn there and i'm in khakis and a sweater and i i can have a bridge game in 30 seconds 22:20 with people all over the world and uh no cost to it basically you know that's a lot different 22:26 than trying to arrange a game with four people in omaha you know on a day when one guy wants to play golf another wants to watch baseball and i 22:32 mean it's it it just it changes things in huge way uh we are very fortunate i mean it's 22:40 in the degree to which the united states leads the world in this area i mean we have a lead it's 22:46 hard to think of who's in second place and 15 or so years ago this country had an inferiority complex it'd be hard for 22:53 you to remember because you weren't old enough to be around them but in the in the early 80s we were wondering 22:58 whether the germans and the japanese were going to own everything and that they were going to make all the steel and they were going to make all 23:03 the cars and everything else and the television sets and we were going to flip hamburgers that was the standard line 23:10 and just imagine in a short period like 15 years how that's changed around in an important way that's changed 23:16 because of this information uh a revolution uh 23:22 where we like i said i don't know who i don't know who you would name as being in second place in the world but here's 23:27 the most important industry in the world and the united states has this incredible position and we're moving all 23:33 the time with that position so i think that argues for a very 23:39 i think it argues for a terrific future for the world over time and i think it argues even more for a terrific future for this company a 23:45 country what are the best ways for youth to get started now in securing their financial Financial Future 23:52 future for for what to secure their financial future 23:57 for you youth oh well it's not it's not very complicated uh it goes back to getting full use out of 24:06 your own talents first i mean the difference between whether you're going to be earning x or 2x or 3x 24:11 a year uh 20 years from now uh is going to be a function of how well 24:19 not how much talent you have but how how well you use the talents you already have and 24:24 uh so that is the your best financial future is your own ability and and 24:31 and your uh a capacity to to use those abilities to their 24:38 potential and they can't take that can't be taken away from you can't they can't even tax 24:43 it i mean you know most things if if you wanna you know a piece of real estate if they 24:49 double the taxes they double the taxes and that changes your ownership in the property because now in effect the taxing authorities own 24:55 more of it because they've got a greater command on the revenue stream uh the same thing about 25:00 almost any asset you have but they they don't tax what's in your head 25:06 and they don't tax your ability to start performing when you when you get to work in the morning 25:12 and finish in the evening to to your potential one of the things that amazes me is how 25:18 people who really do perform well just sort of jump out at you once you're running a business when i got out of school 25:24 i thought you know everybody would behave that way but they don't most people sort of go go through life in a sleep 25:31 walk and and it if you don't you will stand out so the big the 25:37 biggest thing for your financial future is yourself now beyond that it is always being ahead of the game rather than getting behind 25:43 the game it's saving a little no matter how you do it i mean i delivered papers i worked at pennies i sold golf balls i had a pinball machine 25:49 round i did a lot of things that enabled me to accumulate about ten thousand dollars by the time i got out 25:55 of school uh ten thousand doesn't go as far now as it did then but it 26:00 having anything so that you're ahead of the game and not getting behind the game is enormously important i mean just you 26:07 know if you're gonna run a hundred hundred yard dash against a bunch of people in life 26:12 if you can figure it out so that when the gun goes off you're 10 or 15 yards ahead instead of 10 or 15 yards behind it's 26:18 going to make an enormous difference in how that race comes out so having having 26:24 some net resources doesn't make much difference whether they're in stocks or bonds in my view but uh 26:30 and not having debt when that gun goes off when you get out of school is a huge plus over being behind the 26:37 game and uh you know it may come from delivering a paper out in the morning it may come 26:43 from part-time work someplace but but put aside a few dollars for yourself but uh 26:49 so that when the time comes and you enter you enter the workforce uh you're ahead 26:54 of the game and not behind and then once you get there don't get behind by buying a whole lot of things that you figure you're going to pay for some 27:00 day while you're paying 20 interest in between students if you could please say your Education 27:06 name and school when you ask a question hard for me to see anymore the microphone is but i can 27:15 my name is patrick doherty and i'm from papillion la vista high school i was wondering with the increasing 27:21 costs of education today what can students do to deal with their debts once they're out of college 27:28 well that's a tough one i mean i guess i'd pay it off as fast as i could and i would incur as little debt as 27:34 as possible in in before that time came and i would say 27:40 this [Music] in my experience in business 27:49 there is very little difference if any between a very high priced business 27:55 education and what's available a lot for a lot less money so i i 28:01 i went to the university of nebraska at lincoln my last year in college i went to wharton for a couple years before 28:07 that uh i learned just as much at the university of nebraska as i did at wharton at uh 28:13 and there's nothing against wharton i mean it's just me we had a very good school here i had some terrific professors at lincoln and so i i would not assume 28:22 that if i was paying a few thousand dollars for an education uh here in the state for example versus 28:28 paying huge amounts elsewhere that it was going to make a lot of difference uh uh most of a lot of the education 28:37 uh and you need to be prodded in the right direction but an awful lot of it is is itself is self-taught uh 28:44 i mean andrew carnegie did a wonderful thing in this country in terms of libraries and i used to spend a lot of time 28:50 at libraries i think i got locked in at the university of omaha one what was then the university of omaha and they had i couldn't get out for hours and one 28:56 night i got so entranced with what i was reading but it there's there's all kinds of information available now with the 29:03 internet it's so much you know easier than it was then so uh it's out there to be taken 29:09 and it isn't necessary to pay 30 or 35 000 a year to go to some big name school 29:17 to get the education at all i mean if you're going to learn accounting if you're going which is probably the most important 29:22 course you'd take in business if you're going to learn account you can learn accounting absolutely as well in my view going to you and always going 29:29 to to harvard i mean i see i i would i'd bet on that and 29:35 so i wouldn't run up huge bills in terms of getting a 29:42 business education now you know if you're going to get a medical education i mean there's certain professions where 29:47 there may not be any way around spending a fair amount of money and getting in debt to some degree 29:52 you've got to make that decision yourself but i'd certainly try to minimize it and uh and i would sort of i would have 29:59 it figured out how i would handle that debt in say a five year period after i got out of 30:05 school or i would think twice about incurring it there's a question up here if we can bring a microphone Youth Advisory Council 30:13 uh my name is kyle clark i'm here representing the omaha youth advisory council um what advice would you have for a 30:19 forming non-profit organization for forming a non-profit organization well i've always tried to avoid forming 30:25 non-profit organizations but uh well that would that would depend 30:31 entirely on what i wanted to accomplish i mean it you know it'd be one day it was a hospital it could be another thing 30:36 uh you know there's a there's so many types of it so i you know you've got to get people that 30:42 are that are experienced and involved uh in an entity like that and uh 30:50 but it depends so much on the on the objective uh you're working at uh 30:58 yeah i promised this young lady here microphone for a long time Civic Involvement 31:05 hi my name is kara harbert and i attend millard west high school and i understand that you're very civically involved and i was wondering 31:11 how important of a quality you think that is for an individual in life and why yeah well i wouldn't say that i am that 31:17 i mean i i do certain civic things i think i think your your model as a citizen for example in omaha would be walter scott i mean he 31:24 is far more civically involved than i am and uh incidentally his predecessor peter 31:29 kiewit was too but walters carried it to new heights so i uh i don't want to take uh on any mantle 31:36 for that myself i do some things uh one of the problems i have is i love 31:42 what i do so much that that it sort of takes over i mean i'm like a guy that likes to play a lot of 31:48 golf or something except i like i like the business i'm in but uh i've got a family that 31:53 participates very actively uh some of my children work on almost 31:59 anything that comes along in the civic area and you know it's you do in the end people 32:05 do what they want to do to quite a degree and and uh i think 32:10 i've never talked to anybody that that enjoyed working in civic activities that 32:16 didn't feel was very worthwhile after they've done it i mean they built something and participating in building something is 32:21 always a lot of fun and and actually you have a good time we have this golf tournament for example in 32:26 september and we raise some money for something but everybody has a good time so nobody's paying any price 32:31 by doing it i'm having a good time the people who come are having a good time and uh we get to show em all off to 32:37 people but you should be enjoying things that go along and you will if you work in 32:42 civic activities that that that interest you and you can do the same thing in politics i mean that 32:48 uh you know if you if you get if you find political ideas 32:56 or politicians who particularly uh you identify when turning on you can get 33:01 a lot of self satisfaction out of out of working and you're doing something worthwhile so i 33:06 just just follow your instincts on that that'd be my recommendation 33:17 [Music] hi my name is jeremy graham from millard south high school Economic Problems 33:24 we're probably the i guess the elite youth of today and i've questioned 33:29 what do you see as the problem the biggest economic problem facing the youth of today going into the future 33:37 yeah i i don't think you that you're going to have enormous economic 33:42 problems i think you will live in a society where the average person lives better 33:50 by a significant margin than the average one of a generation earlier or two generations earlier that's been the 33:56 history of this country it's a marvelous country that way i mean it when you think of it we have four and a half percent of the world's 34:01 population you know and and what's been accomplished here is incredible 53 34:07 percent of the of the value of corporations that are publicly traded in the world exist in 34:13 the united states with four and a half percent of the population this country always has done well uh 34:19 they say in stocks that you should buy stock in a business that's so good that even an idiot can run it 34:25 because sooner or later one will and and that's not terrible advice well that seems to have been sort of the 34:30 history of this country from time to time i mean we've had all these problems that have come 34:35 along if you look back in the last hundred years and list all the problems those countries run into you know you make a very long list and a 34:41 lot of people who focused on those problems at the time have missed the bigger picture and the bigger picture is that every generation 34:48 lives better than the one before and that's because of uh that's because of 34:53 savings because savings enable people to create new tools to do better things as they go 34:58 along and it's also due to an environment that lets people realize their potential to a greater 35:05 degree than most other environments in the world it's far from perfect i mean it's it's sad how far it is from perfect 35:12 but it is better than anything else around i mean in this country uh you've got you don't 35:18 have some commissar or something running a you know a big business in this country you've got a guy like jack welch 35:24 and a fellow like jack welch makes a difference of night and day in terms of the productivity of that 35:31 business over a period of decades and productivity is what a is what causes the standard of living to rise so 35:37 anything that a system that throws up the jack welch's of the world to run businesses is going to have an enormous advantage 35:44 over a society that does it by heredity or that does it by government edict and 35:49 we've got we're closer to that society that i've described than than anything than any other country and 35:56 it's it's led due to great things and it will continue to lead to great things so i think i think you've got the best future uh 36:03 you know you don't face you don't face a war and you've gotta you you've got a a great 36:09 uh you've got a better uh future in terms of uh 36:16 achieving material rewards than any generation in history so i wish i could trade you places i might 36:24 get taken up on that by a few of you though 36:37 [Music] hi i'm ryan wilkins from millard west high school and um i was wondering if you or if you Y2K 36:45 could uh speak for mr gates were afraid of the impact of y2k on the economy or 36:51 specifically the stock market yeah well i'm i'm i'm glad you gave me a chance to bring in other people because i 36:56 i'm the last guy in the world understanding about y2ki you know i don't know why this microphone's working i don't know you 37:01 know why likes go on or i i flip on the switch of my television set and pray i mean it's all it's all beyond me but i would 37:09 say this the smartest people i know in that area uh in large part 37:14 think it's going to be a non-event at uh uh in this country i don't i can't speak 37:20 for the rest of the world but uh so i think uh i think you'll wake up on 37:26 january first and find the world hasn't changed from december 31st now i would say this you might you might 37:32 get a whole bunch of friends to write your checks for a billion dollars on december 31st and deposit them and you know who knows what'll happen can't 37:38 lose anything i mean i like to just bounce and if the system gets followed up you know you you might find a lot of money in 37:44 your account but i wouldn't count on it there wait we have a we own a company called executive jet 37:50 we have about 14 or 1500 uh customers who own pieces of airplanes with us and we so we've got a hundred and 37:57 well we got 160 of their planes and some of our own flying around it'll be very interesting to me to see 38:02 what the advance people let us know ahead of time when they want to use it it'll be very interesting to see how many sign up 38:09 for january 1st at 1201 but it'll uh i it wouldn't bother 38:14 me to fly him in the least on january 1st or do anything else on january 1st 38:21 ideally i hope the getting prepared to watch the huskers play in the big game Good Economics 38:29 i'm jamie solis from twin valley and i was wondering how do you decide what you'd invest your time and money in 38:36 yeah well i i i like to find businesses that have good economics now 38:42 what what are good economics well good economics are a business that has some kind of a moat around it that 38:49 makes its product or its service or its location or something a little more desirable than to the 38:55 customer than any other sort of comparable product uh you know the number one candy bar in 39:01 the last 30 or 40 years has been snickers people don't fool around with different candy bars they fool around with 39:07 different length dresses they fool around you know with all kinds of things but they don't fool around with candy bars 39:13 because they figure you know they're going to go in and lay out 50 cents or whatever it is and put it in their mouth and they're not going to for 50 cents 39:19 and putting in your mouth i mean you're not going to say i'll i'll put in i'll lay out 45 cents and put something else in my mouth so 39:25 you find that very stable and we like businesses that we think we can figure out where 39:31 they're going to be in 10 or 15 years i don't know where the information technology businesses are going to be in 10 or 15 years i know where snickers 39:37 bars are going to be in 10 or 15 years they're going to be selling just about you know the way they do now i know where wrigley's gum is going to be in 10 39:42 or 15 years p there's not going to be a lot of innovation in in in chewing gum 39:48 uh the and people the internet's not going to cause people to quit chewing gum either i mean at least i mean gates may think so but i don't 39:53 think so but uh it's it's predictability 40:00 regarding the sustainability of a competitive advantage some something special about a product so we look for those kind of products 40:07 and then we look for people that are running the business that are honest and able 40:12 and you know that's it's easier to find people that are honest and able than it is to find 40:19 businesses that are going to stay wonderful for a long period of time they're a lot of business that looked 40:24 like they were going to stay wonderful but really evaporated over time but that's what we're looking for and 40:30 the nice thing about is we don't have to find very many if we find one a year that's terrific 40:35 you know because you don't you don't need a hundred or a thousand great investment ideas to do well 40:41 you need a couple and uh if we the discipline is the most important 40:47 thing we don't need brain power we need discipline that uh you don't need 150 iq to do what i do 40:53 thank god you know you don't need 140 you know 835 you may need 115 or 40:59 something like that and and but you do need discipline you have to wait 41:04 until you see the fat pitch to swing at because investing is a no-call strike game you 41:10 know if i were a baseball player and i only like pitches two inches above my navel 41:15 you know some guy could learn that and he could pitch me you know three or four inches below that i get called out on strikes because i 41:21 never find a pitch i like you can get call out on strikes in baseball you have to you have to swing at pitches 41:27 that you you don't even necessarily like particularly after the count gets to two strikes in business 41:34 you don't have to swing at anything you can sit there and the paper says general motors at 68 or it says general electric 41:39 on 115 or says general dynamics at 63. and if you don't like those prices you 41:44 don't have to swing you can wait there day after day after day after day and there are no called strikes now 41:50 when you swing when you decide to buy something then you know if you swing and miss it's a strike but 41:56 it's a marvelous game to be in because there are no called strikes and you can simply wait for that one time in a month or six 42:04 months or a year or two or three years when you really know what you're doing where you like the price or you like the people running the 42:10 business and then you swing and you only need a few swings in your lifetime so that's the way we try to pick 42:15 businesses we try to stay with things we understand i mean there can be all kinds of 42:20 wonderful investment opportunities out there that i don't understand i don't know what cocoa beans are going to do next 42:26 year you know maybe you know but i don't know i i don't know what i don't know what uh crude oil is going to solve for 42:31 but i don't have to know i just have to know the things i have to know what i know i 42:37 have to know where the limits of my understanding are what i call what my circle of confidence is and if 42:45 i'm only able to evaluate five percent of the businesses in the world no problem i just stay within that five percent and 42:51 try and find something uh and that's most people get in trouble because in investments because they uh well they Discipline 42:59 get itchy you know they can't discipline themselves and they hear about other people making money nothing upsets people so much as 43:04 to hear about their friends making money i mean it's that that's very destructive to discipline because they think 43:09 i'm smarter than that guy next door and he just just bought that new car with the money made trading stocks on the internet so why can't i 43:15 well the answer is you can't over time you will lose money if you trade stocks actively and uh it's it's hard to exercise the 43:23 discipline but anytime you buy something you should be able to take out a 43:28 one-page sheet of paper and say i'm buying general motors it's 65 i'm buying general electric 150 43:35 because and you should write down the reasons if you can't if you can't fill out the sheet 43:41 if it's because somebody told me about it at a cocktail party last night that's not good enough if it's because my broker told me about 43:46 it that's not good enough you know it's uh you've got to have a reason 43:51 for thinking that it makes an intelligent investment you do the same thing if you're buying a farm or an apartment house if you're buying a farm 43:57 you'd say i'm buying this farm with a thousand dollars an acre because i think i can earn sixty dollars an acre on it 44:02 if corn sells it such and such and soybean cells and such and such and yield as such and such and you'd 44:07 figure it out that's the same reason you buy businesses and when you buy stocks you're buying a little piece of a 44:13 business and that's probably the most important thing to remember in in investing is that when you're buying a stock you're buying 44:19 a little piece of the business and if you are buying it at an attractive price for the business for the whole business 44:25 you're gonna make money and if you aren't you know over time you won't make money Moral Standards 44:34 hi my name is cliff mcavoy from elkhorn mount michael um reverend jackson jesse jackson talked to us earlier 44:40 he seemed to believe that the moral standards of today's society will eventually affect us in business 44:45 how do you feel this will affect us as youth growing up in the united states he said the moral standards will affect us how like moral decay 44:53 in society today will affect us in business by how we feel and how we interact with other people 44:58 well i think very difficult to quantify moral standards over time i 45:05 mean that you know you could you could pick out huge weaknesses at any given time in 45:11 terms of how people or the country is behaving and and and huge strengths so i think it's 45:17 enormously difficult to quantify i think by and large we have made progress in 45:23 what i would call institutionalized moral standards in this country i mean the the the uh you know in terms 45:31 of slavery in terms of the uh in terms of i mean the women women couldn't vote you know a century ago 45:38 uh they were half the country were second class citizens in that respect in a barrier 45:43 and they had much lesser rights in terms of inheritance and all kinds of things 45:49 the income tax didn't exist a hundred years ago so the 45:55 idea of taxing people according to to how much that they benefited from 46:00 society and their income uh didn't exist so i think in terms of institutionalized 46:06 moral standards the country has made really quite significant progress uh in 46:13 the in the last hundred years i think you know there's an enormous distance to go i think we're going in the right direction 46:18 maybe by fits and starts but i think we're going in the right direction and i think that uh 46:24 uh you know it will be a it will be a significant plus to 46:29 everybody in this room if they live in a more moral society 40 years from now than a less moral but i think the odds 46:35 are that they will i think the country moves in that direction very difficult to do it all kinds of interests that work against 46:41 it but in the end i think the american people want it and 46:47 you saw it in civil rights i mean it took television to dramatize what was going on and people that weren't near it 46:53 preferred not to think about it but it got through to the conscience of the american people 46:59 and a lot of progress has been made there and there's a lot left to be made but there it's better than it was and the pace may 47:07 seem very slow to those people involved and i can understand that uh the pace you know for 47:13 women's suffrage i mean that went for decades and decades and decades a woman couldn't be on a jury i was 47:19 reading the trial of clarence darrell which took place in california about 19 i don't know 10 or 11 47:26 you know there were no women on the jury the woman wasn't allowed to be on a jury they weren't citizens in that sense so 47:32 it's the moral behavior of the country has in my view 47:38 improved but it uh you know and it'll continue to improve and i hope you all in this room do your part to 47:44 help it improve 47:52 hi i'm nick george from uh central high and uh i was wondering how uh since the stock 47:59 market's so high right now if it'd be smart for us to get to get involved now or to wait till 48:05 until it goes down a little or what yeah i can't tell you whether or not to buy stocks now generally 48:11 i think it's important that you save money you know and whether whether you put in the stock market 48:18 i don't think is terribly important i think if you're interested in stocks you should you should buy it you know 48:24 and you've got a little capital you should buy a few i mean i don't think there's any way of learning about them better than experiencing doing it on 48:30 paper isn't the same i can guarantee you if you lose money on paper or lose real money it's a different experience and uh uh 48:38 and so i i think there i think you'll learn more about yourself uh if you do it that way i bought my 48:45 first stock when i was 11. i was actually i was at rose hill at the time and i bought three shares of city service preferred 48:52 at uh 38 and it went down to 27 which is something i still remember even though i 48:58 was 11 at the time uh and then it went up to 40 and i sold it i made five bucks on my three shares after commissions and 49:04 then it went to 200 and something so uh you know i i probably remember that a little better than if i'd been doing it 49:10 on paper you know and i fooled around doing a lot of things between about age 11 49:16 and 19 in the stock market i did charts i did all kinds of technical analysis i read every book i 49:21 could get on the subject and i didn't do that well i didn't do terrible but but i did i was really just 49:28 floundering around but by that meant by the age of 19 when i read 49:33 ben graham's book i was at the university of nebraska in lincoln i went and bought this book called the intelligent investor just come out 49:39 and it had an enormous impact on me now if i hadn't done in the previous eight years if i hadn't 49:45 been all over the lot i'm not so sure that that book would have had the same impact on me i mean i was by that time i was prepared 49:51 to read ben graham's book which changed my life financially in an incredible way i mean uh 49:59 i wouldn't be up here today if i had read that book but yeah part of life is getting prepared 50:05 so that when something does happen that's significant you can grasp the significance of it and 50:12 know what to do with it and i would say that first eight years of fooling around even though it produced nothing 50:17 financially to speak of uh produced a lot in terms of getting my mind prepared 50:23 for when i really did read something that made sense so i was ready to accept it and i actually went back and went to 50:29 columbia to study under the under graham and because of of reading that book and all 50:36 kinds of things flowed out of it so i would encourage you if you're interested in the field 50:42 uh to to do a few things i still try and make 50:47 it as intelligent as possible i would try to stick with things businesses i thought i understood i'd still get out that sheet of paper 50:54 and i'd write i'm doing this because and just test my reasoning then i go back and read it a year later and 51:00 and see whether what you thought would be true turned out to be true so i would always check myself i believe 51:05 in grading myself on everything you know doctors have post mortems and they they do it because they learn 51:11 from postmortems and business people don't like to do postmortems when i'm i'm i can be on the board of a company 51:17 and they get about owners building plants or buying companies and they never wanted two years later to 51:23 run a check on how that decision turned out because it it can be unpleasant uh but you learn 51:29 from postmortems and you don't want to learn it's way better learn from other people's mistakes than your own but you got to 51:35 learn from a few of your own too and the time to do it is when you're young 51:41 we can do maybe one more and then we wrap this up at one dewey or maybe maybe two more 51:48 my name is pete walsh i'm from creighton prep and my question is to what extent do you 51:54 feel that the government with the the current policies of welfare and social security 51:59 is it financially competent and fiscally prepared for the future well 52:06 i i think that the country as a whole is quite quite well prepared for the 52:12 future that doesn't mean that adopt would adopt every policy they have but but 52:18 uh i think a we have an enormously rich society enormously rich society and it'll get 52:24 richer everyone isn't going to participate in that some will won't participate because 52:29 of physical disabilities others because of mental disabilities other because of shortcomings in the education they 52:35 received when they were growing up all kinds of reasons we have a prosperous enough society to 52:41 be able to take care of of those people and we should take care of them and how we do it 52:46 so that they feel most useful in life and how we do it so that we continue to encourage people to be more productive themselves and all that 52:52 i mean those are not easy questions but but that shouldn't take our eye off the ball of 52:58 feeling we should do something about it that um i often i i pose this problem 53:03 sometimes to people i say let's assume that it's 24 hours before you're born and all of you can take this test 24 53:09 hours before you're born and a genie comes to you and the genie 53:15 says what was your name again out there whatever 53:20 we'll call you joe and the genie says joe says you look pretty promising to me i 53:26 think you've got kind of a sense of fair play and and a good mind and so i'm going to let you have an 53:32 extraordinary opportunity i'm going to let you design the world 53:37 into which you're going to be born in 24 hours it's yours you pick out the political 53:43 rules you pick out the economic rules you pick out the social rules you design the world and when you're 53:50 born in 24 hours you're going to be born into that world and that's the world that's going to 53:55 exist for your lifetime for your children's lifetime for your grandchildren's lifetime 54:01 and you having heard of some of these genie jokes in the past would say what's the catch the genie says well 54:07 it's a very slight catch i said when when you're born in 24 hours 54:12 you're going to emerge in this world you designed but what you don't know is whether 54:18 you're going to be born black or white male or female 54:23 rich or poor brighter able-bodied or infirm in the united 54:29 states or afghanistan all you know is that you're going to reach into this 54:36 barrel which now has six billion balls as we know representing one person every person in the world and you're 54:42 going to participate in what i call the ovarian lottery you're going to take one ball out of that barrel and you're never going to 54:47 get another ball that's you you're going to get one ball and now you're going to emerge now what kind of 54:52 rules do you want to have for that society not knowing which ball you're going to get 54:59 now that i put to you is the way i think people should think about social policy and if you're born if 55:05 you're lucky enough to be born in this country you've won the lottery already but we should have a system in my view 55:12 that encourages the jack welch's and the bill gates and all of that to work far beyond the time when it has any 55:18 economic significance to them we want people commanding those resources who are extremely able to command them that's 55:24 how that's how the standard of living moves forward so we should want you know we should want tom osborne 55:30 coaching in nebraska we should want we should want bill gates designing software and we don't want to mix up those two 55:36 we don't want to we don't we don't want to get bill coaching in nebraska uh so you want you want people you want 55:42 a system that directs gets people to their potential and and puts them 55:47 in the position where they can do the most good for society but you also want a system for the people get the wrong ball i mean 55:53 somebody's going to get the ball you know that says 80 iq somebody's going to get the ball 55:58 that says this disease or that disease early in life that cripples them and we've got a rich enough society 56:05 that we can we can take care of those people and i think that to get back to your question i think 56:10 that this society will move more and more in that direction it has the capability of moving more and more in 56:15 that direction as our resources and our output increases and i think that 56:21 it has the will to do that in a general way although like i say there have always been lots of hits and starts so there is no shortage in the united 56:29 states of resources there's no shortage of output you have to have a system that 56:35 encourages people to behave to the limit of their abilities and puts them in the right 56:41 place but then you have to make sure that everybody gets taken care of too now we can do one more and then we will 56:47 break thing i'll let the fellow with the microphone and woman here make the decision 56:56 hi my name is ben gold i go to bruno talbot and i wanted to know how do you think the media affects the world economically today 57:04 well it's a small question [Music] well what it obviously does simply 57:10 because it's it's moved so far technologically as it's brought it together in a big way i 57:16 mean i was over in china a few years ago and i was right after the time of the women's conference in in in beijing and i was reading 57:24 the chinese coverage uh of that conference and of course it it 57:30 had nothing to do with what was taking place but the internet was coming in and and you know you can you can access 57:38 the washington post or the new york times or i get the washington post at 9 30 here at night 57:43 in effect i never could get it the next day on on through through uh physical delivery 57:48 but i buy electronic delivery i can read it uh you know probably earlier than most of people in washington are reading it 57:54 so the ability to communicate and the degree to which the world can 58:00 have awareness of what's going on every place in the world it's just you know it's been a quantum leap 58:07 you know that will have there are a lot of things that come out of that and uh net they're a plus over time but 58:14 the they i mean they the the ability of information to be available to everyone worldwide almost 58:21 instant instantaneously it's it's it's a can be huge advances in things like medicine 58:26 for example just to pick one uh so it it's a net plus it has a it has a big 58:34 effect and the definition of media has now been expanded 58:40 enormously i mean there were three television networks in in the 19 and you know in the early 58:45 1960s and that was it there were three highways information traveled electronically and if the three pieces 58:52 of information where i love lucy you know something else and something else those were the three choices of information or 58:57 entertainment that you had for tens and tens of millions of people sitting there looking at a tube 59:02 now it's unlimited and that's only what three or so decades so it's just exploded and it'll continue to 59:08 explode and net i think it's a plus and i think it's one o'clock i want to thank you all i i wish you 59:14 well you're gonna do terrific thanks [Applause] 59:29 thank you
    
   POST URL
   https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12375-do-you-think-black-parents-black-one-percent-need-to-invest-in-schrumpts/
    
   PRIOR EDITION
   https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/632-economic-corner-31-01222026/
    
   NEXT EDITION
   https://aalbc.com/tc/events/event/637-economic-corner-33-01292026/
    
   

   Event details

   
   RMCommunityCalendar 0 Comments · 0 Reviews