Alabama's Morning News with JT
Rory O'Neil tells us how debt keeps growing and what is going on with super commuters
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Right now with the debt around $35 trillion, $36 trillion, it still would cost every American about $103,000 to pay off that debt. So imagine now that that number is going to go up by at least 50% in the next 10 years. So when we talk about the debt, that's all the debt we've ever racked up as a country. The deficit, that's how much we go into debt in a year, that number is going to be about $1.9 trillion this year according to the CBO. And that's what the economy wants to say sputtering along, it's not great, but we're not in a recession, we're not fighting a war, we're not battling a pandemic. So what the heck are we going into $2 trillion in debt for? Right. I mean, and how are we going to get out of this? It gets to a point where you see these big numbers, it's like, you might as well make it a gazillion or whatever, you make it so ridiculously high, how do we wrestle the beast? Well, and let alone paying it back, how about we just stop digging the hole? Right. Even that, to not go into $2 trillion in debt again next year would be a monumental achievement. You know, we haven't seen a near balanced budget since the Gingrich-Clinton days, you know, in the 90s. And boy, it doesn't look like anything like that's on the horizon. Well, when you talk about that much debt, yeah, there's a way to start tackling it and you're right. In the Times Square, and you watch the debt increasing, it's like, you know, the meter on your electricity when, you know, the Christmas lights are on, it's unbelievable how fast it is, increases. And look, I'm not putting all this on Democrats, Republicans are just as guilty a lot of times, too, and saying, ah, kick it down the road. Well, yes, it increased a little bit, let's just move forward. We have to, we can't do, but, you know, I remember a day when we had the balanced budget in this country, and there is a way to get there, but it's going to take some sense. Oh, we're not going to do it just by cutting spending, or we're not going to do it just by raising taxes because that'll kill the economy. So you got to figure out a way to try to take the politics out of this and get some silver heads in the room to try to figure it out. Well get Dave Ramsey at the table next time, and everybody beans and rice for a while. And deliver in pizzas on the weekends. There you go. There you go. All these commuters, speaking of working, a number of super commuters, including my producer for a while, it was driving in here, what took them an hour and 20 minutes to get here, my previous producer, same thing, and apparently driving more than 90 minutes to work is, you know, skyrocketing right now. Yeah, we saw an increase last year, nationwide, about 600,000 more people are considered super commuters, those who take 90 minutes each way to get to and from work. In some cases like LA, they're stuck in their cars. If you go to New York, they're stuck on mass transit, you know, taking the train into the city from New Jersey or Connecticut or upstate. So there are different definitions for how you spend that 90 minutes, but we're even seeing it in places like Washington State, you know, which is obviously has the big booming tech sector with companies like Microsoft and Apple and Amazon. So they have long commutes up there as well. Wow, just incredible. I mean, in the pandemic, a lot of you have won home and it changed the workplace and the work, you know, landscape for so many folks and a lot of people are still using some of that, you know, remote time to get their jobs done. Others have been brought back in by companies. When it comes to what you're doing, Roy, are you in a studio like back into a building or are you at your home studio? How do you do yours? Do you travel? I've been a home worker for over 20 years. How about that? Yeah, but the question, though, is are we designing cities then that can accommodate workers? If not necessarily good to have all this sprawl, you got to build all that infrastructure. Why aren't people living in cities? Because cities have become residents, really, to either the very poor or the very wealthy. You need to get middle class people back downtown. Well, I got to tell you, the pandemic certainly put a big hit on commercial real estates. A lot of these high rises that had all these companies with their offices in these buildings. It seems like 50% a win today to get these people back in or find new tenants to rent them. So the challenge is on, I guess. Hi, Roy. Thank you, buddy. Hello. It is Ryan. And I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on Chumbagocino.com. I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing. They're also playing Chumbagocino. Everybody's loving having fun with it. 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