This Giant Beast That is the Global Economy (2019) s01e02 Episode Script
Are Rich People Dicks or Do Dicks Get Rich
1
Rich people.
You know the type
I'm talking about,
with their ridiculously
lavish cribs,
their cars for every
day of the week,
their tracksuits for
every day of the week.
Let's just say it.
A lot of them come
across as dicks.
There are Ponzi scheme running,
steal your life
savings rich dicks,
take no political prisoners
but if you do, waterboard them,
oh also, shoot a friend
in the face rich dicks,
holy shit, how did
these YouTube videos
make this guy 14 mil
a year rich dicks.
Blah, blah, blah,
more material objects.
Guys, the point is I
bought a lot of things,
including this Rolex.
Performance enhancing,
we're going to have to put
an asterisk in that
"W" column, rich dicks.
How many times do
I have to say it?
I've never taken
performance enhancing drugs.
Even Wu-Tang Clan disrespecting
pharma bro rich dicks.
What is it about
having a lot of money
and a willingness
to step over anyone
to get more of it that seem
to so often go together?
Is there a correlation
between richness and dickness?
And while we're asking questions,
how many times can I say
the word dick in a
show about the economy?
The answer may surprise you.
Whether you like it or not,
we're all connected by money.
I'm Kal Penn, exploring
this giant beast
that is the global economy.
If we're gonna spend
the whole episode
unpacking a broadly
drawn stereotype,
it maybe be helpful to
have a concrete example.
So we scoured the world to
find the perfect specimen.
His name is Justin.
Justin Ross Lee is an
American entrepreneur
whose passions include
leveraging his rich dick persona
to travel the world in first
class, and then bragging
about his jet setting
exploits on Instagram.
We're meeting for
champagne and pedicures
at his favourite resort.
He is, in short, a total dick.
Cheers. What? No, no, no.
We don't say cheers in Thailand.
In New York, I'd say I'chaim.
Here, we say chok dee krap.
I know, I know what
you're gonna say.
I'm not saying anything
except I don't trust you yet.
So okay, I'll play.
- Chok dee krap.
- Chok dee krap.
It's unclear how
much Justin is worth,
but he's made acting
like a rich dick
the centrepiece of his business.
It's not just about
being an asshole,
but it certainly helps.
His company is called
Pretentious Pocket.
They sell pocket squares
with names like the Madoff
and the Bateman to a consumer base
who look at Justin and
are like, "That guy.
"Yeah, I also wanna
look like a bully
in a John Hughes movie."
We make the world's
finest pocket square
that's literally made
of fuck-you silk.
People all over the
world buy my product.
Why do they buy my product, Kal?
- I don't know.
- To peacock,
to be pretentious,
to be obnoxious.
And I think in a global
economy in 2018, 2019,
you really need to be in your face
and completely unapologetic.
If 49% of the people love you
and 51% of the people hate you,
as long as people are
talking about you,
I think you're doing
something right.
You have to be bold,
brash and obnoxious
in order to stand out
and become best of breed.
Yeah.
For example, if you're
going to be in logistics
or shipping, you better be FedEx.
If you're going to sell condoms,
you better be fucking Trojan.
And unless you've
made that impression,
you've failed in whatever
it is that you do.
- Like for example, you, Kal Penn.
- Yeah.
If somebody thinks White Castle
and doesn't think Kal Penn,
you failed as an actor.
That's it.
If the thing that I'm
known for is a movie I did
12 years ago, I'm doing
something wrong, right?
You have to be in the
back of their minds.
I get it. I'm not
saying I don't get it.
I'm saying what, like,
what are some of the things
that make people
successful and why?
Shamelessness.
Quite frankly, you
have to be an asshole.
Like the founders of
Uber needed to realise
they were gonna piss off
a lot of cab drivers.
But then again, in 2018,
hailing a cab just
doesn't really work.
I mean, look at
what Airbnb has done
to the hospitality industry.
Ah, this dick may have a point.
Winning at business does
mean someone else loses.
Uber may have saved everyone
a fortune in DUI fines.
These girls are crazy.
Ah.
But it also cost thousands of
cab drivers their livelihoods.
And Airbnb is a great way
to make some extra cash
by letting strangers
treat your home
the way Led Zeppelin
treated hotel rooms.
When Mark and Star
King finally entered
their home after renting
it out for the weekend,
they were shocked
at what they saw.
There's mayonnaise on furniture,
and barbecue sauce everywhere,
and chicken meat in my shoes.
But you can't hose
off the damage Airbnb
has done to the
hospitality industry.
You really need to either
adapt, adopt or die.
And so if you're at
odds at being able to do
whatever it is you do
best because you feel bad,
you're a fucking dinosaur, man.
Alright.
- Kal.
- Yeah.
Ketokap, I'm gonna
need my hand back.
- Like how soft, feel that.
- Thank you.
This is great.
You got to follow me on Instagram.
Oh, great.
Now I'm gonna be tagged on
Instagram alongside this and this
and this,
when normally, my Instagram
feed looks like this.
According to Justin, the
path to personal success
is littered with the
bodies of your competition.
There's a word for people
with complete lack of empathy.
It's "psychopath."
When you think about psychopaths,
do you think of this?
Or this?
More on this guy in a minute.
Author Jon Ronson has
literally written the book
on the connection between
sychopaths and business.
So I'm meeting him at a
fancy bespoke suit shop,
the kind of place that he says
is a psychopath's natural habitat.
So have you come to
have your suit fitted?
I'm told this is
what psychopaths do.
- This is what I am
- I'm here to figure it out.
There's a couple of
weird quirks about people
who score high on the
psychopath checklist.
One is that they really
like to wear suits,
like really good, fancy suits.
So you wanna measure my body.
Well, I guess my first question
is do we want to design you a suit
that maybe fits the profile
of Jon's ideal psychopath?
Oh, hell yeah.
Because I have some
good ideas for that.
Oh, yeah.
Yes, absolutely, show
me a psychopath suit.
Maybe we could line
the suit with this
- Whoa. Look at that.
- What?
- Those are very predatory.
- That is awesome.
The predatory animals
is like a real thing.
Like high-scoring
proper psychopaths,
they love predatory animals
because they see
themselves as predators
going through the world,
destroying these weaker creatures.
That sounds about right.
Can you tell me
what are the things
that signify that
you're a psychopath?
Okay, well, it's a
20-point checklist
designed by a clinician.
His name is Robert Hare.
He was a prison psychologist
in Canada in the 1970s.
His name was Robert Hare?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
The checklist is all about
the kind of subtleties
and nuances of psychopathic
ehaviour: superficial charm,
grandiosity, lack of
remorse, lack of empathy.
But of course, any
one of these things
doesn't define you as
being psychopathic.
- It's the collection.
- Yes, the cluster.
So I really wanted to talk to you
because I'm curious
about this idea.
Do dicks become rich?
Are rich people
automatically dicks?
If you're good at business,
does that have some correlation
to you being either a
dick or a psychopath?
Well, the first thing I'd say
is like being a psychopath
and being a dick aren't
exactly the same thing.
I think psychopathy is a very
particular clinical
sort of dickishness.
But Robert had said to
me that he regretted
spending his life in prisons,
because he should have spent
more time in boardrooms.
Whoa.
Because he has come
up with the figure
that 1% of the general
public is a psychopath,
but that figure rises to 4%
of CEOs and business leaders.
In the psychopath test,
Ronson profiled former
Sunbeam CEO, Al J. Dunlap,
who did so much downsizing,
people called him Chainsaw Al.
Al fired people by the thousands,
allegedly told his ex-wife
he wanted to taste human flesh,
skipped both his
parents' funerals,
and made millions of
dollars for shareholders.
He also loved the jungle motif.
Does that mean you have an
innate ability to be a dick,
and that's why you succeed?
Well, I think if
you're a real proper
high-scoring psychopath
and you've got no empathy,
what do you fill that gap with?
And what you fill it with is
ruthlessness, the will to win,
the need to see yourself
as a kind of predator,
exploiting weaknesses
in other people.
And in business, of course,
winning means getting to the top.
But also, I think shareholders,
capitalism, at its
most remorseless,
rewards psychopathic
character traits.
It rewards a ruthlessness.
It rewards lack of
empathy, lack of remorse,
superficial charm, grandiosity.
So I do think there's truth
to Robert Hare's theory
that you're much more
likely to find a psychopath
at the top of the money
ladder than at the bottom.
After a lifetime of
research, his one regret,
you're saying, is that
he wished he had spent
- more time in boardrooms?
- Yeah.
Because of the impact that
business has on people?
Yeah.
You know, serial killers
are gonna destroy
- a finite number of lives.
- Yeah.
Whereas a president or a
CEO can remould society.
If capitalism rewards dicks,
isn't that a bad thing?
- Cheers.
- Hey, cheers, Kal.
Who thought up this crappy system,
and why are we all
on board with it?
Who's Adam Smith?
Oh, he's a famous economist.
He's the godfather of capitalism.
Balloons.
Balloons. Get your balloons.
- I'll take a balloon.
- Five bucks.
That seems a bit high for
a plain single balloon.
Oh, does it seem like a bit
much for a plain single balloon?
Well, guess what. No one
else is selling balloons.
- Take it or leave it.
- Fine.
- Have a balloon-errific day.
- Dick.
Sucker.
- Damn thing broke.
- No refunds.
Move on.
Balloons here. $4.
- All the colours of the rainbow.
- Motherfucker.
Brighten up your day
with a colourful balloon.
Violet, look at this. Adam
Smith's about to avenge us.
That dick overcharged
me for a bad product
out of greed and self interest,
but the park has let another
dick into the market.
Balloons here, $4.
Now the customer has
the freedom of choice.
I see you have a taste
for the finer things.
Balloon animals
here. Fierce animals.
- 3.99.
- You see that?
Now, that's innovation.
Oh, your balloon popped?
Well, I care about my customers.
- Here you go.
- Aha.
Once he could lose revenue
by selling a flimsy product,
it was in his self interest
to create something more reliable.
Personalised balloons.
Your face on your own
colourful balloon.
Why be on a balloon when you
can be in a balloon skirt?
- Lollipop with purchase.
- Face paint.
- Locally sourced string.
- Conflict-free helium.
- Organic air.
- Charlatan.
- Simpleton.
- That liar.
Well, assholes, now that they
learnt to provide quality
to their customers and still
make a profit, it looks like
capitalism has straightened
the two of you out.
Yeah, straightened us out
all the way to the bank.
Yeah, we still made
fat stacks, chump.
I think I'm starting to get it.
Excuse me.
A capitalist structure channels
the power of dick energy.
- Excuse me.
- Just a second, man.
And can actually help us all
get better goods and services.
Take Thomas Edison.
In his race to beat George
Westinghouse and electrify
the nation, he publicly
electrocuted an elephant.
Sounds like something
a psychopath would do.
But even now, Edison bulbs are
the gold standard of hipness.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
Or take Henry Ford, a stone
cold antisemitic asshole.
But in his quest to put
a Model T in every garage
in America, he revolutionised
assembly line manufacturing,
improving millions of lives
for the next 100 years.
Can I get a beer?
Can I get you another one?
Yeah, of course, absolutely.
Hey, fuck face.
Sorry, sir. How can I help?
Maybe we should all be dicks.
It seems to get things done.
Dickishness side
effects may include
electrocuting an elephant,
filming your hike
into a suicide forest, tweeting
a picture of your dick,
comparing a government
official to an ape,
implying slavery was a
choice, driving drunk
and blaming all wars on Jews,
jerking off into a plant,
price-gouging people who need
life-sustaining medication,
throwing a hotel
phone at a concierge.
Rich dicks seem like a
breed apart, but can anyone,
even a nice guy like me,
potentially learn their ways.
This rich dick says yes.
Gary Vaynerchuk earned
an estimated $160 million
by being one of the first people
to tap into the internet's
desire for mail-order booze.
I'm on a one-man mission to create
the greatest wine club in
America, maybe the world.
As well as a digital ad agency.
I've completely crushed it.
A bunch of client
meetings for VaynerMedia.
I've been focused as fuck,
nothing super glamorous,
no keynotes, no fucking
selfies on the street,
just fucking CEO life,
trying to get it.
His no excuses, no holds
barred business lessons
have earned him plenty
of rabid followers.
But also some other responses.
I'm excited to hear
his secrets to success.
I mean that's on them.
Just as soon as he
finishes dictating
this important message.
You can tell them there's
nothing to talk about.
I'm 100% not doing it.
Call them right back
and tell them I looked
in your dead fucking
face and said 100.00.
The likelihood of them
convincing me doing it
is the likelihood of me
becoming a Patriots fan.
- Give them that quote.
- Yes, sir.
Cool.
Are there people who
think you're an asshole?
I'm sure. I curse a lot,
so that's not good
you know, to a lot of people.
I mean, sure.
I'm a Jersey kid, so it
comes with a lot of
- Don't you hate on us.
- I'm a Jersey kid.
And also, I come off with a tonne
of bravado and
confidence, AKA ego.
So the answer is of course,
and then I really enjoy the
process of winning them over
in the course of my life.
We're talking about whether
you have to be ruthless
in business and whether
there are personal traits
and character traits that
drive the ability to be,
a, successful in
business, but be rich.
- Business to me is sports.
- Okay.
Do you need to be
ruthless? Sure, at times.
You know, at times, do
you need to trip somebody
in an important play-off game
to find that slight angle
that you're looking for?
- Probably.
- Yeah.
And in sports, it's
crafty, clever, right?
It's not frowned upon.
And I think in a
business, at some level,
that happens as well.
You know, sharp
elbow doesn't hurt.
I also think being an immigrant
and having nothing and having
ridiculously awesome parents
really worked out for me.
90% of parents teach
their kids defence.
My parents taught me offence.
My environment taught me offence.
My circumstance created
not too many options.
I have a report card hanging
up there of Ds and Fs.
I had to go offence.
That's why I love
entrepreneurship and business.
A purebred businessman
and woman want merit.
Capitalism is awesome.
Just own it.
The people that I really shit on
are the people that
won in their business
and then get to an age
where they're tired,
and then try to use their
money to manipulate the game.
Give me examples of
people who do this
that you're talking
about that sucks.
Most old wealthy people.
In sports, it's a great
Hall of Fame player
has some scrub pass him on a play,
and he or she realises, "-oh,
it's time to hang it up."
But in business, what people
do is when they're tired
and they just wanna
be on their yacht,
they try to use the money to
change the rules of the game.
To me, that's the
ultimate loser play.
- Okay.
- If you're such a capitalist,
then you let the merit
of the game play out.
Magic Johnson, Kobe, Shaq,
they don't get to go to
the Commissioner and say,
"You know, now, one
foul and you foul out.
"Let me give you some money."
But that's what a lot of
business people try to do,
and it devastates me.
I came in here expecting
Gary to teach me
how to be a dick, but he
seems pretty reasonable.
- Nice save.
- Just really competitive.
See that? You guys catch that?
That was some badass
shit right there.
- I hope you guys caught that.
- And now, he's got me worried
about a whole new set of dicks,
people who make their money
and then change the rules
to prevent fair competition.
Fuck.
In sports, you'd say
that's fixing the game.
It's seven-zero, just
so everybody knows.
But is there a name for this
kind of dick move in business?
Yeah, it's called rent seeking,
not to be confused
with what my landlord
does on a monthly basis in vain.
It's what Adam Smith says
a properly functioning
system should prevent.
Welcome to Dick's. How many today?
- Two, please.
- Okay.
I'm gonna have to give
you one of these buzzers.
And your table should be
ready in two to four hours.
You know, that's okay.
We're in kind of a hurry.
We'll just grab lunch from
a food truck or something.
Okay, but have you not heard?
Food trucks are
prohibited in the state.
Yeah, they're unsanitary
and bad for the environment.
- Really?
- No.
But that's what we said publicly.
Really, we just don't
want competition.
So our owner, Dick, lobbied
to have them banned.
Let's just go to Richard's
across the street.
You're more than
welcome to do that,
but just know that
we have acquired
the Richard's restaurant
chain in a merger.
We own all the restaurants
in a 50-mile radius.
It's a virtual monopoly.
So help me, I'll start my
own goddamn restaurant.
That's the spirit.
But, we have enough money
to change the rules.
So in order to start
your own restaurant,
you need to have a
four-year culinary degree,
win a reality cooking competition,
and earn the Presidential
Medal of Freedom.
Creating absurd barriers
of entry, whoop-whoop.
Classic rent-seeking move.
You know what I'm talking about?
You know, let's just eat here.
They work so hard to
protect their business.
I'm sure they do the same
thing with their food.
Not really.
I mean we don't not want
the food to be be good.
We just don't need to.
So while you wait, let's take
a look at the seating chart.
For an extra $9, you can pay
for an extra space table.
We don't need any
extra special seating.
We'll sit in whatever
normal tables you have.
But with the economy tables,
you may not be able
to sit together.
I know, sitting together
isn't an innovation
that we created, but we noticed
that people like to do that
so we started charging for it.
Rent-seeking, bitch ♪
Ah, ah, ah ♪
I got ooh, ooh,
ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
Where's the rent ♪
Where's the rent ♪
I got your rent ♪
Ah, ah, ah, whoo ♪
Adam Smith talked a lot about
competition and capitalism,
but what happens to the rest
of us when rule-changing,
rent-seeking dicks make sure
the competition isn't fair?
I can't ask Adam Smith
because he's super dead,
so I need to ask another
Adam, a guy who isn't afraid
to look the free market
right in its cold dead eyes.
The overlord of Planet Money,
the bad SOB at NPR,
the Conde Nast-iest.
He'll steal your lunch money
to teach you about fiat currency.
He's a producer on this show,
New Yorker writer, Adam Davidson.
A good way to know if
an industry is overcome
with rent seeking is do
you hate that industry.
Are you really mad
at that industry?
So what industry
are you most mad at?
I mean I can think of two
off the top of my head,
airlines and cellphone companies.
Yeah, well, those
are a great example.
- They're both terrible.
- Yeah.
But both have competition,
so why are they so terrible?
They have limited competition,
but they're still rent-seeking.
With cellphone companies,
there were auctions
over bandwidth,
and only a handful were
able to get that bandwidth.
You and I can't just
start a cellphone company
and just start grabbing bandwidth.
So basically, because only
a few cellphone companies
control all the bandwidth,
they can give you
terrible customer service?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
When you call them, the wait time,
the sort of attitude,
it's really clear.
They are not fighting
for your business.
- Yeah.
- Now airlines,
it's an extremely
regulated industry,
of course, and unbelievable
costs to get into it.
You have to spend a huge fortune
on aeroplanes and other things.
And then you get control over
routes and berths at airports.
So if I wanna get from
point A to point B,
there are only a few choices,
and they're all terrible, right?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
They're able to
make demands on you,
that they probably wouldn't be
if there was more competition.
So the biggest dicks, in a
sense, the people who are having
the worst impact on our
society, in my mind,
would be corporations that control
some vital resource
and prevent new people
from entering the industry
and competing with them,
which means there's not enough
of an incentive to really
create better products and
services to get business.
And in the long run, that's
very damaging to all of us.
The American economy has its share
of game-rigging
rent-seeking industries,
but there are some
places around the world
where rent seeking isn't
just allowed, it's mandatory.
In other words, what if a country
wrote rent-seeking
policies into law?
Over the last 30
years, Dubai has risen
from a small oil state
to become the UAE's
glittering international
business hub where reality
can conform to whatever
you desire or can afford.
I'm meeting with Ibrahim Baloushi,
one of the few Emirati
business people
willing to speak with me.
Ibrahim makes his money
off a common type of
law that places limits
on direct foreign
ownership of corporations.
Here in Dubai, a small
segment of the population
uses this state-sponsored
rent-seeking
as a way to get crazy stupid rich.
Can you tell me about your
company and what you do?
I have a business set-up
company, so basically
if anyone wants to come
in Dubai and do business,
we can get their
visas, their procedure,
their licence, office,
all set up, we provide
them completely.
And if you want a
licence with this,
you must need a local sponsor.
So the UAE national
has a 51 percent share,
and 49 for the non-UAE national.
But the non-UAE national is
fully authorised to
run the business.
Okay. So it's 51%, but it's not
a controlling interest somehow?
I mean, it is on paper
but it's not like the
Emirati national is
taking the shares
under their control.
He's only getting a sponsor
fee annually, that's it.
What's the annual fees?
It might be 15,000, or
20,000, or 25,000 dirhams.
That's it.
This is only designed
to help locals,
to support locals
by the government,
to support the economy,
to have some money for them also.
This is a small country
and a good economy,
and they have money to look
after their own people.
Because mostly the local
people, they don't prefer
to enrol in business
because they don't like it.
Okay, they are getting
their annual fees.
Is that an income?
Can you make a living by
getting annual fees from, like,
- a number of companies?
- Yes, yes, yes. It is.
So if you're business savvy
and you like, you want to
I know some people, they have
60, 70 companies as sponsorships.
- Really?
- So imagine.
If 20,000 for each,
- how much am I making?
- Oh, man.
1.5 million just sitting and
signing paper every year.
- That's it.
- And you don't have to.
No, no, no. Nothing to do.
Okay, come on, you don't
have to do anything,
you will be getting this money.
So what else do you want?
Oh, that's cool.
But you know what's not cool?
Indentured servitude.
Whoa, that got heavy fast.
But I'm talking about another way
rent seeking plays out in Dubai.
In addition to the 51/49 rule,
the country extracts rent
from a captive audience
of over eight million
migrant workers.
On the right side
is the City Centre,
one of the shopping
centres in Dubai.
We have more than 80
shopping centres in Dubai.
And that's why it's called DO BUY.
Mohammad Yaqoob, who
just goes by Yaqoob,
is a local driver who knows
all the sites around town.
So here is the gold market
which has more than
300 gold stores,
dried fruits, chocolates, dates.
It's an open market.
You can bargain around.
Because some people,
they love bargaining.
He's also been a victim of
Dubai's rent-seeking economy.
So this is my house.
We are living with all my friends.
- Nice.
- So please, welcome.
Thank you.
This is a powerful fan.
Yeah, because we have about
10 people who are living here.
- Okay.
- So this is my bed.
- Oh, it is?
- Yeah.
Who snores the loudest?
Ah, this one.
Each and every person
cannot afford one room,
because the cost of one room
is around 6,000 dirhams.
Oh, wow.
Which is around
about, like, $2,000.
Yeah.
The cost of living
is very high here.
12 years ago, Yaqoob left
Pakistan and came to Dubai,
lured by the promise of a
lucrative truck driving job.
While his room-mate cooks,
Yaqoob tells me about the hurdles
he's faced trying to
make a living in Dubai.
When you first came,
was it a tourist visa?
No, actually, I got a visa
that was a taxi company.
Okay.
The agent over there in Pakistan
promised me I will
become a truck driver,
because I was a truck
driver in Pakistan.
- Okay.
- Truck drivers have good salary,
like around 7 to 8
thousand dirhams a month.
Wow.
But when I reached here
I find a taxi company.
So then I asked, "No, I'm sorry
I cannot work as a taxi driver."
So he said, "You don't
have any option."
"Otherwise, you have to go back."
Could you have gotten another job?
No, we cannot get
another job because
when I got a visa, I have
to work only for them.
I cannot work with anybody else.
I have to complete
the three years.
If I want to go
before three years,
so they will cancel me and they
will ban me from the country.
Whoa. That sounds like
you were forced to work
for the taxi company, basically.
Yeah.
Because, well, you don't
have the money to leave.
Do you have to have a special
licence to drive a taxi?
And was the licence expensive?
In Dubai, they have paid around
10 to 15, 20 thousand dirhams
to get a licence only.
- Oh, wow. That's like $5,000.
- Yeah.
At that time I was only
11 dirhams in my pocket.
So one of my friends,
he's given me some money,
I have paid for the licence
and I got my licence.
Interesting, okay.
So I work for a taxi
company for three years.
And after that I started working
on my own as a self-employed.
I bought one small car.
Now, God has given
me two buses as well.
Okay.
So I have two drivers
they are working for me.
Oh, nice.
There probably was some
point where you said,
"Now I'm done with this three
years in the taxi business.
I can go back to truck driving."
- Yeah.
- But you didn't do that.
You created a
business instead. Why?
My father, he was
always asking me,
"Son, always do business."
"Don't work as a servant."
"And don't beg."
"If you want to beg, beg
from Alah, from God."
"So just do business."
- Dads, man.
- The parents, they understand.
Exactly.
Yaqoob's hard work has
made him a success story,
but he's about to be hit
by rent seeking again.
He's in the process of
expanding his business,
and that means he'll
need to form the required
51/49 partnership
with an Emirati local,
essentially subsidising
some rich dick
who probably owns a jet ski.
I'm meeting economist Raimundo
Soto, who used to advise
the government of Dubai
on economic development.
As an outsider who
was once an insider,
he's in a unique position to
speak freely about this system
which enables rich
dicks to stay rich
and extracts rent
from the working poor.
The next station is
World Trade Centre.
So the things that happened
to the driver that I met,
are these all just
human rights issues?
Or are they parts of a
rent-seeking conversation?
Well, of course they
are human rights things.
Yeah.
But your driver that
came from Pakistan
under the promise that he was
going to be a truck driver,
better paid, probably,
than as a taxi driver,
that allows for rent collection
on the part of the
agent or the sponsor.
How so?
Because suppose that
the worker is valuable,
100 dirhams an hour for you,
but you only pay them fifty,
then you're collecting the rest.
And you can do that
because the worker cannot
move to another company and
collect the higher wage.
That is the rent
seeking part of it.
So in terms of rent
seeking itself,
what are the complexities
associated with it?
Is it something as simple
as it's either good
or bad for an economy?
Or is it more
complicated than that?
Well, what happens is that,
if you're a rent seeker,
and you were already
collecting a good rent
Then there are very few incentives
to become more efficient.
The incentives are
to spend any money
in keeping that rent,
and therefore economies
get sort of stuck,
because why would
you make any effort
of being more efficient
if I'm already
collecting money, right?
So given the challenges
associated with rent seeking,
how come the economy
seems to be thriving?
How come things are still growing?
Well, if you look at
the growth in Dubai
and the rest of the Emirates
for the last 25 years,
it was growing very
fast at the beginning,
but it's been slowing down a lot.
What you see here is
basically construction,
tourism, financial services,
and some logistics,
the port and the like, right?
But if you look at
the exports of Dubai,
you don't see any manufacturing,
you don't see any industry.
No innovation is there,
no new initiatives,
no new products,
processes, and the like.
Why would I be creative
if I can collect the rent
from the 51/49 or from
employing foreigners?
Dubai became prosperous quickly,
but the grand scale rent seeking
that made a small groups of
its citizens ultra wealthy
also contributed to a
slowdown in economic growth.
In fact, in 2018, the
government indicated
it may be ready to make
changes to the 51/49 law
because they've
realised an economy
based on total dick moves
is ultimately built on sand.
Surely, there's a better way.
So once again, we
scoured the world
looking for a beacon of hope
in a rich dick universe,
a competitive yet altruistic,
non-zero sum, symbiotic,
shining dick on a hill
we can all look up to.
Yes, we are totally
committed to this joke.
Doc Johnson in North
Hollywood, California
is one of the premier makers
of fine adult products,
but their business success is
eclipsed by something else,
their rock hard reputation for
being a nice place to work.
Chad Braverman may look like
an every man on the streets,
but he's a freak in
the balance sheets.
As COO, he took his family's
mum and pop dildo business
and erected a multi-million
dollar empire,
selling over a throbbing
75,000 sex toys a week.
Everything you see here is like
this is the type of
manufacturing we do.
- You can see things like this.
- Is that ready to go?
Well, it's got to be
put into a package,
but that's the mould I did.
Chad credits his
success to following
a few key principles that
would make Adam Smith blush
in admiration.
Look, assembly line production,
just like Henry Ford.
I wonder what other capitalistic
tropes I can find here.
Are these butt plugs?
No, these are masturbators.
Oh.
So this is kinda
what she was making.
Oh, wow. That's
like an everything.
You have the lips, the tongue.
And then a bullet goes through
here so it's vibrating.
Oh, come on.
One of the things that Doc
Johnson has been known for
for like 30 years is
moulding porn stars.
- Yup.
- You know, we've done
some of the biggest names in
the history of the industry,
Belladonna, Sasha
Grey, Jenna Jameson.
So how does that work? Do
you give them a onetime fee?
Do they own royalties?
Most deals are
royalty based, right?
So you have sort of a partnership.
They're getting paid for
every single unit sold.
It makes them invested
in the product as well.
Are there folks who are not
known in the adult industry
who also give you moulds?
Yes, we have a product here
that actually was moulded
from like a male gentleman,
not a performer but
- He had a huge ass dick.
- It wasn't huge necessarily.
- Oh, it was just nice.
- It was just like good looking.
- You know what I mean?
- Nice.
The product is still
in our catalogue,
and it's like going
on like 30 years.
And it's like a huge
selling item, pun intended.
Sure, yeah.
This is Angiani. She
specialises in clay work.
We're mimicking human skin.
Angiani's been with
us for 20 years now.
Well, how is it
working for this guy?
Chad has always been fair.
He always treats me like a friend.
If I've been here for 20 years,
it means something is right.
Are you allowed to tell me
how much you guys
take in, any of that?
I can tell you that the
industry is estimated
to do well over $1
billion this year.
There are people pushing
the industry forward
in new and exciting ways.
I mean, you need
to have competition
that's making you
reinvent yourself.
You guys are doing well.
You're obviously
making a lot of money.
So is there a dickishness
that has to do
with making a lot of money
and doing well in business?
I think a lot of the
rich people that I've met
are from that confident
to that extreme confident.
Some of them have
definitely been dicks too,
but there's a difference.
- What makes you different?
- I just make dicks.
Instead of being a dick.
I just try to treat people fairly.
It's good just knowing
there are rich non-dicks
like Chad out there.
And he's not the only one.
There are a lots of people
who don't seem to be dicks
but still make capitalism work
for personal gain
and the greater good.
But back to the original question.
Is there a connection between
being rich and being a dick?
The answer is yes.
Being a bit of a dick
can help you get rich
and may even benefit
the rest of us,
as long as when it
comes to innovation,
your motto is stoke
it, don't choke it.
Because if you're the kind
of dick who creates a system
that keeps you on top and won't
allow other dicks to rise,
well, that just
makes you an asshole.
And that, ladies and gentlemen,
is 40 times I said dick.
Make that 41.
How are you enjoying your soup?
Can we have some fucking spoons?
Okay, well, spoons are
considered a premium utensil.
You know what?
No, I'm not gonna,
pay extra for a spoon.
I'm gonna drink the
fucking chowder.
Oh.
Can I have a napkin?
That was good.
Rich people.
You know the type
I'm talking about,
with their ridiculously
lavish cribs,
their cars for every
day of the week,
their tracksuits for
every day of the week.
Let's just say it.
A lot of them come
across as dicks.
There are Ponzi scheme running,
steal your life
savings rich dicks,
take no political prisoners
but if you do, waterboard them,
oh also, shoot a friend
in the face rich dicks,
holy shit, how did
these YouTube videos
make this guy 14 mil
a year rich dicks.
Blah, blah, blah,
more material objects.
Guys, the point is I
bought a lot of things,
including this Rolex.
Performance enhancing,
we're going to have to put
an asterisk in that
"W" column, rich dicks.
How many times do
I have to say it?
I've never taken
performance enhancing drugs.
Even Wu-Tang Clan disrespecting
pharma bro rich dicks.
What is it about
having a lot of money
and a willingness
to step over anyone
to get more of it that seem
to so often go together?
Is there a correlation
between richness and dickness?
And while we're asking questions,
how many times can I say
the word dick in a
show about the economy?
The answer may surprise you.
Whether you like it or not,
we're all connected by money.
I'm Kal Penn, exploring
this giant beast
that is the global economy.
If we're gonna spend
the whole episode
unpacking a broadly
drawn stereotype,
it maybe be helpful to
have a concrete example.
So we scoured the world to
find the perfect specimen.
His name is Justin.
Justin Ross Lee is an
American entrepreneur
whose passions include
leveraging his rich dick persona
to travel the world in first
class, and then bragging
about his jet setting
exploits on Instagram.
We're meeting for
champagne and pedicures
at his favourite resort.
He is, in short, a total dick.
Cheers. What? No, no, no.
We don't say cheers in Thailand.
In New York, I'd say I'chaim.
Here, we say chok dee krap.
I know, I know what
you're gonna say.
I'm not saying anything
except I don't trust you yet.
So okay, I'll play.
- Chok dee krap.
- Chok dee krap.
It's unclear how
much Justin is worth,
but he's made acting
like a rich dick
the centrepiece of his business.
It's not just about
being an asshole,
but it certainly helps.
His company is called
Pretentious Pocket.
They sell pocket squares
with names like the Madoff
and the Bateman to a consumer base
who look at Justin and
are like, "That guy.
"Yeah, I also wanna
look like a bully
in a John Hughes movie."
We make the world's
finest pocket square
that's literally made
of fuck-you silk.
People all over the
world buy my product.
Why do they buy my product, Kal?
- I don't know.
- To peacock,
to be pretentious,
to be obnoxious.
And I think in a global
economy in 2018, 2019,
you really need to be in your face
and completely unapologetic.
If 49% of the people love you
and 51% of the people hate you,
as long as people are
talking about you,
I think you're doing
something right.
You have to be bold,
brash and obnoxious
in order to stand out
and become best of breed.
Yeah.
For example, if you're
going to be in logistics
or shipping, you better be FedEx.
If you're going to sell condoms,
you better be fucking Trojan.
And unless you've
made that impression,
you've failed in whatever
it is that you do.
- Like for example, you, Kal Penn.
- Yeah.
If somebody thinks White Castle
and doesn't think Kal Penn,
you failed as an actor.
That's it.
If the thing that I'm
known for is a movie I did
12 years ago, I'm doing
something wrong, right?
You have to be in the
back of their minds.
I get it. I'm not
saying I don't get it.
I'm saying what, like,
what are some of the things
that make people
successful and why?
Shamelessness.
Quite frankly, you
have to be an asshole.
Like the founders of
Uber needed to realise
they were gonna piss off
a lot of cab drivers.
But then again, in 2018,
hailing a cab just
doesn't really work.
I mean, look at
what Airbnb has done
to the hospitality industry.
Ah, this dick may have a point.
Winning at business does
mean someone else loses.
Uber may have saved everyone
a fortune in DUI fines.
These girls are crazy.
Ah.
But it also cost thousands of
cab drivers their livelihoods.
And Airbnb is a great way
to make some extra cash
by letting strangers
treat your home
the way Led Zeppelin
treated hotel rooms.
When Mark and Star
King finally entered
their home after renting
it out for the weekend,
they were shocked
at what they saw.
There's mayonnaise on furniture,
and barbecue sauce everywhere,
and chicken meat in my shoes.
But you can't hose
off the damage Airbnb
has done to the
hospitality industry.
You really need to either
adapt, adopt or die.
And so if you're at
odds at being able to do
whatever it is you do
best because you feel bad,
you're a fucking dinosaur, man.
Alright.
- Kal.
- Yeah.
Ketokap, I'm gonna
need my hand back.
- Like how soft, feel that.
- Thank you.
This is great.
You got to follow me on Instagram.
Oh, great.
Now I'm gonna be tagged on
Instagram alongside this and this
and this,
when normally, my Instagram
feed looks like this.
According to Justin, the
path to personal success
is littered with the
bodies of your competition.
There's a word for people
with complete lack of empathy.
It's "psychopath."
When you think about psychopaths,
do you think of this?
Or this?
More on this guy in a minute.
Author Jon Ronson has
literally written the book
on the connection between
sychopaths and business.
So I'm meeting him at a
fancy bespoke suit shop,
the kind of place that he says
is a psychopath's natural habitat.
So have you come to
have your suit fitted?
I'm told this is
what psychopaths do.
- This is what I am
- I'm here to figure it out.
There's a couple of
weird quirks about people
who score high on the
psychopath checklist.
One is that they really
like to wear suits,
like really good, fancy suits.
So you wanna measure my body.
Well, I guess my first question
is do we want to design you a suit
that maybe fits the profile
of Jon's ideal psychopath?
Oh, hell yeah.
Because I have some
good ideas for that.
Oh, yeah.
Yes, absolutely, show
me a psychopath suit.
Maybe we could line
the suit with this
- Whoa. Look at that.
- What?
- Those are very predatory.
- That is awesome.
The predatory animals
is like a real thing.
Like high-scoring
proper psychopaths,
they love predatory animals
because they see
themselves as predators
going through the world,
destroying these weaker creatures.
That sounds about right.
Can you tell me
what are the things
that signify that
you're a psychopath?
Okay, well, it's a
20-point checklist
designed by a clinician.
His name is Robert Hare.
He was a prison psychologist
in Canada in the 1970s.
His name was Robert Hare?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
The checklist is all about
the kind of subtleties
and nuances of psychopathic
ehaviour: superficial charm,
grandiosity, lack of
remorse, lack of empathy.
But of course, any
one of these things
doesn't define you as
being psychopathic.
- It's the collection.
- Yes, the cluster.
So I really wanted to talk to you
because I'm curious
about this idea.
Do dicks become rich?
Are rich people
automatically dicks?
If you're good at business,
does that have some correlation
to you being either a
dick or a psychopath?
Well, the first thing I'd say
is like being a psychopath
and being a dick aren't
exactly the same thing.
I think psychopathy is a very
particular clinical
sort of dickishness.
But Robert had said to
me that he regretted
spending his life in prisons,
because he should have spent
more time in boardrooms.
Whoa.
Because he has come
up with the figure
that 1% of the general
public is a psychopath,
but that figure rises to 4%
of CEOs and business leaders.
In the psychopath test,
Ronson profiled former
Sunbeam CEO, Al J. Dunlap,
who did so much downsizing,
people called him Chainsaw Al.
Al fired people by the thousands,
allegedly told his ex-wife
he wanted to taste human flesh,
skipped both his
parents' funerals,
and made millions of
dollars for shareholders.
He also loved the jungle motif.
Does that mean you have an
innate ability to be a dick,
and that's why you succeed?
Well, I think if
you're a real proper
high-scoring psychopath
and you've got no empathy,
what do you fill that gap with?
And what you fill it with is
ruthlessness, the will to win,
the need to see yourself
as a kind of predator,
exploiting weaknesses
in other people.
And in business, of course,
winning means getting to the top.
But also, I think shareholders,
capitalism, at its
most remorseless,
rewards psychopathic
character traits.
It rewards a ruthlessness.
It rewards lack of
empathy, lack of remorse,
superficial charm, grandiosity.
So I do think there's truth
to Robert Hare's theory
that you're much more
likely to find a psychopath
at the top of the money
ladder than at the bottom.
After a lifetime of
research, his one regret,
you're saying, is that
he wished he had spent
- more time in boardrooms?
- Yeah.
Because of the impact that
business has on people?
Yeah.
You know, serial killers
are gonna destroy
- a finite number of lives.
- Yeah.
Whereas a president or a
CEO can remould society.
If capitalism rewards dicks,
isn't that a bad thing?
- Cheers.
- Hey, cheers, Kal.
Who thought up this crappy system,
and why are we all
on board with it?
Who's Adam Smith?
Oh, he's a famous economist.
He's the godfather of capitalism.
Balloons.
Balloons. Get your balloons.
- I'll take a balloon.
- Five bucks.
That seems a bit high for
a plain single balloon.
Oh, does it seem like a bit
much for a plain single balloon?
Well, guess what. No one
else is selling balloons.
- Take it or leave it.
- Fine.
- Have a balloon-errific day.
- Dick.
Sucker.
- Damn thing broke.
- No refunds.
Move on.
Balloons here. $4.
- All the colours of the rainbow.
- Motherfucker.
Brighten up your day
with a colourful balloon.
Violet, look at this. Adam
Smith's about to avenge us.
That dick overcharged
me for a bad product
out of greed and self interest,
but the park has let another
dick into the market.
Balloons here, $4.
Now the customer has
the freedom of choice.
I see you have a taste
for the finer things.
Balloon animals
here. Fierce animals.
- 3.99.
- You see that?
Now, that's innovation.
Oh, your balloon popped?
Well, I care about my customers.
- Here you go.
- Aha.
Once he could lose revenue
by selling a flimsy product,
it was in his self interest
to create something more reliable.
Personalised balloons.
Your face on your own
colourful balloon.
Why be on a balloon when you
can be in a balloon skirt?
- Lollipop with purchase.
- Face paint.
- Locally sourced string.
- Conflict-free helium.
- Organic air.
- Charlatan.
- Simpleton.
- That liar.
Well, assholes, now that they
learnt to provide quality
to their customers and still
make a profit, it looks like
capitalism has straightened
the two of you out.
Yeah, straightened us out
all the way to the bank.
Yeah, we still made
fat stacks, chump.
I think I'm starting to get it.
Excuse me.
A capitalist structure channels
the power of dick energy.
- Excuse me.
- Just a second, man.
And can actually help us all
get better goods and services.
Take Thomas Edison.
In his race to beat George
Westinghouse and electrify
the nation, he publicly
electrocuted an elephant.
Sounds like something
a psychopath would do.
But even now, Edison bulbs are
the gold standard of hipness.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
Or take Henry Ford, a stone
cold antisemitic asshole.
But in his quest to put
a Model T in every garage
in America, he revolutionised
assembly line manufacturing,
improving millions of lives
for the next 100 years.
Can I get a beer?
Can I get you another one?
Yeah, of course, absolutely.
Hey, fuck face.
Sorry, sir. How can I help?
Maybe we should all be dicks.
It seems to get things done.
Dickishness side
effects may include
electrocuting an elephant,
filming your hike
into a suicide forest, tweeting
a picture of your dick,
comparing a government
official to an ape,
implying slavery was a
choice, driving drunk
and blaming all wars on Jews,
jerking off into a plant,
price-gouging people who need
life-sustaining medication,
throwing a hotel
phone at a concierge.
Rich dicks seem like a
breed apart, but can anyone,
even a nice guy like me,
potentially learn their ways.
This rich dick says yes.
Gary Vaynerchuk earned
an estimated $160 million
by being one of the first people
to tap into the internet's
desire for mail-order booze.
I'm on a one-man mission to create
the greatest wine club in
America, maybe the world.
As well as a digital ad agency.
I've completely crushed it.
A bunch of client
meetings for VaynerMedia.
I've been focused as fuck,
nothing super glamorous,
no keynotes, no fucking
selfies on the street,
just fucking CEO life,
trying to get it.
His no excuses, no holds
barred business lessons
have earned him plenty
of rabid followers.
But also some other responses.
I'm excited to hear
his secrets to success.
I mean that's on them.
Just as soon as he
finishes dictating
this important message.
You can tell them there's
nothing to talk about.
I'm 100% not doing it.
Call them right back
and tell them I looked
in your dead fucking
face and said 100.00.
The likelihood of them
convincing me doing it
is the likelihood of me
becoming a Patriots fan.
- Give them that quote.
- Yes, sir.
Cool.
Are there people who
think you're an asshole?
I'm sure. I curse a lot,
so that's not good
you know, to a lot of people.
I mean, sure.
I'm a Jersey kid, so it
comes with a lot of
- Don't you hate on us.
- I'm a Jersey kid.
And also, I come off with a tonne
of bravado and
confidence, AKA ego.
So the answer is of course,
and then I really enjoy the
process of winning them over
in the course of my life.
We're talking about whether
you have to be ruthless
in business and whether
there are personal traits
and character traits that
drive the ability to be,
a, successful in
business, but be rich.
- Business to me is sports.
- Okay.
Do you need to be
ruthless? Sure, at times.
You know, at times, do
you need to trip somebody
in an important play-off game
to find that slight angle
that you're looking for?
- Probably.
- Yeah.
And in sports, it's
crafty, clever, right?
It's not frowned upon.
And I think in a
business, at some level,
that happens as well.
You know, sharp
elbow doesn't hurt.
I also think being an immigrant
and having nothing and having
ridiculously awesome parents
really worked out for me.
90% of parents teach
their kids defence.
My parents taught me offence.
My environment taught me offence.
My circumstance created
not too many options.
I have a report card hanging
up there of Ds and Fs.
I had to go offence.
That's why I love
entrepreneurship and business.
A purebred businessman
and woman want merit.
Capitalism is awesome.
Just own it.
The people that I really shit on
are the people that
won in their business
and then get to an age
where they're tired,
and then try to use their
money to manipulate the game.
Give me examples of
people who do this
that you're talking
about that sucks.
Most old wealthy people.
In sports, it's a great
Hall of Fame player
has some scrub pass him on a play,
and he or she realises, "-oh,
it's time to hang it up."
But in business, what people
do is when they're tired
and they just wanna
be on their yacht,
they try to use the money to
change the rules of the game.
To me, that's the
ultimate loser play.
- Okay.
- If you're such a capitalist,
then you let the merit
of the game play out.
Magic Johnson, Kobe, Shaq,
they don't get to go to
the Commissioner and say,
"You know, now, one
foul and you foul out.
"Let me give you some money."
But that's what a lot of
business people try to do,
and it devastates me.
I came in here expecting
Gary to teach me
how to be a dick, but he
seems pretty reasonable.
- Nice save.
- Just really competitive.
See that? You guys catch that?
That was some badass
shit right there.
- I hope you guys caught that.
- And now, he's got me worried
about a whole new set of dicks,
people who make their money
and then change the rules
to prevent fair competition.
Fuck.
In sports, you'd say
that's fixing the game.
It's seven-zero, just
so everybody knows.
But is there a name for this
kind of dick move in business?
Yeah, it's called rent seeking,
not to be confused
with what my landlord
does on a monthly basis in vain.
It's what Adam Smith says
a properly functioning
system should prevent.
Welcome to Dick's. How many today?
- Two, please.
- Okay.
I'm gonna have to give
you one of these buzzers.
And your table should be
ready in two to four hours.
You know, that's okay.
We're in kind of a hurry.
We'll just grab lunch from
a food truck or something.
Okay, but have you not heard?
Food trucks are
prohibited in the state.
Yeah, they're unsanitary
and bad for the environment.
- Really?
- No.
But that's what we said publicly.
Really, we just don't
want competition.
So our owner, Dick, lobbied
to have them banned.
Let's just go to Richard's
across the street.
You're more than
welcome to do that,
but just know that
we have acquired
the Richard's restaurant
chain in a merger.
We own all the restaurants
in a 50-mile radius.
It's a virtual monopoly.
So help me, I'll start my
own goddamn restaurant.
That's the spirit.
But, we have enough money
to change the rules.
So in order to start
your own restaurant,
you need to have a
four-year culinary degree,
win a reality cooking competition,
and earn the Presidential
Medal of Freedom.
Creating absurd barriers
of entry, whoop-whoop.
Classic rent-seeking move.
You know what I'm talking about?
You know, let's just eat here.
They work so hard to
protect their business.
I'm sure they do the same
thing with their food.
Not really.
I mean we don't not want
the food to be be good.
We just don't need to.
So while you wait, let's take
a look at the seating chart.
For an extra $9, you can pay
for an extra space table.
We don't need any
extra special seating.
We'll sit in whatever
normal tables you have.
But with the economy tables,
you may not be able
to sit together.
I know, sitting together
isn't an innovation
that we created, but we noticed
that people like to do that
so we started charging for it.
Rent-seeking, bitch ♪
Ah, ah, ah ♪
I got ooh, ooh,
ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
Where's the rent ♪
Where's the rent ♪
I got your rent ♪
Ah, ah, ah, whoo ♪
Adam Smith talked a lot about
competition and capitalism,
but what happens to the rest
of us when rule-changing,
rent-seeking dicks make sure
the competition isn't fair?
I can't ask Adam Smith
because he's super dead,
so I need to ask another
Adam, a guy who isn't afraid
to look the free market
right in its cold dead eyes.
The overlord of Planet Money,
the bad SOB at NPR,
the Conde Nast-iest.
He'll steal your lunch money
to teach you about fiat currency.
He's a producer on this show,
New Yorker writer, Adam Davidson.
A good way to know if
an industry is overcome
with rent seeking is do
you hate that industry.
Are you really mad
at that industry?
So what industry
are you most mad at?
I mean I can think of two
off the top of my head,
airlines and cellphone companies.
Yeah, well, those
are a great example.
- They're both terrible.
- Yeah.
But both have competition,
so why are they so terrible?
They have limited competition,
but they're still rent-seeking.
With cellphone companies,
there were auctions
over bandwidth,
and only a handful were
able to get that bandwidth.
You and I can't just
start a cellphone company
and just start grabbing bandwidth.
So basically, because only
a few cellphone companies
control all the bandwidth,
they can give you
terrible customer service?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
When you call them, the wait time,
the sort of attitude,
it's really clear.
They are not fighting
for your business.
- Yeah.
- Now airlines,
it's an extremely
regulated industry,
of course, and unbelievable
costs to get into it.
You have to spend a huge fortune
on aeroplanes and other things.
And then you get control over
routes and berths at airports.
So if I wanna get from
point A to point B,
there are only a few choices,
and they're all terrible, right?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
They're able to
make demands on you,
that they probably wouldn't be
if there was more competition.
So the biggest dicks, in a
sense, the people who are having
the worst impact on our
society, in my mind,
would be corporations that control
some vital resource
and prevent new people
from entering the industry
and competing with them,
which means there's not enough
of an incentive to really
create better products and
services to get business.
And in the long run, that's
very damaging to all of us.
The American economy has its share
of game-rigging
rent-seeking industries,
but there are some
places around the world
where rent seeking isn't
just allowed, it's mandatory.
In other words, what if a country
wrote rent-seeking
policies into law?
Over the last 30
years, Dubai has risen
from a small oil state
to become the UAE's
glittering international
business hub where reality
can conform to whatever
you desire or can afford.
I'm meeting with Ibrahim Baloushi,
one of the few Emirati
business people
willing to speak with me.
Ibrahim makes his money
off a common type of
law that places limits
on direct foreign
ownership of corporations.
Here in Dubai, a small
segment of the population
uses this state-sponsored
rent-seeking
as a way to get crazy stupid rich.
Can you tell me about your
company and what you do?
I have a business set-up
company, so basically
if anyone wants to come
in Dubai and do business,
we can get their
visas, their procedure,
their licence, office,
all set up, we provide
them completely.
And if you want a
licence with this,
you must need a local sponsor.
So the UAE national
has a 51 percent share,
and 49 for the non-UAE national.
But the non-UAE national is
fully authorised to
run the business.
Okay. So it's 51%, but it's not
a controlling interest somehow?
I mean, it is on paper
but it's not like the
Emirati national is
taking the shares
under their control.
He's only getting a sponsor
fee annually, that's it.
What's the annual fees?
It might be 15,000, or
20,000, or 25,000 dirhams.
That's it.
This is only designed
to help locals,
to support locals
by the government,
to support the economy,
to have some money for them also.
This is a small country
and a good economy,
and they have money to look
after their own people.
Because mostly the local
people, they don't prefer
to enrol in business
because they don't like it.
Okay, they are getting
their annual fees.
Is that an income?
Can you make a living by
getting annual fees from, like,
- a number of companies?
- Yes, yes, yes. It is.
So if you're business savvy
and you like, you want to
I know some people, they have
60, 70 companies as sponsorships.
- Really?
- So imagine.
If 20,000 for each,
- how much am I making?
- Oh, man.
1.5 million just sitting and
signing paper every year.
- That's it.
- And you don't have to.
No, no, no. Nothing to do.
Okay, come on, you don't
have to do anything,
you will be getting this money.
So what else do you want?
Oh, that's cool.
But you know what's not cool?
Indentured servitude.
Whoa, that got heavy fast.
But I'm talking about another way
rent seeking plays out in Dubai.
In addition to the 51/49 rule,
the country extracts rent
from a captive audience
of over eight million
migrant workers.
On the right side
is the City Centre,
one of the shopping
centres in Dubai.
We have more than 80
shopping centres in Dubai.
And that's why it's called DO BUY.
Mohammad Yaqoob, who
just goes by Yaqoob,
is a local driver who knows
all the sites around town.
So here is the gold market
which has more than
300 gold stores,
dried fruits, chocolates, dates.
It's an open market.
You can bargain around.
Because some people,
they love bargaining.
He's also been a victim of
Dubai's rent-seeking economy.
So this is my house.
We are living with all my friends.
- Nice.
- So please, welcome.
Thank you.
This is a powerful fan.
Yeah, because we have about
10 people who are living here.
- Okay.
- So this is my bed.
- Oh, it is?
- Yeah.
Who snores the loudest?
Ah, this one.
Each and every person
cannot afford one room,
because the cost of one room
is around 6,000 dirhams.
Oh, wow.
Which is around
about, like, $2,000.
Yeah.
The cost of living
is very high here.
12 years ago, Yaqoob left
Pakistan and came to Dubai,
lured by the promise of a
lucrative truck driving job.
While his room-mate cooks,
Yaqoob tells me about the hurdles
he's faced trying to
make a living in Dubai.
When you first came,
was it a tourist visa?
No, actually, I got a visa
that was a taxi company.
Okay.
The agent over there in Pakistan
promised me I will
become a truck driver,
because I was a truck
driver in Pakistan.
- Okay.
- Truck drivers have good salary,
like around 7 to 8
thousand dirhams a month.
Wow.
But when I reached here
I find a taxi company.
So then I asked, "No, I'm sorry
I cannot work as a taxi driver."
So he said, "You don't
have any option."
"Otherwise, you have to go back."
Could you have gotten another job?
No, we cannot get
another job because
when I got a visa, I have
to work only for them.
I cannot work with anybody else.
I have to complete
the three years.
If I want to go
before three years,
so they will cancel me and they
will ban me from the country.
Whoa. That sounds like
you were forced to work
for the taxi company, basically.
Yeah.
Because, well, you don't
have the money to leave.
Do you have to have a special
licence to drive a taxi?
And was the licence expensive?
In Dubai, they have paid around
10 to 15, 20 thousand dirhams
to get a licence only.
- Oh, wow. That's like $5,000.
- Yeah.
At that time I was only
11 dirhams in my pocket.
So one of my friends,
he's given me some money,
I have paid for the licence
and I got my licence.
Interesting, okay.
So I work for a taxi
company for three years.
And after that I started working
on my own as a self-employed.
I bought one small car.
Now, God has given
me two buses as well.
Okay.
So I have two drivers
they are working for me.
Oh, nice.
There probably was some
point where you said,
"Now I'm done with this three
years in the taxi business.
I can go back to truck driving."
- Yeah.
- But you didn't do that.
You created a
business instead. Why?
My father, he was
always asking me,
"Son, always do business."
"Don't work as a servant."
"And don't beg."
"If you want to beg, beg
from Alah, from God."
"So just do business."
- Dads, man.
- The parents, they understand.
Exactly.
Yaqoob's hard work has
made him a success story,
but he's about to be hit
by rent seeking again.
He's in the process of
expanding his business,
and that means he'll
need to form the required
51/49 partnership
with an Emirati local,
essentially subsidising
some rich dick
who probably owns a jet ski.
I'm meeting economist Raimundo
Soto, who used to advise
the government of Dubai
on economic development.
As an outsider who
was once an insider,
he's in a unique position to
speak freely about this system
which enables rich
dicks to stay rich
and extracts rent
from the working poor.
The next station is
World Trade Centre.
So the things that happened
to the driver that I met,
are these all just
human rights issues?
Or are they parts of a
rent-seeking conversation?
Well, of course they
are human rights things.
Yeah.
But your driver that
came from Pakistan
under the promise that he was
going to be a truck driver,
better paid, probably,
than as a taxi driver,
that allows for rent collection
on the part of the
agent or the sponsor.
How so?
Because suppose that
the worker is valuable,
100 dirhams an hour for you,
but you only pay them fifty,
then you're collecting the rest.
And you can do that
because the worker cannot
move to another company and
collect the higher wage.
That is the rent
seeking part of it.
So in terms of rent
seeking itself,
what are the complexities
associated with it?
Is it something as simple
as it's either good
or bad for an economy?
Or is it more
complicated than that?
Well, what happens is that,
if you're a rent seeker,
and you were already
collecting a good rent
Then there are very few incentives
to become more efficient.
The incentives are
to spend any money
in keeping that rent,
and therefore economies
get sort of stuck,
because why would
you make any effort
of being more efficient
if I'm already
collecting money, right?
So given the challenges
associated with rent seeking,
how come the economy
seems to be thriving?
How come things are still growing?
Well, if you look at
the growth in Dubai
and the rest of the Emirates
for the last 25 years,
it was growing very
fast at the beginning,
but it's been slowing down a lot.
What you see here is
basically construction,
tourism, financial services,
and some logistics,
the port and the like, right?
But if you look at
the exports of Dubai,
you don't see any manufacturing,
you don't see any industry.
No innovation is there,
no new initiatives,
no new products,
processes, and the like.
Why would I be creative
if I can collect the rent
from the 51/49 or from
employing foreigners?
Dubai became prosperous quickly,
but the grand scale rent seeking
that made a small groups of
its citizens ultra wealthy
also contributed to a
slowdown in economic growth.
In fact, in 2018, the
government indicated
it may be ready to make
changes to the 51/49 law
because they've
realised an economy
based on total dick moves
is ultimately built on sand.
Surely, there's a better way.
So once again, we
scoured the world
looking for a beacon of hope
in a rich dick universe,
a competitive yet altruistic,
non-zero sum, symbiotic,
shining dick on a hill
we can all look up to.
Yes, we are totally
committed to this joke.
Doc Johnson in North
Hollywood, California
is one of the premier makers
of fine adult products,
but their business success is
eclipsed by something else,
their rock hard reputation for
being a nice place to work.
Chad Braverman may look like
an every man on the streets,
but he's a freak in
the balance sheets.
As COO, he took his family's
mum and pop dildo business
and erected a multi-million
dollar empire,
selling over a throbbing
75,000 sex toys a week.
Everything you see here is like
this is the type of
manufacturing we do.
- You can see things like this.
- Is that ready to go?
Well, it's got to be
put into a package,
but that's the mould I did.
Chad credits his
success to following
a few key principles that
would make Adam Smith blush
in admiration.
Look, assembly line production,
just like Henry Ford.
I wonder what other capitalistic
tropes I can find here.
Are these butt plugs?
No, these are masturbators.
Oh.
So this is kinda
what she was making.
Oh, wow. That's
like an everything.
You have the lips, the tongue.
And then a bullet goes through
here so it's vibrating.
Oh, come on.
One of the things that Doc
Johnson has been known for
for like 30 years is
moulding porn stars.
- Yup.
- You know, we've done
some of the biggest names in
the history of the industry,
Belladonna, Sasha
Grey, Jenna Jameson.
So how does that work? Do
you give them a onetime fee?
Do they own royalties?
Most deals are
royalty based, right?
So you have sort of a partnership.
They're getting paid for
every single unit sold.
It makes them invested
in the product as well.
Are there folks who are not
known in the adult industry
who also give you moulds?
Yes, we have a product here
that actually was moulded
from like a male gentleman,
not a performer but
- He had a huge ass dick.
- It wasn't huge necessarily.
- Oh, it was just nice.
- It was just like good looking.
- You know what I mean?
- Nice.
The product is still
in our catalogue,
and it's like going
on like 30 years.
And it's like a huge
selling item, pun intended.
Sure, yeah.
This is Angiani. She
specialises in clay work.
We're mimicking human skin.
Angiani's been with
us for 20 years now.
Well, how is it
working for this guy?
Chad has always been fair.
He always treats me like a friend.
If I've been here for 20 years,
it means something is right.
Are you allowed to tell me
how much you guys
take in, any of that?
I can tell you that the
industry is estimated
to do well over $1
billion this year.
There are people pushing
the industry forward
in new and exciting ways.
I mean, you need
to have competition
that's making you
reinvent yourself.
You guys are doing well.
You're obviously
making a lot of money.
So is there a dickishness
that has to do
with making a lot of money
and doing well in business?
I think a lot of the
rich people that I've met
are from that confident
to that extreme confident.
Some of them have
definitely been dicks too,
but there's a difference.
- What makes you different?
- I just make dicks.
Instead of being a dick.
I just try to treat people fairly.
It's good just knowing
there are rich non-dicks
like Chad out there.
And he's not the only one.
There are a lots of people
who don't seem to be dicks
but still make capitalism work
for personal gain
and the greater good.
But back to the original question.
Is there a connection between
being rich and being a dick?
The answer is yes.
Being a bit of a dick
can help you get rich
and may even benefit
the rest of us,
as long as when it
comes to innovation,
your motto is stoke
it, don't choke it.
Because if you're the kind
of dick who creates a system
that keeps you on top and won't
allow other dicks to rise,
well, that just
makes you an asshole.
And that, ladies and gentlemen,
is 40 times I said dick.
Make that 41.
How are you enjoying your soup?
Can we have some fucking spoons?
Okay, well, spoons are
considered a premium utensil.
You know what?
No, I'm not gonna,
pay extra for a spoon.
I'm gonna drink the
fucking chowder.
Oh.
Can I have a napkin?
That was good.