By CCN.com: In the most recent episode (#1230) of the Joe Rogan Experience, Joe Rogan and Killer Mike of Run the Jewels begin to talk about economics about an hour in. Killer Mike starts an aside that leads to Bitcoin by saying, “We end poverty, we fix crime.”
‘Make Shit in America Again’
The Run the Jewels rapper and famous podcast actor-turned-podcast go on to talk about ways to end poverty. Killer Mike plays on “Make America Great Again” by saying “We need to make shit in America again.” His sentiment echoes a number of political and economic pillars who wish to stimulate American manufacturing again. President Donald Trump has even kicked off a tariff war with China over the past 12 months with mixed results.
Rogan says that most people look at the poor as a source of crime. The conversation on poverty goes on for awhile. Killer Mike cities various methods by which America could improve its poverty rate (socalized housing, increased help for impoverished mentally ill). An interesting concept that he brings up is the concept of “rentrification,” in which people who succeed from lower classes should buy property in places they grew up to help build the economy.
The conversation then veers into success and work ethic before moving on to Bitcoin. Killer Mike says he wants his barber shop chain to become “the Chick-Fil-A” of barbershops.
Rogan then abruptly steers the conversation to cryptocurrencies by asking, “How much, if any, are you paying attention to things like cryptocurrencies?”
Killer Mike says he learned about stocks from a friend named DJ Vlad. He gave his wife a small fortune in stocks one Christmas as a gift. He tells her that he never wants her to be fully dependent on him. When they got together, he was not well-to-do by any stretch. Rather, he was a beginning rapper still pressing his own CDs and distributing them directly.
‘It Would Be A Really Different World’
On the subject of cryptocurrencies, Killer Mike says:
I just put lots of money into S&P 500s. I don’t know a lot about cryptocurrency and stuff. I’m learning how to have money.
Rogan, perhaps for the first time really bringing it up himself, says:
I’m fascinated by them. The idea of a decentralized economy. […] The amount of money that banks control. If you just stop and think about what goes on with the Federal Reserve and what goes on with all the money. And how much a dollar is worth overseas,… if there was a thing that we could all rely on that wasn’t controlled by a group of people who have a vested interest in profiting off this pile of money. If it was sort of a Bitcoin-like thing, it would be a really different world. It would be really, really different.
Killer Mike gives a crypto-enthusiast response, whether he knows that or not:
It would. It’d be different if the world was money-less. It would be different if there was a gold standard again. It’d be a lot of differences. But the question becomes, is the banking mafia of sorts ever going to let that happen?
Rogan Has Not Become A Bitcoin Millionaire
Rogan says that he thinks cryptocurrency is unstoppable “like the Internet.” Killer Mike asks, “You think we’re going to get to cryptocurrency?” Killer Mike then says “you can’t throw in coins in clubs.”
Rogan finally says:
Bitcoin will become like dollar bills. Like some kind of thing with gold lettering.
Interestingly, Rogan says he “did not” make a ton of money in Bitcoin. He could have. He’s known about it for years and had scions like Andreas Antonoupoulis on his show. He tweeted a Bitcoin address back in 2014:
This is my bitcoin address http://t.co/paRUy93m94
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) April 22, 2014
The address has received over 5 BTC, a total of more than $18,000 at current prices, none of which has been spent. This makes Joe Rogan a hodler.
