#1875 - Dave Smith

Joe Rogan (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Dave Smith (0:09)

But that's good. I think that's what makes you so good at what you do.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

Yeah, the last thing you want to do is be like, super confident and wrong.

Dave Smith (0:20)

Yeah, right, exactly. You want to at least be always questioning, like always maintaining that possibility.

I could be wrong about everything.

Joe Rogan (0:28)

When you start, when you go over stuff, like when you talk about like libertarian ideas and you look at like the way the government is run now, do you run through that thought process? Like maybe the only way to do it is the way that we're doing it right now.

Dave Smith (0:42)

Yeah, I try my best to always do that. I mean, I'm guilty of not doing it, but I try my best to always be like, okay, well maybe theoretically, they know something I don't know, which kind of means like this is the best way to do it. Or maybe I'm just wrong, and my theoretical model couldn't work, and this is the best. But try to give like the toughest arguments against it, and then go like, okay, but we still didn't need to kill a million Iraqis. You know what I mean? Like we still didn't need to do this. Or we still at least didn't need to, but I try my best.

It's dangerous, because the further into it I get, the more convinced I am that I'm right, and then that's also dangerous. Because I'm not as insecure about it as I used to be.

Joe Rogan (1:22)

It feels like the only way, like the system is broken. Everyone sort of agrees that. And the only way to do it right would be to create a more ethical, moral, logical system that's actually based on constitutional rights and how the government is supposed to be in terms of like the kind of power they're supposed to have versus what they're always constantly trying to acquire.

But if you did that, how much would you have to blow the system up? And how would we run things? Like what period of vulnerability would we have while we're trying to reestablish a new system? And how would we know if this system could even work correctly without being influenced by money and power and all the shit that's fucked it up for what we've got right now?

Dave Smith (2:08)

It's a daunting challenge. I think that like what Ron Paul used to always say was basically, I mean, these are my words, not his, but it was basically his plan was he goes, end all the worst shit first.

Like end all the most evil shit first. So the first thing is like stop bombing third world countries, stop locking people in jail for victimless crimes, stop bailing out billionaires and corporations and stuff, like stop that first. You don't start with like, well, okay, if there's a vulnerable population that's like dependent on this government program, get rid of it tomorrow. So like you try to do that, and then the more of the corruption that you roll back, you're gonna see less wealth being extracted from regular American people and go into special interests.

Kind of build that up over time. But it's a challenging thing to go from this insane system to something less insane is tough. And throughout human history, usually there's a pretty rough period in between there. It's usually not a smooth transition.

Joe Rogan (3:07)

Well, it's kind of fascinating we think that this is the only country that has been really established as like a colony that went on to take over the world. And it did it inside of 300 years, which is pretty fucking wild.

Dave Smith (3:22)

Yeah, that's the most wild part is the time span.

Joe Rogan (3:25)

It's pretty crazy.

Dave Smith (3:26)

Because going from being a republic to an empire has happened before, but we're the most powerful empire in world history, at least in terms of like raw power, like the technology, the level of wealth, all that shit. And we did it in a very short time.

Joe Rogan (3:41)

And some of the most unexceptional people are the ones who want to run it, which is so weird. When you see like the squad, did you see that debate that she was having with those bankers, where they were talking about eliminating fossil fuels?

Dave Smith (3:55)

She made me root for the bankers, Joe.

Joe Rogan (3:57)

I was rooting for the bankers.

Dave Smith (3:58)

It is quite a feat to get me to say, you know, I think the head of Goldman Sachs is making a good point.