What they DON’T TELL YOU about homeownership

What this episode is about

The discussion critiques the traditional view of homeownership as the ultimate American dream, particularly in light of proposals for 50-year mortgages that extend financial obligations without significant benefit, likening them to prolonged rent. It highlights the often-overlooked challenges of maintaining a home, questioning the true happiness associated with mortgage ownership and emphasizing that longer mortgage terms primarily benefit banks while burdening homeowners with excessive interest payments.

Key takeaways

• A 50-year mortgage: the American dream’s version of a never-ending laundry cycle—just more expensive.
• Renting isn't failure; it's a shift in perspective that challenges the myth of homeownership as happiness.
• The American dream is about freedom to chart a course, not just acquiring a debt-laden house.
• Future generations are inheriting our debts—an intergenerational gift that’s more 'burden' than 'blessing.'
• In a world obsessed with possessions, the real dream might just be learning to appreciate hard work.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Glenn Beck (Guest) · 10 min speaking
• Stu (Guest) · 4 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Chevy Chase
2. 3:00 – 6:00: John Quincy Adams, Instagram, TikTok, HBO

Notable quotes from "What they DON’T TELL YOU about homeownership"

• So, the American dream was changed by a guy named I think his name was Stuart Chase. No, Adams. Adams. I can't remember his name. but it was in the 1930s.

  about Chevy Chase · at 1:50

• A course for them and they can make it a little farther than I did. This, John Adams in the movie I think it was called John Adams on HBO years ago. I'll never forget he was…

  about John Quincy Adams · at 3:20

• We've seen the struggle and yet society is pro promising you this you know I don't know this Tik Tok life that isn't real this Instagram life that isn't real and you think…

  about Instagram · at 5:20

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• John Quincy Adams — Person · Referenced historical figure (Founding Father) used to illustrate the 'American dream' as generational mobility · 2 mentions · first at 3:26
  Cited via a dramatized scene to argue the American dream is freedom and upward mobility for descendants, not homeownership or consumption.
• Chevy Chase — Person · Referenced author/thinker (uncertain attribution) tied to reframing the 'American dream' in the 1930s · 1 mention · first at 1:54
  Mentioned as a possible figure who 'changed' the American dream concept in the 1930s; the speakers immediately express uncertainty and pivot to 'Adams,' indicating attribution ambiguity in-episode.

Companies & orgs

• Instagram — Company · Case study · 1 mention · first at 5:27
  Mentioned alongside Tik Tok as examples of platforms that promote unrealistic lifestyles and distort perceptions of success.
• TikTok — Company · Case study · 1 mention · first at 5:27
  Mentioned as part of the critique of modern societal values and the illusion of success portrayed on social media platforms.
  We've seen the struggle and yet society is pro promising you this you know I don't know this Tik Tok life that isn't real this Instagram life that isn't real and you think…
• HBO — Company · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 3:31
  Mentioned in the context of a historical drama series about John Adams, used to illustrate a point about the American dream.
  Little farther than I did. This, John Adams in the movie I think it was called John Adams on HBO years ago. I'll never forget he was sitting in a dining room with Franklin and…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 We're talking about the American dream and the rise of socialism and this new idea that we're just going to get everybody into a house by offering them a 50-year mortgage instead of a 30-year mortgage, which is insanity. Insanity. Um I'm sorry. You know, I I you could take an 8-year loan out on your car if that's the only thing you can do to get a car is to take 8 years, but you know, at the end of the eight years, that car is not going to be worth really anything and you've paid all of that um you know, all of that extra cost on interest. But if that's what gets you in, but this is not this is like a savings of like $300 a month and it's 20 extra years of paying uh on your house.

0:45 it to me. Stu, doesn't that sound like rent to you? It does sound a lot like rent, which is, by the way, not the end of the world. I mean, renting I I do think that we have a weird thing that we are internalizing thinking that having a mortgage is the thing that brings you happiness. I I as a homeowner who has to dive into repairing things all the time, I assure you this is not accurate. Uh but you know, it is it is something that is kind of thought of as part of the American dream and something that can help you, especially if you stay in the same location for a long period of time. Uh but putting a 50-year mortgage in is just going to mean you're going to give a lot more money to the banks. Uh you know, it's great, I guess, for the banks. Uh maybe it's good for you, but I I think at the end of the day, it's certainly not going to increase your happiness when you're in year 18 and you've paid off n 19 20% of your

1:38 mortgage. Like I, you know, when you're at year 30 and you're at paid off 40% of your mortgage, these are not going to be fun times. I don't know why that that's going to bring you happiness. So, the American dream was changed um by a guy named I think his name was Stuart Chase. No, uh Adams. Adams. I can't remember his name. Um but it was in the 1930s.

2:03 Yes. Uh it was in the 1930s and you know they were revamping everything and they made the American dream to be a house and that was never the point of the American dream. um because it ca it can't be that's not what they fought for. That's not why we had the American Revolution. The idea was your life is not set in stone by some king or some cast or some party or commasar. You get to make the decisions on your on your life. You're not there is no such thing as a ruling class that can keep you down. You're free to to build to fail to rise again. You're free to chart your own course. And here's the biggest part of the American dream.

2:52 You are free to chart a course for your children. So when your children chart their course, it doesn't look like the one you started on. Okay? So, in other words, I can raise my uh station in life enough to be able to give my kids a hand up so they can chart a course for them and they can make it a little farther than I did. This, you know, John Adams in the in the movie uh I think it was called John Adams uh on HBO years ago. I'll never forget he was sitting in a um a dining room with Franklin and all of these French people and they were all just made up and just grotesque.

3:47 And uh he comes in really shabby clothes and he's sitting at the table and he's he's pretty much yelling at Franklin before the meeting. He's like, "We need help. What are you doing? You're having all these parties over here. We need help." And and Franklin says, "You don't understand. this is the way it's done in France. I'm making progress. Slow down. And he says, "Come and have dinner." And so they have dinner and uh John Adams is just seething. And they said, "Have you have you seen the latest, you know, uh show at the opera?" And he said, "No, sir. I'm too busy right now trying to uh gain my own freedom. So maybe then with my own freedom, uh my kids can help me work the land and my kids can go to university to study um uh agriculture and mathematics and philosophy and science. So then maybe their children will be able to go in and and study the arts and be able to have a chance to see

4:51 the theater. And what he was saying was, we're building something and I'm doing what I have to do to be able to get the next generation to be able to get them to where they can do what they have to do. So maybe the third generation can enjoy that. We're now so deep into the generations that we have not had to we've not had anybody really truly struggle except maybe in our own lives we've seen the struggle and and yet society is pro promising you this you know I don't know this Tik Tok life that isn't real this Instagram life that isn't real and you think everybody has that and that's where real success is. I don't know how to I don't know how to fix a country that thinks that having stuff is the dream because it's not the dream.

5:49 The dream is being able to chart your own course and being able to say, "I can be better in my life and improve my station in my life so my kids can improve their station in their life." Right now, we're borrowing from our kids and now our grandkids. We'll never meet the people that are paying off the debts. Can you imagine how immoral that is? We'll be long dead and they'll be strapped to paying all of this debt off and they'll be like, "For what?" You think you're saying, "For what?" Imagine. What are they saying? For what?

6:25 We don't have a military anymore. We don't have this big government anymore. We don't have these subsidies anymore. We don't have SNAP anymore. And yet we're paying all of these taxes for what? It's not going to end well. But how do you fix that, Stu? How do you fix that when everybody is saying that? And and it's because we have changed people's we've changed from a a country of needs to a country of wants. And we've done it over a hundred years. How do you sell hard work to people? a lot of people who don't know what hard work is and don't want it.

7:05 Yeah. I mean, and I will say, you know, making people you'll never meet generations later pay for what you have uh, you know, run up the bill for is, you know, either just completely immoral or an incredible life hack. I mean, if we don't care about these people, we could just say screw them and just run up the bills. It's fantastic. Um, but yeah, no, I I agree. I think there's two parts of this I think are really the problem here. One you've addressed which is this idea of formulating what the American dream is. You know home ownership can be great for in certain ways for certain people. You need to have a very specific circumstance where it's great though, right? Where you h maybe are stable. You're at a job where you think you're going to be for a long time. You don't want to move. You know, you talk about charting your own course.

7:54 Home ownership is one of the things that makes it difficult to chart your own course in a way because you can't just move around. You are at the whims of the housing market. If you want to just leave, you might not be able to do that to go to another city to go to another job. There are lots of limitations people don't think about. It all works out fine and dandy when the market is going up like crazy because you can kind of turn that in and you're getting tax incentives. The government's making this uh encouraging you to do it. uh which is usually something that you know conservatives resist you know but it can work for a lot of people it's it's great in a lot of situations especially if you're going to stay in the place for a long time and that I think focusing on on on you know ownership status as the American dream is a bad thing and that's one thing we do have to work on it's going to be hard to work on the second

8:40 part of it should be easy which is trying to figure out what the solution to these problems are and it's like well yeah I mean I think we can all agree that uh perfect capitalism, which of course we're nowhere near, but if the some sort of capitalism is not going to by definition work for everyone perfectly, it's not what it's designed to do. It's supposed to be the best system for everybody to pursue happiness, right? That does not mean everyone achieves it. It does not mean everything's perfect. And this idea that

9:13 not everybody is willing to not everybody is willing or or want there are so many people that just want to go to work and then go home and live their life and they don't want to think about work.

9:22 Yeah. You know, I think about work all the time 247 I am thinking about work and what all of it means and everything else that that that's not a price people all want to pay. You know, I don't get my wife says to me, I go on vacation, my wife will be like, "Stop working." And I'm like, "Honey, it doesn't stop. It doesn't stop. I can't stop.

9:43 Let me paint you a picture of going with Glenn Beck uh to a uh supposedly enjoyable vacation where you're supposed to go relax. You will not relax for a moment on that flight. You will be cornered into an endless work conversation while you're trying to enjoy yourself. This is true and I can attest to it. But but okay, but that provides a different lifestyle for me. Good and bad provides a different lifestyle and there's a lot of people that don't want that. And I understand that and that's totally cool. But it does you don't get the same equal outcome. Yeah. You know what I mean? And I think and there are some people that work really really hard their whole life and they still don't get the same outcome

10:22 as a massive fan. It's difficult of capitalism. I can totally admit that there's tons of people that will work their asses off and try really really hard and and likely I mean capitalism typically in most cases will provide um a a life that you if you work your butt off and you really try your hardest you can you can get by. It doesn't mean you're going to live the luxury life but it might it might mean those things. But

10:48 the part here that I'm trying to attack a little bit is what's the solution to that? If you think the solution is the type of government that you described at the beginning of this hour when you're going through our our torch history lesson here of every single time uh socialism has been tried. It's failed miserably. Why on earth would the solution to whatever problems we have with capitalism be the form of government that has failed every single time? It's like saying, "Well, I, you know, I'm going TO THE GYM EVERY DAY.

11:18 I'm working out really hard. I'm eating right. and I am not making the US Olympic team. Therefore, I'm going to amputate my left leg. Like, well, I can understand that maybe you're upset that you're not getting a solution uh out of the problem that you have might be real. Maybe you are working your butt off and you're just not cracking 10 seconds in the 100 meter. That being said, amputating your leg will not help this. amputating your leg will make everything worse, not only about your life, but also about your running abilities.

11:51 Unless, unless, and this is the part that nobody understands or is willing to look at because they think that socialism is for the people and it's of the people and by the people, okay? They don't recognize this is to the advantage of the billionaires. It's to the advantage of those people who are in on it and will control everything. And so, yes, it doesn't make sense to unless you have all of the doctors who are in on it who know we're just going to make so much money amputating legs and yeah, everybody is going to be walking around hobble, but they will have to I mean, think of transgender surgery. they will have to come to us and the pharmaceutical companies for the rest of their lives. So unless you have a a doctor society or an elite society that will say, "No, no, no, Steu, amputating your leg is the right answer. It's the right answer. Trust us, it might it might get tough, but it's going to get

12:54 even better because you're going to be fair and you're going to run so fast." And then when it doesn't work out, all they do is they say, "You know what the problem is? you have too many fingers on the other hand. Uh let me you know what and these people don't want you to take those fingers off of that other hand. And pretty soon you can't walk, you can't move, you can't do anything and they have all of the control of your entire life and you've set your whole life up to be a slave to them.

13:19 Think of how aerodynamic that's what people don't understand. If we take all if we take all your limbs, think of how aerodynamic you'll be for thatund. That's exactly that's how bad these solutions are for socialism. And it is exactly the same. It is the ruling class, the people that will make all of the money that are selling you these same old tired lies because it always ends the same way. They own everything. They control everything. Their life is incredibly sweet, but everybody else's life is misery. But they win.

13:56 So, let's just sell this old tired lie one more time.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "What they DON’T TELL YOU about homeownership"?

Glenn Beck (Guest), Stu (Guest).

What is "What they DON’T TELL YOU about homeownership" about?

The discussion critiques the traditional view of homeownership as the ultimate American dream, particularly in light of proposals for 50-year mortgages that extend financial obligations without significant benefit, likening them to prolonged rent. It highlights the often-overlooked challenges of maintaining a home, questioning the true happiness associated with mortgage ownership and emphasizing…

What is mentioned in this Glenn Beck episode?

5 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including John Quincy Adams, Instagram, TikTok, Chevy Chase, HBO. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "What they DON’T TELL YOU about homeownership"?

The episode runs 14 min; the transcript is about 2,549 words in 22 timestamped sections.

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