78 – Success is Contagious

In this episode, Peter and Sonny delve into how when our country goes well, then our industry goes well. They go through a list of accomplishments from the first year of the current administration and analyze the positive effects they’ve had on the country. They touch on immigration, crime, security, rent rates coming down, rebuilding the economy for working Americans, and gas prices going down

If you can identify the reason Peter rings the bell, send us an email to TheObvious@abceastflorida.com.  If you are the first to figure it out, we will mail you an ABC mug.

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Transcript

Sonny Maken 0:09

Welcome to the Obvious Podcast. This is episode number 78. We're only two away from 80 episodes, Peter. Believable. That's amazing. I'm Sunny making.

Peter Dyga 0:20

We're only 22 away from 100.

Sonny Maken 0:22

Great math. You do Asian level math, man. It's so so good. Like right there, bam. That's not politically correct.

Peter Dyga 0:31

Now if you said Indian level math.

Sonny Maken 0:35

You know, I could get away with that. This is not a uh this show is not known for being politically correct. That's true.

Peter Dyga 0:41

That's true.

Sonny Maken 0:41

Anyway, I'm Sonny Macon. I'm glad we're so loved. That's true. Well, by some people. Our moms and family members, you know, they care about us. For sure.

Peter Dyga 0:51

Um you do you say your name now.

Sonny Maken 0:55

Oh, I'm Peter Diga.

Peter Dyga 0:56

President and CEO at ABC Florida East Coast Chapter.

Sonny Maken 0:59

You're listening to the Obvious Podcast where all opinions expressed are our own unless we tell you that they aren't.

Peter Dyga 1:05

Oh, you could be watching the show too, and I just love the show, and we're sure you do. So we ask you to subscribe on any major podcast platform or watch us in action on YouTube. Follow the Obvious Podcast on TikTok, Instagram, X, and True Social. All the links you need are in the show notes. And of course, you can reach out to us anytime at the Obvious at abc eastflorida.com. And if you're enjoying the ride, help others find us by leaving a review wherever you listen. Happy Friday.

Sonny Maken 1:34

Happy Friday. Here we are. That's kind of part of the reason why we're so delirious. Today we're going to talk about how success is contagious.

Peter Dyga 1:41

In what way?

Sonny Maken 1:42

What do you mean?

Peter Dyga 1:43

By gosh.

Sonny Maken 1:44

So when the country does well, our industry does well. Do you want to tell them what the bell is for?

Peter Dyga 1:54

No. No.

Sonny Maken 1:54

So why are we not telling them?

Peter Dyga 1:56

Because if they can figure out what the bell is.

Sonny Maken 2:02

Can we just talk about our very first giveaway that's associated with the bell, though? You want to tell the audience? I'll tell them. The bell is for a certain reason. If you're able to identify why Peter rings the bell, send us an email at theobvious at abceflorida.com. And you will get a we'll give them an ABC mug.

Peter Dyga 2:24

Okay.

Sonny Maken 2:25

And we'll pay the shipping. We won't even charge you for that. So it's a free mug. Success is contagious, right?

Peter Dyga 2:30

Yes.

Sonny Maken 2:31

And obviously when the country is doing well, America's doing well, you know. And what I really wanted to sort of uh highlight were the the job jobs number that just came out. Yeah.

Peter Dyga 2:41

So I want to play a little game. All right, let's play a game. And maybe uh talk a little bit about how that helps our industry and our members. Does that make sense? So if I were to say to you that one of the successes in the last year was securing America's border, um has that had any kind of impact? Yes. I'll tell you how to do that.

Sonny Maken 3:14

Uh-huh.

Peter Dyga 3:16

Some people would say negative. You know, and by the way, uh look forthcoming, hopefully, you know, some kind of uh opportunity to provide input on this. Because I think we you know we've talked, you and I, yeah, about trying to have some kind of a forum because we really haven't done it well at the state level.

Sonny Maken 3:34

So let's just get the negative out of the way, right? So there's obviously bad actors in any industry, and there's like anything else, there's bad actors in construction. So there's bad actors in construction who hire illegal workers and they pay them below market wages. That happens. I certainly think their industry has been their business has been affected by uh the shutdown at the border, for sure. Because there's ex people exploiting people in every every business in every industry there is, you know. I mean restaurants do it, you know, everybody does it. So I shouldn't say everybody does it, but a lot of a lot of businesses exploit cheap labor. And I think they have had a negative impact for sure.

Peter Dyga 4:11

So but um, you know, I always like to make drive home the point um that the United States, since the beginning of time, for the most part, for a long, long time, has let in over, you know, the average I think is about a million legal immigrants a year.

Sonny Maken 4:25

A million. Wow, I didn't know that.

Peter Dyga 4:28

Yeah. Wow. So, you know, this year we will let in a million probably legal legal immigrants. Uh we've been doing that for a long, long time, you know, even before um and and then I also like to point out the fact that so anyway, why do I like to point out that? Because uh, you know, a lot of people talk about how unum charitable The U.S. is the current administration, you know, and and somehow um you've heard this, you know, that immigration is just it's part of our duty as a civilization to allow people. And so the idea, the implication that people try to make is because you're not allowing 10 or 20 million illegals in, that somehow the million you're letting in legally is not sufficient, not sufficiently charitable or not sufficiently you know.

Sonny Maken 5:14

Why is that expectation only on the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe? Trevor Burrus, Jr. Well, well, because success is continu- Well, in this case, it's legal. No, no, but it's behind the but the expectation of letting people in, right? Like why does that expectation not um why is that ex expectation not on China?

Peter Dyga 5:31

Right.

Sonny Maken 5:32

I mean I know China has immigration, but very, very small numbers, right? Trevor Burrus, that's a topic for another show. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Right. Why why is that expectation not on India? I mean, it's just why is it on only on Canada, U.S., and Western Western uh Europe?

Peter Dyga 5:45

Anyway, getting back to the securing the border and whether that's uh positively or negatively impacting our industry, the other point I like to make is um you know, if you went back in time five years, the first Trump administration, and before that, and before that, you know, you so we we didn't have the 10 or 20 million that came in over the course of four years.

Sonny Maken 6:03

Right?

Peter Dyga 6:04

Right. All right. We just had the regular level of immigration for many, many decades, you know, and a long time. And yet, and we've talked about this many times, going back to my 26 years and probably before that, we have always talked about the workforce challenges in our industry. In our industry, okay. All right. So long before 10 or 20 illegals were allowed in the country, we had the problem. Okay. So if you were to go back in time four or five years, am I making sense? And all of a sudden all 10 or 20 were gone, you would have the same level of labor of labor, you know, presumably. Aside from growth, but then I guess that's maybe with the million now, all million are not going to go into construction. So anyway, what we're not talking about is securing the border and what that's done in terms of um crime, and that might be a separate topic.

Sonny Maken 6:54

I mean, the data on crime is amazing.

Peter Dyga 6:56

Um Orlando's crime rate is down 50%. I just saw this. It has nothing to do with any of these things. It has nothing to do with the crackdown on criminals, right? Uh in particular, criminal immigrants. It has nothing to do with d deporting, you know.

Sonny Maken 7:10

Um, so I do I do want to make this point, and this is a point that drives me. I hear this all the time, right? Especially from my friends on the left. Oh. Immigrants commit less crime than Native Americans. Assume that's true. We're stuck with native like native-born Americans anyway. Why would we import and I'm not obviously I'm not implying all immigrants are criminals, I mean, my gosh. But why would we import um criminals into this country? If we have our own criminals anyway, we can't do anything about them. You know? England tried that experiment, and now you have Australia, but that's a different conversation. But we have our own criminals. Why are we importing them? Why are we just not letting, you know.

Peter Dyga 7:56

Sure, sure. Um anyway, I think that gets to the point of securing America's borders and how it and you know, obviously less, less less crime if you're a little much more intentional about the million you're letting in as opposed to the ten or two. I've never seen I've never seen that. I have never questioned you know, I would be very, you know, but but I'd I'd venture to guess, you know, uh people who are immigrating to this country in the past have generally, which again is kind of the crux of the conversation about immigration and legal immigration versus illegal immigration, uh, were people that were pursuing uh a better life. You know, they wanted to assimilate. You know, they weren't coming to necessarily hold on, you know, to um you know the elements, yes, of their, you know, uh their the culture they came from, but they were coming to assimilate, they were coming to work hard, pursue the American dream, you know, etc. So so in any event, you know, I think securing the border and making sure you're more intentional about that, which is uh point all along, is certainly I I think helpful. Uh, you know, the the I've you and I have talked about this, and then this gets into you know, maybe tertiary um topics of you know, six things that might have been positive uh in the in the first in the last year. Um not having 10 or 20 million people as a um pressure, you know, on housing markets and on labor markets and on government assistance markets and all those things is certainly, again, I think a really yeah, that's a really interesting point.

Sonny Maken 9:26

Like I never understood why the left never acknowledges that. Right? If you those those 10 to 20 million people that came in under the last administration, they're living somewhere. They're paying rent somewhere.

Peter Dyga 9:38

Yeah, I think you've I've started to see it. You and I have been talking about this for a while. But yeah, I think have you not you've not seen it at all? I've seen some people and some of the people in the administration talking about you can't ignore the fact that 10 or 20 million people all got to live somewhere. Yeah. Schools. Yeah, yeah. Immense pressure. So anyway, uh related is making our community safe again. And we've talked a little bit about that, right? The data is stunning. Very, very surprising. Right. And some of it has happened in areas where uh this president has sent in the National Guard, whether it's Washington, D.C. or other places to kind of clean up crime. Uh some of it is, I think, related to the deportation of the worst of the worst, right? You know, the people that you know have um, I I heard a I heard some of the irony that some people will just not admit that any of these things had an impact on the better crime rates. You know, I I think there's some of the media is like, you know, we don't know what caused that.

Sonny Maken 10:33

Well, that's a lot of okay. So the 10 to 20 million, it's not like all 10 to 20 million left, right? Correct. The number that I have read recently was that something like two million have self-deported, right? Under the this plan where the government buys you your plane ticket and gives you some cash to leave the country. Then under that plan, there's about a two million. And if two million has had that much of an impact on crime, and certainly I know and we all know rents are coming down. I mean, that's a common story. On some markets, they would argue the rents are coming down because of uh overproduction of new apartments, and that's putting pressure on rents. But in some markets, there has been no uh overproduction and rents are still coming down.

Peter Dyga 11:12

And so what if it is? It's a combination of things.

Sonny Maken 11:14

Right.

Peter Dyga 11:14

You know, they're gonna be things that you know contribute to. There's never any one thing. So anyway, there's no doubt. I mean, the data's there. I mean, uh certainly our overall uh country's safer.

Sonny Maken 11:24

Yeah.

Peter Dyga 11:25

You know, in the crime rate. And then the only real question is uh what's contributing it to you. And you can either be, sorry, I'm gonna be really blunt here, uh, a leftist and think, shrug your shoulders and say, we've got no idea. We don't know why it's happening. Or you can look at the deportation of people who are uh you know had serious crimes. You can look at the um um the the National Guard being deployed, you know, in different areas. Um anyway, there's a whole lot of different things you can turn to to say, well, it kind of makes sense that those things had an impact. You know, so in any event.

Sonny Maken 11:56

I just want to tell you we're running low on time and we haven't made it to the jobs report yet.

Peter Dyga 12:00

What about rebuilding an economy for working Americans? Uh that's one of the things that uh in what ways would you say in the last year the economy's been rebuilt for working Americans?

Sonny Maken 12:09

So uh I think the tariffs have played a role in that. I think bringing back manufacturing, bringing back uh has obviously led to a construction increase. Now, construction increase because you're building the facility and you're building the factories, sort of the impact is always like two to three years after the the project starts, right? So I think for sure that's had an impact.

Peter Dyga 12:30

This gets to the jobs numbers, things that led to, right? I mean, obviously where are the majority of those jobs going? You know, if they're not going to um uh working Americans, you know, gas prices, I think. Gas prices have had a tremendous working Americans. Um you've probably seen the data, and again, you know, this is all gonna boil down to do the voters understand this or know this? And the media will do all they can to obfuscate it. The administration will have to try to do all it can to point out things like, you know, um real income, which is your wage increases minus inflation, is actually on the positive end, and it is for the first time in, you know, I think over four years. I don't think there was a single month during the Biden administration that real income grew.

Sonny Maken 13:12

Yeah, no.

Peter Dyga 13:12

So again, that's like measured wage increases minus inflation, because if inflation is outpacing your wage increases, your net income is going down. And that's that's why people felt things were so you know, so tough, so tight. So, right? So anyway, we could go on, I think. You know, to your point about the jobs report, and most of the new uh jobs have been private sector jobs. Yeah, government jobs are way done.

Sonny Maken 13:35

I heard like a 40 or low or something in government jobs. That's crazy.

Peter Dyga 13:38

Yeah, so that's awesome. So uh, how about championing American workers and American industry?

Sonny Maken 13:44

I think this administration does a better job of any I've seen in in since Reagan.

Peter Dyga 13:49

The total reformat of manufacturing and onshoring uh a lot of this stuff, you know, and again, our uh petulant uh children, you know, are like well, I don't see the results yet. Yeah, you know. So I have to tell you factory hasn't occurred overnight, you know. It's like these things take time, but it's happening. There's no doubt about it, right?

Sonny Maken 14:12

I was talking to Rudy from DB Tile. You know, we were in San Francisco recently, also an episode um last week's episode we talked about this. So Rudy and I were in San Francisco having a conversation, and I was asking him how much of a role China still played in flooring manufacturing, flooring, because Rudy's in the towel business. It's dead. It's dead. Yeah. So I said, Where are you where are you getting your towels from? Uh-huh. Uh Italy for really sort of the the better projects, right? Uh Italy. And then it was um Brazil and Tennessee. Tennessee. Tennessee has become the hub of flooring manufacturing. Now he said, now, to be fair, one of the biggest factories in Tennessee is owned by the Chinese, but all the workers and everything they're hiring, you know. Well, not all the workers, but a substantial amount of workers are Americans. And it's had an impact because they're making stuff here.

Peter Dyga 15:01

Yeah. This recalculation with the tariffs is just amazing and what it's going to mean long term, I think, to the American economy.

Sonny Maken 15:08

Yeah.

Peter Dyga 15:08

It's fascinating to watch. Yeah. Somebody was saying, I think they're in that same conversation. Uh, I think we were talking to uh some attendees at that conference from the home builders, national home builders. Yeah. And they were talking about like for the price of lumber, for example.

Sonny Maken 15:21

Is that a back in 2022?

Peter Dyga 15:26

But it's come down substantially. What about an um igniting American innovation and technology? This is a favorite of yours, right?

Sonny Maken 15:33

Mm-hmm.

Peter Dyga 15:33

When the whole emphasis this president has had on um us trying to invest in innovation and technology.

Sonny Maken 15:39

I think they've done a phenomenal job. I listened to I mean, don't take my word for it, uh, Jensen Huang, who's the head of uh NVIDIA, thank you, has spoken extensively about this, uh, has given public remarks on sort of the American reinvestment into innovation and the government support that they're getting um to get into quantum computing, the whole AI, AI boom, yep, yep. The energy making energy cheaper for the data centers. It's had a it's had a huge impact. And America will, I mean, because of the policies that have really come into play in the last few years ago.

Peter Dyga 16:16

So here's a good one. What about reasserting American leadership on the world stage? Can you think of any examples there? Um just at the top of my head. Now let's be fair. The left really doesn't care about America asserting itself. They would they wish we couldn't. Yeah, they wish we wouldn't. So, you know, that's that's part of the problem. You know, but I think your average American w wants an uh a strong, respected American, right? And I think that's what in what ways? You know, I'm thinking of uh the various negotiated peace settlements around the world, the uh being active in the Iran, uh Iran nuclear facility.

Sonny Maken 16:52

Absolutely. Venezuela. Central America in general. Venezuela just dropped off the news. We were supposed to be a quagmire and it was all gonna go to hell in a handbasket, right?

Peter Dyga 17:02

Yeah. And then the latest, of course, is you know, in Cuba. Did you see where the Russians were ceasing all their commercial flights in and out of Cuba? No. Commercial airline flights. I didn't see it and and encouraging all their uh their uh citizens to uh evacuate. Evacuate Cuba? Wow. Yeah, get out. I didn't know evacuate's maybe a strong word. But what about forging a stronger modernized military force?

Sonny Maken 17:26

Uh well, yeah. I mean the reinvestment in the American military has been has been great. I know the soldiers were given some bonus checks or something.

Peter Dyga 17:33

How about just respect for them? You know, like Yeah, for sure.

Sonny Maken 17:36

You know, that's something. But I think I think most of the countries always had that. I think the media in Hollywood can ignore it, but I think most of the countries always had that.

Peter Dyga 17:43

Absolutely. Anyway, how do all these things benefit us as an industry? You know, a strong America, I think. You're you're catching on. Getting into the swing of things. So uh look, our our industry doesn't exist without a strong worker, a strong economy, right? In many ways, a secure country that has to do with the military and our influence in the world. I mean, so much, right, I think, is uh tied to um you know, uh a strong industry. I do believe on all these.

Sonny Maken 18:18

I do believe that we have to pay people what people deserve and you know, this idea that somehow construction is for illegal immigration needs to be put to bed. It's a misnomer. You know, our members build some of the most sophisticated structures in the world. They need qualified, upscale labor that understands how to do those things. You know. Absolutely. It was a move, and you were you're you're gonna laugh at my movie reference. 90s, Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy, they made a movie called Bowfinger, where Steve Martin wants to produce a movie uh starring the real Eddie Eddie Murphy as an actor. I can't afford him. So he hires a lookalike, also played by Eddie Murphy. And he's like, Where's our crew? We need a crew. So in the next scene, they're standing at the at the Mexican border with a van, the doors are open, he's firing guns in the air. He's like, INS, INS. This is back when I and I used to be called INS like section in the brain. That's just like and all these guys are like Joe Cook jumping out of the bushes, getting into the back of the van. And I think the perception is that that's construction. That they're sending people to the border and they're like, all right, guys, whoever wants a job get get in the back. And that's just that's not reality.

Peter Dyga 19:26

Yeah.

Sonny Maken 19:27

And and that's certainly something that uh our members don't condone. So I do want that put on the record. Certainly not on the commercial side, less so, I think. Right, of course. Because again, our our pro members build some incredibly sophisticated uh things.

Peter Dyga 19:39

Yep. So anyway. Out of time. Yeah. Good stuff. So we hope you enjoyed the show. Um, and until next time. We will see you next Friday. All right. So all right, ciao.

Sonny Maken 19:50

Uh wait, hold on. For comments, send us an email at the obvious at abceflor.com. Now you can take that.