Tom Gardner

I think when we start moving into the category of the consumer and how the consumer will spend, it's not just the layoffs that we see coming through from large tech, right?

So those are big headlines that we're all going to keep seeing because these companies are going to continue to remap their employment towards the automations that they're seeing.

They're the most advanced technological companies in human history.

And they're telling us, it's the canary in the coal mine.

They are letting us know automation works.

We're not going to need as many people

you know, on the payroll to complete massive amounts of work, right?

And so I think that is a headline signal that is causing the consumer to worry now downstream of the large tech companies.

And if you have friends that have worked in some of these companies, you know that they had salaries in the couple hundred thousand dollars and then they've exited out into the marketplace and they can't find comparable jobs at the same salary level.

So I think what we're gonna see is an increased caution

in the consumer spend.

So I would be looking at anything that's discretionary, travel-related businesses, any big ticket items, automobiles, big renovations.

I think that what we're looking at is this bifurcation in wealth right now that is getting to somewhat extreme levels in the US and around the world because of the technological boom.

And we have to begin looking at the health of the consumer and the companies that we're investing in that we're counting on those consumers to spend towards.

Now, this may not be allowable in our format, but I would like to know what Tyler thinks, too.

Well, I have so many things to respond to that that I'm just going to extend today's podcast by 45 minutes.

So thank you very much.

It's so interesting to watch companies go through technical transformation.

If you go back to when The Motley Fool was beginning, you really got an advantage if you were internet native.

If you didn't have to transition out of magazine, newspaper, print, big distribution, ink, all of a sudden you're just native HTML.