Joe Rogan has become a huge political talking point in the fall out from his lucrative Spotify move. Many of Rogan’s fans insist he changed tremendously ever since the pandemic started – and really if you listen to any of the old episodes of his show, his beliefs have changed. As is normal, after all, it’s been close to a decade.
But this next turn from Rogan is rubbing many of his biggest fans the wrong way. Rogan recently declared he no longer supports the idea of UBI – Universal basic income. This comes several years after Rogan provided a platform for democratic presidential Nominee Andrew Yang, one of the biggest advocates for UBI.
During a May 12th episode of the podcast featuring public speaker “Hotep Jesus” Rogan went on to say the following:
“oh, universal, universal basic income. I used to think that was good idea until the pandemic, during the pandemic, when everybody’s getting the, you know, the money from the government. People didn’t want to work. And it was like, and I was like, Oh, this is not good, this is not smart.”
“There’s a certain amount of entitlement that people have today that they just did not have before, where they feel like the government owes them something, regardless of how little or how much they put into the system.”
“They feel like the government owes them something. So when you say to those people, hey, what do you think about Universal Basic, Basic Income? Everybody gets $1,200 a month, they’re like, Yeah, we need Yeah, we deserve it. We should, you should f***ing give us the money, man. You know, they start thinking goofy,”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to give everybody $1,200- I think some people need a fire lit under their a*s. And if you want to make more exceptional people in this country, I don’t think the way to do that is to give everybody $1,200”
This is a particularly interesting take considering Joe Rogan once boasted daily of ONNIT – a company he was rumored to have co-owned with Aubrey Marcus for years. During the pandemic ONNIT labs, inc applied for $2,38 million dollar loan and got it.
Onnit was acquired by Unilever in 2021 – Though terms of the remain undisclosed, many believe the deal was worth well over $100 million. Some estimate that number is closer to $250 – $400 million.
Rogan’s protege Brendan Schaub was also a recipient of a PPP loan amounting to the tune of $22,427 – which he then used to customize his car. True story.