 A weed became legal in Illinois, January 1. And somebody I know went out and bought some weed, spent $220 on the weed they bought. Do you know what the tax bill for $220 of weed was? How much taxes would you pay, you think, on $220 of marijuana? Legal marijuana in a legal shop, I guess. What do you think the tax bill for that would be? 10%, 15%, 20%, 80 bucks, 80 bucks on a $220 bill. Not quite, not quite 50%, but close, right? Almost 40%. Unbelievable. So here is a state. Here is a state, Illinois. Basically bankrupt. Basically Greece. It's got the city, a city that's bankrupt. It's got a massive depopulation. Huge migration out of Illinois. People are leaving, leaving Illinois. The economy is awful. Thank you for reminding me about the headphones. The economy is terrible. People are leaving Illinois. So what is it going to do? Does it cut spending? No. Does it deregulate to encourage business formation? No. Does it break up the teacher's unions and maybe reform the pension plan that is bankrupting the state? Well, absolutely no. The pension plan is what gets elected, gets these politicians elected. By the way, Illinois is dominated now by Democrats. No, none of those things. It does two things. It's threatens and they are about to pass a law that would change the constitution of Illinois to eliminate what exists now, which is a flat tax. Illinois has a flat income tax and make it a progressive tax and raise it dramatically to raise revenue, of course. God forbid you cut spending or you reform the pension plan that's bankrupting your state. And they legalize marijuana. Now, as columnist John Kass writes, and I think this was in the Chicago, let's see. Yeah, Chicago Tribune, as John Kass writes, it seems like there are two purposes to legalizing marijuana in Illinois. One is to make it possible for all the people who stay in Illinois, who are not going to leave Illinois, to be high as the state goes to hell. At least they'll have a buzz as it happens. So now I'm for legalizing marijuana, just be clear. Absolutely, I'm legalizing, I'm for legalizing all drugs. But this is pretty ironic that the one thing our politicians have time to do as a state like Illinois is going to hell is to legalize marijuana so that the people who remain in Illinois, who haven't had the guts or the smarts or the economic ability or the inclination to leave Illinois at least can get high as the state declines into the void, into the abyss. Also, while this is all happening, we might as well get some more tax revenue off of you getting high. So taxes on marijuana are 36%, 80 divided by 220, 36%. Now what the idiots in Illinois, no, they're not idiots, they get this. But what is obvious here is the one thing that the politicians in Illinois don't care about is drug-related violence. The one thing they don't care about are the gang shootings in Chicago. What they don't care about is the murdering in Illinois because what does the 36% tax on marijuana lead to? I mean, one of the great benefits of legalizing drugs is to get rid of the gangs, to get rid of the market incentives to sell drugs, to get rid of the profit motive, the profit motive, the enormous profits that selling drugs entail. By legalizing drugs, you get rid of the black market, which means you get rid of the mafia, you get rid of organized crime, you get rid of the cartels, you get rid of the violence. I mean, tens of thousands of people will not die. Mainly in Latin America, but thousands of people in America. Yeah, somebody says, what's season three of the wire to understand this? What's, no commentary, one of the greatest television show of all times, The Wire. What's season three of The Wire to see what I mean? If you legalize drugs, crime rates, murder rates, gang-related deaths would decline in America dramatically. But what if you don't care about violence? What if you don't care about death? All you care is about people being high, getting the political credit for getting people high, and increasing tax revenue. Then you put a huge tax on the Moana. A 36% tax creates a massive black market in Moana. Not quite as big as it would be if it was illegal, but still a significant black market in Moana. Plus I'm sure to sell Moana you need licenses, you need to be approved by the state, you need a diploma, you need to pay the state some money. And now you've got this enormous black market where people will continue shooting each other, where violence will continue. But hey, people won't mind. People won't care. As the state economically declines into an abyss and as murder rate continues to be high in Chicago, people will be sitting in their sofas smoking weed, eating, I don't know, weed laced muffins, being high, enjoying the numbness that weed generates and not caring about a thing. There you go. That is, that is government policy for you. That is what the government generates desires and what happens when you leave it up to politicians in Illinois. Quite unbelievable, but there you have it. Illinois and weed, okay. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual would be any man or woman who is willing to think. Meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, whims, or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism, and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist growth. Using the super chat, and I noticed yesterday when I appealed for support for the show, many of you stepped forward and actually supported the show for the first time. So I'll do it again. Maybe we'll get some more today. If you like what you're hearing, if you appreciate what I'm doing, then I appreciate your support. Those of you who don't yet support the show, please take this opportunity, go to uranbrooksshow.com slash support or go to subscribestar.com uranbrookshow and make a kind of a monthly contribution to keep this going. I'm not sure when the next...