Economic Update: Seattle Firm Converts to Worker Co-Op
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ม.ค. 2025
- Help us reach 100,000 subscribers and gain access to more studio time! Please hit the red SUBSCRIBE button above. ^^^
Support the show! Become an EU patron on Patreon: / economicupdate
Economic Update: [S8 E23] Seattle Firm Converts to Worker Co-Op
THIS WEEK'S TOPICS (w/timestamps):
00:58 - Updates on Amazon subsidized by New York, Virginia;
07:04 - French people act to limit corporate greed;
09:15 - Sears favors bosses in bankruptcy too;
10:40 - Pfizer ups drug prices despite Trump;
12:26 - California fires expose US economic divide.
14:10 - announcements;
15:09 - SPECIAL GUEST: Matthias Scheiblehner on why his Seattle construction firm Metis converted into a worker co-op.
To watch the second half of the interview, please visit us at / economicupdate
Follow us ONLINE:
Patreon: / economicupdate
Websites: www.democracyat...
www.rdwolff.com
Facebook: / economicupdate
/ richarddwolff
/ democracyatwrk
Twitter: / profwolff
/ democracyatwrk
Instagram: / democracyatwrk
Subscribe to our podcast: economicupdate....
Shop our Store: bit.ly/2JkxIfy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthias Scheiblehner is a longtime carpenter, builder, and student of history from the Seattle area. He founded Mētis Construction Inc. in 2008. In early 2016, he and 17 coworkers completed the process of restructuring Mētis as a worker controlled, trust held cooperative.
I work for a worker owned company, Davey Resource Group (Part of Davey Tree), and I would agree with this guy. We have managers, project leads, coordinators, etc, except they're attitude is much different. They aren't there to screw their workers, they are colleagues doing their best to help their workers get their projects done, because more completed projects and happy clients means more revenue for the company and the project, which increases the budget, and goes to the shares (that the workers all have). Very different attitude and work environment. Soo much better.
I have seen so many people try to claim the opposite about co ops, but the largest claim they make is that they are inferior because they "make less of a profit", as if paying your workers more and creating a better product is a bad thing. They seriously think that the wealthy have this untouchable ability to make decosions, and that we just gotta let them stay on top.
Profit going into the hands of the rich is the PROBLEM. And it drives me nuts because there is this strange notion in america that democracy is a bad thing, its sad how much most Americans distrust their fellow Americans' ability to make decisions. They even think if we voted democratically rather than electorally that the country would be ruined, its pathetically narcissistic.
Ive heard of Davey Tree. Is it democratically run in addition to offering employees stock?
@@johnt2732 More or less. Depends on how you mean. The every day operations are run like normal, but from what I know (and I've not yet participated in the process, just got some of the intro info on the process), but large decisions that affect the company, or company wide policies are brought to everyone in the newsletters and the employees with shares (earned over time, kinda like seniority) vote on them.
Richard The Cowardly Lion Yes, and your company is not going to move to Mexico and devastate the local economy...
Hi! im interested to know how do you get the job? i mean...like do you have to put into a certain amount of money so you do get shares? does everybody on the company have shares?
We need more examples of setting up co-ops.
Thank you
Ken Wennemar Not simple answer talk to Chambler of Commerse
Another Seattle firm will become a worker owned firm. It's Rick Steves' travel company. I guess it's called Rick Steves Europe. I have a good friend who works for the company and she said when he retires he's not passing the company to his kids or relatives but rather giving it over to his employees. Imagine that. A very progressive guy, Rick Steves. Amazing.
It'd be awesome if Richard Wolff was able to interview Rick Steves and let him talk about his plans to convert his firm into a worker owned company.
I believe it when I see it. He’s not that old. I wish him a long life, but why not now?
@@aniseswallowtailbutterfly882 That's terrible ...
but funny.
I hate it when people equate the state with "social". The state is not necessarily social. When the state is ran by and for the bourgeois, nothing it does is social.
Corporate welfare , big corps sponging off the tax payer. Time for cities to say no thanks go somewhere else. Nobody checks to make sure he meets the conditions of the deal.
Very good video.
it would be nice to test drive protest, like in France, but first organization scheme have to iron down. and it have to be a lot of people, that is a must, bc our cups way worse then Russian police a 120 years ego, they did not shoot people.
Great news! I just hope this sort of conversion from wage slavery to employer ownership becomes more than a trend. Also, many of the current worker co-ops are only half-way there, with only semi-ownership by the workers. 30% or 40% ownership is not full ownership, and many owners don't seem willing to trust workers enough to give away their controlling interest.
Yes and a lot of corporations giving themselves the brand of coop while having no actual democratic structure, wether for consumers or workers. But we know what real cooperatives are and we should all thrive for them, and a first step towards this is unionizing and continue to bring back a strong and radical labor movement.
I think educating people on best practices of business and providing a clear path to responsible ownership is a start. Everyone should have a chance to prove their knowledge and make a decision.
This was a lovely interview.
We need to do this on the National Level
How about only 1 massive cooperative bank and 1 massive cooperative insurance company? The bank holds the money and the insurance cooperative replaces the government and taxes. But because they don't have competition, by "law" they must also be owned by the consumers (all of us), as a consumer cooperative. Everybody pays insurance but the amount each one pays is according to their capital. Associated with the insurance cooperative is the judicional system (juges,lawyers,cops), the health department (hospitals, ambulances, fireman). All the other business can use the markets but as in worker cooperatives.
Universal basic income is a better idea. Capitalism where income doesn’t start at $0.
Awesome stuff Matthias & Metis Coop. But I'll tell Metis one thing: ditch your performance reviews. PR's are destructive. What you want to review is the whole system, and for individuals ask them and discuss with them how they can contribute better, with less stress, and more joy and good work. Do not rate your people, and don't give them any special bonuses or rewards, because they are always part of a whole, everyone should benefit and take pride in the success of one. So instead rate the system as a whole and make sure the whole thing improves and/or adapts to external challenges. You can let individuals shine in so many other ways which make rewards and bonuses seem empty by comparison, they could have pranks, parties, sports days, arts days, community outreach days, and other celebrations where their personalities can shine. You can make a typical capitalist business with massive performance bonuses and commissions that incentivize greed and selfishness seem like a city mortuary by comparison.
Bijou Smith Yay! Participation trophies for everyone!
Bijou Smith your perspective and advice seems like a winning addition to what already appears a great working environment.
People connect socialism with dictatorships. Co-ops are the correct form of socialism. I come up with an idea and want to form a company to sell something. I hire people to help me achieve that goal. If they are good people, I make them all partners and we share the successes or failures. One guy at the top doesn't get filthy rich off the labors of others. Everyone does well, or definitely tries their best because they are owners.
Yeah... but are you willing to share equally the money with the people you hire despite you having the idea and putting your money(alone) into the business? The majority of us, business owners are not...
@@juniorgod321 So, in other words, according to your definition, the very act of 'having an idea' is much more valuable than all the other work that goes into making a successful organization that contributes value to the entirety of a community. Think about that. Use caution when making statements regarding 'most people'. Please be very specific. Are you really implying that most people are greedy or are you saying that you, in a position of potentially getting your personal hands on some large amount of capital, would be likely to hoard it all for yourself? The saying "making a killing" comes to mind here.
If I have 24 years of experience in e-commerce and I have managed to save 300 000$ to establish a company, how much of the profits should I share with my workers who have 0-2 years of experience in e-commerce and have put 0$ into the company? I assume that would be way below the minimum wage as their knowledge compared to mine is like 1 to a 1 000 000 and everything they do has to be supervised and controlled by me. This is the reason why I am sceptical of worker co-ops.
Zanga Zeit1776 Yes, having the idea and capital for a business is much more important than it’s labor force! Labor is something that can be easily replaced ( especially if it’s low skill)! Maybe someday you’ll have a business of your own, funded with your money,then you’ll come to realize that it wouldn’t be fair for you to share the profits with your employees, and even if you wanted to do that, there isn’t anything in the current system that stops you from doing so!
juniorgod321 yes there is: the fact that other competing firms that operate solely on the basis of profit alone, thus on a lower cost would bury you. Nothing ethical about selfishness or greed, which is all modern contemporary capitalism has ever been about. Think about it fam...
Good segment Richard. You are a wealth of knowledge.
I think it's a great idea for companies that are just starting out, if all employees want to put up money to start a company and have a say so in the business end of it. Or maybe if a existing company wants to convert to a Co-op, no problem. Everyone puts in their fair share and go for it.
great video.
I'm working on a project to create a commercial strip complex here in Florida coop style to mitigate the outrageous rents charged by plaza owners. I get one to work I can get many more. Chase the crazy out of town.
I've watched just a few of your shows and have found them educational. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Please be the man to lead us into the streets for change, Dr Wolf!
Todd Sloan - silly. You can join a local Green Party chapter, very progressive
Todd Sloan The only place Wolff will lead us is to the end of the breadlines.
Pahah thats fuckin' funny! Inaccurate, but clever. Ill give you that.
Taylor Buck I wasn’t trying to be clever. I’m only expecting history to repeat itself, which it always has. The only place the policies Wolff is espousing has led any society, worldwide, through the course of human history, in its entirety, is abject poverty.
Golly, I've never heard that argument. You've changed my opinion entirely! Why are you not shouting this from rooftops?! You could save the world from the impending communist dystopia! Thank you! Thank You!
XOXO
It was a TAX hike on fuel in France, nice way of avoiding the use of that word.
I was watching the yellow jacket revolution on RT live.. great coverage. Complete blackout on lamestream media. Distracting us with love and praise for Bush Sr.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
I am one from Paradise, California. Our community has been destroyed. What RW has uncovered re: private firefighters is deplorable. Thank you, RW.
you mean pleasure right? hope you guys are safe and getting som much needed aid
so all our local units of government in the bidding for the favor of Amazon, and of Google too, revealed all the acquired information within each locality about current infrastructure, population factors, employers, employees, school population records, earnings and benefits of each household within the jurisdiction all for free, without permission of the citizens, in the hope that they would be favored. What a great information scrape.
This is so interesting! I have so many questions I would like to ask someone from a worker owned co-op in casual conversation. I wonder how difficult it is to get a job at one of these organizations?
Thank you
“Right now there are about 40 of us, and about half of us are worker-owners.”
Worker co-ops are fine, but they are not a solution to the job displacement problems posed by automation, AI, and other advances in technology. We need universal basic income like yesterday.
Prof. Wolff really needs to get on the Joe Rogan Experience. It would give him tons of exposure.
Americans can learn from the French again... The last time we learned from the French we kicked the Red Coat's rear-end like there were no tomorrow...
So 🇫🇷 people, mind lending us your yellow jacket training?
The French:
Have been revolting since 1812
good on them. seems governments naturally will slide into oligarchies without the population flipping over the table every once in a while. the plutocracy delays it as best they can with bread and circuses.
Tertiary Adjunct precisely. Hit the nail right on the head...
Actually a woman in Australia, widow and heir to the man who discovered the world' largest deposit of iron ore and whose estate retains royalty rights to same, is the first human on track to be worth a trillion dollars US. Jeff needs to catch up!
Mr. Scheiblehner is very articulate I'll tell you that.
5.5 billions for 25k jobs means 220.000 bucks per job... this is insane.
Here in Belgium, the state used to keep funneling money into Cockerill (steel company) decades ago and it kept hemorrhaging money... then we learnt the banks that were lending that money to the state... also had shares in that company XD. That's like having trump at the head of the state, fakely elected and profiteering from the position.
This is happening!
Thank u for this informative📖 video once again democracy@work 👍🏾👍🏻👍🏿🤔🙂
It would take 6.66 years (interesting number) for 25 thousand jobs at 30 thousand a year just to make 5 billion in income. Nevermind the amount that goes back into the state, or local communities.
COOL, THANKS.
How do worker owned companies care for employees with family tragedies, long term illnesses, stress, substance abuse and non contributing employees?
Everybody needs to watch this - olease share.
Details and devils....the "workers" co-op......
This one is "different".....half of the forty "workers" are on the TOP, and
the rest are NOT!!!!!
Also a "trust" is a specific "legal" formation.......whose, purpose is essentially directed
to address issues of taxation and distribution of profits.....to avoid the first, and protect the second.
Remembering the Sherman Anti Trust Act, and the use of "trusts" and "foundations",
which were used to "avoid" the negative "impact" of the "new deal"......
Please note the repeated reference to "members" and "non members".....
So when is a workers co-op, not a workers co-op?
When it is a trust, with members and non-members.
Ignore the man behind the curtain.....
Like Wolf has explained in the past, companies are willing to give up their IP to dodge tax, labour, regulations(social\environmental\economic)to increase their profits. If most companies were worker owned or coop, how much of that could have been stopped?
The John Lewis partnership (high street retailer) is Britain's best known employee experiment which redistributes profit to a greater extent. They haven't embraced online and may as well disappear
Wish Wolfe pressed him more on the 40% worker ownership. Like are the non owners apprentices who will eventually gain ownership after a term? Or are they employees, if they are what rights do they have? Do they share an equal share of the profits? Are they unionized? Also I find his questions leading. Like I dont have to be convinced of worker self management and ownership, but I'd like to the nuts and bolts of it.
Worker coops need to be careful about creating an information class hierarchy. Job-roles that include an information and decision-making monopoly will inevitably lead to different workers having different levels of information about what goes on. This will create an elite decision-making 'class'. This class will eventually put itself first. It's just human nature. To combat this all workers should be educated to become decision makers up to their ability and the management roles should be time-limited and selected by rota or sortition. Balancing out job complexity among workers is called "Balanced Job Complex" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_job_complex.
State and local gov'ts are so eager for job-creators, they give away FAR too much to attract them, and often they wind up losing money!
well, does France incarcerate it's citenzry at the astronaumical rate as our government does here in The U.S.? Do they have archaic three strike, mandatory minimums.
come on prof., this doesn't sound like a worker co-op to me. Contractors are the managers on a construction site. Laborers do the work. By his own admission the majority of the workers are not owner/ members. Who decides who gets to be an owner?(who manages the trust?). Metis construction sounds like a miniature chamber of commerce, and this interview sounds like you've given him a platform to advertise his business for the benefit of an albeit somewhat larger majority of owners to exploit their labor force. Workers at Metis need to form a union.
9:07 - 9;14. What about in America were organizing is practically impossible? We do not have cities and common centers laid out in European fashion, the cost of living and organizing is too much to bear for most Americans, and the whole system is basically built to keep that specific population down. Most of what you have been talking about is great. Often glossed over points, that when I bring them up in conversation are instantly unpopular ideas. I feel like that means their PR people are doing a better job than ours, maybe. I really don't understand most people, I mean that sincerely. Somehow people just listen to or believe in whatever their cultural value system taught them. To me that is just weird because I literally had to learn everything about anything. Whatever that makes me, hyper aware or autistic or whatever label of words is needed. Not to say I did not absorb things from people around me, not at all I am very much like my family and so so different. Put us in a room together and you can tell. Meet us individually and probably not. Maybe because I had to learn about what other people seemed to be doing naturally I had a pre disposition to studying things around me. Curiosity fascinated me and wherever I could get it there I was. I didn't really have any perspective for what I might be reaching forward to or what that even meant. Like when people said what do you see yourself doing in the future. I always thought to myself that was a silly question because the future was not something that you saw, rather something that you engineered. I loved solving problems because it let me have an organic piece of what I felt others somehow already had. I loved math because it was like one long never ending problem, and when I learned chemistry and started to understand physics, the world opened up to me like nothing I could ever possibly understand enough to capture and put into language. Speaking of language, it was something that I had to force myself to see differently. I struggled with language, growing up I spent a lot of time visualizing things in my mind but I could never transfer that out with my hands, I spent a lot of time trying to learn drawing skills and never could make my mind/hand cooperate. Words were ok, the way schools teach language piecemeal seemed to work well for me, but it would not be until my freshman year in college when I could grasp the difference between what I thought and how I translated that into the language that I share. I mean I sort of understand that is what first year is for, dusting that stuff off, but for me it was a first. I had to use a speech therapist when I was in 1st grade, but as soon as he taught me how to manipulate my tongue and enunciate each syllable I was out of there so fast it made his head spin and people still compliment me on my speech today. But my book reporting was another thing. It was not great until college straightened me out. I still cant spell and or type very well. Sometimes numbers swim around while I am working them. Sometimes my brain will grab and hold onto random pieces of information from my periphery and use it in its processing, so I end up stopping with a completely wrong or null piece of information scratching my head, then I will see it later and be like oh. Sometimes I will forget a word, only to use the definition to reverse engineer the verb tense and the word I forgot. My brain remembers a lot, I say my brain does because it holds onto information I might not have consciously asked it to hold onto and then recalls it when triggered as if I had. Sometimes this is useful but I don't always get to use this whenever I want to. I still have to study and make things organic and intuitive. Typing is by far the most useful tool for making thinking and language merge. I still like paper and pen for creative stuff but that may actually be more nostalgia than anything because I used computers throughout what school I could get accomplished before financial ruin completely and utterly changed the course of my life. I got to college expecting to learn stuff and found out that they are really only there to help those who kind of understand what they want to get there. They don't actually teach you anything, they point you in certain directions and let you go. I was kinda bummed to realize, though I may be really good at a lot of things, academia being one of those things, I really didn't fit into the system they were hinting that I should fit into. I began fighting Wildfires, I live on the West Coast of the U.S., that made me learn about some of the more harsh realities of life and politics. I mean going straight from a classroom learning chemistry to a fire line was a big change in my life seeing as I had no personality so to speak. I used my learning to communicate and people looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language and come to find out I was. By the time I learned how to speak their language I had earned the attention of those people who might actually like the fact that you can speak both languages. Anyway, I feel like maybe creating a new system where we look more closely at things, make people more curious about being curious, might break walls down. Literacy means more than understanding how to sound out words and read, it means understanding in depth concepts and being able to extrapolate and extend those conversations if need be. The U.S. has a literacy problem, nobody can have a meaningful intelligent discourse about most anything let alone important issues which need even more attention be paid to them. Yet, to me, it seems like this whole thing is being strategically implemented to almost farm a certain population of people. Namely, the cognitively illiterate. Who does that benefit you ask, well corporations of course. Who effectively owns our political system, well lobbyists from you guessed it corporations. We the consumers do solemnly pledge to continue to be the working class now and for as long as our progeny have children because I guess I don't really know why but because its what you have to do. Social programs in the U.S. : food stamps, medicare/medicade, social security, the military, the Department of the Interior, all governmental employees, the BLM, the 2008 bailout and subsequent buying up of what close to 2/3 of the foreclosed debt which tended to be property which they held onto for almost 8 years. But when the state owns those things when they do more than just hand out the management plans, that is communism and that seems a little ironic don't you think. When we can't have a real conversation about universal healthcare because the chemical company lobbyists own the government, but they can engineer a derivatives scheme that would undoubtedly bankrupt millions of already financially insecure Americans and then say they are helping by buying up all that land to alleviate the debt. At least real socialism would be putting the power back into the hands of working class Americans like real Democratic Republics should.
19:40 - 19:45 .. there u have the right object to be proud of.
Hey you said jurisdiction Mr. Wolff
If the judge tells you to sea an attorney, you say let the record of this court then show that you, the accused in this criminal action, has ask the court to divulge the nature and the cause of the accusation upon the authority of the Sixth amendment and that this court has failed in its duty to inform me of the nature and the cause of the action. Furthermore, let the record also show that this court intends to bring this against you under a secret jurisdiction known only to the licensed attorney.
When he threatens you with contempt of court say "You do not wish to be held in contempt. I am simply trying to exercise my Sixth Amendment Right and that you disclose the nature and the cause of the charges against you.You can provide court citations to show an exercise of a constitution right cannot be converted into a crime. Either identify the proper established jurisdiction or I make a motion to dismiss the case against you."
if you missed a few.
"Let the court then show that this court intends to proceed with criminal action,against you, as a condition of the contract under the "Admiralty Jurisdiction" as a military tribunal under Article 1 Section 8 Clause 17, However, you must realize that you have no such jurisdiction without also having a valid contract in dispute. I am not aware of having entered and international contracts, so I deny that any contract exists. Will you instruct the Prosecuting attorney to inform this court if there is such a contract and if so. to place it into evidence and explain how I am party to it and am I compelled to perform under it? And if the Prosecution cannot do so, your honor, I move that case against me 've dismissed.
When your in court.
Richard Wolff stated that 5.5 Billion will be given to Amazon instead of being used to upgrade infrastructure in New York.
Clarification: 5.5 billion does not exist yet so It cannot be used for infrastructure if New York decides against Amazon. The 5.5 billion is a tax break and is applied only after wealth is generated. This means Amazon pays less tax so it can use wealth to invest in business resulting in more jobs. Amazon employs 600,000 people. Plus it indirectly employs other workers by doing business with Amazon. The employees of construction company that will build the Amazon campus will benefit.
Richard Wolff is intelligent economist so I think he did not purposely mislead viewers.
Thanks for your highly valuable discussion. I am wondering if you have connected with the Green New Deal, and if you have participated in or seen the Sanders Institute Gathering from last week. It is linked with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, and I see that project as being the grounding that can enable the public to understand the value of being a part of an organized approach to building an industrial strategy for the 21st century.
Jeff Bezos and the celebrities in Cali:
The more wealth you can accumulate, the less likely you have to spend it on things you don't want to spend it on, in this system.
Must be nice.
If I was rich I would be terrified.
Please improve the audio, the speakers often sound like they're mumbling.
The way of the future !! This HAS to overcome capitalism as the US and EU state capitalist system crumbles
Unfortunately, a "trust" is a form of doing "business", that is
inspired by capitalist thinking, and evolved from the "corporate"
model, so its purpose is to be even MORE impenetrable, than
a public corporation, and whose benefits flow to the "members"
of the "trust", which is usually determined by "directors" of the trust,
who are normally required to be "independent". from the "beneficiaries
of it, while is also obligated to act on their behalf. ( there are a number
of different types of trusts, which have been created for different
purposes, so without identifying which type this is, what its purpose IS,
can not be determined by the information provided here. )
There is no obligation to provide a "social benefit" in general, nor to
be concerned with the welfare of "non-members", which in this case
is greater that the number of member/owners cited and if this company grows,
the non members will increase....since there are obvious requirements to become
a "member", and these are also not detailed here, so in what sense that this
would qualify as a workers co-operative, which does not include "all of
its workers", becomes a bit dubious.
In short, there seems to be more "semantical avoidance" here, than clarity
and the "idea" of co-ops, has created a "meme" which confers "assumptions"
regarding it, similar to words like "democracy", which in terms of "history"
are completely ephemeral and without real world application or experience.
Ultimately, the problems and inequality created by capitalism, revolve
around what is actually produced, and how what is produced is actually
distributed. If these things are not addressed, directly, then what form
a business takes, is completely irrelevant, in achieving the required
solutions....current economic theory and understanding is completely
growth reliant, regardless of what label or motive one attaches to it.
Sustainable economic theory and understanding, begins with the
recognition that "growth" is the problem, and that if this not the primary
focus of any proposed "systemic" change...then the results will be
more of the same, regardless of the "words" used to describe it.
junto al trabajador
Coops are based
PROTECT WOLFF AT ALL COSTS
After the 1968 riots in Paris, the cobblestones were paved over.
sure..it all works "well" until :
a) someone starts consistently under-performing and the others want him out b)
someone starts over-performing consistentlyand are tempted to hack it on their own
c)there is a major crisis and a big decision must be made but the vote is somewhere close to 50/50 and there is a tie breaking vote, AND then it turns out it was the wrong decision
d)if company decides to expand beyond its original 40 members to, say, 400 due to growing business prospects, which means with each additional NEW worker ownership stake is diluted
e)if scenario d above has happened, but then there is a downturn in business prospects and then shrinking the payroll from the said 400 employees to, say, 300 is required ..whats the mechanism for laying off ? who gets laid off and why? productivity? personality? last in first out? seniority? so the 300 that will remain vote the other 100 out? or does the company have ZERO flexibility to reduce the payroll no matter wht the business cycle looks like?
WHAT ABOUT KAREN HUDES ????????????/
I just don't get it regards health. A genuine health system would be engaging people in real life facts on how to proactively care for ourselves and others. The blinded eye that creates dependancy on taking drugs for various conditions/diseases minor and acute is worth investigating. Know that there are health and safety guidelines WE CAN practice. As consumers what is stopping us from promoting clean air, water, food, soil, better farming practices, greening corridors, and keeping fit throughout life.? Don't you think it is a good time to make this an opportunity to gain knowledge - understand prevention as generally a broader approach to health than what the current system would lead us to believe? The interface is clear. Applying ourselves to all areas of environmental emergency works favourably well with improving our health.
Smart guest.
HORRIBLE COMBOVER, though....
I want to throw up.
The guest sounds like he's mumbling. Signing of, sadly.