1490: State Secession? End Human Trafficking, Cammy Bowker Global Education Philanthropists

Welcome to the Creating wealth show with Jason Hartman. You're about to learn a new slant on investing, some exciting techniques and fresh new approaches to the world's most historically proven asset class that will enable you to create more wealth and freedom than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine, self made multimillionaire who's actually been there and done it. He's a successful investor, lender, developer and entrepreneur who's owned properties in 11 states, had hundreds of tenants and been involved in thousands of real estate transactions. This program will help you follow in Jason's footsteps on the road to your financial Independence Day. You really can do it. And now here's your host, Jason Hartman with the complete solution for real estate investors.

Welcome to the show. This is Jason Hartman, your host. And every 10th episode we do something kind of special, kind of different. What we do is we go off topic. So regardless of which show it is on the Hartman Media Network, whether it be one of the financial shows, economics, real estate, investing, travel, longevity, all of the other topics that we have, every 10th episode we go off topic and we explore something of general interest, something of general life, success, value. And so many of our listeners around the world in 164 countries have absolutely loved our 10th episode shows. So that's what we're going to do today. And let's go ahead and get to our guest with a special 10th episode show. And of course, on the next episode, we'll be back to our regular programming. Here we go. Welcome to episode 1490. 1490. This is a tenth episode and I know it's a little different to have a 10th episode on this day of the week, but, but we've had to run some extra episodes for you folks because, well, we've just frankly got too much newsworthy content and we don't want you to miss it. So I am happy to work weekends for you, weekends, evenings, whatever it takes to keep you, the investor, informed as to what is going on in the market, in the economy. And these are crazy times. I have to tell you, I am usually a pretty optimistic guy. I think you probably agree with that. I'm an optimistic complainer. An optimistic complainer. How do you like that? And I tell you, with the news lately, I'm a little worried, to say the least. I think the country is, I think my prediction, another one of my predictions, so many of them have come true. Another one of them I think is going to come true probably sooner rather than later. We'll see. It's a pretty big deal. This is a big One. And I don't think it'll necessarily affect our investments in any negative way. In fact, it might be extremely positive depending on where those properties happen to be. And I think most of you who've been following my good plan, my prudent plan, will actually benefit from this. But I think at the same time, it's. It's sad for the country, it's sad for the United States. And here's the prediction I made 20 years ago. Now, I didn't have a podcast 20 years ago. I started podcasting about 15 years ago, but I was talking about this 20 years ago. And that prediction, and you've heard me say it on the podcast, but I was saying it, you know, five, six years before the podcast. And that prediction is that during our lifetimes, we will see at least one, if not more states secede from the Union. And you know what? The more I see what's going on in the world and the more I realize just come to the realization that the red and the blue, the right and the left cannot coexist together. I just think that the whole thing has become so intensely polarized. And I don't mean because of polarizing political figures like Barack Obama or Donald Trump. And they both were very polarizing in their own way. I mean, because you've basically got, you know, you've got sort of this spectrum in the world of, not just in the country, but in the world in general. You've got. And this is Ayn Randian, by the way. So if you haven't read Atlas Shrugged and you haven't realized how true that prophecy from the late Ayn Rand has become, and it was written, what, I don't know, 60 years ago now? Is it 70 years yet? I don't remember the exact date she wrote the book, but it's a 1200 page masterpiece. And I don't agree with everything Ayn Rand says, by the way. But, you know, even though I don't agree with everything, I do agree with a lot of things. And agree or not, she was still brilliant either way. You know, I. Let's try. And I hope I do this, and I hope you do it too. I recognize brilliance in people I disagree with. So, you know, you don't have to agree with everything to recognize that just the thought process alone is pretty brilliant sometimes. But Ayn Rand, I agree with a lot of her stuff. Not everything, but a lot of it. Anyway, Atlas Shrugged at John Galt, who is John Galt and the producers just sort of saying, hey, I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm not going to be the slave to the takers. And when we look at that spectrum of people, you know, there are the value creators and there are the value consumers and then even worse, there are the value destroyers. And with what's going on as we look at the video that is coming in from around the US and around the world where these absolute idiots, they don't even really understand what they're protesting about. And if you don't believe me, just find the videos online where people are sticking a microphone in their face and they don't even know what they're talking about. It is truly shocking how ill informed and how uneducated some people are. I'm sure it amazes you. I'm sure you experience this. Listen, present company completely excluded because I know there's nobody like that listening to this show. Everybody listening to this show, they understand, they get it, they're intellectual, they're thinkers, they're curious. But go out in the world and wow, it's pretty discouraging. It really is. So, yeah, I'm worried about that. I think for our properties though, we're going to be, we actually could really benefit. Now, many years ago, and you've heard me say this, if you've been listening to the show the past 14 years, 15 years, you've heard me say this quote, and this was before Hong Kong, Hong Kong has now become a disaster. But you get the idea. Hong Kong is this economic miracle outside of communist China. And China is way less communist than it used to be. It's actually very capitalist, right? But when you look at this and you look at the comparison of the old Hong Kong when it was under British rule, that was like this massive capitalist success of the world. I mean, it was a miracle, okay? And still is to a lesser degree. And then you compare it to the old China, that was an absolute communist disaster, right? So keep that in mind, that comparison, right. Because the Jason Hartman question is compared to what? Compared to what? That's always the right question. So I said many times over the years, and you heard me say it, that if Texas, and I'm just using Texas as an example because it's the Lone Star State and you know, it supposedly has this thing in its state constitution, which I don't know much about, but I've heard it, that it could easily secede from the union. And you know, several years ago Texas was like, you know, just gobbling up all the businesses as they left the Socialist Republic of California. And we'll get to that in a moment because I'm going to tell you some stu that's going to blow your mind. And by the way, this is a 10th episode show today, so we'll have our guest on here in a moment and she's going to talk about this absolutely disgusting, tragic thing that must be stopped called human trafficking. And I did a show on this years ago with sort of the renowned Harvard professor, I can't remember his name, but he wrote a book on it in the early days of our awareness about this as a society. And, you know, now thankfully we're becoming more aware and hopefully we'll put a dent in it. But hey, there is a capitalist solution and a libertarian solution that would just end human trafficking overnight. I mean, at least it would put a giant dent in it. Just compare it to the legalization of marijuana in so many places, which I agree and disagree with at the same time. I have my qualms about that one. Philosophically I agree with it. But practically speaking, I think it might be just a big plot, a big conspiracy. Oh, get your tinfoil hats out. Get your tinfoil hats out. Conspiracy. He mentioned the word. Oh God, demonetize the channel.

What a world we live in. We have tech companies controlling and censoring our speech. Can you believe it? This is insanity. You couldn't make this stuff up. It's absolute insanity. Anyway, but the capitalist solution is they made marijuana legal in several states and guess what? It put all the drug smugglers out of business.

So just think about that. It's a, it works, you know, if you want to, if you want to collapse. See, the thing that any criminal syndicate has, like Wall street, is a pseudo monopoly, right? Because there are very few people that are actually willing to commit crimes and on any big scale. And so the criminals enjoy this sort of duopoly situation where there's not much competition in the criminal world because not many people are willing to commit crimes, thankfully. And so when you make something legal, then guess what, their criminal empire collapses because now they have competition in a free and open and regulated market that is safe and protected. So there's examples of this all over the world, but I won't get into that. Anyway, Ayn Rand, John Galt, what were we talking about here? Jason, get back on track. But Texas would become the Hong Kong of the United States. I really do think we are getting closer and closer to seeing secession because we've got value creators, value creators, consumers, which are just people kind of leeching off the system. And then we've got Value destroyers. People that are actually destructive, that are destroying the livelihoods of innocent people in their own communities, by the way. And that's just really, really awful. It's absolutely awful. And so speaking of value destroyers, they are just regular day to day people and they're also people in government. Listen to this. This article is in the Real Deal, a newsletter. I get another gut punch. The LA City Council mall's apartment vacancy tax ballot measure. The city report found that high priced units are disproportionately vacant. Empty units in LA may cost landlords more than just missed rent in the future. The LA City Council directed city lawyers to draft a vacancy tax ballot measure this week. According to the LA Times. Proponents argue that taxing landlords for empty units would motivate them to rent their units instead of holding out for higher rents. Oh my God.

Are you freaking kidding me? You communist nut job dictators. Unbelievable. The fact that this could even be a serious discussion in a city government is absolutely pathetic. Can you imagine? Do you think anybody, if this actually passed, do you think any sane person would be stupid enough to buy a property in this disastrous city? My hometown. I grew up in Los Angeles. What a, what a disaster. I mean, if you want to create a housing shortage, this is how you do it. I mean, these people in government should be drawn and quartered. The people that propose this kind of stuff in a country like the United States of America, literally they should be criminally prosecuted. I mean, absolutely pathetic. Unbelievable. The LA Housing and Community Investment Department estimates that There are between 85,000 and 100,000 empty units in the city. A vacancy rate of 6 to 7%. Higher priced units are disproportionately vacant compared to mid and lower priced units, the HCID Housing and Community Investment Department found.

You can't write fiction like this. Further, neighborhoods with a greater proportion of new high end units have some of the highest vacancy rates in the city with, well, those areas experiencing less residential development have vacancy rates consistently below 5%. According to the report.

The city is around a half million affordable units short of demand. Around 67,000 people were experiencing homelessness as of January. Guess what stupid idiots running Los Angeles. Not all of you, just the ones behind this kind of thing. Idiots. By the way, dear idiots, with the HCID that are behind this, why don't you come on the show and debate this and come on the show and tell us why this kind of absolute totalitarian dictatorship stupidity makes sense. This is unbelievable. You want to solve the homelessness problem, you idiots? Well, let me see. Stop Running businesses out of your city with all this excess, ridiculous regulation.

Stop making it so hard to build anything in your city and stop rewarding the wrong behaviors on every side of the spectrum. That's how you solve the homelessness problem or at least make a big dent in it. You'll probably never completely solve it, but you'll make a big dentist by just following that simple advice. Oh my God.

Where do we go from here? Go open your window like they did in the movie network that I shared and yell out the window. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. Can you imagine? That's just another form of rent control right there. That's exactly what that is. Unbelievable. All right, well, hey, if you need us and you need some sanity in the world, reach out jasonhartman.com or 1-800-hartman we're here for you as your investment therapist. And by the way, that's not just la. That's every lefty controlled city and community in the country and the world that does stuff like that. LA is just the example of today, okay? You know, it's the poster child for how to destroy a once great city. Congratulations, Los Angeles. You're doing a good job killing yourself. It's just, it's tragic to watch it. Unbelievable. And the state of California is doing the same thing in all kinds of different ways. We've talked about it, but hey, it's happening across the country too. Not just there, okay? It's not just la, it's not just California. There's crazy stuff like this going on in New York, there's crazy stuff like this going on. And in Oregon, in Washington state, I mean, just unbelievable. Go to places that are landlord friendly, folks. You can find them at jasonhartman.com properties landlord friendly places that incentivize you as landlords to provide housing to people. Imagine that. That's a good thing. Incentivize the right behavior. Because like the greatest management principle in the world says what gets rewarded gets repeated. And if you want to see a tragic example of that right now, our guest will talk about that today. Because sadly, what's getting rewarded is getting repeated in the world of human trafficking. Yes, we have slavery going on in the modern world, all around the world because it gets rewarded. The way to stop getting it rewarded is, is to destroy their criminal cartel. It's not Monopoly, it's, it's not even duopoly. But it's a small number who are willing to commit crimes and there's good ways to destroy that. So we're going to talk about that right now. This is a 10th episode show, so we go off topic and we discuss a non real estate topic. We covered some of that in the intro today on my rant about these crazy dictators in government, the value destroyers. All right, here we go with our guest. Let's end human trafficking once and for all. This has absolutely got to end forever. And you know, one of the ways we can also put a dent in it is be aware of what's going on when you're around living your life. Just be aware of it. Okay. Be aware that someone that walks up to you somewhere might be be a victim of this and you could report it to authorities and there have been many cases of that you've heard about on the news. All right, here we go with our guest.

It's my pleasure to welcome Kami Bowker. She is founder of both global education philanthropist and the global education foundation. These are both federal 501c3 nonprofit organizations. Many years ago, we did a show where I interviewed, I believe it was a Harvard professor who wrote one of the seminal books on human trafficking. A very important issue and something that needs to be stopped. And that's what Kami is dedicated to. She's dedicated to eradicating this problem through education. And I think it is a very important thing. Many years ago, I saw a documentary and they made a very good point. If you're selling drugs, you can sell them only once. But if you're selling people basically modern slavery, you can sell them many times over. It is nice to see that the awareness about this problem is increasing. I'm starting to notice when I'm in airports especially, I see signs around the airports that make people aware of these problems. So very good. But education is the key. And Kami's here to talk about her work today. Kami, welcome. How are you?

Hi there.

I'm good.

How are you? Thank you for having me.

Good. Good to have you on. So tell us, the organization's about three years old, I guess, and you had traveled to several places around the world and you were thinking of opening schools in these places. But you changed your mission a little bit, didn't you? Being a schoolteacher, you saw the need for education, but how did the mission evolve?

Yeah, I started thinking I would just bring education to other countries using what I know now are using what I knew at the time and bringing it to people that didn't have what we have. Well, my mission completely changed when I got to know the villagers and their Stories. So I started getting to know the children in the orphanages I was serving in. And the specific orphanage I originally started in was absolutely the most shocking experience I've had to date. But I didn't know at the time. I was walking into the country's one and only location where those that have been trafficked, that's where they go. So I started understanding after getting to know the children in the orphanage. Time after time, each story kept repeating itself.

What country are you in? Are you talking about Haiti now or other countries? Okay, got it.

Yeah, I'm speaking specifically to Haiti. And one thing that struck me immediately, when I first walked into this orphanage, there was 250 kids or so, most of them under the age of. Of, let's say, five. And then there was quite a few older ones, so they were split in half. But most of the younger ones couldn't really tell me their story, right? Or what they needed for help. But as I got to know the kiddos in the orphanage and what they needed for schooling and education, I started to hear their stories repeat themselves. So one boy in particular, I came in the doors of the orphanage, and I had a Harry Potter book in French. And me and this boy, we bonded, but he was the age of my teenage boys back home. And as I came home from Haiti, I couldn't get his story out of his mind. He was trafficked in the Dominican Republic and brought over to Haiti and now lived in that orphanage. And that was a similar story of most of the kiddos in that specific orphanage. So I would come back to my US life, my first world life, and I'd try to teach in the classroom. I even taught teachers how to be better teachers. And I would go from my first world problems, and on long weekends, I would fly back over to Haiti to try to help them some more. And then I started seeing a lot of them working, trafficked from the Dominican Republic over and back and forth in this monster that I was starting to unveil was just fascinating to me. And I wanted it to stop because the stories were tragic.

And Cammie, why was it Haiti and the Dominican Republic? Just because there's no plane flight needed, right? They would just travel over land. I mean, the doctor is not particularly rich. I would think that most of this trafficking is from a bad economic climate to a better one where people can afford to pay for their slave labor. Right?

And interesting enough, in these countries, they still practice the actual child slavery. So it's called Revix. So in Haiti, they would still buy children to go Fetch water. So they would not only would be sex slaves, but they would also be manual labor slaves, you know, so why from the Haiti to the doctor, I've kind of watched the patterns of these trafficking networks and they can go across the border pretty easily from one country to the next. And so these children are bought and sold for many different reasons. One of them is just straight slavery, but also then the sex slavery as well.

What is your methodology for reducing this problem, for eradicating it? Hopefully you have the education component. Tell us about that.

Yeah, so it originated in this very story I'm sharing with you. The largest school in the country was the school these kids went to. I went into the school and I said, hey, I'm a teacher, let's get you guys some stem. I built a STEM computer lab. So noticing that if people don't have education, they're going to end up victims to human trafficking, I went to the school and I built a computer lab and I realized that they need vocational trades. So I worked with the school principal and we got an electrician's program, a tile program, things that were needed in that part of the country to help these specific orphans be empowered through education so they can provide for themselves. I started to find as I. My travels took me to the Dominican Republic. I've been, you know, we also work in Belize, Costa Rica, and then also in the United States. That similar story repeats itself. If those victims don't have a way to provide for themselves, they will end up back in the trafficking cycle. So what our organization does is we support in third world countries existing educational systems. And then here in the United States, we educate families and communities on this monster so that they can safeguard their own family. And then we provide educational resources to survivors here once they get out. And our organization employs survivors as well.

So is it pretty much an economic problem? Meaning that the vulnerability happens in these economically devastated areas where they're moving the population from a lower level economy to a higher level economy where there's money to buy human slaves and they can get them out of, they can recruit, I guess. I mean, how is the recruiting done? Is it like recruiting saying, hey, we'll give you money, or is it like warlords or is it, you know, both? You know, I don't, I don't think people really have like an understanding of, of how they do this, how these terrible people do this smuggling?

Yeah, that's a good question. So it depends where, if you're in the Dominican Republic or Haiti, how they're going to recruit is Sometimes, like you were saying, they just look for the vulnerable that might be. I have a good friend. I'll share a quick story. I have a friend that accidentally sold his children to traffickers thinking that he was getting promised for their education to be purchased. So there's prey that happens like that. But really, overall, human trafficking has no socioeconomic bias. So it happens in affluent communities in the United States just as much as it happens in those villages in Haiti. And that's what made me understand that this is my life's mission. Because when I came home and started to see United States cases of human trafficking, I started to see it's more prevalent in the United States than it is in these third world countries I was serving in. And the grooming process happens right underneath our noses. So it depends where you're at in the country or where you're at in the nation or, excuse me, in the world. But online grooming is the number one way our kids on our soil are being groomed and getting taken.

And how big is the problem? Tell us about the problem. Just globally. What are some of the stats? Or give people an idea as to how big this really is.

Okay, so over 1.2 million children are taken into trafficking annually. So that's like 2,500, 3,000 kids a day are taken into trafficking.

Unbelievable. And how do they escape? Do they get out of this? Or are they just in it until they. They grow up? Or, you know, kind of like, what. What is the path? I mean, how. It's sort of amazing, I think, to most people that people can get away with this. I mean, if you see a person, a person is living in society, they're interacting with people. It's unbelievable, really, that people can get away with this.

Yes, it is. Less than 2% are ever found. So as they escape, you know, I've helped with extractions where some will ask for a ride out. And there's. I work with some organizations that help for those that are. That are in the life, that are reaching out, asking for someone to help them. But that's very, very rare. We found when they get out, if they're underage, of course, they go to their parents. This is the United States I'm talking about. But if they're over 18, they need resources. It's a very, very long road. The average victim returns to trafficking seven to 15 times. So, yes, we have to fund rescues. That's very necessary. But we have to fund educational initiatives to keep victims out, but more importantly, prevent it.

That's great. What other Organizations are involved in this. What are some of the other organizations?

So my sister organization, who we created the Global Education foundation together, is Adaptive Ops. Adaptive Ops is an organization that looks for missing children worldwide. They also train operators to be highly skilled and collect intel and preserve evidence. What's going on right now is a lot of these traffickers can't get prosecution because the evidence isn't preserved, and there's not enough proof to prosecute. So I'm a trained operator. I help them, but we also go together internationally, and he helps protect our teams and helps look for missing kids in these countries while we're serving and building schools too. So we kind of have a really cool relationship, and we strategically fight it together. Outreach missions and collect intel and then we do extractions, but then also help keep them out and keep survivors safe.

That's good to hear. That's good to hear. So tell us about how we can help. How can people listening help? I think, you know, the first and main thing is just awareness. Right. Know that this exists and you may actually be interacting with someone who is being trafficked.

Absolutely. People could be being trafficked in our own houses and on video games. That's the number one way it's happening here. So just being aware on video games.

Totally.

So on video games, on any app or online platform that has a chat feature, predators are using that as their playground. The average age is 6 years old that they're targeting to reach out to. So we need to raise the awareness. That's the key. Most of these 80% of the kids that are missing in the United States were first groomed online, and the kids don't think it's real. So we have to be the ones in the community, in our families, in our neighborhoods, to talk about it. And if you have a question, go online, do some research, or go to your local police department. They have a human trafficking officer. They'll give you statistics from your neighborhood, your very own neighborhood, and you'll be shocked how it happens everywhere. And unfortunately, the real threat where a lot of this ends is organ harvesting. So.

Oh, my God. Wow.

So we can talk to our kids about sex trafficking in a way that you understand the threat. A human trafficker can make over a million dollars on your child. On a child. So they make about $250,000 a year on a child by reselling them and reselling them. And then the average lifespan once they're in the life of trafficking is three to seven years before they're murdered or sold for parts.

That's it. For these disgusting traffickers. That's a better business than being a drug smuggler, isn't it?

Yes.

Wow.

And then if you want to do some more research, if listeners want to do more research, think about how terrorist organizations are funded. Human trafficking. When I started doing my own research, I realized funds terrorist organizations, it's their highest way that they can be funded. So we have to have awareness on this issue. They're able to raise money for their operations on our own soil to use against us. So that's something people need to do their own research on.

Okay, so you were saying about the organ harvesting. What about that?

Yeah. So there's a black market for anything, right?

Right.

I mean, kidneys is the number one selling organ, but there's definitely a black market for all of the parts and organs. And the younger the victim for sex or organs, the higher the price someone will pay. So just know that that's the actual threat.

Yeah. Okay. So you were talking about how people can help.

Okay, awesome. So we need. Our organizations and other organizations are trying to build an army. We need people to just help by donating. You have over a million children being trafficked each year. Go to globalep.org and just donate or. What our organization has done is we have started to employ survivors in our organization to create this subscription process so community members can pay $20 a month. They'll get a bracelet made by a survivor. One to keep and one to gift. So each subscription comes with two bracelets, and that's $240 a year. That provides 72 hours of safe respite care right when they get out. If someone wants to donate $40 a month, that provides two weeks of safe housing. If someone donates $100 a month, that provides education, higher education for these boys and girls when they get out. They also need mental health support. The resources for when they get out are absolutely absent. There's more beds for dogs, missing dogs, in this country than there are for people. So we have to raise money for people to get real help when they get out. Otherwise the cycle just continues. And we are, you know, we use educational, you know, we get access to them, education for them to finish their ged, to go on to a vocational school, just like I did when I first started in Haiti. We get them a scholarship to college if they can, you know, pass the entrance exam. So really, truly fighting it in our own neighborhoods and around the globe is what we do. So we need an army people. I mean, if you're ex special forces or ex CIA and You think that you want to be an operator, contact us. Adaptive Ops will screen you. We need more operators. We need more eyes out there.

Tell us what an operator is. What do you mean by that?

Sure. So an operator would be someone that's trained and they can understand how to collect intel, how to preserve evidence, possibly go on a rescue mission. That's what an operator would do. And we need enough people throughout the country that can stand up against this monster to truly have a hands on fight against it. Our organization wants to give community members a hands on way to be a philanthropist.

Okay, so what else can people actually do? I mean money is one thing, but what can people do? What action can they take?

Well, one simple thing is, and it.

Doesn'T necessarily mean within your organization in general. I mean I've talked about awareness. People need to understand there's a problem and recognize that they might be interacting with someone who is a victim of this.

Yes, absolutely. I urge everyone to get educated. So go to thepolarisproject.org that's Homeland Security's website. They have a ton of amazing stuff there I always support. It's called fighthenewdrug.org they have really great kid friendly videos. If you want to talk to this with your kids in a way that they can understand, like I said, go to your local law enforcement. But if you do, just go online and just start searching. Google search human trafficking, how it's happening in my state. Google search your state's name. You'll see a score for your state on what your legislators are doing to pass laws so you have resources. Just go online and search and please talk about it because most people don't even realize it happens on our own soil.

Kimmy, is there anything else you want people to know?

Just to be educated, just to please. Now that you know more, I need you to do more. And these kids out there that are missing need us to all do more. And the worst thing that could happen is all is good people doing nothing. So you know more and do more. Go to globalep.org good stuff.

Cami Bowker, thanks for joining us.

Thank you so much.

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