the New York Times just ROASTED me.....

hey everyone me kevin here this video is

about what the new york times just said

behind my back this is

the march the 28th 2021 edition

of the new york times it is the sunday

paper inside of it they have

stuffed the new york times magazine and

when you open up the new york times

magazine to not

the first page but to we gotta get past

the table of contents right so pronounce

the simple contents

you get to the first article in there is

my face

let's talk about what the new york times

had to say

the easiest way to actually read this is

for you to be able to follow along so of

course we're going to pull up

the story on the ipad too because

after all we can nft what's on the ipad

i can't nft

this alright folks so here we go

why finance gurus switch their

bait from millions to thousands of

dollars

okay all right let's uh we get

starting off with a little bit of a

cynical tone i see here

let's go into this uh mark your calendar

there's a big day coming on january 9th

with the dream of a two thousand dollar

stimulus check not yet deflated the

southern california real estate broker

kevin paffraut uploaded a video to his

meet kevin youtube channel

updating viewers on the status of

stimulus and sitting before

an array of glowing led screens yup

and pop culture paraphernalia a star of

mario

yeah and thor's hammer yes

uh pathfinder i don't know what that

means wiry white man in his late 20s how

about

dude who's 29 uh with a close crop beard

it's kind of messy but okay leaned into

the lights and greeted viewers yeah

that's true

using the earnest eye contact of a

veteran youtuber

uh he ran through a summary of the

situation

the interest at play in congress the

details of the proposed bill

the tangled qualifications for relief

out of focus over his shoulders

the monitors reminded us of his meet

kevin school

and sign and sign up for courses

to master stocks at the end of the video

we are invited to become more that's the

old coupon

uh through through investing to

subscribe to his channel and of course

smash the like button i guess that i

guess this is a little

subtle reminder to always hit the like

button little thumbs up there in the

below

big day coming two thousand dollar

stimulus check jan

14. well we may as well pull that one up

really quick to see what video

inspired this i always think that's

interesting let's see meet

kevin big day coming jan 14.

oh hey here it is okay hey everyone so

uh what's interesting about this video

is take a look at this let me share this

here

uh in this video i do actually uh yeah i

go through

yeah it looks like i'm going through the

new stimulus package

that uh biden is proposing to give the

full two thousand dollars which we know

is the

fourteen hundred dollar plus up uh on

top of the six hundred dollars

oh wow encourages automatic triggers yep

we never got that

ah this is like a throwback that's

interesting mansion oh my gosh

you know right now they're thinking of

trying to well at least there has been

talk about convincing joe manchin to

become a republican

and if trump manchin became a republican

it would make him it would

basically flip the balance to 51.49

i don't think it's going to happen

anyway we'll keep going back to the

article wow okay cool

so i mean that's a detailed video with

the i like the flow charts i don't know

this video would be just one of dozens

about the potential stimulus packages

posted that day um oh okay in general

yeah not me i didn't

post dozens of videos a lot but that

doesn't

uh even that evening many of them from

finance

influences like paphrath whose pitches

normally involve real estate

well yeah back before coven stocks or

airline points

true credit cards oh my gosh we haven't

talked about credit cards in a while

a year ago they were promising to share

the proprietary secrets for achieving

wealth well we do that all the time it's

gotta gotta get those wedge deals

uh staging monologues in the driver's

seats of luxury cars

and pool and poolside on cruise ships

so you know what he's talking about is

this video right here it only has

28 000 views the future of tesla stock

price analysis

february 4th 2020 before the pandemic

i'm driving

in the car talking about tesla stock

price

that's crazy uh and then there was one

other one the cruise ship one

the cruise ship one was fun passive

income

real estate uh that was good here it is

oh man

i think people really enjoyed this one

this one almost has half a million views

which is super cool it was a good video

ah that's cool they they did reference a

couple good videos here so i like that

uh all right let's keep going here uh i

i don't know that i would call it a

monologue but okay

brian kim oh hey look shout out to clear

value here uh

uh who had previously been explaining

tax prep including how

high earners could reduce their

obligation and rami

once raised a complimentary glass of

champagne

from a first class airplane seat and

offered to explain how he uses

airline rewards to get there uh you know

i've actually never flown

first class so uh good good for romney

now all that has changed the thumbnails

on their channels

may have kept their usual style

buffoonish facial expressions

what not that buffoonish

glaring yellow text but it was videos

about stimulus checks that came to

dominate their feeds

ah okay they vied for the role of

soothsayer before a

wrapped audience with a seemingly

insatiable demand for information

about when the government would offer

financial relief

i mean there's so much freaking crap to

weed through i always thought those were

helpful

i mean we haven't been posting in these

in a while but uh yeah

there was so much to unwind or sort of

unpack it just it was a mess

personal finance influencers turned out

to be natural for this part

they were par they were already

performing as the shamans

of a core of american mythology i mean

this is like a world of warcraft

reference

that although the world may be divided

into halves and have nots the only thing

standing between you and the life among

the haves

was some arcane savvy

this guy is definitely a world of

warcraft player

look the only the only thing standing

between

poor and not poor is investing

real estate stocks and owning businesses

because why those are the three things

that always get bailed out first

and look back at the beginning of the

pandemic what get what gets bailed out

first

businesses ppp loans come on everybody

get stimulus checks the ppp loans those

were the biggest freaking stimulus check

that people got uh

that you've gone obviously uh the real

estate bailout oh just don't pay your

mortgage oh tenants no you still owe

your

you still owe your rent but maybe you

won't get evicted and uh

and stock market come on we got jpow to

bail us out in the stock market it's

ridiculous

the influence was exactly like you they

promised it's

just that they had cracked the code and

would in their

magnamity break a taboo to share its

secrets with you

this is a little bit of a cynical tone

here

simply sign up for their classes buy

their books and use the appropriate

coupon code i check it i mean do use the

appropriate coupon code to check out

this is true

their shift to stimulus content was

sudden and significant

but it was merely a change to the type

of knowledge in which their enlightened

everyman personas were trained

instead of decoding real estate or

cryptocurrencies they opined on means

testing

and party politics well

the good news is i talked about

everything i just made more videos

i feel like i still talk about real

estate still talk about stocks

just kind of added steam on top uh in

pav rat's case stimulus check updates

began doubling the views of his other

view began doubling

his other videos and views yeah i will

say people liked stimulus more than they

liked real estate videos that's for sure

one update became the most popular video

on his channel this one went number one

on trending 1.1 million views that's

true

for other finance gurus these updates

took

over their entire output or their output

entirely not mine

their audiences grew dramatically but

the shift required a tacit admission

that the people they had been teasing

with paths to affluence

had ended up sitting around with

everyone else hoping for a check

i mean i don't know i you know i play i

play games with uh

some of the people who who found me

through the stimulus updates

and i mean it's nice to check in every

once in a while and know what the heck

is going on so

you could play more games you know

they're good summaries

you know it's been like 12 to 16 hours a

day trying to

uh you know produce a good summary

content whether it's about the market or

stim but

i don't know man viewers i don't know

how great this sounds

viewer demand didn't come it kind of

sounds roasty viewer demand didn't come

from the upward bound entrepreneurs at

all it seemed but rather from those

enduring the kind of precarity where the

precious ti or precise timing of the two

thousand dollar deposit could mean

keeping the lights on

or the difference between housing and

eviction uh these audiences

didn't want yesterday's news or even

this morning so the slightest budge

towards progress was meaningful and

welcomed yeah that's true

uh the output of youtube updates was

relentless every hour a glut of new

videos provided on the latest

provided the latest on whether the

relief was coming and how many dollars

were likely to arrive

uh pav rath tippy can we just go with me

kevin please

typically upload i'm going to start

doing that me kevin typically uploaded

two videos a day

some content makers uploaded three or

more there was

often simply not much to say okay

well that's why i did post other content

too

uh the key to collecting views was

simply to serve as a foil as to what the

audience saw

as an infuriating lack of urgency from

congress

and the president uh lowercase president

interesting usually we capitalize

present the youtubers tended to mimic

the calm authoritative style

of cable news anchors but other than

reading other people's

reporting of printer paper there was a

little to do beyond trying to match

their viewers exacerbations

oh that's pretty rough i i think right

here they're kind of slamming our

beautiful flow charts

that i guess they don't like our flow

charts the visuals

comically featuring the same techniques

used to press

press investment schemes stock images of

fanned out 100

bills oh i never use that and

tantalizing clickbait of a 4200

stimulus i don't think i've ever talked

about 4200

stimulus but okay me kevin has a

charisma that cuts through

all this his exception exceptionally

talented

well apparently i'm not i may not be

exceptionally talented at reading i

suppose

he's exceptionally talented at talking

okay so i think what they're doing is

they're merging together a bunch of

other youtube channels here as well he's

exceptionally talented at talking to a

camera a natural salesman

make sure by the way to sign up for your

free uh

up to eighteen hundred fifty dollars

stocks when you sign up for weeble

deposit a hundred dollars and get up to

two free stocks with weeble

okay where were we somewhere around here

somewhere around this

oh yeah but when he turns to a flow

chart breaking down biden's stimulus

proposal what might

what might even be sincerity leaks out

man the tone of this geez

new york times so i like that full-on

roast fest here

judging by the ad-hoc community formed

in his comment section his viewers

appreciate it

plus the bitcoin scammers avoid the

people telling you to reach out to them

via whatsapp geez uh then

you remember the neon advertisements

behind him and

the exhaust exhortations to go from zero

to millionaire and beyond

that meet kevin a multi-millionaire

landlord who once extolled the virtues

of misleading tenants and vigorously

refusing to rent to people with

sub-optimal credit scores

has become an exacerbated avatar for

emergency economic relief for the

neediest

most of whom would be spending it on

rent feels deeply typical america

typically american i think this person

has a very negative view of

of america that's kind of sad i think

this is kind of

very out of context here i don't extol

the virtues of misleading tenants i

think being honest and having

strong communication with your tenants

is very very important uh but the only

thing that this could reference

is the fact that i openly and we talk

about this all the time on the channel

and real estate videos i openly say

do not tell tenants you're the property

or you're the owner

you are always the property manager

because if you were the owner

you are 10x more likely to be

emotionally involved

and when you're a landlord you've gotta

remember you're running a business

and so sometimes as a landlord running a

business that means going to the city

the

county of la and saying look this is a

business decision i'll take the eighty

percent

and i'll waive the other twenty percent

of the rent so that my tenant can get

rental relief

that's a business decision an emotional

landlord

uh might get caught and even though even

though i don't think the city or or

the state of california or county la

should be encouraging landlords to take

any kind of hand haircut

on rental relief because that's not the

intention of

uh of the rental relief programs when

you are a property manager and you

portray yourself as a property manager

which you are even if you were the owner

you put on a business hat when you are

an

owner you expose yourself to the

potential of

uh emotions getting in the way like this

tenant hasn't been paying on time

they're so mean to be or whatever

no no it is what it is business

decisions

maybe somebody lost their job make

business decisions

uh so it's it's simply the hat you wear

i don't see that as

misleading but maybe maybe uh and

vigorously refusing to rent to people

with suboptimal credit scores

well yeah i mean we have a written

criteria that says if you're below a

certain credit score

we don't rent uh that doesn't mean

you're a bad person that doesn't mean

you won't pay rent that's just that's

just a system that we've established and

that has worked very well with

knock on wood never had an eviction so

okay little i mean pretty cynical

i mean they're not wrong i mean

i guess that's right but it's very very

cynical especially when they call that

deeply american

uh in the context they put that in i

feel like this is a

kind of a not great portrayal here a

cnbc

profile reported that meet kevin

actually makes most of his money not

from the industry he built his status on

not from investing or buying rental

properties but his audiences himself

his youtube channel advertising revenue

and affiliate programs but the thing is

i'm totally transparent about all this

if you type into youtube meet kevin how

much youtube paid me for 31 days

you'll see this right here and uh let's

see if we just

we'll just to exit here look at this i

mean in may

youtube was paying seven to eight

thousand dollars a day up to ninety

eight hundred dollars a day

like yeah i i cannot i do not make that

as a real estate agent i do not make

that

as a positive cash flow from real estate

uh like that's the numbers are

absolutely incredible what youtube

pays now i make a i have a course a

youtube course on

how i break down how i make my videos

and my strategy for making videos and

the tech that i use and so on but uh

yeah i mean look

there's there's no hiding it and i'm

very transparent about this uh this

revenue too it's

it's a blessing and this is one of the

reasons why i encourage people

to start a business especially related

to youtube because it it is insane

uh so again not wrong uh just very

i don't know coming across as a as if

that's a horrible negative

uh okay whatever this confluence of

the sincere and the cynical recurs

constantly in the stimulus check youtube

are they talking about themselves uh it

serves as a uniquely american need

even at the height of desperation

nothing can ever dispel the mirage

that riches are available to anyone with

the work ethic

if you insist a little savvy and if you

insist a little savvy

i mean i totally think anybody can build

wealth

and there are many stories on my youtube

channel about how

i started with nine thousand i mean what

type this into youtube

meet kevin here we'll do it together

really quick this is a

really good one to watch uh meet kevin

start with real estate with ten thousand

five hundred dollars

meet kevin start with ten thousand five

hundred dollars

this one right here look at that 858 000

views how i turned 10

500 into 210 000 at 19 in 90 days

beginner real estate

you know how anyone can make 200 in 15

minutes easy side hustle

you know these these i'm transparent

about how you can build these

or accumulate this wealth in the days

leading up to the relief bill becoming

law

paphrath meet kevin's stimulus content

remained his most popular product

soon he was posting videos calming those

members of his audience for whom the

fourteen hundred dollar deposit had not

arrived

can the path forward for someone like

pathfi meet kevin

really lead back to making videos from

the driver's seat of a tesla promising

to make viewers rich

or will what he see what he has seen

during this

stint months of tending to a public

desperate for news of a couple thousand

dollars opened his eyes to the

possibility

of just of being just another rich

person hustling the poor

wow adlen jackson is a writer from

kingston jamaica who writes about music

in new york

this is his first article for the

magazine screen grabs from youtube

okay wow wow kind of harsh

i have to say though it is kind of cool

uh the

the having the this new york times uh uh

oh

look it's under the it's under reality

check that's cool

it's literally the first thing under the

magazine so you got you open it up

you get the table of contents and an ad

reality check and then there's that's so

cool though like

even though it's totally a roast i mean

this is cool we did this together

thank you everyone this is super cool i

appreciate all your support

hopefully you don't think uh this about

me i mean that's uh

it's a roast uh you know there's a lot

of context

missing a lot of context missing it's

uh you know out of context the things

aren't

untrue uh but yeah yeah

i don't know i'd love to hear what y'all

think about it it's a it's a good roast

i'll take it thank you new york times i

appreciate you

uh see what the wall street journal has

to say next

anyway thank you so much for watching

and let me know what you think about the

nyt and folks we'll see in the next one