I'm back. Here's What We're Doing in 2025

Summary

Garys Economics has returned after a four-month hiatus, ready to tackle economic issues through his channel. During his break, he reflected on his role and potential influence, especially after feeling disheartened by the UK's political climate, including the recent elections where Labor's victory didn't align with his goals of reducing inequality. He discusses plans to grow his channel and influence by professionalizing the setup, involving a funding model like Patreon, and making the channel more impactful. The intention is to educate people about economic issues in a relatable and clear manner while growing the platform's political and educational impact.

Highlights

• Gary returns after a four-month break with new plans. 👉
• He's concerned about the UK's political climate and strives for real change. 🚀
• Labor's recent victory is seen as insufficient to address inequality. ⚖️
• Plans include launching a Patreon to fund staff and channel growth. 🛠️
• Aims to educate the public on economics in a simple, impactful way. 📈

Key Takeaways

• Gary is back with renewed energy to tackle economic issues through his channel. 🎥
• The channel aims to fill the gap in economic communication for ordinary people. 💬
• Gary plans to professionalize the channel for greater political influence. 🌟
• A Patreon page will be launched to support the channel without charging for video content. 💰
• Gary emphasizes transparency and the channel's commitment to free, accessible content. 📜

Overview

Hey, everyone! Gary's back after a bit of time away, and he's ready to shake things up. He took some time off after feeling frustrated with the political climate in the UK, especially around elections. He knew change was needed not just in politics but in how people understand economics, and now he's got some exciting plans to make that happen!

While he was away, Gary realized the importance of making economics accessible to everyone. It's not just about putting out videos; it's about engaging with folks in a way that really speaks to their everyday lives. His channel's growth is proof that people want straightforward, honest, and relatable economic insights. And he's ready to up the ante, ensuring the channel grows bigger and more influential.

To make all this happen, Gary's planning to open up a Patreon, not to charge for content, but to help fund the team needed to support this growing community. He's committed to transparency, promising that all funds will go toward bettering the channel's offerings. With lots of support and exciting plans in the pipeline, Gary's on a mission to turn economic education into a powerful tool for change!

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Overview The chapter titled 'Introduction and Overview' focuses on the narrator's return after being away for about 4 months. The narrator expresses gratitude for the patience of others while they were absent and hints at a lot of activities that have taken place during their absence. The chapter sets up a discussion on the narrator's experiences and the aspects they have missed during their time away.
• 00:30 - 03:00: Elections and Political Reflections The chapter discusses two major elections and the future plans for a YouTube channel in a given year. It mentions that video content continued until the end of August. The narrator took a break from producing content around the end of June, coinciding with the UK election period. The narrator intentionally chose to be absent during the election, anticipating a Labour Party victory, which was evidently foreseeable before the election took place.
• 03:00 - 06:00: Understanding the Bigger Problem The chapter discusses the misconception that the speaker is a staunch supporter of the labor party due to their advocacy for wealth taxes and reducing inequality. However, they clarify that despite their stance on taxing the rich, they do not have strong support for the labor party. The speaker believes that the labor party is unlikely to take significant actions on issues like inequality, wealth tax, or taxing the super-rich. Consequently, the election results were not surprising to them.
• 06:00 - 10:00: Emotional Challenges and The Channel's Growth The chapter delves into the emotional challenges faced by the author during the unexpected timing of an election, which was anticipated in November but occurred in June. The author expresses feelings of being overwhelmed and disheartened, fearing that their hard work on the channel may not be sufficient to exert any influence or receive any recognition from the new government. Despite working diligently, the prospect of another five years without progress or acknowledgment makes the situation seem daunting and emotionally taxing.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Plans for the Future and Funding Needs The chapter discusses the challenges and hesitation faced when contemplating future plans and the need for financial support, especially from government entities. The speaker reflects on the past leadership under various UK politicians like Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson, and others who were perceived as 'villainous' due to their wealthy backgrounds and policy decisions, likening them to antagonists in a Disney film. This perception made it emotionally easier to accept lack of support from the government.
• 15:00 - 18:00: Setting Up and Using Patreon This chapter discusses the deeper underlying issues in a political system. It provides a critique of the simplistic view of just replacing 'obvious villains' with a new governing body, in this case, a labor government. It highlights that despite the change in leadership, the root problems persist, indicating a need for more profound systemic change.
• 18:00 - 23:00: Professionalizing the Channel The chapter titled 'Professionalizing the Channel' discusses the issue of inequality and its impact on the economy. It suggests that without addressing inequality, political parties, regardless of their orientation (left or right, labor or conservative), will fail and become unpopular quickly. The problem is presented as a significant issue not just in the UK, but also in other countries including the United States, indicating a widespread global challenge.
• 23:00 - 28:00: Commitment to Transparency In the chapter titled "Commitment to Transparency," the discourse highlights a prevailing issue among economists and upper middle-class elite university academics, who are generally resistant to addressing inequality as a significant aspect of economic challenges. Instead, these groups tend to emphasize topics like economic growth, efficiency, increased GDP, and collective efforts, often sidelining discussions on inequality.
• 28:00 - 32:00: Personal Stories and Book Promotion The chapter discusses the complex and systemic issues related to wealth inequality, emphasizing that the problem persists beyond the outcomes of political elections. It highlights the distinction between the ease of changing governments and the challenges in addressing deeper societal problems. The speaker reflects on their insights and the need for a thoughtful approach to these issues.
• 32:00 - 34:30: Closing Remarks and Thank You In this closing chapter, the speaker reflects on the political landscape, anticipating five years of Labor government. They express a cautious outlook, acknowledging that while there may be some corrupt individuals within the government, others genuinely aim to serve the country's best interests. The speaker hopes to be proven wrong in their predictions and emphasizes the importance of considering proactive measures to address upcoming political challenges.

I'm back. Here's What We're Doing in 2025 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 okay I'm back okay so I've been going about 4 months um thanks for waiting Lots has happened today we're going to talk about where I've been what I've been doing uh the things that I've missed mainly the
• 00:30 - 01:00 the two big elections and uh what we're going to do for the channel this year so we kept the videos going out on this channel until about the end of August but I actually went away uh just before the end of June which was just before the election here in the UK um and I went away just for the election on purpose to be honest because it was very obvious before the election that Labour would win um and
• 01:00 - 01:30 would win by quite a significant margin and some people who who watch this Channel and see me supporting wealth taxes and increase tax on the rich and trying to reduce inequality might have assumed that I was some big labor supporter but in reality I think it was clear and has been clear for quite a while that it's very unlikely labor are going to do anything significant on inequality or weal tax or tax on super rich and for that reason the election was a little
• 01:30 - 02:00 bit depressing for me and I was getting quite down to be honest um coming into the election because I'd been expecting the election to be in sort of November uh it came in June and I felt at the time like we're not big enough to put any pressure on the government um on the incoming government um they're not going to offer us anything they're not going to give us anything and it was just quite quite depressing to see after sort of working really hard on this channel for a long time that it's going to be another 5 years another
• 02:00 - 02:30 government that that probably not going to give us anything and I think in a sense it was easier emotionally in a way when we had these kind of Comedy villains in charge of the country you know rishy sunak son-in-law of one of the richest men in the world Boris Johnson David Cameron Liz truss George Osborne um these guys that look like bad guys in a Disney film because when you have these kind
• 02:30 - 03:00 of kind of obvious villains in charge it's very easy to point your finger at these guys and say these guys are the bad guys let's give these guys a good kicking let's kick them out and then let's change things but the truth is and it is obvious now that the problem is and always was deeper than that and it is made obvious by the fact that the labor government have come in um and if you saw my video on the election PR went away I said very clearly in that video we will get a new labor government they will get a big mandate they will get a big majority despite being unpopular and
• 03:00 - 03:30 they'll fail on inequality which means they'll fail on the economy and they will be very unpopular very quickly um and that at this point is is kind of obviously true what it makes clear is that the problem is bigger than left or right the problem is bigger than labor or conservative we have a problem in this country but it's not only in this country and I think the situation in America and in many other countries proves this is this problem goes Way Way Beyond just the UK
• 03:30 - 04:00 there is a problem of a broad consensus of economists but also of these kind of semi idiotic upper middle class Elite University academics and intellectuals and Elites that are simply very very unwilling to even talk about inequality as part of the problem um and they want to talk about things like economic growth and efficiency and increasing GDP and uh pulling our socks up and all working a
• 04:00 - 04:30 bit harder all the while wealth absolutely floods to the rich and and the super rich and and nobody seems to fix that problem so yeah it was a bit depressing going away well it was a bit depressing seeing the election come in and just knowing the problem is way bigger than one election the problem is way bigger than than just just just winning we're just kicking a party out of government it's very easy to kick a party out of government but it's much harder to fix a problem so I went away to sort of sit down and
• 04:30 - 05:00 have a think about what can we do what can we do to to fight this because the truth is we are going to have five years of Labor government now and I hope that I'm wrong on this and I want I want to make it clear before I say what I was about to say I don't think that the labor government is is full of corrupt villains um there's probably one or two in there um some of these guys want to do the best thing for their country and um despite that the fact is don't think
• 05:00 - 05:30 we're going to get anything from them so what do we do what can we do what do you do when you live in a two party political system and both parties are absolutely incapable of recognizing an enormous gaping hole in the bottom of the economy that just grows and grows day after day and that's what I went away to think about basically what can we do what can I do what can you do and also to be honest just to like get a bit
• 05:30 - 06:00 of a rest it's been a mad year like the growth of the channel has been insane um I get recognized like six seven times a day I get like tons of emails from loads of people people who want to help people who want to like work for us people who want to do stuff and um I get so many messages that it's not even possible for me to basically read all the messages and um you know people stop me in the street and they say you know we're counting on you to do something you know we believe you can do something and it's hard when people say that when you know my like honest assessment of the situ situation is it's just going to get
• 06:00 - 06:30 worse so I needed to take a bit of time away basically to figure out like well what what can we do um can we do anything just clear my head basically but now we're back we're going to be back with weekly videos and we're going to try whether we succeed or not I don't know we're going to try to to get into a situation where we can change things um and the channel is growing a lot which which genuinely gives us a little bit of political but but it's not enough um the
• 06:30 - 07:00 truth is if we want to really impact change here we need to be bigger and this is the kind of thing which I've been rolling around in my head because the truth is like even the level of kind of Fame and scrutiny and attention that I get now sometimes makes me uncomfortable um but if we want to have a political impact and we want to stop this from getting worse and worse we need to be much bigger we need to be much bigger CH needs to be much bigger um so I honestly
• 07:00 - 07:30 think there is a massive Gap in our media for just communicating economics in an ordinary simple plain speaking understandable way to Ordinary People I think that 80 90% of people in this country don't have any economic Communicator that is communicating to them on the news what's happening in a
• 07:30 - 08:00 way they understand um never mind a way that is like welcoming and accessible and I think in a world where the economy has gotten massively worse and will continue to get worse and living standards will continue to get worse for ordinary people and there is continuing Financial insecurity people want that people want somebody who can explain what's happening in a way that is clear and in a way that makes sense to them and I think that is the reason why the channel has grown so much with you know with
• 08:00 - 08:30 very few people working on it we' we've never had even a single member of full-time staff on this channel it's includ full-time paid staff it's including me with no full-time paid staff with very very little funding we've managed to build this channel up to more than half a million Subs now and it's grown something like six or seven or eight times in the last year and it's not going to grow eight times every year but if we can keep growing at anything like that speed then maybe we can get a little bit of political influence labor are already
• 08:30 - 09:00 very unpopular there's a degree to which they won't care about that at the moment because there's not going to be another election for for and a half years two three years down the line when they're still very unpopular and when it starts to become clear that you cannot improve the economy without well when it starts to become clear to them that what they're doing is not working politically they will have to have a Rebrand they will have to have a Rebrand they will have to have a new offer I have to try to get this channel to a position where
• 09:00 - 09:30 the obvious Common Sense amongst the public is you need to deal with inequality and you need to do what Gary's economics says you know and I know maybe that sounds egotistical but what else can I do here the thing is going to collapse it's going to get worse there's going to be really broad poverty labor are not going to stop it um we need to raise the voice we need to raise the voice um so I have to think about what can we do to grow the channel and um this year we
• 09:30 - 10:00 are going to get another big publicity campaign from penguin um the paperback of the book is coming out and I've just received it from in the mail by CA so I will open and show it to you the new cover at the end of the video you know we have to try to grasp that and and to grow it we're going to be doing another a public tour around the country so hopefully some of you will get a chance to meet me and ask me whatever questions you have we have to try and take that and run with it but what that means
• 10:00 - 10:30 is we have to professionalize the channel basically I don't think we we have a choice if we are going to be politically powerful we need staff and I need staff um I I just don't think there's any way that I can cope with making it significantly bigger than it is without any full-time staff basically and that means we are going to need funding and that means that we are going to open a patreon I spoke about it just throwing in away we're going to open a patreon and we're
• 10:30 - 11:00 going to see what we what we get and you know I don't know whether we'll get a lot I don't know whether we'll get a little but if we want to be politically powerful down the line we we're going to need staff and if we need staff if we need staff we're going to need funding just help support me and help us to to get a little bit more ambitious and and diverse with the creativity of what we do help us to work with different creatives help us to get different people on the channel so it's not just like me every week in my no face Hood but that's what we're going to do we're going to open a page
• 11:00 - 11:30 uh we're going to put a list of like prices in there so I think I think we're going to do5 a month to 20 a month I want to make clear right now we we're never going to pay all these videos um the patreon doesn't mean like you need to pay to watch the channel we're never going to do that um I think I'll write a newsletter and I'll do like a like a video Q&A once a month for people on the patreon but that patreon is going to be there so that we can fun stuff fun these videos and and these videos will always be be free and open to the public um but
• 11:30 - 12:00 we just have to do it like it's it's it's it's it's difficult for me to run this thing without any full-time staff and I'm very grateful for the guys who do help me we've got parttime manager we've got Jack here doing the camera but we're going to need we're going to need more if we're going to be serious um and I don't know if it'll work you know maybe we won't get enough money for staff and maybe we won't be able to expand it and then and then probably we'll never be able to have a massive political impact but either way I'll keep making the videos but it's kind of I need to see whether we have a shot to have an impact here
• 12:00 - 12:30 um I think I have responsibility to to myself and and to the country to see to see if I can um I'm not I'm not saying I'm going to change it by myself but if we get a bit of funding we can we can maybe make a proper like Professional Organization here that can just help me help me grow it help me make more cool videos and help me help me feel more supported and and have a good run so that's what we're going to do so I've been thinking about this while I was away some of you might want to know about my time in Japan I know my time in Japan was amazing it was really really hot I cycled from Tokyo to kagoshima but
• 12:30 - 13:00 I've been back a few months actually I got back uh around about the end of August I've been working on basically setting up a company because um I want the Pat I don't want the patreon money to come to me I want it to go into a company that we can release the accounts and you can see that none of the patreon money goes to me all of the patreon money will always be used to cover cost of the channel um the plan of the moment is I won't start using the patreon money immediately as it comes in we'll start to like pull it a little bit there so we can see basically how much we're getting
• 13:00 - 13:30 and then we can figure out like what can we do can we get a full-time staff member can we get a couple and basically try and figure out like how much income we having what we can do with it um but don't expect to see any massive changes like imminently it's just a question of really it's a question of just professionalizing it you know I look at sort of um what we have achieved this year with the growth a big part of the reason we've grown so much the this year is because we've had a professional publicist from penguin working to publicize the channel she's been amazing
• 13:30 - 14:00 um I won't mention her name because I don't know if she wants me to mention her but she's been great and you know the whole team at penguin have been great but the massive growth from last year is because we've had a publicist right and the publicist ultimately doesn't work for the YouTube or the political project she works for the book and you know the book is amazing um I enourage you to buy the book the paperback is coming out in Jan so the paperback will be if you were waiting for the book to be a bit cheaper that's going to come out in Jan 30th and I think that's going to be something like 11 or 12 maybe but much cheaper than the hardback that come out we'll get a big publicity campaign but at some point you
• 14:00 - 14:30 know penguin are going to stop publicizing us and we need to have somebody who works for the channel to help us publicize and we need someone who helps us to like YouTube optimize and we need someone who just helps us make banging videos week after week basically um but yes the thing I wanted to make clear is we're going to set up a company and all of the patreon money will go to the company none of it will come to me it's not going to be used to pay me I'm not going to take a salary the patron money will always be ring fenced for supporting production of content
• 14:30 - 15:00 and if we get enough ultimately trying to push a bit of a political project trying to grow it as a political project trying to put pressure on politicians in the long run but basically trying to trying to achieve something rather than just making videos but we will keep making videos and good videos and I would also if we get enough like to be able to support some other creatives to help make good stuff like um I've been making a video with a friend of mine called Stephan I think that's really good and
• 15:00 - 15:30 we're going to put that the CH on the channel he's a filmmaker but yeah make better content make more frequent content be more effective grow quicker um but also importantly to help me feel more supported because I I do find it difficult making these videos I do find the kind of level of Fame I get difficult but um look you know I put this off for a long time because um I know there's going to be like some people that kick back out this guy's trying to make money um I'm not going to take no money from the from the patreon you know we've never put adverts in these videos was because I'm not in this
• 15:30 - 16:00 to make money I'm in this to try and educate people about about what's happening um if we don't do anything this gets worse um but we can do something I think if we provide the space where the public can come and be educated in a way that is clear about what is happening people can understand the reason for their worsing living conditions is growing inequality and if people understand that
• 16:00 - 16:30 they will feel empowered to fight against it there's tons of more things I can say about that and and we will say them but this video is is getting long um but listen nobody has to subscribe to patreon like these videos will be hereit like they've always been and they'll be free like they've always been watch the videos understand the videos share them and support them um share them with your friends share them with your family um I'm not putting no pressure on nobody if we want to grow this we are going to need staff and if we're going to need
• 16:30 - 17:00 staff we're going to need funding the funding is not going to go to me it's going to go to staff but um I'm back I'll keep making weekly videos um for as long as I can um last year I took a break of six months and when I came back the views were like higher than before I went away and um I was quite emotional about that to be honest because I find it difficult making weekly videos like I'm not really like you know my background is math and economics I'm not like a creative and it stresses me out trying to do like new
• 17:00 - 17:30 videos every week and I don't like talking to camera um but the fact that people were still there after 6 months really made me feel like I was being supported to take the time out that I need and it made me feel that I can I can stick around in the long term um people who read my book will know that I've had difficulties in the past with my mental health and I don't like being attacked in the newspapers um but this is important and it's worth it so
• 17:30 - 18:00 I'll keep doing it thank you for your support happy New Year look oh yeah oh my days so I got the new paperback and you guys are going to love the cover good that Jack reminded me otherwise penguin would have Cho my balls off
• 18:00 - 18:30 so we're doing unboxing here uh we're going to keep this and put it on my first ASMR video this is the paperback uh I think it's 11 or 12 I probably should have asked anyway there you go you got that focus on that right so they put my face on the cover which as you can see um it's beautiful and I'm delighted about um I was I was a little bit um concerned about this cuz obviously this will be in the window of like every book shop in
• 18:30 - 19:00 the country uh with my face on the cover but uh at the end of the day that's going to help us grow the channel and it's going to help us grow the political project and I think it's important um and I'm really proud of this book and this this book has helped us grow massively this year um well yeah last year um yeah I would recommend it it's um it's probably the thing that I'm most proud of I think I've done in my life really but um yeah this is the book thanks the penguin um
• 19:00 - 19:30 thanks for your support and uh yeah look we're not going to grow eight times every year but if we can keep growing anything like what we've been growing then they'll have to listen to us sooner or later so um yeah thanks for your help good luck