Ep.148 - They’re Sucking You In

In Episode 148 of Between 2 Bridges, Jerry and Joe follow the money, the data, and all the little ways modern life seems designed to keep pulling you back in. They get into the growing reach of license-plate cameras and where useful technology crosses the line into surveillance, how driving data can find its way into the hands of insurance companies, and why our personal information has become one of the most valuable commodities around. From there, the conversation turns to an economy that feels very different on Main Street than it sometimes looks on paper, rising property taxes and reassessments, and the strange reality of paying sales tax on the same car every time it changes hands. Then comes gambling: not just a night at the casino anymore, but an entire casino living in your pocket, complete with the tax consequences nobody thinks about while they’re tapping the screen. And with football finally back, the guys close things out looking at the Steelers’ four-quarterback experiment, Joey Porter Jr.’s future in Pittsburgh, the changing economics of college football, and the annual question that feels perfectly reasonable before Week 1: why not the Steelers?