Getting Rich on Government Money: Profiles by VICE

hi I'm down here the Washington Monument yeah that's behind me in front of me is the US Capitol and people ask me hey let's go what's the best government program making up to a million dollars and get like eight thousand dollars to become a yoga instructor or how about two thousand dollars to learn computers that you need for your job because you could be a lawyer or not a word congressman and still get eight thousand dollars to train for a new job well how would your audio [Music] I think we're all artists every one of us we just don't know what the hell our art is and I'm fortunate to find what my art is and I think that's an idea life I mean is how do you build a life then you're happy with I mean the active crazies may love it and so if I could figure out the complexity and all the information that's available in this world that could actually help people and organize that for people it is a great mountain for me they keep climbing you probably see me an Oprah Larry King or Letterman talking about government money programs sort of rock band to become rich I feel what I do is important because I know for most problems in life I could find you a source of free money and help to help you solve that problem people hate me because of my work because some people interpret what I'm doing as promoting welfare you know because I'm making more people take advantage of government programs to me it's just sharing people what reality is one day I slide 50 headlines on Google of let's go lie yeah yeah people beat me up because I'm misleading people and I think my biggest sin is hyperbole you know I mean people who really yell at me for yelling on TV like they don't have a volume control or something I'm responsible for that the government should be doing what I'm doing is just not organized enough to do it or I make it more friendly to people to do people who may because of our culture people hate government so it's the last place they'll look for help except you're very rich you go there first because you know it's it could help you but the average citizen doesn't so I may be a better spokesperson [Music] my parents I went to college or anything like that mom died at 42 when I was 12 you know and my dad was a typical guy the fifties you know he men in the 50s were not very open yeah an emotional social and and I was and he was a jock and I wasn't a jock that was a different kind of guy III don't think tested him understood my business at all I think they were actually both embarrassed of me and for 10 years probably and then back in the later 70s or mid-70s when I had a million dollar business point like 13 million bucks or something like that you know I never thought I'd do that yeah 30 people working for me downtown Washington a spring floor my clients were people like Procter & Gamble big fortune 500 companies City Court Bank and everything and they want to need money to do things want information to do things and I charge them thousands of dollars for stuff that I would get for free they would hire me to find out where we get money and what's the market for pasta and things like that so I would find a government office that would study pasta that's all they do what's the market for pasta so what the government just spent like a hundred thousand dollars doing a pasta market study on I would find that take the government's name off of it put my name on it and sell it these people for thousands and thousands of dollars yeah to me what I got upset at is all my clients were extremely rich and I realized that they would get this information with or without me I did not feel important helping rich people but then the average consumer how can I reach the average consumer the average person isn't gonna pay $100 an hour to find out how I get a thousand or something yeah so it had to be books Jimmy a New York Times best seller all these that was Mars [Music] so here's their some of the books I mean I've written all kinds of books but was interesting about the New York Times my seller is that I didn't write anything I went to a government printing office there's a book at the government printing office a time called the catalog of federal domestic assistance I literally bought that book at the time for $35 cut and pasted it and sent it to New York didn't write Allah I changed the headlines for all the programs thousand programs yeah and then it came out I went on television act like an idiot became New York Times bestseller didn't write a lickin so these are some of the books free money for retirement you know IRS secret shortcuts and savings I mean I love this book I didn't sell it I got a garage full you know somebody wants that thing free stuff for busy moms free stuff for women's health fitness here's another one that didn't do well at which I loved info phobia how to survive in the information society see I've done everything on pet lovers I mean people don't realize that your pet there's free stuff for your pet you know at at hospitals of the veterinarian hospitals all around the country yeah you get free some free care I mean expensive of pets are expensive to take care of so how do you get free care for your pet you know that kind of thing so for wheat all that to me that's easy it's sort of like you're doing a story I mean it you just dig ditches I mean that's right everywhere the question marks suits the it's the questions how do I I don't know the title see that's how I could do a book on anything I just don't know the title I stopped writing books about seven years ago because it's pretty clear to me the future of reference books you know it wasn't long for this world I'm nuts no I don't yeah I hear you want to read whether kids here's this one of my boys Dan you have taught me so much over the years you're advising and gems of wisdom are flawlessly guiding me through life even if you were to quit now I could easily get through life with the ideals you have passed on to me thank you I love you man there's just nothing better kid could say to me and here's what he said his mom you are a remarkable mom role model and woman thank you for everything you do for our family at our world oh god I know if I make it through I hope he's needing cherish that love max there's I can't think anything better to get from their family here Oh what are we wearing today people are so much nicer to me since I start wearing questionmark suits I'm initially I got thrown off the air at first when I was throwing I'm and I lost millions of dollars when I first did it and and then I'd show up for shows and guest spots and no no we can't have any because they didn't know how to process it but now I mean just people just people treat me nice Oh probably 15 or 20 I have different versions this is an old version we used to get a cheap suit and go down to the fabric store get ultra suede and find a seamstress to show it on my family was in the garment business I used to be a cutter and all that in a garment factory I wear these suits every day I mean all our jeans over here and I say yeah I'll do something crazy like striped pants striped jeans a check jacket or something funky is cheaper than fancy yeah Punky's more fun but when I was doing business-to-business I used to wear expensive you know stylish you know see to me this is me inside and it took so long to bring it out and I said well my third business I'm gonna have fun you think this is crazy we're saving each other lots of time I won't go like you either the air smiley oh you wake her up three o'clock in the morning and she's always like that yeah I'm Wendy shet so let's go and I've been married to this crazy guy for over thirty years and can't believe it well he was a very dapper French dresser he drove this really weird car it was just like this is a really strange alien creature and it remains that way he is remains an alien creature a nonconformist and very comfortable with himself and that is one of the gifts that he gives me it helps me not sort of move into the same strata of wanting to conform I'm not as bold as he is however he is quiet off-camera there's no question about it in parties and stuff he's not as lively and feisty as he is when you see him on the street one of the tensions is that I am I'm a real people person and Matthew really is self-sufficient and self-reliant and so when he'll do a an interview that will be enough of for him for the day that's almost his social universe I don't have a lot of personal friends she has friends you know that I go with I'm sorry that the spouse to friends he tends to be such a 24/7 worker and if he's not willing to sort of engage more that's when I can get a little grisly and say you know come on I want to do some more things well let's go calm is it's basically a portal to all the government programs you know that we've collected over 30 years or something like that so every every week I do an hour-long show ik so like there's a woman here she had a job she hated so she found out how to get like $30,000 to now what she does is teach people how to ferment food at home my work man I wouldn't be doing my work at all there'd be no motive for me to mind do my work if I didn't think I was helping people I mean that is I would I'm smart enough to think of something else and I think if you're not if you work if if you don't believe your work isn't helping people and you should be smart enough to do something else and you should be doing something else I mean it's stupid this car well it just you know once I get pulled over if by cops and they just giggling can't give me a ticket you know it's tough because it makes people smile [Music] I think the question was what makes us happy is that or why are we happy sexy oh sorry but a part of that is very true it's just having a more open heart if you open your heart more and that's what I saw as I get older that's the one muscle I could keep using more than anything else I can't hit a ball as far I can't run as fast all those muscles after piece more but the heart doesn't and that it shows itself in sex we have sex I'm embarrassed more than we used to I mean when there's a camera crew coming in we gotta get up I never said this to anybody yeah I was wondering who I could to talk about how I feel about her now at this age never sent her friends nobody and I asked her to ask her friends if this is abnormal or something you know and because I don't have friends that talk to like this so it's funnier put a camera on me man I'll tell you the truth [Music] 80% of the free money that's given out is not called grants you have to know that so I mean we we throw around arguments and stuff like that then it hears verifying yes you didn't ask the right question you're asking me for a good investment you you go to school you you start a bit you take a few thousand bucks and learn something how you could generate your own money instead of giving it as idiots somewhere who are gonna gamble with it you know and I think the biggest sin of all that was not that they're and screwed up the whole world is they didn't suffer they're making more money now than every four yeah Wall Street running this whole town and all the money folks running everything and we got to change that system and that's gonna take a lot more work I mean I could have work on that but to me this is more fun and it's more realistic it's my kind of thing to act crazy that I enjoy I would have to figure out how to influence those people I'm not interested I'm more interested what an average person what they think and how that's more of an interesting puzzle we have to pick our battles yeah kind of thing yeah I got enough to do before I die yet and I'll be very busy during [Music] [Music]

Channel: VICE

Views: 2,656,309

Rating: 4.8682132 out of 5

Keywords: infomercials, michael lesko, profiles by vice, vice profiles, profiles show, money from the government, lesko, question mark suit, guy in the question mark suit, what happened to that guy from the infomercials in a question mark suit, profiles, free money, scam, documentary, documentaries, interview, interviews, culture, wild, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, funny, funny videos, journalism, vice guide, vice presents, vice news, vbs.tv

Id: utiIdR-XVJg

Length: 15min 35sec (935 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 21 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/fnordfnordfnordfnord]

Here actually seems like a cool dude.

[u/TA1000]

i smiled through the entire piece

[u/pacific-oh]

This is awesome.

[u/RedditDevoursSouls]

If someone could tl;dw this video, you would be my hero.

[u/Shadow_Frog21]

I literally saw this guy once when I was walking through dc. He was wearing the exact same outfit too

I think I saw him around the same time this documentary was made.