Interview · moment 19 of 28
The Shah of Iran, Hostages, and a Cambridge Trans Am Hustle
from Louis CK | The Tim Dillon Show #317 · #317
2 min
Guest
Tim tells a story about the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and how his mother knew a man in Cambridge who bought up fleeing Iranian families' Trans Ams for cheap and resold them for a fortune, illustrating that profit motives explain persistent bad behavior.
- The Shah of Iran was a U.S. puppet dictator installed for oil money, then overthrown by the Ayatollah.
- During the 1980 hostage crisis, Iranian families were being expelled from America in a panic.
- An entrepreneurial guy in Cambridge realized Iranian families were urgently selling their kids' Trans Ams before leaving.
- He bought approximately 50 brand-new 1978 black Trans Ams with gold eagles for next to nothing, rented a used car lot for a week, and flipped them for a fortune.
- As long as there's profit to be made on human desperation, nobody's going to stop the cycle.
Shah of IranIranAyatollah KhameneiBurt Reynolds