0:00:01.391,0:00:03.670
You probably don't know me,

0:00:03.670,0:00:07.014
but I am one of those .01 percenters

0:00:07.014,0:00:08.957
that you hear about and read about,

0:00:08.957,0:00:13.022
and I am by any reasonable definition a plutocrat.

0:00:13.022,0:00:16.112
And tonight, what I would like to do is speak directly

0:00:16.112,0:00:18.418
to other plutocrats, to my people,

0:00:18.418,0:00:21.229
because it feels like it's time for us all

0:00:21.229,0:00:23.305
to have a chat.

0:00:23.305,0:00:25.883
Like most plutocrats, I too am a proud

0:00:25.883,0:00:28.226
and unapologetic capitalist.

0:00:28.226,0:00:31.763
I have founded, cofounded or funded

0:00:31.763,0:00:35.293
over 30 companies across a range of industries.

0:00:35.293,0:00:38.888
I was the first non-family investor in Amazon.com.

0:00:38.888,0:00:41.609
I cofounded a company called aQuantive

0:00:41.609,0:00:45.479
that we sold to Microsoft for 6.4 billion dollars.

0:00:45.479,0:00:48.027
My friends and I, we own a bank.

0:00:48.027,0:00:50.923
I tell you this — (Laughter) —

0:00:50.923,0:00:52.170
unbelievable, right?

0:00:52.170,0:00:55.380
I tell you this to show

0:00:55.380,0:00:58.143
that my life is like most plutocrats.

0:00:58.143,0:01:01.450
I have a broad perspective on capitalism

0:01:01.450,0:01:03.250
and business,

0:01:03.250,0:01:07.040
and I have been rewarded obscenely for that

0:01:07.040,0:01:09.197
with a life that most of you all

0:01:09.197,0:01:11.456
can't even imagine:

0:01:11.456,0:01:14.157
multiple homes, a yacht, my own plane,

0:01:14.157,0:01:18.284
etc., etc., etc.

0:01:18.284,0:01:21.546
But let's be honest: I am not the[br]smartest person you've ever met.

0:01:21.546,0:01:23.950
I am certainly not the hardest working.

0:01:23.950,0:01:25.923
I was a mediocre student.

0:01:25.923,0:01:27.141
I'm not technical at all.

0:01:27.141,0:01:29.639
I can't write a word of code.

0:01:29.639,0:01:32.772
Truly, my success is the consequence

0:01:32.772,0:01:35.220
of spectacular luck,

0:01:35.220,0:01:40.124
of birth, of circumstance and of timing.

0:01:40.124,0:01:44.619
But I am actually pretty good at a couple of things.

0:01:44.619,0:01:49.263
One, I have an unusually high tolerance for risk,

0:01:49.263,0:01:51.678
and the other is I have a good sense,

0:01:51.678,0:01:54.303
a good intuition about what will happen in the future,

0:01:54.303,0:01:57.586
and I think that that intuition about the future

0:01:57.586,0:02:01.156
is the essence of good entrepreneurship.

0:02:01.156,0:02:03.674
So what do I see in our future today,

0:02:03.674,0:02:05.676
you ask?

0:02:05.676,0:02:07.331
I see pitchforks,

0:02:07.331,0:02:12.121
as in angry mobs with pitchforks,

0:02:12.121,0:02:17.335
because while people like us plutocrats

0:02:17.335,0:02:20.866
are living beyond the dreams of avarice,

0:02:20.866,0:02:23.779
the other 99 percent of our fellow citizens

0:02:23.779,0:02:26.592
are falling farther and farther behind.

0:02:26.592,0:02:29.080
In 1980, the top one percent of Americans

0:02:29.080,0:02:31.558
shared about eight percent of national [income],

0:02:31.558,0:02:34.232
while the bottom 50 percent of Americans

0:02:34.232,0:02:36.775
shared 18 percent.

0:02:36.775,0:02:40.127
Thirty years later, today, the top one percent

0:02:40.127,0:02:43.749
shares over 20 percent of national [income],

0:02:43.749,0:02:45.650
while the bottom 50 percent of Americans

0:02:45.650,0:02:48.564
share 12 or 13.

0:02:48.564,0:02:51.010
If the trend continues,

0:02:51.010,0:02:52.490
the top one percent will share

0:02:52.490,0:02:54.796
over 30 percent of national [income]

0:02:54.796,0:02:56.588
in another 30 years,

0:02:56.588,0:02:58.868
while the bottom 50 percent of Americans

0:02:58.868,0:03:00.607
will share just six.

0:03:00.607,0:03:02.603
You see, the problem isn't that we have

0:03:02.603,0:03:04.684
some inequality.

0:03:04.684,0:03:07.136
Some inequality is necessary

0:03:07.136,0:03:10.430
for a high-functioning capitalist democracy.

0:03:10.430,0:03:12.140
The problem is that inequality

0:03:12.140,0:03:15.502
is at historic highs today

0:03:15.502,0:03:18.921
and it's getting worse every day.

0:03:18.921,0:03:21.545
And if wealth, power, and income

0:03:21.545,0:03:23.380
continue to concentrate

0:03:23.380,0:03:25.681
at the very tippy top,

0:03:25.681,0:03:27.529
our society will change

0:03:27.529,0:03:29.262
from a capitalist democracy

0:03:29.262,0:03:33.034
to a neo-feudalist rentier society

0:03:33.034,0:03:35.019
like 18th-century France.

0:03:35.019,0:03:38.213
That was France

0:03:38.213,0:03:39.960
before the revolution

0:03:39.960,0:03:41.984
and the mobs with the pitchforks.

0:03:41.984,0:03:44.538
So I have a message for my fellow plutocrats

0:03:44.538,0:03:46.360
and zillionaires

0:03:46.360,0:03:47.834
and for anyone who lives

0:03:47.834,0:03:50.070
in a gated bubble world:

0:03:50.070,0:03:51.421
Wake up.

0:03:51.421,0:03:55.141
Wake up. It cannot last.

0:03:55.141,0:03:57.160
Because if we do not do something

0:03:57.160,0:04:01.491
to fix the glaring economic inequities in our society,

0:04:01.491,0:04:04.236
the pitchforks will come for us,

0:04:04.236,0:04:08.184
for no free and open society can long sustain

0:04:08.184,0:04:11.188
this kind of rising economic inequality.

0:04:11.188,0:04:14.110
It has never happened. There are no examples.

0:04:14.110,0:04:15.969
You show me a highly unequal society,

0:04:15.969,0:04:17.448
and I will show you a police state

0:04:17.448,0:04:19.215
or an uprising.

0:04:19.215,0:04:21.358
The pitchforks will come for us

0:04:21.358,0:04:23.269
if we do not address this.

0:04:23.269,0:04:27.117
It's not a matter of if, it's when.

0:04:27.117,0:04:30.750
And it will be terrible when they come

0:04:30.750,0:04:32.201
for everyone,

0:04:32.201,0:04:37.185
but particularly for people like us plutocrats.

0:04:37.185,0:04:40.605
I know I must sound like some liberal do-gooder.

0:04:40.605,0:04:42.855
I'm not. I'm not making a moral argument

0:04:42.855,0:04:46.117
that economic inequality is wrong.

0:04:46.117,0:04:50.403
What I am arguing is that rising economic inequality

0:04:50.403,0:04:53.924
is stupid and ultimately self-defeating.

0:04:53.924,0:04:57.152
Rising inequality doesn't just increase our risks

0:04:57.152,0:04:59.020
from pitchforks,

0:04:59.020,0:05:03.587
but it's also terrible for business too.

0:05:03.587,0:05:07.457
So the model for us rich guys should be Henry Ford.

0:05:07.457,0:05:11.270
When Ford famously introduced the $5 day,

0:05:11.270,0:05:14.217
which was twice the prevailing wage at the time,

0:05:14.217,0:05:16.287
he didn't just increase the productivity

0:05:16.287,0:05:18.256
of his factories,

0:05:18.256,0:05:21.653
he converted exploited autoworkers who were poor

0:05:21.653,0:05:24.353
into a thriving middle class who could now afford

0:05:24.353,0:05:27.570
to buy the products that they made.

0:05:27.570,0:05:31.860
Ford intuited what we now know is true,

0:05:31.860,0:05:35.861
that an economy is best understood as an ecosystem

0:05:35.861,0:05:37.780
and characterized by the same kinds

0:05:37.780,0:05:40.340
of feedback loops you find

0:05:40.340,0:05:42.080
in a natural ecosystem,

0:05:42.080,0:05:46.018
a feedback loop between customers and businesses.

0:05:46.018,0:05:49.124
Raising wages increases demand,

0:05:49.124,0:05:51.205
which increases hiring,

0:05:51.205,0:05:53.286
which in turn increases wages

0:05:53.286,0:05:55.916
and demand and profits,

0:05:55.916,0:06:00.760
and that virtuous cycle of increasing prosperity

0:06:00.760,0:06:02.909
is precisely what is missing

0:06:02.909,0:06:07.904
from today's economic recovery.

0:06:07.904,0:06:12.522
And this is why we need to put behind us

0:06:12.522,0:06:16.230
the trickle-down policies that so dominate

0:06:16.230,0:06:18.027
both political parties

0:06:18.027,0:06:21.432
and embrace something I call middle-out economics.

0:06:21.432,0:06:23.967
Middle-out economics rejects

0:06:23.967,0:06:26.284
the neoclassical economic idea

0:06:26.284,0:06:30.481
that economies are efficient, linear, mechanistic,

0:06:30.481,0:06:33.608
that they tend towards equilibrium and fairness,

0:06:33.608,0:06:37.046
and instead embraces the 21st-century idea

0:06:37.046,0:06:40.820
that economies are complex, adaptive,

0:06:40.820,0:06:42.822
ecosystemic,

0:06:42.822,0:06:46.170
that they tend away from[br]equilibrium and toward inequality,

0:06:46.170,0:06:47.920
that they're not efficient at all

0:06:47.920,0:06:51.205
but are effective if well managed.

0:06:51.205,0:06:54.476
This 21st-century perspective

0:06:54.476,0:06:57.140
allows you to clearly see that capitalism

0:06:57.140,0:07:00.427
does not work by [efficiently] allocating

0:07:00.427,0:07:02.867
existing resources.

0:07:02.867,0:07:08.865
It works by [efficiently] creating new solutions

0:07:08.865,0:07:10.120
to human problems.

0:07:10.120,0:07:12.329
The genius of capitalism

0:07:12.329,0:07:17.211
is that it is an evolutionary solution-finding system.

0:07:17.211,0:07:23.162
It rewards people for solving[br]other people's problems.

0:07:23.162,0:07:26.109
The difference between a poor society

0:07:26.109,0:07:28.426
and a rich society, obviously,

0:07:28.426,0:07:31.364
is the degree to which that society

0:07:31.364,0:07:33.297
has generated solutions in the form

0:07:33.297,0:07:36.156
of products for its citizens.

0:07:36.156,0:07:37.977
The sum of the solutions

0:07:37.977,0:07:39.968
that we have in our society

0:07:39.968,0:07:42.342
really is our prosperity, and this explains

0:07:42.342,0:07:44.625
why companies like Google and Amazon

0:07:44.625,0:07:46.988
and Microsoft and Apple

0:07:46.988,0:07:49.890
and the entrepreneurs who created those companies

0:07:49.890,0:07:53.450
have contributed so much

0:07:53.450,0:07:56.156
to our nation's prosperity.

0:07:56.156,0:07:58.956
This 21st-century perspective

0:07:58.956,0:08:01.545
also makes clear

0:08:01.545,0:08:03.990
that what we think of as economic growth

0:08:03.990,0:08:05.937
is best understood as

0:08:05.937,0:08:08.431
the rate at which we solve problems.

0:08:08.431,0:08:11.849
But that rate is totally dependent upon

0:08:11.849,0:08:15.426
how many problem solvers —

0:08:15.426,0:08:17.912
diverse, able problem solvers — we have,

0:08:17.912,0:08:20.645
and thus how many of our fellow citizens

0:08:20.645,0:08:22.870
actively participate,

0:08:22.870,0:08:26.520
both as entrepreneurs who can offer solutions,

0:08:26.520,0:08:30.162
and as customers who consume them.

0:08:30.162,0:08:34.280
But this maximizing participation thing

0:08:34.280,0:08:35.899
doesn't happen by accident.

0:08:35.899,0:08:37.868
It doesn't happen by itself.

0:08:37.868,0:08:41.597
It requires effort and investment,

0:08:41.597,0:08:44.027
which is why all

0:08:44.027,0:08:47.258
highly prosperous capitalist democracies

0:08:47.258,0:08:49.807
are characterized by massive investments

0:08:49.807,0:08:52.372
in the middle class and the infrastructure

0:08:52.372,0:08:55.240
that they depend on.

0:08:55.240,0:08:57.239
We plutocrats need to get this

0:08:57.239,0:09:00.378
trickle-down economics thing behind us,

0:09:00.378,0:09:02.284
this idea that the better we do,

0:09:02.284,0:09:04.951
the better everyone else will do.

0:09:04.951,0:09:08.871
It's not true. How could it be?

0:09:08.871,0:09:12.999
I earn 1,000 times the median wage,

0:09:12.999,0:09:15.924
but I do not buy 1,000 times as much stuff,

0:09:15.924,0:09:16.988
do I?

0:09:16.988,0:09:20.176
I actually bought two pairs of these pants,

0:09:20.176,0:09:22.110
what my partner Mike calls

0:09:22.110,0:09:23.625
my manager pants.

0:09:23.625,0:09:26.561
I could have bought 2,000 pairs,

0:09:26.561,0:09:29.627
but what would I do with them? (Laughter)

0:09:29.627,0:09:32.656
How many haircuts can I get?

0:09:32.656,0:09:36.361
How often can I go out to dinner?

0:09:36.361,0:09:40.434
No matter how wealthy a few plutocrats get,

0:09:40.434,0:09:43.978
we can never drive a great national economy.

0:09:43.978,0:09:49.671
Only a thriving middle class can do that.

0:09:49.671,0:09:51.368
There's nothing to be done,

0:09:51.368,0:09:55.509
my plutocrat friends might say.

0:09:55.509,0:09:58.713
Henry Ford was in a different time.

0:09:58.713,0:10:00.987
Maybe we can't do some things.

0:10:00.987,0:10:03.923
Maybe we can do some things.

0:10:03.923,0:10:07.784
June 19, 2013,

0:10:07.784,0:10:11.217
Bloomberg published an article I wrote called

0:10:11.217,0:10:16.150
"The Capitalist’s Case for a $15 Minimum Wage."

0:10:16.150,0:10:19.072
The good people at Forbes magazine,

0:10:19.072,0:10:21.270
among my biggest admirers,

0:10:21.270,0:10:25.990
called it "Nick Hanauer's near-insane proposal."

0:10:25.990,0:10:29.219
And yet, just 350 days

0:10:29.219,0:10:31.795
after that article was published,

0:10:31.795,0:10:34.744
Seattle's Mayor Ed Murray signed into law

0:10:34.744,0:10:38.510
an ordinance raising the minimum wage in Seattle

0:10:38.510,0:10:40.198
to 15 dollars an hour,

0:10:40.198,0:10:41.638
more than double

0:10:41.638,0:10:46.330
what the prevailing federal $7.25 rate is.

0:10:46.330,0:10:48.110
How did this happen,

0:10:48.110,0:10:50.195
reasonable people might ask.

0:10:50.195,0:10:51.863
It happened because a group of us

0:10:51.863,0:10:53.227
reminded the middle class

0:10:53.227,0:10:54.878
that they are the source

0:10:54.878,0:10:58.544
of growth and prosperity in capitalist economies.

0:10:58.544,0:11:02.110
We reminded them that when[br]workers have more money,

0:11:02.110,0:11:03.822
businesses have more customers,

0:11:03.822,0:11:05.804
and need more employees.

0:11:05.804,0:11:08.490
We reminded them that when businesses

0:11:08.490,0:11:11.210
pay workers a living wage,

0:11:11.210,0:11:13.102
taxpayers are relieved of the burden

0:11:13.102,0:11:14.812
of funding the poverty programs

0:11:14.812,0:11:17.714
like food stamps and medical assistance

0:11:17.714,0:11:19.424
and rent assistance

0:11:19.424,0:11:21.820
that those workers need.

0:11:21.820,0:11:24.784
We reminded them that low-wage workers

0:11:24.784,0:11:27.110
make terrible taxpayers,

0:11:27.110,0:11:29.128
and that when you raise the minimum wage

0:11:29.128,0:11:31.253
for all businesses,

0:11:31.253,0:11:32.920
all businesses benefit

0:11:32.920,0:11:35.651
yet all can compete.

0:11:35.651,0:11:37.372
Now the orthodox reaction, of course,

0:11:37.372,0:11:41.175
is raising the minimum wage costs jobs. Right?

0:11:41.175,0:11:43.763
Your politician's always echoing

0:11:43.763,0:11:46.855
that trickle-down idea by saying things like,

0:11:46.855,0:11:48.948
"Well, if you raise the price of employment,

0:11:48.948,0:11:51.740
guess what happens? You get less of it."

0:11:51.740,0:11:54.170
Are you sure?

0:11:54.170,0:11:57.823
Because there's some contravening evidence.

0:11:57.823,0:12:02.582
Since 1980, the wages of CEOs in our country

0:12:02.582,0:12:04.850
have gone from about 30 times the median wage

0:12:04.850,0:12:07.122
to 500 times.

0:12:07.122,0:12:10.290
That's raising the price of employment.

0:12:10.290,0:12:13.262
And yet, to my knowledge,

0:12:13.262,0:12:15.434
I have never seen a company

0:12:15.434,0:12:19.180
outsource its CEO's job, automate their job,

0:12:19.180,0:12:21.267
export the job to China.

0:12:21.267,0:12:23.293
In fact, we appear to be employing

0:12:23.293,0:12:26.515
more CEOs and senior managers than ever before.

0:12:26.515,0:12:30.705
So too for technology workers

0:12:30.705,0:12:32.531
and financial services workers,

0:12:32.531,0:12:35.149
who earn multiples of the median wage

0:12:35.149,0:12:37.154
and yet we employ more and more of them,

0:12:37.154,0:12:42.050
so clearly you can raise the price of employment

0:12:42.050,0:12:44.091
and get more of it.

0:12:44.091,0:12:46.675
I know that most people

0:12:46.675,0:12:48.397
think that the $15 minimum wage

0:12:48.397,0:12:52.312
is this insane, risky economic experiment.

0:12:52.312,0:12:54.210
We disagree.

0:12:54.210,0:12:56.684
We believe that the $15 minimum wage

0:12:56.684,0:12:57.950
in Seattle

0:12:57.950,0:12:59.803
is actually the continuation

0:12:59.803,0:13:02.511
of a logical economic policy.

0:13:02.511,0:13:04.471
It is allowing our city

0:13:04.471,0:13:07.206
to kick your city's ass.

0:13:07.206,0:13:08.965
Because, you see,

0:13:08.965,0:13:10.677
Washington state already has

0:13:10.677,0:13:12.170
the highest minimum wage

0:13:12.170,0:13:13.869
of any state in the nation.

0:13:13.869,0:13:16.130
We pay all workers $9.32,

0:13:16.130,0:13:17.973
which is almost 30 percent more

0:13:17.973,0:13:20.531
than the federal minimum of 7.25,

0:13:20.531,0:13:24.484
but crucially, 427 percent more

0:13:24.484,0:13:28.070
than the federal tipped minimum of 2.13.

0:13:28.070,0:13:30.686
If trickle-down thinkers were right,

0:13:30.686,0:13:33.798
then Washington state should[br]have massive unemployment.

0:13:33.798,0:13:36.478
Seattle should be sliding into the ocean.

0:13:36.478,0:13:39.501
And yet, Seattle

0:13:39.501,0:13:43.399
is the fastest-growing big city in the country.

0:13:43.399,0:13:47.516
Washington state is generating small business jobs

0:13:47.516,0:13:50.137
at a higher rate than any other major state

0:13:50.137,0:13:51.993
in the nation.

0:13:51.993,0:13:55.897
The restaurant business in Seattle? Booming.

0:13:55.897,0:14:00.285
Why? Because the fundamental law of capitalism is,

0:14:00.285,0:14:01.900
when workers have more money,

0:14:01.900,0:14:03.426
businesses have more customers

0:14:03.426,0:14:05.683
and need more workers.

0:14:05.683,0:14:08.834
When restaurants pay restaurant workers enough

0:14:08.834,0:14:12.456
so that even they can afford to eat in restaurants,

0:14:12.456,0:14:15.121
that's not bad for the restaurant business.

0:14:15.121,0:14:16.820
That's good for it,

0:14:16.820,0:14:21.399
despite what some restaurateurs may tell you.

0:14:21.399,0:14:23.457
Is it more complicated than I'm making out?

0:14:23.457,0:14:24.454
Of course it is.

0:14:24.454,0:14:26.322
There are a lot of dynamics at play.

0:14:26.322,0:14:28.564
But can we please stop insisting

0:14:28.564,0:14:31.365
that if low-wage workers earn a little bit more,

0:14:31.365,0:14:32.873
unemployment will skyrocket

0:14:32.873,0:14:34.201
and the economy will collapse?

0:14:34.201,0:14:36.810
There is no evidence for it.

0:14:36.810,0:14:38.041
The most insidious thing

0:14:38.041,0:14:39.888
about trickle-down economics

0:14:39.888,0:14:42.190
is not the claim that if the rich get richer,

0:14:42.190,0:14:43.727
everyone is better off.

0:14:43.727,0:14:46.788
It is the claim made by those who oppose

0:14:46.788,0:14:48.690
any increase in the minimum wage

0:14:48.690,0:14:50.545
that if the poor get richer,

0:14:50.545,0:14:52.762
that will be bad for the economy.

0:14:52.762,0:14:54.742
This is nonsense.

0:14:54.742,0:14:58.607
So can we please dispense with this rhetoric

0:14:58.607,0:15:00.950
that says that rich guys like me

0:15:00.950,0:15:03.804
and my plutocrat friends

0:15:03.804,0:15:06.377
made our country?

0:15:06.377,0:15:08.452
We plutocrats know,

0:15:08.452,0:15:10.076
even if we don't like to admit it in public,

0:15:10.076,0:15:12.745
that if we had been born somewhere else,

0:15:12.745,0:15:14.642
not here in the United States,

0:15:14.642,0:15:17.502
we might very well be just some dude standing barefoot

0:15:17.502,0:15:20.652
by the side of a dirt road selling fruit.

0:15:20.652,0:15:23.183
It's not that they don't have good[br]entrepreneurs in other places,

0:15:23.183,0:15:25.208
even very, very poor places.

0:15:25.208,0:15:26.760
It's just that that's all

0:15:26.760,0:15:31.296
that those entrepreneurs' customers can afford.

0:15:31.296,0:15:35.895
So here's an idea for a new kind of economics,

0:15:35.895,0:15:37.442
a new kind of politics

0:15:37.442,0:15:40.329
that I call new capitalism.

0:15:40.329,0:15:42.801
Let's acknowledge that capitalism

0:15:42.801,0:15:44.598
beats the alternatives,

0:15:44.598,0:15:48.595
but also that the more people we include,

0:15:48.595,0:15:52.119
both as entrepreneurs and as customers,

0:15:52.119,0:15:54.279
the better it works.

0:15:54.279,0:15:58.065
Let's by all means shrink the size of government,

0:15:58.065,0:16:00.784
but not by slashing the poverty programs,

0:16:00.784,0:16:02.801
but by ensuring that workers are paid enough

0:16:02.801,0:16:06.123
so that they actually don't need those programs.

0:16:06.123,0:16:09.040
Let's invest enough in the middle class

0:16:09.040,0:16:12.233
to make our economy fairer and more inclusive,

0:16:12.233,0:16:16.167
and by fairer, more truly competitive,

0:16:16.167,0:16:17.929
and by more truly competitive,

0:16:17.929,0:16:20.745
more able to generate the solutions

0:16:20.745,0:16:22.217
to human problems

0:16:22.217,0:16:27.847
that are the true drivers of growth and prosperity.

0:16:27.847,0:16:31.120
Capitalism is the greatest social technology

0:16:31.120,0:16:32.589
ever invented

0:16:32.589,0:16:35.451
for creating prosperity in human societies,

0:16:35.451,0:16:37.185
if it is well managed,

0:16:37.185,0:16:40.356
but capitalism, because of the fundamental

0:16:40.356,0:16:43.121
multiplicative dynamics of complex systems,

0:16:43.121,0:16:46.649
tends towards, inexorably, inequality,

0:16:46.649,0:16:51.070
concentration and collapse.

0:16:51.070,0:16:53.518
The work of democracies

0:16:53.518,0:16:58.021
is to maximize the inclusion of the many

0:16:58.021,0:17:00.998
in order to create prosperity,

0:17:00.998,0:17:04.920
not to enable the few to accumulate money.

0:17:04.920,0:17:08.020
Government does create prosperity and growth,

0:17:08.020,0:17:11.246
by creating the conditions that allow

0:17:11.246,0:17:14.137
both entrepreneurs and their customers

0:17:14.137,0:17:15.982
to thrive.

0:17:15.982,0:17:19.166
Balancing the power of capitalists like me

0:17:19.166,0:17:22.338
and workers isn't bad for capitalism.

0:17:22.338,0:17:24.138
It's essential to it.

0:17:24.138,0:17:26.804
Programs like a reasonable minimum wage,

0:17:26.804,0:17:28.818
affordable healthcare,

0:17:28.818,0:17:30.121
paid sick leave,

0:17:30.121,0:17:33.540
and the progressive taxation necessary

0:17:33.540,0:17:35.736
to pay for the important infrastructure

0:17:35.736,0:17:39.787
necessary for the middle class like education, R and D,

0:17:39.787,0:17:42.353
these are indispensable tools

0:17:42.353,0:17:44.462
shrewd capitalists should embrace

0:17:44.462,0:17:48.448
to drive growth, because no one benefits from it

0:17:48.448,0:17:50.094
like us.

0:17:50.094,0:17:52.342
Many economists would have you believe

0:17:52.342,0:17:55.422
that their field is an objective science.

0:17:55.422,0:17:58.269
I disagree, and I think that it is equally

0:17:58.269,0:18:00.338
a tool that humans use

0:18:00.338,0:18:02.227
to enforce and encode

0:18:02.227,0:18:05.803
our social and moral preferences and prejudices

0:18:05.803,0:18:09.705
about status and power,

0:18:09.705,0:18:11.982
which is why plutocrats like me

0:18:11.982,0:18:15.988
have always needed to find persuasive stories

0:18:15.988,0:18:17.662
to tell everyone else

0:18:17.662,0:18:21.776
about why our relative positions

0:18:21.776,0:18:25.908
are morally righteous and good for everyone:

0:18:25.908,0:18:30.183
like, we are indispensable, the job creators,

0:18:30.183,0:18:32.545
and you are not;

0:18:32.545,0:18:35.931
like, tax cuts for us create growth,

0:18:35.931,0:18:37.945
but investments in you

0:18:37.945,0:18:39.621
will balloon our debt

0:18:39.621,0:18:42.129
and bankrupt our great country;

0:18:42.129,0:18:43.997
that we matter;

0:18:43.997,0:18:46.348
that you don't.

0:18:46.348,0:18:48.991
For thousands of years, these stories were called

0:18:48.991,0:18:50.439
divine right.

0:18:50.439,0:18:54.693
Today, we have trickle-down economics.

0:18:54.693,0:18:58.576
How obviously, transparently self-serving

0:18:58.576,0:19:00.170
all of this is.

0:19:00.170,0:19:02.952
We plutocrats need to see

0:19:02.952,0:19:05.305
that the United States of America made us,

0:19:05.305,0:19:06.989
not the other way around;

0:19:06.989,0:19:09.827
that a thriving middle class is the source

0:19:09.827,0:19:12.123
of prosperity in capitalist economies,

0:19:12.123,0:19:14.762
not a consequence of it.

0:19:14.762,0:19:17.453
And we should never forget

0:19:17.453,0:19:21.148
that even the best of us in[br]the worst of circumstances

0:19:21.148,0:19:26.882
are barefoot by the side of a dirt road selling fruit.

0:19:26.882,0:19:29.496
Fellow plutocrats, I think it may be time for us

0:19:29.496,0:19:31.699
to recommit to our country,

0:19:31.699,0:19:34.261
to commit to a new kind of capitalism

0:19:34.261,0:19:38.615
which is both more inclusive and more effective,

0:19:38.615,0:19:40.673
a capitalism that will ensure

0:19:40.673,0:19:43.834
that America's economy remains

0:19:43.834,0:19:47.220
the most dynamic and prosperous in the world.

0:19:47.220,0:19:49.380
Let's secure the future for ourselves,

0:19:49.380,0:19:52.114
our children and their children.

0:19:52.114,0:19:55.162
Or alternatively, we could do nothing,

0:19:55.162,0:19:57.243
hide in our gated communities

0:19:57.243,0:20:00.100
and private schools,

0:20:00.100,0:20:02.136
enjoy our planes and yachts

0:20:02.136,0:20:04.476
— they're fun —

0:20:04.476,0:20:06.287
and wait for the pitchforks.

0:20:06.287,0:20:07.810
Thank you.

0:20:07.810,0:20:09.457
(Applause)