1
00:00:01,391 --> 00:00:03,670
You probably don't know me,

2
00:00:03,670 --> 00:00:07,014
but I am one of those .01 percenters

3
00:00:07,014 --> 00:00:08,957
that you hear about and read about,

4
00:00:08,957 --> 00:00:13,022
and I am by any reasonable definition a plutocrat.

5
00:00:13,022 --> 00:00:16,112
And tonight, what I would like to do is speak directly

6
00:00:16,112 --> 00:00:18,418
to other plutocrats, to my people,

7
00:00:18,418 --> 00:00:21,229
because it feels like it's time for us all

8
00:00:21,229 --> 00:00:23,305
to have a chat.

9
00:00:23,305 --> 00:00:25,883
Like most plutocrats, I too am a proud

10
00:00:25,883 --> 00:00:28,226
and unapologetic capitalist.

11
00:00:28,226 --> 00:00:31,763
I have founded, cofounded or funded

12
00:00:31,763 --> 00:00:35,293
over 30 companies across a range of industries.

13
00:00:35,293 --> 00:00:38,888
I was the first non-family investor in Amazon.com.

14
00:00:38,888 --> 00:00:41,609
I cofounded a company called aQuantive

15
00:00:41,609 --> 00:00:45,479
that we sold to Microsoft for 6.4 billion dollars.

16
00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:48,027
My friends and I, we own a bank.

17
00:00:48,027 --> 00:00:50,923
I tell you this — (Laughter) —

18
00:00:50,923 --> 00:00:52,170
unbelievable, right?

19
00:00:52,170 --> 00:00:55,380
I tell you this to show

20
00:00:55,380 --> 00:00:58,143
that my life is like most plutocrats.

21
00:00:58,143 --> 00:01:01,450
I have a broad perspective on capitalism

22
00:01:01,450 --> 00:01:03,250
and business,

23
00:01:03,250 --> 00:01:07,040
and I have been rewarded obscenely for that

24
00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:09,197
with a life that most of you all

25
00:01:09,197 --> 00:01:11,456
can't even imagine:

26
00:01:11,456 --> 00:01:14,157
multiple homes, a yacht, my own plane,

27
00:01:14,157 --> 00:01:18,284
etc., etc., etc.

28
00:01:18,284 --> 00:01:21,546
But let's be honest: I am not the
smartest person you've ever met.

29
00:01:21,546 --> 00:01:23,950
I am certainly not the hardest working.

30
00:01:23,950 --> 00:01:25,923
I was a mediocre student.

31
00:01:25,923 --> 00:01:27,141
I'm not technical at all.

32
00:01:27,141 --> 00:01:29,639
I can't write a word of code.

33
00:01:29,639 --> 00:01:32,772
Truly, my success is the consequence

34
00:01:32,772 --> 00:01:35,220
of spectacular luck,

35
00:01:35,220 --> 00:01:40,124
of birth, of circumstance and of timing.

36
00:01:40,124 --> 00:01:44,619
But I am actually pretty good at a couple of things.

37
00:01:44,619 --> 00:01:49,263
One, I have an unusually high tolerance for risk,

38
00:01:49,263 --> 00:01:51,678
and the other is I have a good sense,

39
00:01:51,678 --> 00:01:54,303
a good intuition about what will happen in the future,

40
00:01:54,303 --> 00:01:57,586
and I think that that intuition about the future

41
00:01:57,586 --> 00:02:01,156
is the essence of good entrepreneurship.

42
00:02:01,156 --> 00:02:03,674
So what do I see in our future today,

43
00:02:03,674 --> 00:02:05,676
you ask?

44
00:02:05,676 --> 00:02:07,331
I see pitchforks,

45
00:02:07,331 --> 00:02:12,121
as in angry mobs with pitchforks,

46
00:02:12,121 --> 00:02:17,335
because while people like us plutocrats

47
00:02:17,335 --> 00:02:20,866
are living beyond the dreams of avarice,

48
00:02:20,866 --> 00:02:23,779
the other 99 percent of our fellow citizens

49
00:02:23,779 --> 00:02:26,592
are falling farther and farther behind.

50
00:02:26,592 --> 00:02:29,080
In 1980, the top one percent of Americans

51
00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:31,558
shared about eight percent of national [income],

52
00:02:31,558 --> 00:02:34,232
while the bottom 50 percent of Americans

53
00:02:34,232 --> 00:02:36,775
shared 18 percent.

54
00:02:36,775 --> 00:02:40,127
Thirty years later, today, the top one percent

55
00:02:40,127 --> 00:02:43,749
shares over 20 percent of national [income],

56
00:02:43,749 --> 00:02:45,650
while the bottom 50 percent of Americans

57
00:02:45,650 --> 00:02:48,564
share 12 or 13.

58
00:02:48,564 --> 00:02:51,010
If the trend continues,

59
00:02:51,010 --> 00:02:52,490
the top one percent will share

60
00:02:52,490 --> 00:02:54,796
over 30 percent of national [income]

61
00:02:54,796 --> 00:02:56,588
in another 30 years,

62
00:02:56,588 --> 00:02:58,868
while the bottom 50 percent of Americans

63
00:02:58,868 --> 00:03:00,607
will share just six.

64
00:03:00,607 --> 00:03:02,603
You see, the problem isn't that we have

65
00:03:02,603 --> 00:03:04,684
some inequality.

66
00:03:04,684 --> 00:03:07,136
Some inequality is necessary

67
00:03:07,136 --> 00:03:10,430
for a high-functioning capitalist democracy.

68
00:03:10,430 --> 00:03:12,140
The problem is that inequality

69
00:03:12,140 --> 00:03:15,502
is at historic highs today

70
00:03:15,502 --> 00:03:18,921
and it's getting worse every day.

71
00:03:18,921 --> 00:03:21,545
And if wealth, power, and income

72
00:03:21,545 --> 00:03:23,380
continue to concentrate

73
00:03:23,380 --> 00:03:25,681
at the very tippy top,

74
00:03:25,681 --> 00:03:27,529
our society will change

75
00:03:27,529 --> 00:03:29,262
from a capitalist democracy

76
00:03:29,262 --> 00:03:33,034
to a neo-feudalist rentier society

77
00:03:33,034 --> 00:03:35,019
like 18th-century France.

78
00:03:35,019 --> 00:03:38,213
That was France

79
00:03:38,213 --> 00:03:39,960
before the revolution

80
00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:41,984
and the mobs with the pitchforks.

81
00:03:41,984 --> 00:03:44,538
So I have a message for my fellow plutocrats

82
00:03:44,538 --> 00:03:46,360
and zillionaires

83
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:47,834
and for anyone who lives

84
00:03:47,834 --> 00:03:50,070
in a gated bubble world:

85
00:03:50,070 --> 00:03:51,421
Wake up.

86
00:03:51,421 --> 00:03:55,141
Wake up. It cannot last.

87
00:03:55,141 --> 00:03:57,160
Because if we do not do something

88
00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:01,491
to fix the glaring economic inequities in our society,

89
00:04:01,491 --> 00:04:04,236
the pitchforks will come for us,

90
00:04:04,236 --> 00:04:08,184
for no free and open society can long sustain

91
00:04:08,184 --> 00:04:11,188
this kind of rising economic inequality.

92
00:04:11,188 --> 00:04:14,110
It has never happened. There are no examples.

93
00:04:14,110 --> 00:04:15,969
You show me a highly unequal society,

94
00:04:15,969 --> 00:04:17,448
and I will show you a police state

95
00:04:17,448 --> 00:04:19,215
or an uprising.

96
00:04:19,215 --> 00:04:21,358
The pitchforks will come for us

97
00:04:21,358 --> 00:04:23,269
if we do not address this.

98
00:04:23,269 --> 00:04:27,117
It's not a matter of if, it's when.

99
00:04:27,117 --> 00:04:30,750
And it will be terrible when they come

100
00:04:30,750 --> 00:04:32,201
for everyone,

101
00:04:32,201 --> 00:04:37,185
but particularly for people like us plutocrats.

102
00:04:37,185 --> 00:04:40,605
I know I must sound like some liberal do-gooder.

103
00:04:40,605 --> 00:04:42,855
I'm not. I'm not making a moral argument

104
00:04:42,855 --> 00:04:46,117
that economic inequality is wrong.

105
00:04:46,117 --> 00:04:50,403
What I am arguing is that rising economic inequality

106
00:04:50,403 --> 00:04:53,924
is stupid and ultimately self-defeating.

107
00:04:53,924 --> 00:04:57,152
Rising inequality doesn't just increase our risks

108
00:04:57,152 --> 00:04:59,020
from pitchforks,

109
00:04:59,020 --> 00:05:03,587
but it's also terrible for business too.

110
00:05:03,587 --> 00:05:07,457
So the model for us rich guys should be Henry Ford.

111
00:05:07,457 --> 00:05:11,270
When Ford famously introduced the $5 day,

112
00:05:11,270 --> 00:05:14,217
which was twice the prevailing wage at the time,

113
00:05:14,217 --> 00:05:16,287
he didn't just increase the productivity

114
00:05:16,287 --> 00:05:18,256
of his factories,

115
00:05:18,256 --> 00:05:21,653
he converted exploited autoworkers who were poor

116
00:05:21,653 --> 00:05:24,353
into a thriving middle class who could now afford

117
00:05:24,353 --> 00:05:27,570
to buy the products that they made.

118
00:05:27,570 --> 00:05:31,860
Ford intuited what we now know is true,

119
00:05:31,860 --> 00:05:35,861
that an economy is best understood as an ecosystem

120
00:05:35,861 --> 00:05:37,780
and characterized by the same kinds

121
00:05:37,780 --> 00:05:40,340
of feedback loops you find

122
00:05:40,340 --> 00:05:42,080
in a natural ecosystem,

123
00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:46,018
a feedback loop between customers and businesses.

124
00:05:46,018 --> 00:05:49,124
Raising wages increases demand,

125
00:05:49,124 --> 00:05:51,205
which increases hiring,

126
00:05:51,205 --> 00:05:53,286
which in turn increases wages

127
00:05:53,286 --> 00:05:55,916
and demand and profits,

128
00:05:55,916 --> 00:06:00,760
and that virtuous cycle of increasing prosperity

129
00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:02,909
is precisely what is missing

130
00:06:02,909 --> 00:06:07,904
from today's economic recovery.

131
00:06:07,904 --> 00:06:12,522
And this is why we need to put behind us

132
00:06:12,522 --> 00:06:16,230
the trickle-down policies that so dominate

133
00:06:16,230 --> 00:06:18,027
both political parties

134
00:06:18,027 --> 00:06:21,432
and embrace something I call middle-out economics.

135
00:06:21,432 --> 00:06:23,967
Middle-out economics rejects

136
00:06:23,967 --> 00:06:26,284
the neoclassical economic idea

137
00:06:26,284 --> 00:06:30,481
that economies are efficient, linear, mechanistic,

138
00:06:30,481 --> 00:06:33,608
that they tend towards equilibrium and fairness,

139
00:06:33,608 --> 00:06:37,046
and instead embraces the 21st-century idea

140
00:06:37,046 --> 00:06:40,820
that economies are complex, adaptive,

141
00:06:40,820 --> 00:06:42,822
ecosystemic,

142
00:06:42,822 --> 00:06:46,170
that they tend away from
equilibrium and toward inequality,

143
00:06:46,170 --> 00:06:47,920
that they're not efficient at all

144
00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,205
but are effective if well managed.

145
00:06:51,205 --> 00:06:54,476
This 21st-century perspective

146
00:06:54,476 --> 00:06:57,140
allows you to clearly see that capitalism

147
00:06:57,140 --> 00:07:00,427
does not work by [efficiently] allocating

148
00:07:00,427 --> 00:07:02,867
existing resources.

149
00:07:02,867 --> 00:07:08,865
It works by [efficiently] creating new solutions

150
00:07:08,865 --> 00:07:10,120
to human problems.

151
00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:12,329
The genius of capitalism

152
00:07:12,329 --> 00:07:17,211
is that it is an evolutionary solution-finding system.

153
00:07:17,211 --> 00:07:23,162
It rewards people for solving
other people's problems.

154
00:07:23,162 --> 00:07:26,109
The difference between a poor society

155
00:07:26,109 --> 00:07:28,426
and a rich society, obviously,

156
00:07:28,426 --> 00:07:31,364
is the degree to which that society

157
00:07:31,364 --> 00:07:33,297
has generated solutions in the form

158
00:07:33,297 --> 00:07:36,156
of products for its citizens.

159
00:07:36,156 --> 00:07:37,977
The sum of the solutions

160
00:07:37,977 --> 00:07:39,968
that we have in our society

161
00:07:39,968 --> 00:07:42,342
really is our prosperity, and this explains

162
00:07:42,342 --> 00:07:44,625
why companies like Google and Amazon

163
00:07:44,625 --> 00:07:46,988
and Microsoft and Apple

164
00:07:46,988 --> 00:07:49,890
and the entrepreneurs who created those companies

165
00:07:49,890 --> 00:07:53,450
have contributed so much

166
00:07:53,450 --> 00:07:56,156
to our nation's prosperity.

167
00:07:56,156 --> 00:07:58,956
This 21st-century perspective

168
00:07:58,956 --> 00:08:01,545
also makes clear

169
00:08:01,545 --> 00:08:03,990
that what we think of as economic growth

170
00:08:03,990 --> 00:08:05,937
is best understood as

171
00:08:05,937 --> 00:08:08,431
the rate at which we solve problems.

172
00:08:08,431 --> 00:08:11,849
But that rate is totally dependent upon

173
00:08:11,849 --> 00:08:15,426
how many problem solvers —

174
00:08:15,426 --> 00:08:17,912
diverse, able problem solvers — we have,

175
00:08:17,912 --> 00:08:20,645
and thus how many of our fellow citizens

176
00:08:20,645 --> 00:08:22,870
actively participate,

177
00:08:22,870 --> 00:08:26,520
both as entrepreneurs who can offer solutions,

178
00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:30,162
and as customers who consume them.

179
00:08:30,162 --> 00:08:34,280
But this maximizing participation thing

180
00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:35,899
doesn't happen by accident.

181
00:08:35,899 --> 00:08:37,868
It doesn't happen by itself.

182
00:08:37,868 --> 00:08:41,597
It requires effort and investment,

183
00:08:41,597 --> 00:08:44,027
which is why all

184
00:08:44,027 --> 00:08:47,258
highly prosperous capitalist democracies

185
00:08:47,258 --> 00:08:49,807
are characterized by massive investments

186
00:08:49,807 --> 00:08:52,372
in the middle class and the infrastructure

187
00:08:52,372 --> 00:08:55,240
that they depend on.

188
00:08:55,240 --> 00:08:57,239
We plutocrats need to get this

189
00:08:57,239 --> 00:09:00,378
trickle-down economics thing behind us,

190
00:09:00,378 --> 00:09:02,284
this idea that the better we do,

191
00:09:02,284 --> 00:09:04,951
the better everyone else will do.

192
00:09:04,951 --> 00:09:08,871
It's not true. How could it be?

193
00:09:08,871 --> 00:09:12,999
I earn 1,000 times the median wage,

194
00:09:12,999 --> 00:09:15,924
but I do not buy 1,000 times as much stuff,

195
00:09:15,924 --> 00:09:16,988
do I?

196
00:09:16,988 --> 00:09:20,176
I actually bought two pairs of these pants,

197
00:09:20,176 --> 00:09:22,110
what my partner Mike calls

198
00:09:22,110 --> 00:09:23,625
my manager pants.

199
00:09:23,625 --> 00:09:26,561
I could have bought 2,000 pairs,

200
00:09:26,561 --> 00:09:29,627
but what would I do with them? (Laughter)

201
00:09:29,627 --> 00:09:32,656
How many haircuts can I get?

202
00:09:32,656 --> 00:09:36,361
How often can I go out to dinner?

203
00:09:36,361 --> 00:09:40,434
No matter how wealthy a few plutocrats get,

204
00:09:40,434 --> 00:09:43,978
we can never drive a great national economy.

205
00:09:43,978 --> 00:09:49,671
Only a thriving middle class can do that.

206
00:09:49,671 --> 00:09:51,368
There's nothing to be done,

207
00:09:51,368 --> 00:09:55,509
my plutocrat friends might say.

208
00:09:55,509 --> 00:09:58,713
Henry Ford was in a different time.

209
00:09:58,713 --> 00:10:00,987
Maybe we can't do some things.

210
00:10:00,987 --> 00:10:03,923
Maybe we can do some things.

211
00:10:03,923 --> 00:10:07,784
June 19, 2013,

212
00:10:07,784 --> 00:10:11,217
Bloomberg published an article I wrote called

213
00:10:11,217 --> 00:10:16,150
"The Capitalist’s Case for a $15 Minimum Wage."

214
00:10:16,150 --> 00:10:19,072
The good people at Forbes magazine,

215
00:10:19,072 --> 00:10:21,270
among my biggest admirers,

216
00:10:21,270 --> 00:10:25,990
called it "Nick Hanauer's near-insane proposal."

217
00:10:25,990 --> 00:10:29,219
And yet, just 350 days

218
00:10:29,219 --> 00:10:31,795
after that article was published,

219
00:10:31,795 --> 00:10:34,744
Seattle's Mayor Ed Murray signed into law

220
00:10:34,744 --> 00:10:38,510
an ordinance raising the minimum wage in Seattle

221
00:10:38,510 --> 00:10:40,198
to 15 dollars an hour,

222
00:10:40,198 --> 00:10:41,638
more than double

223
00:10:41,638 --> 00:10:46,330
what the prevailing federal $7.25 rate is.

224
00:10:46,330 --> 00:10:48,110
How did this happen,

225
00:10:48,110 --> 00:10:50,195
reasonable people might ask.

226
00:10:50,195 --> 00:10:51,863
It happened because a group of us

227
00:10:51,863 --> 00:10:53,227
reminded the middle class

228
00:10:53,227 --> 00:10:54,878
that they are the source

229
00:10:54,878 --> 00:10:58,544
of growth and prosperity in capitalist economies.

230
00:10:58,544 --> 00:11:02,110
We reminded them that when
workers have more money,

231
00:11:02,110 --> 00:11:03,822
businesses have more customers,

232
00:11:03,822 --> 00:11:05,804
and need more employees.

233
00:11:05,804 --> 00:11:08,490
We reminded them that when businesses

234
00:11:08,490 --> 00:11:11,210
pay workers a living wage,

235
00:11:11,210 --> 00:11:13,102
taxpayers are relieved of the burden

236
00:11:13,102 --> 00:11:14,812
of funding the poverty programs

237
00:11:14,812 --> 00:11:17,714
like food stamps and medical assistance

238
00:11:17,714 --> 00:11:19,424
and rent assistance

239
00:11:19,424 --> 00:11:21,820
that those workers need.

240
00:11:21,820 --> 00:11:24,784
We reminded them that low-wage workers

241
00:11:24,784 --> 00:11:27,110
make terrible taxpayers,

242
00:11:27,110 --> 00:11:29,128
and that when you raise the minimum wage

243
00:11:29,128 --> 00:11:31,253
for all businesses,

244
00:11:31,253 --> 00:11:32,920
all businesses benefit

245
00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:35,651
yet all can compete.

246
00:11:35,651 --> 00:11:37,372
Now the orthodox reaction, of course,

247
00:11:37,372 --> 00:11:41,175
is raising the minimum wage costs jobs. Right?

248
00:11:41,175 --> 00:11:43,763
Your politician's always echoing

249
00:11:43,763 --> 00:11:46,855
that trickle-down idea by saying things like,

250
00:11:46,855 --> 00:11:48,948
"Well, if you raise the price of employment,

251
00:11:48,948 --> 00:11:51,740
guess what happens? You get less of it."

252
00:11:51,740 --> 00:11:54,170
Are you sure?

253
00:11:54,170 --> 00:11:57,823
Because there's some contravening evidence.

254
00:11:57,823 --> 00:12:02,582
Since 1980, the wages of CEOs in our country

255
00:12:02,582 --> 00:12:04,850
have gone from about 30 times the median wage

256
00:12:04,850 --> 00:12:07,122
to 500 times.

257
00:12:07,122 --> 00:12:10,290
That's raising the price of employment.

258
00:12:10,290 --> 00:12:13,262
And yet, to my knowledge,

259
00:12:13,262 --> 00:12:15,434
I have never seen a company

260
00:12:15,434 --> 00:12:19,180
outsource its CEO's job, automate their job,

261
00:12:19,180 --> 00:12:21,267
export the job to China.

262
00:12:21,267 --> 00:12:23,293
In fact, we appear to be employing

263
00:12:23,293 --> 00:12:26,515
more CEOs and senior managers than ever before.

264
00:12:26,515 --> 00:12:30,705
So too for technology workers

265
00:12:30,705 --> 00:12:32,531
and financial services workers,

266
00:12:32,531 --> 00:12:35,149
who earn multiples of the median wage

267
00:12:35,149 --> 00:12:37,154
and yet we employ more and more of them,

268
00:12:37,154 --> 00:12:42,050
so clearly you can raise the price of employment

269
00:12:42,050 --> 00:12:44,091
and get more of it.

270
00:12:44,091 --> 00:12:46,675
I know that most people

271
00:12:46,675 --> 00:12:48,397
think that the $15 minimum wage

272
00:12:48,397 --> 00:12:52,312
is this insane, risky economic experiment.

273
00:12:52,312 --> 00:12:54,210
We disagree.

274
00:12:54,210 --> 00:12:56,684
We believe that the $15 minimum wage

275
00:12:56,684 --> 00:12:57,950
in Seattle

276
00:12:57,950 --> 00:12:59,803
is actually the continuation

277
00:12:59,803 --> 00:13:02,511
of a logical economic policy.

278
00:13:02,511 --> 00:13:04,471
It is allowing our city

279
00:13:04,471 --> 00:13:07,206
to kick your city's ass.

280
00:13:07,206 --> 00:13:08,965
Because, you see,

281
00:13:08,965 --> 00:13:10,677
Washington state already has

282
00:13:10,677 --> 00:13:12,170
the highest minimum wage

283
00:13:12,170 --> 00:13:13,869
of any state in the nation.

284
00:13:13,869 --> 00:13:16,130
We pay all workers $9.32,

285
00:13:16,130 --> 00:13:17,973
which is almost 30 percent more

286
00:13:17,973 --> 00:13:20,531
than the federal minimum of 7.25,

287
00:13:20,531 --> 00:13:24,484
but crucially, 427 percent more

288
00:13:24,484 --> 00:13:28,070
than the federal tipped minimum of 2.13.

289
00:13:28,070 --> 00:13:30,686
If trickle-down thinkers were right,

290
00:13:30,686 --> 00:13:33,798
then Washington state should
have massive unemployment.

291
00:13:33,798 --> 00:13:36,478
Seattle should be sliding into the ocean.

292
00:13:36,478 --> 00:13:39,501
And yet, Seattle

293
00:13:39,501 --> 00:13:43,399
is the fastest-growing big city in the country.

294
00:13:43,399 --> 00:13:47,516
Washington state is generating small business jobs

295
00:13:47,516 --> 00:13:50,137
at a higher rate than any other major state

296
00:13:50,137 --> 00:13:51,993
in the nation.

297
00:13:51,993 --> 00:13:55,897
The restaurant business in Seattle? Booming.

298
00:13:55,897 --> 00:14:00,285
Why? Because the fundamental law of capitalism is,

299
00:14:00,285 --> 00:14:01,900
when workers have more money,

300
00:14:01,900 --> 00:14:03,426
businesses have more customers

301
00:14:03,426 --> 00:14:05,683
and need more workers.

302
00:14:05,683 --> 00:14:08,834
When restaurants pay restaurant workers enough

303
00:14:08,834 --> 00:14:12,456
so that even they can afford to eat in restaurants,

304
00:14:12,456 --> 00:14:15,121
that's not bad for the restaurant business.

305
00:14:15,121 --> 00:14:16,820
That's good for it,

306
00:14:16,820 --> 00:14:21,399
despite what some restaurateurs may tell you.

307
00:14:21,399 --> 00:14:23,457
Is it more complicated than I'm making out?

308
00:14:23,457 --> 00:14:24,454
Of course it is.

309
00:14:24,454 --> 00:14:26,322
There are a lot of dynamics at play.

310
00:14:26,322 --> 00:14:28,564
But can we please stop insisting

311
00:14:28,564 --> 00:14:31,365
that if low-wage workers earn a little bit more,

312
00:14:31,365 --> 00:14:32,873
unemployment will skyrocket

313
00:14:32,873 --> 00:14:34,201
and the economy will collapse?

314
00:14:34,201 --> 00:14:36,810
There is no evidence for it.

315
00:14:36,810 --> 00:14:38,041
The most insidious thing

316
00:14:38,041 --> 00:14:39,888
about trickle-down economics

317
00:14:39,888 --> 00:14:42,190
is not the claim that if the rich get richer,

318
00:14:42,190 --> 00:14:43,727
everyone is better off.

319
00:14:43,727 --> 00:14:46,788
It is the claim made by those who oppose

320
00:14:46,788 --> 00:14:48,690
any increase in the minimum wage

321
00:14:48,690 --> 00:14:50,545
that if the poor get richer,

322
00:14:50,545 --> 00:14:52,762
that will be bad for the economy.

323
00:14:52,762 --> 00:14:54,742
This is nonsense.

324
00:14:54,742 --> 00:14:58,607
So can we please dispense with this rhetoric

325
00:14:58,607 --> 00:15:00,950
that says that rich guys like me

326
00:15:00,950 --> 00:15:03,804
and my plutocrat friends

327
00:15:03,804 --> 00:15:06,377
made our country?

328
00:15:06,377 --> 00:15:08,452
We plutocrats know,

329
00:15:08,452 --> 00:15:10,076
even if we don't like to admit it in public,

330
00:15:10,076 --> 00:15:12,745
that if we had been born somewhere else,

331
00:15:12,745 --> 00:15:14,642
not here in the United States,

332
00:15:14,642 --> 00:15:17,502
we might very well be just some dude standing barefoot

333
00:15:17,502 --> 00:15:20,652
by the side of a dirt road selling fruit.

334
00:15:20,652 --> 00:15:23,183
It's not that they don't have good
entrepreneurs in other places,

335
00:15:23,183 --> 00:15:25,208
even very, very poor places.

336
00:15:25,208 --> 00:15:26,760
It's just that that's all

337
00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:31,296
that those entrepreneurs' customers can afford.

338
00:15:31,296 --> 00:15:35,895
So here's an idea for a new kind of economics,

339
00:15:35,895 --> 00:15:37,442
a new kind of politics

340
00:15:37,442 --> 00:15:40,329
that I call new capitalism.

341
00:15:40,329 --> 00:15:42,801
Let's acknowledge that capitalism

342
00:15:42,801 --> 00:15:44,598
beats the alternatives,

343
00:15:44,598 --> 00:15:48,595
but also that the more people we include,

344
00:15:48,595 --> 00:15:52,119
both as entrepreneurs and as customers,

345
00:15:52,119 --> 00:15:54,279
the better it works.

346
00:15:54,279 --> 00:15:58,065
Let's by all means shrink the size of government,

347
00:15:58,065 --> 00:16:00,784
but not by slashing the poverty programs,

348
00:16:00,784 --> 00:16:02,801
but by ensuring that workers are paid enough

349
00:16:02,801 --> 00:16:06,123
so that they actually don't need those programs.

350
00:16:06,123 --> 00:16:09,040
Let's invest enough in the middle class

351
00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,233
to make our economy fairer and more inclusive,

352
00:16:12,233 --> 00:16:16,167
and by fairer, more truly competitive,

353
00:16:16,167 --> 00:16:17,929
and by more truly competitive,

354
00:16:17,929 --> 00:16:20,745
more able to generate the solutions

355
00:16:20,745 --> 00:16:22,217
to human problems

356
00:16:22,217 --> 00:16:27,847
that are the true drivers of growth and prosperity.

357
00:16:27,847 --> 00:16:31,120
Capitalism is the greatest social technology

358
00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:32,589
ever invented

359
00:16:32,589 --> 00:16:35,451
for creating prosperity in human societies,

360
00:16:35,451 --> 00:16:37,185
if it is well managed,

361
00:16:37,185 --> 00:16:40,356
but capitalism, because of the fundamental

362
00:16:40,356 --> 00:16:43,121
multiplicative dynamics of complex systems,

363
00:16:43,121 --> 00:16:46,649
tends towards, inexorably, inequality,

364
00:16:46,649 --> 00:16:51,070
concentration and collapse.

365
00:16:51,070 --> 00:16:53,518
The work of democracies

366
00:16:53,518 --> 00:16:58,021
is to maximize the inclusion of the many

367
00:16:58,021 --> 00:17:00,998
in order to create prosperity,

368
00:17:00,998 --> 00:17:04,920
not to enable the few to accumulate money.

369
00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:08,020
Government does create prosperity and growth,

370
00:17:08,020 --> 00:17:11,246
by creating the conditions that allow

371
00:17:11,246 --> 00:17:14,137
both entrepreneurs and their customers

372
00:17:14,137 --> 00:17:15,982
to thrive.

373
00:17:15,982 --> 00:17:19,166
Balancing the power of capitalists like me

374
00:17:19,166 --> 00:17:22,338
and workers isn't bad for capitalism.

375
00:17:22,338 --> 00:17:24,138
It's essential to it.

376
00:17:24,138 --> 00:17:26,804
Programs like a reasonable minimum wage,

377
00:17:26,804 --> 00:17:28,818
affordable healthcare,

378
00:17:28,818 --> 00:17:30,121
paid sick leave,

379
00:17:30,121 --> 00:17:33,540
and the progressive taxation necessary

380
00:17:33,540 --> 00:17:35,736
to pay for the important infrastructure

381
00:17:35,736 --> 00:17:39,787
necessary for the middle class like education, R and D,

382
00:17:39,787 --> 00:17:42,353
these are indispensable tools

383
00:17:42,353 --> 00:17:44,462
shrewd capitalists should embrace

384
00:17:44,462 --> 00:17:48,448
to drive growth, because no one benefits from it

385
00:17:48,448 --> 00:17:50,094
like us.

386
00:17:50,094 --> 00:17:52,342
Many economists would have you believe

387
00:17:52,342 --> 00:17:55,422
that their field is an objective science.

388
00:17:55,422 --> 00:17:58,269
I disagree, and I think that it is equally

389
00:17:58,269 --> 00:18:00,338
a tool that humans use

390
00:18:00,338 --> 00:18:02,227
to enforce and encode

391
00:18:02,227 --> 00:18:05,803
our social and moral preferences and prejudices

392
00:18:05,803 --> 00:18:09,705
about status and power,

393
00:18:09,705 --> 00:18:11,982
which is why plutocrats like me

394
00:18:11,982 --> 00:18:15,988
have always needed to find persuasive stories

395
00:18:15,988 --> 00:18:17,662
to tell everyone else

396
00:18:17,662 --> 00:18:21,776
about why our relative positions

397
00:18:21,776 --> 00:18:25,908
are morally righteous and good for everyone:

398
00:18:25,908 --> 00:18:30,183
like, we are indispensable, the job creators,

399
00:18:30,183 --> 00:18:32,545
and you are not;

400
00:18:32,545 --> 00:18:35,931
like, tax cuts for us create growth,

401
00:18:35,931 --> 00:18:37,945
but investments in you

402
00:18:37,945 --> 00:18:39,621
will balloon our debt

403
00:18:39,621 --> 00:18:42,129
and bankrupt our great country;

404
00:18:42,129 --> 00:18:43,997
that we matter;

405
00:18:43,997 --> 00:18:46,348
that you don't.

406
00:18:46,348 --> 00:18:48,991
For thousands of years, these stories were called

407
00:18:48,991 --> 00:18:50,439
divine right.

408
00:18:50,439 --> 00:18:54,693
Today, we have trickle-down economics.

409
00:18:54,693 --> 00:18:58,576
How obviously, transparently self-serving

410
00:18:58,576 --> 00:19:00,170
all of this is.

411
00:19:00,170 --> 00:19:02,952
We plutocrats need to see

412
00:19:02,952 --> 00:19:05,305
that the United States of America made us,

413
00:19:05,305 --> 00:19:06,989
not the other way around;

414
00:19:06,989 --> 00:19:09,827
that a thriving middle class is the source

415
00:19:09,827 --> 00:19:12,123
of prosperity in capitalist economies,

416
00:19:12,123 --> 00:19:14,762
not a consequence of it.

417
00:19:14,762 --> 00:19:17,453
And we should never forget

418
00:19:17,453 --> 00:19:21,148
that even the best of us in
the worst of circumstances

419
00:19:21,148 --> 00:19:26,882
are barefoot by the side of a dirt road selling fruit.

420
00:19:26,882 --> 00:19:29,496
Fellow plutocrats, I think it may be time for us

421
00:19:29,496 --> 00:19:31,699
to recommit to our country,

422
00:19:31,699 --> 00:19:34,261
to commit to a new kind of capitalism

423
00:19:34,261 --> 00:19:38,615
which is both more inclusive and more effective,

424
00:19:38,615 --> 00:19:40,673
a capitalism that will ensure

425
00:19:40,673 --> 00:19:43,834
that America's economy remains

426
00:19:43,834 --> 00:19:47,220
the most dynamic and prosperous in the world.

427
00:19:47,220 --> 00:19:49,380
Let's secure the future for ourselves,

428
00:19:49,380 --> 00:19:52,114
our children and their children.

429
00:19:52,114 --> 00:19:55,162
Or alternatively, we could do nothing,

430
00:19:55,162 --> 00:19:57,243
hide in our gated communities

431
00:19:57,243 --> 00:20:00,100
and private schools,

432
00:20:00,100 --> 00:20:02,136
enjoy our planes and yachts

433
00:20:02,136 --> 00:20:04,476
— they're fun —

434
00:20:04,476 --> 00:20:06,287
and wait for the pitchforks.

435
00:20:06,287 --> 00:20:07,810
Thank you.

436
00:20:07,810 --> 00:20:09,457
(Applause)