How Billionaires Devoured The World | The Mehdi Hasan Show

who were the heroes of this pandemic would you say it was doctors or nurses or would you say it was the ceos of major corporations because that's what some of them the ceos believe i'm serious last night on this show we told you about the quote unquote obscene level of inequality around the world today well not exactly around the world just between 10 of the richest men on the planet and the rest of us according to the latest oxfam report their wealth doubled during the pandemic while at the same time income inequality rose to a level where it now contributes to one death every four seconds because of poor medical care hunger violence and climate change but is all of this just correlation or is there really causation are billionaires really responsible for things like mass hunger and violence and climate change the author of a new book says it's an unequivocal yes davos man how the billionaires devoured the world by the new york times global economics correspondent peter goodman takes a deep look into how five billionaires in particular have quote plundered the world in ways so comprehensive as to be effectively invisible and especially during the pandemic and to the detriment of democracy we've talked about it on the show before what unchecked capitalism and the billionaires at its helm are doing to the global economy but what makes goodman's book so fascinating is that he also shows us how these men often talked about as villains of the 21st century really see themselves as the saviors mark benioff the ceo of salesforce for example actually said in the pandemic it was ceos in many many cases who were the heroes they're the ones who stepped forward with their resources not for profit but to save the world not for profit right this inflated self-image isn't just a post-pandemic phenomenon here's a quick look at the men goodman profiles my number one stakeholders are my employees i have to do what's right for my employees i have to advocate on their behalf over the last rolling 12 months we saw 450 billion dollars in net flows we make more uh profit in terms of return which goes to pension funds to help workers uh and policemen even with that we had a 16 revenue increase politicians and others not they need to understand the value that big companies bring and not demonize or vilify business actually had 45 billion dollars in active flows flows internationally flows domestically we have what the best growth year we've ever had this year and so next year will be pretty good too when you're making fifteen thousand dollars a second during this pandemic i think pretty good is an understatement joining me now to discuss his new book davos man and the most outrageous stories that he's uncovered is new york times global economics correspondent peter goodman peter welcome to the show congratulations on the book it's not a new thesis it's not a new thesis that as billionaires are getting richer income inequality is growing too so tell our viewers what makes your take on this ongoing story different what was the most startling thing you learned about how much power and influence any of these davos men have well that's a great question i mean it's true we know about inequality and we know about the artifice of the world economic forum where these modern day robber barons congratulate themselves for saving the world what we also know is that right before the pandemic in 2019 we had a lot of talk of so-called stakeholder capitalism benioff who says he's the hero of the pandemic was championing it larry fink now the world's largest asset manager was saying that milton friedmanism is behind us companies are no longer just about delivering profit to shareholders now they're going to take care of the world's problems they're going to run their companies for the benefit of society communities labor and the pandemic was the first serious test and it's really been an abject failure it's really clear that stakeholder capitalism is just an elaborate public relations exercise you know i mean jeff bezos makes enough money through amazon as we're all stuck in our homes if we're lucky enough to work from home if we don't work at slaughterhouses or empty bed pans you know at senior citizens homes he makes enough money to blast himself into space and enjoy the view of earth from space while his workers are left in warehouses with no paid sick leave not by accident but because amazon has lobbied aggressively and without ppe without medical gowns and and hand sanitizer even and face mask while they're actually packaging these things for other people who can pay for them and bezos even says after they fire the head of a uh a labor uprising christian smalls uh says well you know you guys are essential workers you're doing the heroic work of saving other people's grandmothers and christian smalls tells me actually even that's not true it's not like we changed the product mix to prioritize face masks and hand sanitizers the way he put it we're still selling sex toys and video games and all the same stuff that people buy when they're stuck at home so it's clear that bezos didn't prosper while his workers were not prosper prospering he prospered because his workers were suffering and that's the pattern that we've seen again and again in this pandemic and peter you spent a lot of time around these men uh there seems to be a huge difference between how you and many others understand how they've transformed our world and how they think they've changed the world is there some quality that you've noticed that's common among them some personality characteristic or idiosyncrasy well they love to tell their origin stories you know i mean steve schwartzman worth roughly 18 billion dollars you know has multiple residences i mean he owns residence is the way most of us own socks or spatulas you know and and yet he'll tell you i mean if you read his memoir if you would look at his public speeches he'll go on about how he's just a middle-class kid from the suburbs of philadelphia who worked in his dad's linen store and he hasn't changed at all yet you know somehow is able to employ lobbyists and accountants you know by the dozen rewriting the tax code finding tax cuts figuring out ways to prevent paying taxes the way most of us must because our incomes are are fairly similar benioff who you know is the one who says he's the hero of the pandemic along with other ceos loves to talk about riding around in the car with his dad on sunday when he was running his his fabric store i mean this is a pat jamie dimon who basically grew up on park avenue you know never left an eight square block area between his prestigious uh all-boys school where he wore a blue blazer and you know the blue bloods who worked on wall street who essentially raised him um you know he still talks about how he's just a member of a family that was reared in queens a place he no doubt does not spend much time beyond perhaps occasionally passing through an airport although he usually flies pride just just listening to you speak peter i'm sure they're all falling over one another to buy copies of your book to read about you right about them i'm sure they can't wait to see how you've described them on the page in 2020 congresswoman alexander ocasio-cortez had this to say about billionaires have a listen so no one ever makes a billion dollars hmm you take a billion dollars peter you don't make a billion dollars you take a billion dollars do you agree with that well look i'm not here to demonize these guys these guys are smart and they work hard and they have good ideas i mean bezos is a certifiable genius and we all benefit from the convenience of amazon it's not an accident that so many people are eager to do business with this company that has actually revolutionized the way we shop there are countless examples of this the question is what are the terms under which these businesses should operate and what does the public get back for their part of the equation because none of these businesses exist without roads that are publicly built and publicly financed universities that churn out graduates who can code the the internet itself the electrical grid i mean there's got to be a society and at a certain point you know if all of the winnings are just going to a handful of people then society breaks down because nobody believes in anything and i don't think it's an accident you know you've spent a lot of time on your program talking about january 6th you know we can talk about the lack of vaccination rates in the u.s and the crazy conspiracy theories that are preventing people from from getting vaccines into their bloodstream it's not an accident that when you leave literally hundreds of millions of people in some of the wealthiest countries on earth just marinating in the economic uncertainty insecurity that they're going to develop some crazy ideas about what's really going on because they're not crazy to think that their needs don't matter very much to the people who run the country they simply don't so it is true that that this insurgency this breakdown in society is a reflection of inequality yeah i mean there's always legitimate anger against the system against the establishment against the swamp obviously in 2016 it was misdirected i think some of us would argue um a common theme among billionaires and you mentioned that you know the roads that are built to help them make their money is their unwillingness to invest in those roads and pay their taxes you highlight how they love giving charity philanthropy giving back back in november jeff bezos donated i think 100 million dollars to the obama presidential foundation in chicago mark benioff our sales force has donated towards fighting homelessness in san francisco i'm not saying these people aren't greedy but they're also willing to part with large amounts of their own cash but only on their own terms right not when it comes to taxes they'll do anything they can to avoid taxes but if it's on their terms they'll give away hundreds of millions oh they love generosity i mean they love to show up and have themselves photographed you know in a wretched country where people's lives are made somewhat less wretched by their large ass i mean they love to put their names on buildings and i think you know benioff is a particularly complex case because i think he actually is a genuinely compassionate guy who in fact probably saved lives by going and finding ppe in the middle of the pandemic he pulled strings with his contacts in china had ppe flown to the states distributed to frontline medical workers hey that's great but the question is why are we dependent upon crumbs from the wealthiest people in the world yes in the wealthiest country on earth in the middle of a pandemic and and as you correctly point out it's always unilateral this is the thing about stakeholder capitalism you know one stakeholder always gets left out the government another is labor unions yeah i mean today larry fink has this letter larry fink writes a letter every year to shareholders using it as an opportunity to talk about the great transformation business and how you know businesses don't do social good then they're going to be swept aside and it's he's just acting as a fiduciary to companies and counseling them well okay he talks about how you have to be nice to your employees he goes on and on about how the pandemic has shown us that yet we need things like you know home uh work-life balance uh to be we need to understand when people are sick and you know all that's great but where are the rules where are the unions i mean all this stuff is just given as if it's a gift from from wealthy people that can be taken away yeah it can be taken away and this is this is a problem of as you say why should we depend on crumbs it's a it's a fundamental question i have no problem with billionaires being generous but i would also like them to pay their taxes taxes decided by the rest of us by society as a whole and that's the problem they kind of float above society that's why you call them davos men the book is fantastic i urge readers viewers to get a copy and become readers of it peter goodman thank you for your time tonight i appreciate it hi i'm mehdi hussain thanks for checking out our channel on youtube you can see more of the mehdi hassan show by clicking on any of the videos on this screen and make sure you subscribe below to stay up to date on the day's biggest stories thank you for watching

Channel: MSNBC

Views: 148,392

Keywords: Mehdi Hasan

Id: YAp4YCf8QDo

Length: 12min 28sec (748 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 19 2022

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