Why are billionaires bad for society? | Big Questions with Bernie Sanders

Healthcare is a human right education is human right affordable housing is a human right the billionaires who own that media have an agenda it's enormous power in the hands of a few people the status quo is working very very well for the people on top while the middle class continues to shrink at working people in America are really struggling hi my name is Senator Bernie Sanders and I'm here at penguin to answer some big questions thank you [Music] well what we have got to do is take on the incredible excesses and greed that currently exist we need to fight for a world which not only deals with the existential threat of climate change but also one which has a vibrant democracy where Ordinary People are able to actively participate effectively participate in their economic and political lives what does that mean it means that human rights are basically uh that we need to deal with issues like Health Care education uh the ability of people to control their own work lives one of the things that concerns me so much is we have many many people who go to work every day who are really unhappy about the work that they're doing we can change a many hundreds of year old structure which says I'm the boss you're the worker I have the power you have no power so economic rights are human rights and we've got to make sure that in our countries and around the world people are able to obtain the basic necessities of life Health Care is the human right education is human right affordable housing is a human right the ability to control your work life is something that we should be striving for as well [Music] are bad for society because the level of income and wealth inequality is not only unjust from an economic perspective it also has political ramifications so that in my country we have three people on more wealth in the bottom half of the American society we've got people out on the street you know people are worth hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars but in addition to that the people who have the money have the power they determine whether what wages workers are earning they determine whether housing is Affordable they also have enormous political power so in the United States billionaires are able to contribute unlimited unlimited amounts of money into the political process so if I'm a billionaire and I don't like you who are a United States Senator I can contribute endless amounts of money to try to defeat you and I like you because you're supporting tax breaks for the rich or deregulation I can put enormous amounts of money into your campaign so we have in America a movement toward oligarchy where the rich controlled not only the economic and and political life of the country but just have power over people's lives every single day in the United States today uh you have eight large media conglomerates who control what about 90 percent of the American people see here and read and that is very dangerous and the billionaires who own that media have an agenda and what their agenda is primarily is to protect the status quo because the status quo is working very very well for the people on top while the middle class continues to shrink and working people uh in America are really struggling so what you have is a a media which does not ask very often in fact very rarely some of the most important issues like why do we have so much income and wealth inequality worse now an American never been but we hardly ever discuss it why do we have so much concentration of ownership where in economic sector at the sector you have a handful of large corporations uh controlling what the American people purchase we don't talk about the power of Wall Street where you have three large Wall Street investment firms uh that together are the major shareholders in over 95 percent of the standard Imports 500 Corp operations enormous power in the hands of a few people we don't ask the questions the United States the way we spend twice as much as you do in the UK on Health Care while 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured we don't ask why in the richest country on Earth we have one of the highest rates of childhood Poverty of almost any major country we don't ask why the leaders of the fossil fuel industry have lied for decades about the crisis of climate change denied the reality of what carbon emissions do to the planet so bottom line is you got zillions of channels TV channels zillions of radio stations many newspapers and yet by and large they are owned by the very wealthy who prefer not to have serious discussion about the most important issues facing working people what you have in my country at least uh is uh incredible political power in the hands of the few as a result of a terrible Supreme Court decision called citizens united back in 2010 I think that meant that billionaires could spend unlimited amounts of money in the political process so they have enormous power over the Republican Party a great deal of power over the Democratic party as well and when you have big money controlling the political process it is hard to come up with candidates who are prepared to stand up to that money and fight for the needs of Working Families but I will say that in recent years what we have seen and I've worked very hard on this uh we have seen the election of a number of wonderful young progressives often uh young women and men of color who are now in the U.S House of Representatives so that we have more strong progresses in the Congress today than we've had in the modern history of this country we're seeing strong progressives elected all over the country so I am optimistic that if our people come together Working Class People Come Together young people come together we can in fact bring about transformative change in the United States no I don't think you can have an elected Supreme Court the current Supreme Court uh is extremely reactionary they have had made some really horrible decisions that represent the interest of big money whether it is the citizens united uh decision regarding campaign contributions whether it deals with women's rights recently they ruled that women do not have the constitutional right of privacy to protect their own bodies that they think the government should be able to determine whether a woman has an abortion or not totally absurd decision uh there are ways that we have to deal with the Supreme Court but I don't think electing uh justices uh is the path forward thank you for watching you can get my book it's okay to be angry about capitalism by clicking below foreign

Channel: Penguin Books UK

Views: 10,534

Keywords: Penguin, Penguin Books, Penguin Books UK, Hungry Economist, Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders Big Questions, Senator Bernie Sanders, It's okay to be angry about capitalism, Bernie Sanders book, Bernie Sanders interview, Bernie Sanders politician, Supreme Court, progressive politics, does the media influence politics

Id: 6sktwx_lG6k

Length: 7min 28sec (448 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 09 2023