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Anand Giridharadas - “Winners Take All” and the Paradox of Elite Philanthropy | The Daily Show - YouTube
Channel: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
[0]
-Welcome to The Daily Show.
-Thank you.
[2]
Congratulations on a book
that has made you the enemy
[5]
-of billionaires
all over the world. -Right.
[7]
-You are a foolish man.
-Right.
[8]
Why would you write a book
[10]
that basically accuses
billionaires
[13]
of being, like, fake good people
as philanthropists?
[16]
What does that even mean?
[18]
There was no good reason
to do it,
[21]
except that it was true.
[23]
You know, we live in this time.
[25]
Um, and I was thinking about it
[27]
when you were talking
about the president,
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because he's kind of
an example of this.
[30]
He had a fake foundation.
[31]
Um, they're not all fake.
[33]
But we live in this time
in which rich people...
[34]
You can't walk down the street
in Manhattan--
[36]
or other parts of the country--
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without bumping
into a rich person
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who's trying
to change the world, right?
[41]
Mark Zuckerberg's trying
to change the world.
[42]
Elon Musk is gonna try
to change the world.
[44]
Jeff Bezos changing the world.
[46]
They're all changing the world.
[47]
More money being given away
[48]
than has ever been given away
in the history of the world.
[50]
-Right.
-Young people. All...
[51]
You know, elite graduates,
elite campuses.
[53]
We want to go to Africa,
start a social enterprise...
[56]
-Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. -...turning
recycled poop into coffee.
[58]
-Right. -(laughter)
-Um, with tote bags.
[60]
-Bono is involved.
-Yes.
[61]
-The red iPhone case
you get for free. -Right.
[63]
And the question is,
why is it
[66]
that this era of extraordinary
elite generosity,
[68]
which is real,
happens to coincide
[71]
with an age
of extraordinary elite hoarding?
[73]
The very same class
of billionaires
[76]
and plutocrats
who do so much to give
[79]
and constantly talk
about how much they give
[81]
have a monopoly
on the future in this country.
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The one percent in this country
takes 49% of new income.
[87]
-Yeah?
-Half the new income.
[89]
Imagine if all the new income
in this studio audience
[91]
went to one person.
Right? Half of it.
[93]
Imagine if--
another true statistic--
[95]
the point one percent,
[96]
point one percent
owns more wealth
[99]
-than the bottom 80% of people
in this country. -Right.
[103]
The bottom half of people
in this country, on average,
[105]
have not gotten a raise,
as many of you may know,
[107]
-in... 40 years.
-Right.
[109]
And so the question
then becomes:
[111]
What's the relationship between
all this nice stuff elites do
[114]
and this elite predation?
[116]
And the relationship
that I discovered
[118]
when I reported this book
[119]
-But-but...
-was that it's this nice...
[121]
it's these nice deeds,
this sprinkling of nice deeds,
[123]
that help us uphold a system
[125]
in which rich people
can monopolize the future,
[127]
horde progress
and kill the American dream.
[129]
And not satisfied with that,
[131]
they're trying to kill
the planet now, too.
[133]
Okay, but let's-let's
go back on this.
[134]
So, you're saying that people
horde the money, all right?
[137]
But now, everyone here tries to
keep the money that they make.
[139]
I mean, I think that is, like,
[140]
a logical thing
that human beings do.
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You get the money;
you keep the money.
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No one gets the money from,
like, work and then is like,
[146]
"Eh..."
You get what I'm saying?
[147]
So when you're saying
that they're hording the money,
[149]
people would go like,
"Yes, but, Anand,
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"that's the American dream--
you work hard,
[152]
and then you make your money."
[154]
Why-why is that a problem?
[155]
Why do you think
that that is a paradox
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with the public giving
that they're doing?
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I think another simpler way
to say what you're saying,
[162]
which I agree with,
is that "Plutes gonna plute."
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-I even have the shirt.
-Okay. -(laughter)
[168]
-Plutes gonna plute.
-Yes, which means...?
[170]
-They're gonna fight
for their interests. -Okay.
[172]
The plutocrats are gonna do
what's good for plutocrats.
[175]
You're right. The thing is,
this is not feudal England,
[178]
so we actually have systems
that are designed
[180]
to keep them in check.
[182]
Because you're right,
people are gonna fight
[184]
-for their own interests.
-Right.
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And when you have people
who have such vast fortunes
[188]
that they have the power,
as monopolies,
[191]
to decide which way
our elections go--
[193]
which is a power
Mark Zuckerberg, frankly, has.
[195]
When you have someone
who has the power to dictate
[198]
whether workers have to pee
in a bottle to be able to,
[201]
you know, survive and make
productivity at their company,
[204]
when you have people with
so much power over consumers,
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uh, you can't just say
the hording impulse
[209]
is gonna be the hording impulse.
[211]
You have to tax people properly.
[213]
Taxes, taxes, taxes.
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-Uh, you have to regulate people
properly. -(cheering, applause)
[217]
You have to have a minimum wage
that actually allows people
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who have no leverage
against these billionaires
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to have the shared leverage
that we all have,
[225]
which is through a government
negotiating for us.
[227]
People don't understand.
People denigrate the government.
[229]
Over the last 40 years,
we've lived in this country
[231]
under an ideology
that says government is bad,
[234]
wealth creation is good.
You know what the government is?
[236]
The government is like a lawyer
who represents all of us. Right?
[240]
And-And... And rich people
are not all good or all bad,
[244]
they way you or me or anybody
else is all good or all bad.
[248]
But when rich people start
to under--
[250]
make money by underpaying
people, systemically,
[253]
make money by, frankly,
avoiding taxation
[256]
in any way they can,
hiding money,
[258]
make money by employing people
insecurely--
[262]
-You're a contractor,
you work at Uber, -Mm-hmm.
[264]
-but you don't really work
at Uber-- -I get it. Right.
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You do all of that, it's time
for the advocate for all of us,
[269]
the government, to actually
fight on our behalf.
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But now, here's the thing.
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There are many billionaires,
right?
[275]
You say The Elite Charade
of Changing the World,
[277]
but there are many billionaires
who have come out publicly
[279]
and said, "Hey, we should
be paying more tax
[282]
as billionaires. We want
to be taxed higher."
[284]
You know, like Warren Buffet
has come out many times saying,
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"Guys, you know,
my personal assistant pays
[289]
a higher tax rate than I do,
which is not fair."
[292]
So if the billionaires
are saying
[293]
we should be paying more tax,
[295]
then why would you say
that it's a charade?
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Or why do you say that, like,
they're part of the problem?
[300]
Those billionaires
are saying the right thing.
[302]
Now, what is interesting,
[304]
some of the people
you mentioned,
[305]
if you double click on some
[307]
of what they actually do
in their life,
[309]
what they do is, they say,
[311]
"We should pay higher
income tax."
[313]
You know, they call
their accountant immediately
[315]
when they're off the CNBC air,
[317]
and they say, "Hey, Bob.
Just make sure
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I have only wealth accumulation
this year,
[321]
capital gains,
no income increase.
[322]
'Cause you can do that
when you're rich.
[324]
You can just shuffle
things around.
[325]
So, you know, if you look
at Warren Buffet and others,
[327]
they say higher income taxes,
[329]
but they don't have
a lot of income,
[331]
'cause they, you know,
put it over there
[332]
-in the investment pile.
-Right. Your shares
[334]
give you the money and then
it's taxed at a lower rate.
[336]
And I think what we don't
realized in this country,
[338]
now we're heading into
the election season,
[340]
and we're starting to have
a bunch of candidates who,
[343]
in various ways,
would at least gesture
[345]
to what I'm talking about,
right?
[347]
Inequality's bad, we got
to rebuild the middle class,
[349]
But part of why
I wrote the book,
[350]
and part of why I hope
it's relevant
[352]
as we head into the election is
[354]
a lot of the people
who sound similar,
[356]
when they're talking
about fixing this problem,
[358]
are actually quite different.
[359]
And I think of the book as a set
of infrared lenses,
[362]
to actually understand
who's peddling real change,
[364]
and who's peddling fake change.
[366]
Because you look
at people who say,
[368]
"Gosh, we've got to rebuild
the middle class."
[369]
But who also say,
as Joe Biden did,
[371]
"You know, nothing's gonna
fundamentally change
[373]
for the billionaires
in this country."
[375]
I just have to say,
that is an incoherent--
[377]
and I don't just mean
rambling incoherent,
[379]
as is the Biden way--
[381]
but is an incoherent,
intellectually incoherent theory
[384]
because in this moment--
I'm not saying all moments--
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but in this moment,
the people up above
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are up above because they are
stepping on people down below.
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And the people down below
are down below
[394]
-because they are being stepped
on. -(cheering and applause)
[395]
And you cannot say
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that I want to help
the people down below
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in a way
that will change nothing
[402]
for the people standing
on their necks
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the same way you couldn't
address feudal England,
[407]
you couldn't address
the Downton Abbey world
[409]
without dealing
with why the Granthams
[411]
are the only people who own
that damn castle. So big.
[413]
Right? You couldn't deal
with slavery
[414]
without making things worse
for the white plantation owners.
[418]
You... There's no...
You can't...
[419]
Frankly,
look at the #MeToo world.
[421]
You can't make things better
for women in this world
[423]
without, frankly, reducing
the power of men
[426]
to-to have impunity
in so many of the spaces
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-you and I and everybody else
operate in. -Right.
[430]
-(cheering and applause)
-Real change
[431]
involves the loss of power.
[433]
And at the heart of this book
is the idea
[436]
that there has been an ideology
for the last 40 years
[439]
that is the ideology of win-win.
[441]
We can empower
the least among us,
[443]
we can help people in Africa,
[444]
we can help people
in Appalachia
[446]
and no one has to suffer.
[448]
The rich people don't have
to pay any more taxes.
[451]
They don't have
to be regulated anymore.
[452]
And it is a lie. It is a lie.
[455]
The only change worth doing
[457]
in a moment like this
with such inequity is change
[459]
that will necessarily make
the plutocrats less powerful.
[462]
The answer
to a winners take all world
[464]
is, almost logically, a world
in which the winners take less.
[468]
And, as you said,
[469]
they're not gonna sign up
for that.
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It's us acting together,
[474]
joining things,
getting involved,
[476]
getting involved in democracy
[477]
that is gonna take change back
from the charade.
[480]
(cheering and applause)
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-A powerful statement.
-Did I convince you yet?
[486]
That is a powerful,
powerful statement,
[489]
and I think you're right,
[490]
but I will keep
my billionaire friends.
[492]
-Thank you so much for being on
the show. -Thanks for having me.
[494]
Winners Take All.
Truly a fascinating book
[497]
that exposes
the world we live in today.
[499]
It's available now.
Anand Giridharadas, everybody.
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