Anand Giridharadas: Why We Should Be Skeptical of Billionaires | Amanpour and Company

Anand Giridharadas believes we should be a bit more skeptical about embracing billionaires as the change-makers of our era. He joins the program to discuss his book "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World."
Originally aired on September 19, 2018.
....................................................................................................................................................................
Subscribe to the Amanpour and Company. channel here: bit.ly/2EMIkTJ
For more from Amanpour and Company, including full episodes, click here: to.pbs.org/2NBFpjf
Like Amanpour and Company on Facebook: bit.ly/2HNx3EF
Follow Amanpour and Company on Twitter: bit.ly/2HLpjTI
Watch Amanpour and Company weekdays on PBS (check local listings).
Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.
#amanpourpbs

[@thomasbeltran5417]

Read his book, he is so right on. Nothing but love for this brother ❤️✊🏾

[@kstock00]

Love his book. Very talented writer and investigator.

[@moteague]

This guy is brilliant.

[@andrearenee7845]

100% right on. When Bazos gives anything, there are strings. A couple billion is a lot of string...

[@Garland67]

Why doesn't Jeff Bezos just pay his workers more per hour? And maybe help eradicate student debt while he's at it. His money could do so much for society.

[@PauloConstantino167]

oh no he likes his slavery work force. He worked his whole life for those slaves. He is not giving them up. He is about to build a new mansion on mars too when the people come with hammers after him.

[@chuckkottke]

My guess: The Chicago School of Economics, Milton Friedman. Belief that the marketplace of wages raises all boats to their natural and correct level automatically. Workers, I think, he sees as an expense and as a commodity, like kernels of corn that grow the company. Or worker bees in a hive.🐝🐝🐝 Plus an attitude problem. One businessman here likened workers to sheep, and he said, "and we're here to shear them." He went on to say that it's ok because we're smarter than they are, and their wool always grows back. I was appalled at his thinking, but that could be how many of them perceive the rest of human kind.

[@GearZNet]

Why can't you take a basic economics course and figure out the ramifications for your dumb questions? You have access to the internet; how come you can't take a little time to figure this out instead of begging the government to rob someone else?

[@bernardscheidle5679]

The "fake billionaire change agent". Good point. This guy is smart and clear.

[@joehutchinson24]

Thank you Amanpour and Company for finally bringing someone on your show who represents a majority American view. And I say finally because it is so rare and not surprisingly it is not Christian Amanpour doing the interview. Anand correctly points out how Trump tapped into the sentiments of the American people that the elites falsely claimed that the economy was good when poor and middle class American's economic situation worsened. Trump exploited the resentment of the American people and turned there anger toward immigrants, Muslims etc. While Trump diverted the anger of Americans for the deindustrialization of the rust belt towards other less fortunate black and brown people, neoliberal talking heads like Christian Amanpour ignored failed political policies of the Clintons, the Bushs and the Obama Administration. In fact CNN, and now unfortunately with bias antiprogressives like Amonpour joining your team, PBS is trying to crush the only Presidential Candidate who is addressing the structural problems that have brought so much injustice and poverty to working black and brown Americans.

[@yellolab09]

Anand, you are right...BUT that there ARE graduates who are NOT elite or wealthy, who have decided to go into poorer parts of the world with prestigious degrees , including back to their own neighborhoods, and are fiercely dedicated change agents. Its not philanthropy to them. They are taking a huge personal economic hit. They hit a wall when their great projects take hold, and begin to make a difference. They are stopped by big philanthropy and chains of corruption

[@alanmcrae8594]

Anand is spot on as always! America has become a billionaire Sugar Daddy culture - always looking for rich guys to save society from the problems that they, ironically, helped to create. Looking back, I think this is the result of neo-liberal economic policies that globalized, outsourced, downsized and de-unionized the American working class. As good jobs with a pension disappeared and people started using credit cards & home equity lines of credit to maintain The American Dream, the guys who prospered were the ones eager to exploit the new globalized market economy by closing factories in the Us, moving them to China, Mexico or a non-unionized right to work states. The ones who created online platforms to corner the retailing marketplace, the ones who created social networking platforms to substitute for the actual crumbling social society, the ones who illegally bypassed taxicab companies with their expensive medallions and created on demand gig drivers, and every other "disruptive" Silicon Valley business model that figured out how to profit by exploiting the globalism trends around them. They were so unconcerned about their effects on society that they even offshored their company headquarters so that they didn't have to pay US corporate income taxes. They became billionaire business moguls overnight and bought mansions, islands, airplanes, yachts, helicopters and congressmen. Congressmen that gave them all the loopholes they ever asked for in return for huge campaign contributions, $1,000 a plate political fundraisers and political action committees with unlimited dark money to spend on re-election campaigns. (Some of them even bought teenage girls as playthings.) As ordinary people found it harder & harder to make ends meet, they turned to MBA's, self-help workshops, prosperity gospel televangelists, stock trading systems, and multiple service sector jobs to stay afloat. When none of this worked, and they were exhausted from juggling multiple jobs, college debts, credit card debts and a soaring cost of rent & cost of living, they turned to idolizing the very billionaires who helped to destroy the American Dream behind closed doors. They saw their miniscule acts of philanthropy, a tiny percentage of their net worth & income, as a ray of hope that by sucking up to them some crumbs might come their way. Which has festered into a full blown case of Billionaire Sugar Daddy Culture...

[@miked.1829]

I recently heard we dont have a true left in the USA, just center to far right, that's what he talking about.

[@singingway]

How about a network of progressive b-corps which close their doors certain days for their employees to do climate repair work, retrofit and insulate houses, build solar panels, attend rallies, participate in political activism, lobby days, with signs on the door encouraging their customers to participate in political activism as well.

[@chuckkottke]

B corporations, or Worker Owned corporations, which is better? Which is more fair? I believe in the latter more than the former, but we need honest governments to shift things in a big way.🌄

[@DipayanPyne94]

Worker coops are way better ...

[@richarthur3069]

I like listening to him, another person I like to listen to, Jimmy Dore, had some recent observations about Anand that were very interesting.

[@clairerobinson7658]

Important conversation.

[@rds8807]

Am I the only person that’s going to comment on this guys hair? That shit is on point.

[@theodoremockrish4973]

Good to see christiane amanpour backs off and has other voices moderate these conversations. She is a leader in the true sense in that she points in the direction, gathers highly capable people together because of that direction (over simplified) and then gets out of the way, at least in public for these conversations to play out

[@italythroughmyeyes]

Love you AG!

[@aznosu]

you know poor communities which needs the most funding get the least.... bc funding is based on the wealth of the local communities. If super wealthy ppl pay ppl less, their communities do not have enough funding for anything including better education. It's so crazy.

[@bhaj4588]

When oppression becomes too expensive to sustain we have social change. Not the expense of human lives but the expense to what the oppressors truly value, property. If they valued human lives they would not be oppressors. Destroy their property in unsustainable proportions and they relent, eventually, if they see it will not end until they do.

[@ikb8373]

We'll, you can start setting your Amazon stock on fire

[@margeeod]

Bull to the question just asked by the reporter, and yes Anand comes back with the truth!! Yeah !!!!

[@membear]

No we have homelessness because we don't have affordable housing and are not building it. We give seniors $1000 a month or less to try to live on and there no places in America where you can afford rent and living expenses below the lowest federal poverty level. Bezos needs to take those $2 billion and build affordable tiny homes and condos and low cost apartments. He also needs to pledge that every time he earns $1 million which is 4 times an hour he will spend $25K at least to build a low cost housing unit, that people can rent cheaply or rent to own with an HOA fee. Not fancy, small, industrial, exposed pipes, exposed duct-work and electrical on a tract that is easy to replace if need be.

[@teresaamanfu7408]

They are not capable of looking within.

[@genzcurmudgeon8037]

It is only the children of succesful coastal elites whose lips utter the words “income inequality” I grew up in a small lower, middle class town in Canada, where life was not heaven but also not even close to hell. People were grateful and happy to be alive in the west during a time of peace and prosperity. Concern for how much money the rich have, compared to how little the poor have, is a game for the foolish. Unfortunately it leads to unhappiness for these people. You cannot be happy if you’re not grateful. No matter how much money you have. This guy and all the millionaires like him are proof. Their discontent with life is so transparent, I truly wish they get better.

[@shanesawyer5103]

Nobody cares how or where you grew up.

[@thedude-jb7wx]

WHERE DID HE GO??? Havent heard from him and all those that were calling out the wealthy. Theres barely any videos with Anand and Rutger around

[@pankajsaindane220]

If u close your eyes and listen he sounds exactly like Deadpool!!

[@kimthompson9194]

Um what about Bernie Sanders? We the people DO LOOK, but the criminals in power dont let them in!!!

[@annakarenina4832]

Hopefully he is the new thinker, the likes of James Baldwin. Fresh. Visionary. Open.

[@genzcurmudgeon8037]

lol what does the fact that this video has no views do you to your hope? To anyone but naive, ungrateful, foolish children this guy is unattractive and unpersuasive. Nothing new here. Just a foolish leftist selling books to young and naive people who have been convinced that the reason they’re unsuccessful is because of systemic issues. Millionaires complaining about billionaires, wring books to be read by the children of upper middle class homes, upset with their lot in life. Lol pathetic.

[@Ben-jq5oo]

Brilliant 🇦🇺🏳️‍🌈👍

[@napoleonklein5205]

From 1820 to the 1970's American workers enjoyed a rising wage and standard of living. That changed with the rise of Neoliberalism so that wages have stagnated since 1980. Change is inevitable and the wealthy can make it happen peacefully but they won't consequently it will happen catastrophically. When income and wealth inequality were at their lowest in this country the economy remained stable but the deregulation and tax breaks for the wealthy starting in the 1980's has caused a return to a "boom and bust" capitalism with more severe downturns and failures. And the failures are getting more intense so that eventually the system will fail to the point where socialism for corporations and the wealthy will not be able to mask the failure or bring the economy back from the brink of failure. It will fail catastrophically and, as History shows, revolutions happen when people are fed up, desperately destitute and their desperation and hunger makes them not care about Ideology any longer resulting in spontaneous uprising. People think that because the Soviet Union collapsed that Communism failed but the wealthy and Republicans of the US are the best friends that communism has because they are stoking the very conditions that lead to revolution and enforced change by impoverishing the many and that could mean communism. Keep up the good work Mitch McConnell and Jaime Diamond and Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham and the entire Republican Party. You're doing a good job at destroying this country by excluding everyone, the 99%, from a rising standard of living and eventually ushering in your own overthrow. This is inevitable.

[@bernardscheidle5679]

The "fake billionaire change agent". Good point.

[@stevenkgold2084]

Corporate charity is like putting a band aid over a gaping wound that is fatal. The system is bleeding our society to death. Keeping government from regulating the piracy and tax avoidance of big business is a truly ignorant point of view promoted by the wealthiest among us. --Skg

[@thechangingtimes]

The fact that this video barely has over 12k views and that “baby shark”has a couple billion tells me that America and the world have a LONG way to go.

[@jonmo111]

mr girid hardass is smart

[@neeper27]

The new Carnegie’s

[@mildredmartinez8843]

As always, speaking the truth and analysing the core faults of our economic system. Jeff Bezos could por Billions into homelessness, and he would be cheered as a new age Carnegie. But that does not even begin touch the inequalities that the system produces, as Prof. G states. The ibequal system remains intact. Well said, Prof. G

[@anomad6314]

Bernie Sanders was the hero you were looking for.

[@sandybayes]

Unsure why Anand doesn’t mention Andrew Yang. Yang seems to posses the qualities we in America need right now and also exemplifies the qualities Anand seems to espouse as the solution to our sad state of affairs.

[@Lewa500]

Because Andrew Yang is part of the problem. He thinks giving $1,000 a month to people to start businesses is gonna solve all of America's ills. That's the kind of wonky, technocratic, corporatist solution that Anand is warning against. And before you point to Yang's other policies, I think some of them are decent, like gun license tiers, and some of them are awful, like his climate change proposal. However, regardless of where you stand on his ideas, it's undeniable that he doesn't see government as the solution, but as an obstacle that he wants to streamline out of the way so people can go "not right, not left, but forward." Anand believes that government *is* the solution, so long as its power returns to the people and the right change agents.

[@pcpolice2314]

because he is not part of the alt-lite cult surrounding Yang and Gabbard?

[@yurona5155]

@irregularexpression Going by his proposals ('B Corps', higher capital gains taxes etc.) he'd be the worst "commie" or "socialist" in history, when all of them entirely rely on and are confined to a capitalist system. Also the "greatest inventions and tech innovations" to this date originated - with only very rare exceptions - from publicly-funded research (btw, who put the first $anything into space again? ;)).

[@sharongillesp]

#irregularexpression You've missed his point and are going off on a tangent.

[@johnshafer7214]

Many things Yang is doing looks more libertarian. I'm for many solutions on the table. That said, we need to look at what got us here in the first place. Instead of a rich person saving us we should instead we need to empower the common person. I feel it might take a common person to solve the problems we are seeing today. Just my opinion.

[@gustovcutyourcockoff]

Marxist dribble, he’s been jumping Paul Krugman’s leg

[@t.r.campbell6585]

He was very correct up until the time he used the word…’but’. He should’ve shut up.

[@genzcurmudgeon8037]

One of my favourite 21st century phenomenons is millionaires complaining about billionaires under the guise of compassion for the lower class people, who are to busy working and living their lives, to care about how much money the guy who developed their favourite application makes.

[@genzcurmudgeon8037]

It is only the children of succesful coastal elites whose lips utter the words “income inequality” I grew up in a small lower, middle class town in Canada, where life was not heaven but also not even close to hell. People were grateful and happy to be alive in the west during a time of peace and prosperity. Concern for how much money the rich have, compared to how little the poor have, is a game for the foolish. Unfortunately it leads to unhappiness for these people. You cannot be happy if you’re not grateful. No matter how much money you have. This guy and all the millionaires like him are proof. Their discontent with life is so transparent, I truly wish they get better.

[@shanesawyer5103]

Eli & His Pole What a stupid opinion. I’m not the child of “coastal elites” & I care about income inequality. Many people do. If you like worshiping the plutocrats- fine- but quit pretending you know what other people believe.

[@DipayanPyne94]

Absolute baloney. Just because you are rich, does not mean that you should stop caring about the corruption in the system. It's not about being grateful. It's about caring about justice ...

[@genzcurmudgeon8037]

@@DipayanPyne94 Define justice.

[@DipayanPyne94]

I will do so gladly. But before I do that, you will have to get rid of your BS belief that rich millionaires complaining about billionaires is not right. I am saying that that is NOT the case. I want to be a millionaire as well. Why ? So I can do something to undo what ultra rich people keep doing, including in my country, India, which is an Oligarchy or Plutocracy, just like USA. It's becoming more and more like USA, which is sad ..

[@charlesrobinson9881]

We have far far more to fear from immigrants than from billionaires.

[@bernardscheidle5679]

Amazon isnt innovative. Amazon is simply the old Sears Catalog mail order business model, but it uses the internet and jet airplanes, instead of letters at the post office and steam trains.

[@shellb1633]

Anand, you are a beautiful man - please, no beard.

[@andrepopov3061]

What a lousy interviewer. He didn't challenge Anand properly once. The world is not that black and white. There's always another side to the story: homelessness, labor unions, minimum wage, corporations paying low taxes (they aren't really if they invest and can legally and ethically deduct their investment from taxes, etc.), and so on.

[@voidandnon-2530]

"Why We Should Be Skeptical of Dudes That Look Like Oompa Loompas"

[@egonzsaludko2105]

I AM A RELIGUS PERSON AND BASICALLY DO YOU WANT TO LOVE YOUR SELF AND BE GOOD TO OTHERS , OR BE A ROTTEN HATEFUL PERSON WITH A EVIL HEART TOWARDS EVERYONE LIKE DUMP TRUMP !

[@seriekekomo]

The assumption that everything would be great if only the government had those rich people's money is laughable. Also putting in the same basket people fighting for equal rights with people like him who want forced redistribution of wealth is also laughable.

[@irlserver42]

Short dudes have to quit it with the Dragonball Z hair, you're literally fooling no one - not even yourselves.

[@bernardscheidle5679]

The "fake billionaire change agent". Good point. This guy is smart and clear.

[@bernardscheidle5679]

The "fake billionaire change agent". Good point.