I’ve long said that while climate change is the existential issue for our planet and all the creatures living on it, gross inequality is the existential issue for our current society in the United States of America and other nations. In the long arc of human history, gross inequality without perceived opportunity leads to the pitchforks coming out.
I’m not generally one to traffic in the company of elite billionaire venture capitalists. However, this interview with venture capitalist Chamath_Palihapitiya (fomer senior exec at Facebook and current founder of Social Captal, a tech and healthcare oriented venture fund) is a must watch.
Although Palhihapitiya acts as if he has suddenly acquired deep insight into the woes of the electorate (something many of us have been shouting from the rooftops for a long time: Tax Them Now or Face the "Four Horseman of Leveling Inequality" Later and The Hunger Games are Real and Jamie Dimon is "Kind of Annoying"), he actually does get to the heart of the matter:
“ I got it totally totally totally wrong. I got it totally wrong…
I just want to first acknowledge what my blindspot is. Like most people’s blind spots, but I can just speak for myself, is through the lens of my own, lived experience and very narrowly what is in my best interests.
But what I don’t think I understood clearly enough, and this election has made it very clear - is that since Covid, we have moved past political ideology… I do not think Democrats or Republicans matter…
There is a central block of people that vote the prescient issues of our time. It was a gargantuan win for Biden, then it was a gargantuan win for Trump, and then it was a gargantuan win for the Democrats in these midterms.
What are these people voting for? I think what they are shouting now; that they were trying to signal and now they are shouting, is a broad-based belief that the economy has completely decoupled from reality and is broken. The economic reality in America is broken.
There is a small percentage of people – the four of us on this pod and all of our friends – who are the asset owners of America. And we have benefited in every weather condition. When rates were zero we benefited because we were able to build our businesses with very cheap capital. When rates were high we benefited because we had pricing power. And in every condition in between: whether they were tariffs or whether they were not tariffs, whether there were subsidies or whether they were not subsidies, we’ve all managed to continue to accumulate and grow assets. But we are few and far between. And then there was everybody else who are wage earners. And the structural capacity of the American economy to support and grow wage earners is broken. It’s clear…
This is a complete and total repudiation of the state of the economy. The economy is broken.”
Wow Chamath. You don’t say?!
For now, let’s leave out some of his “inaccuracies” like Trump winning a gargantuan election in 2024, or that somehow the difference between Democrats and Republicans doesn’t matter (AYFKM?!). I mean, he may be on to something, but he’s still a mostly out-of-touch, ungodly wealthy, venture capitalist.
I do give him credit for recognizing that his lived personal experience has twisted his view and others like him to the point where they have no clue what the vast majority of people in this country need to do to survive on a day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year basis.
All dissing aside, Chamath does hit the general nail on the head.
Which leads me to another personal view regarding this election. We are hearing and reading from all sorts of pundits who say that voters saved democracy and rejected fascism and voted with some sort of high mindedness to ensure the continuation of our constitutional system.
I don’t think that’s the case. We got Trump because people who don’t pay attention wanted a change from the inflation that came about during Biden‘s presidency due to Covid, supply constraint issues, and the loose monetary policy necessary to save off a recession or depression after Covid hit.
Similarly, we got the blue tsunami because people got fed up with Trump‘s lies and corruption while they continue to struggle in their daily lives with rising costs, unaffordable healthcare, a stupid war, and a stagnant jobs economy.
Sadly, the vast majority of voters in the United States are not voting based on high minded ideals. As I’ve repeated ad nauseam, they’re voting based on their perceived direct interest and what they perceive directly impacts their lives. And it ain’t a concern about the incipoent rise of authoritarianism.
Which brings me once again to the risks and opportunities in front of the newly empowered Democratic Congress.
The risk is in not recognizing the base reasons for the blue wave. In doing too little, not too much. In continuing to put the priorities of the donor class above the priorities of the majority of voters (and Americans).
Once they gain the congressional majority, Democrats must act swiftly – meaning immediately – to show the American public they get it. That means specific policies and proposed laws to rein in corporatism, reduce inequality and billionaire political power through the tax code and other laws that directly reverse the upward distribution of wealth towards billionaires to a downward redistribution towards those who work hard and those in need.
This post is getting long. I’ve laid out my views on this in the past, but will once again provide specific actions Democrats can take to renter voters Circle of TrustTM in my next post.
One of my all-time favorite songs by one of my all-time favorite musicians:
Mark Knopfler - What It Is
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