Billionaires are pillaging America. How do we fight back? | The Chris Hedges Report
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- The resurgence of the labor movement in 2023 galvanized and emboldened unions around the country-and sent capitalists scrambling to squash the nascent militancy of their workers. Among the attempts of the billionaire class to retaliate is a major legal challenge to the National Labor Relations Board, the government body that has protected the right of workers to collective bargaining for 89 years. This latest attack on the rights of workers is the culmination of a decades-long assault on the working class in the US, which has been caught between an economic system hemorrhaging jobs and a political system that refuses to address their problems. Les Leopold, executive director of the Labor Institute and author of Wall Street's War on Workers, joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the full-spectrum assault on worker power taking place before our eyes.
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Post-Production: Adam Coley
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The answer is simple, hold the politicians accountable.
Totally agree. The press needs to held accountable for reporting lies as well.
Gotta buy them first!
Who will vote that law?
And how do you plan that?
You start. We are with you.
America seems to have forgotten that greed is a sin.
They haven’t forgotten; they don’t care!!
Not according to President George W Bush "Greed is good".
No, since capitalism is the current top US "religion", where greed is a "virtue".
Greed is just part of human emotions good and bad. The problem is the incentive structure which rewards greed.
@@twistedoperator4422incentive structure aka Capitalism
I am not American, but I attended college in the early 1990s in Philadelphia and I remember there was a lot of talk then about campaign finance reform. 30 years later, nothing has happened. America needs this and needs term limits for congress. These politicians work for themselves and not for the people who put them in office. People around the world are negatively impacted by this political corruption. We see what is happening in Gaza for example and the negative position of congress and the US administration.
In too many public jobs people seem to find themselves employed and not quite satisfied so everybody has to choose to gain the system and some stupid way to make more it's just human nature unless you're a hard worker that just enjoys doing work and then maybe not so much it's ridiculous to greed within people if everyone was working together loving one another doing respectful things life would be good 😊😮
@@johnanderson591 a big “IF” :))
Absolutely right ! Term limits are an absolute necessity, many of these politicians are curiously very VERY rich, look at the Pelosi's, she been gaming the system for so long their wealth is now, for them, really ,utterly superfluous, they don't even NEED all that money, what the hell are they going to do with it? so many of them with bank accounts that would make your eyes water. The U.S. govt. is now a pantomime, it is dysfunctional and completely irresponsible.
I agree with you. Our Congress is very much like hamas.
@@skykennedy3574 only that Hamas was created out of extreme pressure as a reaction of the brutal occupation. Congress was created as a manifestation of the ideals on which the framers wanted to see America and of course it revolved to be a great institution after specially after the civil war. Now look what has become of it. And even the Presidential elections, Trump vs Biden 🤦♂️. Many Americans, especially in the Midwest / the Bible Belt might think it is a domestic issue - the reality is, what happens in the US impacts everyone else around the world.
Criminals become upstanding citizens and upstanding citizens become criminals.
Ppoliticians dont usually become criminals. But criminals usually become politicians.
there is something truly sick in a system where large surveys show most people hate and are harmed bodily and mentally by their jobs and yet when their is job loss suffering is also guaranteed -truly sick, backward world ran by psychopaths for psychopaths.
See " Barren Metal " by one E . Michael Jones fmr . Prof at St Marys Notre Dame . I wouldn't necessarily agree with all of his ideas , but he's in the ball park .
That's my analogy as well. Unfortunately only a few people think like that.
When I was little they used to say work is liberty as I am getting older I think work is slavery.
10 - 12hrs 5-6 days is slavery.
You have no time to clean your house bathe properly or enjoy your family.
Everybody in USA have some type of mental illness whether they will admit it or not, that is why church is powerful that is the only place people can really scream their frustrations out.
For your mental illness they feed you drugs and more drugs, while they make money and more money.
USA is a dictatorship militia corporation/ colonist/ capitalistic company.
Most people will never know that.
Epstein Island 🏝️
FACTS !!!
Money as mankind's #1 priority will end our tenuous grasp on influencing our future, positively influence.
Biggest problem is with all the working class people defending billionaires and refusing solidarity with other workers who they prefer to look down on.
They're just "temporarily embarrassed millionaires," don't you know.
Well said.
Unions have become just another tool to use the masses. Lumping all billionaires as the same is disingenuous. Most have contributed far more to advancing society than they take, and this entire conversation always seems to leave out the culpability of the governments.
Tribalism, class system. How you going to fix it?
Yup... everyone is competing against each other... starts from the school... desperate times my friend...
Come to India... here men fights women in the classroom...
I think that pulling the teeth out of the Sherman antitrust act has been a large contributing factor.
I think worker docility, ignorance, and putting dogwhistle social issues over their own interests has destroyed all semblance of democracy.
@@emhu2594couldn't have said it better.
@@emhu2594we're not a democracy. Our country is a constitutional Republic
@@keithmyers1260 A constitutional republic is a category of democracy.
I see people get laid off from the very profitable company I work for all the time. The board has authorized billions in stock buybacks during my tenure. The one time I asked what purpose this serves I got a strong rebuke. They _really_ don’t like it when you ask them why they’re shovelling money into the furnace while putting people out of work.
It's their pockets that receive the "shoving" !
It's absolutely unconscionable, because kicking people out of jobs during high productivity and excellent profitability is punishing good workers for their hard work while sucking cash out of our pockets.
Stock buy backs should be illegal again. Trade deals need to be fair to the workers not corporations trying to get the cheapest labor. They want the only jobs available to be services jobs with low pay, no benefits and part time work so you have to have two or three jobs to make ends meet.
By by rich people see you in hell
This has already happened in long term and aged care homes. Same for institutional childcare.
If the NLRB folds, then the working people have lost their rights and their position in society. I spent 7 years working overnight at Wal-Mart. It was a great store with great people busting their ass every night to restock tons of freight and we got it done, but the management people were mostly jerks and the employees were treated like dirt. Without a union, you get no respect!!!
The unions in this country have been systematically routed and not allowed to come back but we need is to have union jobs again
And if I recall right, it was Reagan who made it open season on unions even though he'd been ahead of a guild of actors
Uv got my condolences if u worked for four of the 20 richest Americans that own Walmarts ,Vudu ,and a plethora of other entities and I'm sure pay no taxes and won't even pay u a decent wage. U have to ask urself,why,? How many Ferraris can u drive. They and their children and grandchildren could never spend what they've.got already yet it's never enough. I don't understand the mindset and I guess we're not supposed to. There's a storm coming and as usual the civilians and poor will suffer the most and in the end little to nothing will change I'm afraid for we've waited too long and tech has given them the weapons to defeat the masses arrayed against them
I'm glad I'm old and won't be here but afraid I'll have to come back as there's no place to go is there.
Well, now that you brought up Gaza in the Israelis, I have to say it doesn't anybody notice that a country 8,000 mi away with 7 million people controls our country of 350 million at Will and most of the G7 of Europe as well. In other words, I guess that old thing about the Jewish international conspiracy to control the world doesn't seem to be that far off base because they seem to be controlling it quite well currently and murdering people and will with no response from anybody with any power at all. And they just wagged Biden like the tail that he is
I read somewhere and I could be missing formed but I read somewhere that if you run for office and you get all your donations in and you spend it and when you comes up time for the election you lose that any unspent donations that you have. You can convert to your own bank account as it were if that's true. Well hell I want to run for every office I can find collect donations and I want to lose so I can keep it all
We are in the 2nd Gilded Age. They need to be reigned in. Much like the 1st Gilded Age.
We’re also entering the age of Aquarius, hope springs eternal.
How was the last gilded age reigned in? By labor unions lobbying our politicians. We need labor unions to focus more on lobbying.
There is a reason elites only lobby to get what they want. It works.
Voting is we will vote for you please keep your promises
Lobbying is pass this bill and we promise we will vote for you
Do you see the difference? In voting we fulfill our end of the deal first in lobbying the politicians fulfill their end of the deal first. That is why it works.
Except no one else is building industry, they (we) all work within it/for it.
Ingenuity and the entrepreneurial spirit where killed along with huge swaths of people by COVID (obviously a planned event in the secret tradition of balancing the books).
After 3 years of being muzzled, locked down (the dociling of man) and isolated, not very many "normally aggressive and creative types") are willing and/or able to take any risks.
Much confusion in the air, nothing is being held accountable and no one knows what's around the corner; the only definitive information we have to guide us is within the pages of the Bible and revelation after revelation is taking place. This is "The Woke Generation".. Are they making forcing the end of life as we know it, intentionally globally OR ignorant to this?
The wealthy have underground bunkers and stockpiles of goods, they're prepared on that level, most likely because they know something is going to happen and that's the most likely way for them to survive.
The Democrats are the ones in charge of the condition this country sits in. They have blindly dug a hole no one can get out of..
@icxc88 If the ground freezes or the land floods, how do you get to the bunker. The best laid plans of mice and men. Can fail. The plans of our demise are greatly exaggerated. It is their fault the house is on fire. Don't count on them knowing how to survive.
This isn't a democratic country with two parties. There's only one party who argue over minor differences between them, but on the big things like crashing all of us they pull together in the same direction
The two party system is an illusion of choice.
rule by a oligarchy of war profiteering billionaires
Republic
if people actually felt that way maybe it might change
The uniparty has a head ✡️
We are rhyming with 1920's Weimar Republic.
Nurses may have unions, but hospitals will fire others if they try to form a union.
Resist this, and join forces with Coalitions, like: National Nurses Association,
NNA. They helped to advocate, during the Covid-19 Pandemic, and helped to
work with a Democratic led Congress during the Trump years) and secured the PPE supplies and developed the multiple stimulus packages! I know this & am
a retired Nurse (R.N.) and can attest to the work which went with it! The NNA is also fighting Corporate forces, which have decrease staffing rations & created unsafe conditions. Get connected & YOU will feel empowered & see effective change! Also, email Your Congressional Rep. & Senators too! Best wishes.
-------------- Psalm 23.
Nursing, a traditionally woman's job, has always been devalued.
But it I had my way, nurses would run the whole health and medical system in the USA. Docs and asministrators would answer to them and their unions wouild ensure that the most qualified and best nurses would be elected to positions of authority over the system.
And, of course, capitalism should not be allowed to get anywhere near any aspect of the health and safety of the public.
@@proletariatprincess1I am sorry but I don't want to be examined and treated by a nurse. She can take care of the patient but the diagnosis and treatment is the doctors' responsibility.
Having nurses in charge of the medical system is like having flight attendants in charge of flying airplanes and traffic control at the airports. 😂😂😂
Furthermore, doctors are also abused by the capitalist system. They go college for 4 years with massive student loans, then go to medical school for 4 years with even greater student loans, then go through at least 3 years of slavery in residency with long hours and low pay, then and only then they may get a good decent paying job with some corporation that controls a massive health(not)care system. Those corporations control the doctors lives. They are just as much as under the thumb of the bosses as the nurses are. Most doctors this day and age are living borderline middle class lives.
Need solidarity!
Nursing is considered by management as something they can cut. Even with higher census counts, more and more gets dumped on them. Very few outside of medicine realize how hard they work. Its not just pt care either. The bean counters are causing nurses to leave.
Billionaires should not exist", absolutely GD right, this discussion/interview was spot on, a good place to start is corporations are not a person, money isn’t free speech, get dark money out of politics, end buy back stock, and reform real estate industry to prevent foreign investments from owing resources etc etc and regulate to protect workers and the environment etc etc, in my opinion !
Agree completely but you know with this AI boom the tech bros are competing to become the first trillionaire.
100% correct That should be the American Citizens talking points
America needs to tell Congress and fix these issues! Corps have rights as a person thanks to the Supreme Court--so we need to demand Congress gets them to readdress this issue and overturn it or we will continue to get the short end of the stick while Corps buy our politicians!
If a person believes that a corporation is a person, that person should have no problem believing a man is a woman. Bunch of non-sense.
Father John Sheehan:
“Every time anyone says that Israel is our only friend in the Middle East, I can’t help but think that before Israel, we had no enemies in the Middle East.”
USS Liberty
Epstein Island 🏝️
I can tell you have never heard the song Battle Hymn of the Republic. Our country exists because of spice traders looking for a route to India from England that did not require traveling through the middle east. Arabs would steal the spices and take the people hauling the spices and make them slaves. Father Sheehan did not care what the Bible says either.
Naive , or worse.
@@tammys8711 What is naive about that? Enlighten us.
Solidarity is the key
You are correct. For that to happen first comes class consciousness, which has been a self imposed impediment to economic equality. We won’t need the NLRB or Union’s when class solidarity is achieved.
@@bluehand9631lol marxism doesn't work buddy
Thank you, Chris Hedges. I will be listening.
Chris says if Rump gets in, we will be a Bana republic. Lol. Has he ignored what has gone on with the left for the last 10 years, all the lies, all the weaponized systems of media, big tech, and on and on?? Lol. We blew past banana republic so fast that is u blinked, u missed it. Loo
We have to get the money out of politics.
Campaign finance reform is the first step
Campaign finance system that America has is legal bribery and it makes it hard for politicians to do the right thing
We need real change NOW‼️
How do you go about CFR?
I'm just a ignorant hillbilly musician who does concrete construction . From my prospective we have a lot of "independent" news sources telling us what's wrong . I'm grateful for this info because in the past 10 years it has helped informed us working class it's not us , it's the system against us . Most of these platforms have a million subs . How about we organize a massive working class protest ? It seems to me these channels know there will always be issues that affect us working class and it will generate view and revenue . Jimmy Dore is now pushing "buy gold" . Yeah , with what , Jim ? And when the shit hits the fan we can't eat or drink gold . Peter Schiff has been pushing the "gold" thing for years . I could care less . If these channels are just going to report the obvious and make money , they to are the problem . What happened to organize & mobilize ? According to the internet Jimmy Dore's net worth is 4 million and Chris' net worth is 5 million .
No regular guy or gal can afford gold. Silver is rising. Jacketed lead & food & water at this point are needed most
I have about six months in food, gold, silver, Bitcoin, and antiques. If you have money for a beer you have money for something else that will help you possibly in your future. I think people need to start paying attention to the decline of the dollar around the world before it is too late.
You are so right about the push to buy gold..
When shit hits the fan.
What can you do with gold??
I am 60 years old born and raised in las Vegas.
I have met many shady people in my life time.
No gold is not the answer.
You are right..
And then you have to think.
What are the casinos going to do when the dollar collapses. ??
The homeless can move into the casinos..
It will never happen..
Good point.
@@timfool Hahaha, shitcoin, crypto and anteeks.
The US has always been an anti-worker country. Afterall, it was founded on chattel slavery and it has the most violent and brutal anti worker history of any industrialze nation.
What we need is fair Labor Laws that create a level playing field between capital and labor and and proscribes exploitation of all workers everywhere. And these labor laws must be enforced with dedication, committment, eithics and timeliness.
Such action would change the whole world and immigration issues would not be an issue anywhere.
It is our terrible laws that cause us the most greif in the USA. ...especially the Labor Law.
You are correct but you left out a key phrase, capitalism is the problem.
Needs to be fair capitalism not corrupt capitalism.
Most people that are effected by a mass lay off have been at that place or company for 10-20 years or more. They, naturally, have (because of the culture and the fact that debt is the only way they can obtain things) a mortgage on their home, an average if two car payments, a plethora of credit card debt, and very minimal savings because there isn't much left to save after paying the bills. Imagine how it would feel to loose a job that you have held and performed well for 20, then one day you don't, your bills don't pause because you get layed off, you still need health insurance for your family, ( have you ever looked into the emergency insurance they offer these people, for just yourself it's around $1000 per month) !
Yeah ! I'd imagine it's traumatic !
AMERICAN NIGHTMARE
Global nightmare.
The story of Robin Hood had meaning when it was created in the 12th or 13th century . . . Absolutely nothing has changed except the wealthy strive for harsher treatment of the peons, the bourgeoisie, their worker-slaves. Recall what Robin Hood teaches us...
I don't comprehend the idea that any of this must be tied to partisan politics. It doesn't matter who was traditionally anything at all regarding the labor force in America, especially if they have abandoned all causes in common with us. It makes no sense at all to retain any loyalty whatsoever to any party that has clearly banked on our loyalty to our own detriment.
We are experiencing a culture of plunder, and the smart thing to do is to adapt and change or expect to be plundered. However, somehow, the masses cannot divorce themselves from the illusion that everyone deserves to be wealthy. What is even more absurd is that people can no longer distinguish between wealth and overextended credit. One has real value, and in that value is power. The other is a big fat lie people live while pretending to be better off than they actually are, and while feeding the selves to the enemy. Why on earth would anyone borrow to keep up appearances with people who also don't have shit? It blows my mind, and somehow I'm the one labeled crazy.
My suggestion is learn to like living with less cheap shiny chinese plastic, and make a conscious choice to do without if that's all they are selling. Cheers!
The political 'choice' people are afforded is basically a false one, but it largely serves its purpose helping to divide and rule because a critical mass still cling to it.
FACTS !!!
Past time. Unify!!!!!
neither party has the balls to fix the situation to afraid of the lobbyists
They ARE the lobbyists. When will America realise that no organisation will save them.
Simply get off your butts...and into the streets en masses until things change.
Teachers strike, doctors strike, railworkers strike, shopworkers strike, lawyers strike, nurses strike, social workers strike, postal workers strike, truckers strike, fire men put out only fires and police men STOP policing protests and strikers.
Strike together or alone, but NEVER be dismissive of fellow strikers actions.
And each demand what you want for YOUR industry.
That's right. That's why you should vote Kennedy 2024 in November. Stop the corporate owned uni-party that is the current system. 🎉🎉
The abc organizations keep them fearful.
Exactly which is why we should lobby. It is the only thing that works.
Voting is we will vote you please keep your promises.
Lobbying is pass this bill and we promise we will vote you in.
In voting we fulfill our end of the deal first. In lobbying politicians fulfill their end of the deal first.
What you're failing to take into account is that the billionaires can not only withhold campaign contributions, but can and will take revenge, not only against the politician, but against their family and friends.
There's a "carrot " and a "stick"...
They also fail to take into account that some billionaires provide huge services to the public that even America haters enjoy while others use their wealth to sow chaos by controlling socialist political parties.
But of we give them enough push back. They will run out of amo to fight back because we stopped feeding them and started fighting them. There is more of us than them. And they need us to exist. Billlionaors can't exist without a population to propagate their income. Any buisness should always remember to fear the consumer and the worker because they are synonymous with your survival but they have us trained otherwise and make us fear loosing them. But they should be fearing us.
Because politicians allow money and corruption into politics.
They WANT to be BOUGHT
It won't change until enough people organize and decide they aren't going to take this shit anymore
No carrots they practice the golden rule.
Simple enough. Remove all taxation from improvements on land, sales taxes and earned incomes from the wages of labor and profits from investment in unmonopolized tools of production (the original definition of capital) and shift it onto unearned incomes estimated to be 33-50% of GNP.
''Most of the great problems we face are caused by politicians, bureaucrats, financiers, elites, bankers, pharma, MIC, big-agri, big-bus, msm, and kindred.....; creating solutions to problems they created in the first place." - Walter E. Williams
De-privatize, re-publicize
Sounds to me like the ideas behind the great, lesser known book "No Place Like Home: Building Sustainable Communities" by Marcia Nozick and "Ubuntu Contributionism: A Blueprint for Human Prosperity" by Michael Tellinger.
YOU PREFER COMMUNISM
@@patriciaglass9779 I prefer democracy, which we do not have.
a state monopoly is still a monopoly, it will suck and do whatever it wants, only viable state monopoly is heavy arms industry, cause it never pays itself and countries need their own defense products, what you need is fair competition, atm laws destroy small and medium businessmen
@@troywalkertheprogressivean8433 republic was made to be moral only otherwuse the government is wholly inadequate
Thatcher did the same to the unions in the 80s in the UK as Reagan did to US.
For some reason some people still imagine these two performed much needed overdue tough economic reforms, but really it was just the deliberate systematic gutting of the working classes.
Boycott.
From the billionaires' perspective the workers must be paid only enough to barely survive, living month to month, with little to no savings.
This cements their status as wage-slaves, their corporate masters firmly in control.
Pay them a real living wage and let them have a union...and the billionaires are no longer in control...
When you are able to "climb the management ladder" it means that you have accepted the status quo and have agreed to carry on the scheme for the overlords.
When we do build a savings, that savings loses significant value every single year to inflation. This savings to inflation rise prevents us from saving up to buy property, without taking out a loan. They're forcing us into debt, by continually devaluing the dollar. This predatory system of capitalism is criminal but the education system and internet propaganda teaches too many that any other system leads to evil societies. The idea that putting a cap on wealth or taxing the ultra wealthy will lead to communism and socialism is a major problem that perpetuates predatory capitalism.
FALSE. Salaries are controlled by market forces. PERIOD. People who has low salaries are either morons working for government in low level jobs, or just generally useless people not excercising any skills, and are therefore not worth more money.
Once the workers rights was drafted when Roosevelt was president all the Corporate leaders got together to prevent it from ever being past into law and sabotaged workers rights through lobbying ever since
It is about control and money and that all till the system fails they blame the workers making to much money.
They don't want to because they want money and that's all they care about
Respect from Ireland 🇮🇪💚☘️. A wonderful logical and intellectual discussion based on facts and history.
2nd that
@@PaddyMacDaddy101EPIE pens don't work now!!! Made in Croatia they hate USA if you know anyone...tell them call FDA and report save epi pen and box ie lot number.
We're not a democracy, we are a republic of the people ! Smh
Time for a French Revolution moment in America?
I LOVE Chris Hedges. Such a good, GOOD man. And the stories about the ongoing gen o'side... utterly brilliant. Some are bad to the bone. Chris is good to the CORE.
With the knowledge of my age.... We are all being 'pimped' by the rich and powerful.... Senators, presidents, law officers, elon, rappers, pop stars, healthcare, television etc etc.... at this point, im just trying to find a safe way to retire, as simply as possible.
They did the same thing with the universities a couple of decades ago. Now we spent the middle class spent their tax money to build these state universities to compete with the rich private universities so that their kids could get an education that was somewhat equal to their Harvard and all of the others and what do they do? They started selling them off, not selling the universities but giving the positions to foreign students who pay three or four times the going rate to attend so that when I go to a lot of these schools the state schools to do work. I find that the bulk of the students are not from America and what do they do with the money? I don't know in California are governor said that he had a $1 billion surplus last year this year. He says we're $65 billion in the whole. I live in Sacramento and the main roads through town like what avenue are so full of pot holes. You have to have a four-wheel drive truck to drive on them and they do nothing to fix any of them even though we're paying a lot in property tax and the road tax is a dollar 20 a gallon here in California and that's tens of millions a day. Where is it going and he wants to be president. Well if you want your state to look like California vote for the bastard
What’s wrong with free education?
Many European countries offer free education and we don't give a rat’s @ss about competition from Harvard. Work stability is long gone
I didnt think it possible, but this discussion made me even more pessimistic about the future of the United States of America. It sounds like game, set, match, to me.
I like how they supposedly revere working while despising a majority of workers. 🤔🤨 The only jobs the rich left in america pay poverty wages then they complain about all the poor people. 🤔🤨
Chris is the only journalist I trust. Thank you for your work.
Agreed, at least on the US front
"I don't think we're going to stop the pandemic and the mutations until everyone gets vaccinated." ~ Chris Hedges
@@majomaja5646
Source?
And thank you for the Character Ass@ssination. It was terribly BIG of you. 😊
@majomaja5646 idk honestly if I heard him say that or when. I never got the Vax and never got sick, I know a guy that died from a blood clot from a vax. He's not infallible, he's a man. As far as politics I trust his view on our "media".
@@WestSideGorilla1980 It was "our 'media'" that was selling the pandemic, lock-downs and vaccines from the onset in 2020. Hedges bought into Big Pharma.
There should be no billionaires if laws were enforced to prevent corruption or inherited wealth.
5 ways to become a billionaire (by Robert Reich):
1) Exploit a monopoly.
2) Get insider information unavailable to other investors.
3) Buy off politicians.
4) Extort your big investors.
5) Get money from rich parents or relatives.
Nothing stopping you from becoming a billionaire. That's the beauty of a capilist society.
@@liquidgal9867 🏳⚧🏴☠🏳⚧
@@liquidgal9867 Nothing stopping you as long as you're an unscrupulous sociopath who thinks the end justifies the means. Greed is Good and let the devil take the hindmost.
4 outta 5 ain't bad. If i were rich i would pass some to the children. Not to you which is what this sounds like. If i worked for it. It's mine to do with as i choose. Not someone else. Good way to do things is the way Trump did it. His kidscarecset. But he sent them to school. They got degrees. Learned how to make money. Again..if i were rich..blood is thicker than water..some of it anyway.
@@paulkesler1744 Sounds like you are confusing capitalists with people who believe in government and collectivism. Talk about greedy sociopaths that thinks any means justify their alleged ends. Government is literally based on perpetual theft and a monopoly on violence, fraud, kidnapping, currency, etc. The tools to CONTROL a tax-slave population.
Thank you for being real at the end! I am so sick of people thinking that they need to end off a discussion with an uplifting placation. It destroys the entire point of doing the podcast. People need to know that things are not okay, and if nothing is done, they will just get worse.
We the people need to take our world back. We all need to unite and stand together.
USA's billionaires want slaves not working people with rights and obligations. Noam Chomsky had warned about that in his book Requiem for the American Dream (2015).
Wants slaves or NEEDS slaves?
You're way to late. They took your schools, your jobs and your community. It's the new economy. Take the schools and you take the nation.
Great interview. Thanks. I was born in Southeastern W.Va. in 1946, 3 generations of coal miners. I remember my family talking about the conditions and politics. One of my uncles fought the mining companies at Blair Mtn.
My home state. It's still beautiful but...
Putin brought the oligarchs to the table and told them that they would pay tax or no longer be Russian nationals.
Perhaps the USA needs to follow suit.
Bring back Labour Unions to the U. S asap..
Good luck everyone! My hope has been long gone but it’s cool to see people still have hope 😊
NEED TO BE ENGAGED TIL THE END. DO NOT GIVE UP!!
18:20 they claim to care about the "free market", then try to ban tik tok. 🤔🤨
That is to give the president more power on what will be censored. Not really about TicTok, that's just an excuse for more power transfer.
About 50% of all economic activity is mediated in some way by government: government contracts, tax subsidies, dependence on the military to offshore jobs and import the product safely, and benefitting from government-funded basic research and technology, are just some major examples.
I just like to point out how conservative/liberal capitalists disprove their own dogmas.
@@troywalkertheprogressivean8433 💯 . . . Every time
@troywalkertheprogressivean8433 Why was my agreeing with you shadowed? Weird. It was a one- liner.
Taxes increase on billionaires! 10% of their wealth should be going to improving the living standards for USA ! No billionaires donations to politicians!
How about stop funding all these wars along with many other things
They are worried too. That is why they are building all the cop cities.
For sure. This system cannot sustain.
You look at the figures the CEOs of European corporations large ones like Siemens. They stay on their job usually 10, 15, sometimes 20 years. Where is an America CEO? Stay often as little as 5 years and then parachute out replaced by another guy and they all take a big chunk of the company's money with them. What is wrong with that picture?
Nothing is wrong with it . They have only one goal- profits,and they do that,with no regard for workers. Our NLRBus a lame duck,since companies threaten to go overseas where profits are greater,and Unions don't exist,yet.
These huge severance packages offered to CEOs of major corporations only encourage is their ability to be removed from one job and take along with them a severance package so that while they're working their next job their banking the monies that could be going to pay the rank-and-file. I was blue collar for 45 years and never once got a dime as severance even when the law prescribed it. In the time between leaving one job and acquiring another I had very little income to work with to hire a lawyer to fight in court for the monies that I was owed from accrued sick leave and vacation time.
I believe the last estimate was today's CEO's make 400 times the avg employee; and back in the 80's it was like 12 time more! That's highway robbery and then factor in everything made in China and there was plenty of money saved to give the average employee a generous liveable wage.
@@veger5872 400x is a rather old stat. The last I heard was 500x, but maybe I dreamed it
We don't let our cars tell US where to go, or our refrigerator tell us what we can or cannot put in it nor does a taxi driver tell US where we will go, why do we let personless corporations run our lives?
What if the the boards of directors of the 50 biggest concentrations of assets were replaced by people chosen at random, like jurors, and obliged to govern in the public interest?
What if pigs fly?
Or, democracy in OUR economy. We decide together ❤️. Starting with worker owned companies
Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Nick leason...bearings bank!
This is why they took away corporate caps and what the hell is going on with corporations having the rights of a person?
Corps have rights as a person thanks to the Supreme Court--so we need to demand Congress gets them to readdress this issue and overturn it or we will continue to get the short end of the stick while Corps buy our politicians!
Look up ...blacks law dictionary, the definition of a person. We are humans. Citizens of a country
The Genius of American Capitialism is the workers blame themsleves when Capitialism fails them with unpredictable boom and bust cycles and Employer greed cause them to loose their jobs or have jobs that are paid poorly. It's not your fault it's the fault of the Rich and Government.
What makes it even worse is Workers are often forced to move and study for years at thier own expense to train themsleves for these jobs.
Listening in from Ireland, love the show.
"Watchya want, communism? You lazy socialist."
~Most Americans
"You don't like having nothing for all the hard work you given? Try to work harder. You're lazy!"
~Americans
Yes your comments are exactly what pit each other against each other We're not asking for a free hand out we're asking for fairness We're not lazy look at someone who it's hired at Walmart you're giving part-time hours because they don't want to give benefits So I can't get 40 hours a week so in turn they have to go on food stamps to supplement their income what do you call that corporate welfare when they can't provide that for their employees
I woke up with the idea of having a $1.40 in my checking account for the rest of this month. But bills are paid and I am happy. I have everything I need. Life is good. Mr. X
I mean it's obvious. If people want to matter in the political discussion, if they want to have human and civil rights in this country you can't vote for anybody who's red or blue because they're all against middle income and lower class persons in this country it's so obvious. They are two sides of the same boil encrusted ass. If you Republican or Democrat you're voting against yourself unless you're already rich so you should just know that. As an extremely hard leftist who puts ordinary people first I just think this conversation is very unfortunate because it's pretty much been going on in one form or another I would say for at least the last hundred years if not more
It really comes down to very simple facts. If you are an ordinary person if you make your living from working for a living, even if right now that's a comfortable living and you vote Republican or democrat, just know you are voting against yourself and you always will be. We need people first parties in this country, we used to have them they were stamped out, and we don't have them right now in the united viable form. And that is what we need going forward to fight the absolute oligopoly, dominion and pillaging of Wall Street and it's two very obedient Wall Street owned parties, those Republicans and democrats. That is all. Anyone who's been paying attention for 5 minutes can see this.
Would RFK jr be a vote for the people?
@@Gingerblaze I mean, I appreciate him on some issues but I'm not sure what his ultimate agenda is, and I'm not sure if he's really serious about running. Either way I think at this point it's pretty impossible for an outside candidate to win. The "two party" red-blue system is an efficient machine and they work together to shut down anyone from the outside pretty efficiently, even challenger candidates like Bernie Sanders they always find a way to neutralize. They know what they're doing, I'll give them that. They are smart organized and have very deep pockets. They found a way to shut down Ross Perot in the 90s quite effectively and they have the same procedures in place anytime someone from the outside tries to muscle in.
Unfortunately it's extremely difficult to bust through the red/blue juggernaut in this country. Or it has been so far.
I'm not the expert, I don't know everything, but I think that politics can help if we can get better politicians in office, I do think it's possible, but so far this seems a tall task in this country. I think the best thing we can do for ourselves if we want to try to get some more humane politicians in office since For better or For worse, they can push different agendas, if that's possible, focus on your state, focus on your local county, and focus on your local city. There may or may not be some good people running but local and in-state politics affects our lives a lot more than federal. I think it's pretty clear that the federal apparatus exists to legitimize and protect all the largest corporate Capital Wall Street interests, and that's about it. They do a few other things that are somewhat positive, like national parks and the VA, but by and large their point is to protect Wall Street and the large organized corporate class by any means necessary.
@@Gingerblaze well I'd love to give you my honest feelings on the issue but right now I can't post anything. Unfortunately yt is just censoring the hellscape out of me.
Trump wants to destroy our democracy in revenge for losing 2020, so he convinced RFK Jr to run, thinking he would take votes from Biden. Now that RFK's votes are coming from Trump voters, Trump denounced him as a radical. The billionaires are against Biden because Biden is making the rich pay their fair share of taxes, for once. Trump wants to give billionaires another tax cut, by taking it out of our social security.
All I can think of is “ let them eat cake” that did it for the French. What’s ours?
🤔 "Let them eat Bugs" ..... 🐇
Breadcrumbs
Let them eat Kelloggs, a healthy whole balanced meal in a bowl.
@@MonaLisa-lu8zi Shifting blame away from billionaires and towards the "new world order" is the idiots form of anti capitalism. Why isn't exploitation bad enough? Why do you need to create conspiracy theories about eating bugs?
"The poor are just lazy." That's what billionaires have been saying to convince workers it's their fault, instead of the fault of the billionaire owners.
They're not doing what needs to be done in order to stabilize America and the world. They already have the tech and I've been showing people how to make it happen for years, but we need officials that actually follow through with doing their jobs correctly and honorably.
Local hospital laid off 300+ workers 4 years ago.
I've heard that many Critical Access Hospitals are closing/being absorbed in to a big corporate healthcare system. Our local hospital doesn't deliver babies anymore so people in this rural area have to drive at least 45 minutes or more to deliver their babies.
So? And? Why?
Wow ..that shows there is something up because a local small town hospital in N.C stopped delivering babies as well...@@lisae6725
The “Walk Away” campaign needs to make its way into the business sector. I’m positioning myself to leave my miserable employer ASAP, for perceived abuse of me & this entire world, and for other personal reasons. I was a 10-year public school teacher only 10 years ago, and I should be approaching retirement soon, but my state legislature saw fit to cut the education budget in 2012, and about 25% of our teachers were laid off. That, too, for many complicated reasons related to how our state laws are enforced or not, I consider abuse by my state, my school district, and the entire education industry. Can a man be appropriately compensated for performing honest & diligent labor on behalf of his peers & public, his family, and our future public? Next, they will find a way to deprive us the vote (maybe already happened), but, remember, they get no income taxes if we have no income. We know how to fix this.
If there ever was a moment for people like Kshama Sawant, that moment is now. She's the ONLY politician with the clarity and uncompromised values to see it through. Please have regular interviews with her and Workers Strike Back to spread the word and gain support.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MUST PUT AMERICA FIRST.....IF THE UNIONS TELL THE LOCAL BUSINESSES THAT UNION WORKERS NEDD THEIR SUPPORT....NO UNION JOBS NO SMALL BUSINESSES....NO COMMMUNITIES... NO STOCK BUY BACKS AT ALL..... GOVERNMENTS MUST GIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPEMENT FUNDS TO SMALL AMERICAN BUSINESSES TO GROW THEM.
The Captain built the ship with the wrong wood and it’s rotting from the inside core.
I read Marx in the early 70s. The only thing I remember was he asserted that in the last days, the capitalist class would become increasingly desperate to extract the last vestiges of value in the working class, and of natural resources. At the time, I thought his predictions were too extreme, yet this is exactly what is happening. I believe we need to change the rules of accounting such that the owner class must account for externalities on their balance sheets With the rise of AI, we need methods to provide the citizenry with free training for new ways of working and a guaranteed income.
I think there's a problem with societal organization. Marx believed too much in natural resources and the Malthusian trap. Technology has transformed our economies, but our societal organization hasn't transformed to adjust. I agree with you on the externalities, but this only changes with government regulation, aka taxes. People don't trust taxes because they're selfish and because there's so much corruption. Societal organization needs to dramatically change.
What naturally comes at the end of capitalism is fascism, especially where natural ressources start growing scarce or harder to extract.
The middle management class is severely bloated, they're the one's taking on the debt of a quarter million starter house. They expect to be able to have their toys but they're a few months from financial disaster. Construction projects forge ahead, how long can this bubble grow?
Why aren’t you mentioning Citizens United?
Good Point. But, they need three to four hours to scratch the surface of all valid topics.
Please do mention Citizens United.
Chris Hedges keeps bringing it, 24/7. A truly courageous, compassionate man speaking truth to power.
By cancelling Chris Hedges, you have shown how difficult the fightback is
like Gore Vidal for me, Chris will be more famous later. of course. I watched Gore Vidal as a child on a B and W TV.
Gore Vidal was definitely under appreciated in his time in my opinion .
It seemed as he grew older he gave up on trying to actively change the system , and settled for writing historical fiction from the Amalfi coast .
But he was right about so many things that are being confirmed and talked about more now , like people are discovering them for the first time .
I especially think of the role of the CIA… an ungovernable force that would seem to have no place in this country as it was originally conceived .
Or the Military Industrial machine.
nice video, in Belgium they have a law to mittigate mass lay offs. it was called the law Renault. it forces the firms who are doing the mass lay off to contribute to getting the people they fire to help them get new jobs and pay them out. per worked year you get 1 month of pay. people over 45 are extra supported to get a new job.
I am a 70 year old person with formal education and great common sense and intuition that have lived in this country more than 40 years and have observed the politics in both countries
Government only has one legitimate function and that is to protect natural rights. Thomas Jefferson
Thank you Chris, one of the only few people with principle. What happened to Scranton Joe! Scranton Union Joe? And whats Bernie doing?
Recently, Bernie is proposing a 4 day workweek with no pay loss!
My president and his wonderful staff works behind the scenes getting the work done. He’s not on a camera every day spouting bs and lies.
Bernie did EVERYTHING that he possibly could. he's spent his entire career fighting for the workers.
One example: Biden's CHIPS & Science Act is bringing high paying manufacturing jobs back to the US.
Maybe your best guest ever Chris. Thank you Sir.
There are more of us than there are of them. Never forget that.
In a capitalist country there is no stopping anyone to become millionaires,billionaires. What truly killed corporations is that majority moved to places like China. Cheap wages, no environmental standards. Next will be these corporations that will leave & move to India, as wages will be cheaper than China.
How do you imagine they became billionaires or oligarchs in the first place? When USSR was broken up, all countries were pillaged but especially, Russia and Ukraine - those who did the pillaging were called oligarchs and for a time were feted in the West as that's were they were investing their stolen loot, especially London, Cyprus, Israel,...!
This is a great interview 👏
Let‘s not forget Right to Work states where you can get fired for the slightest thing.
Corp America discriminate on aged employees 40++ age_employees.
That's why it became so important for 'capital' to smash organised labour rights over the decades.
Workers are all just crabs fighting each other in a bucket now and this is why identity politics plays such vital role in helping to divide and rule.
Globalism, international trade deals and off shoring all help 'capital' to keep tightening the screw.
Come on Chris, we haven't had anything approaching a democracy in decades.
I hope we're not screwed as a whole. The suffering out there is immense
We can make them into Millionaires.
Or compost
Yep. Rural citizens got written off many years ago. It shows how short-sighted the Democratic Party has been.
"short sighted" implies some sort of mistake or accident.
@troywalkertheprogressivean8433
Hmm. Mistake? Forgetfulness? Incompetence?
The electoral college, not the popular vote.
The House of Representatives combined with districting/re-districting.
The Senate, 2 senators/state.
Leading up to the judiciary.
Of course, rural voters don't have lobbyists nor mega-dollars, so there is that.
Suicidal greed and incompetence get my vote.
When people try to blame it all on one political party don't listen to them
Its chilling to think about Chuck Schumer's quote about rural working class and extrapolate how much he must care about Palestinians then. He is one that actually said something. As pathetic and impotent and late and embarrassingly weak as what he did say, he did say something.
This has very significant politically and economically insightful information to support structured labor organization for the economic/political salvation and viability of all the American people and its masses.
It is legalized bribery, oxymoron
I been saying this for years lobbying is legalized bribery.
Speaking generally, there seems to be bad habit by public speakers to cite unnamed sources. Is anyone else tired of hearing statistics and studies being cited, without their sources being named? So, the sources' credibility can be checked. Checked by anyone who chooses to do so.
'You will own nothing and be happy' is the next logical extension of this process.
The rise of the rentiers is inexorable it seems.
that communism when poltical class own everything
The extremes of the left and the right aren't on a spectrum they're on a horseshoe.
To the point where their differences become moot.
Working class has become the slave class making 18.00 a hour
FREEDOM FOREVER 🙏✝️🙏