How Wealth Concentration Threatens US Democracy

But already the 10 richest Americans have two point three trillion of wealth.

That's a lot for 10 people, 10 individuals.

That's not 10 companies, that's not 10 clans, that's 10 people.

But they also happen to own a lot more. They own the White House.

They installed the vice president. They determine US government policy.

They will own the cryptocurrencies, which will become our main currencies.

They own all of the big platforms on which we communicate.

They own YouTube, of course, which is, uh, the channel where I'm able to say sometimes things that are not in the US government's liking, but I don't know for how long.

They own my email address. They own the full knowledge of every keystroke I've made in the last ten years, no doubt.

They own my privacy.

They own the newspapers, like The Washington Post, owned by Jeffrey Bezos.

They will own TikTok shortly, TikTok USA, because Larry Ellison is buying it on behalf of Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ellison will give it to his son, uh, as a nice gift.

He's already given to his son Paramount Studios, Paramount Media, and CBS News.

It's quite a world, and that's just ten or so Americans.

So we're in a very strange concentration of power, I think the likes of which we've never seen before.

It has already destroyed democracy. We are democratic in form only, but we don't have a sensible non-democratic system.

We have a privatized system, which is quite different.

Uh, in China, which is not a democracy, uh, it is a technocracy.

In the United States, it's the other way around, which is the government is subordinate to the, uh, particular corporate class now, uh, of, uh, the big tech sector.

So we're in a governance adventure as well.

Will there be general wellbeing? Depends on how we use our surplus.

If all the surplus goes to the top, then we will have mass impoverishment.