Plutocrat Talking (repost)

"Beware fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming" is the title of a short speech by Nick Hanauer, an obscenely rich plutocrat. Don't worry; those are his own words. I would really, really like you all to watch his TED talk.

I often speak out against the perceived merits of capitalism and regularly warn against its inherent tendency to create a small upper-class if left unchecked. I said it before but it seems it can't be repeated often enough: there is no invisible hand regulating market forces toward some sort of equilibrium. This opinion doesn't score any popularity points in today's western societies where the notion of individual freedom takes precedence over almost anything else. The government necessary to protect society against the excesses of a dog eat dog economical system, has fallen out of grace and any sound in favor of government is looked down upon and thrown aside as "socialist" or "communist".

This is why I was delighted a couple of years ago to find the TED speech by Nick Hanauer, that was originally banned:

In May 2012, several online news outlets reported that Hanauer's March 1, 2012, TED talk on inequality had not been posted online by TED Talks. In that short presentation he criticized what he called "an article of faith for Republicans:" the assertion that "if taxes on the rich go up, job creation will go down."

"Businesses and the rich do not create jobs. Jobs are created by a feedback loop between customers and businesses that is set in motion by consumers increasing their demand."

Thus he proposed the necessity for higher median incomes for workers rather than tax breaks for the wealthy, stating,

"If lower income tax rates for the wealthy really worked we would be drowning in jobs, and yet unemployment and underemployment is at record highs."
_{source: Wikipedia}

Nick's TED talk was banned specifically because he challenged the dogma that jobs are created by entrepreneurs. Maybe it's best worded in this article from Time Magazine:

Their slogan is “ideas worth spreading.” But the folks at TED – the Technology Entertainment and Design nonprofit behind the TED Talks, beloved by geeks and others interested in novel new ideas – evidently think that some ideas are better left unspread. At least when the ideas in question challenge the conventional wisdom that rich entrepreneurs are the number one job creators.
_{source: Time - May 18, 2012}

This man is a hero in my book. He obviously believes deeply in capitalism's merits and even I can agree with this idealized perspective on that economic theory. He is a plutocrat himself and freely admits to it. Here's some more quotes from the original talk:

I can say with confidence that rich people don't create jobs, nor do businesses large or small. Jobs are a consequence of a circle-of-life-like feedback-loop between customers and businesses, and only consumers can set in motion this virtuous cycle of increasing demand and hiring. In this sense, an ordinary consumer is more of a job creator than a capitalist, like me.

Anyone who's ever run a business knows that hiring more people is a course of last resort for capitalists. It's what we do if and only if rising consumer demand requires it. And in this sense calling yourself job creators isn't just inaccurate, it's disingenuous.

Nick even expanded on his original talk and in 2014 I found that one: "Beware fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming". Like I said in the intro, I'd really like you to take a look at that talk if you haven't seen it before. I think everything he says makes perfect sense if we agree that capitalism is the best we can do. I'm especially glad about how this multi-billionaire plutocrat recognizes the need for capitalism to be well regulated (by a working democracy). We live in a time where it's an open question if government, even a democratic one, is the only way to regulate an economy of any kind. Maybe blockchain technology, Artificial Intelligence, or a combination of both or even something completely different and unforeseen are far better candidates; only time will tell. But that markets need to be regulated in one way or another is evident in my mind, as well as in this plutocrat's mind.

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