 So, I know that I'm preaching to the choir whenever I talk about capitalism and how bad it is for democracy, but it really can't be overstated how bad capitalism is for democratic societies. It has led to the commodification of every facet of American life. Our criminal justice system, our healthcare system, even the democratic process itself has become a money-making venture when these things should be off the table. You shouldn't have to consider profits when thinking about the delivery of healthcare. You shouldn't have to consider the amount of money you need to raise if you're running to be elected. And the fact that you do, the fact that it's crucial to your electoral success, it really speaks to how damaging capitalism is. Now, people like to distinguish between capitalism and crony capitalism, or capitalism and unfettered capitalism. And the thing is, you can reign in capitalism, you can create new rules. The problem is that capitalism is a virus that attacks those rules. So you may be able to curtail capitalism and assuage the fears of people, make it a little bit softer around the edges for a couple of decades, but it always waters down the rules that hold it back and it unleashes its disgusting force on our society. It corrupts culture. It pits Americans against each other. So I think a lot of people are waking up, people in my generation. We are increasingly anti-capitalist and we are more socialist. So the writing is on the wall, the next generation will soon come to power and these large multinational corporations who have rigged the system are realizing capitalism is currently experiencing a PR crisis and if we don't do something, there's going to be regulation and we will be crushed once the next generation comes to power. You know, the Democratic primary voters are on the cusp of electing someone like Bernie Sanders and even Elizabeth Warren, who are vowing to reign us in. So if we don't act, then things are going to be a lot worse for us. So they've come up with a solution. CEOs in different industries have decided that they're vowing to put people over profits and they're going to make that their number one goal. I don't believe this, like at all. Just so you know. So Jack Kelly, a fortune explains on Monday, the business roundtable and association of over 180 chief executive officers of America's leading companies headed by the well-respected CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, Jamie Diamond released a statement that could radically change the mission of corporations and the lives of their employees. For over 600 years, capitalism has reigned supreme. Companies were expected to generate the most profits for their shareholders. The employees, vendors and communities where they operate were of lesser concern. All that mattered was the bottom line and how much the shareholders earned on their investments. Their pursuit of profits prevailed over everything else. The business roundtable recommended that corporations must change the way they operate and now focus on their employees, the places where they conduct business and their vendors to ensure that everyone is treated fairly. This will come before the needs and wants of the shareholders. Now allow me to translate what they're saying here. Please, please, please don't elect Bernie Sanders. Don't elect anyone who's going to impose new regulations on us and tax us more heavily. We promise we will regulate ourselves. We promise that we will treat our workers fairly. Stop exploiting them. Just please, for the love of God, don't impose any new laws that would force us to do all of these things that we're telling you we're going to do. I mean, how dumb do they think we are? They honestly think that we believe them when they tell us that they're willing to put people over profits when they have a fiduciary responsibility to increase shareholder value. You honestly believe that with no new regulations, with no new laws, you're just going to willy nilly do the right thing, really? And let's look at the four main commitments that they're vowing to uphold. So they want to value their customers. They want to fairly compensate their employees. They want to deal fairly and ethically with vendors. They want to support the communities that they work within. I mean, come on. They literally think that we are stupid enough to believe that they're going to rein themselves in that they're capable of self-regulation. I mean, I have no words. Of course, that's not possible. That's not the way things work. That's not the way that capitalism functions. So, of course, I don't believe them. And I actually find it patronizing and insulting that they think that we're this stupid. They think that this will suffice, that they'll just say, you know what? We're going to take your advice. We're going to put people over profits. Sure, again. Now, my favorite part, which really it says everything you need to know is when you look at the list of CEOs included here, because that will tell you everything that you need to know. These are the individuals who have signed this pledge. This includes the CEO of American Airlines, American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, whose employees literally have to piss in jugs so that way they can be more productive. Tim Cook of Apple, who, you know, in China at the factories where they manufacture iPhones, they literally have to put up suicide nets because the conditions are so poor. You have Big Pharma CEOs, Philip Blake of Bayer, David Cardone of Cigna, Albert Borla of Pfizer. You have Defense Contractors, Dennis Mullenberg of Boeing, Marilyn Houston of Lockheed Martin, Thomas Kennedy of Raytheon, Kathy Warden of Northrop Grumman, AT&T CEO, Randall Stevenson, Robert Dudley, CEO of BP, Michael Worth, the CEO of Chevron, Darren Wood, CEO of ExxonMobil, the CEO of Comcast. I mean, come on, come on, people. Who believes this? These are the heads of companies that exploit workers, rig the economy, buy off politicians, manufacture bombs that are dropped on the heads of babies. Do they honestly think that we're stupid enough to believe that they are willing to put people over profits? I mean, that entire notion is antithetical to what they believe in. If you want to put people over profits, Lockheed Martin, you have to dismantle your entire corporation because you make the bombs that kill people. You buy politicians in order to make sure that we are in perpetual war. What are you talking about? This is so unbearably patronizing and just such a brazen attempt at virtue signaling for the purpose of preventing future regulation that it makes me feel nauseous. Look, if you want to do better, we need to see less talk and more action. Start by taking a substantial pay cut. Are they willing to do that? Don't think so. Stop buying politicians, stop lobbying members of Congress to do your bidding. Start there, start paying all of your workers a living wage. The fact that you are saying you're going to do all of these things means nothing because everything that you have done demonstrates that you only prioritize profits because that's what you do. That's what the whole goal of capitalism is. You are about making money. So for us to believe that you would actually change your actions and prioritize people over profits without regulation is absurd. Maybe you'll dupe some people. The author of this article that I read to you, what's his name? Jack Kelly, he seemed like, you know, this is some huge revolutionary thing. People like that may buy it, who have already drunken the capitalist Kool-Aid. But I think most people are not dumb enough to believe that you'd be willing to just do the right thing because you feel like it. No, of course, these large multinational corporations are not going to do the right thing because they feel like it. You have to make them do the right thing with regulation and laws, not by hoping that they'll, you know, choose to just start being more ethical. That's not the way that capitalism works. That's not the way that anything works. What a joke. This is just laughable.