 Good evening and welcome to the right side the show where we talk about today's news views and trends from an admittedly conservative Perspective I'm your host Chris Pareja and this evening. We're joined by your on Brooke. He's internationally known as an author a Speaker a scholar and you're on we're glad to have you in the studio with us this evening. Thanks for having me on and So you've you are a Pete offender Before and I came back and we appreciate that even more And lots has gone on since you've last been here, but one of the most recent things is you've written a new book Yes, yes, and we're going straight for the third rail. We're gonna place our tongue against it here in the The Bay Area, it's all about equality. Yeah, but your book is even entitled equal is unfair Blast bemer, but does that mean but that's really the issue, right? The valley is the opposite of being all about equality, right? Everybody's trying to get rich and rich big and rich fast. What are all these startups trying to do? There's no money involved. There's no wealth effect involved, right? Quite the contrary what you have in this in the valley is a spirit of freedom a spirit of liberty a spirit of going out They're making the most for yourself and you've got billionaires and you've got young people coming in who can barely afford to Rent a little place with a bunch of roommates, but they want to be successful. They want to be rich So in many respects the Silicon Valley is one of the last places on the planet in America Where this ambition? Where this idea of achieving where this idea of inequality of Made doing the best that you can is still alive and well in the country. Maybe not what people say But in the way they act It's interesting that you say that because here we are in the land of Bernie Sanders supporters and everything else You've got young entrepreneurs who are starting businesses and they're saying we want Bernie. How do you? Justify that did well, they hate themselves So in a sense in a sense they do in a sense as there's a certain sense of guilt that is associated with being successful Today in America and that guilt You know Bernie and the left generally capitalizes in that guilt You know, we all trained from when we're very little to believe that to be model to be good We need to sacrifice. We need to give we need to go to Africa enjoy borders You know doctors with our borders or something like that and yet what we really want to do is come to Silicon Valley Become an entrepreneur and make lots of money and then once we make that money We feel guilty because we didn't go to Africa So we support Bernie and we support Hillary and we support all the variety of Causes that that are supposedly you know counter to the fact that we actually achieved something with our lives now I take the entrepreneur any day over the guy who goes to Africa In terms of the benefit of my life to your life and his own life Like the whole issue of inequalities of bogus issue Who cares who cares about how rich the rich get who cares About the gap between the rich and the poor what matters is are people rising up the people have the Opportunities to make their own life better and what's beautiful about Silicon Valley is this is the land of opportunity People have opportunities. They have opportunities because this is again the last industry that is relatively Unregulated that the government has relatively speaking left alone so that people here can actually create wealth They can create businesses. They can hire people they can make their dreams come true The American dream is alive and well again to some extent in Silicon Valley. That's what it's not about the gap If everybody's rising if everybody's better off Who cares what the difference is between the two, right? Well, especially if you can get people to be wealthy and then feel guilty They can do a lot more positive for the world with actual money in their pockets See, but that's the problem you conservatives think this way No, you don't stop doing good in the world after you make the money Making money is what does good in the world How do you make money? Right, this is one-on-one. How do you make money? You make money by creating great products that people Want to buy why do they want to buy it because it's gonna make their life better Where do you think Bill Gates has made the world a better place more in Microsoft or in his philanthropy? I mean, it's not even close at Microsoft Bill Gates changed the world He affected every human being on the planet. He created a platform a soft way an industry that's changed everything Okay, so now he's curing some Malaysian Africa nothing wrong with that But he's affecting maybe a few thousand people here and there when he ran Microsoft that Profits seeking, you know, horrible person, right? Right. He was changing the world for the better every person in the world So making money Is a form of making the world a better place? Profit is a virtue Philanthropy charity, it's okay. Nothing wrong with it. It doesn't change the world a billion people One billion people have come out of poverty over the last 30 years in the world one billion people We should be celebrating in the streets. How did they come out of poverty because of foreign aid because of charity? No, because China and India freed up their markets a little bit and allowed a little bit of capitalism and people got rich, right? The United States when it was founded was a third-rate colony, right? That's where the British didn't win because they didn't really try, right? They were too busy with real powers like the French and the Spanish We were third-rate within 150 years with the mightiest economy in the world because of philanthropy community service and charity No, of course not realism. Yeah, because a businessman Greedy businessman business and wanted to make money Businessmen who are working hard to make a great product that they they could only sell to willing customers And the product made those willing customers lives better So instead of calling the robber barons that the real heroes of America the real heroes of America a businessman who make Everything in the world around us everything in the world around us is a product of some business small business medium-sized business Large business, but that's the real heroes of America and that's what makes the world a better place But you almost make it sound like they earned it instead of stole it all or yeah Yes, they did you know in America we talk about making money not taking money not stealing money But making money we talk about creating wealth right now. This is why in Europe They hate inequality why because in Europe if you go back three four hundred years, how did people become rich? They got rich by stealing money. I mean what are aristocrats? They're better thieves than anybody else That's how you get a title by stealing more money than the guy next door, right? So in Europe it was a zero-sum game before capitalism before freedom before they before the revolution There was the Industrial Revolution The world was really a zero-sum game if you look at income and wealth per capita for 10,000 years It didn't change until about 1800 when it took off until about really 1776 when it took off, right? So in Europe they have this mentality that wealth is if you're wealthy it means you've taken it from me So I hate you right in America We have we a country that grew up during the Industrial Revolution We're country that grew up during the era of capitalism. So we believe that wealth is something you create you build It's not a zero-sum game. It's a win-win if you're rich It's you become rich by making my life better You become rich by creating products that are helping me live my life So we've never had that envy that is so prevalent in Europe until recently and this is What's so evil about the whole inequality debate is what the leftist trying to do is inculcate envy Into an American people that have never known envy in in in survey after survey Opinion poll after opinion poll Americans always have said in the past. We don't care about inequality We care about my opportunity, you know each person's opportunity We want to be successful. We don't envy the guy across the street is rich in us We want to be the guy across the street and we're gonna work out to be there That's changing and it's changing because of propaganda on the left as Keeps pushing this idea that inequality as Obama says there of our time. You didn't build that Pelosi just the other day said oh the government created the iPhone all the technology in the iPhone is government funded It's got which is a load of you know what plus but it's biodegradable. You know what I'm sure yes It is biodegradable government created but biodegradable probably I mean imagine what the iPhone would look Imagine what the iPhone would look like if the government really did speaking of biodegradable. Yes. Yes, so This is a campaign the left has launched and has been very successful in trying to establish Envy in America and you're seeing that today Unfortunately in in in Booty Sanders campaign somewhat in Trump's campaign, but you're seeing this us versus them Mentality that I think is very very destructive that you appear and un-American But it's becoming more and more America because we're becoming more and more like you So that's what the book is about that the book is really to combat that They there be no real books on the right Thomas So wrote a short book and there's been one or two other books, but they very few books That have taken on the left campaign I mean every one of the leftists are Krugman Stiglitz this guy this French guy Piketty They've all written these big books every year ten books come out from the left on the evils of inequality, right? The right zero well now there's one and and that's that's equal is unfair Which I think which I think is crucial for us to win the battle against them And so you know you brought up a couple of presidential candidates Still that are there so as far as this whole battle for Capitalism if that really even exists in the States anymore, which is arguably probably not the case Versus this whole leftist propaganda driven everything must be equal We've got these candidates that most of the country is not excited about but which would help to really create wealth In that again the going forward or combat at least this notion that Equal equality can be artificially created. Yeah, I don't think either one of them I really think if you take Hillary and and Trump as the candidates, I don't think either one of them I think both are incredibly destructive to whatever's left of capitalism in this country Whatever's left of freedom in this country, they would each destroy maybe different parts of it They would emphasize different aspects of it, but both are incredibly destructive to freedom and look There is one sense in which equality is very important If the sense in which the founding fathers talked about equality and that's equality before the law and equality of freedom Equality of rights equality of liberty Every one of us is born free We have a right to pursue the values that make our life the best life that it can be we have a right to pursue our own happiness and the inequality the people who advocate for for all these inequality problems all their Solutions are always to limit our freedom and to constrain our freedom. They're all equal if you have nothing Yes, and and that's what they're trying to do because they're ultimately you can only be equal when you all have nothing and look There were problems in America. There's problems of poverty There's problem of no economic growth and this problem of cronyism both Hillary and Trump will do nothing about poverty. They will make it worse The they're both for increasing the minimum wage Trump is for increasing the minimum wage Hillary is the minimum wage is one of the dumbest stupidest No real economist Believes the minimum wage is good. It's it's a net drain Economically and it puts the poorest of the poor. It hurts teenage Teenages in inner cities the most right in poor neighborhoods Neither of them will do anything about economic growth. Neither of them has any solutions for Trump wants a trade war with China That will destroy economic growth that could spiral the world into a depression That you could it's probably one of the worst Economic policies I can imagine and in terms of cronyism. Can you imagine I'm a crony pair Then then Hillary who receives money and Trump who's been spending money their entire lives manipulating the system Both of them are complete cronies that both manipulated. So they've collaborated before on this effort Yeah, Trump has actually given Hillary, you know to buy favors and he's admitted it He the one thing about Trump you have to give him credit for is he doesn't seem to be ashamed of the best about his cronyism Which says something about an electorate who's willing to elect somebody who says yeah, I'm a crony cool You know that that's nuts. That's so un-American. That's so against everything we believe in and yet people are voting for him under The belief that he will end cronyism. No, he's gonna make it much worse. So we've got candidates who are gonna hurt the poor Hurt economic growth in the middle class therefore and make cronyism more prevalent in this country not less prevalent in this country so on Every important issue on the real problems that we face not this inequality non-issue Both candidates are awful and really there's a there's a dearth of solutions out there because nobody has the courage to actually advocate For policies which America used to stand for the policy of the founding fathers Well, but I'm sure they've got to have some good attributes like foreign policy or something, right? I mean you said okay. Well, Trump could kick off a trade war with the rest of world Yeah, but I mean I'm sure Hillary's you know former secretary No, I suspect neither one of them have any positive attributes and in any in any area And I would probably find myself disagreeing vehemently with both on almost everything You know the I'd say the only virtue that Donald Trump I can think of really has is the fact that he's not PC I'm very pro not being PC. I'm a huge advocate of free speech You got to say it like it is and and that speech needs to be protected no matter how Offended people are the whole point of free speech the whole point of a First Amendment is to protect you from offending You're right to offend me. Remember the United States of America was founded by a bunch of guys who offended the British Right read the Declaration of Independence. Sometimes it's a very offensive document if you're King George, right? Well, but I mean but but it doesn't sound like either of them is really a big fan of the First Amendment outside of them speaking though either No, neither one. I mean Donald Trump is talked about expanding like the laws and you can't you can't offend him He's allowed to offend everybody, but you can't offend him He has a very very thin skin and I feel what that means when he's in the White House And of course Hillary Clinton is part of a leftist establishment that doesn't believe free speech is a right That again, you can't offend through speech Donald Trump I don't people don't remember this but after Gaul in Texas the shooting in Gaul in Texas Which nobody remembers nobody even mentioned that it was about a year ago is a year and a month almost exactly ago when when two Muslim radicals wanted to shoot up this cartoon contest this Mohammed cartoon contest and right after that Donald Trump's response and bill O'Reilly responds and much of Fox's response. This is the right was Kind of they asked for it, you know stop drawing these cartoons and and they'll stop shooting at you That is defeatism. That is horrible. That is that is the opposite of what free speech means I mean that the founding fathers would be horrified by a view like that Yeah, it is interesting that People think that they have a right not to be offended but but the measure and we're seeing that on campuses right with what they call the the snowflake Generation where you can't offend anybody they they now have safe spaces where you can go ahead hug a teddy bear If I say something you don't like, you know, we've got sofas over there. You can go hug a teddy bear There's calm music going on. I mean really at a university where you're supposed to be challenged You're supposed to be pushed. You're supposed to be exposed to their way of ideas You can't offend people now. They have trigger warnings the curriculum now has oh you might be offended by this reading So you can you can excuse yourself from reading it You you don't have to sit in this class because you might find something that the professor says offensive Well, you use words like founding fathers and that assigns the gender role Yes, absolutely, you know a lot of these things somebody is going to be offended by and certainly if you come to one of my speeches Lots of trigger warnings. I'm gonna offend a lot of different people equally Probably not equally because I don't believe in equality after all. I only believe in equality before the law Look the solutions to poverty The solutions to money how ridiculous economic growth and the solutions to cronyism are all the same The freedom freedom is the solution to all these problems and yes making money the freedom to make money But you know some of us choose not to make money some of us choose to be teachers Some of us choose professions what we know when I because we love it, right? The definition of independence doesn't say you have to wait to make money you do but you have a way to pursue happiness, right? Some of us do that by becoming entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley Some people do it by becoming teachers some do it by by becoming car mechanics, whatever it is that you choose to pursue You should be free to pursue it and and it's freedom. That is the key It's it's the it's the liberty to say to think and to pursue rational values They're gonna lead to your own happiness. That's what this country was found the principal was founded on and you're right We're not capitalist anymore. We're not free anymore. Now everything's by by permission. We're crony I call us the regulatory welfare state, right? The state regulates everything. So of course we're crony, you know If you're gonna regulate my life, I'm gonna try to influence you because I'm gonna try you know, there's There's the famous Microsoft story in the early 90s Microsoft didn't lobby Didn't go to Washington didn't have any lawyers Didn't have a building in the beltway nothing and they were brought in front of the Senate and they were said you better start lobbying by a Republican arm and hatch you better start lobbying you need to have a presence in wise DC What do you guys think you're doing and Microsoft walked away and said, you know, you leave us alone. We'll leave you alone We're not interested guess what happened six months later knocking the door We're from the Justice Department and we think it's wrong of you to be giving away Internet Explorer for free So we're gonna sue you guess what Microsoft learned from that after More than a decade in in federal court. They learned from that they better lobby said today They spent tens of millions of dollars They've got this beautiful building about equal distance from the White House and Congress right there. It's beautiful glass Good just building they spent a lot of money on these politicians now They've learned they listen cronyism is a is a is a feature of statism. That's why I never say crony capitalism Capitalism is the absence of cronyism cronyism is a feature of socialism fascism any form of statism necessitates cronyism well, but in that case, I mean they're actually I mean just Demanding ransom. Yep to be able to stay in business. I mean if you look at this whole Thirst for equality and you look at the Silicon Valley as an example It's interesting to me that for example, we insist that minimum wage be raised and everything else But entrepreneurs don't go in it for money at all or someone who would be willing to intern for free to build their resume Their opportunities actually taken away if they have to charge money to get that opportunity my son works my son writes comedy In Hollywood, you know how much they start to death. You know how much they pay zero exactly performs and he writes and Zero exactly zero no minimum wage applies to them no minimum wage applies to interns No minimum wage applies to middle-class type jobs where you know those kids are gonna find a way to survive In spite of the fact that they're getting paid zero where the people we are screwing the people We are consciously screwing when we raise the minimum wage are the people who have the least voice are the people who have the fewest opportunities they in a city typically minority youth and and and look the minimum wage was instituted when it was first instituted It was a program instituted by the unions to keep minorities out They didn't want the labor competition So they raised them in a way so they could price those people out and it's it's doing the same thing today And this is why unions support it but it goes beyond that I mean recently in Oakland they raised the minimum wage Walmart said we can't afford to pay people anymore. They shut down the store So 500 jobs lost, but additionally all of the low-cost goods that were available before a gun are now gone So the the community is impacted multiple times by this, but of course, but it's Walmart evil Yes, Walmart is Walmart is the problem. They should have subsidized this They should have taken a loss in order to do this But look that's the reality if McDonald's has to pay 15 bucks an hour They're gonna they can do a few things they can automate right they get you go in and press an iPad now They're machines that have flipped the whole burger. They'll do the whole thing, right? They can automate or they can raise prices on the on the hamburgers now both I know you eat at McDonald's, but I don't most people who eat at McDonald's a low-income people And they're gonna raise the price of McDonald's in order to pay the low-income people more I mean the whole thing is ludicrous and nuts and again. It's hurting the people, but nobody cares You see the left doesn't care about poor people. They care about power They care about maintaining their position as seeming to help their poor people and maintaining control on all of us That's what the real agenda is and they're being very successful at it You have to give them credit for basically winning the battle because we're losing right those of us who believe in freedom are clearly Losing in this country. Yeah, it's a shame and if they raise the prices too much at McDonald's entrepreneurs like me won't be able to afford to eat You better get an exit on that company quickly, you know, it's an inducement to make more money Yeah, exactly. It's an incentive structure. No, it's it's the fact is That we have distorted and it's not look it's not just minimum wage It's licensing laws in California. You need a license to shampoo hair, right? Who is that hood? I mean, it's an attorney here. Yeah, I mean, it's not it's hurting poor people who are trying to get a job shampoo here You need a license to open a nail salon. Who does that hood a young? You know entrepreneurs trying to start a business instead of making it simple for people to rise up We make it harder and harder and harder and the more we regulate the less businesses are gonna invest The less businesses are gonna grow the fewer jobs that going to be and then surprise surprise We wake up on morning and the economy is not growing more than 1% a year for years You know, Japan's been living this for 20 something years. You think we'd learn something They just haven't done it, right? Yeah, and instead we want to debate inequality. I want to debate the gap Let's not debate the actual problems. Let's debate the gap. The gap is Irrelevant. There's no economic theory No empirical fact. There's no evidence zero evidence that suggests that the gap has any negative Consequences at all quite the contrary the fact that there's a gap often incentivizes people So appreciate you sharing and the passion with which you do it. We do have to go for now Quickly website so people can find you iron ran dot org a y n r a n d dot o a g Thanks, Ron. If you hold on for just a moment We'll be right back after a word from our underwriters the conservative forum Some people think that a meeting of conservatives in Silicon Valley could fit in a small room In fact when the conservative forum was founded in 2003 We did meet in a small room a coffee shop in San Jose. It doesn't get more grassroots than this It may surprise you that there are thousands of people right here in Silicon Valley who share your principles of Liberty Free markets and limited government Since our humble beginnings in that coffee shop We've outgrown three meeting halls from San Jose to Gilroy to Mill Valley We bring hundreds of people together each month from all over the Bay Area to promote the principles of American Liberty How do we do it? It starts with a stellar lineup of speakers Speakers like Steve Forbes Senator Jim DeMint Dr. Victor Davis Hansen Lieutenant Colonel Alan West Andrew Breitbart Pamela Geller and many others These speakers passionately articulate our shared principles and remind us why Conservatism isn't just the smart choice. It's also the moral choice Our monthly meetings are only one dimension of the forum We underwrite the right side a monthly television show on cable access channel KMVT We also host a monthly constitution discussion group and provide tables at our meetings for more than a dozen local groups Who share our love of Liberty to promote their specific cause The conservative forum is the premier place in Silicon Valley for conservatives to gather become invigorated motivated and Empowered we welcome guests to our monthly meetings and offer special discounted pricing to first-time visitors take a look at our speaker lineup in the coming months and join us to learn why we say Liberty is made in America and Welcome back to the right side. That was a word from our underwriters the conservative forum and while we Tremendously respect and appreciate the forum because they've made this show possible for five seasons now We're really not what they're best known for what they're best known for is their speaker series Which includes guests celebrities from around the country and around the world including your on brook Who was with us this evening and that's the reason we actually got to bring them on the show It was because we often get to talk to the speakers there and warm them up for the big show at 432 Stirling Road here in Mountain View the second Tuesday of each month in July Nick Adams the founder and executive director of the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness flag We'll be speaking and in August Andrew C. McCarthy Special that's gonna be a special event. He's a best-selling author and a frequent guest commentator at Fox News He'll be there if you need more information visit the website at the conservative forum Com for more details about showtimes, etc But in closing this evening, we'd just like to encourage you to learn more about your on brook at Einrund Institute and the things that they're doing there to help keep speech free and competitive with other ideas Such as the march to the left that we seem to be taking as a country I'm sure you'll find yourself educated and with new perspectives by visiting the site there We'd like to thank you for joining us this evening on the right side. I'm your host Chris Perejo We've enjoyed having you we'll look forward to seeing you in person or on the show sometime soon But if you just can't wait reach out to us at the right side TV at gmail.com and we'll get your questions answered As quickly as possible. Thanks again and have a great night