 Billionaires should not exist. It's something that we need to say loudly and proudly and if possible Put it on a bumper sticker throw that on your car because we need to get the word across that You cannot ever earn a Billion dollars Anyone who earns quote-unquote earns a billion dollars either exploited the labor of their workers or exploited tax laws or exploited our political system to get to that point now I've said before that billionaires shouldn't exist, but moreover they absolutely should not be able to buy elections and buy Positions of power we're seeing that more and more, you know They'll contribute to the campaigns of politicians and get really cushy jobs Betsy Divos is a billionaire who donated to Donald Trump And now she is Secretary of Education isn't that funny how that works, but now they're just becoming more brazen and they're financing their own elections We have a president who did that and now we have individuals like Mike Bloomberg who are trying to do the same thing and he has spent Millions upon millions of dollars more than 50 million I want to say in the first week that he announced to just flood the airwaves and he is Relatively successful at getting his message out there, which is you know proven by the fact that he is polling at the mid-tier Already he's at above 5% I think Passing Andrew Yang someone who has been in this race for over a year So billionaire shouldn't exist and they shouldn't be able to run for president because if you actually want to protect democracy You've got to have some restrictions in place to protect democracy sort of like we shouldn't Tolerate intolerance. We shouldn't you know be so democratic that we allowed democracy to eat itself, right? So with that being said I want to share an article that I found on Jacobin that I absolutely think is crucial It's from Luke Savage and he explains why like Donald Trump Mike Bloomberg is also a threat to democracy He writes from candidates openly courting billionaires at black-tie fundraisers to campaigns that boast intimate ties with private equity and high Finance the immense influence of wealth can be seen everywhere All it took was a few polls favorable to Bernie Sanders and a handful of headlines Containing the words wealth tax to get Howard Schultz musing about mounting a spoiler campaign Not one but two billionaires have jumped into the race since the country's most Gilded caffeine baron got cold feet though the extent to which these efforts will translate into actual votes Remain to be seen Michael Bloomberg's campaign in particular has already become a powerful illustration of the way billionaires convert Their wealth into power as a conscious strategy and the threat that it poses to democracy to state the most obvious Bloomberg has already poured in a whopping 58.4 million to carpet bomb several states with TV and radio Advertising outspending anyone else in the race by exponential margins fellow billionaire Tom Steyer isn't all that far behind More subtle though no less insidious is the way Bloomberg's past contributions to various campaigns and initiatives Have enabled him to purchase political contacts and legitimacy the way a regular person buys groceries Each and every one of Bloomberg's mayoral endorsers has several things in common in addition to their roles as local elected officials All have had him at one time or another as a benefactor and all have attended his prestigious bootcamp at Harvard That gives the mayor's access to ongoing strategic advice from Bloomberg funded experts more than half have also received funding and grants Courtesy of none other than Mike incorporated the problem isn't that such behavior secures wealthy individuals like Bloomberg Direct benefit in the form of quid pro quo Relationships though it certainly can it doesn't have to when you're so rich You have a couple billion dollars to throw around you're no longer an individual making voluntary private contributions Rather you're a stakeholder in the basic infrastructure of politics and society itself as the emerging dynamic in the Democratic presidential race Makes all too clear you can have billionaires or you can have democracy and as long as you have the former You can expect the latter to be perpetually compromised now I think that this is an incredibly powerful argument against not only having billionaires But allowing them to just be able to buy democracy, right? And the article goes into detail about the way that Mike Bloomberg has effectively bought Goodwill and political capital, which is incredibly disturbing. I mean he's spending money buying Complicity from groups and individuals which has allowed him to basically maintain the level of legitimacy that he has currently and this includes Charitable contributions personal favors like paying for medical procedures and whatnot and we touched on the mayoral endorsements He's received and there's a total of eight but that in and of itself even though it's not a large number It shows you how far his reach is because this is someone who is the mayor of one city and mayors in other cities are Suddenly endorsing him. I mean, isn't that interesting? I mean, we really should all be appalled at the fact that billionaires are trying to get elected by using the wealth that they have to buy Goodwill which in turn helps them cultivate political legitimacy. It's just I mean How are people not speaking out about this? How do people who claim to support democracy not feel uncomfortable about this? How does every single person not speak up? How does the media not do in-depth analysis? about this Now the way that this article really portrays Bloomberg in the way He's used his money to do favors for a bunch of people it really reminds me of you know, the clientelism and patronage these types of Patron-client relationships that we see in the Middle East and North Africa So in these really impoverished usually resource rich countries where you know, elites have a lot of money and a lot of the population is desperate Basically, there's these patron-client relationships where a public official will do a favor for you and in exchange for said favor They expect political support. They expect your vote and Oftentimes, you know with these relationships, you can get in good with a public official if you bribe them So for example, if you need like a public document or a driver's license That's not as easy as just going to the DMV and applying here now that that's easy in and of itself But nonetheless, you know, if you want for example a driver's license in one of these countries in the men a region Then you have to basically try to convince a public official to allow you to get one You can bribe that individual or maybe he'll give it to you, but that's a favor So basically the way that these relationships works is that you know, it's it's give and take You know You give as much as you get and that's kind of what I see happening or what at least, you know Luke Savage describes is happening with regard to Mike Bloomberg. He is buying goodwill He's cultivating legitimacy by helping people and their personal political careers and personal lives. It is downright despicable No one should support Mike Bloomberg But people don't know any better. They see his ads and a lot of the times name recognition It really plays a huge role, right? So people may not know better They might just support him because hey, that's the guy who I saw on TV now Sometimes it can backfire right because we're seeing in the state of New Hampshire Where Tom Steyer another billionaire has flooded the airwaves and his ads have become so so, you know annoying that They're basically a meme to people they have them memorized there So maybe it could backfire but with Mike Bloomberg. It seems like his strategy is actually a Little bit more successful. Now whether or not he's going to be able to be somewhat victorious You know that remains to be seen but the fact that he's pulling nationally at above 5% That should be just terrifying to everyone not because we think he'll win But because look at what a billionaire can easily do Spend money that is not that much money to them and You can become a prominent presidential candidate Wow Humanist report, but trust me, I'd have way more supporters at Patriot if that was my podcast said