That guy pictured above is Nick Hanauer. Click that link for Hanauer's own, self-promoting self-description. As an alternative, you can click this link to be whisked into the world of TED Talks, where Hanauer begins a seventeen-minute presentation with this statement:
I ..... [long pause, for emphasis] am a capitalist.
Hanauer's braggadocio is offputting, at least to me. After declaring himself to be "a ... capitalist," Hanauer makes it more specific: "I am not just in the top 1%, I am in the top .01% of all earners." In fact, if you search for him on YouTube, you will find lots of Hanauer TED Talks, most of them going out of their way to establish his "capitalist" credentials by bragging about how rich he is, how he has his own plane, a yacht, etc.
Despite the self-promotion, it is Hanauer's project to help us all understand "The dirty secret of capitalism -- and a new way forward," which is the title he has given to the TED Talk that I have linked in this blog posting. Despite Hanauer's offputting self-aggrandizement, I recommend that you do spend seventeen minutes with Hanauer, because at just a little past the fifteen-minute mark in his presentation, Hanauer makes the following statement, as the conclusion to his remarks:
https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_the_dirty_secret_of_capitalism_and_a_new_way_forward?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomsharehttps://www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_the_dirty_secret_of_capitalism_and_a_new_way_forward?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
If we want a new economics, all we have to do is choose to have it.
With that observation, Hanauer does reveal what might be called capitalism's "dirty secret." The economic conditions in which we currently live are not "inevitable." Economic "laws" are not like the laws that govern the Natural World. We can change the rules.
"Capitalist" that he is, Hanauer suggests that we ought to do that.
And I agree!
Image Credit:
https://www.seattletimes.com/life/nick-hanauer-wants-to-stop-the-nation-from-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket/
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