The season of giving is officially here and look, 0:03 I know it often seems like Americans are self-obsessed, narcissistic, and vain, 0:08 and that's because we are. 0:11 We're obsessed with ourselves. Think about how pissed off you get 0:13 when your phone doesn't recognize your face. 0:17 You're like, “Excuse me, Apple. Do you even know who I am?” 0:21 But it's important to remember Americans are also incredibly generous. 0:25 Last year, Americans donated $428 billion. 0:30 We're home to some of the biggest charities in the world. 0:32 United Way, Red Cross, 0:34 and of course, Go Fund Me, 0:37 the best way to help your friend get used DJ equipment. 0:40 Now, American charities even gave us those star-infested music videos. 0:46 -♪ We are the world ♪ -♪ We are the world ♪ 0:49 -♪ We are the children ♪ -♪ We are the children ♪ 0:53 ♪ We are the ones who make a brighter day So let's start giving ♪ 0:58 ♪ Start giving ♪ 1:01 ♪ Stand tall, stand proud... ♪ 1:05 ♪ Voices that care ♪ 1:07 Wait, wait, if you're trying to save the world, 1:10 your first thought shouldn't be, “Get me Jon Lovitz.” 1:15 He's like, “Kuwait. You're welcome.” 1:19 Now, here's what's strange, though. 1:21 Despite taking in record donations last year, 1:24 the actual number of Americans giving to charity 1:28 has been falling for almost fifteen straight years. 1:31 But the total share of donations coming from the ultra-rich is skyrocketing. 1:36 By one estimate, 30% of all charitable donations this year 1:40 are expected to come not from the top 1%, 1:43 but the top half of the 1%. 1:46 This is the penthouse on top of the penthouse. 1:48 These are the people who hire Elton John to babysit. 1:52 Which is a symptom of a much bigger problem, 1:55 wealth inequality. 1:57 Now, it's at historic levels. 1:58 The 400 richest Americans own more wealth 2:01 than the bottom 150 million adults. 2:04 Now the rich don't want us coming after them with pitchforks, 2:07 which is why you see this sort of thing. 2:10 I've committed to a $100 million challenge grant. 2:13 -$100 million? -$100 million. 2:18 Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo! 2:21 Michael Bloomberg making a huge donation, 2:23 $1.8 billion with a “B” 2:25 to John Hopkins University. 2:27 “The philanthropist Robert Smith 2:28 shocking the graduates 2:29 with an unexpected gift.” 2:31 My family is making a grant 2:33 to eliminate their student loans. 2:38 Okay, wiping out that debt 2:40 was only the second best part of that video. 2:42 The best part of that video is the guy's reaction in the corner. 2:45 ...to eliminate their student loans. 2:50 Also, billionaires, come on. Stop giving out money through grants. 2:55 That shit's boring. I want to see cash exchanging hands. 2:58 Just once I want to see Warren Buffett giving out money like Drake. 3:03 ♪ It's a lot of bad things That they wishin' and wishin' ♪ 3:06 ♪ And wishin' and wishin' and wishin' On me ♪ 3:09 ♪ Hey! ♪ 3:10 ♪ She say, “Do you love me?” I tell her, “Only partly” ♪ 3:13 ♪ I only love my bed and my mama I'm sorry ♪ 3:16 Hey, you didn't think Buffett could go hard, right? 3:20 That's him on the weekend. 3:22 Now, it feels good watching good things happen to good people. 3:25 That's why we love when rich people donate to scholarships, 3:28 low income housing, school laptops, mosquito nets, and divorce settlements. 3:34 Look, I know it's sad, 3:35 but they can both afford to buy fresh brains with new memories. 3:43 But look, there's still a lot that's missing from this picture. 3:46 We always talk about how the rich make their money. 3:49 Right? But we almost never scrutinize how they give it away. 3:54 And that matters 3:55 because giving money away is one of the main ways 3:57 they justify being so rich to begin with. 4:00 That's why I want to talk about big philanthropy. 4:03 ‘Cause on paper it sounds great, right? 4:05 Rich people are trying to make the world a better place. 4:08 But are billionaires really going to save us? 4:11 And it is it worth everything that we give up 4:12 by letting them even be so rich? 4:15 Look, I'm not sure. ‘Cause when you look at the big philanthropy-big picture 4:18 a little closer, there's a lot of problems. 4:20 For example, according to one estimate, 4:22 only about 9% of grant money makes it to communities of color. 4:26 9%. That's not good. 4:29 Now, look. I'm not saying charity is bad. 4:31 When you Venmo 200 bucks to a homeless shelter, that's a good thing. 4:35 But big philanthropy goes way beyond basic charity that you and I do. 4:40 It's a whole system of financial tools and products that help the rich 4:44 give away their cash in ways that benefit them. 4:47 From pooled income funds to private foundations, 4:50 which help rich donors pay less income, estate and capital gains tax. 4:55 Then there's something called DAFs or Donor-Advised Funds, 4:58 which Silicon Valley loves. 5:01 Donor-Advised Funds are kind of like 5:03 checking accounts for charities. 5:04 So, you put money in, 5:06 you get an immediate tax write-off 5:07 for the full amount. 5:09 Then you donate the money 5:10 to an actual charity later, 5:12 often much later because the money is 5:13 allowed to sit in the fund indefinitely. 5:16 Okay, that guy's collar is so tight, 5:18 I swear he's trying to hide a bad neck tattoo. 5:21 They're like, “Hamburger Helper? 5:23 What were you thinking, Robert? 5:25 How often do you eat it?” 5:27 So you can donate to a DAF, 5:30 take the tax break, but not actually send the money to a charity for years, 5:35 which might be why DAF donations have almost tripled since 2007. 5:39 Nothing triples that fast 5:40 except the number of songs Kanye writes about Jesus. 5:43 But... 5:44 Philanthropy doesn't just mean donations to traditional charities. 5:49 It also includes gifts to so-called “civic groups,” 5:52 or 501(c)(4)s, which promote social or political causes 5:57 while letting you keep your donations anonymous. 6:00 Yeah, anonymous. 6:02 Because nothing says the spirit of giving more than, 6:04 “Keep my name the fuck out of this.” 6:07 Now it's all perfectly legal with very little oversight, 6:10 and it helps billionaires change the world however they want. 6:14 And the kicker? 6:16 They get to pay less taxes. 6:19 Take Nicholas Woodman, the CEO of GoPro. 6:21 The only camera endorsed by downhill skiers 6:23 and Uber drivers afraid of being murdered. 6:25 Now, when GoPro went public in 2014, 6:28 Woodman was suddenly worth around $3 billion 6:31 and faced a tax bill in the tens of millions. 6:35 So when GoPro stock was near its peak, 6:37 Woodman and his wife gave $500 million 6:41 worth of stock to a DAF within a foundation, 6:44 which saved them millions of dollars in taxes. 6:46 But within months, GoPro started tanking. 6:49 So the value of their donation also started tanking, 6:52 but Woodman still got his $500 million tax write-off, 6:56 which he totally regretted. 6:59 A lot was made of how much money you are making, your foundation, 7:02 how much you were giving to the foundation. 7:04 There was a lot of controversy around that. 7:05 -Yeah. -Do you think that was fair? 7:07 No, but I also understand, um... 7:12 how the world works. 7:13 Ultimately, it's not whether it's fair or not. 7:15 Um, it's just... 7:17 uh, how you manage it and I try not to get too caught up in in all of that. 7:23 My man's like, “Don't hate the player, hate the inequitable financial structures 7:27 that incentivize unmitigated tax avoidance.” 7:29 Fair, but my problem is this. 7:33 How did he find the only thing 7:34 that looks dumber on your head than a GoPro? 7:38 Just... I can't. 7:40 Rich, just lower it, just... 7:43 Just...just... 7:48 Ah! There we go! 7:49 You're 44 years old, wear your hat like a normal person. 7:56 Billionaires avoiding taxes. 7:58 Look, just ‘cause it's legal doesn't mean it's right. 8:02 It's like hosting a costume party called “Mysteries of the Orient.” 8:06 You can do it, 8:08 but don't. 8:11 This is why more and more people have been criticizing big philanthropy. 8:14 People like Anand Giridharadas, the best-selling author of Winners Take All. 8:19 You gotta lock yourself in a room to write a book. 8:21 There's a little window in my room. It just looks at the brick wall. 8:24 It's painful writing a book. 8:26 So, Anand, you write a lot about... 8:28 attacking the rich and yet you look like Stanley Tucci in The Hunger Games. 8:33 Wow. I have been told this before. 8:35 But you're the first person to ever take it 8:37 from Twitter troll responses 8:39 to an actual in-person interaction. 8:41 Why have you dedicated yourself to criticizing the ultra-rich? 8:44 Over the last few years, I noticed something 8:46 that profoundly offended me. 8:49 We live in this time in which rich people are everywhere. 8:52 Giving back, trying to change the world, make a difference, etc. 8:55 You came in, and you're like, “I don't trust that.” 8:57 Well, I also noticed a second thing, which didn't square with the first thing. 9:01 The same group of people who has lobbied for, 9:04 fought for, clung to an economy of injustice 9:08 have marketed themselves to us 9:10 as saviors, as in fact the solutions to the very problems 9:14 they are still busily causing. 9:16 They are getting public credit for solving, 9:19 and the causing never gets the same notoriety. 9:21 Now obviously, he isn't a fan 9:23 of the impact billionaires have on the rest of us. 9:27 So I asked him a question that's been making the rounds 9:29 with the presidential candidates. 9:30 Should we have billionaires? 9:32 I do not believe we should have billionaires. 9:34 What about black billionaires? 9:36 I like black billionaires more, 9:38 but the same system that allows there to be billionaires 9:42 is disenfranchising way more black people and all people 9:46 -than if we didn't have that. -So you want to check Oprah, Jay-Z 9:49 and Beyoncé and that one black dude who gave away all his money 9:53 -Yes. -and paid off everyone's college student debt? 9:55 You know, that's a perfect example. 9:56 Robert Smith was widely celebrated, and then it was revealed that Robert Smith 10:00 had defended this indefensible carried-interest tax loophole 10:04 that benefits private equity and people in his industry. 10:06 Okay, so this carried-interest loophole 10:08 pretty much only benefits hedge fund and private equity managers 10:11 like Robert Smith. 10:13 Now, here's how it works. 10:14 Robert Smith runs about a $50 billion fund. 10:17 Now when he makes his investors a profit, he gets to keep a big cut, 10:20 potentially, hundreds of millions of dollars. 10:23 It's pretty great. 10:24 But unlike you or me, 10:27 Smith doesn't have to pay income tax on those millions. 10:30 Instead, thanks to the loophole, he only has to pay capital gains tax, 10:34 which is way less. 10:35 Carried interest is the finance version of, “Hey, it happened on vacation, 10:38 so it doesn't count as cheating.” 10:41 Everyone know that's bullshit. 10:44 Cabo sex is still cheating. 10:46 But Smith has defended carried interest, which only makes income inequality worse. 10:51 Now, honestly, 10:53 I didn't know about any of this stuff when I spoke to Anand, 10:56 so I didn't take it very well. 10:58 What I am calling for is a world in which, yes, 11:01 the Robert Smiths will make and keep less money. 11:04 Come on. Now, you want to cancel Robert Smith? 11:06 We have made choices as a society 11:08 to be more friendly in our system to the Robert Smiths of the world 11:12 than to the 400 kids he helped. 11:14 Wait, can I just-- Why can't I just enjoy one NowThis video? 11:19 Like, when I saw that video on NowThis, I was like, “Robert Smith is awesome.” 11:24 There's better NowThis videos. 11:25 Next, you're going to tell me is that AOC's into dogfighting. 11:28 Don't fucking ruin everything for me. 11:30 Don't worry, AOC isn't into dog fighting, 11:33 but Bernie can't seem to get enough of it. 11:36 I know, I didn't see it coming, either. 11:39 Some of you guys are like, “Is that real?” 11:43 He's like, “Shih Tzus are the 1%. 11:45 They need to go. They're the 1% of dogs.” 11:48 Look, at the end of the day, 11:50 a rich philanthropist supporting a tax loophole isn't surprising, 11:55 but it's touches on one of big philanthropy's most insidious benefits, 11:59 “reputation cleansing.” 12:01 Remember what happened to John Schnatter? 12:03 You guys probably remember him by his formal name, 12:06 “Papa.” Now, last year, 12:08 Papa had to resign because he said the n-word 12:11 on a conference call. 12:12 So he thought a little philanthropy would make everything okay. 12:16 “Papa John's founder has donated a million dollars 12:19 to a historically black college 12:21 in Kentucky, 12:22 more than a year after getting backlash for using a racial slur.” 12:26 My life's work is to help make other people's lives better. 12:33 Uh... 12:34 Nah, your life's work was making Pizza Hut seem like a good option. 12:40 Let's be real. 12:41 He was just like, “My life's work was garlic sauce and improving humanity.” 12:45 No, it wasn't, bro. 12:46 Obviously, Papa John isn't even close to the worst of it. 12:50 Think about what we've learned about the ultra-rich in the last few years. 12:54 They have fueled the opioid crisis, funded climate deniers, 12:57 amplified climate deniers, profited from propaganda, 13:00 weaponized propaganda, 13:02 one even drowned a British waiter. 13:04 The rich are fucked up, and all we got was gripping television. 13:09 Go Team Shiv. 13:10 All of these people have benefited from philanthropy. 13:13 The worst being the Sacklers. 13:15 Founders of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, who made billions 13:18 off the opioid epidemic, but then they slapped their name 13:21 on every popular museum that you can think of, 13:24 which Anand believes had far-reaching consequences. 13:27 -My bet is anybody watching this, -Yes. 13:29 who knew the Sackler name over the last ten years, 13:31 knew it because of the arts 13:32 -before they knew about the opioids. -Yeah. 13:34 Every museum, it's like, Sackler Museum. 13:36 So, the question is, what work was it doing 13:39 that their name was getting out there as an arts family? 13:42 It distracted people. It created a smokescreen. 13:45 So you're telling me the arts donations they made 13:47 laundered their reputation long enough 13:50 so they could continue pumping opioids into regular people. 13:52 Look where the arts donations are. 13:54 It's where people who report for the media live. 13:56 It's where influential academics live. 13:59 It's where government regulators live. 14:01 They are supporting arts wings that they hope you and I might go to 14:04 on a Saturday, 14:05 and therefore, acquire in the very back of our mind 14:08 some sense that these are fine people, and for a long time, it worked. 14:13 Joke's on them. 14:15 I spend my Saturdays at the zoo. 14:19 Here's the thing. 14:21 Rich people using philanthropy to shape their legacy isn't new. 14:25 It's been a concern since the Gilded Age, when modern philanthropy began. 14:29 Back then, people worried that big philanthropy 14:32 would give the rich immense power over society. 14:35 That sound familiar? 14:37 It goes back to Andrew Carnegie, at that time, America's richest man. 14:41 Carnegie wrote the revolutionary essay, 14:43 The Gospel of Wealth, which honestly, 14:46 doesn't really sound like a treatise on philanthropy at all. 14:48 It sounds like a monster collab with Meek Mill. 14:50 But in it, 14:51 Carnegie insisted that the rich are obligated to help the poor. 14:56 Which is good. 14:57 But he also said that they should use their superior wisdom 15:01 to help the poor better than they would or could themselves. 15:05 Do you understand what he's saying? 15:07 Rich people are smarter than us dum-dums, 15:10 so they should save us and shape the world how they see fit. 15:13 And some people still feel that way today. 15:17 There are growing calls to address these inequalities, 15:20 particularly the wage inequality, with more taxes. 15:24 Michael Dell, do you support this? 15:26 You know, my wife and I set up a foundation, 15:30 uh, about twenty years ago, 15:32 and we would have contributed 15:34 quite a bit more than a 70% tax rate. 15:37 I feel much more comfortable with our ability as a private foundation 15:42 to allocate those funds than I do giving them to the government. 15:46 I know what you're thinking, 15:47 “Look, it's the last person who still uses a Dell computer.” 15:50 But... 15:52 focus. 15:54 You might also be thinking, 15:56 “Come on, real talk. Like, the government sucks. 16:00 It's inefficient. Why would you want to give your tax money to them? 16:04 So what's wrong with smart billionaires just going out there? 16:07 They have better SAT scores than us. 16:10 Just go out there, fix the world for us.” 16:12 Let me answer it this way. 16:14 Do you guys remember when Michael Jordan decided to play baseball? 16:18 He was the greatest of all time, but at one thing. 16:22 The same thing goes for billionaires. 16:24 Just ‘cause you succeed in one field doesn't mean you'll succeed in another. 16:29 Take education. 16:30 Remember when Mark Zuckerberg gave $100 million 16:33 to public schools in Newark, New Jersey? 16:35 Now he might point out that Newark schools made modest progress. 16:39 Sort of in the same way that MJ might say, 16:41 “Remember that one time I made it to second base?” 16:44 But objectively, 16:46 Zuck's gift was a whiffer. 16:47 The majority of that money wasn't 16:49 necessarily going to school supplies, 16:51 and books, and new classrooms. 16:53 The majority the money went to contracts, 16:55 charter schools, and consultants. 16:57 For those contracts and labor costs, 16:58 89 million. 89 million. 17:02 That's why relying on Zuckerberg to fix education is tricky, right? 17:06 ‘Cause on one hand, he built Facebook. 17:10 And on the other hand, this haircut. 17:12 I mean... 17:13 that's not good judgment, I'm sorry. 17:15 Who is his barber? An Asian mom from 1987? 17:20 Yo, there might be-- There's fucking so many brown people. 17:22 Some people probably work for Facebook. 17:24 You go into work and this dude walks in like this? 17:27 This is his Congress haircut. 17:29 He's like, “All right, time to look like Jim Carrey from Dumb and Dumber.” 17:33 Look, the only people 17:36 who should have that haircut are eight-year-olds and people in a coma. 17:40 I'm just saying. 17:44 When I look at that haircut, I don't think, 17:45 “This man should rebuild our education system.” 17:49 Since we're talking about big-name philanthropists, 17:52 I know we're all wondering the same thing. 17:55 “What about Bill Gates?” 17:57 He has done meaningful work fighting malaria, 18:00 reducing child mortality 18:02 and dramatically misestimating the cost of frozen pizza rolls. 18:05 Totino's Pizza Rolls, 18:07 one bag of Totino's Pizza Rolls. 18:11 I'll go with $22. 18:15 No, no. 18:17 $15. $15. 18:20 $8.98! 18:22 -Whoa. -Totino's. 18:25 It's like he's on the game show The Price Doesn't Matter. 18:29 Also, by the way, real talk, Ellen doesn't know, either. 18:34 She's like, “I got the card here.” 18:37 So I asked Anand the $100 billion question. 18:41 What about Bill Gates? 18:43 He's trying to end malaria, Anand. Are you pro-malaria? 18:46 “What about Bill Gates?” is the perfect rebuttal question. You're right. 18:49 No, you're right. The good things he's doing is real. 18:51 It's transformative. Malaria is a prime example. 18:54 Those countries simply do not, at their level of development, 18:56 have the capacity publicly to solve those problems themselves. 19:00 I think there's actually a strong case 19:02 for people like Bill Gates to get involved, but... 19:04 when it comes to domestic work, and Bill Gates does quite a bit of that, 19:08 education most specifically, it is simply too much power 19:13 for someone to have over public life and public questions. 19:16 Education is a prime example of how super wealthy people, 19:20 even someone as well-intentioned as Bill Gates, 19:24 can get the public policies that they want in spite of voters like me and you. 19:29 Take what happened a few years ago in his home state, 19:31 specifically with respect to charter schools, 19:33 which Bill Gates is a huge fan of. 19:36 But voters in Washington didn't agree with him, 19:37 which is why they shot down bills for charter schools three times. 19:41 But in 2012, 19:42 Gates and other wealthy backers got the issue on the ballot again. 19:46 Gates spent millions of dollars campaigning, 19:48 and this time it worked. 19:50 The bill passed with 50.69% of the vote. 19:54 Nice. 19:56 Then, Gates spent millions of dollars more subsidizing the charter schools 20:01 until the state Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. 20:04 Gates then funded a group to help lawmakers pass a new bill 20:07 to get around that Supreme Court decision, allowing charter schools to stay open. 20:12 One guy was able to steamroll hundreds of thousands of voters 20:16 and the state Supreme Court, 20:18 which is a pretty sweet deal, and Gates knows this. 20:22 Watch how he responds when asked if he would ever run for president. 20:25 I did decide that the philanthropic world was where my contribution 20:29 would be more unique. 20:32 I can have as much impact in that role as I could in any political role. 20:36 I don't have to raise political campaigns. 20:40 I don't have to try and get elected. I'm not term-limited to eight years. 20:44 It's a very nice office that I've got right now. 20:48 He knows the game. 20:50 He's like, “President? I don't want to be a temp.” 20:55 The problem is, real talk, 20:57 Bill Gates is the best case scenario. 21:01 You know there's evil billionaires, right? 21:05 Like people who do bad shit in secrecy. 21:09 And since the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, 21:12 they've been able to do it like never before. 21:15 Citizens United, as you'll recall, 21:16 effectively removed limits on outside spending 21:19 and allowed so-called “dark money” to proliferate. 21:22 It's called dark money because the political nonprofits 21:25 behind the spending don't have to disclose their donors 21:28 or report much of the money they spend on ads. 21:31 Through the guise of philanthropy, 21:33 dark money has flooded our political system, 21:36 especially through 501(c)(4)s, 21:38 those civic organizations I mentioned earlier. 21:40 With (c)(4)s, donors get to stay anonymous, 21:43 even when they do things like this. 21:46 “Merrick Garland, Obama's Supreme Court nominee.” 21:49 “Garland would be the tiebreaking vote 21:51 for Obama's big government liberalism. 21:53 The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms? Gutted. 21:57 Unaccountable agencies like the EPA? Unleashed.” 22:00 “Merrick Garland, a liberal judge 22:02 from a liberal president.” 22:05 Just to be clear, 22:07 those were meant to make Merrick Garland look bad. 22:11 But I saw that and I was like, 22:13 “We've been leashing the EPA? 22:16 Bro, unleash that shit. Don't put ‘em on a leash.” 22:20 I fell for it, and that was millions in 501(c)(4) ads 22:24 that ran to make sure a few swing-vote senators 22:27 went along with Mitch McConnell's historic Merrick Garland cock-block. 22:31 And they were paid for by the Judicial Crisis Network, 22:34 a nonprofit funded almost entirely by anonymous mega-philanthropists. 22:41 And that's the point. 22:42 501(c)(4)s have basically let the wealthy weaponize philanthropy. 22:48 Remember, if Garland had made it onto the Supreme Court, 22:51 there's no five-four conservative majority, 22:54 which is a very different world for kind of everything. 22:59 Now look, at the end of the day, 23:01 we can't stop rich people from spending their money how they want. 23:06 But that doesn't mean we're powerless. 23:08 If you look at the effective tax rate for rich people, 23:10 it has collapsed since the ‘80s. 23:12 We have to restore that. We should be talking about a wealth tax. 23:15 We should be talking about increasing the capital gains tax. 23:17 Okay, so you believe we need to tax the wealthy. It is effective. 23:21 -Yes. -You wanna tax that ass. 23:26 Let's play “Tax That Ass.” Jeff Bezos. How much do you want to tax that ass? 23:30 I think with him, you need a wealth tax. 23:31 I would say, you know, something around 8%-10%, 23:34 which is actually enough to have his fortune shrink over time. 23:38 Charles Schwab. How bad do you want to tax that ass? 23:41 -Bad. -Okay, Robert Kraft. 23:43 Let's do 90 on him. 23:44 How about fictional characters? 23:47 -Okay. -Bruce Wayne. 23:48 Now, Bruce Wayne. I'm so glad you brought this up. 23:50 How bad do we tax Bruce's ass? 23:52 ‘Cause Wayne Enterprises created a ton of destruction 23:55 and then here comes in this vigilante. He's like, “I'm gonna fix things myself.” 24:00 Cancel this whole interview and explain the whole thing through Batman. 24:03 Batman is what all these plutocrats do. 24:06 You cause problems by day, in the way you run your company. 24:10 And then you put on a suit at night 24:14 and pretend you are the solution. 24:15 Let's tax the hell out of Bruce Wayne. 24:18 And then we wouldn't necessarily need him to put on a costume. 24:21 Your take is anti-Batman? 24:23 I want to make Batman unnecessary. 24:27 Make Batman unnecessary? 24:30 Oh, I get it. 24:31 He's not Stanley Tucci from The Hunger Games. 24:34 He's the Joker. 24:37 Now, look. There's always gonna be rich people, 24:40 and they're always gonna have money to donate. 24:43 That's the dilemma. 24:45 People in the penthouse are giving huge amounts to charity. 24:48 Awesome. 24:50 But they're also shaping society without our consent. 24:54 Not awesome. 24:56 And as long as there are people with so much money 24:59 and so much power, 25:01 we'll have no say. 25:03 The only real solution here is making sure 25:05 that they're not that rich in the first place. 25:07 That means closing loopholes, more IRS oversight, 25:11 and especially... 25:13 taxing that ass. 25:16 Otherwise, we're just waiting around for the billionaires to save us 25:21 and as you can see, 25:24 they don't always get it right.