Overview of WHY ARE BILLIONAIRES?!?: You’re Not Gonna Believe This B.S. with Amanda & Anand Giridharadas
This episode of We Can Do Hard Things (host Amanda) is the first in a mini-series “You’re Not Gonna Believe This Bullshit.” Amanda interviews Anand Giridharadas (author of Winners Take All and The Persuaders) to interrogate the mythology, mechanics, and consequences of billionaire wealth. They unpack who billionaires really are, how public policy and corporate power create and protect them, what cultural narratives keep them untouchable (philanthropy, meritocracy, “win-win” solutions), and how the elite preserve their power across party lines—including lessons from the Epstein email releases and the reaction to Zoran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. The conversation ends on a cautiously hopeful note: popular awareness and cross-class solidarity can produce major democratic reforms.
Guest
- Anand Giridharadas — author, former NYT correspondent, commentator, and author of Winners Take All and The Persuaders.
Key points and main takeaways
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What a billion actually is
- A billion is orders of magnitude beyond a million: at $1/second you’d reach $1M in ~11.5 days and $1B in ~31.7 years. The scale matters morally and politically.
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Extreme wealth vs. extreme inequality
- A few people hold enormous concentrated wealth while workers are denied the fruits of rising productivity. Examples cited: 8 billionaires hold as much wealth as 3.6 billion people worldwide; in the U.S., the top 1% hold more wealth than the bottom 90%.
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Billionaires are political and policy products, not pure bootstraps
- Tax policy, subsidies, contracts, deregulation, weakening unions, and estate rules have enabled fortunes to grow massively since the 1980s.
- Specific examples: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos benefitted from subsidies, tax breaks, and government contracts; the Walton family’s wealth accumulates while Walmart’s low wages push workers onto public assistance (estimated ~$6B/year in taxpayer support).
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Productivity gains are captured at the top
- Since 1980, productivity rose dramatically, but median wages stagnated. CEO pay has ballooned (CEO pay up ~50% since 2019) while worker pay has barely increased.
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The ruling-class story: meritocracy + philanthropy
- Modern elite narratives insist wealth is earned through brilliance/entrepreneurship and that billionaires are uniquely positioned to “solve” social problems via philanthropy and tech solutions—thus neutralizing demands for structural reform.
- “Win-win” and philanthropic remedies are often promoted because they don’t threaten elite wealth or power.
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Elite cohesion and impunity across party lines
- Powerful people (across Democratic and Republican circles) protect each other’s status and avoid meaningful consequences—sometimes using progressive rhetoric as cover.
- Anand’s reading of the Epstein emails shows an “Epstein class” of elites who look away from wrongdoing and protect each other, revealing loyalties to power and impunity rather than ideology.
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The deliberate fragmentation of popular solidarity
- Elites maintain power by fostering division (race, immigration, culture) so that people facing similar economic harm fight each other rather than target the top.
- Historical parallels: elites always invent narratives to justify unequal systems (slavery, caste, aristocracy). Today’s narrative is entrepreneurship and meritocracy.
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Hope and leverage points
- Public awareness is higher now than a decade ago, especially among younger people. Political movements and candidates (even unsuccessful ones) educate and shift discourse.
- Democracies can reclaim power: policy levers (wealth taxation, stronger unions, childcare, paid leave, regulating corporate power) and cross-class coalitions can create broad social goods that exist in many other wealthy countries.
Notable quotes and insights
- “A millionaire is closer economically to a minimum-wage worker than to a billionaire.”
- “If you stop fighting with each other for billionaire scraps for a hot minute, you could unite to create a more just, stable society.”
- On elite storytelling: “They told a second related story… that the only way to get change is for us rich people at the very tippy top of our society to give it to you.”
- On elites’ dependence on public systems: “Everything about their fortunes is dependent on what you and I fund.”
- On democracy as leverage: “Democracy is a fancy Greek word for who chooses the future.”
Topics discussed (high-level)
- Definitions and scale of wealth (billion vs million)
- Historical shift since post-WWII to Reagan-era policies and the explosion of billionaires
- How public subsidies, tax rules, deregulation, and weakened labor have enabled extreme wealth
- The billionaire myth: meritocracy, entrepreneurial heroism, and philanthropic “solutions”
- The “win-win” narrative and how it deflects from structural reform (Lean In vs public childcare/paid leave)
- The Epstein email releases as a window into elite networks, alignment, and impunity
- The Zoran Mamdani mayoral campaign as an example of elite fear of redistributive politics and their tactics
- International comparisons showing other countries provide “nice things” (healthcare, childcare, education) with less per-capita GDP
- Civil solidarity, political strategy, and generational prospects for reform
Recommended actions / practical takeaways
- Reframe who you identify with: prioritize solidarity with fellow workers and communities over idolizing billionaires.
- Demand structural solutions, not just elite-led philanthropy:
- Policies to consider: wealth tax, higher marginal taxes on capital gains, stronger estate taxes, stronger labor protections/unions, paid family leave, universal childcare, affordable healthcare, and housing policy.
- Hold elites accountable:
- Push for transparency, investigate public subsidies to corporations, and resist narratives that present private philanthropy as an adequate substitute for public systems.
- Build cross-class coalitions:
- Look for and cultivate political projects that unite people across demographics around shared material interests.
- Use civic tools:
- Vote, organize locally, support candidates who prioritize systemic reforms, and push institutions (media, universities, corporations) for accountability.
Final framing and tone
Amanda and Anand make the case that billionaire dominance is neither natural nor inevitable—it is the product of political choices and stories that elites tell and sell. The antidote is public clarity and collective action: recognizing the myths, reclaiming democratic choice, and organizing for policy changes that deliver the “nice things” most other developed societies already provide. The episode mixes data, moral argument, historical context, and practical optimism about the possibility of a new progressive era if people stop accepting the elite story and start acting together.