Mastodawn

In Defense of the Middle Class:
When entrepreneur, NYU Business professor, philanthropist & UCLA Bruin 👌 Scott Galloway breaks down how the biillionaire class is destroying America... and how this will end.
#economy #america #middleclass #scottgalloway #billionaires

chris actual Jun 7, 2025

@kurtsh We can spare this one from the buffet table

BG McKay (Brian) 🇨🇦Jun 7, 2025

@kurtsh He's not wrong.
I think the super rich forget the history of post WWII US, government and unions worked together to build a middle class.

samiamsam Jun 7, 2025

this
This
THIS!!!!!!!!

Mark Ohe Jun 7, 2025

My understanding of economics isn’t great, but this information is eye opening and powerful.

GeofCox Jun 7, 2025

@mark_ohe @kurtsh

Unfortunate that at the start the speaker uses as examples of innovation by the American middle class 'radar, the internet, vaccines' - you just need to read the history of these in wikipedia to see they're not particularly American, or middle-class.

But it's true of course that the US has allowed a very unequal, oligarchic society to develop, and that in the past this has always led to social division and breakdown - if not corrected in time (as it was in the US by FDR's broadly socialist 'New Deal' reforms - regulation of capitalism, social safety net, very high marginal tax rates, etc).

🔶Mark Nicoll 3.5%🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳Jun 7, 2025

@GeofCox @mark_ohe @kurtsh
he said these things were financed by not created by, so I think what he meant is "widespread addoption in the US" happened because of the middle class rather than the initial creation.
Take Radar, I assume use would still be widespread because of the military, but civil use exists because the middle class created a market for air traffic large enough to require investment in a national project. Similar for vaccination programs and comms infrastructure.

Urwumpe Jun 8, 2025

@GeofCox @mark_ohe @kurtsh Well, the internet was created mostly in the USA (but not the WWW), so one out of three ain't bad. But all three were pretty much created by middle class people: Radar was invented by an apprentice at Siemens, its unknown who invented vaccines but an English physician found out how they work, the internet by a large group of scientists, again typical middle class people.

GeofCox Jun 8, 2025

I think you have to be careful about 'angels on the head of a pin' arguments here - they tend to lead nowhere else but to semantics: what does 'invention' mean? what does 'middle-class' mean?

I think it's pretty tautological to argue that middle-class people made discoveries in universities, laboratories, etc, when being in those places is an aspect of the definition of being middle-class - it's a function of capitalism, just as if you looked at who was pioneering science etc in feudal Europe you would find aristocrats over-represented.

@mark_ohe @kurtsh

Urwumpe Jun 8, 2025

@GeofCox @mark_ohe @kurtsh i think you overestimate our nobility there, though the advances in falconry had of course been welcome. 😆

GeofCox Jun 8, 2025

I think you'll find, if you look closely at the family backgrounds of prominent figures in the history of science, and other subjects, you'll find even well into the 19th century - let alone the middle-ages - that the aristocracy - if not titled, then at least independently wealthy - is rather over-represented.

@mark_ohe @kurtsh

Urwumpe Jun 8, 2025

@GeofCox @mark_ohe @kurtsh Again, I don't want to turn this into a full sociology study, but I think that in case of inventions (not just science) nobility is rather underrepresented. Most innovations of the wrongly labelled dark ages were simply not relevant to later historians of noble birth. (Ignoring of course, that nobility was often poor and quickly overtaken by the new middle class that formed inside city walls)

SamuelJohnson Jun 9, 2025

@urwumpe @GeofCox @mark_ohe @kurtsh Robert Jenner invented vaccines. The Internet is global and by definition was not created in the US. The TCP/IP packet switching protocol did originate in the US but it was not the only such protocol and it's wider adoption even in the US (by the NSF) was promoted by Denis Jennings, an Irishman. Subtract migrants (recipients of most US graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics for decades) and US is not that impressive.

Urwumpe Jun 9, 2025

@samueljohnson @GeofCox @mark_ohe @kurtsh Vaccination is much older than Jenner, originates from eastern China. The first version of IP was developed fully at Stanford. Only later developments towards IPv4 got small contributions from Europe. And that shows pretty well how tiny the understanding of networking in Europe was at that time. The big universities in Europe were completely absent.

SamuelJohnson Jun 9, 2025

@urwumpe @GeofCox @mark_ohe @kurtsh No, the Chinese did not invent vaccination, nor did the Greeks. Innoculation and vaccination are not the same thing. As I indicated, IP was not the first nor only packet switching protocol. First was invented in the UK by Donald Davies at the National Physical Laboratory. Absence of European universities? Perhaps you should read Carl Malamud's Internet Travelogue and see how and why Denis Jennings was hired to lead the NSFnet.

Urwumpe Jun 9, 2025

@samueljohnson @GeofCox @mark_ohe @kurtsh How is packet-switching equal to the internet?

Lets stop it here. We seem to have different realities.

@kurtsh wild times to expect when he says that this is self correcting, like in 1789?

Havyhh2 Jun 7, 2025

@kurtsh reposting this graphic.....goes with the professor's commentary, imho....! It's gotta be much, much worse now, graph goes only to 2017....the TACO 2-step tax cuts for the wealthy (in 2017 & looming now) turbo charged the widening gap no doubt.

Paul 💙 28 💔 💚Jun 7, 2025

I'm liking this video.... If you only do one thing today follow the link back and watch this video

Guy on the run Jun 7, 2025

@PGBeattie
Boost

DoNotPunchDown Jun 7, 2025

Beautiful

François @Jura Jun 7, 2025

@kurtsh Bill Gates and other billionaires were vocals in the aftermath of the subprime crisis to pay more taxes because they were afraid to be fried as nobles during the french revolution. Both Dems and Repubs failed to prosecute anybody and here we are billionaires think they can get away with anything.

Mark Wyner Won’t Comply

@kurtsh day yam. That’s a fire monologue. Packed with punches and simple logic.

Jennifer Moore 😷Jun 7, 2025

Was he distinguishing between "earners" and "owners"? The captions made it "owners" every time, but I'm not sure that was correct.

(Captions were wrong in other ways characteristic of automation, so I think they weren't checked by a human.)

culpaplex Jun 7, 2025

@unchartedworlds Yes, super-earners and super-owners. Another annoying instance of subtitles ironically making the spoken harder to understand.

Jennifer Moore 😷Jun 7, 2025

Thanks!

@kurtsh This is excellent.

que :verifried:Jun 7, 2025

@kurtsh awesome speach'! worth a listen...

François @Jura Jun 7, 2025

@kurtsh That USA is more scared about socialism that billionaires tell you a lot about the country. I am never been so glad to live in Europe... despite Russia.

Mrinappropriate Jun 7, 2025

@kurtsh He has the classic American exceptionalist viewpoint, but fiscally, he is, imho, correct. Wealth redistribution will happen. When, and whether it is by violence, I have no idea. #gop #billionaires #tax #usa

flamingored Jun 7, 2025

@kurtsh he describes the situation very clearly and, I think, correctly.

All the divisive policies and the attempts to legislate women and minorities 'back in their place' are simply ways to try and prevent a violent redistribution of power and wealth from happening.

I am not sure for how long the strategy will still work, though. I think major events will happen before the end of the Trump presidency.

The Animal and the Machine Jun 7, 2025

This is the greatest thing I’ve seen come out of America in a while!

A MUST WATCH!

Thank you so much @kurtsh @Deglassco

culpaplex Jun 7, 2025

Original source without the TikTok format and the subliminal background whispers (unfortunately I was mistaken and the coffee slurping of whoever's mic is still open while Galloway is talking is also in this):

https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/we-risk-revolution-scott-galloway-goes-on-epic-tirade-over-ceo-murder-and-out-of-control-wealth-inequality/

‘We Risk Revolution!’ Scott Galloway Goes on Epic Tirade Over CEO Murder and ‘Out of Con ...

Scott Galloway sounded the alarm of a looming revolution based on "out of control income inequality" insisting that our tax policy has gone "full oligarch!"

Mediaite

Chris Jun 8, 2025

@hp @kurtsh
Raging Moderates is a podcast with Scott G. He or his Social Media Team is on Mastodon too.

Edith: Oops its a thread Account.

ChuffMeister Jun 7, 2025

@kurtsh media owners, editors need to be included in the problem list.