00:03Brothers and sisters, it is an honor to be with you today and let me thank you for what you're
00:13doing in fighting to make this country the kind of country it must become. Thank you all very much.
00:22And let me thank my dear friend Sarah Nelson for helping to organize this meeting. Sarah,
00:32as the president of the Association of Flight Attendants, has stood up to corporate greed every
00:44day and understands the meaning of solidarity. Sarah, thanks for all that you're doing.
00:54And let me thank our great new mayor here in New York City, Zoran Madani.
01:07The main point that I want to make to all of you is a very, very simple point.
01:13And many of you know it already. And that is we are living in an unprecedented moment in American
01:22history. Never been a moment like this. And it is an extremely dangerous moment. And if the working
01:30class of this country is going to survive, a class that my wife Jane and I proudly come from, if
01:39the
01:39middle class of this country is going to survive, we must understand that status quo politics and status quo
01:48economics is no longer good enough.
01:58Brothers and sisters, we need a new boldness in our thinking. And a new boldness in our ideology. And a
02:10new
02:10aggressiveness in our actions.
02:19And that's not just rhetoric. Let me tell you why I say this. It's absolutely important that all of us
02:27here and every
02:29American understand that in the ruling class of this country today, there is an extraordinary level of arrogance and
02:39cruelty. Gotta understand that. In many ways, these guys believe like the monarchs, and I'm not exaggerating, like the monarchs
02:51of the 19th century, they believe that they have the divine right to rule.
02:58People. I think you don't agree with that. Together, brothers and sisters, we need to take them on. And together,
03:12we're going to defeat them.
03:22And let me tell you why we have to take them on. And why we have to defeat them. It's
03:28not just for us. It's for our kids, our grandchildren, and the future generations that come.
03:36Never before, never before in American history, have so few people had so much wealth and power. Never before.
03:46The truth is that the 1%, the people on top, people who are running this country, have never, ever had
03:55it so good.
03:55But the sad reality is that for these people, all that they have is not good enough.
04:07They want more and more and more. And they don't care who they step on to get what they want.
04:18If you have to destroy the working class, no problem. If you have to cut Social Security and Medicare, no
04:24problem.
04:24If you have to take food away from hungry kids, not a problem. They want more and more and more.
04:31And I think some of you may think, well, this is just rhetoric. Bernie is exaggerating. I am not.
04:36These guys are extremely, extremely greedy people. And they could care less in terms of what happens to our children,
04:47what happens to our parents, and our grandparents, and what happens to our environment.
04:53Today, the top 1% now owns more wealth than the bottom 93%. Got it?
05:03Today, and this is really quite incredible. Today, one person, Mr. Musk, who is worth over $800 billion, owns more
05:15wealth than the bottom 53% of American households.
05:24One man, today, owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of American households.
05:32And that inequality is getting worse.
05:37Last year alone, after receiving the largest tax break in history from Donald Trump,
05:44938 billionaires, fewer than 1,000 people in America, became $1.5 trillion richer.
05:56938 people became $1.5 trillion richer.
06:02Since he was elected, President Trump and his own family have become $4 billion richer.
06:14So, the people on top are doing unbelievably well.
06:20But further, never before in American history have we had such concentration of ownership.
06:26Fewer and fewer large corporations owning and controlling our economy, what happens to workers, and the prices we pay when
06:35we shop.
06:35Never before in American history have so few people controlled what we see, hear, and read in the media, both
06:49traditional media and social media.
06:52Check out who owns Twitter.
06:55You know who owns Twitter?
06:57Who owns Facebook, who owns YouTube, who owns Instagram, who owns Twitch, etc.
07:03These are, without exception, the wealthiest people in the world.
07:08Not only media do they own.
07:11Maybe more consequentially, never before in American history have we seen a ruling class,
07:18within a corrupt campaign finance system exercise the kind of political power they have.
07:29In the 2026 midterm elections, the elections that are coming up in November,
07:34these guys already, the billionaire class already, has spent over $430 million to influence political campaigns
07:47and to buy the candidates who represent their interests.
07:53That's over $400 million already, no doubt.
07:57That number will be in the billions by the time election day comes.
08:01So that is the reality.
08:04Massive income and wealth inequality, massive concentration of ownership,
08:11increased billionaire control over our media and our political system.
08:18That's one reality.
08:20Here's another reality.
08:22The American working class has been under savage attack for years.
08:29As all of you know, over the last many decades, there has been an explosion in technology.
08:36Every worker here is producing a lot more than a worker did 50 years ago.
08:45Now, one might think if you were producing more than somebody was producing 50 years ago,
08:53you would be making a hell of a lot more money, right?
08:59Wrong!
09:01Because today, the average American worker, if you can believe it,
09:05is making less than he or she did 53 years ago after adjusting for inflation.
09:16And I mentioned, I was here a couple of weeks ago, and I made this point, and I'll repeat it
09:19briefly.
09:20I grew up in a working class family in a distant world called Brooklyn.
09:25You ever hear of Brooklyn?
09:29So my father was a paint salesman, never made any money.
09:33We lived paycheck to paycheck.
09:35But we lived in a rent-controlled apartment.
09:40My brother went to Brooklyn College tuition free, etc.
09:48Bottom line is, despite having no money, my guess is that we lived under stress when I was a kid,
09:5750, 60 years ago,
09:58than many working class families in New York are doing right now.
10:03In other words, and by the way, I should also tell you this.
10:07My mom was able to stay home and raise the two boys.
10:11How many working class families do you know where mom or dad can stay home and have just one breadwinner
10:18pay the bills?
10:19So what the hell is going on in the economy?
10:22The very rich are becoming much richer.
10:26In fact, according to the RAND Corporation, not exactly a socialist outfit.
10:32Over the last 50 years, $79 trillion in wealth has been redistributed from the bottom 90% to the top
10:441%.
10:48So massive transfer of wealth from working people to the very rich.
10:54Meanwhile, today, 60%, and I've got to say this over and over again.
11:00You know, Europeans come into my office in Washington.
11:03They have not a clue.
11:05They have not a clue what's going on with the American economy.
11:0860% of our people today are living paycheck to paycheck.
11:15And I do not have to explain to anybody in this room what living paycheck to paycheck is about.
11:23It means that every week people are struggling to pay the outrageous cost of housing,
11:32struggling to pay their health care bills, prescription drugs, groceries, child care,
11:36and other basic necessities.
11:40Nearly half, nearly half of older workers in America, if you can believe it,
11:45these are people who have worked their entire lives, have nothing saved for retirement.
11:53Think about it.
11:54Richest country in the world.
11:55Man, woman working 40, 50 years doing hard work.
11:59They've got 60 years of age.
12:01They've got nothing in the bank for retirement.
12:05Over 20% of our seniors are trying to live on $15,000 a year or less
12:15in the richest country in the history of the world.
12:19We are the only major nation not to guarantee health care for all as a human right.
12:29And the result of that is that 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured.
12:37Over a half a million people go bankrupt every year.
12:43Whole lots of people get diagnosed with cancer.
12:47And you know what happens?
12:48Many of them lose their homes or deplete all of their life savings because they were diagnosed
12:55with a very difficult disease to treat.
12:58In America today, our life expectancy, how long we live, is lower than most other, all other industrialized countries.
13:09And listen to this.
13:10If you are working class in America, you will live six years short of life than if you are rich.
13:20And you know why?
13:22Why is that?
13:24What's the one word?
13:26No?
13:27What's the word?
13:27Why do working class people live shorter lives than the rich?
13:30You got it.
13:32Struggling every day to take care of your family.
13:35Wondering how you're going to feed your kids or pay the rent.
13:38What happens if your car breaks down?
13:40You know what that does to your body?
13:41We had a hearing on this in Washington.
13:43Doctors describe it as the physiology of poverty.
13:47Wrecks your body, wrecks your mind.
13:50That's what's going on in America today.
13:53And let me tell you this.
13:55That unless we fundamentally transform our economic and political systems, the worst is yet to come.
14:04The oligarchs, people like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Thiel, and others,
14:09are pushing artificial intelligence, AI, and robotics extremely aggressively.
14:18They are putting combined many, many hundreds of billions of dollars into research, development, and implementation.
14:27What is their goal?
14:29Why are they spending hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars on AI and robotics?
14:38I'm sorry to say you're right.
14:41All right?
14:42What's the goal?
14:43And it's not complicated.
14:45Their goal is to eliminate workers.
14:49You buy a robot.
14:50Nobody knows exactly what it will cost.
14:52Maybe $20,000, $30,000 to buy a robot.
14:55That robot does not get a salary, does not get a vacation, does not get health care, does not get
15:02benefits.
15:03And that robot works 24 hours a day.
15:07And you get all of that for maybe $30,000.
15:13That is why they are pushing robotics and AI.
15:19It will significantly increase corporate profits.
15:23Elon Musk, who is, among other things, a notorious union buster,
15:27is converting Tesla, as you may know, into a company that manufactures robots.
15:33And he wants to produce a million robots a year.
15:37And Musk has said, and I quote, Elon Musk, quote,
15:41AI and robots will replace all jobs.
15:46Working will be optional, end quote.
15:49That's Musk, not just Musk.
15:52Not content with trying to replace the 600,000 workers in his Amazon warehouses.
16:00I know we've heard from some of them this afternoon.
16:02He wants to replace those men and women with robots.
16:08Jeff Bezos, the fourth richest man alive, is seeking to raise $100 billion.
16:15And you know what he wants to do with that money?
16:17He wants to automate factories in America and around the world.
16:26And what that means, basically, if Bezos gets his way,
16:30there will likely be very few, if any, manufacturing or warehouse jobs left in the country.
16:37Let me give you another example.
16:39Last month, I was out in San Francisco.
16:42And I drove in a Waymo.
16:44Anybody ever drive in a Waymo or something like that?
16:46Okay, it's a driverless car, drives very nicely.
16:50They are all over San Francisco and many other cities around the country.
16:55And driverless companies, car companies, are expanding very, very rapidly.
17:00In Texas right now, there are driverless 18-wheeler trucks on the highway.
17:12So what do you think is going to happen to cab drivers and Uber drivers and truck drivers and bus
17:22drivers
17:23and all of those many, many millions of workers who are now involved in transportation
17:29if Bezos and his friends get their way?
17:33They will be out on the street.
17:35That's what will happen to them.
17:37And unless we stop it, it could happen fairly soon.
17:40But it is not just blue-collar jobs that are at risk of being destroyed by AI and robotics.
17:47Jim Farley, who is the CEO of Ford, has predicted that AI will eliminate, quote,
17:55literally half of all white-collar jobs in the U.S. within the next decade, end of quote.
18:01Dario Amodi, the CEO of Anthropic, predicted that, quote,
18:06quote, AI could displace half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years, end
18:14of quote.
18:16That is what the oligarchs are pushing.
18:19So what do we do about it?
18:21And this is maybe the most important point that I want to make.
18:24We must stop believing that we are powerless.
18:37We must stop believing that it is okay.
18:41It's kind of natural for Elon Musk and a handful of other multi-greedy, multi-billionaires
18:48who are extremely greedy, for them to shape the future of humanity.
18:54We do not give them the right to do that.
19:04Now, one of the goals of the oligarchs and the media that they own
19:10is to make ordinary people feel that there is nothing that they can do to shape the future.
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