welcome back and talk with one time political activist four-time candidate
for president ralph nader our first conversations with great minds series
yet a lot of fan servo i'd order for you in two thousand
sam works are step before two thousand four i wanted to say that a lot of
people just have to say it's it's it's great honor to have the if this keeps up
uh... tommorow not all about
now i am sure there's a lot more than
they never possibly make
your book about the super-rich saving us when i first heard the title
this is satire ralph israeli settler are gettin or he's trying to make a
struggle point
you're actually serious
talked up his mind series
first of all
it's a reaction to
situation of the people in this country going down
also all sorts of ways economically
eighty percent of american people thinks americans in decline
that's an all-time record
so i said to myself
how can i
described the ways to turn the country around
that reflect majority
public sentiment
hand are long overdue
so you can't do that non-fiction becomes like a one-page shirt fifteen way points
at all
instant is fiction is not a novel
this was called it
a worker political machinations by the literary people
and so i took seventeen real-life super-rich older americans
fell one vote for george george soros
william gates senior ted turner yoko ono phil donahue
and others
and had
them led by warren buffett after the could train of thought news discussed at
how the people work
completely
uh... abandoned will generally was yeah
venues
you know they were fleeing arun no runs no food shelter water water
and in the book
i had him take side of his frustration
truck loads of supplies down and he was passing about that
a grandmother grabbed himself
only super-rich concert customs
so that's where the title comes
he then take sixteen of the super-rich buddies that he selects very carefully
to 'em hike montag
hotel in maui hawaii
and they decide
that in one year
width brilliant strategy surprise moves
billions of dollars and their own influence
and mass media capabilities uh... they're going to try to take on the big
boys
the big corporate boards in their political allies in washington
with a whole set of long overdue reforms living wage
universal health insurers
they start a clean elections party the starter people's chamber of commerce
the organized every congressional district
they converted you know push for the conversion to solar energy
the book is
as it is lit lesley stahl sixty minutes editing grossing creative and funny and
i said i'll take a harder to be all throughout south
some feels that this is the possibility talking okay here's the answer one the
mega billionaires where you've been doing that only on the other side like
the koch brothers yeah
and older and there is repeated twice here they're having these meeting we
discover that's been going on for some time and i think there are actually
their father and with the judge also starts out annul number two
historically
the anti slavery movement was funded insignificant part by proper bostonians
in new york restrictions on the nineteenth century
the modern civil rights movement apartment
the incident in you know the store
arquette we lived in atlanta for a number your sentence will confront
reveal at a public schools and
neighbor a completely different histories anti-slavery movement that i
learned growing up in michigan and what they learned was that it was the new
york bankers trying to screw the southern farmers
and that's why they were against slavery and that's what the civil war was all
about and actually there's an element of truth to that harrisburg when you've got
to see frederick douglass harley altering of frederick douglas in a great
leaders yes
they they have to have expenses
had to have you know we've discussed money
dubach slavery if you're going to advocate for
the modern civil rights movement the the the the major families a curry family
the
stern family in the early years pop music
dept as we speak
warren buffet and a thousand rich people are
fighting against the abolition of the estate tax
they want to preserve the estate tax years older wealthy
and of course right now will wingate seniors please
pressing for november two referendum to increase taxes on the wealthy including
himself in the state of washington at hammond m chuck collins as co-author so
i might refer so you know there are and some multimillionaires that funded the
early peace movement this so-called pugwash conferences to bring people
gathered for
nuclear disarmament
control of nuclear arms so why not
now it's quite interesting about the time this book came out on the
super-rich can say that
d'agastino's that warren buffett
and bill gates junior
are now on a global mission
to sign up mega billionaires
to give over half their wells too good works not by had breakfast
about here goes one buffet
good works now we've got to figure out what good works
are right all right now
this book is now would translate to chinese
when one buffet gates one over but few days ago to china to meet with the
chinese billionaires try to get in the side up
the publisher rushdie copies of the chinese
translation of on these super rich kid
savers to them so numbers is almost like
essentially deputy operating here
anneke
is to persuade these multi billion there has been they have a liberal
progressive
background many of them
they have their own hard edges to
uh... and during the seventies eighties nice to have a different perspective
to persuade them to put more money
from charity to justice
dodger soup kitchens
wise a country like the u_s_
millions of children hungry
and state and adults so you might be justice is just got this called muscular
philanthropy
people are going to hear a lot more about that
uh... i i certainly helped so
speaking of of transforming this country and we have one of the as we spoken last
segment where most powerful influences
is government
and now we see in for example the treasury department was with warren
who many of us and i i know you respect her i have tremendous respect for her
a man
you know have talked with her a couple of times
she has this
potentially
position of power but i'm reading in today's paper that the treasury
department leaking like nasty stuff about it like she's having her office
painted and suddenly politico psycho she's a prima donna she setting off a
spate of
there's a turf war going on inside the treasury department
what are your thoughts on and
the direction
that the or that matches the obama administration but in general are
countries but i know is a lot
institutional people in these it you know the treasury department
as people who are in there from the bush administration from the clinton
ministration so on
some of these institutions are bigger more powerful
arguably the president
bullets with ones for doing that reflects the lack of character and
transformational leadership of iraq with them
he knows
p_s_ one of the greatest communicators to american families in modern history
live this morning
right where their bread voters
instead of
and not not not renew
had this new agency and having the confirmation hearings
in the senate before they make midterm elections
where it let the republicans try to go after
fancy word for word with their friends are consider doing that
uh... he's not letting her twice today
annie's lane geithner doesn't like her and he's a secretary treasurer it's a
spot for what's going on
they have an absolute jewel of a person
the kind of person that should be in government kind of person knows how to
devolve power how to give people power directly
very knowledgeable harvard law professor
brock obama study
nannies
back and forth back and forth
that's the symbol of the pendulum syndrome of the democratic party
that's why they're going to lose significant number seats
november two
because this car rolled themselves said
you know the democratic party hasn't made the best case it can
in this election
this is from car rolled
so people need
more material than if you don't mind going to give my
of of uh...
nader dart board website are played for my weekly column anybody decide on don't
get it free
through the email
sorry
nader dot org great
and m
the this whole this whole concept of the direction that it's going and how it's
falling apart
the the direction of the old bomber administration
do you think that
well actually
two questions
within the republican party
whatever the majority the caucus
believes his pretty much what the republican party does
the majority of democrats in the house representative certainly and and
actually in the senate if if it wasn't you know
modern things like a public option may want to stronger fiscal reform
but there were these out wires the democratic party who are able to bring
them down
that the republican party doesn't tolerate that
its own is a weird conundrum you know still will rogers joke i don't want her
as political party i'm a democrat
and in some ways i think it's a strength for the democratic party but the
it renders them politically ineffectual
do you think it having been a third party candidate
do you think that there's a third party role in pushing things and historic i'd
look at where ross perot did i think he frankly woke america opted you know we
fell back asleep but he woke us up to the dangers of free trade
and i'm do you see uh... app third party coming out do you see a collapse of
either party
itgi or do you think the peso integrated into each other that we have this
duopoly
permanently entrenched in what
in in your crystal ball what do you see the more the tumhari make it
one of the more the two parties brewery children the democrats are very uh...
concessionary that way
so more people be looking for a third
force political force
the independence now outnumber is a registered republicans are registered
democrats in america
unless the first time
so you're seeing this insipid rebellion in in different ways
my guess i think it's fifty fifty mayor bloomberg is going to run
and if you run sylvia's roosevelt's tennessee runs will be four
and independent ticket as the billionaire
he writes himself a six hundred million dollar check so he doesn't have to call
bio for dollars make quid pro quo deals are working for meg whitman
no but uh... it
bloomberg is extremely as to he starts out with a big bourbon mayor base right
all over the country
and he d
dvd basically high-tech conversational
if he thinks he can win
against the hereditary voters who automatically vote for democrat
republican because their grandparents day
if he thinks he can
chip off enough of that
and get the independent vote and win
my guess is going to run in two thousand twelve
offices discusses anyone else what's going on so i don't florida charlie
crystal point bolts bolts for both sides
yeah so have the two party
do up a lead or dictatorship who i call it
and is one of the audience to multibillion there
neither blogroll nor conservative
but so it goes down the so-called middle
gambler it's been quite a factor as governor of new york yeah
agreement on tobacco is courageous look at trans fat amnesia
so that someone was there is still a answer
egregious many sides to him
but i think the two-party dick to ship dictatorship
and their phony debate commission which excludes everyone else from reaching
tens of millions of people
uh...
is going to be serious challenge what either in two years of four years but in
the in and you know we have one
isn't this a concession that
only the rich can govern mass and isn't that
the antithesis of what the founders had in mind of this is an politician
well since returned to us this requires that the substantial resources and mass
media
and community organizing
if you could find a few of the chinese few and like most multibillion errors
in their later years one name they want to leave a legacy behind
you'll be surprise offensive could this country could be turned around people
are hungry for these necessities have been denied them for access
for a voice
you'll be surprised how fair sesuai wrote the book i showed in great detail
how it could have what you don't you don't have some
uncomfortable bus some discomfort with
rule by billionaires basically it's billionaire good
in is taking on bed billionaires
i said i i i mean who are already ruled by that ordinary plan if you're going to
cross the allright
for a very well so ralph nader thanks so much for being with us tonight
prosecutors
and later dot
org speeded-up or website and in his book on the rich can say that to fix it