Ben Cohen
Appearances
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
No.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I'm white. I grew up in a family where my father was a college graduate. He went to school at night. He was able to buy a house based on a government program that provided money to buy a house for white people, but by federal regulation, it was not available to black people. They would not loan. This was about redlining. The government would not loan into areas that were mostly black.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And even if a black person wanted to buy a house in a white area, they said, oh no, you can't do that because then it'll be black. That's illegal, immoral, unfair. And, you know, so the... What year was that? I want to... What year? Well, I was born in 51, so... Let's say 50s. It was around there. That's when they did it.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yes. Okay. It's a different America today, though. Well, it's... No. Well, the America today... has a lot to do with the America of the 1950s and before. So my parents were able to buy that house, and that's what helped them build wealth. That's where they got their equity. That's what allowed them to send me to a decent college.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
That's what allowed them to be in that neighborhood that had good public schools. And... There's a lot of other people, say black people, that that housing program was not available to. They were not able to build that equity. They were not able to build that generational wealth. They were not able to go to decent public schools. And so they didn't get that education.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And that's part of what leads to the current situation where You know, if you look at the disparity in wealth between black people and white people, I mean, it's kind of huge. And, you know, I mean, the whole country was, you know, it goes back generations.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I'm not saying that they gave me money. I mean, you know, they were able to pay for college for me.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Not much.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
That... What I'm getting to is the whole environment in which I was brought up, being able to go to really good public schools. And, you know, I go to low-income areas in places around our country, and the schools are shit.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
So what are you saying? That they're high crime because they're run by a Democratic? Of course it is. Do you know since D.C. No, I don't. That is the logical fallacy. No, no. But do you know D.C. I want to talk about the logical fallacy.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
It's the logical fallacy of post hoc ergo prop de hoc.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
After it, therefore, because of it. That because something happens after something happened doesn't mean that it caused it.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Go to the next one. I want to know what your point is. Let's assume they're all Democratic.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Poor people are getting screwed. We shouldn't be in a country where you work 40 hours a week full time and you can't afford to have a decent life. That should be illegal.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think he won because the bottom 50% of the population is getting screwed by both parties. Both parties? Both parties. Really? Yes, I do. Because of the way that our economy is structured, which means that virtually all the money goes to the top and virtually none of the money goes to the people on the bottom. Why though? Because of the laws, because of the laws and the regulations.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think people were really unhappy with the status quo, and I think they voted for not the status quo. I actually believe that... that if voting for Bernie was an option, he would have won. Against Trump? Yeah, because they're both against the status quo. They're both against, well, I mean, they both say they're against corporations controlling the country.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I mean, I personally believe that it's in words only in terms of Trump, but I think in terms of Bernie, I think he genuinely would want, you know, would work on reducing corporate influence
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I mean, you know, I mean, the whole the whole I mean, when we talk about capitalism, I mean, you know, capitalism ends up having a small number of people accumulate a huge amount of wealth and they and and then you have the Supreme Court saying that, well, money's the same as free speech and therefore we can't regulate spending in elections.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I had a reputation. You know how to split it down the side? I know how to split it.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And what we have in our country is a system of legalized bribery. And it used to be. that the corporations and the rich and the wealthy were influencing legislation and they were influencing who gets elected, and now they are who's getting elected. And, you know, I would rather see a representation of what the country actually is. I mean, the country is not just 100,000 really... 100,000?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah, or I don't know, 10,000 really, really wealthy people. The country represents a very broad swath, and a representative democracy, that's what there ought to be running the country. But we have elections that are financed by millionaires, billionaires, and... We end up with a government that favors that class of people.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Bernie Sanders. No, that is absolutely, totally, 100, 1,000% incorrect. Well, I mean, he got very upset about it because... But even with him,
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, people have lost the art of making a good banana split. We ought to call you in and you can train our people.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
What? Ban. Because he he he wrote a book and he got he got a million dollars or whatever. I mean, but, you know, I mean, I was I was helping on Bernie's campaign.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Absolutely.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think he would be good for an economy that works for all Americans instead of just the upper crust like you and me.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Absolutely I would have voted for Bernie. I totally would have voted for Bernie. I voted for Bernie when he was mayor, when he first ran for mayor of Burlington.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yes, I am okay with that because I do not believe that we should have a country where... What, 0.1% of the population owns 90% of the wealth? You're part of it.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Oh, no.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, when I was working with Bernie, you know, he was saying billionaires should not exist. And, you know, that struck me as kind of weird. I mean, I said, why shouldn't billionaires exist? Why shouldn't we have billionaires? And then I realized that nobody needs that kind of money. And how can you...
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
accumulate that kind of wealth when you've got so many other people that are barely getting by. Why... Why shouldn't we have a system? You know, it is kind of peculiarly American. I don't believe that that kind of spread exists in a lot of other countries, in a lot of European countries.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I mean, there's free enterprise in any of the Scandinavian countries.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Hey, speaking of ice cream, do you got a spoon? I mean, this shit's melting. I'm good with it. I got you a spoon.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
We got the chocolate fudge.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, you know, chocolate fudge brownie is interesting because... By the way, is it true that you can't taste flavors?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Texture. Is that serious? I'm a very texture-forward person.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, you know, I mean, I can kind of taste it, but not the way you can. Not the way normal people can.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah, it's pretty good. Is it? Yeah. You're not taking the chocolate fudge brownie. Which one do you want me to try? I'll try this. No, I'll try this. I mean, the nice thing about the chocolate fudge brownie is that the brownies are made by the Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York, a low-income area. And the bakery... is owned by a religious organization whose purpose... Oh, my God.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
It's good shit, isn't it? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. So the purpose of the bakery is to provide jobs and job training for people who... You know what? After this ice cream, I'm a socialist. We're shut out of it. There you go.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Watch. Second.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Mmm. Nicely done.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, you know, it's at exactly the right temperature. It's perfectly tempered.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
It's in there.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I don't know about Tillamook. Tillamook. Okay, somebody brought Tillamook. Hey, do you know that chocolate chip cookie dough was invented by Ben and Jerry's? Seriously? Yeah. Seriously? Yeah, yeah. Ben, what a capitalist you are, though. No. You know, there's a social form of capitalism. There's a form of capitalism. And you did it.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I don't.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Ronald Reagan, sir. It was a Rose Garden ceremony. Dude, that's crazy. We were the U.S. Small Business People of the Year. Is that it? Is that the picture? Yeah, that's exactly it. Tell me about the experience. How cool was that? That happens to be an Italian waiter's jacket that I had to buy really quick the morning before. And, you know, it was a rose garden ceremony.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
What, the current guy, he's talking about paving the rose garden. But anyhow... It was a Rose Garden ceremony. We show up there. Reagan and Bush are standing there, and Reagan says the only words that he's ever said to me, which is, which one is Jerry? That was it. Which one is Jerry?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
No, I did not. No, as a matter of fact, we were thinking that whoever was supposed to vet who gets the award made a mistake in terms of giving... Right, that's exactly what it was. I remember it.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, actually, after that ceremony, you know, there was, you know, some kind of dinner and a talk. And, you know, so I'm up there giving a talk. And I'm talking about, you know, my obsession, which is how much money the country spends on the Pentagon and preparing to kill huge numbers of people. And... Alphonse D'Amato gets up after I spoke and talked about what an ingrate I was.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Who went up? Alphonse D'Amato was a Republican senator, I think. Yeah, put him up there. I think he got Alphonse D'Amato. Do you have the bit about him being corrupt? I don't know. I'm sure it's in here.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
What did he do? What was the corruption? Probably removed him. I don't remember what his corruption was.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yes.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
senator.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I'm not very competitive. Not at all? Not very. I mean, if you want to see who can eat a pint fastest, I'll do that with you. I don't get ice cream headaches.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Maybe people who can't smell don't get ice cream headaches. I don't know.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Here, have this.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
What do you think about them? I think Haagen-Dazs makes a very high-quality ice cream. I think Ben & Jerry's makes a very high-quality ice cream. You guys are number one, though.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
People have to realize this, guys. What, you think? No, I've looked at you guys. I don't think we could be the number one.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah, you're number one. Look at that.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I mean, I know that. Dude, you guys are number one.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You built the number one ice cream company in America. Well, that was in 2022. Maybe we're no longer number one.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I haven't heard that, but I think it makes a lot of sense. There you go. I think there's a lot of people that are working really, really hard, and they're not getting lucky.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You think just by watching YouTube videos you could make stuff as good as what we're eating now? No, no, I don't think so.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You've got one of those topped ones. Yes. What do you want me to do with it? Yeah, you're going to have to break it. All right, let's try to break it. You know, a lot of times people eat it with a metal spoon. It's easier to break.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You can dig underneath it.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, you're a good consumer. We would classify you as a heavy user, and we appreciate people like you.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, I think there's social democracies. I mean, I don't think socialism is opposed to capitalism. I think there's a way of doing capitalism that kind of cares about people, that has a better safety net, that is not so rapacious. I mean, what we have in the U.S. is unfettered capitalism. And what ends up happening when you have that is a tremendous spread between rich and poor.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah, you're right. This is pretty good.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know what? I think that one is even non-dairy. I can't believe it.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
That chocolate fudge brownie doesn't have any dairy products in it. This doesn't have it? You didn't know it when you ate it, did you?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
It's really good.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You want this back.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think that would be a really good ad.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Those were all after my time.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I didn't realize there was an association with Bill Clinton. Monica Lewinsky was white, though. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough was kind of like the last flavor during my reign.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, also New York super fudge chunk. Wait a minute. No, there was fish food. That was the very last flavor under my direction.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
No plans on the books that I've seen.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Boy, there are opportunities. Perhaps Tillamook or Bluebell or Haagen-Dazs.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Who knows what the customers would be, but I... I wouldn't see that. Well, actually, my understanding is that Ben and Jerry's is nonpartisan. Stop it.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You should do one for Trump. You ought to come up with Trump insurance. Trump insurance.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Oh, Talenti. What is that? That's another one.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, I haven't really eaten it much.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
It's another ice cream.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
It is another brand that is owned by my parent. Oh, really?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, I guess maybe I reacted that way because, you know. It's a cousin. It's a brand that's owned by my parents, so I'm vaguely related to it. Dude, if I open it up and it pops. Brandon, can you open this up? Apparently you're not supposed to eat it. No.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
It's nice to have staff, man. You have 1,700 of them.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Hey, speaking of ice cream, you got a spoon? Good shit, isn't it? I've never had dirty. Yeah, pass it over. This is ridiculous. After this ice cream, I'm a socialist. If voting for Bernie was an option, he would have won. I don't need that much money, I can tell you that. I'm part of it, but I'm against it. Ben, what a capitalist you are, though. You know, you're a good consumer.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
He's 28 years old.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
That's amazing.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Like I told you, I have no idea what direction this podcast is going to go. He lifts weights. You've got a video of this. We've got to send it to Lenti manufacturers. You did get it?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Send it to the guys who provided the packaging machine. Tell them. Do you almost not want me to get in there? It's like a... And now you've got a delamination of your safety tamper evidence seal. I need a code. What's the password, right?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, when Jerry and I started Ben & Jerry's, the spread between CEO pay and line-level workers' pay was 40 to 1. And we thought, that's outrageous. So we had a lower one. We came up with the 5 to 1 ratio. Yeah, that's interesting, by the way. And that's changed over time. So it's no longer 5 to 1 at Ben & Jerry's. No, but today...
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
All right, here.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
A lot.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, in the early days, all we had was a homemade ice cream shop, and most of the people that we hired were scoopers. And some scoopers were like really personable people who would have a lot of conversations with the customers, but that would kind of slow down the line, and we couldn't satisfy our customers. Couldn't serve enough people.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
So we had to fire people who engaged in too much conversation with the customer. I mean, you want to be friendly with your customer, but you don't want to take it too far. Did you ever have lazy employees? Lazy employees. We had employees that worked at one speed, and it was slow. They were really nice people. They were really good people.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, I would fire some of these.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Right. It's a horrible thing to do. You know, I mean, sometimes when, you know, Jerry and I knew that, you know, somebody needed to get fired, I would be the guy who did the firing. Seriously? Yeah. We would say, the monster is hungry. The monster must eat. And it was, you know, meant that that was a person that needed to be fired.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
the salary ratio between CEOs and line-level employees is 400 to 1. And what? We're in a situation where... I don't know, what is it, 0.1% of the wealthiest people in the country own 90% of the wealth. Which you're a part of it. You're part of the 0.1%. I'm part of it, but I'm against it. What do you mean you're a part of it, but you're against it?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You guys literally would go in front of the face of the guy you're firing.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
We were referring to me. I'm the firer. But sometimes... Sometimes, you know, it was college students and it would be a woman. You fired women? And she would start crying. And I would say, you know, you're a college student. This is just, you know, a scooping ice cream. This is a bullshit little job that you're doing to get through college. This is not a big thing. But they're emotional.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah, people. You know, I've been fired from a few jobs, and I actually kind of like it. Where'd you get fired from? It's very freeing. Where'd you get fired from? I got fired from Ann's Coffee Park Diner.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Anne's husband. Anne's husband. Yeah. Shame on him. Yeah. I was a short order cook working in the back there. And, you know, you got your steam table and, you know, somebody... you know, a hot roast beef sandwich. So you open up the refrigerator, you get, you know, the pre-sliced slabs of roast beef out of the refrigerator. You dunk it in this lukewarm water to warm it up.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And, you know, you have your white bread on the platter and you kind of put it on it and put the gravy on top of it. And, you know, we were also doing prep work. And after the lunch rush... There wasn't as much money coming into the cash register, and Anne would turn off half the lights in the kitchen because she wanted to keep her expenses in line with the income.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And I was trying to explain to her that, you know, we're working with sharp knives back here. We'd like to be able to see what we're doing. And this went back and forth, and she would shut off the lights, and I'd turn them back on, and eventually I got fired.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, when Trump got elected and when Doge came into being, we were concerned that Doge might overlook the hugest source of waste in the federal budget, which happens to be in the Pentagon budget. you know, these other little slivers are pretty much small potatoes. I mean, you know, there was this big hubbub about USAID, but compared to the Pentagon...
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, I am one of the, you know, I'm a wealthy person, but I'm against the system that creates such a spread between rich and poor. Why, though? Because poor people are getting screwed. But why, though?
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think USAID is about 5% of the Pentagon budget. The Pentagon represents about half of the federal discretionary budget. So we wanted to make sure that Elon... didn't ignore that and and so we started the doge versus blob.org uh campaign which is kind of on x and it is to uh encourage is this it There it is. It's the Doge, yeah. And you did this? This is you guys? This is us guys. Really?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah, yeah. Sick. This is me and Ed Erickson. And, yeah, if you... So it's Doge. You know who Doge is. Of course. And there's the blob, which is another name for... the whole military-industrial complex, the Pentagon and the war profiteers. And as you can see, the blob has invaded the Capitol.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And if you scroll down, you can win Doge coins for coming up with these memes that refer to the various kinds of waste that are in the Pentagon budget. So there's the facts that slay. So here's the content, and the idea for the contest is to come up with a meme that talks about some of these ridiculous, wasteful items.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah, now that's the small potatoes. You get into nuclear weapons, and we exploded one nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. It killed 100,000 people instantly. and then another 100,000 eventually died from radiation poisoning and sickness. Huge number of people with burns all over their body, amputations, blindness, deafness. That was one nuclear bomb. And today, the arsenal in the U.S., It's huge.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
As a matter of fact, I have a little demonstration. Please, go for it. Can I do this? I'm going to show you the size of our nuclear arsenal.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
These are BBs, right. I'm going to toss them in this bucket. So here's one BB. That represents... Let me just move this over here so I can... Here's one BB... That represents the bomb that blew up over Hiroshima. And now here's 15 BBs. That would be enough to blow up every major city in, say, Russia. And what I want to do now is show the amount of our total nuclear arsenal.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
So that's the equivalent of 50,000 Hiroshima bombs. That is the current explosive capacity of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Not only that, the country is now preparing to spend another $2 trillion on a whole new generation of nuclear weapons. Now that is sick. It's immoral. It's crazy. It's irrational. And it is a huge waste of money and lives. It's unbelievable. And it is just an indicator.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
It's a window into the general Pentagon war profiteer mentality that More is better. If one nuclear bomb is good, gobs more must be better. And what really slays me about it is the incredible waste of resources and the effect that it has on our spirits, our soul as a nation, that we're spending time 50% of our discretionary budget on preparing to kill gobs of people.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I mean, the Vatican came out with this statement that the arms race, even if the weapons are never used, kills the poor by causing them to starve. Our Pentagon budget... is $900 billion a year. One of the reasons I got into this is because you talk about a billion, nobody has any conception of how much a billion is. And Ben and Jerry's got up to a level of around $300 million before it got sold.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And I started to understand that, well, a billion is three times the business we were doing. And that amount of money is just unbelievable. And that's just one billion. You know how many years you'd have to live before you lived a billion seconds? plug that into your machine and try. It's about 30. So that's how much a billion is, 30 years of seconds.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And we take 900 billion and we use that preparing to kill people like you and me, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, In other countries who just had the bad luck of being born on some other side of some imaginary line when – I mean I think the US is the richest country in the history of the world.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think we need to start to measure our strength in terms of how many people we can care for, how much we can improve the quality of life for people as opposed to killing people.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Profit.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think a lot of it is driven by that. I think another part is driven by politicians who are deathly afraid of being called weak on defense. And a lot of this stuff is kind of complex. It's international relations. How do we know how many aircraft carriers we actually need, et cetera, et cetera.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
So what ends up happening is that military strength becomes measured in terms of the size of the Pentagon budget. And politicians try to outdo each other from both parties. This is like the one bipartisan area of agreement over the years. You know, the Democrat says, I'm going to spend X amount on the Pentagon. Well, the Republican says, well, I'll spend a little more.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And then the Democrat says, well, I'll spend a little more. And therefore, they're the strongest on defense. You know, before this, I was doing a little prep work. I saw this quote by Eisenhower, Republican President Eisenhower. What was a four star general, five star general who said that. a country can bankrupt itself in the vain effort to achieve absolute security.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You can't achieve absolute security, but continuing to spend our money, I mean, when you think about how much the size of the deficit, so much of that is driven by... Pentagon expenditures, war expenditures. I mean, you know, what one of the I mean, the major thing that kind of brought me here is Trump's statement that he wants to denuclearize. He wants to work with Trump.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
the leaders of Russia and I think now Iran and China to reduce nuclear weapons and that he wants to reduce our Pentagon budget very significantly. I mean he said 50 percent. That makes so much sense. I mean, all these countries, they want to help the people who live in their countries.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And when you're spending so much of your money on just preparing to kill other people and the weapons are so fucking expensive, you should excuse me. Yeah. It just saps everything you've got.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Exactly right. And, you know, the the example that he gave of those washers is really excellent because we all know what a washer costs. But then when you get into things like the F-35 program, a fighter bomber jet that is hugely flawed. You know, it's a little more complex to understand it, but it's the same pricing. It's the same overly inflated prices.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, that fighter program, that weapons system costs $1.5 trillion. And it doesn't work. I mean, it's in the shop over 50% of the time. But... What you have going on, the corruption in the Pentagon, is that the generals that are supervising these contracts with the weapons manufacturers, when they retire – They go to work for the weapons manufacturer.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And, you know, they're incentivized to look the other way at all this price gouging.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
In terms of the Pentagon budget and in terms of nuclear weapons and in terms of the idea of solving our problems in ways other than killing huge numbers of people. I mean, Trump has said – I want to be clear. There's a shitload of things that I disagree with Trump on. But – There are some things that I do agree with him on.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And he has said that if he were president, there never would have been a war in Ukraine. Do you agree with him? I do. I think that the war in Ukraine was absurd. I think the U.S. provoked it. And by expanding NATO. And I think Russia was essentially saying, you know, the U.S. has a sphere of influence. It happens to be the entire world. Russia wants a little sphere of influence.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, don't put, you know, weapons aimed at us in this neighboring country.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, there's a very long list.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
No.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think so.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, in general, I think a big part of what I believe is that I think there's a real lack of I think there's a lack of honesty.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I don't know. You know, I just think there's a long list of things that he's lied about that I don't have off the tip of my tongue. And I think, you know, I'm... I believe strongly in racial justice, and I don't think that Trump does.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
What? This was the first? Yeah. You don't remember that?
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Martin Luther King.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Because he was fighting for justice and fighting for people who had been oppressed and screwed. And he was a really inspirational leader.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
How is it?
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
No.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
What can I say?
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, listen, you're missing out, buddy. I was probably reading ice cream books.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
But was there anything... I want to know why you're so... I mean, socialism is a word that gets used to refer to a lot of different things.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And... So I think the old or official definition of socialism is that the state owns all the means of production. I mean, I don't favor that.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Marginal tax rate, yeah.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, you know, if you had a marginal tax rate of 80% on the millionaires and above... you wouldn't have so many people with so much money that were influencing our elections and our legislation in order to make it better for their own selves. So, yeah, I think that it would certainly decrease the spread between rich and poor.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
And I think, you know, I mean, you think about education, you think about child care, you think about health care. Yeah. These are things that, you know, especially things like Medicare for All, it needs to be, some things need to be done by the government.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Because I think both things are true. It doesn't work that way. You know, I mean, I think about my own business. You know, as Ben & Jerry's was getting larger and larger, I was saying, we're wasting all this money. You know, this thing is wrong, that thing is wrong. It's leaking over here. It's, you know, there's something that's not working right over there. I couldn't believe...
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I don't think he is.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
how much money was being wasted. Okay. And then I came to understand that, yeah, there's some waste in most anything that human beings do. But there's one tricky thing here.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Because I needed to make a profit.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Who's going to be against raising taxes to 80% marginal on incomes over several million dollars?
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Why should I give it to you? How many?
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
There are some functions that government needs to perform. I don't disagree, but not as much money as you want us to give to you. Well, I mean, half the discretionary budget is going to the Pentagon. Let's cut that. You know, I'm not suggesting we totally eliminate all weapons.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, I think a lot of what happened is that people were voting for something different. You know, I mean, a lot of times you look at presidential elections and it's choosing between the least worst. And, you know, Trump... I don't regard him really as a Republican.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I don't regard him as a Democrat. I think he's kind of more of an independent. I agree. And I think that's what people want. I agree. They want someone who's not the status quo, not the norm. And the only choice they had was Trump.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
We would classify you as a heavy user. We appreciate people like you.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Yeah. You know, I like that painting. I do too. Yeah. You know, what strikes me is Einstein. When you talk about logic, I mean, he said that it is not possible to simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. I think that is really, really true. I mean, the quote goes on to say that
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
the very energy and resources that are necessary for the prevention of war are actually greater than preparing for war. So if you're going to prevent it, you need to use those resources to prevent it. What? How did you do this? You got telepathy?
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I can't.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
From my mind to your screen. Man, I love it.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think it is a genocide. I think it's awful, horrible. To a guy who's... who's getting killed, I don't think it matters whether it's in a gas chamber or because it was a bomb dropped on his head. I don't... I'm just hugely opposed to taking weapons and slaughtering people. It's absurd.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I mean, I'm also hugely opposed to what happened on October 7th with people coming in and slaughtering people in Israel, but... I totally don't believe that it justifies slaughtering an entire population.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I believe the hostages should be released. I do not believe that we should be slaughtering people.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I don't know.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I don't have.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I don't have a solution.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, I definitely agree that there are times when you need to make tough decisions as a leader. Do you have kids?
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I'm not looking to... I wouldn't say... Return my kid or I'll slaughter thousands of people.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I wouldn't sacrifice my daughter.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I'm not okay with it. You know, I don't know what the solution to the problem is. That's why it's tough. Yeah, it's tough.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think that there's a form of capitalism that works well. You know, we've always been a capitalistic country. My understanding is that when Reagan took office, the marginal tax rate on the highest level was like 80%.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, let me know when you're in town. I will. I didn't get to show you all of my toys. Oh, what is it? Yeah, tell me. What do you got? One of my toys. This is a limited edition. Ben and Jerry's ramp walker. There's no batteries. There's nothing to wind up. It waddles. Let me see if we can hear. I'll set it up for you here. Oh, excuse me. I'm moving.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Go on, guys.
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Isn't that cool?
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"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
They don't go off. Get out of here. They know. Look at these guys. And it's low-tech. It's not like I've got to censor them. This is crazy.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
No, no, no. Wow. You know, when these first came out 20 years ago, 25 years ago, people weren't that crazy about it. But now that everything is all high tech and everything. They like this. Yeah, it's retro. Can I have it? Can you have it? Baby, this is yours. It's got your name on it. Not only that, I'm giving you one that's totally unopened. Oh, you're amazing.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
You know, eBay, you know, when your business goes down the tube, you sell that on eBay. You know, we'll get rid of the capital gains tax. Listen, you're amazing.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
All right, here's my other toy. What, your pens don't do this?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I mean, you know, you go around selling insurance with this thing. But this one here talks about global military spending. Here's how much the U.S. spends. Here's how much China spends. Here's how much Russia spends. What, they got close-up lens on that fucking thing? Do you see it or no?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
Well, whatever. But I mean, that's the idea. That's what kind of makes sense to me. Is to have it at 80%? Well, you know, what is it now?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I think that the system that has created... such disparity between rich and poor, and that's part of it. So, no, I don't think that works. I think a lot of people in this country are being left behind. I think 50% of the country is getting screwed economically. Why, though? Because of laws and regulations that favor wealth. Such as what? You're a rich man. What is there?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
There's lower taxes on capital gains, right? But why, though? Those who don't work pay less taxes.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
How many figures?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
No, I'm eight figures.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I don't need that much money, I can tell you that. Give it away. I give a lot of it away. Give all of it away. Just keep a half a million of it.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I don't know. Because you shouldn't do it. You've earned it. Ben, you worked your ass off. You're a hero. Well, there's a lot of people that are working their ass off. The whole bottom 50% of the country is working their asses off and getting paid shit. What's the difference between them and you? What's the difference between them and me? You know, there's some luck involved.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
There was a good idea at the right time.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
I come across loads of people that are working really, really hard for really low wages. You know, so, yeah, I had an idea, and, yeah, maybe I'm good at making ice cream flavors, coming up with ice cream flavors. Somebody else is a really good roofer, and they work really hard roofing. Why shouldn't they get paid? You want a roofer to get paid $300 million, $326 million? I'm not saying that much.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
All I'm saying is that, you know, what is the minimum wage in the country?
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
That should be illegal. That's a poverty wage. We shouldn't be in a country whereby you work 40 hours a week full time and you can't afford to have a decent life.
PBD Podcast
"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560
50.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
His first day on the job, he wrote this letter to employees in which he said that he has a Sonos home system. He watches TV with his Sonos soundbar. And when his daughter was born, he brought another kind of Sonos portable speaker into the delivery room of the hospital. This is a guy who is such a fan of the company's products that he even has a tattoo of Sonos headphones.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
So like he is permanently inked with his devotion to Sonos even before he was the CEO of Sonos.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
Well, I think that's like the million dollar question for Sonos right now, right?
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
The first is that these apps that run our lives, they demand constant improvements and they can't have any disruptions. The best updates are the ones that you don't notice. And technology is at its best when it just works, right? When it has that magic, as Steve Jobs used to say. In this case, it just kind of stopped working.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
And I think Sonos has sort of rethought its software development process throughout this time. Part of the issue here is that lots and lots and lots of people using Sonos products felt these changes at the same time. And if you had rolled them out in smaller chunks... You could have contained the damage and fixed these issues before they became issues for everyone.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
I do listen to music at home. And if I had my choice of what we would listen to, it would probably be a lot of Taylor Swift. But I don't have a choice because I have a three and a half year old daughter. So what I've been listening to a lot of lately is the soundtrack to the movie Cars 2.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
I am not a Sonos household. However, I have learned that basically everyone in my life belongs to a Sonos household.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
Sonos is known as a premium home audio equipment company, and it really revolutionized home audio by creating this ecosystem of smart audio products that work seamlessly with each other. And in fact, when I talk to Sonos users, the company that often comes to mind is Apple.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
Like, if you're an Apple user, if you have an iPhone, probably you have a MacBook or you have an iPad, and you want to be able to control all of it within that same ecosystem.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
And people who own Sonos products don't just own one Sonos product. The average Sonos household owns three products. So maybe that's a speaker with a soundbar under the TV or a portable speaker that they can bring on the road or headphones. I mean, there are a lot of people who own, like, lots of Sonos products because they need speakers in each room of the house.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
And when your three-and-a-half-year-old daughter is listening to Cars 2 in her bedroom, you might want to listen to Taylor Swift in another room.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
Basically, everybody noticed right away, like the very first day, in part because it was pretty hard not to notice. Sonos users couldn't use basic features of their speakers. They couldn't access their own audio systems. It was almost as if these speakers had become like sleekly designed bricks.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
Very, very expensive bricks. And what actually happened with the app kind of depends on the user. Some found that it was like missing essential features of the old app, like the ability to edit playlists on the fly or set alarms for when they should wake up in the morning. Some people found entire libraries of music were just suddenly inaccessible to them.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
Speakers that vanished from their audio systems in the middle of a song. That basic promise of being able to control music in a room suddenly wasn't being fulfilled. And for most Sonos users, regardless of the experience they were having, the product basically just became worse overnight.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
The chief product officer at the time defended it as courageous to do this, like because, you know, they were releasing this new app and it would have been easy to just keep going the way they were going. But they felt that this was like a necessary change that they had to make for the future of the company.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
In a very, very big way. So the company has said that it has cost at least $100 million in revenue. And the company had to delay two product launches last year as it was dealing with the fallout of this botched app release and the bungled response to it. So that's $100 million in revenue.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
Sonos released an app that was supposed to be their most extensive app redesign ever. And it kind of turned into their most expensive app redesign ever.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
it was so buggy that it turned into one of the most disastrous software updates in the recent history of consumer technology, which I know sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, but it's kind of not.
The Journal.
The Botched Software Update That Cost $600 Million
They replaced the CEO, Patrick Spence, with a guy named Tom Conrad, who was already on Sonos' board. But he's someone with extensive experience in product design, software, and music platforms, having been the chief technology officer of Pandora for 10 years. He's also something of a Sonos geek. He really, really cares about the product. In fact...