Carol Roth

And unfortunately, that's where we're at today.

Yeah.

I mean, if you recall, I'm with you on this.

If you recall, my second book was The War on Small Business, which talked about what happened during COVID and how there was this direct attack on the small businesses of the world.

And the intention behind it is that small business equates to freedom.

Small businesses are very independent.

They're scattered geographically.

And individually, they don't have the funds to

to support these candidates and the lobbying efforts and, you know, quote unquote, you know, legally launder money the way that big businesses can.

And so, you know, they always talk about how it's Main Street's term and we're here for the backbone of the economy.

But at the end of the day, they're not thinking about the economy.

They're thinking about their power and what consolidates their power is being in bed with the big guys, which is why we have corporatism instead of capitalism these days.

I mean, we've seen it here in Chicago.

Absolutely.

Over time, they're going to be forced to do it.

Ken Griffin, who was the founder of Citadel, which is a major financial services firm, got absolutely fed up with what was going on in the state and the attempt to milk businesses financially.

milk the quote unquote wealthiest people.

And so he took his own tax base, he took a bunch of jobs, and by the way, a lot of philanthropy.

He gave a lot of money to improve the city.

And what we're seeing is it's not only him, but other wealthy people who have left, and the burden is now falling to the middle and working class.