James Talarico

I want people to live the dream that you've gotten to live.

I've said before, I want an economy that creates more millionaires and fewer trillionaires, right?

I want that success to be

to be broad-based, I want it to be shared.

Just like we did in the 20th century, when we had the largest middle class in the world after the Second World War,

We grew together as a country and it was the greatest economic prosperity we've experienced as a nation.

And it was because wealthy people and corporations felt a responsibility to their fellow citizens.

I think about the great American companies, GM, GE, they had a more expansive definition of shareholder.

The shareholders weren't just the people who owned stocks in the company.

It was the workers, the families of those workers, the customers, the community members, the nation.

And so there was a sense of corporate citizenship there.

And I feel like over 50 years of trickle-down economics, all that has gone out the window.

Now it is all just what can I do for me, for our bottom line, for my very narrowly defined shareholders, and screw everybody else.

And because those very wealthy people have bought politicians to help them rewrite these rules of the road,

all the wealth that's been created over the last 50 years has gone to the top 1%.

And none of it is shared by the people who actually created that wealth, right?

The people who made it possible.

So all I'm advocating for, I'm not trying to demonize billionaires.

I feel like I'm trying to humanize billionaires.

In fact, I'm trying to get us to see each other as part of one nation, one community, to love our neighbors.