AI transcript
0:00:01 This episode is brought to you by Peloton.
0:00:04 A new era of fitness is here.
0:00:07 Introducing the new Peloton Cross-Training Tread Plus,
0:00:09 powered by Peloton IQ.
0:00:12 Built for breakthroughs, with personalized workout plans,
0:00:15 real-time insights, and endless ways to move.
0:00:18 Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps,
0:00:20 corrects form, and tracks your progress.
0:00:24 Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go.
0:00:27 Explore the new Peloton Cross-Training Tread Plus
0:00:28 at onepeloton.ca.
0:00:31 Hey, it’s me. Do the thing.
0:00:33 Hey, it’s me.
0:00:35 Um, you, from the future.
0:00:39 Uh, big thanks for getting the HPV vaccine.
0:00:40 I mean, with that one move,
0:00:43 you help protect us against several cancers later in life.
0:00:45 So, thank you.
0:00:47 Or, thank us?
0:00:50 I’ll just text you myself.
0:00:54 The HPV vaccine is safe, effective, and free for eligible youth.
0:00:58 Learn more at healthlinkbc.ca.hpv.
0:00:59 A message from the government of BC.
0:01:04 Did you lock the front door?
0:01:04 Check.
0:01:05 Closed the garage door?
0:01:06 Yep.
0:01:09 Installed window sensors, smoke sensors, and HD cameras with night vision?
0:01:10 No.
0:01:12 And you set up credit card transaction alerts,
0:01:14 a secure VPN for a private connection,
0:01:16 and continuous monitoring for our personal info on the dark web?
0:01:19 Uh, I’m looking into it?
0:01:21 Stress less about security.
0:01:23 Choose security solutions from Telus
0:01:25 for peace of mind at home and online.
0:01:28 Visit telus.com slash total security to learn more.
0:01:29 Conditions apply.
0:01:35 I’m Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice.
0:01:40 American institutions and our leaders have not stood up to authoritarianism.
0:01:46 But in a consumer economy, the real power isn’t in Washington or at headquarters,
0:01:48 but in your wallet.
0:01:52 Strike, as read by George Hahn.
0:02:02 Government shutdowns have been normalized.
0:02:10 Since 1976, we’ve seen 20 funding gaps, resulting in 10 government shutdowns.
0:02:15 It’s a form of economic strike, just not an effective one,
0:02:19 as shutdowns create blame but seldom achieve political goals.
0:02:25 The Democrats have been uncharacteristically strategic in this standoff.
0:02:29 Their demands, continued subsidies for health care coverage,
0:02:32 likely affect more Republican voters.
0:02:35 This focus achieves a messaging trifecta.
0:02:40 It highlights affordability and health care and divides Republicans.
0:02:44 However, that’s not what this post is about.
0:02:52 In the U.S., we suffer, benefit, from an idolatry of the dollar.
0:02:57 Our gods are CEOs who pray at the altar of shareholder value.
0:03:03 Our prophets preach growth, while our priests, divine meaning from earnings reports.
0:03:08 Every billionaire’s origin story, bootstraps and all, is scripture.
0:03:13 Even authoritarians kneel to a higher power, the markets.
0:03:19 In April, when it looked as though nothing could stop Trump’s protectionist fever dream,
0:03:22 the bond markets rocked, then rolled, the president.
0:03:27 The following month, Wall Street had a name for this phenomenon.
0:03:32 Taco, i.e. Trump always chickens out.
0:03:38 We frame economic power as a contest between capital and labor.
0:03:43 But the real star of the American economy is consumer spending,
0:03:46 which accounts for 68% of GDP.
0:03:52 The Great Recession saw a 3.4% drop in consumer spending.
0:03:58 At the time, the most severe year-over-year decline since World War II.
0:04:07 The U.S. economy registered a 9.8% drop in consumer spending during the second quarter of 2020,
0:04:10 when COVID shut down the world as we knew it.
0:04:15 In both instances, the U.S. government responded aggressively,
0:04:19 spending hundreds of billions, primarily in bailouts,
0:04:21 to pull us out of the Great Recession,
0:04:25 and trillions, primarily in direct aid, to get us through the pandemic.
0:04:26 The lesson?
0:04:32 When consumers stop spending, American leaders start listening.
0:04:38 As G.O. Husser explained to his YouTube followers at the end of September,
0:04:41 this is not seizing the means of production,
0:04:44 but seizing the means of consumption.
0:04:50 Adding that if every American dropped their consumption, on average, by 2%,
0:04:55 that would be the most loud and potent form of protest.
0:05:00 Recently, Trump found his red line.
0:05:04 It wasn’t Congress or the courts, but a comedian.
0:05:09 After bowing to government threats and suspending late-night host Jimmy Kimmel,
0:05:12 the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC,
0:05:16 discovered that a strongman wasn’t as scary as a consumer boycott.
0:05:22 One reporter put the number of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN cancellations
0:05:28 at 1.7 million subscribers in less than a week.
0:05:31 The outcry from celebrities on the left
0:05:33 and a handful of people on the right,
0:05:35 including Senator Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson,
0:05:38 pressured Disney’s leadership to do the right thing.
0:05:42 But as journalist Lauren Egan wrote in The Bulwark,
0:05:45 There was no organized campaign against Disney.
0:05:48 The blowback was organic.
0:05:53 Disney CEO Bob Iger needed screenshots of people canceling Disney Plus
0:05:55 to help him locate his testicles.
0:05:59 At this point, the Disney CEO is Neville Chamberlain
0:06:02 in a cashmere sweater, minus the dignity.
0:06:08 The boycotters realized they had to inflict financial pain
0:06:09 to change Disney’s behavior.
0:06:12 But according to Braden King,
0:06:16 now a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management
0:06:19 who studies social movements and corporate social responsibility,
0:06:24 and Sarah A. Soule, now a professor at Stanford,
0:06:28 the typical boycott doesn’t have much impact on sales.
0:06:33 In their study of 342 boycotts against U.S. corporations
0:06:35 between 1962 and 1990,
0:06:38 they found that boycotts, on average,
0:06:43 caused a 1% decline in a company’s stock price.
0:06:45 King said in 2017,
0:06:50 the number one predictor of what makes a boycott effective
0:06:53 is how much media attention it creates,
0:06:55 not how many people sign on to a petition
0:06:57 or how many consumers it mobilizes.
0:07:01 Ironically, Trump’s inability to shut up
0:07:03 likely helped the boycotters
0:07:05 by directing attention to their cause.
0:07:07 In the end,
0:07:09 it took fewer than 1%
0:07:12 of the mouse’s total streaming subscribers
0:07:14 to capture America’s attention
0:07:17 and accomplish what Disney CEO Bob Iger couldn’t,
0:07:20 stand up to an authoritarian.
0:07:25 Consumer boycotts are American.
0:07:27 In the 1760s,
0:07:30 American colonists pushed back
0:07:32 against unlawful British taxation,
0:07:34 not with muskets,
0:07:35 but with boycotts,
0:07:38 known as non-importation agreements.
0:07:41 Participation was uneven,
0:07:43 and success was ultimately achieved
0:07:44 through the Revolution.
0:07:47 But historians credit the boycotts
0:07:49 with demonstrating American resolve,
0:07:51 promoting political unity,
0:07:53 and encouraging domestic manufacturing.
0:07:56 In The Marketplace of Revolution,
0:07:59 How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence,
0:08:02 historian T.H. Breen wrote,
0:08:05 only people who had experienced
0:08:07 the pleasures and frustrations
0:08:09 of so many consumer choices
0:08:12 could possibly have come to appreciate
0:08:14 how a disruption of that market
0:08:16 might be an effective weapon.
0:08:19 American consumers have reached
0:08:21 for this weapon throughout history.
0:08:26 Abolitionists deployed the Free Produce Movement
0:08:28 to encourage consumers
0:08:31 to boycott goods produced with slave labor.
0:08:34 Although the economic impact was negligible
0:08:37 and the movement didn’t bring about emancipation,
0:08:41 it positioned slavery as a moral issue
0:08:43 in the daily lives of northern consumers.
0:08:45 As one pamphlet put it,
0:08:47 if we purchase the commodity,
0:08:50 we participate in the crime.
0:08:51 Zooming out,
0:08:53 historian Lawrence Glickman,
0:08:55 author of Buying Power,
0:08:57 A History of Consumer Activism in America,
0:08:59 points to the campaign
0:09:02 as the catalyst for centering consumer power
0:09:04 in the American system.
0:09:08 The Free Produce Movement
0:09:10 offered a radically new conception
0:09:12 of causality and morality,
0:09:14 one which posited purchasers
0:09:17 as the first cause of economic activity
0:09:18 and therefore made them
0:09:21 the moral guardians of the polity.
0:09:24 Nearly a century later,
0:09:26 civil rights activists,
0:09:28 inspired by Rosa Parks’ refusal
0:09:31 to surrender her bus seat to a white rider,
0:09:33 organized a one-day boycott
0:09:35 of city buses in Montgomery, Alabama.
0:09:37 At the time,
0:09:39 more than 70%
0:09:41 of the city’s bus patrons were black.
0:09:43 Boycott participation
0:09:45 was estimated to be 90%.
0:09:49 In the aftermath of that one-day boycott,
0:09:50 organizers,
0:09:52 led by Martin Luther King Jr.,
0:09:54 established a carpooling network
0:09:56 with more than 200 cars
0:09:58 and 100 pickup locations.
0:10:01 The boycott cost the city
0:10:04 an estimated $3,000 per day,
0:10:07 $35,000 adjusted for inflation.
0:10:09 After 13 months
0:10:11 and a favorable Supreme Court ruling,
0:10:14 the boycott organizers
0:10:15 successfully integrated
0:10:17 Montgomery’s bus system.
0:10:19 Their action helped launch
0:10:21 the National Civil Rights Movement.
0:10:24 Historically,
0:10:26 boycotts have been called
0:10:27 weapons of the weak
0:10:28 against the strong.
0:10:30 Today, however,
0:10:32 I believe consumer boycotts
0:10:34 are weapons of the privileged
0:10:35 against the powerful.
0:10:39 Two factors account for that change.
0:10:40 First,
0:10:41 as Glickman wrote
0:10:43 in The American Historian,
0:10:45 Through his description
0:10:47 of a highly personalized economy
0:10:49 made up of specific companies,
0:10:50 people,
0:10:51 buyers,
0:10:52 and investors,
0:10:54 rather than an abstract market
0:10:56 too big and all-encompassing
0:10:57 for anybody to understand,
0:10:59 Donald Trump
0:11:01 has promoted a worldview,
0:11:03 albeit an inverted one,
0:11:06 amenable to consumer activism.
0:11:08 Second,
0:11:10 concentrated wealth
0:11:12 puts a lot of consumer firepower
0:11:13 in the hands
0:11:15 of relatively few people.
0:11:16 Consumers
0:11:18 in the top 10%
0:11:19 income bracket
0:11:20 account for half
0:11:21 of consumer spending.
0:11:23 That cohort
0:11:24 leans Democratic
0:11:25 53%
0:11:27 to 46%,
0:11:28 but more important,
0:11:30 they can afford
0:11:31 to not spend.
0:11:33 Setting aside
0:11:35 multiplier effects,
0:11:36 import leakages,
0:11:37 and substitution,
0:11:39 I estimate
0:11:41 that the top 10%
0:11:42 could achieve
0:11:43 a 1%
0:11:45 decline in GDP
0:11:46 with a 3%
0:11:47 reduction
0:11:48 in spending.
0:11:52 While a general strike
0:11:53 is appealing,
0:11:54 the tactic
0:11:56 has a poor track record
0:11:57 in American history.
0:11:59 See the Great Railroad
0:12:00 Strike of 1877,
0:12:01 the 1919
0:12:02 Seattle
0:12:03 General Strike,
0:12:04 and the 1934
0:12:06 West Coast
0:12:07 Waterfront Strikes.
0:12:08 Each ended
0:12:09 in bloodshed
0:12:10 and produced
0:12:11 minimal gains.
0:12:13 General strikes,
0:12:14 whether driven
0:12:15 by labor
0:12:15 or consumers,
0:12:17 are difficult
0:12:17 to organize,
0:12:19 nearly impossible
0:12:19 to sustain,
0:12:20 and,
0:12:21 by definition,
0:12:22 too generalized
0:12:23 to articulate
0:12:25 a clear demand.
0:12:27 Rather than
0:12:28 a general strike,
0:12:29 difficult,
0:12:31 against authoritarianism,
0:12:33 vague,
0:12:34 I believe
0:12:35 we need
0:12:36 targeted boycotts
0:12:38 with clear demands
0:12:39 directed at
0:12:40 Trump’s enablers.
0:12:42 The math
0:12:42 is simple.
0:12:44 You have power
0:12:45 and they need
0:12:46 your money
0:12:47 more than you
0:12:48 need their product.
0:12:49 So,
0:12:51 will we
0:12:52 actually do
0:12:52 anything
0:12:54 or just
0:12:54 complain about
0:12:55 how someone
0:12:55 should do
0:12:56 something?
0:12:58 Here’s a place
0:12:58 to start.
0:13:00 Pick an enabler,
0:13:01 plenty to choose
0:13:02 from,
0:13:03 but it’s best
0:13:03 to focus on
0:13:04 a brand
0:13:04 you actually
0:13:05 spend money
0:13:05 with.
0:13:07 make noise
0:13:08 when you
0:13:08 cancel
0:13:09 and show
0:13:09 receipts
0:13:10 on social
0:13:10 media.
0:13:11 State a
0:13:12 clear demand.
0:13:13 Keep going.
0:13:15 If you
0:13:16 believe a
0:13:16 company
0:13:16 shouldn’t
0:13:17 let the
0:13:17 president
0:13:18 dictate
0:13:18 its
0:13:18 workplace
0:13:19 policies,
0:13:20 cancel your
0:13:21 target card
0:13:22 and purchase
0:13:22 a Costco
0:13:23 membership.
0:13:25 If you’re
0:13:25 worried that
0:13:26 Trump’s deal
0:13:26 to sell
0:13:27 TikTok to
0:13:28 his cronies
0:13:28 will make
0:13:29 the platform
0:13:30 100%
0:13:30 MAGA,
0:13:32 delete your
0:13:32 account.
0:13:34 Here’s
0:13:34 what I
0:13:35 plan to
0:13:35 do.
0:13:37 I intend
0:13:37 to take
0:13:38 a sizable
0:13:38 for a
0:13:39 professor
0:13:39 position
0:13:40 in Disney
0:13:41 to propose
0:13:42 a slate
0:13:43 of directors
0:13:43 that does
0:13:44 not include
0:13:44 Iger
0:13:46 or call
0:13:46 for a
0:13:46 no-confidence
0:13:47 vote.
0:13:48 Note,
0:13:48 I’ve done
0:13:49 this before.
0:13:51 If a law
0:13:52 firm capitulates,
0:13:53 I won’t
0:13:53 hire them.
0:13:55 And if
0:13:55 UCLA
0:13:57 pays Trump
0:13:58 $1 billion
0:13:59 in blackmail,
0:14:00 I’ll start
0:14:01 giving to
0:14:01 Cal State
0:14:02 instead.
0:14:05 Bob Dylan
0:14:06 said money
0:14:06 doesn’t
0:14:07 talk,
0:14:08 it swears.
0:14:09 Well,
0:14:10 fucking enough
0:14:11 already.
0:14:13 Trump has
0:14:13 seized the
0:14:14 means of
0:14:14 production,
0:14:15 a golden
0:14:16 share in
0:14:16 U.S.
0:14:17 steel,
0:14:18 investments in
0:14:18 Intel,
0:14:19 carving up
0:14:20 TikTok for
0:14:20 his donors,
0:14:21 and weaponizing
0:14:22 institutions so
0:14:23 firms bend
0:14:24 the knee.
0:14:26 Wealthy
0:14:26 Americans,
0:14:27 who’ve
0:14:28 benefited so
0:14:29 much from
0:14:29 the pillars
0:14:30 Trump is
0:14:30 attacking,
0:14:32 need to
0:14:32 get our
0:14:33 shit together
0:14:35 and seize
0:14:36 the means
0:14:36 of
0:14:37 consumption.
0:14:41 Life is
0:14:42 so rich.
0:14:45 money.
0:00:04 A new era of fitness is here.
0:00:07 Introducing the new Peloton Cross-Training Tread Plus,
0:00:09 powered by Peloton IQ.
0:00:12 Built for breakthroughs, with personalized workout plans,
0:00:15 real-time insights, and endless ways to move.
0:00:18 Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps,
0:00:20 corrects form, and tracks your progress.
0:00:24 Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go.
0:00:27 Explore the new Peloton Cross-Training Tread Plus
0:00:28 at onepeloton.ca.
0:00:31 Hey, it’s me. Do the thing.
0:00:33 Hey, it’s me.
0:00:35 Um, you, from the future.
0:00:39 Uh, big thanks for getting the HPV vaccine.
0:00:40 I mean, with that one move,
0:00:43 you help protect us against several cancers later in life.
0:00:45 So, thank you.
0:00:47 Or, thank us?
0:00:50 I’ll just text you myself.
0:00:54 The HPV vaccine is safe, effective, and free for eligible youth.
0:00:58 Learn more at healthlinkbc.ca.hpv.
0:00:59 A message from the government of BC.
0:01:04 Did you lock the front door?
0:01:04 Check.
0:01:05 Closed the garage door?
0:01:06 Yep.
0:01:09 Installed window sensors, smoke sensors, and HD cameras with night vision?
0:01:10 No.
0:01:12 And you set up credit card transaction alerts,
0:01:14 a secure VPN for a private connection,
0:01:16 and continuous monitoring for our personal info on the dark web?
0:01:19 Uh, I’m looking into it?
0:01:21 Stress less about security.
0:01:23 Choose security solutions from Telus
0:01:25 for peace of mind at home and online.
0:01:28 Visit telus.com slash total security to learn more.
0:01:29 Conditions apply.
0:01:35 I’m Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice.
0:01:40 American institutions and our leaders have not stood up to authoritarianism.
0:01:46 But in a consumer economy, the real power isn’t in Washington or at headquarters,
0:01:48 but in your wallet.
0:01:52 Strike, as read by George Hahn.
0:02:02 Government shutdowns have been normalized.
0:02:10 Since 1976, we’ve seen 20 funding gaps, resulting in 10 government shutdowns.
0:02:15 It’s a form of economic strike, just not an effective one,
0:02:19 as shutdowns create blame but seldom achieve political goals.
0:02:25 The Democrats have been uncharacteristically strategic in this standoff.
0:02:29 Their demands, continued subsidies for health care coverage,
0:02:32 likely affect more Republican voters.
0:02:35 This focus achieves a messaging trifecta.
0:02:40 It highlights affordability and health care and divides Republicans.
0:02:44 However, that’s not what this post is about.
0:02:52 In the U.S., we suffer, benefit, from an idolatry of the dollar.
0:02:57 Our gods are CEOs who pray at the altar of shareholder value.
0:03:03 Our prophets preach growth, while our priests, divine meaning from earnings reports.
0:03:08 Every billionaire’s origin story, bootstraps and all, is scripture.
0:03:13 Even authoritarians kneel to a higher power, the markets.
0:03:19 In April, when it looked as though nothing could stop Trump’s protectionist fever dream,
0:03:22 the bond markets rocked, then rolled, the president.
0:03:27 The following month, Wall Street had a name for this phenomenon.
0:03:32 Taco, i.e. Trump always chickens out.
0:03:38 We frame economic power as a contest between capital and labor.
0:03:43 But the real star of the American economy is consumer spending,
0:03:46 which accounts for 68% of GDP.
0:03:52 The Great Recession saw a 3.4% drop in consumer spending.
0:03:58 At the time, the most severe year-over-year decline since World War II.
0:04:07 The U.S. economy registered a 9.8% drop in consumer spending during the second quarter of 2020,
0:04:10 when COVID shut down the world as we knew it.
0:04:15 In both instances, the U.S. government responded aggressively,
0:04:19 spending hundreds of billions, primarily in bailouts,
0:04:21 to pull us out of the Great Recession,
0:04:25 and trillions, primarily in direct aid, to get us through the pandemic.
0:04:26 The lesson?
0:04:32 When consumers stop spending, American leaders start listening.
0:04:38 As G.O. Husser explained to his YouTube followers at the end of September,
0:04:41 this is not seizing the means of production,
0:04:44 but seizing the means of consumption.
0:04:50 Adding that if every American dropped their consumption, on average, by 2%,
0:04:55 that would be the most loud and potent form of protest.
0:05:00 Recently, Trump found his red line.
0:05:04 It wasn’t Congress or the courts, but a comedian.
0:05:09 After bowing to government threats and suspending late-night host Jimmy Kimmel,
0:05:12 the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC,
0:05:16 discovered that a strongman wasn’t as scary as a consumer boycott.
0:05:22 One reporter put the number of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN cancellations
0:05:28 at 1.7 million subscribers in less than a week.
0:05:31 The outcry from celebrities on the left
0:05:33 and a handful of people on the right,
0:05:35 including Senator Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson,
0:05:38 pressured Disney’s leadership to do the right thing.
0:05:42 But as journalist Lauren Egan wrote in The Bulwark,
0:05:45 There was no organized campaign against Disney.
0:05:48 The blowback was organic.
0:05:53 Disney CEO Bob Iger needed screenshots of people canceling Disney Plus
0:05:55 to help him locate his testicles.
0:05:59 At this point, the Disney CEO is Neville Chamberlain
0:06:02 in a cashmere sweater, minus the dignity.
0:06:08 The boycotters realized they had to inflict financial pain
0:06:09 to change Disney’s behavior.
0:06:12 But according to Braden King,
0:06:16 now a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management
0:06:19 who studies social movements and corporate social responsibility,
0:06:24 and Sarah A. Soule, now a professor at Stanford,
0:06:28 the typical boycott doesn’t have much impact on sales.
0:06:33 In their study of 342 boycotts against U.S. corporations
0:06:35 between 1962 and 1990,
0:06:38 they found that boycotts, on average,
0:06:43 caused a 1% decline in a company’s stock price.
0:06:45 King said in 2017,
0:06:50 the number one predictor of what makes a boycott effective
0:06:53 is how much media attention it creates,
0:06:55 not how many people sign on to a petition
0:06:57 or how many consumers it mobilizes.
0:07:01 Ironically, Trump’s inability to shut up
0:07:03 likely helped the boycotters
0:07:05 by directing attention to their cause.
0:07:07 In the end,
0:07:09 it took fewer than 1%
0:07:12 of the mouse’s total streaming subscribers
0:07:14 to capture America’s attention
0:07:17 and accomplish what Disney CEO Bob Iger couldn’t,
0:07:20 stand up to an authoritarian.
0:07:25 Consumer boycotts are American.
0:07:27 In the 1760s,
0:07:30 American colonists pushed back
0:07:32 against unlawful British taxation,
0:07:34 not with muskets,
0:07:35 but with boycotts,
0:07:38 known as non-importation agreements.
0:07:41 Participation was uneven,
0:07:43 and success was ultimately achieved
0:07:44 through the Revolution.
0:07:47 But historians credit the boycotts
0:07:49 with demonstrating American resolve,
0:07:51 promoting political unity,
0:07:53 and encouraging domestic manufacturing.
0:07:56 In The Marketplace of Revolution,
0:07:59 How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence,
0:08:02 historian T.H. Breen wrote,
0:08:05 only people who had experienced
0:08:07 the pleasures and frustrations
0:08:09 of so many consumer choices
0:08:12 could possibly have come to appreciate
0:08:14 how a disruption of that market
0:08:16 might be an effective weapon.
0:08:19 American consumers have reached
0:08:21 for this weapon throughout history.
0:08:26 Abolitionists deployed the Free Produce Movement
0:08:28 to encourage consumers
0:08:31 to boycott goods produced with slave labor.
0:08:34 Although the economic impact was negligible
0:08:37 and the movement didn’t bring about emancipation,
0:08:41 it positioned slavery as a moral issue
0:08:43 in the daily lives of northern consumers.
0:08:45 As one pamphlet put it,
0:08:47 if we purchase the commodity,
0:08:50 we participate in the crime.
0:08:51 Zooming out,
0:08:53 historian Lawrence Glickman,
0:08:55 author of Buying Power,
0:08:57 A History of Consumer Activism in America,
0:08:59 points to the campaign
0:09:02 as the catalyst for centering consumer power
0:09:04 in the American system.
0:09:08 The Free Produce Movement
0:09:10 offered a radically new conception
0:09:12 of causality and morality,
0:09:14 one which posited purchasers
0:09:17 as the first cause of economic activity
0:09:18 and therefore made them
0:09:21 the moral guardians of the polity.
0:09:24 Nearly a century later,
0:09:26 civil rights activists,
0:09:28 inspired by Rosa Parks’ refusal
0:09:31 to surrender her bus seat to a white rider,
0:09:33 organized a one-day boycott
0:09:35 of city buses in Montgomery, Alabama.
0:09:37 At the time,
0:09:39 more than 70%
0:09:41 of the city’s bus patrons were black.
0:09:43 Boycott participation
0:09:45 was estimated to be 90%.
0:09:49 In the aftermath of that one-day boycott,
0:09:50 organizers,
0:09:52 led by Martin Luther King Jr.,
0:09:54 established a carpooling network
0:09:56 with more than 200 cars
0:09:58 and 100 pickup locations.
0:10:01 The boycott cost the city
0:10:04 an estimated $3,000 per day,
0:10:07 $35,000 adjusted for inflation.
0:10:09 After 13 months
0:10:11 and a favorable Supreme Court ruling,
0:10:14 the boycott organizers
0:10:15 successfully integrated
0:10:17 Montgomery’s bus system.
0:10:19 Their action helped launch
0:10:21 the National Civil Rights Movement.
0:10:24 Historically,
0:10:26 boycotts have been called
0:10:27 weapons of the weak
0:10:28 against the strong.
0:10:30 Today, however,
0:10:32 I believe consumer boycotts
0:10:34 are weapons of the privileged
0:10:35 against the powerful.
0:10:39 Two factors account for that change.
0:10:40 First,
0:10:41 as Glickman wrote
0:10:43 in The American Historian,
0:10:45 Through his description
0:10:47 of a highly personalized economy
0:10:49 made up of specific companies,
0:10:50 people,
0:10:51 buyers,
0:10:52 and investors,
0:10:54 rather than an abstract market
0:10:56 too big and all-encompassing
0:10:57 for anybody to understand,
0:10:59 Donald Trump
0:11:01 has promoted a worldview,
0:11:03 albeit an inverted one,
0:11:06 amenable to consumer activism.
0:11:08 Second,
0:11:10 concentrated wealth
0:11:12 puts a lot of consumer firepower
0:11:13 in the hands
0:11:15 of relatively few people.
0:11:16 Consumers
0:11:18 in the top 10%
0:11:19 income bracket
0:11:20 account for half
0:11:21 of consumer spending.
0:11:23 That cohort
0:11:24 leans Democratic
0:11:25 53%
0:11:27 to 46%,
0:11:28 but more important,
0:11:30 they can afford
0:11:31 to not spend.
0:11:33 Setting aside
0:11:35 multiplier effects,
0:11:36 import leakages,
0:11:37 and substitution,
0:11:39 I estimate
0:11:41 that the top 10%
0:11:42 could achieve
0:11:43 a 1%
0:11:45 decline in GDP
0:11:46 with a 3%
0:11:47 reduction
0:11:48 in spending.
0:11:52 While a general strike
0:11:53 is appealing,
0:11:54 the tactic
0:11:56 has a poor track record
0:11:57 in American history.
0:11:59 See the Great Railroad
0:12:00 Strike of 1877,
0:12:01 the 1919
0:12:02 Seattle
0:12:03 General Strike,
0:12:04 and the 1934
0:12:06 West Coast
0:12:07 Waterfront Strikes.
0:12:08 Each ended
0:12:09 in bloodshed
0:12:10 and produced
0:12:11 minimal gains.
0:12:13 General strikes,
0:12:14 whether driven
0:12:15 by labor
0:12:15 or consumers,
0:12:17 are difficult
0:12:17 to organize,
0:12:19 nearly impossible
0:12:19 to sustain,
0:12:20 and,
0:12:21 by definition,
0:12:22 too generalized
0:12:23 to articulate
0:12:25 a clear demand.
0:12:27 Rather than
0:12:28 a general strike,
0:12:29 difficult,
0:12:31 against authoritarianism,
0:12:33 vague,
0:12:34 I believe
0:12:35 we need
0:12:36 targeted boycotts
0:12:38 with clear demands
0:12:39 directed at
0:12:40 Trump’s enablers.
0:12:42 The math
0:12:42 is simple.
0:12:44 You have power
0:12:45 and they need
0:12:46 your money
0:12:47 more than you
0:12:48 need their product.
0:12:49 So,
0:12:51 will we
0:12:52 actually do
0:12:52 anything
0:12:54 or just
0:12:54 complain about
0:12:55 how someone
0:12:55 should do
0:12:56 something?
0:12:58 Here’s a place
0:12:58 to start.
0:13:00 Pick an enabler,
0:13:01 plenty to choose
0:13:02 from,
0:13:03 but it’s best
0:13:03 to focus on
0:13:04 a brand
0:13:04 you actually
0:13:05 spend money
0:13:05 with.
0:13:07 make noise
0:13:08 when you
0:13:08 cancel
0:13:09 and show
0:13:09 receipts
0:13:10 on social
0:13:10 media.
0:13:11 State a
0:13:12 clear demand.
0:13:13 Keep going.
0:13:15 If you
0:13:16 believe a
0:13:16 company
0:13:16 shouldn’t
0:13:17 let the
0:13:17 president
0:13:18 dictate
0:13:18 its
0:13:18 workplace
0:13:19 policies,
0:13:20 cancel your
0:13:21 target card
0:13:22 and purchase
0:13:22 a Costco
0:13:23 membership.
0:13:25 If you’re
0:13:25 worried that
0:13:26 Trump’s deal
0:13:26 to sell
0:13:27 TikTok to
0:13:28 his cronies
0:13:28 will make
0:13:29 the platform
0:13:30 100%
0:13:30 MAGA,
0:13:32 delete your
0:13:32 account.
0:13:34 Here’s
0:13:34 what I
0:13:35 plan to
0:13:35 do.
0:13:37 I intend
0:13:37 to take
0:13:38 a sizable
0:13:38 for a
0:13:39 professor
0:13:39 position
0:13:40 in Disney
0:13:41 to propose
0:13:42 a slate
0:13:43 of directors
0:13:43 that does
0:13:44 not include
0:13:44 Iger
0:13:46 or call
0:13:46 for a
0:13:46 no-confidence
0:13:47 vote.
0:13:48 Note,
0:13:48 I’ve done
0:13:49 this before.
0:13:51 If a law
0:13:52 firm capitulates,
0:13:53 I won’t
0:13:53 hire them.
0:13:55 And if
0:13:55 UCLA
0:13:57 pays Trump
0:13:58 $1 billion
0:13:59 in blackmail,
0:14:00 I’ll start
0:14:01 giving to
0:14:01 Cal State
0:14:02 instead.
0:14:05 Bob Dylan
0:14:06 said money
0:14:06 doesn’t
0:14:07 talk,
0:14:08 it swears.
0:14:09 Well,
0:14:10 fucking enough
0:14:11 already.
0:14:13 Trump has
0:14:13 seized the
0:14:14 means of
0:14:14 production,
0:14:15 a golden
0:14:16 share in
0:14:16 U.S.
0:14:17 steel,
0:14:18 investments in
0:14:18 Intel,
0:14:19 carving up
0:14:20 TikTok for
0:14:20 his donors,
0:14:21 and weaponizing
0:14:22 institutions so
0:14:23 firms bend
0:14:24 the knee.
0:14:26 Wealthy
0:14:26 Americans,
0:14:27 who’ve
0:14:28 benefited so
0:14:29 much from
0:14:29 the pillars
0:14:30 Trump is
0:14:30 attacking,
0:14:32 need to
0:14:32 get our
0:14:33 shit together
0:14:35 and seize
0:14:36 the means
0:14:36 of
0:14:37 consumption.
0:14:41 Life is
0:14:42 so rich.
0:14:45 money.
As read by George Hahn.
Strike
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