PBD Podcast - "Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, joins Patrick Bet-David to discuss his journey from ice cream mogul to activist. Once a staunch Bernie Sanders supporter, Cohen now backs Elon Musk’s DOGE, challenging big government waste. In this fiery exchange, capitalism vs. socialism takes center stage as Cohen rethinks his stance on government.

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Ben and Jerry's. Ben and Jerry's. Ben and Jerry's. One of the best business stories we've had in America, guys. How do you, who has made as much money as a capitalist, support a socialist? 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. Do you really want to go there? It's not going to be good if you really want to go there. Hey, speaking of ice cream, do you got a spoon? Good shit, isn't it? I've never had dirt. 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. We would classify you as a heavy user. We appreciate people like you.

I don't think we could be the number one. But please tell me you're joking right now that you didn't know you're number one. I... You built the number one ice cream company in America! I think that there's a form of capitalism that works well. How can you one minute say the government wastes money and next minute say let's pay more money because we think they can do a better job with it. They're so confused right now, they're about to have a drink right now.

That's a confusion. You just confuse the shit out of them. Did you ever think you would make it? I feel I'm so excited to take sweet victory Know this life meant for me Adam, what's your point? The future looks bright My handshake is better than anything I ever signed, right here You are a one on one? My son's right there

I think I've ever said this before I think I've already said this before. Okay, so gang, every once in a while I do a podcast where I have no clue where we're gonna go. I'm just being very upfront with you. I have no idea what we're doing today. What I do know is, I don't know if you recognize this brand, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. If you've ever had Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, the founder Ben is here today. Ben Cohen, to kind of tell you an idea about where he's at while we're talking right now.

They're from Vermont. I've been to Ben and Jerry's because the insurance company that we're one of the guys that writes the most insurance policies with them, National Life Group is down the street from you. So I know them, so I've been to Vermont quite a few times. So we go to the headquarters, we have a good time. We're going to try Ben and Jerry's. I brought a lot of other ice cream that he hasn't seen it yet I brought hog in does the reason why this is important is because I used to work at hogging us back in 94 95

So there's a certain affinity that was the number one banana split maker in the entire Glendale gallery of mall I was the best reputation. Yes, you know how to split it Split it. I know how to put the strawberry the ice cream the chocolate the the nuts on top of it with the Nutella I was the best you know people have lost the art of making a good banana split We ought to call you in and you can train our I may make a comeback I'm telling you I I was very good at that part But let me tell you what's what's kind of interesting about this conversation Tony tells me Ben Cohen from Ben and Jerry's reached out says he wants wants to be on the podcast. I said, really?

I said, is he not a socialist Bernie Sanders guy? I think he is. I said, why do I think that they're Vermont Bernie Sanders? Yeah. And I look at him and I'm like, okay, why does he want to come talk to us? I'm curious. Well, he's got some things he wants to talk about. Great.

To kind of start it off so the audience knows your background what you guys did One of the best business stories we've had in America guys Let me tell you why you guys started in 77 you were a Potter and Jerry was a he got rejected from medical school the two of you guys decided to start a bagel shop But the bagel machine was too high you enrolled in a $5 ice cream making course instead. You guys took that a year later, created Ben and Jerry's with $12,000 and you turned that into a machine. You sold it in, I don't know what year it was, for $326 million like 25 years ago or

something. And then today, Ben and Jerry's, just so you guys know how much ice cream they sell, the founders started an ice cream. They do a billion dollars of sales a year right now. So the question then becomes, how do you, who has made as much money as a capitalist, support a socialist? How does that work out? I'm really curious.

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 US is unfettered capitalism. And what ends up happening when you have that is a tremendous spread between rich and poor. You know, when Jerry and I started Ben & Jerry's, the spread between CEO pay and line level workers pay was 40 to one. And we thought that's outrageous.

So we had a lower one. We came up with the five to one ratio. That's interesting, by the way. And that's changed over time. So it's no longer five to one, I bet, in Jerry's. But today, the salary ratio between CEOs and line level employees is 400 to one. 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 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 part of it, but you're against it. Well, I am one of the... 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? Because... Why am I against it? No, so okay, so please help me understand this. So at first you start Ben and Jerry's, and I saw that where you guys were doing five to one ratio,

meaning if the lowest level employee full time was making 30 grand a year, the CEO couldn't make 150 a year, right? That was at the time. What do you think the ratio is right now at Ben and Jerry's? I really have no idea Would you say it's one and forty? Do you so so you it might be I have you work there?

So you know what the CEO is made you know what kind of money is making you probably have the context in there Let's just say the CEO of a company like if I go right now Rob. Can you find out who is the CEO Ben and Jerry's? I don't even know it Ben and Jerry's CEO salary, I don't know what it. Ben & Jerry's CEO salary. I don't know what it is. I've never Googled it. Let's just see. Yeah, I'm interested.

I've never Googled it either. Okay, so Ben & Jerry's salary CEO back in 2000, we're talking... That was at the time that the company got sold. But at the time, the salary was 504. 25 years ago, it was $504. So which became $1721. So I want you to follow this. So what you just said is, I'm just responding to what you said.

So Ben and Jerry's got started. Originally, you guys wanted to be very noble and hey, we're not going to pay anybody at the highest level five times more than the lowest level employee. Lowest level makes 30, highest level makes 150. Okay, cool. Nice guys, noble guys. By 2000, you build a business that's doing 200 million a year, you guys are selling it for $3.26, then the CO pay was 17 times the lowest amount the employee was making.

So that disparity went from five to one to 17 to one. Let's say today, who is today's CEO, Ben and Jerry's, da da da da da. Dave Steaver. Is it Dave Steaver? What is Dave Steaver's salary at Dave Steaver, salary, Ben and Jerry, right? If I go to it, I wish I could see it.

I wish it was public it's not showing it but let's just say he's making a couple million you guys know I don't think he is stocks does he get shares does he get bonus does he get L tip does he get I I don't think so I would think that you know but if it was five hundred thousand twenty five years ago then it's not going to be less than 25 years ago. I believe it probably is, but I don't know. I know, but let's just say it's a million bucks. Let's say conservatively it's a million bucks. And let's say the ratio now instead of 17 to 1 is 30 to 1.

So you guys started off 5 to 1, it went 17 to 1, let's say it's 30, 40 to 1 now, and then at the time you were saying 40 to 1 was what it was in one, let's say it's 30, 40 to one now, and then at the time you're saying 40 to one was what it was in the corporate world, now it's 400 to one, you guys have 10x, they have 10x. So what's wrong with that? What's wrong with if you're creating value? Ben, you guys, it's something that's very difficult. Do you know how many people in America build a business from scratch that go from zero to a billion dollars in sales? Do you know how much? Ben, what you've done is called doing the impossible. And I think the market should recognize you for it, your level of creativity.

So that's the part. Do you think like when you guys originally started and you're building a business and you and your partner, you guys are two nice guys, Potter and a guy that was rejected from medical school. You built something with a $5 course that you take on making ice cream and at first maybe you guys coming from a place of socialistic ideologies and then now you're kind of like, well maybe capitalism is kind of cool and there's nothing wrong with capitalism. Have you gone through that evolution here or not yet? 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 percent. I mean, I'm which nobody paid for just so you know that they had it but no one ever paid paid it. No, really no one ever paid it. It was it was what they talked about but everybody adjusted in ways so nobody even like people would do certain jobs so they never paid the highest marginal tax rate. Well, whatever but but I I mean that's the idea. That's what kind of makes sense to me. To have it at 80%? Well you know what is it now? What's the top marginal bracket? If you live in California you're paying nearly 60% but let's just say 43%. Right. You think that's too little? 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? Is there, there's lower taxes on capital gains, right? But why though? Those who don't work pay less taxes. Let me ask you a question. When you sold you paid capital gains, no?

Sure. No, you did. When you sell a company you didn't pay ordinary income. You paid capital gains taxes. So you guys sell for $3.26. Let's just say at the time you won 80%. I don't know what percent. I didn't.

Okay, but let's just say whatever it is. You still are a nine figure guy. You made real money each of you guys. How many figures? Nine figures like a hundred million plus. No, I'm eight figures. Okay, but guess what you are. You're still very rich compared to the average person, but here's a question for you. 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. Eventually. Well why don't you do while you're alive? I'm working on it. But why don't you do it sooner? I don't know. Because you shouldn't do it. You've earned it but then you work 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. There was a good idea at the right time. What's the longest vacation you took in the first 10 years of building Ben & Jerry's? Not much. Oh, really? Why not?

Other people who have jobs can take longer vacations. Why didn't you take it? I guess I chose to build the business. And therefore, you made the money that you made. Most people don't want to work as hard as you did. What you did was very difficult Ben. You got to give yourself credit for it. So to me, you know, I understand the concept of, you know, well the rich people are this and the rich is getting richer, the poor is

getting poorer and questioning that. But the reason why you make a lot more money than some of the people that you're seeing are left behind, you solved a bigger problem. You kept trying to find creative ways of coming out with different flavors of the ice cream. You guys kept trying to be creative and you worked your ass off. And the market finally said, did these guys really build the business from zero to doing 200 million a year? Yes. Holy shit, let's buy it from them.

And then, after they bought it from you 25 years ago, it was doing 200 million, now it's doing a billion a year. You know what that says? You guys built such a good business that somebody after they bought it, they made five times the amount of money. That's a real business. That's not easy to do. What percentage of Americans do you think are willing to work that hard, as hard as

you? Not that many. I come across loads of people that are working really, really hard for really low wages. 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. Yeah Why why shouldn't they get paid you wanted a roofer to get paid 300 million 326 million dollars? I'm not saying that much. All I'm saying is that the you know, what is the minimum wage in the country?

Let's say 15 million give or take no the minimum one. Let's say it's seven twenty seven dollars and twenty cents But that should be illegal That's a poverty wage You shouldn't be 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. I agree with you, but let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. For the people that get paid $7.25, for those who do,

the few that do, why do you think they do? I, well, I don't know how many there are, but I think there's a lot. But why do you think they only get paid seven? They don't have to say yes to it. It's the only job they can find. Why can't they find any other jobs? Think about that.

Actually answer that question right. Why can't they find another job? Rob, what's the least amount you ever got paid? To calculate, it'd be annually, $22,000 a year. So $22,000 you're divided by, do it divide by four, and how many hours a week were you working Rob? $50. Okay, do 50 times 50 is $2,500.

Do $22,000 divided by $2,500. Seven bucks, eight bucks, and $8.8.8. Do you make 8.8 right now? No. Did you everything you're going to make the kind of money you're making right now? Not when I was making $22,000 a year. Right? But when you came here and all of a sudden you're like, well, we can really build something special here, right? Correct.

But why do we pay you that? Whatever the number you know, why do we pay you what we pay you? Experience hard work, what I can do in the future. A combination of all three I think. Dr. Alfred D'Alessio Great, but have you earned it? Jeffery Hicks Yes. Dr. Alfred D'Alessio Still earning it though. Dr. Alfred D'Alessio I know you are, and you're working your

ass off, but if somebody right now paid you $7.25, would you take it? Jeffery Hicks No. Dr. Alfred D'Alessio Why though? Jeffery Hicks Because I've gotten to a place where my hard work is deserved to be rewarded. Dr. Alfred D'Alessio That's right, and guess what? If right now this doesn't work yet, do you have options? Yes.

But you like being here? Love it. Of course, so that's the part. So for me, I have to realize I gotta take care of the guy. And then for him, guess what he's gotta realize? He's gotta bring value. And that's the part when I hear that message sometimes, I'm like, okay, I get it, 725.

They don't have to say yes to it. You know, I think about my life. Okay. 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. 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. What year was that? I wanna, what year? Well, I was born in 51, so it was around there.

That's when they did it. You're talking about like 50s is before, like this is pre MLK era. Yes. Okay. And it's a different America today though. Well, it's no, well, the America today is, 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. 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 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.

And that's part of what leads to the current situation, where if you look at the disparity in wealth between black people and white people, I mean mean it's kind of huge. And you know, I mean the whole country was, you know, it goes back generations. You're comparing today to the 50s? This is a very different America. I mean I understand, so the part that I truly wanna

sympathize with you and empathize with you and understand is the life You've lived I've not lived your life so I can't sit there and Put myself in your shoes and say well You know what I understand why you have the certain feelings that you have we all have one set of stories I got it But let's face it you didn't have enough money where your parents could finance it because you guys had to take a five dollar ice cream Course to learn how to do this.

So it's not like your parents gave you $200,000 to start a business with. Now bring it to me. So now how about me? I wasn't born here, right? My parents got a divorce. My dad was a cashier at a 99-cent store. I go into military and I get out. I had a 1.8 GPA in high school.

I'm planning on staying in the military for 20 years Should I be felt sorry for because my parents got a divorce and I was a welfare kid and I had a 1.8 GPA And I went over there. No, I don't my dad never felt sorry for me. Nobody's talking about feeling sorry for you But wait a minute you're saying generational wealth, you know how much money my parents gave to me 99 cents But you know my parents gave to me? 99 cents. But you know what they gave me? I was born in America. I lived here at 12 years old. I came to America.

It's the greatest gift. The greatest gift anybody can give you is being born in America. So you know what I did with that? I went to work. And I made some money. And I'm not white. And I'm Middle Eastern. And I'm from Iran.

And people have called me a lot of weird names while I was In the military they call me terrorists. They call me this they call me that because I was in the military because I have a Middle Eastern look they had never seen when I was in Alabama Do I really want you to feel sorry for me? I don't I don't I think the part about like looking at it from that standpoint Your argument is the generational wealth argument. Your parents gave you generational wealth that maybe others didn't get it. I'm not saying that they gave me money. I mean, you know, they were able to pay for college for me. Do you think even without college you would have eventually built Ben & Jerry's? What did you learn from college that helped you build Ben & Jerry's?

I'm curious. Not much. Thank you. So let's just say they don't pay you for college. Would you have eventually still built Ben & Jerry's? 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. Why do you think though? Why do you think? Why do you think? Do you really want to go there? It's not going to be good if you really want to go there. I assume it's about money and funding. Do you know out of the top 25 crime cities in America, how many of them are ran by a Democratic mayor?

21 of them. Sometimes it's 17, sometimes it's 21. 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 DC? I don't that is the logical no no, but do you know I want to talk about the like logical Break down my it's the logical fallacy of post hoc ergo prop de hoc. After it therefore because of it. That because something happens after something happened doesn't mean that it caused it. Ben, can you pull up what are the top five cities in America in crime? Pull up the what are the top five cities in America in crime. In crime. Let's just, can you zoom in a little bit to

because my eyes. Yeah. All right. Memphis, Tennessee, St. Louis, Detroit, Michigan, Baltimore, Maryland, Little Rock, Arkansas. Can you do me a favor? Keep that page and can you ask the same question? Who are the mayors of each city? I Don't but I don't know this because we're just we're just I don't know the answer. I may five of them may be Republican and I may look like a fool right now So do me a favor Rob take each one of them copy paste Paul Young in Memphis, Tennessee And just put mayor next to it Yeah, let's is that him can you go and see where he's at politically Democratic Party top right okay let's go to the

next one let's go to the next one to Shara Jones mayor let's do the same thing and again I don't know she's probably a Republican nope she's a Democrat okay let's go to the next one go to the next one I want to know what your point is let's assume they're all Democratic. We know that most cities... It's called horrible policies. What's this one? Is this one a Republican?

Unaffiliated. Unaffiliated. Can you go click on the guy's profile? Let's go a little bit deeper. If you can go on his Wikipedia, zoom in. So Detroit, Michigan. Go a little bit lower, Rob. Can you... Okay, there it is. Political party, Michigan. Oktrent, go a little bit lower Rob. Okay, there it is, political party, Democrat.

He just changed last year after Trump. But I want to know what your point is. Let's go to the next one. I'll make my point. Let's go to Brandon Scott, Baltimore. Baltimore, Maryland. Another Democrat. Let's go to the fifth one.

What an interesting exercise this was. I wasn't even expecting to do this. Boom. 545. 545. So why do you think that is though? By the way, DC, when you think about the biggest income disparity in America, you know what city is the biggest income disparity with the, you know what city is the biggest

income disparity with the most people making over $200,000 and the most people making less than $20,000? It's D.C. Can you look up when is the first time D.C. had a mayor? When is the first time D.C. had a mayor? Let's look at this. I'm happy to look at it, but I'm concerned that you're making the logical fallacy. But let me, let me, let me, let's look at this.

When is the first time DC, first ever elected mayor of DC, Rob? Can you type in first ever elected mayor of DC? First ever elected mayor of DC. I think it's like 70s. 73, Walter Washington. Okay, can you go on? Chad GBT and ask since 1973 how many Republican mayors has DC had? Zero zero

So here's my question for you if all these these people, look at that, Walter Washington, Democrat, Marion Barry, Democrat, Sharon Kelly, Democrat, Marion Barry again, Democrat, Anthony Williams, Democrat, Adrian Infante, Democrat, Vincent Gray, Democrat, Muriel Bowser, Democrat. If they've had this city as a Democratic voter since 1975 and they are so noble and they have such great policies and they're black, how come they haven't been able to fix it why I don't know you don't know no I don't you don't think maybe it's bad policies you don't think it's that maybe we have to try something else well like what so let me ask you why do you think Trump got elected why do you think Trump won 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. So why why do you think so many blacks? Why do you think so many Hispanics? Voted for Trump like we've never seen before so why do you think the poor? voted for Trump like we've never seen before. So why do you think the poor, low, middle-income support for Trump skyrocketed where Kamala Harris who is according to her African-American, Jamaican, Indian, we don't know what she is, or Biden, why is it that even with her she lost seven battleground states and she lost the majority? Why do you think that is? Why do you think black

people and Hispanics trusted a white guy, Trump, Republican more than they trusted an African American lady to solve their problem? I think people were really unhappy with the status quo and I think they voted for not the status quo. I actually believe 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. 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. I mean, you know, I mean, 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 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, 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 a hundred thousand really, a hundred thousand, yeah, or I don't know, ten thousand 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 you know we have elections that are financed by millionaires, billionaires, and we end up with a government that favors that class of people does that include the bernie

does that include who was was bernie funded by rich people no no you he wasn't do you remember that exchange when uh... hex said asked him a question i don't know who it was rob when he says uh... i don't know who was somebody asked him and said i'm sorry your campaign forty five'm sorry your campaign 45% of your campaign was from Big Pharma. I don't know if you remember that one Do you remember that one when he was when no, I don't remember. Well, it was

45% of a lose a percentage whose campaign was from big Bernie Sanders. No, that is absolutely Totally will find 100 1000 percent incorrect. Well, I mean, he got very upset about it because, but even with him, even with him, here's a socialist that's worth 10 million dollars. He's a pretty rich guy. He used to say millionaires and billionaires. Now he no longer says millionaires and billionaires. Why did he drop millionaires? What? Banned. Because he wrote a book and he got a million dollars or whatever. You can... I mean, but you know, I was helping on Bernie's campaign. I think he got screwed by the way, just so you know, by Hillary Clinton if you ask me. He did, absolutely.

And I like Bernie. I do too. I just don't think he's good for the economy. I really like Bernie. I think he's a good guy. I just don't think he's good for the economy. I really like Bernie. I think he's a good guy I just don't think he's good for the economy I think he would be good for an economy that works for all Americans instead of just the upper crust like you and me I think in 2000 when you were selling your company, you wouldn't have voted for Bernie 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. If capital gains went to 80% and you sold your company, you're okay with that? 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. You're part of the 0.1 one percent and i don't want to give up your world you're still keeping it here's your friend bernie rock can you play this clip watches with them and make america healthier than other countries in the world right now you're so i was to do it every other major country and that's a simple question and by the way

bernie the you know that the problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies, it's in Congress too. Almost all the members of this panel are accepting, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry. Oh no, no, no, no. And protecting their interests. I thought that that would come, no, no, no, no.

I ran for president like you. I got millions and millions of contributions. They did not come from the executives, not one nickel of PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry. They came from workers. In 2020, you were the single largest to receive the pharmaceutical money. Because I had four contributions from workers

all over this country. Workers, not a nickel from corporate tax. Bernie, you have the single largest accepted pharmaceutical dollars. 1.5 million. Yeah, out of 200 million. Alright, but you have not answered the last question. So again, the hypocrisy in politics is a little bit frustrating because I Understand Bernie says what we got to do the millionaires and billionaire class

The moment he becomes a millionaire he drops a millionaire. He just wants to bash the billionaires now I don't take any money one and a half million comes the eventual challenges the hypocrisy that shows up And I think that's the part that Americans are tired of it They're just sick of the games that politicians play and they're eventually saying they're done with it. You know I when I was working with Bernie you know he was saying billionaires should not exist and you know that that struck me as kind of weird I mean I said why why shouldn't billionaires exist 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 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 in a lot of other countries and a lot of European countries Yeah, because we actually believe in free enterprise and free market and we allow you to build it as big as you want and here's the crazy thing, Ben.

Very crazy thing. I mean, there's free enterprise in any of the Scandinavian countries. Not at the levels that we have, not at the levels that we have. We recognize guys like you, who even if you're a socialist, we recognize guys like you who took a ice cream company. Hey

Speaking of ice cream. You got a spoon. I'm Got you a spoon. Well, I don't see the spoon. Where'd you home? They're to probably took the spoon and inside when I scream in the back inside come on over here Humberto did you leave the spoon or what happened? Okay, which one you think I should try tell me which one I should try We got the chocolate fudge, we got dirt cake. What's this one here? Strawberry cheesecake? Well, you know, chocolate fudge brownie is interesting because...

By the way, is it true that you can't taste flavors? You just taste the mushiness? Texture, texture. Is that serious? I'm a very texture forward person. You can't taste any of it? Well, you know, I mean, I can kind of taste it it but not the way you can, not the way normal people can. Let's see. Yeah it's pretty good. You're not taking the chocolate fudge brownie. Which one 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 Grayston Bakery in Yonkers, New York, a low-income area, and the bakery is owned by a religious organization whose purpose is to provide jobs and job training for people who you know What after this ice cream? I'm a socialist This ice cream converted me. All right. All right I watched I was watching Manchurian Kennedy last night Rob with the kids and you know, is that the one about MK ultra? Whatever listen, they put something in this ice cream that causes you to consider Bernie Sanders as a candidate. It's working on me.

Watch second by this one I may even can look at this mmm AOC oh my. Holy moly. By the way, all jokes aside, this is absolutely delicious. Well, you know, it's at exactly the right temperature. It's perfectly temperate. Oh my God. This is ridiculous. Now let me ask you, what do you think about Haagen-Dazs? It's really good ice cream. Guys?

Not the best, but it's really good. It's in there. Who are these guys? I've never seen this one. 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. Ben, what a capitalist you are though You know, I there's there's a social form of capitalism there's a form of How many jobs did you guys create how many jobs did you create who knows? No, honestly, how many employees you got right now Ben and Jerry's how many total employees?

You know, it's a division of Unilever. I don't know. How many employees does Ben & Jerry's have? It's like the best social program is the job you create. Let me eat this one. So this one is what? This is the cheesecake? Oh my God. I'm not going to lie. This is ridiculous. Oh my,, I'm not gonna lie. This is ridiculous. Oh my 1700 employees

That's great job. That's jobs. You changed people's lives Ben amazing. And by the way, you know, what's crazy Do you know who recognized you guys in? 1986 which Republican president recognized you which one would recognize you I was there Which Republican president recognized you? Which one would recognize me? I was there, man. Ronald Reagan, sir! It was a rose garden ceremony. Dude, that's crazy! We were the US 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 happened 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. What, the current guy, he's talking about paving the morning before. And it was a rose garden ceremony. What, the current guy, he's talking about paving the rose garden.

But anyhow, it was a rose garden ceremony. We show up there. You know, 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? Now why did he say which one is Jerry?

Ask him, I have no idea. How cool was that experience for you guys? Did you think that was ever gonna happen? It was amazing. Were you, did you vote for him that year? Did you ever vote for him? No, 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... That's right! That's exactly what it was. I remember it. Yeah. What are you guys telling each other? What are you guys telling each other at the time when you're leaving? Are you saying like, I cannot believe I shook a Republican's hand? Are you saying like, what are you guys telling each other? What are you guys telling each other at the time when you're leaving? Are you saying like, I cannot believe I shook a Republican's hand? Are you saying like, what are you saying to each other? You know, actually, after that ceremony, you know, there was some kind of dinner and a talk, and 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 de Mado gets up after I spoke and talked about what an ingrate I was. So, who went up? Who? Alphonse DeMoto was a Republican senator I think. Yeah put him put him up there. I think he got Alphonse DeMoto. I think do you have the bit about him being corrupt? I don't know. I'm sure it's in here. Courier columnist, boom keep going lower. Personal life, no it doesn't say anything but maybe there is, what did he do?

What was the corruption? Probably removed him, I don't remember what his corruption was. So he had some corruption behind it? Yes. Was he working, you're saying he worked for Ben and Jerry's? No, no, no, no, he was a senator, he was a US senator.

I forgot we're doing a podcast now, I just can't stop eating this ice cream. I'm not even gonna lie to you. I'm sorry, so would you consider yourself somebody competitive? Competitive? Are you competitive? I'm not very competitive.

Not at all? Not very, you know. I mean if you wanna see who can eat a pint fastest, I'll do that with you. I don't get ice cream headaches. I mean if you want to see who can eat a pint fast, I'll do that with you. I don't get ice cream headaches. You don't? No.

Is that genetics, DNA, or just like over exhaustion? Maybe people who can't smell don't get ice cream headaches. Oh wow, got it. So what did you want to talk about? You had something you wanted to talk about. What are you opening up there? You want me to open this? Here, have this.

What? So, something you wanted. What are you opening up there? You want me to open this? Here, have this. What? So, you are competitive. By the way, I was about to open up Haagen-Dazs to go take me back to back and he got upset. So would you actually have a Haagen-Dazs ice cream or no? You wouldn't do it? No. You won't do it?

No. I'd watch you. What's your thoughts like with these other ice cream companies? 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. Of course.

Rob, can you pull up the statistics? I think the audience has to know how competitive and how much of a capitalist he is. He's just acting like he's a socialist. Rob, can you pull up, go to say the number one ice cream company in America. People have to realize this guy. What, you think? No, I've looked at you guys. I don't think we could be the number one ice cream company.

I think you actually are. Statista, according to Statista you are, private label is one, but you're number one. Ben and Jerry's! Yeah, you're number one. Look at that. You didn't know this? Seriously, you didn't know this?

I mean, I know that... Dude, you guys are number one. That's unbelievable. But please tell me you're joking right now that you didn't know you're number one. You know, people might have said that, but I didn't really believe it. You built the number one ice cream company in America. Well, that was in 2022. Maybe we're no longer number one ice cream company in America. Well, that was in 2022. Maybe we're no longer number one.

You're still, according to Statista, you still are. That's crazy, though. That's great. That's beautiful. You think you guys got lucky, or you think you work your ass off? Both. OK, there's nothing wrong with that. I've heard the harder you work, the luckier you get.

You ever heard that quote before? I haven't heard that, but I think it makes a lot of sense. There we go. So I think it makes a lot of sense So I think there's a lot of people that are working really really hard and they're not getting lucky Well, they got to find a way to create their own luck by adding additional values and principles and skill sets that they can pick up And I think that nowadays by the way, then maybe not your time Maybe not your time. not your time okay but during our time there's this thing called YouTube where you can literally learn anything yeah back in the days you have to take a course all right can you go type in

online how to make an ice cream can you go type in on YouTube let's see what video comes up and I love talking to capitalists that you know love bringing value and competing and being number one and building a billion dollar business. Look at that. Homemade ice cream without a machine in just five minutes. 28 million views. Did that exist when you were coming up?

The person was stoned. But the question is, was that around when you came around? No. No. No. You had to learn how to do it. Nowadays all of this is available and by the way you know how much it costs to watch that video on YouTube? You think just by watching YouTube videos you could make stuff as good as what we're

reading now? No, no. I don't think so. I didn't say as good as you. I didn't say as good as you. So tell me what's the story with this one? Do I break it or what do I do? You got one of those topped ones that has what?

Do you want me to do with it? Yeah, you're gonna 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 I gotta tell you this is my favorite one. You can dig underneath it No, what I'm saying is this even though it's my third one. I'm having this is number one so far You know, you know, you're you're a good consumer. We would classify you as a heavy user and we appreciate people like you. No this is the best one. It's not even close. What is that dirt? Dirt cake. It's not even close. You know I've never had dirt. Yeah, pass it over. This is ridiculous.

What's this one? Cherry Garcia's. All right, let's see what Cherry Garcia's. Guys, we're sharing ice cream. Okay, just so everybody knows. For me, I don't mind it because I was in the military, so we will eat off of anybody. Yeah, you're right.

This is pretty good. This is okay. Do you want me to rank them? Yeah. I'll rank them. Number one is dirt cake. Number two is strawberry cheesecake. Number three is this guy. What's this one? Chocolate, what does it say? Chocolate fudge brownie. You know what? I think that one is even non-dairy. I can't believe it. Cherry Garcia. That chocolate fudge brownie Is not doesn't have any dairy this doesn't have it it you didn't know it when you ate it No, it was delicious, but let me tell you that's the one so want this back No, I listen I probably shouldn't be eating ice cream right now

We just brought the stuff out here to see if we can get you to eat haagen-dazs Because you know haagen-dazs a CMO called us and they gave us a million dollar sponsorship saying if you can get Ben To eat hog and that will give you a million dollars because they're gonna say even Benny's hogging us Rob what do you think about by the way that would be great? Can you think about that no, but yeah, so oh My god out of all the things you guys did by the way Can you think about that? No, but yeah, so, oh my God. Out of all the things you guys did, by the way, who was the marketing brain? Was it you?

Are you the marketing guy? You're the marketing guy, right? So when I think about stories that you guys did, so you did flavors for Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Snoop Dogg, you did one for President Bush called I dough I dough because the same-sex marriage stuff Which I thought I was funny. Did you come up with that or did those were all after my time? Okay, got it There's a Bill Clinton one called chocolate chip cookie dough. Was that your time or no? Charlie chip cookie. I didn't realize there was an association But Monica was white though.

Chogochip cookie dough was kind of like the last flavor during my reign. Oh, I thought maybe... Well, also New York Super Fudge chunk. Wait a minute, no, there was fish food. That was the very last flavor under my direction. By the way, you guys also did one by Colin Kaepernernick called it changed the world Yeah, that's a good change the world and then you did one with not the defund the police It was called rustic remixed in 2020 for criminal justice for Black Lives Matter So I got a question for you. When are you doing a Trump ice cream?

No plans on the on the books that I've seen why not you can do an orange sherbert you can do Right Rob. I mean mean you gave that idea. Well there are opportunities, perhaps Tilemuk or Bluebell or Haagen-Dazs. But let me ask you, if Ben and Jerry's were to do a Trump ice cream, would the customers be upset? Ah, who knows what the customers would be, but I wouldn't see that well actually my understanding is that?

That injuries is nonpartisan So stop it How many Republican ice creams have you guys made you guys have made a for all the left president you make one for? Republican president do one for Trump likes but if you you should do one for Trump. You should do one for Trump. You ought to come up with Trump insurance. Trump insurance, you're so funny. You're so funny. No, I think he's doing fine business-wise.

No, I don't run the insurance company. I'm still the CEO, but it's not what I used to do. By the way, this ice cream, I'm glad we went through this here. What's this one here? Oh, Talente. Yeah, that's another one. Is that good or you respect it or is it like a?

You know, I haven't really eaten it much. What's Talente? It's another ice cream. The way you reacted, you didn't react like the Tujaganda. So you gave a little bit more love to Talente. What was that all about? Like it was like you saw an ex of yours or a girl that you know girl back in the day, it's like, oh my God, it's Mary.

It is another brand that is owned by my parent. Oh, really? It's owned by Unilever. Oh, so, but is that kind of, is that like a, they almost don't want you to have it. You know, I guess maybe I reacted that way because 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. No. No. No. No. No. No.

No. Somebody come open this up, I actually want to try it. Can you grab this to someone in the back? Give it to Tony, Tony's the brand. It's nice to have staff, man. Well, you have 1700 of them. Yeah, right. Let's see if he's gonna get it, he's 28 years old.

Will he get it? Whoa! He still doesn't have it on! Who's gonna do it? Jesus! Yeah, that's amazing. Bring Tony in. Tony will do it. Tony's good with the girls and he's gonna find a way to use his hands. Tony's uh... Where's Tony at? Seriously. You know, like I told you, I have no idea what direction this podcast is gonna go. He lifts weights! You've got a video of this, we gotta send it to the

Tony, give it to Tony. To Lenti manufacturers. You did get it? All right, after a lot of trying. Send it to the guys who provided the packaging machine. Tell him, like, do you almost not want me to get in there? It's like, uh. And now you've got a delamination of your safety

This is too much for me here So, what is this supposed to be is this like a gelato Nowadays more than ever the brand you wear reflects and represents who you are. So for us, if you wear a Future Looks Bright hat or a Valuetainment gear, you're telling the world, I'm optimistic, I'm excited about what's going to be happening, but you're a free thinker, you question things, you like debate. And by the way, last year 120,000 people got a piece of Future Looks Bright gear with Valuetainment. We have so many new things.

The cufflinks are here. New Future Looks Bright. This is my favorite, the green one. Just yesterday somebody placed an order for 100 of these. If you watch the PBD podcast, you got a bunch to choose from. White ones, black ones. If you smoke cigars and you come to our cigar lounge we have this high quality lighter cutter and a holder for the cigars. We

got sweaters with the Valuetainment logo on it. We got mugs. We got a bunch of different things but if you believe the future looks bright, if you follow our content and what we represent with Valuetainment, with PVD Podcasts, go to VTMerch.com and by the way if you order right now there's gonna be a special VT gift inside just for you so again go to VTMerch.com place your order tell the world that you believe the future looks bright. Tastes like medicine. What the hell is this? This is salted caramel truffle?

This is a bad look. They're not gonna they're gonna have to edit this video because No, doesn't work for me. No, this is fifth place Well, maybe the cherry is fifth place because I'm not a oh because you're into the dirt. Yeah Just the dirt was delish so All right here Yeah, this is for me. Thank you. So, going back to it, building a business,

how many people have you fired in your career? A lot. Why you fire people, these poor guys? Why you do such a thing? Well, in the early days, all we had was a homemade ice cream shop. Most of the people that we hired were scoopers. 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 you know we

couldn't you know we couldn't satisfy our customers we couldn't couldn't serve enough people so we we had a fire you know people who engaged in too much conversation with the customer I mean you want to be friendly with your customer but you know you don't't wanna 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. Why'd you fire them though, man? That's cold. It's like the capitalists fire people. Socialists don't nice people. They were really good people. Why did you fire them though? Man, that's cold. It's like the capitalists fire people. Socialists don't fire people. Ben, give me a break. Like, if you were a former employee that Ben fired you and broke your heart, call me. Let's have some Haagen-Dazs ice cream together, right?

You know, I would fire some of these colleagues. By the way, just so you know, don't feel bad. I've fired a lot of people as well, and trust me, it's never fun to do, but sometimes you gotta do it. Right, it's a horrible thing to do. Sometimes when Jerry and I knew that somebody needed to get fired, I would be the guy who did the firing. Seriously? Yeah. fired we would I would be the guy who did the fire seriously yeah we would say

the monster is hungry the monster must eat and and it was you know meant that that was a person that needed to be fired you guys literally will go in front the face of the guy you're firing, you would say the monster was hungry. We were referring to me, the fire. But 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. This is not but they're emotional

Yeah people You know, I've been fired from a few jobs and I actually kind of like it. Where did you get fired from? It's very freeing. Where did you get fired from? I got fired from Ann's Coffee Park Diner. Who fired you? We got to go find this person.

Ann's husband. Ann'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 the pre-sliced slabs of roast

beef out of the refrigerator you you dunk it in this lukewarm water to warm it up, and you have your white bread on the platter, and you kind of put it on it and put the gravy on top of it. 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. 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 show off the lights and I'd turn her back on and eventually I got fired. How old were you when you got fired? Were you in your 20s? Like were you? Yeah.

I got fired once. What were you doing? For Bob's Big Boy. Oh, Bob's Big Boy. Yeah, Bob's Big Boy in Burbank or Glendale off of Glen Oaks. You know why I got fired? They had a walk-in freezer. And I used to hide in the walk-in freezer and eat coleslaw.

And I got caught one too many times and the guys like, look man, you casted the coleslaw so good, it was the best coleslaw. And finally they're like, today's your last day. So I got fired from Bob's Big Boy eating coleslaw. Can't make that story up. The people that worked there, they would remember me when that happened

because they wouldn't even make me a waiter. They said, you talk too much. I was a busboy. I was the busboy the entire time. And I got along with the chefs and the chefs would make me shrimp and shrimp when you're poor, it's rich man's food. You know, when you eat shrimp when you're broke,

making 4.75 an hour. My first job was 3.75 or or 425. I don't know what Elaine paid me from hogging us But it was either 375 or 425 You know I got a chance to Bill Clinton came to Glendale Galleria, and I got a chance to shake his hand at 14 years old met him later on But as a 14 year old Met Clinton shook his hand so how do you feel about what's going on right now with Doge, what Elon is doing, Pentagon budget, how do you feel about all that stuff? You know, when Trump got elected and when Doge came into being, we were concerned that, you know, 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, you know, I think USAID is about 5% of the Pentagon budget. The Pentagon represents about half of the federal the Pentagon budget. The Pentagon represents about half of the 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 campaign campaign which is kind of on X and it is to encourage... Is this it?

There it is. Oh wow. It's the Doge. Yeah. And you did this? This is you guys. This is us guys. Really?

Yeah. Sick. This is me and Ed Erickson. And yeah, if you, so it's Doge, you know who Doge is, and there's the Blob, which is another name for the whole military industrial complex, the blob has invaded the capital. And if you scroll down, you can win Dogecoins 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. Pentagon spent $5,700 for soap dispenser. You can snag at Amazon for seven bucks. Air Force spent 10 grand for a toilet seat to cover low cells for 28 bucks. Pentagon paid $4,300 for a single half-inch metal screw.

The value is $1.38. 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 US is huge. As a matter of fact, I have a little demonstration. Please. Can I do this? I'm gonna show you

the size of our nuclear arsenal. What is that you got there? BBs? These are BBs, right. I'm gonna 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. so So, that's the equivalent of 50,000 Hiroshima bombs. That is the current explosive capacity of the US nuclear

arsenal. Not only that, the country is now preparing to spend another two trillion dollars 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, it's a window into the general Pentagon war profiteer mentality that more is better. If one nuclear bomb is good, Gob's 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 50% of our discretionary budget on preparing to kill gobs of people. I mean, you know, 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 dollars a year. You know, one of the reasons I got into this is because, you know, I mean 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. 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. And we take that much 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. 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. So, okay, that was a very interesting visual to see what we did versus what it is now. Absolutely insane.

How much more do we have? But if we would ask the question, I mean, this has been going on over a long time. Why do you think we've been doing it? Why do you think we are increasing our nuclear capabilities the way that we are? What's the purpose of it? Profit. You think it's purely the military industrial complex? 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. 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 gonna spend X amount on the Pentagon. Well, the Democrats says, I'm going to spend X amount on the Pentagon. Well, the Republicans says, well, I'll spend a little

more. And then the Democrats 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 it, four star general, five star general, who said that a country can bankrupt itself in the vain effort to

achieve absolute security. You can't achieve absolute security, but continuing to spend our money. I mean, when you think about how much that's 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 work with 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. He said 50%. That makes so much sense. I mean, all these countries, they wanted help the people who live in their countries, 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, it just saps everything you've got. It saps your wealth. We're on the same page here, so you're not saying anything. We are fully on the same page. The fact that we are overspending the level of Pentagon accountability. Rob, if you can play one of the clips

of the guy saying $90,000 for washers just to validate his point, go for it. This, Mr. Secretary, is a bag of bushings. This bag of bushings, stamped out by machinists, don't need a high school diploma, it's not anything high-tech about this. All of this bag is compliant with the FAA specifications. How much do you think the Air Force pays for this bag of bushings? I don't know, Congressman. $90,000. This is a $90,000 bag of bushings that you need for any jet turbine engine.

Just to operate. of bushings that you need for any jet turbine engine, just to operate. So the exorbitant cost due to DOD only buying commercial parts from the OEMs, which is essentially sole source, is literally driving us out of business. I mean, the interest on our debt alone is now exceeding for the first time in American history the entire defense budget. We can't afford it anymore. 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. You know, that fighter program, that weapon 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.

And you know, they're incentivized to look the other way at all this price gouging. Okay, so then what this tells me is you're agreeing what the president is trying to do, Trump, to save from wasted expenditure. You like what Musk is doing. You like what he's doing to go to the table with Putin and Russia and hey, find ways to lower everybody's commitment with nuclear weapons that you're talking about. So you're liking what President Trump is doing. 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, that there's a shitload of things that I disagree with Trump on. But there are some things that I do agree with him on. And he has said that if he were president, there never would have been a war in Ukraine. And... Do you agree with them?

I do. I think that the war in Ukraine was absurd. I think the US provoked it and by expanding NATO. And I think Russia was essentially saying, you know, the US has a sphere of influence. It happens to be the entire world. Russia wants a little sphere of influence. You know, don't put weapons aimed at us in this neighboring country. What do you disagree with them? What do you disagree with the president? There's a very long list. Did you vote for him?

No. You voted for Kamala? Yeah. Did you vote for Biden? I think so. Okay, so you voted for Biden. You think Trump would have stopped the war if he was president, but then you still voted for Kamala.

What prompted you to want to vote for Kamala over Trump, even though you know he could stop the war? You know, in general, I think a big part of what I believe is that I think there's a real lack of compassion, I think there's a lack of honesty. Can you be specific? You can't just say that and not give me specific. You got to be pretty specific. What do you mean by lack of compassion and dishonesty?

Because Kamala Harris always tells the truth, and we know Joe does, always. They never lie. But what do you think with Trump? 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 believe strongly in racial justice and I don't think that Trump does. Racial justice? Yeah.

He was the first guy that did the prison reform that even van jones when i stood behind him crying saying i cannot believe this just happened he did that what this was the uh the first yeah you don't remember that do you remember that or no i yeah i do yeah i mean if if there's if there's anybody that's about you know the racial injustice side it's trump it's about the racial injustice side, it's Trump, it's not, you know. This is a guy that's done a very good job on that. But I wanna know specific from your side, what is it?

Because you're not a, you know when you're as successful as you are, you can't wing answers. You cannot wing answers. Now let me tell you why you can't wing answers. Because how many, like if I was to check right now, Rob, can you go to chat.gbt, how many businesses, how many businesses in America went from zero to a billion dollars in revenue, okay?

So if we go, how many businesses go from zero to a billion dollars in revenue, okay? So if we go how many business go from zero to a billion dollars in revenue? The exact number, I wanna know how many total companies is what I wanna know, can you see that? How many total companies have gone from zero to a billion dollars in revenue. Okay.

It's gotta be a big number. I don't know if they have the number or not. It's gotta be a lot of them, okay. You build the number one ice cream company in America. Yeah, you can say luck. You're very creative. Just right now you did that. Your mind is a creative mind to come up with certain things

You can't just say lies and certain things and not be specific I guess maybe the question is better to ask you the following uh, following way Who inspired you politically when you were younger? Like who was your hero when you were a kid? Martin luther king martin luther king He was your hero. Yeah Why was he your hero? Because he was fighting for justice and you know fighting for people who had been oppressed and screwed and And he was a really inspirational leader and he was a really inspirational leader.

He was an inspirational leader to you? Yeah. Okay, who else? Was there a book that you read? Was there something that influenced your politics? Did you read Communist Manifesto? No. You've never read Communist Manifesto? I've read the book. How is it? You've never read it? No. Ben?

What can I say? You read what you read. I was probably reading on the screen. I think if you read Communist Manifesto, you may go to communism. I mean, you're one step away from socialism. 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. And you know, 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. But I favor 80% taxes. Marginal tax rate. Yeah. So you think, let's process that. I'm actually curious to know what you'll say here. So when somebody like you says 80% taxes, you know what you're really saying? You think the US government can do better with our money than we can do with our money. That's what you're saying? You think Congress and Senate can do better with our taxpayer money than we can? 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. And I think, you know, I mean, you think about education, you think about childcare, you think about child care, you think about health care, these are things that, especially things like Medicare for all, some things need to be done by the government. Okay so let me get this straight and so just 10 minutes ago you are speaking to the audience who is loving watching you and you showed how much the government wastes money then 10 minutes later you say you trust our money going to the government that they'll do a better job than staying in our pocket. Do you know the average person watching this?

They're so confused right now. They're about to have a drink right now. That's a confusion. You just confuse the shit out of them. They're sitting there saying, so let me understand you, and I really want to understand you. I like you. I eat your ice cream. You seem like a really nice guy, and you sincerely seem like a nice guy.

And I'm really enjoying this. How can you one minute say the government wastes money and next minute say let's pay more money because we think they can do a better job with it? Because I think both things are true. I think about my own business. As Ben and Jerry's was getting larger and larger, I was saying, we're wasting all this money. This thing is wrong, that thing is wrong, it's leaking over here,

there's something that's not working right over there. I couldn't believe how much money was being wasted. 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. Why do you think you were overly protective of the money that was being wasted? Why? Because I needed to make a profit. Because it's your money. Well it's...

It's your money. That's why. Because you busted your ass to make that money to create jobs. So now imagine these guys are spending $90,000 on a bag of washers that at the lows I can buy for $329,000. You want me to trust them to raise taxes? Hell to the no. When I see Doge and I see the money stuff that comes back, you know what I tell myself?

How soon are you guys lowering taxes because you guys have no clue what you're doing with our money. That's what it makes me think about. Why would I give you more money that you have shown over and over again that you like to waste it? Because, so you give them more money. You don't think there's going to be more military contractors? You don't think there's going to be more big pharma coming in wanting contracts for people

to get unhealthy so they can sell $100 billion of vaccines so Pfizer's revenue goes up $100 billion? You think COVID helped that Pfizer? You think COVID was a very good event for Pfizer stock? What do you think? You think COVID, you know, Rob isn't it true that even Pfizer's CEO didn't even take the vaccine? But hey, the rest of us had to. You think that was a profitable event for them? You think they want another COVID? You think they want another pandemic? Of course, why? Because the money goes, you know, there was one of the guys from the big pharmaceutical companies that never took the vaccine. I just don't know which one it was.

You don't think that funnels back through? No, I think the American people, the reason why they love Doge is because they're done with wasted expenditure and they don't trust the government. It's the lowest, Ben, it's ever been. You've been around, you said you were born in 1951. I think you said 51, right? Did you say 51? A lot of wasted money from 51 till today.

Look at the year you were born, look at the trust. It was 80% is where we hit. Look where it's at right now. Lowest it's ever been. What happened? They don't trust it. They don't trust the media. They don't trust the government because they're full of shit.

They keep wasting our money. And you want to sit here? You know what I'd love to see you do? Go run on the campaign of raising taxes to 80% marginal. See what happens today. Let's have Bernie Sanders go campaign. Let's see what happens today Who's gonna be against raising taxes to 80% marginal on incomes over several million dollars a lot of people It's my money. Why should I give it to you? How many I mean by the way the people that are creating commerce who want to mind their own business like you

used to when you ran your business and you tried to create savings, those people are going to mind. It's easy for you to say it right now. You're in your 70s and you've already made your money to say, hey, let's do it to the guys now. I didn't get it. Now let me do it to the other guys. That's not fair.

You know, pick a number. Pick a number that's a reasonable number. You have to earn the right to raise taxes. The government has to earn the moral authority to be able to say, let's raise taxes. How do you earn the moral authority? By showing what you do with the money. Seven years Pentagon hasn't been able to show our audits. They failed an audit seven years in a row.

You want us to trust the US government? 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. I'm not suggesting we totally eliminate all weapons. I think the president is wanting to cut. This is why he won so many Democrats. Can you imagine? Were you a John F. Kennedy fan when you were younger?

You know his nephew went to the other side. You know his nephew who loved his dad and loved his uncle became an addict for 14 years because he lost his dad and we almost lost Bobby. He eventually got so sick of what the left did and he went to the other side. So did Tulsi. So did Trump. Trump used to be a Democrat. So did Musk.

Musk used to be a Democrat. So did Rogan. Rogan used to be a Democrat. He may still be. I mean, this is the most devastating season ever for Democrats, ever. Every state turned more Republican, 89 counties turned more Republican, seven battleground states, majority went to him. The last time that happened was 20-some years ago. This is one of those moments where Americans sat there and watched

the Democrats had control during COVID and they tried to abuse Americans. And they said, leave us alone. Leave us alone. I don't want you to force me to do anything. And for you Ben, a successful man like you that built an incredible business that the rest of us get to smile. You make people smile. Every time somebody has your product, they are smiling.

They're happy. You know what is the most happiest moment of my week? When I get to take my daughter to this ice cream shop in Fort Lauderdale and she eats her ice cream and her reaction, I melt. You produce the product that put millions of people, smile on millions of people's faces. That's what you produce because you worked your ass off and you took advantage of the opportunities that they gave you.

You saved every penny so you can pay your people better to create a better company. You're a hero. You're a hero. And the other side likes you because you give them money, but if you didn't and you were Republican, you would be despised by the other side. You'd be considered a rich, greedy man, and all you ever did is start a company with your best friend and turn it into

what you turn it into. And that's not cool. It's not cool. It's not cool that just because somebody has a dream and they go work hard and I'm supposed to go out there and feel guilty about it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of them making success feel guilty

and hey, you make too much money, you're a billionaire, you're a bad person, you're this, you're that. Let's recognize our heroes. Let's start, stop undermining anybody and everybody that they win. We just tarnish, tarnish, tarnish, tarnish, tarnish. Oh, he's a horrible man, tarnish, tarnish.

Stop it. I'm not about tarnishing people. I'm not saying you but it's a lot of people on the left and it's enough it's enough it's too much and people honestly the people are tired of it that's what happened in 2024 on November 5th you know I think a lot of what happened is that people were voting for something different. 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. I don't either.

I don't regard him as a Democrat. He you know, 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. I agree.

I agree. And by the way, you know what's the other thing that they were sick of? Sick and tired of? Did you watch the State of the Union? No. Okay. So there was multiple moments that were embarrassing.

One moment where the ladies on the left are wearing all these pink outfits. And President Trump says we want to keep boys out of women's sports. None of them stood up or clapped for it. Do you agree that transgender should be competing against men, against women? Do you think Martin Luther King, your hero, would agree with that? You think Martin Luther King would have said, yeah, you're a man. You were born a man. Yeah, so you want to go compete with women? Yeah. Yeah, no problem with that. You think Martin Luther King, who said,

one day we're black boys and white men, you think that man would be okay with puberty blockers? Seriously? You think your hero would be okay with puberty? I don Seriously? You think your hero would be okay with puberty blockers? I don't think so. You know I have a painting in my house. You know who's in my painting? John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, two of my heroes. Every time I've ever had an office, I've always had a picture of Martin Luther King there. He's a hero to so many of us.

I just don't think he would have been with that. And then you want to teach my kids LGBTQ? If a person wants to be gay, go at it. I don't have any problem with it. But we don't need to sit there and indoctrinate. Leave it alone. That's the painting. Martin Luther King all the way to the right. Have Tupac in the painting. Have John F. Kennedy. Have Einstein. Have Lincoln. Have Milton Friedman, the Shaw Center, and a couple hidden messages in there. You know what's sitting on the table? They're debating a book.

It's Communist Manifesto and Atlas Shrugged. Representation from both sides of the economy. Sit down and debate that. That's the painting in my clubroom, in my house. 15 foot painting. But to me, I'd love to see someone who, for you to build a business the way you did, you have to know how to reason and use logic.

If you don't, you will fail, you'll be bankrupt. Yeah, you know, I like that painting. I do too. You know, what strikes me is Einstein. I mean, 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 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. And what? How did you do this? What? You got telepathy? No, it's Rob.

That's why Rob doesn't make $7.25 a month. I can't. I can't give him only $7.25 a month. From my mind to your screen, man. I love it. Last thing before we wrap up, what do you think about Hamas and Israel, the war, and do you have any opinions on that? I think it is a genocide.

I think it's awful, horrible. To a guy 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'm just hugely opposed to taking weapons and slaughtering people. It's absurd. I mean, I'm also hugely opposed to what happened on October 7th with, you know, with people coming in and slaughtering people in Israel, but I totally don't believe that it justifies slaughtering an entire population. It's about to get very ugly after what the president put out there. I don't know if you saw this or not. Do you see this? Shalom Hamas means hello and goodbye.

You can choose, release all the hostages now or later, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered or it's over for you. Only sick and twisted people keep bodies and you are sick and twisted. I'm sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job. Not a single Hamas member will be safe. If you don't do as I say, I have just met with your former hostages whose lives you have destroyed. This is your last warning for the leadership. Now is the time to leave Gaza. While you still have a chance, also to the people of Gaza, a beautiful future awaits you, but not if you hold hostages.

If you do, you are dead. Make a smart decision. Release the hostages now or there will be hell to pay later. How do you feel about that I believe the hostages should be released I do not believe that we should be slaughtering people so what if they don't release the hostages so Ben maybe you have a better strategy. How do you get them to release the hostages? Share it with us. I don't know. Honestly. So what should he do? Should he send a case of ice cream guys, release them? Here's Ben and Jerry's. Maybe he sends the dark chocolate, dirt, what is it called? Dirt cake, my favorite. They may not like that because it's you know dirt cake. So what do they... I don't have a solution. Could it be

because as a leader you have a position that sometimes you have to make a tough decision that the average person will not understand and there's burden that comes with being a president? Well I definitely I agree that there are times when you need to make tough decisions as a leader. Do you have kids? I do. I do as well. If one of those hostages, God forbid, were our kids, how soon would you want them to

make a move so they return to you so you can hug them again? I'm not looking to... I wouldn't say return my kid or I'll slaughter thousands of people. So you would sacrifice your daughter or your son if they stay there? I wouldn't sacrifice my daughter. Every day they're there. Their days are numbered. Each day they're there. Your imagination. You're a great marketer. In your imagination as a father, you're imagining what they're doing to your daughter. You're okay with that? They're imagining what they're doing to your daughter. You're okay with that? 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. It's tough. And so no matter what he does, he's going to have hate. But he's got to make a decision. This is why being a leader is not for everybody, especially being a president.

It's a lot of burden that comes with it, especially a president like him that's actually making decisions that a lot of people are giving him a hard time with. And he's got a big support, big people that are sitting there saying, let's go. Ben, I can tell you one thing. I had no idea where we were gonna go.

Honestly, I had a blast with you. I had a good time. I so appreciate you for reaching out. I hope we were gonna go. Honestly, I had a blast with you. I had I so appreciate you for reaching out I hope we stay in contact and I have friends in Vermont that I go to and I stay at this house my good friend, I'll give a shout out to the Mehran Asadi who is the CEO of National Life Group and Incredible man. I don't know if you've met him before or not. He's been to your place before Phenomenal father. He's a great CEO and I've been to Vermont just to visit him Mehran Asadi

He has a Persian accent. He doesn't like it when I say that But he is a is a very very very dear friend of mine. So anyways 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? What do you get? Yeah, tell me what 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. Let's set it up for you here. Oh, excuse me, I'm moving your mic. No, go for it, do it. Go on, go on, guys.

Oh, wow. Isn't that cool? That is super cool. They don't go off. Oh wow. That is super cool. 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 a sensor. This is crazy. So it's not battery generated. No, no, no. This is a... Wow. You know, when these first came out 20 years ago, 25 years ago... That's cool. ...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. You know, eBay, you know, when 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. You're amazing. All right, here's my other toy. What your pens don't do this. Dude, that is pretty sick. 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 US spends. Here's how much China spends. Here's how much Russia spends. They got close-up lens on that fucking thing. Do here's how much. Do you see it or no? Here, let me show you. Do you see it, Rob? It's pretty sick.

That is cool. I love this. All right, don't say I never gave you nothing. No, no, I have, look, you're gonna leave and I'm gonna say great things about you, but I'm gonna say when you leave, I'm very glad that President Trump finally has your support. It's great to see that, you know, all it took was a podcast.

It's qualified. Sir, truly an honor to meet you. Truly, an honor to meet you. I appreciate you for coming out. Really enjoyed it. Gang, I hope you enjoyed it as well. Just so you know, if you're going to go buy ice cream, this is my favorite flavor out of all of them.

God bless everybody. Take care. Bye bye, bye bye. Nowadays, more than ever, the brand you wear reflects and represents who you are. So for us, if you wear a Future Looks bright hat or a value-taming gear, you're telling the world, I'm optimistic, I'm excited about what's going to be happening, but you're a free thinker, you question things, you like debate. And by the way, last year 120,000 people got a piece of Future Looks Bright gear with Valuetainment.

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