Pivot - Congress weighs liability for businesses, Amazon will put its $4billion profit into its supply chain, and Anand Giridharadas on "Rich Corona; Poor Corona"

Episode Date: May 5, 2020

Kara and Scott talk about whether or not Congress should give businesses legal protections against lawsuits from workers who contract COVID-19. They discuss Amazon's earnings and Jeff Bezos' strategy ...to put $4billion in profits towards vaccinating and socially distancing the company fulfillment supply chain. Also, they talk about whether Bezos should, and whether he will, testify in front of Congress after the House Judiciary Committee asked for his appearance. In Friend of Pivot we hear from Anand Giridharadas about how the American public system might change post-pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:38 Support for this podcast comes from Anthropic. It's not always easy to harness the power and potential of AI. For all the talk around its revolutionary potential, a lot of AI systems feel like they're designed for specific tasks performed by a select few. Well, Claude, by Anthropic, is AI for everyone. The latest model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, offers groundbreaking intelligence at an everyday price. Claude Sonnet can generate code, help with writing, and reason through hard problems better than any model before. Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisher. And I'm Scott Galloway. And Kara, I'm actually feeling pretty good.
Starting point is 00:01:26 You know why? Why? Tell me. Because over the weekend, Alex Jones ate my ass. And it wasn't that bad. It was actually pretty good. Is he down in Florida? He's down in Florida, right?
Starting point is 00:01:35 Where does he live? Did you see this video where he's threatening to eat people's asses? Yes, I tweeted it. Of course I tweeted it. I don't think Alex fully knows what he's talking about. I don't think he understands the double entendre there. You know what? He is unwell.
Starting point is 00:01:48 He is unwell. Yeah, there's something going on there. There's more than meets the eye there. It's ridiculous. I mean, you know what? The thing is, I bet a lot of people who follow him are like, yeah, that's what I'm going to do. You know, the Donner Party is for me, that kind of thing. I just, it's like literally.
Starting point is 00:02:02 The Donner Party was not a good story in American history, people of the United States of America, no matter what Alex Jones says. It's crazy. I know how he's feeling, though. One of the nicer things, there's actually been quite a few nice things about this sheltering in place. I'm an introvert, so I like it. But there are these two ducks that have been showing up, and they eat the bugs in the pool, and they're just lovely. And every morning, I get my coffee, and I go see the ducks. And the last few days, just one duck has been showing up and they eat the bugs in the pool and they're just lovely. And every morning I get my coffee and I go see the ducks. And the last few days, just one duck has been showing up.
Starting point is 00:02:29 So I think this is really taking a toll on people's relationships. Meaning what? I'm like, where's the other duck? Yeah. No, now it's just one duck. Clearly the ducks aren't getting along. They're sick of whatever's going on here. By the way, by the way, I don't know where you are.
Starting point is 00:02:44 It is literally the most beautiful day. I'm in Delray. It's the most beautiful. And I'm like, okay, all the environmentalists, I'm like, this is all it took? Just sheltering in place for like four weeks and the earth is back to beautiful? That's all we needed to do? Well, it really is. It's spectacular here.
Starting point is 00:02:58 It is spectacular. It was raining all last night and it was stunning. It was absolutely stunning. Speaking of not so stunning, let's talk about Elon Musk. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Well, you just warned me off mic not to say what I was going to say. I know. I wish you wouldn't.
Starting point is 00:03:13 It's nothing illegal. Okay. Fair enough. But he shouldn't be doing that. He should not be doing this. He did a Twitter. He's not supposed to tweet the way he tweets, and he tweeted Free America Now, which I think he's allowed to do, but it's been several days of all kinds of different coronavirus stuff. And I'm sure his business is suffering, everyone's business. He can't take off his jets and his rockets and stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:03:36 But one of the ones was that Tesla was overpriced, which he shouldn't have done, that one. Let's discuss that. Shouldn't have done? Yes, should't have done that one let's discuss that shouldn't have done shouldn't have done okay so so some backstory here some people somebody kind of connected the dots and said all right this guy is accusing america of being fascist because they refused to open his factory where potentially people would stand shoulder to shoulder and perhaps be a hot zone and take the R-Row or whatever the hell it's called from one to four in his factory. And he says, OK, they're fascists. And then someone did the math and said, OK, if Musk's or Tesla's stock price stays as ridiculously inflated as he is, he's due for a several hundred million, maybe even several billion dollar payday.
Starting point is 00:04:31 And someone said, okay, is this guy all of a sudden being reckless with other people's health for his own enrichment? And so, of course, he sees that. And then in a moment of it or whatever these moments are, he says, I believe the stock is overvalued. And then the stock lost the value of the U.S. auto industry based on his comments. Kara, a CEO- Let me just tell you before we start, I don't think money is his motivation, but move along. Go ahead. Yeah, look, at this point, probably not. Although, you know what I find is whenever people say, oh, they have so much money, money isn't their motivation, I find the billionaires and one of the reasons they are billionaires, while they claim in front of business school classes that they never cared
Starting point is 00:05:06 about money, they care about money much more than anybody else. They're counting it every day. I have to say, I've known him since he didn't have any, and it never was his motivation. His motivation was other stuff. You can pick people's motivation and know it. So my nine-year-old is really acting out. And occasionally we're like, okay, stop playing the recorder during the day. It's just driving us all crazy. I'm bringing my recorder to play for you, but go ahead. Now that we've asked him not to do that,
Starting point is 00:05:33 he's found his new passion is the recorder, and he literally will come up to me and just play it in my ear. It's like that cowbell cartoon. I want to do a joint thing with him. I can play Greensleeves, but go ahead, move along. It's like that cowbell cartoon. I want to do a joint thing with him. I can play green sleeves, but go ahead. Move along.
Starting point is 00:05:45 He does the Star Spangled Banner using his nose and two recorders. Anyways, the— Talented child. He has literally decided, okay, I am going to test the limits of the SEC. But when you commit blatant market manipulation, and he was already fined for saying— Why do that? I want an explanation. We all know he's violated his terms.
Starting point is 00:06:06 It's so ridiculous. He's totally jaywalking all over the place. Well, it reflects so poorly on the board that they have no control over him. But also, there's something. This has gotten to the point, and I'm not a psychologist, but I'm interested to get your viewpoint here. It's as if he wants to get in his own way of making the kind of progress he can make.
Starting point is 00:06:24 He's clearly a brilliant guy. He clearly has the ability to bring together a team that somehow produces these cars at a velocity that no one ever expects him to produce. He is, I mean, he's a remarkable individual, but it's almost as if he's this Greek tragedy playing out. He is taunting the SEC to say, okay, ban me from being an officer of a public company, which, by the way, they should have done on the last tweet. And now he's done it again. He's like, I dare you.
Starting point is 00:06:50 I'm more important than the government. I'm more important than my board, clearly. Same thing with the other tweets. Yeah, I think he's sort of the tragic version of Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban's funny, and Elon sort of goes for stuff. I don't know. I think he should stop doing it. What do you think is going on there?
Starting point is 00:07:04 I just don't get it. He goes through these phases. What is going on there? He goes through these phases. Remember, and then he sort of gets it together and then makes it happen. And I think maybe that's exciting. I don't know. I'm not a psychologist, but this happens a lot and everyone forgets that it happens a lot, but it happened before and it will happen again. And I think that it's very hard for these people who are so wealthy and so powerful to be told no by people. And I don't think people tell them no, right? Nobody says, what the hell are you doing?
Starting point is 00:07:31 And so they ever get a no and they never get any consequence for what they're doing except for fighting. And they like the fight. So it sort of plays into what he likes. But when a stock goes down, when you lose the value of the U.S. auto industry on behalf of shareholders because of an illegal tweet, it's literally as if several dozen class action shareholder lawyers are in a room going, how can he be this dumb? How can you make it this easy for us? Oh, Scott Galloway, you know all about this trend.
Starting point is 00:07:59 Come on, being self-defeating. Do I? Yes, come on. You wrote a whole book about it. This is a new level. You wrote a book about it. This is a new level. You wrote a book about it. This is a new level. I'm just telling you.
Starting point is 00:08:07 This is a new level. You wrote a book in which you talked about the negative things you do and then the positive things you do. Everybody does this. All right, we're going to move on from Elon Musk. Just briefly, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden wrote an op-ed in the McClatchy Papers.
Starting point is 00:08:21 Oh, my God. What did you think when you saw that? They're dating. They're dating. What did you think? Sort of heavy dating. They're just, I don't know. I don't know. We don't know. Nobody knows. That was such a meet the parents moment. All right, come meet my parents. I don't know. She really, the more I think about it, she is probably the pick. She'd be the smart pick.
Starting point is 00:08:40 She consolidates the Bernie Bros. I'm hearing Val Demings. That's all I'm going to say. Represent. I'm just telling you that's who I'm here. All right, we'll Bros. I'm hearing Val Demings. That's all I'm going to say. Represent. I'm just telling you that's who I'm here. All right, we'll see. I would like her to pick. A lot of people would love that. Love to see her on a tear. I think she's a lot.
Starting point is 00:08:54 You know what I mean? Remember how much she was. She's a lot. And I think we'll see if Joe. Would you say that about a man? I feel triggered. She's a lot. They never say that about men.
Starting point is 00:09:05 No, but she's very active. So are we ready to go into the big fight? So is it the right time to go into the big fight? She's a powerhouse. Bring it. She's a powerhouse. You know what I mean? Smart, angry, effective.
Starting point is 00:09:14 I love her. She was my presidential choice. But I think America's tired, and she's going to be very, not just energetic, but full of ideas and full of concepts. And I think it's just people. It would be a very strong indication of Biden having willing to go to the mat. There's a lot of easier choices for him in terms of people like lots of stuff. So I think that it would be great if he chose. It would show a lot of energy on his part to do so. She only has one downside, and that is a little bit she plays into the
Starting point is 00:09:50 narrative that they will run against him, that it's capitalism versus socialism. Yes. They'll play over and over. She's got that. She's got a bit of the Hillary thing, which I think Joe does not have at all. I hope they pick her. I think she'd be a real shot in the arm. But again, he has a lot of choices, and he has easier choices for sure who are more palatable to the general public. But I love her. I think she's great. I love the job.
Starting point is 00:10:10 I'm a lot, Scott. So there you have it. Oh, you're a tall drink of lemonade when you say you're a lot. No, I'm sour lemonade, my friend. All right, we're getting on to the big stories. All salsa, no chip, the jungle cat. Really hot salsa.
Starting point is 00:10:24 As states attempt to reopen Congress ways, how much liability business owners should have. This is a big deal, I think, and it's a big deal for tech companies. Everybody should have for their employees get sick with COVID-19. Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill once again are opposing ends of the COVID-19
Starting point is 00:10:40 debate. GOP senators are drafting legal protections that would give businesses immunity. This is unprecedented. From lawsuits as they reopen businesses, Democrats are opposing those measures. Senator Mitch McConnell, a friend to anyone who's not a poor person, says that he would help employers reopen businesses without fear of major class action suits. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, says this will take responsibility away from corporations and make working conditions less safe for vulnerable workers.
Starting point is 00:11:06 The Washington Post reports that business lobbies in the insurance industries are lobbying in support of the liability shields, of course. Meanwhile, a lot of people like unions are urging Democrats to stop Republicans from doing this. By the way, as Congress debates how to reopen the nation, the World Health Organization reported the United States had its most deadly COVID-19 day on May 1st. This is good for big business, and tech is big business. I wrote about this issue in The Times on Friday. What do you think about this? Of course, it'll help companies like Amazon. It'll help a lot of these companies. Uber? It perfectly embodies the tragedy of America and
Starting point is 00:11:39 why we have lost the script, and that is our government, our elected officials who people elect to office have decided their job is to protect companies, not people. And I believe that there are people who should wake up every morning and consciously decide to put themselves in harm's way and go into warehouses and potentially expose themselves. Hopefully their company has taken precautionary measures. But I think they should do it out of greed. I think that people should get danger pay. I think younger people should decide. Yeah, don't talk about that. But all they're saying is, and that's where this is headed, we're headed towards an environment
Starting point is 00:12:14 where essential workers, we will actually have to pay them as if they're essential, not just call them essential in Bud Light, or I shouldn't have said that. I don't know if Bud Light has said that. But all these commercials thanking our essential workers, but meantime, we're paying them $8.75 an hour. All that it's saying is we want to reduce the compensation of generally middle and lower income wage workers who have to put themselves in harm's way or choose to. I don't think there's anything wrong with putting yourself in harm's way
Starting point is 00:12:42 as long as you know the risks and as long as you're compensating. This one, if you get sick, like all those people at the rallies, I think that many people have been talking about this issue. Dr. Birx talked about it this weekend, going against what Trump was saying at the Lincoln, whatever the hell he was doing at the Lincoln Memorial. It was where she was saying, like, you're not going to just put you in harm's way. You're putting your grandmother. You're putting people around you. That's a fair point. That's a fair point.
Starting point is 00:13:04 This is not a choice. I decide to sell my kidney or not. It's your kidney. Even though that's illegal, you can't do that. You shouldn't be able to infect people. Literally, this is the whole point of society. You're not supposed to drive without the stoplights. You're not supposed to.
Starting point is 00:13:20 People do it, but it's not like, look, everyone did it. We got the purge going. I'm sorry. I just don't- But we do need a supply chain. I think there is a protocol or there should be protocols where there are. Look, there are going to be jobs where you have a greater likelihood of being exposed to this. And I don't think we can just call on people who take this Hippocratic oath or see themselves
Starting point is 00:13:40 as courageous and expose themselves in the front lines of healthcare. I think it's unfair to just call on people's better angels. You're going to get some sickness. It's just that they're not talking about putting safety measures in place. 100%. They should require it. It should be on a case. That's right.
Starting point is 00:13:56 Why can't they have more legislations that's more complicated, which it has to be here? Well, liability laws. I mean, do you remember in high school, did you read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle? Yes. If people weren't liable for ensuring that there were guards around meat grinders, we'd still have people falling into meat grinders. But instead, the firm can be sued. And so they said, okay, let's put some protocols in place so people don't end up in our meat. And the notion that we're going to relieve companies from any sort of liability around this
Starting point is 00:14:26 is just saying, okay, let's reduce the currency, let's reduce the earnings power of our most vulnerable population, and let's give corporations a hall pass around not making the requisite investments for a post-COVID world. It really does indicate where our country is. We've decided that shareholder value is much more important than people or their health. It's just, it's kind of, you know what it is? It's just, it's not only disappointing, it's a little bit gross. It is gross, of course, but it's like, it comes over and over again in our history. And again, this does protect, like, there's a difference between a mom and pop shop and Amazon. Amazon should be held to account for having safety measures in place and very discernible and clear and transparent safety measures is what we're going to do. Same thing with Uber drivers. Same
Starting point is 00:15:08 thing with, I'm just using tech as example, but you could use it for the meat packing plants. These people should show that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. Now, a mom and pop restaurant, like here's the guidelines. You got to follow like some of these, like they have to sit apart. Like there was an interesting story about a hairdresser and she doesn't want to wear a mask while doing hairdressing. Well, too frigging bad. Wear your mask. That's it. Like, sorry. Sanitize the hands, wear your mask. It's the lowest bar people have to do if they want to be open. And they should have a lowest bar and then they should have higher bars for different companies. I just, the fact that they want to just give them, I don't think it'll pass. I don't think, there's too many lawyers actually in this country.
Starting point is 00:15:45 Thank goodness we have lawyers pushing against insurance companies, which will be great. So they can battle it out. But it's just on a sensibility basis, you have to be liable for your actions to an extent. And of course it has to be subtle and complex and everything like that. But complexity is lost on these Republicans trying to jam, just the way like the story about Stephen Miller trying to jam through immigration legislation at a crisis. What a shameful person he is. Really shameful. Yeah, I think we assign too much blame to the Republicans and not enough to the Democrats. I think that a lot of these rescue and bailout packages are, you know, so we know the Republican Party is there to protect
Starting point is 00:16:25 corporations, but I feel as if the Democratic Party also posing for November elections has not put in place the requisite oversight around what is the disbursement of the GDP of the United Kingdom without any oversight to flatten the curve for rich people vis-a-vis small businesses whose owners happen to be the wealthiest cohort. Yeah, but who's playing them? The Republicans, like they have. But we're being played. What's worse? I think the wealthiest cohort in the world. Yeah, but who's playing them? The Republicans. Like, they have to. Okay, but we're being played. What's worse? I think the player. I think the person is a player.
Starting point is 00:16:49 They're shameful. It's shameful, the stuff they're doing. Yeah, okay, they're shameful. We're idiots. Boom, America. It's like you're spending the whole time playing defense against whatever horrible push they'll push to leave. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:17:02 Like doing an event at the Lincoln Memorial. Like, there was one tweet, it's like Lincoln, the second worst night that Lincoln ever had. There was a tweet, it was very funny with Trump there. It was a desecration of that man's, what he gave and saying he suffered more than Lincoln. Aye, aye, aye. Like, aye, aye, aye.
Starting point is 00:17:20 That's what I say today is aye, aye, aye. Literally, every time we do this show, I get these thoughtful emails from my friends down in Florida like, Hey, Scott, how are you? Don't talk politics on your show. We won't. But anyway, it helps businesses and it will help tech companies very much, especially companies like Amazon and Uber and others. I'll talk business.
Starting point is 00:17:36 Businesses have, just the way I wrote about how tech companies need to have more responsibility, all businesses need to have more responsibility. You know who's going to benefit from this? And I don't know if this is, I think I'm preempting us or if we want to wait till we come back from a break. Have you seen what Amazon announced in their earnings? Did you see that? Well, we're going to talk about that next. We're going to go to a quick break
Starting point is 00:17:53 and we're going to come back. That was a tease. All right, we're going to come back. Thank you. And talk about Amazon in a second. I'm Rachel Maddow. Up next, who killed Kennedy? Come back.
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Starting point is 00:20:17 Anthropic's latest model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, can help you organize thoughts, solve tricky problems, analyze data, and more, whether you're brainstorming alone or working on a team with thousands of people. Thank you. Welcome back. We're notic.com slash clawed. Welcome back. We're not going to discuss who killed Kennedy. There's been enough of that. Second spitter. There was a second spitter. Oh my God. Remember the Seinfeld show? There's a second spitter. Oh my God, no. Anyway, quick update on Amazon. They reported earnings last Thursday after we taped the show. A few notes. They reported $75.5 billion in sales in the last quarter, up 26% from the previous year.
Starting point is 00:21:28 Profits fell 29% because it cost more to meet increased demand. Also notable, Amazon Web Services topped $10 billion, as you say. This is one of the biggest companies around, Scott. Customers include Slack and Zoom with a big 3M deal coming. Bezos told shareholders they would spend $4 billion toward COVID. This was interesting, COVID-19 response. Sounds like a large chunk of this will be for tests for workers and increased delivery capabilities. So $4 billion, he's going to just pull ahead of everybody. So many laps around the track on this one.
Starting point is 00:22:00 Tell me what you think. So this is the most underreported business story of last week. And that is, I mean, he had such a great line. He said, shareholders, you may want to take a seat. Yeah. And he said, we're taking all of our profits and we're piling it back into growth or specifically an initiative. An initiative is protective gear, testing, protocols, additional compensation. I'll be curious how that actually translates to additional compensation to respond to a post-COVID world. And I just sat there and it sunk in on me, what is going on here? And it is so mind-blowing. And there's just no doubt about it. This guy is the visionary of our age when it comes to business. You know what Amazon is doing? Amazon is going to build and construct through an investment and expertise that no one else can
Starting point is 00:22:53 match. They're going to build the first vaccinated supply chain globally. And that is if you're a vendor, if you're a worker, if you're a customer, anything that goes through their supply chain is not only not interrupted, but is virus free. He's going to be able to say, OK, there's every other supply chain globally, which is technically the largest business in the world. And then there's the Amazon supply chain and also making a serious investment in testing. What is about to become the biggest consumer product category in the world? Testing for the novel coronavirus. And Amazon may be the best at it and have the supply chain to deliver it.
Starting point is 00:23:30 I mean, it's just, I just think about this. It's moats. Do you know my moat theory? He keeps building moats. Oh, yeah. So many, of alligators. And no one can beat him on delivery now. No one can beat him on convenience.
Starting point is 00:23:45 Price, he keeps up. He doesn't win necessarily, but he keeps up on price. He keeps up on what you want, anticipation, more and more technology on it. This is gangster squared. This is the virus quote. This is the virus quote. Well, and so he says this. And, of course, shareholders, it's literally like history repeating itself.
Starting point is 00:24:02 Shareholders are like, oh, shit, they're not going to be profitable again. And they took the stock down 7%. And this is how, this is the scale of Amazon. And whenever I speak to elected officials, I don't make new arguments. All I really do is show them the scale of what we're talking about. So Amazon, because they said they're reinvesting their profits, what happens is until the marketplace absorbs the fact that they're about to just, as you say, lap the competition again. They get angry and they whack the stock for about 24 or 48 hours. You watch. The stock's going to recover and more this week.
Starting point is 00:24:30 I was thinking that. If I could buy stock, I'd have bought Amazon stock. A hundred percent. And then what do they do? This is the scale of Amazon. Their stock goes down 7%. So they lost the value of Boeing. That's where Amazon is right now.
Starting point is 00:24:40 It gains or loses the value of Boeing in a single trading day. So when you're talking about a company that's quote unquote too big, just remember it can shed or gain Boeing in a trading day. And that's what happened. But this is, he is unafraid to lose the value of Boeing. This is how most CEOs think. Well, people are used to that from him though. He did it for years, remember? So interestingly, Apple doesn't. Honey badgers just don't care. Yeah, but also Wall Street don't care. They just trust him now because they let him do it for so long before. So their use is, like, Apple cannot do this.
Starting point is 00:25:11 Like, nobody else can do this. Netflix is the only other one. Yep, Netflix. I'm just saying people are like, we trust this guy. He's going to deliver. And he really is. He's going to have the best supply chain ever. It's crazy.
Starting point is 00:25:22 Well, everybody else. She's crazy. It's going to be so exciting. It's his playbook. It's his everybody else. It's going to be so exciting. It's going to be so exciting when we break their ass up into. Speaking of which, he's going to go to Congress. Amazon fulfillment. Oh, that's right. He's been called before Congress.
Starting point is 00:25:34 You're in D.C. What do you think is going to happen there? I don't know. Has he agreed to go? I don't think he has. I think he should. I'd show up if I were him. I would show up.
Starting point is 00:25:44 Why wouldn't he? I think he should. I'd show up if I were him. I would show up. Why wouldn't he? About 48% to 51% of the people are just going to talk about what a leader he is and basically glom all over him. It's not going to be that bad for him. Yeah, I mean, it's about these misleading, member-intentionally misleading statements
Starting point is 00:25:57 about using data to help themselves versus sellers on the platform. It's a little bit dicey. Maybe he shouldn't come. I don't know. There's a whole bunch of people who advise people on that, and I never understand their arguments. But I guess it's probably not good. You could end up with a Jerry Yang situation when you show up at Congress. I don't know. I think it'll be more reminiscent of Howard Hughes in front of Congress. I think Jeff Bezos- Oh, that's not a good ending. What? What do you mean? Having long nails and saving your own urine. What are you talking about?
Starting point is 00:26:25 Those are my hobbies. Oh, man. That story was... Anyway, go ahead. But Howard Hughes went in front of Congress, right? He basically was very strong. He was one of the most famous, interesting business people of the age. He was.
Starting point is 00:26:37 Very important. Maybe I should owe him a debt of gratitude. I think Bezos would do just fine in front of Congress. And I also think he'd have a lot of supporters there. I think a lot of people would basically just tee him up with softballs. I don't see the fear. Well, you know, it's interesting because some of this legislation is helping him, like the one we previously just talked about, the liability legislation, will help him. At the same time, you know, you've got Trump after him and the Washington Post.
Starting point is 00:26:56 I disagree there. Let's push a pause there. I think actually it would hurt him because I think he will be able to avoid that liability. I see. Everybody gets an off. Yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. I think he will be able to avoid that liability. I see. Everybody gets an off. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I think it helps him.
Starting point is 00:27:09 He'll be one of the few companies that will actually be able to avoid that liability. And he has the money to support it and say to every worker, I'm insuring you. I'm giving you additional compensation. Come work for me. I used to go on weekends when my dad would come pick me up after him and my mom's, but we used to go to race go-karts, which was wildly dangerous. We would sign this thing saying, okay, if you die in a fiery ball, it's your fault. He's basically going to say to the entire supply chain, you're taking a risk.
Starting point is 00:27:38 Here's some additional compensation, but there's less risk here than anywhere else in the world. It's going to get people their sausage and their Nespresso pods. I'm just like, I'm literally, I'm blown away by this. I'm totally blown away by Amazon's like crazy vision and march towards $2 trillion. And it's more important than ever that we get, we break them up. He's one of those people who just leans into the fight. It's interesting. Now look, it can contrast it with Elon Musk. He's so calculated. Congress didn't make him do this, of course, but it'll be interesting to see what he does. He's got a lot of advisors around him, and I bet they're debating the topic quite handily. But one of the things that he also wants is this Jedi contract. Now, he's going to get other contracts with the U.S.,
Starting point is 00:28:21 but he certainly would like to. He's still in court on this one, and they're going to just keep, you know, hammering it out. He's going to grind it out until whenever, but nobody can start. Now, that's the thing that could flip back on him. The Trump administration could say he's hurting U.S. intelligence capabilities or defense capabilities, and we'll see about that. I don't think anyone's paying attention. Do you know what I mean? I think no one's paying attention, so it's fine that he keeps grinding it out and slowing everybody else down, And we'll see about that. I don't think anyone's paying attention. Do you know what I mean? I think no one's paying attention. So it's fine that he keeps grinding it out and slowing everybody else down and possibly winning a piece of it. And you're referring to the case where they basically said the selection process was biased. And Microsoft was unfairly awarded the cloud contract for the CIA, which is, I think, about a $10 billion contract.
Starting point is 00:28:59 Yeah, that Trump put his finger on the scale. And, you know, there's so much evidence that he publicly tried to do that. The question is, is he allowed to? Is the president allowed to? The defense secretary is going to have to come in and testify. There's all kinds of funny, funny business. There definitely doesn't look great. It looks like this COVID thing where the president says something insane and the bureaucrats scramble.
Starting point is 00:29:24 And there's a history here. so it'll be interesting to see. But I've got to say, he is the gangster. He is the original gangster. Oh, gee, he really is. Incredible. This is exactly what he should have done, is lean in with this $4 billion, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. I think he's, you know, and at the same time,
Starting point is 00:29:41 he's got to deliver on the safety of workers. I think it's unconscionable that someone of that wealth doesn't have, isn't the most concerned. And they've had a history of this. They've had a history of stories about their treatment of workers. And he needs to fix this one most of all. But they do have, okay, but they raised, they kind of upped the ante. They raised their minimum wage to $15, which I think the federal government should have. I mean, here's what you have.
Starting point is 00:30:04 to 15 bucks, which I think the federal government should have. I mean, here's what you have. You have companies now that the scale of them, when they have a trillion dollar market cap, which almost all the big tech firms do, and if they want to double their market capitalization in the next five years, which they have to implicitly guarantee to their shareholders, otherwise they'll go buy Cloudflare or Salesforce. That means that a company like Amazon needs to increase its top line revenue, assuming they get some scale and some synergy and operational leverage. That means they need to increase their top line revenue by about $100 billion over the next five years, which is effectively adding $1.5 billion in top line revenue every 30 days or $50 million in incremental
Starting point is 00:30:42 revenue every 24 hours or $75 million every business day. I mean, the scale here is staggering. And if you have to do that, if you have to do that, it limits the sectors you can go after. And so what you're going to have is the following. Amazon is about to go into government. Amazon is about to go into defense. Apple is about to go into education. Amazon is about to go into healthcare because there's only a handful of industries that are big enough to save the appetite of what is the world's largest vampires.
Starting point is 00:31:13 They can't eat rats. They have to go after elephants. What's so genius about this is that Jeff Bezos has said, okay, we have to get into government. Jeff Bezos has said, okay, we have to get into government. We have to get into healthcare because there's just very few corpuses big enough for us to drain enough blood to feed our insatiable appetite here. And they're effectively said, okay, the next biggest consumer category in the world is going to be testing for COVID-19. We talked about this. It's so obvious. It would have worked.
Starting point is 00:31:43 It would have worked. We would all have been a lot better off if they had gotten it off. Well, what if they'd said to you, okay, if you're in an Amazon Now location, and my kids, when I say my kids, the people I work with, we're now ordering their lunch from Amazon Now, which they get in 48 minutes. What if they said in 48 minutes we can get you a test for either antibodies or the virus? Yeah, of course. Available to Prime members.
Starting point is 00:32:07 The marvelous Mrs. Mizell and COVID-19 antibody tests. Blow my mind. Literally. Literally. I mean, seriously. You know, Alex Jones eats my ass and Bezos blows my mind. It's a good weekend. It's a good weekend.
Starting point is 00:32:20 Okay, Scott, this is perfect timing because we have your Vice News nemesis on the line. He also has better hair, Anand Girgadas. He has great hair. He's the new host of Vice TV's Seat at the Table, our publisher, New York Magazine, just an entire issue dedicated to wealth, class, and racial disparity on display during the pandemic. It was called Rich Corona, Poor Corona. Anand is the perfect person to talk through these issues with us. Hello, Anand. How are you doing? Thank you so much for having me. Welcome, Anand. I just want to say, when you say, I have better hair than Scott, I feel like that implies.
Starting point is 00:32:56 That he has hair. Oh, already with the insults. I know this is for an audio thing, but I just want to fact check that. Okay, I'm sorry. You know what? Your hair looks magnificent and Scott's looks non-existent right now. Yes, as per usual. Now listen, away from the fact that you have very wealthy looking hair. We were talking about this idea of rich Corona, poor Corona. We have talked about this issue. Previous to you coming on, Scott was singing the praises of Jeff Bezos in terms of the $4 billion
Starting point is 00:33:24 and et cetera, et cetera. I was a little more not so as impressed as he was. But nonetheless, explain. First, talk about COVID-19 and how it discriminates and some of these relief packages and how they have it's turned out. You know, what's so interesting is, particularly as journalists, our training is to always focus on what is new in any situation, and whether that's a war or that's something like coronavirus. And coronavirus seems like so new, right? And it is really new, maybe more new than anything in any of our lifetimes. Novel coronavirus.
Starting point is 00:33:58 Novel. Exactly. It's even in the name. And as all of us have adjusted and lived these totally different lives than we were living before it again feels new new new and i think after a few weeks what you actually realize is this is yeah the the some of the basic facts and how we're living are new but this is actually a doubling tripling quadrupling down on what have been the mega trends of the age yeah right the acceleration we talk about that. An acceleration. So dramatic that it feels new, but is in fact just like the old cubed. And it is.
Starting point is 00:34:35 So it's, you know, quickly, it's the war on government for 30, 40 years. Turns out you wage a war on government. The idea of government, the thing itself, you defund it, you defang it at every turn. Turns out when something like this happens, the free market is actually not able to solve a global pandemic. Second, the notion of wealth concentration, which you're talking about the New York Magazine feature, this idea that so many people are unable, as we've heard many times, to weather a $400 emergency expense, that weathering something like this, which may end up being a multi-thousand or tens of thousand dollar emergency expense for many, many, many millions of people is unfathomable. And third, this notion of billionaires
Starting point is 00:35:14 like Jeff Bezos or others, being able to use this crisis to redeem themselves, which is not to say that they are not doing good works in this crisis. They may be, they may not be. Some are. I think Bill Gates is obviously doing very sincere work. Others, it's more of a show. But it risks absolving them in the public imagination of what we should be very focused on, which is the ways in which that billionaire class is responsible for America's weakness in this pandemic and why we have not had South Korea outcomes or Germany outcomes or any outcomes of any number of countries. You know, tax avoidance as a class of people fighting for things like the Trump tax cut,
Starting point is 00:35:55 avoiding whatever taxes are actually on the books over years, decades, not paying corporate income taxes. Secondly, lobbying, lobbying. You know, it's not working people who don't want universal health care. Someone stops these things that are 50, 60, 70% popular. Someone blocks them right at the end, and it's big corporations and the very wealthy and powerful. And finally, specifically on the pandemic, manufacturing. At every turn in the last 30, 40 years, when there's been an opportunity to save a nickel by outsourcing, i.e. having another company
Starting point is 00:36:27 instead of your company produce, or offshoring, moving it to another country, the corporate class, CEO class in America has taken that decision. And we now end up being a kind of pansy country that literally can't make anything for ourselves, cannot make masks. I mean, I'm not a mask expert. I look at those things things like how hard could it be? We got to wait. We got to
Starting point is 00:36:48 send airplanes to China to beg for masks. And so the very people who are stepping up to help are in many ways members of a class of people who put the country in the position it is right now during this pandemic. So there's, I mean, to your point, it's as if we can't, there's no nuance or we're not able to think as a species in any sort of nuanced, complex way that we might be able to recognize and respect and applaud their efforts during a period of crisis,
Starting point is 00:37:23 but at the same time, break their ass up and restore some oxygen to the marketplace. It's as if it's one or the other, when the reality is you can do both. My, my question to you is, is there an opportunity here? And this is kind of the glass half full scenario where whenever we reach this level of income inequality, there's war, famine, or revolution, and it looks like we're having some format or form of that, and that we might come out of this recognizing that government is important, that delegitimizing and defunding government, as you referenced, does have consequences, and we might be producing a new generation of younger people who will want a global CDC, who will want cooperation, that we might in fact decide that, you know, the world taking a break from emissions does make a difference.
Starting point is 00:38:10 I mean, Kara and I were saying it's just so beautiful out today and we can't think that that's accidental. Do you think there's anything that we might come out of this with that might, might in fact, we might take away some lessons and lessons and, and, and emerge from this a better, a better society. I will, I will take that and raise you and say, I actually think this may be the only opportunity. I mean, I'm, I'm 38 years old, given my lifetime and possible future lifespan. I think this may be the biggest and only opportunity to truly transform the country in my lifetime. You know, when I was, an interesting thing happened
Starting point is 00:38:46 when I was on book tour the last couple of years, some older people would often come up to me in the signing line and almost whisper this thing like they were embarrassed to say it. They're like, this is all great. We agree with you on changing the system, but you know, we're older. Like this stuff only happens after awful stuff, right?
Starting point is 00:39:03 No World War I, women don't get suffrage. No World War II, you don't have the civil rights movement in the same way. Like it takes these reset moments in history that creates space for change. And over the last couple of years, I was kind of depressed. It seemed true, but I was kind of depressed by that, right? Because that, you know, well, the good news is we now have our thing that is of a magnitude, the entire world on lockdown right now, all of our systems tested, many of them failing. But what I think it's going to take is, it doesn't
Starting point is 00:39:32 happen on its own. It takes leadership, political leadership out of that. And so the question is, if you're Joe Biden, you have the opportunity right now to say, I'm not a Medicare for all person, haven't been. I thought that in America with the vigorous private enterprise, the way it is, we're not France, that healthcare tied to jobs was a good way to go. And then we'll fix a bunch of other people on the back end. But I see now that I was wrong. The coronavirus is a big enough thing that you can say that without being embarrassed. Yeah, he's not going to. He's not going to.
Starting point is 00:40:08 And so to Scott's question, the question of whether this actually does become a pivot is gonna turn on whether people like Joe Biden and other leaders in our society and leaders of movements are really able to get in there and change people's minds. Because what the crisis is also revealing is even in something as awful as this, we are just so locked in our silos of assumption that it's not clear that any of us are persuadable
Starting point is 00:40:39 to each other anymore. Well, look at the opening up. You know, the people, there was stories this weekend of people in other states like Oklahoma where they wouldn't wear masks. Someone got shot and they got angry over it. And the governor of Ohio, who's doing a relatively good job about that comparatively, the Republican governor, is doing very good. He's been quite a leader around this stuff and safety. He just was like, I can't make them wear masks. There's a point where I can't make them.
Starting point is 00:41:02 And so people were unconcerned with other people's health. And you get the feeling. everybody wants to go out, everybody wants to, you know, you sort of, you have like a wish to do that. But it does, it does create this sort of difference, different, like you said, rich corona, poor corona. Can you talk about that? Because a lot of the rich people are these tech billionaires who you've written about many times. Well, but I think what you're getting at is something a little different, which is, you know, I remember when Hurricane Sandy happened. We had these very, very close friends in New York who are from Argentina, and they lived in, you know, there were certain zones on the water that they said you got to get out.
Starting point is 00:41:39 You have mandatory evacuation. And so we had these friends who were told, you got to get out of your house. And so we called them. We said, come over. to get out of your house. And so we called them. We said, come over. We got a lot of food. Live with us for a few days. Like, whether it here. And they were like, no, it's not necessary.
Starting point is 00:41:52 And we're like, no, no, it's a mandatory. Like, I know you're from Argentina. You just got here a couple years ago. But like, yeah, the government says you can't be there. And they were like, oh, like where we come from. If the government tells you got to get out of there, it's because it's some trick. It's like they're going to like steal your stuff or they're going to like confiscate your apartment. Like it's just like when the government tells you something, you do the opposite because, you know, and if you're Argentinian, that may be fair based on the record of that country's government.
Starting point is 00:42:17 I think what is happening in this country after 30 or 40 years of everybody besmirching the government is that we're getting to that kind of mentality in many people. When people here put on a mask or people here stay home, their mind goes to, what's the con here? What's the game here? And you can't treat the symptom. The root, the disease here is if you make everybody, or 60% or 70% of the public have this, you know, either outright hostility or just kind of passive sense of the futility of government, you're going to start to reap very dire consequences. No, I think we've always been an unpleasant group of people. I don't know. I think we've always been an unpleasant bunch of assholes. Isn't it some of it that we've become expectant and soft through all this relative peace and prosperity?
Starting point is 00:43:08 We outsource war to certain demographic groups. And even when I was a kid, we used to do duck and cover drills. And there weren't two or three of us saying this is propaganda. And let's be honest, it's all over in a flash. This is just an illusion to make us feel more secure. There was a comity of man. We pull over when there's an ambulance. You're not going to get arrested if you don't move to the side of the road
Starting point is 00:43:29 when there's an ambulance. But now it seems as if everybody has decided the enemy is within. We're tribal. We don't trust each other. There's a lack of comity. People don't want to say I'm an American first. And there's just a certain level of handholding that should take place here. And instead, we show up with guns and masks at the Michigan Statehouse to protest, you know, someone saying, I need to wear a mask. It feels as if America has lost a common enemy, and we become soft, we become indulgent, we become expectant. And there needs to be, and to your point, this might be the thing that says, all right, at some point, we have to put America first and start cooperating and saying, okay, if they tell us to wear masks, we're going to wear masks. I mean, it's just like buck up, right?
Starting point is 00:44:11 We're Americans. So if it's not the political leaders, is it the corporate ones? Because, you know, you do have like, you know, Bezos just doing this $4 billion I'm going to protect workers thing. We just talked about how it's possibly a business advantage for him because he's going to have the virus-proof delivery business, essentially. How do you look at these sort of, I want to focus in on the tech billionaires cover because you've written about them a lot and they are the richest people in the world. How do you think they come out of this? And you gave Bill Gates the exception. Well, I mean, I don't give him the exception in the sense that he is still very much only has that level of wealth because of a terrible system that made that wealth possible.
Starting point is 00:44:49 I think he's more sincere about a lot of the efforts he makes and actually applies his mind to them in a way that some of these people are just literally throwing, you know, reputational dollars, marketing dollars. Yeah, PR, press release. Press release. But, you know, I think as a whole, the tech group is very culpable for this society being as weak as it is. You know, so you think about Uber and Lyft, for example, and just those kind of more distributed. Are you about to go on a ride hailing rant? Exactly. Go. At every turn.
Starting point is 00:45:23 The delivery ones also, right? The WAG, all these kind of distributed workforce tech companies. At every opportunity, they've faced a fork in the road between do you kind of make people employees, you give them some security, or do you leave them to themselves? They have always taken this turn of precarity, and they've created through those choices a precariat, a very large group of people, a growing group of people, who have no security.
Starting point is 00:45:53 Well, when something like this happens, you can step up and say, I'm going to help this person, I'm going to help this person, I'm going to donate to this relief fund. But you have fought tooth and nail to achieve the kind of economy in which there is no security. Yeah, Pablo Escobar built soccer stadiums. That doesn't forgive what he was doing.
Starting point is 00:46:12 I'm curious. I think so many people, including the people who are talking to buy into this notion that this inequality is out of control, that tech billionaires deserve to be wealthy, but they shouldn't have the GDP of Norway. Give us two or three things. If you were king and had a magic wand, what would you like to see Congress pass? He is king. Look at that hair. In terms of legislation, tax policy, gestalt in our society, what two or three things correct, course correct? It's a great question. I think number one, That's a great question. I think, number one, as a policy matter, the time for the wealth tax is overdue. I think the way I've seen the conversation— Let's push pause right there, because I understand the notion of it.
Starting point is 00:46:58 But France tried it, and then the wealthiest man in France moves to Brussels. How do you take the most mobile capital in the world, and that is rich people, and then decide you're going to tax what they believe is already theirs, so you're violating their private property rights, and not have a bunch of billionaires move to Singapore and end up with a lower tax base than we have right now? So this is where I'm going to offend your listeners in Europe and appeal to patriotism,
Starting point is 00:47:22 which is one of the advantages we have in this country is this is kind of a place you can't not be. Come on, America. New York. You can't get food anywhere like you can get in the East Village. Is that what you're saying? It's worth it. It's worth it.
Starting point is 00:47:39 Take the tax. Well, first of all, there's just the size of the market, right? I mean, it's 25% of global demand on a bunch of different things, right? So if you're a bank who just doesn't want to be in the United States, you can afford to not be in France. A lot of companies are not in France, right? That's a great point. I just don't know a lot of ambitious global companies that don't need revenue from America. So that's one.
Starting point is 00:47:58 Second, everybody wants to get into our universe. A lot of people want a lot of stuff from us, right? And we are very bad at actually having any leverage for that. So I would say if Michael Bloomberg would really leave America, if we took a 10% wealth tax every year, which would still be probably about half. I'm sorry, you said 10%? You said 10%? Right, which is like higher than the Bernie thing, right? But just think about this for a second. Most of these people earn, let's say, 20% IRR every year, right?
Starting point is 00:48:30 Return on capital, right? So even something higher than the Bernie tax would actually see them all getting maybe 10% richer a year instead of 20% richer a year, right? That scares them. Warren's was 2% or 3%, right? So Warren would have slowed them from getting richer at 20% a year, right? That scares them. Warren's was 2% or 3%, right? So Warren would have slowed them from getting richer at 20% a year to getting richer at 17% a year. And that was horrifying to them. So I think we have the leverage as a country to do that and not see them all run away. And if they all run away, maybe it would be better. And if it wasn't better, we can shift it. So it's a great argument. I love, and I love that you said it, and I felt some real American pride there.
Starting point is 00:49:10 Because on a smaller level, if you live in Manhattan, you pay 11% to 13% incremental taxes or 11% to 13% additional tax rate versus living in Florida. But quite frankly, living in Manhattan is worth it. Living in Short Hills, New Jersey or Greenwich, Connecticut, maybe not worth it. So you're saying America is worth it. 20%. You couldn't get a wealth tax over 50 bips because if you started charging billionaires 10%, one down market, you cut their wealth in half, they will move to Singapore. Even America isn't worth it. I think what you're saying is America is the New York of Florida. There you go. Perfect. Perfect.
Starting point is 00:49:48 And I think a second thing, which is not a policy thing, although there are policy fixes that would help it, I would say, particularly in this moment, we need a wave of young people going into public service, going into public service,
Starting point is 00:50:01 Scott discussed that last week. Scott discussed the American government. And now is a good time because you know what? Those jobs are secure. Yep, that's right. They're hard to be fired from. Millennials have no security. This is going to be-
Starting point is 00:50:11 Corona core is what Scott is calling it. Corona core. Right. I would say we need a massive shift in young people going to public service as the place they go to change the world. All right. Speaking of change the world,
Starting point is 00:50:23 last question because we've got to get going. Bezos was called before Congress. He wasn't compelled to do so. Where do you think the legislation that was moving towards controlling some of these tech companies, antitrust, all these other things, in the end controlling their wealth, will go from now on? I had this idea a couple of years ago, which has not caught on, which was creating something called
Starting point is 00:50:49 the Commission on American Reform, which would have been to identify four or five big things we could do. And the rule for any idea was it has to have like 80% public support, right? We're not even going to look at things that are partisan. We're going to look at things that are just much loved on both sides. I think you can get there on a wealth tax, by the
Starting point is 00:51:07 way. I think a big area where you could get there is antitrust. I don't think anybody carries water for Facebook being a monopoly or Amazon being a monopoly, except people who work there. Who else care? For whom is that an important issue of principle to defend their right to be a monopoly? And so that's an example where I actually think if you had creative politicians and you had a sensible Republican Party instead of a white nationalist cult, you actually might be able to say there's a, you know, 30 to 40% of people in this party and 100% of people in this party who might be able to make real headway on that.
Starting point is 00:51:40 And by the way, that's not socialism, right? That's capitalism. What we have, having massive areas of American life where there's only one company able to operate is the most Soviet thing you can possibly do. They're better than the Soviets. They deliver on time. And you get what you want. Yeah, but so let's just review those. So we have a wealth tax, we have national service, and we have antitrust. That seems all like a reasonable way to oxygenate the marketplace and, if you will, recalibrate.
Starting point is 00:52:12 I mean, a step towards tyranny is when private power co-ops government instead of being a countervailing force. The economy would boom, I think, under a lot of what you're talking about, Anand. Before Anand goes, Cara, we should point out that Anon has a new show, and it plays on Vice Thursday nights at 10 p.m. Oh, wait, that's when my show plays. By the way, I will crush you. I will crush you.
Starting point is 00:52:35 Oh, my God, Scott. That was the worst show plug in the history of showbiz. I will do a good one, Anon. Anyone, check out Anand's show, Vice TV, Seat at the Table. It airs on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on Eastern, and maybe check out Scott.
Starting point is 00:52:51 You don't have to if you don't want to. Anyway, Anand, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for having me. This was fun. Thank you. Bye. Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back with wins and fails.
Starting point is 00:53:05 That was bracing from Anand. Do you feel like your leads never lead anywhere? And you're making content that no one sees and it takes forever to build a campaign? Well, that's why we built HubSpot. It's an AI-powered customer platform that builds campaigns for you, tells you which leads are worth knowing,
Starting point is 00:53:28 and makes writing blogs, creating videos, and posting on social a breeze. So now, it's easier than ever to be a marketer. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers. The Capital Ideas Podcast now features a series hosted by Capital Group CEO, Mike Gitlin. Through the words and experiences of investment professionals, you'll discover what differentiates their investment approach, what learnings have shifted their career trajectories, and how do they find their next great idea? Invest 30 minutes in an episode today. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Published by Capital Client Group, Inc. All right, Scott, we're going to do a quick round of wins and fails. Just go for your wins and fails. Move along. Move along.
Starting point is 00:54:18 Well, to Anand's point, in terms of COVID-19 being an accelerant more than a change agent, J.Crew is supposed to file for bankruptcy this morning. Actually, it probably is. We're going to see just a raft of retail bankruptcies. Who else? Who else? Names. Senna.
Starting point is 00:54:33 You know what could really surprise people, Kara? Could really surprise people? The gap. The gap. The gap could probably go out of business, which is staggering to feel. You're going to see Neiman Marcus filed last week. It's probably only a matter of time. I don't want to be a grape dancer and send stocks down,
Starting point is 00:54:49 but most of the department stores, especially retail apparel, and there'll be a few surprises in there too that we just aren't expecting. Who else? The Gap? Who else? These are all mainstays of malls. Ann Taylor. Remember them? Ann Taylor, Loft. You could see, I mean, there just could be anything, almost anything in the department store. Is there anyone immune? It's like an H&M or a Uniqlo immune or not? Oh, the elephants that survive this will have more foliage. Your
Starting point is 00:55:17 Sephoras, your restoration hardwares are going to be stronger coming out of this. There'll be some big winners. There'll be some... And what makes you a winner versus a loser? Well, oh gosh, we're going to need a bigger boat. But the way you could almost do an initial proxy is the percentage of sales you get from e-commerce, how differentiated your product is. I mean, at high, low, either incredible value or incredible luxury, anything in the middle is going to get crushed. So it's going to be just fascinating. Speaking of losses, and I kept quiet post their launch because I predicted that this
Starting point is 00:55:54 just made no sense and it was a terrible strategy and it was tech people playing media. The lawsuit. Yeah, Quibi. Paul Sane. I said, look, I predicted Quibi was dead on arrival, and then a media analyst clapped back at me and said that he had seen Quibi content. I underestimated him. Anyways, their projection was they were hoping to get 7 million signups. They've signed up a million. I think Quibi probably gets sold in the next six months,
Starting point is 00:56:24 and it'll be a mercy killing. It'll get sold for a dollar to somebody. Also, there's a lawsuit, Paul Singer, around this use of technology. Yeah, around their key technology, around landscaping or the way you pivot the way your viewership. I talked to Jeff Zuckerberg, and he, I mean, sorry, Jeff Katzenberg, I'm sorry, Jeff Zuckerberg, around it, and he was dismissing it as out of hand publicly. Well, none of them.
Starting point is 00:56:48 What's a CEO going to say? It has real merit and we're in trouble? Yeah, but he went out of his way to say they're idiots, essentially. Yeah. But you started watching a little bit of Quibi. Are you still watching it? The minute billions came, I was watching Homeland. I stick with the Netflix as the one I'm really, really watching a lot
Starting point is 00:57:06 in terms of long form. And I know, I don't see the, I think Quibi, I would watch Quibi if I was commuting or somewhere for 10 minutes. I'm nowhere for 10 minutes anymore. I'm either sitting down and watching or I'm working. And so I don't, there's not that downtime, that commuting time, that waiting time that you have when you're in your normal life, essentially. And so I suspect I would use it. I don't sit down with it. And I do sit down with Netflix and I do sit down with Comcast and things like that. But Quibi, my first class, and I'll go
Starting point is 00:57:37 professorial here or Professor Light, Quibi violates some basic tenets of strategy right out of the gates. And that is, there's only kind of three things you need to remember, and I call it the hurdles test. One, is it differentiated? Two, does anyone care about that differentiation? Is it relevant? And finally, if you're fortunate enough to have a product that's differentiated and relevant, do you have assets, culture, IP, capital that makes it sustainable and you can own it?
Starting point is 00:58:02 And what they had here is potentially something was relevant, people, short attention spans, short form video, but it's not differentiated. YouTube has all kinds of short form video and it's also absolutely not sustainable. What could they do to own short, quick bites? This was a strategic error. Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman and a billion and a half dollars are real assets. And instead they found something, a value proposition that strategically was just flaccid. This just thing made no sense strategically from the outside. All right.
Starting point is 00:58:30 OK, so $1, that's a good, that's also a prediction. What's your win? Did you have a win? What's your win? Win. I cleaned my house this week. I moved into a house and all the boxes are gone. And that's my win.
Starting point is 00:58:42 There you go. Congratulations on that. Well done. A win. I like the Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren thing. I thought that was interesting. I do feel a little the weather has turned and I know it sounds crazy, but it makes me more hopeful. That's nice. So, and our win, I think what Bezos has done here, vaccinated supply chain is just overwhelming from a business and a strategic perspective. And it's just so exciting, and it's going to make it only that much more interesting when we break up that company and Amazon Fulfillment becomes its own entity.
Starting point is 00:59:13 That company can end up being on its own worth, one of the 10 most popular companies. I make your argument all the time to people. It's a better company for everybody because there's lots of companies you can invest in. Broken up. Broken up. And he'll be richer than ever. He'll be a trillionaire. He'll be the world's first trillionaire.
Starting point is 00:59:28 Anyway, Scott, it's time to get out of here. This is a very long show. Don't forget, if there's a story in the news that you're curious about and want to hear our opinion on, email us at pivot at voxmedia.com to be featured on the show. We've gotten a lot of great stuff via mail. We also would be happy to respond to you on Twitter.
Starting point is 00:59:42 We love Twitter. So let us know what you want us to talk about. Someone just said they wanted us to talk about education, and we shall do so. Vote for Pivot for the Webby Awards Best Business Podcast. If you don't, we won't like you. Is that a good way? Yes, and Kara Swisher needs more awards. You need one. You need one. I'm doing it for you, Scott. Zero to one. There was a book on that. Zero to one. All right, Scott. Zero to one. There was a book on that. Zero to one. All right, Scott.
Starting point is 01:00:10 Today's show was produced by Rebecca Sinanis. Our executive producer is Erica Anderson. Special thanks to Drew Burrows and Rebecca Castro. If you like what you heard, please hit subscribe. Have a wonderful week. Enjoy. Enjoy just how beautiful it is outside. Beautiful day. What a wonderful time to be alive, emerging into a new tomorrow, a hopeful new tomorrow.
Starting point is 01:00:29 Kara, I am thinking about you only because you're appearing on my TV show this week. I've got to go shower. If it doesn't work, it's your fault. I've got to go shower right now. Nice. So I've got to go. El maquillaje, baby. Bring on the el maquillaje.
Starting point is 01:00:42 All right. Scott, see you soon. Do you feel like your leads never lead anywhere and you're making content that no one sees and it takes forever to build a campaign? Well, that's why we built HubSpot. It's an AI-powered customer platform that builds campaigns for you, tells you which leads are worth knowing, and makes writing blogs, creating videos, and posting on social a breeze. So now, it's easier than ever to be a marketer. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers.
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