The Chris Cuomo Project - Everything You Hate About The Economy Was A Choice

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

For decades, Americans have been told today’s economy is simply the result of capitalism, globalization, or forces beyond anyone’s control. Chris Cuomo argues that’s not true. From housing affordability and healthcare to Wall Street, pensions, student loans, immigration, and AI, Chris breaks down the political choices that reshaped the American economy, and why he believes those decisions, not ideology, are the real reason so many people feel like the system is working against them.  Chris also explains why he believes Democrats are making a critical messaging mistake ahead of the midterms, the economic argument he thinks can actually move voters, and why the next great political fight won’t just be over taxes or spending — but over who benefits from artificial intelligence, automation, and the next generation of American wealth. Join The Chris Cuomo Project on YouTube for ad-free episodes, early releases, exclusive access to Chris, and more: https://www.youtube.com/@chriscuomo/join Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Visit https://drinkag1.com/ccp to get a free AG1 Travel Case with 7 free AG1 Travel Packs in your Welcome Kit with your first AG1 subscription order while supplies last. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So we're going to put up on the screen a few of the things that are part of your platform. And I want to ask you, just give me sort of a true or false on these. Abolish the Senate. True. Okay. Replace the presidency and Supreme Court as we now know them. Yep. Abolish ICE.

Absolutely. Abolish borders and give amnesty to anyone currently in the U.S. illegally. As a long-term plan, yep. Defund the Pentagon. Absolutely. abolish prisons, at least in large part. Yeah, again, as part of a long-term program, yeah. Okay, so no prisons.

Government or public ownership of most large corporations. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. Shut up. The only reason to have a party, the only reason to have to carry the burden of being a Democrat, okay, or a Republican. God forbid, I don't even know what a Republican is.

is to win elections through organized effort. The only reason to shoulder the burden of explaining to people what DSA is and isn't and what social democracy is and what socialism. The only reason to deal with all this bullshit is because you want to win elections. Why would you put the worst messenger on the worst platform to be baited in the worst way and give the worst answers? if you want to win elections. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. I will give you what the winning message is in the midterms, okay?

I've been thinking about nothing but this for months, okay? And we need change. You know how I feel about the parties. And I know how you feel about how I feel about the parties. I get it, but as the shirt says, But I am with you. We need change. And I hate to say this. But I do think we're at a place where for right now, you've got to have balanced power. You cannot have just one side in power of everything. It doesn't work for everybody. It doesn't work for anywhere close to that. So you need balanced power. So I don't care if you're a Democrat or not. we need balanced power in Congress, okay? The Democrats have to be in charge of something

because there has to be some kind of fundamental levers here because you can't go to war in a place that doesn't make sense to go to war in a way without a plan and ignore federal law and ignore the Constitution and it's just okay because, as Senator Ron Johnson told you on my show, hey, it's a team sport. Look, and then people came after Ron Johnson. Don't come after Ron Johnson. He told you the truth. Yeah, but I hate what he said. Yeah, me too. Me too. That's why I was so frustrated that the media didn't even pick up that he said it. Why? Because they love the game. You saw them going to the party with Trump. The guy is trying to destroy freedom of the press. He is demonizing you for doing your job and you're going to go to a ball with him. And then you think it's empowering yourself to give awards.

in front of him. He doesn't give a shit. Anyway, look, this isn't about, oh, so you're DSA now, you're not, please, okay, don't insult me with the labels, all right? And they are an insult. I get it. Look, socialism is a dirty word in America. It's going to be, it should be, social democracy, which is really where the Democrats should be, is, you got to explain it. If you're explaining, you're losing. Look. These are not my problems. Okay? I did not, I don't do the design of the Democratic Party.

But I'm telling you, this is a poison pill. You want to get rid of all the institutions. You want to get of everything that's in the Constitution. You want to get rid of everything. You want to just destroy it. And you're not even going to tell us how. And you're going to feed that to this, you know, this MAGA pawn, right, at a central casting. The whole fucking thing is at a central casting.

Oh, my goodness. Look, the whole point is to win elections. The whole point is to get rid of MAGA, okay, as this toxic influence in our society. And it is a toxic influence. Look, I say to all the time, nobody gives you people a better defense than I do, okay? You were right about what was wrong with the economic inequalities in this country. You just picked a guy who wasn't going to change it. And if that's not clear to you now, it's never going to be.

However, you want to know, okay, you came to the right place, ladies and gentlemen, because here's the case that needs to be made. This isn't about socialism or capitalism. It's not about capitalism or anything else. Of course, capitalism is the fundamental economic structure. That's not going to change. But the choices that you make within the structure, the system, the institutions, the policies are everything. And that's where we got it fucked up.

And I know this because I have been studying it for a very long time, but I have been studying it acutely for months. And I got to tell you, there are a lot of people out there who have been doing this. And they're making a lot of good points. Like who? Go to billionaires. Oh, no, I'll give you even better. Go to John Pavlovitz. P-A-V-L-O-V-I-T-Z.

Okay? Now, a lot of strong stuff in there, okay. But when you're dealing with philosophy and perspective, exaggeration is going to be in there, okay? That's okay. That's why you're a critical thinker, right? But you've got to see the case that he's making, which is, look, this is not just political.

There's a morality to this. There is a definitional identity to this. You want to talk about identity? Here's the identity. What kind of country are you about? I'm about a country that allows me to do what I can do for myself, but also places a responsibility on me, a point of conscience on me, to be there for those who aren't blessed, or as you people want to say, privileged in the way that I am. I absolutely think that's part of the social contract. The idea that I'm here to run as fast as I can, to be as good as I can, to get as much as I can, without any kind of consideration or collaboration. or interdependence or interconnection with those who can't, doesn't work for me.

Oh, so you're a socialist. Fuck you for saying that. I'm a capitalist. Capitalism without responsibility or a sense of conscience is just greed. And no, I'm not just about greed. I'm not about greed. It's a deadly sin for a reason, okay? The old ones, before the Pope may rest in peace put in like all these environmental considerations and things.

In fact, even the one that he put in that I thought was interesting is that obscene wealth, the agglomeration of nothing but more is a deadly sin. Look, I think you already had it with greed, right? And lust and pride. But look, the original seven deadly sins were pride, wrath, greed, gluttony, lust, and sloth. Envy was in there also. That's also part of the mix. Those are the seven deadly sins. Anyway, I'm not about socialism because I care about other people.

What the hell is wrong with you? The hell is wrong with you. That's what we're all about here. We're all about that is helping the many while you get yours. You're going to get yours. But look, Scott Galloway is right, okay? Scott Galloway is the ultimate capitalist, Professor G. Right? NYU made hundreds of millions of dollars, a cent of millionaire.

What does he say? The marginal utility of making $10 million a year worth is $40 million a year is not that big a deal. Now, I know that that may be uncomfortable with you, but you're part of something bigger than yourself. So let's look at the decisions that were made, choices, okay, that wound up screwing with the scales that we used to have when there were plenty of fucking rich people. Were there as many billionaires? No. So what?

So what? I'm not putting a cap on our success. I'm not putting a cap on it, but the burden that comes with it is real, too. And look, I pay my taxes. I don't want to hear this. Like, Cuomo wants to take my money. Hey, I probably make more money than you do, all right? I'm paying the top tax rate.

I don't have any funny money. Okay? That's what we used to call it when I worked in finance. I know you guys don't know that part of my life. But I worked, I went to law school, worked in a law firm, and then I worked in mezzanine finance with Chase Capital Partners and these other people. Anyway, I'm not as unsophisticated. skaters come across. So here's the point. Funny money is what? It's not really wage work. It's

this piece of equity from this deal that we hold and we offset it with these losses so you don't have to pay taxes income. You only pay capital gains. And capital gains was the original sin of all this, right? Changing how that money gets valued as a function of what you owe to everybody else because you were bold enough to speculate and to take risk so you shouldn't have. You shouldn't have. have to be taxed as much on it. What a bunch of shit. I'll tell you what's taking a risk is doing a job every damn day knowing that you're not even getting treated the right way. And you really can't do anything about it, but you want to stay with it. That's, that's hard risk, man. That's hard risk. You decided on where you want to gamble with money that you can lose. I don't think we should have

preference that, but we did. Okay. Now, by the way, is that a redistriction? mechanism that is socialistic by nature? You could make that argument. I don't think so. And I don't think it matters, but I just think it's a choice within a capitalist system. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from AG1. You know how I feel about them. Look, I like a lot of different supplements.

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right? Welcome Kit has all of those things in it and you get your first AG1 subscription order while supplies last. All right? That's drinkag1.com slash CCP. It is affordable. It is good for you and you can get it right now. Hey, Ontario. Come on down to BetMGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive the Price's Right Fortune Pick has to offer. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show only at BetMGM. Check out how we've reimagined three of the show's iconic games like Plinko, Clifhanger and The Big Wheel, into fun casino game features. Don't forget to download the BetMGM Casino app for exclusive access and excitement on the Price's Right Fortune Pick. Pull up a seat and experience the Price's Right Fortune Pick, only available

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to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Now I'm going to take you. I'm very passionate about this because I know we can get to a better place. I know it doesn't have to be like this. I know you don't have to have, and all I'm talking is economic today, by the way. I'm just talking economic.

ICE is easy. You're going to have to get rid of all these people that they put in there. You're going to have to retrain a lot of them. And you are going to have to build back up. You're going to have to get rid of all the leadership. You're going to have to go through the whole thing. You're going to have to reset the policies. You're going to reset the purpose.

And you have to change. how they do the job, okay? Because let me tell you something. You see that clip? Greg will put it up of Holman and Dana Bash. I used to work with her at CNN. I worked with her father before that at ABC News. Great guy.

And she's a great journalist. And she does a good job. But she was wrong on this one. She says, Tom Holman says, I don't think we've made mistakes necessarily. And she goes, well, we've seen the mistakes. At least five. I was like, fucking five.

You mean, you're just talking deaths. I mean, I've seen dozens of issues of obvious abuse and excessive force, but whatever. She's still wrong. Why? Tom's right. Tom Holman's never been more right. These aren't mistakes. They're by design.

They're intentional. The harshness is the instruction, not the aberration. They're taking guys who shouldn't be on the job, who aren't trained. right way to do the job, they're giving them instructions to go out there and kick ass. Right? Max mode. Give them hell. What do you think you're going to see? Wrong guys, wrong way, wrong instruction, wrong outcome. It's not a mistake. It's not a mistake. Dan Abash was wrong. It's not a mistake. It's not a mistake. It's intentional. It's intentional. Oh, we don't know that, really. Renee Good. You see any results of the investigation, right? Oh, oh, you haven't. Well, that's weird,

because the guy who did it is back on the job. Did you know that? And they haven't even bothered to tell you after many months what their investigation found. Why? Because they don't want to. That's why. Because this is their design. This is their purpose. Is to be harsh. Get them all out. We need a change. But saying abolish ICE, you're losing votes. You just are. Get rid of the presidency.

Get rid of the Senate. You're losing votes. There's no reason to. Okay? You can bring them all along. And here's how. Under employment, we've got to get back to rewarding work and not just investment. And the government made choices to enable one

and ruin the other. 1970, the year I was born, that's why I use it. Okay? So this has happened in my lifetime. If you worked in a factory, okay? And let's remember, most of us don't. Okay? Most of us don't.

Most of us work in positions that are going to be higher salaried than that. However, a factory worker could buy a house for two to three times salary. That's what a mortgage was all about. Death weight. You would carry it your entire life to pay it off those 30 years, which was what? That was seen as the utility curve of your best efforts as a laborer. That's why mortgages are set at 30 years. Anyway, you could support a family on that one income.

Both parents working wasn't just chauvinism, was part of it. It wasn't just sort of chauvinism. It wasn't just culture. It was socioeconomic. One could stay home and raise the kids. So you didn't have to have this daycare, nanny culture, right? You didn't have to bring grandparents back in. That's the worst thing.

I've got to tell you, I think one of the best things that happened in the pandemic was families folding back in, combining into one house. Why does everybody got to have their own house? I would love to live three generations deep in my house. I would love it. And then when I'm gone, you take the house. And maybe it was my parents' house. You know, I don't know why. Everybody's got to have their own house.

Why? Anyway, two to three times salaries what a house was. Single-income families were the rule. You would retire with a pension at 57 was the age. Today, you cannot have that job and cover rent in most metropolitan areas. You need a second income. Why? Ah, not because just inflation. No, no, no, no, no. No, it was choices, and here's why you'll win the election, okay? The decisions that were made, some can be undone, some cannot, but they can be understood and rectified in different ways and exposed, so that this isn't just the strong survive and God helps those who God has helped and let it trickle down and no bliss, oblige, and all that other bullshit. 71, Richard Nixon ended the gold standard. What did that mean? That you had to have enough gold,

and by the way, America, by some estimates, carries more gold currently than any other country in the world. But you had to have the gold to back how much money you printed. Okay? So this temporarily allowed the government, that's in quotes temporarily. Why? Because they never stopped. To print unlimited money. 50 plus years later, still going strong. What happened as a result of this not having to have the gold-back currency? Well, you allowed other currencies to get more competitive because they didn't go on the gold standard either. So you had a lot more growth in outside economies that you wouldn't have had at the same rate the same way. Is that good or bad?

It's both. The U.S. dollar as proof of the both and the negative side for us, guess how much of its value? you it lost because of this, 87%. Wages stopped matching productivity. Workers were zeroed out in terms of growth. Why? Because it used to be that when the stock market traded companies largely on book value, before all the funny money, the derivatives, the swaps, all these different things that they have now, all these different devices on their side. to make money and gamble, because that's what Wall Street is. It's gambling, okay? Used to be traded on book value, right? Which was basically, this is what your assets and liabilities are. This is what

the company is worth. And maybe a little bit more for goodwill, a little bit more for future contracts, a little bit more for competitive advantage within the space, et cetera. But it was pretty close to that number. Now it's traded off something called PE ratio, price to equity ratio, which means what? It's a guess. It's a gamble. I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you. you two, three times what you're worth. Didn't used to be like that. So what used to happen is when you would have a good year and there were a lot of good years, right, you would take that money and change your wage structure, keep your employees, hire new employees, and give them back for the growth so they kept working their asses off. Now that money goes to the investors.

Now the choice was, well, these people are good enough to invest in us and take this game. We should give the money back to them and use it to buy back our stock to keep our liquidity balance good within the Wall Street markets so we can borrow against it and use all that money. What about the worker? Yeah, fuck them. They can get a few shares in their 401k. That was a choice. That wasn't capitalism or socialism. That was a choice that was enabled by the government.

Okay? So that's where it begins as tied to my own lifespan, right? just to kind of use me as a metaphor for the changes of where it started and where we are. 1973. The HMO Act. Okay? Now, what was that? Huh.

Hospitals shifted from non-profit care to for-profit businesses. Why? Because the private sector cures everything. Private sector does everything better. Yeah, right. Until the spreads on what you can profit get way too small. When does that happen? End of life, chronic illness, prevention, a lot of things that are expensive to deal with.

That you go light on. Why? Because it's not where the profits are. Ah. And by the way, they wind up shifting back, but keeping the model the same way. So now you have a lot of hospitals that are non-profit again, but they have all these funny money devices like what? Well, but the surgical group isn't owned by the hospital. It's an outside thing.

And that is for profit. Oh, well, the therapy, the physical training, that's on the outside. Oh, the specialist. Oh, no, that's on the outside. You see what I'm saying? They just found a way to just change the books to make it so that they got it both ways. They get the tax benefit of being nonprofit, but then they charge you on another side. What did this do? Medical costs rose from 4% to 11% of the federal budget. So what does that tell you about whether the private sector makes everything cheaper and better? Same thing happened with prisons, by the way. Now, guess how? many bankruptcies used to be about medical debt. They didn't even keep the statistic. They didn't even keep the fucking statistic. Now, two out of three. Two out of three. How many Americans think affordability is a crisis? 95%. The president tells you it's not a real thing. It's made up. It's a fake thing. Affordability. That's how you win the election. That's how he loom. loses by addressing this.

Did they address it? No. Is the DSA yelling about this? Not enough. Are the Democrats yelling about this? Not enough. Eight out of ten of us want health care addressed immediately to bring our costs down. Giving you the money, by the way, which is Trump's only idea, that doesn't do anything to bring prices down.

It's a shell game. The HMO Act. done to help the health insurance business. Not you. Choice. Not capitalism. Now socialism. A choice. Hey, Ontario. Come on down to BetMGM Casino

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If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-260 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. The Revenue Act, ever hear of it? 1978. What did it do? Oh, this accidentally, in quotes, again, created the 401K. If you want to see all this, a lot of this is echoed.

in billionaire unions, all right? I'm actually reading off their site right now. Billionaire unions. And I've went back and looked at this. I had like eight more things than they have, but I'm going through their big ones and then I'm going to add what matters to me now because here's the good news.

You want to hear the good news? We are in a point now where we have to make a set of choices anyway because the economic realities and governmental interplay with them, those are changing right now. Why? because of the chip economy and AI. The government's going to have to make choices. Now, Trump is sleeping on them except to just make money for himself

and just trot tech bros around. I'm telling you there's no way this country is going to let this bunch of naked capitalists control the most important discovery since electricity. And just like electricity, I believe AI is going to be seen as a public resource. And we are not going to let a few people use it against the rest of us. It's not going to happen. Oh, that's socialism. Fuck you, no, it isn't. And by the way, if it is, then Trump is a socialist. Why do he take a stake in Intel?

Why is he having the government do all this augmentation and investment in chip manufacturing now? Late, after he screwed Biden's Chips Act, which actually did that the right way, bringing it here to America, why would you want to subsidize it somewhere else? You've got to take it out of Taiwan and bring it back home. You put it right off the shore of the country that wants to destroy us most, and you think that's good for our national security. Why you did it? Choices. They've moved it all. offshore because it was cheaper and better for those mofos. You want to win elections, you bring it back. Not socialism, national security. The Revenue Act, 1978. Companies dump pensions and put that money instead of a defined contribution, meaning this is what you're going to get from us, from our profits. They take it off their books, put it into the market. Created tons of

liquidity and opportunities for people to manage that money and make money off that money, and it introduced risk. By 1980, 38% of retirement was a company sponsored. It used to be 100%. By 2008, it fell to 20%. Today, it's near zero. That's a choice to make it easier for the companies and harder with more risk for the worker. Now, has it worked out when people get out of the market at the right time because it's up? Yeah. And it's been up in that period? Yeah. Yeah, it can. But it's risk. And it was absolutely good for the companies. A choice. Not capitalism, not socialism, a choice. 1980s. This one will get you. If you asking yourself, why is it, the college cost just keep going

up and up and up. Ah, good. Another choice. The irony that so many of these institutions are trying to teach our kids so many extreme ideas, but they don't talk about what they cost and their own profit models and what their professors make. The government removed caps on student loans. I wonder why. Oh, well, to make it easier. To make it easier for your kids so that they could get access to capital that they couldn't have otherwise and expanding the base of educational opportunity and helping people get ahead. Yeah? Guess what happened?

The price of college tripled. Oh, I wonder why. Free money for them. The clearest path to the middle class became a 30-year debt sentence. Great line from billionaire unions. Great line. Why? Because that's what carrying student debt is.

with all the different Vigs. And that's why Biden's administration wanted to forgive it. Look, I get the political problem with that. I get it. But don't you say it's socialism when you rigged the system to help the schools, to help the private sector. You did it. You did this to help them and you gave them access to government money.

Now Biden wants to help the little guy and now it's a problem systemically. But when you allow them to triple their prices, that wasn't a problem. You see what I'm saying? This is how you win election. because everybody's going to get this. You just got to explain it.

And it's easy. Okay? People get it. They get it. They're holding the debt. They went into the debt. They're doing it for their kids now on top of what they did. They get it.

And look, it's not even a close call. Today, Americans owe more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. Okay? And the universities just get off scot-free. Oh, no, that's not true. we give so much in scholarship. Yeah, but you're charging so much more. And you got a lot of rich people that have given you the money.

And you're investing it in the stock market. And yes, you are giving scholarships. And you should. You should. I mean, what the hell is your education even worth these days? What's the ROI for somebody taking all this? They're better off investing in an entrepreneurial idea or getting themselves a trade certification so that they can have an actual skill set

that they can turn into a business that's not going to be affected by AI like so many other things will. Now, you really want to see it? 1999. Glass Stegel repeal. What did they repeal? This repealed the regulations on banks and what kind of high risk bets they could take with savings. Remember, we learned about this during the Great Depression, right? Roosevelt, FDR, had to make the banks whole, had to make them secure, had to create the FDIC. And a lot of other. mechanisms to give people faith in the banking and it worked. What a risk. You talk about risk.

Wow, did he take a wild swing with that one? And people believed in FDR because he wasn't a lying bastard. So they went back to the banks with bags full of money and reinvested. Amazing. But they also knew that the banks couldn't do stupid shit with their money. Now they could, thanks to 1999. And by the way, you know who did this again? Clinton. Okay? Clinton was very, very good to the finance sector. Created derivatives, gave them a big break that did not inured to the benefits of the rest of us. That's why we had the housing crisis, a big part of it. And then we bailed out who?

That choice. Choice to bail out the people who had been given the ability to use our money and take risks that made them a fortune. Didn't make you a fortune. Made them a fortune. And then when it went bust, guess who bailed them out? You did. And guess who bailed you out? No one.

1999, Glass-Steagel. Cuomo sounds like a communist. Fuck, you. You rigged the system to help the people you want to help. And I'm the problem. I'm the problem. No, I'm a capitalist. You are somebody who believes in government control.

Because they keep making things happen for you. Hmm. Executives made millions when the bets paid off. Americans covered nearly $700 billion in losses during the financial crisis of 2008. Like two places closed, by the way. Too big to fail. Bonuses stayed intact. Heads they win, tails everyone else pays.

Not a bad bet. Good line, billionaire union. 2008, the housing crisis was the proof of this, okay? They got over levered. Why? Clinton took away the leverage control. after the Republicans had taken away the basic regulations on what they could bet on. Oh, and you know who really got this right?

Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs had one of their guys, Paulson, got put in by Bush to do tarp and talf and, you know, kind of oversee the bailout. So he's from Goldman, right? So, of course, he's talking to his boys, right? Goldman had taken hedge positions on the housing market. And they got the bailout money, which they got to invest at, like, no interest and then pay it back. They won twice, Goldman. Their stock went from like 30 to like 150 because of it when people figured this out.

Incredible. I mean, look, they just played the game. But what a rigged game. And for who? Not you. That's how you win elections. That's how you win. Not get rid of capitalism.

Change the rules, just like you did. So it's not that we can't change the rules. You did change the rules and you changed it. to help some. Now you have to change them again, to help many. And these guys will still exist and they'll still be much richer than you. That's not the problem. Hey, Ontario. Come on down to BetMGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive, the Price's Right Fortune Pick, has to offer. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show only at BetMGM. Check out how we've reimagined three of the show's iconic games,

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19 plus to wager. ON ONLY. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-8-6. 666-531-2-6-00 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario.

Every crisis is a transfer from poor to rich. Why? Because every crisis, there's a bailout. And every time there's a bailout, it goes to the big institutions. And so many people lost their homes. So many people lost their ability to borrow. So many people lost equity, lost liquidity. And they didn't get bailed out. Today, company pensions gone, for the most part.

Stable wages. No, now it's a gig economy. Now you have underemployment. You didn't used to have that. Now you have both people working, multiple shifts, multiple jobs. Why? Because productivity, which is still on the increase, doesn't go to the worker.

It goes to the market. That's not socialism or capitalism. It's choices. It's greed. That's all it is. Healthcare, come on. Homeownership. Come on.

I have to tell you what, though. They're right to not let private equity buy up tracks of single family homes. They're jacking the rent prices up. They're right. I'm okay with that restriction. You got plenty of other fucking things you can bet on. You don't have to do that. And that's why the wealth inequality is as big as it is.

now, by the way. It didn't used to be that way, that the top 1% had 35, 40%, whatever it did. You know, you can find all kinds of crazy numbers. But where the top 1% has like overwhelmingly all of everything, it didn't used to be like that. It just didn't. And there's nothing wrong with having very rich people. That's not my beef, okay? I'm not against wealth. I was raised by a guy who was pathologically against the accumulation of wealth. He used to love playing a game with his friends, how much money you think you got in the bank, you know, because he was Papa fairly unsophisticated. Now, he wasn't unsophisticated.

He was a fucking genius. But I'm saying he didn't care that you have a hedge fund, you don't have a bank, whatever it is. And they'd say, whatever, 30 million. Huh. You think you can spend all that? You can give it to your kids? You think that's going to be good for them?

You can give it to the church? We can do it. Oh, I don't know. Then why are you working over? Why are you trying to make more of it? That's how he was. That's how I was raised. And look, I'm not saying you have to be like that. I don't care what you're about. That's America. Live and let live. Or it should be. But I'm saying the choices. And now here's the good news. And where billionaire unions, they go in a different direction about how the wealthy as a class made their own set of choices. I don't buy into that as much. But here's what I do buy into.

So now we are at another huge point of needing to make choices. Now, the good news is, they're not making bad choices because they're not making any choices. That's the bad news. The bad news is they're not making the choices. Trump went into crypto. Trump goes into the tokens. Trump gets his son's advantageous deals on AI-based companies and tech companies. That's how he's dealing with the issue is by filling up his own coffers, which I believe is malfeasance. It's not just misfeasance, certainly misfeasons. He's doing a bad job. He's making bad choices. But it's also malfeasance, that they are intentionally designed for the profit of him versus his duty to everybody else. I don't want to see the tech bros with him.

I think the country should have a stake in all of the companies that develop all of those things. Oh, there it is. Cuomo's a socialist. Then why did Trump take a stake in Intel? Why didn't you say shit about that? I'm not saying the government has to own everything and that you can't have private. at anything. It's not what I'm saying. I'm saying this is too big to do it the way you do it with stocks. Okay? This is like electricity, AI. It could be used to do things and ways we have in it.

We can't even imagine yet because you know what? We don't even have AI yet. You know that, right? Everybody says AI is already here. We don't even have true artificial intelligence yet. Did you know that? Do a little research on it and you'll see. It's coming, but it's not here. But there's still a lot of adaptations that are going to take out a lot of workers and change a lot of ways that things get done. And no, it's not as simple as, and that's always, all the Luddites have always felt like this throughout time. But it always winds up creating more jobs and better jobs. We don't know that this is like the iPhone, okay? That was a device that used existing technology that was in lots of different places.

This is different. You have to make choices. those choices should be made to benefit the many, not the few. And you need to message that and you need to run on that. How do you think we're going to pay for this? How do you think we're going to pay for this? What are we going to do with all the money that AI is going to generate? Well, we don't know what it's going to.

We can't speculate. Shut up. That's all you guys do when you budget, first of all. Second, what do you mean we don't know? What is powering the Dow Jones right now? the industrial average, the S&P 500. Do you know how many of the 500 companies are carrying the weight of the market, the index?

About 12. And you know what almost all of them are? AI companies. Did you know that? Look it up. So we already know that there's money and there's a lot more coming. Why doesn't it go to the workers?

Now, when I say go to the workers, what I'm saying is that the choice should be that it doesn't just allow the top to get all of the benefits of it. This is not about social. Look, I am not a socialist. I do not believe in that. Social democracy is not that. Google it. I believe social democracy is what Democrats have always been at their best. The DSA is something different. It's more extreme, but we're in extreme times and people are desperate and they're going to make desperate cases. And that's what I believe she is doing. the DSA lady who was on.

And I'm not going to, look, the same way I did it with MAGA, which had all of these cultural prejudice-based, bias-based, ugly, inhuman overlays on it. I don't see that in the DSA. Look, are there problems in the West Fringe, the Islamism, other stuff of how BLM was twisted and other perversities? Yes, there are some extreme.

I don't think they're the same, but it doesn't matter. What I'm saying is this. Just like with MAGA, where I gave you guys space and said, look, you're not wrong about what's wrong. You're right about what's wrong economically. It is too hard. You're seeing people where the system is obviously designed to help them in a way it's not designed to help you. You're right. I just outlined it for you. This is how you win elections. I feel the same way about the left fringe. I get why they're so angry. I get why they want extreme change. I get why they want to break the status quo. But if you want to win elections, you've got to do it in a way that doesn't scare people more than it prepares people. Okay?

And you can do it. And you can do it. And we need to do it. And the timing is perfect because we have to do it. So it's not get rid of the presidency, okay? Because that's not going to happen. The only thing that's going to happen is you're going to lose elections. But what you can do is talk about what I'm talking about right now.

There's nothing wrong with having the health care prices come down because, because the government takes more control over how much money they can make and in what ways. That's not socialism any more than it already is. It's just different choices. And this is not a semantic difference. It's a real one. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just a choice.

And Trump has been talking about it. Just giving you the money instead of giving it to the companies, that's not going to change their price structure. It's not going to change all the verticals. Ask Mark Cuban. Ask people who study this. And Trump knows it. He just thinks you're dumb enough to go.

go for it, but you're not because you're living it as a reality. He should lose midterm elections because of his policies. That's the way politics works. But we need to make new choices, and they're right here in front of you. What are we going to do with AI? Who gets to own it? Who gets to monetize it? How?

In what ways? These are real questions. They're hard questions. All right? We don't like dealing with hard questions. That's why every once in a while we have a transcendent leader come around who does it. Teddy Roosevelt, the FDR, you know, you could say Obama with the ACA. Hey, look, they bash the ACA.

ACA ruined everything, right? Bullshit. That's not what ruined everything. The HMO Act did a hell of a lot more. And what you've allowed these healthcare companies to do because they employ a lot of people and how they make their money and how they've absorbed all the verticals and all these pharma companies, which, you know, it's all the same thing. Right? You know, you make the drug, you sell the drug, you have the benefit managers, you have all the different little,

you know, all the different little ways to put you dip in the pot, get your beak wet, as we used to say. So are all choices. They're not capitalism versus socialism. That's a boogeyman. That's bullshit. Now, the DSA isn't helping when they come out and say they want to destroy all the institutions that aren't going to happen anyway, and it sounds really extreme and scary. I get it. I get it.

I get where it's coming from. I'm not trying to condemn everybody who wants change. I get it. I get it. what are you supposed to do? When the system's not working and nobody wants to change it, eventually you want to just break it. Maga was the same way. I get it.

They didn't get what they wanted either, right? A lot of the things that they cared about, I guess, except immigration. But again, I just don't see it the way they see it. I mean, I don't care how they see ICE. ICE is abusing what law enforcement is supposed to be about. And by the way, their numbers aren't even that impressive in terms of who they're getting out of the country. And you know why? one, because this doesn't work.

Two, because due process still matters, even though they're trying to get rid of it every way they can. And three, I think a big part of it is the profit incentive for them to stuff all the detention centers. I think that's right. I had been very spare on that because I wanted to see how it was going to play out. But I think that's what it is. They're stuffing all the detention centers. They're not moving people out of the country.

They're getting paid. And why wouldn't they want to get paid? Well, don't they want to get them out of the country to impress stupid MAGA pundits? No, they want to get paid. Holman's invested in it, Trump is invested in it, other members of the administration are invested in these companies that are doing this detention. So it doesn't kill them to have them stuff, does it? Choices. Choices, choices.

You want to win elections. Talk about the choices. The choices that were made, who they were made for, the choices we have to make, and who they'll be made for. That's how you win elections. I know it. What do you think? You tell me. I'm Chris Cuomo.

Thank you for giving me. chance at the Chris Cuomo project. Thank you for giving yourself a chance to be a critical thinker, to look at our history, look at the choices, look how we get to a better place where we are now. And the good news is, now is the time. We have to make these choices. What choices will we make? Who will make them? That's what elections are about. Thank you for subscribing and following. Thank you for checking me out in Sirius Radio in the morning, 7 to 9 Eastern, News Nation at night, 8 p.m. Eastern, and thank you for subscribing the Cuomo Crime Time. I told you you would like it. I told you that it really is a place where we can discuss what matters in society through these really

compelling and often frightening narratives where you don't come looking for a political fight. You come to fight right wrong, not right left. And the system is the field of battle, and it should be because we've got to make sure the system works as best it can, and we've got a long way to go. So my brothers and sisters, check out the swag, show that you're different, show you're a critical thinker, show you're a free agent. You know, I'm going to give the money to people. And that's how I think we come together to get to a better place. And that's what we need to do. And the time is now. Let's get after it.