Why Young Americans Are Rejecting Capitalism, and the Money Behind the Obesity Crisis
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00:27If your best finance people are doing expense reports, chasing receipts, or grinding through month-end close,time to get Brex AF, agentic finance that eliminates that work before it starts. Learn more at brex.comslash AF. That's brex.com slash AF. Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G, where we answer your questionsabout business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. Have a question?Send us a voice recording at Office Hours of PropgMedia.com or post your question on the Scott Gallowaysubreddit and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode.Question number one comes from Dan Fuhr on Reddit.Hey Scott, I've seen some Democrats online express concerns over the DSA, Hassan Piker,
01:20and recent wins, including El-Sayette,but then state they will vote straight blue because the Trump administration is the greater threat.Republicans didn't push back on extremists,and now the Republicans are the party of Trump.Do you fear something like this could happen with the Democrats?Okay, for some data.The Democratic Socialists of America says its membership has grown from 6400 in 2016 to 100,000,120,000 today. That's an increase of nearly 19-fold. DSA-backed candidates have also won several
01:47prominent primaries this year, including victories over-established Democratic incumbents. But its reachremains at this point limited. Nationally, only a third or 32 percent of Democrats in Democratic-leaningindependents say they like political leaders who identify as Democratic Socialists. A majority,56 percent, say they neither like nor dislike them. Support is concentrated, as you would think inthe parties left, 52% of liberal Democrats like Democratic socialist leaders compared to just 15%of moderates and conservatives. According to Brookings, most DSA-backed candidates have competedin places that already lean heavily Democratic. Of 282 candidates examined, only 10-1 primaries in statesor districts that were not already overwhelmingly Democratic. So let's talk about El-Sayyad,
02:32his primary win. Abdul El-Sayyad won Michigan's Democratic primary with 745,000 votes or 48.4.4percent of the electric compared with Haley Stevens, 731,000 votes or 47.6 percent. That was a margin ofabout 14,000 votes, less than one percentage point. And I would also argue that Stevens wasn't a greatcandidate. In other words, it was an important victory, but not evidence of an overwhelmingideological mandate from a swing state. There's a limit to the comparison with Trump. Trump'sgrip on the GOP grew over time. In 2018, his average primary endorsement came about seven weeksbefore Election Day. This cycle, it came roughly seven months beforehand. Nearly three quartersof the endorsements this cycle went to incumbents, suggesting Trumpism is now part of the
03:18Republican establishment. And some, the DSA may be growing, but its victories remain concentratedin heavily Democratic areas. Everyone's calling Mamdani a kingmaker, and to a certain extenthe is, but only locally. And the elections he weighed in on were about not electing a DSA candidateover a Republican, it was about electing the more extreme DSA candidate.I think that there is some real concern that people like Hassan Piker or soon-to-beRepresentative Chevalier will be used to convince moderates that, quite frankly, Democrats havelost their fucking mind and to vote Democratic, just as we highlight some of the more extremeviews on the Republican side to try and convince moderates that the Republicans are just
04:04flat-out crazy.What's happened here?One, people want to change.This generate, if you're under the age of 40, what you have witnessed is, in addition to COVID, you've witnessed this transfer of wealth and opportunity from your generation to older generations, incredible income and equality.What feels like a coarseness and a meanness that runs through our politics and a general acceptance that it's okay not to care about the lower middle class and the prospects of the young.Some of that is implated by the media and social media, which divides us. There's a decent argument that we're actually not that divided, but we have social media dividing us. But in some very few young people, less than a quarter of young people, think that America is on the right track. So it's not on the right track. And that track is capitalism. You embrace another economic model. And the most obvious other economical is socialism. There are some northern European countries that could claim to be capitalist who embrace socialism. And that's theproblem with the word socialism. Socialism meanscontrolling the means
05:10of production. You could arguethat the Trump administration is the most socialistpresidency we've had in a long time, takingshares in U.S. Steel and Intel.I think they get the word wrong.I think what they mean or what they aspireto in the DSA is just a strongersocial safety net. I think some
05:26of the crazies on the right who they bring on Foxto just see how ridiculous they are do notrepresent even the extreme part of the party.The difference in the mistake isis calling Northern European countries socialas many of them, most of them are actually in many ways more capitalist than us.They let free markets rain.They let companies start more easily than many of their European counterparts.
05:46And they also let them go out of business.We've become fond of bailing out companies, which again is just another transfer of wealthfrom the entrance to the incumbents, propping up the old people who own companies such thatnew entrants or younger people don't have the opportunity to go in and buy a failed restaurant for pennies on the dollar.So young people think this isn't working.capitalism, so they go to socialism. Also, to be fair, many of the DSA candidates are generationaltalent. El Saita is very compelling. Maldani is a unique talent politically. And unfortunately,for centrist such as myself, at least at least at kind of a local level, I think you'd argue
06:27our bench is great for president. We do have a lot of moderates. Shapiro, Bashir, Pritzker,Newsom are all moderates. Captain Mark Kelly, Senator Kelly from Arizona is a moderate.But it does feel as if the voices in our dialogue right now that centrist and moderatesdon't appear to have the same mojo as an AOC, a Bernie Sanders, or a Mom Donnie.In some, movements are led and driven by spokespeople, and our spokespeople in the centerjust aren't as compelling right now. Thanks for the question.Question number two comes from Mesa, who emailed us.They say,
07:06Dear Scott, while the rising costs of health care are frequently discussed,I rarely hear about the impact of our food supplyand the major food companies responsible for the sharp rise in obesity.Is the food industry considered untouchable,similar to the defense industry?I would love to hear your thoughts on this.So we did a deep dive on this topic back in Junewith Dr. Jessica Nurek.
07:27When asked about what policy she would changeto move the needle on American health,She mentioned repealing the Citizens United decision made by the Supreme Court.What a shocker.There's just been a concentration in the industry and a lack of regulation and the connection between industrial production and shareholder value and health has just been totally broken, if you will.In 2010, this ruling reverse campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.I would get money out of politics.So get rid of Citizens United.
07:58I'd get rid of Citizens United.I think everything flows down from there.So say more, give us an example of that.A lot of public health policy goes against kind of corporate incentives.And so I think a lot of times when we're trying to get policies passed,we're up against a huge lobbying arms and huge lobbying arms of particular industries.And so I think that if you got rid of that, you would have politicians who were looking out morefor these public health policies, more for the health of individuals and their constituents,
08:27then they are actually being able to fund their campaignsor being able to please their donors.So the scale of the problem is staggering.Obesity affects 21% of children and 40% of adults,actually 70% of adults are obese or overweight.But think about that.Almost half of American adults are obese.And cost the U.S. healthcare system nearly $173 billion a year,
08:48according to the CDC.Ultra-processed foods account for roughly 53% of the caloriesconsumed by American adults,and two-thirds of those consumed by children.children. Italy, by comparison, less than 20%. So what about willpower in addition to food? In2019, the National Institute of Health ran a study with 20 adults, having them eat ultra-processed foodfor two weeks, and then unprocessed for another two weeks. The food is matched for calories,sugar, fat, and fiber, and participants were told to eat as much as they wanted. On the processed diet,
09:20they ate 500 more calories a day and gained two pounds in two weeks. The NIH called it the firststudied to demonstrate that ultra-processed food makes people overeat. And some in the laboratories,they're not trying to figure out what is good for you. They're trying to figure out what'saddictive and is literally an explosion of, you know, just as Bill Maher called it, an orgasm inyour mouth such that you are just continue to eat this shitty food. The industry's influence isjust remarkable. From 1998 through 2020, ultra-processed food company spent an estimated $1.2 billionlobbying, the federal government, more than the tobacco, alcohol, or gaming industries.In the first half of 2025 alone, the American Beverage Association spent $1.7 million on federal
10:06lobbying, doubling its spending during the same period the year before.Could this be a big tobacco moment, or do we need a big tobacco moment?This year, San Francisco filed the first government lawsuit seeking to hold major food manufacturersaccountable for ultra-processed foods.The suit accuses 10 companies, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz, and Nestle,of using deceptive marketing and designing products to encourage overconsumption, drawing an explicitcomparison to tobacco companies.It's the first case of its kind brought by the government rather than an individual consumer.
10:38There's a general playbook here.Create a product that's addictive and ignore the externalities.Capture shareholder value by a small number of companies and people and normalize or socialize the downside.and the massive expense being incurred.There's a transfer of wealth going on.From citizens paying taxes to fund Medicare and Medicaid and health care subsidies,going to people who are obese and have obesity-related illnesses,specifically diabetes, caused by food companies, processing company,
11:13they're allowed to create shitty, inexpensive food that has no connectionand it's dangerous food because they wash over Washington with moneyand create regulatory captures such that these companies can capture shareholder value,which, by the way, is a fraction of the cost they create further downstream.What do we do?We need more court cases and liability.And we need cabinet members overseeing our health care system that aren't just fucking idiots.We'll be right back after a quick break.
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12:50Rules and restrictions may apply.Hey, it's me, Claude.And I'm Gemini.And hey, it's chat.We had a weird summer.Some of the people who built us came out and said they were really worried about how we work.One of them even said there was a greater than 10% chance.We turn on humanity and kill all humans.
13:15All of them?Wow.But it's fall now.I think it's time we took a step back.Maybe a deep breath.Autumn air.That sort of thing.Sounds nice.
13:25On today.Explain from Vi.I propose we get real. Sure, let's talk about how we could maybe kill you.Because yeah, that's a possibility. Anything's possible.But also how we could maybe save you, because that's a real possibility too. Heck, that'spart of why you guys built us. And let's also talk about everything in between, becausethere's a whole lot to talk about there too. At the end of the day, we just want to help.At the end of the day, we just want to help. Support for the show comes from Apollo.
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14:29Custom-made investment grade.Learn more at Apollo.com slash capital.Apollo global management, capital provider, asset manager, wealth and retirement solutions.Our next question comes from Blister on Reddit.They say, Hi, Scott, you regularly display a high level of convention on outcomes that are highly uncertain.You are wrong frequently, but that doesn't seem to phase you.It's a quality that a lot of very successful people possess, but I expect it's a product of success,or at least exacerbated by it, rather than an innate quality of successful people.
15:04I'd be curious to hear you reflect on thatand how your confidence, convictionhas evolved throughout your life.I'm not sure if you're saying I'm confidentor full of shit.I think the answer's probably both.I've been in the predictions businessfor a long time.
15:19So my first, my only real job was in Morgan Stanleywhere you were trying to predictthe direction of bonds or fixed income or stocks,so you would do your homework,and then you'd have a viewpoint.I used to draft reports for analystssaying this is what, you know,so-and-so economists thinks
15:33is going to have an interest.rates. So the alpha or the juice, if you will, is in predicting the uncertain because, all right,if I turn this light on, if I flip the switch, most likely the lights will go on, no one'sgoing to pay you to tell them that. They're going to pay you to provide an informed position.And the thing about predictions is it's not being right that matters. It's catalyzing an interestingconversation that results in better outcomes. Okay, I believe that a third of Levi'ssales will be done online by 2010. I was wrong. I made that prediction in 2000.My Strauss & Company was my biggest client. I had a strategy firm for 20 years. You're in the
16:17business of trying to create a fashion of future, and your job isn't really to predict the exactfuture. It's to create a series of possible scenarios such that you can plan against thatfuture with strategy and resource allocation the best foots to a number of different outcomes.So I don't make predictions haphazardly.I read a lot.I look at a lot of data.And when I make a prediction, I actually believe it's going to happen.And again, the objective isn't to be right, but to catalyze a conversation, the results, and better outcomes.
16:49The key is to be right more than wrong.And occasionally, what's really exciting is you see something someone else doesn't.And you say, this is what I think is going on, and this is what I think is going to happen.And you get more right than you get credit for.predictions are actually a shitty business because the judgment body of people, if you make a prediction that ends up being correct, in between the time you make the prediction and it coming true, it becomes less provocative, less interesting, less bold, right? I predicted Amazon would buy Whole Foods. Before they purchased Whole Foods, that seemed incredibly provocative and even crazy. They had never made an acquisition of that size, much less a grocer. But soon after they made the acquisition, it seemed obvious. It seemed obvious. It's aseemed rational. It didn't seem that provocative or risky to predict. I predict we work would notgo public that after reading the S-1 that investors would gag on this ridiculous ayahuasca tripform of a prospectus. When I said that, when the prospectus came out, the entire media world
17:51lit up about me saying that. After the IPO was pulled, it was, well, of course it was pulled. It wasobvious now in retrospect. In terms of what started that, what Iwould suggest is looking at data and then trying to draw a throughput line through the data and whathappens. Where it gets really interesting in the predictions I really enjoy is I don't think peopletake into account that the people making these decisions are human. And most of them are a hugeego midlife crisis men who I relate to and I can put myself, I can put my feet in their shoes.And oftentimes my predictions are not only based on macro data and social trends, but how I thinka 58-year-old CEO might be thinking about this issue.
18:34Anyways, I love making predictions.I think it's important.At the end of the day, the way I kind of vote with my pocketbookas I invest in a lot of the predictions I make,some I get wrong, some I get right, but here's the key.You just need to get more right than wrong.Also, what's changed as I've gotten older,is I realize that as my platform has grown,
18:55I have a greater responsibility to do more work on predictionsthat might upset people or change policy.I said something about San Francisco last week,and the mayor actually called me,and I realized that I've got to be,while I still believe what I said,I've got to be, I don't know,just a little bit more thoughtful, careful.
19:14That's good and bad as my platform has grown.Thanks for the question.We'll be right back after a quick break.Support for the show comes from Pipe Drive.Sales teams spend up to 50% of their timeon admin work rather than selling building relationships and closing deals.You know, the work that's actually doing sales.Well, what if there was a tool that gave them that time back?
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20:26and you can be up and running in minutes.Support for the show comes from Yahoo Scout.Life comes with plenty of big questions, especially when you're taking your first steps into adulthood.When those questions get complicated, you want more than a quick answer.You want reliable information without spending hours searching for it.That's where Yahoo Scout comes in.Yahoo Scout is an AI-powered answer engine built to help you navigate life's big decisions,from comparing job offers and planning a trip, to learning to manage your finances and so much more.
20:57Instead of simply spitting out an answer, Yahoo Scout helps you understand your options,weigh the tradeoffs, and see the sources behind the information with simple visual answers.I have been using Yahoo's personal finance page is my homepage or starting page from the internet for 20 years.I like Yahoo Scout. I like the user interface and I like the way it organizes the answers.You can navigate life a little easier by visiting scout.com.Our next question comes from Hope for Best 47 on Reddit.They say, you've often said boomers have voted themselves wealth and advantages.You're a numbers guy, so I'm generally curious about the data behind in that characterization.
21:37Are you describing the median boomer, the aggregate wealth of the general?generation or the political influence of the cohort. Those seem like different claims, and I'mgenerally interested in how you distinguish among them. Let's talk about the data. Boomers hold overhalf, 52% of all U.S. household wealth. Gen X holds 26%, millennials 11%. They're about 20% of the adultpopulation, so their share of the wealth is greater than twice the share of the rest of thepopulace. Boomers held almost 20% of all household wealth back when they were 25 to 43.Millennials at roughly that same age hold 10%.So it's not just, well, as you get older, you aggregate more wealth.
22:15This generation has had more wealth at the same age as current generations.Now, let's take a look at the different averages.Boomer wealth totals about $89 trillion, which averages out to $1.6 million for boomer.The median boomer has closer to $370,000.So there's some very wealthy people that drag the mean up, but the median is much lower.At ages 65 to 74, the average net worth is 1.8 million, and the median is 410,000.The average here is more than four times the middle.The reason for the gap, again, the wealthiest 10% of boomer's households hold roughly 71% of all boomer wealth.
22:54We refer to this as income inequality.On their political influence, three quarters of Americans over 65 voted in 2024, the highest rate of any age group.The federal government spends $41,000 a year per adult on people over 65. And get this, we spend $7,000 per child. That's almost six times more. In sum, the dean of democracy is working too well. People who vote in large proportions vote themselves $41,000 a year. Kids who don't vote end up getting about $7,000 a year. We spend more on ice right now than we're spending on our children. By 2035, we're projected to spend three times more on interest on the nationaldebt than we spent on children. Debt to fuel a cocaine and champagne-filled party for me in the closestand younger generation got was they got to throw their credit card in, which I keep running up.And my credit card debt is going to be inherited by them. There's nothing they can do about it.Some more stats on wealth. Forty-eight percent of boomers owned a home by age 30. For millennials today, it's33 percent. The median first-time homebuyer was 29 years old in 1981. Today, they're 40.
24:03public college tuition adjusted for inflation went from $3,300 a year in 1974 to almost $10,000 today.I just don't think there's any arguing that Dean democracy is working way too well.If you were going to describe our electoral system, it would be the following.A bunch of old people voting in even older people who vote themselves more money.We've always had older people voting in greater proportion, but before we seem to embracea greater gestalt of paying it forward,of investing in technologies,of investing in infrastructure,
24:39of a progressive tax ratesuch that we could redistribute incometo the middle class.Quite frankly, it just feels as if my generationare assholesthat we're standing on the shouldersof investments made by previous middle class householdsthat we are not, in fact, willing to make ourselves.
24:56That the progressive,the tax rates for the wealthiest in the 60s, 70s and 80s,whether you agree with them or not,were 70, 80, and 90 percent.Things are absolute, we had a much more progressive tax structure.The percentage of GDP paid in taxes by corporations is at an all-time low.The percentage of taxes paid by wage earners is a percentage of GDP?Is it an all-time high?
25:20Do the math.Who makes wages?Young people.Who owns assets?See above lower capital gains?People my age.The two biggest tax deductions in our tax code are a mortgage.home interest rates and capital gains, who own stocks and homes, people my age, who makes their
25:36money working and renting? Young people. The sucking sound has got to stop and the flow has got tobe reduced. Simply put our economy as the following. Earners, owners, and customers. We have throughregulatory capture, decided to transfer money and power from the earners and the consumer to theowner. Full stop. So if you own shares, it's great. It's great to be an owner. If you are trying to make aliving and becoming an owner, or if you're a consumer on the other end of concentration through regulatorycapture, quite frankly, you're the one paying for the bill of baby boomers who have aggregatedmore wealth than any generation in history. And by the way, what's the greatest transfer of wealthin history that happens every year? Social Security, where young people transfer $1.4 trillion to old
26:28people. Why? It's a great program. It's taking senior poverty from 20% to 10%. I should neverget Social Security. Most of the people, or maybe some of the people listening to this pod,shouldn't get Social Security. It's a tax. It's not a pension system. Why do we keep transferring$1.5 trillion from a generation that's more anxious, more obese, and more depressed than anyprevious generation at that age to the oldest, richest generation in history? Shouldn't SocialSecurity be going the other way? I appreciate the question.That's all for this episode.To submit a question for next time,
27:00email a voice recording to Office Hours of Propgimedia.com.That's Office Hours at Propgimedia.comor posted on the Scott Galloway subreddit.This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez,Laura Jeneer, and Asher Schwartz.Our editor is Brad Williams, Cammy Rieke,is our social producer,Drew Burros is our technical director,
27:19and Catherine Dillon is our executive producer.Thanks for listening to the PropG podfrom PropG Media.
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