Who Actually Runs the US Government? – Bernie Sanders
Chris Williamson (host), Bernie Sanders (guest)
In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Chris Williamson and Bernie Sanders, Who Actually Runs the US Government? – Bernie Sanders explores bernie Sanders Warns of Oligarchy, Inequality, and Democratic Decay Bernie Sanders argues that the central crisis in America is not left vs. right, but oligarchy: extreme concentration of wealth, corporate power, and billionaire influence over media and politics while most citizens struggle economically.
Bernie Sanders Warns of Oligarchy, Inequality, and Democratic Decay
Bernie Sanders argues that the central crisis in America is not left vs. right, but oligarchy: extreme concentration of wealth, corporate power, and billionaire influence over media and politics while most citizens struggle economically.
He traces stagnant wages, soaring costs for essentials (healthcare, housing, education, quality food), and a $75 trillion wealth transfer to the top 1% as evidence that economic gains from productivity and technology have been captured by elites.
Sanders criticizes the US campaign finance system, corporate consolidation, and the influence of groups like AIPAC, warning that big money has corrupted both parties and fueled a slide toward authoritarianism under Trumpism.
He also discusses AI, robotics, birth rates, men’s struggles, and identity politics, arguing for a pro-worker, pro-family, pro-democracy agenda that re-centers economic justice and limits the power of billionaires and corporations.
Key Takeaways
The US is drifting toward oligarchy as wealth and power concentrate at the top.
Sanders cites unprecedented inequality, billionaire control of media and politics, and a $75 trillion wealth transfer from the bottom 90% to the top 1% as signs that a tiny elite now effectively shapes economic and political outcomes.
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Wages have stagnated while core life necessities have become unaffordable.
Despite huge productivity and technological gains since the 1970s, inflation-adjusted weekly wages are lower, while healthcare, housing, childcare, higher education, and good-quality food have become sharply more expensive, squeezing most families.
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Money in politics has structurally distorted democracy in both parties.
He argues that constant fundraising from wealthy donors and super PACs makes politicians beholden to billionaires, not voters, and calls for overturning Citizens United and moving to publicly funded elections to level the playing field for challengers.
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Corporate consolidation and financial giants wield outsized power over the real economy.
Sanders notes that just three firms—BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard—are major shareholders in 95% of S&P companies, enabling de facto price-setting power and strategic control over production and investment.
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Technological change must be democratically steered, not left to billionaires.
He warns that AI and robotics could eliminate many decent jobs and erode community life if guided solely by profit motives, and suggests measures like a 32-hour workweek, universal healthcare, and free public higher education so productivity gains benefit everyone.
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The Democratic Party alienated much of the working class by chasing big donors.
While crediting Democrats with advances in civil, women’s, and gay rights, Sanders says their post-1970s embrace of corporate money, trade deals like NAFTA, and failure to fight for workers’ material needs pushed many working-class voters toward Trump.
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Men’s and boys’ issues are real and under-addressed, but shouldn’t rival equality.
Sanders accepts evidence of male struggles—suicide, education gaps, loneliness, fatherlessness—and says the left has not focused enough on them, but insists this can be tackled alongside women’s rights rather than in opposition to them.
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Notable Quotes
“What I am focusing on right now is that in an unprecedented way in American history, we have more income and wealth inequality, more concentration of ownership, more billionaire control over the media and our political system than we've ever had.”
— Bernie Sanders
“In the last 52 years... real inflation accounted for weekly wages for the average American worker is lower today than it was back then.”
— Bernie Sanders
“Today you have three major Wall Street firms... that combined are the major stockholders in 95% of American S&P corporations. That's a lot of power in the hands of very few people.”
— Bernie Sanders
“If you're a billionaire, you can put hundreds of millions of dollars into a super PAC, elect whoever you want, defeat whoever you want. Does anybody think that that is what democracy is supposed to be about?”
— Bernie Sanders
“I don't think I've ever believed that anybody should have that much wealth when so many people are struggling.”
— Bernie Sanders
Questions Answered in This Episode
If overturning Citizens United and instituting public campaign financing are so pivotal, what concrete political path exists to actually achieve those reforms?
Bernie Sanders argues that the central crisis in America is not left vs. ...
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How can society balance the innovation benefits of AI and robotics with the risk of mass job loss and further concentration of economic power?
He traces stagnant wages, soaring costs for essentials (healthcare, housing, education, quality food), and a $75 trillion wealth transfer to the top 1% as evidence that economic gains from productivity and technology have been captured by elites.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What specific policies would most effectively reconnect the Democratic Party with working-class voters without abandoning its commitments on civil and identity-based rights?
Sanders criticizes the US campaign finance system, corporate consolidation, and the influence of groups like AIPAC, warning that big money has corrupted both parties and fueled a slide toward authoritarianism under Trumpism.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Given the data on male educational decline and mental health, what would a genuinely pro-male, pro-female, pro-family agenda from the left look like in practice?
He also discusses AI, robotics, birth rates, men’s struggles, and identity politics, arguing for a pro-worker, pro-family, pro-democracy agenda that re-centers economic justice and limits the power of billionaires and corporations.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Where should the line on personal wealth be drawn in a democratic society, and how could a cap or steeply progressive taxation be implemented without stifling innovation or driving capital offshore?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
I read something recently that I wanted to get your thoughts on. "The left's greatest enemy is not the right, but the hard left. The right's greatest enemy is not the left, but the hard right. The lunatics of your own side make you look much sillier than the opposition ever could."
All right, maybe. But what I am most interested in right now is not left or right. Uh, what I am focusing on right now is that in an unprecedented way in American history, we have more income and wealth inequality, more concentration of ownership, more billionaire control over the media and our political system than we've ever had in the history of the United States. And you add all that together, that's what's called oligarchy. And that's the fight that I am engaging in right now. We should not be living in a nation where so few have so much wealth and power while at the same time, Chris, you got in the richest country on Earth, 60% of our people, got it? 60% are living paycheck to paycheck. They're struggling to pay for healthcare, for childcare, for education. Housing is off the charts. M- Very few young people can afford to buy their own homes. And parents are having a hard time even affording to buy decent quality food for their kids. That's the reality I'm focusing on right now.
What's the story of how we got here?
Good question. Uh, here's a sta- Let me throw out a statistic and we can go from there. In the last 52 years, you got it? Go back to 1973, all right?
Mm-hmm, you would have been 31. Yeah.
All right.
Yeah.
I would have been i- Right. There has been an explosion in technology, correct?
Mm-hmm.
Explosion in worker productivity. So how is the average worker doing with all of that increase in worker productivity and technology? They doing really much better now than they did back in the early '70s? No. In fact, real inflation accounted for weekly wages for the average American worker is lower today than it was back then. That's an extraordinary statistic. And at the same time, according to the Rand Corporation, we are seeing a $75 trillion transfer of wealth. Okay, you with me? From the bottom 90% to the top 1%. So what you have seen throughout that period is the very wealthiest people becoming much wealthier, all of the gains of worker productivity, increased worker productivity, et cetera, going to the people on top. And today, tens of millions of working class families are struggling, uh, to put food on the table for their kids.
Mm. I want to show you a chart, uh, in a second. So this tracks the price of consumer goods and services over the last 25 years. Broadly speaking, prices have increased by about 74% since 2000, but the actual numbers vary wildly depending on what type of good or service it is. So consumer goods, toys, TVs have gotten-
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