WATCH: The Epstein emails and our greed-crazed society
A conversation with former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on the failures of the Epstein class and the problem of letting people who don't understand human beings decide the future of humanity
Earlier this week, Anand visited Stay Tuned, the podcast hosted by Preet Bharara, the lawyer and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to talk about the Jeffrey Epstein emails and the hidden networks of the ultrawealthy. They had a long philosophical argument about the obligations of the wealthy, why capitalism should exist by permission of democracy, and whether America’s problems stem from elites having rigged it so it’s the other way around. They talked about:
How the elites continue to “fail up” regardless of how many mistakes they make or how much damage they do, even as most people live with no margin for error
Why it’s easier in America to get away with fraud than with violent crime
What it’s like to report on the world of the Epstein class — and how power invisibly shapes the public conversation
How even billionaires recognize that it sucks to live in a society where everyone’s life is grim but theirs
Why even the best-intentioned among the ultrawealthy reinforce the structures that maintain their power, instead of taking Desmond Tutu’s advice: “We do not want our chains comfortable. We want them removed.”
What it’s like to correspond with Larry Summers if you’re not part of the network of elite power, and what it tells us about how little the powerful people who shape our lives care about everyday people or understand about basic human interaction
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