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Dear Inklings,
This week I had the chance to speak to a few thousand board members of America’s largest companies. It went very well or very badly depending on whether you’re a corporate board member. The audio of the talk has been obtained by Business Insider, and the transcript was just published, and I thought you might be interested.
An excerpt:
This is — I have described it elsewhere without mincing words — a hijacking of the public good by big corporations. And I do not think the corporate equivalent of New Year's resolutions is going to fix it. This being a group of corporate directors, I ask again, Where were you? Where were you in the run-up to the climate crisis? Where were you during widening inequality over the last four decades? Where were you in the run-up to the subprime crisis? Where were you in the run-up to the opioid crisis? Where were you?…
A lot of your children and grandchildren do not respect your work. Some of them say this to you, some of them don't. But we know this from public attitudes. You know this from survey data. There is a sense among younger people coming of age in the most diverse, open-minded generation in American history that what their parents and grandparents did in corporate boardrooms near broke America.
And if for no other reason than to have a less awkward Thanksgiving this year with your relatives, try to get on the right side of history.
Read the whole thing here:
And thank you for supporting The Ink as you do. This newsletter and your support for it give me the freedom to speak the truth.
Photo: Alfred Gescheidt/Getty
Where were you?? What kind of question is that? We all know where they are. In their private Yachts, hiding in their marble mansions behind giant electrified fences. The top 1% NEVER cared about the working class. If Anand can't figure that out by now, then I am wasting time listening to this guy. The only solution if Mass Peaceful nationwide protests. The working class needs to go out and protest!!!
I’d love to see a response to the interview Obama gave on a podcast this week. He scoffed at the idea that big money handcuffed his administration and, instead, blamed the voters for not showing up. It’s infuriating to see this man, who I once admired, look down his nose at us and take no responsibility for the mess we’re in. Yes, the GOP sucks but the solution was not demanding less. Obama compromised so much that the right now calls Romney’s healthcare plan socialism. We need true fighters in this battle, and we haven’t had any for quite some time...maybe for my entire life.