Why Working-Class Voters Feel Left Behind, Wealth and Security, and How Scott Gives Money

Producer’s note: This episode was recorded prior to Charlie Kirk’s death. Scott answers listener questions on why working-class voters feel left behind in politics, how wealth shifts your approach to personal and online security, and how he decides where and when to give his money away. Want to be featured in a future episode? Send a voice recording to [email protected], or drop your question in the r/ScottGalloway subreddit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Scott Galloway?

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• 0:48Speaker 01

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• 1:19Speaker 02

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• 1:46Scott Galloway?

  Welcome to Office Hours with Prof G. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehourswithprofgmedia.com. Again, that's officehourswithprofgmedia.com. Or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it on our next episode. First question.

• 2:10Scott Galloway?

  Our first question comes from much membership 45-07 on Reddit. They say, "Hey Scott, just a simple question. As a lower middle-class man in his 30s, I resonate a lot with your content. My question is this: Why does it feel like no matter what or who you vote for, the people making the decisions are always against the normal, everyday working person?" Mostly because of Citizens United and a little bit gerrymandering. And that is probably the greatest ROI in corporate America is to give money to a senator or a representative and say, "All right, Americans pay four to eight times more for Ozempic or Humira than people in other nations. Oftentimes, we pay exponentially more for pharmaceuticals

• 2:53Scott Galloway?

  in the United States." And I'm just using this as an example despite the fact that many of these pharmaceuticals were invented here, when we manufacture and distribute them here. So why do we pay more? Because pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, hospital complexes donate money to a congressperson and say, "Wouldn't it be great if we had a law that said Medicaid could negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies and get, use their bulk purchasing power to drive down the prices of pharmaceuticals and pass those on to American consumers?" Well, okay, you want a law that we can't do that? Sure, Congressman, and here's $50,000 for your election campaign because we think you're a great American. And maybe they don't even have to actively promote that law, but anything that gets in the way of trying to not let that law

• 3:38Scott Galloway?

  pass. Democrats are famous for on policies that are totally contrary to the views or the principles of the Democratic Party of having real concerns and basically slowballing and killing shit. Now, the Democrats are just as guilty of it as Republicans, and Republicans are just more transparent. We're about money and whatever can create more money and shareholder value for a company, whether it's pouring mercury into the river, or selling public lands, or letting them engage in algorithmically elevated content that creates an incentive for teen girls to engage in self-harm. We don't mind. It's about creating economic growth. Oh, and by the way, Meta, please stop by and cut me a check. The biggest donor is not weapons,

• 4:23Scott Galloway?

  it's not social media tech, it's in fact the healthcare complex or the healthcare industrial complex. And what do you know, in America, we pay $13,000 per citizen for our healthcare versus 6,500 and the other...

• 4:36Scott Galloway?

  Six of the G7 nations, and we have worse outcomes, we're more anxious, depressed, obese, have a lower life expectancy. And that is because, simply put, corporations stand between you, the voters, and how these individuals actually vote. Gun control, the majority of Americans believe in gun registration. Family planning, the majority of Americans believe women should have some level of bodily autonomy, and yet we have laws that are totally contrary to that. So until we get rid of Citizens United, where quote unquote, money is free speech, and these corporations don't have the ability. The thing that I have found so shocking about giving some money away to politicians, I do it, I'd like to think I do it for the right reasons, I'm not trying to get them

• 5:21Scott Galloway?

  to pass laws to subsidize podcasting. I do it because I'm passionate about income inequality, or trying to address income inequality in programs that would help struggling young men. But what has struck me is just with a little bit of money, how much attention you can get from congressmen and senators. I think if you gave $10,000 to every senator, a million dollars, when you go to Washington, you could get a meeting, an in-person meeting with 20 of them on 24 hours' notice. Because if you're giving $10,000, you might give 50 or 100 at some point. And it's not that they're total whores. And by the way, proximity is influence. If you meet with 20 senators and make your case, if enough people do that, they're inclined to block something or get in the way of that, because you're going to be articulate and

• 6:06Scott Galloway?

  give them compelling reasons. And also, wink, wink, if you vote against this, I might give you 50 or 100,000 dollars at some point. But the problem is, run into a Republican congressperson, I'm going to find you someone who's taken between 50,000 and a million dollars in the oil and gas industry. Anyways, long-winded way of saying, money, Citizens United, unfettered access, or unfettered ability to give money. A lot of foreign nations have much lower limits, or they just have matching funds, and then that's it. You know, may the best man or woman win. So what do we have? We have a Congress and elected leaders who represent corporations and the wealthy disproportionately versus the rest of us. Thanks for the question. Our second question comes from Glenn from Brooklyn. Glenn asks...

• 6:52Speaker 04

  Hi Prof G, returning questioner Glenn from Brooklyn here. You describe your life and wealth with surprisingly candid detail, whether that be travels and lodging, or even activities with your boys. I'm curious what your thoughts are on security, both personal and cyber, and how one's security needs evolve as they cross thresholds such as assets and fame. For example, is there a magic number of liquid assets that suddenly marks an investor as a target? How do today's successful and very online people stay safe without paranoia? Thank you for your time.

• 7:24Scott Galloway?

  Thanks for the question. So this is a good problem because the majority of targeting, if you're wealthy, is the kind of targeting you want. It's offers, it's opportunities to invest in things. It's people who want to know you, be your friend, people who want to date you. So the targeting, if you will, for wealthy people. In terms of a threat, I know some people who are much wealthier than me that have pretty serious security apparatus, not only in their home, but even I had dinner with someone the other night who's quite wealthy. And this person has a security person who's anonymous. He told me that this person was there, but I couldn't pick them out. But basically, a person who follows him around. And should anything go wrong, someone with

• 8:09Scott Galloway?

  a training and a gun is there to ensure that or reduce the likelihood that it ends badly. Now, being attacked online, I do think you need to take additional precautions around your data. Also, you become very much a target just for criticism, and some of that is healthy. Power should be checked. But some of it is also, America has kind of a media industrial complex that engages in trying to build people up and sanctify them and demonstrate them as heroes. And then, once they get to a certain level, try and tear them down because it's the way up and the way down that creates engagement and clicks and advertising revenue. So there's money in both those things. I think additional cybersecurity or additional investment in personal security.

• 8:53Scott Galloway?

  I mean, this sounds weird. My personal security system is not only I have all that stuff in my home, but I've always had dogs and I've always made sure I've had a fairly fairly big, intimidating and well-trained dog. And a lot of the data shows that having a dog is much more effective than a security system, a gun, or what have you. And then I do some other stuff which I want to, I don't want to disclose, but not, not a ton. I want to live my life and if it means engaging a certain amount of risk, so be it. I would say it's not about your wealth. It's more about the messaging you're getting. I think you could be worth very little money. And if you are constantly shitposting or talking about a specific issue that is very incendiary, you're probably,

• 9:34Scott Galloway?

  I want to say become a target, but become a visible recipient of people who feel strongly the other way. Don't be stupid, but to run your life believing or focusing too much on downside risk is a flaw in our species. Well, that was a word salad. Thanks for the question. We'll be right back after a quick break.

• 10:03Scott Galloway?

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• 10:48Scott Galloway?

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• 11:05Scott Galloway?

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• 11:50Scott Galloway?

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• 12:34Scott Galloway?

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• 13:21Scott Galloway?

  Welcome back. Our final question comes from Reddit, straight out of Derigo, Derijo? Derigo asks, "Hi Scott, I just listened to the past Office Hours episode and you mentioned how any money you have at the end of the year, above a certain point, you give it away after spending what you can, which made me wonder, how do you decide who and what to give your money to? So I never gave anything away until the age of 40. And if I did accidentally give money away, it was so I could go to some cool party with other people pretending to be virtuous. I remember going to a party called Save Venice in New York, and it was because Venice was experiencing flooding. And so we needed to save the incredibly historically important architecture of Venice. And a bunch of hot, young people would show up in sort of this Eyes Wide Shut

• 14:07Scott Galloway?

  apparel, and we'd pay 500 or a thousand bucks. And I'm like, this has fucking absolutely nothing to do with Venice. It's a bunch of people pretending to have virtue so we can all show up and hopefully meet other interesting people. And that was the only philanthropy that ever I ever engaged in. And then, as I got wealthier and as I became more thoughtful about all of my blessings, I've become, I think, not only philanthropic, but very philanthropic. And it's not virtue for me, it's consumption. I really enjoy it. It makes me feel strong, makes me feel masculine. So how do I decide? The two charities, I try and pick specific sectors. One, there's just

• 14:46Scott Galloway?

  random stuff. If I see Representative James Talarico talking about what Jesus would have done, and Jesus wouldn't have canceled food stamps, and that charter schools are nothing but a transfer of wealth from public schools to wealthy people. And the example he used in his speech was that Elon Musk, with 14 kids, would get about a million dollars in grants for, you know, they want to move to this voucher system. I just thought he was so articulate, powerful, unafraid. And I loved how he incorporated his Christian roots and the hypocrisy of some of these people who cloaked themselves in Jesus. Whenever someone brings up Jesus on the floor of the rotunda, they're usually

• 15:31Scott Galloway?

  about to cut welfare to single mothers. Anyways, I'll bust off a check for 10 grand to that guy, which I did. And if I hear about someone, a friend of mine, not a friend of mine, someone who I went to college with had a massive stroke. I haven't seen this person in thirty years. And I cut a check for ten grand to that person anonymously through a friend because they're by the grace of God, go I. And I'm doing a lot of virtue signaling right now, but it's true. So I have a kind of a series of random things. I give a hundred dollar tip wherever I am. Because I was a service professional. I think people in the services industry are vastly underpaid. My generation has aggregated, in my opinion, too much wealth. And so there's

• 16:15Scott Galloway?

  little acts of philanthropy that I engage in spontaneously that are just sort of fun. Now, on a more systemic level, where I give away much bigger funds, is on two categories. One, the first is broadening access to higher education. I funded a scholarship at Berkeley for the children of immigrants, and most recently for kind of vocational programming, to take non-traditional students and give them a shot at participating in the wonderful education of UCL in Berkeley. It's a program called the Extension Accelerator, I believe, that helps, no admissions, anyone can show up, and very low cost. And I like that. I

• 16:58Scott Galloway?

  think my industry has engaged in this incredibly corrupt, immoral cartel behavior that creates an exclusionary culture where we create artificial scarcity such that good kids like myself, or unremarkable kids such like myself, can't access amazing education. So, and then my second big category is teen suicide prevention, which has skyrocketed and which just sort of rattles me. I find it unacceptable, the trends in teen suicide. I don't think anything else matters if our kids are so upset and anxious that they contemplate ending it all. And I've given away about twenty million bucks over the last

• 17:41Scott Galloway?

  Last five or seven years, and I plan to give a lot more away. And it's something I very much enjoy. But so random acts, I don't really call them kindness, random acts of consumption makes me feel really fucking strong and smart and like a baller to give a hundred dollar tip. Makes me feel good in an expression of affection to give some money to someone who needs it at that point. It makes me feel like I'm being a patriot, giving some money to some good candidates who are fighting the good fight. But on a more organized level, I give money away to two things I feel very strongly about. And I think that's the way to do it. Do stuff that makes you feel good, random acts of kindness and generosity. People don't give away enough money. I mean, how, if you have money,

• 18:25Scott Galloway?

  why wouldn't you give every person, every waiter a hundred bucks? You know that person's working hard. You know that person's probably really could use the money. I remember when I was a pool boy at the Mondrian Hotel, and this character actor, this woman, you've probably seen a movie, she's never a big star, she was in her seventies or eighties at the time. Every time I walked by, every time I walked by her table, she would say, hold on, and she'd grab my hand, and she'd sneakily, like, kind of funny, like, put a ten dollar bill in my, my shorts pocket. And by the end of the time, you know, I'd have twenty or thirty dollars. And in nineteen eighty seven, that made a difference in my life. I was a box boy, and I'd carry out people's groceries. And I remember the same guy, he used to give me fifty bucks. He was this guy with a big beard and a Rolls Royce,

• 19:10Scott Galloway?

  and he'd let me carry his groceries out to his car, and he'd give me fifty fucking dollars. And this was when I was in high school. I mean, the easiest way to make someone's day is to give them a little bit of money. It's, it's a transfer of time and work. So if you give a waiter, a box boy, I give a hundred, I'm doing a lot of virtue signaling right now, but it's all true. I gave a hundred bucks to the In-N-Out cashier when I got to LA a few days ago. And she looked like she was about to start crying. I mean, this shit is easy. This is not a lot of money if you make good money. It's not, it's just not a lot of money. So it's incredibly joyous for me. So these little moments, it makes my day, I feel good about myself, it's fun, it's an easy way to make a total stranger

• 19:53Scott Galloway?

  just really like you. So two levels, the fun stuff, the fun daily stuff, little acts that are just so much fun and so rewarding. And then the bigger stuff, if you're blessed with real, real money, think about how that, the topics that really

• 20:11Scott Galloway?

  That really motivate you, that you are really passionate about. Appreciate the question. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to [email protected]. Again, that's [email protected]. Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode.

• 20:41Speaker 05

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• 21:07Speaker 06

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