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Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming | Nick Hanauer

TED · 1.6M views · 2014-08-12 · 20:27

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Overview

Billionaire Nick Hanauer warns fellow wealthy people in a TED talk that growing inequality could lead to social upheaval like pre-revolutionary France. He argues a higher minimum wage would grow the middle class and prosperity.

On Hacker News

HN brings it up in inequality, UBI and backlash threads as an early warning from a rich insider.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2018–2026

Topics

Labor, work & inequalityMacroeconomics & financial crises
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nick hanauerinequalityminimum wageted talkwealth

What people said

anon49124 · 2018-10 · Recommendation

The big thing UBI can do is help people whom want and desire to get out of suffering and miserable circumstances to higher level of productivity, lifestyle and tax generation. It's a no-brainer. Otherwise, pitchforks will be coming for the 1%. [VIDEO]

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jyounker · 2026-04 · Reference

It's due to the widening inequality. Nick Hanauer has been talking about this for over ten years: [VIDEO]

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i_think_so · 2026-04 · Reference

...and in America there are more guns than humans, and more potentially unemployed white collar workers than the police, military, and national guard combined. Nick Hanauer understood this fourteen years ago. Very few others did. And despite him spending his own time and money to explain it in simple English, nobody in his peer group wanted to hear it -- his TED talk on the subject ... took several years before it was published. Just a coincidence, I'm sure. FA (for a decade or so) FO, I guess? [LINK] [LINK] [VIDEO] than humans, and more potentially unemployed white collar workers than the police, military and national guard combined.

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Sources

Video by TED, played through YouTube.

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