What Can I Do?

Anand Giridharadas visits Google to discuss his book "Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World." Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can—except ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. The book argues that elites rebrand themselves as saviors of the poor; that they lavishly reward so-called thought leaders who redefine “change” in ways that preserve the status quo; and that they constantly seek to do more good, but never less harm. Giridharadas asks hard questions: for example, why should our gravest problems be solved by the unelected upper crust instead of the public institutions eroded by lobbying and tax dodging? His groundbreaking investigation has already forced a great, sorely needed reckoning among the world’s wealthiest and those they hover above, and it points toward an answer: Rather than rely on scraps from the winners, we must take on the grueling democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian institutions. Originally published in October of 2018.

Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.