It’s debate night! Whether you like Sanders or Warren or Buttigieg or Biden or Klobuchar, one thing is clear: Michael Bloomberg is not doing well. At all. Debate moderators in their never-ending pursuit of conflict, brought up Sen. Bernie Sanders’ statement that billionaires should not exist. His statement, of course, is a problem for Bloomberg, who is not simply a billionaire, but one of the top six billionaires in the United States. Bloomberg responded to this statement by saying that he was giving away his money and that he had earned his money. “I worked very hard for it.” After a few other statements, Sen. Sanders was allowed to respond on why he favored more egalitarian policies than people like Bloomberg or Klobuchar or Buttigieg. He gave it and in doing so, made a very important point about what it takes to make a billionaire.
SEN. SANDERS: It is my policy and i'm very proud of that policy. what we need to do to deal with this grotesque level of income and wealth inequality, to make sure those people who are working, do you know why, Mr. Bloomberg? It wasn't you who made all that money—maybe your workers played some role in that as well.
This received quite the ovation from the audience as truth bombs tend to do.
SEN. SANDERS: And it is important that those workers are able to share the benefits also. When we have so many people to go work every day, and they feel not good about their jobs. They feel like cogs in a machine. I want to workers to be able to sit on corporate boards as well, so they can have some say over what happens to their lives.
Bloomberg, for his part, said Sanders was trying to destroy capitalism and that the whole conversation was poppycock. Whether or not you believe in capitalism, billionaires like Bloomberg are not a part of the solution to America’s problems.