Guest: There is literally no example on planet earth of a high functioning society without big government.

Host: No, that's not true. Big government is sucking the life out of small businesses. And I spent countless hours with businesses and they're like, you can't succeed in the UK. As soon as you earn anything, they'll just tax it off you.

Guest: So pop off to Dubai, run the business virtually, and pay no tax. It's idiotic. I don't know how you can look at that and think this is a good system.

Host: No, no. say what needs to happen is reduce the taxes and the pressure on the small businesses cuz everyone in this economy needs to own stuff. We need to own a house, own a business, and own shares.

Guest: But not everybody can be an entrepreneur.

Host: Correct. Look, it would be wonderful if everybody owned something. But ownership starts with earning enough money so that you can save money so that you can begin to own something. So the problem is wages because most people want to be able to go to work and be treated decently. I want to earn enough money so that I can feel secure. I just want to be married,

Guest: have kids, own a house, all that. That's what I hear. I want people and I want that for everyone. That's gone away. Houses are unaffordable. Local jobs don't exist. Technology has cut out all the middlemen. No one's paying healthy wages. We have the most unhappy population.

Host: And if you want to fix that, you have to enact this.

Guest: Well, I've seen Nick's policies implemented and I don't feel it's enough.

Host: You haven't seen all of the policies. So, but we need people to know that the rules that we grew up with have changed and people have to learn the rules of this new economy.

Guest: Yes. Yes. Yes. I totally agree. And if you want to get the economy back on track, the starting point is

Host: This is super interesting to me. My team given me this report to show me how many of you that watch this show subscribe. And some of you have told us according to this that you are unsubscribed from the channel randomly. So, favor to ask all of you, please could you check right now if you've hit the subscribe button, if you are a regular viewer of the show and you like what we do here. We're approaching quite a significant landmark on this show in terms of a subscriber number. So, if there was one simple free thing that you could do to help us, my team, everyone here to keep this show free, to keep it improving year over year and week over week, it is just to hit that subscribe button and to double check if you've hit it. Only thing I'll ever ask of you, do we have a deal? If you do it, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll make sure every single week, every single month, we fight harder and harder and harder and harder to bring you the guests and conversations that you want to hear. I've stayed true to that promise since the very beginning of the D of Sio and I will not let you down. Please help us. Really appreciate it. Let's get on with the show.

Host: Nick, I want to start with your background and your context so I can understand your perspective and who you are. You sold a company for almost $7 billion, correct? And what's so fascinating about you is you typically billionaires have a certain narrative and perspective on the world. You seem to have a very different one.

Nick Hanauer: I do.

Host: Who are you? Where have you come from? And what is your perspective on the world as it relates to the subjects that you know we're going to discuss today?

Nick Hanauer: I was raised in a civic family, I should say.

Host: What does that mean?

Nick Hanauer: That means a family that takes uh civic responsibility seriously. Uh but we were middle class people and my father started to work for this tiny uh family business that uh his his father had started manufacturing bed pillows and down comforters which is how I got my start in business. And to make an incredibly long story short, I had a very early intuition uh about the internet u and uh the role that it would play in commerce. And as luck would have it, I had a friend who agreed with that proposition and his name was Jeff Bezos. And so he wanted to start...