Bernie Sanders Takes Aim at ‘Ruling Class’ of Corporations and Wealthy

Sanders has said the agreement was between his publisher and Ticketmaster and that he was not consulted about the arrangement. Ticketmaster and its parent corporation, Live Nation, were called on the congressional carpet in January for monopolizing ticket sales across the country, charging exorbitant fees and providing what even company officials described as “terrible consumer experience.”

None of that seemed to matter to the crowd, however. They provided a standing ovation on Sanders’ entrance, one at the event’s end and a couple in the middle of the event that was often punctuated by outbursts of heavy applause.

Sanders told the crowd that he wrote the book because he wanted people to know how he sees things going in the country.

“I wanted to tell the American people that politics is more than polls. It’s more than dumb things that politicians say, of which there are many, including from myself,” he said. “It is asking what you might think is an easy question, but really is not and that is, ‘What’s going on in American life? Who’s winning?’”

Sanders said the winners are those in what he called “the ruling class.”

A capacity crowd at Old Cabell Hall showed up to hear and cheer Sanders as part of his book tour for “It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.” (Photo by Sanjay Suchak, University Communications)

“When you have three people in America owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society; when we have massive concentration of ownership in sector after sector where a handful of large corporations control what goes on in agriculture, health care, transportation and financial services; do we have a ruling class in America?” he said. “Yes.”

Sanders told his audience that they will likely never hear “ruling class” used on the floor of Congress or in news reports. That, he said, is why he wrote his book.

“The people on top have enormous power. Not only economic power, not only enormous political power, they also have enormous media power,” Sanders said. “They define what we are allowed to get upset about and outraged about and more or less what we’re not allowed to talk about. So what the book is about trying to break through all of that and talk about reality.”

As he did in his book, Sanders called out large corporations that he said control much of American life, including pharmaceutical companies that raise prices of life-saving drugs and medical insurance companies.

“No other country has a [medical] system which is dominated by private insurance companies. So the function of the American healthcare system is not to do what the rational thing is, to provide quality care in a cost-effective way,” Sanders said. “This is designed for making huge profits for insurance companies.”

Sanders reiterated his long-time support of Medicare expansion to include all U.S. citizens, forgiveness of student loans, and raising Social Security tax limits so that people making more than $160,000 would pay more into the system.

Although Sanders’ talk was before a supportive audience, plenty of others view some of his sharp critiques from different angles.

Bill Wilhelm, a professor of commerce at the McIntire School of Commerce, said prior to Sanders’ event that while he understands many of the senator’s concerns, “capitalism” is really a market economy governed by a political system. Each side of that system had duties to society, collectively, and that’s what’s important to understand.

“Somehow, we, as a society, need to find some common ground for dealing with the many problems we are facing today. Unfortunately, I think that being ‘angry at capitalism’ is likely to aggravate these problems,” Wilhelm said. “I’d much prefer to see Mr. Sanders and his colleagues in Congress engage in public debate both within their ranks and with representatives of the wealthiest among us. How do they – our representatives and the wealthy – justify what often appears to be mutual interests that cut against the least advantaged?”

As he has done at other book signings and television appearances, Sanders declined to say whether he will run for reelection to the Senate. He did say he would support President Joe Biden, should Biden seek reelection.

He also told UVA students not to let themselves feel burned out by the work of activism in politics.

“You do not have a right to be fatigued,” he said to applause, noting that change doesn’t happen overnight. “There is so much to do. We need to roll up our sleeves and get to work to transform this country.”