Transcript
How Billionaires Are Controlling Us With Our Pets (Hour 1)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Thu Oct 30, 2025
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Good afternoon, everybody.
Todd Alba along Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.
Our producer and engineer.
It is six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday.
October 30th, 2025.
It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.
Welcome, everybody, to the World Headquarters of Civic Media, downtown Madison at the old intersection of State Street and Fairchild on another beautiful, gorgeous day, Mr. Zomers, how are you?
Doing well.
It is
Very sunny indeed.
Let's take a look at the old Sam Davidson street cam.
Look at that.
A beautiful day here in downtown Madison.
Sunshiny skies.
The beautiful obituary center across the street.
Blue skies.
Leaves slowly fall.
On the one side of the the building there, the leaves are our our partner gone.
And on the other side, on the state street side, fully green leaves.
I wonder if maybe they're fake trees.
That could be.
in Madison.
That would be abhorrent.
Plastic trees.
Are you kidding me?
it's micro climates.
That is a great point.
I did not think of that.
It's going to be a great show today.
I hope you stick around at the bottom of this hour looking forward in nervous anticipation to our guest Chuck Collins.
We'll be with this.
Now, this is great because Chuck Collins is part of the Millionaires Club.
Well, he's a part of the millionaires club too, but yes patriotic millionaires and He's this group has been on the program before and what's interesting to me at least is that his great-grandfather was Oscar Meyer himself and and and this is great because while Chuck is on with us We're gonna be doing a text-to-win contest giving away a 12 pack of Oscar Meyer wieners
know if we're doing that
Yeah, probably not but we'll ask him about we'll ask about his great-grandfather Oscar Meyer and the cool thing is he took his wealth at a young age and basically gave it up and now he's part of a patriotic millionaires and he has a new book out called burned by billionaires how concentrated wealth and power are ruining our lives and planet now you think to yourself some people might think well that seems like kind of a hoity-toity above my head book not so
He is a great chapter on billionaire oligarchs are coming for your pets.
I mean, I think more and more people now they're waiting later in life to have kids or maybe not have kids at all can't afford it.
And so our pets are becoming part truly part of our family.
And anybody has a pet knows that vet bills are through the roof.
People are taking out
Thousands tens of thousands of dollars in debt for our pets.
Well, guess what?
The billionaire class is partly behind that So Chuck's gonna be along to to give us the the 4-1-1 on that and also talk about patriotic millionaires in general and he has been zombers
to the old hometown, Richland Center.
He came there as part of the Patriotic Millionaires event.
So we'll ask him.
I never really got to ask him when he thought of Richland Center.
So that'll be fun coming up after the Pam Yonkey Farm News at 2.30.
Chuck Collins here from Patriotic Millionaires and his brand new book.
Also on hour number two, another fun fact for you from Wisconsin and what's worse, piercings today.
Talk about piercings or tattoos.
Specifically the bad ones.
Yeah.
Do you have, not to get too personal, but do you have either?
I do not.
I don't either.
I'm not sure I would do piercing because I'm afraid of pain, but maybe if I, and tattoos, I have nothing against them, but it's just that I worry that if I got anything too large that, you know, by the time I'm another 20 years old or everything's gonna be sagging and it just wouldn't look good.
I will talk it over to you about tattoos versus piercing.
What's worse, that's coming up.
But here's where I want to start.
We're in this shutdown, this government shutdown, right?
Keeps continuing on and on, despite Republicans having control of both the Senate and the House and the presidency and for all intent and purposes, the Supreme Court as well.
It continues on.
And I think for a lot of us, we think, well, what was up with that?
I mean, that's just far away and was indeed not going to affect me at all.
But here now we know that it does because after tomorrow, snap benefits, a lot of people still use the term food stamps are coming to an end.
And I think there's a lot of people that have bought into the narrative from my former party, which.
I left the Republican Party in 2011.
But my former party, the Republican, they like to put on a narrative that, oh, well, you know, it's just, it's just lazy people that don't want to work that are on food stamps.
But we know that is simply not the case.
And we've heard from people in agriculture who are working seven days a week, people that are active duty military people in our National Guard.
People just work at everyday jobs and yet They because they're the pay is low and hard to find more they're going that they're using snap benefits primarily to feed their kids And I thought it was worth a minute to just recognize this And remind us all there by the grace of God go us right I'm thankful that
Have a job where I'm not going hungry You know, I'm not I'm not going out to steak dinners three times a week or anything like that but I have shelter I have food and For all intents and purposes.
I have a comfortable life I'm thankful for that But I also remember growing up as a kid at Richland Center in a small rural community When my mom was a single mother
working her finger to the bone, making as meat for my sister and I. And if you're, you know, in your fifties or whatever, you remember this in Wisconsin for a while, you stood in line for free government cheese.
And it was a big thing in Wisconsin for a while.
And it was meant to like help the farmers or whatever, but also if you qualified, if you had a certain income, you can go stand in line at the middle school on a Saturday morning and get like a five pound block of cheese.
That was a big deal make grilled cheese sandwiches out of that, right?
macaroni and cheese all kinds of stuff and We didn't realize as kids at the times.
Yeah, I get to go stand in the middle school for free cheese or or or whatever But we didn't realize how important it was and I'll never forget as a kid in middle school Maybe especially a nice school.
I was middle school My mom
going to the county offices, whatever it was.
And so, look, I just need a little assistance here.
I'm working six days a week trying to put food at the table, trying to keep the heat on.
We used to, uh, uh, our kitchen at a pocket door.
And then another door that went into the bathroom.
We would close off this small little kitchen.
My mom would make a tombstone pizza and then keep the oven open afterwards so that the kitchen was warm enough that we could do our homework and the rest of the house would be in the 50s during the winter.
And my mom just said, you know, we need, we need a little assistance here.
And at that time in the 80s, the answer was fine.
But you have to get rid of whatever.
I think it might have been a couple of thousand dollars that my grandparents had put into a savings account for my sister and I's college in the future.
And because there was that savings there, the answer was no, you can't either have to give up your kids college fund or you can't get anything.
And my mom chose not to give up the college fund.
And she would.
Cut a tombstone pizza into little squares so it went further and wait until my sister and I ate and then would eat whatever she could and would oftentimes go to bed hungry She wore hand-me-down clothes for my great aunt that didn't always fit her or weren't in style so that the little money she had to buy my sister and I school clothes
She ended up going back to school because she had been a teacher and then After she got married She was a pro keel school and she never quite finished her teaching degree And she got married and I came along and she was a stay-at-home mom and then my parents split She worked in a daycare and she worked at a camera shop She ended up going back to school and finishing her teaching degree and was a kindergarten teacher for 24 years a hero But I want us all to remember
this week, we are all one paycheck away from being there.
So I hope we all just suspend our judgment and poo-pooing things.
And remember, there by the grace of God go I.
855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.
What made me think of this?
My friend John Poole,
former recruiter at UW Richland, posted this from my hometown.
Anybody else, if you want to put this out for your hometown, call us Texas this week.
Today and tomorrow, we'll do it for you.
The Richland Communities for Our Lister is a WRCE in Richland Center.
The Richland Community Food Pantry was overwhelmed today, John writes, with nearly 140 families served a new record.
And in this case, setting a record is not good.
But we need to continue to do all we can to support our community.
Monetary donations to the Richland Community Food Pantry can be sent to, and we'll put this on the show notes, Richland Community Food Pantry, care of Lighthouse Chapel on Caron's Avenue, Richland Center.
You can do it online as well at rcaunitedgivers.org.
That's rcaunitedgivers, all one word.
if you want to help out the Richland County Food Pantry there for our listeners at WRCE.
We talked about what was going on in Milwaukee, the food share there.
I know there are things here in Dane County.
If you are listening and you're listening across the state and you have a food pantry, an organization that's helping out in your community, call in, text in on the Civic Media app, whatever it is, we will help.
Amplify that for you Zomers, correct me it is
Okay, so RC RC United givers org for the Richland County Richland Center food pantry there But let us know let's go quickly to Cindy in Appleton.
Let's see in the view is as gosh Cindy about a minute left.
Let's see
Well the party of family value is that they're best again, right?
Yeah, it's it's Yes, there's the political side.
Absolutely.
It is just needless and a lot of good people are being hurt by this
Yep, and that you talk about the food pantries I have a friend who was did the scouting for food couple weeks ago And he said the donations are really done and I said well, you know what I think it is
I think everybody's struggling right now and people just don't have the extra to give to the food pantries because they're trying to keep it in their own cupboard, so I mean this is gonna only get really worse and Unfortunately a lot of these people voted for you know who right and I I'm afraid the pain they're going to feel is going to be a little too late But I hope they think twice with the next election because these are the consequences of voting for the wrong party
Appreciate the call Cindy.
She's right.
Here is the other thing mom taught us as kids
Even though we had very little, we always had something.
And during the holidays, during the Toys for Tots thing and the Marines collected the toys, she said, pick out one of your toys.
One.
And we're going to take it down and we're going to give it to someone that has nothing.
And she said, you'll feel better.
And she was 100% right.
We could all do something.
Five cans of soup.
10 bucks, whatever it is, give to your local food pantry.
Come on back, more calls after this.
You're
listening to The All Ball Show across Wisconsin on the Civic Media.
truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the title of our show on the Civic Media Already Network.
It is now 22 past the hour two o'clock on this Thursday, October 20th, 2025.
Glad to have you along.
Aaron Zommers on the board.
We have a visitor today,
Zommers.
That
we do.
The wonderful and talented Tucker, who has just joined our, our fine staff and the new senior producer for Matt and Air on Air.
Tucker, welcome to the, to the network.
Hi.
How are you doing?
Nice to be here.
We'll talk more to you in hour two.
Are you sticking around for hour two, or are you out after
hour one?
I might be out after this, but we'll see.
Like most people, they can only take so much of time.
Well, nice to have you here, Tucker, and you'll be working more on Matt and Aaron here, so I'm glad to have.
I told him, I said, you're welcome to observe, but there are certain things here on this show that probably other shows don't want to do, and that's fine.
But always happy to have people along welcome Tucker glad to have you here talking about food pantries in the state and The during the shutdown snap benefits will end after tomorrow unless they can work something out out in DC and Yes, I'm all for pointing out that this is by and large in my opinion my former party the Republican Party's fault out in DC, but also As are more interested right now
rather than just barking politics, helping advance how we can help each other across the state of Wisconsin.
I know Milwaukee is doing this with increased efforts in food pantries there.
And also in my hometown of Richland Center, they're making a concerted effort.
I appreciate my friend and former dean.
Assistant Dean at UW Richland our main recruiter basically for and is very involved in the community John Poole posting this for the Richland County area in Southwest, Wisconsin You could give I'd want to give money to the food pantry there RC United givers.org RC United givers.org It takes a little while for maybe to
open up, but it will eventually could also send donations there via snail mail.
But where it all across Wisconsin, if you have a food pantry you want to bring attention to during these times, we're here for it.
855-752-4842, 855-752-4842, Jack in Merrimack.
Jack, the ferry is still open, I assume.
Still nice weather to go across the
river.
been across in a while, so I can't verify it, but it should be.
All right, very good.
What else do you have for us?
Well, I've got about three things.
Thing number one, that you said, how can we help each other?
It's a very simple way.
Many people are into physical fitness these days, and I didn't think about this when I talked with your screener.
But I have an app on my phone which registers your mileage.
It's called Charity Mile.
And it's a free app.
You can download it from any of the major sources.
And it basically pays.
It's sponsored by a number of different athletic supply companies.
And it pays.
so many cents a mile, I think it's like 25 cents a mile for running, and a nickel a mile for biking, and I do both, for basically to your favorite charity, mine happens to be Feeding America.
Wow.
That's where this is
going.
That's super cool.
So charity miles, check that out on the app.
Yep.
Good tip.
About another minute left because I got a whisk on the hold as well.
Well, you got it, Jack.
Well, two quick things.
Sure.
Thing one, there is no excuse for anyone going hungry or being food insecure in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.
And thing two, one of the biggest problems that we have in this wealthiest country in the history of the world is that three people have as much wealth combined as the bottom 50% of the people in this country.
That kind of thing's got to
stop.
Great, Jack.
Great, great call.
Appreciate it.
And it ties right into our next guest coming up after the bottom of the hour here, Chuck Collins from Patriotic Millionaire is going to be on to address just that.
855-752-4842, Whiskill-Paul, listening on WMDX at Madison and Whiskill.
Thanks for calling in.
What's a you?
Well, thank you for taking my call, Todd.
I try to listen to you every day.
We appreciate it.
Well, I don't know how you feel about the filibuster, but the Republicans do have the power to end the filibuster, and they can pass this God-awful budget they have.
And I don't know what your feelings on it, but I don't think it's ever really helped the Democrats.
So really, the ball is in the Republicans' court.
You want to feed people, you want to end health care.
You guys, it's in your
court.
Thanks, Todd.
I appreciate it, Wisco.
Thank you so much.
Many people in politics refer to it as the nuclear option, quote-unquote, because it was put in place.
Matt Flynn could keep me honest on this, either the 50s or the 60s.
Things will move slower in the Senate.
The idea was that more thoughtful things would happen.
Well, I'm not sure how that turned out and neither party has been willing to go there and get rid of the filibuster.
So instead of requiring 60 votes, it's just a simple majority.
I was with Wisco at this point.
Blow it up.
Get rid of the filibuster and and let's let's get people feathers.
No reason agree with Jack and Merrimack and many others.
No reason in this country why people should be going hungry.
Particularly our military folks particularly single moms and and the politics of this is despicable using American men and women and children as pawns to Not not want to advance affordable care act which again, that's something that that we know that our farm community people working in Walmart's and and dollar trees and
Local bakery shops a lot of people use the Affordable Care Act And we have 40 billion four zero with a beat 40 billion that Donald Trump is sending to bail out this weird dictator in Argentina and Yet Americans are going hungry Americans are going without Affordable Care Act health insurance and our beef farmers in Wisconsin are under siege
because you're given the $40 billion Trump is to Argentina, and then saying, oh yeah, we'll flood a Wisconsin beef market with foreign beef.
Not so great.
Come on back.
We're gonna have a great conversation with Chuck Collins from Patriotic Millionaires.
How it affects your pets.
I'm not joking around.
Stay tuned.
Farm News is next with Pam Yonsey and the Midwest Farm Reports, the title of our show on the Pacific Media.
Pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it Welcome back to the title ball show on the civic media ready to work 35 minutes now past the hour of 2 o'clock on this Thursday, October 30th 2025 glad to have you along across the state of Wisconsin Aaron Zommers on the board always doing a fine job producing and engineering Excited and honored to have our next guest here on the broadcast.
He directs the program on inequality and
common good of the Institute of Policy Studies, where he co-edits in equality.org, that's in equality.org.
He's also a columnist with Oligarch Watch and is the author of a brand new book entitled, Burned by Billionaires, How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Owning Our Lives and Planet.
And perhaps for Wisconsinites, most interestingly enough, is the great grandson of the
Oscar Meyer, Chuck Collins joins us from his home on the East Coast.
Chuck, thanks for being here.
It's an absolute pleasure.
We met briefly last year.
You were so gracious as to come out to my hometown in Southwest Wisconsin.
I neglected the intro to say you're also a part of Patriotic Millionaires, which of course, our founder, owner, and CEO, a sage while of Civic Media is a part of as well.
and you go into these rural communities and you invest time and money to educate people and you are kind enough to come out and do a presentation to about 100 folks in Richland County on what wealth inequality means for people, particularly in small towns.
And I just want to publicly thank you for taking that time.
I thought it was great.
It really is a lot of fun.
Before we get into your book, which I want to dive into here, this is some really spectacular stuff.
Tell us a little bit about your story.
I know you've had some public service announcements on our network talking about it, but for those that might not have heard, you grew up in Madison.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to be part of Patriotic Millionaires and now this mission of educating folks.
I won the lottery at birth.
I successfully picked the family that I was born into and that's that.
Although when I was in my 20s, I sort of wrestled with, is it a good idea for both personally and as a society to have so much inherited wealth flowing down the line.
So when I was in my mid-20s, I gave away the inheritance I had.
I kind of thought I was being fed a lot of baloney about
what was happening in the economy and But you know and that was that was 40 years ago, but I've been a member of the patriotic millionaires because I think it's important for people who Grew up in the circumstances I did as well as people who are a lot of their a lot of our members are entrepreneurial wealth that started companies made what made a lot of money to speak out publicly not just sort of hide out and
Stay undercover, but speak out if you feel moved to talk about why extreme inequality is not good for society and to support fair tax policies and higher wages and Reduce the impact of money in politics.
Those are the things that bring us together.
So I'm really honored to be part of that part of that group
Tell us if you would what was the the tipping point or or the moment in your 20s where you said
Geez I got all this inheritance.
I've got it made probably wouldn't have to work another day in your life if you didn't want to mean I know much much much smaller level made a decision in 2011 to walk away from the Republican Party something I've been a part of a 30 years wasn't making huge money or anything, but I Viewed this as a similar moment in your life in a much younger age, which was what it affected you much more directly of What what was it that said I'm gonna give all this away
You know, after I grew up in Madison, I moved to Detroit and my dad worked in downtown Detroit.
And I just remember the riots in 1967.
I was only seven at the time, but it kind of made an impression on me.
And I kind of kind of understood that what was part of what was happening was there was an enormous divide between city and suburb black and white opportunity and a sense of no opportunity.
And then, yeah, as I grew older, I got to just kind of understand more about how the economy worked and just came to a belief that too much inherited wealth.
You know, the United States is a great country and part of what makes it great is opportunity and everybody can have an opportunity.
And I was starting to see the ways in which inherited wealth limited opportunity for other people that created kind of wealth dynasties, if you will.
people kind of pulling up the economic opportunity ladder, and that actually led to this, you know, the current moment in the book I wrote, which is, wow, here we are.
We have this extreme inequality of wealth, and I think it's not good for...
for most of us, I don't think it's even good for the wealthy to have such a great polarization.
So that was really the
motivation.
We're speaking with Chuck Collins, who is the author of a brand new book out entitled, Burned by Billionaires.
How concentrated wealth and power are ruining our lives and planning also a member of the patriotic millionaires.
So let's clarify this, Chuck, because.
Again, growing up in a farming community, you understand this.
There are a lot of hardworking ag people out there because of the price of land and stuff.
And there's a little bit of book written, you know, Land Rich Cash Poor, where you could say, well, look, that farming operation is worth $5 million in land and assets, maybe more.
But explain, you're not talking about folks like that.
Talk about the level of wealth that you're targeting, for lack of a better term.
First of all, I also live in a rural farm community now in Vermont and and you know see the issues You know people may be land maybe have land, but they're using it as a productive asset.
They're growing food Maybe land as housing might be more valuable, but let's be clear You can't eat housing.
So I'm thankful for the people who are staying on the land and working it and growing food and and meat and products for the rest of us But yeah, the focus I have is you know
on power.
Where does the power reside?
And clearly the billionaires in this country have a lot of power.
There's about 915 billionaires.
When I look this morning with $8 trillion of wealth, there's 26 billionaires that have more than $50 billion each.
Well, clearly they have a lot of power.
I actually kind of put the line at about $40 million.
You know, once you have more than $40 million,
You are not just buying jets and more mansions, you're buying senators and media outlets and you're lobbying for your own selfish interests in some cases.
So that's where, you know, when people have that level of wealth, it becomes corruptive, corrupting, and I think harmful for a healthy democratic society.
I appreciate you playing that out because I think that's really important because you're not talking about stifling people's American dreams to do well or be successful or have a successful farm or agricultural operation.
But to your point, let's be honest, you get 40 million in the bank.
You're doing OK.
And I think there's some inequality that way.
So thanks for that clarification.
All right.
Burned by billionaires.
Chuck Collins, tell us a little bit what led to the book and what the thrust of it is about.
People say to me all the time, well, does it really matter how rich the rich are?
Who cares?
Or maybe I even admire somebody who has that level of wealth.
And what I try to do in this book is talk about how it's sort of touching and disrupting every corner of our lives.
So the fact that we have an economy where the rules are now rigged to funnel wealth to the top means that a lot of people aren't sharing in the productivity gains.
Wages have been flat stagnant for decades.
People don't have a lot of financial savings and reserves to fall back on.
And at the very top, you have this extraordinary wealth.
And when you have a billion dollars, and I don't have a billion dollars, but I've been studying it, you are trying to find places to park your money.
And, you know, there's a reason why Bill Gates is the largest owner of farmland.
It's not because he's interested in farming.
It's because he just has so much money.
He's buying up real estate and land and assets.
He can't put all his eggs in one basket.
What does that mean?
It means that the billionaires are buying up emergency rooms, healthcare facilities, pet hospitals.
They're robbing us of our voice and vote, meaning they've sort of captured our political system.
They're driving up the cost of land and housing.
They're effectively dictating what's on our dinner plate.
through huge concentrations of ownership in food and agriculture.
And, you know, it's touching our basic well-being in so many ways.
So that, I try to kind of break it down in a very accessible and personal way, why this matters and how it's harming each of us in our day-to-day lives.
I can't
wait to read the entire book.
We're talking to the author of Burned by Billionaires, Chuck Collins, who also happens to be a member of Patriotic Millionaires, joining us via StreamYard.
You do and I love this because you break it down for real people like me that are not big financial people that can understand this.
You have a new piece in the nation.
You can find it at the nation.com entitled the billionaire oligarchs are coming for your pets and they want to make a bigger profit.
This is part of the book, correct?
And explain this because I think this is so understandable for so many Wisconsinites.
members of our family.
And what I think that the billionaire investor classes figured out is that some of us are willing to go into debt for their care, others are willing, we're willing to spend money for them to have decent lives and access to health and good services and food.
And so what the what the investors are doing, the billionaire investors, because they're looking for ways to squeeze more money out of those parts of the economy where we don't always feel like we have a choice.
You may have noticed veterinary care costs have gone way
up.
These are part of the overall affordability crisis, but it's not an accident.
It's not a coincidence.
The Mars family, we usually think of them as candy, you know, Mars bars and that sort of thing.
Well, they're a big four generation, dynastic, wealthy family.
They're buying up the veterinary hospitals, veterinary clinics.
They sometimes maintain a mom and pop facade.
They're buying up the pet food industry.
And there even some of these wealthy investors are buying up the pet services.
So let's say you have a dog tot and you want to hire me as a dog walker, we find each other at Rover.com.
Well, Rover.com skims a bunch of money between our business arrangement.
Who bought them?
Blackstone.
a giant trillion-dollar private equity firm.
So I'm just saying they're moving into these places where people are willing to spend money or have to spend money and squeezing a few more nickels out of our day-to-day budget.
Correct me if I'm wrong that the prices are being controlled by multi-billionaires who don't give a crap about how much we're paying for pet food.
So, you know, in my company, we, at the beginning of, in my town, at the beginning of the school year, there was a school bus strike.
The workers were trying to like get a few more dollars a day, and they were locked out.
The bus company locked them out.
Not everyone thought, well, isn't this a family-owned business?
Turns out the year before, they'd be bought up by one of these vulture investor firms, these billionaire investor firms.
They're not gonna...
Give work give a pay pay raise to anybody.
They're just gonna keep squeezing
We're talking to Chuck Collins He is the author of a new book called burned by billionaires also a member of the patriotic millionaires will come back Find out more of this book and how what billionaires do affect all of us across the state of Wisconsin know what we can do about it You're listening to the all-ball show across Wisconsin on the civic media
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Welcome back to the all ball show on the civic media ready to work It is now eight minutes before the hour of three o'clock coming up an hour to another Wisconsin fun fact in today's edition of what's worse and more news along the way as well right now We are continuing our discussion great discussion with Chuck Collins He is the author of this wonderful new book called burned by billionaires how concentrated wealth and power are ruining our lives and Planet you could find it does Amherst has it up there for those watching on Facebook
Book YouTube, Twitter, Twix, whatever you want to call it, has the cover up.
Fantastic as a match with a fire on the match there and being burned by billionaires.
Chuck is, well, you know, for Wisconsinites, the sexy notable thing is he is the great grandson of legendary Oscar Mayer.
Yes, that Oscar Mayer, winner of the Oscar Mayer, but made the decision in his 20s to give up his inheritance and now has been working on
Equality in terms of wealth equality amongst many of his other passions He is member of patriotic millionaires and he directs the program on inequality in the common good of the Institute for Policy Studies where he co edits inequality dot org Chuck before the break.
We were talking about This connection with our pets and and so many people now are our pets are their kids and I just want to make sure we wrap up and make people understand that these billionaire equity firms
are buying up what look to be mom and pop veterinary places or our food places for our pets in Wisconsin and we got it.
That's why it's just so important to know who you're dealing with.
Yeah, it is important to understand who owns the services because there's been an encroachment in our community.
These billionaire backed investors are buying up
Different corners of our economy and we should know who they are and we should know who this the local businesses are that we should Support the same thing is happening in our personal health If you've had the unfortunate experience have to go to a hospital or emergency room You now know you get five different bills you get the doctor group and the anesthesiologist and Yeah, you know and those are all different investor groups.
Some of them are owned by these large outside investors
They see healthcare, which is a sixth of our economy, as ripe for the plucking.
And they're trying to figure out how to get in there.
So a third of emergency rooms in the U.S.
are now owned by billionaire back private equity funds.
All the medical services, obviously drugs and pharmaceuticals.
So that's just another arena where we're getting squeezed.
And I don't know if you go to the emergency room, it's not like you're shopping around, right?
You're not like, hey, should I go to that one or that one?
Which one is gonna give me a better deal?
You know, sorry.
Same in housing.
These vulture investors are buying up mobile home parks.
One of them said to me, oh, I love owning mobile home parks.
It's like owning a waffle house where the customers are chained to the booths.
They're not going anywhere.
and we can squeeze it.
And that is the model.
Find those corners of the economy where we're willing to spend or we have no choice to spend and squeeze more out of our daily
budget.
I think you hit on something, Chuck, that's so frustrating for people across Wisconsin, whether we're talking about big box stores or whatever.
And people say, okay, I want to do something, but what choice do I have?
I might not have, I'm elderly, I don't have a car or I can't get too far.
This is all I have.
So when people are in those situations, whether it's health care for themselves, their pets or whatever, what's your recommendation, Chuck?
Is it just going to the voting booths on election day?
What can people actually do about this?
Well, I do think we have a little power over where we spend our money as consumers and educating ourselves about who owns the businesses in our community and how can we support local businesses and farms.
But in the end, we have to have politicians who are gonna side with working people in the middle class over the billionaires.
We basically need people, and we need not to fall for the phony populism, the phony, hey, I'm with you, I'm gonna help you.
I'm gonna throw you a crumb while I help my billionaire buddies raid the treasury.
So that's ultimately, I think, learning about all the different ways we're being burned by billionaires and talk to our neighbors.
You know, when people complain about local,
property taxes you have to understand there's been a multi-decade shift off of federal taxes onto local off of wealth onto work off of corporations on individuals and you do that for 40 years and lo and behold our local taxes are higher than they should be
because there's no more progressive federal tax that the rich are opting out of paying their
fair share of taxes.
And we only got about three minutes left here, but we've talked about this on this program before.
Just this week in Wisconsin, we're seeing these data centers now move in from out of state, out of country, offering local municipalities who are already stretched thin millions of dollars of relief in exchange for basically our resources and driving our electricity up.
And the locals to your point are like, what are we supposed to do?
Raise our taxes or our friends and neighbors or take the money?
Yeah, yeah, and the oligarchs are gonna raise our rates for energy so they can have these massive data centers They're gonna rate, you know, they're at this point They're trying to keep these cold zombie coal plants open around the Midwest So that because the coal company the coal oligarchs if you will have lobbied to keep their plants open Why they shut down the windmills and shut down the competition?
So these are all the ways in which the billionaires are touching us and are and pickpocketing us really
nickel and diming us and making us pay more for the things that we need.
Well,
I can't thank you enough for your work, Chuck.
It takes a special person.
to say I'm going to give up my own comfort in my 20s to go on a mission to help others.
So I applaud you and thank you for your work.
I hope people find this book burned by billionaires, by Chuck Collins.
Get it wherever you buy your books, hopefully at a local bookstore somewhere in Wisconsin, but burned by billionaires.
About a minute here left, Chuck.
What have I not asked you that you want people to know?
You know, in the years after World War II, we built an economy that raised all the boats, not just the yachts.
We focused on taxing the wealthy, making sure the wealthy pay their fair share and investing in things like education and infrastructure and affordable housing that made non-wealthy people's lives better.
And we can get back to that, but we need leadership and we need to understand we have to come together to make that happen.
The book is called Burned by Billionaires.
The author, Chuck Collins, please check it out wherever you buy your books.
Chuck, thank you so very much.
Come back soon.
We'd love to talk more.
We'd love to talk,
Thanks for having me.
Sounds great.
Our pleasure.
Stay tuned.
Hour number two is next on the Civic Media Ready Network.
Talk a little Wisconsin.
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