Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming | Nick Hanauer
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN brings it up in inequality, UBI and backlash threads as an early warning from a rich insider.
What it is
Billionaire Nick Hanauer warns fellow wealthy people in a TED talk that growing inequality could lead to social upheaval like pre-revolutionary France. He argues a higher minimum wage would grow the middle class and prosperity.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2018 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends anon49124 · 2018-10 · on “Universal Basic Income Is Silicon Valley’s Latest Scam”
The big thing UBI can do is help people whom want and desire to get out of suffering and miserable circumstances to higher level of productivity, lifestyle and tax generation. It's a no-brainer. Otherwise, pitchforks will be coming for the 1%. [this video]
Cites eliomattia · 2020-03 · on “Pay/receive Universal Basic Income without middlemen”
Interesting! Government(-backed) UBI is the ultimate goal. But how to make it happen? First, why has it not happened already? All the data indicate that it's good. A no-brainer, then? Well, - It's expensive - Governments vest financial power in businesses, not in themselves. End results? 1) A very oiled mechanism for income concentration, no questions asked 2) No mechanism for income distribution (!) 3) Blaming the government for not providing UBI already 4) No UBI, be it voluntary or government 5) Many people, who in fact want to contribute towards it, cannot. Why not start by creating that mechanism for income distribution, then? A quote about Sam Altman[1]: «Altman suggests researching Un
Cites untwerp · 2025-03 · on “Inheriting is becoming nearly as important as working”
> The hyper-wealthy seem oblivious to the fact that you can't both be a trillionaire that's causing societal economic desperation and live in a society where people politely do their business and leave you in peace. They have been well aware of it. See Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming [this video] We seem to be in the bread and circus phase for the time
Cites jyounker · 2026-04 · on “Molotov Cocktail Is Hurled at Home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman”
It's due to the widening inequality. Nick Hanauer has been talking about this for over ten years: [this video]
Cites i_think_so · 2026-04 · on “We gave an AI a 3 year retail lease and asked it to make a profit”
...and in America there are more guns than humans, and more potentially unemployed white collar workers than the police, military, and national guard combined. Nick Hanauer understood this fourteen years ago. Very few others did. And despite him spending his own time and money to explain it in simple English, nobody in his peer group wanted to hear it -- his TED talk on the subject ... took several years before it was published. Just a coincidence, I'm sure. FA (for a decade or so) FO, I guess? [LINK] [LINK] [this video] than humans, and more potentially unemployed white collar workers than the police, military and national guard combined.