Sen. Bernie Sanders is having trouble wriggling himself out of a corner after selling tickets to an touting his new book – which decries capitalism – for a whopping $95.
Sanders was confronted about it by CBS’ Margaret Brennan, who asked about the high price for the event, which highlighted his book, named, most ironically, “It’s Okay to Be Angry About Capitalism.”
“Tickets for your tour apparently are selling for $95 on Ticketmaster, which is accused of anti-competitive behavior. You know that, some of your [fellow] Democrats are criticizing them. Aren’t you benefiting from the same system you’re trying to dismantle?” Brennan asked.
Sanders defended himself by saying that he doesn’t make money from it.
“Those decisions are made totally by the publisher and the bookseller,” Sanders said. “I think there’s one case where in one place here in Washington, Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore charging some tickets. Most of them, I think are 40 dollars, 50 dollars, and you get a book as well. So if you want to come, you’re going to have to pay 40 bucks, I’ll throw in the book for free. And we’re doing a number of free events. But I don’t make a nickel out of these things.”
“But you’re okay doing business with Ticketmaster?” Brennan said.
“No, not particularly,” Sanders replied.
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7 Responses
Good for Bernie. Perhaps a bit of capitalistic excess will temper his otherwise aversion to the profit incentive.
Mr. Bernie Sanders your eyes are popping out of your socket when you talk
May he be a tzinder in gahenim
If you have been listening to Bernie Sanders for the past 60 years, he has been very consistent. He is not against Capitalism or the profit incentive.
He has been trying to address the destructive nature of a system that is fueled by uncontrolled greed and rigidly committed to prioritizing corporate profits over the needs of ordinary Americans. The major disaster last week where a Norfolk Southern train derailed with Toxic Chemicals causing a human tragedy to the residents in East Palestine, OHIO is a great example of this.
The rate of accidents on Norfolk Southern’s railway increased in each of the last four years, according to a recent company presentation. The record has worsened as executives at Norfolk Southern and other railroads have been telling investors on Wall Street that they can bolster their profit margins by keeping a lid on costs. At the same time, railway companies have lobbied against new rules aimed at making trains safer.
Norfolk Southern, which earned more than $3 billion last year, invested close to $2 billion in its railways and operations, up a third from 2021. But over the past five years, it paid shareholders nearly $18 billion through stock buybacks and dividends — twice as much as the amount it invested in its railways and operations.
Sanders argues that unfettered capitalism is to blame for an unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality and is undermining our democracy. How can we accept an economic order that allows three billionaires to control more wealth than the bottom half of our society? How can we accept a political system that allows the super rich to buy elections and politicians?
TICKETMASTER.
A bipartisan group of senators held a Senate Judiciary hearing in January to investigate Ticketmaster and suspected monopoly power after its mishandling of Taylor Swift’s “The Era’s Tour” ticket sales. Purchasers of the tickets experienced website outages, wait times, astronomical prices and widespread confusion over the pre-sale.
“The way your company handled the ticket sales with Ms. Swift was a debacle,” Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said. “If you care about the consumer, cap the price, cut out the bots, cut out the middle people,” Kennedy added.
Yes
If he wrote a book, he’s going to get paid royalties. Guess who pays him the royalties? You guessed it, the publishing company. Guess who is now benefiting from those $95 tickets? There’s no getting out of this.
But honestly, who cares about this? He called Israel a racist state the other day. I’ve been calling Jimmy Carter an antisemite for years based on this exact problem. Therefore, that would make Bernie an antisemite (or a self-hating Jew, as the case may be).
Jackk,
Did you really just dedicate 15 minutes of your time, detailing the greatness of socialism on a frum news site?