Interviews
David Friedberg said socialism was inevitable in America
The Ohalo CEO told Steven Bartlett on Diary of a CEO that the US empire is in decline and that paycheck poverty is fueling the shift.
David Friedberg said socialism is inevitable in America. He told Steven Bartlett on Diary of a CEO that he did not want to lose his agency or liberty but believed the country was headed there anyway.
Friedberg co-hosts the All-In podcast and runs agricultural genetics company Ohalo. He said President Donald Trump appointed him to the Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, and Bartlett brought him on as voters and founders argued over inequality, AI, and the cost of living.
When Bartlett asked whether the United States as an empire was in decline, Friedberg answered yes. He called it one of the great lies that government would save people, saying the more government tried to create services and lift workers up the ladder, the more expensive those programs became.
Friedberg said 63% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and cannot pay their bills. He pointed to roughly $183 trillion in total U.S. household net worth, about $8 trillion held by billionaires, and about $4 trillion held by the bottom half of the country. The rich did not take everything, he argued; the bottom half never got to own the productive assets that built wealth over the last 50 years.
He warned that California's Billionaire Tax Act would let the state tax property people already bought with post-tax income. Lower the threshold or raise the rate, he said, and a majority could vote to strip a minority's holdings. Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren were already calling for a national wealth tax, he added.
California voters will decide that fight on Nov. 3, 2026. Proposition 40), sponsored by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, would impose a one-time 5% levy on residents worth more than $1 billion to fund healthcare, education, and food assistance.
Friedberg said taxing the rich at the point of sale would cover most of the gap. Wealthy shareholders borrow against stock to buy yachts without triggering tax, he said, describing a European bank that offered him a tax-free loan against his Ocean AG shares when he was 26. Borrowing against assets should count as a taxable event, he argued, alongside higher capital-gains and income taxes when people transact.
He traced rising anger to broken promises on college and housing. Federal student loans let any accredited school charge any price for any degree, he said, so tuition climbed while graduates could not afford rent. A chart he cited showed healthcare and education costs soaring where government dollars flow in, while cars, clothing, and software stayed flat where markets set prices.
Friedberg still called AI a golden age and rejected the idea that Dario Amodei, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman would capture all the value. He predicted a new AI billionaire within 10 years outside the current giants and said converting 2% of Americans from labor to capital each year was the metric that could make work optional within 50 years.
He said China would gain if the United States chose redistribution over abundance, and he pointed to Argentina as a recent warning about socialist policy cycles. He wanted liberty preserved even as he saw socialism closing in.
Source video: Top White House Advisor: The US Empire Is Dying And Socialism Is Coming Next! | David Friedberg