Profit, Power, and Policy | Business Ethics Insights
Aug 25, 2026 · 37 min · 10 segments
From vouchers and book bans to Supreme Court appointments, author Katherine Stewart traces how a small group of the super-rich has funded a decades-long campaign against public education and…
Katherine StewartGuestBill KeepHostNancy LasherHostThis movement appeals to those, as you say in the book, that the knowledge economy left behind.
The top 0.1% doubled its share of wealth, while the bottom 90% lost a corresponding share.
People in the bottom rungs are desperately trying to hold on to status, even as they support those who might be appealing to their egos, but certainly doing nothing to support their place in society.
How did Americans become so hostile to the benefits of unionization, public education, and workplace protections, and against discrimination? How did we move here?
Well, conservatism in America has always had plenty of internal diversity.
And of course, some conservative leaders of the past have at times acted honorably and in the public interest.
But on balance, the movement has always returned to a few core convictions.
Ronald Reagan famously quipped, quote, the nine scariest words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
You know, it's a line that always gets laughs, right? Or used to always get laughs.
Republican political activist and anti-tax fanatic Grover Norquist said, I don't want to abolish government.
I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub, right? This kind of conviction, sort of propaganda against government, was always a cover for those who did not want any representatives of the people to interfere with their private power and privileges.
What they wanted is a government that answered to their interests, right? The opposite of the extremes of deregulation they champion is not a free market.
So over the past decades, there's been this massive propaganda campaign against government.
Of course, they want the government interfering in your reproductive decisions, but they don't want the government regulating anything that might have climate impacts or polluting impacts.
So it's no government for me and big government for me, right? Now, could governments be more efficient in the way they spend their money? Of course, there's always room for improvement in government just as there are in the private sector.
But it's like that Joni Mitchell song, you don't know what you've got till it's gone, right? We have plenty of examples around the world and throughout history of nations or societies with totally captured and corrupt governments, along with others that have a total absence of any kind of functioning government.
One little example, look at the cyclospora outbreak, the Trump administration's cuts to federal services and disease management specifically.
This movement appeals to those, as you say in the book, that the knowledge economy left behind.
The top 0.1% doubled its share of wealth, while the bottom 90% lost a corresponding share.
People in the bottom rungs are desperately trying to hold on to status, even as they support those who might be appealing to their egos, but certainly doing nothing to support their place in society.
How did Americans become so hostile to the benefits of unionization, public education, and workplace protections, and against discrimination? How did we move here?
Well, conservatism in America has always had plenty of internal diversity.
And of course, some conservative leaders of the past have at times acted honorably and in the public interest.
But on balance, the movement has always returned to a few core convictions.
Ronald Reagan famously quipped, quote, the nine scariest words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
You know, it's a line that always gets laughs, right? Or used to always get laughs.
Republican political activist and anti-tax fanatic Grover Norquist said, I don't want to abolish government.
I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub, right? This kind of conviction, sort of propaganda against government, was always a cover for those who did not want any representatives of the people to interfere with their private power and privileges.
What they wanted is a government that answered to their interests, right? The opposite of the extremes of deregulation they champion is not a free market.
So over the past decades, there's been this massive propaganda campaign against government.
Of course, they want the government interfering in your reproductive decisions, but they don't want the government regulating anything that might have climate impacts or polluting impacts.
So it's no government for me and big government for me, right? Now, could governments be more efficient in the way they spend their money? Of course, there's always room for improvement in government just as there are in the private sector.
But it's like that Joni Mitchell song, you don't know what you've got till it's gone, right? We have plenty of examples around the world and throughout history of nations or societies with totally captured and corrupt governments, along with others that have a total absence of any kind of functioning government.
One little example, look at the cyclospora outbreak, the Trump administration's cuts to federal services and disease management specifically.
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