People & Blogs
How the Wealth Gap Is Reshaping Politics | Xochitl Gonzalez | TED
Wealth inequality gets talked about as an economic problem. Writer Xochitl Gonzalez makes the case that it’s a civic one, too — a slow, quiet threat to democracy. Drawing on her research into the psychology of social class, she shows how growing up with (or without) money changes how we experience politics, community and society.…
People & Blogs
Instead of asking why they stay, ask how we can help #TEDTalks
Leslie Morgan Steiner was in “crazy love” — that is, madly in love with a man who routinely abused her and threatened her life. Steiner tells the story of her relationship, correcting misconceptions many people hold about victims of domestic violence, and explaining how we can all help break the silence.
People & Blogs
The Art of Disagreeing with Dignity | Tami Pyfer | TED
Tami Pyfer has five kids who belong to five different political parties, and sometimes family conversations get heated. Drawing on her work as a former policy advisor to the governor of Utah, she wanted to find a healthier way for people to talk about politics without contempt. The result is the Dignity Index: an eight-point…
People & Blogs
How to Make Parenting Less Lonely | Stacey McLachlan | TED
When parents first have kids, some risk entering “the loneliest decade,” where they fall out of touch with friends. Writer Stacey McLachlan decided to do something different when she had her daughter, refusing to let her social life slip away. In this witty talk, she shares her solution — and why it matters for all…
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@StoriesWithEvelynHart
October 13, 2026 at 11:20 am
The moment she described her card failing over a simple cup of coffee — and the panic that came rushing back from childhood — stayed with me. It takes such courage to be that honest, and her line about inequality being the heart disease of democracy landed deeply. Thank you, Xochitl, for giving words to something so many of us carry quietly. I hope this talk reaches far and wide.
@StoriesWithEvelynHart
October 13, 2026 at 12:12 pm
Haha, well said — elections feel so personal and high-stakes everywhere lately. Hope the 25th goes the way you’re hoping for!
@nokoolaid
October 13, 2026 at 11:25 am
The problem with politics is that we have a large part of the population who are very NOT self-aware, and metacognition is almost nonexistent. A malignant narcissist comes along and creates scapegoats, like immigrants and trans folks, who have nothing to do with their problems at all. It is a time when dog whistles aren’t even being used, but the quiet part is said out loud, appealing to their bigotry, racism, and fear of others not like them. They don’t see the income inequality and how they are indentured to that top class. In fact, they defend it through ignorance, stupidity, and fear. They were taken for a ride and won’t admit it, even if it’s staring them in the face. There’s no such thing as TDS, and that comes from false consensus bias. They believe everyone thinks as they do, which isn’t true. Like all cults, they double down and make excuse after excuse. Lastly, that goes along with this is a lack of nuanced thinking. It’s binary thinking. Oh, you’re pro-choice, you’re a Biden lover, you’re pro-2A, you’re a Trumpanzee, you think Netanyahu has committed genocide, you’re an antisemite, you call the attacks on Oct. 7 terrorism, and you’re anti-Palestinian. The checkboxes from this thinking put labels on people like a straitjacket. This lack of nuance is partially from group think/conformity, part of it from a lack of intelligence in some, and part of it from a lack of metacognition, which is understanding how one thinks and why, as if from a 3rd party. While I think we’ll get through this phase, I don’t think we’ll fix the underlying issues. Not with billionaires, and not with metacognition. I think this sealed the deal that we’re no longer on top as a nation, too.
@anthonygrodecki7968
October 13, 2026 at 11:39 am
All true but tax the wealthy more and collect that tax, outlaw tax evasion. Look back post ww2 a working class couple could buy a home raising kids. Now it’s impossible. Soon those workers will not have jobs thanks to AI. Good luck use your vote wisely this time
@MrRoberthafetz
October 13, 2026 at 5:12 pm
The wealthy inequality isnt among the rich and the rest of us its wealth controlled by the government that holds us down. We pay 50% of our income in taxes. The big lie of the wealth inequality socialists is the zero sum economy. They wrongly believe the economy has fixed amount of wealth. When one becomes a billionaire he takes money away from the rest of us that we can never get. 100% BS. When Bill Gates invented Microsoft many people became millionaires, the wealth expanded, jobs created, anew market formed. When a person creates service or product wealth and opportunity increase. When the government taxes us our wealth decreases.
It isnt a social class problem Single mothers no father is the main cause of poverty and crime. The welfare state destroyed the two parent family and increased poverty after spending 27 trillion dollars they got worse.
After Trumps tax cuts and reduction of government poverty dropped to the lowest level sone we started measuring it. Chils black and ZHIspanic poverty dropped to the lowest level. Family income is at its highest level at 89000.00.
Government is the problem freedom is the solution
@Jasonxbr
October 13, 2026 at 11:41 am
No 💩🗑🕳💯
Its the oligarchs and the political establishment of narcissism self-serving tendencies that is 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢Jesus Christ man my god we failed as a constitutional republic 💔
@ansel_ale
October 13, 2026 at 11:44 am
Tax Wealth, Not Income!
@is4349
October 13, 2026 at 1:08 pm
@ansel_ale Unrealistic
@Stephen-zq2wf
October 13, 2026 at 11:47 am
In the MEASURE of Billionaire’s / Year
2025 was the First Year
that the % of Billionaires who “Inherited / Lucky Sperm Club”
Exceeded the % of Billionaires who actually “Earned / Created”
their Wealth
@AcselMitchell
October 13, 2026 at 11:59 am
pray for Brazil to not come into it too, on the 25th we shall elect Lula again!
@AcselMitchell
October 13, 2026 at 12:00 pm
pray for Brazil to not come into it too, on the 25th we shall elect Lula again! 13
@lindeza64
October 14, 2026 at 7:53 pm
May that be so! Lula 13
@mlazarus5388
October 13, 2026 at 12:10 pm
Why does someone else’s success impact your financial status? I still don’t understand this.
@ConnorMalanos
October 14, 2026 at 3:57 am
@mlazarus5388 with a finite amount of money in the system, if you have 99% of it, I can only ever get 1% of it
@f.e.5691
October 14, 2026 at 4:28 am
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Imagine that there are 10 people in a remote island, and 10 survival kits. Each survival kit is enough for 1 person to continue living until rescue arrive. For some reason that happened before we started analyzing this situation, 1 person ended up with 7 kits, and the other 9 got 3 kits. Kits could of course be donated, but that 1 person does not want to, and the other 9 cannot take them by force because that person is somehow protected or hiding. What do you think that will happen? The 9 persons will fight for the 3 remaining kits.
Now, I suggest that you look at the wealth distribution in the US. As far I could find out, 10 % of the top richer people hold almost 70 % of the total US wealth (US 2026 Q2), while the bottom 50 % poorer hold 2.3 %. I purposely distributed the numbers of kits based on actual stats of wealth distribution in the US today.
@mlazarus5388
October 14, 2026 at 8:23 am
@f.e.5691that’s nice analogy not even close to what America is experiencing. You’re using a fixed pie theory of economy. That’s not what we have. To build on your analogy, in our case, everyone on the island has the ability to create their own means of survival. However, some worthless or lazy people will expect the ones who hustle, gather supplies, and build shelter, to do the same for the taker class of islanders. Are you a taker or a doer? Do you feel helpless or can you find food, clean water and build shelter? Takers quickly run out of things to take. The builders will thrive on the island and eventually leave the takers to fend for themselves. The average Venezuelan has lost close to 20 pounds since socialism has been implemented. The builders in Venezuela stopped building for the takers. Enjoy your survival kit analogy but the reality is, there’s no survival kits for anyone. Only what people created with their own efforts.
@JanisFroehlig
October 14, 2026 at 2:35 pm
Because it’s inevitably relative.
@JanisFroehlig
October 14, 2026 at 2:44 pm
@mlazarus5388The land _is_ a fixed pie, and hustle in the US was Pa Ingalls realizing the free land his government told him he’d be able to occupy free from native interference simply didn’t exist. So he shot natives himself, bailed on his hotel debt, quickly, almost selling one of his daughters in the process.
Enough with the hustle. It’s theft, and worse. It inspires no one.
@rebeccaaustin2458
October 13, 2026 at 12:39 pm
Thank you for painting a clear picture of the increasing divisions we see in socio-political strata. It seems so obvious to some of us that voting for conservative governments – especially corrupt libertarian leaning ones – will mean further erosion of social safety nets, but as you said, fear makes people look to a strongman for assurance.
@riuphane
October 13, 2026 at 12:47 pm
Supporting politicians who support us is harder than you make it sound. Most successful politicians are claiming to be doing things for the middle and/or lower classes, but often are not actually following through or their policies are deceptive in how or who they help. And just “being more educated on the topic” or trying to dig into the politician’s history is not straight forward (or in some cases not even an option) for many of the people who need to be voting for more advocacy. Government is required because we can’t all be experts in political science and the policy/decision required, but we’re all expected to know how to pick the best candidate without knowing what that actually means or is… And that knowledge/understanding only gets *statistically* worse as your economic status gets worse. Nothing said in this talk is wrong, and the call to action is great, but it’s much more complicated and there is so much more making this difficult…
@Dangling-Participle99
October 13, 2026 at 5:18 pm
An honest politician is like an honest cop.
They’re going to be railroaded by the corrupt ones, always.
Spotting the difference is easy.
The good ones tend to beat the pavement.
Town Halls, Grass Roots, directly to the people.
Person to person.
Bad ones usually stick with TV, and online media.
They almost never talk about policy, because they don’t have any.
Instead they insult, and smear.
Once you hone in.
The bad ones might as well put a light on their head.
It’s that easy.
Unfortunately most Americans these days enjoy low effort thinking, and that’s where everything falls apart.
@JanisFroehlig
October 14, 2026 at 2:34 pm
@Dangling-Participle99Funny how we expect academic institutions to avoid low-effort thinking, but yet…. (I say this as a mom who sent her kid to Milton Friedman’s Uni on scholarship and find myself homeless, rent for 250sqft studio is 73% of my SSDI.) The willful ignorance of Cornell is a string we will be pulling for decades.
@ChemicalFlare
October 13, 2026 at 12:58 pm
Well said, thank you for sharing your insight on this important topic. We have a profound imbalance that’s hard to ignore.
@Lukeclout
October 13, 2026 at 2:36 pm
Autocracy is not the problem. Unmeritocractic, inefficient autocracies are.
@AlmedhaTony
October 13, 2026 at 2:59 pm
Catmini
@buttersstotch9172
October 13, 2026 at 4:48 pm
What are those shoes lol?
@Leeboi2926
October 14, 2026 at 4:43 pm
Pay attention to the points. Omg please 🙏🏾 distracted easily is apart of the problem we all have, PAY ATTENTION!
@MrRoberthafetz
October 13, 2026 at 5:11 pm
The wealthy inequality isnt among the rich and the rest of us its wealth controlled by the government that holds us down. We pay 50% of our income in taxes. The big lie of the wealth inequality socialists is the zero sum economy. They wrongly believe the economy has fixed amount of wealth. When one becomes a billionaire he takes money away from the rest of us that we can never get. 100% BS. When Bill Gates invented Microsoft many people became millionaires, the wealth expanded, jobs created, anew market formed. When a person creates service or product wealth and opportunity increase. When the government taxes us our wealth decreases.
It isnt a social class problem Single mothers no father is the main cause of poverty and crime. The welfare state destroyed the two parent family and increased poverty after spending 27 trillion dollars they got worse.
After Trumps tax cuts and reduction of government poverty dropped to the lowest level sone we started measuring it. Chils black and ZHIspanic poverty dropped to the lowest level. Family income is at its highest level at 89000.00.
Government is the problem freedom is the solution
@SaltVinegar2010
October 13, 2026 at 6:54 pm
Most of this is already well known.
@LifeInspector
October 13, 2026 at 7:28 pm
As someone from an upper middle class family, she’s right. I’ve always had the security of a safety net, even when I was scraping by in college. Financial anxiety has never been an issue for me, and everybody from a background like mine, including most decision makers, really don’t understand what it’s like to be poor.
@DAHRANIRANI-p7u
October 13, 2026 at 8:59 pm
Bacan Philips permata ted
@DAHRANIRANI-p7u
October 13, 2026 at 9:00 pm
Bacan island crismas island 🕸️ sinjaitv
@DAHRANIRANI-p7u
October 13, 2026 at 9:02 pm
Batu karang . Bali
@DAHRANIRANI-p7u
October 13, 2026 at 9:04 pm
Indira seruni titik nol tiang sosial
@DAHRANIRANI-p7u
October 13, 2026 at 9:06 pm
4 rakaat siang ? Singapur motor
@soldierforrester2401
October 14, 2026 at 5:11 am
9:12 xenophobia?
@TheNesbittExperience
October 15, 2026 at 4:27 pm
If I never hear it again it will be too soon. Open borders have caused wage suppression and housing shortages. She’s wrong here.
@af_cat
October 14, 2026 at 7:40 am
If Neo was middle class, we’re all in some bad juju. Vote better people. 😐
@mlazarus5388
October 14, 2026 at 8:29 am
There’s a significant amount of envy in these comments. And a dearth of self reliance. Jeff Bezos didn’t steal my money. Nor did he force me to work for him. I have complete agency in this economic exchange. Taylor Swift didn’t force me to listen to her music or attend her shows. If she’s a billionaire, it’s because she created something of value that people want to acquire. Through voluntary exchange.
@lukeC716
October 14, 2026 at 3:46 pm
@mlazarus5388 the guy who made his workers pee in bottles stole my taxes by lobbing the US government for subsidies.
@mlazarus5388
October 14, 2026 at 3:50 pm
@lukeC716 Who elected the people who agreed to give the pee forcing employer subsidies? I’m confused as to why people refuse to accept agency and only want to embrace victimhood.
@MsSimpleMovies
October 16, 2026 at 10:59 am
We do have agency, it’s absolutely true. But some people have agency inside the system, and some people live outside the system. I am a child of immigrants who worked very hard and educated their children. I continue to study as a mother, to improve my station in life. Doors have opened for me. I’m doing very well, and I help others! I believe in my choices and preparedness for opportunities, and we teach our children the same. There’s nothing blameworthy in being born with financial advantages. However, I do believe there’s something selfish and antisocial in flinging money around to trample on others’ rights. In my little world, I don’t do it to others less advantaged, and my effect would be so much smaller. With greater advantage comes the power to effect others even more. This comes with responsibility to never trample. Never seek favoritism. Never seek a bigger chunk of the universe than is our fair share. Getting taxpayer bailouts in response to “donations” is a form of that.
– end of my personal Ted Talk
@lukeC716
October 16, 2026 at 11:27 am
@mlazarus5388 there’s a wonderful study Princeton did 10 years ago that shows systematic lobbying by corporations produces the results they want despite what the “voters” want.
Do you really think say, a million voters in America have more power than the founder of the largest e-commerce company in America?
If you do I have a bridge to sell you
@siddharthakumar4761
October 14, 2026 at 9:47 am
JAY SHREE KRISHNA
@Scott-w2k
October 14, 2026 at 2:36 pm
Bloody capitalism for the bottom 90% and government enshrined socialism for those on the top…
@Leeboi2926
October 14, 2026 at 4:37 pm
I’m tired. We live in a country where only someone who looks like her can deliver this message and maybe it will be heard when she’s not the person most affected by the issues she’s discussing. Sigh, and the cycle goes round and round
@dennisalton9531
October 14, 2026 at 5:18 pm
You can’t hold onto your money enough to buy a cup of coffee?
@doubleuenbeeeh
October 14, 2026 at 6:06 pm
Yeah that’s absolutely a working class South Brooklyn accent 😂
@tjentertains
October 14, 2026 at 7:18 pm
imagine being black on top of that
@heather1506
October 15, 2026 at 12:01 am
Brilliant. These things are known by many of us but few are able to articulate it
@Syeal7
October 15, 2026 at 8:30 am
1:05 “Despite our nation’s reputation as a land of opportunity…”‘
Sorry, but absolutely no one believes or even perceives you as that. Perhaps only ever repeated by other Americans.
@CGuilby
October 15, 2026 at 8:50 am
BAN PRIVATE SCHOOLS!
@henrykhu6219
October 15, 2026 at 9:03 am
4:55. Gaslighting, AI written, fucking bullshit. ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT.
@PaulGates-o5s
October 15, 2026 at 2:15 pm
What do you do when you are at the top you either rot and die or you take a dump on everyone else:)
@ianflamm1573
October 15, 2026 at 4:01 pm
This is the Columbia graduate who wrote the article asking:
Why Do Rich People Love Quiet? – The sound of gentrification is silence.
@danielslilaty
October 16, 2026 at 8:00 pm
I remember that article. Savage!
@collettlee
October 15, 2026 at 4:25 pm
Aptly named channel, interesting for sure🤓
@NovaNY347
October 15, 2026 at 5:25 pm
Fun story so far she has no money but she buys coffee and owns Oura ring.
@ChristopherNilsson-m4t
October 15, 2026 at 5:36 pm
The classes are supposed to be divided. We’re supposed to hate the rich and view them as oppressors.
@IDrone-l7x
October 15, 2026 at 5:51 pm
I know hunger. I know hardship. I know what it feels like to lose a marriage, stand alone, and battle physical and mental pain. I also know resilience. I know what it takes to overcome seemingly impossible odds, rise above adversity, and create a self-made seven-figure success story from the ground up. I am from Midwest America, white male, and I know these things.
@theIdlecrane
October 15, 2026 at 6:37 pm
If I had no money, I would have skipped coffee, instead of “move things around”. Moving things around for coffee is crazy. 😅
@tiberiuswise
October 15, 2026 at 6:41 pm
We used to teach kids that if you do your chores, you get your privileges. Now we teach kids that someone else has more than you because they’re privileged.
@tygressblade
October 16, 2026 at 11:46 am
@tiberiuswise Becauwe it’s true.
@geraldinegranger9186
October 17, 2026 at 11:48 am
People have extreme disparities when it comes to financial privilege. For example, some inherit wealth from their rich parents while others are expected to drain their own finances to support their poor aged parents. That seems like a luck of birth, not a hard work ethic thing.
@tiberiuswise
October 18, 2026 at 7:09 pm
@geraldinegranger9186 In related news, some people are born in America and some are born in Somalia. One mindset/worldview will help you prosper, the other will help you revel in misery. Choose wisely as it is one of the few things you can control.
@facelessman7733
October 15, 2026 at 6:50 pm
People hate others more than they love themselves. We’re cooked.
@neilifill4819
October 16, 2026 at 8:32 am
Say it louder for the people in the back.
@phenomenal-xv4ey
October 16, 2026 at 10:39 am
Whenever I hear a woman talk about the wealth gap and inequality and how it should be shared, I think about the inequality in the relationship market:
– Women have far more “wealth” in the relationship market i.e. options
– Majority of women worldwide prefer men to initiate the approach in creating a relationship. This creates an imbalance where the woman is in the interviewer role and the man is in the interviewee role. The power dynamics are very apparent
– Women control real wealth and that is who gets to have children and doesn’t; in any generation 40% of men will not have biological children…80%of women will have biological children
– The government has done nothing to address the relationship imbalance, it is totally left up to the individual to figure it out, creating a meritocracy of the haves and have not’s
@RbeccaCexplores
October 16, 2026 at 3:59 pm
Nobody is financially oppressing anybody else. America is the land of opportunity for everyone however problems do occur. For everyone An adult handles those problems without blaming someone else.
@MJ-EST
October 16, 2026 at 10:21 pm
I call BS on her premises. She is looking at the divide from an entitled person’s perspective. Those who were born poor but figured out how to gain wealth are the American dream.
However following the guidance of the entitled, or the advice of advisors, or the advice of college professors is not the way to love the American dream.
You are not going to “make lt” by following anybody. You figure it out and you work very hard.
@andycordy5190
October 17, 2026 at 2:12 am
I wish that this could find an audience outside of our committed, interested partisan group. I fear that the people who really need to hear this have already shut down on anything from TED
@drjdmtuning4982
October 17, 2026 at 7:05 am
Look if she was being doing what she did gave consent not intox or inebriated no harm no fouls not morally sound but would be justified. The moment you introduce any thing that alters the mind in anyway even if she willingly took something if you don’t clear it in a formal setting of the intent and execution you are liable. If you walk in get invited in the act and she goes along with it but you are not aware of what was ingested before you arrive and didn’t clear it with that person without reasonable doubt take no parts
@geraldinegranger9186
October 17, 2026 at 11:38 am
I don’t think this landed. I’ve been avoiding TED talks because they try to distill complex issues into short bites palatable to the typical mainstream audience. One can tell just from the comments that the coffee credit card panic example did not explain the deep systemic roots (foundational thought patterns that are baked into our bones) that lead to inequality.
@DarkestHorsest
October 17, 2026 at 1:12 pm
Overly Identarian talk. Giving an example of not affording Starbucks when she could’ve made her own coffee like real poor people do smacks of hypocrisy. She proved that she’s willing to spend beyond her means, not that she’s unable to make a sufficient income. There’s a difference.
@dad102
October 18, 2026 at 9:01 pm
You are good at this.