a comedian Tom Segura they joined Joe Rogan for a wide-ranging conversation that included an in-depth look at wealth, corporate taxes, and how billionaires are perceived.
In the recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience”, both acknowledged the shady side of tax loopholes, but Rogan also pushed back against the general criticism of ultra-rich individuals.
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Segura pointed out how some massive companies avoid taxes by moving profits abroad. “They’ll move it to Ireland and then not pay tax on it,” he said. Rogan agreed, saying that’s the game rich people and corporations play. “Supposedly, that’s it Jeffrey Epstein he did for the people. He helped people with tax loopholes and, you know, helped rich people to save money,” he added.
“[These loopholes] they exist for a reason, don’t they?” Segura asked. Rogan shot back, “They’re scumbags. Yes. All put it in place. They just want to make sure they keep as much money as possible.”
Even though Rogan acknowledged these tactics as shady, he argued that there is more nuance when it comes to billionaire founders. “There’s that thing where it’s like ‘nobody should be a billionaire,'” Rogan said. “Well, okay, hang on. Do you like having an iPhone? Somebody had to do it. They’re working 16 hours a day.”
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Rogan said people often idolize technology leaders without realizing the personal toll it can take. He said that no one really wants to be CEO of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Tim Cook or the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobsand added that Jobs died young because of the intense pressure and workload.
Segura replied that the critics are not always against the success itself, but rather the inequality that follows. “These Amazon warehouse people are like f*** die in the warehouse,” he said. “You have people at the top with about hundreds of billions of dollars. Can’t you pass any of that on to some of your workers? That always seems like a legitimate complaint from people to me.”
Segura said some of these employees earn as little as $15 an hour, to which Rogan replied that while that is true, if the founder hadn’t started the company, those jobs wouldn’t even be there in the first place. He also added that they should “spread it around.”