{"id":1825,"date":"2026-06-06T08:33:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1825"},"modified":"2026-06-06T08:33:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:33:58","slug":"bernie-sanders-slams-kevin-oleary-over-advice-to-younger-earners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1825","title":{"rendered":"Bernie Sanders slams Kevin O'Leary over advice to younger earners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-Vt.), long known for challenging America’s wealthiest public figures, has renewed his criticism, targeting a familiar television investor. The confrontation centers on remarks made by investor and television personality Kevin O’Leary about young workers’ spending habits.<\/p>\n

Read more JPMorgan sounds the alarm on the runaway cost of AI<\/a><\/p>\n

On the debut episode of the MeidasTouch program “On Sunday with Jack Cocchiarella,” Sanders responded<\/a> to a clip of O’Leary criticizing younger workers for spending $28 on lunch. <\/p>\n

O’Leary originally made the comments on “The Diary of a CEO<\/a>” podcast with Steven Bartlett. Sanders used the exchange to broaden his critique of how ultra-wealthy figures view everyday financial pressures. <\/p>\n

Federal Reserve<\/a> data underscore the backdrop, showing wealth concentration<\/a> at its highest level in more than three decades.<\/p>\n

O’Leary’s argument was blunt: Young workers earning $70,000 a year who buy expensive lunches are wasting money that could compound into serious long-term wealth.<\/p>\n

On the podcast, O’Leary urged listeners to imagine that same $28 invested in an index fund<\/a> returning 8% to 10% annually for 50 years. <\/p>\n

Fortune ran the math using an 8% annual return and found a weekly $28 investment would compound to roughly $800,000 over five decades.<\/p>\n

Sanders dismissed the framing entirely, calling O’Leary someone who is “completely separated from the reality that ordinary Americans are experiencing.”<\/p>\n

“They have no clue, and they live in their own world,” Sanders told Cocchiarella<\/a>, describing wealthy investors as fundamentally out of touch with how most American households experience their finances.<\/p>\n

The senator went further, claiming that wealthy individuals who built fortunes through hard work too often believe that success entitles them to control broader society. <\/p>\n

“They think they have the divine right to rule,” Sanders said, adding that the belief extends across many of the nation’s wealthiest executives.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

O’Leary’s compound-interest math holds up on paper, but the salary assumptions that drive the critique paint a different picture for young workers.<\/p>\n

Median household income for Americans age 15 to 24 falls below $50,000 in more than half of all U.S. cities, SmartAsset reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That means setting aside $28 every single day, roughly $10,200 a year, would eat up a significant share of a young worker’s after-tax income.<\/p>\n

Bank of America’s 2026 Better Money Habits study<\/a> found that 42% of Generation Z workers described themselves as living paycheck to paycheck.<\/p>\n

Nearly seven in 10 reported cutting back to cope with a worsening emergency savings crisis<\/a> and rising costs, the report noted.<\/p>\n

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“They’re cutting back on dining out, picking up side hustles and starting budgets, so clearly the discipline is there,” said Bank of America head of specialized consumer client solutions Matt Gellene.<\/p>\n

…When nearly half of Gen Z still points to the high cost of living as their biggest barrier while wages aren’t keeping pace, you have to see that the math just isn’t working in their favor.<\/p>\n

The O’Leary exchange fits into a much broader campaign that Sanders has waged since Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025. <\/p>\n

At that ceremony, billionaire executives Jeff Bezos<\/a>, Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>, and the world’s richest person, Elon Musk<\/a>, were seated in prominent positions that drew widespread public attention.<\/p>\n

Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> took their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour across roughly 40 stops through the end of 2025, drawing more than 261,000 total attendees.<\/p>\n

Sanders has also pushed for legislative action alongside Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), introducing the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act<\/a>, which would impose a 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires.<\/p>\n

More Federal Reserve:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The proposal would raise approximately $4.4 trillion over a decade, targeting 938 billionaires currently residing in the United States.<\/p>\n

“Liberal democracies around the world are now among the most unequal societies ever to have existed in human history,” Northwestern University Political Science Professor Jeffrey Winters told Democracy Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sanders also drew a sharp distinction during the interview, entirely rejecting the label of “businesspeople” for ultra-wealthy figures like O’Leary. <\/p>\n

“The guy down the shop who owns a mom and pop is a business guy,” Sanders said, separating small business owners from billionaires. “These people are not businesspeople, they are oligarchs,” he added, framing the wealth divide as a direct threat to American democracy.<\/p>\n

Sanders closed the interview by linking the wealth gap to what he called a growing imbalance in media and public discourse. He argued that the ultra-wealthy not only shape the economy but also influence which conversations the public can have.<\/p>\n

The senator told Cocchiarella that major corporate television networks almost never provide meaningful coverage of the economic concerns of tens of millions of Americans. <\/p>\n

He pointed to Elon Musk’s $250 million political spending<\/a> and his use of X (the former Twitter) to endorse political candidates as one example of how billionaire ownership narrows the scope of public conversation.<\/p>\n

“It’s our world, not Mr. Musk’s and not Mr. Bezos’,” he said on the program, asking viewers to decide what kind of future they want.<\/p>\n

Related: Kevin O’Leary says this is the highest-paying job right now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.<\/i><\/p>\n

Read more Jesse Ridgway and Wife ‘Sleeping Next to a Gun’ Amid Abortion Backlash<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 6, 2026 at 4:03 AM.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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