Shadowing Practice: 20 People Confront a Billionaire (ft. John Morgan) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Today, I think we've all sat here
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and we've heard you talk about your jet and Maui
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and your three homes and the money that sits in your account that you don't care to touch.
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What stops you from helping every person in this room that's struggling right now?
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How do you help them?
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What do you do?
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Because you got a private jet, but I had to take off work today and I'm struggling.
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I got bills, man.
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I'm John Morgan, the founder of Morgan & Morgan, America's largest injury law firm.
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And according to Forbes, I'm a billionaire.
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Ask me anything.
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My first question is, how much are you currently worth and how did you amass that amount of money?
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I'm a lawyer.
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I went to law school and became a lawyer, but I'm also a serial entrepreneur.
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I built and operate a chain of attractions across America.
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I have Marriott hotels across America.
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I build shopping centers.
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The big part of my wealth has been generated by my law firm, Morgan & Morgan.
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While I don't know exactly how much I'm worth, I used to tell my kids when they were little, when their friends would ask them,
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are we rich or not?
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I said, the answer is this, we're comfortable.
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What do you mean comfortable?
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Like, you definitely have way more than just being comfortable.
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You live a luxury life.
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Do you call being worth a billion dollars comfortable?
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Very.
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But you don't feel like it because you don't spend it.
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When you grow up a certain way, it's not like it's changed much of my life.
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I'm in the same house.
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I don't spend the money that you would think I'd spend.
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It's odd because you have all this money in the bank, but it doesn't really change what you do day to day.
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My question for you is, what stops you from using your wealth to change somebody's life?
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Nothing.
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Listen, I live three places.
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I live in Florida, I live in Maui, Hawaii, and I live in New Hampshire.
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But I've taken my wealth and done certain things.
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Like in Florida where I live, I ran a constitutional amendment twice to legalize medical marijuana.
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I lost the first time, but I won the second time with 72 % of the vote.
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I believe that income inequality is the number one issue facing America today.
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The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer.
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And every day the gulf is getting wider.
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So what did I do?
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I ran a constitutional amendment.
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I spent tens of millions of dollars to raise the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $15 an hour in Florida.
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That's a doubling of the minimum wage.
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So I take that money that I make
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and I've run those constitutional amendments and I've put money into food banks and coalition for the homeless, and it goes on and on.
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And I will tell you this, not to pat me on the back too much about it, because I don't really feel it.
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I don't really feel it.
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I was at lunch the other day, and this woman walks up to me and says,
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John, I just want to thank you and your wife for the donation you made to iDignity.
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I didn't know what iDignity was.
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I said, how much did we give?
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She said, $500 ,000.
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It turns out that my wife had given the money.
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And by the way, if you want money, call my wife.
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And identity is a place for the poorest of the poor to get identification because more and more in this country,
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you need to have identification just to get food stamps.
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I believe when you make this kind of money, you have an obligation to give it back.
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You don't feel it.
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It doesn't hurt you.
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You know, you can look at me and know I'm not missing too many meals.
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So I don't feel like I'm doing anything special.
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I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.
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So I'm going to try to rephrase it.
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What stops you from getting out that car at the moment where you and your son, and you've seen the homeless person?
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What stopped you from changing that person's life?
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Well, I do get out of the car sometimes.
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When I pull up to a stoplight and there's somebody out there begging for food,
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even if they look like they've been eating donuts for the last 10 years, I give them money because I'm not going to judge them.
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I look at them this way.
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They're out there on the street in the heat.
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I don't know what they're doing out there, but you know what?
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I don't it's not my job to judge.
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I feel like a lot of billionaires they say the same thing.
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They say they do donate and they do give to people.
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You give to organizations and large conglomerates that take your money and they break it up and they throw it around.
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If you're not handing something down to help somebody who really needs it, then what does it matter?
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You're in the law field and that's how you've amassed your network and everything that you've earned.
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If you had to start over in a different industry, what would you be in in order to become I'm a billionaire again.
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I don't even know how it happened in the first place.
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So it's like keep waking, waiting to wake up and it was all a dream.
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I was like, how did this happen?
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Listen, here's my problem.
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I suck in math and I suck in science.
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So there's not many jobs left for me after that.
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But my gut tells me I want to go to Wall Street and make deals like that.
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But what I would probably do is stay in the attraction business that I'm in.
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I love that business.
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because there's no fighting and I did it as a hobby.
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I've always thought what I could have done with my attraction
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and amusement business
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if I'd had it full -time instead of it was more like collecting stamps than anything to tell you the truth.
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So you made some comments about liking capitalism
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and how much legislation you did for raising the minimum wage for $15 an hour here in Florida.
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Is there anyone at your law firm or your multiple businesses that you're paying less than $15 ,000 an hour now?
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No. And I wasn't paying less then because I believe that a living wage is a civil right.
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I also believe that retaining employees with a living wage and bonuses, it's good for business.
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I believe by paying more to my employees, I keep them.
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Attrition is lower.
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And believe it or not, although it sounds backwards, I believe by paying more,
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I make more because I keep people and my people are really all I have.
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So in your opinion, why aren't other billionaires doing the same thing that you're doing?
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Well, I think some are and some aren't.
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A lot of people have to.
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Like once I raised the minimum wage here in Florida, all of a sudden, out of the blue,
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Universal raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
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I kind of took credit for that.
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At a certain point, when wages start to rise, businesses have to respond.
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Because if Universal is paying $15, then Disney's got to pay $15.
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Because who cares if you're running
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Small World or Harry Potter?
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You're looking for a job.
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So you mentioned a little bit how you've put money into politics and things like that.
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And in the current political climate in the United States, our government's run by the billionaires, kind of for the billionaires.
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What do you think the moral role of a billionaire should be within the United States government?
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By and large, the opposite of what it is.
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These fat cats got so much money, but they want the tax laws to benefit them.
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Like these hedge fund people don't even pay taxes.
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And so the billionaires are not satisfied with what they have.
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They want more and more and more and more.
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And what my worry is, this income inequality, at some point there's a breaking point.
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At some point you can become Cuba.
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And what I would say to these billionaires, you're going to make this gulf so big and so vast,
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just because you don't think it could ever happen in America, just remember January 6th.
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Just remember them storming the Capitol.
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Those were the barbarians at the gate, and they were mad as hell.
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And you know what they're mad about?
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They were mad because they think they're going to fall further and further behind.
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They weren't mad and they thought Donald Trump was the one that could do it for them.
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But that's why they stormed the Capitol.
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And when I saw it, I said, that could be our future if we let the haves and the have -nots get so separated.
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I think everybody knows that probably every single billionaire does evade taxes.
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And he did say that he wants billionaires to be taxed so high.
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But I can promise you he probably has found ways to evade taxes.
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Back in around like 1940s, you know, the tax rate was around like 90s, higher than 90%, right?
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Would you be somebody that would advocate to bring back such a high tax rate in order to redistribute the wealth?
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I don't know about 90 % because you've got to have some motivation.
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Listen, I am a capitalist.
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I believe in capitalism.
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But I also believe we have to do the most for the most with least.
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So when you mention capitalism, right, capitalism is kind of inherently parasitical, right?
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You're going to always take more from the workers.
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You're going to put a profit on their labor that they're putting into the business.
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And I think now we're seeing that capitalism inherently causes these income inequalities.
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So I think we need to expand those social safety nets.
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We need to increase taxes on the wealthy in order to allow the poor to enjoy,
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you know, the things that maybe you enjoyed when you were younger and things like that.
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Well, look, I agree with you.
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And I think it's really for these people who are so rich,
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they're going to lose it one way or the other if they don't because look, the thing about you got socialism and capitalism.
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Socialism on paper makes a lot of sense.
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But then you got to count on everybody working.
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Will they all work?
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But in the short run, what we're seeing right now with this big, beautiful bill that they're talking about,
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we're talking about cutting all sorts of benefits to give more money to the rich
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and dig our country into trillions of more long -term debt.
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And I look at it and I scratch my head the rich should be taxed bigger and harder.
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And so the reason I'm more for capitalism is because if you go to a socialistic country like France...
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France is not socialist.
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France is not?
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No. Let's say China.
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We'll give China for example.
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Well, China's communism.
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I've been to China.
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China's not communist.
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Huh?
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China's not communist.
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They're run by the Chinese Communist Party, but they're not...
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What are they?
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They're a socialist country.
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Socialist?
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Yes.
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And you look at their infrastructure.
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Hey, man, I've been to China.
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Their wealth inequality, and it's.. actually you know pretty good have you ever been
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to china have i no let me tell you something
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it is the most oppressed country no no look no china
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is not oppressed look at china china has they have great social safety net you need to go to china
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and watch the people with their heads down
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this is a completely different china we're talking about i'm talking about china today i'm talking yeah okay
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if we're talking about china today then no then you you have drank the wrong kool -aid I was like,
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oh, I'm the only Asian person in the room.
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So it's like so weird to see somebody kind of like debate about a country that my mom is from.
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I would have to agree with John more in terms of like
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China being a communist country.
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John, I'm a parent.
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And one of the challenges I have is making sure that my mindset is not my children's mindset.
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How do you overcome that challenge as a billionaire to make sure your children have their own mindsets?
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That's hard to do because they live with you and they hear you.
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The interesting thing about life is you get older you start listening to your children, you're like, they're stealing all my shit.
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I said that, I did that.
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But what I used to tell them is this, when you're watching me, take the good parts and leave the bad parts.
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And the thing I used to tell my kids is the only thing that I want you to be,
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I don't care what you are other than this, I want you to be a compassionate human being.
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I want you to put other people first.
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And that's the only mindset that I wanted them to take.
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And I think that they have done that.
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One of my goals, I think, is to make my kids better than me.
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What's your main challenge that you see as a billionaire making your kids better than you?
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The main challenge is that your children do not feel entitled.
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There's nothing worse than an entitled person, somebody who was born with a silver spoon stuck up their butt,
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and they become the worst person in the world.
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I never bought my kids nice cars because I knew they were going to be dinged.
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And you have to make your kids work.
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You have to have consequences that are consistent
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but the main thing you have to do if I was giving advice as a parent, you've got to spend a whole lot of time.
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It's all about the time.
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And remember this, your child is one friend away, one friend away from total disaster.
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And when you see that friend, you've got to separate that friend as hard as it is.
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So you just mentioned that when you have a child who is having a friend
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that you find them to be not good for them, essentially, that you have to do what you can to separate them.
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As a billionaire, what does that entail for you?
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Well, you can only do so much.
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I mean, I've only separated two friends in all the years.
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And one was a kid who used to come over, and he just reeked of marijuana, and he was stoned.
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And I just had a bad vibe.
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And I said, look, so -and -so, you can't go over there, and he can't come over here.
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My son Matthew was enraged.
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You can't tell me who's going to be my friend.
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I said, I'm telling you, you can't go there and they can't come here.
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But you can't stop them at school.
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You can't stop them at a certain point.
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Later in life, I was justified because that kid that I was worried about ended up in prison.
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I'm someone who works with youth in Orlando.
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I spend every moment of my days to coach and develop the youth in Orlando.
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And I work with at -risk youth and one of the biggest things
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that I have seen in Orlando is that since medical marijuana was passed as a bill in Florida,
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marijuana use has become normalized among the youth and those that are underaged.
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One of the things that you mentioned earlier is
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that you didn't allow your son to be friends with someone who smoked pot because he smelled loud and he smoked weed.
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So why would you advocate for a bill like
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that to be passed when you kicked someone out of your family's circle who was smoking weed themselves?
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When my brother was paralyzed, they had him on Percocet, Xanax, and everything else.
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The only thing that gave him relief, immediate relief, was marijuana.
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Listen, I believe that marijuana use at an early age fries the mind.
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I drug tested my children a lot, and my son Matthew failed that drug test a lot.
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But here's the difference.
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Would I rather have my brother taking marijuana, gummy, or opioids, fentanyl?
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It's a no -brainer.
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So I don't think marijuana use is on the rise.
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Let me tell you something.
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If you want marijuana today, go to any middle school in America, and we'll have a nickel bag real fast.
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Yeah.
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So do you feel that there's an ethical gray area
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when it comes to use of marijuana or other drugs in the youth or in adults in our country?
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And do you think that that leads to potentially...
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a ethical gray area for you as a billionaire as it
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relates to other things in your life medical marijuana in no way
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because listen where i think the unethical conduct is coming from is from the pharmaceutical industry marijuana is a plant
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that was put into earth by god or by nature
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and it works i don't know how it works i don't know how aloe works
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but when you rub aloe on sunscreen goes away.
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So I feel very good morally, ethically, every single way about what I did with medical marijuana.
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And here's the proof in the pudding.
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A million people in Florida have a card and guess who uses it mostly?
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People 65 and older.
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Go to the marijuana stores, look at the marijuana stores, look who's going in.
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It ain't kids, it's me.
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Yes, I'm still really confused about the marijuana thing, I feel like with a lot of billionaires, they do want to care for people,
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but they really don't want them around them.
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So that's what I feel that you feel with the marijuana.
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You're fine with people growing it.
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You're fine with people doing whatever.
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But right when it's in your house, you don't really care about the person.
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You want them not around you or your family.
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I'd take a gummy every night.
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It's in my house every...
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What are you talking about?
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Then why did you kick the person out of your house?
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He was a kid who I thought was not just that he reeked of marijuana.
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He was a kid who I thought was bad news.
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I didn't think that he was smoking marijuana.
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I thought he was selling marijuana.
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Look, I think all of Matthew's friends smoke marijuana.
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And so that wasn't the issue.
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The issue was this guy might be a criminal.
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This guy is a bad influence.
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So don't take it the wrong way.
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Okay.
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So you kind of briefly talked on like for profit CEOs and things like that.
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I was just kind of hoping to hear your take on the current state of healthcare
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and what recently occurred with their CEO.
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Before I answer that question, I want to go back to the coach's question about marijuana just so everybody understands where I stand.
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If John Morgan was king, I'd legalize marijuana all over the country and I'd let you grow it at your house.
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So that's how I feel about marijuana.
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As far as the healthcare, think about this for a minute.
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There's only one place that we go ever and we never ask what it costs.
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When you go to get your hair cut, what's the cost?
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When you go to buy a candy bar, what's the cost?
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When you walk into a hospital, none of us ever ask what it's going to cost.
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You can get a Tylenol pill over here for 20 bucks, it could be a dollar at the other hospital.
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The of the insurance industry by healthcare is awful.
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It's off the charts.
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Our pharmaceuticals in this country are way more money than pharmaceuticals in his favorite country, China.
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And so you've got the health care where we don't ask what things cost.
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And then you've got insurance companies who are fighting health care.
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And they're trying to gouge.
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The hospitals are trying to gouge.
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The insurance companies are trying to not be gouged.
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They're fighting.
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And guess who's stuck in the middle? the person who needs treatment, the person who has cancer, and they're saying, we're not going to do this,
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we're not going to do that.
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And then what happens?
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People go postal.
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People snap.
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So would you be in favor then of a socialized form of health care in the United States?
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I don't know how it would work.
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Listen.
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Every other major country has a socialized form of health care.
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When Obama was president, he came to my house as president.
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I supported Obama.
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I'm on the National Finance Committee for Obama.
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And one of the things that I really liked about Obama was Obamacare.
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A lot of people lost their house seats for voting for Obamacare.
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So, listen, I'm all ears about anything we can do to get more medicine and more treatment to people.
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My brother -in -law is a physician up in Haynes City, Florida.
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I have a clinic called the Morgan & Morgan Clinic where he runs it,
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I fund it, and we take care of everybody who has lost in the system who can't get care.
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How do you deal with profiting over other people's injuries in your law firm?
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Every business is in business to make a profit.
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If you don't have a profit, you don't have a business.
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On the other side of me and on the other side of my clients are insurance companies.
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Insurance companies do this.
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They take in premiums and they try not to pay claims.
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When they try not to pay claims fairly, that's when I'm hired.
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When I'm hired, the people who are hiring me cannot afford a lawyer by the hour.
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And the insurance industry, they live in this world.
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Deny, delay, defend.
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Their job is to never be fair with you.
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The people who come to me at their time of need are people who've had something taken from them.
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The business I'm in is being the key to the courthouse for people who can't afford it.
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taking all of the risk
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and believe me I've lost some cases where I've written off millions of dollars
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but at the end of the day the only thing between me
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and them getting a fair shake from the insurance industry is what we do
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which is take them to trial
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so I never even realized it could be this lucrative until I got in it
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but I've also scaled it in such a way
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that most personal injury firms are like you know one trick ponies in one city
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I built mine throughout the entire United States.
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And by having the scale that I have, my profit got a lot bigger.
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You have mentioned before that you make money off of people's injuries and stuff like that.
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Do you think it's ethical to, I don't want to say take advantage of people, but take advantage of people when they're most vulnerable?
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I think what I do is highly ethical.
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I think that the insurance industry is very unethical.
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I believe that I'm the difference between people getting back what was taken from them and relying on the insurance company.
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I believe that what I do is almost not quite like a ministry
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because people come to me in their most desperate hour, whether they've lost their home, lost a life, lost a limb,
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lost livelihood, and they have no way to fight back.
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So I can tell you this, I sleep very well with what I do and why I do it
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because I am the civil police representing the people who cannot have a voice for themselves.
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I got into this business because my brother Tim was paralyzed, so I got to see what it's like to be on the other side.
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I got to see what it's like to be the poor person that's being oppressed.
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And I'll tell you what, it is the worst feeling in the whole world to be hopeless, powerless, helpless.
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And when you get to step in and even the playing field and say, hey, that ain't going to happen.
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And when they try to give you peanuts, we're like, we're not taking peanuts.
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When I walk into my lobbies throughout America, when I see those clients sitting there, I see my brother, I see my family,
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and I want to treat them exactly, exactly the way I would have wanted to be treated.
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Do you believe most billionaires and lawyers are compassionate?
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I think it all depends on the person.
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I believe what's helped me in my life was I came
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from a very difficult childhood with a lot of economic insecurity and alcoholism.
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Everything bad that you could think happened did happen.
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But the good thing about those things, if you take it the right way,
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is those things can generate later in life serious compassion on your part.
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Whenever I would see somebody homeless, I used to tell my children, just remember this, they don't want to be there.
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And once upon a time, that was a little girl and a little boy eating an ice cream cone,
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swinging, having the time of their life and they don't want to be there
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and don't judge them because we don't know how they got there.
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John, how do you care for your clients when you're done with them?
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I know your motto is for the people but it seems like it's only for the client.
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Up until a certain point, the award is won, the case is closed.
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How do you take care of your people after you're done with them?
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Here's how I take care of the people.
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I change conduct.
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I just got a big verdict against Takata airbags down in Miami a few weeks ago.
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I can promise you this, because of my cases, Takata is changing their conduct.
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I'm one of the lawyers on the opioid cases.
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These pharmaceutical companies were killing us.
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That's not happening anymore.
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I have cases against the tobacco industry.
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The tobacco industry is in the business of premeditated murder.
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These are evil, evil, evil companies.
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And so for the people, not my clients and people, the people who I'll never represent, the people who will never know me, I'm changing conduct.
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My question to you, throughout law school I heard a lot
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that lawyers are the reason why insurance costs so much and it's expensive.
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So what is your take on that?
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Well you heard that from the insurance industry.
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There's been tort reform after tort reform all across America.
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And you know why they have this what's called tort reform to take away your rights, my rights, their rights.
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They say we're going to take certain rights away from you and your rates are going to go down.
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But here's what's never happened.
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They've never tied one of those bills to a mandatory decrease of insurance premiums.
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These insurance companies take premiums in, they make bad investments, and then they say, oh, the lawyers are causing us to make bad investments.
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No, the lawyers aren't the problem.
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The insurance companies who run their companies poorly are the problem.
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And they just want bigger profits.
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And by the way, when you go home, Google their profits.
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Google what their CEOs are making.
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They're not hurting.
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They're making a lot of money.
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If you lost all of your wealth tomorrow, what would be your next step in this struggling economy?
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Do you think you could pull it off?
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Do you think it could be just as successful?
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I think if I did this again, I would not be this successful.
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This has been a series of left turns and right turns, and all of a sudden you end up here.
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I'm not arrogant enough.
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I believe that 99 % of what's happened to me is luck or blessings or whatever you want to call it.
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I'm a pastor, and one of the core tenets of many faith systems in the world is a rejection of possessions and wealth.
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Do you feel like you had to sacrifice part of yourself
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or your faith or your family to be able to get where you are today?
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Not at all, because my faith has been at the forefront of everything I've done.
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It's the teachings from my faith guide me not only in my life life, but in my business life.
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And those lessons are fairly clear to me.
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Do I think I need to take a vow of poverty?
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I don't think so.
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If I'd done that, I would have been a Catholic priest.
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So no, I have never found a conflict in making money in my faith.
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I think the conflict would be if I made money
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and didn't use my money for what I've been taught to use my money for.
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What my goal is, is I don't live anywhere near what I make except, you know, my jet.
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And that is excess.
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But I don't live that way.
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And my goal now is that I think my children are set.
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I do not want to leave the government one penny.
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I think that, I mean, if you want to see your money wasted, give it to Congress.
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And what I want to do is I want to do as much as I can
429
while I'm alive and leave a huge amount of money into a foundation, and that will say at that foundation, faith without works is dead.
430
I personally work at my family's cafe, and I was wondering how much do you normally tip customer service workers that are in serving positions?
431
A hundred bucks.
432
And I'll tell you why.
433
We're a member of three different churches and my wife gives away, I don't even know what she gives to these churches.
434
But I am much more interested in leaving hundred dollar tips for my servers
435
and for the people who cut my hair than throwing a hundred dollars in the collection plate
436
because a hundred dollars to somebody can change their day.
437
I got a case one time where a little boy was killed by a bus in Jacksonville.
438
My investigator called me, said, I just think I'd tell you how we got this case.
439
I said, how?
440
He said, the woman met you once.
441
So when did she meet me?
442
Five years ago. Where?
443
It was Christmas Eve at Bob Evans, and I went there for breakfast with my daughter, and she told my investigator,
444
and he left me a $100 tip.
445
That's why she called me.
446
So I don't know where your cafe is, but let me know, and I'll come in and leave you a $100 tip.
447
I'll definitely let you know.
448
That's an amazing tip.
449
Thank you, John do you believe it's justifiable to be worth a billion dollars
450
while millions live in poverty no if I could undo it all
451
and let us all be the same that's what I would do okay
452
and do you believe because I heard something about how you don't agree with the government spending
453
which I actually do agree with
454
so how would you split up the money the most to the most with the least I believe
455
that that there are people that are
456
and I don't believe it I know it
457
when you go out to the Morgan Morgan Hunger Relief Center the people
458
that are walking in there are not the homeless they're walking in there dressed in work clothes
459
with their children to get free food and it's an abomination yeah
460
because I go to the University of Florida
461
because I remember you mentioning it
462
and one thing I've noticed as a college student is
463
that there is a lot of corruption throughout it from the president even from student government funneling millions and then
464
when I like look into to see what happened to them nothing really happened they didn't go to jail
465
or anything look the University of Florida they hired this president who was just a buddy of the governor's
466
and he came up there and the University of Florida
467
and took so much money
468
and he's still on the payroll yeah yeah
469
that's what a lot of college students are talking about it's an outrage
470
and by the way
471
when you google those articles the alligator I'm all over those alligators all over those articles ripping him a new
472
so you just mentioned that everyone's a politician now
473
but you also said that you also have done at least two different things with legislation
474
so would you consider yourself to also be a politician?
475
Sort of.
476
You know, everybody wants me to run for governor of Florida right now.
477
When I'd go to the White House, they'd take me over to the side and show me polling on me.
478
And there's a side of me that thinks I could be good at it,
479
but then there's a side of me that really enjoys living in Maui half the year.
480
So I became sort of a politician because, listen, they were fighting me hard on the minimum wage.
481
They were fighting me hard on.. medical marijuana.
482
And I was out debating sheriffs and everybody I was debating had a green suit on and a gun.
483
So it was like, you know, a little hard to debate them.
484
So I was sort of a politician because I was in the political realm.
485
And that's why all this talk about me, about people want me to run for governor is percolating.
486
So today, I think we've all sat here
487
and we've heard you talk about your jet and Maui
488
and your three homes and the money that sits in your account that you don't care to touch.
489
I think we all have experienced at some point in time
490
that moment that you talked about as a kid sitting there hoping and praying that somebody would help you.
491
So I guess my question that you didn't really answer, you just told me how much you have.
492
What stops you from helping every person in this room that's struggling right now, that can't pay a bill, had to miss out on work?
493
How do you help them?
494
What do you do?
495
Because you got a private jet, but I had to take off from work today and I'm struggling.
496
I got bills, man, and I'm not begging for money,
497
but I'm saying what stops you from being able to go and help us and change our lives? Because.
498
Let me give you a hundred while we're here.
499
Thank you.
500
Don't buy marijuana.
501
No, I don't smoke, I don't drink.
502
At the middle school.
503
No, man.
504
Nothing stops me.
505
Listen, here's how I look at it.
506
I went to a religious retreat one time under duress.
507
It was called a Crescio.
508
And I thought it was going to be a bunch of bull, and it was basically a bunch of bull.
509
But at the very end, it all came down to one thing that I took from that meeting.
510
And here's what I took.
511
I can't change the whole world.
512
I would love to be able to.
513
But the phrase that I took from that Crescio weekend was, bloom where you're planted.
514
What does that mean?
515
That means I can't solve hardly anything.
516
But every once in a while, I'll get a God whisper somebody asking then I think back to
517
that Crisio and it was like bloom where you're planted
518
and I feel like at this moment that's what I'm being asked to do
519
and I can only do so much I'm trying to manage my money
520
so that at the end of it all it can have the greatest bang for its buck you know
521
if I'm being completely honest I'm not sure if there's anything that would have been a perfect answer
522
just because he's really good at talking to you and he's a likable guy.
523
And he's soft in the eyes, so it's easy for him to get you on his side.
524
So I don't know if there's anything he could have said that would have completely changed my mind.
525
But I think showing your actions.
526
He handed me $100, but there were people in the room had told their stories throughout the day.
527
And with a wad of cash in your hand, you could shut me up, but he could have given it to everybody.
528
He could have shown in that moment that he has the power to change your life, and he could try to change your life.
529
Even if it's a small amount, it's better than nothing.
530
And he didn't really do that.
531
One of the takeaways I took is there was a quiet desperation, a little bit of a worry about the future,
532
and a little resentment about people who have money.
533
I think billionaires are inherently parasitical to society as a whole.
534
No matter how they accumulated that wealth, they're always going to be profiting off of the backs of people who are doing the work.
535
In his case, he's the better of evil system in general.
536
While he is helping injured people get the settlement that they feel they deserve, he is still profiting off of advocating for that injury.
537
I'm of the volition that there's nothing wrong with billionaires.
538
I am a rabid capitalist, and I know John talked about that a lot, but that is who I am.
539
That is my background.
540
I think that if you have a financial wealth, yes, you should definitely do good things with it.
541
You need to help the people around you.
542
That's just moral code.
543
But I don't believe that billionaires are inherently bad or, you know, they're out to prove world domination or something of the sort like that.
544
I think a lot of the questions are going to help me reflect on those questions
545
and what I should and am doing.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “20 People Confront a Billionaire”. This video has 545 sentences and 6404 words to shadow. The speech runs for 34:28. The speaker talks fast, about 186 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| marijuana noun | /ˌmɛɹɪˈwɑ.nə/ | The inflorescence of the Cannabis sativa plant, smoked or ingested for euphoric effect. |
| billionaire noun | /ˌbɪl.jəˈnɛɚ/ | Somebody whose wealth is at least one billion (10⁹) currency units (usually understood to exclude holders of hyperinflated currencies). |
| wage noun | /weɪd͡ʒ/ | An amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour. |
| capitalism noun | /ˈkæp.ə.təlˌɪzm̩/ | A socio-economic system based on private ownership of resources, and capital and their exploitation for profit. |
| hire verb | /ˈhaɪɹ/ | To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment. |
| communist noun | /ˈkɑ.mjə.nɪst/ | An advocate of a society based on the common ownership of property; a proponent of communism. |
| politician noun | /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/ | One engaged in politics, especially an elected or appointed government official. |
| ethical adjective | /ˈɛθɪkəl/ | Of or relating to the study of ethics. |
| pharmaceutical adjective | /ˌfɑː.məˈs(j)uː.tɪ.kl̩/ | Of or relating to pharmacy or pharmacists. |
| inherently adverb | /ɪnˈhɛɹəntli/ | In an inherent way; naturally, innately. |
| amendment noun | /əˈmɛndmənt/ | An alteration or change for the better; correction of a fault or of faults; reformation of life by quitting vices. |
| constitutional adjective | /ˌkɒn.stɪˈtjuː.ʃ(ə)n.(ə)l/ | Belonging to, or inherent in, the constitution or structure of one's body or mind. |
| premium noun | /ˈpɹiː.miː.əm/ | A prize or award. |
| socialist noun | /ˈsoʊ.ʃə.lɪst/ | One who supports or advocates socialism. |
| attraction noun | /əˈtɹækʃn̩/ | The tendency to attract. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come over verb | To affect in a sudden, unprecedented or surprising manner; to overwhelm a person's ordinarily contrary impulse. | |
| bring back verb | /ˈbɹɪŋ bæk/ | To fetch something. |
| come down to verb | To reach by moving down or reducing. | |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| do out verb | To decorate, tidy, or clean (a place). | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| fight back verb | /faɪt bæk/ | To defend oneself by fighting. |
| get back verb | Return to where one came from. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How do you help them?
- What do you mean comfortable?
- Do you call being worth a billion dollars comfortable?
- I said, how much did we give?
- What stopped you from changing that person's life?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to tell · used to come |
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If John Morgan was king, I'd legalize · if I did this again, I would not |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've heard · has been generated · I've taken |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | has been generated · be taxed · should be taxed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 214 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: ethical /ˈɛθɪkəl/, wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, unethical /ʌnˈɛθɪkəl/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/, constitutional /ˌkɒn.stɪˈtjuː.ʃ(ə)n.(ə)l/, socialist /ˈsoʊ.ʃə.lɪst/, attraction /əˈtɹækʃn̩/, identification /aɪˌdɛn(t)ɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: marijuana /ˌmɛɹɪˈwɑ.nə/, capitalism /ˈkæp.ə.təlˌɪzm̩/, politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/, pharmaceutical /ˌfɑː.məˈs(j)uː.tɪ.kl̩/, inherently /ɪnˈhɛɹəntli/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like marijuana, billionaire, wage.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.