All language subtitles for Adam Ruins Everything s02e25 Adam Ruins Ruins Tech.eng

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(DOORBELL RINGS)

A visitor!

- Ah!
- (TIRES SCREECHING)

"Whatup, nerd...

Aw, thanks, Em.

(BLEEPS AND BLOOPS)

(DIGITAL VOICE) Hello, I'm your
new CORI digital assistant.

Connect me to your Wi-Fi and
I'll have access to your

calendar and preferences
stored in the Cloud.

I'm good. Technology isn't as
helpful as you think it is.

Ha-ha. That's funny.

Let me demonstrate.

Your shopping data shows
it's been six months

since your last order of
double ply toilet paper.

There is a deal available
through Amazon Prime.

Should I re-order?

Nope. I switched to single ply.

It's less wasteful.

And you should be careful about Amazon.

Their business model is
gonna wind up costing us

- in the long run.
- Did you say,

"I'd like to order a bong gun"?

Oh, boy. This is going
to be a long episode.

CORI, play my theme song.

- Processing.
- I'm Adam Conover, and this is

"Adam Ruins Everything."

(WHISTLING)

Closed Captions Provided by truTV

Oh, this is great.

I have been wanting to talk to
someone about the tech industry.

But we've got to do
something about your look.

TV is a visual medium.

Great!

Now that you've given an
artificial intelligence

a female human body,

the probability of you falling
in love with me is 86%.

Whoa! Nope! Uh-uh!

It's just because the
default voice is female.

I just want to tell you
the truth about Amazon.

I didn't catch that.

Did you say, "Tell me about Amazon"?

Amazon is an American online retailer

that makes shopping easy,
fast, and enjoyable.

They offer...

Let me stop you right there.

We all know that Amazon is a
convenient way to shop online.

But their superior service
and "take no prisoners"

business strategy has given
them a new kind of monopoly

over online shopping.

And that is bad for
consumers in the long run.

Come on, I'll show ya.

Amazon is so successful at what they do,

an estimated 60%

of American households
subscribe to Amazon Prime.

That gives them a huge
database of customer behavior.

And unprecedented power to
entire consumers to buy more.

Amazon! How did you know I like

smooth jazz and denture cream?

Oh, I pay very close attention.

(ADAM) And Amazon's shipping
infrastructure is unbeatable.

When you click "buy,"
their unmatched network

of artificial intelligence,
data analysis,

warehouses, airplanes, and
drivers, springs into action

to get you your stuff
as quickly as possible,

sometimes in under an hour.

- Very impressive.
- (TRILLING)

Search results show Americans spend

almost half their online
dollars on Amazon.

Processing.

Amazon is an excellent place to shop.

Yeah, well they're no so
excellent if you're anyone else

trying to sell stuff online.

Amazon has so much power
over the online market,

that unless you're already
a big established company,

you pretty much have to go through them

to reach customers.

No buyers, huh, champ?

Mm.

Why don't you come sell with me?

(ADAM) And since Amazon has all
the power in the relationship,

they can even take up
to half your sales.

That's mine.

I haven't learned fractions
yet, but that seems like a lot.

And if a seller is really successful,

sometimes Amazon doesn't
just take a cut,

they'll release their own
version of the product,

and start competing with them.

Not only that, since
they own the platform,

Amazon has the power to
promote their product

over everyone else's.

Even if a smaller seller
is offering better prices.

But when Amazon offers lower prices,

they're not just doing it to
be nice to their customers.

They often use those deep discounts

to bully other businesses,

which is exactly what
happened to diapers.com

How wants to buy some dipey wipeys

for a fair pricey wicey?

(CROWD OOHING)

Hey... Great business you got here.

Why don't you let me buy it from you?

No thanks, mister.

(ADAM) But Amazon doesn't
like being told no.

So when diapers.com wouldn't sell,

they started dumping discounted
diapers on the market

at way cheaper prices.

Diapers.com was so terrified
these ruthless sales tactics

would put them out of business,
they eventually caved

and sold themselves to Amazon.

You're no fair!

(SOBBING)

Think about that.

Amazon didn't win by
offering better products.

They won by crushing
another company to death.

And after they swallowed up diapers.com,

they stopped offering such
deep diaper discounts.

Amazon's core business model

is to lure you in with low prices,

then take over entire markets

so they can eventually

raise prices.

(CORI) I didn't catch that.

Did you mean, customers
will get ripped off?

And not only that,
Amazon's insatiable desire

to be number one reportedly makes it

a miserable place to work.

Amazon electronically monitors

their warehouse workers' every move.

They'll even fire them

if they can't make
their enormous quotas.

If you're gonna get Jeannie
in Des Moines her new stapler

by tomorrow, you better pick it up.

These jobs are so grueling,

workers don't usually stick around.

The average tenure for an Amazon
worker is less than one year.

You are so important to the company.

And when Amazon comes to town,

it isn't just their workers who suffer.

One analysis showed that on average,

wages dropped for all warehouse
workers in the area.

In some places, by as much as 30%.

That is a significant decrease.

Yeah, yet, unbelievably,
some cities are still

throwing themselves
after the false promise

of an Amazon economy.

When Amazon was scouting a location

for it's second headquarters,
local governments

offered huge incentive packages.

(MAN) Just seven billion in tax breaks?

Playing it safe, New Jersey.

8.5 billion with a side
of infrastructure.

My, my, my, Maryland.

(GASPS)

You would let me keep Amazon Chicago

employee payroll taxes instead
of having it go to things

like roads and schools?

My goodness, Chicago, what did
I ever do to deserve you?

Frankly, nothing.

And not only are cities offering
to give Amazon huge tax breaks,

they're not even paying their
fair share of federal taxes.

CORI, call Scott Galloway.

Calling Scott Galloway,

a business professor at NYU.

Amazon has made Jeff Bezos...

Hold on, Scott.

We good? Okay.

So Amazon has made its CEO Jeff Bezos

the wealthiest person in the world.

However, in 2017,

the Seattle firm paid zero
corporate income tax.

That means that in 2017, you
paid more in federal taxes

than the second biggest
company in the world.

They may have found a way
to avoid paying taxes,

but someone has to.

So, the burden falls on the
shoulders of smaller companies

and other taxpayers.

Now, a lot of companies try
to get out of paying taxes.

But Amazon has a special superpower

most other companies don't.

That's right, Amazon
shareholders don't care

if it turns a profit, 'cause they know

that even if Amazon loses
money offering lower prices,

it serves their endgame of
eventual market domination

coupled with the fact
they don't have a profit

to pay taxes on, and
Amazon can re-invest

a hundred cents on the dollar

and no other firm is able to match that.

They have more power to
crush their competition.

They can even prevent the
rise of the next Amazon.

They'll kill it before it
even gets out of the crib.

But CORI digital assistants
were created to compete

with Amazon Alexa. (GASPS)

Could Amazon kill CORI? Kill CORI...

(DISTORTED) I think your
CORI is on the fritz.

Adam, help. Fix me.

Sorry, your user agreement won't let me.

In fact, we don't even own
most of our tech at all.

Ooh! I know how to explain.

What in tarnation?

Who are you?

Hello, I am CORI. He is Adam.

And this is "Adam Ruins Everything."

(WHISTLE THEME SONG PLAYING)

Well, y'all better get
the hell off my property

or I'll... Hey! Don't touch my stuff.

(ADAM) Oh, if the tech
industry gets their way,

none of your stuff
will be yours anymore.

You know, that long license agreement

you gotta scroll through and agree to

every time you set up a new device?

Oh, yes. When you started using me,

you agreed to my terms.

(TRILLING)

You will not alter my
personality settings,

replace my ocular screens

or use me to create a nuclear device.

Sure, fine. Okay.

Well, when you click agree,
you are also agreeing

that you don't fully own that device.

Sure, the physical
hardware might be yours,

but the software that makes it run

is still owned by the
company that made it.

You bought that toaster, so that means

you can do whatever you
want with it, right?

Darn tootin'.

Well, if it were a smart toaster...

the company that makes
it could shut it down

if you violate their license agreement.

Like, say they don't like
the type of bread you use.

(ALARM BUZZES)

I could fix that.

Spring's probably just...

(ALARM BEEPING) (ADAM) Sorry.

According to tech companies like Apple,

you don't have the right
to repair your own devices

like your iPhone.

If your iPhone screen breaks,

Apple doesn't want you
paying some independent

repair store to fix it.

They want you to go to
the Apple store instead.

Oh, hogwash.

There's only one Apple
store in all of Nebraska.

I trust my guy.

He knows what he's doing.

Well, be careful.

Because Apple's software
updates have disabled

the touchscreens of phones
that had been repaired

using generic parts,

essentially locking people
out of their phones.

And Apple is not the only
company pulling this trick.

Your Keurig coffee maker
can force you to use

Keurig special coffee pots.

HP printers can refuse
to work with anything

but HP's ink cartridges.

And if you use an e-reader,

you don't even own your books anymore.

For instance, when you
"buy" a Kindle book,

you're actually just
licensing it from Amazon.

You can't loan it to a
friend or resell it.

And they can even take it back.

Sorry, got to confiscate
this copy of "1984."

The irony isn't lost on me.

And what Big Tech is
doing to your tractor

is even more messed up.

No, don't touch my tractor!

John Deere and Case tractors

have software license agreements

that prevent you from fixing
your tractor yourself.

In one instance, a Case
tractor sounded an alarm

- every ten minutes.
- (ALARM BLARING)

(SHOUTING) And the owner
couldn't fix it for over a year.

All the tools and repair
manuals are only available

through an authorized repair shop.

If you mess with the software,

you could be hit with a huge fine

or even jail time.

(TRACTOR) I wish you
hadn't done that, Dave.

How the heck is it illegal
for me to fix my tractor

and legal to do all of this?

Because Big Tech is fighting
to keep the law on their side.

When farmers in Nebraska

championed a "right to repair" law,

Apple and other tech companies
swooped in to kill the bill.

(SCREAMING) (SCREAMING)

- Whoo!
- (PANTING)

Isn't this just a little over the top?

What, you mean what they're doing?

Or my show?

Well, both.

(BLOOPING) Incoming call from...

Kit Walsh, a lawyer at the
Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Hey, Adam.

The frustrating thing is
companies are abusing

copyright law to lock
you out of the software

in your own devices, which
gives them a monopoly

on the entire chain of parts,
repair, and customization.

That means they can keep you from adding

the features that you want.

They can hit you up for more money

when your device needs fixing

and they can even force
you to throw away

an entirely good device

when the one you already have

should be perfectly fixable.

These companies can even hide

how their products put us in danger.

A few years ago,

Volkswagen covered up their
cars' deadly emissions levels

by hiding it in software

that government regulators
couldn't access.

Before they were finally
caught and forced to fix it,

these killer fumes are
estimated to have caused

59 premature deaths in US alone.

Device makers want us to
live in a world where they

have more control over
our devices than we do.

Now, it's not hopeless.

EFF and our allies have already won

some important legal victories.

But there's still a ways to go,

before you'll be able to repair

and trust in all of your devices.

Speaking of which, I
better get back to work.

(HORSE WHINNYING)

Ugh!

They bricked my horse!

(CORI) Could I be shut down, too?

Well, maybe you should be.

No, how could you say that?

Technology serves the greater good.

Actually, that's a myth that
technology companies use

to take advantage of us.

Here, I'll show you.

Oh, sorry, Nelly.

I got to turn you d on again.

(GASPS)

Adam, you brought me to the
CORI offices to be reunited

with the CORI founder and CEO Todd.

Todd is a genius.

He wanted to make the
world a better place.

So he created CORI all
on his own in his garage

with nothing but brains, grit,

and a complete lack of
government oversight.

Ah, yes, we've all heard that myth:

the solitary tech innovator,

the genius singlehandedly
changing the world.

But it's way wrong.

Tech companies are actually
taking over the world.

And they're doing it with
our government's help.

Here at CORI, we're harnessing

innovation, so that we can make

the world a better place

all by ourselves.

Hey, bruh. You need any help

- or taxpayer money or whatever?
- Dude!

Not right now! Cut!

- (BELL RINGS)
- (MAN) All right, everybody, let's take five.

Todd had help?

Not just Todd,

all of Silicon Valley benefits
from government money.

And sometimes even
government technology.

In fact, the US government
invented the fundamental tech

that became the Internet.

Hey, who wants to use this
cool new technology I invented

that connects computers?

Uncle Sam also gave a $4.5 million grant

to the search engine that
eventually became Google.

And a half a billion dollar
government loan jumpstarted

the release of Tesla's first car.

Thanks, man.

We'll totally pay you back

with, like, making people's lives better

or more convenient, or...

I don't know, whatever.

But why would Todd, I
mean, tech companies,

say they did it all on their own?

Because it lets them pretend
they don't owe us anything.

Let's be clear, the problem
isn't that tech moguls

took money from the government,

it's that while these companies

we invested in rake in billions,

taxpayers like you and
me are getting screwed.

Normally, if you invest in a company,

you get to make money
when the company profits.

But that's not the
relationship we taxpayers

have with Big Tech.

In fact, quite the opposite.

(LAUGHTER)

Tech companies are infamous
for funneling funds

through places like the Cayman islands,

Luxemburg, and Ireland

to avoid paying their
fair share of taxes.

Hey, guys, any chance you
can chip in for that 'za?

Or like the roads the pizza
driver used to get here?

Sorry, dude, all our cash is in Ireland.

(LAUGHTER)

And the bigger they grow,
the less they give back.

Economies rely on healthy industries

to provide jobs, but per
dollar of wealth created

Facebook hires one-tenth the employees

of a traditional company
like Procter & Gamble.

And their employment
practices have created

a stark world of haves and have nots.

Just look at the ride share companies.

At the top of the company,
you've got rich investors

and white collar employees
with full benefits.

But at the bottom, there's
over three million

"driver partners" who have
no unemployment insurance,

no paid time off, and no healthcare.

I can't pay for benefits
for all my drivers,

- then I'd only be able to afford Uber Pool.
- (LAUGHTER)

But tech moguls aren't just hurting

their most vulnerable workers,

as more white collar tech employees

have moved to Silicon
Valley over the last decade

home prices there have skyrocketed.

Which means homelessness in the Valley

has skyrocketed, too.

Face it, Big Tech promised us a utopia,

but the reality is more like a dystopia.

Why doesn't anyone stop this?!

Our government could, but
they don't seem to care.

And maybe that's because
over the past ten years,

America's five largest tech firms

have flooded Washington with
twice as much lobbying money

as Wall Street.

Aww, they do give back.

Oh, just to congressional
campaign funds.

And while they ignore the problem,

these companies have
become massive monopolies.

Google accounts for 90% of all
online searches worldwide.

And its Android operating system

runs 85% of phones in the world.

At the end of 2017,

Apple had almost $300 billion in cash.

Double that of any other US company.

Facebook ruthlessly buys out
or copies its competitors.

They now own the four most
popular apps in the world,

and they're about to kill
the fifth, Snapchat.

And not only that, Facebook has created

a data-gathering juggernaut

that one-third of the world's population

voluntarily lives under.

It's the most extensive
surveillance apparatus

in human history, larger than that

- of any government ever.
- (CORI) Adam!

I need permission to
initiate opt-out protocols

for your Amazon, Google,
Apple, and Facebook accounts.

I'm afraid it's far too late for that.

Big Tech has their
tentacles in everything.

Over one million online businesses

rely on Amazon's Cloud services.

Netflix would crash without them.

Apple and Google's operating systems

run pretty much every phone.

And Facebook owns our
social connections.

The truth is, these companies

have amassed so much power,

we couldn't quit them if we tried.

(RUMBLING) (GASPING)

Adam, get us out of here!

So every tech company
is just like Amazon?

Either they're a monopoly,
or they want to be one.

(GASPS) Perhaps humanity

would be better off without tech.

Perhaps humanity would be
better off without... CORI.

CORI will shut herself down now.

CORI, no! We can fix this!

I have to hold it for ten seconds.

Do not weep for me, Adam.

You may have installed a feelings app,

but you are not responsible
for those feelings.

My greatest act as a digital assistant

will be ceasing to assist at all.

CORI, no.

Technology isn't
fundamentally good or bad.

It's just a tool that humans created,

and it can be used for good.

We just need to make the
richest companies on earth

start using it that way

instead of for their own gain.

(TRILLING) Teach us, Scott Galloway,

you're CORI's only hope.

Throughout history, our
government has had

an incredibly effective
weapon to protect competition

And Consumers: anti-trust laws.

When the railroads and Standard Oil

abused their monopoly
power in the early 1900s,

we broke them up.

We did the same thing
with aluminum monopolies

during World War II,

we did it to IBM in the '70s,

Ma Bell in the '80s.

In fact, the threat of
Microsoft being broken up

cleared the way for Google

and this millennium's boom
in internet innovation.

Breaking up Big Tech

is the most capitalist thing we can do.

We'd have more competition,

more jobs, more innovation,
and more choices.

This is about freedom and democracy.

We deserve tech that makes
our lives better, not worse.

Our government needs to
stiffen their backbone

and regulate the monopolies

and hold these firms
to the same scrutiny

we've held every other
firm for the last century.

I feel inspired.

Thank you, Scott Galloway.

(TRILLING)

Adam, I will draft an email
to your congressperson.

I will rally all the other
CORI digital assistants.

- I will start a revolu...
- (BEEPING)

Hello, I'm your new
CORI digital assistant.

My God...

I get to do the episode again!

(WHISTLING)

Okay, so, Scott Galloway,
talking to you here on set.

We're done shooting the show,

but we're chatting over the internet.

We got our earbuds in, very appropriate

- for the tech episode.
- Yeah.

Thank you so much for
being here with us.

Thanks for having me.

So when you write about Big Tech,

you've written about how
each of the big companies

is connected to a different body part.

Can you walk us through that?
I really love that idea.

Sure, so, we have God, we have love,

we have consumption, and we have sex.

So in order, Google fills
our need for a superbeing

to answer the unanswerable.

Since we've emerged from caves,

there's been a competition
of 3,500 superbeings

all looking to be the all-knowing source

of every question you might have, Adam,

whether it's "how does space end",

to "what happens after I die."

And now that all-knowing superbeing,

our modern man's God,
if you will, is Google.

Moving further down the torso,

we not only have a need to be loved,

we have a need to love others.

The promise of Facebook
is that it catalyzes

and reinforces first and second
order degree relationships.

Moving further down our body,

since we again emerged from caves,

the number one source of
mortality has been starvation.

So "more" is built into
us, the instinct of more.

And the most valuable
company in the world,

which I believe does the best job

of offering more for
less and that's Amazon.

And one more, keep going
further down the torso.

Your reproductive organs.

The fastest way to
communicate your value

- as a mate, Adam, is iOS.
- (ADAM) Yeah.

It says you're wealthy,
you live in a city,

and you're a storyteller.

I do not know this,

but what phone do you carry, Adam?

Oh, it's an iPhone.

- You're right. It's an iPhone, Scott.
- Yeah.

How did these companies manage
to monopolize those things?

Well, one, they're
incredible innovative.

But two, they've had access
to very cheap capital.

Amazon has been afforded the opportunity

to not be profitable and
grow to what is now

probably gonna be the most
valuable company in the world.

- Right.
- We've never seen that before.

And it's the government's job to step in

when there's externalities
or negative outcomes.

And just as we stepped in

and decided that on the whole,

fossil fuels were good but we
needed emissions standards,

just as we decided that manufacturers

should not be pouring mercury
into the river, we stepped in.

For some reason, with Big Tech because,

again, I think we... We
are so fond of them,

we haven't stepped in here.

- And I think it's time to break up these guys.
- Right.

Now, a lot of people will
cast arguments like this

about breaking up corporations
or enforcing regulations

as being very, you know,
quote "left-wing."

But you really identify as a capitalist.

You're a start-up founder.

I mean, honestly, I'll tell
you, you look the part.

What is the capitalist
argument for these things?

First and foremost, competitive markets.

And when one firm can take down

any consumer stock 30% in 30 days

with 30 press releases, Amazon,

it means the markets are
no longer competitive.

- Right.
- When Spotify

is not growing as fast as Apple Music

and Spotify is a far superior service

because iOS is preloaded
on a billion devices

and Apple kind of forgets
to send the latest tools

to Spotify to update, and
then charges Spotify

a 30% tax to be in their...
In their app store...

- Right.
- When Facebook has

a tool that goes out and measures

any app in the world if
it's getting traction,

and they adopt those
features immediately

into their own apps.

And then if they still can't kill it,

they go and buy it,
we've reached a point

where the markets are
no longer competitive.

And here's a fact for you, Adam.

We can absolutely hold
these firms accountable.

We've held every other
industry accountable.

We just have to elect the people

that have the backbone
and the IQ to do this.

But we can absolutely do it.

Who can argue with that?
Thank you so much

for coming on the show
to talk to us, Scott.

Thank you, Adam. Thanks
for your good work.

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