Want to know the best way to get rich, even if you're starting from nothing? It’s been sitting right in front of you the whole time, even though many people today insist it’s the problem. But Glenn Beck explains how this system has lifted millions out of poverty – and why there’s NOTHING standing in your way, no matter what others say.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: All right. I want to talk to you -- we've been talking today about the system, and what is happening to our kids.
What is -- what's happening to our world, and Jason and I, I think we were kind of, you know, at this place, where when I was a kid, I was lucky enough.My mom and my dad never said, you can't make it.
My dad believed in the power of positive thinking.
And he believed in words, create a force. And they do.
What you think becomes.
What you speak, becomes.
You say it enough, and it becomes.
And so my -- my father was always like, you're going to make it.
Whatever you set your mind to.
If you do the work, and you can visualize it, it will happen.
I have been talking to some people about some things.
And they were like, Glenn, we know your record.
If you see it, it's done.
And it is truly -- that is one of my superpowers, that my gave me, was visualize it.
If you can see it done, it will be done.
You have to put all the work into it, but it will be done. When your vision is murky or cloudy, you will create more murky or cloudy. You have to have a super clear vision on things.
But I know that everybody around me -- my -- my Dad said, you should just have a backup, son.
Because radio is not a really good industry to get into, for success. And I know. I mean, the odds of you being a talk radio national guy.
There's, what? Five of us. Six of us. Not even that. Maybe four of us left. The odds.
Hollywood looks like easy to get into, compared to this. And my dad was right. Now, everybody else in my life said, you'll never make it, loser.
You'll never make it.
But I -- I set out, because I knew what I could accomplish. And I also -- I also wanted to prove people wrong. And I'm not sure. That's a very American thing.
You know, when you set out to go, really?
You think I can't do that. Oh, I will.
I mean, how many people cross the mountains because somebody in their life is like, you're never going to cross those mountains.
Oh, yeah!
Maybe it's childish. But it's also a very American thing to do.
And when we take that -- what's left, Jason?
If your kids don't have that, I'm going to prove it. I -- I -- I can prove it, you become, what? Europe?
JASON: An average, who cares country, pretty much. Like Europe, exactly.
GLENN: Yeah. Like Europe.
They don't believe they can change things. Because they have been conditioned to believe the system won't allow it.
And they've allowed a system to be created around it help me. Now, we were the first to break that. And nobody has really broken that, except us. Nobody went the full monte like the United States did.
And that's what -- that's what built people in my generation, and all the generations before.
But we don't have that foundation being taught, or even extolled by anybody.
I mean, now the slogans are, capitalism is just greedy.
Capitalism exploits.
Capitalism is the reason why you're miserable.
No. No. You're miserable because you're thinking about your misery.
I mean, it -- it is an easy thing to say, when you've never had to live without it.
And our kids have never had to live without it.
Capitalism is not just an economic system. It is a moral revolution.
And I don't think we frame it that way, enough.
You know, for the first time in human history, your destiny was not locked into what family you were born into.
Did you -- did you come from wealth and wild success?
JASON: Oh, no.
GLENN: I didn't. Honestly, I've looked into my genealogy. It is loser city. I am the king of the loser people. There's not a single person that did anything in my genealogy at all. Me included. But I'm like the king of all of the people.
Nobody. Nobody.
I mean, really. One of the relatives that I hang on to, my -- my great, great grandfather, great, great uncle, you know what they did?
They were captured by the South in the Civil War, after a week of fighting, and one of them died in Andersonville.
I mean, that's -- I mean, that's how low you've got to go. Yeah, but two of my relatives were fighting for the North.
Of course, got captured in the first week, and one of them died in prison. But they were on the right side. That's how low it is. How could somebody like me, make it?
You listen to this show. You can't figure it out, right?
It's America! It's America!
Hard work, vision, and honestly, luck!
They all come -- but for the first time, America gave that opportunity.
You didn't need a king's permission, to own land. Over in England, all of that is the king's land! And then it was granted to the lords and the ladies. And if they ever wanted to sell it, they could sell it. It used to be that it had to go back to the king. But here, you don't need to be nobility.
You had to be noble, to be able to open a business overseas.
You must have to be born into privilege, to invent, to create, to rise.
You know why everybody over in England, had such bad teeth for so long?
Because if anybody would have invented the toothbrush and the toothpaste. A Lord or lady would have gotten you all of the loyalties for it.
You're just a peasant.
You're like, you know what, I would like some minty breath next time I kiss you.
You're not going to get the royalties from it. You're not going to get anything, except a minty kiss.
Which, quite honestly, would be enough for me to invent the toothbrush.
But that's just me speaking from today's point of view.
Capitalism was the one that just broke all of the chains of feudalism. And said to the world, if you have an idea.
If you have a dream, try it!
May not succeed. But try it!
It never promised you success. It gave you something much more valuable. And that is the chance.
Who is striving for the chance?
There have been no rich people, except those who are born noble, or into wealth.
There's nobody that has become rich, that wasn't looking for a chance.
They didn't win it by lottery.
And you certainly didn't do it for long through theft.
I mean, you -- for almost the entirety of world history, people lived in gut-grinding poverty.
You didn't live past 30 years!
There was no -- there was no middle class. That's a function of capitalism.
No middle class. No social mobility. You didn't go from the lower class to the upper class. It didn't happen. Only capitalism did that. Now, has it been distorted and perverted? Yes!
By whom? The people who want to treat you like a serf. The people who are, like, "They don't know. I know better than them. They're too stupid to rule themselves."
The same people that had been enslaved the rest of the world, for all of humanity, are now winning the argument? "This isn't good. What you know you need, somebody like me, to make all the decisions for you." And then take all the money in the end. Wow!
I mean, this is a very short window of time.
Child labor, used to be a necessity. Okay?
It was a necessity.
You -- you would be out on your ear, when you were 12 or 13. Nobody could -- you had to fend for yourself. You don't anymore. You don't. Why?
Because of capitalism. All of the inventions that we take for granted, the lightbulb, antibiotics, internet.
That all came into the world, because people were free to dream, and do!
Are we encouraging our kids to dream and do?
If you are a 20-something, forget about all of this crap that everybody is telling you!
Dream and do it!
What's stopping you?
Honestly, what's stopping you, besides fear.
What is stopping you?
I've got to -- you know, I'm making massive changes in my life. And I got to a place to where, you know, my wife and I prayed on it, and everything else.
Before we pray on it, we always try to make the decision. And then bring it to dad. And say, hey. What do you think of this. As a dad, I don't want my kids to come to me, what should I do today, Dad?
I don't know. Think it through. What do you think is the best thing?
I don't know. Have you thought about this?
So I approached God the same way.
What do you think, Dad? Boy, I can't believe you're still alive.
Out of all the natural selection, I didn't think you would still survive.
Did you know about your great, great, great-grandparents?
Anyway, I'm making these changes in my life. And before we brought it to God, Tania said, what do you think?
And I said, I keep making the list in my head. Pros and cons. And all of the negatives.
They're all based in fear. They're all based in fear. And she just looked at me like, I know. I know. I know.
That's the worst reason to have. If it's fear-based. Get rid of that. Don't make a decision based in fear.
Ever. Ever. Ever.
You will make a bad decision.
Make a decision based in love or in hope.
Based in fact. Not just like, you know what, I hope my butt starts growing flowers. Because then my farts won't -- won't smell so bad. That ain't going to happen.
Okay?
Real hope. Based in something.
That -- when you have that, you can change the world.
And it's a ripple effect.
When -- when a guy in Ohio figured out how to mass produce steel, it built railroads in India. Not just here. In India.
When a woman in America developed a new vaccine, children in Africa lived to see adulthood!
Capitalism doesn't just create wealth, it spreads it over oceans and continents. And through generations.
The inequalities of capitalism.
They point to that, as if that's proof it's broken. But the truth, under capitalism.
The poor today, live better than the kings of the past.
Do you know, there was a -- well, let me just go here.
Because I will run out of time.
King Louis didn't have air-conditioning. You know where that was invented? San Antonio. You know when it was first put it in. A movie theater.
Do you know why?
Have you been to a building in San Antonio, Texas, in the summer?
You want to kill yourself!
I would -- I would rel- -- if that's how I would live, I would be like, can we make the life expectancy only 30?
Because I don't think I can do this for another 30 years.
I mean, for the love of Pete, it came because people went, there's got to be a better way.
And you didn't need a king. The king didn't have air-conditioning.
Queen Victoria didn't have any antibiotics. You know, through just opening up a faucet. You couldn't have clean water arrive at your home.
And that's not the work of a dictator. That is the work of millions of people. Thinking. Dreaming.
Trading freely. Innovating.
Competing.
And not for the glory of the state.
But the hope of, what?
Why did they say, people come here?
To build a better life for themselves, and their families.
Why can you use that as -- you know what, you just are against me.
Because all they're trying to do is make a better life for themselves and their family.
Wait. Are you saying they can't do it there, but somehow or another, under this system, which is oppressing you, they can make it!
What do they have, that you don't have. Oh, I know.
Work ethic. A dream. A desire.
They have seen the other side. They don't want to live like that.
Capitalism isn't perfect. But it is human.
Anything human can be corrupted.
But compared to every other system in the world!
It has taken more people out of poverty, rewarded more hard work, and transformed more nobodies than any other system that the world has even imagined. And I say that as the king of nobodies.