good evening from los angeles. i'm tavis smiley. perhaps the most shocking fact to emerge this year is the following. three americans have more wealth combined than half the population of this nation. at the same time, one in five folk in america have zero or negative wealth. tonight, we have a conversation about our nation's wrong equality with chuck collins, senior scholar and co-author of the new report, billionaire bonanza, 2017. then actor bill pullman is here to discuss his film called the ballad of lefty brown. ace coming of age western for a 69-year-old man. we're glad you joined us in just a moment.

♪ ♪ by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. some might say that chuck collins was born lucky in the stratosphere of economic class. when he was in his 20s, he gave

it all away, donating his inheritance to charity, he made his own way and turned his life story into his mission. he currently leads the program on inequality and the common good at the institute for policy studies and the author of the book, born on third base and billionaire bonanza 2017, the forbes 400 and rest of us. chuck, good to have you on the program. >> great being here. >> take me back to your story of being born on third base. >> i'm the great grandson of meat packer oscar mayer. bringing home the bacon had a different meaning. i basically won the lottery at birth. i was working with low income tenants and mobile home parks and i could start to see the inequalities that we're living with start to open up. i guess i didn't want to be part of it. i had this, like, front row seat of what was happening to low-wage workers, stagnant wages. but i also had this intimate

front row seat to wealth creating wealth at the top of the economy, among wealth holders. >> yeah. >> it just seemed broken to me. >> when you are an heir to the oscar mayer fortune and you give it away, how did your family respond to that? >> i did have intense conversations with my family, but mostly i thanked them for having a debt-free education and some of the opportunities and to be honest, i gave away that money, but there's so much other advantage that i have that -- when you have four generations of economic stability, white, male, college educated, no debt, it's just -- there's so much that's almost hard wired in so much other advantage. that's really what i try to talk about in this book is how advantage works. >> yeah. tell me more about how advantage works. >> i think right now we're living at a time when advantage is almost like compounding at the top. >> uh-huh. >> meaning wealthy families help

their kids get all kinds of headstarts, access to tutors and intimate education experiences enrichment and then the other part of that is disadvantages also accelerating. i think there's a sort of, i guess a myth of deservedness. people think we're all just showing up and we're all just -- whoever works hard wins. we don't really understand like how -- there really is no level playing field that some people are starting way five feet from the finish line and other people are starting with, you know, leg weights on their legs. >> what do you make of that factoid that i started our program with tonight, basically three guys and in case you're wondering haven't guessed who they are. bazos at amazon, bill gates and warren buffett, those are the three guys i referenced who have more wealth than over half the country. what do you make of that

reality? >> it's the thing that is most striking to me is the other part of what you said which is put that next to the number of households with zero or negative wealth. >> yeah. >> then put maybe the next 20% have very little to fall back on. we're not just talking about very poor people, we're talking about 40, 50% of the population that doesn't have a lot of reserves. and then i think we're looking at a essentially a concentration of wealth and power that's kind of fueled. how do you have this conversation without hating on rich people? >> well, one thing i think is important is -- i've been having the opportunity to talk to wealthy individuals, philanthropic groups. these extreme inequalities are bad for everybody. of course, they're obviously bad for people who are socially excluded and poor.

but you don't want your children and grandchildren to live in a kind of economic apartheid society. this is what i say to people in the 1%. this is not where you want the society to g it's bad for your health. it's bad for the economy. it creates booms and busts and instability. it's bad for democracy, obviously to have so much wealth and power. so you can kind of go down the list and make kind of almost a selfish case for why wealthy people should be very engaged in reversing this inequalities. >> i'm curious. which won't surprise you. how do 1%ers respond to that. i ask that in the back of my head hearing that tape of mitt romney giving that campaign speech a few years ago where he was caught on tape sort of making fun of -- when you talk to 1%ers and it's bad for the

poor and also not good for them, how do they respond to that? >> some of them -- your mitt romney quote was about the makers and the takers. people have a powerful story that, okay, we're the virtues euhus wealth creators. we're the engines of the train. some people won't suspend that myth. they're comfortable living inside that. there are a lot of people in my experience that these other qualities undermine healthy education systems and opportunity for other people. like, they understand that the game is sort of rigged in their favor. they don't always know what to do about that. some of them are like the patriotic millionaires network out there lobbying against this tax bill. they're very outspoken. my sense, though, this is why i'm -- i enjoy talking to those groups, there's a lot of people waiting to be called to something bigger than

consumption. and i think the big -- my invitation is, hey, wealthy folks, 1%ers, come home, bring the wealth back. put it into the real economy and let's fix the future. >> you commented a moment ago, chuck, about how this is bad -- level of inequality is bad for level of democracy. i agree. i've said so many times and written about it, that poverty threatens our very democracy. poverty, inequality, economic immobility threatens our very democracy. when you made the comment that -- we're on the same page, we gree on this. the question is, whether or not the 1%ers, you talk to understand that reality. that this is federally undermining ouououdemocracy. if they care nothing about anything else, they do care about living in a democracy. it's a great country. so they don't want to see the democracy of it.

they don't want to see the democracy undermined. you're right. they're coming after you. does that argument resonate with them. that it's bad for democracy? >> i think it cracks through, in the sense a polarized economy creates a polarized culture and politics. >> uh-huh. >> you know, our last election was if half the population doesn't share in the economic gains. real wages stagnant for four decades. some of them go progressive populous. bernie. some of them go regressive populism. the politics of deflection. you can start to see among thoughtful people and the 1% saying, you know, this is going to create upheaval. division. cultural breakdown. i think that -- so it does connect to some people.

>> do you sense that they even care about the common good? i mean, they've got theirs. do they care about the common good? >> i think that some of them see that they want their legacy not to be accelerating inequalities. so yeah, my sense is there's a group of people comfortable using their wealth and power to get more wealth and power and they have a theory, story, myth what's good for them is good for everybody. and there's a large segment of people whom that doesn't work. they actually see through their lived experience and sometimes through their children who are venturing out into the world and saying, mom and dad or grandpa and grandma, look what's going on in the society. do you really want to live in a brazil-like society where the rich live behind walls and drive their bulletproof mercedes-benz to the walden shopping area and

there's a shrinking middle class and a large group of desperate people. i mean, this is where we're going. >> how do you think the current moment, how badly do you think the current moment is going to exacerbate the problems that exist, our current political moment, that is? >> if our hope is to do no harm, the tax bill that's looming now. it's kind of like throwing oil on to the fire. it's going to only accelerate and worsen the inequalities. a couple years ago i thought, well, we've been steadily moving toward growing inequality, but maybe we're going to hit some kind of warp speed and destabilizing and accelerated inequality. when will we have the first trillion nair in this country? maybe not that far off. >> the first american to hit three figures. $100 billion. >> bill gates was close.

but bazos is over that. since we did our study, his wealth has gone up a dozen billion dollars. there was a month there where he was racking up about $13 million an hour just seeing the value of his amazon stock rise. i mean, the french economist, thomas pickett he warned us, he said we don't intervene in the trajectory we're on. we're going to become a hereditary a rist okay rah si of wealth and power where the sons and daughters of the billionaires will dominate politics, culture, philanthropy, economy. that's where we're heading. >> the danger in that is what? >> i would say, first to the 1 -- it's bad for the economy, actually. when so few people have spending power and are borrowing money to survive and the rich are kind of gambling with their wealth. think about it. the richest 1% is 40% of the

wealth. that's $30 trillion. more and more of that money is going into the gambling debt in the economy, the speculative part and that creates volatility. that and the social and cultural breakdown. so that's, i think, the messages. you don't want -- you don't want to go down this road. that's not where we want to all go. >> the book is called born on third base. a 1%er makes the case for tackling inequality, bringing wealth home and committing to the common good. written by one of the heirs to the oscar mayer fortune. chuck collins. chuck, good to have you on the program. >> thank you, tavis. next up, actor bill pullman. stay with us. pleased to welcome bill pullman back to the program.

the ballad of lefty brown. he maze an aging cowboy. before we start our conversation, a scene from the ballad of left i have brown. >> ♪ ♪ >> hey bonneville. you going to pay for this? >> you were supposed to watch his back. >> i'm sorry about it. >> sorry don't get it done. >> no it don't. i know that. >> do you? so i'm told that this role was written specifically for you. is that true? >> well, he goes back and forth.

when i say -- he does say i was the one -- i was the first one he went to. so his process. >> let's just go with it was written for you because i have a follow-up question i want to ask. to the extent that it was written for you, bill pullman, when one writes a piece for you, what does that mean? like, what are you looking for? when you read it, how do you know that this really is for you? does that make sense? >> well, yeah. when i read it, i thought did he get to the right person? i am going to go have lunch with him and this is the side kick and i didn't know if he had based it on some other thing i had done or whatever. so because it is a little bit of a character. i think he said that it was a coming of age story of a

63-year-old man. i thought, he wanted to sit with me, go through it line by line. which we did twice. we did it first like a year before we shot it. we went through the whole script. then once we realized it was going to be set in montana, we did a pass that made it specific to montana history and everything. we did another run-through with line by line. you know, he kept to his word that he wanted to mold it around something that collaborate with me and go into places that maybe had gone to before. >> this isn't just about montana history. it's about bill pullman, family history. >> nepotism. >> yeah. hollywood is always good for that. so you live in montana. >> you got a ranch up there for many, many years. your family is up there. half of your family is in this film. >> yeah. the truth is and the town i'm

from is in the film. so it's -- but it was his interest was to get my younger son is an extra now. he decided, oh, gosh, he'd be good as a could youhand. he puts a noose around my neck. that's a nice thing that he wrote just for me. tailoring it to you, bill. >> and your son gets to do it. >> he was very affected. every little grudge. the other rest of the family -- because we've really been -- we have cows up there. the ranch really is only possible because my sister-in-law is the one who runs it. my brother is a doctor. we all help. she tells us what to do. but -- all my kids are handy on horses and everything and handy around doing things. but they all want to be part. one son plays the banjo, he's in the saloon playing eye song. the other two at the hanging scene. i know a lot of people, old

codge codgers. i look out the hanging scene, i see the guy i tut wihought with montana state university. the son of the tractor mechanic. >> your family and friends and your people, what's the joy, the particular joy of being able to star in a western? >> yeah. i know. isn't it something about a guy -- guys, i think, particularly, get charged up about it. i think, for me, i always think of that westerns are a little bit of mythology of america. there's always a sense of k critiq critique. kind of a tacit thing. are we too violent? what's the dynamic between the individual and the community? what's the rule of law. so that is part of the -- then you get to strap a gun on. like a horse.

nothing wrong with that. >> what we didn't show. it wasn't in that clip, was that the dead body, you saw draped under that black covering was your friend. played by peter fonda. >> peter fonda. yes. >> he wasn't in the film very long. don't want to give it away. >> very good.or a few days. >> it's weird how life is. been lucky enough to be in the business. i knew mostly about peter from his daughter. bridgett. i did two films with bridgett. peter spent a lot of time in montana certain years of his life and bridgett did too. i got to actually catch up with a lot of stuff. he's a very unique individual, super bright guy. he has a crazy tweaked look at things.

glad to have him while he was there. >> he's had a great career. riding motorcycles, riding horses. have something to ride, i'll do it, i guess. >> tell me for those who are going to see this, tell me a bit more about your character. i got the sense. quirky sort of guy, the death of his friend. tell me more about your character. >> i was listening when you said awkward. that's interesting. that's a good way to put it. i think he -- it's not that alpha male you normally run into in a western. it's the subordinate for the alpha male. he's all about -- he hasn't had to be his own man. i think he's always been a yes man. he's always been following somebody else's promise to do something. never had to make a promise of his own. you know, it felt like a chance to -- it's interesting to -- because it's not a studio movie. we've had to really go around a lot of film festivals, word-of-mouth about it.

well-received, i think for the most part. learn about the movie sometimes. it's been women like this movie, which is -- normally women don't want to see wersterns. >> they're liking what about it? >> they're relating to lefty brown. he's somebody who has great love for this three friends that he has. in the course of that he loses them or get betrayed. whether it's western or sci-fi, that relationship and those things are what catches them. >> because you mentioned because lefty brown is not the alpha male that we see in the westerns, how -- who did you model him after? how did you go about making it work? >> you know, when i was growing

up in wherein new york state, i had three brothers. he thought it would be good to put them on dairy farms and make them strong for football. turns out, we were terrible at football. nobody -- >> how were you milking cows? >> we got infected with agriculture. we all are now have tractors and ride around in our -- in some ways, i learned a lot. the farm i was on, a single guy with a farmer. he lived with his mom. allen fits mire was his name. there was something always felt a little tentative and awkward, i guess you would say in public situations. he had a stubbornness and feistiness. but there was a certain kind of lack of assuredness that came

from o-- at different times. there also is something about those rural people and you probably know those that -- they're the last you see before -- next generation had a lot of media, had a lot of tv that made behavior more homogeniz homogenized. they have way of expressing themselves. grand mothers say things that you don't hear anymore. he was like that. i did use him quite a bit. >> so i box in the same gym as antoine puck wa and denzel and i've heard about equalizer 2. i heard that you are in it. >> i was in the first one. i thought the second one would be my character gets to be the bad guy. didn't end up being that way. it's a different journey where denzel and i go on the road at a

certain point. they really, antoine sets up a great dynamic on the set. he's one of my favorites to work with. i want to work -- hopefully, if there's a third, they say they're going to get me back. >> two makes money that one made, there will be a third one. this is hollywood after all. there will be a third one if this one does well. i'm sure it will. >> you and christian bale are doing something together. >> it's called back seat. i hadn't seen christian since we did newsies. 20-some years ago. i got on the set and i was at talking to adam around the monitor and this guy comes up, kind of balding, overweight guy, singing santa fe. i didn't recognize the song at first. what's he singing? i looked at him and looked at him. he's going to talk about newsies. i realized that's christian

bale. he looked so different and such a great character. i think it's like 4 1/2 hours of makeup or something. he's committed. >> i don't know what they say about dick cheney. it takes 4 1/2 hours to look like him. this product is called the ballad of lefty brown starring bill pullman. good to have you back on. congrats on the project. that's our show tonight. thanks for watching. as always, keep the faith. >> announcer: for more information, visit taaffe smivi smiley.org. join me for about the future of the supreme court and actress laurie metcalf. that's next time. laurie metcalf. that's next time. see you then.

♪ ♪ - fried chicken and potato salad are quintessentially american recipes. in fact, they're on the menu every year in august at our old home day at the methodist church in vermont. but there is one other place in the world that loves fried chicken, and, oddly enough, that's japan. in fact, kentucky fried chicken, every year, sells a christmas bucket. you have to make reservations by late october to celebrate that particular holiday. so here at milk street today, we're doing something a little bit odd.