okay welcome back to Gary's Economics

today is unfortunately my goodbye video for now

because this will be the last video in the 24/25

season, thank you

Okay so this is it

the last video while I go away

if you watch this I'll probably already be in Italy

I wanted to just talk

I've got here written on my script

just run with no script, but I can't to be honest

I'm absolutely knackered

I wanna talk a little bit about this season

and this season has been, I would say

probably the hardest season for me personally

of Gary's Economics if I'm honest

I think I probably exhausted myself a little bit

in the first half of the year

it seems ages ago now but the paperback came out in

end of January

and the first half of the year was absolutely insane

for me, it was absolutely crazy

I was everywhere

it felt like I couldn't live my life really

we were getting like 50 million views a month

it really felt like we were gonna take the world over

and I was working crazy crazy

crazy crazy hard and really

really really

really hard

I didn't realise it was gonna go on as long as it did

it just kept going and going and going

and I had a holiday planned in the spring

which I kept postponing and postponing and postponing

and the holiday ended up being quite short

and I ended up working half the holiday

doing interviews all over the place

and then when I came back in June to start this season

it really felt like we were kind of

on the edge of winning wealth taxes

and I really wanted to like

hit the ground running and really go

and I started making videos in June

and it was probably only about 3, 4

videos in, I just started feeling like I was exhausted

to be honest

and I don't know if it's just me getting old

or if I worked too hard but it was

it was difficult for me because

we'd achieved so much and we'd come so close

it really felt like what it needed was for me to like

keep pushing and push more and more and more

it just felt like, the sort of the legs weren't there

I didn't have the energy I needed to really run in

it felt like when I'm really doing a lot of work

you know, I can be doing interviews

and doing these videos and writing articles

and appearing on people's podcasts

and it really feels like you can kind of

carry the thing on your back

but I couldn't really

This is the first time really

that I've ever done this channel

that I just felt like I didn't have

the energy that I needed

to push us to where we needed to be

and that was difficult for me

to be honest, especially

because

it felt like we were quite close to winning at times

but I think if I'm honest

we were probably never that close yet

and it's probably partially wishful thinking for me

anyway because when you're working so so

so hard you just wanna get there, right?

You wanna get there, you wanna reach the end

you wanna win and have it won and kind of go away

go on holiday for like a year

but the truth is, it was never gonna be that easy

we've made unbelievable, amazing

amazing strides this year to win the public

but what we've seen is

it's not enough just to win the public

you do need to figure out

how to win over the politicians

how to win over, you know

the media to some degree and this intellectual class

how do we break in to that sort of

how do we break in with the posh people, basically

and I think the truth is

we were never gonna quite make it this year

which is a shame, but the truth is

it's exactly what I predicted

you know, if you go and

if you go and look at the videos that we did

just before the election

this is exactly what I said would happen

it's exactly what I said Labour would do

there's not a single thing that's happened

that surprised me. I didn't expect Labour to come

over, and they haven't

I expected Labour to be unpopular and they have

I expected Labour to change leader

and it looks like they will

a new leader will come in

it's new opportunity but if I'm totally honest

I don't think we'll get them either

but we are in a much much

much stronger position than we were one year ago

two years ago three years ago

the size of this movement is huge now so

I'm gonna keep fighting.

So that was kind of where I was

when I came back and did the videos

I felt that my energy was kind of going

which is a shame

because I'd only been back a month,

month and a half and I always feel with these videos

I try my best to do them without a script

but it's hard when I'm tired

and I feel like when you go without a script

what really drives the videos

is your understanding and your passion and your energy

and it's sometimes difficult to combine those things

cause you wanna

keep that shape and structure and clarity

you get from understanding

but also allow that sort of passion to come through

and what I felt really during this season was

the energy was kind of going

and then we saw this like, massive

massive rise in the media salience of immigrant

refugee stuff, far right stuff

and that was really difficult for me

to be honest because

you know

I've always had this idea that I'm an economist

and I talk about the economy

and our current economic situation is not working

or not gonna work for 80, 90% of people

so we can really rally and unite the public on this

and a big part of

sort of, the philosophy of this channel

and my philosophy

is basically about uniting the public

and as this anti immigrant rhetoric really went up

and up and up

and up and up what I probably felt most personally

was just the division

basically, the division in the country

the division in the public, and for me it was difficult

you know, I know people think I'm a communist

I don't come from a political background

I come from a very working class, poor background

but then I've been to fancy universities

and I've worked fancy jobs

so now in many ways

I'm in a more sort of middle class space

and what I felt with this anti immigrant thing

reminded me a lot of how I felt with the Brexit thing

which was

I saw the sort of class divisions in this society

really being sort of torn at the seams

and it kind of felt like this division

between the world that I came from

and the world that I'm in now

and it's hard really, it's hard

it's sort of

it breaks my heart in a way to see so much division

and I worry. I worry that if

we don't do anything about this

we can end up kind of

going the way that America has gone

where basically the country is like split into two

and everybody with the red hat

hates everyone with the blue hat

and everyone with the blue hat

hates everyone with the red hat

and I don't want it to go that way

I don't want it to go that way

so I decided to speak a little bit more about

the protest and the migrant stuff

which is not something I'm super

super comfortable speaking about

but it felt like something I had to do

and I did my best to speak about it in a way that

is compassionate and understand what's happening

and I hope I said the right things

I do my best

but we've got to the end of the season now

I've been pushing it if I'm honest

trying to sort of push myself to keep going

because I was only away last

in May, June

and I felt bad to take another break

but I could feel that exhaustion coming

and when I get to the end of a season

I kind of

I kind of feel the same at the end of every season

which is this sense of

having really worked a lot

I put a lot of effort

into the this channel and these videos

and each season we achieve more

and each season we achieve more and

this year in particular

I think it's amazing what we've achieved

and you put so much work in

and you get to the end

and you realize that we still haven't won

and we're not even winning

and it's hard I think, I find that hard

but what I wanna say is, we are getting there

we are moving forward

the channel is like so

so much louder and bigger than it was

when I started this channel 5 years ago

I mean when I started 5 years ago

with my mate Simran

I never

ever would have imagined we could be what we are now

which is genuinely, legitimately

I think a major political player in this country

that's what we are and that growth is thanks to you

This channel is is ultimately a political experiment

which is to see whether

an almost unfunded YouTube channel can compete

with the major newspapers

and political broadcasters

TV channels, radio channels

on the basis of word of mouth from the public

just by being honest, being clear

being knowledgeable

and explaining what's happening to the public

and we're doing it, we're doing it

we're one of the major political players in the country

and I'll keep doing it, if we keep growing

we'll still be there

there's big opportunities next year

and I'll be back, I'll do my best to take ‘em

I wanna thank Jack, cameraman

Jack does great work

These videos are a lot tighter

when they go out than when I do them

and that's thanks to Jack's work

I never check his work

cause I have a implicit trust in him

he's doing a great job.

I wanna thank Oscar

he's the only employee on this channel

and he has asked me

he basically runs runs all the

all the background stuff, all the organizational stuff

and he has asked me in particular

in typically selfless Oscar fashion

to publicise

the merch that he's worked hard to get made

these tax wealth not work t shirts

I think there's more, we've got stickers

hoodies, tote bags...

Oscar's doing fantastic work

We'll put a comment in the link

a comment in the links...

a link in the comments for people who want to buy merch

I wanna say a very special

thank you to the patreon supporters

it's the patron supporters that pay Jack, that pay Oscar

we have never ever put any adverts in these videos

and the reason we're able to do that

is because of the Patreon supporters

it all works because of you

but more than anything like

it means a lot to me to see that

ordinary people are willing

to pay to support something they don't

get anything back for it

they pay because they care about this project

like I do, and when times are tough

it makes me feel like I'm not doing it alone

so yeah massive thanks to Jack, to Oscar

to all the patreon supporters

really appreciate that

I've got a long list of thanks here

I wanna thank other people who do this work

Gabriel Zucman doing amazing work in France

all the great guys at Patriotic Millionaires UK

especially Rebecca Gowland

fantastic work they do over there

I want to thank Zack Polanski for the massive work

he's done publicising wealth taxes

whether you like him or not

you know, I don't agree with him on everything

this guy has been doing so much work

publicising wealth taxes

we have to thank him. So many interviews

you gotta respect that

I've got a long list here of all the other creators

who I wanna thank. When I went away in May

I did a call out to people, to make art

to make, especially to make videos and there's so many

I'm gonna forget some. Jimmy the Giant as always

big friend of the channel

working his tits off doing great work

Frankie

Meditations of an Anxious Mind doing some great stuff

good lad, Forest Jar on Instagram

I think Forest Jar’s videos are really

really, really good work

go check them out

Anna Bocca, she's doing great work on YouTube

check out her channel. Barry's Economics

you gotta mention Barry's Economics

Barry's Economics, fantastic

I think he's nearly 10,000 subs

go check him out. Louisa Munch Critical Theory

these last two, Barry's Economics and Louisa Munch

I wanna give them a special mention

because I think the two of these made their channels

basically in response to the call out I did in May

saying I wanna see more people doing like, creating

So that means a lot to me

it's hard making a channel

you do a lot of work for not a lot of money

for basically no money for a lot of time

and I know how much work it is because I do it

so I really do appreciate you guys who

who are doing the work

Barry's Economics and Louisa Munch Critical Theory

the guys at Novara, Unlearning Economics

Punters Politics in Australia

Chloe Swarbrick in New Zealand

Ha-Joon Chang, doesn't have a channel

but I want him to make an Instagram about food

come on Ha-Joon Chang, you'll be really popular

I really appreciate other people doing it

I always feel guilty going on holiday

because I feel like I carry a lot of this movement

but I see more and more people making great videos

and it makes me feel like I can take breaks

which I need and I really appreciate that.

All of the other creatives who've,

people who sent us music, paintings

Jordan Stevens of Rizzle Kicks

putting us on the album

all of the grime artists who've been reaching out to us

Bashy, Toddla T everyone

the people who've been making t shirts, posters

stickers

it means a lot to me

this season's been a difficult one for me

I've worked so hard this year

and I've really exhausted myself

it's difficult doing creative work

when you feel exhausted I think the biggest

challenge about this particular part of the season is

in previous seasons

I've been very much focused on doing the creative work

doing the videos, doing the interviews

but this last season

I've been doing tons of work behind the scenes

which is trying to talk to think tanks

trying to talk to politicians

trying like, set stuff up

trying like, find ways to actually break into politics

and I hate it, I'm so bad at that

at that work

and it's so much easier to just be making the videos

trying to make amazing videos

and I'm not great at sort of multitasking

but we have to do it, we have to figure out ways this

This channel was

never about just making me famous on YouTube

supposed to be about changing policy

I'll keep doing that and

I wanna thank everyone who

who watches the videos who shares the videos

I really

really appreciate it. There's a

I live in East London and there's a

there's a famous mural down the street from me

called Cable Street Mural

which is, it's a mural from the

I guess it was maybe the 30s, back when

like serious fascism was on the rise

and Nazism was on the rise in Europe

and there was a big like, fascist Nazi movement here in

London and in the UK and there was a march

the fascist march in London

and the locals in east London came out

and they didn't accept it

there was a massive fight

there's a big mural down the street

which is nice if you're ever in London

go check it out. And I go

I cycle past it all the time and quite often

I'll stop and just have a little look

and I stopped the other day

and I was standing by this mural

and I was looking at this mural

and just as I was looking

The sun was going down, painting the scene, and

just as I was looking at it

I saw that somebody had put a sticker

right on the railing at the bottom

right in the middle

a big tax wealh not work sticker

and when I see stuff like that it makes me think

that all the hard work is worth it

So that's it, I've got to go

I'll be already in Italy by the time this comes out

we've got a lot going on

some stuff I'm not allowed to speak about yet

cause it's not public

we're trying to do some really exciting stuff

so many offers coming in

we're trying to do some good stuff, tour in Italy

which is happening now. You'd have probably missed it

by the time this comes out

but we'll put the dates out on another short. Australia and

New Zealand tour coming in February

March

I think there's still tickets available

go and check that out

I'm really looking forward to going down under

I'm not quite sure how long we'll be down for

but I think we'll be at least a few months

we'll probably do some specials

in particular around the budget

because the budget's coming out in November

Government's gonna raise taxes

not on the rich

on workers

and people are gonna try to blame me for that

so we'll make some videos to make it very

very very

very clear that we are campaigning to raise taxes

on the very rich, not on working people

we'll probably have to do a special or two around the budget

maybe something end of the year

we'd love to go and meet Gabriel Zukman in France

Jack's been practicing his French especially

we don't know if we’ll manage to figure that out

but I'll be back

and in the meantime, keep watching the videos

keep making stuff, keep creating

keep talking about it

the message is simple

living standards are falling

because of growing wealth inequality

if you don't fix wealth inequality

if you don't fix the tax system

living standards will fall further

tax wealth not work

keep fighting, keep talking about it

I know it's a long fight

and sometimes it can be dispiriting

but I promise you this, we will win in the end

if we didn't win yet

it isn't the end

good luck.