As someone who has spent the last eight years of my career as a socially conscious entrepreneur, it warms my heart when I see a business leader sharing my progressive political views. That’s why I was excited to learn today that successful entrepreneur and investor Joe Sanberg has endorsed Bernie Sanders.
As Huffington Post reports,
Sanberg, a founder of Aspiration, the socially conscious online banking company, described Sanders’ diverse, young and working-class coalition of supporters as a key reason for getting behind the Vermont senator’s candidacy.
Joe Sanberg is not only a progressive banker, but also an activist for universal healthcare. He is one of the co-founders of Business for Medicare for All, an organization of business owners advocating for a new health insurance system in which the government guarantees coverage for everyone.
Although Sanberg acknowledges that a President Sanders would have to negotiate with Congress, and that it would be difficult to enact a single-payer system in the current political environment, he argues that Bernie Sanders’ embrace of Medicare for All is the “right campaign posture.” As he explains,
“One of the things that I think I bring from my experience as an entrepreneur is that you don’t negotiate from a place of compromise. You negotiate from a place of clarity,” the entrepreneur said. “Bernie has stood head and shoulders above every other candidate around this clarity that single payer should be our guidepost.”
Sanberg dismissed concerns about the label of “democratic socialism,” and said that Medicare for All would be a tremendous boon to entrepreneurship, freeing up workers who are worried about losing employer-provided health insurance to take risks and start new businesses. He also noted student loan forgiveness as a powerful policy to unleash amazing economic potential.
“One of the ways I’d like to help is leverage my credibility as an entrepreneur,” said Sanberg, “is to explain that Bernie’s domestic policy is going to unlock sensational economic growth that’s going to be driven by everyday Americans.”
Joe Sanberg’s endorsement of Bernie Sanders can hopefully help persuade people that Bernie’s progressive economic philosophy is not only not bad for business, but actually would be a great blessing to the American economy. Thank you, Sanberg… and Sanders!