Universal Basic Capitalism: The Next American Revolution Or More Trickle Down Economics?

**Andrew Keen** (0:00)
Hello, my name is Andrew Keen. Welcome to Keen On America, the daily interview show about the United States. Hello, everybody, it is Saturday, June the 4th, 2026

**Keith Teare** (0:36)
July the 4th, Andrew, July the 4th.

**Andrew Keen** (0:38)
Oh, I think I'll start that one again.
Hey, my geography is, I think that's not geography, what is it? What's the word? My knowledge, Mike from Nolan, my dates are bad. Okay, ready?

**Keith Teare** (0:55)
Yeah.

**Andrew Keen** (0:56)
Hello, everybody, it is July the 4th, 2026, celebration of you know what, I might actually put this interview out on July the 5th, but it's worth noting that we're speaking on the 250th anniversary of America's birthday foundation. It's the day for our weekly tech roundup with my old friend, Keith Teare, that was the week newsletter.
And surprise, surprise, his editorial this week focuses on what he calls America the Beautiful. So happy anniversary, Keith. What's your, I was thinking about this before we went live. What's your relationship with the United States? You came here quite late in your life, didn't you? Relatively late, certainly compared to me.

**Keith Teare** (1:44)
Yeah, it just shows how old I am because I've actually been here 30 years now. I came here initially in 1996 and spent some time in New York, realized how superior American investing landscape, let's say, risk appetite was compared to the UK and determined that living in the UK was for fools.
So I moved here.

**Andrew Keen** (2:12)
So what year?

**Keith Teare** (2:14)
96

**Andrew Keen** (2:15)
96 So your life has really been pretty much split or relatively split between the UK and the US.
Do you have a US passport?

**Keith Teare** (2:25)
I do. I am a citizen.

**Andrew Keen** (2:28)
You have a very core identity as an entrepreneur, as a startup guy. Does that connect with your identity as an American? Do you think of yourself as both an American and a startup entrepreneur?

**Keith Teare** (2:44)
Actually, I don't think of myself as an American. I mean, it's one of the labels I have and I embrace it. That's fine. But it's not a singular label.
I'd say entrepreneur is way more core for me. And then there's probably other labels like, I don't know. I think of myself as essentially a critical thinker that wants change. That's my real core.

**Andrew Keen** (3:16)
And you've bred three Americans. You have three big American boys. And they're boys. They're young men now.
So you're adding to what you call the America the Beautiful. What's the editorial this week, Keith? What are you writing about? How are you combining this week in tech with the July 4th celebrations?

**Keith Teare** (3:42)
And I think it's really two things. It's firstly, it's an acknowledgement of America's success over the last 250 years.
America really symbolizes human growth, human progress, economically, lifestyle-wise and in politics. I mean, the fact that we have Donald Trump as president voted for by more Americans than voted against him, symbolizes that the people still rule. Because most intellectuals, the last thing they wanted to see was Trump winning, but he won. And that's-

**Andrew Keen** (4:23)
I thought American intellectuals like Trump.

**Keith Teare** (4:26)
There are some who don't, aren't there?

**Andrew Keen** (4:28)
Well, one American intellectual yourself is, shall we say, ambivalent. So on the one hand, your editorial talks about the achievement of America, abundance, wealth, creation and freedom.
But on the other hand, you're not some sort of MAGA fellow, are you, Keith? I mean, you recognize that not everything is perfect in the American garden in July 2026

**Keith Teare** (4:53)
Well, not- I mean, the pinnacle of capitalism is still flawed.
Easy for me to say, but look, capitalism at its best still has huge swathes of poor people who can barely eat. And so any idea that it's perfect, this idea of the perfect union is deeply flawed as a concept, and always has been. And because I believe that America has kind of peaked in world terms, it's only going to get worse unless policy kicks in to make sure it doesn't. So we're at a moment where the next 250 years, there is a lot to play for, but it's not a foregone conclusion that it looks anything like the past 150 years if you look at it through American glasses.

**Andrew Keen** (5:52)
And you're looking at it through American glasses. You're an American living in Palo Alto, or you are half American at least.
One of the pieces that I forwarded to, which you included in the newsletter this week, and I found this astonishing, it's from the Wall Street Journal, which is not biased, although I think they will enjoy this sort of piece, is that the United States added 1200 new millionaires a day last year, which is astonishing, especially when it's compared with the rest of the world. The Chinese only added a little over 5 million over the year. America added 23 and a half million. Oh no, these are countries with the most millionaires. America has almost 24 million, China only has a little over 5, and then we get down to Italy and Netherlands, South Korea or Australia, France, UK, all under 3 million. It's really an astonishing statistic. I don't know what it tells us, but it certainly speaks of the prosperity amongst some for America.