Okay.

I'm back.

Okay, so I've been gone about four months.

Thanks for waiting.

Lots has happened.

Today we're going to talk about where I've been,

what I've been doing.

The things that I've missed.

Mainly the two big elections

and what we're going to do for the channel this year.

So we kept the videos going out on this channel

until about the end of August,

but I actually went away, just before the end of June,

which was just before the election here in the UK.

And I went away

just before the election on

purpose, to be honest, because,

it was very obvious before the election

that Labour would win.

And Labour would win by quite a significant margin.

And some people who watch this

channel and see me supporting

wealth taxes and

increased tax on the rich and trying to reduce

inequality, might have assumed that I was

some big Labour supporter,

but in reality, I think it was clear

and has been clear for quite a while,

that it's very unlikely

Labour are going to do anything significant

on inequality or wealth tax or tax on the super rich.

And for that reason,

the election was a little bit depressing for me,

and I was getting quite down, to be honest

coming into the election.

Because I'd been expecting the election

to be

in sort of November, it came in June,

and I felt at the time like we're not

big enough to put any pressure on the government,

or the incoming government.

They're not going to offer us anything.

They're not going to give us anything.

And it was just quite depressing to see

after sort of

working really hard on this channel for a long time,

that it's going to be another

five years, another government

that are probably not going to give us anything.

And I think in a sense

it was easier emotionally in a way,

when we had these kind of

comedy villains in charge of the country.

You know,

Rishi Sunak, son-in-law

of one of the richest men in the world,

Boris Johnson,

David Cameron, Liz Truss,

George Osborne,

these guys that look like bad guys in a Disney film.

Because when you have these kind of...

kind of obvious villains in charge, it's very easy

to point the finger at these guys and say,

these guys are the bad guys.

Let's give these guys a good kicking.

Let's kick him out and then let's changed things.

But the truth is, and it is obvious now

that the problem is and always was deeper than that.

And it is made obvious

by the fact that the Labour government have come in.

And if you saw my video on the election before

I went away,

I said very clearly in that video,

we will get a new Labour government,

they will get a big mandate,

they'll get a big majority despite being unpopular.

And they will fail on inequality,

which means they will fail on the economy

and they will be very unpopular very quickly. And that

at this point is kind of obviously true.

What it makes clear is that the problem

is bigger than left or right.

The problem is bigger than Labour or Conservative.

We have a problem

in this country, but it is not only in this country.

And I think the situation in America

and in many other countries proves

this problem goes way, way beyond just the UK.

There is a problem of a broad consensus of economists,

but also of these kind of semi idiotic

upper middle class, elite university

academics and intellectuals and elites

that are simply very, very unwilling to

even talk about inequality as part of the problem.

And they want to talk about things like

economic growth and efficiency

and increasing GDP and,

pulling our socks up and all working a bit harder.

All the while, wealth absolutely floods

to the rich and the super rich,

and nobody seems to fix that problem.

So yeah, it was a bit depressing going away.

Well, it's a bit depressing seeing the election come in

and just knowing

the problem is way bigger than one election.

The problem is way bigger than just winning.

We're just kicking a party out of government.

It's very easy to kick a party out of government,

but it's much harder to fix a problem.

So

I went away to sort of sit down and have a think about

what can we do, what can we do to... to fight this?

Because the truth is, we are going to have five years

of Labour government now, and I hope I'm wrong on this.

And I want to make it clear

before I say what I was about to say.

I don't think that

the Labour government is full of corrupt villains.

There's probably one or two in there.

Some of these guys want to do the best thing

for their country.

And, despite that, the fact is

I really don’t

think we're going to get anything from them.

So what do we do? What can we do?

What do you do when you live in a two party

political system,

and both parties

are absolutely incapable of recognising

an enormous

gaping hole

in the bottom of the economy

that just grows and grows day after day.

And that's what I went away to think about basically,

what can we do?

What can I do?

What can you do?

And also, to be honest, just to like

get a bit of a rest. It's been a bad year.

Like the growth of the channel has been insane.

I get recognised like 6 or 7 times a day.

I get like tons of emails from loads of people.

People who want to help, people

who want to like, work for us.

People who want to do stuff.

And,

I get so many messages that it's impossible

for me to basically read all the messages and,

you know, people stop me in the street

and they say, you know,

we're counting on you to do something.

You know, we believe you can do something.

And it's hard when people say that

when you know, my like,

honest assessment of the situation is

it's just going to get worse.

So I needed to take a bit of time away,

basically to figure out like, well, what can we do?

Can we do anything? Just clear my head basically.

But now we're back.

We're going to be back with weekly videos,

and we are going to try,

whether we succeed or not I don't know,

we're going to try to get into a situation

where we could change things.

And the channel is growing a lot,

which genuinely gives us

a little bit of political power. But it's not enough.

The truth is, if we want to really impact change here,

we need to be bigger.

And this is the kind of thing

which I've been rolling around in my head,

because the truth is,

like even

the level of kind of

fame and scrutiny and attention that I get

now sometimes makes me uncomfortable.

But if we want to have a political impact

and we want to stop this from getting worse and worse,

we need to be much bigger.

We need to be much bigger,

the channels needs to be much bigger.

So I honestly think

there is a massive

gap in our media for just communicating economics

in an ordinary,

simple, plain speaking, understandable way

to ordinary people.

I think that 80, 90% of people in this country

don't have any economic communicator

that is communicating to them on the news

what's happening in a way they understand.

Never mind the way

that is like welcoming and accessible.

And I think in a world where the economy

has gotten massively worse

and will continue

to get worse, and living standards

will continue to get worse for ordinary people,

and there is continuing financial insecurity.

People want that.

People want somebody who can explain what's happening

in a way that is clear

and in a way that makes sense to them.

And I think that is the reason

why the channel has grown so much with,

you know, with very few people working on it.

We've never had

even a single member of full time

staff on this channel,

full time paid staff is including me.

With no full time

paid staff with very, very little funding,

we've managed to build this channel

up to more than half a million subs now, and it's grown

something like six or seven

or eight times in the last year,

and it's not going to go eight times every year.

But if we can keep growing at anything like that speed,

then maybe we can

get a little bit of political influence.

Labour are already very unpopular.

There's a degree to which they won't care

about that at the moment,

because there's not going to be

another election for four and a half years.

Two, three years down the line

when they're still very unpopular

and when it starts to become clear

that you cannot improve the economy

without, well,

when it starts to become clear to them that

what they're doing is not working,

politically they will have to have a rebrand.

They will have to have a rebrand.

They will have to have a new offer.

I have to try to get this channel to a position where

the obvious common sense amongst the public is,

you need to deal with inequality,

and you need to do what Gary's Economics

says, you know,

and I know maybe that sounds egotistical, but

what else can I do here,

the thing is going to collapse.

It's going to get worse.

There's going to be really broad poverty.

Labour are not going to stop it.

We need to raise the voice.

We need to raise the voice.

So I have to think about

what can we do to grow the channel.

And, this year, we are

going to get another big publicity campaign

from Penguin.

The paperback of the book is coming out,

and I've just received it in the mail by courier.

So I will open and show it to you,

then new cover at the end of the video.

You know, we have to try to grasp that and to grow it.

We're going to be doing another

a public tour around the country.

So hopefully some of you will get a chance to meet me

and ask me whatever questions you have.

We have to try and take that and run with it.

But what that means is

we have to professionalise the channel.

Basically. I don't think we we have a choice.

If we are going to be politically powerful.

We need staff and I need staff.

I just don't think there's any way

that I can cope with making it

significantly bigger than it is

without any full time staff, Basically.

And that means we are going to need funding,

and that means that we are going to open a Patreon.

I spoke about it just before I went away.

We're going to open a Patreon

and we're going to see what we what we get.

And, you know, I don't know, it will get a lot.

I don't know whether we'll get a little,

but if we want to be politically powerful down

the line, we're going to need staff.

And if we need staff...

we need staff, we're going to need funding.

Just help support me

and help us to get a little bit more ambitious

and diverse with the creativity of what we do.

Help us to work with different creatives,

help us to get different people on the channel.

So it's not just like me

every week in my No Face hoodie,

but that's what I'm going to do.

We're going to open a Patreon.

We're going to put a list of like

prices in there.

So I think, I think we're going to do £5 a month

or £20 a month.

I want to make clear right now,

we are never going to pay wall these videos.

The Patreon doesn't mean, like,

you need to pay towards the channel.

We're never going to do that.

I think I'll write a newsletter and I'll do, like,

a, like a video Q&A

once a month for people on the Patreon.

But that Patreon is going to be there

so that we can fund staff, fund these videos.

And these videos will always be free

and open to the public.

But we just have to do it like it's... it's

difficult for me to run this thing

without any full time staff.

And I'm very grateful for the guys who do help me.

And we got a part time manager.

We've got Jack here doing the camera,

but we're going to need, we're gonna need more

if we're going to be serious.

And I don't know if it'll work.

You know,

maybe we won't get enough money for staff,

and maybe we won't be able to expand it. And then...

And then probably we'll never be able to have

a massive political impact.

But either way, I'll keep making the videos.

But it's kind of

I need to see whether we have a shot

to have an impact here.

I think I have a responsibility to myself

and to the country to see, to see if I can.

I'm not saying I'm going to change it by myself,

but if we get a bit of funding

can maybe make a proper like professional

organisation here that can just help me,

help me grow it, help me make more cool videos

and help me feel more supported and have a good run.

So what what we're going to do.

So I've been thinking about this while I was away.

Some of you might want to know about my time in Japan.

My time in Japan was amazing.

It was really, really hot.

I cycled from Tokyo to Hiroshima.

But I've been back a few months, actually.

I got back, around about the end of August.

I've been working on basically setting up a company

because, I want the Patreon....

I don't want the Patreon money to come to me.

I want it to go into a company

that we can release the accounts,

and you can see that

none of the Patreon money goes to me.

All of the Patreon money will always be used to cover

the cost of the channel.

The plan at the moment is

I won't start using the Patreon money

immediately as it comes in.

We'll start to like pool it a little bit there

so we can see basically how much we're getting,

and then we can figure out, like, what can we do?

Can we get a full time

staff member, can we get a couple?

And basically try and figure out

like how much income we have

and what we can do with it?

But don't expect to see any massive changes

like imminently.

It's just a question of...

Really, it's a question of just professionalising it.

You know, I look at sort of,

what we have achieved this year with the growth.

A big part of the reason we've grown so much

this year is because we've had a professional publicist

from Penguin working to publicise the channel.

She's been amazing.

I won't mention her name

because I don't know if she wants me to mention her,

but she's been great.

And, you know, the whole team at Penguin

have been great, but

the massive growth from last year,

because we've had a publicist

and the publicist

ultimately doesn't work for the YouTube

or the political project.

She works for the book and,

you know, the book is amazing.

I encorage you to buy the book.

The paperback is coming out

Jan, so the paperback will be...

if you were waiting for the book to be a bit cheaper,

that's going to come out in Jan 30th

and I think that's going to be something

like £11 or £12 maybe,

but much cheaper than the hardback.

That will come out, we'll get a big publicity campaign,

but at some point,

you know, Penguin are going to stop publicising us

and we need to have somebody who works for the channel

to help us publicise it.

We need someone who helps us to YouTube optimise,

and we need someone who just helps us make banging

videos week after week, basically.

But yes,

the thing I wanted to make clear

is we're going to set up a company

and all of the Patreon money will go to the company.

None of it will come to me.

It's not going to be used to pay me.

I'm not going to take a salary.

The Patreon money will always be ringfenced

for supporting production of content and

if we get enough,

ultimately trying to push a bit of a political project,

trying to grow it as a political project,

trying to put pressure on politicians in the long run,

but basically trying to...

trying to achieve something

rather than just making videos.

But we will keep making videos and good videos,

and I would also, if we get enough, like to be able to

support some other creatives to help make good stuff.

Like I've been making a video

with a friend of mine called Stefan.

I think that's really good

and we're going to put that on the channel.

He's a filmmaker,

but yeah,

make better content,

make more frequent content,

be more effective, grow quicker.

But also importantly, to help me feel more supported

because I do find it difficult making these videos.

I do find the kind of a level of fame I get difficult.

But, look,

you know, I've put this off for a long time

because, I know there's going to be like

some people that kickback...

Oh this guy’s trying to make money.

I'm not going to take money from the Patreon.

You know, we've never put adverts in these videos

because I'm not in this to make money.

I’m in this to try and educate people

about what's happening. If you don't do anything,

this gets worse.

But we can do something.

I think if we

provide the space where the public can come

and be educated

in a way that is clear about what is happening,

people can understand the reason

for their worsening living

conditions; is growing inequality.

And if people understand that,

they will feel empowered to fight against it.

There's tons of more things I can say about that,

and we will say them, but this video is getting long.

But listen,

nobody has to subscribe to Patreon.

Like, these videos will be here

like they've always been,

and they'll be free like they've always been.

Watch the videos, understand

the videos, share them, and support them.

Share them with you friends,

share them with your family.

I'm not putting no pressure on nobody.

If we want to grow this, we are going to need staff.

And if we're going to need staff, we need funding.

The funding is not going to go to me.

It's going to go to staff.

But, I'm back. I'll keep making weekly videos,

for as long as I can.

Last year I took a break of six months,

and when I came back,

the views were like higher than before I went away.

And,

I was quite emotional about that, to be honest,

because I find it difficult

making weekly videos like, I'm not really like,

you know, my background is maths and economics.

I'm not like a creative

and it stresses me out

trying to do like new videos every week.

And I don't like talking to camera.

But the fact that people are still there

after six months really

made me feel like

I was being supported

to take the time out of that need,

and it made me feel

that I can stick around in the long term.

People who read my book will know

that I've had difficulties

in the past in my mental health,

and I don't like being attacked in the newspapers.

But this is important, and it's worth it.

So...

I'll keep doing it.

Thank you for your support. Happy new year.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, my days!

So I've got the new paperback,

and you guys are going to love the cover.

Good that Jack reminded me otherwise Penguin would have

chopped my balls off.

So we’ll do an unboxing here.

We're going to keep this

and put it on my first ASMR video.

So this is the paperback.

I think it's £11 or £12.

I probably should have asked. Anyway, there you go.

You got that focus on that alright?

So they put my face on the cover,

which, as you can see, it's beautiful.

And I'm delighted about.

I was...

I was a little bit, concerned about this

because obviously this will be in the window of,

like, every bookshop in the country.

With my face on the cover.

But, at the end of the day.

That's going to help us grow

the channel,

and it's going to help us grow the political project.

And I think it's important.

And I'm really proud of this book

and this book has helped us grow massively this year.

Well, yeah. Last year, yeah, I would recommend it.

It's probably the thing

that I'm most proud of, of things

I've done in my life, really.

But, yeah, this is the book.

Thanks to Penguin. Thanks for all your support. And,

yeah, look, we're not going to grow

eight times every year,

but if we can keep growing anything

like what we've been growing,

then they'll have to listen to us sooner or later.

So, yeah. Thanks for your help. Good luck.