Scott Galloway
Professor of marketing at NYU Stern and author of bestselling books including The Four and The Algebra of Wealth.
“Your happiness and general sense of well-being is the delta between what you have and your expectations. And because of social media vomiting 105 times a day, how well everyone else is doing, the expectations, especially amongst young people, is that if they don't have a boyfriend with a six-pack and they haven't made $3 million on the SpaceX IPO, that they're failing.”
Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · October 2026
Galloway is answering a listener question about brands wrapping themselves in the flag for America's 250th. He says anger about data centers and affordability is partly frustration looking for a target while markets hit new highs, and that expectations set by social media make it worse.
Transcript
…we've pulled a few of the best ones. Nick Driver asks: With America 250 coming, we're about to be flooded with brands performing patriotism. Heather, what's the difference between a company that has generally become part of the American story and one that's just opportunistically running the flag?
…produce much that the rest of us care about. And that's overstated, of course. But there does seem to be an extraordinary divorce right now between the stock market and the companies that are hot and what the American people actually need and the companies that are providing that. Is that unfair?
…frustration that while the market hits new highs and people seem to be, you know, we have our first trillionaire. I can't afford gas. And what I do think is fair is that happiness or well-managed. Is not only a function of what you have, because there's a lot of economists who would argue that people at all income levels actually aren't doing as poorly sometimes as the media would portray. But your happiness and general sense of well-being is the delta between what you have and your expectations. And because of social media vomiting 105 times a day, how well everyone else is doing, the expectations, especially amongst young people, is that if they don't have a boyfriend with a six-pack and they haven't made $3 million on the SpaceX IPO, that they're failing. So people are just upset and angry. In terms of branding, wrapping yourself in the flag is as old as time. The difference now is that three-quarters of people of our generation, professor, feel good about America. Only one quarter of younger people feel good about America. So if you're a brand appealing to people our age, if it's insurance or, you know, CPAP or MyPillow Guy, yeah, wrap yourself…
It does seem to me that one of the things that we are suffering from in this particular moment is the conversion of wealth, that is the things that make a life worth living, you know, family, church, if that's your thing, open spaces, time with friends, education, libraries, whatever, that that is…
Yeah, I like that. And just going back to this notion about American branding, I just spent time in Northern Europe, and my takeaway there is, and I just think it's such an important lesson, is that we need to settle the argument. And I think Sweden and I was just in the Netherlands settle it. You…
Isn't that by definition that they can peacefully coexist? Because if, in fact, you create a healthy, educated workforce, they're able to innovate and do better work. And that's actually how it works. I think you can make an argument that this idea of deliberately creating an undereducated…
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