I joined Patriotic Millionaires because I believe many capitalists are spoiling capitalism for the rest of us. American capitalism has been one of the greatest engines of social mobility in the world, but that is changing. Low wages for working people and low taxes for the ultra-rich are turning us into a country of haves and have-nots, where a small group of people control both the economy and the government. It’s not only bad for the poor and middle-class, but for all of us in the long run. We need the kinds of policies Patriotic Millionaires is fighting for to begin to fix this downward trajectory.
Having built and led a few multi-billion-dollar businesses, I’ve seen how much of corporate America has focused so much on cutting costs by driving wages down that the bottom is starting to fall out of the system. When companies fail to pay fair wages to entry-level workers, they save money in the short term, but it eats at the fabric of society, undercuts long-term business success, and undermines the American Dream.
I’ve also seen how there’s a better path forward, and just how simple it can be. When I was the newly-appointed CEO of a struggling healthcare company, CareCentrix, my investors expected me to lower costs. Instead, I froze executive pay and invested in the people who were critical to my company’s success: my employees. Over a decade ago, I raised our entry-level wages from $7.25 to $15 an hour. In the process, we reduced turnover, increased productivity, and turned the company around. CareCentrix tripled in size and more than quadrupled in value before we sold it to Walgreens in 2022. By paying my employees better and giving them a shot at achieving the American Dream, I was giving my company its best chance to succeed as well.
This is personal. I’m one of the lucky members of my generation to see that Dream work for my family. My grandparents emigrated to the United States from Ireland. My grandfather started as a janitor and carpenter and my grandmother as a nanny. They believed that, if they worked hard and played by the rules, their children and grandchildren would have the chance for a much better life.
That Dream worked out for us and many others because the United States worked differently than it does today. There was an implicit social contract in the United States that if you worked hard, you could get ahead. Your children would have more opportunities than you had. That contract, like all social contracts, was imperfect and unfinished — marginalized groups never shared in the same way from the benefits of their labor. Nonetheless, for many workers and countless immigrants, that system paid off in better jobs and higher pay.
That social contract with America started to shred when full-time workers fell further and further behind as real wages declined in value. Today, millions are working harder and paid less, running up a down escalator that speeds up every year. More than 40 percent of working people in America—over 50 million people—make less than the cost of living for a single person with no children. This group includes everyone from retail clerks to home health aides to cooks. For most of them, and especially those with kids, it’s not enough to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, wealthy Americans like me are doing better than ever. American workers are more productive, but all of the benefits of that increased productivity are flowing to executives and investors. People like me receive the lion’s share of the proceeds of business success, yet often pay lower tax rates than most working Americans.
This is not sustainable. I fear that a society this unequal will not stand. Growing grievance and discord in America is a direct result of growing inequality – and a growing underclass that feels more and more disconnected to any version of the American Dream. This is bad for everyone, including rich people like me.
It is time to reconnect the prosperity of American families to the success of American businesses. When businesses do well, all the people who work for those businesses should do well too—not just the ones in the C-suite and on Wall Street. That begins by paying people something close to the actual cost of living.
We can do for the American economy what I did at CareCentrix. American workers need a raise and the rich need to pay their fair share in taxes. That’s why I joined Patriotic Millionaires, and it’s why I continue to advocate for these policies. If we don’t fix the economy, the USA will never have the chance to realize its full potential. The nation is on the edge. The future is ours to decide. And the decisions are pretty straightforward. We can steer the country away from this period of divisiveness and social unrest by undoing what got us here and paying every full-time worker a living wage. And we can start to create an economy that works for all Americans, not just wealthy ones.
John is the Chair of Magnit Global, an international staffing firm managing over 700,000 employees, and also chairs the boards of the Waystar Corporation (NASDAQ:WAY) and UCONN Health. He is the former President and Executive Vice President of Walgreens Boots Alliance, overseeing Walgreens’ healthcare assets. Driscoll joined WBA in October 2022 when the company acquired CareCentrix, where he had served as Chief Executive Officer since 2013. He has been an executive at some of the fastest growing and innovative companies in healthcare and technology including Oxford Health Plans (sold to United Health Group), Walker Digital (parent of Priceline), and Medco (sold to Cigna/Express Scripts). He is also a Senior Advisor to the EQT Group and the co-author of Pay the People: Why Fair Pay is Good for Business and Great for America (2024).
John is available to speak to the media about the Patriotic Millionaires’ general work and mission, in addition to taxes, wages and corporate behavior, democracy, and excessive wealth.
To get in touch with John, please contact Emily McCloskey, Deputy Communications Director, at emily@patrioticmillionaires.org.