Yo, Instagram folks. Holding packets of tea is not a business model.

I’m on Instagram. And I enjoy it a lot, but if there’s one part that makes me want to rage quit, it’s the endless photos of fitness influencers, models and beautiful people holding up packets of skinny tea.
You know, the tea that helps people lose weight by basically being a fucking laxative.

It’s not that they necessarily believe in the product, if they did it might not piss me off as much as it does. It’s that holding pictures of skinny tea is their entire business, and they’d call themselves entrepreneurs for doing it.

Here’s the problem — these people are thinking that influence on its own is a business model and they’re running to whoever can monetize that influence, without considering their careers or long term entrepreneurship

Why does this matter? It matters for the same reason the old Myspace stars’ failure mattered — they’re not building any kid of asset, they’re not building a repeatable business model, and by their nature, they have to expand into something more tangible or die.

Wells Fargo’s Business Model is Fraud

Let’s be clear, the business model of Wall Street is fraud. In my view, there is no better example than the recently-exposed illegal behavior at Wells Fargo.

The CEO of Wells Fargo admitted today that he knew in 2013 the bank was scamming customers, but he took no action to fire or reprimand the senior executives in charge of supervising this activity. Instead, they were given millions in bonuses, while the value of the stock that the CEO owned shot up in value by more than $200 million.

Wells Fargo’s abuse of its customers is not an aberration. In April, the bank reached a $1.2 billion settlement with the Department of Justice for ‘reckless’ and ‘shoddy’ underwriting on thousands of home loans from 2001 to 2008. In 2012, Wells Fargo was fined $175 million to settle claims of discriminatory and predatory subprime lending in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

We have got to end the two-tier justice system — one for the poor and working class and one for Wall Street and the wealthy — that has existed for far too long in this country. The American people cannot understand how major banks paid more than $200 billion in fines and settlements since 2008, but not one Wall Street executive was prosecuted. That has got to change. ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ cannot just be words engraved on the entrance of the Supreme Court. It must be the standard that applies to all Americans, including the CEO of Wells Fargo and other financial executives.