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Rawstory: CEO tells Daily Show ‘mentally retarded’ could work for $2: ‘You’re worth what you’re worth’


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Would increasing the minimum wage leave the most vulnerable workers with fewer jobs? Financial commentator Peter Schiff thinks so.

 

The investment broker and talk radio host told Daily Show correspondent Samantha Beethat lifting the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, as President Barack Obama announced he would do by executive order for federal employees, could have devastating effects.

 

“There’s a law in economics, supply and demand, that you learn in Econ 101, and if you increase the price of something, you decrease the demand,” Schiff said. “The higher you make the minimum wage, the more jobs are going to be destroyed.

 

The CEO of Euro Pacific Capital argued that government programs, not low wages, were trapping Americans in poverty, and claimed that paying workers twice as much would double the cost of some goods – such as fast-food hamburgers.

 

“I do like to taste the tears of poverty in my milkshakes,” Bee said.

 

Schiff said those workers already earn enough.

 

 

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/29/ceo-tells-daily-show-mentally-retarded-could-work-for-2-youre-worth-what-youre-worth/

 

 

People don’t go hungry in a capitalist economy, Schiff claimed.

 

“It’s socialism that creates, you know, scarcity, that creates famine,” he said. “In a free market, there’s plenty of food for everybody – especially the poor.”

 

Schiff argued that eliminating the minimum wage law would allow more people entry to the workforce, and Bee asked him to identify someone whose work might be worth just $2 an hour.

 

“You know someone that might be? Maybe someone who is – what’s the politically correct word, you know, for mentally retarded,” Schiff said. “I believe in the principles this country was founded on.”

 

“I’m not going to say that we’re all created equal,” he said. “You’re worth what you’re worth.”

 

 

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First of all, the statement is absolutely deplorable. I am a firm believer that words like these come out because they are what is in your heart, and you mean them deep down. Despicable. 

 

I will also note, however, that he was asked to come up with an example of someone who could be justified in working for 2$ an hour, and he tried to do so. He failed to come up with a polite way to phrase it, and he was likely wrong about his assertion, but he was backed into a weird spot by the question to begin with.

 

 

As for our country, I think we face a HUGE problem, that is only partly related to minimum wage, but unfortunately we are choosing to take our stance and fight the battle on the minimum wage front rather than on the true front.

 

In my opinion, people definitely are struggling to make ends and meet, and people definitely need more money. but the problem isn't that people don't make enough. The problem is that people aren't being allowed to work enough. Companies have decided that it is cheaper and more effective to hire 40 employees and give them each 10 hours of work per week than it is to hire 10 full time employees at 40 hours. The math might come out to the same, but 40 hour per week employees are full time and demand benefits. 10 employees in a given location leaves you less flexibility, less coverage, less ability to give people requests off, etc. So instead, companies stock up on tons of employees whom they have no intention of giving meaningful hours to.

 

I had a friend in college who was just starting out, trying to break away and live on her own. She got a job at old Navy and was excited because the pay was high enough that she should have been able to live. Except that unless you'd been there for 3 years +, you only got about 15 hours a week. No one, it doesn't matter what you make, can live off of 15 hours a week of work. Sure, you can get a second job, except that often times working the two jobs around one another is next to impossible because the schedules are sporadic and inconsistent. And working two jobs at 20 hours a week is a full time week of work, but still isn't earning you benefits or retirement or anything.

 

Unfortunately, I think Americans are going to bat over being underpaid, when in reality I think they are underworked. 

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Peter Schiff is one of the diehard libertarians' favorite intellectuals, so be careful what you say about him or you will get buried in the usual pile of Austrian economics and Ayn Rand quotes.    He was one of Ron Paul's main macro economic advisors, despite having no training in economics (he has a BS in finance and accounting).  

 

 

 

(he did predict the 2008 real estate bubble bursting, so I have to give him props for that, but almost everything else he has predicted has been hilariously wrong.  For example, he also predicted gold would hit $5000 an ounce and the world would be awash in hyperinflation by now.  His brokerage clients have lost their shirts following his recommendations.)

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Daily Show sure does seem to have hit on a winning formula.

Point a camera at somebody, and let them say stupid things.

Was thinking this as well. It truly is amazing how TDS can subtly coax people into saying the dumbest **** (or in most instances "what they truly believe but usually wouldn't ever admit to publicly"). Have they not ever seen the show? How can they NOT know they're falling straight into a trap?

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Also late night comedy related - did anybody else see Coach Gibbs' segment with Stephen Colbert last night? It was hilarious! 

his whole Superb Owl 48 shtick has been hilarious this week.

go on demand and watch Monday's show for a gut busting time with the Richard Sherman fluff.

Especially the replay he's not allowed to show of the Big Play..  Oh man, tears rolling down funny

 

~Bang

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If he had left out the comment about mentally retarded he might have gotten through it ok. I love the Daily Show and watch it faithfully, but u always have to wonder how much they edit out to make these guys look extra stupid/nutty.

S Bee's joke was brilliant!

 

I promise you that they didn't need to edit Schiff very much.  He is today's Ayn Rand.

his whole Superb Owl 48 shtick has been hilarious this week.

go on demand and watch Monday's show for a gut busting time with the Richard Sherman fluff.

Especially the replay he's not allowed to show of the Big Play..  Oh man, tears rolling down funny

 

~Bang

 

 

Colbert stole the Superb Owl from 4chan.  That has been their go-to term for years.  

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What's wrong with that...   You are worth what you are worth!!!

 

So clearly a large percentage of the people in the United States aren't worth a living wage.   They don't have a purpose which justifies their continued existence....73.9 Million Americans in minimum wage jobs...  just kill them now... 

47 Million Americans who are on food stamps....  bullet to the head.

 

 

Hell let's just jump right too it.... 58.5% of the Americans will live at or below the poverty line for at least one year during their lifetime...

Let's just identify them now and execute them.

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Being in a family business myself I agree with some of the stuff. You should get paid what you are worth to the company to a certain degree. There are plans of raising the min wage in Maryland to 10 dollars. Personally I have about 10-15 employees out of roughly 75 that make min wage. Nearly all of them are 15-19 years old in high school with no financially responsibilities outside possibly a car insurance payment. Why the hell would I need to be paying them over 10 dollars an hour?

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Being in a family business myself I agree with some of the stuff. You should get paid what you are worth to the company to a certain degree. There are plans of raising the min wage in Maryland to 10 dollars. Personally I have about 10-15 employees out of roughly 75 that make min wage. Nearly all of them are 15-19 years old in high school with no financially responsibilities outside possibly a car insurance payment. Why the hell would I need to be paying them over 10 dollars an hour?

 

Because, despite your personal anecdotal evidence, the large majority of people making minimum wage are not kids.  They are adults working full time, and they need to be able to support themselves.   If they can't, they will go back on welfare, and that is worse for everyone.  We WANT them to work, we WANT them to do those jobs, but they have to be able to live on the salary too.

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I promise you that they didn't need to edit Schiff very much.  He is today's Ayn Rand.

 

 

Colbert stole the Superb Owl from 4chan.  That has been their go-to term for years.  

As a long time browser/poster on the /sp/ forum (a fact I'm semi-embarrassed to admit), I can confirm this. Superb Owl has been around for years.

 

They've been freaking out about Colbert all week.

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Being in a family business myself I agree with some of the stuff. You should get paid what you are worth to the company to a certain degree. There are plans of raising the min wage in Maryland to 10 dollars. Personally I have about 10-15 employees out of roughly 75 that make min wage. Nearly all of them are 15-19 years old in high school with no financially responsibilities outside possibly a car insurance payment. Why the hell would I need to be paying them over 10 dollars an hour?

I use to think this too. Then I spent 5 years living outside of the DMV.

In the DC area, most adults still have good jobs. Which means that most low paying jobs are filled with teenagers or similar type of employees. But having lived 5 years living in rural Western PA, where the steel and coal have all but dried up and the gas hasn't quite started going yet, there is nothing. Go to the mall, there are no teenagers working there, because the jobs are all filled by people trying to put children through college. Those teenagers? Can't get jobs, because there are too many adults trying to take them.

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As a long time browser/poster on the /sp/ forum (a fact I'm semi-embarrassed to admit), I can confirm this. Superb Owl has been around for years.

 

They've been freaking out about Colbert all week.

 

I spend a lot of time on /sp/ too.   I'm probably 30 years older than anyone else there.   :lol:

 

The trick is avoiding /b/ and (especially) /pol/   Those places are disgusting.

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@Predicto because my quotes don't work on this computer

 

I have no problem with people supporting families or their own living expenses and what not but a blanket $10 min wage is ludicrous. There needs to be a way to govern and decide what a "fair" wage should be. Unfortunately it cant be based on age as that would be discrimination. I have noticed that over the past few years as min wage has increased the quality of my young help has steadily become worse. Lack of drive, pride, eagerness to learn, and really just a blanket intelligence. Its sad seeing a new "wave" every couple of years of teenager workers starting worse off than the previous group.

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First of all, the statement is absolutely deplorable. I am a firm believer that words like these come out because they are what is in your heart, and you mean them deep down. Despicable. 

 

I will also note, however, that he was asked to come up with an example of someone who could be justified in working for 2$ an hour, and he tried to do so. He failed to come up with a polite way to phrase it, and he was likely wrong about his assertion, but he was backed into a weird spot by the question to begin with.

 

 

No. He BACKED HIMSELF INTO THAT CORNER.

 

And americans are NOT underworked. They are instead forced to work at multiple jobs to make ends meet, leaving even less time or money for family or self improvement such as education that could lead to better jobs than if they could work one job for fair pay for 40 hours.

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The problem in the US isn't really that min wage is too low as much as it is the top is earning too great a percentage and their isn't much left for the bottom. The middle class is also seeing their share shrink and their jobs exported. This concentration is the problem and raising the min wage won't fix much. Sadly there is no mechanism encouraging less wealth concentration at the top and no easy or obvious solution.

No. He BACKED HIMSELF INTO THAT CORNER.

And americans are NOT underworked. They are instead forced to work at multiple jobs to make ends meet, leaving even less time or money for family or self improvement such as education that could lead to better jobs than if they could work one job for fair pay for 40 hours.

Compare the hours worked by a average middle class family today to one 50 years ago. These days stay-at-home parents are an endangered species and being able to do so is becoming a luxury. I remember reading that Americans work more and take less days off than any advanced nation.

Underworked? No.

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No. He BACKED HIMSELF INTO THAT CORNER.

 

And americans are NOT underworked. They are instead forced to work at multiple jobs to make ends meet, leaving even less time or money for family or self improvement such as education that could lead to better jobs than if they could work one job for fair pay for 40 hours.

 

I believe you agree with me. I mean Americans are underworked in a way for forces them to jump through difficult hoops in order to achieve the appropriate level of work. I have many friends out of college who are working 2 or 3 part time jobs because their student loans are due now that they've been out for more than 6 months. Unfortunately, they haven't been able to find one full time job that will let them work 40-48 hours a week. So instead, they are working 2 or 3 jobs in an effort to meet that 40-48 hour goal.

 

All of these jobs pay between 8 and 10 dollars an hour, which means the problem is not their salary. The problem is that employers have chosen not to employee full time people when at all possible to avoid paying into 401Ks and medical benefits, etc.

 

We aren't talking about lazy people here who want to stay home and collect welfare their entire lives. We're talking about driven young people absolutely begging to be acclimated into the work force so that they can justify their expensive educations, satisfy their parents' and others' social pressures, and begin to make their mark on the world. They are people who would LOVE to work 40 hours for one single employers. They just can't get that commitment.

 

 

The problem in the US isn't really that min wage is too low as much as it is the top is earning too great a percentage and their isn't much left for the bottom. The middle class is also seeing their share shrink and their jobs exported. This concentration is the problem and raising the min wage won't fix much. Sadly there is no mechanism encouraging less wealth concentration at the top and no easy or obvious solution.

Compare the hours worked by a average middle class family today to one 50 years ago. These days stay-at-home parents are an endangered species and being able to do so is becoming a luxury. I remember reading that Americans work more and take less days off than any advanced nation.

Underworked? No.

The world has definitely changed in 50 years. My father is probably the only man I know left who still goes to work every day and comes home to a woman who hasn't even left the house or done a lick of work all day long. Now that everyone of us has left the house (the youngest is in college) the concept seems foreign and absurd to me. I guess I understand and see the value of a stay at home mom; and I'm damn thankful that she was there when I was growing up, but I cannot possibly believe that my parents never addressed the grand plan. They have this giant elephant in the room that everyone skirts around while my mom does 2 loads of laundry every week, lazily tosses frozen food in the over, and watches youtube videos all day before telling my dad about how hard her day was getting the "chores done and the dinner hot" for him to come home to. My father is much too kind a man to ever say anything, but it's there.

 

But, with that anecdote aside, I think you're addressing another topic entirely in your second point. I DO believe that Americans work more and take less days off when it comes to Americans who are fortunate to have a job and only need to work a single job. I think that the working world, especially certain white collar professions, are highly competitive and there is a TON of pressure to perform at those positions and never rest. However, I think THIS debate is centered around those a tier below that level. When I say Americans are underworked, I'm referring to the Americans who have been forced to take part time jobs because full time ones do not appear available for them. Similarly, I think these Americans often skew the "work" results. You can have two part times jobs, barely scratch 30 hours of work in a week, and yet have worked 7 days because they were full of 4 hour shifts. These Americans don't ever get "days off", but they definitely aren't content with how much they work.

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Another interesting point mentioned briefly in the piece is how the McDonalds and the Walmarts and other large employers of very low wage workers drain public coffers because those workers rely on food stamps and other public assistance to make ends meet.  So, even though those people may be employed full time, it's still a drain on public funds because they are not being paid a living wage and government has to pick up much of the slack..


Fox News has been doing that for years.

 

fox_friends_hosts.jpg

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