Billionaire Nick Hanauer exposes the plutocracy on the minimum wage
Billionaire Nick Hanauer exposes the plutocracy on the minimum wage as he excoriates supporters of trickle-down economics on Real Time w/Bill Maher. He could not contain himself as he slammed the current state of capitalism.
Bill Maher first asked Hanauer how became the godfather of the fight to raise the minimum wage. His answer was deliberately appropriate.
“To be clear, without the courage of Occupy and the work of fast food workers around the country, we would not be having this conversation,” Hanauer said. “If you care about this country, then you are interested in not seeing it ripped apart by economic inequality. And if you care about fixing that, you have to go straight at the ideas that propel economic inequality. Because our policy is driven by ideas. And the ideas that have framed this debate are what I affectionately call trickle down economics. Which is really three things; tax cuts for the rich, deregulation for the powerful, and wage suppression for everyone else.”
Hanauer went on to explain how wage suppression works.
“To understand how wage suppression works,” Hanauer said. “It is important to understand the idea that drives that is this incredible, insidious, repeated thing which is if wages go up employment goes down.”
Nick Hanauer pointed out that there is no evidence to support that claim. He said you get 40 years of wage suppression by spinning that myth. In fact the reality is, if employees have more money to spend, they buy more which then require more workers.
Hanauer went on to excoriate unfettered capitalism and those that continue to extract from the masses. He singled out Walmart and McDonald. The two companies are beneficiaries of corporate welfare. They pay their workers below subsistence levels. The American taxpayers are then responsible for taking care of these underpaid workers.
Watch the clip and share. Having guys like Nick Hanauer speak out is important and gives a necessary support to the movement.
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