Bill Gates Shocks MSNBC Host on Minimum Wage Question

[RPfan1992]

 

[Philhelm]

I can't listen to the audio at the moment. What did he say?

 

[Acala]

I can't listen to the audio at the moment. What did he say?

He explained how a minimum wage can spur job loss to automation and offshoring. He also explained that it is complicated to determine who is actually benefitting from the minimum wage. When the host pointed to fast food workers as an example of the working poor, Gates pointed out that 80% of fast food workers come from NON-poverty households so if you think the minimum wage is simply a boost for the poor, you are wrong. Ultimately he said it is a very complicated issue.

 

[MRK]

A lot of people can't watch videos, so it's helpful if you provide some accompanying text to give them an idea of what the thread is about.

Here's the transcript I wrote for the video:

Gates:

Well, jobs are a great thing. You have to be a bit careful, that if you raise the minimum wage you are encouraging labor substitution, that you are going to go and buy machines and automate things or to cause jobs to appear outside of that jurisdiction.

And so within certain limits, it doesn't cause job distruction, but then if you really start pushing it then you're just making a huge tradeoff and you have to say which of the households that end up benefiting, is it much more a teenager in a wealthy household or is it that household in poverty?

A lot of the problem there is that people don't have many hours, it's not the actual wage cycle.

Anchor: Yeah well, like fast food workers, householders in poverty --

Gates: Of 88% in non-poverty households... so there is about 11% of those are from the poverty households. But, you know, anyway these are complex issues it's not as simple as just saying, ok raise the wage and all of a sudden -

End of video

 

[Bastiat's The Law]

That was a clumsy rebuke, but nice to see nonetheless.

 

[Paulbot99]

Watch the death threats on the comments.

 

[Bastiat's The Law]

He broke statist Mika's heart boohoo...

 

[KCIndy]

A lot of people can't watch videos, so it's helpful if you provide some accompanying text to give them an idea of what the thread is about.

+Rep and a great big THANK YOU!!

 

[angelatc]

I can't listen to the audio at the moment. What did he say?

You can turn on close captions.

 

[juleswin]

Wow, Bill Gates said something I agree with. I am sure the talking heads must have assumed he was in favor or raising the minimum wage just because he supports raising taxes for the rich.

But to the Costco example they keep bringing up, if the main point to the Costco model is just higher wages, why in the world is it that no other retailers is adopting it? Cos you got to believe that these retail companies would rather leave money on the table plus the good PR to fuck their workers. My guess is that there is way more to their model's success than just higher pay.

 

[MRK]

Wow, Bill Gates said something I agree with. I am sure the talking heads must have assumed he was in favor or raising the minimum wage just because he supports raising taxes for the rich.

But to the Costco example they keep bringing up, if the main point to the Costco model is just higher wages, why in the world is it that no other retailers is adopting it? Cos you got to believe that these retail companies would rather leave money on the table plus the good PR to fuck their workers. My guess is that there is way more to their model's success than just higher pay.

There is. Costco appeals to a very high-end customer. The fact is, not everyone can afford to shop at Costco. I remember my mom telling me how her friend says that every time she goes into Costco, she ends up spending $300 on something or other. I told my mom that I wish I had that problem. The point is, Costco is a special case because they dominate their niche, and there's no real competitor other than Sam's Club (and how hard is it to compete against a Walmart subsidiary when you're trying to appeal to brand-conscious consumers?)

So when you target a certain high-income group and you're really good at it, then of course you can afford to pay your employees a bunch of money because without them you wouldn't be able to deliver on that same experience. I made a long post about this here before if I recall correctly.

 

[DamianTV]

He explained how a minimum wage can spur job loss to automation and offshoring. He also explained that it is complicated to determine who is actually benefitting from the minimum wage. When the host pointed to fast food workers as an example of the working poor, Gates pointed out that 80% of fast food workers come from NON-poverty households so if you think the minimum wage is simply a boost for the poor, you are wrong. Ultimately he said it is a very complicated issue.

(going off of points he made)


Minimum Wage is the result of an Educational System that creates Workers instead of Thinkers.

They place no value on the people who create the wealth for the owners of the companies. They wanted machines all along, and for a time Humans were the Perfect Disposable Machines. In a society that placed values on Intelligence over Obedience, people would strive to create better things and provide better services in more efficient ways instead of trying to exploit the built in redundancies of a system in order to put a small ammt of food on their tables instead of none at all. The volume of people on Minimum Wage coupled with the volume of Part Time jobs is a very good reflection of the health of our Economy; Sick as Fuck. Workers have become the Disposable Product. They are bought and sold as is every detail of their boring and mundane lives in order to extract every ounce of usefulness before kicking them to the curb. If our economy is the Patient, it could be described as aenemic as the result of a Parasitic Ruling Class. And this Patient is on its deathbed. It suffers from Malnutrition to the most extreme form possible. Its life blood sucked away to feed a massive leech. And Minimum Wage is a Symptom of the Severe Illness.