As for Barry Ritholz and the 'Daily Show' reporter they are simply clueless that 2+2=4.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
A Terrible 'Daily Show' Piece on the Minimum Wage
Peter Schiff is not at his best here. At one point, he states that prices of products will just go up if the minimum wage is raised rather than that the least productive will end up unemployed.
As for Barry Ritholz and the 'Daily Show' reporter they are simply clueless that 2+2=4.
As for Barry Ritholz and the 'Daily Show' reporter they are simply clueless that 2+2=4.
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According to the BLS, 1.5 million were working at the minimum wage in 2012.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2012tbls.htm
AT the end of 2012, there were 143.212 million employed. So 1% getting a pay hike is going to drive up prices for everyone?? Very funny. Very stupid, but very funny.
He's apparently influenced here by a Keynesian theory which claims that if everyone gets a pay hike or cut then prices will fall or rise by the same amount so it will be a wash. Giving minimum wage workers a pay hike is not going to impact prices one bit.
"Giving minimum wage workers a pay hike is not going to impact prices one bit."
DeleteJerry, let's say we all lost our minds and agreed with you that in those industries using minimum wage workers, prices of their products aren't impacted- even if that fairyland statement of your were true, what do you think it would to said workers if their employers in an effort to keep prices in line just went ahead with the burger flipping machines?
Or what about increased use of self checkout at Walmart?
Jesus, it's hard for me to comprehend at times the abject economic stupidity by those leaning Left(and that's no endorsement for Neocons, Republicans, etc.)
So if the minimum wage only affects 1% of workers, why is it a national crisis to raise.
DeleteBy the way, the fact that employers pay 99% of workers above the minimum wage destroys the myth that markets cannot be trusted and that employers will pay as little as they are required to pay and that's why we need a minimum wage. Unknowingly, you have made an excellent point as to why the minimum wage can and should be eliminated.
Jerry gets a pass on this one. He's more right that wrong, which is why Wenzel says Schiff was not at his best. Prices won't go up because firms are already charging the highest price possible, just as consumers are shopping around to pay the lowest price possible. What actually happens is that the products at those prices simply become less available, or are substituted for higher end products that can support the higher mandated wage. Consumers lose because they can no longer buy cheap hamburgers at all, just higher end deluxe burgers made by machines. Or they have to enter the orders themselves on a console. The workers of course lose their jobs.
DeleteThe question for Jerry is whether he, unlike most consumers, looks for the firms that charge him higher prices for the same goods because they pay higher than market wages.
I wonder if the technology lobbies are trying to raise minimum wage. That is, to eliminate the lower paying jobs in order to introduce technology to compensate for the loss of workers. Much like the hamburger making machine. Is there a link between tech lobbies and minimum wage bills?
ReplyDeleteUnions would love a min wage hike so as to price out their competition with ununionized workers. Seeing as how union participation is getting ever lower and businesses are finding it a much better deal to move to non forced unionization states, a national min wage hike would be very beneficial to unions.
DeleteI wish Schiff, or anybody, would make the simple observation that minimum-wage law doesn't give people raises, but fires them, or prevents them from being hired in the first place.
ReplyDeleteAdvocates are constantly implying that people will simply get more money, but never support legislation that would actually do that, such as mandating actual raises while prohibiting termination without cause.
Of course we know that's not the real intent of minimum-wage law advocates. They prefer that lower-productivity workers actually be fired so that higher-productivity workers can take their place.
ughh, Schiff makes the argument numerous times. Minimum wages blocks some from entering the workforce.
DeleteSchiff should have just declined to go on, the Daily Show routinely pushes socialistic agenda economically speaking. They get to edit the interviews and lampoon you via the edits.
ReplyDeleteHe's should have just pulled a "Lew" a la the Times.
i'm sure he made many really good points against the minimum wage that were just edited out, or the Daily Show just cherry picked the stuff he said that wasn't as strong to push their crappy ideology.
DeleteYeah, apparently the buttlickers from the Daily Show interviewed Schiff for more than an hour trying to bait him into saying something they can use for their propaganda.
DeleteSchiff should put the entire tape online ...
We know that Schiff knows all the arguments against the minimum wage - I think the Daily Show just edited the footage to make him look heartless. The piece literally begins with Schiff making an economic argument about how raising the minimum wage will backfire and then interviewer follows up with "Don't you care about the poor?"
ReplyDeleteYeah, see the interview Schiff did with Joe Rogan for example... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts2qeHdhC14 The Samantha Bee type fake-news reporters would only pick the part about 'killing all the fish in Lake Michigan' as being representative of Schiff's position.
DeleteIt's all made up. Even the Daily Show, which is the go-to news source for the college crowd, is all bogus news. Jon Stewart's a clown. Colbert is no better ...
I prefer the Onion.
Agree 100%. Stewart and Colbert are really no better than the mainstream media.
DeleteRobert, you need to start going after Ritholtz more...plenty of other bloggers and economists also expose krugman, Yglesias, Ezra klein .. who even independents admit are political hacks.
ReplyDeleteRitholtz claims to be independent but is a statist shill and tries to be different for the sake if it!
It is time to EXPOSE THIS SCHYSTER LAWYER who is being very disingenously smart by trying to court champagne socialists in nyc as investors for his new wealth mgmt business..he points fingers at other investment professionals and managers who were criticising Fed policy by saying they suffer from job confusion at the same time...he advocates economic superstitions like this..he speaks from both ends ;0
I can guarantee that Schiff part was edited severely. He's too experienced at speaking to these topics publicly to be this unprepared for an interview. Daily Show has a agenda in regards to stories like this: working class are the poor working masses and people like Schiff are uncaring monsters. I have no doubt they will cut footage to fit that narrative. Barry Ritholz toeing the old 'more money in their hands means more spending' line was expected once I saw his face.
ReplyDeleteAt this point I would almost welcome a hefty hike in the minimum wage, especially for fast food workers. People in general just will not listen to or, understand the arguments against it. Perhaps when they see McDonalds go from 20 employees per shift to 5 then they would finally see the negative impact minimum wage laws have.
That's the problem, they will never raise it to a significant level, just enough to please union thugs and an amoint based on relative "inelasticity" of labour (let's leave aside the fact that these relationships are highly unstable in a complex system)...people waiting in long lines for service will just curse the business owners not the govt for the few employees that do get fired..
DeleteThis is to throw bananas at the monkeys (bread and circuses) and distract them so the establishment can carpet bomb another part of the world by increasing the warfare budget and confiscate wealth by counterfeiting the money supply.
The sad thing is these Stockholm Syndrome sufferers like the Daily Show have no clue what actual 3rd world poverty looks like (personally i grew up in such a country - as an Objectivist I am not someone who feels moochers have a claim to someone else's wages but even I feel these Fabian schmucks who call themselves 'Liberals' are insulting ACTUAL poor people who have little access to food, water, clothing and shelter and am deeply offended by this Daily Show piece and this rhetoric you guys in the US are using...the definition of poverty keeps changing periodically contingent on how much wealth entrepreneurs create.
The fact is the Fabians have always envied success and meritocracy...and look at other people's money with a "cannibal's lust" as John Galt/Rand put it, they rather have everyone equally poor in their Platonic view of the world than the ubiquitous Pareto distribution of wealth which is a HATE FACT for them.)
But I preach to the converted :(
What's up with Schiff lately? He had some really terrible moments on the Joe Rogan show the other day as well.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be too hard on him. The Daily Show is an expert at chopping up an interview to make people look like idiots and to make them look like they're saying something they aren't.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing he did wrong was going on the show to begin with.
Andrew Schiff hosted the Peter Schiff radio show, today. Andrew said that the Daily Show's interview with Peter was over 4 hours; and they showed 2 minutes at most.
DeleteI just hope that Peter will only go on live shows in the future; where he can not edited.
Although I agree this might be completely a result of editing, I think it's reasonable to say that an increase in minimum wage will both increase unemployment AND increase prices.
ReplyDeleteThere are some jobs that, no matter how efficient a worker is, could not be performed at a level worth $15/hr. In those cases, the companies will either have to reduce efficiency as a cost of business, or they will have to go out of business entirely. That results in a reduction of supply, and increases costs until the remaining companies can afford to pay the $15/hr. So, for at least some products/industries, unemployment will increase AND prices will increase as well.
I believe Schiff was a guest on the show a while back to promote Crashproof. Maybe he thought he'd get a fair shake because of the past connection?
ReplyDeleteWhat you all need to understand:
ReplyDeleteWages are so flexible downward that we need coercive unions and minimum wage laws to keep them up. And if you don’t agree you are an idiot who hates the poor.
HOWEVER, at the same time.....
Wages and prices are so sticky and inflexible that we need funny money dilution and unlimited government spending on anything and everything to cure the problem. And if you don’t agree you are an idiot who does not understand “economics”.
isn't anyone else at the point where you just want to have government get their way? I want a $100.00 minimum wage, free healthcare, food stamps for everyone, and more. Eventually people will understand that doesn't work and maybe we can go back to freedom after that?
ReplyDeletePeter Schiff was poorly prepared for this interview. He should have explained that a higher minimum would lead to higher unemployment and encourage more use of technology to replace labor and make it harder for youth to enter the labor market. He should have explained that there would be winners and losers in this. The winners would be the person who still had the job and the losers would be the ones that either lost their job or would not be hired to begin with.
ReplyDeleteWill paying workers $1 per hour more make any difference?
$1 x 5 workers = $5/hr;
$5 x 12 hr shift= $60 ;
$60 x 7 = $420
$420 x 52 weeks a year= $21,840 in additional cost per year per store.
It does not seem so insignificant. Though I am aware of Mcdonald's employees getting paid $15/hr and a $300 sign on bonus in North Dakota because of the scarcity of labor there, so they obviously make enough money to pay better wages if they had to.
Back in mid-December Mr Schiff said on his radio show that he was interviewed for a long timefor the Daily Show. We can clearly see that they had over a month to edit a lengthy interview to show that he is "a heartless rich guy".
ReplyDeleteUsually, Schiff can fire away on something like this, but instead he botched it. Good thing it is only a leftwing comedy show.
ReplyDeleteI did not botch anything. A spoke for four hours. All of my great comments got edited out. There merely pieced together a few unrelated sentence fragments to make my argument as week as possible and portray me in the worst possible light. Peter Schiff
DeleteI was not poorly prepared. You have know idea what I said during that four hour interview as none of the really powerful stuff was actually shown. What you saw was only what they wanted you to see, small pieces taken out of context and shown out of sequence to undermine my credibility. Peter Schiff
DeleteFYI -- The Daily Show shot almost four hours of footage. During that time I believe I did an excellent job of exposing the minimum wage as perhaps the single most destructive law on the books, particularly as it relates to inner city youth. However the Daily Show merely parsed though those four hours of footage to piece together a meticulously edited segment that would portray me in the worst possible light. The finished product in no way resembled the discussion that actually took place. Most of the answers I am shown giving were not even related to the questions she is shown asking. In some cases fragments from several unrelated sentences were pieced together to form complete sentence I never actually spoke, all related to different aspects of the discussion. Other statements, made hours apart, were juxtaposed to create the false impressions that they were related. So if I did not seem to be at my best, now you know why. If someone gives you four hours of rope to talk about one subject, and then has the ability to slice and dice your words anyway they choose, you are bond to hang yourself. Peter Schiff
ReplyDelete