I’m upset!
Progressives,
let's call them regressives-
smear entrepreneurs.
And the regressives are
winning the battle for hearts and minds.
Bernie complains, and the media jump to agree.
Richest guy in the world,
and he’s got employees on food stamps.
The left wing media of course
and the right too.
A huge number of Amazon workers are so poorly paid,
they qualify for federal welfare benefits.
At first, Bezos fought back.
Amazon calling the claims, quote:
“inaccurate, misleading.”
At that point, I was cheering Bezos for
standing up for capitalism.
Amazon Prime helps members.
I already liked him because of the service he created.
I buy all kinds of stuff right from my couch.
The goods arrive quickly,
and they’re comparatively cheap.
In fact, Amazon’s reduced prices so much
that it may have lowered the inflation rate.
Hooray for Amazon!
Stand-up is how we start every single shift.
It's not companies fault
that some workers qualify for handouts.
More people would collect them
if Amazon were not hiring.
By creating jobs,
Bezos gives workers better choices.
But the media don’t report that.
They make working for Amazon
look like oppression.
It’s described as a cutthroat corporate jungle
where workers are pitted against one another,
80 hour work weeks are the norm.
So Amazon caved.
Amazon is raising the minimum wage
for all of its workers.
The anchors smile,
but the raise comes with a cost.
Yes, the higher minimum
is good for these workers who have jobs now,
but beginners,
people like Kelsey Holder
will be shut out.
For being only 13,
I think I was making a good amount of money, so
minimum wage was fine.
Kelsey started working at this restaurant
when she was just a teenager.
By the time we met her, she was making $20 an hour.
If you work hard, you can make more,
it's just you have to prove yourself.
Now she’s the restaurant’s manager!
She would have never had this opportunity
had the higher min wage existed when she was hired,
because teenagers aren’t worth the risk.
We quit hiring people without experience.
Merv Crist, who runs this restaurant,
says when his state raised its minimum wage,
he stopped training newcomers.
Minimum wage jobs are an entry-level job
to get someone some experience to do something.
You raise that high enough,
you cut those people out of the market, completely.
Then people stay unemployed.
Play video games, hang out on the street.
They never learn to smile at a customer,
get to work on time.
Never learn the job skills
that lead to better jobs later.
But progressives claim
a higher minimum lifts everyone.
Start out with a minimum wage
that provides basic, decent standard of living.
How much is that?
$15 bucks an hour.
$20 bucks an hour.
And if you think that's too high,
try living on it, by the way.
I think that would take away jobs
from entry-level people.
They wouldn't even get a first job.
But now, John,
that is exactly the argument that people
back in the day made against
the minimum wage.
At least Amazon is just one company,
entry-level workers can find jobs elsewhere,
but then I learned…
Jeff Bezos’ company also plans to lobby Washington
to hike the federal minimum wage.
Now Amazon will try to get government
to force its competition to pay what Amazon pays.
That’s why I’m upset.
Jeff Bezos, this entrepreneur I admired,
turns out to be just another craven opportunist.
After all,
Amazon’s already replacing workers with robots.
Bezos knows a higher minimum wage
will hurt his competitors more than it hurts him.
Clever.
Use government to handcuff your rivals,
and then pat yourself on the back,
and pander to people
who promise free stuff.
There is absolutely now no reason
why other profitable corporations like Wal-Mart, why
they also should not be paying
their employees at least $15 an hour.
After all, those companies make billions,
say progressives, partly thanks to
indefensible exploitation
of hard-working, decent Americans.
How are they exploited?
They're not forced to work there.
They have other choices.
They picked that job.
Oh, John.
It was the best they could get.
Maybe it was because all the others wer­e even worse,
maybe, but isn't there some point
at which the results of this free market
just shock the conscience of decent people?
Yes, there are gross parts to capitalism.
Greed, gaudy excess, and great inequality
But when self-interested business owners
are left free to make their own decisions about
whom they hire and what they pay,
more people benefit,
especially poor people.
I wish I could give more kids jobs.
If there were a lower minimum wage,
I could hire maybe two or three more.
I shouldn’t be surprised
that Bezos uses government to get special favors.
He's done that before.
A bill authorizing billions of dollars in tax incentives.
Amazon didn’t just announce a second headquarters,
it started a competition to see which politicians
would squeeze their taxpayers most.
Stonecrest, Georgia
wants Amazon to build its second headquarters there
so badly that the city council voted that if chosen,
they will de-annex a portion of the city
and rename it Amazon.
Give me a break.
Politicians shouldn’t pander to companies,
and companies shouldn’t pander to politicians.
I wish Bezos would stick to innovating,
not scheming with government
to get
special advantage.
Some of the worst enemies of capitalism
are capitalists.