let's just be honest with ourselves for
a minute economics is a mind-boggling
discipline for economists that's bad but
also sort of good news because you can
make almost any argument stick if you
just troll around in the data for long
enough but to the average person the
layman it's a little bit different the
global economy must feel like a giant
hulking mass that grinds against the
world unstoppable and unanswerable to
the small problems of individuals so
when your boss asks you to work overtime
but won't pay you for it you don't argue
or demand to be paid because how could
an ant influence a conversation between
people or when you ask for a raise and
the boss threatens to fire you you don't
stick up for yourself because no raise
is better than no job threats like these
don't just function on the level of
individuals in many ways it's how the
entire American economy has operated for
almost 40 years that's how you end up
with a graph like this which shows the
wealthiest sliver of society getting
virtually all the gains from economic
growth siphoning money from the middle
class and the poor take a step back from
this in a democratic system which
extends the vote to all citizens over 18
it's hard to imagine how such a small
percentage of people could convince the
rest to perpetuate a system that does
this the truth is there's only one way
to do this you have to create an
economic theory that makes the
exploitation of the people look like the
solution to their problems in other
words you have to tell a story that's
all the economy is it's a story that we
tell ourselves a story that tells us
what decisions to make about our own
resources so what if your story is that
lowering taxes on the rich especially on
unearned income deregulating finance and
privatizing the public Commons is like
taking the living economy out of the
shade and into the Sun or it can
flourish it's a pretty good story and in
fact those are the basics of a story
that have animated our politics and our
economy since Ronald Reagan a story that
has produced advocates and
presidents on both sides of the
political spectrum this story didn't
help the middle class or the poor not
really their wages haven't risen since
we began telling it but it did give the
top 1% greater access to and greater
power over all the best storytellers
politicians academics and the media to
change the economy you have to change
the story a difficult thing to do
considering how much power has
consolidated in the hands of so few but
it's not impossible take the minimum
wage for example right now the federal
minimum wage is $7.25 an hour that's
about $15,000 a year in 1968 the minimum
wage was a dollar 60 but when you adjust
for inflation that number goes all the
way up to eight dollars and fifty four
cents an hour a dollar and 29 cents more
than it is today
meanwhile American worker productivity
has never stopped growing so much so
that if the minimum wage kept pace with
productivity it would have been 21
dollars an hour by now so in the absence
of federal action states have raised
their own minimum wages 30 of which are
higher than the federal most notably of
all California just voted to raise its
minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022
that's something that was unthinkable
even five years ago New York did the
same a short time after this movement
the fight for 15 is part of a new story
a story that believes in finally growing
the wages of the middle class so that
their collective purchasing power their
demand can grow the economy organically
in a way that's not dependent on
speculation or financial bubbles it
believes in regulating the abuses of
Wall Street and making what should be
accessible to all education and health
care part of our Commons again there are
no shortage of articles politicians or
studies showing for example that
increasing the minimum wage is a risky
gamble or a job killer no shortage of
doomsday forecasting that prices would
rise but remember that this status quo
has a huge interest in maintaining
itself just like a boss it uses threats
to keep the society in line
here's a meta-analysis of pretty much
every single minimum-wage study but
closer to the top the more precise and
accurate the study is and this shows
that all the most comprehensive analyses
of the minimum wage show that it would
have little to no negative effect on
employment levels and yet it could raise
the incomes and standards of living of
millions in places where the minimum
wage has increased like Seattle prices
haven't skyrocketed instead people are
actually able to buy the things they've
consistently increased their
productivity to produce minimum wage
increases won't solve all the problems
in the economy not even close it's just
one thing but the victory of an idea
that runs counter to the dominant
ideology is hugely significant Otto von
Bismarck said that politics is the art
of the possible but I think that
sometimes invoking the possible is just
another tactic another negotiating
strategy another threat used on behalf
of the status quo to restrict the
movement of alternative ideas the story
this economy has been laboring under for
40 years is failing people feel it even
if they don't know why a moment like
this is when alternative ideas can
populate the center so maybe it's time
to stop leading with what is possible
and start leading with what's right
hey everybody thanks for watching I have
to thank Nick Hanauer who helped me
research and sponsor this video he's
been an activist in the fight for a $15
minimum wage movement for a long time
he's written a lot about it and he's got
a great TED talk too which I'll link to
over there definitely watch that if you
want to help pledge to this channel you
can go right below here to my patreon
pledge a dollar or three dollars per
video everything helps you guys have
been incredible and and I'll see you
guys next Wednesday