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Conservative Economist Says the Quiet Part Out Loud About Who Is 'Worth $15 an Hour' and Who Isn't
The federal minimum wage has remained stagnant at $7.25 per hour in the United States for more than a decade, but Democrats have called for a raise in the federal minimum wage to at least $15 per hour—the bare minimum to afford basic needs in with a full time job in most states.
Republicans have railed against raising the wage, arguing that paying a livable wage would harm business owners and result in inflation. They've also insisted that minimum wage jobs were designed as stepping stones to livable wages.
In a recent interview with Fox News, conservative economist Art Laffer said that some people weren't worth $15 per hour in the first place.
Watch below.
Laffer said:
"For those people who are coming into the labor force brand fresh, not old timers who've been around for a while—the poor, the minorities, the disenfranchised, those with less education, young people who haven't had the job experience—these people aren't worth $15 an hour in most cases."
He continued:
"And so therefore when you have a $15 an hour minimum wage, they don't get that first job, they don't get the requisite skills to earn above the minimum wage, and after a few years they become unemployable and after becoming unemployable, they become hostile."
People were amazed Laffer said the quiet part out loud.
Saying out loud what he really thinks of .@FoxNews #MAGA audience. https://t.co/8qVJxFt4kT— I’m not sarcastic when I’m asleep. (@I’m not sarcastic when I’m asleep.) 1623182980.0
There it is! These people just "aren't worth" $15/hr. They're saying it in the open. Can we have a General Strike y… https://t.co/cWPRmNh8lv— Mike 🦺☣️😷 (@Mike 🦺☣️😷) 1623182962.0
OMG-those “people”? Shouldn’t he have said the lower skilled jobs aren’t worth it? He meant the people, but I’m s… https://t.co/FcqTMl22h5— SpartyGirl (@SpartyGirl) 1623182159.0
Yet again saying the quiet parts out loud. Laffer is just a GOP stooge masquerading as a (terrible) economist. https://t.co/ROsXSqF25Q— Stacey Herring (@Stacey Herring) 1623181830.0
They're just saying the quiet part out loud now. https://t.co/VLbhHqpPCs— Karlo ♥︎ Takki (@Karlo ♥︎ Takki) 1623181672.0
They were disgusted by the diatribe.
These people are NASTY man. Disgusting rhetoric. This is what I vote against, folks who think like this. https://t.co/rfunmtvrxX— YERRRV Gotti (@YERRRV Gotti) 1623183490.0
Amazing that a persons central idea can be disproven time and time again and yet people still seek out his opinion. https://t.co/Geij2S4NHS— Marcus (@Marcus) 1623181796.0
Conservatives: we aren't racist! Also conservatives: Black people aren't worth $15/hour. https://t.co/ntuNsapVxs— Pé (@Pé) 1623182793.0
In which the father of Reaganomics, the guy who literally wrote the book "Trumponomics", says publicly that "the mi… https://t.co/d6XvWrjJLf— Santa Maria (@Santa Maria) 1623181463.0
Democrats offered a bill to gradually raise the minimum wage by 2025 earlier this year, but it failed thanks to Republicans and moderate Democratic Senators like Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.