Art Laffer, Asshole of the Day for January 9, 2014
Fox News has a never-ending parade of people who seem to think the minimum wage is just fine, and then give some example of how they did fine 40 years ago when it was actually higher when you account for inflation. Then there's the "economic experts" who think the minimum wage shouldn't exist at all because businesses would create lots more jobs at even less, never minding that no one can live on that much lower wage. Either way they argue against a higher minimum wage, which is the GOP's position. Art Laffer is in the second camp:
LAFFER: Yeah, well the minimum wage makes no sense whatsoever to me. I mean, honestly, it’s just the teenage — black teenage unemployment act and this is the very groups that we need to have jobs not be put out of work because of the minimum wage so I’m really very much in favor of at least for teenagers getting rid of the minimum wage so we can bring them back into the labor force, get them the skills they need to continue being productive members of our society for years and years. I mean, that’s the way I’d go on minimum wage.
So if we parse out Laffer's argument in particular, he's saying that
- A minimum wage keeps people who aren't worth paying the minimum wage from finding jobs. That's something economists can debate, so we'll leave that argument for the economists.
- Black teenagers are unemployed because they are so worthless that the minimum wage is too much to pay for their services. He doesn't mention any other groups-- white teenagers, Hispanic, etc. Only black teenagers.
He could have made the argument that it was the teenager unemployment act, but he put "black" in there. If you go back and look, he said "teenager", then stopped and corrected it to "black teenager", so he must really mean it. So for saying that black teenagers are worth less than any other group in the workforce, Art Laffer is the Asshole of the Day.
It is Art Laffer's first time being named Asshole of the Day.
Full story: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/08/fox-regular-art-laffer-the-minimum-wage-is-just/197482
Art Laffer has been nominated for Racist Asshole of the Year, so vote for him now if he's your pick.
