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The Libertarian Podcast: Seattle’s Minimum Wage Experiment
This week on the Libertarian Podcast, I take Professor Epstein through a discussion of the new $15-an-hour minimum wage law in Seattle. In addition to breaking down the economics, Richard takes us through the relative dangers from federal v. state and local minimum wages, explains why living wage advocates need to get over their love affair with Henry Ford, and lays out how a good classical liberal should approach government aid for the lower class. Listen here:
Bonus coverage: check out Richard’s recent discussion of this topic on the PBS Newshour:
Published in General
Troy,
Can I find the Libertarian Podcast on I tunes on Itunes U? Searched but could not locate. Much easier to listen to than on the computer…..
Loved Prof. Epstein on the Newshour. What a great mind! If I were President, I’d keep him on staff as all around know it all. Probably you as well so you could distill his answers to my questions down to one paragraph.
Aloha Johnny, I was able to get the last episode on an app called SoundCloud. That probably works (though this week, it’s asking me for my password, and I’m trying to remember which one I used).
ahahahaha – no difference in the way they presented those two arguments at all. Amazing that Epstein would even consent to that sort of interview.
You know in soccer how they sometimes show a graphic at the end of the game showing ball possession – or in basketball? So, this billionaire (did they mention what his training or education was in, just out of curiosity?) got about 90% to Richard’s 10%.
Not crying foul, here… but seriously.
I love that quote at the end: “why don’t more rich – (smart) – people agree with you?” Ah, there we have it. He’s a billionaire, therefore an expert. Funny little bit of irony in that story, huh?
And then they end the bit with a pitch for Hanauer’s “extended conversation.” You know, because all they could drag out of Epstein were those few soundbites they used… Now they know how you feel, Troy, like trying to squeeze blood from a turnip. It’s a wonder you can manage a whole hour for each episode of Law Talk.
Troy; on the next podcast, you might consider asking Richard about the case where Henry Ford was sued by his shareholders (I believe one was Chryssler? don’t remember). Regardless… he was sued and admitted to the court that he gave overly high wages essentially because he was a good person and wanted to give his workers more money… which is why he lost, because his shareholders hadn’t agreed to that charity. Yet, you still very often have charity from corporations, and if the argument is that it is for the benefit of the company (PR, for instance), you would have won the argument that Ford lost. Richard touched upon that by saying that Ford needed to negotiate with Unions, another decent reason for behaving as he did. Regardless, what he said was that he simply believes that the workers deserve more. I’d love to hear Richard’s (and Yoo’s) take on that.
(p.s. I didn’t look up the case, but I think I’ve got the gist of it)