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trof

(54,256 posts)
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 07:40 PM Jun 2014

Why $15.00/hr minimum wage makes perfect sense. The Billionaire:

"You probably don’t know me, but like you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist. I have founded, co-founded and funded more than 30 companies across a range of industries—from itsy-bitsy ones like the night club I started in my 20s to giant ones like Amazon.com, for which I was the first nonfamily investor. Then I founded aQuantive, an Internet advertising company that was sold to Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion. In cash.

My friends and I own a bank. I tell you all this to demonstrate that in many ways I’m no different from you. Like you, I have a broad perspective on business and capitalism. And also like you, I have been rewarded obscenely for my success, with a life that the other 99.99 percent of Americans can’t even imagine. Multiple homes, my own plane, etc., etc. You know what I’m talking about.

<snip>

But let’s speak frankly to each other. I’m not the smartest guy you’ve ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I’m not technical at all—I can’t write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now?

I see pitchforks.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html#ixzz35yacg1i

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Why $15.00/hr minimum wage makes perfect sense. The Billionaire: (Original Post) trof Jun 2014 OP
A bit more... trof Jun 2014 #1
Then there's this: trof Jun 2014 #2
And this: trof Jun 2014 #3
kick! nt NYC_SKP Jun 2014 #4
Thank you. trof Jun 2014 #5
"What sets me apart..." No, it is luck Taitertots Jun 2014 #6
Bingo! trof Jun 2014 #7
I'm not rich and I'll admit that luck played a major role in my rise to middle class income levels Taitertots Jun 2014 #8
A-men! Luck had a lot to do with my career path. trof Jun 2014 #9

trof

(54,256 posts)
1. A bit more...
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 07:46 PM
Jun 2014

"But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last."

trof

(54,256 posts)
2. Then there's this:
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 07:49 PM
Jun 2014

"The model for us rich guys here should be Henry Ford, who realized that all his autoworkers in Michigan weren’t only cheap labor to be exploited; they were consumers, too. Ford figured that if he raised their wages, to a then-exorbitant $5 a day, they’d be able to afford his Model Ts.

What a great idea. My suggestion to you is: Let’s do it all over again. We’ve got to try something. These idiotic trickle-down policies are destroying my customer base. And yours too."

trof

(54,256 posts)
3. And this:
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 07:51 PM
Jun 2014

"The fundamental law of capitalism must be: If workers have more money, businesses have more customers. Which makes middle-class consumers, not rich businesspeople like us, the true job creators. Which means a thriving middle class is the source of American prosperity, not a consequence of it. The middle class creates us rich people, not the other way around."

 

Taitertots

(7,745 posts)
6. "What sets me apart..." No, it is luck
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 08:10 PM
Jun 2014

Our economic system is designed so that only a tiny fraction of the population will ever be wealthy.

"So forget all that rhetoric about how America is great because of people like you and me and Steve Jobs. You know the truth even if you won’t admit it: If any of us had been born in Somalia or the Congo, all we’d be is some guy standing barefoot next to a dirt road selling fruit. It’s not that Somalia and Congo don’t have good entrepreneurs. It’s just that the best ones are selling their wares off crates by the side of the road because that’s all their customers can afford."

 

Taitertots

(7,745 posts)
8. I'm not rich and I'll admit that luck played a major role in my rise to middle class income levels
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 08:38 PM
Jun 2014

I got my current job when I tried to quit my previous job. A new position was opening up and my boss couldn't lose another person to fill it. It was the last day of my two week notice.

trof

(54,256 posts)
9. A-men! Luck had a lot to do with my career path.
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 07:56 PM
Jun 2014

Long story, but I landed in a fairly good career.

There's nothing like being in the right place at the right time for reasons that had nothing to do with your reasons for doing what you did in the first place.

Go figure.


Oh, I am not a billionaire.

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