Nick Hanauer makes the capitalist case for, among other things, a higher minimum wage. The same point applies to rent control. Landlords and business owners have some shared interests, but business owners should be in favor of rent control. The less money I pay in rent, the more I have to spend in the cafe, the bookstore, the Gap, etc. 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...These idiotic trickle-down policies are destroying my customer base. And yours too...Which is why 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.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:17:19 +0000