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WATCH: An Economist Just SCHOOLED Fox “Business” On The Benefits Of Higher Wages

WATCH: An Economist Just SCHOOLED Fox “Business” On The Benefits Of Higher Wages

In this clip, the infuriatingly smug Stuart Varney, host of Neoliberal Poor-Shaming Propaganda FOX Business, gets schooled by the editor of the financial magazine Barron’s over President Obama finalization of his new overtime payment law, which would give overtime pay rights to 4.2 million workers who are currently excluded by industry regulations.  

Varney and his sycophantic co-hosts immediately begin complaining about how these new rules are going to cost jobs, because of course businesses would rather “keep their overhead the same” than actually pay their workers a living wage. He rudely calls his guest a “bed-wetter” for having the audacity to consider the well-being of the human workers at all.

Jack Hough, however, isn’t going to take it- and rips Varney’s defense of corporate welfare to shreds using the arguments that conservatives usually use against the existence of the social safety net:

“This is not — you are talking about this as a cost to business. Really, it’s a transfer of money from business to workers, right? The issue is, this should be a conservative cause, right? When we have all these companies that are paying workers below a living wage. What happens? The workers go and they apply for federal benefits. They get tax credits. In effect, McDonald’s is reaching both hands into my pockets and taking part of its payroll cost — that shouldn’t happen.

We shouldn’t have so much corporate welfare in the form of low-wage workers who have to go and collect an Earned Income Tax Credit that I pay for. Profits are at an all-time high, worker wages are low, it’s time for companies to pay their own payroll costs instead of coming to me…The reality is that the 20th Century, in America, the greatest sustained period of wealth creation the world has ever seen — we had a high minimum wage, we had overtime pay. ”

He’s absolutely right, and Varney is only able to respond with “that’s an interesting point.” The way that businesses and corporations in America exploit the social safety net to get away with paying their workers poverty wages is absolutely despicable – and President Obama should be applauded for doing what he can to rectify the situation.

Watch it here:

Colin Taylor
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.

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