I post this item not to mock Mika Brzezinski. But her comments this morning were so illustrative of the liberal mindset--in ignoring fundamental principles of economics--that they are worth highlighting here.
An entire Morning Joe segment had been devoted to discussing the wage dilemma in America. In the context of analyzing the right-to-work law soon to be signed in Michigan, the panel—apparently excepting Mika—agreed that we face hard choices here. We can artificially preserve high wages for a relative few, or let wages seek their natural level, providing more jobs at lower pay. As Joe Scarborough put it, we have to decide if we want jobs to go to China, or remain here, understanding that if we want them to stay, wages cannot remain at levels in existence before America was forced to compete internationally. All this was apparently lost on Mika. In the following segment, insisting "it's kind of simple," Mika argued that employers making big profits should pay their workers more. "Why not? I don't get it," miffed Mika about "greedy" bosses. As former Obama car czar Steve Rattner gently explained, "it's capitalism." View the video after the jump.
I'll be back with the transcript. In the meantime, watch Mika's manifest disconnect with the laws of supply and demand. It is precisely the mindset that leads liberals to enact laws imposing higher wages and more burdensome regulations, oblivious to the job-destroying impact of their efforts to "help" workers.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I know we need to go to Politico, but why don't these companies making big profits just pay people better than $14 an hour? It's kind of simple. When you're making record profits, why not? I don't get it.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Oh, you're making me tired.
STEVE RATTNER: It's capitalism. It's capitalism. Companies are not charged with paying workers more. They're charged with making profits.
BRZEZINSKI: They can give them a little more, can't they?
SCARBOROUGH: Oh, come on. You're making me tired.
BRZEZINSKI: It's called greedy!
SCARBOROUGH: No it's not.
BRZEZINSKI: What? If I made a lot of money I would pay people more. {Ed.: one site estimates her annual salary at $2 million.}
SCARBOROUGH: The president gets business people in his office the first four years, and he goes, hey, hire people. That's not how it works!
BRZEZINSKI: Oh, right. Just roll around in your money. Go ahead. Thanks for visiting.
SCARBOROUGH: You don't hire people just to hire people.
BRZEZINSKI: Because you're making record profits.
SCARBOROUGH: Because you'll have to fire people when it goes down.
BRZEZINSKI: Go ahead, Willie, because it's --
