New host, same loopy logic. Ed Schultz is gone from his weekday MSNBC slot, but the show's name lives on until Chris Hayes comes on board next month. Sitting in for Schultz tonight was the never-at-a-loss-for-words Michael Eric Dyson.
Discussing Elizabeth Warren's latest Senate hearing stunt, on the minimum wage, Dyson gushed "wouldn't that be great" if the minimum wage were raised to $22 per hour? Yeah, great . . . if you'd like unemployment to soar into the stratosphere, as lower-skilled workers were priced out of the market. African-Americans would be particularly hard hit. View the video after the jump.
Observations: if Dyson's fantasy were fulfilled and the minimum wage were raised to $22/hr, the harm to the economy would go way beyond the immediate, and massive, loss of jobs among lower-skilled employees. As they lost their jobs, there would be huge, negative ripple effects on the economy, as their buying power was lost, their demand on social services exploded, etc. The total increase in unemployment, therefore, would go way beyond those immediately priced out of the job market. The decrease in GDP would be enormous. Thanks, professor!
Also, while Dyson yearns for a "merit-based" wage, the fact is that one already exists--in the form of wages determined by the free market. It is in fact the minimum wage that is NON-merit based, substituting government fiat for what free people and free markets determine a given worker's work merits.
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: This income-disparity chart says it all. The same expert explained that if the minimum wage kept pace with incomes going to the top 1%, the minimum wage would actually have risen to $33 an hour before the great recession. Senator Warren was not calling on the minimum wage be raised to $22 an hour--though wouldn't that be great? She was however illustrating the unconscionable disparity between the current minimum wage and the ideal merit-based minimum wage.
