Thread by @ClaireBerlinski

Back to Bernie, who is now explaining how he plans to fix the problem. His first solution is raising the minimum wage.

He has a passage I recognize here: His discussion of Wal-Mart is almost the same as Warren's.

And indeed, when I read it in Warren's book, I checked the footnote and found she'd sourced it to Bernie. It's close enough that in an academic context, I'd call it plagiarism. But this isn't that context.

If you're reading along, go to p. 24-25 of Warren's book, compare to p. 223, Bernie. "Walmart the Welfare Queen," Warren; "The Walmart family has to get off welfare," Bernie.

Bernie sources this to a 2014 report from Americans for Tax Fairness. I believe it must be this one:

americansfortaxfairness.org/files/Walmart-…

This seems to be a think tank. Why would the Koch brothers subsidize Americans for Tax Fairness?

Is it possible that the Koch brothers don't finance everything?

Who funds Americans for Tax Fairness? americansfortaxfairness.org/issues/ I can't tell, but if I want to donate, it says I should send a check to the New Venture Fund. newventurefund.org

The Kochs own that, too? It says, on the "About" page, that "the NVF was established in 2006 in response to demand from leading philanthropists for an efficient, cost-effective, and time-saving platform to launch and operate charitable projects."

Sounds like this thing is run by ... oligarchs?

This is the board of directors: newventurefund.org/about-nvf/boar… I'd never have guessed they all work for Koch.

Anyway, they're the source of the Wal-Mart talking point. Their research, apparently, is based on "a study prepared by the Democratic Staff of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce in May 2013."

Just for balance, here's Wal-Mart's side of the story: news.walmart.com/executive-view…

Bernie continues: "All Americans should be shocked" that child care workers and 96 percent of fast food workers in America make less than $15 an hour. The CEO of McDonald's, he notes, made $7.9 million in 2015.

There's actually a serious choice confronting primary voters here. If Yang is right, the Bernie-Warren solution will push us right over the precipice. Walmart and McDonalds are just going to replace these workers with quiet, obedient robots.

I remember the next passage from Warren's book, too: he argues that the biggest low-wage employer in the US isn't actually a greedy oligarch: It's the US government.

"Today nearly 2 million Americans are working low-wage jobs that are funded by the taxpayers of this country, mainly through government contracts to private sector employees."

"I am hopeful," he writes, that "the next president" will immediately sign an executive order raising the wages of all federal contract workers to "at least $15 an hour."

(And if the GOP says, "But ... is that Constitutional? Isn't there something about the power of the purse and all that?"--the American people will roll their eyes. That will be their own damned supine, spineless fault.)

Next is a section about equal pay. Women, he says, "are sick and tired of making 79 cents for every dollar a man earns."

Man, am I sick and tired of hearing that one.

"Employers must be required to prove that any difference in wages have nothing to do with gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin."

That sounds like just the ticket to get the economy moving.

I wonder if the lawsuits can be filed with AI?

"Companies that break the law requiring pay equity should not be treated with immunity."

This is how Americans become too demoralized to vote.