Thread by @NickHanauer

Long rant: So earlier today, I got into a spat over the $15 minimum wage with @JamesSurowiecki and @noamscheiber. Because this disagreement over whether there is a mechanical relationship between raising wages and less jobs is incredibly consequential, I wanted to say more.

First, I am personally acquainted with both these guys and so I can attest that they are both good folks and galactically smart. I wouldn't pick on them if I didn't think that. In fact, all the more reason to, because their opinions and voices are consequential.

Noam characterized my pushback as "toxic" and I feel bad for that. Vigorous disagreement over consequential issues seems important to me, particularly when those ideas represent conventional wisdom or orthodox and that orthodoxy may be harming lots of people.

A society is made up of ideas, and the dominant economic idea of the last 40 years or so has been Neoliberalism, which in turn is a collection of conjectures about economic cause and effect, virtually all of which has turned out to be both untrue and harmful to most citizens.

These ideas include: tax cuts for rich people create growth. Any regulation or constrain on corporations will kill growth and productivity. People are always paid their "marginal product"-exactly what they are "worth". There is always a trade-off between economic efficiency...

And justice. Markets are perfectly efficient and should be left unregulated. And the big one- raising wages always kills jobs.. It is this last idea that has had an enormous negative impact on the welfare of the typical citizen.

It is a huge part of why we have enacted policies over the last 45 years that have led to an upward transfer of wealth of $2.5Trillion per year from the bottom 90% of workers to the top 1%. time.com/5888024/50-tri…

There is almost zero empirical evidence that the minimum wage harms employment.

https://twitter.com/arindube/status/1352063111000432643?s=20

And the consensus of economists has totally changed.

But what is extraordinarily harmful about Neoliberalism is the backwards way in which it shapes how we evaluate economic issues and where we see risk or benefit. Because if you truly are worried about jobs there are things we should work hard to eliminate.

for example, using neoliberal economic principles to deregulate the financial services sector and then get a Wall Street led, greed fueled collapse of the global financial system. THAT is a job killer. Or use those very same Neoliberal economic principles to....

Eliminate anti trust protections, leading to the consolidation of virtually ever industry and stripping virtually every city and town in America of an anchor industry or retailer, and instead sending all of the economic activity to a few huge cities. THAT is a job killer.

Or using those very same Neoliberal economic principles to enact policy that leads to the top 1% grabbing an extra $2.5 trillion per year from the bottom 90%. For perspective, the median full time worker in America earns about $50k. That $2.5 trillion, if paid out in wages....

is the equivalent of 50 million extra jobs!!! Or at a minimum, that equivalent in extra demand for cars, dishwashers, haircuts, cell phones etc. So if you want to talk about a job killer, this massive transfer of income upwards, is the job killer of them all.

But here's the thing about Neoliberalism. No one is pointing out that these things are job killers, particularly the people complaining about the minimum wage. You don't see tweets floating around dividing the bonus pool at Goldman Sachs by the potential number of jobs we could..

create if we more fairly distributed that income. We collectively don't see a risk in the massive incomes of the very rich, but think that paying working people more somehow risks the economy and their livelihoods. We never contemplate the idea that their employers could simply..

take less profit and smaller bonuses. Walmart for example, could more or less raise everyone to $15, simply for the cost of the stock buy backs they do annually. They don't have to raise prices a penny. The only trade-off is that their shareholders and exec's make a little less.

And further, their is no way to avoid the racial and gender issues surrounding the implications of Neoliberalism that are so corroding our society. For to argue that raising the minimum wage will "harm the very people we intend to help" ....

Means equally that closing the gender gap in wages will harm women or closing the race gap harms people of color. I in no way want to imply that Neoliberals are all racists and sexists. They are not and for sure James and Noam are not. But Neoliberalism is the foundation ....

upon which unfair racial and gender outcomes are built. You can't have racial and gender equity if you believe in the principle of marginal utility for example. Because to believe that means people are "always paid what they are worth".

Today, Republicans in congress are arguing against $15, claiming it will cost millions of jobs. There is no evidence for this and the neoclassical models they are using are bogus. But be clear. They don't give a shit about the jobs of working people....

They give a shit about the profits and bonuses of their largest donors. That is who they are protecting. And this is the most important thing to remember: this claim is an intimidation tactic, masquerading as economics. It is a polite way to say, we are rich and you are poor....

and if you attempt to change that, we will bring harm to you and your family. It is bullying and it has to stop. If you hear someone saying this, it should make you mad.

One continuing thought about rural vs city wages. Some people think that we should implement the minimum wage based on living costs. People in rural areas should get less than people in expensive cities. I think this is wrong and actively harmful to our democracy.

The biggest divide in American is between rural and urban places. And for good reason! People in rural America have gotten completely screwed economically over the past 45 years. They feel left behind because they HAVE BEEN left behind. Why in the world would we want....

to use policy to actively consign people who are already poor to more poverty?? Would it be a disaster to see rural people thrive? Remember that a solid majority of rural citizens now work for giant companies, not small businesses. In fact, the right way to implement...

the minimum wage is by company size, not geography. Hold the biggest companies to the highest standard. Slant the economic playing field TOWARDS small and medium sizedbusinesses. democracyjournal.org/magazine/51/pr…

In any case, please close your eyes and imagine a world where no one believes that raising wages kills jobs anymore. That in fact, we see that when workers are paid more money, businesses have more customers and hire more workers. Thats a world in which the median worker earns...

$100k per year, not $50K, and guys like me have lots, but less than we do now. For one, I think that would be a pretty awesome world. I want to live in a country where every citizen feels fairly treated and included and optimistic. Not the neoliberal hell-scape we have now.

Thus endeth the rant.