AI transcript
0:00:04 There’s over 500,000 small businesses in B.C. and no two are alike.
0:00:05 I’m a carpenter.
0:00:06 I’m a graphic designer.
0:00:09 I sell dog socks online.
0:00:12 That’s why B.C.A.A. created one size doesn’t fit all insurance.
0:00:15 It’s customizable, based on your unique needs.
0:00:19 So whether you manage rental properties or paint pet portraits,
0:00:23 you can protect your small business with B.C.’s most trusted insurance brand.
0:00:29 Visit bcaa.com/smallbusiness and use promo code radio to receive $50 off.
0:00:30 Conditions apply.
0:00:37 Hey, I’m John Cohen Hill, host of a brand new show from Vox called Explain It To Me.
0:00:40 This week, the ethical murkiness of zoos.
0:00:45 Do we as humans feel like we deserve to just be able to walk around and see these animals?
0:00:47 Like, maybe we don’t deserve that.
0:00:50 Maybe there’s just some animals we don’t get to see.
0:00:53 To zoo or not to zoo?
0:00:55 That’s this week on Explain It To Me.
0:00:58 Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
0:01:00 [music ends]
0:01:08 Will the VP debate move the needle in what’s shaping up to be a neck-and-neck election?
0:01:12 You never know in advance what will be the thing that matters and the thing that doesn’t matter.
0:01:15 But Donald Trump will be almost 80.
0:01:22 And J.D. Vance will be one cheeseburger away from the presidency, should they win?
0:01:23 I’m Preet Bharara.
0:01:29 And this week, the Atlantic magazine’s David Frum joins me on my podcast, Stay Tuned With Preet,
0:01:31 to break down what happened at the debate.
0:01:33 The episode is out now.
0:01:37 Search and follow Stay Tuned With Preet wherever you get your podcasts.
0:01:45 I’m Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice.
0:01:52 Neither Trump nor Harris are talking about the most powerful weapon in our arsenal
0:01:55 to reduce poverty and inequality.
0:01:58 Raise the federal minimum wage.
0:02:02 Doing the minimum, as read by George Hahn.
0:02:10 During Tuesday night’s debate, Trump and Harris discussed the economy,
0:02:17 but neither referenced the simplest available move to reduce poverty and inequality.
0:02:20 Raise the minimum wage.
0:02:27 On the campaign trail, they’ve both jumped on an idea to eliminate the federal income tax on tips.
0:02:32 This is populist bullshit that would accomplish nothing.
0:02:36 Workers who depend on tips comprise just 2.5% of the workforce,
0:02:40 and most don’t make enough to pay income tax.
0:02:46 Meanwhile, one can imagine private equity firms and real estate brokers finding law firms
0:02:51 to restructure their carried interest fees and commissions as tips.
0:02:58 By the way, nearly every change to the tax code over the past 40 years
0:03:04 has transferred wealth from the young and middle class to corporations and the uber-wealthy,
0:03:15 who are enjoying their lowest tax burden since 1939 and paying single-digit tax rates.
0:03:21 The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
0:03:25 Harris has said she supports raising it but hasn’t said by how much.
0:03:33 Trump, who’s been stiffing employees and vendors his entire life, has flip-flopped on the issue.
0:03:39 There is an economic war between the old and rich and the young, and it’s been a slaughter.
0:03:42 The federal minimum wage is Exhibit A.
0:03:50 It was created by Congress in 1938 to serve as a floor for state minimum wages, which vary widely.
0:03:54 A number of states have recently raised theirs.
0:03:59 The federal minimum, though, hasn’t gone up since 2009.
0:04:05 It’s not even been adjusted to keep pace with inflation or gains in productivity.
0:04:11 It’s buying power peaked in 1968.
0:04:19 A federal minimum wage adjusted for inflation and productivity would be about $25 an hour.
0:04:28 The reason it hasn’t kept pace and is instead 40% lower inflation adjusted than in 1970?
0:04:37 A. Politicians from both parties believe their core constituency is corporations and they’ve served them well.
0:04:44 Protecting the profit margins of companies whose business model is based on paying subpoverty wages.
0:04:49 In 2021, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress,
0:04:57 eight Democrats joined with the GOP to kill a measure to raise the minimum wage to $15.
0:05:17 All this bitching and barking about tearing down the 756 U.S. billionaires versus lifting up the 34% of American households that make less than $50,000 annual income if we raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour.
0:05:23 Another reason the minimum wage hasn’t kept pace is that it mostly affects young people.
0:05:30 Young people are less likely to vote than seniors and have little representation or empathy from a Congress
0:05:34 that’s become a cross between the golden girls and the walking dead.
0:05:40 Average age 62 versus 38 for all Americans.
0:05:50 Two-thirds of the people getting paid the minimum wage or less are 34 or younger and nearly half are 24 or younger.
0:06:02 We have epidemics in the U.S. Depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, homelessness, obesity, and poverty among young people, particularly men.
0:06:09 Though it’s worth noting here that the majority of people making the minimum wage in the U.S. are women.
0:06:23 The most powerful means of addressing these ills and the deaths of despair that follow is a good job at a fair wage that acknowledges the nobility of work.
0:06:32 In addition, a good job creates incentives and illuminates a path to wealth creation and economic security.
0:06:39 We’re not talking about making busboys and home health aides millionaires, but creating an incentive structure
0:06:46 that vaccinate young people from the virus that is the largest preventable cause of death in the U.S.
0:06:52 Poverty and less poverty hasn’t added benefit.
0:06:58 It would reduce the need for expensive and inefficient government programs.
0:07:01 Who loves subpoverty minimum wages?
0:07:08 A. The for-profit industrial prison, fast food, service, hospital, pharmaceutical sector.
0:07:15 These corporations have figured out a way to clip a staggering commission from a social construct.
0:07:23 It’s not unlike healthcare, which generates more private corporate income from treating diseases versus preventing them.
0:07:30 To prevent the disease of poverty, we need to just get the money to people who need it.
0:07:38 The most efficient food stamps, mental health, obesity, diabetes, child poverty program is money.
0:07:47 We’ve traded dignity at a lower cost for corporate profits that weigh on society.
0:07:53 The most compelling argument against raising the minimum wage is that employers would either pass
0:08:00 the higher costs on to consumers or cut jobs rather than raise salaries.
0:08:06 There is no free lunch, but the downsides have been consistently exaggerated by business lobbyists.
0:08:13 Minimum wage is Latin for “I’d pay you less if I could.”
0:08:20 But we need to bury the myth that the middle class is a self-healing organism the market shapes organically.
0:08:28 It isn’t. The greatest innovation in history, the U.S. middle class, requires a consistent
0:08:35 investment that matches the rhetoric. Any CEO or politician who drones on about heroes,
0:08:41 the middle class, and Jesus is usually underpaying their employees, cutting food stamps,
0:08:46 and soliciting oral sex in airport bathrooms.
0:08:51 There have been headlines lately about $15 Big Macs and in California some fast food chains
0:08:57 have closed since the minimum wage went up. They say this like it’s a bad thing.
0:09:04 If we were to foot taxes to the externalities, which is what government is supposed to do,
0:09:13 we’d have beef and gas at $20 a pound and $10 a gallon. Yes, fast food restaurants and many retail,
0:09:19 hospital network, and prison system stocks would decline and it would be worth it.
0:09:26 Some restaurant, hospitality, and retail companies would fail, but most would be able
0:09:33 to pass on the costs to customers without damaging demand. Most empirical economic data shows
0:09:40 raising the minimum wage is broadly good for the economy because poor and middle income people
0:09:45 spend most or all of their money creating a robust multiplier effect.
0:09:54 UC Berkeley economist Michael Reich and University of Victoria economist Justin Wiltshire
0:10:02 recently wrote, “Outside the theoretical world, economists have conducted hundreds of studies
0:10:09 on the actual effects of minimum wage. They repeatedly find that increasing the minimum wage
0:10:14 raises the pay of low wage workers without leading to even minor job losses.
0:10:22 Prices increase by minimal amounts that are too small to deter anyone from buying a burger or taco.”
0:10:31 In April 2024 study by University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon economists
0:10:41 found much the same thing. Co-author Nirupama Rao said, “Our results show clearly that minimum
0:10:47 wages do little harm to independent firms and even benefits some owners while meaningfully
0:10:53 increasing both the earnings and employment of young and low earning workers. Of course,
0:11:00 these gains to workers and owners are financed by consumers who appear fairly inelastic in their
0:11:05 overall demand for the goods and services furnished by independent businesses affected by minimum
0:11:16 wage policies.” According to a 2021 study by the Congressional Budget Office, raising the federal
0:11:27 minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. And a 2019 study by the
0:11:32 Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, estimated that raising the minimum wage
0:11:39 to $15 could lead to an annual increase in consumer spending of $22 billion.
0:11:51 There is constant inescapable tension between labor and capital. For decades now, however,
0:11:57 capital has been kicking the shit out of labor. That’s why the federal government needs to take
0:12:05 the lead on raising wages. Businesses won’t do it and unions can’t. Unions are not only
0:12:12 ineffective. Their membership over the past 30 years has fallen by half. But they also help support
0:12:19 the illusion that middle-class workers have robust representation and don’t need large-scale programs.
0:12:27 They don’t, and they do, respectively. There needs to be one union for all workers,
0:12:35 the federal government. The traditional union construct has outlived its usefulness.
0:12:44 Union membership in the U.S. peaked at around 33% in the 1950s and stands at 10% today.
0:12:49 The labor movement has been crippled since its inception by infighting and corruption.
0:12:57 Sean Fane seems like an honest man, especially in contrast to the past two UAW presidents
0:13:05 who are in prison. Other unions are simply ineffective. For all the hype about unionizing
0:13:11 Starbucks locations, the baristas union has yet to win a collective bargaining agreement
0:13:18 or negotiate a national contract. Last year’s Hollywood writer’s strike was a disaster for
0:13:26 the WGA, with its members taking a 100% pay cut for the five months they were on the picket line
0:13:32 in exchange for modest concessions from the studios. And it was the catalyst for a downsizing
0:13:42 that curbed production in Los Angeles 60% year over year. Low-paying jobs, particularly first jobs,
0:13:50 tend to be shitty. That is as it should be. Almost everybody with a great job now
0:13:56 started out doing something tedious and hard for not much money. How do you make a lot of money?
0:14:05 A. By starting to make money. Any money. For young people though, an early job is as much about
0:14:13 socialization as it is about cash. Somebody working on the front lines in service or retail
0:14:20 can’t help but learn a lot about themselves and the rest of humanity. Pro tip, the biggest tippers
0:14:26 are people who’ve worked in service jobs and now have money. You learn how to work on a team,
0:14:32 how to deal with coworkers and managers and customers who can be jerks. You learn how to get
0:14:38 people to buy something from you which is the key skill in a capitalist society, i.e. the US and
0:14:46 anywhere else you’d want to live. In short, you learn how to develop and deploy social capital
0:14:56 and begin connecting work and talent with money and money with a better life. It sounds obvious,
0:15:02 but many never make the connection. They want success but aren’t willing to sacrifice for it.
0:15:10 Few things build a young person’s self-respect, sense of purpose and willingness to buy into society
0:15:19 more than their first paycheck. I didn’t enjoy being a kid. Being an unremarkable boy with a
0:15:26 single mom, little money and no access to public transportation meant the wonder years in West LA
0:15:36 were mundane. However, at the same time, shows like Dynasty, Dallas, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island
0:15:46 outlined my escape route. Money and the way you got money was work. Note, it still is.
0:15:53 By nine years old, I had a paper route and walked three dogs. I bought packs of bubble
0:16:00 yum for 15 cents and sold individual pieces to classmates for a nickel. My senior year in high
0:16:07 school, I graduated to Boxboy. I’d leave university high at noon to work in the mailroom at Southwestern
0:16:14 University of Law and, by early evening, bomb to the Westwood Chart House where I was a barback.
0:16:21 The summer before college, I shrink-wrapped software boxes for a firm run by Scientologists.
0:16:30 They were nice and strange. In college, I was a trainer at LA Fitness, an usher at the Avco
0:16:37 Cinemas and changed and cleaned beer taps in bars in downtown LA. Walking into bars in Compton at
0:16:46 11 a.m. midweek was an illuminating experience. By this point, I had access to the UCLA Athletes
0:16:55 Job Board. Every weekend, I’d put on white shorts, K-Swisses, and a white polo and head to the
0:17:03 Mondrian where I was a pool boy. Twice a week, for $30 in cash, I’d put on a suit and venture to a
0:17:09 posh home in the flats of Beverly Hills. I’d go upstairs where an elderly woman would be dressed
0:17:16 to the nines, lying in bed. I’d scoop her up and carry her downstairs and into the back seat of
0:17:23 a Rolls-Royce. Her driver would transport us to Scandia, a fancy restaurant in LA, where I’d,
0:17:29 again, carry my client into the restaurant and seat her at a table with six to eight friends and
0:17:40 admirers. The woman in my arms was Lillian Hellman. Ask your parents. I sold commemorative gold coins
0:17:48 over the phone. I was a sperm donor. $40 a shot. So I have somewhere between two and two thousand
0:17:57 kids, but that’s another post. This kaleidoscope of work paid me enough with $5,000 in student
0:18:02 loans and Pell grants to get through UCLA with little to no help from anybody.
0:18:09 My first job out of UCLA and business school enabled me and my girlfriend who worked at Arthur
0:18:21 Anderson to buy a home in Potrero Hill in San Francisco for $285,000 at the age of 28. Imagine
0:18:28 any young person being able today to get through college and buy a home in San Francisco
0:18:36 with their own earnings. The assault on the prosperity of the young is especially mendacious,
0:18:43 as it’s taken place in concert with the greatest increase in national wealth registered in history.
0:18:54 Be clear, this has been purposeful. Americans over the age of 70 are 72% wealthier than 40 years
0:19:04 ago and people under the age of 40 are 24% poorer. Money is the transfer of time and work. To give
0:19:10 someone or something money is to love them and America loved me, connecting my effort with
0:19:21 prosperity. At an early age, I understood the assignment. Our youth now are depressed, anxious,
0:19:29 obese and broke. It’s not globalization, network effects or some other bullshit narrative fomented
0:19:38 by the incumbents. It’s the wealth transfer and, like I said, it’s been purposeful. And the most
0:19:46 elegant effective means of reversing this lack of care, regard and love for the young in America
0:19:54 would be a massive increase in the minimum wage. It would be costly and worth it.
0:20:08 Life is so rich.
0:20:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]
0:00:05 I’m a carpenter.
0:00:06 I’m a graphic designer.
0:00:09 I sell dog socks online.
0:00:12 That’s why B.C.A.A. created one size doesn’t fit all insurance.
0:00:15 It’s customizable, based on your unique needs.
0:00:19 So whether you manage rental properties or paint pet portraits,
0:00:23 you can protect your small business with B.C.’s most trusted insurance brand.
0:00:29 Visit bcaa.com/smallbusiness and use promo code radio to receive $50 off.
0:00:30 Conditions apply.
0:00:37 Hey, I’m John Cohen Hill, host of a brand new show from Vox called Explain It To Me.
0:00:40 This week, the ethical murkiness of zoos.
0:00:45 Do we as humans feel like we deserve to just be able to walk around and see these animals?
0:00:47 Like, maybe we don’t deserve that.
0:00:50 Maybe there’s just some animals we don’t get to see.
0:00:53 To zoo or not to zoo?
0:00:55 That’s this week on Explain It To Me.
0:00:58 Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
0:01:00 [music ends]
0:01:08 Will the VP debate move the needle in what’s shaping up to be a neck-and-neck election?
0:01:12 You never know in advance what will be the thing that matters and the thing that doesn’t matter.
0:01:15 But Donald Trump will be almost 80.
0:01:22 And J.D. Vance will be one cheeseburger away from the presidency, should they win?
0:01:23 I’m Preet Bharara.
0:01:29 And this week, the Atlantic magazine’s David Frum joins me on my podcast, Stay Tuned With Preet,
0:01:31 to break down what happened at the debate.
0:01:33 The episode is out now.
0:01:37 Search and follow Stay Tuned With Preet wherever you get your podcasts.
0:01:45 I’m Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice.
0:01:52 Neither Trump nor Harris are talking about the most powerful weapon in our arsenal
0:01:55 to reduce poverty and inequality.
0:01:58 Raise the federal minimum wage.
0:02:02 Doing the minimum, as read by George Hahn.
0:02:10 During Tuesday night’s debate, Trump and Harris discussed the economy,
0:02:17 but neither referenced the simplest available move to reduce poverty and inequality.
0:02:20 Raise the minimum wage.
0:02:27 On the campaign trail, they’ve both jumped on an idea to eliminate the federal income tax on tips.
0:02:32 This is populist bullshit that would accomplish nothing.
0:02:36 Workers who depend on tips comprise just 2.5% of the workforce,
0:02:40 and most don’t make enough to pay income tax.
0:02:46 Meanwhile, one can imagine private equity firms and real estate brokers finding law firms
0:02:51 to restructure their carried interest fees and commissions as tips.
0:02:58 By the way, nearly every change to the tax code over the past 40 years
0:03:04 has transferred wealth from the young and middle class to corporations and the uber-wealthy,
0:03:15 who are enjoying their lowest tax burden since 1939 and paying single-digit tax rates.
0:03:21 The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
0:03:25 Harris has said she supports raising it but hasn’t said by how much.
0:03:33 Trump, who’s been stiffing employees and vendors his entire life, has flip-flopped on the issue.
0:03:39 There is an economic war between the old and rich and the young, and it’s been a slaughter.
0:03:42 The federal minimum wage is Exhibit A.
0:03:50 It was created by Congress in 1938 to serve as a floor for state minimum wages, which vary widely.
0:03:54 A number of states have recently raised theirs.
0:03:59 The federal minimum, though, hasn’t gone up since 2009.
0:04:05 It’s not even been adjusted to keep pace with inflation or gains in productivity.
0:04:11 It’s buying power peaked in 1968.
0:04:19 A federal minimum wage adjusted for inflation and productivity would be about $25 an hour.
0:04:28 The reason it hasn’t kept pace and is instead 40% lower inflation adjusted than in 1970?
0:04:37 A. Politicians from both parties believe their core constituency is corporations and they’ve served them well.
0:04:44 Protecting the profit margins of companies whose business model is based on paying subpoverty wages.
0:04:49 In 2021, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress,
0:04:57 eight Democrats joined with the GOP to kill a measure to raise the minimum wage to $15.
0:05:17 All this bitching and barking about tearing down the 756 U.S. billionaires versus lifting up the 34% of American households that make less than $50,000 annual income if we raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour.
0:05:23 Another reason the minimum wage hasn’t kept pace is that it mostly affects young people.
0:05:30 Young people are less likely to vote than seniors and have little representation or empathy from a Congress
0:05:34 that’s become a cross between the golden girls and the walking dead.
0:05:40 Average age 62 versus 38 for all Americans.
0:05:50 Two-thirds of the people getting paid the minimum wage or less are 34 or younger and nearly half are 24 or younger.
0:06:02 We have epidemics in the U.S. Depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, homelessness, obesity, and poverty among young people, particularly men.
0:06:09 Though it’s worth noting here that the majority of people making the minimum wage in the U.S. are women.
0:06:23 The most powerful means of addressing these ills and the deaths of despair that follow is a good job at a fair wage that acknowledges the nobility of work.
0:06:32 In addition, a good job creates incentives and illuminates a path to wealth creation and economic security.
0:06:39 We’re not talking about making busboys and home health aides millionaires, but creating an incentive structure
0:06:46 that vaccinate young people from the virus that is the largest preventable cause of death in the U.S.
0:06:52 Poverty and less poverty hasn’t added benefit.
0:06:58 It would reduce the need for expensive and inefficient government programs.
0:07:01 Who loves subpoverty minimum wages?
0:07:08 A. The for-profit industrial prison, fast food, service, hospital, pharmaceutical sector.
0:07:15 These corporations have figured out a way to clip a staggering commission from a social construct.
0:07:23 It’s not unlike healthcare, which generates more private corporate income from treating diseases versus preventing them.
0:07:30 To prevent the disease of poverty, we need to just get the money to people who need it.
0:07:38 The most efficient food stamps, mental health, obesity, diabetes, child poverty program is money.
0:07:47 We’ve traded dignity at a lower cost for corporate profits that weigh on society.
0:07:53 The most compelling argument against raising the minimum wage is that employers would either pass
0:08:00 the higher costs on to consumers or cut jobs rather than raise salaries.
0:08:06 There is no free lunch, but the downsides have been consistently exaggerated by business lobbyists.
0:08:13 Minimum wage is Latin for “I’d pay you less if I could.”
0:08:20 But we need to bury the myth that the middle class is a self-healing organism the market shapes organically.
0:08:28 It isn’t. The greatest innovation in history, the U.S. middle class, requires a consistent
0:08:35 investment that matches the rhetoric. Any CEO or politician who drones on about heroes,
0:08:41 the middle class, and Jesus is usually underpaying their employees, cutting food stamps,
0:08:46 and soliciting oral sex in airport bathrooms.
0:08:51 There have been headlines lately about $15 Big Macs and in California some fast food chains
0:08:57 have closed since the minimum wage went up. They say this like it’s a bad thing.
0:09:04 If we were to foot taxes to the externalities, which is what government is supposed to do,
0:09:13 we’d have beef and gas at $20 a pound and $10 a gallon. Yes, fast food restaurants and many retail,
0:09:19 hospital network, and prison system stocks would decline and it would be worth it.
0:09:26 Some restaurant, hospitality, and retail companies would fail, but most would be able
0:09:33 to pass on the costs to customers without damaging demand. Most empirical economic data shows
0:09:40 raising the minimum wage is broadly good for the economy because poor and middle income people
0:09:45 spend most or all of their money creating a robust multiplier effect.
0:09:54 UC Berkeley economist Michael Reich and University of Victoria economist Justin Wiltshire
0:10:02 recently wrote, “Outside the theoretical world, economists have conducted hundreds of studies
0:10:09 on the actual effects of minimum wage. They repeatedly find that increasing the minimum wage
0:10:14 raises the pay of low wage workers without leading to even minor job losses.
0:10:22 Prices increase by minimal amounts that are too small to deter anyone from buying a burger or taco.”
0:10:31 In April 2024 study by University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon economists
0:10:41 found much the same thing. Co-author Nirupama Rao said, “Our results show clearly that minimum
0:10:47 wages do little harm to independent firms and even benefits some owners while meaningfully
0:10:53 increasing both the earnings and employment of young and low earning workers. Of course,
0:11:00 these gains to workers and owners are financed by consumers who appear fairly inelastic in their
0:11:05 overall demand for the goods and services furnished by independent businesses affected by minimum
0:11:16 wage policies.” According to a 2021 study by the Congressional Budget Office, raising the federal
0:11:27 minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. And a 2019 study by the
0:11:32 Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, estimated that raising the minimum wage
0:11:39 to $15 could lead to an annual increase in consumer spending of $22 billion.
0:11:51 There is constant inescapable tension between labor and capital. For decades now, however,
0:11:57 capital has been kicking the shit out of labor. That’s why the federal government needs to take
0:12:05 the lead on raising wages. Businesses won’t do it and unions can’t. Unions are not only
0:12:12 ineffective. Their membership over the past 30 years has fallen by half. But they also help support
0:12:19 the illusion that middle-class workers have robust representation and don’t need large-scale programs.
0:12:27 They don’t, and they do, respectively. There needs to be one union for all workers,
0:12:35 the federal government. The traditional union construct has outlived its usefulness.
0:12:44 Union membership in the U.S. peaked at around 33% in the 1950s and stands at 10% today.
0:12:49 The labor movement has been crippled since its inception by infighting and corruption.
0:12:57 Sean Fane seems like an honest man, especially in contrast to the past two UAW presidents
0:13:05 who are in prison. Other unions are simply ineffective. For all the hype about unionizing
0:13:11 Starbucks locations, the baristas union has yet to win a collective bargaining agreement
0:13:18 or negotiate a national contract. Last year’s Hollywood writer’s strike was a disaster for
0:13:26 the WGA, with its members taking a 100% pay cut for the five months they were on the picket line
0:13:32 in exchange for modest concessions from the studios. And it was the catalyst for a downsizing
0:13:42 that curbed production in Los Angeles 60% year over year. Low-paying jobs, particularly first jobs,
0:13:50 tend to be shitty. That is as it should be. Almost everybody with a great job now
0:13:56 started out doing something tedious and hard for not much money. How do you make a lot of money?
0:14:05 A. By starting to make money. Any money. For young people though, an early job is as much about
0:14:13 socialization as it is about cash. Somebody working on the front lines in service or retail
0:14:20 can’t help but learn a lot about themselves and the rest of humanity. Pro tip, the biggest tippers
0:14:26 are people who’ve worked in service jobs and now have money. You learn how to work on a team,
0:14:32 how to deal with coworkers and managers and customers who can be jerks. You learn how to get
0:14:38 people to buy something from you which is the key skill in a capitalist society, i.e. the US and
0:14:46 anywhere else you’d want to live. In short, you learn how to develop and deploy social capital
0:14:56 and begin connecting work and talent with money and money with a better life. It sounds obvious,
0:15:02 but many never make the connection. They want success but aren’t willing to sacrifice for it.
0:15:10 Few things build a young person’s self-respect, sense of purpose and willingness to buy into society
0:15:19 more than their first paycheck. I didn’t enjoy being a kid. Being an unremarkable boy with a
0:15:26 single mom, little money and no access to public transportation meant the wonder years in West LA
0:15:36 were mundane. However, at the same time, shows like Dynasty, Dallas, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island
0:15:46 outlined my escape route. Money and the way you got money was work. Note, it still is.
0:15:53 By nine years old, I had a paper route and walked three dogs. I bought packs of bubble
0:16:00 yum for 15 cents and sold individual pieces to classmates for a nickel. My senior year in high
0:16:07 school, I graduated to Boxboy. I’d leave university high at noon to work in the mailroom at Southwestern
0:16:14 University of Law and, by early evening, bomb to the Westwood Chart House where I was a barback.
0:16:21 The summer before college, I shrink-wrapped software boxes for a firm run by Scientologists.
0:16:30 They were nice and strange. In college, I was a trainer at LA Fitness, an usher at the Avco
0:16:37 Cinemas and changed and cleaned beer taps in bars in downtown LA. Walking into bars in Compton at
0:16:46 11 a.m. midweek was an illuminating experience. By this point, I had access to the UCLA Athletes
0:16:55 Job Board. Every weekend, I’d put on white shorts, K-Swisses, and a white polo and head to the
0:17:03 Mondrian where I was a pool boy. Twice a week, for $30 in cash, I’d put on a suit and venture to a
0:17:09 posh home in the flats of Beverly Hills. I’d go upstairs where an elderly woman would be dressed
0:17:16 to the nines, lying in bed. I’d scoop her up and carry her downstairs and into the back seat of
0:17:23 a Rolls-Royce. Her driver would transport us to Scandia, a fancy restaurant in LA, where I’d,
0:17:29 again, carry my client into the restaurant and seat her at a table with six to eight friends and
0:17:40 admirers. The woman in my arms was Lillian Hellman. Ask your parents. I sold commemorative gold coins
0:17:48 over the phone. I was a sperm donor. $40 a shot. So I have somewhere between two and two thousand
0:17:57 kids, but that’s another post. This kaleidoscope of work paid me enough with $5,000 in student
0:18:02 loans and Pell grants to get through UCLA with little to no help from anybody.
0:18:09 My first job out of UCLA and business school enabled me and my girlfriend who worked at Arthur
0:18:21 Anderson to buy a home in Potrero Hill in San Francisco for $285,000 at the age of 28. Imagine
0:18:28 any young person being able today to get through college and buy a home in San Francisco
0:18:36 with their own earnings. The assault on the prosperity of the young is especially mendacious,
0:18:43 as it’s taken place in concert with the greatest increase in national wealth registered in history.
0:18:54 Be clear, this has been purposeful. Americans over the age of 70 are 72% wealthier than 40 years
0:19:04 ago and people under the age of 40 are 24% poorer. Money is the transfer of time and work. To give
0:19:10 someone or something money is to love them and America loved me, connecting my effort with
0:19:21 prosperity. At an early age, I understood the assignment. Our youth now are depressed, anxious,
0:19:29 obese and broke. It’s not globalization, network effects or some other bullshit narrative fomented
0:19:38 by the incumbents. It’s the wealth transfer and, like I said, it’s been purposeful. And the most
0:19:46 elegant effective means of reversing this lack of care, regard and love for the young in America
0:19:54 would be a massive increase in the minimum wage. It would be costly and worth it.
0:20:08 Life is so rich.
0:20:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]
As read by George Hahn.
Doing the Minimum
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