{"id":11508,"date":"2013-08-29T17:02:52","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T17:02:52","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-08-29T17:02:52","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T17:02:52","slug":"minimum_wage_how_much_is_too_much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/08\/29\/minimum_wage_how_much_is_too_much\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimum Wage: How Much is Too Much?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Let\u2019s go to San Diego. We\u2019ll start with Sean. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: (Unintelligible) tell (unintelligible)<\/p>\n

RUSH: Shh. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. Hang on, folks. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Snerdley, where\u2019s the caller? We said hello to the caller five minutes ago. Is anybody there? Hello? Testing. One, two, three.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hello?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Am I on?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, you\u2019re on.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Am I really on?<\/p>\n

RUSH: We heard everything that you were whispering to your buddies. We heard every word you said to your buddies.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, my God. This is embarrassing. I just wanted to tell my friend I was gonna be on the show with you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well —<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m a long-time listener. I always try to get through and I never get through.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, here it is. Here\u2019s your big showbiz break.<\/p>\n

CALLER: This is Sean in San Diego, and I believe those workers at McDonald\u2019s and Burger King deserve some more money. The shareholders are getting rich. I watch every day on MarketWatch, and the CEO is getting rich. They\u2019re making their profits. They can afford to pair their workers a bit more money. They\u2019re not asking for much. They haven\u2019t had a raise in 25 years.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Really? In 1988, people at McDonald\u2019s were making $7.25 an hour?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m not exactly sure of that, but —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, that would be important.<\/line><\/p>\n

CALLER: They\u2019re not being paid fairly, Rush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: They\u2019re not making what?<\/p>\n

CALLER: They\u2019re not making enough money to even buy themselves a dinner and pay their rent.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, then why don\u2019t they go get a job that does pay that? <\/p>\n

CALLER: Maybe \u2019cause they can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Why can\u2019t they?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Probably no other jobs out there in this bad economy.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Why? Why aren\u2019t there any jobs out there?<\/p>\n

CALLER: The Democrats have destroyed this economy. We all know that.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Well, the minimum wage, by the way, back 25 years ago was $3.35 an hour, just to get the number out there. It was not what they\u2019re making today. I\u2019ll get the inflation calculator out and take a look at it. They\u2019re asking for double their current wages. Sean, why doesn\u2019t the McDonald\u2019s franchise just pay it? You know, why not just give them more money?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, that\u2019s simple. Greed.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Greed? Or is it competition?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Why should they if they don\u2019t have to and nobody\u2019s making them? Government sets the minimum wage, and they don\u2019t want to do it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, okay. Let\u2019s take a look McDonald\u2019s, and let\u2019s say the McDonald\u2019s gives their employees a raise. Let\u2019s just say $10 dollars an hour. Would that be enough?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No. I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay.<\/p>\n

CALLER: In Australia, for example, they\u2019re making 15-something an hour.<\/p>\n

RUSH: In Australia making… Okay.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I (unintelligible) website.<\/p>\n

RUSH: How about this? How about McDonald\u2019s raises everybody to $20 an hour? Would that be enough? Would that be okay? <\/p>\n

CALLER: I think that would probably help a lot of people.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

RUSH: What about $25 an hour?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Managers should probably get at least that. They probably already do.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, then what about $30 an hour?<\/p>\n

CALLER: If that\u2019s the fair market rate.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, no, that\u2019s what $7.25 is.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I don\u2019t believe that.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, that\u2019s why it\u2019s $7.25. It\u2019s the fair market rate. It\u2019s $7.25 not because it\u2019s temporary. That\u2019s the fair market rate. Let\u2019s pay \u2019em $50 an hour, how about that?<\/p>\n

CALLER: $15 an hour.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, $50.<\/p>\n

CALLER: $50?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Five-oh, $50 an hour. How about that?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah. That should be the new fair market rate.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right on. Right? Well, let\u2019s keep going, how about $75 an hour, let\u2019s pay \u2019em $75 an hour.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Where you going with this?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I want to know whether you agree with $75. I\u2019m not going anywhere with it. If $50 is good, $60 would be better, right?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What about $75 an hour?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Where you going with this, though? I don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Now I\u2019m detecting $75 an hour, you think might be too much, right?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I thought it was probably too much at $50 an hour.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. You thought $50 an hour was too much. Why?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m not sure. Well, it is amount of money anyway.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Sean? Sean, one thing. I\u2019m not trying to trick you. I\u2019m not playing a trick on you here. Please don\u2019t misunderstand. I\u2019m not taking you anywhere. I don\u2019t want you misunderstand. But my point is that you have just said $50, more than that doesn\u2019t make any sense, right?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I think the workers wanted $15 an hour, and that\u2019s what seems fair to me, not 50.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, but if $15 is fair, how about $20? And you agreed, and then he said how about $30.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Certain workers, yeah. The management style.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, so you want to equal what management\u2019s making? You want no delineation?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, I think the entry-level should be $15.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s what I asked, “How about $20?” Why shouldn\u2019t the entry-level be $20? If $15 is good, $20 would be better. Why shouldn\u2019t the entry-level be $20 an hour? The point, Sean, is that you just said that $7.25 isn\u2019t the market price, and it is. That $7.25 an hour is what it requires for McDonald\u2019s to be fully staffed. There are people who will work for that, and therefore that sets the wage scale. Now, $10 would be better.<\/p>\n

Yeah, you can keep raising it, but at some point, everybody who believes in a minimum wage will say, “No, wait a minute. That\u2019s too much,” and at that point, you have demonstrated that that there\u2019s no market relationship. You\u2019re just talking emotion. You\u2019re just talking “fairness.” You\u2019re just talking being nice, and that\u2019s not how the market works. People aren\u2019t paid a wage because they\u2019re being nice to, or because it\u2019s fair. In the market, the market rules. You can control it all you want, you could add arbitrary numbers on it all you want, and all you\u2019re doing is delaying the inevitable. <\/p>\n

The market will always win and will always rule, because it is the market.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Hey, Sean? I know you\u2019re still out there in San Diego. Are you willing to pay $10 for a Big Mac so that the entry-level wage is $15 an hour? Are you willing to pay that much for a Big Mac and three bucks for an order of fries?<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Look, this thing with McDonald\u2019s, I\u2019m glad that I got the call from Sean. It\u2019s time for another teachable moment. There have been plenty of these over 25 years, but we haven\u2019t done this one in a while, and in 25 years, the cycle starts to repeat. Young people who have not been taught things need to hear them again, and even though I might be blue in the face saying things over and over again — some of you might be blue in the face hearing them over and over again — we must understand.<\/p>\n

To a lot of people, what I\u2019m going to say next and what I did start to say with Sean is the first time that they\u2019ve heard any of this. The people who say, “Hey, $7.25 is unfair! That\u2019s not fair. They need at least $10, $15. It isn\u2019t fair,” don\u2019t have any idea how the market works. They\u2019re not taught how the market works — and if you don\u2019t like $7.25 an hour, then go work somewhere else. If you\u2019re not qualified to earn more than that, then go get qualified. That\u2019s how things work. <\/p>\n

Businesses do not exist like the government does.<\/p>\n

Businesses are not entitlements. <\/p>\n

Employers are not buying your support or your loyalty. They\u2019re buying your work, and they\u2019re paying what the market says it\u2019s worth, and the market is determined by a lot more than just them. Now, one thing about this: The protestors, and even Sean, who called in, is citing Australia. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve noticed this, but they\u2019re all talking and citing Australia. Saying Australia, “Well, the minimum wage in Australia is $15!”<\/p>\n

Well, guess what? <\/p>\n

That is not the minimum wage for young adults. <\/p>\n

You know what the minimum wage for young adults in a McDonald\u2019s is in Australia? It\u2019s $8 an hour. It\u2019s not $15. But anyway, we\u2019re not Australia. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Teachable moment, market economics. As much as Obama wants to socialize everything and make everybody equal in terms of their outcomes, it hasn\u2019t happened yesterday, and he\u2019s never going to be able to fully do it. If you are a Millennial, if you\u2019re a teenager, I don\u2019t care who you are, there are certain facts of life that have not changed and aren\u2019t going to change no matter how much you want them to. <\/p>\n

If you want a “living wage,” if you don\u2019t like what fast food restaurants pay<\/a>, then do something else. It\u2019s just that simple. Go to a trade school. Go to another business. Start your own business. Maybe the work that you are capable of isn\u2019t yet worth $15 an hour at a fast-food restaurant. Maybe the consumer doesn\u2019t want to pay $10 for a Big Mac so that people working at McDonald\u2019s make $15 an hour. It\u2019s not just a one-way strata. <\/p>\n

You don\u2019t just sit there and double what the employees at McDonald\u2019s make and keep the prices the same. Now, you may think this is obvious, folks, and you may think, “Come on, Rush,” you\u2019d be amazed at how many people do not understand the push-pull in economics. You\u2019d be amazed at the number of people who have taken economics courses who think that the truth about headaches is that the boss is a cheap skinflint and wants his employees to starve and wants to screw his customers. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the basis of their understanding, and they go from there, and they are applauded by left-wing Democrat politicians for holding that belief, and they\u2019re encouraged to have it. Now, to those of you who, like Sean from San Diego, are sympathetic to this demand for the minimum wage at Mickey D\u2019s to go from $7.15 or $7.25 an hour to $15, let me ask you this: When you buy a meal, do you make sure that you\u2019re paying a fair price for it? <\/p>\n

When you walk in there, do you ask the employee, “Look, am I paying enough here so that you can get a livable wage? When you go in and buy a Big Mac or a Quarter Pounder with cheese or a double Quarter Pounder with cheese, do you look at the price is and say, “Are you sure that this costs enough that you can make a livable wage?” Or do you just get a little upset when you think it\u2019s a little too expensive?<\/p>\n

When you buy a meal and you pay a fair price for it, are you doing this to ensure that the employees get health care? When you walk into Mickey D\u2019s and you buy a Big Mac, do you ask them, “By the way, is this thing costing enough so that you get health care here? By the way, is this Big Mac costing enough so that you get a pension here?” Do you think any of that when you go buy a Big Mac? No. You want it to be as cheap as it can be. That\u2019s why you\u2019re there. <\/p>\n

Am I right? <\/p>\n

Plus it\u2019s fast.<\/p>\n

Do you walk in to Mickey D\u2019s and say, “Look, double the price of my Happy Meal. I want to pay double the price for my hamburger and my french fries and my soda and my cheap little cookie. And, by the way, I want you to double the price for whatever my kids get, and I want you to double the price for whatever my wife orders, and then I want you to go and make sure that the wages and benefits of the people who work here go up”? Do you do any of that? Oh, no! <\/p>\n

You — “you” in general — will sit around and demand that the evil owner pay a fair wage to people. But when you walk in there, are you making sure you\u2019re paying enough for whatever you\u2019re buying so that the evil owner can provide all those benefits? Do you do that when you go to Walmart? Do you do that when you buy gasoline at the gas station? When you go to the Dollar Store do you say, “No, no! Close this. I\u2019m not coming back until it\u2019s the $2 Store. I\u2019m not paying enough here. <\/p>\n

“You can\u2019t possibly provide your employees with good benefits if you\u2019re not charging me more than what you\u2019re charging me.” Do you ever do that? Meanwhile, what about the other side of this? The increased cost to the consumer. Many of the people who go to these stores and restaurants are looking for bargains. They themselves are on limited or fixed incomes. They have large families, or they\u2019re unemployed. These people are consumers, too. They have weekly budgets, too.<\/p>\n

And keep in mind, at the same time the government is intentionally driving up the price of their electricity and their gasoline and their food. “What do you mean intentionally, Mr. Limbaugh?” What do I mean intentionally? Obama\u2019s policies are designed to make things more expensive. And even if they\u2019re not designed to, they are causing it to happen. You cannot shrink the workforce by nine million jobs, you cannot delay the implementation of new pipelines to get more oil in the country, and not have the price of oil go up.<\/p>\n

You cannot attack the coal industry and not expect the price of electricity to go up. Everything this administration is doing is causing prices to go up. Everything. All the while, they tell you it\u2019s these evil CEOs and evil Republicans and evil fat cats cheating you. There is a war on the private sector in this country. There is a war on capitalism. There is a war on electricity. There is a war on coal. There is a war on oil. And it\u2019s being conducted by the president and his party.<\/p>\n

So this is not about compassion, much as you wish it were. It\u2019s not about compassion. Because the entire economic impact isn\u2019t being considered. If you\u2019re sympathetic to somebody at McDonald\u2019s getting $15 an hour, you had better be prepared to pay more. You had better go in and volunteer to pay a higher price for your Mickey D\u2019s whatever it is, Big Mac, Double Big Mac.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You\u2019re protesting McDonald\u2019s, Burger King or what have you. But you don\u2019t do that, do you? You\u2019re looking for the lowest price you can get. You want the compassion to all come from the evil owner. You don\u2019t want to participate in the compassion. You want to sit around and beat the drums and say you hope people get treated fairly, but you don\u2019t want to be in the equation necessary to make it happen. This is what I love about liberals. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I say it\u2019s the most gutless choice you can make. <\/p>\n

All you gotta do is sit there and whine and moan and demand and talk about all the unfairness in the world but never do a damn thing about it. Always demand somebody else do it. Always demand somebody else take the issue on by the reins or also claim that nobody else cares like you do. But the economy is push-pull. It\u2019s a two-way and often multi-way street. Then, may I dare say, there is the issue of private property rights. <\/p>\n

You know, people go into business, or invest in businesses to improve their own lives and that of their families. They are pursuing the American dream, and this is how we expand an economy. People go into business. They invest in businesses. This is how we create opportunity. This is how we create jobs. It doesn\u2019t come from the government. It comes from individuals taking risks or behaving in ways to improve their own lot in life. <\/p>\n

That is not greed. <\/p>\n

That is self-interest, and it benefits everybody when there\u2019s a payoff. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a huge difference in greed and selfishness and self-interest, and a guy who goes into business or invests in a business to improve his own life is engaging in his own self-interest, and it\u2019s not his responsibility to also take care of you. If he has a business, his responsibility is to make sure it stays open, and the only way that can happen is if he makes a profit. <\/p>\n

But then if he becomes successful, then we get nutcases like Elizabeth Warren <\/a>telling him he didn\u2019t build it, and Obama then echoes her. “You didn\u2019t build that! You didn\u2019t build that! The road to get people to your place, we built that!” So there is an all-out assault on individual achievement and entrepreneurism and risk-taking, and when you let Democrats run the show, success is gonna be punished, because it\u2019s not fair. That\u2019s what we\u2019re living today, folks. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why there is a malaise and a depression. It\u2019s because the American dream is being snuffed out. Success now has a stigma. It\u2019s unfair, it\u2019s mean-spirited. And besides that you didn\u2019t really do it. “The government did it; taxpayers did it. You don\u2019t deserve a profit! Somebody at McDonald\u2019s isn\u2019t happy with $7.25 an hour and they want $15, give it to them! It\u2019s only fair!” But that\u2019s not how you create opportunity and jobs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not how you grow wages and benefits. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not how you create life improving and-lifesaving products. <\/p>\n

The government doesn\u2019t know how to do that! They\u2019re not interested in it. They don\u2019t do it. All they do is destroy that. The government cannot create wealth, but they are experts at destroying it. We expand the economy and economic opportunity by the processes I have just described. So many of these liberals act as if working the fry machine at a fast-food restaurant is the glass ceiling. That\u2019s it. <\/p>\n

“If you\u2019re working the fry machine, if you\u2019re flipping the burgers or if you\u2019re at the counter, that\u2019s it. That\u2019s the end of your days working. That\u2019s the highest you\u2019re gonna go — and, so, if that\u2019s the highest you\u2019re gonna go, we gotta make sure you have a livable wage.” But it\u2019s not the highest you\u2019re gonna go. You\u2019re gonna leave that job behind you as you get experience, as you discover what you want to do, what you love. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But everybody\u2019s gonna have an entry-level job in their resume. Some people may have five or six. You may be fired three or four times along the way. But somehow, to the left, the hamburger-flipper has reached the top. Let\u2019s not forget what Dr. King said. Street sweeper? If that\u2019s your lot in life, be the best damn street sweeper there is! His point was that there\u2019s virtue in every job, virtue in every work — and the only way to get better work is to be excellent at what you\u2019re doing now.<\/p>\n

Not a whining, complaining boob running around whining and moaning about unfairness. But if you\u2019re the fry cook at a fast-food restaurant, why, I guess, that\u2019s your glass ceiling. I thought liberals opposed the glass ceiling. Yet that\u2019s all they see. That\u2019s all they promote: Glass ceilings. But capitalism? Capitalism, freedom, liberty, be the best you can be, doing what you want? That\u2019s what breaks glass ceilings. <\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t know discrimination. It doesn\u2019t know any limits. It\u2019s about success. That\u2019s the defining characteristic of capitalism: Success. Sure, you\u2019re gonna run into cheats and charlatans along the way just like you will in any walk of life anywhere you go. You overcome it. You deal with it. It\u2019s called life, and everybody faces it, and you cannot legislate that out of life. You can\u2019t legislate risk out of life, and you can\u2019t write failure out of life.<\/p>\n

And you can\u2019t write pain out of life. But the Democrat Party can write and legislate success out of your life if you let them. They need a permanent underclass of dependent people. Do not be one of them! Capitalism equals success, fulfillment, and growth, which leads to more of the same — and it spreads throughout society. It isn\u2019t theoretical, either. You have a world in which authoritarianism exists and capitalism exists. The latter works. The previous doesn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: All that I just said, ladies and gentlemen, is not theoretical. <\/p>\n

We live it. We have a world in which authoritarianism exists and in which capitalism exists. The latter works. Do you know there\u2019s an economic boom going on in this country right now in North Dakota and Texas? Do you know what\u2019s causing it? Fracking, finding oil a new way. Obama can\u2019t stop it. He wants to, but he can\u2019t stop it. It is a living, breathing, textbook example of how does entire country\u2019s economy can be revived, with jobs created out the wazoo. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The states are the laboratories that counter what is happening in Washington under the leadership of Obama and the Democrats. Capitalism works. It created the world\u2019s lone, greatest superpower in human history. Authoritarianism does not work. It never has. It doesn\u2019t and hasn\u2019t worked in Cuba, in China, in the old Soviet Union, anywhere. Everywhere it\u2019s been tried, it fails dismally. There is no group of people that can make it fair; there\u2019s no group of people that can make it work. <\/p>\n

Today modern Democrats are no better than any of the other failures who have tried socialism or authoritarianism in the past. We live in a free country. And yet so many people insist on being treated as if we don\u2019t. So many people would rather be dependent, demanding the government force people to pay more, force people to pay — be it wages for a hamburger flipper or anything else. It\u2019s not about growth and opportunity; it\u2019s about the iron fist that some people would rather have the government use at their disposal on other people. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Just one more thing, since the minimum wage is up again — and, folks, I know that the vast majority of you in this audience (because of your long-time, long-term listenership) understand this. But again I ask your indulgence. Because as you know, that are new people tuning in each day, many of them hearing some of this for the first time. So right now, the left is back on its minimum wage kick. <\/p>\n

By the way, this is while they\u2019re trying to distract people from what Obama\u2019s competence is with Syria, and while everybody\u2019s looking that Obama is ordering new executive orders on gun control. You know what I think? Why doesn\u2019t Obama just issue an executive order canceling the Constitution? He\u2019s trying to do that with the Second Amendment. I mean, he pivoted from the Martin Luther King 50th anniversary event yesterday.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s gone full bore right into gun control again, and trying — via executive orders — to further limit the Second Amendment and your right to bear arms. I\u2019ve got the details here coming up. But the minimum wage. One of the points I was trying to make with our first caller, Sean, is he said that $7.25 is not fair. It needs to be at least $15. I said, “Okay, why not $20?” “Yeah, that\u2019s cool.” I got him all the way up to $50 an hour, and he said, “Ah, maybe it\u2019s too much.” <\/p>\n

Why? <\/p>\n

No matter who supports a minimum wage increase, try this with \u2019em. You can always reach a level where even they will say it\u2019s too much. Then you\u2019ll own them. When, in Sean\u2019s case, he said no to $50, I asked, “Well, I don\u2019t get it. Why is $50 too much?” They know they\u2019ve been caught, and they don\u2019t really want to answer the question at that point. But the reason that he thought $50 was too much is \u2019cause the work isn\u2019t worth that, and then you realize that the whole movement isn\u2019t about the value of work.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about some emotional, feel-good factor that has nothing to do with market economics. There ought not be a minimum wage. The minimum wage kills jobs, and every time you say that to people that don\u2019t understand it, they think that you are a hateful person who doesn\u2019t like the poor. Because they think the minimum wage is an entitlement program, and they think the minimum wage is a compassion program, and it\u2019s not. <\/p>\n

The minimum wage has nothing to do with economics. The minimum wage is the Democrat Party\u2019s attempt, and anybody else that signed on to it, to make people think they care about them. But it\u2019s entirely arbitrary. They get $7.25 an hour for what? There are some jobs that aren\u2019t worth that. The White House interns don\u2019t make anything! Did you know Obama doesn\u2019t pay his interns anything? <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Why aren\u2019t people protesting that? And there are a lot of them. There are a lot of White House interns. They\u2019re told, “You do it for the experience. You do it because of what you\u2019re gonna learn. You do it because of the people you\u2019re gonna meet.” But somehow when it comes to McDonald\u2019s, there\u2019s no such thing as internships, and $7.25 is too low. But $50 is too much? Well, then, you admit that any figure is arbitrary and unrelated to market economics. <\/p>\n

Labor, the price or cost of labor is based on what somebody will work for. Sad to say. Have you ever heard the term, “what somebody is worth”? You need to be paid what you\u2019re worth. How is that determined? Your worth is what somebody else agrees to pay you, and if you want to get your wealth — or your worth up — you better make yourself valuable to somebody. Here\u2019s a real-world example. When I was 28, I thought that I had failed at radio as a deejay.<\/p>\n

So by hook and crook, I got a job in sales, ticket sales at the Kansas City Royals. It paid $12,000 a year. At age 28. That\u2019s 1979, I\u2019m making $12,000 a year. That wasn\u2019t very fair. I mean, players were making millions; the management there had company cars. I couldn\u2019t afford my house payment and food in the same two week period. I had no business owning a house, but that\u2019s another story. It wasn\u2019t really a house. It was a shack, but I had no business owning that. <\/p>\n

If they woulda just paid me $5,000 more for $17,000, it woulda made such a difference. But they didn\u2019t, and you know why? Because there were people who woulda done what I was doing for $10,000 a year, because it\u2019s a groupie job. Professional sports teams, you wouldn\u2019t believe the people they attract. (interruption) Team doctors? Well, not team doctor, but doctors will offer to do the job for nothing. <\/p>\n

And so the job was worth, to the people paying me, $12,000. (interruption) Ah, I might have been mad at \u2019em, but it was business. It\u2019s just the way it is. There was no requirement that they be fair or nice based on my circumstance. Now, if I ended up there doing work that was really valuable to \u2019em, that $12,000 would have gotten higher. That\u2019s how it works. And you\u2019re always gonna run into bad bosses. Everybody\u2019s gonna run into unfair bosses.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t avoid these things, and there\u2019s no politician and there\u2019s no political that can eliminate any of that, and there\u2019s no government that can make it fair. You know, life is Leif, and we all have self-determination — and Martin Luther King understood it. Whatever you\u2019re doing, whatever it is, if you try to be better at it than anybody else, you\u2019re not gonna be doing that long. You\u2019re gonna move up. Now there are young people who expect instantaneous success because they see it. <\/p>\n

That $12,000 in 1979 is the equivalent to $38,000 today, so says the old inflation calculator. I made $12,000 a year. It wasn\u2019t much, but that\u2019s what it was worth. It was a new job. They\u2019d never had the job before. They didn\u2019t know what it would pay, and there was no such thing as commissions for selling tickets. I asked them about it. They said, “Well, if we give you a commission, then don\u2019t we have to give the player who hits a home run the night before a commission on additional tickets sold the next night if we win the game? <\/p>\n

“How are we gonna do this commission business? No, here\u2019s what the salary is: 12 grand. Take it or leave it. No commissions.” Okay. I ended up getting a $1,000 raise every year, so when I left I was making $17,000. It\u2019s just the way it is. I was mad about it, and I wasn\u2019t happy about it, and it\u2019s why I eventually left. I don\u2019t like using myself \u2019cause it\u2019s the old fogey, old fuddy-duddy thing. But economics, it\u2019s one of the most intriguing subjects because when it is properly explained to you, it is just common sense simple. <\/line><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s complicated at the same time. The common sense simplicity doesn\u2019t occur \u2019til somebody explains it to you. Economics, free market economics has to be explained. These people protesting for doubling the minimum wage at McDonald\u2019s? Like I said, do you think they walk in there and ask for the price of their Big Mac to be doubled so that the employees can get a higher raise? No. They don\u2019t. They think jobs are just another government thing handing out benefits. <\/p>\n

They think the purpose of a business is to provide jobs in the community and health care, and it isn\u2019t. So Americans today are down in the dumps, thinking that the best days are behind us, thinking the American dream is over — and if there\u2019s no American dream, there\u2019s no America. That\u2019s a uniquely American thing, the American Dream. We never heard about the Soviet Union Dream, and we don\u2019t hear about the ChiCom Cream, and we don\u2019t hear about Cuban Dream.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s always been an American Dream, and if there is no American Dream, there isn\u2019t any America. But there\u2019s still an America, and there\u2019s still an American Dream. A lot of people are out there doing it. But a lot of people have been talked out of trying. A lot of people have been depressed, made to believe that it\u2019s not possible, and so they\u2019ve lost faith. And they\u2019re depressed, and they\u2019re ticked off, and all of it\u2019s understandable. <\/p>\n

But they need not have lost faith in the country. The country\u2019s still there. The country\u2019s still capable. The country is still free. The country\u2019s still filled with opportunity. But we\u2019re led by a bunch of people who don\u2019t believe that, who have never believed that this country was just and moral. They have never believed that this country was legitimate. It was an accident, it was a coincidence, and only now are people finding out what the real America is like.<\/p>\n

Only now are Americans finding out what it\u2019s really like for everybody else in the world. <\/p>\n

The American Dream, American greatness, American prosperity?<\/p>\n

That only happened, in Obama\u2019s view, because we stole and pilfered from the other peoples and nations of the world. “We didn\u2019t really build anything here. We stole it, after going to war and defeating people.” It\u2019s a perverted, corrupt, near criminal opinion that they have — and it\u2019s a disservice to every American that they attempt to govern and lead with the set of beliefs that they hold — and the sooner these policies are erased, the sooner these policies are replaced, the better off everybody is going to be. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, an employee\u2019s worth to somebody is different from employer to employer. Some employers don\u2019t want turnover. They don\u2019t want to deal with it, don\u2019t want the distraction. So they find people they like and they may pay them above market, may pay them more than is necessary, may pay them higher than what the standard is for that business. But there\u2019s a reason that\u2019s happening, and that is the value of not having the person leave. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s all kinds of reasons that people get paid what they get paid. There are all kinds of employers. There are all kinds of businesses. There\u2019s all kinds of opportunity. It\u2019s not a zero-sum game, and there is not only one way to earn a living. There\u2019s not only one way that employers pay what they pay. Employers value their employees and maybe every employee has a different value. It all is different. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you, it\u2019s cutthroat, too. <\/p>\n

Capitalism is a cutthroat, competitive thing. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no two ways about it. <\/p>\n

It is what it is, and that\u2019s not bad. I don\u2019t mean to say that that\u2019s bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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