Chris Rock explains "Minimum Wage"

[truedelphi]

His explanation - "Minimum wage means they would pay you less if they could."

I realize some will think that his remark should go in the "Lounge"

But I often think our comedians understand politics and societal realities more than any other group. (Or at least they are allowed to actually speak the truth, when no one else can do that.

[OneGrassRoot]

1. Here ya go:

Chris Rock has been SPOT ON for years. He gets a message across very succinctly, imho.

[tjwash]

6. Also, the always funny David Cross...

LOL..."can someone explain to me why I shouldn't be selling drugs..."

[oberliner]

11. He is kinda ripping off Chris Rock's bit

Not cool.

[xxqqqzme]

14. The Cross video is

dated 1996. What is the date of the Rock quote?

[tjwash]

17. Cross did that at least 10 years before CR did his minimum wage bit

Besides...they both stole it from Lenny Bruce

[oberliner]

18. Really?

Do you have evidence of that?

[tclambert]

9. That's why so many "businesspeople" (criminals) are happy to hire illegal immigrants.

'Cause they CAN pay them less than minimum wage. And they won't call the cops.

[freshwest]

20. +1

[Arkana]

2. Chris Rock also said that buying peanut butter and jelly mixed together was like

buying shoes with socks sewn inside.

[raccoon]

3. Yes, in that respect our comedians are like the court fools of the Middle Ages--or at least as we

THINK them to have been.

[gollygee]

4. The republicans I know are opposed to the very concept of the minimum wage

If you look at the right's economic policies and what they've done when they've implemented them in other countries, they've gotten rid of the minimum wage altogether. "Let the free market dictate wages." But they also set up an economy where only the very very rich do well (and not 1% - much less than 1%) and the poverty rate is very high. They don't like a social safety net either, so you end up with people who are hungry enough they have no choice but to work for whatever they're given - anything at all.

Read Shock Doctrine. Everyone should read it, or at least google the video and watch it online.

[Care Acutely]

5. What will never cease to amaze me is the low-middle and working class shlubs who

absolutely refuse to understand that they would be wholly engulfed and rolled over in the rising tide of poverty the policies of the right would bring, that they would have spent their lives raising their pitchforks in defense of their rich masters - only to find themselves in plywood shantys, steeling themselves for another trip to the outhouse in the December cold of a year not less than a generation or two away.

[stevenleser]

19. Yep, that thought inspired the OP and pic I posted today...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021975297

[truedelphi]

7. Have read Shock Doctrine many times over. tottally agree with U on its value. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

8. That's a good and profound observation by Chris Rock.

Thanks for the thread, truedelphi.

[FSogol]

10. Except that he got it from Africian American writer, Colson Whitehead who used,

"If I could pay you less, I would" as a chapter/theme of his novel "Sag Harbor."

[Uncle Joe]

13. Then it was a good and profound observation by Colson Whitehead

which was amplified by Rock's usage.

[kentuck]

12. Excellent!

So true.

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. I really respect him. He's one of the very few that consistently tries to get just how absurdly

unfair our system is through the incredibly thick skulls of the public.

[femrap]

16. Just like in the

old days when the Court Jester could get away with making fun of the King!!! Aren't we lucky?

And here on a 'democratic' site, we fear our word deserve The Lounge.

Or the Dreaded Key with the Lock.

I know I am scared. It is the only way in which to control the people....fear.

[a kennedy]

21. and then there's this gentleman.....lifetime McDonald worker still makes minimum wage after 20 years

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/12/tyree-johnson-mcdonalds_n_2286464.html