The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats By NICK HANAUER From Politico Magazine

[Tom Rinaldo]

41. I read it all and I disgree

What he clearly wants is for the minimum wage to go up so that workers can afford to be active consumers supporting a robust economy - that is his primary pitch. To help sell that idea to his fellow 1%ers who worry about how bad it is to have government meddle in the market place he makes the case that if we lift people out of poverty by allowing workers to earn enough money to truly live on, there will be less people who will be forced to depend on government programs merely to survive.

I don't think he is saying cut the safety net. I think he is saying if we fill in most of the cracks in the economy that millions of Americans currently fall through that we will no longer need the safety net to keep growing just to keep increasing numbers of people alive. I don't hear him arguing that there should not be a safety net for those who need one, I hear him arguing that we should increase wages so that far fewer people need a safety net - which would organically decrease the size of those programs.