From this Wednesday's The Majority Report, Sam Seder weighs in on libertarian grifter Peter Schiff, who decided to go out and harass Walmart shoppers over whether the workers ought to be paid a living wage or not.
As Sam noted during the segment above, not only was Schiff just being outright obnoxious to the people he was interviewing, he was lying to them as well. As Sam discussed with his listeners, a recent study on living wage policies and the impact of raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour would have very little economic impact on the consumers shopping at those stores and result in 1.1 percent increase in prices, which would probably mean the average Walmart shopper paying an additional $12.49 a year.
Given the fact that the majority of those Schiff interviewed agreed that Walmart workers ought to be paid more, it's likely if they were told the truth, they wouldn't have had much of a problem with paying that much extra a year to make sure the employees were making a living wage as well.
It's also likely that an increase to $15 an hour would result in a slightly higher cost for consumers than 1.1 percent, but nowhere near the 15 percent Schiff was touting to the people he was harassing in the clip above. For someone who makes his living telling other people where they should be putting their money, he seems to be pretty bad at math.
Here's more on Schiff harassing the people outside of Walmart: Wall Street Guy Goes To Wal-Mart To Mock Protesting Workers:
There's been a growing number of protests and demonstrations at Wal-Mart as workers demand higher wages. So libertarian investor Peter Schiff — who believes Wal-Mart is under no obligation to pay its workers a dime more — went to Wal-Mart and staged an absurd, fake version of their rally in an attempt to prove his point.
Schiff, the founder of Euro Pacific Capital, approached shoppers in the retailer's parking lot and told them he was representing an organization called "15 For 15." He said the organization — which doesn't actually exist — wants Wal-Mart to raise its prices by 15% to support a $15 minimum hourly wage for workers.
In reality, the campaign for higher wages at Wal-Mart, led by the labor group OUR Walmart, is asking the retailer to pay its employees at least $25,000 annually, or $13 an hour.
Schiff recorded his stunt on video. He asked Wal-Mart patrons whether they supported higher wages for the retailer's workers, and then demanded that they prove their allegiance by giving him 15% of whatever they spent at Wal-Mart that day. He claimed the money would go to Wal-Mart workers.
"Would you contribute 15% of the price of that TV for the Wal-Mart workers?" he shouted at a man who was walking across the parking lot carrying a boxed television. The man declined.
"But they are counting on you to pay higher prices!" Schiff yelled.
The video was clearly edited, but in every case, the shoppers declined to donate money.
Perhaps they didn't support the cause. Perhaps they recognized Schiff was a phony.
Phony is one of the nicest things you could say about him. These libertarians who have been taking over the Republican party have one philosophy and it's the one that says I've got mine and f**k you. They don't have one iota of care for their fellow human beings as long as their own pockets are being lined.
