Peter Schiff on The Daily Show, Talking Minimum Wage

Investment guru and free-market proponent Peter Schiff was recently on The Daily Show for a segment about the minimum wage. It didn't go well. As he explains in a column:

My use of the words "mentally retarded" (when Samantha Bee asked me who might be willing to work for $2 per hour – a figure she suggested) has come to define the entire interview. Although I had no intention of offending anyone, I just couldn't remember the politically correct term currently in use (it is "intellectually disabled"). Assuming she knew it, Bee could have prompted me with the correct term, but she chose not to. By including those comments in the final package, "The Daily Show" proved that they did not care who they offended, as long as they could make me look bad in the process. The volume of hate mail I have received in the show's aftermath confirms their success on that front….

"The Daily Show" was never interested in an honest debate about the minimum wage. Nor is it concerned with the intellectually disabled, whom they have no qualms about offending if they can get a laugh. In fact, it's "The Daily Show" that wants to tell the intellectually disabled they are worthless, as they want to make it illegal for them to have jobs. I did not notice any intellectually disabled people working at "The Daily Show." I'm sure many would jump at the chance, particularly if they were offered minimum wage or higher. But since they choose to pay their intellectually capable interns zero, why should they be expected to pay the intellectually disabled more?

 More here.

I'm sympathetic toward Schiff, especially since he's proven to be an incredible persuader in many other circumstances. Check out this video Reason TV did with him where he's talking with Occupy Wall Street protesters. It's got almost half-a-million views and is electrifying stuff.

Reason TV was at the same minimum-wage rally that appears in The Daily Show bit. Here's what we saw:

Comments

[Ted S.]

when Samantha Bee asked me who might be willing to work for $2 per hour

The correct answer is that if nobody is willing to work for $2 an hour, people who demand work (ie. employers) will have to either pay more for it, or do without. Depending on where the supply and demand curves fall, either the people wanting more than $2 get it, or they become the chronically unemplyaed and unemployable.

[Juice]

The right answer was "I don't know. That's not for me to decide. It's between the employee and employer."

[Fist of Etiquette]

Schiff was an idiot to do this. Even if he did make the obvious persuasive arguments, they will edit the interview to make sure that doesn't appear on the final cut. And he definitely did not appear to make the persuasive arguments here.

[prolefeed]

Yeah, it didn't occur to him that after spending a full day filming him with Samantha Bee, that they would cut and edit and take out of context, and splice in sarcastic comments by Ms. Bee, then use just the couple of minutes out of the entire conversation that, to ignorant DS viewers, made him look like a heartless idiot and a higher minimum wage to be a great thing?

[prolefeed]

I'm guessing Schiff didn't do his due diligence and actually watch one of the DS's lefty hatchet job interviews. If he did, and still agreed to do it, he was at least temporarily retarded.

It's like the girls who wind up on the porn site where the fake casting call agent fucks them for free and puts it on the site. Who still falls for that, years later?

[Atanarjuat]

You know that's staged, right?

That's just another scene those girls do.

[Lord Peter Wimsey]

Damn you! I wanted to believe those were real. Even though the virgin actresses all have fake tits, tats, and tongue piercings, I need to believe they just got off the bus from Omaha with a Becket play under their arm, yearning for the acting life.

You have left me with nothing to believe in.

Except those lesbian sorority hazing videos. Now those are REAL.

[Virginian]

Except those lesbian sorority hazing videos. Now those are REAL.

I want to believe....

[Corning]

The real casting couch videos never make it to the Internet.

Which is probably for the best. Who wants to see the asshole and grey haired balls of some 50 year old producer/director bouncing up and down.

[Skip]

But Milfhunter is still real, right? Right?

[Coeus]

m.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTNyKIGXiI

It's still real to me, dammit.

[Atanarjuat]

he was at least temporarily retarded.

That was nicely put though.

I'm going to come out and say there is no one who is, in good faith, actually outraged about the term "retarded".

[prolefeed]

"Retarded" used to be the PC term, until people caught on to it being PC, whereupon it became pejorative but still referring to a person permanently lacking mental acuity, but then it just became an adverb meaning an unwise choice.

It's like the Louis CK schtick on the word "faggot".

[Muzzle of Bees]

I think that those who are closely related to someone who is retarded are truly outraged by the term because of the painful experience of hearing the term used to insult their loved ones.

Of course, the outrage is misplaced as those individuals are seemingly incapable of wresting the base behavior of rude people from the various uses of a wholly arbitrary word.

[Sam Grove]

From Mighty Aphrodite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....5DleNqc6BK

[np]

I should've refreshed

[wareagle]

he's like the guy in Casablanca shocked to learn of gambling in this establishment.

[np]

Yep:

Of the more than four hours of taped discussion I conducted, the producers chose to only use about 75 seconds of my comments

I don't watch the Daily Show but does Samantha Bee actually make those snarky annoying comments during the interview? It looks spliced in because we never see Schiff's reaction and I can't imagine anyone sitting through that for 4 hours.

[Juice]

Yes, it's obvious that this is exactly how it is. Schiff is a dumbass.

[Muzzle of Bees]

There are two types of Daily Show interview. The ones at Jon Stewart's desk where he will challenge you but you can more-or-less get your point across, or the pre-taped ones with Bee, Asif Mandvi, and the like.

The second type is a guarantee that they will edit the interview to make you look stupid or racist and will communicate the precise opposite of your point.

Schiff should have agreed to the first type or not at all.

[Ann Cap]

He knew going into it that it was going to be a hit piece but he figured he had to at least try something. Right now the left has almost complete control over the message (and Fox doesn't exactly do the right any favors most of the time). You'll note that they didn't have any kind of answer to his first point about the supply and demand of labor. Even their attempt to mock it fell flat.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Schiff was an idiot to do this. Even if he did make the obvious persuasive arguments, they will edit the interview to make sure that doesn't appear on the final cut.

No kidding. Apparently he did four hours worth of discussion, and of course they edited it down to show the most outrageous parts. Every person with even moderate conservative leanings who goes into the SWPL Snark Haven known as the Daily Show needs to be prepared for the fact that it's a hostile environment and treat it as such. That means making the interviewer look like an ass instead of treating it as a serious discussion.

[Ronny Paulino]

Has Schiff ever seen the Daily Show and their usual interview segments? If not, did he ask anyone who has seen the Daily Show what to expect out of the interview? It's their schtick, editing interviews to make the interviewee look like a rube. I'm thinking he's the mentally retarded one in this situation.

[NoVAHockey]

That was my thought. He had no idea he was agreeing to be the joke regardless of what he said.

[josh]

his reaction after the fact is almost like someone saying they were fooled by 'the onion'.

[MasterDarque]

Schiff is not the guy to put a face on the free market. He comes off as pompous and distance. While he may do a great job pushing gold and silver on the doomsday crowd but he really needs to polish up his act. This was a great step backwards in reaching the minds of people who are truly confused about these type issues.

[General Butt Naked]

Auto-play?

Really?

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

It took me about 10 seconds to figure out where that noise was coming from. Who sets autoplay? Come on Reason, you're better than that.

[Ted S.]

I've got Opera set up not to download plug-ins by default. No auto-play problems here. It's the one thing H&R doesn't screw up with Opera.

[Sinclair]

If you're a Firefox user, I highly recommend FlashBlock.

[General Butt Naked]

I'm perpin' chrome. I've thought about changing back to firefox, or another browser, but I have all my stuff on chrome. It makes it easier when I'm on another computer.

[Sinclair]

Fair enough. I've stuck with Firefox for basically the same reason. That, and the fact that as far as I know there's still no Chrome equivalent to the Tree Style Tab add-on. Once you get used to a vertical tab bar, you'll wonder how anybody can tolerate the horizontal layout.

[trig]

I use both, definitely going to have to try the tab tree.

[Rhywun]

Chrome has FlashBlock too.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Word.

[Metazoan]

Yeah, not really surprised. The purpose of the Daily Show is to make trite left-wing talking points by making fun of anyone who disagrees. There is no information content, it's just leftist satire.

[The Late P Brooks]

How could you NOT have the mentally retarded in the forefront of your consciousness in the presence of Samantha Bee?

[wareagle]

Dear Peter,
Stop whining. No one forced you to go on the Daily Show and it's not like the program pretends to be something it's not. If it can make folks like you appear stupid or insensitive or whatever, it will. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Just give a couple answers and keep repeating them.

"If you can raise the minimum wage without reducing the number of full-time jobs, go for it!"

"Well, then, does the minimum wage destroy jobs, snicker snicker?"

"You're paid to discuss the minimum wage on national TV, *you* learn about the subject. I'm not doing your work for you, good-bye."

[prolefeed]

That's still not gonna work. They will keep pestering you, trying to get you to lose your temper for just a few seconds or say something that can be edited out of context, and then that, and only that, will be shown in the final cut.

If they get nothing at all that helps them push their statist talking points, then you won't appear in the segment.

[General Butt Naked]

Yup, you can't outsmart the other guy's post-interview editing tricks. They could make you look stupid just sitting there with a dumb look on your face while they say common sense things.

[JW]

I found the B-roll of the interview.

[The Late P Brooks]

"The Daily Show" was never interested in an honest debate about the minimum wage.

No shit.

[sarcasmic]

"The Daily Show" was never interested in an honest debate about the minimum wage.

ftfy

[wareagle]

I hope he spends more time researching the investments he's supposed to be a guru on than he did researching that show.

[RishJoMo]

This makes a lot of sense dude. I like the sound of that.

http://www.Anon-VPN.com

[Jerryskids]

Damn - anonbot made the same comment I was going to make. It's bad enough that Schiff demonstrated his ignorance by being trolled by TDS in the first place, but whining and complaining about how unfair they were here demonstrates that he's so fucking retarded he still doesn't realize he's been trolled.

[Surly Chef]

How does anyone not have an idea what Daily Show "interviews" are like? The show has been on forever. I'm still shocked that there is a steady stream of people that pop culture illiterate that these interviews can still be made. The show has been on for 18 years with Stewart has the host for 16 of them.

[sarcasmic]

Didn't you hear? Smart people watch the Daily Show! It's a fact! Smart college kids get their news from the Daily Show!
So if you're a stupid person who is not in college, and you watch the Daily Show, then you're just as smart as a smart college person who watches the Daily Show!

The Daily Show makes people smart!

[Ken Shultz]

You have to know that you have a huge disadvantage going into a comedy show like that.

You're talking to people whose "reputation" depends on making people laugh, and the easiest way to do that is to make them laugh at you.

You walk in and give them all the ammunition they can gather, and they have the freedom to edit it however they want...

I'm all for preaching to someone other than the people in the choir, but there's something to "cast not your pearls before swine, too.

[The Late P Brooks]

I don't watch the Daily Show but does Samantha Bee actually make those snarky annoying comments during the interview? It looks spliced in because we never see Schiff's reaction and I can't imagine anyone sitting through that for 4 hours.

That noxious twat was *one of* the reasons I only watched that show a few times. I could never figure out why nobody strangled her on camera, but I guess it makes sense they added all that other idiocy when she was safely out of range.

[sarcasmic]

but I guess it makes sense they added all that other idiocy when she was safely out of range.

Yep. Just have someone wear a similar shirt to the one the interviewee was wearing, place the camera so it only shows the shoulder of the "interviewee," and then snark away!

[Nooge.]

You'd hope such a smart guy would know that TDS is staffed with intellectually dishonest dumbshits, who never debate in good faith, caricature and dismiss opposing points of view, and who gleefully cower behind the "We're just a comedy show!" shield whenever they are seriously challenged on any of their bullshit. That's not often, because they usually do not seek out vigorous, intellectually rigorous opponents, but go for the low-hanging fruit (like creation scientists).

I disagree that TDS doesn't employ the intellectually disabled, though; they employ Samantha Bee AND her shitstain fuckwit commie husband.

[Palin's Buttplug]

How is Jones a "commie"? Because he is Canadian?

How often do you red-bait?

[Nooge.]

How often do you respond to it?

[Lord Peter Wimsey]

How about this: "Samantha Bee AND her shitstain fuckwit Canadian husband."

Better, eh?

[Corning]

Who you calling scruffy looking?

[Juice]

You'd hope such a smart guy

He's never come across as very smart to me.

[~Knarf Yenrab~]

Schiff is a savvy man who's unafraid of putting himself in the crosshairs to stir the pot (he's his father's son), and the likelihood of him not knowing the DS is around zero. Just like Block did with the NYT, Schiff was inviting hate so that he could play the martyr card and make the usual suspects look like dishonest tools.

Mission accomplished. The brainless masses who comprise the DS's viewership have already forgotten this crazy guy who wants poor people to starve, and among the non-idiots and fence-sitters there are several thousand more who know the name Peter Schiff. As usual, Peter wins.

[Waquoit]

He didn't win this one.

[The Late P Brooks]

I'm sitting here with How It's Made on in the background. In one of the segments, they were assembling some sort of "Leatherman' style tool with multiple blades and attachments, and I thought to myself, "If I were doing that, I'd make a little tapered shaft with a shoulder on it to align the parts and insert the rivet through the assembled parts."

Lo, and behold, when they came back and showed the procedure, the tool was exactly what I had envisioned. Does this mean I owe somebody money?

[General Butt Naked]

No, it means that it's a rerun and the last time you saw it you were in the middle of a rum binge. Now you have all these wonderful "ideas" on how to manufacture stuff.

Tell us how they make candy canes, houdini.

[Bee Tagger]

So the guy who predicted the economic situation of the late 2000s gets one of the "crazy kook" daily show segments and jim cramer is brought on as stewart's guest just so he can be crushed for NOT predicting it?

[Juice]

Didn't he predict massive inflation and a boom in European and Asian stocks? How'd that all work out?

[PRX]

I just couldn't remember the politically correct term

they're called Daily Shower viewers.

[Stoic]

There are actually laws that allow people with intellectual disabilities to work for sub-minimum wage. So, the comment actually wasn't really offensive, except maybe to those who think using the "r-word" is offensive in all contexts, but it also wasn't all that helpful to the argument against the minimum wage.

[JW]

I did not notice any intellectually disabled people working at "The Daily Show."

I suppose that depends on how you define that term.

[JPyrate]

There are two motivations you can count on Mrs. Bee.

1. When a union goes on strike for higher wages, its because they want to raise your union dues.

2. When the government wants to raise the minimum wage, its because they want to raise your taxes.

Its too bad that there isn't some way we could let people keep more of the money they already make.

[Ayn Random Variation]

"Intellectually disabled" is a new one for me.

Reminds me of when "Asian" replaced "Oriental" when I was living out in CO in the 90's, resulting in some shunning when I came to back to NY and used "oriental".

[cavalier973]

"Who might be willing to work for $2 an hour?"

What's the job? Can I keep my regular job? How difficult is the work? How much time is required? Is there an end date? What is the non-monetary compensation?

[cavalier973]

"We'll pay you $2 an hour to go onto the website Reason.com, read the Hit and Run articles, and occasionally post your opinions."

Well, since I do that already without compensation, I'll take you up on that offer. When do I start?

[setTHEline]

Granted, Schiff should've avoided this topic on the Daily Show. But in his defense, he's been welcomed and applauded before in segments with Stewart (mainly related to his housing predictions) so it's not entirely unreasonable to think that he might've been treated fairly. That Bee lady was annoying as all get out.

[trig]

Your auto playing video is wreaking havoc with my daughters dora video.. how DARE you!

[cavalier973]

Is it "New Dora", or "Dora Classic"?

I was half paying attention to the tv when Tax Deduction #4 was watching one of the Dora episodes, and freaking Swiper had done a heel-face turn! He was helping Dora keep some skunk fellow from swiping the goodies!What's up with that?

[Mickey Rat]

""The Daily Show" was never interested in an honest debate about the minimum wage."

Does Schiff think The Daily Show is an actual newsmagazine show, much less an objective one?

[cavalier973]

I'm sympathetic toward Schiff, especially since he's proven to be an incredible persuader in many other circumstances. Check out this video Reason TV did with him where he's talking with Occupy Wall Street protesters. It's got almost half-a-million views and is electrifying stuff.

That was...uncomfortable viewing. I don't hold much hope that Mr. Schiff actually persuaded anyone at that gathering of geniuses. He might have done better to promise to provide funding to them to start their own corporation that "did things right" ("living wage", good health insurance, etc.), and let them learn from experience how incorrect their views on economics and society are.

[Curtisls87]

It's his own fault - "you never go full retard!"

[Juice]

My use of the words "mentally retarded" (when Samantha Bee asked me who might be willing to work for $2 per hour ? a figure she suggested) has come to define the entire interview.

You fucking idiot. This is what they do. It's what they all do. You should never have even done the thing.

[JEP]

Did you guys notice the supply and demand curves were switched on the graph?

Peter Schiff is a pretty smart guy. I've watched a few of his lectures and he can explain complicated concepts pretty well. He was an idiot to do that interview though.

Libertarians and Austrians really need to figure out how to take people's emotions into account if they want their arguments to be well received. Going on national TV and saying "Well the world needs ditch diggers, too!" isn't going to get very many converts.

[Skip]

Why would any non-lefty participate in one of The Daily Show's insipid liberal do-gooder segments in 2014?