do\u00a0<\/em>that?<\/p>\nLIBRELLE: \u00a0Because they’re rolling in money at the expense of the worker!<\/p>\n
BERG: \u00a0No, it’s to increase business. \u00a0It’s called Marketing, and Advertising; spending a little money so that there’s more business, which in turn brings in more money, which eventually goes into things like paying off investors and turning a profit and expanding and remodeling and buying a new oven and, by the bye, salaries. \u00a0 Because a successful restaurant can afford to give a raise, while an unsuccessful one can’t even retain workers.<\/p>\n
LIBRELLE: \u00a0Giving away the workers’ money in this way is like the Bush Tax Cuts. \u00a0That money is needed.<\/p>\n
BERG: \u00a0Government doesn’t need to advertise or market. \u00a0And even if the money were “the workers’ money”, it’s part of marketing a business, to try to make it successful \u00a0Like spending money on advertising, or on having clean restrooms and unripped seats, or laminated menus, or quality ingredients and attractive preparation and presentation; it’s about making people come to your business, and then making them want to come back.<\/p>\n
But – and I can’t stress this enough – the business’ revenue is not “the workers’ money”. \u00a0The person or people who started and run the restaurant – which provides the jobs for “the workers” – has the job of using that money to the business’ best advantage, to promote and maintain the business. \u00a0Which includes paying salaries.<\/p>\n
LIBRELLE: \u00a0It’s more important that they pay the salaries. \u00a0Without the workers, the owner is nothing.<\/p>\n
BERG: \u00a0Er, what now?<\/p>\n
LIBRELLE: \u00a0It’s the workers that make the business. \u00a0Without the workers, there’d be no business.<\/p>\n
BERG: \u00a0I’m sure that’s news to every sole-proprietor entrepreneur out there…<\/p>\n
LIBRELLE: \u00a0Look at Bain Capital. \u00a0Mitt Romney didn’t even show up to work for months at a time. \u00a0And yet the janitors had to show up every day. \u00a0Bain could have prospered without Romney, but not without janitors. \u00a0The janitors deserved the money more than Romney.<\/p>\n
BERG: \u00a0(Stands, gobsmacked in stunned silence<\/em>)<\/p>\nLIBRELLE: \u00a0Without those janitors, Bain would have failed.<\/p>\n
BERG: \u00a0So you’re saying that janitors can manage venture capital better than managers can empty trash and sweep floors? \u00a0Or that restaurants would spontaneously form in Mower County without someone to rent a building, set up a kitchen and a counter and some tables and buy some inventory and hire and train some cooks and waiters and dishwashers.<\/p>\n
LIBRELLE: \u00a0Of course not.<\/p>\n
BERG: \u00a0 OK, then…<\/p>\n
LIBRELLE: \u00a0I’m saying that without janitors sweeping the floors, the capital would never have been managed. \u00a0Without a dishwasher, there’d be no restaurant.<\/p>\n
LOUDSPEAKER: \u00a0“Number 36”<\/p>\n
BERG: \u00a0Oh, that’s my number. \u00a0What’s yours?<\/p>\n
LIBRELLE: \u00a0Oh, I don’t have one. \u00a0I just love hanging out here.<\/p>\n
BERG: \u00a0(shuffling toward the window<\/em>) \u00a0You\u00a0what<\/em>?<\/p>\nLIBRELLE: \u00a0 Yeah. \u00a0It’s a great lesson on how business should work!<\/p>\n
BERG: \u00a0Huh. \u00a0Wow. \u00a0And to think some people say liberals don’t understand business.<\/p>\n
LIBRELLE: \u00a0I know. \u00a0Right?<\/p>\n
(And SCENE<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
NOTE: \u00a0People occasionally complain that these mock conversations unfairly make liberals look like ninnies, dolts and incompetents.<\/p>\n
But this fake conversation is drawn from a real conversation with a (presumably) real liberal. \u00a0Oh, it’s embellished; “fake but accurate”, as Dan Rather might have said; “A composite”, like Barack Obama’s girlfriends in his autobiography.<\/p>\n
But no – real liberals believe this. \u00a0In other words, some of them make\u00a0themselves\u00a0<\/em>look like ninnies, dolts and incompetents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(SCENE: \u00a0Mitch BERG is standing in the line for car tabs at the Saint Paul Sears with Avery LIBRELLE) LIBRELLE: \u00a0I saw your blog post about the restaurant in Mower County that is offering discounts for gun nuts who bring guns into their restaurants. BERG: \u00a0Yeah. \u00a0That’s pretty cool. LIBRELLE: \u00a0I’m sure there’ll be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,10,30,69],"tags":[236],"class_list":["post-35851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy-and-the-market","category-education","category-liberty","category-socialism","tag-dramatization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35851"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35855,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35851\/revisions\/35855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}