{"id":41498,"date":"2014-01-30T06:40:05","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T12:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=41498"},"modified":"2014-02-20T16:55:22","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T22:55:22","slug":"value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=41498","title":{"rendered":"Value"},"content":{"rendered":"

(SCENE:\u00a0 Mitch BERG sits down at a small Vietnamese cafe on University Avenue.\u00a0 He unwraps a Bahn Mi Dac Biet and is sitting down to read the newspaper when Avery LIBRELLE sits down in Mitch’s booth).\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Hah, Merg!\u00a0 The President sure pwn3d you wingnuts at his State of the Union the other night!<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Huh.\u00a0 You thought so?\u00a0 I thought it was a lot of pretty vapor.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Hah!\u00a0 He showed you wingnuts what was what!\u00a0 Especially on issues of equality!\u00a0 How women still make 77 cents to a man’s dollar…<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 …yeah, that was bullshirt 20 years ago, when it was a matter of women taking more years off from their careers to have kids than men did.\u00a0 And it still is.\u00a0 Women with equal experience and records and credentials make about the same as men – within the bounds of statistical noise.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Oh, he sure beat you up on the subject of the minimum wage!\u00a0 Costco and Punch Pizza both start workers at $10 an hour!\u00a0 If they can do it, anyone can!<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 We talked about that yesterday<\/a>.\u00a0 Neither Costco nor Punch are representative of all, or even many, small businesses that employ low-skill workers…<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0Stop right there,you one percenter!\u00a0 There is no such thing as a “low skill worker”!\u00a0\u00a0 Every worker’s skills have value, and every worker’s hard work is vital – indeed, more vital than the bosses!<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0Um, what now?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 That’s right!\u00a0 Mitt Romney was frequently not at his desk at Bain Capital – but the janitors had to be there picking up the trash!\u00a0 No janitors, no major deals!<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 And, uh, we’ve been through that before too.\u00a0 You think that if a janitor just started picking up stuff at random out on the street, it’d generate value?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Don’t you value clean streets?<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Er, I already pay a bunch of public union workers with better pensions and insurance than I’ll ever have to do exactly that.\u00a0 But let’s make sure we’re clear on this – all work is equally valuable?\u00a0 So if a receptionist and a bunch of janitors sit down outside the bus station and start answering calls and cleaning things, a multi-billion dollar venture capital firm will spontaneously form around it?\u00a0 Drawing billions in capital and the people who know how to negotiate its use?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Happens all the time!<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 But let’s look at the other half of your statement – the idea that all skills are useful, provided one works hard.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 They are!\u00a0 All <\/em>hard work must be rewarded!<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0All<\/em> hard work?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0 The harder the work, the\u00a0 more valuable it is!<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 So someone who works sixty hour weeks for six months and spends half of his life on the road closing the financing for a deal that opens a factory that provides hundreds of jobs is worth the same as someone who, hypothetically, hammers rocks into smaller rocks as a form of artistic statement for sixty hours a week?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Same?\u00a0 The rock-breaker should make more<\/em>!\u00a0 He…<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0…or she…<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 …of course, works\u00a0very<\/em> hard!\u00a0 Have you ever operated a hammer?<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Sure I have.\u00a0 Have you?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 The union would break my knees if I did – and I may file a grievance against you, for that matter – but I know the basic theory.\u00a0 It’s hard work.\u00a0 Much harder than computing spreadsheets and talking with banksters and sitting on airplanes.<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 But it generates no value!<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Says you!<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Er, yeah.\u00a0 Sez me!\u00a0 The act of breaking rocks into smaller rocks for twelve hours a day is of no value to anyone! \u00a0It’s even a terribly inefficient way to make gravel!<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Perhaps to your bougeouis, one-percenter sensibilities!<\/p>\n

BERG: Any rational person’s sensibilities!\u00a0 I mean, here’s a test for you:\u00a0\u00a0How much are you <\/em>willing to pay, from your own pocket, for someone to break rocks into smaller rocks as a form of artistic statement?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Well, Merg, that just shows how ignorant you are about economics!<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 You don’t have an answer, then?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0The real <\/em>question is this: \u00a0how long do you\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>think girls should sit in jail for having an abortion?<\/p>\n

(Dish of pho arrives at table)<\/em><\/p>\n

LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Excuse me – I ordered pho. \u00a0What is this? \u00a0You charge $5 for a bowl of noodles with crud <\/em>in it?<\/p>\n

(And SCENE)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(SCENE:\u00a0 Mitch BERG sits down at a small Vietnamese cafe on University Avenue.\u00a0 He unwraps a Bahn Mi Dac Biet and is sitting down to read the newspaper when Avery LIBRELLE sits down in Mitch’s booth).\u00a0 LIBRELLE:\u00a0 Hah, Merg!\u00a0 The President sure pwn3d you wingnuts at his State of the Union the other night! BERG:\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,69],"tags":[236,283],"class_list":["post-41498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy-and-the-market","category-socialism","tag-dramatization","tag-minimum-wage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41498","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=41498"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41968,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41498\/revisions\/41968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}