The country needs better education and investments in infrastructure, but the solutions aren’t going to come from the government, Joe Scarborough said Thursday during an Afternoon MoJoe roundtable discussion.
Politicians can say they are going to raise taxes, tell workers they will be paid more, and encourage employers to pay their employees more than the minimum wage. But in the long run, Scarborough said, those promises do “absolutely nothing” to make sure working-class Americans have high-paying jobs.
“It’s more like cancer than it is like a scratch, and we do need bigger solutions,” Steve Rattner, economic analyst, said during the conversation. “There is no silver bullet. There is no magical solution to this…There is no Band-Aid.”
Earlier on Thursday, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said the widening income gap undermining America’s democracy is quickly worsening and threatening the moral integrity of the country. He has argued for the minimum wage to increase from $7.25 to $9 per hour. Consequently, 15 million Americans would receive a pay raise.
Related: Robert Reich: No quick fix the for widening gap of inequality
If minimum wage stayed even with inflation since 1968, it would be $10.56 per hour. Watch the roundtable discussion: Are you making things happen? Join the conversation. Tweet us your brilliant ideas to #MoJoe, Morning Joe’s web-only series of videos.
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