I try to watch CNBC each morning to get somewhat of a “balance” to my news. Granted CNBC is mostly Wall Street business types and typically not in tune with the average middle class working household, but I do like to spin the dial to get an alternate perspective. One of the guests was Tres Knippa a representative of Lotus Brokerage. When he was asked to give his assessment of the futures markets he waved off the host Andrew Sorkin’s question and launched into his Wall Street version of “what ails America”.
His story began with his ride over from the airport as he listened to some business news on the cab radio. Mr. Knippa told us that the driver was a Nigerian who had been in this country about eight months. He asked the driver his opinion of the unemployment problem and the response was the standard talking point we hear from every right wing radio show host. “Americans don’t want to work” and “there are plenty of jobs”. We have to take him at his word and assume this was an actual conversation and not just another opportunity to denigrate the entire unemployed labor force a la Rush Limbaugh.
His cab driver went on to tell him that if he lost his job today he would have five more tomorrow. While there is a possibility that may be true, it simply means that someone new to our labor market who can accept less than minimum wage will certainly have an easier time finding the next entry level occupation. Is that where we are headed? Everyone working for the top 2% at minimum wage or less. This just isn’t an option for someone with a mortgage, a family, car payments and children going to college. I am sure there have been many cab drivers with a mortgage and college children, but it’s hard to imagine they didn’t struggle. Someone with more than eight months vested interest in America may find that making ends meet will be somewhat more difficult. There are many American success stories of hard working people with two and three jobs and multiple wage earners in their household, but is this what we can expect the future to look like?
Those that have experienced this recession with foreclosures and layoffs need more than ad hominem attacks to solve the problems that plague our economy. This stereotype coming from one of that class of wealthy individuals that cries the loudest when they are maligned. Themselves wailing “class warfare” when the media or politicians decry the abuses on Wall Street. I would imagine Mr. Knippa would take offense to being called overpaid and under taxed. This is the class warfare that has been taking place for decades and it needs to cease.
Is this what it has come to for our national discourse? Do we ask the best and brightest for advice or label them elites and shun their knowledge and experience? Perhaps the cab driver had a PhD in economics, but we will never know. Mr. Knippa didn’t share that with us. Is the Nigerian cab driver going to become this election cycles equivalent to Joe the Plumber? Are we going to be content when things go wrong because we have accepted C+ economists and a mediocre decision making process? The outrage at town hall meetings this summer tells me otherwise. Take a look at the Occupy Wall Street stories (if you can find them) and answer that question for yourself.
Mr. Knippa’s story reminds me of the Michelle Bachmann’s “mental retardation from HPV vaccinations” story. I wonder how much of the Nigerian cab driver’s advice with eight months experience Mr. Knippa takes when it comes to picking stocks. I feel for his clients and hope they are making money. If Mr. Knippa lost his job tomorrow and drove a cab for a living I would speculate his viewpoint might be somewhat different. Would he have been honest enough to tell this story if the cab driver had complained that Wall Street was at fault?