QuestionerHow concerned are you about income inequality? Do you think raising the minimum wage is a good idea? And do you think these efforts might meaningfully affect the profitability of corporate America?
CharlieI have nothing against raising the minimum wage, but to raise it to a level sufficient to really change things very much, I think would cost a whole lot of jobs. I mean, there are such things as supply and demand curves. And if you were to move it up dramatically, I think you would, it's just, to form of price fixing, I think you would change the opportunities available for people very dramatically. So I'm a much more of a believer in reforming and enlarging the earned income tax credit, which rewards people that work, but also takes care of those whose skills don't fit well into a market system.
WarrenSo I think you put your finger on a very big problem. I don't think, I don't have anything against raising the minimum wage, But I don't think you can do it in a significant enough way without creating a lot of distortions. Whereas I do think the earned income tax credit makes a lot of sense. And I think it can be improved. There's a lot of fraud in it. It pays out this lump sum, so you get into these payday type loans against, I mean, there's a lot of improvements can be made in it. But I think the answer lies more in that particular policy than the minimum wage. He said, I think I'm going to write something out of pretty soon. And if there's anybody I haven't made mad yet, you know, I'll take care of it on the next one.
QuestionerWell, you've just heard of Democrat speaking, and here's the Republican that says I agree with him. I think if you raise the minimum wage a lot, it would be massively stupid and hurt the poor. And I think it would help the poor to make the earned income credit better.