In his current TED talk, entrepreneur Nick Hanauer warns fellow American Plutocrats whose wealth runs the country that their failure to act on the wealth disparity crisis will, not could, mean their ultimate demise. His premise is simple. Your plutocratic power relies on your wealth that grows on the backs of an economy driven by consumption. Only people with the money to consume can be consumers.
His proposal is simple. Raise the minimum wage to $15 so spending power can boost the economy and everyone wins. He cites the Seattle case where this dynamic is already working.
It's a sane plea. What's unclear is how many Plutocrats don't live in the fear of losing economic and political power enough to accept the invitation. What's equally unclear is what motivates the large scale inaction on the part of the large scale underpaid and working poor whose end of the economic gap rewards a Plutocratic reign.
Hanauer dismisses the argument that the growing 1% would be fatally wounded by a self-inflicted increase in the minimum wage. It's a talk worth watching.
