Millionaire Peter Schiff dresses up as a Walmart protester to mock/discredit the movement

[politichew]

Quick background: He amassed a huge fortune by moving/hiding wealthy people's money overseas and naturally fancies himself a patriot. He funds his own radio show and his own personal channel he calls "Schiff TV". Its so grating to watch because he actually thinks he's very clever and I suppose really thinks he would somehow be a media personality if he wasn't funding it himself. He is such a Burns/Peweterschmidt stereotype of the 1% he decided to literally represent the 1% at the OWS rally in New York two years ago. According to his wikipedia page, he credits his dad for his views on the economy... who by the way is currently serving a 13-year sentence for tax evasion in Federal prison.

So this idiot claimed on his show that Walmart is paying not only fair wages, but GOOD wages and the workers should be grateful. This even though more than half of their employees are paid below the Federal poverty level (with taxpayers being forced to subsidize Walmart's greed through public assistance).

So Schiff pulled a John Stossel and decided to dress down and, along with his smirking wife, literally follow and harass shoppers right outside a Connecticut Walmart (I have no idea which one, but its probably either the one in Norwalk or Stratford since he works in Westport.) His spiel was that he was a Walmart employee/protester and told everyone they should donate 15% of whatever they paid at Walmart directly to him. He kept screaming "higher prices for higher wages" as the protester's "motto". When people said they were broke, he mocked them and said they just bought "all this stuff" and they didn't care about the workers. He kept yelling "We are counting on you to pay higher prices!" When someone told him that they were poor workers who couldn't afford to pay, he actually said "But the Walmart workers are more important!" Even when people tried to give what they could, he would get irate and demand 15% of their purchases!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/21/1264469/-Millionaire-Oligarch-Poses-as-Walmart-Protestor-Harrasses-Shoppers-to-Discredit-Mock-Employees

[drm604]

1. Children must play.

What an assclown.

[firsttimer]

2. I can't tell you how much I got pissed off watching this

And I will leave it at that

[catbyte]

3. Merry Christmas, asshat.

[abelenkpe]

4. Hope more people see this

Cause it's truly disturbing. Schiff is a scumbag.

[wilt the stilt]

5. some people need a good ass kicking

and I can think of one specifically.

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!! - For Exposing Another Douche-Bag !!!

[Berlum]

7. "Heh, heh. Smirk. Sneer. Smirk." - Republicons (R)

[WinkyDink]

8. As Luanne, one of the Real Housewives of NY, sang: "Money can't buy you class."

[Bigmack]

9. You know....

... there are neighborhoods where this guy could get his ass seriously kicked.

There are some fairly desperate people who might be offended by his bullshit. Offended enough to get physical.

At what point will Americans start decorating lamp posts with assholes like this?

[firsttimer]

12. I'm glad you said it and not me ,because I wanted to..

being new here I think I would have it hidden by a jury

[melman]

10. What a creep

BTW, that's definitely the one on the Post Road in Norwalk.

[NaturalHigh]

11. Besides being an ass...

this guy is an idiot. Does he really think he will get any sympathy toward his point of view with a stunt like this. Even his fellow rich people will distance themselves from him to avoid the PR stench.

[JHB]

16. He's not trying to get "sympathy toward his point of view"...

He's grandstanding for his own ego and the gaggle of goombahs who eat up his rants and antics.

[El_Johns]

13. What a creep.

Schiff was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father is Irwin Schiff, a prominent figure in the U.S. tax protester movement, who is currently serving a 13-year sentence for tax evasion in Federal prison.[10][11]

Peter Schiff attended Beverly Hills High School in California,[12] and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business in 1987 with a Bachelor's degree in finance and accounting.[13]

Schiff began his career as a stockbroker at a Shearson Lehman Brothers brokerage.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schiff

[Initech]

14. Epic fail, and further proof they don't get it, or care.

[jmowreader]

15. How big a dumbass is Peter Schiff?

Your average Walmart makes $250,000 per day. Fifteen percent on top of that brings it to $287,500 - a $37,500 difference.

Your average Walmart also has 300 employees in the building on any given day, and we'll say that 100 of them earn minimum wage, 100 earn $8.50 per hour, 75 earn $10 and 25 earn $15. The grand total is $21,600 per day for salaries. With the Social Security and Medicare taxes added in, the workers in this place cost $23,252.40 per day.

If you were to raise everyone to $15 per hour you'd need to spend $38,754 per day on payroll - a $15,501 difference.

If we take in an additional $37,500 and only pay your workers $15,501 more, where's the rest of the money going?