Jesse Ventura: How About a MAXIMUM Wage? | Big Think

Jesse Ventura: How About a MAXIMUM Wage?

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At what point does making a ton of money prove to be detrimental to the rest of society? How much income is too much? Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura rallies for the living wage in this video while also sounding off on the greed at the core of income inequality.

Ventura is the author of several books including American Conspiracies, which was recently released in its second edition.

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FORMER GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA:

Jesse Ventura is an American former professional wrestler, actor, political commentator, author, naval veteran, and politician who served as the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003. He was the first and only member of the Reform Party to win a major government position, but later joined the Independence Party of Minnesota.

Ventura was a U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Team member during the time of the Vietnam War. After leaving the military, he embarked on a professional wrestling career from 1975 to 1986, taking the ring name Jesse "The Body" Ventura. He had a long tenure in the World Wrestling Federation as a performer and color commentator, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004. Near the end of his wrestling career, Ventura started acting, appearing in films such as Predator and The Running Man.

Ventura first entered politics as Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, from 1991 to 1995. Four years after his mayoral term ended, Ventura was the Reform Party candidate in the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998, running a low-budget campaign centered on grassroots events and unusual ads that urged citizens not to "vote for politics as usual". Ventura's campaign was unexpectedly successful, with him narrowly defeating both the Democratic and Republican candidates. The highest elected official to ever win an election on a Reform Party ticket, Ventura left the Reform Party a year after taking office amid internal fights for control over the party.

As governor, Ventura oversaw reforms of Minnesota's property tax as well as the state's first sales tax rebate. Other initiatives taken under Ventura included construction of the METRO Blue Line light rail in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, and cuts in income taxes. Ventura left office in 2003, deciding not to run for re-election. After leaving office, Ventura became a visiting fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2004. He has since also hosted a number of television shows and has written several political books. Ventura remains politically active and currently hosts a show on Ora TV and on RT called Off the Grid.

Ventura is the author of several books including American Conspiracies, which was recently released in its second edition.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Jesse Ventura: Wealth distribution is completely out of line today. In fact people have talked to me about the minimum wage, and I’ve shocked people and said maybe what we ought to have is a maximum wage. If someone makes a hundred million dollars a year, that’s not enough? What could you possibly need if you made a hundred million dollars every year? And the case in point, the Walton family, right? That owns Walmart. Each member of that family makes billions of dollars a year, and yet their employees have to be government subsidized by we the taxpayers because they don’t earn enough to not be subsidized. Something is gravely wrong with that. My position on that is, if you work a 40-hour workweek — I don’t give a damn what the job is — if you work 40 hours a week, you should get paid enough money so that you do not require any government subsidy at all. Now how you determine that or what that number is, we got to figure it out. But to me, if you work 40 hours a week shining shoes, washing dishes, whatever it might be, you should earn a living to where we, the government and the taxpayers, should not have to be subsidizing you.

At what point does making a ton of money prove to be detrimental to the rest of society? How much income is too much? Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura rallies for the living wage in this video while also sounding off on the greed at the core of income inequality.

Ventura is the author of several books including American Conspiracies, which was recently released in its second edition.