On his Wednesday podcast, comedian Adam Carolla mocked President Barack Obama’s State of the Union call to raise the minimum wage to help families with two kids, saying that when someone is making minimum wage and has two kids, “you’re not paying your fair share,” so parents should “stop shitting out kids.”
“We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages,” Obama said. “But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we’ve put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line.”
But according to Carolla, the author of “Not Taco Bell Material,” earning a minimum wage with two kids is a sign of bar parenting.
“And jumping down to minimum wage by the way, speaking of that — and this is another part of good parenting — the best parenting of all is not shitting out the kids when you can’t afford the kids,” Carolla said. “Again, all these speeches that all these politicians make, right and left — they discuss the problem. Basically, what they’re discussing is how to take a ship that’s capsized and drain it and get it back up. But they never discuss what capsizes the ship, which is the only fucking discussion they should be having — is ballast-oriented: How did it get capsized? Not how do we un-capsize it.”
He went on to argue that minimum wage jobs aren’t a place for parents with two kids. Instead, they’re a place to work when younger, before moving on.
“Alright, you’re not supposed to have two kids,” Carolla said. “Minimum-wage jobs are the ones you’re supposed to have in high school and you’re supposed to pass through them. The idea is — I worked at McDonald’s when I was 16. The whole idea isn’t let’s make Adam Carolla comfortable working at McDonald’s. I was like, ‘I’m getting $2.43 a hour. This place sucks ass. I want out of here as fast as I can possibly do it.’”
Carolla explained that he didn’t have opportunities simply handed to him in life, noting that his parents were divorced and his mom received welfare benefits.
“I didn’t have anything — I just knew this job at McDonald’s sucked,” he continued. “If they paid me 10 bucks an hour, maybe I’d be managing the place today. So your jobs where you’re paid just a little bit are jobs you’re supposed to have in high school and you’re supposed to move through. And you certainly aren’t supposed to have two fucking kids when you’re making minimum wage. It’s not responsible; it’s not responsible to the kids you’re trying to raise; and it’s not responsible to the community they live in because you’re not — you’re not paying your fair share.”
On that “fair share” point, he explained that in a minimum wage job, you’re not paying enough in taxes for the government resources you are using as a parent.
“You’re not paying your fair share when you make minimum wage and you have these two kids and they’re enrolled in the schools and they’re using the system and all that kind of stuff,” Carolla continued. “You are definitely not paying your fair share. You’re not going to cover those kids’ medical costs and beyond. So you want to talk about fair share? Stop shitting out kids when you can’t afford kids.”