On last night's "Daily Show," Jon Stewart offered a spirited defense of something that should need no defense: The basic virtue of a living wage.
It started when Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney described a $15 an hour minimum wage as the "emotional" part of a social justice narrative, and was more concerned with the economics. Stewart reacted to the position as comically heartless: "That is the kind of statement that is usually followed by a dead business partner and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future."
Varney only made things worse when he asked for a "moral judgment" whether someone with minimal education should "really deserve $15 an hour."
"Oh, I'm making one," Stewart retorted.
But the Fox hosts started to enter Rush Limbaugh territory when they criticized Pope Francis for his recent comments denouncing trickle-down economics as unfair to the poor.
"You're going up against the pope?!" Stewart exclaimed. "Pope doesn't go to where you work and slap Jamie Dimon's d*ck out of your mouth!"
In the end, he at least had to recognize that his opinion is not so far off from Varney.
He conceded: "Some people are being paid too much money to shovel unappetizing, unhealthy sh*t onto the American public. We just disagree about who they are and where they work."
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