Even Eddie Murphy 'Agrees' With Marco Rubio About Philosophers

Jeffdunetz | November 11, 2015
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Liberals on Twitter and in the mainstream media didn't understand (or didn't want to understand) one comment made by Marco Rubio during Tuesday night's Fox Business Channel debate. The firestorm was incited by the comment:

"Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less  philosophers."

An objective observer would have recognized that Rubio was not making a literal comparison between the two professions - he was making a case for an expansion in vocational training.  As the son of a house-painter and someone who graduated with a political science degree he never used, Rubio's point was very clear to me.  I wasn't, however, clear to those liberals looking to nit pick. 

They decided the senator was being literal and took Rubio to task.

Like this tweet posted during the debate:

Rubio's point wasn't that one was better than the other, but that both were needed. People employed in professional trades such as welding, plumbing etc, make a good living and have the necessary skills for the future of this country. Something that liberals with their positions on improving our national infrastructure should understand.

This tweet from a gentleman in the U.K. also objected to Rubio's contention, but at least he was funny:

During the debate, Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler also attacked Rubio's point as if he was being literal:

This is a great line by Rubio, well delivered, but it’s totally off base.

The median wage of welders is $37,420, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median wage for philosophy teachers is $63,630, according to BLS.

In fact, the average first-year salary for college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy is $42,200—with a mid-career average of $85,000, according to Payscale.com. For college professors, the median salary is $89,913, with the top 90 percent having a salary near $200,000.

By contrast, the top 90 percent salary for welders is only about $58,590, BLS says.

 

In Wednesday's Fix column in the Washington Post,  Philip Bump actually dedicated his full column to the difference in salaries.

And CNN's Dylan Byers was fighting for his contention that Rubio messed up with every conservative on Twitter that he could engage. Either that or, using the same methodology of interpretation Byers used for Rubio, the CNN columnist was striking a deceased animal:

Rubio's point wasn't meant to put down philosophers, nor was he talking about professors, he was being illustrative while liberal observers were being literal simply because they want to bash Rubio, who they see as a great danger to their beloved Hillary. If Rubio or another Republican commented they were so hungry they could eat eat a horse, they would be complaining that there is no way the Florida senator could eat an entire horse. 

Rubio's point was that, for a successful diversified economy, we need tradesmen, not just college graduates. For the future of this country, vocational training is as important as a "university degree."

In a Saturday Night Live sketch performed thirty-four years ago,  Eddie Murphy made a very similar point. His, of course, was mucy funnier than Rubio's. Please enjoy the transcript and video of Murphy's sketch below while I go into the kitchen and eat an entire horse.

Announcer: A message to all our young white viewers. 

Eddie Murphy: Hello, I'm Eddie Murphy and I'm here to tell you the importance of a good education. I'm 20 years old and a high school graduate. I studied at Nassau community college for about two weeks. I have no formal theatrical training what so ever yet I'm one of the stars of the new Saturday Night Live. I also make more in a week than most white people make in a year. Which leaves me to the conclusion that in 1981 a good education is just as important as a warm bucket of hamster vomit. That's right, all you white kids in school are wasting your sweet precious time because life is luck. You're either lucky or you're a bum from the beginning. So stop kidding yourself, drop out. Go have some fun, drink some beer. Get each other pregnant and play Space Invaders. You know, you white kids take life so seriously. Quit school and be successful like me. 

(Sammy the limo driver appears) 

Sammy: Excuse me Mr. Murphy, you're limousine's waiting. 

Eddie Murphy: Thanks Sammy. Sammy went to Harvard.

 

 

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