(Brett Carlsen / Stringer/Getty Images)
2020 Democrat and self-proclaimed farming and manufacturing guru Michael Bloomberg is taking heat from both sides of the political aisle for a resurfaced clip in which the former New York City Mayor claimed he could teach almost anyone how to farm.
The cringe-worthy clip of Bloomberg lecturing at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School in 2016 resurfaced over the weekend, featuring the former New York City mayor asserting that people need more “gray matter” to do the technological jobs of the Information Age than those in agrarian or industrial societies.
“The agrarian society lasted 3,000 years,” he said. “I could teach anybody … to be a farmer. It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, you add water, up comes the corn.
“Then we had 300 years of the industrial society. You put the piece of metal on the lathe, you turn the crank in the direction of the arrow, and you can have a job,” Bloomberg continued.
The now-presidential candidate went on to distinguish the “information economy” from all preceding time periods.
“The information economy is fundamentally different because it’s built around replacing people with technology, and the skill sets that you have to learn are how to think and analyze, and that is a whole degree level different,” Bloomberg said. “You have to have a different skill set. You have to have a lot more gray matter. It’s not clear the teachers can teach or the students can learn.”
Here’s the clip. Get used to it. You’re going to be seeing it A LOT in the next few months.
WIBC host Tony Katz commented on the elitism that leads to comments like those of former Mayor Bloomberg – elitism that is not specific to economic class. Click below to listen.
