Coffee With Scott Adams — Knowledge Archive July 1, 2026
Scott Adams Philosophy Archive
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do we have a minimum wage now? Why do we have a minimum wage now? Do you know? I wasn't, I can't remember specifically but don't you think that whenever the minimum wage was put in place or the minimum wage was raised, don't you think we had this same argument every time? Was it right the last time? Do you remember when they raised the minimum wage to what it is now and then the economy fell apart…

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says they've seen them. But you all have opinions don't you? Oh some number if you've seen them.

So for those who hadn't seen them and then you did, did it change your opinion? Did you get a different opinion after you looked at them? I did. I did. Let me tell you what my first thought was. We weren't being shown the pictures and that led me to believe that maybe they weren't that bad. Because if they were that bad wouldn't they just show them? Because the media leans left, right? So if they were really that bad I feel like we would definitely would have seen them. So I was biased toward thinking there's probably nothing there. It's probably imagination and you're reading into it a little bit.

And then I looked at them. They're pretty bad by today's standards. By today's standards pretty bad. Pretty bad by the standards of when they were drawn? Not at all. Not at all. I mean if you put it back in its historical context I don't even know if anybody would have even raised an eyebrow.

The most, I'll describe them for you. So there are three images I saw in particular. One was some probably a Middle Eastern, I imagine an Islamic guy riding a camel wearing sort of traditional look and having a cartoon face that looks caricaturish of the region. Not too bad I would say. I would say on that one if that had been the worst one I would say give it a pass. Because really it looked like more they were trying to get the clothing right. It didn't look like, I don't know is riding a camel somehow an insult if people actually ride camels and it's a thing? I don't know. That one didn't look bad.

Then I looked at the next one. It was some characters drawn as Chinese characters that looked like a Fu Manchu you know with robes and little facial hair that you would see in some stereotype. And they were carrying on their head, I think there were three or four of them, they were carrying on their heads as if they were porters, you know carry things on their heads, a big cage with some Dr. Seuss animal. But then at the top, the top of the cage was this drawing of a little white hunter. So you've got the Chinese characters carrying on their head a cage of an animal and on top of it the white guy. Not so good.

But if you take it back in time who was it? Who were the porters? If you went to China and you organized an expedition who would be carrying the stuff? Chinese citizens, right? So if you just put it in its context it's actually what it would look like if you don't factor in that he made all the Chinese characters look let's say stereotypical of that day and not in a good way. So that what I would say was a problem. Yeah I could see how somebody would say yeah let's this is a little marginal let's get rid of this one.

But then the third one showed some black characters from Africa carrying some other Dr. Seuss character. And then I get a little bit more of a problem. The black characters, may I use an offensive word if I tell you that there's no offensive intention? Okay so what I'm going to say next will sound offensive but it's not my intention. So intention matters more than words or t

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hey should. I'm just going to say it. All right he drew the black characters to look like monkeys. All right. Now if that doesn't offend you I don't know what would. I mean that's about as offensive as you can get. Now was he thinking that when he drew them or is it just an artifact from his drawing style which just fell out that way but he wasn't thinking of it in any way like that? It's a probl…

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