Trump vs. Sanders: Who has the right message for America?

Capitalist and socialist drawing huge crowds

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TRUMP, SANDERS ATTRACTING HUGE CROWDS; SPARKING CAPITALISM VS. SOCIALISM DEBATE

MICHELLE FIELDS: They are obviously both very popular. Trump is leading in the polls with republicans. You see Bernie Sanders; he’s jumped 20 points in the past month. Whose message is better for America? Of course, trump's message is better for America. If you look at the economies of European democracies, that is the vision that Bernie sanders has for America. He wants socialism. That's not what America needs. It needs free market and lower taxes, and Bernie sanders is essentially President Obama on steroids. If you think the economy was bad under Barack Obama, it will be much worse under Bernie sanders.

JONATHAN HOENIG: It's not even that that is what America needs. That's what America is about. Americans are the ones who invented the phrase “to make money”. Capitalism is a uniquely American system. It's a system of private property, of individual rights. In America, you own your life; not the state, not the public, not some greater good. Socialism is just the opposite.

WAYNE ROGERS: People will always want a free lunch. Bernie Sanders is offering people a free lunch. Greedy people are going to want a free lunch. As I said earlier on this show some time ago, in 1837 Tocqueville wrote about Americas that when the representatives of the people discover that they can bribe the people with their own money it will be the end of the republic, and that's exactly what Bernie Sanders is promising.

JESSICA TARLOV: There’s no doubt that there are a lot of failed Democratic policies we could talk about, especially Baltimore and similar metro areas across the country. We're talking about socialism versus capitalism. First of all, Bernie Sanders calls himself a democrat capitalist, and he is also not in front here. Hillary is still 18 points up. Hillary is very different from Bernie Sanders. You know, I like to think of her as a compassionate capitalist. She understands that a free market should work, and it should benefit people, but that we need a strong safety net.

WAGE RAGE: NEW SIGNS MINIMUM WAGE HIKES ARE BACKFIRING ON WORKERS

JONATHAN HOENIG: Not just the hikes [are hurting workers], minimum wage itself is. We told you about that on this show. The Labor Department told us about that back in 1935 when the first minimum wage was instituted. It’s really discrimination against low-skill people. It keeps low-skill people from beginning to learn those skills to have them move up the ladder. Government intervention hurts the people they're most trying to "help."

WAYNE ROGERS: The fact of the matter is, and we know from experience because this is happening in other industries, once the labor cost goes up, the entrepreneur has no choice but to try to find a way to cut his costs, and he does it with machines, and he does it with efficiency and things like that. Prepackaged food will become more prevalent. So the jobs will go away. It’s as simple as that.

JESSICA TARLOV: I’ve been saying this for months. This is an issue of going too far too fast. This is something the left does regularly, and I’ve always thought it was a mistake. We have over 600 economists who signed an open letter saying that if we went to $10.10/hr it would not hurt the economy. Senate Democrats have talked about $12/hr and arguing from examples around the country wouldn't hurt the economy. The larger point is that America hasn't gotten a raise since 2009. If we did it incrementally, if we did a small-steps strategy approach to this problem we could accomplish a lot more and we wouldn’t have issues like this. I agree jumping to $15 is ridiculous, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be raising the minimum wage.

MICHELLE FIELDS: I mean, this is something that should be negotiated between an employee and their boss. If they are mandated to give $15/hr to employees, if I’m a business owner I'm not going to keep the person that I pay $8 an hour. I want to get someone that has a better resume, that has higher skills and pay them $15 an hour. What that ends up hurting are low-skilled workers, and of course, lots of young people. I mean, minimum wage jobs oftentimes are for high school students who need to make extra money on the side.

NFL STAR RETURNS SONS' 'PARTICIPATION' TROPHIES TO TEACH THEM A LESSON

WAYNE ROGERS: Yes, I agree with him. You trivialize the idea of competition totally, then there's no point in having the competition in the first place, and everybody is getting a trophy. Everybody thinks they deserve something. It takes inequality and makes equality out of something that doesn't make sense.

JESSICA TARLOV: I think it's not a real-world lesson that everybody is a winner. We know that that's not how it's going to pan out. I went to a school where everyone got a trophy, and I was acutely aware of when I got the not-as-good one, which has made me more of a competitive, driven person, but I understand this argument.

MICHELLE FIELDS: Look, I think this is why so many people in my generation are entitled and having trouble growing up and being adults. It’s because we grew up in a generation where everyone gets a trophy, where even if you were the kid with the bad attitude and was not good at sports, you still got the same award as the person who tried really hard and was great. They have this warped sense of reality. Now that they're out of college and facing the real world, they realize it's not all rainbows.

JONATHAN HOENIG: It hurts the recipients; all these things do. Everyone gets a trophy, affirmative action, gender quotas. What it does is it destroys the individual’s self-esteem; their thought that they can compete as individuals and succeed in the world. That is the biggest detriment to people when everyone gets a trophy.