2020 Democrat Michael Bloomberg faced criticism across the political spectrum for claiming that he could teach almost anyone how to farm.
A clip of Bloomberg lecturing at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School in 2016 resurfaced over the weekend and sparked outrage from the Left and the Right on Twitter. In the footage, the former New York City mayor said 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.”
Watch the relevant portion below beginning at the 42:00 minute mark:
A one-minute video from Bloomberg’s lecture posted on Twitter generated heat from Democrats, Republicans, and others who said Bloomberg’s characterization of farming is offensive.
The arrogance and ignorance of Mini-Mike about American Agriculture today is alarming. He has NO idea how technical farming is today-made harder by a gov’t made of guys like him who make it harder w/ idiotic regulations. Don’t let this guy NEAR the @WhiteHouse https://t.co/m6AV4gYTGE
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) February 17, 2020
tfw you’re gonna win the midwest https://t.co/x0zlmFElO4
— Kate Aronoff (@KateAronoff) February 17, 2020
This is embarrassingly ignorant and condescending. https://t.co/WaRtfP5JHK
— Krystle Baker (@TarheelKrystle) February 17, 2020
AYFKM. So profoundly misunderstands (and disrespects!) agriculture and farmers, I don’t even know where to start. Yet another reason this plutocrat is NOT an acceptable candidate. ? https://t.co/9uy8xKya9k
— Gwen Pearson (@bug_gwen) February 17, 2020
Farmers work with astonishingly sophisticated information technology every day. But I suspect Mike Bloomberg doesn’t know a lot of people with modern combines. https://t.co/ftY2wmfFPc
— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) February 16, 2020
