Surprise! $15 an hour minimum wage backfires

American Thinker ^ | 06/02/2014 | Thomas Lifson

[BlueMondaySkipper]

all of the problems you point out are due to bureaucrats selling favors at our expense. Your “solution” (for lack of a better world) is MORE bureaucratic action. What was that saying about the definition of insanity again?

[grania]

A minimum wage that assures that a worker with a full-time job can be self-sufficient without government handouts is a very good way to cut down on federal over-reach into our lives. Better that than food stamps, Obama phones, rent subsidies, subsidies for medical care, government supported college loans, etc etc.

Lower wages could go to those in training programs.

[tanknetter]

That may be true, but a minimum wage that’s high enough to drive employers to lay off staff, not hire new staff or even close completely has the same exact impacts as a minimum wage that’s below the level you speak of.

[grania]

I suspect at the beginning there would be layoffs, but if EVerify were used, citizens who were laid off would replace invader labor which could go back to their own countries and spread the American dream there.

[tanknetter]

eVerify is nice and could be effective, but it doesn’t address the issue offa public that’s going to refuse to buy living-wage priced $10 Big Macs.

Nor does it address how technology can and will be used to mitigate problems with unsustainable staffing costs.

[BlueMondaySkipper]

so more government intervention to counter the existing government intervention. You really don’t have a good grip on this do you...

[grania]

FWIW, when you consider how much food a McDonald’s worker produces each hour, $10 an hour wouldn’t raise the price of each hamburger that much. Then there’s that employees working for a living wage would be better workers with less turnover, thus there would be less training costs.

[Bill W was a conservative]

grania, you have been on FR for a long time and you seem to be approaching this subject with substantial goodwill, the road to hell being paved with good intentions notwithstanding. Personally I would like Congress to legislate a little less humidity and no highs over 92 degrees here in sunny central South Carolina.
Now a small suggestion: get yourself some Murray Rothbard. That should help with benevolent notions of attempting to coerce employers into providing paradise on earth. Go to mises.org and search for “minimum wage.” May I provide a start? Try http://mises.org/daily/6097/