Free Republic

One of the dividing lines between liberals and conservatives has always been the understanding of how economics works. Conservatives know how economics works; the force of supply and demand as well the true value of work. Liberals are like children who see the last twenty dollar bill in their mom’s wallet and say “Yippee, we’re rich! Let’s go to McDonald’s.” Last week the child-like liberals dropped their “I’m-so-intelligent-because-I’m-on-television” masks and let us see how dumb they really are. Led down the path of stupid is as stupid says, Savannah Guthrie reported that a Minnesota restaurant has added a new line...

A Minnesota café is stirring up controversy by adding a 35¢ “minimum wage fee.” Minnesota implemented a minimum wage hike from $7.25 to $8 on Aug. 1, so Oasis Café owner Craig Beemer calculated what it would cost per ticket to accommodate the increase. …

This is currently the most-read story on the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s web site: “Stillwater cafe faces heat for adding ‘minimum wage fee’ to tab.” Minnesota’s Democratic legislature recently voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8 an hour, 75 cents more than the federal level. Naturally, that increase is leading to higher prices: A small cafe in Stillwater has thrown itself into the big battle over Minnesota’s minimum wage increases, inundating the cafe with dozens of phone calls and online comments this week after it tacked on a 35-cent fee to meal tabs. Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer said...

A small cafe in Stillwater has thrown itself into the big battle over Minnesota’s minimum wage increases, inundating the cafe with dozens of phone calls and online comments this week after it tacked on a 35-cent fee to meal tabs. Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer said the fee is needed to offset the 75-cent wage hike that took effect Aug. 1, the first time Minnesota’s minimum wage has increased in a decade. Even with only half a dozen servers, Beemer says it will cost him $10,000 more a year to pay servers $8 an hour instead of the federal rate...

Some have said that we are living in a post-industrial era, while others have said that we are living in a post-racial era. But growing evidence suggests that we are living in a post-thinking era. Many people in Europe and the Western Hemisphere are staging angry protests against Israel's military action in Gaza. One of the talking points against Israel is that far more Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli military attacks than the number of Israeli civilians killed by the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel that started this latest military conflict. Are these protesters aware that vastly more...

McDonald's is coming under intensifying pressure for labor practices at its U.S. restaurants. The National Labor Relations Board said Tuesday that the world's biggest hamburger chain could be named as a joint employer in several complaints regarding worker rights at franchise-owned restaurants. The decision is pivotal because it could expose McDonald's Corp. to liability for management practices in those locations. It also comes as protests for higher pay have captured national attention, with labor groups calling for pay of $15 an hour and the right to unionize. Organizers had been pushing to get McDonald's named as a joint employer at...

Progressive group Think Progress has been putting on a bit of poverty theater over on Twitter. If you look up #livethewage you’ll find a number of progressive Congressmen pretending to live on $77 worth of groceries for an entire week. It’s all theater, meant to shock people into supporting an increased minimum wage. Thus sardines and saltine crackers are a regular purchase, for no other reason than they’re meant to shock us. In reality, these Congressmen shock us by their inability to budget or shop sales. In one case, Rep. Barbara Lee budgeted $5 for toothpaste. My wife can buy...

VILLA PARK, Ill. — Comparing their campaign to the civil rights movement, fast food workers from across the country voted today to escalate their efforts for $15-an-hour pay and union membership to include nonviolent civil disobedience. More than 1,300 workers gathered in a convention in center in suburban Chicago to discuss the future of a campaign that has spread to dozens of cities in less than two years. Wearing T-shirts that said “Fight for $15” and “We Are Worth More,” the workers cheered loudly and said they would win if they stuck together. “People are just fed up,” said Cindy...

Last weekend, Governor Palin gave a measured and thoughtful speech at the Western Conservative Summit, speaking primarily in the tone of the “forgotten man”–”the hard working middle class man who can’t catch a break”. She also used a masterful analogy of the “calloused hand that built America”. What a stark contrast between an open hand calloused from hard work and the clenched fist of socialism. What a stark contrast, too, between Governor Palin’s speech that hit a tone that resonates with middle class America and the tonedeafness and lack of self-awareness of Washington. Take, for example, the Left’s newest pivot...

But the state-by-state hiring data, released Friday by the Labor Department, provides ammunition to those who disagree. Economists who support a higher minimum say the figures are encouraging, though they acknowledge they don't establish a cause and effect. There are many possible reasons hiring might accelerate in a particular state. "It raises serious questions about the claims that a raise in the minimum wage is a jobs disaster," said John Schmitt, a senior economist at the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. The job data "isn't definitive," he added, but is "probably a reasonable first cut at what's going...

The left-leaning tech blog Pando seems to be angry about a lot of aspects of reality.* Witness David Carr flipping out over this billboard that he spotted in San Francisco, “walking home from Pando’s office a few nights ago.” photo: Paull Carr, Pando

SEATTLE (VR) – Does raising the minimum wage kill jobs? Most probably not. Does it increase jobs? We don’t know for sure, but it might. Or at least these are the inferences one is likely to make from a recent report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research. It turns out that 12 out of 13 states that raised their minimum wage on January 1, 2013 are experiencing increases in employment. The report also states that the average change in employment for these 13 states is +.99% while the average change in employment in the remaining states is +.68%....

Skitter, scamper, scuttle. That seems to be the mode of the Obama administration of late. Skitter away from your red line in Syria. Scamper off to a meeting you'd previously nixed with Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Scuttle as much as the Constitution as you can, at least until you get called on it by 9-0 majorities in the Supreme Court, as the justices did on recess appointments, warrantless cellphone searches and $75,000 a day fines for disturbing supposed wetlands. It's not a very effective way to make public policy, and it tends to put you in an embarrassing public posture....

Back in the heyday of the British Empire, a man from one of the colonies addressed a London audience. "Please do not do any more good in my country," he said. "We have suffered too much already from all the good that you have done." That is essentially the message of an outstanding new book by Jason Riley about blacks in America. Its title is "Please Stop Helping Us." Its theme is that many policies designed to help blacks are in fact harmful, sometimes devastatingly so. These counterproductive policies range from minimum wage laws to "affirmative action" quotas. This book...

When Seattle passed their new city council ordinance mandating a staged increase in the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour, many local businesses – as well as observers across the nation – were left shaking their heads. The rules seemed to be unevenly applied, with some businesses having to comply but not others, as well has having a complete disregard for whether or not the job providing entities would be able to remain competitive and survive under the new rules. As Reuters reports, a coalition of business owners are now moving to exercise the power of public support to...

President Obama’s use of executive power will be a major issue in this fall’s midterm elections. The GOP is rallying its base to give control of the Senate to Republicans as a check on Obama’s powers, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has announced the House will vote in July on a lawsuit against the president’s use of executive power. Obama, for his part, is embracing the criticism. “So sue me,” he said in a speech last week. The White House believes that by using executive power, Obama can distinguish himself from a Congress he wants to pain as dysfunctional and...

Hobby Lobby CEO David Green is committed to trying to run his business the way Jesus might have. After a massive victory for religious freedom at the Supreme Court on Monday, Christian-owned arts and crafts giant Hobby Lobby has announced that its minimum wage for full-time hourly workers will be raised to $14.50 per hour. Effective immediately, the announcement also entails that part-time hourly workers receive $9.50 per hour. Given the track record of Green's retail chain, the wage increase is not incredibly dramatic. In 2012, the retailer was already paying full-time employees $13 per hour while part-timers earned $9....

German lawmakers on Thursday voted to introduce a minimum wage of €8.50 per hour, despite criticism from both unions and employers of the new law. While employers said the law could cost jobs, unions criticized the final version for falling short. […] Labor Minister Andrea Nahles praised the government’s bill before the vote. “Cheap, unprotected—that is over,” Nahles told lawmakers. Her center-left Social Democrats (SPD) had made the minimum wage a condition for joining Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in a coalition government at the end of last year. …

In response to 100% of U.S. Employment Growth Since 2000 Went to Immigrants, reader Mike wonders what effect a rise in minimum wage would have. Mike Writes ... Hi Mish. Thanks for a very interesting post. I hope the mainstream media will pick up on this. Here's a question for you: Do you think a rise in the minimum wage would bring more citizens into the workforce and and reduce the welfare rolls? By the way, I am against laws that restrict the free will of consenting adults, employers and employees alike. But I am curious about the results of...