Posted on 05/30/2024 5:58:12 AM PDT by Red Badger
California now leads the nation in imposing dumb wage laws. The state just raised the hourly minimum wage for fast food workers to $20.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said, “We saw the inequities … we had a responsibility to do more.”
Unions pushed for the higher minimum, and in Democrat-run states, unions usually get what they want.
CNN announced, “Half a million California fast food workers will now earn $20 per hour!”
Gullible leftists at the Center for American Progress claim, “A higher minimum wage would boost millions of families out of poverty and further stimulate the economy.”
Yippee! It’s a happy cycle! Win-win.
But wait, if it’s win-win, why just make the minimum $20? Why not $30? Or $100?
Because government requiring higher wages is not a win-win.
Interfering with market prices always creates nasty unintended consequences.
Frederic Bastiat, in his work “That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen,” points out that there are always seen and unseen consequences when government force impacts economic decisions. “Almost always,” he wrote, “the immediate consequence is favorable, the ultimate consequences are fatal.”
In this case, the immediate consequence is that existing workers get a raise. Great. That’s the seen. That’s what the media, unions, and Center for American Progress see. But the unseen effect is bigger, and worse:
No. 1: Thousands of Californians have already lost jobs because some restaurants closed. Others lost income because their employer cut worker hours. The chain El Pollo Loco cut employees’ hours by 10%.
Pizza Hut announced that it will lay off more than a thousand delivery drivers. One, Michael Ojeda, understandably asked, “What’s the point of a raise if you don’t have a job?”
No. 2: Workers who still have jobs will lose them because now their employers have more incentive to automate. Chipotle just created a robot that makes burrito bowls. Even CNN acknowledged, “Some restaurants are replacing (fast food workers) with kiosks.”
No. 3: Prices go up.
The day Newsom signed the bill, he was asked, “Can Californians expect the prices of their McDonald’s and Starbucks to go up?”
Newsom deceitfully replied, “I’ve heard that rhetoric before. And it didn’t happen!”
Nonsense. It did happen. It always happens when government forces wage increases. In this case, Starbucks prices have increased as much as 15%. Customers will pay about $200/year more for their coffee. A chicken burrito at Chipotle will cost up to 8% more.
No. 4: Perhaps the worst unseen harm from minimum wage laws is that young and unskilled people won’t even be hired. They won’t gain valuable experience from a first job at a fast food restaurant.
In 2014, when Seattle politicians raised the minimum wage to $15, I asked some teenagers what a higher minimum wage could do for them.
“Minimum wage actually hurts my chances of getting employed,” said one, Rigel Noble-Koza. “If I cost more, why would a company take a risk on hiring me? They’ll hire the worker with more experience instead.”
Another, Dillon Hodes, talked about his friend who had fast work but got her hours cut because “she was young and inexperienced.”
Of course, these students were unusual. They were finalists in a “Stossel in the Classroom” contest. They are not economically ignorant. They knew to look for the unseen.
If only politicians were that smart.
Government price-fixing like minimum wage laws hurt the young and the poor—the very people these laws are supposed to help.
Some of us said this wouldn’t work and every dollar you had in savings would be worth a nickle. They wonder why McDonald’s costs $20 and why mom and pops are closing. Stupid is as stupid does.
Remember when we used to say “why not $20”? Don’t challenge stupid people with logic. Our absurd retort becomes their next target to raise the minimum wage to.
It cost us $30 for two Combo 2-piece box meals at KFC last week!.................
These circumstances are always the result of leftist “thinking” which is absent of reality. Leftists are mentally ill.
AOC and other Dems are now pushing for $25-30..................
#5: Most union contracts have wages tied directly to the minimum wage, the higher the minimum wage, the higher the contractural wage goes up.
Raising the minimum wage has an inflationary affect and that is what is desired by the elites to overcome the US National Debt.
Anyone thinking they are teaching the elites how money works is a useless idiot who doesn’t see the big picture that the elites want inflation to cover the national debt.
Been saying that for years. China will not like it, as we will pay off the debt with inflated dollars...............
This should be called the Penultimate Minimum Wage.
The Minimum Wage is actually zero.
They thought the $20 per hour would come out of thin air the same way all those tax dollars magically appear
unintended consequences.... childcare will now go through the roof!
minimum wage = $0
Keep attacking minumum wage workers. That’s the BEST way to boost the Republicn brand. Keep at it.
Rising wages are a LAGGING indictor of a inflationary spiral.
The Republicans that have problems with a state mandated minimun wage would have no problem with a set maximum wage by occupation.
They honestly think that rich people (i.e., adults) have piles of cash just lying around in their houses.
If Marxists do succeed in overthrowing our constitutional republic, they will somehow have to dispose of vast hordes of their own followers who are utterly worthless (will not work and know nothing about economic reality).
This wasn’t dumb or a folly.
Not if you’re Deep State.
Deep State knows damn well what it is doing and is getting exactly what it wants.
The annihilation of the middle class.
The first thing the Communists did when they took over Russia was to get rid of the Mensheviks.....................
If that would happen..you’d have to be a millionaire just to afford that basics.
A fixer upper house would be $200k.
Everything would be at least 3 times much as it is now.
My folks raised 5 kids..owned their own house..car.
While we didn’t live high off the hog we basically had everything we needed.
Oh..and I don’t think my dad made more than $8k a year in his life.
My one grandmother was one of 11:children. Dr 6
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