David Henderson, a razor-sharp economist, writes about the minimum wage in today’s WSJ. You can (and should!) read his piece here.
Two thumbs up for his demolition of the cover for raising the minimum. Advocates have for years been saying that a certain study by Card and Krueger proved that minimum wage increases don’t really have any effect on the demand for labor. Henderson buries that notion.
This issue is a particularly nasty example of the tendency among politicians to capitalize on the economic ignorance of most Americans. The pols who advocate raising the minimum wage (or even instituting “living wage” mandates) get to bask in the glow of their supposed “compassion” while their coercive meddling destroys job opportunities for the least able people in society. It’s truly despicable.
BTW, Henderson’s book The Joy of Freedom is one that I recommend strongly.
