AEI scholar Kevin Hassett explains here why raising the minimum wage is a bad policy. We have heard the arguments before, but Hassett makes effective use of what some economists have found — that the workers who are laid off become “scarred” and have great subsequent difficulty in the labor market. What is so “compassionate” about helping 10 people slightly (people who, by the way, would probably have earned raises on their own merits) at the expense of inflicting a devastating wound on the 11th?