Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that the GOP-controlled Michigan legislature is poised to enact a huge increase in the state’s minimum wage — to $7.40 per hour in 2008. Read the depressing news here.
Why? The answer is fear. Fear that if they don’t cave in on this, Big Labor and the Democrats will get an even greater increase via a ballot initiative. Michigan has one of the worst economies in the US, but the unions are addicted to government interventions that appear to help “the little guy,” so the politicians of both parties are willing to go along. Back in the 80s, people used to say, “Will the last person leaving Michigan please turn out the lights?” That question is surely going to be revived.
But John Edwards can take cheer. By his thinking, this huge increase ought to wipe out a lot of poverty. I wonder if he’d be willing to take a Julian Simon sort of wager on the rate of youth unemployment in Detroit in two years?
