Those who agree with the notion that a government-mandated minimum wage is a “cruel hoax” might appreciate this blurb from the latest National Review:
Hot on the heels of his observation about the poor, [Mitt] Romney reiterated that he favors indexing the minimum wage to inflation. It is a bad idea for the same reason that the minimum wage itslef is a bad idea: Price controls on labor put low-skilled people out of work, which has the particularly counterproductive effect of delaying young people’s entry into the work force or, in too many cases, preventing it altogether. Proponents of indexing the minimum wage argue that doing so would make the increases predictable and would spare Republicans the periodic fight over voting to raise it — a fight Republicans always lose. But there is nothing to stop Democrats from proposing further increases in the minimum wage after it is indexed, and indexing would eliminate the most desirable feature of the current arrangement: Inflation erodes the real value of the minimum wage over time, rendering it less destructive. The problem for Romney and the country is not minimum-wage jobs, but the subpar growth of the economy and median wages. The policy and politics of that discussion are both on Romney’s side, but he’ll never out-Democrat the Democrats on the minimum wage, and shouldn’t try.
