The Minimum Wage

It is hard to argue with the idea that largely low skilled workers in hamburger restaurants should make $15 an hour, so that they can earn a "living wage".  People SHOULD be paid more.  And pigs should be able to fly. 

People enter into contracts regarding the sale of their labor all the time, and out of necessity they may take a job that isn't very well paid.  Would I want to work at the minimum wage?  Not especially, but then would I like to starve?  Or would I like to be the slave of a state welfare system that tells me where to stand and where to squat? 

Okay so let's raise the minimum wage to, say, $15 an hour.  What would be the effect of that?  Would the owners of the restaurants raise their prices to cover the extra cost of labor?  You bet they would.  Would patrons of these restaurants eat out as much as previously?  Not at all.

That'll be $8 please.

  If I discovered that a Big Mac had gone from say $3.95 to eight dollars, would I bother going to McDonald's drive through?  Not effing likely. More likely I would simply bag my lunch from home.   

  En masse the effect would be pretty disastrous for everyone in the food business except for those providing automated food delivery systems. 

These guys don't get a minimum wage

In other words it would be a bonanza for vending machines.  The absolute minimum wage is zero, and setting a high minimum wage

would just put millions of Americans out of work who no doubt are the ones who can least afford to take such a wage cut. And what would you replace all those minimum wage jobs with?  Oh probably food stamps, or maybe mass emigration to places where they understand the basic laws of economics better.  Or they would turn to crime, which, after all, usually pays a lot better than not having a job at all.  

In the long run of course, market forces would adjust to the new reality of a higher minimum wage.  Inflation would assert itself.  Everyone would want higher wages, and, because labor is inseparable from the costs of most items we buy, the price of everything would go up. 

This would impose a decidedly greater hardship on those on fixed incomes or on incomes not easily adjusted upward.  As a result there would be more people out there looking for part time jobs, but of course, since the minimum wage is so high, you might go months or years before finding a part time job.  So you will go on the dole, on food stamps, or turn to crime or other things that are not exactly legal.  Later the politicians will offer remedies for these problems which they themselves created, and will receive additional kudos by the morons who voted them into office. 

Which brings us to our Dear Leader the other night who advocated a higher minimum wage.  The only question I want to know is:  Does he really believe this minimum wage nonsense?   Does he ever actually speak to real economists?  This is not going to benefit anyone in the long run.  It is going to make it less likely that young people will find that first job, and it certainly won't improve the lives of those who live at the very bottom of the wage scale  or on fixed incomes.   It's only useful in whipping up the moronic masses who have no clue as to the economic realities under which they and their potential or real employers live.