Monday, March 07, 2005
 
I Got Nothing

Since I don't have anything witty or insightful to say today, perhaps you should just go read the Chicago Tribune's Steve Chapman in his column "The illusions of the minimum wage", which begins:
    Asking Democrats if they favor an increase in the minimum wage is like asking Martha Stewart if she'd mind sharing some decorating ideas. There are few things they'd rather do, and Sen. Ted Kennedy thinks it is high time.

    The Massachusetts Democrat is offering a measure that would boost the wage floor from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years. He notes that it has not been lifted since 1997, during which time senators have gotten seven pay raises. "If the Senate is serious about an anti-poverty agenda," he said, "let's start by raising the minimum wage." Republicans, meanwhile, might accept an increase of $1.10, as proposed by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

    It may seem like an inescapable truth that if you increase the amount employers pay their lowest-wage workers, you will have fewer poor people. Money, after all, is what they lack, and a higher minimum wage means more money to those in the worst-paying jobs.

    In fact, this is one of those obvious facts that turns out not to be a fact at all. The available evidence suggests that raising the minimum wage doesn't do what it's supposed to do.
You see, the gentleman can sound kinda smart about things when he's not la-dee-dah about foreign policy.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:26 PM
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home
 
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."