Life is getting in the way of blogging with more and more frequency. So I'm going to try quicker posts, in the hope I can get more up, more regularly. President Obama's recent call for an increase in the federal minimum wage is a good topic with which to start. Most conservatives and, as I understand it, most economists believe that an increase in the minimum wage will have some negative impact on employment. Want less of something? Make it more expensive. That is true of a variety of things, including labor.
Of course, most of us want poorer workers to receive more for their labor. We can imagine how difficult it is to live off the minimum wage. It makes us feel bad to think of their plight. And these feelings are good. I likely wouldn't have started this blog if some emotional response to others' poverty didn't trigger my wanting to think through the issue.
But as my first post said, one of my operating principles here is that we don't help the poor just by feeling bad, and we don't help them by doing things that make us feel better. We help by doing things that actually, you know, help. Raising the minimum wage makes us feel good, and it helps those who keep their minimum wage jobs, but it seems likely to drive down employment in our country and unmistakably sends jobs to other countries with lesser wage regulation.
One fears that this is just another wedge issue for the President, rather than a real legislative goal. That's harmless as far as it goes, but it distracts from measures that could really help the poor (and everyone else).
Here are some recent conservative responses to calls for a minimum wage increase, with an emphasis on its impact on the poor:
Mark J. Perry - AEI
John Fund - NRO
As Fund and even former Obama advisor Christina Romer (whom he quotes) suggest, the real way to help the poor is to promote economic growth, not to monkey around in the labor markets.
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