P.J. O’Rourke is pretty funny no matter what the topic – and is painfully insightful at times – and he had a splendid bit on the minimum wage during a 60 Minutes appearance that economist Stefan Karlsson found on an old VHS tape:
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“Why is Congress even debating the minimum wage? Where does the constitution say that government sets the price of delivering pizza? And if government knows the best price of everything, then how come the B-1 bomber cost so much? And if minimum wage laws work, why fool around? Why not make it a thousand an hour? Molly, if workers are more expensive fewer workers are hired. I wish this weren’t so. I also wish I could wear the same size jeans I wore in College. Free market value isn’t good or bad, it’s a measurement. Laws won’t fix it. We can pass a law saying a foot has ten inches: then I put a tape around my waist – same size jeans I wore in College! But the gut is still there. Raise the minimum wage, pay goes up a little, prices goes up and poor people are back where they started. If we want to help the working poor, we should cut sales taxes, cut gas taxes, cut farm subsidies that keep food prices high. And get rid of all the nonsense regulations, such as minimum wage laws, that just keeps poor people from starting businesses and getting richer”.
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Economic sense is in short supply these days; we’re still experiencing the hangover from the first half of this century. The woes created by today’s decisions are yet to come. . .
