Of Pikers And Pimps

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

St. Paul and Minneapolis are considering raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.  There are no studies on the effect of a $15 per hour minimum wage because it’s never been that high.  The studies of effects of prior minimum wage increases go both ways, depending on who you believe.  What to do?

This is where it helps to be conservative, because we have principles to guide our actions, not just feelings.  One principle is:  “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”  Another is:  “Don’t tear down a fence until you know why it was built.”  The core thought underlying these principles is to make changes cautiously, only when you’re certain they won’t cause more harm than good.  Since the evidence is equivocal, adherence to conservative principles would dictate that we not raise the minimum wage to $15.

But Democrats are not conservatives so they have no such principles to restrain them.  They’re going to raise it because it will please the mob and that’s the most important thing to them.  So if you’re going to raise it despite the evidence, why stop at $15?  Why not raise it to $100 per hour and we’ll all be rich?  Pikers.

Power is the principle.

5 thoughts on “Of Pikers And Pimps

  1. The obvious retort of “why not $100” needs to be followed up, because the response will always be “that’s ridiculous.” You then need to ask them WHY it’s ridiculous, or what number between 15 and 100 would NOT be ridiculous? They can’t answer that with a rational thought because they never had one in the first place.

  2. Let’s see if the Bachelor Farmer Restaurant will be the 1st to voluntarily go to a $15 (or more) hourly wage as their commitment to a “living wage”.

  3. If both cities mirror the Santa Barbara straw ban, they’ll need $100/hr for bar staff to pay the $1,000 per straw (or 6 months jail time) penalty.

    Or, maybe, the councils think that the bar owners will be able to increase wages since they don’t have to pay for straws anymore. At about $.004 per straw, I don’t think that adds up.

  4. Why are we talking about this as though we don’t know the outcome? The effect will be to reduce the number of minimum wage jobs as their costs increase. The harder to find minimum wage jobs will be given to the best applicants. These will be older, better educated, and have a proven work record.
    You want a higher minimum wage, fine, but don’t pretend that you are going to help the low-skilled, marginalized worker by doing so.

  5. The city taxes on food and liquor in TC were already too much for me before I left. I had taken my entertainment money to the burbs.

    I’ve paid $10 for a beer in airports because
    1. I wanted one
    2. I could afford it
    But the critical component in my decision making process is
    3. There is no alternative

    Maybe the moonbats in MPLS & SP think people can’t travel beyond their borders.

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