Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Butt Out

 

Well it’s happened again. Another study demonstrating the downside of the minimum wage increase – this time from a group at the University of Washington.
As I have asked multiple times in the past, “Do Democrats purposely do things that will hurt the poor the most?” . . . or. . . Are Democrats just dumb? Do they purposely embark on crusades that will have the outcomes opposite to what they say that they will have? Lest you think that I am being snarky, recall that the ACA, the Affordable Care Act, was far from affordable – in fact it is the dramatic rise in the cost of health insurance that is leading to its demise.
This leads me to one of the recent liberal crusades, the minimum wage; the increase of which the Democrats say will be beneficial for the poor. Just like the Affordable Care Act is not affordable, the increase in the minimum wage is not beneficial for the poor.

On 6/26/17 The National Bureau of Economic Research, in a new paper, notes that Seattle’s minimum wage ordinance has lowered low-wage employees earnings by $125 per month in 2016, as they are no longer working as many hours as they used to. The Seattle Times reported that there would be 5000 more jobs in the city without the law. The response from low-wage Seattle workers to the Democrats should be, “Thanks for the help, but please butt out!”

The most noticeable deleterious effects of the increasing minimum wage appear to be in the restaurant industry. New York State has lost approximately 1000 restaurants in the last year due primarily to the increasing minimum wage, and likewise in the winter of 2016-17 sixty-four San Francisco Bay Area restaurants have closed – again due to . . . you guessed it, the increasing minimum wage. The Harvard Business School stated that for every $1.00 increase in the minimum wage, there was a 14% increased likelihood of a medium-priced restaurant closing. They forecast that in the next two years the San Francisco restaurant industry would shrink, and workers thus would lose their jobs. The response from restaurateurs and their employees to the Democrats should be, “Thanks for the help, but please butt out!”

Not to be left out the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has said that with the increasing minimum wage that approximately 500,000 workers across the U.S. would lose their jobs. All of these potentially soon unemployed workers should say to the Democrats, “Thanks for your help, but please butt out!”

The American Enterprise Institute (using stats from the Bureau of Labor) recently said that the rising minimum wage has been disastrous for black male teens. The unemployment rate for this group has gone from 28.1% (May) to 40.1% (June) – the largest monthly increase since 1972. The Foundation for Economic Education’s Mark J. Perry connected this higher jobless rate to hikes in the minimum wage in fifteen states and cities across the U.S. The response from black teens to the Democrats should be, “Thanks for the help, but please butt out!”

The prominent black economist,Thomas Sewell, has said, “Low income minorities are often hit the hardest by the unemployment that follows in the wake of minimum wage laws.” Perhaps the low income minorities should say to the Democrats,”Thanks for the help, but please butt out!”

What you have to understand is that this is not rocket science!
It is basic economics that the Democrats refuse to try to understand.
N.B. If you artificially increase the cost of labor beyond the market value, businesses must pass this increased operational cost to employees (less hours, less benefits, or less jobs) or to customers (increased prices or decreased quality of goods), and when the prices go up or the quality goes down, the customers don’t come back, and so the restaurant has to close.
Again, not rocket science!

Is it possible that perhaps the Democrats do actually understand economics, but for whatever reason continue to push policies that hurt the poor!? How, when they continue to do the same thing, could they believe that the results would be different?
It seems to me that we are increasingly hearing the Democrats again implying that they know best, and they are, in effect,saying to the economists, “We don’t want your help, butt out!”

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