Speaking of immigrants, Shikha Dalmia reveals that Pres. Obama was no great friend of them.
When government raises the lowest hourly wage at which a worker may lawfully be employed, does it help those at the foot of the economic ladder? The issue has been fought over for decades. Yet reality repeatedly renders the same verdict: Artificially hiking minimum wages makes it harder to employ unskilled workers. Raising the cost of labor invariably prices some marginal laborers out of the job market. Advocates of higher minimums may wish to ensure a “living wage” for the working poor. Yet the result is that fewer poor people get work.
(Advocates of using minimum wages to help low-skilled workers would be far less destructive, and but no less unreasonable, to advocate helping such workers by chanting in tongues or by sacrificing goats to Baal.)
Richard Epstein write eloquently on labor markets. A slice:
The policy shift from the Obama administration to the Trump administration has been dramatic. The Obama administration relentlessly added new labor market regulations while Trump’s has pared back on the enforcement of the labor and antidiscrimination law to an extent that has little historical precedent. It is no wonder that wages were stagnant and that firms were reluctant to move forward with new hiring and expansion under the prior regulatory regime.
Here’s George Leef on the furor over student-loan forgiveness.
If Trump and his protectionist courtiers really believe what they say about trade deficits, they should oppose this deal! (HT Jon Murphy)
