… is from page 10 of my late, great colleague Walter Williams’s 2011 book, Race & Economics:
The ability to prevent a less-preferred worker from accepting a lower wage is one of the most effective tools in the arsenal of racists everywhere.
DBx: Yes.
Racists who used minimum wages as a means of denying economic opportunity to others had, despite their vile motives, a correct understanding of economics. Well-intentioned people today who support minimum wages as a means of helping poor workers score better than racists on the ethical front, but worse than racists on the economic-understanding front. Minimum-wage statutes still, as always, impose disproportionate harm on society’s most vulnerable individuals.
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