Ms. Harris has also backed raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, though she hasn’t specified a level. The Administration has endorsed a $15 federal minimum, and some on the left want to increase it to $20. This is a recipe for more jobless teens.
A handful of states have increased their minimum wage to $15 or more. A recent Beacon Economics study found that median unemployment was 3.1% in the 20 states that mimic the federal minimum wage, versus 4.2% in the 15 states with minimums between $14 and $17.
Higher minimum wages price teens out of the job market since they usually have the least experience and skills. Look no further than Ms. Harris’s home state of California, where Democrats raised the minimum to $16 an hour from $12 in 2020. Over the past two years, unemployment among those ages 16 to 19 has soared to 19.2% from 10.8%, versus 11.9% from 10.5% nationwide. California’s new $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers has compounded the problem.
Arnold Kling draws much insight from his recognition that “we argue in metaphors.”
In its classic overwritten style, the Biden administration said in 2021, “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law makes the most transformative investment in electric vehicle charging in U.S. history that will put us on the path to a convenient and equitable network of 500,000 chargers and make EVs accessible to all Americas for both local and long-distance trips.” It was “the largest-ever U.S. investment in EV charging and will be a transformative down payment on the transition to a zero-emission future.”
Judge Glock of the Manhattan Institute writes more soberly. “Congress provided $5 billion over five years to fund a national network of EV charging ports,” he notes today in the Wall Street Journal. “Almost three years later, the program has created 69 ports, fewer than the rest of the EV sector produces every day.”
Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley asks: “Why are Democrats losing Black voters?” A slice:
Barack Obama has suggested that the problem isn’t Ms. Harris’s record as vice president or her message on the stump but rather black men who refuse to support a black woman. Mr. [Robert] Woodson wasn’t buying that and pointed out that in recent years any number of black women have been elected mayor in big cities with large black populations—including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington. Angela Alsobrooks, a black Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Maryland, has a double-digit lead over her Republican opponent, the popular former Gov. Larry Hogan.
Christian Britschgi tells us of Elon Musk taking on the California Coastal Commission.
A thriving business can afford to add security guards, install advanced camera systems and put extra staff on the floor to scout for shoplifters. Or it can simply absorb losses from shrinkage into its profit margins. One that’s already struggling doesn’t have much room to eat the cost of theft or to invest in more security — especially when the market for low-skilled workers is so tight. With online competition, it’s also hard to raise prices to compensate for your losses, or pay for your soaring wage costs. And those investments won’t necessarily pay off unless police stand ready to arrest the offenders, and prosecutors to prosecute. Catching thieves in the act doesn’t help much if all you can do is admonish them while they stroll out the door.
