Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men
(7.0 percent), adult women (6.4 percent), teenagers (22.2 percent),
whites (6.3 percent), blacks (13.1 percent), and Hispanics (9.1 percent)
showed little or no change in October.
Emphasis added. The other day, I received a spambot email from Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley urging me to sign a petition in favor of raising the minimum wage. This is the Democrats’ big issue in a number of states, where the fantasy despots seem determined to drive teenagers out of the labor market.
Better fantasy despots than real ones.
The politically efficient thing to do is maximize employment and compensation for your supporters (even prospective ones) with the burden falling on neutrals or opponents.
Teenagers wont grow up to be Republicans because they (accurately) perceive that the mean old Democrats raised the minimum wage, pricing them out of a job. They’ll just be looking for elite unpaid internships or research projects, which is what all the top-track kids do these days.
Stellar-impressive lines on the resume are very valuable, so top-track kids are willing to pay for it in terms of free labor. That’s especially plausible if your parents have money and also highly value the resume line. Next they’ll be required to pay to work these internships just to be able to name-drop the field-celebrities they worked with.
Tough luck for anybody that actually wants to earn a little cash and gain a little real world working experience. You obviously aren’t part of the policy conversation crowd.
I remember a few ‘pay everyone a living wage’ debates in High School and even if you used hyperbolic technique to illustrate the existence of a limiting principle, “Why not pay everyone $40 and hour then?” the response is a hearty “Yeah! That would be awesome!” Maybe your work will help to mitigate that a little.
On the other hand, a lot of that employment is going to be picked up by immigrants looking for amnesty and a path to citizenship who polls demonstrate are very likely to vote Democrat when and if they get the franchise.
If politics are going to go this way, then I’m with Unz – just raise it to $15 like Seatac, WA just did.
In my college Business Ethics course, we were discussing the minimum wage and I used that same argument, “Why not raise the minimum wage to $100 an hour?!” I said. The other girl actively participating in the argument calls back “Why not? I mean they give away all that money on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire!” (this was circa 2002).
I was rendered speechless.