- On minimum wage these days, Krugman lets politics sit in for economics [David Henderson] Minimum wage hikes don’t cost jobs? A notion so ideologically convenient just has to be true [Steve Chapman]
- “Is employment a ‘human right'”? [Richard Epstein, Hoover “Defining Ideas”]
- Project labor agreements are an unjustified giveaway in New Jersey’s post-Sandy reconstruction [Trey Kovacs, CEI Open Market]
- Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake proposes public pension reform [Baltimore Sun] Reality check on sunny New York projections [@NYDNHammond]
- Peter Kirsanow on EEOC crackdown on criminal background checks [Employee Screen]
- Three Missouri Dems favor bill making it felony for lawmakers to propose bills limiting union powers [Robby Soave, Daily Caller]
- Meet the brothers who are standing up to union violence in Philadelphia construction [Jillian Melchior, NR, earlier]
2 Comments
Is Employment A Human Right?…
Risa Kauman … claims that “the United States’ failure to enact meaningful protections enabling workers to accommodate the demands of work and family is not only out of step with countries around the world, but it is also counter to international hu…
The back and forth about minimum wage has fascinated me for decades. The answer to it comes from the evolution of government.
Consider a river valley with rich soils. As elevation rises on either side the soils become less productive to the level that would barely support habitation – the subsistence level. People above that level would have to raid those in the valley to keep alive. Those in the valley would have to devote resources to defense. A government could tax those in the valley, defend them from attacks, and transfer wealth to those at or above the subsistence level. (nowadays “below” subsistence applies, to increase the carry capacity of the valley.
To the extent that low wage workers will substitute employment for the doll or robbery, total productivity increases. To the extent that price discovery is impeded, productivity decreases. Thus the mixed results.