They're back! Dutch liberty maven Tomasz of Red Shift Media has just created another excellent little animation on the minimum wage. If the title of this post doesn't explain it, the video will. The punchline? The minimum wage is an idea born from good intentions, but the unintended consequences can be pretty devastating. (Consider this on Martin Luther King's birthday.) Who is the most negatively affected by the minimum wage?
Just look at all the jobs that have been abolished by the minimum wage—good and worthwhile jobs for those who are taking their first step on the economic ladder. Movie ushers, gas station attendants, caddies, fruit pickers, dishwashers, fast food help, and a wide variety of other entry-level job opportunities have been either cut back or eliminated because the minimum wage has rendered them unaffordable. How tragic this is, when you consider the true value of these low-level jobs to young and unskilled workers.
Reflecting on his early years in a Philadelphia slum, black economist Walter Williams observed:
None of these jobs paid much, but then I wasn’t worth much. But the real value of early work experiences is much more important than the little change a kid can earn. You learn how to keep a job. You learn how to be prompt, respect and obey superiors, and develop good work habits and attitudes that can pay off in the future. Additionally, there is the self-respect and pride that comes from being financially semi-independent.
If a young person is willing to wash cars for $2.50 an hour to gain work experience and self-esteem, is it the right of Congress to tell him he can’t do it? Is it, in fact, the right of any politician to make these kinds of economic choices for a free people?
And the perverse effects are still with us. Consider this from BET online:
Though the jobless rate for white Americans is dropping steadily—not quickly, but steadily—the unemployment rate for African-Americans remains remarkably high. Overall, the U.S. unemployment rate is at about 8.7 percent. Black unemployment, however, is at a shocking 16.1 percent. But while Blacks as a whole are suffering, yet another subgroup is in even worse trouble: Black teenagers. According to a new Department of Labor statistics, Black teenage unemployment is now at almost 40 percent. Overall, teenage unemployment is at 23 percent—that’s not great, but it’s nowhere near 40. And in some places it’s even worse. In Illinois, for instance, the Black teenage unemployment weighs in at a whopping 47.7 percent.
Here in the United States, it's Martin Luther King's birthday. We celebrate the gains of the civil rights movement. Unfortunately, some have tried to co-opt Martin Luther King's legacy in the name of "economic justice" -- i.e. terrible ideas like minimum wage laws. We need to return to King's concept of judging people by the content of their character. "Economic justice" doesn't seem to be helping anyone except labor unions, bureaucrats and the lucky few who land jobs at that level.
If we want real economic opportunity for young blacks, it's time we stop removing the bottom rungs of the economic ladder which provide productive jobs for people who might otherwise languish as permanent wards of the state. That, folks, is the road to hell, the road to serfdom.
Comments