Because of this, it is expected that they will periodically raise public consciousness over the plight of the unfortunate, and rightly complain about the significant and growing number of Americans who can't afford to properly feed and clothe themselves and their children, or put a roof over their heads, or keep themselves warm in the winter, or afford adequate health care, etc.
Liberals are also not content with just raising public consciousness. They are highly motivated by the over-abundant despair, and disparity between rich and poor, to rectify this socio-economic ill (or injustice as they consider it).
To me, this kind of driven and compassionate concern should be widely encouraged.
Accordingly, there have been and continue to be various federal and state campaigns to raise the minimum wage. (See HERE)
As a candidate for the presidency in 2008, Obama promised to raise the minimum wage each year, and committed to increasing it to $9.50 by 2011. (See HERE and HERE) And, while the minimum wage was increased to $7.25 hr during his first year in office (see HERE), Obama's promise and commitment were broken with the minimum wage remaining unchanged through at least December of 2013 (ibid), though the President has recently recommitted himself to that end. (See HERE)
For additional quotes and comments, see HERE.
Be that as it may, as with many Left-wing causes, their admirable ends are too often pursued through questionable means that inadvertently produce unintended consequences that are not infrequently the opposite from what was originally hoped. Big-hearted objectives have been put into the hands of cold-hearted bureaucrats, with lamentable results.
As will be demonstrated through the remainder of the month of January, and in the posts to follow, minimum wage laws are no exception. Aside from being used at times manipulatively to distract attention away from other political disasters (such as Obamacare), and in spite of its popularity, minimum wage laws have caused and may well yet cause a number of Leftist LUNCS (Law of Unintended Negative Consequences), including:
I should note that this series of LUNCs on minimum wage was inspired by, and will borrow heavily from, a free online lecture and Q&A session in Economics 101, given by Gary Wolfram, the William E. Simon Professor of Economics and Public Policy and Director of Economics at Hillsdale College, as well as follow-up discussions among course attendees. (See HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE)
See also this article by Jason Stevens regarding the experience of blacks like Thomas Sowell. Furthermore:
More PragerU videos on the topic:
- Does the Minimum Wage Prevent Poverty?
- How the Minimu Wage Hurts Young People
- How does the Minimum Wage Work?
- Is Raising the Minimum Wage a Bad Idea?
- The Truth About the Minimum Wage
[Update 3/13/2014: The Silent Majority Website reports: "Five hundred economists, including three Nobel laureates, on Wednesday urged Congress to junk President Obama’s proposal to boost the minimum wage to $10.10, claiming it will cut jobs and raises prices. Instead, the 500 urged in a letter to Congress that Washington pass a comprehensive package to deal with poverty. 'One of the serious consequences of raising the minimum wage is that business owners saddled with a higher cost of labor will need to cut costs, or pass the increase to their consumers in order to make ends meet. Many of the businesses that pay their workers minimum wage operate on extremely tight profit margins, with any increase in the cost of labor threatening this delicate balance,' they warned." (See HERE)]
[Update: 8/5/2015: Earlier this year, three cities (San Francisco, LA, and Seattle) instituted laws raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour--see HERE and HERE and HERE. It didn't take long for the LUNCs to manifest themselves: see HERE, and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE.and HERE
Also, several months back a well-intended CEO leveled the pay to $70K a year for everyone in his company, including himself. Itr also didn't take long for the un-thought-out experiment to manifest significant LUNCs--see HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE)]
[Update 2/7/2017: Raising the Minimum Wage in Seattle Had Utterly Predictable Results. ]
For an explanation as to why these Leftist LUNCs may occur, please see: Gov: Wrong Tool for the Right Job - Introduction and Cold Nanny as well as The Politics of Compassion, Emotions, Ignorance, Denial, Blame-Shifting, and Vic, timizatio, n
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