RANT & CHAT - No Politics

[ergo sum]

PMS

Typical Cato arguement

A recent study by Clemson University economists Richard B. McKenzie and Curtis Simon estimated that an increase in the minimum wage to $4.65 by 1990 would cost 764,000 jobs by that year and 1.9 million jobs by 1995. The economic output lost in 1995 would total $70 billion (in 1982 dollars).[10] The political embarrassment created by such estimates was graphically illustrated recently when the House Democratic leadership suppressed a Congressional Budget Office study that predicted a loss of 250,000 to 500,000 jobs if the minimum wage was increased to $5.05. The majority staff of the House Education and Labor Committee sent the study back and asked for a new version that lacked any reference to the bill's prospective impact on unemployment and inflation. The majority staff director explained that the CBO had "provided information that was not requested."[
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa106.html

Here is the history of the minimum wage
http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/coverage.htm

Here are the unemployment rates from 1990 to the present.
http://data.bls.gov/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet

The minimum wage was raised in 1990, 1991, 1996 and 1997.
Welfare Rolls decreased during this period.
The only effect I can see is that the poor slobs at the bottom got a little more money.

Be well
Ergo Sum

PS I do like the stories.