The perpetual drive by democrats in the congress to arbitrarily increase the minimum wage is yet another example of their ignorance on economic issues and their inability to ever see the bigger, more important picture.   

The liberal argument for arbitrarily increasing the minimum wage is that people should be paid a “living” wage.  The first problem with such logic is:  how do we define a “living” wage?   The amount of money required to support oneself or one’s family depends upon a wide range of factors.  How many people in the family?  One?  Ten?  What kind of home – studio apartment or four-bedroom house?  Where will the living take place – San Francisco or Littlerock?  The fact that there are a multitude of variables that determine how much money one needs to live is a testament to the very arbitrary nature of the living wage question.  Clearly it makes much more sense to do what the market does naturally and let the nature of the work determine the level of pay, not some indefinable amount of money that may or may not amount to a “living wage.”

 The second problem with increasing the minimum wage is that you eliminate the incentive for people to better their financial circumstances through self-improvement.  First, no one who is raising a family should be working in a minimum wage job – period.  To want to reward those who are is downright stupid.  This is a case where we must look at the bigger picture:  if minimum wage is not enough to support the lifestyle or the family one wants, then one should be learning the skills or pursuing opportunities for better paying jobs.  This is better not only for the individual and his/her family, but it’s also better for the country as a whole.  Remember, what you reward you get more of.  Do we really want more people hunkering down in minimum wage jobs waiting for the next congress-imposed pay raise?  If you said, “no,” you passed the test.

 The truly liberal-minded among you will now be whining that there are some people who are forced to work minimum-wage jobs and it’s cruel to condemn them to a life of poverty.  What nonsense.  Nearly everybody is intelligent enough to learn a skill that pays more than minimum wage – if they are motivated.  When liberals cultivate the notion among minimum wagers that they are somehow deserving of more money without making any effort of their own, it is they that condemn such people to a life of poverty.