I was at a coffee shop yesterday when I noticed a sign saying "please bus
your own tables" (I paraphrase). I saw a similar sign at an ice cream place last
week; I interpret both as examples of the deadweight loss from the state's $8.00
per hour minimum wage. Someone somewhere might be willing to bus tables at
coffee shops for $7.00 per hour, but they are prevented from doing so by state
law.
Granted, cleaning my own table at a coffee shop is at best a trivial
inconvenience, and it's something I usually try to help with anyway. However,
when you add up the number of possible mutually-beneficial trades that are ruled
out by government fiat, then you're dealing with potentially substantial
leakages from the prosperity pool.
Showing posts with label minimum wage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minimum wage. Show all posts
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Does it help the poor if you clear your own table?
A great example of how the minimum wage destroys jobs, courtesy of Art Carden at Division of Labour.
Tuesday, 21 November 2006
I find I’m in sympathy with another Tory peer!
Hell! While I’m at it, I might as well confess that I’ve been finding myself nodding with approval at Norman Tebbit recently.
At the Conservative Party conference he made an impassioned plea for tax cuts that should have struck a cord with all liberals (though cognitive dissonance probably prevented many from listening). He argued that it was those on low incomes, struggling to makes ends meet, who most needed the dead weight of taxation lifted from their shoulders. Thus, he called for the Conservatives to retain one promised tax cut, namely an increase in the personal allowance.
Compare this to the Liberal Democrats policy of abolishing the 10% rate so as to boost the personal allowance to £7,185, or to my own proposal that those on the minimum wage working for 35 hours a week should be free of tax (a personal allowance of c£9,500).
In addition, Lord Tebbit has been regularly seen going through the lobbies with liberal peer Lord Lester in opposition to the Government’s attempts to curb our civil liberties.
Forgive me a biblical moment but "there shall be more joy in heaven over one sinner that does penance…” and all that.
At the Conservative Party conference he made an impassioned plea for tax cuts that should have struck a cord with all liberals (though cognitive dissonance probably prevented many from listening). He argued that it was those on low incomes, struggling to makes ends meet, who most needed the dead weight of taxation lifted from their shoulders. Thus, he called for the Conservatives to retain one promised tax cut, namely an increase in the personal allowance.
Compare this to the Liberal Democrats policy of abolishing the 10% rate so as to boost the personal allowance to £7,185, or to my own proposal that those on the minimum wage working for 35 hours a week should be free of tax (a personal allowance of c£9,500).
In addition, Lord Tebbit has been regularly seen going through the lobbies with liberal peer Lord Lester in opposition to the Government’s attempts to curb our civil liberties.
Forgive me a biblical moment but "there shall be more joy in heaven over one sinner that does penance…” and all that.
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