Some Non-Covid Links

(Don Boudreaux)

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George Will writes about the folly of the minimum wage. A slice:

The Manhattan Institute’s Charles Fain Lehman reports: “A surprising body of research links increases in the minimum wage to increases in criminal offending by those most likely to lose jobs as a result of the wage hike.” The Congressional Budget Office concludes that a phased increase to $15 in 2025 could raise the pay of 27 million workers (17 percent of the workforce) but would result in the elimination of about 1.3 million jobs. The CBO estimates that half of those losing jobs would be ages 16 to 19. Lehman says researchers estimate that job losses resulting from a $15 minimum wage “would lead to an additional 423,000 property crimes” and $2.5 billion in damages.

The Heritage Foundation’s Rachel Greszler reports that the median hourly wage of those performing child care is $11.65, and mandating $15 would increase the cost of such care by an average of 21 percent, or $3,728 per year for a family with two children, from $20,152 to $23,880. This could cause some parents to withdraw from the workforce.

If you really want to help Amazon’s employees, Art Carden has some sound advice.

Scott Winship makes the case against child allowances.

Ross Douthat is rightly alarmed by the woke cancelling of Dr. Seuss. And here’s Robby Soave on the same.

Phil Magness explains why he’s not a neoliberal.

Peter Suderman exposes Josh Hawley’s toxic populism.

Eric Peterson is correct to argue that the biggest threat to free speech is not ‘big tech’ but, rather, government.

Pierre Lemieux asks a good question: “How can somebody like Krugman, who is, after all, an economist and obviously an intelligent man, defend such simplistic ideas?”

Here’s basic economic wisdom from John Cochrane.

The Kindle version of Thomas Sowell’s 1995 book The Vision of the Anointed is temporarily unavailable on Amazon: “Item Under Review.” Appalling. Disgusting. Deeply dismaying.