Another possible impact comes from the “inferior goods” problem–when the price of staples like white bread rises, people tend to cut back on higher-value items like meats and veggies. Similiarly, if a business needs a full slate of minimum-wage workers, there could be cuts or foregone raises in low-but-above-minimum-wage jobs or mid-range workers.

Presumably part of the expectation of minimum wage policy is that the cuts would pass up the food chain and be manifested in cuts or reductions at the highest levels of the company, or in corporate profits (thus unintentionally affecting stock prices and making everyone worry about their 401k); but I have no idea how much that actually happens.

I’m not sure about your 7-9% figure. It seems like the change in the “share of income received by minimum wage workers” would depend on the size of the minimum-wage workforce as well as the grand total of wages earned in the country, as well as some correction for the states that already had minimum wages above the previous national minimum wage rate. I admit I don’t have those figures in front of me. In any event, there are still people who will be forced out of the workforce. The question is, how many.

As far as consumer spending goes, I can only hope that the government is not using that as the chief index of the country’s economic health. After all, that’s part of what got us into this mess–consumer spending way out of proportion to actual wealth creation.

And at the end of the day, there’s still the question of how much or indeed whether the government ought to be engaged in the redistribution business in the first place; but as the blog entry centered on the question of the M. W.’s value as a tool for implementing socialism, perhaps that’s outside the scope of the discussion at hand.

Thanks for the thought-provoking comment.

…Or have these pro-minimum-wage-hike people even considered that employers have to get that money from somewhere? There goes inflation.

As for Dr. Gates refusing to step outside his house, I do not fault him. The only reason the arresting officer would ask him to step outside his house is because that’s the only way he could have arrested him. He could not have arrested Dr. Gates inside his house without probable cause of violence, a search warrant, etc.

Frankly, I too would be rather upset with the police if they did not leave my home upon being shown proper identity. I would be even more upset if the officer refused my perfectly legitimate demand to know his name and badge number.

Perhaps it’s true that President Obama used a poor choice of words, but I don’t think this excuses the police officers in this case who I think made poor decisions.