The Estate Tax cut, cruellly tied to the federal minimum wage hike, failed today in the Senate. The AFL-CIO's John Sweeny got the best quote:
Organized labor also blasted the Republican tactic and called on Congress to approve a stand-alone minimum wage increase that would help keep some of the lowest-paid workers out of poverty.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the proposed estate tax cut, estimated to have cost hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years, would have resulted in future cuts to government-run health care, food stamps and other programs and would "end up hurting the very same people that a minimum wage increase is supposed to help."
Honest to god, I don't know how the Republicans in Congress sleep at night. And as for the incrementalist Dems: they should be talking about a living wage instead of this minimum wage nonsense. You don't get what you don't demand.
I found this article interesting, and pretty good ammo for minimum wage discussions. It's about the change of opinion economists are having about the effects of minimum wage on unemployment.
Binder acknowledges that it's an ``intellectual puzzle'' why a boost in the minimum wage wouldn't lead to wider unemployment, because the economic laws of supply and demand dictate that it should.
Explanations include cost savings from reduced job turnover, increased productivity as a result of better worker morale and the attraction of higher-quality employees through higher wages, Blinder says.
Reality is such a nice place to live. Much nicer than a life trapped inside abstract theories and economic models.
Rock on, erobin.
Posted by: johnnydlist | August 08, 2006 at 09:53 AM
Hey Johnny :) Not to mention that everyone loves to assume that we live in a frictionless market economy - as if corporate welfare doesn't exist. Workers are supposed to live and die by the cruel whims of the invisible hand whereas WalMart, for instance, is allowed break after break after break.
Posted by: eRobin | August 08, 2006 at 12:51 PM