Also, there's some evidence that higher minimum wage drives more dollars thru the local economy, because minimum wage earners spend most/all of their wage, typi

Also, there's some evidence that higher minimum wage drives more dollars thru the local economy, because minimum wage earners spend most/all of their wage, typically locally. This seems like an obvious outflow of monetary policy as economic driver, as per the liquidity trap analogy of the Capitol hill babysitting coop. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_Babysitting_Co-op#Allegory_for_a_liquidity_trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_Babysitting_Co-op...) The solution to the "but the market" is governmental action -- when market forces create an undesirable situation, its totally reasonable and rational to have a super-market entity enforce rules. This is not even a generally disagreeable point, we see it all the time, environmental laws, natural monopolies (eg: civic infrastructure), etc. The only question is where do we draw the line? The problem with a lot of libertarian type arguments is people seem to put the primacy of the market as an inviolable fact above human dignity.