Its easy to raise the minimum wage in the middle of an artificial economic boom. The destructive consequences don't show up until there is a drop in demand for

Its easy to raise the minimum wage in the middle of an artificial economic boom. The destructive consequences don't show up until there is a drop in demand for labor. I doubt studies are designed to look beyond a few months after the increase for effects. If wages aren't drop when there is a dramatic increase in supply, there's no incentive to create businesses that can hire and train those people. Everyone that worked in the housing industry are now lacking marketable skills. They need retraining. It would be far better for the least valuable workers if we found some way to assist them that doesn't interfere with their ability to get a job. And we'd be doing that if there won't so many that don't understand how markets work. How much we pay in taxes is secondary to the high human costs of government interfering in critical markets like the labor market. The costs of this particular failure are focused entirely on the poorest among us. And most people are blind to how they are doing it to them.