Robert Reich, supposedly an economist, was Secretary of Labor under Clinton.

Indexing minimum wages to inflation is the economic equivalent of connecting your car's gas pedal to the output of the speedometer. Good way to fly into a ditch. I picked this because it was the first example to come to my mind. It's hardly unique. I would guess about two thousand asinine economic ideas are proposed by governments at all levels every year.

The idea of a minimum wage enforced by law appeals to those who are not that economically savvy. It also appeals to unions, which can keep their wages and contracts at a high level with the competing bottom tiers of the labor market cut out.

Obviously, the higher the minimum wage, the less likely someone is going to employ a marginal employee*. And it doesn't do anything except drive all the costs higher in the long run. It also makes it a lot more appealing to hire illegal labor, which naturally, doesn't have to be paid official minimum wages.

Liberals will scoff at the idea that minimum wages affect employment or inflate prices. Why not set them at $100 an hour then? Wouldn't everyone be rich? The usual reply is that this would be ridiculous. Nobody could afford to hire anyone and prices would go through the roof. Well, then, where do you draw the line? Who decides what a "living wage" is? And would politics drive it more than economics?

Minimum wage laws make liberals feel good about doing something for the Little People. It's flashy, and its obvious, and makes good press for a politician. Like most of the unintended results of screwing with market processes, the resulting unemployment and other economic displacement is largely invisible and the causality not obvious.

Actually, around here, I have yet to see any major company that pays as low as minimum wage. Even fast food outlets pay quite a bit more.

*This doesn't even count the massive amount of mandated paperwork, insurance, workman's comp, and all the other government crap that you have to deal with to bring an employee on board. You should talk to some small businessmen around here. My mechanic had to lay off two people because the workman's comp was killing him.