The Rise and Fall of Hope and Change

The Rise and Fall of Hope and Change



Alexis de Toqueville

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
Alexis de Tocqueville

The United States Capitol Building

The United States Capitol Building

The Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention

The Continental Congress

The Continental Congress

George Washington at Valley Forge

George Washington at Valley Forge


Friday, January 6, 2012

The Hidden Dangers of the “Living Wage”

From The Heritage Foundtation and the Hoover Institution:






Labor





The Hidden Dangers of the “Living Wage”



by Richard A. Epstein



Hoover Institution



January 05, 2012







The great danger of the living wage proposal is that it need not be tied solely to grants received from the government. Under the Fair Wages bill, it will also be tied to permission for real estate development that is given by local planning authorities, as is likely to happen under New York City’s fair wages bill. At this point, it joins the long list of “exactions” that local authorities can attach to permissions to build. The wish lists are very large, and in some cases, the champions of the conditions would rather see the project go down in flames than be accepted without the conditions. Why? In part because unions have a strong anti-competitive urge to stop the development of new shopping centers that could compete with union dominated shops. And so the living wage, which starts out as a compassionate policy, ends up as a tool to suppress competition by non-union labor.





URL: www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/103636

No comments:

Post a Comment