Wal-Mart says it will pull out of D.C. plans should city mandate ‘living wage’ (deceptive title)

Washington Post ^ | 7/9/2013

[markomalley]

I’m not arguing for mandating a company to pay a certain wage just because it’s “bigger than others.” I’m talking in general. The minimum wage has declined in purchasing power steadily since the post-war years thanks to largely an increase in America’s population of low-skilled workers due to mass immigration from the Third World.

Welcome to Free Republic.

Minimum wages are in general a really, really bad idea. Additional personnel costs are simply passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. Consequently, inflation results. That reduces the buying power of everybody, including those who make more than the minimum wage.

You are right that (particularly) publicly held corporations are not ideological and will support whatever government policy (for good or for bad) that will help them increase their profitability or increase market share. This is a major reason why they don't object to increased regulation that impacts an entire horizontal. They can work through or around the regulation because of their size and it provides a major barrier to entry to possible new entrants in the market.

And, FRiend, it is a decidedly unconservative to support government legislation that punishes particular companies (or people) who have committed the sin of being successful.