Socialism, Seattle Style - Kshama Sawant's $15 per hour job killer

American Spectator ^ | May 7, 2014 | Keli Carender

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"............................Educated, articulate and well versed in the recitation of neo-Marxist agitprop, [Seattle Council Woman Kshama Sawant]clearly has read many books and been taught many things that aren’t so.

Such is the case with Sawant’s core mission of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour because she believes it helps poor people. She is convinced that she can, by decree, override the laws of economics from her perch on Seattle’s city council. “Victory in the fight for $15 an hour will mean a substantial improvement in the standards of living of working people in Seattle,” Sawant...in a recent interview[,]“A real class struggle like the fight for $15 in Seattle will energize and empower workers, raise their confidence and morale and make them realize that this is what we need to do.”...

Problem is, her proposal is destined to deliver a lower standard of living for the people who brought her into office and raise unemployment among those who most need a job...........

In 2012, a team of researchers from Cornell, the University of Oregon, and San Diego State University studied the effects of raising the minimum wage in New York State between 2004 and 2006. Their conclusion was about as close to unequivocal as a reputable researcher can get. “We find robust evidence that raising the New York minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.75 per hour significantly reduced employment rates of less-skilled, less-educated New Yorkers,” they determined. Their findings are not isolated and have been replicated time and again in similarly rigorous research.

While Sawant might be tempted to dismiss this as employers merely seeking “revenge” by hiring fewer people, it’s little more than quantifying human nature and business behavior; the more expensive something becomes, the less of it we consume. Alas, this fact is lost on socialists and other social engineers like Sawant.........

[rottndog]

Study on Minimum Wage increase referenced in the article.

Are the Effects of Minimum Wage Increases Always Small? New Evidence from a Case Study of New York State

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thanks!

[hinckley buzzard]

The real problem is that at $15 an hour, the entry level young unskilled worker will be displaced by older, better educated and more mature workers who wouldn't work at a job for 7.50$ but will readily for 15$.

[hinckley buzzard]

It's not that she doesn’t know about economics. Liberals know the ramifications of this type stuff.

She may not know. Marxists generally do not believe in economics. With central planning and a command economy, they actually believe they can transcend the laws of human nature, which in the end is all that economics is.