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If $15 Minimum Wage Is Such a Good Idea, Why Did AOC's Bar Close Down?
Townhall ^ | 3/21/19 | Larry Elder

Posted on 03/20/2019 11:37:25 PM PDT by DeathBeforeDishonor1

Edited on 03/21/2019 9:25:47 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]

After completing undergrad at Harvard and obtaining a master's in economics, Sowell landed a summer internship with the Department of Labor. While there, he researched the impact of minimum wage law on employment. Sowell learned two things, both of which he found startling. First, minimum wage laws create job loss by pricing the unskilled out of the labor force. Second, Sowell discovered that "the people in the labor department really were not interested in that, because the administration of the minimum wage was supplying one-third of the money that was keeping the labor department going. ... I realized that institutions have their own agendas and their own incentives." In short, Sowell found that the Department of Labor did not care about the real-world effects of the minimum wage law. He credits this experience, this search for evidence, with having the "biggest" impact on his thinking.


(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; US: New York; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: anotheraocthread; berniesanders; newyork; ocasiocortez; rentfree; rentfreeonfr; vermont
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1 posted on 03/20/2019 11:37:25 PM PDT by DeathBeforeDishonor1
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1

A BAR called The COFFEE Shop? Boy, that’s retarded. What did they call the restrooms, the DELI?


2 posted on 03/20/2019 11:41:11 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (#NotARussianBot)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

It was more of a diner with a liquor license. NY Post story about it closing:

https://nypost.com/2018/07/12/famed-coffee-shop-in-union-square-to-close-after-28-years/


3 posted on 03/20/2019 11:59:31 PM PDT by j. earl carter
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To: FlingWingFlyer
"A BAR called The COFFEE Shop? Boy, that’s retarded. What did they call the restrooms, the DELI?"

Depends upon who was in there at the time....? -wink--wink-

4 posted on 03/21/2019 12:00:10 AM PDT by Sa-teef
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1

If you look around at automation, bars are also going that way, and you can figure that bartenders are going to be disappearing over the next ten years. You will walk into a bar, pay the cashier at the front for a beer and be handed a glass, which you will walk up to a dispenser...put your pin number in, and the glass will be filled. Other than someone to gather glasses to be washed, the beverage-filler in the storeroom, and the cashier....that’s the only employees you will require.


5 posted on 03/21/2019 12:24:41 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1

Maybe they’re afraid she’ll want her old job back.


6 posted on 03/21/2019 12:29:15 AM PDT by Califreak (If Obama had been treated like Trump the US would have been burnt down before Inauguration Day)
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1

Stock socialist answer: the didnt do it right. The right people didnt do it.


7 posted on 03/21/2019 12:52:52 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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I heard it closed down because somebody kept pilfering the tips


8 posted on 03/21/2019 2:06:22 AM PDT by dsrtsage (For Leftists, World History starts every day at breakfast)
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1

Didn’t Obummer’s economic advisor promoting this just commit suicide?

The same should apply to his ideas.


9 posted on 03/21/2019 2:53:35 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1; j. earl carter
The headline is wrong.

According to the article that j. earl carter posted, the same guy owned the Coffee Shop and the resturaunt next door called Flats Fix, and while the Coffee Shop was closing, Flats Fix was to remain open.

Flats Fix is where AOC bartended.

10 posted on 03/21/2019 2:56:08 AM PDT by Yo-Yo ( is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1

20 years ago this was a great after hours spot. It absolutely looked like a normal diner, but everyone knew it was a bar. It’s a pity that an institution like this that gave the city character was forced tp fold. The place ran on tips, and there were tips aplenty.

It’s also worth noting that right across the street from the bar in the square was (and probably remains) a vibrant market for illegal drugs.


11 posted on 03/21/2019 2:56:44 AM PDT by Lemon Curry
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To: j. earl carter

To continue with the text of the article, they found:

“Nearly three-quarters of these US-based economists oppose a federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour.

“The majority of surveyed economists believe a $15.00 per hour minimum wage will have negative effects on youth employment levels (83 percent), adult employment levels (52 percent), and the number of jobs available (76 percent).

“When economists were asked what effect a $15.00 per hour minimum wage will have on the skill level of entry-level positions, 8 out of 10 economists (80 percent) believe employers will hire entry-level positions with greater skills.

“When economists were asked what effect a $15.00 per hour minimum wage will have on small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, nearly 7 out of 10 economists (67 percent) believe it would make it harder for them to stay in business.”

What about the “universal basic income”? Two countries, Canada and Finland, recently tried it. Both stopped.


12 posted on 03/21/2019 3:00:01 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: Califreak

Yep. She’s going to want her bartending job back, because queen bee Pelosi is going to have her primaried out post Amazon. She’s a one-term and out.


13 posted on 03/21/2019 3:35:57 AM PDT by OrioleFan (Republicans believe every day is July 4th, Democrats believe every day is April 15th.)
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To: pepsionice

I was just reading earlier an ad for the Korig alcoholic drink dispenser being released, so you’re probably right on target about walking up to a machine to get dispensed a manhattan. Imagine larger units - with breathalizers attached - over the BA limit and no drinky dispensed


14 posted on 03/21/2019 4:02:06 AM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
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To: Yo-Yo

“Flats Fix is where AOC bartended.”

I feel like such a dope. I wasted too much time looking up some diner in NYC and now I find out it was the wrong place. From now on, I don’t look up anything about New York unless it involves the Ramones:

https://youtu.be/YJ7MH7oecK0


15 posted on 03/21/2019 4:04:16 AM PDT by j. earl carter
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1
Here is the entire op-ed by Larry Elder
The brilliant Thomas Sowell, when in college, considered himself a Marxist. Asked what changed him, Sowell said, "Evidence."

After completing undergrad at Harvard and obtaining a master's in economics, Sowell landed a summer internship with the Department of Labor. While there, he researched the impact of minimum wage law on employment. Sowell learned two things, both of which he found startling. First, minimum wage laws create job loss by pricing the unskilled out of the labor force. Second, Sowell discovered that "the people in the labor department really were not interested in that, because the administration of the minimum wage was supplying one-third of the money that was keeping the labor department going. ... I realized that institutions have their own agendas and their own incentives." In short, Sowell found that the Department of Labor did not care about the real-world effects of the minimum wage law. He credits this experience, this search for evidence, with having the "biggest" impact on his thinking.

The left refers to the skeptics of "climate change" alarmism as "anti-science." But when it comes to left-wing passions like the $15 minimum wage, a "universal basic income" and the "wealth tax," it is the left that ignores evidence.

Among those calling for a $15 minimum wage is self-described Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Before her election to Congress, Ocasio-Cortez worked at as a bartender at a popular New York bar in Union Square called The Coffee Shop. How popular? Investor's Business Daily said the bar was "frequented by A-list celebrities and featured on 'Sex and the City.'" Despite its popularity, The Coffee Shop went out of business last year. Its co-owner, Charles Milite, cited as the primary reason the city's minimum wage law. "The minimum wage is going up," said Milite, "and we have a huge number of employees." Economists have long studied the impact of minimum wage laws. The Employment Policies Institute is a Washington, D.C., based nonprofit organization that studies public policy issues pertaining to employment growth. It is managed by an economist formerly with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As to the $15 minimum wage, a 2015 EPI-commissioned survey of economists found:

"Nearly three-quarters of these US-based economists oppose a federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour.

"The majority of surveyed economists believe a $15.00 per hour minimum wage will have negative effects on youth employment levels (83 percent), adult employment levels (52 percent), and the number of jobs available (76 percent).

"When economists were asked what effect a $15.00 per hour minimum wage will have on the skill level of entry-level positions, 8 out of 10 economists (80 percent) believe employers will hire entry-level positions with greater skills.

"When economists were asked what effect a $15.00 per hour minimum wage will have on small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, nearly 7 out of 10 economists (67 percent) believe it would make it harder for them to stay in business." What about the "universal basic income"? Two countries, Canada and Finland, recently tried it. Both stopped.

In Canada, the experiment was tried in the province of Ontario. According to the Washington Times: "The Ontario experiment was a particularly generous version of a UBI. Eligible individuals could receive $17,000 (Canadian; about 13,000 U.S. dollars today) minus half of any earned income. A couple could receive $24,000. And people with disabilities could get as much as $23,000. For the Ontario pilot, only low-income folks participated, and their benefits replaced unemployment insurance, the state pension and disability payments." The program, begun in 2017, was supposed to last three years. But the government of Ontario, citing costs, ended it after just 15 months. About the experiment, one researcher said, "We just don't have any data to know whether it was working or not." The Finnish two-year experiment started in 2017. A random group of 2,000 unemployed 25 to 58-year-old Finns received a monthly income of about $650, no strings attached. But Finland did not renew the program. A preliminary review found no positive effect on employment as to the first year. But one prominent proponent, a professor at Finland's University of Turku, said, "The whole truth is much more complex, we need many more studies and research to find out." The Finnish two-year experiment started in 2017. A random group of 2,000 unemployed 25 to 58-year-old Finns received a monthly income of about $650, no strings attached. But Finland did not renew the program. A preliminary review found no positive effect on employment as to the first year. But one prominent proponent, a professor at Finland's University of Turku, said, "The whole truth is much more complex, we need many more studies and research to find out."

16 posted on 03/21/2019 4:25:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Yo-Yo

It’s Restaurant, not Resturaunt, just saying.


17 posted on 03/21/2019 4:28:42 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1
"The whole truth is much more complex, we need many more studies and research to find out."

Of course. The only outcome of ALL government studies will be that more money is needed for more government studies. It would be silly to reach a conclusion, since that means the money will end. I don't recall any parts of the constitution saying the government is to provide money for "studies".

18 posted on 03/21/2019 4:53:53 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Calm down and enjoy the ride, great things are happening for our country)
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To: DeathBeforeDishonor1

After several years of watching John Taffer I’ve concluded that bars close down either due to rampaging employee theft, or long lists of egregious health code violations.


19 posted on 03/21/2019 6:12:36 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Kaslin
Got it, thanks!

Bart Simpson

20 posted on 03/21/2019 6:29:10 AM PDT by Yo-Yo ( is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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