Think tanks

Think tanks

Cry Wolf Quotes

The problem is raising the minimum wage actually hurts, not helps, low-income workers. Minimum wage laws make it illegal to have a job that pays below the government mandated limit. If that wage is more than a job provider will pay for a certain job, then no worker can get—or keep—that job.

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Martin, Catherine, Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
03/01/1999 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

The increased cost of labor is folded into a bid for a state contract that is then passed on to the state government (which is funded by taxpayers).

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Carl Gipson, Director, Center for Small Business.
03/01/2007 | Full Details | Law(s): Living Wage

The bottom line remains that employers will have little motivation to hire low-skilled workers—those whose inexperience and lack of productivity does not warrant a wage meeting or exceeding the proposed living wage amount. These workers, who most desperately need experience, will be the ones left most vulnerable. Instead of being able to establish a foothold in the job market, they will have to rely on other means to provide for themselves—most often state-assisted.

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Carl Gipson, Director, Center for Small Business.
03/01/2007 | Full Details | Law(s): Living Wage

Mandatory recycling creates waste and destroys wealth without solving any "problems." It is the equivalent of Soviet planning: the state first micromanages an economic activity and then builds an elaborate system of controls and subsidies to sustain it. Resources are wasted to generate recyclables, and then resources are wasted to encourage their use.

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Cato Institute