Up front, the minimum wage should be less than zero. Some say it should be zero, but as Oklahoma State professor Per Bylund once explained it to me, individuals should have the right to pay someone to work for them. Think about it. If the only way to work for Jeff Bezos was to pay him, wouldn’t you?

Speaking of Bezos, or the city where Amazon is headquartered, one of the best known fast-food institutions there is Dick’s Drive-In. It’s excellent.

Notable about my recent visit to Dick’s was a sign in the window. It announced starting wages of $20/hour, with a boost to $25/hour once a worker is fully trained. Other benefits include $28,000 for schooling and/or childcare. What do these numbers tell us? Many things really, but most notably that on the matter of the minimum wage, Left and Right pander to their flocks mindlessly. Let’s beat up on the Left first.

They claim businesses "exploit," that they exert “pricing power” that results in insufficient pay. A visit to Dick’s explodes the notion. These very clean hamburger stands are a marvel of operational genius, but ultimately they’re hamburger stands. Yet at these stands workers putting in 40 hour weeks can earn over $50,000/annually in addition to benefits mentioned. Exploitation? Let’s be serious.

From there politicians pandering to the Left promise to institute ever more generous “minimum wage” laws. $15/hour has been the number thrown out a lot in modern times, yet as Dick’s reminds us, businesses don’t require a law....

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