I Predict That In The Years Ahead

Raising The Minimum Wage And Lowering The Barriers To Union Organization Would Carry A Trade-off - Higher Unemployment. A Better Idea Is To Have The Government Subsidize Low-wage Employment. The Earned-income Tax Credit For Low-income Workers - Which Has Been The Object Of Proposed Cuts By Both President Clinton And Congressional Republicans - Has Been A Positive Step In This Direction.

For Decades The G.o.p. Has Won Elections By Appealing To Social And Racial Divisions, Only To Turn After Each Victory To Deregulation And Tax Cuts For The Wealthy — A Process That Reached Its Epitome When George W. Bush Won Re-election By Posing As America's Defender Against Gay Married Terrorists, Then Announced That He Had A Mandate To Privatize Social Security.

So What Are The Effects Of Increasing Minimum Wages? Any Econ 101 Student Can Tell You The Answer: The Higher Wage Reduces The Quantity Of Labor Demanded, And Hence Leads To Unemployment.

What Our Economy Needs Is Direct Job Creation By The Government And Mortgage-debt Relief For Stressed Consumers. What It Very Much Does Not Need Is A Transfer Of Billions Of Dollars To Corporations That Have No Intention Of Hiring Anyone Except More Lobbyists.

When Depression Economics Prevails, The Usual Rules Of Economic Policy No Longer Apply: Virtue Becomes Vice, Caution Is Risky And Prudence Is Folly.