Brian Gongol
Jobs for young workers are important for creating career paths
It's not so important what particular job a young worker gets, so much as getting some kind of job at all. The early working years are more important for developing the basic skills of functioning in the workforce than for developing particular job-specific disciplines (though it certainly doesn't hurt). That's why proposals to raise the minimum wage should be greeted with deep skepticism. The intent behind raising the minimum wage is generally good -- people want low-wage working families to have a little less struggle. But since half of minimum-wage workers are young, raising those wages by law means invariably that employers will find substitutes. Anyone who's seen a self-checkout lane in a grocery store has participated in this substitution of technology for low-wage workers, so there's no denying that it happens. And if higher minimum wages means fewer job opportunities for young workers, then it creates a longer-term effect that depresses their future earnings potential. This is happening right now in Britain and France, and we're fools to risk it happening here in America, too. Helping low-wage families is better done through strategies like raising the Earned Income Tax Credit. We shouldn't let good intentions substitute for good policy.
Crews cleaning old hospital discover a skeleton they can't identify
"80 percent of MSNBC's ratings come from people who watch it for 150 minutes or more a day"
And roughly the same reportedly goes for Fox News. It can't be mentally healthy to spend that much time inside an echo chamber.
