Minimum Wage

Another silly debate about the minimum wage and the "I got mine" crowd wins again...barely.
Lots of "hurts the economy" talk. I have lived through a number of minimum wage increases. When I was a teenager I believe it was 1.60 an hour or something like that. All the same arguments are being made again. I never observed any of them to be true. This is just from my own eyes, own observances over the years. None of it happened. That is why I can't buy it. All that scary bad stuff ever happened in my lifetime. David Sirota, a fine populist says:

"In a comprehensive 2004 study, the nonpartisan Fiscal Policy Institute reported that since 1997, states that had boosted their minimum wage above the federal minimum actually created jobs faster than those that did not. In higher minimum wage states, employment grew by 50 percent more than it did in states still at the pathetic federal level. Even in tough economic times, the minimum wage doesn't hurt jobs: Princeton University economist David Card found that even the minimum wage increases during the 1990-91 recession 'were not associated with any measurable employment losses.' As Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (PA) once noted, "history clearly demonstrates that raising the minimum wage has no adverse impact on jobs."...In Oregon, for instance, the state raised its minimum wage in 1998, and the average earnings of newly-employed welfare recipients climbed by 9 percent, while the percentage of welfare recipients who found a job actually rose."

If giving people raises is hard on the economy then maybe Congress should repeal that pay raise they just gave themselves about a week ago. After all the balance sheet that they get paid from is looking mighty sickly right now. Guess it's not THAT big of a problem.