As Parker Beauregard proved once again yesterday, when preening politicians force businesses, in this case grocery store workers in Long Beach, Calif., to pay their workers higher wages – for the workers’ own good, of course – the workers lose.
Indeed, just about everyone loses. Except the politicians.
In this case, the grocery store workers lost their jobs. The residents in the neighborhoods where these grocery stores were located lost the convenience of having reliable, well stocked grocery stores serving a wide variety of fresh food close by. The city lost the tax revenue the stores generated. The residents of the city will lose money or services because the city will have to charge higher taxes or reduce services to compensate for lost tax revenue. The remaining stores will increase prices to cover their increased labor costs.
Indeed, so the only winners will be the politicians, who will pat themselves on the back as they compliment themselves for their own wonderfulness.
Something similar is occurring in my city, hundreds of miles from Long Beach, Calif.
When the minimum wage increased, a local grocery chain, Target, Home Depot, and a number of other stores reduced the number of full-service checkout lanes and 10 items or fewer checkout lanes while greatly expanding the self-checkout lanes.- READ MORE
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