There's a big push from the progressive voices in our country to increase minimum wage. At face value, the idea sounds great, sounds noble even. But, leaving ideology and populism aside. What has history shown us? What can we learn from the past?

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Controlling profits

There are some who argue that it's the government business to make sure that all people and all corporations are paying their fair share of taxes. Again, something that we all accept as the current reality, regardless of our political inclinations. But precisely where we draw the line, where we say this is "fair" or this is "not fair" is our point of disagreement here.

To me the argument that a company or a business just made "too much money" is flawed from the start. Too much according to who? The mere notion that we can convince people, that we can persuade CEOs and entrepreneurs to make less because "It's the moral thing to do", is nothing but virtue signaling.

In other words, measuring what is "too much" cannot be done with our personal biases at all. And, truthfully there is no effective way of comparing different areas of market either. For example, to put Mcdonald's Corporation's profits as a standard for measuring "too much" is to ignore the simple fact that most restaurants are franchises who do make profits of course, but do not partake of the pie that Corporate Mcdonalds bakes as a company that owns massive amounts of real estate.

So the question becomes: How can we control profits? Are we arguing for a restructuring of franchise fees and performance kickbacks? - The point being is that the subject is complex and so specific to niche markets that thinking that we can fix all the problems with a blanket policy like increasing the minimum wage, is just naive.

I'll get a robot for that...

I've talked about automation for more than a couple of years now. I, like plenty of other people out there, have seen with my own eyes the effects that the advancement of technology is having in our labor force, and don't pretend to hold on to nostalgic ideas of the "good ol' days".

Since we are undoubtedly moving in that direction. What do you think will happen when we force wages to be raised to $15? Yes, in some case we will see some companies adapt, take the hit, so to speak, but is that the norm or the outlier?

We don't have to look far to see this taking effect already. In the big apple something like this already happened. The populist idea won, a union took control, demanded change and guess what? They got it. So how are they doing now?

I would encourage you to watch the video, but if you are feeling too lazy to do so: Robots won. Yet again. Yes, some people now wash cars on the streets, but that's not the norm, and definitely not the outcome anyone wanted to see. The idea was the these "Evil Business Owners" would finally pay the employees a "living wage".

Markets are Dictators

What I mean when I say this is this: You can't impose your will on a market. People either buy the products, contract the services or they don't. I can claim that my garden pineapples are worth $20 each, and even have the "evidence" to back it up, but if the market pays only $3 per fruit, the one who is failing here is me, by not cutting my costs of production.

Do you see where I'm going with this? The notion that if we raise wages using a blanket policy, it will all of the sudden boost the economy all around, is not taking into account that there's a big possibility that people won't feel too happy about paying $10 for a cheeseburger.

Now, if you think you can both: Make businesses pay their employees more, and tell them to keep their prices low, you are literally drinking delusional kool aid. The chances that prices will increase are very high, and that some of the businesses will end up closing shop even higher, more so when the market says: "A cheeseburger is not worth 10 bucks".

Slave wages

I know the argument from the more left leaning minds is that the point here is to help people who are being paid starvation wages. I agree, they are struggling and it does seem somewhat horrible that nations that have so much wealth, still have poverty.

I think that the existence of a minimum wage law came to be precisely because of abuses committed by less than ethical employers. But, I also suspect that it's always meant to work as a floor, not as an optimal median for middle class. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Of course we would want to see a stronger middle class and for that prosperity is a must, but not at the expense of meritocracy. So, if we strip all vestiges of a meritocratic system, with the noble intentions of helping those in need. Are we really helping them at all?