Verbatim Libertarians: The Minimum Wage is More Racist than Donald Sterling or Cliven Bundy
By Libertarians are very special people.
Racist rants by federal lands moocher Cliven Bundy and vile comments attributed to Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling have put old-school racism back in the news.
But let’s get real. However contemptible, Bundy and Sterling aren’t what’s holding down blacks and other minorities in today’s America.
Here are three policies that, whatever their original intentions, systematically screw over poor blacks and other minorities.
They include:
1. Barriers to work.
Whether it’s absurd licensing laws for at-home hair braiders, day care operators, and other small-time entrepreneurs or minimum wage laws that price young, unskilled black kids out of their first jobs, barriers to the labor market take their biggest toll on those with the least education, skills, and professional connections.
So paying people even a subliving wage is racist. The truly antiracist position is a race to the bottom with no floor. I guess that evens the playing field in one respect–if nobody is paid anything to work, there’s no racial wage disparity. A post-racial society indeed.