Milton Friedman destroys the concept of minimum wage.

It's no secret that I think that anytime the government tries to legislate morality that it is always a big flop with results that pretty much fly in the face of the stated goals.  Over the years I have come to understand the insidious nature of these things, including the minimum wage laws.  Back in the 70s when Friedman was in his prime, I was too young, too busy, too whatever to care about his kind of talk.  Because of this I missed out on the teachings of a great man of clear vision.   Friedman, I have since found through the wonder of YouTube, was the anti-Greenspan.  Greenspan was the grand daddy of fed speak which is to say that he purposely spewed confusing double talk in order to avoid tough questions or to avoid telling the truth.  He counted on his lofty words going over the heads of a sleepy population.

In any case, I have pointed to Mish's explanations of the stupidity of accepting minimum wage laws but in this video which obviously predates Mish I think Friedman does a fantastic job of laying out the facts.  What I especially like about it is that Friedman identifies two groups working together to push these things.  The loudest, most visible group are the do gooders as Friedman calls them.  They have been conned into thinking that they are making positive social change, sticking it to to the evil corporations, etc.  These people are well intentioned and passionate but, unfortunately, too caught up in their own issues to see that they are being used as patsies.

The puppet masters pulling their strings are the unions.  Friedman explains how the unions benefit from the fake, government driven morality game. 

I have another take on this.  When government acts like it is taking care of the people's best interests, the people lay back and accept this "free" benefit even though they would be much better off demanding their own minimum wage based on skills and capabilities.  Instead, every young person gets painted with the same minimum wage brush and is taught that this is the way it is.

Government has too big a role in our society.  It is currently legislating everything including our morality.  But I think this is at a peak and the cycle down has begun.  The cure for big government is big government.  The herd needs to push the bureaucrats aside and get on with the business of living.  They have no leadership to offer anymore, only bureaucracy which is administered at what always devolves to gunpoint.  Throw the bums out and replace them with nobody.