Another Dispatch From the Front in the Fight for $15

The latest news from the front in the ongoing war
that the libs call The Fight for $15 (a minimum wage 
of $15 per hour):  

A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic
Research revealed that as the federal minimum wage
rose from 1989-2013, small businesses in states which
set their state minimum wages at higher levels than
the federal level suffered "lower bank credit, higher
loan defaults, lower employment, a lower entry (rate)
and a higher exit rate." The analysis by three professors
at the Georgia Institute of Technology shows that many
states (now over half of them) have so set their minimums,
making for a fine control group for this study carried out
to answer the question "When the U.S. minimum wage
goes up, how do the states where it applies fare in  
comparison?"  

It began with data on one million loans, averaging 
approximately $100,000, made through the Small Business
Administration. For each $1 increase in the minimum
wage, the authors estimated that loan amounts fell 9% more
in the affected states. The risk of default was 12% higher
there. The average credit score for small businesses in those
states showed "a sharp decline". Business entries fell 4%
in the year the minimum wage rose; a year later, business
exits climbed 5%. While controlling for local economic
conditions, the results held up well throughout various
statistical analyses. In businesses such as restaurants and
retail, which depend on low-skilled labor, the effects
proved stronger. Smaller and younger businesses were
also more adversely affected. And there is no cost-of-
living adjustment involved; a $15 per hour minimum wage
would apply equally to a swanky Hollywood, California 
restaurant as it would to a family eatery in Hollywood, Florida. 

Relative Democrat moderates, including newly-declared
presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, support raising
the minimum wage to the progressive's desired $15.
The difficulties of many small businesses across the country
struggling to make payroll and grow at the same time mean
nothing to them. Bloomberg began his career in the world of
investments and high finance and built his media firm,
Bloomberg LP, with the massive amount of money he made
from his earlier endeavors, so he cannot possibly understand,
let alone identify with the small business entrepreneurs
straining to build their businesses; the other Democrats
wear ideological eyeshades which keep the shining light of
the facts of the matter from their beady eyes which know only
the dark recesses and boundaries of their political dogma.

And they know of the struggles of the paltry-skilled and unskilled
workers not from hunger, but starvation. But as you, my ever-alert
and aware readers know, the lefties scrupulously avoid confusing
the issues with the facts. They find that their avoidance makes 
things so much easier for them to deal with. 


MEM