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By Larry Elder, Mar. 26, 2014
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti pats himself on the back for the
"public-private partnership" with Disney, which will double the scope
of his summer jobs youth program, providing 10,000 summer jobs for teenage
Angelenos, with thousands of the jobs at Disney.
Last year, according to the mayor, 15,000 teens applied for 5,000 jobs. "We had to tell them," said the mayor, "you are on your own."
Mr. Mayor, we're ALL on our own when it comes to finding a job. It's not the government's job to get us jobs. But government can help by encouraging risk-takers to invest in the city. To do that, Los Angeles needs to take a machete to the thicket of rules, regulations, permits, fees and taxes faced by entrepreneurial Angelenos.
Rather then spend time and energy setting up these so-called "public–private partnerships," the mayor should cut out the middleman and deal with the problem directly: Get rid of the job destroying minimum-wage laws!
In California, the minimum wage rises in July to $9 -- before hitting $10 in 2016.
The libertarian CATO Institute argues that after 1938 -- when the first minimum wage went into effect, 500,000 blacks lost jobs they otherwise would have had. Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman called minimum-wage laws "one of the most, if not the most, anti-black laws on the statute books."
And don't let anyone tell you, as local union leader Maria Elena Durazo does routinely, that an inflation adjusted minimum wage would be well over $10 an hour today.
Not if you start at the beginning.
The first minimum wage, in 1938, was $.25. Adjusted for inflation, it would be $4.07.
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"We had to tell them you are on your own". This is the problem with our local government, and I would argue State and Federal. This fear of telling people they are on their own. IT'S CALLED FREEDOM!
ReplyDeleteAs a youth, I used to spend my summers mowing lawns and cleaning yards. Some of my friends worked painting houses and doing odd jobs. No young person should be discouraged if they can't get a job through this effort. There are plenty of opportunities out there for those who really want to do something productive with their summer.
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