One of the concepts that most excites the Progressive base is government-mandated minimum wages.  As good Progressives, both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have promised their supporters that if they are elected, they will raise the federal minimum wage to $15.00 per hour. They've now got competition, because Tom Steyer, a billionaire desperate to save the world from climate change, has announced that if he becomes president, he'll instantly raise the minimum wage to $22.00 per hour.  On its face, this seems like a terrible idea, but there's probably some logic driving it. Once upon a time, when it was still an actual newspaper, rather than a media organ for the Democrat Progressive party, the New York Times could be intelligent — and that was certainly the case in January 1987, when it challenged pressure from unions to raise the federal minimum wage, then set at $3.35 per hour.  In an article appropriately titled...(Read Full Post)