We have a beautiful campus.
For this, we can and should thank our Career Service Employees. From the Shakespeare Garden to Farber Hall, USD's service employees work hard to keep this place looking its best.
Recently, these employees have been the epicenter of campus debate with their recent demand for higher wages.
Likewise, service employees around the nation have often clamored for an increase in wage. While unquestionably well-intentioned, the policy they support - essentially a higher minimum wage - may actually be harmful to their cause.
To illustrate this case, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman used a simple example. Suppose a man possesses a skill that justifies a wage of $3.50. Under current minimum wage law, he must be paid $5.85. To employ him at $5.85 is effectively engaging in charity.
He continued, "Now there's nothing wrong with charity. But most employers are not in a position where they can engage in that kind of charity. Thus, the consequences of minimum wage rates have been almost wholly bad, to increase unemployment and to increase poverty."
This seems counterintuitive. If the problem is that people are being paid low wages, why shouldn't the government just intervene and raise them? It seems so simple!
Well, it's not that simple.
What about citizens' economic freedom? What about the fact that there exist more efficient policies that are actually aimed at helping the poor, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit?
Despite these concerns, many elected officials still support minimum wage laws.
In a recent Volante article, South Dakota State Senator Ben Nesselhuf said, "The mentality in Pierre is 'get as much as you can for as little as you can.' That's not the way to do it."
Senator, asking the government to operate more like a charity and less like a business does not suggest a keen interest in efficient government.
If the government is interested in helping poor people of this state, there are many other policy options that do not have the potential for putting poor people out of work.
Despite what sanctimonious politicians and "champion of the downtrodden" college journalists tell us, the minimum wage is arbitrary and unfair. Forcing employers to pay employees above their marginal contribution to a product or service is not a remedy for social injustice, but is, in itself, an injustice.
Two economic actors like a laborer and an employer will only engage in economic activity that is in the best interest of both parties. If wages are too low, the laborer has the freedom to go elsewhere for employment. Similarly, if wages are too high due a minimum wage law, the employer has the freedom to higher fewer laborers.
The minimum wage destroys citizens' freedom to trade their labor at rates they desire. Renowned economist Henry Hazlitt said it best: "You cannot make a man worth a given amount by making it illegal for anyone to offer him less."
The sooner legislators in Pierre and Washington realize this, the better.
Reach columnist Matt Hittle at Matt.Hittle@usd.edu.
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