Over the weekend, the Journal’s front page carried an interesting article on the difficulties facing young people in finding gainful employment.
It is no surprise that unemployment rates for young people are higher than for the general population. These are, after all, unskilled workers with short employment histories and lower education levels as a group. But, the sad thing is that minimum wages force employers to either overpay young people or not hire them at all. In a weak economy, they tend to not hire at all.
Economist Walter Williams, a national treasure in my opinion, was on John Stossel’s show last week. He explains in the following interview why things like minimum wages and licensing laws actually hurt minorities and young people by forcing them out of certain jobs:
It against NM law to hire someone for less then the minimum wage. As an individual I have the right to make a deal with an employer, but the employer can not deal with me. This interference by government is a form of violence and must cease. I thought we were a free market. We are not we are a socialist (totalitarian) country. We allowed this infamy to happen. Now we are all serfs.