From sin taxes to tariffs to minimum wages, politicians of all stripes want to set prices. And you pay.
A. Barton Hinkle writes:
You probably couldn’t get New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and President Trump to agree on the time of day. But on the question of prices they are of one mind. Both of them think they know better than others what stuff should cost.
De Blasio recently boasted he will raise (apparently by decree) the price of a pack of cigarettes to $13—”the highest price in the country.” The New York Times said his goal “is to persuade or coerce 160,000 of the 900,000 New York City residents who smoke to stop doing so by 2020.”
De Blasio clearly understands the law of supply and demand: When you raise prices, demand falls. But he evidently hasn’t applied that lesson to labor; he supports raising the minimum wage to $15 (which, incidentally, would help the poor afford cigarettes again). Advocates of minimum wage hikes like to claim raising the price of labor doesn’t affect the demand for it. They’re about as convincing as skeptics of climate change.
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