Reihan Salam's recent stint at The New Republic's blog, &c., is some of the best stuff I've in quite a while. A sample:

Though not reflexively opposed to minimum wage laws, I tend to think that raising the minimum wage too sharply is likely to result in the exclusion of large numbers of people from formal labor markets. And in the shadow economy, poor people become more vulnerable to the depredations of employers far more unscrupulous than Wal-Mart...

Because some employees are too expensive to employ at higher wages--language barriers, a lack of schooling, disciplinary problems, and absenteeism are among the many factors that separate recent immigrants, those who grew up in severe poverty, and those who've been institutionalized from everyone else--they are more likely to be completely excluded, i.e., to join the ranks of the non-employed or under-employed, than they are to benefit from a steep statutory increase in the minimum wage. When you consider the very rigid labor markets found in Western Europe, where vast numbers of increasingly disaffected young people find themselves left behind without the social protections that come with holding a legal job, you can see the downside risks.

Now, I hate Wal-Mart as much as the next elite North-East liberal. But I recognize that the law should be based on more than my personal predjudices. So does Reihan Salam.

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