Me, Bernie, and Minimum Wage | Walter Block

Dr. Walter Block, a childhood classmate of Bernie Sanders, dissects one of the treasured sacred cows of Seattle's latte-Left: minimum wage laws.

Recorded at "Contra Krugman: Demolishing the Economic Myths of the 2016 Election": the Mises Circle at Seattle's historic Town Hall, on 21 May 2016. Special thanks to the Harvey Allison family for making this event possible.

Presidential candidates promise everything from living wages to free health care and college. Proposals about how to run whole segments of the economy are made with a straight face. The most tired and hackneyed ideas about income equality, corporate greed, creating jobs, and paying one's fair share of taxes are trotted out. And millions of voters apparently believe it all, falling for the same promises of free stuff and prosperity from Washington.

How do political candidates get away with this nonsense, year after year and election after election? More importantly, what can we do as individuals to fight the entrenched economic illiteracy that keeps politicians in business?