I happened to attend an event in which a candidate for congress spoke to a small group of very friendly to him people. Among other things, he expressed a plan to increase the minimum wage. To what was unsaid. During an individual meet and greet/QA, I got to ask him a followup question.
'How will a minimum wage program account for the difference in the cost of living between Manhattan and rural New York?'
'That is a really good question; I'm not an economist. I'd like to have a non-partisan group of economic experts look into issues like that and present solutions that are implemented outside of politics.'
I'm sure with this group the feeling of being the only sane person in the room is something we have all experienced. Given that I would probably have to surrender my plate of Hors d'oeuvres if I did something rude, I moved aside for the next person to speak and shake hands rather than rail into him about passing policies to feel and sound good rather than caring about actual impact; and the rampant hostility to the entire notion of a representative democracy in this notion of creating an unaccountable bureaucracy to make the real decisions.
I know with my wife's family I've given a few lectures on how that and similar policies actually deepen the poverty pit, making it harder for folks to escape it... which increases reliance on gov, which expands gov, which increases reliance on gov, which ect ect. I generally get thoughtful agreement at the time, but group think brainwashing back to the status quo by the time the next family event rolls around.
