http://www.nationalreview.com/node/421716/print The Insidious Political Power of Minimum-Wage Laws
By Kevin D. Williamson — July 29, 2015
One of the great spectacles of the day is the sight of French workers engaged in violent protests, aggrieved that their economic positions are being undermined by the cheap labor of foreign workers — Germans, in this case.
A bit of advice for the workingmen of France: When the people who make Mercedes-Benz and Leica are the cheap foreign labor you’re complaining about, perhaps it is time to reconsider some basic economic assumptions.
The dispute pits the French farmers’ unions — because of course French farmers are unionized — against the German dairy cartel, which bears the Teutonically sinister-sounding name Milchindustrie Verband. It sounds like the sort of outfit that ought to employ Ernst Stavro Blofeld. In fact, everything sounds 27.5 percent more evil in German; a recent confrontation between German dairy farmers and commercial buyers featured the slogan “Milch Ist Macht!” — “Milk Is Power!”
continued
