On Gaudete Sunday, I did not need to read this op-ed by George Will first thing in the morning to cast a damper on the day. It is not just snarky and condescending, it is that Will perfectly evidences the thing Pope Francis is railing against, the de-personalization of the economy. Will writes:
If you think today’s 7 percent unemployment rate is too low. (It would be 10.9 percent if the workforce participation rate were as high as it was when Obama was first inaugurated; since then, millions of discouraged workers have stopped searching for jobs.) Because less than 3 percent of the workforce earns the minimum wage, increasing that wage will not greatly increase unemployment. Still, raising the price of low-productivity workers will somewhat reduce demand for them.
If you reject that last sentence. If you do, name other goods or services for which you think demand is inelastic when their prices increase.
You see the problem? A human person is not a commodity, not one of the "goods and services" that we all acknowledge the market is best suited for determining the price. If a wage of those who make the goods or deliver the services is not a living wage, the price is not accurate by any human, moral calculation. This is Will at his worst, unwittingly bowing down before the dismal science. He should know better.
