wage subsidies are far better than the minimum wage (well, that is, if you're trying to help the working poor)

A great article on wage subsidies from the MI...

If govt is going to try to help the working poor: instead of a higher minimum wage, they should directly subsidize the wages of low-income, working, heads-of-household.

(Before that, I'd stop taxing the working poor through FICA and state income taxes, but that's a separate post. Besides, Dems are so passionate about pounding the working poor with $1,000's of income taxes every year. So let's let the Dems have their fun and focus on this proposal instead.)

Wage subsidies are better targeted than the MW-- only hitting the folks we're really trying to help. Subsidies don't make them more expensive/difficult to hire. (Or is that the point?) It doesn't create *any* unemployment among people who really need to work and get training.

Support for the MW is largely driven by a.) a lack of policy imagination; b.) labor market cartels (unions) who benefit from it; and c.) ignorance about the MW's racist origins and racist outcomes.