I must say I’ve been toying with this conclusion myself lately. I’m not decided yet, but I think it’s worth pondering:
Jonah,
Every time the minimum wage is on the ballot or part of a campaign, we lose. Further, while they are bad economics, relatively low minimum wages are not THAT bad. So conservatives need to push for simply getting this issue settled so it doesn’t keep coming up. We should agree to a $7.50 minimum wage that automatically goes up with the CPI just like Social Security payments, or perhaps instead indexed to average wage growth. This would be like liberals agreeing to constitutional amendments against gay marriage just to keep from getting hit every time. The difference is that they really really care about eventually getting gay marriage. We, on the other hand, don’t (or shouldn’t) care about permanently being stuck with a relatively low minimum wage.
Cheers.