What follows isn’t the usual case for why government marketplace interventions backfire. It’s the simpler, less comfortable reason they keep getting proposed in the first place — and why that reason should make all of us a little more skeptical, regardless of where we land on the policy itself.
Take the proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, introduced the idea last week, saying, “There is no reason that somebody should go to work full-time and not be able to pay their bills.” It’s a clean, practiced line. Most Americans would nod along.
But Murphy didn’t stop there. Days later, on Meet the Press, he said what the bill was actually for: “This is the kind of idea that shows that the Democratic Party is ready to fundamentally change this economy. And I think this is the kind of idea that brings Trump voters over.”
That’s not a policy argument. That’s a turnout strategy. And too often, it’s the strategy that drives eve…
