I'm intrigued. Obviously minimum incomes are the best way to go, but it will be an interesting experiment, especially on a statewide level where it will be harder to avoid the minimum wage like it would be in Seattle.
Min wage is the worst way to go, and the Left's obsession with economic suicide can seemingly be explained by Freudian death wish. Raising minimum wages makes your labor force uncompetitive with other low-cost labor forces (in the US or outside of the US). Furthermore, governments that raise minimum wage abdicate their social responsibility and place it on private sector business. Private businesses are simplified mono-dimensional organizations that exist to maximize profit. They are not equipped or optimized to handle macro-socioeconomic problems.
If the government works to reduce the cost of labor to the private sector, employment and labor force will increase. Full employment will put upward pressure on wages to mitigate the cost of labor subsidization.
So do you suggest abolishing the minimum wage and establishing sweatshops to better compete with China?
Well, that probably would be one of the most effective ways of stopping firms from outsourcing jobs in certain sectors (though most of those jobs have probably gone anyway). From a purely theoretical standpoint.
