Raising the minimum wage wouldn't be a "disastrous decision" in large cities, but in other places around the country where there is a "very low standard wage," the plans could cause serious problems, economist Ben Stein told Newsmax TV on Saturday.
"I don't think it's a disastrous decision in San Francisco or Los Angeles or Manhattan or even Brooklyn or even Washington D.C., Stein told Newsmax TV's "The Count," but in other places, like where there are not "huge profit margins that the businesses can work with, it's a disaster."
Stein said Saturday that there should be a plan on raising the minimum wage that allows for the economic differences in different localities.
Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Jobs Creators Network, also appearing on the program, said he agrees with Stein, and that work must be done so on plans to raise the minimum wage in a way that doesn't destroy "an entire sector of our economy" through killing off small businesses that can't afford the pay hikes.
"Yes, 900,000 people would be pulled out of poverty," he said. "You know what else pulls people out of poverty? Economic prosperity. Between 2017 and 2019, almost more than seven times that number, 6.5 million people were pulled out of poverty because of our economic prosperity."
Stein, meanwhile, insisted that "there's almost no way guaranteed to be more harmful than raising the minimum wage all over the country at the same time."
He also said that he thinks the economy is already taking off well, despite the "devastating effect" of mandatory shutdowns, thanks to former President Donald Trump's policies, but "throwing enormous amounts of money" at the problem is not the answer.
Stein further said that the Democrats, who he called the "handmaiden of the teachers' unions" have the wrong idea of throwing money at education will make the economy grow, and that spending the money isn't proven.
"Mr. Biden and his friends think there's an unlimited pot of money to throw at these problems," he said. "There isn't. At some point, the government is going to go bankrupt."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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