Uneasy Rhetoric

There is a small deblogate (n. a conglomeration of blog and debate) on whether the federal Earned Income Tax Credit or the Minimum Wage is better for low-income workers.

I am a strong advocate for both a stable, inflation-adjusted wage floor and for a refundable Earned Income Tax Credit, not for economic reasons (economics would tend to indicate that minimum wages drive up prices and down employment while the EITC discourages wage mobility).

People gotta live. The minimum wage acknowledges that labor has value beyond its production — that labor is in fact an individual, a worker, who must have certain things in order to live and remain productive. The EITC acknowledges that the minimum wage by itself cannot provide for many low-wage families (especially those with children), and it acknowleges that government policy imposing a flat (really, a regressive) tax for Social Security and Medicare harms low-income workers.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. It’s a fun debate and there’s an increasing amount of thought being put into it. I could write more, but am nearing exhaustion. Maybe later.

Here are the links:

From Maxspeak

From Matthew Yglesias

From Nathan Newman

And, of course, my source for this debate.