The living wage is a favorite policy of progressives. They hope to reduce inequality. The progressive argument is that taxpayers fund subsidies and should therefore government should be able to demand the structure of wages.

Running the subsidy machine reduces total wealth.

Hidden only to those who don’t believe in free markets

From PowerLineBlog

I was startled to hear recently that we’re making so much ethanol now that we’re exporting the stuff.  Ethanol production soared 719 percent over the last decade—see Figure 1—and since ethanol receives a 45 cents per gallon tax credit, you can see how the tax subsidies have soared to about $6 billion a year.  But why are we exporting the stuff, and more to the point, if we’re exporting the stuff, why should there by a 54 cents a gallon import tariff to protect this supposedly “infant” industry?