OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 20, 2015
Liberals and wages
Founded in 1873
haven’t
kept
found, if anything, a positive effect.
up
invoking
Their result has since been con-
this
story
as
if
¿UPHG XVLQJ GDWD IURP PDQ\ HSL-
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
sodes. There’s just no evidence that
illary Clinton gave her it were obvi-
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
raising the minimum wage costs
ously
true.
But
¿UVW ELJ HFRQRPLF VSHHFK
jobs, at least when the starting point
the case for
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
Monday, and progressives “ s k i l l - b i a s e d
is as low as it is in modern America.
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
ZHUHE\DQGODUJHJUDWL¿HG)RU technological
How can this be? There are sev-
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
eral answers, but the most import-
Clinton’s core message was change” as the
ant is probably that the market for
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
that the federal government can main driver of
labor isn’t like the market for, say,
wage stagnation
Paul
DQGVKRXOGXVHLWVLQÀXHQFHWR has largely fall-
wheat, because workers are people.
Krugman
And because they’re people, there
push for higher wages.
en apart. Most
Conservatives, however — notably, high levels of education DUH LPSRUWDQW EHQH¿WV HYHQ WR WKH
at least those who could stop have offered no guarantee of rising employer, from paying them more:
incomes — for example, wages of better morale, lower turnover, in-
chanting “Benghazi! Benghazi! recent college graduates, adjusted FUHDVHGSURGXFWLYLW\7KHVHEHQH¿WV
Benghazi!” long enough to pay IRU LQÀDWLRQ KDYH EHHQ ÀDW IRU largely offset the direct effect of
attention — seemed bemused. years.
higher labor costs, so that raising
Meanwhile, our understanding the minimum wage needn’t cost
They believe that Ronald Reagan
proved that government is the of wage determination has been jobs after all.
The direct takeaway from this
problem, not the solution. So transformed by an intellectual rev-
olution — that’s not too strong a intellectual revolution is, of course,
wasn’t Clinton just reviving de- word — brought on by a series of that we should raise minimum wag-
ontaminated soil is a headache for developers. funct “paleoliberalism”? And remarkable studies of what happens es. But there are broader impli-
Hazardous sites are also a frequent reality. Thus cit- don’t we know that government when governments change the min- cations, too: Once you take what
we’ve learned from minimum-wage
intervention in markets produces imum wage.
ies must be prepared to deal with them.
studies seriously, you realize that
More
than
two
decades
ago
the
terrible side effects?
Astoria has been successful in deal-
,QWKHGULYHWRGHYHORSWKLVEORFN
economists David Card and Alan they’re not relevant just to the low-
No, she wasn’t, and
est-paid workers.
LQJ ZLWK EURZQ¿HOG VLWHV 7KH PRVW Astoria’s high card is the Mill Pond.
QR
ZH
GRQ¶W
,Q
IDFW
For
employ-
prominent example is the Mill Pond, That reclamation caught the eye of
There’s
just
no
evidence
&OLQWRQ¶V VSHHFK UHÀHFW-
ers always face a
which was built on the site of the bank- WKHQDWLRQDOSUHVV,WSXWRXUFLW\RQ ed major changes, deep-
trade-off between
that raising the minimum
rupt Astoria Plywood Cooperative. WKHPDSLQWKH¿QDQFLDODQGVFLHQWLI- ly grounded in evidence,
low-wage
and
The plywood mill site was a night- ic world that tracks green projects. in our understanding of
higher-wage
strat-
wage costs jobs, at least
egies - between,
mare of environmental contamination What that means is that Astoria has what determines wages.
say, the traditional
when the starting point is
DQG¿QDQFLDOOLHQV,QWKHIDFHRIWKDW credibility when it comes to clean- And a key implication of
Wal-Mart model
that
new
understanding
challenge, city management and the up. Moreover, we have a reputation
as
low
as
it
is
in
modern
of paying as little
is that public policy can
City Council slowly and deliberately among regional funders for getting do a lot to help workers
as possible and
America.
ZRUNHGLWVZD\WKURXJKWKDWPLQH¿HOG the job done.
accepting
high
without bringing down
turnover and low
in the 1990s.
The essential component will be the wrath of the invisible
morale, and the
The city’s current challenge is the the City Council’s plans for Heritage hand.
Costco
model
of
higher pay and
Many
economists
used
to
think
Krueger
realized
that
when
an
in-
hole in the ground at Heritage Square. Square. As DePledge reported, those
of the labor market as being pretty dividual state raises its minimum benefits leading to a more stable
The hole occurred in 2010 when the concepts have changed over the years. much like the market for anything wage rate, it in effect performs workforce. And there’s every rea-
slab of the former Safeway store cra- Mayor Arline LaMear and councilors else, with the prices of different an experiment on the labor mar- son to believe that public policy
tered. Astorians are rightly impatient have mentioned the square as the site kinds of labor — that is, wage ket. Better still, it’s an experiment can, in a variety of ways — includ-
DWWKHVLJKWRIWKHKROH,WVKRXWVWREH for a prospective mixed-use develop- rates — fully determined by supply that offers a natural control group: ing making it easier for workers to
and demand. So if wages for many neighboring states that don’t raise organize — encourage more com-
¿OOHG0HDQZKLOHWKHKROHDOVRUDLVHV ment that would include a library.
the issue of the site’s contamination.
The thing about large renovation workers have stagnated or declined, their minimum wages. Card and panies to choose the good-wage
it must be because demand for their Krueger applied their insight by strategy.
One of the block’s prior residents was and restoration projects — such as the services is falling.
So there was a lot more behind
looking at what happened to the
a predecessor of this newspaper.
Mill Pond or the Liberty Theater — is
,Q SDUWLFXODU WKH FRQYHQWLRQDO fast-food sector — which is where &OLQWRQ¶V VSHHFK WKDQ , VXVSHFW
As Derrick DePledge reported that once they are complete, the public wisdom attributed rising inequal- the effects of the minimum wage most commentators realized. And
in last Thursday’s edition, the state forgets the years that went into their ity to technological change, which should be most pronounced — af- for those trying to play gotcha by
Department of Environmental Quality success. We have no doubt that day was raising the demand for highly ter New Jersey increased its min- pointing out that some of what
educated workers while devaluing imum wage but Pennsylvania did she said differed from ideas that
and the city are engaged in learning will come for Heritage Square.
prevailed when her husband was
blue-collar work. And there was not.
more about what’s in the dirt. City
Meanwhile, it is essential that the nothing much policy could do to
Until the Card-Krueger study, president, well, many liberals have
Manager Brett Estes displayed aware- City Council gives the rest of us a change the trend, other than aiding most economists, myself included, changed their views in response to
ness that citizens want to see progress clear intention about what’s going on low-wage workers via subsidies assumed that raising the minimum QHZ HYLGHQFH ,W¶V DQ LQWHUHVWLQJ
like the earned-income tax credit.
wage would have a clear negative experience; conservatives should
and some evidence of a solution.
the square.
You still see commentators who effect on employment. But they try it some time.
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
By PAUL KRUGMAN
New York Times News Service
H
What’s going on
Heritage Square?
In cleaning up contaminated sites,
Astoria’s high card is the Mill Pond
C
Enough is enough
Long Beach Fourth of July
was out of control
Listening to Ta-Nehisi Coates while white
caught in a
crushing logic,
determined by
the past, from
which there is
no escape.
You write
to your son,
³+HUHLVZKDW,
would like for
David
you to know:
Brooks
,Q $PHULFD LW
is traditional
to destroy the black body — it is
heritage.” The innocent world of
the dream is actually built on the
broken bodies of those kept down
below.
,I WKHUH ZHUH QR EODFN ERGLHV
to oppress, the affluent dreamers
“would have to determine how to
build their suburbs on something
other than human bones, how to
angle their jails toward something
other than a human stockyard,
how to erect a democracy inde-
pendent of cannibalism.”
Your definition of “white”
is complicated. But you write
to be misunderstood). You are il-
lustrating the perspective born of
the rage “that burned in me then,
t looks like Woodstock with a more law-abiding Rod Run crowd has
animates me now, and will likely
ear Ta-Nehisi Coates,
leave me on fire for the rest of my
vast payload of pyrotechnics. sometimes been made to feel they are
The last year has been an
days.”
in
a
minimum-security
prison,
when
education for white people. There
A video shot from a drone air-
,UHDGWKLVDOOOLNHDVODSDQGD
craft a few hundred feet above it is obvious that priorities must be has been a depth, power and rich-
UHYHODWLRQ
, VXSSRVH WKH ILUVW RE-
reversed to regain control of the July ness to the African-American
Long Beach, Wash., the night of
ligation is to sit with it, to make
Fourth beach. By statute a portion of
sure the testimony is respected
July 4 shows all anyone needs to WKHEHDFKLVGH¿QHGDVD:DVKLQJWRQ conversation about Ferguson,
DQG VLQNV LQ %XW , KDYH WR DVN
Baltimore,
Charleston
and
the
know about the situation.
VWDWH KLJKZD\ ,W LV WLPH IRU WKH other killings that has been hum-
$P,GLVSOD\LQJP\SULYLOHJHLI,
The beach is absolutely packed, Washington State Patrol to live up to
GLVDJUHH",VP\MREMXVWWRUHVSHFW
LQQXPHUDEOH DHULDO ¿UHZRUNV DUH JR- its responsibilities and position enough bling and instructive.
your experience and accept your
Your new book, “Between the
conclusions? Does a white person
ing off within feet of tinder-dry beach personnel here for the holiday to make
have standing to respond?
grass, clouds of smoke drift east and certain laws are obeyed and homicides World and Me,” is a great and
searing
contribution
to
this
pub-
,I,GRKDYHVWDQGLQJ,ILQGWKH
SDUWLDOO\ REVFXUH WKH WRZQ ,W ORRNV can’t occur with impunity.
OLF HGXFDWLRQ ,W LV D PLQGDOWHU-
causation between the legacy of
exciting — even beautiful in a way.
Garbage, too, is out of hand. A ing account of the black male
lynching and some guy’s decision
But few would want our 10 year old program of handing out trash bags at experience. Every conscientious
to commit a crime inadequate to
the complexity of most individual
down there dodging pickups, drunks beach approaches has been smart and American should read it.
choices.
There
is
a
pervasive
phys-
and falling debris. (See www.youtube. partially effective. The Grassroots
, WKLQN \RX GLVWRUW $PHULFDQ
icality
to
your
memoir
—
the
com/watch?v=yZ9tt7JCqfU)
Garbage Gang, Coast Savers and oth-
history. This country, like each
elemental vulnerability of liv-
Legendary as Woodstock was, it is er volunteers who pick up the bulk ing in a black body in America.
person in it, is a mixture of glo-
no wonder the little New York town of the wreckage are owed a thousand Outside African-American night-
ry and shame. There’s a Lincoln
GRHVQ¶WZHOFRPHDUHSHDWHDFK\HDU,W thanks. However, it is time to dramat- clubs, you write, “black people
for every Jefferson Davis and a
Harlem Children’s Zone for every
didn’t have policing, sanitation, park- ically ramp up law enforcement. State controlled nothing, least of all the
KKK — and usually vastly more
ing or other facilities to accommodate troopers circulating through the crowd fate of their bodies, which could
than one. Violence is em-
be
commandeered
by
such a throng of guests. Neither does handing out littering tickets would
bedded in America, but it
the police; which could
Is my job just to
have a considerable impact.
the Long Beach Peninsula.
is not close to the totality
be erased by the guns,
)RUGHFDGHV¿FNOHZHDWKHUDQGUH- which were so profli-
Some think as many as 100,000
of America.
respect
your
experience
people were on the Peninsula for the moteness encouraged business owners gate; which could be
,Q \RXU DQJHU DW WKH
tone of innocence some
and accept your
,QGHSHQGHQFH'D\ZHHNHQG7KRXJK and town leaders on the peninsula — raped, beaten, jailed.”
people adopt to describe
Written as a letter to
this seems likely to be an overestima- and the North Coast — to try to pack
conclusions?
Does
the American dream, you
your
son,
you
talk
about
as
many
tourists
as
possible
into
the
tion, attendance was clearly beyond
reject the dream itself as
the effects of pervasive
a white person have
the capacity of a set of small commu- peak season between July Fourth and IHDU ³:KHQ , ZDV \RXU
flimflam. But a dream sul-
nities with a total population of about Labor Day. This was understandable. DJH WKH RQO\ SHRSOH ,
lied is not a lie. The Amer-
standing
to
respond?
,WZDVIRUWXQDWHWKDWDPDMRULW\ And every future year isn’t likely to be knew were black and all
ican dream of equal op-
portunity, social mobility
of them were powerfully,
of visitors were either well behaved or as sunny and busy as this one.
and ever more perfect de-
adamantly,
dangerously
But
the
Long
Beach
Peninsula
FRQ¿QHGPLVEHKDYLRUWRWKHEHDFK
mocracy
cherishes the future more
afraid.”
“‘White
America’
is
a
syndicate
But a man lost his life under cir- Visitors Bureau is quite right in shifting
But the disturbing challenge arrayed to protect its exclusive WKDQ WKH SDVW ,W DEDQGRQV ROG
cumstances that are still murky, con- our marketing focus away from bring- of your book is your rejection of power to dominate and control our wrongs and transcends old sins for
cealed in a thick haze of inebriation ing people in during months when the the American dream. My ances- bodies. Sometimes this power is the sake of a better tomorrow.
and chaos. There were other incidents EHDFK LV DXWRPDWLFDOO\ SRSXODU ,W LV tors chose to come here. For them, direct (lynching), and sometimes
This dream is a secular faith that
that weren’t quite so disturbing but time to ramp up out-of-area publicity America was the antidote to the LWLVLQVLGLRXVUHGOLQLQJ´,QZKDW has unified people across every
which nevertheless shouldn’t have about our astounding scenery, wildlife, crushing restrictiveness of Europe- is bound to be the most quoted NQRZQ GLYLGH ,W KDV XQOHDVKHG
a place on a civilized West Coast in amazing food, art, culture and deep his- an life, to the pogroms. For them, passage from the book, you write ennobling energies and mobilized
heroic social reform movements.
6RXWK3DFL¿F&RXQW\LVQ¶WIURQ- tory. Lodging tax distributions should the American dream was an uplift- that you watched the smoldering By dissolving the dream under
ing spiritual creed that offered dig- towers of 9/11 with a cold heart.
tier Deadwood and isn’t obliged to put EHDGMXVWHGWRUHÀHFWWKLVSULRULW\
nity, the chance to rise.
At the time you felt the police and the acid of an excessive realism,
None of this means ending July
up with loutish behavior.
Your ancestors came in chains. firefighters who died “were men- you trap generations in the past
With the exception of the Fourth festivities. But it must return ,Q\RXUERRNWKHGUHDPRIWKHFRP- aces of nature; they were the fire, and destroy the guiding star that
well-staffed Long Beach Police to something that feels safe and wel- fortable suburban life is a “fairy the comet, the storm, which could points to a better future.
Maybe you will find my reac-
Department, law enforcement and oth- coming to family members of all ages. tale.” For you, slavery is the origi- — with no justification — shatter
tions
irksome. Maybe the right
nal
American
sin,
from
which
there
my
body.”
er emergency responders are largely in The beach cannot serve as a dump and
is no redemption. America is Egypt
You obviously do not mean that white response is just silence for a
a position of simply hoping for the best cesspit for thousands of disrespectful without the possibility of the Ex- literally today (sometimes in your FKDQJH,QDQ\FDVH\RX¶YHILOOHG
when it comes to July Fourth. The far partiers.
odus. African-American men are phrasing you seem determined my ears unforgettably.
I
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
D