Theory and Practice

I think Bruce Godfrey is confused. A minimum wage, in classical economic theory, doesn't create a black market -- being a price floor, it creates unemployment. (I'm in a microeconomics seminar now, so this is all fresh in my mind.) I suppose one could argue, with respect to illegal immigration, that employers aren't satisfied with the supply of domestic labor, and that the supply of foreign labor is capped -- i.e., under a quota -- so they resort to the "black market" of undocumented workers. That's the theory, anyway; the reality is that the issue of immigration is a lot more dynamic than what economic models can capture, as Roger Lowenstein's article on the subject from a while back showed.

As for Bruce's underlying point -- that some liberal blog commenters are ignorant and intolerant -- well, liberals in theory are supposed to appreciate knowledge and be open to differing views. And conservatives in theory are supposed to be against violent changes in law or society. So much for theory, then.

UPDATE: Speaking of illegal immigration, this crackdown on a day laborer site in Gaithersburg looks like it could backfire on the authorities, though it appears mass arrests are unlikely.