The Coffee Shop in Union Square, which was made famous by Sex in the City and where future Democratic Socialist darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once worked, is closing.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez waxed appropriately sentimental:
“The restaurant I used to work at is closing its doors. I swung by today to say hi one last time, and kid around with friends like old times,” the congressional candidate reminisced on Twitter. “I’m a normal, working person who chose to run for office, because I believe we can have a better future.”
Well, that's nice.
Unfortunately, however, it was a policy Ocasio-Cortez supports that is creating a worse future for the 150 people who no longer have jobs at the Union Squre coffee shop. .
Here's the rest of the story:
But unlike what Ocasio-Cortez wants you to believe about the closing down, it wasn’t the result of greedy capitalists trying to squeeze the workers, but rather government regulations that forced the company to go bust.
“The times have changed in our industry,” Milite told the New York Post last month. “The rents are very high and now the minimum wage is going up and we have a huge number of employees.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who rose to prominence after defeating top Democrat Joe Crowley in the party’s primary election in June, has campaigned on the issue of minimum wage, arguing for a $15 federal minimum wage, up from $7.25, insisting that it won’t have any negative consequences for businesses.
During her appearance on “The Daily Show” with Trevor Noah, Ocasio-Cortez was pressed whether her suggestion of $15 minimum wage wouldn’t tank the economy. She cited the example of Seattle, which voted four years ago to gradually increase the hourly minimum to $15 over several years.
Yet Seattle is a troubling case, as research from the University of Washington's School of Public Policy and Governance found that the higher minimum wage led to significant job declines and actually left the poorest worst off in the city, the Washington Post reported.
The study estimated that low-wage jobs in the city dropped by 9 percent since 2016 and “hourly wages in such jobs increased by around 3 percent.” As a result, the study said, the city’s average worker lost $125 a month thanks to the minimum wage hike.
It's all well and good to be for "the people."
But a grasp of economic realities as to what helps or harms the people would not come amiss.
Ocasio-Cortez's economic pronouncements often betray a lack of basic economic knowledge.
Economic ignorance is not funny when actual people are harmed.