if you believe that the way to help the unemployed is to make it difficult for them to get jobs. One such person is Paul Krugman! John Goodman’s post on his superb blog, which I copy below, makes the point very well.

 

A common criticism of those on the left is that they care a lot about poverty but they don’t care anything about poor people. (See, for example hypocrisy on education.) Paul Krugman sets the bar even higher: someone who writes passionately about unemployment, but advocates public policies that keep unemployed people from ever getting a job.

For example, he favors a $10.10 minimum wage, an employer health insurance mandate that can add almost $6.00 for family coverage and a labor market dominated by labor union monopolies.

So if you can’t produce $16 worth of goods and services in an hour, and even if you can, if you are not in a union, and even if you are if you are young and black and the least likely to get picked for work assignments ? well, you are out of luck.

The unemployment rate for black youths, by the way, is 38 percent.