Socially Liberal, Economically Conservative Moderate

According to the AP, Governor Schwarzenegger will propose a hike in California's minimum wage. I remember when he was running for office, candidate Schwarzenegger touted his credentials as a social moderate and as a fiscal conservative. Candidate Schwarzenegger courted economic conservatives by citing his fondness for Milton Friedman - he even claimed to have read Free To Choose. I guess when he read the book, he managed to skip the chapter, "Who Protects the Worker?" in which Militon and Rose Friedman write...

"Another set of government measures enforcing wage rates are minimum wage laws. These laws are defended as a way to help low-income people. In fact, they hurt low-income people. The source of pressure for them is demonstrated by the people who testify before Congress in favor a higher minimum wage. They are not representatives of the poor people. They are mostly representatives of organized labor... No member of their unions works for a wage anywhere close to the legal minimum. Despite all of the rhetoric about helping the poor, they favor an ever higher minimum wage as a way to protect the members of their unions from competition.

"The minimum wage law requires employers to discriminate against persons with low skills. No one describes it that way, but that is in fact what it is." (Free to Choose p. 226, 227).

Some of those who supported Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor will be shocked as he abandons his "fiscal conservatism" for a more liberal economic agenda. Those of us who were suspicious of a candidate who espoused no clear philosophy understand this surge leftward. We know that a ship without a rudder is always bound to drift astray.