Sorry Bernie: Here's why a $15 minimum wage won't work

FEE's Brad Polumbo has made an excellent video breaking down the reasons why a $15 minimum wage won't work.

Brad starts by answering the arguments of self-identified socialist and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders says in a video clip, “No worker in this country can make it on nine or ten bucks an hour, yet millions are forced to do that and that is why as a nation we have to understand that a 7.25 minimum wage at the national level is an insult.

"We've got to raise that minimum wage to a living wage $15 an hour," Sanders adds. "Our goal must be to say that in America if you work 40 hours a week you are not living in poverty."

Polumbo replies, “The biggest problem that jumps out to me right away when I hear people like Bernie talk about the minimum wage is that their entire argument is basically emotional. It's about what should be about what people supposedly deserve."

"But the real world doesn't really take those factors into account," Brad notes. “The real minimum wage whether Bernie Sanders likes it or not is always zero, as economist Thomas Sowell famously said."

“So he can talk about levels of wages that are insulting, or the fact of that Americans should be able to live off a certain wage, but none of that really addresses any of the market realities or any of the practical impacts of what raising the mandatory wage would be," Polumbo says.

Polumbo then notes that Sanders' policy idea will put people out of work.

“It’s more emotional fluff than actual policy argument," Polumbo insists. "The ugly truth of the $15 minimum wage is that it will put many of those same workers folks like Bernie want to help out of a job entirely."

Polumbo adds, "You don't need to be an economist to understand why.”

Watch the video here.