[onewhippedpuppy]

Are you making the point that government intervention in our free enterprise system is rather pointless? Because I agree with the gist of your message. Most of what you would think of as being typical minimum wage jobs (McDonalds, QT cash register attendant, etc) have hiring signs out advertising $9/hr+ starting wage. This may not be the case everywhere, but in our area the starting wage for menial work appears to be about 25% above minimum wage with many jobs available. Lots of these jobs available, wage higher than the minimum, looks like supply and demand at work.