The moral story

The Times mag recently posted a story about the living wage movement inisinuating that it was to become the moral issue around which liberal politics would galvanize in the near future (i.e. 2008). Apparently, pushing the minimum wage issue as a moral rather than an economic issue gets people all riled up and moves em to the polls. "This is our gay marriage," said a leading activist.

Indeed it is, if by "gay marriage" we have in mind a seemingly black and white, moralizing issue which is used as a pernicious, demagogic red herring. Time was, interracial marriage, women voting, smoking and working, or the right of parents to beat the shit out of their kids were clear cut moral issues. Any time politics is aimed at the gut, look out.

If they're gonna make a moral thing out of it, might as well have some fun: peg the minimum wage on a percentage basis to the average pay of CEOs, to constrain the latter.

Raise the minimum wage, yes. Tomorrow. But keep your bible in your pants.