QOTD - Steven Landsburg

The minimum wage is nothing but a huge off-the-books tax paid by a small group of people, with all the proceeds paid out as the equivalent of welfare to a different small group of people. If a tax-and-spend program that arbitrary were spelled out explicitly, voters would recoil. How unfortunate that when it is disguised as a minimum wage, not even our Republican president can manage to muster a principled objection.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/everyday_economics/2004/07/the_sin_of_wages.2.html

see also:
http://www.thebigquestions.com/2013/02/18/thoughts-on-the-minimum-wage/#more-8310