Want to learn more? Here are some resources about the economics of the minimum wage: https://fee.org/articles/the-truth-about-the-minimum-wage/ Scripted, animated, and produced by Steve Patterson. Special thanks to Julia Patterson and Chuck Grimmett. People don't like to think that anyone's labor is worth less than the minimum wage. Someone might end up flipping burgers for $5.00 an hour. You might think the minimum wage is a way of paying some sort of dignity premium -- hence language like "living wage." People with such good intentions look at the direct beneficiaries of these policies, say, burger flippers now making $7.50 an hour. They pat themselves on the back. But they rarely count the invisible costs: willing human beings who never get hired in the first place. But $5.00 an hour is not enough to live on!, they'll say. For whom? A teenager living at home with his parents? An elderly person who wants simply to stay active? A single mom with three kids? A single woman sharing an apartment with 2 roommates? Of course, not all of these people could live off of $5 an hour. But some of them could given the opportunity. Concerns about those who couldn't don't justify minimum wages even if we ignored the invisible costs of the policy, which include reduced margins to businesses that might otherwise grow (and hire more people). In other words, if you pull take off the bottom two rungs of the income ladder, many will never climb it. That's the effect of the minimum wage.

Bitcoin has been making headlines for months. With the price fluctuating wildly, is it really a currency, or just a scam? To find out, we have to analyze its properties. Gold and silver give us good examples of which properties make a sound currency, and bitcoins seem to measure up well. Will they ultimately outcompete the US dollar, gold, or silver? We can't know, but with the Federal Reserve devaluing the dollar every day, it is only a matter of time before people start looking for an alternative currency. To learn more, visit: http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/is-bitcoin-a-viable-currency, and to learn the basics of Bitcoin, visit: http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/bitcoin-for-beginners Bitcoin address: 15wDJRfsyomAgvX2TdW32gdYtAWZtAd1ps Scripted, animated, and produced by Steve Patterson. Special thanks to Julia Patterson.