In the dim, dark past when people believed in such things, there was an oft-recited cliche to the effect that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. As we’ve moved into the brave new world of our “enlightened” present, we seem to have discarded the homely wisdom of the statement along with our fear of “Old Scratch”.
We’ve written about local minimum wage ordinances in the past. The evidence is in, however, it’s unlikely that any demagoguing politicians will care to take note.
Whether it occurs at city hall or in the lofty halls of Washington, DC, the idea that the path to prosperity can be short circuited by a simple decree is as tempting as it is destructively wrong.  Sadly, the latest tinkering with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by the federal Department of Labor also appears to fit into this category.
New overtime rules are in the works and the cost to employers is staggering. The proponents of these measures seem to regard employers as inanimate widgets that will respond with mindless obedience to their commands.
Unfortunately for everyone, when costs go up, someone has to pay. Very often it’s employees who lose work opportunities. Consumers and their communities also suffer as regulation strangles the market, reducing choices and concentrating the surviving businesses in the hands of large corporations with sufficiently deep pockets to absorb the costs.
One of the political ironies tightly wound in these good intentions is those who most resent large, unresponsive mega-corporations are the ones driving the marketplace directly into the hands of big business.