Keynesianism is a zero-sum game

WSJ reports:

San Francisco on Jan. 1 will become the first big city in the U.S. with a minimum wage topping $10 an hour.

WSJ then quotes Donna Levitt, manager of the city's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement:

"[The increase in the minimum wage] provides some protection for San Francisco's most vulnerable low-wage workers, and it also stimulates our local economy" since workers have more cash to spend locally.

Finally, WSJ quotes Steve Sarver, owner of the San Francisco Soup Co., a restaurant chain with 12 of its 18 locations in the city, who says many of his more than 200 employees earn close to the minimum wage:

"[As a result of the increase in the minimum wage, p]rice increases will have to happen eventually," says Mr. Sarver, who charges roughly $5 for soup servings. "There's no way around it."

What I want to point out here is the ludicrous nature of Ms. Levitt's Keynesian claim that the increase in the minimum wage will "stimulate the local economy." Yes, minimum wage workers will have more cash to spend locally. But, this cash will come from individuals who will be forced to pay higher prices to support the increase and therefore will have proportionately less cash themselves to spend locally. In other words, the increase is a zero-sum game: the City takes from one set of people in order to give to another set of people.

The sad irony is that some of the people from whom the money is taken are likely themselves low wage workers, who frequent the San Francisco Soup Co. because it offers a cheap square meal.

The idiocy of the Keynesians, mindlessly parroting their nonsensical mantras, has no bounds.