I was watching an old Dirty Harry movie last night. I think it was Magnum Force. In it, Callahan is assigned to Human Resources to interview rookie cops. On the panel with him is a very lesbian looking old bag who lectures Harry about  the progressive new way the police will hire cops. Harry responds dismissively with a line about how that’s very fashionable. Fifty years on and we keep repeating that scene over and over in different settings.

Brian Hibbs, the owner and operator of Comix Experience, is having a difficult time confronting the reality presented by San Francisco’s new minimum wage law.

The law passed in November by a huge majority requires that wages increase, as of May 1st, to $12.25 and will end up at $15 by 2018.

Anticipating only a slight increase in his costs, Hibbs was originally supportive of the law. But, then he did the math:

I was appalled! My jaw dropped. Eighty-thousand a year! I didn’t know that. I thought we were talking a small amount of money, something I could absorb.

We’re for a living wage, for a minimum wage, in principle. . . . But I think any law that doesn’t look at whether people can pay may not be the best way to go.

The problem he faces is that comic books and graphic novels, the cornerstone of the business, have their retail prices printed on the covers, so he can’t raise those prices to offset the increase in costs. Also, his store’s usually staffed by only one counter worker, which makes reducing the store’s labor costs impossible.

The solution he’s come up with is to start a special club with an annual fee of $240, whose members will get special perks.

His comments and his business’ story drew the attention of alocal newsstation, which reported on Comix Experience and another local book store,Borderlands Books, which has resorted to crowdfunding in order to generate extra revenue.

With that publicity, customers have directly commented to Comix Experience on the wage change:

‘I’m hearing from a lot of customers, ‘I voted for that, and I didn’t realize it would affect you.’

Hibbs is a self-identified progressive, but he’s looking for answers. Then he asked a profound question:

Why can’t two consenting people make arrangements for less than x dollars per hour?

He admits to believing in capitalism, and according National Review, he’d “like to have the market solve this problem.”

This last bit is something that is a pet peeve. Capitalism is not the same as markets. I’m for free markets to a point, but I’m not in favor of predatory capitalism fueled by currency manipulation. Letting Amazon use negative interest rate debt to clobber retail is not market competition.

Further, saying you “believe” in something means you think there is some chance it does not exist. In other words, you are pretty sure X is true, but you have no evidence that X is true. For that reason, no one says, “I believe in gravity.” Capitalism is a thing that exists, whether or not some hippie dipshit believes in it.

Of course, what he really means is he likes making money, but he resents the fact others make more money. That’s the core of Progressive populism. It is resentment that one particular set of career choices don’t pay very well. Comic Book Guy think he should make as much as a banker and hates the fact he makes the same as a janitor at the bank.

None of these people are very bright. They get caught up in these progressive fads because it beats thinking and it sure as hell beats standing alone. I doubt he so dumb as to think raising his labor rates would not impact his business. It was was just easier to go along with his idiot neighbors. He cares more about being one of them than being in business.