From part of Fox's "business block" on Saturday mornings, Cashin' In, the topic for discussion was whether or not eight states raising their minimum wage on January 1st is going to help or harm the economy. Naturally a couple of the panelists, Tracy Byrnes and Gary Kaltbaum claimed that it was going to do damage and advocated for eliminating the minimum wage altogether and just letting the "free market" take care of itself.

I'd like to see either of those two try to actually live off of minimum wage for a year. Panelist Wayne Rogers was ambivalent and didn't think the modest increase of 28 to 37 cents per hour when we're only talking about eight states was going to have any impact on the economy at all.

The one dose of sanity was the final panel member, David Mercer, who actually brought up the fact that we've got record income disparity and a wealth gap that's equivalent to China, Sri Lanka and Rwanda. That didn't seem to phase Byrnes one bit who was more concerned about "eating into businesses bottom line."

Apparently she doesn't share that same concern for families who are so poor they can't afford to eat at all.