Smug minimum wage supporter misses the point

By Tom Quiner

San Jose boosted their minimum wage to $10 per hour.
This happened a year ago. Minimum wage detractors warned of dire consequences to San Jose if they proceeded. Apparently, none of these dire consequences came true.
A Facebook friend of mine posted an article which pointed this all out, and added this  sarcastic comment:

“As you can see, raising the minimum wage has reduced San Jose to a post-apocalyptic hellscape.”

The smug intent is to suggest that this is proof of the efficacy of the minimum wage, and that greedy, rotten conservatives need to let saintly liberals in Congress boost the wage.
This blog opposes the minimum wage generally speaking as being counterproductive. What is the group with the highest unemployment rate?
Teenagers.
What subset of this group has even a higher unemployment rate?
Black teenagers.
Teenagers have lower skills and experience than older workers. The minimum wage increases the cost of hiring young people looking for their first job. When the wage is raised forcibly by law above what the marketplace deems a young worker is worth, job opportunities dry up.
Teens have a harder time finding that first job which is so critical to helping them develop the skills to increase their value and worth to future employers.
If we are to have a minimum wage, leave it up to local municipalities and the states to set their own wages. Keep Washington out of it.
Take San Jose. The cost of living here in Des Moines is 40% less than in San Jose. Why should we have the same minimum wage? On the other hand, the cost of living in Honolulu is 13% higher than in San Jose. Why should Honolulu have the same wage as San Jose?
Liberals love one-size-fits-all governance crammed down our throat from our imperious federal government.
The minimum wage is much better handled state-by-state and city-by-city.