Unemployment and Insurance

When healthcare debates began heating up in early June, President Obama said he was in favor of "making every American responsible for having health insurance coverage, and asking that employers share in the cost."

If this sounds good to you, ask yourself this: when you go to the candy store with ten dollars and the price of the candy you want has been raised from one dollar to two dollars, what do you do?

The principles of supply, demand, and pricing are no different in labor as they are in shopping. When something costs more but you have a fixed amount of money, you either buy less of it, buy something else, or save your money. Likewise, when an employer is required to pay his workers more, he will either hire fewer workers, hire part-time employees, or not hire anyone at all and decide the market isn't right. The Obama administration's plan to require employers to pay for their employee's health insurance is essentially raising the cost of labor and forcing the employer to hire fewer full-time workers as a result. Entrepeneurs who wish to start a business may now see that the cost of labor is too high for a specific industry and decide to save their money.

When unemployment rates are skyrocketing, the idea of letting employers and employees come to an independent agreement on wages and benefits should be everywhere.

Shouldn't it?