Goodman started her comments at yesterday's hearing by accusing the University of Minnesota researchers of bias, asking whether if she were to "Google your names" she'd find evidence they'd written in support of the concept of raising the minimum wage. She made fun of their findings that a higher wage would alleviate the problem of food insecurity: "I don't have to have an economics degree to figure that out." She went off on a riff about expensive ice cream cones. She asked if the authors talked to business owners, as if to say a rigorous economic analysis needs plenty of anecdotes.
At a City Council meeting in 2015, Goodman called the idea of even studying the issue a waste of money because, in her estimation, an actual Minneapolis wage increase had no chance of ever passing with a majority (the City Council voted 10-3 in favor of paying for a study; Yang, Barb Johnson, and Goodman voted no). Her comments indicate she believes most of her colleagues are as impervious to evidence as she is:
If there were seven votes to create a minimum wage in Minneapolis only, we'd be doing it. So I'm just wondering why $175,000 for a study, what is that, like a political out? I'll vote for a study but I wouldn't really vote for the change itself?Lisa Goodman just knows things. She doesn't need studies or experts to help inform her opinions. Now that the minimum wage study is complete we get to see whether Goodman was correct in assuming her fellow Council Members operate the same way.
Lisa Goodman to economists: you're all biased, and I could probably use google to prove it.
Your study is crap. Your economics degree is dumb. Here's something I just made up about expensive ice cream cones.
Numbers are great, but where are your anecdotes? Have you talked to business owners?
Last year: opposes a study, on the grounds that evidence won't influence the City Council majority.
