We respect waiters and bartenders, but not from a patronizing position of political correctness.
Rather, we respect their intimacy with the real world. Waiters live close to the connection between work and reward, between extra effort and extra return. They learn about the whims of human behavior and the marketplace, the ebb and flow of the economy, the traits and habits that over time create value in their own performance. Good waiters work hard. They take responsibility for good outcomes, and they don't take customers, or tips, for granted.
So Tom Emmer's dive into the weeds of waiter economics should prove beneficial to him and to the broader discussion of what policies will serve Minnesota well in an era of adjustment. You wouldn't necessarily know it from the recent ruckus around Emmer's ideas on how waiters should be compensated and taxed, but they and he could be natural allies.
Emmer's Democratic-Farmer-Labor opponents are all traveling the state making the case for higher taxes and more government involvement in the economy. It's essential that Emmer, the Republican-endorsed candidate for Minnesota governor, carry a clear, strong message about government's limits. Part of that message: Politicians and bureaucrats, no matter how smart and good-hearted, can't know enough to micromanage the economics of restaurants or any other business. Every intervention has unintended consequences, sometimes opposite of and more powerful than those intended. The fewer and the simpler those interventions, the better. When government grows large and meddlesome, it creates a lush market for political favors, tax tricks and regulatory loopholes. Political favors distort the connection between work and reward. They punish people who live honest, productive lives. They subvert the rule of law, and they suck money and energy away from more productive causes.
Therefore, Emmer might argue, as governor I'll do all I can to prevent state government from picking winners and losers, because politicians just aren't qualified to do so. It's one thing to set minimum standards and manage them predictably. It's quite another to try to micromanage the billions of individual and interconnected decisions on which a dynamic economy runs.
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If Emmer climbs out of the weeds of waiter economics with a clearer message about the limits of government and the virtues of individual enterprise, the ruckus will have been to good purpose.
