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to help those struggling the most in the current economy, there are better ways to go about it than raising the minimum wage.
    What are those ways? In response to calls to raise the minimum wage, conservatives typically double down on policies to grow the economy and create jobs. This approach is correct in the long term, of course. Economic growth is ultimately the answer. But in the meantime, people are hurting, the minimum wage is something people understand and they hear only that conservatives are against it.
    Stagnant wages are a real concern to millions of Americans. We can’t just tell people what we are against. We also have to outline what we are for. We can find creative answers that help struggling families while staying true to our small-government principles. For instance, one way to help low-wage workers—both single moms struggling to support kids and single men in need of a foothold in the world of work—is to provide wage subsidies to targeted workers. I have proposed a targeted wage subsidy plan that I discuss in detail in Chapter Three. For now, suffice it to say that it would effectively boost the wages of workers without forcing the cost on employers.
    Yes, it is government help for struggling families. But it would not have the job-killing effects of mandating that employers pay employees more than the market will bear. Yes, it involves government spending, but primarily by reallocating money we are already spending. Most important, it is the right thing to do, not just for struggling American families, but for the good of the country as a whole.
    The American economy has changed, but our government has not only failed to change with it, it has made the challenges of the new economy worse. Jose and his family are living examples of this. Big government’s complicated rules are keeping him from going back into business for himself. Its tax and regulatory policies are crushing innovation and investment. Its commitment to protecting the educational status quo does nothing to help Jose acquire the skills he needs for a better job. And its stale ideas, like increasing the minimum wage, don’t help Jose realize the American Dream. They just define the dream down.

Chapter Two
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MAKING AMERICA SAFE FOR UBER
    O n Monday mornings I teach a class on political science—Florida politics, to be exact—at Florida International University in Miami. It makes my mornings at home a little more hectic, getting the kids out the door to school and getting myself to campus by eight a.m., but it’s worth it. Teaching is rewarding and it gives me a sense of what young Americans are thinking these days. More often than not, my students surprise me.
    In one class last year I overheard my students talking about how easy it is for their friends in Washington D.C. to get a ride home after a night out on the town. They use a service called Uber, they said. Uber was pretty new to Americans at the time—and nonexistent in Miami. Like most young people, my students are excited by the possibilities of technology to make their lives better. (And when you add partying to the mix, their level of interest multiplies exponentially.) What they didn’t know then was that Uber wasn’t just in Washington but in cities all over America, and even in Europe. It’s an app that you download to your phone, set up an account and enter your credit card information. When you’re ready to go home, the app locates the nearest car and sends it to your location. It’s quick and easy, and no cash changes hands.
    The students in my class were genuinely intrigued by this innovative service and wondered why they didn’t have it in Miami. I explained to them that it was because of regulations created by government. Politicians, I said, had passed rules to stifle competition that might threaten their constituents and supporters in the existing taxi and sedan service industry. In Miami, for example,