Reality keeps intruding into the hopes and desires of politicians. The latest irruption of the universe into such plans is the finding that raising wages causes unemployment.

Varied jurisdictions have thought that grocery store workers would like to have more per hour for the essential work they’ve been doing this past year. When Los Angeles mandated an extra $5 an hour for such hero workers, many of them found out that the move was to $0 an hour. That extra pay has led to one grocery chain closing three stores.