Basic economics doesn’t change because a political movement wants it to. It’s a finite world with finite resources, and when you move one number, it affects other numbers. This simple rule of economics cannot be overcome. In order to put more money into one thing, you first have to give it up, and in order to balance the sheets, more money has to come in from somewhere to compensate.

It’s a simple rule the Left misses far too often. The phrase “money doesn’t grow on trees” is factual but unheaded. This is why no one should be surprised that Chipotle is now raising its prices as its caves to demands to raise its minimum wage to $15/hr.

According to Fox Business, the burrito chain is raising its prices by four percent in order to compensate for its wage hikes.

“It made sense in this scenario to invest in our employees and get these restaurants staffed and make sure that we have the pipeline of people to support our growth,” Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol said. “And then with that, we’ve taken some pricing to cover some of that investment.”

This could push some burritos into the $8 range that many already thought was overpriced.

The price hike might not truly affect many customers’ decision to eat there, but a nearly .50 cent price hike for some items is steep when you consider that, over time, you may very well find the company being pressured to do more than just hike wages. Increased health benefits for minimum wage workers isn’t a far-off demand for people who just convinced a corporation to pay them a lot more.

And who’s to say that Chipotle won’t be pressured to raise wages again? This isn’t the first time this has happened for Chipotle. Next thing you know, Chiptole will be forced to hire fewer people and/or give its employees fewer hours in order to stay in the black.

When the vast majority of economists tell you that raising the minimum wage to $15/hr is a bad idea, and then myriad examples as to why show you that it’s a bad idea, then demanding a wage hike is a bad idea. It sounds great on paper, but you cannot escape the fact that a business has to compensate for its loss somewhere, and that somewhere is usually us.