so people like robert mayfield and louie barrios are supported by countless economists. we've got the folks who are actually doing the work and then we've got the big thinkers like the economists who studied this issue and concluded that this size minimum-wage increase is just a really, really bad idea in terms of the economy. so more than 500 of those economists including several noble laureates recently signed an open letter to federal policy-makers expressing their opposition to this 40% minimum-wage hike. their letter said it this way. they said -- quote -- "many of the businesses that pay their workers minimum wage operate on extremely tight profit margins. with any increase in the cost of labor threatening this delicate balance." that's what robert mayfield said. i can't absorb it without passing it along to customers increasing the prices that they have to pay or i may have to lay some people off. or i may just have to close my business altogether because they're operating on tight profit margins. so when so many economists and so many folks who are working across