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Economic 101. Minimum wage does nothing except hinder the disadvantaged. But yes, may also be good to get rid of your competition. Useless debate, because peopl

Economic 101. Minimum wage does nothing except hinder the disadvantaged. But yes, may also be good to get rid of your competition. Useless debate, because people, even engineers, don't think about it economically but only politically. If you believe it works, let's just make it $50 an hour.

Chinjut 11y ago
As I understand it, there's more to the world than what is often presented in Econ 101.
cowardlydragon 11y ago
And economics has EVERYTHING figured out? At least towards an oligarchical fascist police state dystopia with monopoly or cartel control over most "free markets" and can't predict basic things like the housing mortgage crash, overexuberance in tech stocks, and the like. It can't even fucking figure out how to fundamentally avert global disaster or total ecological destruction. It basically can see three months into the future. So I hate to tell you, your supply/demand curves may look second-nature, and the pirates dilemma may let you sleep at night with the current distribution of wealth, but it doesn't represent chaotic, nonlinear, fly-off-the-rails reality.
- ordbajsare 11y ago
  Stop reading Marx.. it will rot your brain.
dredmorbius 11y ago
Read Smith. "A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him." https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations/Book_I/Chapter_8 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations/Book_... An enterprise which cannot pay the full cost of its inputs isn't an economically viable activity. It's a charity benefiting its owner. More on Smith regards wages: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2311mb/adam_smith_on_living_wage_national_wealth_growth/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2311mb/adam_sm...
crdoconnor 11y ago
Raising the minimum wage does nothing except take a chunk out of profits unless it is raised very high. This ought to be obvious if you look at who spends the lobbying dollars, but the idea spread by business lobbies that it kills jobs is one self serving lie that has persisted. This has been empirically verified (Katz/Krueger) though that's not never covered in econ 101.
JoBrad 11y ago
The problem with arguing against this from an Econ 101 perspective is that Econ 101 has all of these artificial perspectives to make it easier to understand, like holding everything constant except one variable. Actual examples of raising the minimum wage in the US has shown little to no negative effects on unemployment, and at least some positive benefits.
clarkmoody 11y ago
Don't listen to the haters. I agree with you. Minimum wage is an arbitrary price control on labor. Price controls are always a bad idea in economics.

Chinjut 11y ago

As I understand it, there's more to the world than what is often presented in Econ 101.

cowardlydragon 11y ago

And economics has EVERYTHING figured out? At least towards an oligarchical fascist police state dystopia with monopoly or cartel control over most "free markets" and can't predict basic things like the housing mortgage crash, overexuberance in tech stocks, and the like. It can't even fucking figure out how to fundamentally avert global disaster or total ecological destruction. It basically can see three months into the future. So I hate to tell you, your supply/demand curves may look second-nature, and the pirates dilemma may let you sleep at night with the current distribution of wealth, but it doesn't represent chaotic, nonlinear, fly-off-the-rails reality.

ordbajsare 11y ago
Stop reading Marx.. it will rot your brain.

dredmorbius 11y ago

Read Smith. "A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him." https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations/Book_I/Chapter_8 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations/Book_... An enterprise which cannot pay the full cost of its inputs isn't an economically viable activity. It's a charity benefiting its owner. More on Smith regards wages: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2311mb/adam_smith_on_living_wage_national_wealth_growth/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2311mb/adam_sm...

crdoconnor 11y ago

Raising the minimum wage does nothing except take a chunk out of profits unless it is raised very high. This ought to be obvious if you look at who spends the lobbying dollars, but the idea spread by business lobbies that it kills jobs is one self serving lie that has persisted. This has been empirically verified (Katz/Krueger) though that's not never covered in econ 101.

JoBrad 11y ago

The problem with arguing against this from an Econ 101 perspective is that Econ 101 has all of these artificial perspectives to make it easier to understand, like holding everything constant except one variable. Actual examples of raising the minimum wage in the US has shown little to no negative effects on unemployment, and at least some positive benefits.

clarkmoody 11y ago

Don't listen to the haters. I agree with you. Minimum wage is an arbitrary price control on labor. Price controls are always a bad idea in economics.