Yes, it is true that higher wages lead to fewer jobs, all else being equal, especially in the presence of free trade. The difference here is that corporations a

Yes, it is true that higher wages lead to fewer jobs, all else being equal, especially in the presence of free trade. The difference here is that corporations are not people. I don't care if they starve, as long as the people have somewhere to live. Indeed, wages that go up increase fulfillment, all else being equal, but housing costs that go up increase civil unrest. It is not good for housing prices to increase unnecessarily. Perhaps your discomfort is cognitive dissonance? If so, bravo. There are a lot about economics that defy common notions of decency, and you have to push through it to make decisions that bring actual long-term benefits. Human cognition is defective that way, but our remarkable intellect allows us to understand the bigger picture.