There's a good argument against a high minimum wage, and it all boils down to spending power. I'm not an economist, so I'm sure I'll butcher the explanation, bu

There's a good argument against a high minimum wage, and it all boils down to spending power. I'm not an economist, so I'm sure I'll butcher the explanation, but I once read an articulate version of it that struck a chord. It's something like this: The minimum wage is what determines spending power for the middle class. Let's say the minimum wage is $10/hr - that means a "middle class" worker that makes say $1k/week has the spending power of 100 "minimum wage hours". Now let's say that is doubled to $20/hr. The spending power of the middle class person is halved. The person that was making 2x minimum wage is now making minimum wage. At first, the folks on the bottom of the rung will certainly feel the benefits of their new influx of cash, but it's inevitable that costs of goods and services will increase after the initial adjustment period and due to inflation. The end result is that the entire middle class becomes poorer. The "1%ers" feel no impact. Now, I don't know how real this phenomenon is, but increasing the minimum wage is certainly not a redistribution of wealth from the mega wealthy to the poor and the middle class, so does it really solve the problem? I don't know.