4 ms·
> If you close down all the businesses that can't survive paying more for unskilled or semi-skilled labour, what do all the unskilled and semi-skilled people do
by mavelikara 5y ago
> If you close down all the businesses that can't survive paying more for unskilled or semi-skilled labour, what do all the unskilled and semi-skilled people do?
They get deployed in other commercial activities that can make more efficient use of their time, and hence, pay them more.
- alvah 5y agoVery good in theory. Any suggestions on how to get from here to there in the real world, without massive disruption to people's real lives? The consequences of massively & rapidly increasing the number of unemployed doesn't seem to be covered in the libertarian literature. History books do cover this though.
- laughingbovine 5y agoThis is a strange argument. Are you saying that we should never raise minimum wage? It isn't even keeping up with inflation. As for the history books, I recall we've raised the minimum wage in the past. The US still exists, so i guess the history books say its ok?
- alvah 5y agoIt's not strange at all, you just didn't understand the point. Libertarian theory has all kinds of bizarre reasoning about human nature, which doesn't translate into the real world. History, on the other hand, does provide a guide to how large numbers of actual people have behaved in the past, when cast on to the scrap heap of life. Human nature doesn't change rapidly. I'm not taking your bait (never raise minimum wage), but it's important to be aware that, at the margin, increasing the cost of any business input will result in business attempting to substitute that input to the extent possible - i.e. fewer jobs.