Economics: Minimum Wage, Who Gets Hurt?

[doc_loliday]

Not having read Sowell's books, but only articles and such online, I can say that Sowell is pretty close to what you'd get in a basic college economics course. And as an aside, for all the talk about how the liberals have taken over the universities, the economics departments have not been.

[DrYouth]

I strongly suggest a real economics textbook.

>zing<

• Sowell has taught economics at Howard University, Rutgers, Cornell, Brandeis University, Amherst College, and UCLA. Since 1980 he has been a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he holds a fellowship named after Rose and Milton Friedman, his mentor.
  
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell

I was actually commenting on STA's regular "read a book" retort.
I should probably have been more clear.

I find this tactic a tired way of shutting down conversation actually.

How many textbooks do we have to have read to be able to think for ourselves?

These ideas are worth pondering and if you know something from a textbook you think would be helpful post the fact or concept.
Don't tell people they should "read a book".

[Speaker to Animals]

It's not a textbook, DrY. It's a political commentary book. He's basically feeding DB "economics" from a particular political perspective as if that's the truth and all the other economic perspectives are fake.

It would be like somebody telling us what Al Gore has to say about environmental science as if it's the facts and truth, and all other opinions are fake.

[DBTrek]

I’m stupid, Thomas Sowell is stupid, his book is stupid, and only people who took a single macroeconomics class three decades ago know what they’re talking about - but they’re not going to tell you what they’re talking about regardless, so your only hope is to guess which book they read and go read it.

I got it.

No need to pummel the horse cadaver.

[Speaker to Animals]

I didn't say you were stupid, Cathy Newman. I said Sowell is not giving you the whole story, and economics is not a straightforward topic like physical science. There exist multiple interpretations of the data that don't all agree with Sowell and, in fact, Sowell represents the minority.

I don't even dislike Sowell. I agree with some of the things he talks about, especially on race relations. I just think he take on monopolies and price gouging are dishonest, but he's a political mercenary, so it's not like I blame him. That's his job.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Ah, another economics thread, derailed by competing calls to authority. How droll.

[DBTrek]

There’s still more meat on this Minimum Wage bone. For instance, folks might assume that minimum wage is a bad idea with no real winners - but there are, in fact, winners.

Chief among the winners - labor unions and minimum wage earners that survive the wage hike. Of course, the question is whether handing these segments a win justifies all the collateral loss others will suffer by losing.

Plus there’s that whole introducing more inefficiencies into the economy thing, but no need to rehash those points.

[SuburbanFarmer]

At what point do we begin to consider general inflation?

I have no problem whatsoever with fewer $15/hr min-wage employees, and more innovation/efficiency from companies. The problems are (as mentioned) inflation, and companies cutting corners on their products. See: 'pink slime' cheeseburgers, pretty-much-any-processed-food-item, cheap-ass shoes/clothing/etc.

[Speaker to Animals]

If we went to 15 dollar minimum wages, most fast food restaurants would be filled with pay/order kiosks and maybe two guys producing the food. Eventually the would get around to automating even the cooking.

[DBTrek]

If that option were cheaper than $7.25 per hour we'd have it now.

I think people lose sight of the fact that the unskilled labor supply is increasingly losing its value as automation becomes a cheaper alternative. They're fighting for a 206% raise at a time when the pressures of automation are driving the costs of performing their jobs backwards towards zero.

Bad fight to get locked into.
I'd suggest folks find a skill, or preferably skills, and remove themselves from the pool of people who have to worry about the future of minimum wage.