Post
by Speaker to Animals » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:48 pm
The important point here is that a rise in minimum wage is going to first affect the number of workers. When you increase the price for something, demand falls.
The labor market is not exempt from supply and demand.
Focusing on the impact on prices is a red herring. A rise in minimum wage could have some affect on prices, but more likely, it will only reduce economic activity. There will be less of the same goods and services being sold, but prices could easily remain the same. The primary impact is on price fixing in the labor market, not all these other markets that are only indirectly affected.
To see the impact of these laws, you need to look at the change in employment after the law went into effect. Most likely, you will see some increase in unemployment, welfare applications, etc. I have my doubts that it will affect a whole lot outside of a few industries, honestly, but it will definitely affect the poor in a negative way.
If the left wants to actually do something about stagnant wages and subsistence living, they could -- I don't know -- stop advocating for the mass flooding and glutting of the labor market through unfettered immigration??