“An important early volley was the (in)famous Card-Krueger 1994 paper, which looked at the case of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and concluded that, if anything, New Jersey’s state-level minimum wage hike increased employment in fast-food restaurants.”
We can also increase employment by having people dig holes with spoons instead of shovels or getting rid of some of the machinery that makes labor more productive. So, we’re not just concerned with the number of unemployed.
Anticipating an objection, reducing the Minimum Wage to zero (which I think is the right and most beneficial thing to do) would also, all other things being equal, reduce the standard of living as compared with what their politically advantaged wage would be under a higher Minimum Wage. Both policies reduce the standard of living of some and not others if we’re comparing the two policies with each other, but the difference is that, without a Minimum Wage nobody is forced to work for the benefit of another against his will, and the profit motive promotes the introduction of many, creative, and flexible opportunities for income to recover from losses one may take without the so-called “protections” of a Minimum Wage.
“An important early volley was the (in)famous Card-Krueger 1994 paper, which looked at the case of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and concluded that, if anything, New Jersey’s state-level minimum wage hike increased employment in fast-food restaurants.”
We can also increase employment by having people dig holes with spoons instead of shovels or getting rid of some of the machinery that makes labor more productive. So, we’re not just concerned with the number of unemployed.
Anticipating an objection, reducing the Minimum Wage to zero (which I think is the right and most beneficial thing to do) would also, all other things being equal, reduce the standard of living as compared with what their politically advantaged wage would be under a higher Minimum Wage. Both policies reduce the standard of living of some and not others if we’re comparing the two policies with each other, but the difference is that, without a Minimum Wage nobody is forced to work for the benefit of another against his will, and the profit motive promotes the introduction of many, creative, and flexible opportunities for income to recover from losses one may take without the so-called “protections” of a Minimum Wage.