(12-05-2017 03:46 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  I think the minimum wage is ineffectual in the long term.

Short term it dries up numbers of opportunities in the lower income brackets. Further, it is basic Econ 101 that price controls as both maximums and minimums produce highly sub-optimal markets for the markets in which controls are set. But the classic contrary response to the pretty much set-in-stone price control math is that "labor isnt responsive to supply/demand microeconomics" (making it unique to every other market in existence). (Funny how we loop back to one of my basic questions to you yet again...)

Example: because of the push to 15 dollars, it is now cost effective to replace cashiers at fast food restaurants with kiosk-style ordering.

Example: look at the numbers of restaurants closing in 15 dollar jurisdictions like Seattle and San Francisco.

Long term it is a non-event. Long term all wages and prices of goods and services are ballooned up by the minimum wage, as is long term prices as producers realize that consumers will absorb more and more of the excess cost. So long term, it doesnt matter whether the mandated price floor is 3 dollars, 9 dollars, 100 dollars, or 90 million Maduros, since an apple will run 30 cents, 90 cents, 10 dollars, or 9 million Maduros in the long term based on this diktat.

So I am against it for the short-term havoc. that it wreaks on those that it supposedly is put into place to help. In the long-term, it is a 'who the f-ck cares', *except* for the fact that a non-market entity is putting arbitrary 'lines in the sand'.

It simply boils down to I am a very ardent Chicago School economics type guy. (But I try to hide my blood and life sucking fangs so I dont scare little children as much....)

sometimes, taking things to ridiculous levels is illuminating.

If we raise the MW to $100/hour, will all of a sudden everybody in the country be rich? Will a 200K MW make all the burger shovers and pancake flippers well to do? Maybe for a few minutes. But quickly, prices will adjust, pay ladders will adjust, and all we will have done is inflate the currency. The people on the bottom of the pyramid will still be on the bottom of the pyramid, and still unable to to make a comfortable living for a family of four.