Jackson50 on 10 September 2008
| ManusJustus said: I sense a lot of minimum wage hate from the free market fantasy crowd. Letting the free market decide minimum wage would be disasterous and bring down everyone in society with it. Those people who make minimum wage spend that money that ends up going to wealthy business owners, by taking money away from a large portion of society (that includes minimum wage plus wages that are effected by minimum wage, for instance a guy making 10 dollars an hour wage is based on how much he is worth over minimum wage) means less people buying goods to push the economy and less money going to businesses. Less money for the lower and middle classes also means less chance for them to advance. In America, education is horrendous now, but imagine taking away minimum wage and watching everyone's wage drop. College would be further out of reach, which reduces the number of trained, productive workers, which hurts the economy. |
I have a few problems with minimum wage laws. I dislike that it may set a price floor above the market equilibrium creating a surplus of labor. When this happens, it is usually the least well-off who gets priced out of the market. The inexperienced, least-skilled worker will not be worth the higher, government-mandated wage rates. I could list numerous faults with minimum wage legislation, but I do not want another lengthy debate.
