Iain Coston
Author's Note: This topic is of great interest to much of America these days. So I'm going to try to act like an expert in something that people spend their whole lives studying and still don't...come up with...a good.....answer......cool.
You know you want it. It sounds good....no, wait, stop. I'm not talking about McDonald's breakfast all day...
..but that's good too.
To my past self and many people today, having a mandatory, government-enforced minimum wage to help those in dire straights seems like an obvious thing to do.
I'll admit, I'm not an expert, so it might be a bad idea for you to continue reading, but I think it's one of the best decisions you'll make all week. Especially if you're a terrorist or a drug dealer.....well...even then....
Anywho, let's get into it.
I was browsing the internet (as most lifeforms do) and came across an article by John Komlos, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Munich. A while back he He wrote an article for PBS explaining how current GOP front-runners are dumb-faces because they don't want to (forcibly) raise the minimum wage. Now, while I will not complain about what he thinks about certain candidates, his assertion that they are wrong about this particular subject smells of old lime paint (It doesn't smell good). How dare I have the cahones to criticize an expert? Let me explain...
Here is why my nose crinkled after finishing this article. He only names one other expert in the field of economics (who did some cool work on this very subject that was later disputed...not two years later) who vouches for the mandated raise , and before that when he quotes Ben Carson saying, "“Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases.”, he responds, "...the matter of fact is that there is no evidence to back that assertion..."....... No evidence? NO EVIDENCE?!??
---
Turns over table
---
Throws My Little Pony Custom Microwave out of the window
---
Iain, calm down
---
Oh, sorry.
---
Fixes table
---
But still, hold on there my find friend Komlos, I, Iain Coston, (the non-educated sitting in his tiny apartment) disagree. Luckily, my opinion doesn't rest on my own laurels. In fact, quite the contrary. It is founded on some of the best (besides the fact the only expert Komlos quotes published a disputed study). Thomas Sowell (one of the most renowned economists in the world) writes extensively on many subjects in his book, Basic Economics. In it, he tears apart (mandatory) minimum wages, mentioning how most evidence shows that while those employees who are worth the raise in wages will get that raise, if it is not financially viable for businesses to keep others, they will fire them and/or not hire more people. And it's not just in the present-day U.S. He gives examples of Japan, India, South Africa, etc from several time periods. People who are marginalized by society tend to be the ones hurt by a minimum wage. That's not at all a slight to those who work hard but don't make the cut. That's just how business and economics (and the world) works. It's sad, but for those who get fired, it's even worse when you literally price them out of a job. Most of these people affected are the inexperienced and poor. Unfortunately, that's a thing that happens. A lot.
Again, don't trust my coffee-and-energy-drink-powered millennial brain. Look to more evidence. Jeffrey Clemens is a professor at UC San Diego. He got a PHD from Harvard (so that makes him a smarty-pants) and he did a study recently that is floating around the internet. This showed a few things. Market Watch points out that that the percentage of young people "who held a job fell to 28% from 40% between 2006 and 2010. Although more people in that bracket have since found work, the study found, only 33% were employed at the end of 2014." Also, from Clemens' findings, "Between 2006 and 2012, the average effective minimum wage rose from $5.82 to $7.55 across the United States...The evidence supports the view that this period's minimum wage increases had significant, negative effects on low-skilled workers' employment." Also, he found that while you can mess with the numbers to make it seem like there might only by a 0.49% overall change in employment some places, those same areas will have their young and uneducated populations take a hit over 5%.
Many who want to raise the minimum wage will want to do it out of an honest desire to help the marginalized, but recent (and past) evidence points toward the opposite outcome. Obviously, I could be wrong but I judge what I know by what I see. And what I see is most experts and evidence saying it doesn't look good.
...
Oh look, N.Y. Governor Cuomo just raised the minimum wage!
-----
-Iain Coston
You know you want it. It sounds good....no, wait, stop. I'm not talking about McDonald's breakfast all day...
..but that's good too.
To my past self and many people today, having a mandatory, government-enforced minimum wage to help those in dire straights seems like an obvious thing to do.
I'll admit, I'm not an expert, so it might be a bad idea for you to continue reading, but I think it's one of the best decisions you'll make all week. Especially if you're a terrorist or a drug dealer.....well...even then....
Anywho, let's get into it.
I was browsing the internet (as most lifeforms do) and came across an article by John Komlos, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Munich. A while back he He wrote an article for PBS explaining how current GOP front-runners are dumb-faces because they don't want to (forcibly) raise the minimum wage. Now, while I will not complain about what he thinks about certain candidates, his assertion that they are wrong about this particular subject smells of old lime paint (It doesn't smell good). How dare I have the cahones to criticize an expert? Let me explain...
Here is why my nose crinkled after finishing this article. He only names one other expert in the field of economics (who did some cool work on this very subject that was later disputed...not two years later) who vouches for the mandated raise , and before that when he quotes Ben Carson saying, "“Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases.”, he responds, "...the matter of fact is that there is no evidence to back that assertion..."....... No evidence? NO EVIDENCE?!??
---
Turns over table
---
Throws My Little Pony Custom Microwave out of the window
---
Iain, calm down
---
Oh, sorry.
---
Fixes table
---
But still, hold on there my find friend Komlos, I, Iain Coston, (the non-educated sitting in his tiny apartment) disagree. Luckily, my opinion doesn't rest on my own laurels. In fact, quite the contrary. It is founded on some of the best (besides the fact the only expert Komlos quotes published a disputed study). Thomas Sowell (one of the most renowned economists in the world) writes extensively on many subjects in his book, Basic Economics. In it, he tears apart (mandatory) minimum wages, mentioning how most evidence shows that while those employees who are worth the raise in wages will get that raise, if it is not financially viable for businesses to keep others, they will fire them and/or not hire more people. And it's not just in the present-day U.S. He gives examples of Japan, India, South Africa, etc from several time periods. People who are marginalized by society tend to be the ones hurt by a minimum wage. That's not at all a slight to those who work hard but don't make the cut. That's just how business and economics (and the world) works. It's sad, but for those who get fired, it's even worse when you literally price them out of a job. Most of these people affected are the inexperienced and poor. Unfortunately, that's a thing that happens. A lot.
Again, don't trust my coffee-and-energy-drink-powered millennial brain. Look to more evidence. Jeffrey Clemens is a professor at UC San Diego. He got a PHD from Harvard (so that makes him a smarty-pants) and he did a study recently that is floating around the internet. This showed a few things. Market Watch points out that that the percentage of young people "who held a job fell to 28% from 40% between 2006 and 2010. Although more people in that bracket have since found work, the study found, only 33% were employed at the end of 2014." Also, from Clemens' findings, "Between 2006 and 2012, the average effective minimum wage rose from $5.82 to $7.55 across the United States...The evidence supports the view that this period's minimum wage increases had significant, negative effects on low-skilled workers' employment." Also, he found that while you can mess with the numbers to make it seem like there might only by a 0.49% overall change in employment some places, those same areas will have their young and uneducated populations take a hit over 5%.
Many who want to raise the minimum wage will want to do it out of an honest desire to help the marginalized, but recent (and past) evidence points toward the opposite outcome. Obviously, I could be wrong but I judge what I know by what I see. And what I see is most experts and evidence saying it doesn't look good.
...
Oh look, N.Y. Governor Cuomo just raised the minimum wage!
-----
-Iain Coston
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