In the US, the minimum age to purchase alcohol is 21. It used to be 18. In other places it's younger, and/or it depends on the alcoholic content of the drink.
So, is 21 the right age? Is 18? Is 16?
Honest question: how would you go about answering your question?
Economists disagree with each other, so it's not something that an HN comment is going to resolve.
This means the productivity benefits are going somewhere, but not to the poorest people who are working the most.
Raise minimum wage to $20/hour (and/or increase collective barganining power), and raise taxes on the wealthiest, and increase the social safety net - pretty bog-standard social democratic viewpoints.
It's a complicated answer because of laws nerfing collective labor power in the US, like Taft-Hartley.
That is, I believe there's a big thumb already lowering wages to below its worth. So the real question is, how do we determine "worth"?
Some countries with strong unions, like Denmark, have an equivalent of $20/hour minimum wage for McDonald's employees, even though Denmark has no minimum wage.
So, is 21 the right age? Is 18? Is 16?
Honest question: how would you go about answering your question?
Economists disagree with each other, so it's not something that an HN comment is going to resolve.
Me, I based it on how the minimum wage from the 1950s, adjusted for productivity, would be about $25/hour - https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/minimum-wage-inf... .
This means the productivity benefits are going somewhere, but not to the poorest people who are working the most.
Raise minimum wage to $20/hour (and/or increase collective barganining power), and raise taxes on the wealthiest, and increase the social safety net - pretty bog-standard social democratic viewpoints.