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by laughingbovine 1870 days ago
This is a strange argument. Are you saying that we should never raise minimum wage? It isn't even keeping up with inflation.

As for the history books, I recall we've raised the minimum wage in the past. The US still exists, so i guess the history books say its ok?

1 comments

It's not strange at all, you just didn't understand the point. Libertarian theory has all kinds of bizarre reasoning about human nature, which doesn't translate into the real world. History, on the other hand, does provide a guide to how large numbers of actual people have behaved in the past, when cast on to the scrap heap of life. Human nature doesn't change rapidly. I'm not taking your bait (never raise minimum wage), but it's important to be aware that, at the margin, increasing the cost of any business input will result in business attempting to substitute that input to the extent possible - i.e. fewer jobs.