[cartercole]

The minimum wage should be 0 - sincerely any good economist

[tombert]

That's a common trope, but there have been studies indicating that minimum wage doesn't have a significant effect on unemployment. [0] [1]

Assuming that's accurate, then shouldn't we mandate that these corporations pay their workers a livable wage? If they don't pay the workers a livable wage, guess who does? The taxpayers, in the form of food stamps, welfare, and increased prison population. I really don't see why the American public should be forced to subsidize Walmart (or any large megacorporation) just because they won't pay their employees enough.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#cite_note-104 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#cite_note-105

EDIT: Before anyone says it, I know forcing Walmart to pay more to their workers would increase the prices of their goods; that's still almost certainly cheaper than increasing welfare.

[kangnkodos]

Economists can't run experiments like other scientists. In a way, they are more like historians.

In my opinion, almost all of the actual past raises to minimum wage have been on the small side, and have not significantly affected unemployment. You're right about that.

But if my opinion is true, then there's a huge leap with no scientific basis to saying "therefore this specific large increase in minimum wage will not raise unemployment."

Unfortunately, there aren't any scientific studies of increasing the US minimum wage by 100% because it has not been done multiple times in the past. So no one really knows what would happen if we did it now.

[OscarCunningham]

Assuming that's accurate, we should set the minimum wage to infinity.

[Noos]

The problem though is that a lot of goods sold are essentially optional and may not be able to withstand the price increase. Like I said upthread, this would act as a fitness check on businesses and weed out a lot of employers.

These would have ripple effects up the chain. Malls and retail real estate are empty as it is, for one; any fewer and we legitimately might see problems.

[Ohn0]

It's also common sense

[falcolas]

... who would never work for 0 themselves, even though their own work arguably provides little tangible value.

[anonuser123456]

Exactly. People won't work for less than their worth. So a minimum wage doesn't accomplish much except set a price floor that excludes low value add workers from the economy.

[keeganjw]

The minimum wage should be livable - sincerely any good person

[fennecfoxen]

> The minimum wage should be livable - sincerely any good person

Also unemployment should never happen, and if we simply declare how the economy should works, it will magically reorganize itself in a way that makes it so, and which doesn't do serious harm to anybody, and doesn't cripple our futures. And you are a monster for daring to entertain the notion that achieving goodness in the world is any more complicated than this, and you deserve to be shunned and hated.

[jimbokun]

But why tie it to a wage, instead of something like UBI?

[commandlinefan]

Well, people _should_ never get cancer or any other debilitating disease, but just because we want something to be real doesn't mean it is.

[MuffinFlavored]

Livable to what extent? You should be able to afford food (what quality of food? do good people also believe everybody deserves to eat filet mignon/comparable on occasion?), transportation (which in some cases means car + gas + maintenance + insurance) + housing (what kind of housing? rent a room in a low cost area? have your own single family home?) + family (should you be encouraged to have 3 children aka mouths to feed if you are low income)?

I don't know if I've been brainwashed growing up by fake news but... isn't the idea "work hard for a living", not "do the minimum and be rewarded?" (aka minimum wage)

[linuxasheviller]

Any good economist would point to the economic inefficiencies created on the whole market by the externalities of the human suffering this would cause.

[tempsy]

it might as well be - "gig" work is not bound by min wage laws.

ask an instacart worker how that's worked out for them.

[Ohn0]

lol the minimum / livable wage is just another joke in lawmaking with vast loopholes.

[jimbokun]

Might be viable if tied to a generous UBI.

[Kiro]

There are a lot of functioning countries with a minimum wage of 0 (e.g. Sweden).