Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge

Don Boudreaux is fun to read.  Here is a strong criticism of increases in the minimum wage.

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge

13 comments:

Isabel said...

I think that Mr. Boudreaux is right, I mean raising the minimum wages will just cost those less skilled workers to lose their jobs and increase prices. I do not even know why that guy even thinks that minimum wages should be raised right now.

James Davies said...

Love the tone he has at the end shaming the guy. It would be amazing if workers, even unskilled workers here in the United States were naturally paid much higher wages than the rest of the world. It could mean that our cost of living was really high, or hopefully our quality of life was that much higher than other countries. But one way to keep costs down therefore increasing quality of life, is cheap labor. Sad truth, but in the words of Discovery channel, its a dirty job but somebodies got to do it. So no the minimum wage should not be forced to be raised, business should do them to keep better relationships with employees.

Mackenzie said...

I don't see many positive outcomes if the minimum wage was forcefully raised. The job market is already forcing higher skilled workers to take lower end jobs while the less skilled workers are left unemployed. Raising minimum wage would just make that worse. We should be focused on better education and re-education.

Ian Littlejohn said...

I also agree with that minimum wages shouldnt be raised. Maybe if the less skilled workers made themselves more valuable in the work industry none of this would be a problem. now there is no excuse not to go to school or even go to a trade school to learn a trade so that even if all a person can do is fix cars they have industries coming to them to work instead of them going to industries

Anonymous said...

Raising the minimum wage would put a bind on small businesses, as they literally go from month to month in the hope they can fulfill their payroll. Keeping it lower also helps a business when the hire a new employee because the investment in that new employee may not be a good one.

Cory Nissen said...

Raising the minimum wage would cause a lot of unskilled workers to lose their jobs, which would cause less spending and could lead to another recession. I agree with Mackenzie that we should focus on education or reeducation to provide more skilled workers.

Trent said...

Paying people more than their worth is just aimlessly driving up prices and having a major impact on the middle class

Kelby Moss said...

Raising the minimum wage does nothing but increase the prices of everyday goods. Like milk the farmers and ec. still need the minimum wage worker so the increase the price to cover their costs.

Mason Jones said...

It is without arguement that a minimum wage serves a good purpose. However, raising the minimum wage faster than inflation, is going to raise prices and/or make lower skilled workers lose their jobs due to dead weight loss.

Pars Tornakian said...

If raising the minimum wage will result in job losses, it shouldn't be done.

Eid Alkhaldi said...

I don't think that increasing the general level of the production cost will be of advantage to the US. economy. The best way to orgnize the economy and make it very efficient is to make it heal itself though less government regulation.

Mike B. said...

This is not the time to increases minimum wage. We would only see an increase in the cost of goods, and I think more turnover in employment.

Nick Goldman said...

Raising the minimum wage will make businesses invest in more highly skill employees driving out the lower skilled employees. We cannot have low skilled workers just sitting on their hands with nothing to do. If there is to be a raise in minimum wage then retrain the lower skilled workers to enter back in the workforce so they can be productive in society again. However, i think it is a bad idea to be raising wages right now when most small business are having a hard time turning a profit.