Hey! Thanks for such a detailed comment. Just for that, I'm going to give your websites some free advertising in my journal, read by over three people per year. Any one in particular I should pimp?
1. Just don't expect me to start yammering about "family values" or any of that crap.
2. A very common part of the argument for increasing the minimum wage is to mention how long it has been since the last increase and how much inflation has occurred since then. It's absolutely true that this amounts to a gradual real reduction in the purchasing power of the minimum wage. I didn't mention it because I think it's a slippery debate tactic; it skips over the more fundamental questions of whether we should have a minimum at all, and how to determine what it should be. Sure, if we assume that the level of the minimum wage was appropriate in 1998, then it should be increased now. But that assumption is the problem.
3. I'm wordier than I need to be. (I didn't have time to write a short essay, so I wrote a long one.) But yes, some of this stuff may be a little subtle. I have hope, though, that with appropriate metaphor or just good communication these issues can be clarified. People aren't stupid; they're just very bad at abstract thought.
4. Redistribution of wealth isn't necessarily futile. Our current system, a hodgepodge of a mishmash, is kind of silly. And trying to make everyone come out equal would be a disaster. But we can partially compensate for the inequality of market outcomes; it blunts incentives a little, but it doesn't need to be too bad. The current system suffers from being a giant pile of kludges.
5. Yeah, illegal immigration is definitely related. One good reason to hire illegals is that you can pay them whatever and they won't complain, because complaining would involve the government, who wants to arrest them.
(However, the actual minimum wage law is somewhat complicated. Some agricultural jobs are excluded, some waitstaff jobs with substantial tip income are excluded, etc. So it's not necessarily the case that illegal immigrants are doing jobs that would pay minimum wage if they were legal.)
Nonetheless, a minimum wage is quite likely increasing the demand for illegal immigration. Conversely, the demand for illegal immigration may indicate the extent to which the minimum wage is distorting the economy.
6. Sadly, instead of fighting the increase, what businesses have done is lobby for a bunch of tax breaks to be added onto H.R. 2. They know that some arcane deduction for attorney fees for small businesses challenging federal regulations in court is a lot harder to explain than the minimum wage. So they're just contributing to the deliberate obfuscation from the other side.
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winterfish
no subject
Date: 2007-02-15 04:14 pm (UTC)1. Just don't expect me to start yammering about "family values" or any of that crap.
2. A very common part of the argument for increasing the minimum wage is to mention how long it has been since the last increase and how much inflation has occurred since then. It's absolutely true that this amounts to a gradual real reduction in the purchasing power of the minimum wage. I didn't mention it because I think it's a slippery debate tactic; it skips over the more fundamental questions of whether we should have a minimum at all, and how to determine what it should be. Sure, if we assume that the level of the minimum wage was appropriate in 1998, then it should be increased now. But that assumption is the problem.
3. I'm wordier than I need to be. (I didn't have time to write a short essay, so I wrote a long one.) But yes, some of this stuff may be a little subtle. I have hope, though, that with appropriate metaphor or just good communication these issues can be clarified. People aren't stupid; they're just very bad at abstract thought.
4. Redistribution of wealth isn't necessarily futile. Our current system, a hodgepodge of a mishmash, is kind of silly. And trying to make everyone come out equal would be a disaster. But we can partially compensate for the inequality of market outcomes; it blunts incentives a little, but it doesn't need to be too bad. The current system suffers from being a giant pile of kludges.
5. Yeah, illegal immigration is definitely related. One good reason to hire illegals is that you can pay them whatever and they won't complain, because complaining would involve the government, who wants to arrest them.
(However, the actual minimum wage law is somewhat complicated. Some agricultural jobs are excluded, some waitstaff jobs with substantial tip income are excluded, etc. So it's not necessarily the case that illegal immigrants are doing jobs that would pay minimum wage if they were legal.)
Nonetheless, a minimum wage is quite likely increasing the demand for illegal immigration. Conversely, the demand for illegal immigration may indicate the extent to which the minimum wage is distorting the economy.
6. Sadly, instead of fighting the increase, what businesses have done is lobby for a bunch of tax breaks to be added onto H.R. 2. They know that some arcane deduction for attorney fees for small businesses challenging federal regulations in court is a lot harder to explain than the minimum wage. So they're just contributing to the deliberate obfuscation from the other side.