We should have a $0 minimum wage, but the arguments for it are not nearly as straightforward or compact. But they are, I think, much
more humanitarian than people trying to fiddle with where to cut-off work. I will try to put them as compactly as possible with a few counter-example questions.
What if a 16 year old wants to partly make money, partly learn the ropes of some job, and some place could use "some" help but not get meaningfully enough work to pay a kid [$X min wage]? Right now, these kids and businesses are out of luck. This would make them even more worse off.
What if a 60 year old is feeling lonely and wants to be a greeter or lecter or something helpful, and they need this meaning and sociability more than they need money, but it is not worth [$X min wage] for 99% of places to have such a job? Right now, these old folk and businesses are out of luck.
The sheer amount of work you exclude when you require all jobs to be [minmimum | livable | comfortable] is huge. Just enormous. Not everyone is trying to strike it out on their own. Some people want to help in small ways and are fine with commensurate pay. Why force these jobs out of existence? Are you sure doing so is solving the problem you want to solve, while creating no others?
Why do people think money is the only operative thing here, or the only one ever possible, for all possible jobs for all possible people? It suggests a lack of imagination that I find a little frightening.
I have written about this in a very circumspect way in a few places before, because I think people have trouble with the straightforward argument. One of them got popular here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27695181
What if a 16 year old wants to partly make money, partly learn the ropes of some job, and some place could use "some" help but not get meaningfully enough work to pay a kid [$X min wage]? Right now, these kids and businesses are out of luck. This would make them even more worse off.
What if a 60 year old is feeling lonely and wants to be a greeter or lecter or something helpful, and they need this meaning and sociability more than they need money, but it is not worth [$X min wage] for 99% of places to have such a job? Right now, these old folk and businesses are out of luck.
The sheer amount of work you exclude when you require all jobs to be [minmimum | livable | comfortable] is huge. Just enormous. Not everyone is trying to strike it out on their own. Some people want to help in small ways and are fine with commensurate pay. Why force these jobs out of existence? Are you sure doing so is solving the problem you want to solve, while creating no others?
Why do people think money is the only operative thing here, or the only one ever possible, for all possible jobs for all possible people? It suggests a lack of imagination that I find a little frightening.
I have written about this in a very circumspect way in a few places before, because I think people have trouble with the straightforward argument. One of them got popular here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27695181