Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyB
Do you actually mean that?
Doing that would just mandate business closures.
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This all reminds me of the hand wringing when restaurants and bars were all going to shut down when you weren't allowed to smoke in them anymore.
Most agree $0 minimum wage is bad, and $100 minimum wage is bad.
Starting from there, you have a lot of jobs that used to be a living wage producing occupation (grocery store clerk) that no longer are. There is also a pay divide between executives and upper management to front line workers that has gotten significantly wider. Hence people advocating higher minimum wage as a way to force wealth redistribution that isn't happening out of the goodness of the executives hearts.
One side effect of wealth distribution is more customers. Currently, you have a decent swath of the population that isn't going out to a sit down restaurant because they can't afford it, among many other things. Putting more disposable income in their hands can theoretically generate economic activity.
Maybe minimum wage isn't the best way to do this. Maybe UBI is, coupled with more aggressive progressive taxation.
Either way, it's a problem in dire need of us trying
something.