No this statement "After which we'll hear demands for 100 dollars an hour." and balking at my satire of it is obviously silly. If you want to correct your language now, great, I can accept you misspoke.
Simple math, simple supply and demand. A quick more than tripling of the minimum wage is simply going to have serious consequences. Change my mind.
Again, this is addressed in the article but in there he references several studies and examples of some inflation spike being inevitable just is not really true.
This is amazing to conceive. That an entire "class" of people - those making minimum wage, can have that wage more than tripled, ands the results will be - nothing? All that will happen is they will have around three times the money. There will be no other effects. I'm finding that perhaps a little hard to come to grips with. I do take it that with this tripling, their government assistance will end. No food stamps,(SNAP), no free phones and laptops, no Section 8, no heating fuel assistance. No Babysitting services. All people living on what their paycheck amount is.
Therein lies a big question. What will people who have a fair amount of their lives paid for by the government think of a sudden cessation of benefits, and a "You are on your own now."
Now don't get me wrong. I believe that people should just use the money they bring home, and not get assistance. It makes sense. It is hardly possible at the Federal minimum level. But the dynamics of all this are seriously messy when we more than triple income at the bottom end.
These government programs I mentioned are a workaround for the ridiculously low Federal minimum wage we have now. My wife's friend - the registered pharmacist who works as a waitress, has section 8 housing, free laptop and phone, and SNAP. Truth is, she's living pretty okay. I'd call it roughly lower middle class. These bennies are available for everyone depending on income level.
Is it true in states with already higher minimum wage? Other countries with higher MW? There's also the fact that in this scenario there is zero increase in money supply, it is a wealth transfer.
Washington State has been adjusting its minimum wage incrementally in a cost of living setup. Probably the best approach. I do not know what effect this has regarding low income benefits.
In irony, the government assistance programs are wealth transfer.
In the end, quickly tripling the minimum wage could end up eroding the number of low skilled jobs as employers cut back on staff, and/or lean further into automation, permanently eliminating jobs. Or the old "Private contractor" canard - making the Minnies be their own employer.
As I noted way earlier, this is not even remotely simple. And since you want to claim I never read the link you cited, your guy says that there will be inflation with things like 15 dollar Big Macs Here's what he has to say; "There have been headlines lately about $15 Big Macs, and in California some fast food chains have closed since the minimum wage went up. They say this like it’s a bad thing. If we were to foot taxes to the externalities — which is what government is supposed to do — we’d have beef and gas at $20/pound and $10/gallon. Yes, fast food restaurants and many retail, hospital network, and prison system stocks would decline. And it would be worth it."
So he admits that he not only agrees there will be inflation, but he encourages it - he says that it would be worth it.
And that, my friend, is a pretty hard sell, and guess who will be affected the most? The minimum wage people paying 10 dollars per gallon for gasoline, and 20 dollars per pound beef - that's who. They'd still be working around an hour to buy that pound of beef.