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It's great that you understand how supply and demand works, but look beyond that.

At some point in the mid-term future, automation will take over enough labor that a sizeable chunk of the (educated, motivated) population won't be able to find a job at all. Supply non-zero, demand zero, ergo price zero.

In that world, should we just let people starve?



That seems like an argument for basic income or similar. The topic at hand is raising minimum wage, which could only accelerate job loss due to automation.


Raising minimum wage might reduce the number of jobs, but 100% * ~0$ < 10% * 15$.

Many companies have wages low enough that people receive significant public assistance while working full time. That’s a terrible trend, either the work is valuable enough to pay a living wage or or does not need to be done. Allowing companies to pay below living wages is simply an inefficient drain on the economy.


That's a completely different situation, and there's no telling when or if that will happen.




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