I recently had a discussion with some friends about minimum wages, and it got me thinking about how we make judgments. Let's keep discussions about ideology out of this, please.
Friend 1 said that if having a livable wage would fuck up the economy because that's just how capitalism works, we need to realize that capitalism is the problem. I commented that there is a trade-off between a higher min wage and an increase in unemployment and possibly also inflation, and I don't think there is a perfect solution.
Friend 2 mentioned how some studies have found that increasing the minimum wage didn't increase unemployment significantly. I countered that there are certain situations in which this could happen; if the minimum wages are initially very low they might be way below what e.g. the average fast food worker contributes to the company, so even after increasing the minimum wages it's still a net gain for companies to hire them. Another possibility is that there are confounding factors which hide an existing effect. Friend 2's response to this was that the economy is a complex system and we can't be sure what the effect of a policy change was.
I generally maintain that I'll change my mind about pretty much anything, if I encounter proof of why I'm wrong... but tbh I just can't believe that there is no tradeoff between minimum wages and unemployment, as a rule. I just can't see how increasing minimum wages indefinitely wouldn't eventually lead to an increase in unemployment. (On an ethical level, I'd prefer that everyone had a good standard of living and I'm not opposed to having social security for unemployed people. If anything, I'd prefer to believe that there is no tradeoff, but I can't make sense of how it could be possible...)
Is my reasoning an example of 'subjective' logic of Ti-users, or something else?
Friend 1 said that if having a livable wage would fuck up the economy because that's just how capitalism works, we need to realize that capitalism is the problem. I commented that there is a trade-off between a higher min wage and an increase in unemployment and possibly also inflation, and I don't think there is a perfect solution.
Friend 2 mentioned how some studies have found that increasing the minimum wage didn't increase unemployment significantly. I countered that there are certain situations in which this could happen; if the minimum wages are initially very low they might be way below what e.g. the average fast food worker contributes to the company, so even after increasing the minimum wages it's still a net gain for companies to hire them. Another possibility is that there are confounding factors which hide an existing effect. Friend 2's response to this was that the economy is a complex system and we can't be sure what the effect of a policy change was.
I generally maintain that I'll change my mind about pretty much anything, if I encounter proof of why I'm wrong... but tbh I just can't believe that there is no tradeoff between minimum wages and unemployment, as a rule. I just can't see how increasing minimum wages indefinitely wouldn't eventually lead to an increase in unemployment. (On an ethical level, I'd prefer that everyone had a good standard of living and I'm not opposed to having social security for unemployed people. If anything, I'd prefer to believe that there is no tradeoff, but I can't make sense of how it could be possible...)
Is my reasoning an example of 'subjective' logic of Ti-users, or something else?