Wow. This is quite the shocker.
Paul Krugman, the hilarious Keynesian economist punching bag for most conservatives and Austrians, admitted in an interview with Bloomberg that high minimum wages do come with negative economic effects. But wasn’t the case made that there are no consequences to high minimum wages?
That’s what Keynesians, progressives and union leaders continue to fallaciously pontificate.
When discussing the economic collapse of Puerto Rico, Krugman conceded that the minimum wage is too high in the United States territory. Puerto Rico has an unemployment rate of about 13 percent, while maintaining the highest minimum wage in the U.S.
Here is Krugman’s statement:
“The minimum wage is too high…their productivity is about a third of the U.S. average,” he said. “I’m in favor of a higher U.S. minimum, but not tripling it. So the Puerto Rican minimum wage probably is too high. I wouldn’t recommend that level relative to productivity in the U.S.”
Here is a chart courtesy of Economics21, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):
The problem with avid proponents of the minimum wage is that they continue to contradict themselves. For instance, one of the common arguments against the minimum wage is that if there are no ramifications of raising it then why stop at $15 or $20? Why not hike it up to $50? The usual response would be that it would be too high or that’s not what protesters asking for.
This answer implies that there are indeed negative effects to the unemployment rate and the overall economy when it comes to increasing the minimum wage.
Hearing it come from the mouth of Mr. Paul Space-Alien-Invasion-to-Improve-the-Economy Krugman should make progressives think about modifying their stances on the minimum wage. As economist Murray Rothbard said, it’s “compulsory unemployment” and a mechanism to “outlaw jobs.”
The CBOestimated that a $9 federal would result in no job losses. A $10.15 minimum would cost 500,000 jobs. A $15 minimum would cause a loss of millions of jobs. This does not mean that higher minimums would be a problem in very robust local economies.
Dear Andrew Moran, you are hilarious if you think you understand something, anything about keynesian economics or if you indeed think you know 0.1% of what Paul Krugman knows about macro. Go study before writing these bad joke of article.