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A comment on What harm do minimum wages do?. Parent comment

Re:What harm do minimum wages do? by dredmorbius on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @05:12PM (#24216575)
Keep in mind that "free market" and "perfect competition", whilst commonly used interchangably, are in fact distinct terms. Few standard economic texts even mention "free market" whilst "perfect competition" is a standard microeconomic term (along with monopoly/monopsony and oligopoly/oligopsony), referring almost entirely to marginal value analysis, price/quantity behaviours, allocations of producer/consumer surplus, and deadweight losses.

"Free market" is a political term regarding the level of government regulation.

Neither "free market" nor "competitive market" adequately describe all (or even significant) levels of power differentials between economic (and social) actors.

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Re:What harm do minimum wages do? by littlestymaar on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @05:52PM (#24217136)
> Keep in mind that "free market" and "perfect competition", whilst commonly used interchangably, are in fact distinct terms.

But the author used a “textbook” result that is only true in case of perfect competition, so he must be talking about perfect competition right?

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Re:What harm do minimum wages do? by dredmorbius on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @07:02PM (#24217879)
I did consider rooting my comment higher up the thread. But the points I was addressing were most appropriate here. Point remains that "free market" is a loaded and political term.
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