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Re:Why is U.S. labor supply so low? by xyzzy123 on Sunday December 26, 2021 @03:35PM (#29696046)
Employers who create full time positions that don't pay enough for people to live on create a social burden that the rest of society has to deal with.

That's the negative externality.

Re:Why is U.S. labor supply so low? by m4nu3l on Sunday December 26, 2021 @04:22PM (#29696512)
Hum, I see your point, but I disagree for two reasons.

AFAIK most jobs that would pay under what's enough to live on are entry level jobs usually carried out part-time by students. Denying them such job is removing them that source of income - and in case of jobs that require experience denying them a chance to gain that experience. This means you are not reducing any social externality. You are just shifting those externalities to a different set of people.

I'm also wary of "daling with" this kind of social externalities even if it was possible. If we apply your argument to drugs than the conclusions would be that alcohol and any other drug should be made illegal because it has a social cost. But I believe people still have the right to do whatever they want with their body and mind as long as there is no direct externality, and I'd rather live with any indirect externality that is the result of that.

Re:Why is U.S. labor supply so low? by Alekhine on Sunday December 26, 2021 @05:46PM (#29697102)
> AFAIK most jobs that would pay under what's enough to live on are entry level jobs usually carried out part-time by students.

This is a rosy view of things, but I don't believe its true. Walk into plenty of markets in poorer or even middle class areas and you will find older people doing these jobs out of necessity. I've seen 'entry level job' used very often as a way to exploit people with not much choice.

Re:Why is U.S. labor supply so low? by m4nu3l on Sunday December 26, 2021 @07:50PM (#29697874)
Statistical evidence is better than anecdotal evidence. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2019/home.htm Also, so you'd rather have some of those people have no income as long as some luckier ones get more income?
Re:Why is U.S. labor supply so low? by Ziggy_Zaggy on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @06:16AM (#29723850)
Quite the moral dilemma, it seems.
Re:Why is U.S. labor supply so low? by sershe on Sunday January 02, 2022 @04:41AM (#29767265)
They don't really create this externality, though. A person taking this job apparently cannot get a better paying job. With a higher minimum wage in otherwise free market, no jobs for that person would exist, so the social burden would exist just the same.

The situation is diametrically opposite - minimum wage forces businesses to engage in welfare. Those who have enough margins to engage in welfare might do it; the others may disappear with the jobs, or cut the jobs by reducing service/automating/outsourcing (again leading to the same "social burden" existing).