Reply To: Logic Regarding Minimum Wage

#19117
deansopko
Member

Dr. Casey,

Thanks for the reply. Glad to hear you had a good time in Auburn. I have to admit I’m a bit envious as I would love to have been there, too!

I appreciate your economic argument against the minimum wage. For me, actually, the moral argument is most significant. As I see it, if two parties voluntarily agree to an arrangement that doesn’t initiate–or threaten to initiate–force against any others, then no one should be able to interfere with it. Period.

At any rate, my question wasn’t really concerning the legitimacy of the minimum wage. It was about what I sense to be a logical fallacy in one of the arguments against it that I frequently see/hear. Namely, this– “If a $10 minimum wage is beneficial to low-skilled workers, then why not raise it to $100 or $1000? Wouldn’t that be even better??” This doesn’t seem to be a logical argument to me. It would be the same as arguing against the efficacy of taking two aspirin to relieve a headache by staying “If taking two aspirin is beneficial, why not take 20, or 200? Wouldn’t that be even better?”

It’s this argument that a certain amount of something must be wrong because more of it wouldn’t be even better that I’m having trouble getting my head around. Can you understand what I’m getting at? Isn’t there some kind of logical fallacy here?

Dean