More Videos:
▶The Truth About Income Inequality: https://youtu.be/IjyOFauHLqE
▶Unknown Facts About the 'Top 1%': https://youtu.be/fewjhevKv_U
▶The Unseen Costs of Government's 'Life-Saving' Policies: https://youtu.be/ds7elx5Pqo0

90% of our problems would be fixed if schools required real economics classes.

If more people are unemployed, then polical groups that target low-income voters can entice them more by promising them free benefits, thus creating more voters who won't vote against their political interests.

The most interesting thing to learn was why labor unions support minimum wage increases. It's all about eliminating the competition.

Most of the problems in this world come from people who want authority to fix all problems.

Also worth noting that when minimum wage goes up, employers tend to scale back hours rather than fire people, obfuscating the deleterious effects on low income workers.

In Brazil there is a lot of worker laws,but the unemployment is very high, I suffered so much to find a job in Brazil, for 2 years I was trying to find my first job

Thomas Sowell for President, and Roger Staubach for vice president. both are leaders. both are educated. both served in the military, both command respect. both have wisdom, discernment, and critical thinking, both speak with authority, clarity, and honesty, and both can "take the heat"....end of discussion.

Always learning while I listen.

Most jobs in the US already pay above minimum wage. Paying workers too low can actually hurt the employer.

I am from the Balkans, from a country in transition. The problem with this law in my country is that this law is massively abused. The private sector does not want to employ people with higher educations, and therefore they employ them as "low-skilled" workers. For example, someone who has completed high technical school is registered as a worker having completed only four grades of primary school. This is all illegal, of course, but since we live in dysfunctional states, nobody cares, and those who do, can't do anything.

So, if I'm following the logic right, to increase the value of one's work, the real solution would be to stop importing cheap labor. A more native workforce's standard on what they're willing to work for would be higher (not by much necessarily) and raise the pay the employers would have to offer, by increasing the competition to obtain employees.

people really dont want to see labour as a product that can be sold and bought (and thus follows market laws), because they think thats equal to saying people are a product that can be sold and bought.

Ironically, that means that they think labour value=person value subconciously.
I believe this to be a marxist hangup that has burrowed itself in the general conciousness, with the escuse of compassion.

Minimum wage should be consistent with the housing market. No one should have to choose between food and keeping a roof over head. Necessities shouldn't be taxed. "Things you need to live"

I do love these videos and there is wisdom in all of them, but this is one of the rare times I find myself unsure of this answer. We have seen in the 19th century what happens when businesses are divorced from minimum wage. Where railroad workers have their wages cut in half. And when they rebel their jobs are filled with immigrants (Irish and Italians) and any kind of strike or attempt at united action has the literal military forces used against them. We must not look at the unions and what they became (Corrupt bloated economic machines) and see only that. Their original purpose was in a horrible time for the working man when it came to economic viability. And lots of blood was spilled. Regular jobs short change their employees with these regulations. Without them? Who knows.

Its honestly a no win scenario.

This is very tough in the United States; an example is low earners in other countries do not have to outlay the US's exorbitant expense of health care, and has the financial savings of a universal health care system. Education to gain qualifications to a higher paying job is also an added expense the US endures, where other countries don't. There are so many variables to take into consideration, and the domino effect of a lack of health and education can keep people on the hamster wheel for decades.

Generally speaking Sowell is completely right when you take this small issue and analyze it without taking broad context in consideration. Complete deregulation leads to trickle-up economy and monopole on capital, more popularly known as "we are 99%", etc. Absolutely every participant in market economy strives to become monopolist in his business because profit margins are highest in that case. This is of course bad for general market and this is why regulation exists.

Switzerland has other systemic factors that contribute such as higher unionization and cba agreements which cover around 50% of the workforce so essentially that sets a wage floor regardless of its mandated or not. If the argument laid out here were 100% factual Australia would have extremely high unemployment due to its minimum wage being 20+ an hour even though it's well below 5%.

I was realy shocked when I first learned this one. Is incredible how important economics is and how much goverments hides them

One of the other costs of minimum wages is the increased cost of goods produced soon making it a less than living wage again. In other words minimum wage also increased the cost of living through price increases to compensate for the higher minimum wage.

This makes at least two videos I have watched by Thomas Sowell on this subject. So far, however, the videos I’ve watched have failed to expound on the fact that
1: Requirements that employers pay higher wages (1-1/2 times as much) for overtime work (usually defined as more than 40 hours per week) are usually part of the minimum wage laws and
2: Workers who can’t live on the minimum wage times a forty-hour work week are disadvantaged additionally because of the costs in time and money to work a second job somewhere else than where they work “full time”.

P.S. If someone reading this has not considered my alternative to minimum wage laws, please request information about that.

Even if it didn't have an impact on the employment rate, if I'm a business owner and suddenly learn that everyone was making twice as much as they were yesterday all that would lead me to do is double my prices.

I always hated it when they raised the minimum wage. I would have people who just started making nearly what I was making after learning my job. To make matters worse though everything went up and I was worse off than before and couldn't afford as much.

Maybe each country has different experience. Minimum wage in Indonesia increase from $20 to $330 from 2002 to 2022. But, unemployment rate is stable. Always around 7 or 5 percent.

These are very thought provoking lectures

I love staying to the early 20s today (when they complain about not having benefits, low wage, etc): “okay, why not just go work for a company that offers that?” This usually makes them think.