3chordcharlie
Diamond Member
- Mar 30, 2004
- 9,859
- 1
- 81
Originally posted by: Dissipate
I suggest you look up the definition of
equilibrium price, and be sure to click the definition of market price. Once again, equilibrium price has nothing to do with government edict.
I suggest that you re-read my posts, or your definition, and realize that changing the structure of the market changes the price at which quantity supplied equals quantity demanded.
Government can't mandate an equilibrium price (well, they could, and the type of job corruption and job-buying that happens in many foreign governments would be the result; the market would have to srt itself out through illegal trading of goods, money, and services). Have a look at how the market adjusts to restrictions on the number of Taxis; permits become a valuable commodity, even though they have no value in and of themselves; they simply become a cost of entering the market.
The difference in the case of the $100 minimum wage is that only workers skilled enough to be worth hiring at this wage are hired at all. Just because I'm willing to work for the summer at the 'equilibrium' wage for a Nurse in Ontario, and there is demand for nurses at that wage (true at the moment, I'm told), doesn't mean there is inefficiency: I'm not a nurse, so why would anyone hire me as one? It isn't disequilibrium if I'm willing to work as a CEO for half the compensation that any major corporation provides either; though it would be if I were fully qualified to do the job.
Don't forget that your labour and mine are NOT perfect substitutes, so there could easily be conditions under which you are worth hiring at a given wage, and I am not, and vice versa.
