8. Many people think the government should increase the minimum wage to help workers.

a) Do you think unskilled workers as a wholeand perhaps even society as a whole

would be better off if the minimum wage were increased to $20 per hour? Why or why not?

b) Unions often call for higher minimum wages, even though unions represent skilled

workers and therefore do not directly benefit from a minimum-wage increase. Recalling

from Chapter 3 how an increase in the price of a substitute good will tend to raise the

demand for the good in question, can you make an argument that wages for union members

will tend to increase when the minimum wage for unskilled, non-union labor is increased?

c) In his book The State Against Blacks, economist Walter Williams observes the

following:

Youth unemployment, even during relatively prosperous times, ranges from two to three

times that of the general labor force. Black youth unemployment, nationally for more than

a decade, had ranged from two to three times the unemployment rate for white youths. In

some metropolitan areas it is reported that black youth unemployment exceeds 60 percent!

Why is youth unemployment, and especially black youth unemployment, so high? Williams

argues it's a direct effect of minimum-wage legislation. Can you construct the argument?