Tim Barden
1 min readApr 18, 2021

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Your argument dismissing the impact of technology on minimum wage is fundamentally flawed. It ignores two critical elements.

1) The assumption that technology won't result in a net displacement of jobs assumes that it advances at a steady pace and creates as much demand for human labour as it consumes. Thus far, this may appear to be true only because we are just now entering the steep part of the exponential curve of Moore's Law. We are going up, up, up instead of sideways.

2) To the extent that machine labour, AI, automation, Internet of Things, etc., can act as a lower cost substitute for human labour, it will replace them. Yet, virtually no discussion by academic or policy makers on the supply/demand for human labour takes this substitution into account. Such a blind spot leaves us ill prepared for the imminent decline on the need for human labour and it's resulting impact on society.

The intent behind raising the minimum wage is to bring into better balance income and wealth inequality. Something that has shifted significantly over the past few decades as the owners of capital equipment (automation, etc) have reduced the cost of production. This will continue to accelerate until government and politicians realize that ignoring technological displacement is making the problem that much more difficult to solve.

Raising the minimum wage isn't the solution because the minimum wage isn't truly the problem. However, focusing the debate on minimum wage is preventing us from seeing and solving the real problem.

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Tim Barden
Tim Barden

Written by Tim Barden

Independent. Heterodox. Passionate about the arts, society and technology. IT Professional turned Arts Professional.

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