… is a remark that one of my freshman students – I don’t know her name* – spontaneously expressed to me as I was walking out of class this evening with her and some other of my students; the lecture was on price controls, including the price floor that is popularly known as the minimum wage:
Economics is soooo cool! I’m totally hyped! I had no idea that the minimum wage might hurt workers!
I love – I absolutely and unconditionally adore – teaching intro economics.
(For those of you who wonder: I do indeed tell all of my intro-econ classes that, in addition to the many empirical studies that find negative employment consequences of minimum-wage legislation, there are several other empirical studies – many by prominent economists – that find that minimum-wage hikes have no detectable negative effects on the employment of low-skilled workers.)
….
* She’s one of 328 students in that class.
