When Bill Gates appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday morning, he shocked many viewers with his comments about raising the minimum wage.
When asked whether raising the minimum wage was a good idea, Gates responded,
“Well, jobs are a great thing. So you have to be a bit careful: If you raise the minimum wage, you’re encouraging labor substitution, and you’re going to go buy machines and automate things — or cause jobs to appear outside of that jurisdiction. And so within certain limits, you know, it does cause job destruction. If you really start pushing it, then you’re just making a huge trade-off.”
Gates’s comments were particularly interesting in light of DC’s recent minimum wage increases, and his words highlight the the importance of considering the possible unintended consequences of any policy.
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