Self-study
Essayist: Support One of the claims of laissez-faire economics is that increasing the minimum wage reduces the total number of minimum-wage jobs available. ██ █ ██████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ █████████ ███████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████
Summary
Laissez-faire economics isn’t entirely accurate. Why not? Because it says that increasing the minimum wage will reduce the total number of min-wage jobs, and yet in a certain sector, increasing the minimum wage had no effect on such jobs.
Notable Assumptions
The author argues that increasing the minimum wage doesn’t decrease the total number of min-wage jobs. But he only demonstrates that it doesn’t decrease the number of such jobs in one single sector. What happens in other sectors when the minimum wage increases? Do those jobs stay put too, or do they decrease? The author must assume that the min-wage job market at large behaves like it does in the fast-food sector when the minimum wage is increased.
13.
The essayist's argument depends on ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
If laissez-faire economics █████ ██ █████████ ██████████ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████████████ █████████ ███ ███████████
The conclusion is merely that laissez-faire economics has some inaccuracy, not that it’s entirely inaccurate. So there’s no need to assume that anything makes laissez-faire economics entirely inaccurate.
b
Minimum-wage job availability ██ █████████ ███████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ████████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ████████
The author only considers min-wage job availability in the fast-food sector, but he reaches a conclusion about total min-wage job availability everywhere. So he must assume that other sectors behave similarly to fast food. Otherwise, if the fast-food sector weren’t representative, then it couldn’t support any broader conclusions about the overall min-wage job market.
c
No study has ████ █████ ████ █ ████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████ █████████ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████
Too strong. The author argues that the net number of min-wage jobs doesn’t decrease. This allows for the possibility that the number of min-wage jobs decreases in some businesses and increases in others. So there’s no need to assume that no business has ever been found to decrease min-wage jobs.
d
The fast-food restaurants ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ██████████
The argument is purely about whether, and how, the minimum wage affects the number of min-wage jobs. What goes on with the average wage is irrelevant.
e
The national unemployment ████ ███ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████
The argument is purely about changes in the number of min-wage jobs. The author doesn’t need to make any assumptions about the net availability of all jobs, or about how the unemployment rate reflects that availability. It’s possible that when the minimum wage increases, min-wage jobs stay put but other jobs are lost. That wouldn’t affect the argument.