New Empirical Evidence from Seattle Changes Minds in Economics

Among economists, the minimum wage is a contentious issue. The two sides of the debate fall largely along ideological lines, and both camps can point to arguments and studies that seem to support their position.*

For the past few years, the debate looked intractable.

But now, new minimum wage evidence out of Seattle is changing minds and is poised to resolve the question once and for all.

One economist who found the new evidence persuasive was Dr. Patricia Matthews, who spoke to The Daily Face Palm about her experience.

“Usually, when I hear about a new minimum study, I just skip straight to the results to see if they conform to my pre-existing views,” Dr. Matthews told The DFP. She added that this is really the surest way to know whether to praise the researchers for their hard work or raise pedantic objections on their methodology.

But she took a different approach to the new Seattle studies. Echoing the views of many other economists that have spoken publicly on the new results, Dr. Matthews said she was growing bored of the minimum wage debate.

“Look, I know the demand curve slopes downward, and I know Card and Krueger like the back of my hand. Metaphorically shouting those arguments back and forth was fun for awhile, but I was ready to move on,” Matthews said.

These sentiments have many economists looking at Seattle’s minimum wage studies with fresh eyes, and it could finally bring about an economic consensus on the minimum wage.

At press time, the Austrian School of economics was reportedly rethinking its emphasis on praxeology due to the widespread success of empirical studies informing and settling economic questions in Seattle and elsewhere.



*This is a satirical post. The quotations above and the individual quoted are fictional.