"The Curse of Econ 101" and Economism "The Curse of Econ 101" was written by Professor James Kwak and published by The Atlantic in January 2017. The author is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Connecticut and an online columnist for The Atlantic. "The Curse of Econ 101" uses the minimum wage problem in the United States of America as an example of economists and politicians using economism to argue the issue favorably for themselves.
First and foremost, Kwak emphasizes in the subtitle that basic economics concept can be confused when it applies to some problems like the minimum wage. He introduces the minimum wage problem by using poverty, which still exists in our society nowadays. At first sight, raising the minimum wage could be a solution to combat poverty, but it turns out the problem is more complex than we thought, according to Professor Kwak. Instead of reducing poverty, some people celebrated the fact that increasing the minimum wage would decrease the employment rate, as this is similar to the supply-and-demand diagram, which is a fundamental principle in introductory economics class. However, this kind of argument is called economism, and the supply-and-demand diagram has limitations in predicting real-world values. On the other hand, many economists and politicians such as Richard Vedder, Jude Wanniski, and Ronald Reagan have repeated the thesis of economism as a basic reason to talk about minimum wage. Through hundreds of research and analysis, the impact of the minimum wage splits in the middle. Professor Kwak argues that the supply-and-demand diagram cannot be applied to some powerful companies...
