One of America’s greatest writers, Mark Twain, is said to remarked “It ain’t what you know to get you into trouble, it’s what you know that just ain’t so.” Applying this to economics, few topics suffer more misconceptions than the minimum wage and the distribution of wealth, especially among young people.
If you’d like some proof, consider a post from Dr. Michael Munger, professor of economics at Duke University who challenges his students with a three question quiz shared here in a one page post “Job Gentrification: Three Questions as a Way of Teaching About Minimum Wages.” (originally appeared in the WSJ).
Share these with the young people in your life who are entering the economic world, but you might want to try answering them yourself first.
