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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025

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Then there was the child tax credits, the stimulus checks, etc. Money went to everyone across the class spectrum.

Of course, but we all know that poor people have more kids and that poor people are more likely to spend the marginal dollar rather than save it.

Reading your article, it looks like the increase in wages was caused primarily by Minimum Wage laws increasing wages by fiat.

I didn't read the article's causal analysis and don't stand by it. I knew from prior reading that wages increased most for those at the bottom of the distribution and grabbed the first article that Google found.

I am skeptical that minimum wage laws make a big difference here given that few positions pay near minimum wage, but I admit I haven't looked closely into this.

If you are correct, then should not it be obvious to an economically savvy publication to be terrified of the resulting inflation?

Or is inflation a little more complicated than that?

People don't like to think about demand-pull inflation or the wage-price spiral for these very reasons, but unfortunately facts apparently don't care about my feelings.

Inflation occurs when aggregate demand outstrips aggregate supply. Covid torpedoed a bunch of supply chains, reducing supply and everyone got helicopter money (and don't forget eviction moratoria and a million other things) that juiced demand. The result is as you see it.