Despite midterm madness, a fervent group of students showed up last night for the first CPU Debate this year. Columbia Democrats and Republicans discussed at length the topic of “Should Minimum Wage be Abolished?”, with Democrats rallying for a raise in the minimum wage and the Republicans arguing for the abolishment of the system altogether. The political discussion included morally questionable one-liners, cutting the opposition off mid-sentence, and several references to Sunil Gulati’s Principles of Economics class—a result not entirely unexpected when you stick a bunch of CU students with polar opposite opinions together.
The debate began with opening arguments by CU Republicans Tyler Trumbach, CC ‘13, and William Prasifka, CC’ 12.
“Minimum wage is an ‘anti-poor’ goal in that it discriminates against the poor. That’s the opposite of what it aims to do,” Prasifka opened. “Poverty is the direct result of minimum wage, with the only way people getting jobs being when employers are practicing charity.”
“Look at a basic supply and demand graph,” continued Trumbach. “A ten percent increase in minimum wage decreases the labor force by five percent.”
Kendall Tucker, CC’14, and Leo Schwartz, CC ’14 and Spectator editorial page associate, represented CU Democrats.
“[The issue isn’t] abolishing minimum wage, but how much it should be raised, “ Schwartz stated. “The average minimum wage worker brings home fifty percent of his household’s income and minimum wage has been proven to boost consumer income. Plus, [the supply and demand graph argument] only works in Gulati’s Principles of Economics.”
The groups were then given a series of questions.
