Trickle Down Threat

Nick Hanauer advocates for a $15 minimum wage and cites research that disputes the idea that wage increases cause higher unemployment. He argues that this idea amounts to an "intimidation tactic" and not real economics.

The two cornerstones of trickle-down economics are:
1. If wages for the poor go up, employment goes down; and
2. If taxes on the rich go up, employment goes down. 

But this isn’t a scientific theory or a law of nature that describes the world in any empirically verifiable way. This is a threat—a moral claim aimed at social control. As such, it is repeated again and again and again, not because it is true, or because the powerful believe it to be true (although some might—self-deception can be a soothing psychic balm). The rich and the powerful relentlessly repeat this claim because if they can persuade the poor and the weak to believe it, it will be very advantageous to the powerful and the rich.