Will the average person benefit from an increase of the minimum wage? This is the question that has infiltrated the hearts and mind of millions of Americans. Those who argue in favor of raising the minimum wage claim that it is unfair for people working at minimum wage to be paid so poorly; they believe that raising the minimum wage would help solve the rising levels poverty in the United States. Opponents of this position claim that, if the minimum wage is raised, poverty and unemployment would skyrocket. In his article, “Why Raising the Minimum Wage is Good Economics”, John Kolmos utilizes pathos to convince readers that the minimum wage should be increased.
In his article, Kolmos presents the idea of raising the minimum wage and by doing this, he claims that the …show more content…
Directly after making his opening argument, Kolmos quickly addresses a ‘criticism’ against raising the minimum wage. He writes, “those against raising the minimum wage often argue that it will hurt young people the most and that they “need the experience” of working at the minimum wage.” (Kolmos 2) Unfortunately for the author, in writing this, he opens the door to the ‘straw man’ fallacy. He does this by not quoting the specific person who was making this easily refutable argument. Not quoting a specific person is strange considering the fact that Kolmos has repeatedly cited other, more intricate, criticisms throughout his paper. After setting up this ‘straw man’, Kolmos devotes an entire section of his article to refuting the ‘false criticism’ he had set up. He does this by quoting statistics about the employment of the youth in European nations. These facts are so off topic that they clearly fall under the ‘red herring’ fallacy. After setting up such a convincing argument in the first part of his article, following it up with two obvious fallacies make his initial argument for raising the minimum wage less
In his article, Kolmos presents the idea of raising the minimum wage and by doing this, he claims that the …show more content…
Directly after making his opening argument, Kolmos quickly addresses a ‘criticism’ against raising the minimum wage. He writes, “those against raising the minimum wage often argue that it will hurt young people the most and that they “need the experience” of working at the minimum wage.” (Kolmos 2) Unfortunately for the author, in writing this, he opens the door to the ‘straw man’ fallacy. He does this by not quoting the specific person who was making this easily refutable argument. Not quoting a specific person is strange considering the fact that Kolmos has repeatedly cited other, more intricate, criticisms throughout his paper. After setting up this ‘straw man’, Kolmos devotes an entire section of his article to refuting the ‘false criticism’ he had set up. He does this by quoting statistics about the employment of the youth in European nations. These facts are so off topic that they clearly fall under the ‘red herring’ fallacy. After setting up such a convincing argument in the first part of his article, following it up with two obvious fallacies make his initial argument for raising the minimum wage less