prices went up without a wage hike

historically, no/minimal inflation follows wage hikes

People keep saying it would necessarily cause inflation but I don’t see how. You’re not printing new money, you’re redistributing it. Because demand would go up?

Raising of prices, aka inflation, is not necessarily bad. It's only bad for those , whose income didn't rise faster.

Giving money to poor people might rise prices for everyone including the rich. Would be a nice turnaround from the usual give money to the rich and rise prices for everyone including the poor.

Someone could argue that this is just economy, not particularly capitalism. Just basic trades could suffer from it.

I still don't like capitalism though.

Social mobility means you start at lower income and get raises, it doesn’t require a minimum wage.

What's the fun of doing well if there's no underclass below you

Inflation + minimum wage is the same as devaluing money, which is good for everyone with debt, and bad for everyone with money in the bank. Not sure how it is for billionaires whose money is mostly in companies, but it's great for me with a loan for my house, which doesn't get indexed, unlike my salary which does.

I feel like, and maybe I'm wrong, you need strict price controls on any market to prevent this. That said, say the US did this, for instance. Suddenly, I assume US companies with large domestic consumer bases would start trying to expand their reach because they couldn't just jack up prices on US consumers.

If you want markets, I think you have to accept the rise in prices (limiting the effectiveness of the wage increase) or accept that domestic companies will have to compete more internationally (which should be what capitalists want, you'd think, but could in theory be bad for some foreign firms, like if a US megacorp set its sights on out-competing Canadian firms, for instance).

Idk. I'm not an economist, but it seems like there are drawbacks no matter how you do it in a market economy. Maybe someone has literature on this topic (since it comes up a fair bit irl)

Or we could call it profiteering and a clear indication that there is no free market where competition keeps prices low.

There is no "free" market it is a rigged system you are either part of the group exploiting the system or one of the exploited!

It allows for social mobility in the same way a casino does

I was a manger at dollar tree. Florida cashiers got paid $12. Texas cashiers get $8. Products were the same price at both stores. This idea that prices jump dramatically when you increase min wage is crazy.

Corporations have thier prices set to the maximum a consumer will pay not how much it costs to produce

Not if the wage increase is covered by reduction in profits. The workers get more, and the rich get less. On a quarterly basis, 75% of the profits should be distributed among the workers.

The obvious retort would be about getting better jobs.