By Mario Rizzo
The Chicago-Booth IMG Forum asks their favorite economists two questions. Let us examine them.
Question A:
Raising the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour would make it noticeably harder for low-skilled workers to find employment.
Why was the word “noticeably” added to the question rather than some specific quantitative amount? In other words, the question could have been phrased: “Would it increase unemployment among low-skilled works by approximately 5 percentage points or less?” I realize that economists would get nervous about mentioning a specific number. But (1) That would reveal the true difficulties in economics of making quantitative predictions and hence tradeoffs; (2) It would take the subjectivity out of the word “noticeable.” Noticeable for whom, and by what standard? Noticeable to the public or to the policy maker or to the economist or to the low skilled workers or to union members?
Question…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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