Laurence S. Moss wrote:  
>Please remember that a rise in the minimum wage does help some workers---those >who keep
their jobs!
  
   
Apart from this simple and important observation, to consider minimum wage as an outright
"fallacy" shows no interest in the real world where it applies. Evidence that it reduces
the employment rate of low-skilled workers (empirical studies are far from conclusive) is
negligible and the macro effects on incomes of minimum wage workers, their skill levels,
need for public support, both in the short and long run, can only be axiomatic.
Economists who ignore Mill's caveat about the complexity of socio-economic phenomena do so
at their own peril.
   
Moss further said:  
>I forgot who described economics as a "defensive science," one that disarms >those who
might make our lives more tragic by ignorance or hubris.
  
  
Well, how about this famous quote from Joan Robinson?  
  
  
"The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to
economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists".
   
Sumitra Shah