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Comment by randyrand | Hacker News Reader

Your explanation of economics really hurts me to read =/

> The average bachelor graduate will demand higher wages than the average high-school graduate.

In economics the word 'demand' does not mean 'demanding' your wage or 'demanding' a certain price. Economics demand is how many people want something at a certain price. Lets repeat that. 'Demand'... is how many people... want something ...at a certain price.

It's not at all related to literally "demanding higher or lower wages", or "demanding higher or lower prices" as you are suggesting -- that is the colloquial definition of demand, and IMO it really should not be used when talking about economics. They can't be substituted for each other.

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A. That's not even remotely related to any definition of "collective bargaining" I've ever heard of.

B. I think it's pretty clear what the parent meant by "demand."

C. Semantics aside, cp the market clearly bears much higher salaries for a candidate with a Bachelor's degree than for one without.

D. Your comment is needlessly rude.

A. I was not defining collective bargaining, just giving an example of the difference between colloquial and economics demand. But lets just ignore that point as its largely unrelated. I removed it from my original comment.

B. No, it is not clear, IMO. His use makes it seem like he is actually referring to demand, when in fact he is using the colloquial definition. People routinely confuse the two.

C. Semantics become important when things become ambiguous and confusing. Most programmers would likely agree with this.

D. Fair.

He was using the english word demand. In that these college graduates will demand (require, insist upon, refuse to work unless given) more money to accept given position. Applying jargon to an english sentence is a pointless and frustrating exercise.

Right above he/she uses supply and demand to explain higher wages. Then uses colloquial demand right under it to further explain it.

Given that, either they aren't sure of the distinction between the two and were making a mistake, or do understand the difference but still managed to make a false equivalence.

I'm betting on the first, which is why I took the time to explain it.

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