My partner and I saw a gator this large in the wild in Lake City, FL, a few years ago.

Seeing an alligator in Florida is not hard. Just, like, go near water and look around. But one this large is a bit rarer.

BTW those people are way too close — even a gator that large can move at 20mph or so if it wants to. I know it looks lethargic and poky. But it ain’t when it don’t wanna be.

Given productivity increases, the “natural” minimum wage is probably ~$20 per hour.

I’d not expect to see large disemployment effects in most of the US for any level set below that.

I do agree with economists that the minimum wage can in principle product such effects, just not that it does so at $7.25 an hour, and even if it does so the social benefits by far outweigh the drawbacks.

As a digression, economists drooling over validation by physicists and mathematicians have caused almost as much harm as straight ideology per se. The consequences of inter-academic signaling and prestige hierarchies is under-examined, IMO.