4 ms·

I feel like you are making a category error here. I'm arguing that minimum wage restrictions are an unwise restriction on contracts and you in turn are objecti

I feel like you are making a category error here. I'm arguing that minimum wage restrictions are an unwise restriction on contracts and you in turn are objecting to that argument by pointing to the fact that we do indeed have restrictions/regulation of contract terms and therefore my criticism is invalid. At least that seems what you are saying towards the end of your message. Accepting that there are proper reasons to regulate contracts does not mean that any particular constraint is proper.

JauntyHatAngle 8y ago
That was one portion of my post disagreeing with the way I perceived you positioning your argument. There were other parts directly disagreeing with the overall point you were making.
- gwright 8y ago
  Well, I just chose not to tackle all your points but... * the default position in the US is that the government should stay out of things (limited government), not that the government should regulate things (although we are rapidly moving away from the former and towards the latter) * believing that "economists" and "advisors" can discern an hourly wage number that balances supply and demand across all variables is just wrong as there is no way for the central authorities to have as much information as the market has (the collective group of buyers and sellers), distributive decision making trumps centralized decision making in this regard * Your belief that a centralized decision making process is "better than the alternative" suggests no limit to the scope of this power, this is dangerous. You also provide no justification for your preference for the centralized approach. You agree that there can't be a single number that works in all cases and yet refuse to give up on the idea that there still needs to be a single number. Why?
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > the default position in the US is that the government should stay out of things (limited government) Limited government means that the government stays within prescribed bounds, not that it stays out of things by default. How that applies to minimum wage depends on whether we’re talking about state or federal minimums, and the provisions (and one's interpretation of them) of the applicable constitution.
    - gwright 8y ago
      Of course it means that it stays out of the way by default. We have a legal system based on blacklisting things that aren't permitted not a legal system based on whitelisting things that are allowed. And furthermore we have a meta-blacklist of things the government isn't allowed to blacklist (i.e. government can't add prohibitions that infringe on individual rights and liberty, broadly speaking)

JauntyHatAngle 8y ago

That was one portion of my post disagreeing with the way I perceived you positioning your argument. There were other parts directly disagreeing with the overall point you were making.

gwright 8y ago
Well, I just chose not to tackle all your points but... * the default position in the US is that the government should stay out of things (limited government), not that the government should regulate things (although we are rapidly moving away from the former and towards the latter) * believing that "economists" and "advisors" can discern an hourly wage number that balances supply and demand across all variables is just wrong as there is no way for the central authorities to have as much information as the market has (the collective group of buyers and sellers), distributive decision making trumps centralized decision making in this regard * Your belief that a centralized decision making process is "better than the alternative" suggests no limit to the scope of this power, this is dangerous. You also provide no justification for your preference for the centralized approach. You agree that there can't be a single number that works in all cases and yet refuse to give up on the idea that there still needs to be a single number. Why?
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > the default position in the US is that the government should stay out of things (limited government) Limited government means that the government stays within prescribed bounds, not that it stays out of things by default. How that applies to minimum wage depends on whether we’re talking about state or federal minimums, and the provisions (and one's interpretation of them) of the applicable constitution.
  - gwright 8y ago
    Of course it means that it stays out of the way by default. We have a legal system based on blacklisting things that aren't permitted not a legal system based on whitelisting things that are allowed. And furthermore we have a meta-blacklist of things the government isn't allowed to blacklist (i.e. government can't add prohibitions that infringe on individual rights and liberty, broadly speaking)