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I’m going to flip this one around and ask: why are businesses entitled to low-cost labor? In other markets, markets of objects, if you don’t have the funds to p

I’m going to flip this one around and ask: why are businesses entitled to low-cost labor? In other markets, markets of objects, if you don’t have the funds to purchase something you don’t get to have the thing, and if you attempt to coerce the thing into your ownership, we call that robbery, and prosecute it accordingly. So why doesn’t that apply to human labor? Labor is a product, it exists in a market, and there is a baseline amount of money a person needs to survive - the ‘price’ of a human doing work (compare this to covering the cost of materials, production, etc for some nonhuman item). If companies cannot meet that price, why are either laborers or governments expected to shoulder it so that businesses can get their hands on the human product regardless? Why is human labor constantly sold at a loss?

drak0n1c 6y ago
There is no distinction - all markets are ruled by consent. Both parties have to agree to a voluntary transaction, and that applies to employees and products.
- grumple 6y ago
  Well, that’s only true if we ignore that companies used (or currently use) slave labor.
xondono 6y ago
They aren’t, the problem is that the “baseline amount of money a person needs to survive“ is extremely low compared to modern standards, and generally way lower than what minimum wage dictates. The result depends on how many people can do the job and how productive the job is. If the job is reasonably productive but anyone can do it, the result is a bidding war between sellers fighting for a job (race to the bottom).