2 ms·

How do I put this? That is just such a stupid line of reasoning. In the absence of labour laws, people are "willing" to work 14 hours a day. In the absence of r

How do I put this? That is just such a stupid line of reasoning. In the absence of labour laws, people are "willing" to work 14 hours a day. In the absence of regulations, people are "willing" to work dangerous jobs without safety protection. In the absence of enforced law, people are "willing" to compromise their ethics. That's the difference between barbarism and a society. Society has figured out that it serves the greater good to set rules in place than let individuals sort things out for themselves. Now, average wage? Sure, lots of people would be willing to work below average wage but nobody is "willing" to be the bottom of anything. People are forced to take minimum wage because of the power dynamic between workers and providers. When you are desperate to the point your livelihood is on the line, you don't get to be picky with what is on offer.

radu_floricica 5y ago
"When you are desperate to the point your livelihood is on the line, you don't get to be picky with what is on offer." We both agree with this, but we come to different conclusions :) My point is that minimum wage helps those that are already in a moderately good situation, or at least less desperate. Why? Because they managed to get a job for minimum wage. There are many others that can't do that, and a good slice of them can't do that exactly because of the enforce performance floor created by the minimum wage. I've had this illustrated to me rather vividly one evening when I was cleaning out an apartment. A homeless dude was going through the stuff that was thrown out and was sorting old kitchenware. And I mean really old, not in a good way. It was dark, and the monetary value of what he was getting was probably in very low single digits. And yet he was willing to do that. I've spent some hours pondering why is this guy sorting half broken plates in the dark instead of washing cars for 10x the income. That's when I realized minimum wage is evil. Not just "suboptimum" or "imperfect", but evil. Because it targets precisely those that are in the worst possible position and exiles them away from society. If you're not worth at least $X per hour for somebody, you're worthless. I disagree with that.

radu_floricica 5y ago

"When you are desperate to the point your livelihood is on the line, you don't get to be picky with what is on offer." We both agree with this, but we come to different conclusions :) My point is that minimum wage helps those that are already in a moderately good situation, or at least less desperate. Why? Because they managed to get a job for minimum wage. There are many others that can't do that, and a good slice of them can't do that exactly because of the enforce performance floor created by the minimum wage. I've had this illustrated to me rather vividly one evening when I was cleaning out an apartment. A homeless dude was going through the stuff that was thrown out and was sorting old kitchenware. And I mean really old, not in a good way. It was dark, and the monetary value of what he was getting was probably in very low single digits. And yet he was willing to do that. I've spent some hours pondering why is this guy sorting half broken plates in the dark instead of washing cars for 10x the income. That's when I realized minimum wage is evil. Not just "suboptimum" or "imperfect", but evil. Because it targets precisely those that are in the worst possible position and exiles them away from society. If you're not worth at least $X per hour for somebody, you're worthless. I disagree with that.