Not that I don't favor a universal living wage, but price discovery for labor lives along a separate axis; the ability to withhold value (or the credible deterr

Not that I don't favor a universal living wage, but price discovery for labor lives along a separate axis; the ability to withhold value (or the credible deterrent of doing so) is a bargaining chip that can be used in negotiation. This is true of every firm, be it an overseas sweatshop, an Amazon warehouse, or high-paid engineers in a tech giant. Even if every John Deere employee made 3x of a "living wage" (relative to local costs), they'd still have every right to collectively bargain by withholding labor (to say nothing of non-monetary demands: autonomy, safety standards, flexible scheduling, etc).