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re: What and how much is a living wage...
Robert — (archived)

Did you confuse my post with some other post about raising the minimum wage? That's exactly the knee-jerk appeal to amoral self-interest used when the subject of raising the minimum wage comes up.

You might want to reread my post again, and note that it's a defense of free markets. You asked the rhetorical question about how your buddies Mac, Jack, King, the little red-headed Girl determine what to pay their employees (do they own fast-food restaurants or something), and through the free market is my answer.

My point is that government policies that infringe on the free operation of the labor market should be taken as seriously as government infringement on the commercial marketplace. Fair's fair, right? Removing that distortion of the labor market would certainly cause a massive rearrangement of the cost-structure of businesses that use a lot of artificially-cheap labor, and it's the spectre of a free market that's responsible for your nightmare vision of $20 Happy Meals.

Have you ever considered that allowing the free market to operate on labor might produce positive results in other areas? Why assume that leveling the playing field can have only negative results? Just as Republicans say that individuals have a better idea of how to spend their money than government bureaucrats, might it not also be true that individuals are better judges of how to spend their lives than bureaucrats and oligarchs? It isn't right to force people into work they don't want to do.

See also Tech1's impassioned defense of slavery below.

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