steve wrote:matthew wrote:I think some of you folks are missing the point here. I am certainly not saying that employers ought not to compensate people for work in some instances what with setting the minimum wage at $0.00. After all, no one in their right mind would take a job which offered a wage or salary of nil. I'm merely saying that the market ought to decide how much or how little labor costs, because that is...once again...simply how the world works. The price of anything is ultimately determined by supply and demand (or at least the perception thereof), and labor is no exception. Ask anyone who owns a business.
I own a business. You are full of shit
To pretend that unskilled labor is a market, and that workers can negotiate a fair wage is to ignore the difference between a powerful employer and a pool of potential workers who need jobs and have no resources of their own. In the words of someone famous, "How does a cleaning woman effectively negotiate with General Motors?"
There's a difference between a unionized or otherwise organized body of workers negotiating with an employer about compensation and a government sticking its nose in where it ought not to. So what are you trying to say? I'm all for both groups and individuals haggling over the cost of labor with employers- good. That's the way the market works.
A minimum wage puts a bottom rung on how low an employer may sink in the exploitation of people (real people already born, so they may not matter much to you, Matthew). The employer is not interested in paying a fair wage, he is only interested in paying the absolute minimum he can without going to jail. This is not negotiation and does not resemble a market.
An employer should both be interested in just, fair compensation and also running a business well. After all, no one will want to work for an employer who doesn't compensate their employees well. So the two are not mutually exclusive, though you seem to think they are. And as far as the whole "compassionate towards the exploited" nonsense goes, well, if a person thinks their getting screwed at the job they're in, there's a whole market of other jobs to choose from if he or she has the ambition to pursue any of them. Shit, check craigslist or the help wanted pages in any newspaper if you don't believe me. There are literally thousands and thousands of jobs out there for the taking if one has the ambition to get up and have the desire to work....... did you ever consider that some people who are unemployed are just lazy and want to suck off the tit of taxpayer's money instead of providing for themselves?
It all comes back to letting the markets function properly in the end.
