Read a fucking book. Exploitation will occur if you allow the free market to fully set the price of labor.
“In the making of the wages contract the individual laborer is always at a disadvantage. He has something which he is obliged to sell and which his employer is not obliged to take, since he [that is, the employer] can reject single men with impunity“
Well if the market is currently setting the price of labor for the majority of Americans, problem solved, let’s get rid of the minimum wage and get to exploiting the 1.1M Americans currently making it. 🙄
1.1 million Americans is less than 1/2 of 1% of the population, which is my entire point - the market is very much setting the price for their labor.
Of those 1.1 million, 500k are between 16 and 24 years old - I e. These are not their eventual careers, and the job is shit work no one wants. These are exactly who minimum wage laws should protect, and I agree it should be higher, but your extrapolation that markets cannot dictate wages is objectively false.
Ideally, minimum wage would serve to address the externality of jobs that are not competitive in the marketplace of wages, which is nominally what they do now, but I think both of us would agree they do a poor job of that.
Read a fucking book. Exploitation will occur if you allow the free market to fully set the price of labor.
John Clark
Wages are already massively above minimum wage for the overwhelming majority of workers, so the market is currently setting the price for labor.
Well if the market is currently setting the price of labor for the majority of Americans, problem solved, let’s get rid of the minimum wage and get to exploiting the 1.1M Americans currently making it. 🙄
https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2021/home.htm
1.1 million Americans is less than 1/2 of 1% of the population, which is my entire point - the market is very much setting the price for their labor.
Of those 1.1 million, 500k are between 16 and 24 years old - I e. These are not their eventual careers, and the job is shit work no one wants. These are exactly who minimum wage laws should protect, and I agree it should be higher, but your extrapolation that markets cannot dictate wages is objectively false.
Ideally, minimum wage would serve to address the externality of jobs that are not competitive in the marketplace of wages, which is nominally what they do now, but I think both of us would agree they do a poor job of that.