Embed Notice

@Paulos_the_fog

> Governments in civilized countries have imposed a statutory minimum salary to avoid exploitative employers from paying starvation wages but I suppose that offends your libertarian principles!

I am more offended by the loaded language to imply that anyone who doesnt agree with your approach to solving the problem isnt civilized.

You have only proven my point, it is /**the governments** responsibility to ensure the market is healthy, not the company. Applying a minimum wage is one way in which governments attempt to execute on their responsiblity to fix the markets, it is also a way in which they fail and make the markets worse.

Minimum wage has shown to increase the number of people who are jobless among the least skilled of the population (those without HS diplomas are most effected). Ergo minimum wage laws have caused more harm towards the groups they attempt to help, therefore, no I do not support it. Instead I support programs that are aimed at increasing the marketability of the population such as government paid education up to the PhD level and strong welfare programs.

> The problem with even the most generous statutory minimum wage is that it is seldom increased to keep up with inflation.

Thats not the problem, in fact, the more you increase it the more you harm the people most in poverty, those who are under-skilled. So no, doing that would just make it worse.

> Welfare is not and never has been what folk want;

A heroin addict wants nothing but heroin. Giving people what they want isnt what I care about. Giving people what they need is.

> What they want is decent work with pay that enables them to pay their rent or their mortgage and raise their families if they have one. It's the billionaires who run the world's largest corporations who are amongst the worst offenders for paying starvation wages with Bezos being a fine example!

Which is exactly why you need welfare and a generous paid education system up to PhD level. Welfare feeds the people and gives them a basic quality of life. That only buys them time. It is only from the education and training provided that a real solution comes, and that solution is exactly what you describe, the ability to make good money for reasonable work.

@randahl