Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong

Re:Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong by imtringued on Tuesday April 14, 2020 @04:26AM (#22863751)

I think you misunderstand what a minimum wage does. A minimum wage doesn't increase the bargaining power of an employee. It means the employee has to have a minimum amount of bargaining power to get hired in the first place. It doesn't actually prevent any exploitation. Imagine you are an exploited worker. You hate your boss, your job and the pay sucks. Do you really need a minimum wage law to be allowed to leave the job? No, you can just quit at any time. If you already had enough bargaining power you didn't need the minimum wage in the first place.

A minimum wage does absolutely nothing. It's like the British Queen: a political symbol that you can talk about.

If it actually did something then you wouldn't choose a low limit. You'd increase it to $100/hour but then you realize something. Even your well paid software developer job is at risk of being stomped by the minimum wage.

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Re:Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong by adjkant on Tuesday April 14, 2020 @04:33AM (#22863795)

I never said it increased the bargaining power of an employee. A minimum wage ensures that employees are paid enough to survive at a human level.

I think you misunderstand my use of the word "exploit" here. The underpayment is the exploitation, not work conditions here. I'm not sure where someone wanting to quit their job factors into my argument.

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Re:Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong by ric2b on Tuesday April 14, 2020 @08:47AM (#22865167)

> A minimum wage ensures that employees are paid enough to survive at a human level.

If they remain employees, that is.

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