Re:What harm do minimum wages do?
by missedthecue on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @02:34PM
(#24214218)
Again, a free market doesn't mean that everyone can easily buy or sell any good or service. Plenty of things prohibit this, including geographical challenges, language barriers, import tariffs, and other natural and contrived barriers to trade.
A free market means that the distribution and production of goods and services do not rely on centralized planning, but on price signals.
Ok, maybe labor is technically a "free market" because the price signals exist and there is no centralized planning, but the issue still is that there are too many barriers for labor to move around.
Y'all might be using different meanings for the word "free".
As for being stuck in a job for health or skill reasons, those are choices, crappy choices but still free choices.
Universal Healthcare would, IMO, do more for the worker than a nominal pay-rise. The link between employment and healthcare is an abomination.
Many people stay in jobs they don't like or that don't pay enough because they need the healthcare or don't have the resources (including time) to learn new skills and move to a higher paying job. So the fact that people can't freely respond to price signals means that it is not a free market.