What harm do minimum wages do?

Re:What harm do minimum wages do? by cmrdporcupine on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @03:30PM (#24215102)

Marx never said anything about the state setting prices. Wasn't part of his analysis. He was only concerned with analyzing how prices came to be what they are under capitalism, and what the consequences of that are

He did feel that some other model of ownership & management could lead to some other form of remuneration, but he definitely left it unclear.

Read the other discussions on this thread, there's far more nuance here than I think you're understanding.

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Re:What harm do minimum wages do? by throwaway894345 on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @04:31PM (#24215984)

You're making a motte/bailey argument, but either way it doesn't look good for the 'Marxist'.

If a Marxist is one who says "Capitalism is imperfect; I've got a gut feeling that there is a better system out there, but no idea what it looks like concretely", then that may be correct but it's close to worthless.

If a Marxist is someone who says "Capitalism is imperfect; the state needs to fix the price of $X (labor, etc)" with no mention of the economic feasibility of said price-fixing, then that's better but still far from persuasive.

My criticism was directed at the latter. There are perhaps many good Marxists who make convincing economic arguments; I'm asking for more of this.

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