What harm do minimum wages do?

Re:What harm do minimum wages do? by Sohcahtoa82 on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @04:10PM (#24215650)

I've always considered this a very naive idea of how a free market works. It ignores how irrational and short-sighted humans can be, not to mention that many consumers are price sensitive.

A free market will not solve climate change as long as coal and fossil fuels are inexpensive.

A free market prioritizes one thing: Profit. That is all. A free market only solves problems when it is profitable to do so. Yeah, charities exist, but they typically aren't big enough to solve the big problems on a big scale.

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Re:What harm do minimum wages do? by machinelabo on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @04:58PM (#24216356)

This is an unbalanced opinion of free markets (but I generally agree with downsides of unregulated capitalism).

> Profit. That is all.

Free markets also have intense competition so "Profits" that you talk about don't just go out of control - Prices are set at the intersection of supply and demand curves. Companies would need to shave off profit margins to stay competitive.

I think it is fair to say that there are no ideal free markets. There are always asymmetries, downsides, side cashing and a whole bunch of complexities in any market - nothing is ideal.

So, we should have regulations that control those asymmetries.

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Re:What harm do minimum wages do? by javert on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @05:28PM (#24216798)

I think you're reading more into what I said, than what I actually said. But I also think part of what I said was dumb, so I partially agree with you.

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Re:What harm do minimum wages do? by CarbyAu on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @11:54PM (#24219716)

You just restored a little bit of my faith in humanity. Thank you.

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