Re:Is Google overreaching by forcing me to use TLS?
by dredmorbius on Friday March 28, 2014 @04:50AM
(#7485993)
And the conservative/libertarian argument fails, as Adam Smith notes in Wealth of Nations, because:
• The fully-realized cost of labor is that which allows it to survive and support its family, and educate its progeny. A business which cannot afford to pay a living wage is effectively demanding a societal subsidy. While there are circumstances in which that social welfare might be reasonably extended, it seems to me that it's a decision which should be made deliberately, and that companies which show recurring high levels of profit while being unwilling to pay a living wage are prima facie proof of a market failure.
• The inherent negotiating advantage of employers means that it will virtually always prevail in wage negotiations with labor.
• There's a common misperception that people are paid what they're worth to a company. This isn't the case. Rather: in a well-functioning and competitive market, your wage will always be less than you're worth. Much as a manufacturer's printer PPM rating is best interpreted as "performance never to be exceeded", your true worth to a company always sets an absolute ceiling on what your pay will be. Exceptions exist where markets are not well-functioning: e.g., in the case of excecutive pay, where there's a strong level of capture between execs and payment committees, and in which pay serves not only a compensation but a market signalling role as to the health and robustness of the firm (it's effectively a social signaling Veblen good).
For all of these reasons, defining a minimum wage at roughly the level of a living wage is strongly congruent with Adam Smith's principles. See Chapter X, Book I, Wealth of Nations.
• The fully-realized cost of labor is that which allows it to survive and support its family, and educate its progeny. A business which cannot afford to pay a living wage is effectively demanding a societal subsidy. While there are circumstances in which that social welfare might be reasonably extended, it seems to me that it's a decision which should be made deliberately, and that companies which show recurring high levels of profit while being unwilling to pay a living wage are prima facie proof of a market failure.
• The inherent negotiating advantage of employers means that it will virtually always prevail in wage negotiations with labor.
• There's a common misperception that people are paid what they're worth to a company. This isn't the case. Rather: in a well-functioning and competitive market, your wage will always be less than you're worth. Much as a manufacturer's printer PPM rating is best interpreted as "performance never to be exceeded", your true worth to a company always sets an absolute ceiling on what your pay will be. Exceptions exist where markets are not well-functioning: e.g., in the case of excecutive pay, where there's a strong level of capture between execs and payment committees, and in which pay serves not only a compensation but a market signalling role as to the health and robustness of the firm (it's effectively a social signaling Veblen good).
For all of these reasons, defining a minimum wage at roughly the level of a living wage is strongly congruent with Adam Smith's principles. See Chapter X, Book I, Wealth of Nations.