Minimum Wage.

" All arguments for the minimum wage come down to this: since no family can survive on an income lower than the minimum wage, it is the job of government to mandate a minimum wage to keep people out of poverty. No matter how elaborate the argument, this is the bottom line."

"In truth, there is only one way to regard a minimum wage law (http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance71.html): it is compulsory unemployment, period. The law says: it is illegal, and therefore criminal, for anyone to hire anyone else below the level of X dollars an hour. This means, plainly and simply, that a large number of free and voluntary wage contracts are now outlawed and hence that there will be a large amount of unemployment. Remember that the minimum wage law provides no jobs; it only outlaws them; and outlawed jobs are the inevitable result."

" It is obvious that the minimum wage advocates do not pursue their own logic, because if they push it to such heights, virtually the entire labor force will be disemployed. In short, you can have as much unemployment as you want, simply by pushing the legally minimum wage high enough."

Perhaps this is why we have as much welfare as we do. Government likes the needy unemployed - it gives reason for welfare, empowers government, and allows for the redistribution of wealth by forcible means.

In this case, the gang at Lew Rockwell is right.

Ya know what's so damn disgusting about it all..... even with the minimum wage -

we still have poverty.

If government were out of our lives, I wonder just what some businesses might be able / willing to pay - and just what some of the needy commodities might actually cost?

If someone is willing to work for $3/hour, let em. Mexicans will, so why not set it up right and take taxes out of it?

But no, Americans are too good to work for certain wages, and too good for certain jobs.

Even a minimum wage - a living wage as some say - is diminished by taxes. So such a wage is still effectively below the government poverty standard. :eek:

Ahhh...if it were only as simple as simple philosophy allows it to be!