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comm
Joined: 22 Jun 2010
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 Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:41 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| The rationale is purely economic. Thus, even the most unskilled laborer must devote an hour of his or her time to the employer. The minimum value for that time should be worth more than $7.25. |
It should be, but it often isnt. Employers leverage a business system to allow employees to produce more value per hour than they would without the employer's cooperation. But employers aren't magicians. They can't wave a wand and cause an employee to produce $10 per hour for consumers.
| Fox wrote: |
| You should toss your hypothetical dilemma in the trash bin, learn about gift economies, what they imply about the natural human character, and then try to figure out how you can reach an optimal synthesis between the humanity of a gift economy and the productivity of a trade economy so as to avoid the dilemma in question in the first place. That's what you should do. |
And there's absolutely nothing wrong with gift economies between voluntary participants. In fact, I'm exceedingly proud of one friend who found happiness on a communal farm near my home town. Honestly, I've always thought it would be great to someday retire on a (semi) self-sufficient commune, helping others to avoid the "rat race" of market economics.
The only problem is, there aren't enough people doing that voluntarily... and using force to prevent voluntary contracts between two adults (as is the case in employment below the minimum wage) is neither a moral nor effective way to help low wage earners. |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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| comm wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
| The rationale is purely economic. Thus, even the most unskilled laborer must devote an hour of his or her time to the employer. The minimum value for that time should be worth more than $7.25. |
It should be, but it often isnt. Employers leverage a business system to allow employees to produce more value per hour than they would without the employer's cooperation. But employers aren't magicians. They can't wave a wand and cause an employee to produce $10 per hour for consumers. |
Precisely. The value of a the amount of time a worker spends laboring is not some subjective thing, it is actually measurable for the most part. If a skilled employee brings, say, $200,000 of extra value to a firm, then that employee deserves a salary or bonus commensurate with that amount. Somebody flipping burgers at McDonald's is not adding much value at all. In fact, it may be even less than the $7.25 per hour, in which case McDonald's is better off investing in automation and hiring less people. |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 6:10 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
The rationale is purely economic. Thus, even the most unskilled laborer must devote an hour of his or her time to the employer. The minimum value for that time should be worth more than $7.25.
History of U.S. minimum wage increases
Morality doesn't come into it. |
Moral imperatives are not involved in minimum wage increases? |
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