nothing if they are willing to?
A minimum wage in America is a 20th century idea, and one that was
sorely fought for and won. The essential logic behind it is that society
benefits from having large numbers of low and middle class people buying
goods and services in the region where they live, and that poverty and
mass privation are very costly to the Nation in terms of defense, social
welfare, and the economy.
Prior to the existance of a minimum wage, employers would seek to reduce
the cost of labor to as close to 0 as possible through any one of a
number of means all aimed at having more people available for a job then
there were jobs. They could encourage immigration to specific
localities, they could hire 10 people at .5 a day to do the work of 1
person at 1.00 a day, they could fire anyone for the slightest reason
(such as asking for a raise or talking about organizing the workers)
without cause. The best narriative account of these situations I have
read is 'The Jungle', which recounts real life conditions in Chicago in
the early 1900s.
Now, ask yourself if you enjoy driving a car, if you enjoy being able to
feed your children a well balanced diet, if you enjoy being able to go
to the doctor when you are sick, if you enjoy being able to go to the
movies more than once every 6 months. Were it not for a minimum wage,
regardless of how well off you think you are, you would have none of
these. There would not have been a market to support the mass production
of automobiles, there would not be enough people able to afford
supermarkets, there would not be physicians or hospitals as you know
them, and entertainment would not be affordable to society in general.
Think about it: In California and New York, there are large numbers of
people taking developer positions for minimum wage or below (in the case
of people willing to intern while the recession keeps on rolling along).
Do you think the people offering these positions feel some sort of a
moral obligation to pay people at minimum wage? Probably not, they would
just as soon cut salaries down to $1 a day if they could, and see about
hiring some undocumented illegal immigrants to do the job for less if
possible.
The bottom line is: Employers should be barred from employing people at
poverty wages. Be glad there is a minimum wage, it protects you from the
savages of the marketplace, and feel privledged to have grown up in a
society that respects the working man enough to say there is a limit to
how poorly he can be treated. Having large numbers of undocumented
illegals working anywhere in the U.S. is a bad sign of things to come,
both for the American worker and society as a whole.
M
-----Original Message-----
From: Heald, Tim [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 9:02 AM
To: CF-Community
Subject: RE: More Breaking News
... If a person is willing to work for next to nothing, should they not
be able to?
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