> From: "Mario Goveia" > > > Selma, > > You are about as die-hard a capitalist as Karl > > Marx. A real examination of the issues would > > include the fact that it is no one else's > > business what a worker is willing to accept > > in terms of wages and benefits. > --- Cornel DaCosta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Selma > The content of the post below strikes me as surely, > one of the daftest, or possibly hilarious, sent to > Goanet in reply to you. > > I am afraid it is absolutely my business and the > business of millions of my fellow trade unionists, > the world over, to ensure that individual workers > are not cajoled, or persuaded otherwise, to accept > wages and benefits below a living wage as > determined through negotiation between government, > employers and workers. It is for this reason that in > the UK and other parts of Europe we have the > civilised concept of a minimum wage and it is > illegal to pay a worker less, even if willing to > accept less! > Marrio responds: > Cornel displays once again the classic definition of a modern ultra-liberal: someone who knows what's good for everyone else, better than THEY do:-)) > What is truly daft and hilarious is for Cornel to suggest that HE and his labor buddies are going to make the decision for me as to what wages and benefits I should accept from any employer. > There is nothing wrong with rational collective bargaining, but the greedy trade union movement in the US has been pricing itself out of jobs and steadily losing members for decades even as the unemployment rate has declined to historic lows. > BTW, what is the rational for how much the minimum wage should be? If it helps lower income workers, why not treble it and "help" them even more? > The minimum wage is a transparent device for unions to demand higher wages and benefits every time the minimum wage is raised, on the grounds that union workers are better trained than minimum wage workers. On the other hand it prices entry level and second income workers, whom union members do not care about, out of the market. In the US most entry level jobs are already above the legal minimum wage as the low unemployment rate induces employers to offer higher wages to attract employees. >
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