The "Living Wage" Bunk

in #anarchy6 years ago

When you go shopping, do you think you have the right to decide both sides of the deal? Do you have the right to decide what to pay, and what the seller has to give you? And if you don't think he's offering a “fair” deal, do you have the right to force him to provide you with whatever goods and services you think you should get, for whatever price you decide you should pay?

Hopefully you're not so arrogant and stupid that you would think such a thing. However, it is just as arrogant and stupid for you to presume to have the right to tell an “employer”—someone offering to trade money for work—what deal he is allowed to offer. “He should pay this much, and pay extra for overtime, and give paid vacations, and provide health insurance, and…” What a childish, bratty mentality some people have. No, you're not magically entitled to whatever deal you wish someone would give you. No one has any obligation to offer you any deal, much less a deal which you subjectively and arbitrarily deem to be “fair.” Other people can offer whatever they want, and you can decide whether to take the deal or not. That’s all.

Imagine if you were on the receiving end of such entitlement-mentality arrogance. You go to a small restaurant, and are perusing the menu, looking for a good deal, and the guy running the place suddenly walks up to you and says this:

Stop right there! I know your type! Who do you think you are, just caring about your bottom line, always trying to get the best deal, trying to get as much as you can for yourself, for as little money as you can?! You greedy, selfish exploiter! You’re enslaving me! When you order food here, you shouldn’t be trying to get a good deal! You should be making sure that I am getting paid well, and that I have health insurance, and can pay my bills! And if I'm on vacation, you should still have to come in here and pay me anyway, even when I’m not doing anything for you. And if I get sick, you should have to come and pay me, and get nothing. And don’t you dare even think of ‘firing’ me by not coming back tomorrow, you selfish capitalist pig-dog! I have a right to a living wage! I neeeeeed you to make sure I’m taken care of, and that I have a comfortable life! That’s your responsibility as a customer!

In that setting, pretty much everyone would see the restaurant owner as a mentally unstable, obnoxious twit. But there are plenty of people—particularly political leftists—who say all of those things, and more, when it’s in the context of an “employer” shopping around for someone to pay to do work. They really and truly believe that somehow, someone somewhere owes them a “job,” and a “living wage.” Like helpless and ignorant children, they imagine that someone other than themselves is responsible for creating a situation in which they can have a comfortable life mindlessly doing a simple “job” created by someone else, in a business created by someone else, where they bear none of the overall risk of having the business be successful.

And, of course, they never imagine themselves to have such an obligation; they never imagine themselves to have any responsibility or obligation to create a “job,” even for themselves, much less for anybody else. They don’t for a second think that it’s their responsibility to provide other people with a “living wage.” No, in their minds they are always in the category of people entitled to stuff, never in the category of people obliged to provide such “entitlements” to others. And so, when someone offers them a deal they don’t like, they imagine themselves to somehow be victims.

“But I need a job to survive!” “Government” coercion makes it extremely difficult to be self-sufficient and prosperous, by way of the state claiming all unused land, imposing property taxes, and all manner of other laws, regulations and taxes. But that does not create an obligation on the part of some other victim of the state to give you a “job.” Reality made it so that you having food, shelter, clothing, etc., requires human effort. “Government” made it much worse. By all means, object to the violence of the state. And if you want to, whine at the universe. And if “big corporations” use state violence to limit your other options, then by all means, condemn that. But stop pretending that other human beings somehow magically acquired an obligation to provide you with a job, and food, and decent housing, and health care, etc. Other people have the obligation to allow you your freedom, and that is all. And if you voluntarily accept an offer from someone to trade your time and effort for money, because it’s better than your other alternatives, that doesn’t make you a “wage slave”; it makes you a grown-up.

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What is worse is they are demanding a "living wage" from the group of people trying to make an honest living.

None of them are actually attacking the banks for lending money at interest (creating money out of thin air) while not making enough money to pay the interest. So that, someone is always kicked out of their house. Someone is always failing.

The banking system is set up in such a way that house prices are forced up and up and up. And the rental costs, are ratcheted up in the same cycle. It is all caused by the ever increasing need to refinance. The system has to create more debt of die trying.

So, rents increase faster than people's wages. It is mathematically tied to what the banks are doing. It is fraud on the people of the world.

But, lets ignore that, and tell the mom&pops that they better start paying more wages.

Yup. They are literally ignoring the crooks and violent thieves ("government" and the Federal Reserve system), and complaining that people trying to voluntarily trade with them aren't giving them good enough deals.

Besides, the concept of living wage is an empty one unless one addresses the elephant in the room: inflation, and therefore fiat currency. Bu that would be too much for #newspeakliberal to think about

Spurious depiction of the.current labour market.

Care to elaborate?

Machines will take over and are taking over jobs.
I don’t want to be surrounded by beggars.

What does that have to do with the post?

Everything.

So, some jobs are now being done by machines, and therefore... what? Therefore people are entitled to a "living wage"? So far your comments make no sense.

Do you believe it’s sensible to watch your neighbors starve, because they’re more expensive to employ than a machine? Oh wait on, you already use bots to make money, silly question.

When robots can produce a product the price of the product will fall to the point where more people can afford it, even though there is less work for humans left to do. It is easy to see why. With robots doing work the society as a whole gets richer and not poorer. Given a stable demand implies that the price will necessarily drop.

There are many examples of this. Take sharpies for example. They are essentially for free.

You know how a labour market operates, yes? When there is a shortage of labour there is a rise in wages, now that we can build machines to do our jobs there will be more unemployed, we will be surrounded by them. They don’t have much purchasing power. Then a 2 tier society, haves and have nots, takes over. Has it already?

You are implying that replacing excavators with men with spoons would be a good thing since more people would be employed.

Spot on, Larken!

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Your speech at last year's Anarchapulco woke me up a little more than I already was...

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