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52 sats \ 10 replies \ @kepford OP 10 Dec \ parent \ on: Minimum Wage Laws Can't Repeal the Laws of Economics econ
Funny enough this came up at this same meeting. Guy runs a small auto parts shop. He has long time employees and the rise in the min/wage impacts his whole staff. He has no managers. He has guys that have worked there for years and the state just arbitrarily increased the floor of entry level hires which impacts those with experience.
The whole discussion about minimum wage reminds me why none of this stuff should be up to any politician or group of voters. There's a much more democratic way... the free market. The most democratic system ever that democrats try to destroy day after day. And republicans claim to defend but also sabotage.
An exceptional idea would be to have an amendment that is for “separation of economy and state”. That would include things like subsidies, minimum wages, price controls, government investments in industry (just look at the mess the “Green New Deal” has caused) and perhaps even social spending. These things all used to be handled efficiently at a local level on a voluntary basis.
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I think a lot could be accomplished by clarifying through legislation that Freedom of Association includes economic associations.
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I think that would work, too, however, with legislation they can always get a friendly court to rule against the law. Whereas an amendment would be unassailable. The problem with an amendment is getting it through the process, which is hard to foresee.
Freedom of association is one of the fundamental human rights that is a natural human right, like property rights. Theoretically, we don’t need a law to have that right, but the state being the state, they limit every right they can.
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The problem is that libertarians are the only people who value freedom of association.
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I guess that that is correct. The freedom of association has been ruled out of the American zeitgeist since 1964 and the Civil Rights Act.
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The amendment we really need would be something like "Voluntary acts between consenting adults shall not be infringed."
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Yes, that would cover all the bases, but could you see any of these statists passing this one? I love it, but I am just a loony crank at a keyboard, with little to no clout. I think a lot of people would love it too, but even though they may not be loony cranks at keyboards, they still have no clout. It is a sorry situation!
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What's nice about that phrasing is that normal people would view it favorably.
Many of our ideas scare people, but not the basic principles.
If I may interject in this merry miserly Libertarian circle jerk-
Minimum wage laws recognise the asymmetric power imbalance that often exists between workers and employers.
In addition to minimum wages do you also oppose unions and organised labour?
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