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383 points imartin2k | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.249s | source
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cousin_it ◴[] No.14330454[source]
I don't understand the libertarian argument for allowing low wages. Let's say company X is paying low wages, which allows it to sell goods for cheap. If company Y tries to enter the market and pay higher wages, they won't get any market share, because their goods will be more expensive. So wages will stay low forever. Am I missing something?
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jstanley ◴[] No.14330505[source]
If company Y is producing the same quality of goods as company X but trying to charge more money, they deserve to be out-competed by company X. Do you agree?

Equally, if employee Y is producing the same quality of work as employee X but trying to charge more money, does employee Y not deserve to be out-competed by employee X?

Employment is a two-sided market too.

Nobody would advocate for a minimum price for a packet of crisps just to save the poor crisp companies from earning too little per packet. It is obvious that if crisps were too expensive, people would stop buying them. The same applies for workers.

Minimum wage is just saying "if you can't produce at least $X of value per hour, you're not allowed to work at all". That's not fair.

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1. arjie ◴[] No.14330680[source]
The missing piece is that no one is entitled to an unregulated market. Capital has the power to employ and in an unregulated environment, more power to determine wages than labour.

But in a modern democracy, labour has a different sort of power and I cannot think of a moral principle that says that labour should not distort the market using its power at the ballot box.

If a pro-unregulated market candidate can't win more votes than the guy who wants to support minimum wages, he doesn't deserve to win. And he doesn't deserve to enact his policies.

So an ancap can argue his point but if he can't win in the marketplace of ideas, then he doesn't win. Because that market is truly free.

That's fair.