Thread by @caroljsroth

Thread
When you stop to get a shoe shine, do you ask the person how many customers they have had that day and how much they need to live on, or do you ask for the price?

When you buy a loaf of bread from a vendor at a fair, do you ask the person how many customers they have had that day? Do you not care that they may not make a “living wage” that day? Are you not personally obligated by taking their output to ensure they can live? Of course not.

When you trade your money for others’ time or skills, that is based on the value you place on the skills, supply, demand, not an evaluation of their personal needs. This is no different than when someone applies for a job in low-skilled arenas.

It a Marxist concept to think the amount someone should be paid should be based on some evaluation of need vs. what they are providing.

While I understand that people want others to not struggle, raising wages artificially doesn’t do that and does quite the opposite. It’s a perfect illustration of the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

The minimum wage has a racist, misogynist history meant to keep people out of the workforce. It has the same effect today.

https://twitter.com/caroljsroth/status/1302985294124376065

Artificially raising wages means that jobs will be consolidated, replaced by tech and/or businesses will fold. It will create fewer opportunities and more people unemployed. If you think it’s hard to live on the minimum wage, try living on no wage.

Also, let’s remember both sides, which include an individual’s responsibility and obligation. I know this is unpopular to say, but it is realistic. If you have few skills and many obligations, you will likely need to work more than 40 hours a week.

Most small business owners subject to these costs work at least 60-80 hours a week, or more, and nobody guarantees their wages, while they risk their own capital.

I personally had at least a half a dozen minimum wage jobs before and through high school and college. I would not have had any experience (or ability to earn money as a young person) with higher wage mandates. Many will suffer the same fate.

You can want people to be paid well without creating a barrier via law- which isn’t what the law and government is for- that will keep people from getting their first jobs and giving them opportunities to advance and build their skills and experience.

Let people decide whether they want to exchange their time and skills for what is being offered, both in wage but also future opportunities. That’s not for you or a politician to decide. My work, my choice.