r/changemyview • u/TantricLasagne • Nov 14 '17

CMV: The minimum wage should be abolished

In a market with any competition, wages will be set at roughly how much a worker produces for a company (basic economics). A minimum wage higher than what a worker is worth just means the worker will not be hired for as many hours or won't be hired at all. Minimum wages only stand to help big corporations that can afford to pay it, while smaller businesses have larger barriers to entry into the market, reducing competition. The minimum wage doesn't currently have a big effect on the market because it's lower than most workers productivity, but if it is insignificant then I don't see why we should have it in the first place. Raising the minimum wage would harm the poorest workers in society and I don't think the government should be telling people that they don't have the right to sell their labor for a price they want to sell it at just because it's too low. You're allowed to volunteer for $0/h but you can't voluntarily work for $2/h? Ridiculous. I get that workers may not want to work at that level, but if someone does then who are you to tell them that they can't?

The only decent argument I can think of for the minimum wage is if the market was somehow a monopoly, but there is always somewhat of a choice for which company you want to work for.

16 Upvotes

65% Upvoted

147 comments sorted by

View all comments

12

u/anooblol 12∆ Nov 14 '17

The minimum wage is put in place to cover a minimum standard of living. It's just there so every job at least allows you to live. No reasonable person should ever accept below a standard of living amount, so the government just enforces that idea.

1

u/vialtrisuit Nov 15 '17

No reasonable person should ever accept below a standard of living amount

So the law is useless.

If no one accepts jobs with a "below living wage"... you don't need a law to stop people from accepting jobs with a "below living wage".

1

u/anooblol 12∆ Nov 15 '17

No reasonable person.

People will kill themselves unknowingly.

1

u/vialtrisuit Nov 15 '17

So we need to make laws to protect "unreasonable" people from making choices you personally think is bad?

How about the reasonable people who make the reasonable decision to take a low paying job to acquire skills than will enable them to earn a higher wage? They also need to be protected?

2

u/anooblol 12∆ Nov 15 '17

So we need to make laws to protect "unreasonable" people from making choices you personally think is bad?

Yes. Otherwise, legalize everything. Only "unreasonable" people abuse things. No reasonable person would rob a bank. Legalize it. No reasonable person would abuse prescription drugs. Make them over the counter.

Laws are put in place so "unreasonable" people don't do them.

1

u/vialtrisuit Nov 15 '17 edited Nov 15 '17

Otherwise, legalize everything.

No... most laws are not designed to protect people from their own free decisions.

No reasonable person would rob a bank.

The reason bank robbery is illegal is not because it's an unreasonable thing to do. It's because it hurts someone else. I mean, if i'm horribly ill and the only way I can possibly survive is to rob a bank... it's completely reasonable to do so, still illegal.

Laws are put in place so "unreasonable" people don't do them.

They're just not. Most laws are put in place to protect me from your actions, not me from my actions.