Minimum Wages vs Minimum Employees

Reply to: On Raising the Minimum Wage

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If it would be beneficial to increase the minimum wage… then why not also decrease the price of movie tickets, popcorn and sodas? 

If it would be beneficial to increase the minimum wage… then why not also force employers to hire more workers? 

If preventing the exportation of jobs is beneficial… then why not also prevent the exportation of food? 

If preventing the exportation of jobs is beneficial… then why not also prevent the importation of workers? 

If preventing the importation of workers is beneficial… then why not also prevent people from having more than one child? 

If preventing the importation of workers is beneficial… then why not also export the least productive American workers? 

If preventing workers from accepting less than minimum wage is beneficial… then why not also prevent workers from giving their labor away for free? Isn’t “free” less than the minimum wage? Right now we’re giving our labor to Medium for $0.00 dollars an hour. Why not force Medium to pay Americans the minimum wage for their labor? 

See also… Workers: Beggars or Choosers

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Anybody watched Madam Secretary on Netflix?  In the episode "Whisper Of The Ax"... Stevie, the 20 year old daughter of the Secretary of State, decides that she'd like to volunteer full time for a good cause... microloans.  The program is desperately understaffed and the only paid employee, Arthur, is very happy to have Stevie help out.  At the end of her first day volunteering, Stevie and Arthur exchange some information...

Arthur: You're still here.

Stevie: Yes.  Why wouldn't I be? 

Arthur: Oh, my God! You think this is a paid internship.

Stevie: No, I don't.

Arthur: Because it so isn't.

Stevie: Yeah, I figured 

Arthur: Okay, good.  On the upside, that means your mother's budget cuts won't affect the position.

Stevie: You know who my mother is? 

Arthur: I do.  And I don't care.  Unlike literally everybody else I've hired, you want to be here.  That works in your favor.

Stevie: Great.

Arthur: Here's some paperwork you'll need to take to your school's career services office.

Stevie: Oh, um, I'm actually not in school, so 

Arthur: Oh, the, uh, internship's only available for college credit.

Stevie: Like you said.  I'm really happy to be here.  I mean, I really like feeling useful 

Arthur: No, we have to do it in conjunction with a university course.  Otherwise asking people to work for no compensation is what the government likes to call slavery.

Stevie: Well can I, can I sign a waiver or something? 

Arthur: No, it's nonnegotiable.  It's part of the program's charter.  I'm sorry.

Benefit is in the eye of the beholder.  If it wasn't, then there wouldn't be any problem with the government determining whether personal relationships are adequately beneficial.