Quote from: JoelKatz on July 06, 2011, 12:54:39 PM

Quote from: Findeton on July 06, 2011, 12:16:23 PM

Not all actions of any given government are against/towards equality. For example minimum wages rise equality and are enforced by the government.

Minimum wages decrease equality by taking the people whose labor is worth the least and making it worth nothing at all.

Suppose the minimum wage is $6/hour. A person whose labor is worth $7/hour in the absence of the minimum wage will find they can fetch near $7/hour in the market even with the minimum wage. Now suppose the minimum wage is raised to $8/hour. Now, the person whose labor was worth $7/hour will find that their labor is worth nothing at all. Those whose labor is worth more than the minimum wage are unaffected. They'll get jobs either way.

Minimum wage laws simply ensure that those whose labor is worth less than the minimum wage cannot get a job even if they would prefer to have it (if for no other reason than to gain experience, to keep their skills current, to have a reference for their next job, to make a little bit of extra cash, just to have something to do, and so on). To claim that overriding people's rational decisions somehow benefits them is absurd.

There's a misconception between what you get paid and what you are really worth. As Carl Marx would say, you are worth the value you generate, not what you get paid. The difference is the surplus value.

Let me give you an example that comes from my own experience. If I haven't got a degree yet, although I've got more than 90% of collegue done, I get paid about $700/month. When I get the degree I'll magically get paid at least $2400/month. Have I just increased my efficiency 3.5 times in the second I get the title that says I've finnished college? Hell no. So I know that while I'm being paid $700/month my real value is MORE than $2400. So when we rise the minimum wage what normally happens is NOT that the job is killed, but that the surplus value is lowered, creating a wealth redistribution.

I just don't accept the theory that you are worth what you get paid. You are worth the value you generate, not the value you are paid, and the surplus value's been rising for decades so there's plenty of room now to get minimum wages rised in many countries.