John Faulkner, a letter writer to The News & Observer, complains today about the legislature’s failure to pass the minimum wage bill:
What really damages our economic competitiveness are ignorant business owners who think people don’t deserve a little increase in pay every now and then.
The problem is that businesses want to continue to see increases in volume and profit without having to pay any more to the little guy doing the heavy lifting. It’s too bad that businesses need government to tell them how to treat people right, but that is the world we live in.
The truth is, ideally businesses would like to pay nothing to “the little guy doing the heavy lifting.” But that’s not the real world in which market forces dictate labor costs and what consumers are willing to pay for products and services.
Businesses don’t need government to tell them how to treat people right — whatever that is. They need customers and employees to tell them. Customers tell them by showing how much they are willing to pay. Employees tell them by showing how much they are willing to work for.
Businesses should have the freedom to be “ignorant” and lose employees if they don’t pay them enough. Just like employees are free to be ignorant enough to stay with an employer who is underpaying them.
Why does government have to fix everybody’s ignorance?
