Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-i
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:Pucc-I:ags
From: ags@pucc-i (Seaman)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Unemployment & the minimum wage
Message-ID: <393@pucc-i>
Date: Fri, 10-Aug-84 15:25:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: pucc-i.393
Posted: Fri Aug 10 15:25:04 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Aug-84 06:57:54 EDT
References: <1665@inmet.UUCP> <451@tty3b.UUCP>, <388@pucc-i> <461@tty3b.UUCP>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 26

Mike Kelly, defending the minimum wage, says:

>      I am not deciding for anyone; the Congress has passed this law and
>      working people are not mobilizing to oppose it.  Perhaps you believe
>      that people should have the "freedom" to "choose" slavery, or the
>      "freedom" to buy unsafe products -- that's a common libertarian line.
>      It's not my concept of freedom. 

Of course working people are not mobilizing to oppose minimum wage laws;
working people are precisely the ones who have a vested interest in
preserving the status quo.  If the "freedom to choose slavery" includes
the freedom NOT to choose slavery and the freedom to define for oneself
exactly what constitutes slavery, then I do consider this a freedom.
I am not advocating any changes in the laws on product safety.

>      If there are people dying
>      for the "freedom" to take a job at sub-minimum wages,  to me that
>      just reflects the utter desperation to which unemployed people have
>      been driven.  Also an interesting contrast with Reagan's idea that
>      none of those people want to work anyway.

Say, whose side are you on, anyway?
-- 

Dave Seaman			My hovercraft is no longer full of 
..!pur-ee!pucc-i:ags		eels (thanks to my confused cat).