Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles; site ea.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!ea!mwm From: mwm@ea.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Unemployment & the minimum wage - (nf) Message-ID: <10100083@ea.UUCP> Date: Mon, 13-Aug-84 22:06:00 EDT Article-I.D.: ea.10100083 Posted: Mon Aug 13 22:06:00 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 16-Aug-84 01:13:59 EDT References: <215@idi.UUCP> Lines: 34 Nf-ID: #R:idi:-21500:ea:10100083:000:1579 Nf-From: ea!mwm Aug 13 21:06:00 1984 #R:idi:-21500:ea:10100083:000:1579 ea!mwm Aug 13 21:06:00 1984 { if (!fork()) execv("libertarian-argument", "-", 0) ; } > /***** ea:net.politics / tty3b!mjk / 12:08 am Aug 10, 1984 */ > (a) Perhaps you believe in the "freedom" to buy unsafe products. As a matter of fact, I do. Unsafe products like mind-altering drugs and mind-altering literature. Of course, that doesn't mean that I use either one, only that I'd like a choice to do so. > (b) Your second question only points out the inadequacy of the minimum > wage to really solve the problem of unemployment. That doesn't mean > we should abandon the minimum wage. It means we must go further. You're right - we have to go further. Of course, you're also suffering under the delusion that "a job" is the only way to stay fed, clothed and sheltered. It isn't. The "further" we need to go to is to eliminate jobs completely, and let everybody live on government handouts (large ones, like personal computers on the lines of a VAX 11/790). Of course, that level of government support means that the government has to own most of the large production facilities in the country. That means that either everybody is a slave to the government, or that we've automated to a large degree. Getting to the point were we can automate to that extent is going to require some technological advances. Getting those advances installed and working is going to require some incentive for the people with the production facilities, like "profit" and "competition" for that profit. Gee, sounds like I want a free enterprise system until society has evolved for a while, doesn't it?