#minimumwage

dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com

Adam Smith on living wage, national wealth, growth, and decline

I've previously quoted Smith on wages, in the context of why allowing below-subsistence pay is effectively a welfare subsidy to businesses which are either otherwise non-competitive or which can extract profit due to their political leverage.

He has a number of additional words (as he typically does) on the subject which are quite revealing on the nature of national economic vitality, size, and decline. Recall that Smith was published in 1776. His words remain highly relevant.

I've found particularly interesting Adam Smith's own commentary on what a minimum wage ought to be in Wealth of Nations, a book as David Brin has been saying for quite some time, far more liberals, and conservatives, should actually read. Everyone else as well...

Continued at the dreddit

#economics #minimumwage #livingwage #adamsmith

dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com

Thoughts on minimum wage, enterprise viability, welfare burden, and, of course, the end of the world as we know it

In a discussion on the merits of minimum-wage laws, I was asked to clarify what specifically my main points in a rather prolonged thread were, in particular my repeated invocation of Adam Smith's discussions of the wages of labor in Book I, Chapter VIII of The Wealth of Nations.

My starting point was this passage from Smith:

A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him....

Continued at the dreddit.

#minimumwage #adamsmith #econonomics #collapse #limitstogrowth #peakoil #economics