The "Living Wage" Bunk

When you go shopping, do you think you have the right to decide both sides of the deal? Do you have the right to decide what to pay, and what the seller has to give you? And if you don't think he's offering a “fair” deal, do you have the right to force him to provide you with whatever goods and services you think you should get, for whatever price you decide you should pay?

Hopefully you're not so arrogant and stupid that you would think such a thing. However, it is just as arrogant and stupid for you to presume to have the right to tell an “employer”—someone offering to trade money for work—what deal he is allowed to offer. “He should pay this much, and pay extra for overtime, and give paid vacations, and provide health insurance, and…” What a childish, bratty mentality some people have. No, you're not magically entitled to whatever deal you wish someone would give you. No one has any obligation to offer you any deal, much less a deal which you subjectively and arbitrarily deem to be “fair.” Other people can offer whatever they want, and you can decide whether to take the deal or not. That’s all.

Imagine if you were on the receiving end of such entitlement-mentality arrogance. You go to a small restaurant, and are perusing the menu, looking for a good deal, and the guy running the place suddenly walks up to you and says this:

“Stop right there! I know your type! Who do you think you are, just caring about your bottom line, always trying to get the best deal, trying to get as much as you can for yourself, for as little money as you can?! You greedy, selfish exploiter! You’re enslaving me! When you order food here, you shouldn’t be trying to get a good deal! You should be making sure that I am getting paid well, and that I have health insurance, and can pay my bills! And if I'm on vacation, you should still have to come in here and pay me anyway, even when I’m not doing anything for you. And if I get sick, you should have to come and pay me, and get nothing. And don’t you dare even think of ‘firing’ me by not coming back tomorrow, you selfish capitalist pig-dog! I have a right to a living wage! I neeeeeed you to make sure I’m taken care of, and that I have a comfortable life! That’s your responsibility as a customer!”

In that setting, pretty much everyone would see the restaurant owner as a mentally unstable, obnoxious twit. But there are plenty of people—particularly political leftists—who say all of those things, and more, when it’s in the context of an “employer” shopping around for someone to pay to do work. They really and truly believe that somehow, someone somewhere owes them a “job,” and a “living wage.” Like helpless and ignorant children, they imagine that someone other than themselves is responsible for creating a situation in which they can have a comfortable life mindlessly doing a simple “job” created by someone else, in a business created by someone else, where they bear none of the overall risk of having the business be successful.

And, of course, they never imagine themselves to have such an obligation; they never imagine themselves to have any responsibility or obligation to create a “job,” even for themselves, much less for anybody else. They don’t for a second think that it’s their responsibility to provide other people with a “living wage.” No, in their minds they are always in the category of people entitled to stuff, never in the category of people obliged to provide such “entitlements” to others. And so, when someone offers them a deal they don’t like, they imagine themselves to somehow be victims.

“But I need a job to survive!” “Government” coercion makes it extremely difficult to be self-sufficient and prosperous, by way of the state claiming all unused land, imposing property taxes, and all manner of other laws, regulations and taxes. But that does not create an obligation on the part of some other victim of the state to give you a “job.” Reality made it so that you having food, shelter, clothing, etc., requires human effort. “Government” made it much worse. By all means, object to the violence of the state. And if you want to, whine at the universe. And if “big corporations” use state violence to limit your other options, then by all means, condemn that. But stop pretending that other human beings somehow magically acquired an obligation to provide you with a job, and food, and decent housing, and health care, etc. Other people have the obligation to allow you your freedom, and that is all. And if you voluntarily accept an offer from someone to trade your time and effort for money, because it’s better than your other alternatives, that doesn’t make you a “wage slave”; it makes you a grown-up.