we've all heard and seen how raising minimum wage affects the job market. wouldn't we be better off by letting the prices of goods and services decrease in value to bring prices to a more servicable level? wouldn't that also make minimum wage more livable?
Isn't reduction in prices supposed to be the magical result of competition in the market place? Has this in fact ever occurred, other than through the mechanisms of mass production? For instance in 1960 a pair of Levi's 501 jeans was made in America by union labor and sold for $4.95. Now they are made in Egypt by non-union workers who are probably making less than the America union workers made in 1960 and the same jeans with 2 less belt loops sell for $65 a pair. Can this increase in price actually be attributed to anything more than corporate greed and the demands of Wall Street and the financial industry for ever higher profits? Or is someone actually going to claim that a product manufactured in Egypt and made from cotton grown in Egypt costs more because of American government regulations, really? How exactly does that work?
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