Whenever I see the phrase “serving the greater good,” I reach for my wallet. No matter what shine William Tucker tries to put on it, family wage, living wage, and minimum wage add up to an attempt to artificially manipulate the market in labor.
No public policy, no matter how noble its intentions, can substitute for the private contracts between businesses and workers in setting a fair and appropriate value to the myriad jobs in our economy.
Price fixing is wrong when cartels try to keep a floor under prices and is equally wrong in the mandating of so-called fair wages. Countless government programs have done little to wipe out poverty in America, and, as Tucker states, have consequences usually in conflict with intended goals.
Workers must make themselves and their skills valuable to employers but can gain no experience if priced out of the “job training” wage market.
Tucker’s argument for paying each according to his family’s needs hasn’t worked even when coupled with its socialist corollary. THE WEEKLY STANDARD would do well to leave mush-headed “compassion politics” to the many leftist publications to which it is a welcome alternative.
Richard Weinfeld, Boston, MA
