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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: St_Bill who wrote (31287)	10/8/2001 6:44:25 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

There's no other game in town, you have to work in the mines or at the mill or whatever, therefore your labor is wrongfully cheapened and you suffer. If the force of law, or just raw force by the owner of the mines or mill or whatever keeps anything else from working in the town and there is for some reason no ability to go to another town then it might be considered slavery but then you don't have much a free market. In any case that is not the situation in the present day United States. Because of your race or ethnic background, there are no other jobs available, therefore your labor is wrongfully cheapened and you suffer. Discrimination based on race is usually unfair and generally wrong, but IMO not everything that is unfair or wrong should be a matter for law. An example I give is that I rent out a room. If I was a bigot and decided I did not want to rent to black people or jews or arabs or whatever that in my opinion should be only my choice. You, and whoever else is annoyed by that should feel free to call me a jerk and obviously you would be free to not rent from me. However I think that it is wrong to force me to rent a room to someone I don't want to rent to. I think it should work the same for hiring as long as the hiring is not done by the government (I suppose the government could also make all contractors not discriminate as well). Just to make it abundantly clear I am not a bigot and I would not refuse to rent my room to someone of a different race or religion. A purely free market can lead (an historically has led) to a great imbalance in the freedom available for all those involved. A true free market gives more freedom to everyone. It does however lead to imbalances in wealth and power. And can lead to suffering although overall interventions making the market less free probably increase suffering rather then decrease it. Tim

To: St_Bill who wrote (31287)	10/8/2001 6:48:22 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

I own an small business, writing seven paychecks a week. I am a fan of the free market, but with reservations. So, let's see. Are you saying that if a person came to you who said "I'm a skilled worker at [something your company uses workers for] and I need a job and I'll work for $9.00 an hour" you would say "well, I need a [whatever] and you look like a good worker and I'd like to hire you, but I can't pay you only $9 an hour because that would be stealing from you. I insist on paying you $12 per hour." Is that a plausible scenario?