[pyrale]

> Those are pretty good points, but I still find it weird that we forbid businesses to use all the information they have available to make business decisions.

Every rule in society can be formulated as a constraint on businesses. Typically, minimum wage prevents companies from making business decisions that would otherwise be profitable. Banning script money as a payment for wages also prevents them from making these decisions. This stems from the fact that the society view the common good as more important than the business interest of some of its members.

In that sense, making decisions based on data is an action like any other, and is subject to common scrutiny.

[gwright]

The notion that 'common good' is a sufficient reason to restrict individual freedom is debatable. Mainly because it isn't really a definable concept and so 'common good' ends up being a magic phrase to justify almost any restriction small or large.

Your point about minimum wages is a bit misleading. These laws are almost always framed as restrictions on employers but it is worthwhile thinking about them as prohibitions on individuals also. They prohibit individuals from taking jobs that they otherwise would be happy to take. For low-skilled workers (including teenagers) the value of a job isn't just the hourly wage, although $7/hour is better than $0/hour also.