[skookumchuck]

Management can "demand" whatever they want, and employees can refuse whatever they want. It's how supply and demand works, and how free markets work.

The problems happen when the government interferes in this process. For example, recently Washington State removed the exemption mentally disabled workers have from minimum wage laws. This was hailed as a victory for justice and fairness. The result is those workers can't get a job anymore.

[Zarath]

"free" markets aren't necessarily "ideal" markets. See concepts like: leverage, cost externalization, etc. The "free" market argument is so tired.

[skookumchuck]

Free markets are the worst basis for an economy, except for all the others.

[chasontherobot]

Citation needed

[skookumchuck]

The spectacular performance of the US economy, 1800 to the present, relative to countries with varying levels of socialism. The poor performance of socialist industries in the US. The failure of any socialist/communal agricultural system to produce enough food to feed itself. (Even the Soviets gave up on collective farms.)

[Apocryphon]

Was the market in 19th century America truly free?

http://histsociety.blogspot.com/2013/12/why-were-tariffs-pol...

[skookumchuck]

Was it a perfect free market? Nope. Nothing human is perfect. But it was a workable approximation of one.

[xg15]

Well yeah. Not being able to make ends meet while working is more morally justifyable than not being to make ends meet while unemployed, I guess.

[skookumchuck]

Making ends meet isn't really the issue. Mentally disabled people are usually taken care of by relatives. They can't live on their own.

But they want to feel valued and do worthwhile things. By pricing them out of a job, they are denied that opportunity.

[xg15]

This is a strange logic. Your description of a job is more that of a glorified hobby.

Meanwhile, are you expecting that the relatives (if they exist at all) shoulder all the burden and costs of caring themselves?

Only because someone does not live alone doesn't mean they don't have a cost of living. Indeed, a disabled person's cost of living is likely higher than an able-bodied one. Nevertheless, they should be expected to compensate this with a lower income than everyone else?

[skookumchuck]

The trouble with your position is it renders the person unable to get a job, i.e. it makes the situation worse.