[mensetmanusman]

This reminds me of the minimum wage dispute.

Society steps in to bargain for workers if it believes the typical worker’s decision making is actually harming society.

E.g. taking 7$/hr jobs without benefits depresses wages of local workers, etc.

[naveen99]

Maybe we should give college students a minimum wage in addition to free tuition instead of non dischargeable loans also.

Also we should ban paying for coaching. Students should get minimum wage and shouldn’t have to pay a tennis coach if they want to win championships even if they are Federer.

[nradov]

The minimum wage makes it impossible for employers to hire people at the bottom end of the productivity scale. It makes no sense to hire someone who only produces $10/hr of value if you have to pay them $15/hr. This makes it harder for people with little experience or training to find any job at all. A better solution would be to eliminate the minimum wage and make up the difference with income redistribution, such as a negative income tax for those in the lowest bracket.

[baggy_trough]

Let's be careful when we say "society" does such a thing. It's not all members of society. It's more accurate to say that interest groups that would benefit from restricting economic freedom, such as unions, advocate for these changes, even if the changes are worse for society overall.

[toomuchtodo]

Subjugation via wages below a base level of quality of life is not freedom. This is dressing up economic serfdom as such. Let’s be careful of people who would argue for such “freedom”.

It has been demonstrated that unions strengthen earning power of labor, and that corporations have a long track record of abusing the H1B visa program.

[mensetmanusman]

We have to recognize there are some winners and losers from these changes, and that all decisions like this have trade-offs.

In this case, there will be fewer startups, maybe this is good for society as a whole though?

[toomuchtodo]

“How can society and public policy encourage more startups founded by those who would’ve previously been underpaid employees?” is a great question.