[yzhengyu]

There are many side effects of having an entire strata of impoverished people. A minimum wage is actually one of the mechanisms that is available to the state which it can use to re-internalize many of the social cost (i.e. externalities) of a below-sustenance level job.

From a personal perspective, I am actually quite wary of the idea of a minimum wage since that is usually set by the government but for a different reason. If the government is really pro-business, I wouldn't trust them to set the minimum wage high enough for sustenance.

What I would prefer a system as described by marcusf where employers and employees are required by law to periodically negotiate with each other to set a salary floor in each of their localities where they do business.

Like what unions are supposed to do. Before they got demonized and destroyed in the Age of Neo-Liberalism.

And yes, the article is horse manure.