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Comment by frogpelt | Hacker News Reader

Where did this notion come from that wages equal the value of a person? If this were true, shouldn't every single person make the same amount, regardless of age, experience, knowledge, or ability?

About minimum wage: do you know who really lobbies the hardest for increased minimum wage? Unions. Because they peg their base-line wages to the minimum wage. If they can succeed in getting the minimum wage raised, they can raise the pay for all of their workers who are already making 3 to 5 times the minimum wage.

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What's with the union hate? Unions are corporations for workers. They are trying to maximize their compensation from the amount of value that their workers create, just as business owners are trying to maximize the profit they scrape off their workers.

They are fighting for a fairer wage for their constituents, and if such organizations existed for the majority of laborers, we wouldn't need a minimum wage.

But that's beside the point. A fair minimum wage is important because in 2013, 88.7% of American workers did not have a union to negotiate just compensation for them.

There was no union hate in my comment. There were facts about unions who lobby to have minimum wage increased because it affects their bottom line.

The value of a person is not equal to their wage. That is exactly my point! All people, in my belief, have AT LEAST the right to earn enough money to live off of without government assistance if they work 40 hours a week. They should have a safe place to live, clothes, enough quality food to eat, and enough to afford their other basic living expenses. It would be tight. But I'm not advocating everyone should have 10s of thousands in disposable income, just that they shouldn't need any government assistance to get by. That is simply valuing them as a person. That means stop exploiting people. There is a difference between free market and exploitation. And guess what... the exploited are tired, very tired... and that is why minimum wage reform is becoming an issue... because the problem is REAL. Try living it sometime... helps add perspective.

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