(01-23-2019, 07:08 PM)jagibelieve Wrote:

(01-23-2019, 05:48 PM)mikesez Wrote: Nah.
You would trust the people with the least amount of power, skills, and resources to negotiate for themselves and get a good result?
Most people can negotiate for themselves, no problem.  
But the most disadvantaged in society? No way.  There has to be a floor.  The floor should be so low that most employers don't think about it.  But it needs to be there.

I don't know what your "most disadvantaged in society" means but I have a pretty good real-world example that I went through a few weeks ago.

I asked on a Facebook Group for someone to cut down a rather large oak tree on my property (using my tools) and haul the debris away.  I had a guy show up and asked him how much to do the job.  He said that he could do it for $1000.00 but couldn't haul the debris away.  I countered and said that I wouldn't pay more than $800.00 for that.  He rejected the deal then showed up a couple of days later and agreed.  The guy was young and just looking for work to pay his bills.  He seemed to me to be un-educated and explained that he needed to pay his rent and buy some food for him and his wife.

The young man did his best to haul away the debris in his old small truck a little at a time, even though that wasn't part of our deal.  After his second trip hauling away some of the debris I paid him $1000.00 for his effort and told him that the job was done.  Me paying him more had little to do with the extra effort that he put in and everything to do with him trying to make an honest living.

My point is, the guy was willing to work and not asking for a handout.  He was obviously not "advantaged" and was able to negotiate his price.  You seem to equate the "dis-advantaged" in society with being "stupid".

You are offering him $800 for one or two days work.
Assuming he worked alone, that's way above minimum wage.
The kind of people who are helped by the minimum wage are much more disadvantaged than him.
I wouldn't say they're all "stupid", not at all. some of them are mentally slow or they are on the borderline of being mentally slow. But that's just one way that somebody could end up being very disadvantaged in life.

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