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NotPhil  ·  4063 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Fast-Food Wages Come With a $7 Billion Side of Public Assistance - Businessweek

If a potential employee's "next best option" is a living wage instead of a starvation wage, then we'd all be better off "condemning" him to that.

Whether we like it or not, when too many people can't put enough food into their mouths, or a reliable roof over their heads, civil unrest tends to occur. No one likes that, so if businesses can't carry their own weight and ensure that employees can survive off their wages, then the taxpayers will have to pick up their slack for them. And this is exactly what the article is describing.

Don't like public-assistance programs? Then you're going to have to insist that business not be so short-sighted. Since you can't legislate against stupidity, you have to legislate against stupid business practices instead, such as predatory employment practices.