Defending the Undefendable

Barn Army Book Club Defending the Undefendable

“ THE FAT CAPITALIST-PIG EMPLOYER If not for the minimum wage law and other progressive  legislation, the employers, the fat-capitalist-pig exploiting employers, to be precise, would lower wages to whatever level they wanted. At best, we would be pushed back to the days of the sweatshop; at worst, to the days of the industrial revolution and before, when mankind waged an often losing battle with starvation. “ So goes the conventional wisdom on the merits of minimum wage legislation. It will be shown, however, that this conventional wisdom is wrong, tragically wrong. It assumes a villain where none exists. What does the law actually accomplish and what are its consequences? The minimum wage law is, on the face of it, not an employment law but an unemployment law. It does not force an employer to hire an employee at the minimum wage level ... .  [Defending the Undefendable, p. 223] Economist  Walter Block's book "Defending the Undefendable"  is in many ways a validation of what many of us suspect  is true, but find ourselves running instead with the herd.  Books that challenge your beliefs are a good thing.  It's my real and true experience that Democrats I know never explore themselves, at least outside of the bathroom. For instance I know for a fact that not one Liberal read  Arthur Herman's book about Joe McCarthy, but it did not stop them from paroxysmic attacks on Herman for deigning to write it.  So they continue to look and act silly. John Stossel introduced Block's book to me, and he cites David Boaz of the Cato Institute and Nick Gillespie of Reason. in support of Block's chapter on  THE EMPLOYER OF CHILD LABOR (p. 243). “ "If we say that the United States should abolish child labor in very poor countries," Boaz said, "then what will happen to these children? ... They're not suddenly going to go to the country day school. ... They may be out selling their bodies on the street. That is not an improvement over working in a t-shirt factory." ” Since this is about the joy and benefits of free markets, you'll be interested to know that you can buy Block's  book from Amazon for $15, or read it for free - HERE You're welcome.