The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Bastiat Institute

When faced with the
problem of poverty,
most people ask what
the government can
do about it. Instead
it is more appropriate
to ask what the
government did to
create the problem in
the fi rst place.
Ken Schoolland in
his paper The State,
Obedience Training,
and Young Rebels:
In Defence of Youth
Rights
Chapter 28 • Wages of Sin
origin of laws to exclude street traders from the
pavements in front of shops. In addition, it is the
origin of licensing laws that exclude specialised
workers who are not members of exclusive
unions or guilds.
Freedom of choice is the best protection of the
workers. Willing employers and willing workers
rightfully make the best decisions for themselves.
Remarks
Economist Walter Williams said that minimum
wage laws had the same effect as the Jim Crow
laws: harming economic opportunities for blacks
in South Africa. He said this was why the white’s
only unions used to call for higher minimum
wages for blacks – because it made blacks less
competitive in the market and ensured jobs
for whites. Minimum wage laws serve to take
the bottom rungs off the economic ladder, so
employees must pay for training schools instead
of employers paying workers to be trained on the
job.
Is someone really better off unemployed,
than having a job at below the minimum wage?
References
Mary Ruwart, in her book Healing Our World,
deals with how we create poverty in a world
of plenty by destroying jobs. We do this when
we use aggression. The misguided attempt at
increasing the wealth of disadvantaged workers
by law usually succeeds in making them poorer.
Alan Burris’ A Liberty Primer is a great
reference.
Milton and Rose Friedman’s Free to Choose
also has material on this.
Articles by Ken on this subject include:
http://www.jonathangullibe.com/REBELS
http://www.jonathangullible.com/KidStrike
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