Minimum wages
In the video the problem is not Edgar. The problem is not Capitalism nor is the problem Socialism in the form of forcing a minimum wage by government.
Most people in the world are not employed by the Edgar's of the world. Most business are small business where the owner is a key worker in the production of a product or service.
This statement is not meant to suggest that the Edgar's of the world who have large companies do not also work or provide a service. Many often do provide tremendous service because they establish large business that requires complex and organized team work and are able to employ many people who have no other means of support.
The problem is not really Simon nor all the other workers.
The problem is selfishness and the Edgar's of the world do not have the market cornered on selfishness.
There are some selfish Edgar's in the world but there are also many selfish workers in the world.
Of course you are not one of those selfish people. Or are you?
Maybe you just lack knowledge as to what is selfish and what is not selfish.
Maybe your parents or grandparents were selfish or engaged in selfish practices.
Trying to get the government to force employers to pay a minimum wage is seeking a benefit from government that is provided by force.
Historians like Polybius predicted that the peoples appetite for benefits received "by way of a rule of force" degenerates the character of the people and their institutions until the very governments they looked to become worse despots than Edgar's in the world ever were.
The idea of benefiting or living at the expense of others is a lot more common than most people would like to admit.
Simon and others have become 'accustomed to consuming benefits at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others...' that they do not even see coveting what Edgar or anyone else has as a selfish practices. If this are going to get better there are some fundamental practices that must be changed on an individual bases.
In the video it is assumed that Edgar is forced by competition to provide the wages he pays his employees because there is competition for workers. There is also a competition to sell the product being produced at the lowest price. That puts a downward pressure on wages.
There is also the assumption that Simon can only improve his situation by forcing Edgar to pay a higher wage. Why doesn't he start his own business?
Owning your own business would require personal investment, innovating imagination, individual initiative, dedicated effort, unpaid overtime, and finally risk of total failure. Simon did not believe he had those required characteristic.
You see Simon went to public school for over a decade of the formative years of his life.
After years of attending classes and being told what to study, what to learn, what to be interested in Simon was accustomed and resigned to being an employee where he would be given instructions, do what he was told, receive a guaranteed reward and then go home. This was his conditioning from the cradle and he would take it with him to the grave.
Simon never really had to worry about where his next meal would come from.
Even if his father was unable or unwilling to provide for his family there was public welfare, Food Stamps, public health care. After all his father did not provide education for Simon but chose to send him to public school at the expense of his neighbors.
That covetous practice allowed Simon to feel comfortable and accustomed to taking what other people produce for his own advantage. He naturally felt a sense of entitlement to the property of others.
While the law of nature taught the beaver that he must work if he wishes to survive, Simon was never taught that. Simon had been removed from nature and relieved of natural responsibility for his actions or sloth. Simon does not understand that if he does not work neither should he eat.[1] If he chooses to eat at the table of rulers at the expense of others his covetousness will make him merchandise, snare him in bondage and curse children.
What makes a people or nation great is their willingness to take responsibility for themselves, for their families and for their neighbor in charity and hope according to the perfect law of liberty.
He should learn to put away the things of a child and learn to stand on his own. He could come together with others and create their own company or cooperative. What Simon and everyone else needs to do is repent and seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
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Footnotes
- ↑ 2 Thessalonians 3:9 Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.