From: Matthew Gingell (gingell@gnat.com)
Date: Mon Apr 07 2003 - 15:47:07 MDT
Lee Daniel Crocker writes:
> Why do we think it's somehow "right" to forbid contracts for pay that's
> not sufficient for living alone? Since when do we expect that everyone
> capable of working should also be capable of living alone?
It's a point of ideology. The notion is anyone willing to work a 40
hour week, to contribute meaningfully to the well being of the
broader community, is entitled to a subsistence standard of living
and a measure of basic human dignity. That entitlement is independent
of the amount of value one actually produces, and it's more important
that the system be approximately just than perfectly efficient.
At least that's the philosophical perspective from which forbidding
some kinds of contract makes sense, though of course it's only one
possible approach.
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