[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-— We have lots of people and — to a disturbing extent — no need for their labor. -—

This is what the Luddites said. I would love to hire people to do a multiplicity of things. I just can’t afford to. That’s all that limits employment.

[ClearCase_guy]

But here's the thing: you would hire those people -- if you could pay them 50 cents an hour. Now, you don't do that for two reasons:
1) Minimum wage laws say you can't.
2) People won't work for such a low wage because they cannot survive on such low wages.

Now, if the government is in the business of handing out food, housing and healthcare, then the government may make such goodies contingent on forced labor from the masses. And who knows? The government might even throw in some cash ... say, 50 cents on hour?

Employment in a market-driven economy is limited by supply and demand and the need to run a profitable business.
But government makes its own rules and now moves perilously close to "employing" people as slaves.