[chrisser]

I was responding to "It's a free market" - that is not a free market by definition.

By definition, it actually is. The government has essentially hired these people out from under small business for better money. The fact that they sit home all day is irrelevant. Yes, it's a distortion, the same way it's a distortion when Walmart moves into the neighborhood, or a large multinational builds a new plant and steals all your employees away, or when a business shutters and leaves the town unemployed and destitute.

The obvious response would be to stop the government from doing that.

Absent that, there are two competing solutions. 1) is that businesses pay their employees what the new market demands or 2) employees should work for less than market.

Believe me, I feel for the small business out there, at least to a degree. On the other hand, I've worked for plenty where there was a huge amount of waste, nepotism and disregard for the welfare of employees at the top. I see both sides, but, in the end, after all the whining, the solutions remain the same - pay employees what the market demands just like you pay what your vendors demand when the market's high, just like you charge what the market will bear for your products.

[dinodino]

Many small businesses run slim margins. In this situation, it doesn’t take much of an increase in labor costs to shutter the business. This was just demonstrated in Long Beach where two grocery stores were closed due to the imposition of a $4/hr. “hero pay” by the city.

Either the unemployment will end, or a bunch of small businesses will fail.

[central_va]

Great post!!!

[rb22982]

The government is NOT the free market BY DEFINITION. The rest of your rambling is irrelevant.