[reflecting]

The employer's first priority has to be the continuation of the business. After all, it's his income too. He needs to put food on the table for his own family first. If the government, or union, is going to force him to pay more than the business can afford for his labor, it just might put him out of business. It will at least decrease the number of people he can afford to hire. So, while he might have been able to pay 50 people to work for him, now he can only afford to hire 40 at the higher wage.

This assumes that there is very little or no profit in the business. Which in most cases is not true. I say the guy keeps all 50 and does without the third house on the beach.

[TChris]

This assumes that there is very little or no profit in the business. Which in most cases is not true. I say the guy keeps all 50 and does without the third house on the beach.

In many business ventures, there is little or no profit. That's why so many fail, and take the investors' money with them. That risk of losing everything is balanced out by the possibility of making a profit.

But you may be right, and some business owners certainly are greedy. But in the overall scheme of things, very few businesses are wildly successful. Even if they are, who are we, or the government, to force that employer to spend the money where we (they) want him to?

What if I think you should pay me more to work on your computer, and that you don't really need that fourth or fifth rifle? Should I have the authority to force you to pay me more?

It all depends on your point of view.

[MinnesotaLibertarian]

How do we know he has a third house on the beach? How do we know he's not struggling with a second mortgage on one modest home? Most small business owners struggle - I don't know where you get this idea that they're all raking in the dough.

[BMiles2112]

This assumes that there is very little or no profit in the business. Which in most cases is not true. I say the guy keeps all 50 and does without the third house on the beach.

If "in most cases this is not true", then why have you not started your own business yet? (You see, I'm making the leap that you don't own your own business. If you did, you never would have made the above statement.)

[ThinkDifferent]

I say the guy keeps all 50 and does without the third house on the beach.

So you want to force him to engage in charity. Why him and not you?