[A. Pole]

The labor market is no different than any other market. In this case, the seller is the employee, offering his labor, experience, talent, etc. for sale. The employer is the customer buying that labor. Like any other sale, both parties are free to negotiate and accept or reject the deal. If the employer doesn't want to pay a particular price for a certain kind of labor, he doesn't have to. If the employee doesn't want to work for a particular wage, he doesn't have to.

You make serious mistake - the labor is not a mere commodity - it the activity of the living human being, his life and soul is involved.

You sin against the dignity of man by treating him like a thing. And you sin against God in whose image men are created. Freemarketeers are at heart the atheists, and when they claim to be believers they are the hypocrites as well.

[TChris]

You sin against the dignity of man by treating him like a thing.

Ummm... OK.

Actually if you're running a business, you preserve it by treating employees, including yourself as the owner, as "a thing." The reason for this is that the market couldn't care less about your soul. The cold, hard facts of business dictate how much you can pay for a given level of labor. No business can afford to overpay employees for ever. Unions have done their darndest to make this happen for years, but it catches up with them sooner or later.

Free-marketers are, perhaps, athiests, but that's only because business knows no God. Its life-blood is money; that's all that will keep it alive.