I pay taxes. They should go to companies that pay a living wage.
As someone interested in philosophy, I can give you all sorts of ethical reasons why. As an at least nominal Christian I can give you some moral reasons why.
But let's just look at my argument as a taxpayer: if your employees have a liveable wage, I don't have to pay for their section 8, or their CHIP, Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, etc.
Not that I personally begrudge those, but just from a cost-benefit standpoint I think we can all agree it's better for people to be making enough to afford these things on their own.
I believe that we have an obligation to care for one another, but I also believe the best way to do this is to allow properly organized workers to negotiate pay.
Of course not everyone is going to make the same as everyone else. What I want is to stop subsidizing other businesses than mine. (I employ two seamstresses making kites for my company. They require no public assistance. I make some profit but not much. But I'll be damned if I'll make you pay for me to have a business. )
I don't want some sort of two-legs-bad enforced equality. We're in no danger of that. I'm just tired of my business's taxes paying subsidies to competitors who are willing to have the rest of us pick up their slack.
The private sector has to start pulling its own weight again like it used to. I'm doing my part, but this has to be a societal change. I don't even know that laws can do it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
