I Like to Help People

but I also like cheap shoes.
the whole wage saga has reminded me of this dilbert comic.
basically there was this woman who was paid $700 to work 5 days a week as a cleaner. the contract was up and a new cleaning company bidded successfully and she is now employed at $500 to work 5.5 days.
immediately people cry foul and all, sat what kinda crap is this. this is unfair to her, blah blah blah. and how we should correct this social problem. like how the cleaners at the hawker centers and foodcourts should be paid equitably.
firstly freemarkets would shift back to equilibrium and it is too bad that equilibrium is at this level. of course this is not a perfect economy since there is imperfect information for most of these disadvantaged cleaners and there is an unequal relationship since firms can 'bully' staff into submission in the absence of a good union and what not. setting a price floor at like $700 might help this poor lady, but the supply of labor would outstrip their demand. firms would demand less and other cleaners might simply be unemployed. thus one might be helped at the expense of others. of course there is a dead weight loss but lets not consider this for the moment.
before we delve into any moral one-upping let's not forget to consider this from the point of view of a firm and the merit of the free market. since the market for cleaning (whatever you call it) is competitive being made up of price takers. To compete successfully one of the key components is productive efficiency. companies would want to seek to do more with less. in this case the cleaning company is thus in a position to maximise productive efficiency of one staff by making her work longer and at the same time decrease costs by paying her less. profit maximization is the goal of the company anyway.
even as we sympathise with her plight we must not forget that we, as individual agents together are the consumers in the economy, and to maximise our demands on a fixed income, we go for the cheapest substitutes. so we go to where we find the cheapest coffee the cheapest rice and whatnot. companies staying afloat have to compete in a race to drive their prices down and what better way to do that than cut on their own expenses. take the case of the typical cleaner in the foodcourt. his paypacket comes from his company which receives payment for his services from wherever he is cleaning. in the case of the foodcourt it then passes on to the consumers who share the burden in the cost of the food. now as consumers, barring the difference in taste and preference, we go to the cheapest store to maximise our enjoyment of our fixed income. so companies cannot afford to pay more to the cleaners since cleaners overheads would increase prices. so we have to share the guilt. yeah.
ultimately there are pitfalls in the system we are living in, but lets not be hypocrites like dilbert, who on one hand fight for minimum wages and rights of the sweatshop workers who make your nikes, and on the other continue purchasing nikes at cheaper and cheaper prices.

as much as i sympathize with her, i love capitalism. capitalism and its mental and spiritual comforts. and i hate elites.
not done anything important today.
just keep playing eagles and the beatles over and over again.