It is always refreshing and reaffirming to one’s faith in humanity and our free market system of democracy when you read a headline posted in the Edmonton Journal, June 24th, “Businesses pledge to maintain $15 minimum wage.”
This is in response to our premier Jason Kenney and his UCP band of ear plugged MLAs, who will roll back the minimum wage from $15/hr. to $13/hr. for young people aged 13 to 17 on June 26th. The rationale being that this will allow for more young students being hired because of the lower wage, an assumption based more on political optics and a plugged deaf ear to a market system with a conscience and a measure of fairness and social justice.
Those businesses that have signed on to Alberta15, a group of responsible employers, who are committed to do the right thing rather than take advantage of government regulation, are to be commended. They are an example of how the market system should work, rather than how the system can be exploited for an extra buck.
The free market economic system is anchored to the fundamental law of supply and demand. We are all introduced to this reality at birth, when our demand for oxygen is supplied by our first breath and our demands for life are supplied by responsible parents. The system works because, caring, love and responsibility are who we are as human beings. When we grow up within this free self-regulated and responsible environment there is every opportunity for healthy growth and a productive life, with minimal imposed outside regulation.
Self-regulation, however, is fragile and is easily distorted by self-interest and greed. Government is designed to provide a collective response to this and through government regulation, tries to maintain a certain balance and harmony that will ensure a measure of justice and civility rather than allow a market system culture to exploit for power and control rather than serve the common good.
The Alberta15 companies are a self-regulated group that don’t need government to tell them how to operate. In this specific case, the responsible self-regulated free market system works and trumps government imposed regulation.
Good on Alberta15!
Jason Kenney, get rid of those earplugs and listen up!
Alberta Strong and Free!
Wilf Borgstede, St. Albert
