I'm against raising the minimum wage. It will -- it HAS to -- increase unemployment. X-ing out "minimum wage" jobs that are not actually "minimum wage" jobs -- wait staff, principally, whose compensation comes largely in the from of tips -- minimum wage jobs are mostly entry-level and part-time gigs. People who reflexively support a raise in the minimum wage seem to forget that today's minimum wage job is almost always a stepping stone to better paying jobs.

Still, I wonder: Is there a wage that is so low that it starts to look like slavery? Is it so low that the exploitation is somehow so repugnant that it's appropriate for the government to step in and say, You can't do that?

I don't happen to believe that a person could "voluntarily" become a slave. I'm quite OK with the government stepping in to stop a person "allowing" him or herself from becoming a slave. This despite the fact that I am not a fan of most of what government is currently doing.

So, if someone were to "agree" to work for, say, $1 per hour, is that starting to feel like slavery? It's NOT slavery, but it starts to become slave-like. Yes, in a marketplace, few would continue to work for $1 an hour when for most jobs the going rate is far higher. So, the heavy hand of the government stepping in to outlaw this capitalist act among consenting adults seems unnecessary.

The point of this thought pattern is to deconstruct the underlying motives for the current debate (which looks pretty much over) over the minimum wage. It's not stated, but when wages get so low that they start to feel like slavery to most onlookers, the collective impulse is: Outlaw that behavior.

So, resisting the minimum wage increase seems like a battle not worth fighting.

-Robert Capozzi