[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

That's a fair point. A lot of businesses should just fail if they can't make it. That whole industry is due for a culling. Keep in mind when we are talking about small businesses, we are talking about people. People who are self-employed and not really that different than the employees. They toil long hours often for little reward hoping that they can make it. If the businesses deserve to fail, then maybe so do unskilled people whose labour or skills have little economic value or benefits to employers or society.

The thing is, in Canada, many people, especially young people, insist on living in big expensive cities where minimum wages are difficult to get by on and where there is a lot of low skilled labour available. It's not communist Russia and we obviously can't force people to relocate to remote areas that need labour and where the cost of living is lower, but many Canadians do willingly make that sacrifice in order to avoid the minimum wage trap. I lived in camps off and on for a few years, and while it sucked and I much would have preferred the comfort of a big city and missed my family, it beat making minimum wage and feeling sorry for myself because of it. I also received job training that I still benefit from today. I know not everyone can do that kind of work, but many people can and just don't want to.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If your business model is predicated on underpaying your employees, you have a ####ty business model.