OK, so the writer of a letter Jan. 22 admits to being a little sloppy in his writing when he talked about slaves, I’ll accept that. But then he trots out the term “slave wages,” a meaningless term that is meant to evoke emotions, rather than advance a rational argument. For one thing, slaves do not get wages; they can’t quit their job; they can do nothing about their situation. On the other hand, a worker in America can.

They can (and do) quit their job and get a better one. In fact, that happens many times every day. No business can prevent any worker from leaving and going somewhere else where they find better wages, better working conditions, etc. That is the morally right and ethical solution for anyone who doesn’t like their situation; that solution being the one that is negotiated between consenting adults (employer-employee), not the top down, authoritarian, one-size-fits-all solutions that the letter writer would impose.

 

George Lundstrom

Albert Lea