Quote Originally Posted by CoccoBill View Post
I think of it this way: regulations were invented to serve a purpose. Most civilizations have thought it prudent to make things like killing and stealing illegal, and I think there's a reason for that. Similarly, before employers were mandated to provide their employees a minimum wage, they were not. Something brought up the need for defining and regulating them.
You're kind of appealing to tradition though. It's certainly a reasonable assumption that things are the way things are because they needed to be that way at one point in time, but it's also quite true that human beings of previous generations did a lot of really dumb things and didn't have as much collective knowledge to act on as we have today.

I'm pretty dismayed that you see an apt comparison between the minimum wage and laws against theft/murder. We can split hairs here all day on what government's role ought to be, but it is clear that protecting people from bodily harm is a much higher priority for the state than meddling labor market. The minimum wage is one of the most easily debunked government policies. Basically any economist who isn't a Marxian or a Keynesian agrees that it is counterproductive.