Carson challenges libertarian orthodoxy on the minimum wage.

Carson has tons of great articles on all kinds of stuff. Check out his archive at C4SS. (Caveat: I hear from a reliable source that my name is under a total ban from being mentioned whatsoever at C4SS, even in a hostile or critical way.I’m the guy your parents told you to stay away from, lol.)

By Kevin Carson

Center for a Stateless Society

The Fight for $15 movement is usually identified with the fight for a $15 minimum wage. A call for government legislation is not the sort of thing you’d normally expect an anarchist to endorse. But in fact the movement to pay workers $15 or more is quite compatible with anarchist principles.

Back in the late 19th century, the American movement for an eight-hour day included people from a wide range of political ideologies. Some favored federal legislation to achieve their goal. But the movement also included numerous anarchist tendencies, including individualist anarchists affiliated with the New England Labor Reform League. The nationwide general strike for an eight-hour day was seen by some as a call for a government-mandated limit to the working day, but it was also a pressure campaign on employers. That’s how I see the Fight for $15 campaign.

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