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Recently, I was listening to an episode of the “Part of the Problem” podcast with comedian Dave Smith when I heard him discussing a subject that really struck a nerve.

If you are unfamiliar with Smith, he is an anarcho-capitalist libertarian who is excellent at breaking down complex issues into simple terms, and does so in an entertaining and funny way.

A friend of mine recommended I check out “Part of the Problem” and while I often disagree with anarcho-capitalists, I found myself enjoying the show quite a bit.

On the episode I referred to above, Smith railed against the minimum wage in general, but the “Fight for 15” in particular. In case you are unaware, the “Fight for 15” refers to the movement for a $15/hr minimum wage across the United States.

In breaking down the subject, Smith talked about the Gas Digital Network, which is the network that carries his podcasts. Smith talked about the owners of the network – comedian Luis J Gomez and Ralph Sutton – and how they put everything on the line trying to make the network a success. They worked like lunatics, invested most of their savings, and attempted to build something from scratch. They did this knowing it might take months or years to make any money, that is, if the business didn’t go belly-up altogether like most start-up ventures do.

Then, they went out and hired people, knowing those people were guaranteed to make money while they may not see a dime for who knows how long, if ever.

Smith then said that after all of that, people think they have a right to dictate to Gomez and Sutton that they pay a certain wage, even though these people took none of the risk, didn’t put in any of the work, and invested nothing of their own.

He went on to say that if these people wanted to guarantee others a wage of $15/hr, they should start their own business and pay whatever wages they wanted. But until then, all they would be doing is pricing potential employees out of the market by artificially raising wages that many business will not and cannot pay.

As I said, I don’t agree with Smith on everything, but on this, he is 100% correct. As a man who came over here as an immigrant and built my business into a successful operation, I can personally attest to the fact that there were many times I thought I was going to fail and be broke. I was often the last person involved with the business to see a dime, even though I worked around the clock to try to keep things going.

And when success came for me, I had earned it with my blood, sweat, and tears.

I do my best to take care of my employees financially, but there have been times when I could barely afford to pay the bills let alone pay $15/hr. Not to mention the fact that the labor certain jobs require simply is not worth $15/hr to me.

If I were to pay everybody a minimum of $15/hr, it would mean I would be forced to make due with fewer employees or pay some who make more than that less to make up the difference. Everybody would be equal, but some who would deserve more than $15 wouldn’t get it and many others would be unemployed altogether.

And this shouldn’t be a one-size fits all solution, anyway. Even if you want to argue for a minimum wage, it really should be from state to state or city to city. You could make a case for a $15/hr minimum wage in NYC or LA if you wanted to, but in Binghamton, NY or Charleston, SC? There’s simply no way most businesses in areas like that could afford to pay all of their workers $15/hr. You’d see a lot of robots at McDonald’s and a lot of low-skilled workers without jobs.

Believe me, I wish everybody could earn a zillion dollars and everybody was wealthy. But that just isn’t reality. When it comes to issues like this, sometimes we have to take a step back and think with our heads rather than our hearts.

Even if we wish we didn’t have to.