Quote Originally Posted by JBMcB View Post
Isn't this kinda asked and answered? If you push up the cost of labor above what the labor market can bear, then you encourage better efficiency and more mechanization. If minimum wage, or a union, pushes wages at McDonalds up to $20 or whatever, you'll be walking into a McDonalds staffed by two people, with a big machine spitting out bags of food in the back. It'll be great news for those two people working the counter, not so great for the dozen of other people without a job.
If we get to the point where virtually all jobs have been mechanized out of existence and we can enjoy a high standard of living without having to work for it, I think that's a pretty good problem to have. Then all we need to do is figure out how to stop a handful of elites from sucking up all the wealth.

Until we get to that point, there will be workers of some description, and those workers will be better off with collective bargaining rights than without them.