PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Living Wage
Sending The Living Wage To Its Death
“Gordon Campbell, of Scoop fame, in his article titled ‘Bringing the Living Wage to Life (How to create a legal
mechanism to promote social justice)’ shows how bereft New Zealand is of good, insightful journalism,” said Peter
Osborne, the Libertarianz spokesman for Social Welfare today.
“Along with most of our traditional sources of information, he has taken the left wing approach and ignores the causes
of why wages are barely able to keep up with the cost of living. Rather he reasons that wealth redistribution is the
answer. As is typical of left wing thinking, the only tool he has in his box is a gun. With their uncanny ability to
pervert virtue, the left are able to dress-up force and coercion as fairness under the guise of social justice. The
truth remains that the journey to their utopia can only be achieved by using force on other groups through law. It is
not difficult to imagine how things will end.”
Mr Osborne continues, “Mr Campbell ignores the fact that employment law has caused many would be employers to think
twice about employing anyone, as a bad choice can become a very painful and costly situation to repair. He ignores the
additional costs imposed by compliance through excessive workplace regulations that put added strain on production. He
ignores the fact that the constant piling of compliance, taxes, levies and disproportionate wages mean that products are
far more expensive than they need be once they hit the shelf. Therefore those on low wages can ill afford the
essentials.”
In conclusion Osborne says, “Libertarians are neither left nor right. We understand that when force is initiated, for
whatever reason and to whatever end, the outcome will always bring with it unintended consequences, injustice and
ultimately misery. The libertarian approach is to remove the shackles and to take away the gun of compulsion. For
governments to employ force and coercion as a tool to engineer society is a disgrace. For the rest of us to defend and
often demand such tactics displays an unhealthy and slanted outlook on life and the people around us. This is
understandable however given that our traditional sources of information have picked up where our government factory
schools have left off.”
Libertarianz: More Freedom, Less Government
ENDS