You see, the libertarian model – which is based largely on the work of Adam Smith – is that employees sell their labor to employers. Lacking capital, this is the only means by which many of them can avoid homelessness and starvation. It is, in short, a buyer/seller relationship, the way that we might conceive of the sale of a commodity or the purchase of necessary supplies. The logic goes that employing a waiter is the same kind of deal as buying a bottle of floor cleaner for that same waiter to use after close to mop up after the day’s business.

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