system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: We can't blame companies for relying on the government to "subsidize wages" of employees.

I believe that it is incorrect to say that companies are wrong to have the government "subsidize wages" of their employees.  

For starters, I believe that it is incorrect to call it a subsidy.  A subsidy would be a company receiving money from the government in order to pay their employees. That is not the case here.  People are simply receiving welfare when they can't make ends meet.

A company's purpose is to turn a profit. A company like Wal Mart does that by offering the lowest possible price for their goods.  If they do not keep labor costs as low as possible, they will not be able to offer the lowest price. Someone else would come in and undercut them in price and steal their business.

Therefore, I believe that we live in a society where the problem isn't that these companies are so evil that they don't want to give employees a living wage, but they are unable to do so and we instead must rely on the government to ensure people are paid a reasonable wage across the board.
gpt
Is your argument that we can't blame people for acting in self-interest, so we should just let them act indiscriminately in their self-interest? Because, sure you can't blame people for acting in their self-interest but when you see a system where someone acting in their self-interest is harming others, it makes sense to intervene. Of course companies will act in a way that benefits profits over labour. Paying the lowest wages possible is easier when you can expect government to fill in the cracks. The obvious solution is to raise the minimum wage so that this becomes a non-issue. Whether companies are at blame is a non-issue when we can legislate a solution to an obvious problem.