Thinker 2, I don't believe that there is a master servant relationship. Now take the small business owner. What
protection does he/she have? Why should employees be
mollycoddled and favoured over small business operators,
who have far more to lose.

So I think that the Govt should prescribe a minimum wage,
but thats about it. The Govt should also focus on making
it easier for people to gain qualifications in whatever fields
they have aptitude.

All this nonsense about 250% loading on public holidays etc,
will simply see to it that restaurants and others won't
bother opening, so everyone loses. The Govt loses tax
revenue, the employee loses potential work and the business
owner has a business standing empty for another day, undable
to profitably provide a service to customers. I don't favour
lose lose situations by Govt regulation.

Freedom is a loose term to imply as much as possible individuals should not be constrained by the impositions of others, however there is neither absolute freedom in the laissez-faire free market approach nor in a command economy. Nor necessarily in small government (as opposed to smaller). And laws that protect freedoms also protect us from others applying their free will to harm others.

A completely unregulated market is just as despotic and open to facism as an overly-regulated market. To pretend that a free market will work like a natural environment and balance out the inequities is naive. Monopolies are not ecosystems.

All that is happening in these continually repetitive arguments is the level to which governments should go to protect liberty and how these liberties are defined.

Governments and market forces are imperfect protectors of liberty on their own, as is demonstrated by the lack of participation in the democratic process of ordinary folk compared to those who wield influence. Increasing participation in some of these processes would be the obvious approach.

Well summed up Pelican thank you,

cheers T2