SL-Mark: Or that there are various different opinions on economics that if you do know economics you'd know.

If you feel that no minimum wage is a great idea, I disagree. It does nothing to encourage a skilled and liquid labour market. if people see they are going to get less than peanuts for a job, less than they would unemployed.. why work? the lack of such a minimum wage is a tax on the income the government gets. As such it is also exploitation. And has led to much civil unrest in the past. Which is another drain of public funds.. which, are raised on taxes.. as I'm sure you know.

I've seen (before minimum was introduced) companies staff changing rapidly, as people moved on quickly. It wasn't they didn't like the job, just they could not afford to live on the pay. The result being that new staff had to be advertised for and trained. When a decent wage was paid. People stuck at the job.

As for higher costs. Shop around.. haggle.. ebay. Labour costs are a small % of the actual retail price usually, as I'm sure you know.