>And a conservative would rightly respond, why is this a more fundamental
>right than my right to run my business as I choose, as long as everyone I
>associate with consents to the arrangements?
Because the worker's consent to the boss's contract is always tainted by coercion, and because the boss is extracting uncompensated value from the worker. I.e., commerce isn't the paradise of liberty, equality, and Bentham that conservatives say it is.
Doug