> How is it not an employer subsidy? It allows employers to pay wages
> below the cost of reproduction of the working class. I suppose only a
> "misguided left" would say something like that. Except that an old
> college friend of mine who ran a public housing authority in
> California - someone with totally mainstream Dem politics - said her
> purpose was to allow employers to pay substandard wages.
Your perspective would make sense if class struggle occurred only within the limited confines of the workplace. However, I should hope we can all agree that's not the case. The logic you've expressed here could be used as easily against Social Security or single-payer health care.