Fast-food businesses hiking prices because of higher minimum wage sound like Gordon Gekko

Conservative economists have been warning us about the dangers of raising the minimum wage for as long as I can remember, which is back to when I earned about $2.00 an hour, the federal minimum wage in 1975.

So it should be no surprise that in California, which recently raised the minimum wage for large fast-food chains to at least $20 an hour, up from $16 an hour, those restaurants are raising prices – or threatening to – and planning to increase the use of kiosks to replace counter workers (though plans for such automation were likely already in place).

I remember when it was commonplace to hear arguments for abolishing the minimum wage. Let the free market sort out wages and prices, went the logic. Government intervention leads to inflation and unemployment. My college economics professor made the case passionately. If you don’t like your pay, get another job, get trained, go back to school, etc. The economy works best and grows fastest when everyone is out for themselves. Sure, people will fall through the cracks. Just don’t let it be you.

I was reminded of this when I watched the first "Wall Street" movie in which Gordon Gekko, played brilliantly by Michael Douglas and not accidentally named (though spelled slightly differently) after a reptile, gives the famous “greed is good” speech to the shareholders of a company he wishes to take over and pillage. 

"Greed – for lack of a better word – is good," Gekko says. "Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms – greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge – has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed – you mark my words – will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.”

His reference to “the evolutionary spirit” seems an obvious nod, on the part of screenwriters Oliver Stone (also the film’s director) and Stanley Weiser, to the social Darwinism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a bogus theory used to justify racism and other inhumanity, a cinematic commentary on the shameless rapacity of corporate raiders during the 1980s.

How 'shareholder primacy' justifies greed

I’m afraid that “evolutionary spirit” is very much with us today: billionaires less interested in curbing climate change than preparing their personal bunkers to survive it; an airplane manufacturer that apparently has been putting profit ahead of safety; fire-arms manufacturers – and the politicians who carry their water – who seem to believe that any sale of a weapon is a good sale, even if it is to someone with mental illness or a grudge against a former spouse or co-worker, even if it results in mass slaughter; and all manner of other corporations maximizing profits regardless of the harm. 

Such cravenness is often justified by the principle of “shareholder primacy,” the belief that corporations are bound by an obligation to maximize profits for the sake of their shareholders, and those of us who own stock or mutual funds or have a public pension are the financial beneficiaries of such blind loyalty to profit. But not all of us wish to be held morally hostage by our financial futures.

Pay your workers a living wage:'Tipflation' is unfair to employees and customers

I believe there are many people, like me, with a modest share of the collective prosperity who are willing to enjoy a smaller financial return for the sake of those trying to subsist on the minimum wage in economically depressed communities. We find it outrageous that multibillion dollar corporations begrudge their workers a living wage and are willing to take it out on their own disadvantaged customers.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 34 states, territories and districts have minimum wages above $7.25 an hour. Georgia and Wyoming have a minimum below that. Five states have not adopted a state minimum: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. The federal minimum wage governs those seven states. 

What's worth more to me than my hourly wage

That economics professor of mine used to say that capitalism was human nature, that competing for resources and consolidating wealth were as natural as the flowers in spring.

I thought he made sense then, but after 32 years teaching mostly underprivileged children, I am no longer so sure.

I am paid for my work and am not shy about demanding compensation – though, like many teachers, I often do more than I am required. I don’t mind it because what I get from helping students overcome their circumstances is worth more to me than my hourly wage.

What do you need to get into college?How 'objective' assessments fail my students.

This is something over which affluent friends have expressed envy. Perhaps some of that is patronizing, but I am quite sure that the endless pursuit of wealth really is a shallow endeavor doomed to leave most people feeling rather empty.

Many smart people know this and try to balance their lives – to pursue financial stability but not at the expense of their souls.

Wouldn’t we all be better off if the laws that govern business reflected that more? 

Wouldn’t the future of humanity benefit from the most powerful corporations making a sincere commitment to the communities that make them so wealthy?

Larry Strauss, a high school English teacher in South Los Angeles since 1992, is the author of more than a dozen books, including “Students First and Other Lies: Straight Talk From a Veteran Teacher” and his new novel, "Light Man."