• Economists tell us that minimum-wage laws do not raise the pay received by low-skill laborers, but merely condemn them to unemployment, thereby increasing suffering for them and their families. Whether or not the economists are correct will be addressed later in Section 4. What should be recognized here is that altruists are usually nonplussed by such arguments. The altruist typically endorses minimum-wage increases simply because he regards them as expressive of compassion for the unfortunate. From this perspective, the real-life effects of these laws are largely irrelevant; their value consists in the caring, sympathetic consciousness from which they presumably arise.

• The altruistic orientation toward consciousness rather than reality is seen explicitly in recent fads of "consciousness-raising," in which symbols such as colored ribbons take precedence over substance. While altruists on the "left" exhort us to "visualize world peace," their "right-wing" counterparts proclaim "prayer in the schools" as the magic cure for social ills. In both cases the necessity of dealing with cause, effect, and reality is neatly evaded.     

---

Previous