A free market economy is harmful to society

The first points I brought up were about minimum wage. My opponent begins by countering this by declaring that those hiring people would pay less in order to keep more money for themselves. This, however, is untrue. Many people now are more likely to do that due to the fact there's minimum wage laws in place. When there's a certain amount you're expected to pay to each employee that leaves less money to keep your business going. As a result, employers would be inclined to pay less to save more money to run their business more efficiently. Secondly, employers would be inclined to pay fair wages anyway. One advantage to a free market is that you can choose where you want to work. As a result, if you don't want the low wages you can go work at another business that offers higher wages. Businesses will continue to compete with each other to get employers by raising wages at rates that they're able to afford due to current market conditions. Minimum wage laws, on the other hand, hurt businesses in times when the economy is bad as they have less money to work with. Without such laws they can adjust accordingly. Thirdly, my opponent pointed out that the unemployment rate in Michigan is about 15%(without sourcing it so I'm not sure how accurate that information is). I will like to point out that these high unemployment rates exist due to the minimum wage laws due to factors I've mentioned before, employers can't always afford to hire as many people if they're required to pay them a certain amount. Certain countries such as Singapore(. http://en.wikipedia.org...) and South Korea(. http://en.wikipedia.org...) have market based economies and some of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. Singapore has an unemployment rate of about 3%(. https://www.cia.gov...) while South Korea has an unemployment rate of just under 4%(. https://www.cia.gov...). These are both pretty excellent rates compared to the rates in many European countries which tend to have more socialized economies. Spain, for example, has an unemployment rate of about 18%(. https://www.cia.gov...). These are just some statistics to prove that a free market is more efficient for society. The next area I addressed was welfare/social security. My opponent claims that with less social security(which means less taxes) that less people would donate to charity. This is also untrue. It has been confirmed in the United States that among the most generous states are "Red States". . http://taxprof.typepad.com... This could be a result of more liberal minded people feeling less need to donate as they probably have a mentality that the state will help them more. Another important factor, as I mentioned in the first round, could be that with less taxes people have more money to donate. With huge portions of their pay cheques being deducted for tax payment people become more concerned about finances and where they spend their money, with charity probably being on the bottom as paying their own bills would be first. With lower tax rates this isn't as big of an issue. As for people born into poor families, they have opportunities too. While it's true that those born into wealthy families often have an easier time at making a living it's not impossible for the poor. Anybody could develop a special skill and make a living that way. For example, if somebody is really good at cooking a certain dish they could spend the few dollars they would need for supplies for that. They could then cook it up and sell it for a few dollars more in order to make a profit. Eventually these funds earned build up enabling the person to better their business. They could start by buying better cooking equipment to make the food even better. More people would buy it thus more funds would be earned. Eventually, there would be a point where said person could open a restaurant. This kind of incentive and opportunity for growth doesn't exist in a socialist society. A person would especially feel good about themselves knowing all their money was earned due to their hard work rather than just being handed to them for nothing. Lastly, abuse in the welfare system was discussed. While this may not be a huge problem it does still exist. one thing that was suggested was drug testing. However, such actions require taxpayer's money to be able to afford. That would just result in even higher taxes. Also, most sane people wouldn't want to be using their own hard-earned money to support lazy bums who refuse to work. The system in itself isn't entirely fair. Thirdly, even with things such as drug testing it would be impossible to catch everybody. There are still those who abuse the system who aren't drug addicts. I'll now be handing this over to my opponent. Thank you again for responding on time and good luck in the next round!