“So in this view – what we might call the “Progressive” view - workers are seen as contributing little to their employers (which is why employers can so blithely fire workers).  At the same time, employers are seen as contributing enormously and philanthropically to their workers.  “Enormously” because the presumption is that the typical worker’s next-best employment option would pay him or her much less than he or she makes in the current job, and “philanthropically” because the presumption is that the worker is paid more than he or she is worth to the employer.” –Don Boudreaux, professor of economics at George Mason University, commenting on the contradictory assumptions of the progressives economic worldview