If we were wildly to attempt to force them beyond it, the stone which we had forced up the hill would only fall back upon them in a diminished demand, or, what indeed is the far lesser evil, an aggravated price of all the provisions which are the result of their manual toil.
Edmund Burke: “If we were wildly to attempt to force them beyond it, the stone which we had forced up the hill would only fall back…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke warns against artificially inflating wages, suggesting it could lead to negative consequences for laborers.
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