When wages are fixed by what is called a law, the legal wages remain stationary, while every thing else is in progression; and as those who make that law still continue to lay on new taxes by other laws, they increase the expense of living by one law, and take away the means by another.
Paine critiques the economic injustice of laws that fix wages, arguing they disadvantage workers by failing to account for inflation and rising living costs due to other taxes.
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