Nearly every time someone suggests raising the minimum wage, some ass always smugly chimes in with “Yeah, but do you want to pay $10 for a McDonald’s cheeseburger? I don’t think so.”

Which is true. Most people would not, in fact, pay $10 for a McDonald’s cheeseburger.

The thing is, this is not something I or anyone else has to ever worry about. Guess why? Because if McDonald’s charged more than anyone was actually willing to pay for a cheeseburger, no one would buy them and they wouldn’t make any money, period.

But, my friends, this is how these corporations hold us hostage.

Think about this for a second. Nike pays its mistreated and abused sweatshop workers in Indonesia about 50 cents an hour, and still rarely charges less than $100 for their sneakers. Often they’re over $300.

Diamonds are technically free, naturally occurring objects, mined by actual slaves, and I’d say diamonds–even blood diamonds–are still pretty damned expensive.

Do you think J. Crew charges less because they use sweatshops ? Have you looked a J. Crew catalog recently?