Why is it the employer's responsibility to provide a living wage?

[Jackalope]

You would have me believe that somehow, when it comes to labor...people become very stupid and need the government to negotiate for them. I just don't accept that.......people are pretty good at exchanges.

That isn't the situation at all - the issue is not one of stupidity - it is one of equity and an imbalance of power. Businesses have a large pool of potential employees to draw from, the pool of employees have a much, much smaller pool of employers to chose from, assuming that they have a choice to begin with.

Do you seriously think that outside the very skilled labor market that potential employees have any where near the negotiating power of employers? The employer-employee relationship is by it's very nature an inequitable one.