Why we need a mandatory living wage:

[The Grand Nudger]

The problem with your statement is that people are allowed to sell at exorbitant price is because supply and demand allows them to do so.

Not supply, just demand. There is no shortage of sneakers in the world. Nor has Nike exhausted it;s productive capacity. They -could- produce even more sneakers (and they -do produce more sneakers than are actually bought, btw).

If you have a premium product or name, people are more than willing to buy at the inflated price (demand) dictated by supply.

Supply doesn;t dictate that - unless the company is actively controlling supply......which might carry legal ramifications. Price fixing.

If you have more product than you can sell, a competitor to gain market share and to lower their inventory will sell for lower price forcing prices down.

Hence payless, who pays-no-more to get their sneakers than does nike, they don't pay-less either. They get the in the same way, often from the same people. The only person for whom the price fluctuates here is the consumer.

The republicans had this fantasy that if you increase supply that it would lower prices.

Sure, because having more of something in relation to something else means that each individual unit has less value relative to that "something else". As you've noticed though, business doesn;t give a shit about that (and largely, can;t). It's in their interest to both increase the supply -and the price...as well as the number of transactions made. If they can achieve all three, they're golden. So, lets say you pay a laborer 3 bucks (so you can mass produce) and then slap a sticker of 70$ on the product (more for the next version..if people will pay more) so you can make money...and then go angling for tax breaks to ameliorate any shortfall or overproduction......effectively asking the government to buy your product without actually giving them the product they paid for.

"Why do you need these tax breaks?"
-"Well, you see, business wasn;t as good as we hoped. We made a bunch of shoes and they didn't sell at the price we were hoping for so we just wanted to know if you'd help us with that. You know this third world shithole over here -is- willing to help us with that....just so you understand the point at which our negotiations will begin. They promised to fill our factory floor with human labor daily at the effective cost of 1$ a pair in labor - no inconvenient strings like rights or human decency attached."

They're doing well.