This Friday I will be teaching a class of High School seniors about the wage, labor, and employment. Before I begin to teach about those topics directly, I would like to, through Socratic questioning, have the class arrive that the purpose of the law is to prevent injustice against life, liberty, and property (Bastiat).
Then after drawing this conclusion, I want to discuss the rights to fruits of labor, and why minimum wage is a confiscation of property, deprevation of liberty, which leads to a less free life. Any related ideas?
What should my line of questioning be? I have 50 minutes.
Your fellow Austrian -Mark
Although I can't contribute very much, here's one article related to your plan. I hope it gives you some insipiration.
http://www.mises.org/story/2207
Here is what I have so far:
i. Murder
ii. Why is this a crime?
1. It confiscates Life
a. But cant someone want their life taken away?
i. It confiscates life against their will.
i. Slavery/kidnapping?
1. Is slavery a crime?
a. Why..
i. It is theft!
ii. What does it take from the slave?
1. Freedom -
a. What is another name for freedom?
b. ….liberty
i. Theft
1. Why is it illegal to steal property?
a. Because you had to work for it
b. Because its yours
c. Because you paid for it
2. What do you have to do to obtain property legally?
a. Pay for it
i. Right – where did you get the money to pay for it?
1. Job, investment
ii. Why did I pay for this property, couldn’t I have held on to my dollars and bought something else?
1. I would be better off buying the item with my dollars.
2. What do we call it when two countries pay for the goods of another country?
3. TRADE
b. So, What did I have to do with my dollars to obtain my property?
i. Trade
ii. What do my dollars represent?
1. Work, jobs, invesements
c. What determines how much money someone makes? Wait for other answers…
i. How many hours are in the day?
ii. 24
iii. And how many hours can you work per day?
iv. …
v. So I will ask again, what determines how much someone can make in a day?
vi. TIME
vii. So what can we say you had to exchange to earn money to trade for property?
viii. TIME
ix. So I had to sacrifice time to get my property
d. How much time does a dead person have to earn money/property
e. How much time does a slave have to earn money or propertly?
f. So, what can we say are two requirements to be able to obtain property?
g. Are those the only requirements?
i. By not infringing on someone else’s life, liberty, or property.
ii. How does the law prevent this from happening?
i. Injustice
i. The purpose of law is to protect life, liberty, property?
ii. The purpose of law is to prevent injustice, injustice defined as the encroachment of life, liberty, and property.
i. There will probably be silence…
ii. Who drives a car in here?
iii. When you are pulled over by the state, what do they ask to see?
1. What does registration prove?
a. Ownership
That's an impressive bit of preparation. As an aside, have you ever tried Mind Mapping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map) for this sort of thing? A big whiteboard with the central theme written in the middle is a good starting point for a class discussion.