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> Employers don't pay $5 per hour because they wouldn't make a profit either.

Nope, they might be able to make profit at $5 or $10/hr, but there it doesn't make sense to pay more than you have to, that's why Chinese devices are significantly cheaper than their western counterparts, they can still compete if they raise the prices but they can allocate cheap labor in china that allows them to become a strong competitor

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We're talking about African economies. Those businesses don't have margins that would allow a five times higher wage while still making profits.

Big tech companies, maybe. But even those.

Once you raise prices the demand shrinks which also leads to smaller profits. There's no free lunch. If employers could make more money by paying higher wages, they generally would.

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