alt Hacker NewsThe answer is obviously that an overseer (i.e. the state) must enforce a floor to avoid a race to the bottom, because that argument implies then why not work 14 hours, 6 days a week. Like safety laws enforcing a common standard so companies are not out-competed by ditching safety measures, labour laws are also part of keeping the playing field fair in an competition economy.
Yet after 100 years of explosive technological growth we still have the labouring hours of the 1930s...
You can also curb greed with extremely high taxes at the top. We did it after the Great Depression, top marginal tax rate was something like 90% over 10 mm per annum.
The result was that business owners invested in their workers and long term health of their business so it would continue to give them 10 mm per year instead of trying to cash everything out every 1/4.