Not "a market like any other."

The Fear Economy - NYTimes.com

Negotiating a wage is not like negotiating a price. I don't have to buy a new car. I could make do with my old car, or buy a used car, or (if I live in a city) do without a car at all. I certainly don't have to buy an HD TV.

But I do have to have a job. That's why employers imposing their beliefs on employees is so much worse than movie producers advocating their beliefs in a movie-- you don't have to go to that movie, or any movie at all for that matter. So with the civilian labor force participation rate lower than it's been since the Nixon administration (when relatively fewer women were working) your employer can cut your wage, and you're forced to say "Thank you sir, may I have another?"

Krugman doesn't believe there is a "secret cabal" of C.E.O.s plotting to keep the economy weak, but I do. They didn't get where they are by being nice to workers, or caring how the rest of the world is doing. In fact, this is the biggest reason C.E.O.s make such lousy political leaders. They are used to running a zero sum game, not managing an economy to promote the general welfare.

A Government as Employer of Last Resort (PDF) plan takes care of this. Any worker would automatically have somewhere else to go. It might not pay as much as the MBA salary they've bamboozled their boss into paying, but it will keep them alive for a while. In fact, the best effect might be in shrinking the gap in wages between people who produce something and people who have conned their employers into believing they can't be had any cheaper thanks to that expensive piece of paper on the wall.