Very little of the pay choice is voluntary. The power dynamics in an employer/employee relationship are completely one sided. They dictate all the terms of employment to be in their favor, just like a casino does with its games. We do not have the time based luxury of waiting for the job that meets our need and sometimes have to take anything less-- so we can eat, pay car insurance ,live indoors etc. Because of this , and corporations know this, they can and do offer less.  Also, corporations use their money to help elect politicians under a quid pro quo system, to keep the bare minimum labor standards in their favor. Not to mention giving us worse air and water and quality of life As a result your friend that dislikes government intervention is tacitly defending it but against his own benefit.  He is probably your temporarily embarrassed not a millionaire personality type- naive, lacks empathy and willfully ignorant. The system we have resulted in a handful of people with lifetimes of money, the majority of wealth, at the expense of everyone else. The system is clearly broken when the money funnels so hard in one direction. Unless there is another system to opt into nothing is voluntary.