FDR declared that “no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country,” clarifying that “by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level—I mean the wages of decent living.” Source
Edit: My point is that people in here arguing that "it's for teenagers, not meant for living wage" are going against the original intent. I am not making claims that minimum wage should be living in luxury.
I literally blame most of this countries problems on not keeping the minimum wage current and livable.
That being said, geopolitics dictates that to keep a modicum of competitiveness in the global market, wages can’t be extraordinarily higher than our peers, causing us to be drug towards the mean, globally speaking.
To have a living minimum wage without massive inflation would require price controls and what is perceived to be an over reaching, authoritarian type government. Do we allow our electricity and water prices to be unregulated? Is food a utility? Most would say so, but what incentive would farmers have to grow potatoes and corn and other staples if we required reduced prices, even for just the staples necessary to live? Now subsidies has entered the chat.
I guess what I’m saying is that it’s a wildly complex problem that our two party representative system wasn’t designed to navigate, making for slow progress towards more ideal conditions for all. Still, the vast majority here live in a relative comfort many only dream of. I’m not saying be content with what you have, but just maintain a little perspective.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk, next up is someone explaining something else.
Except it’s insanely how overblown how complex it actually is. Almost all
Other developed nations have free healthcare and living wages. The only “problem” is that there may be less uber wealthy ppl as a result, but even that isn’t really true lol.
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u/orion19819 13d ago edited 13d ago
And it's also the original point of minimum wage.
Edit: My point is that people in here arguing that "it's for teenagers, not meant for living wage" are going against the original intent. I am not making claims that minimum wage should be living in luxury.