I feel like a good shorthand for a lot of economics arguments is "if you want people to work minimum wage jobs in your city, you need to allow minimum wage apartments for them to live in."

"These jobs are just for teenagers on the weekends." Okay, so you'll use minimum wage services only on the weekends and after school. No McDonald's or Starbucks on your lunch break.

"They can get a roommate." For a one bedroom? A roommate for a one bedroom? Or a studio? Do you have a roommate to get a middle-wage apartment for your middle-wage job? No? Why should they?

"They can live farther from city center and just commute." Are there ways for them to commute that don't equate to that rent? Living in an outer borough might work in NYC, where public transport is a flat rate, but a city in Texas requires a car. Does the money saved in rent equal the money spent on the car loan, the insurance, the gas? Remember, if you want people to take the bus or a bike, the bus needs to be reliable and the bike lanes survivable.

If you want minimum wage workers to be around for you to rely on, then those minimum wage workers need a place to stay.

You either raise the minimum wage, or you drop the rent. There's only so long you can keep rents high and wages low before your workforce leaves for cheaper pastures.

"Nobody wants to work anymore" doesn't hold water if the reason nobody applies is because the commute is impossible at the wage you provide.

Not to be a drooling socialist cuck, but if a full day's labour can't purchase three square meals, 24 hour's worth of rent and utilities, a fraction of a month's clothing budget, and a reasonable portion to be saved for when you can no longer comfortably work, what the fuck are we doing shit for

Fred Wright

When I talk about the value of work vs. the wages the worker gets, this is exactly what I’m talking about.  And today, more of that value winds up going to the shareholders than even the business owners.

So long, Solidarity Summer! Helloooooo, Fuck You Pay Me Fall!

Don’t you just love Kiss My Ass Autumn?

They should invent a job that i actually want to do

Biggest indicator of US decline: You could buy 6 BigMacs with 1 hour of minimum wage in 1980, but today you can't even buy one, despite minimum wage more than doubling.

It's over.

Fs for the USA

explaining purchasing power collapse to an american: imagine no burger

why would i like this job you say? well you see i've done some regrettable things in the past and your wage and lack of benefits seem like a fitting punishment

"I dont think teenagers flipping burgers should make more money than adults paying rent."

I know a 15 year old who is the only money earner for his household because his parents are elderly and hes the only one of them that speaks english well enough to get a job. I think he should get paid a lot, to be honest.

If someone told me $100,000 a year wasn’t enough to live on I think i’d kill them with a rock right then and there.

Not to be a drooling socialist cuck, but if a full day's labour can't purchase three square meals, 24 hour's worth of rent and utilities, a fraction of a month's clothing budget, and a reasonable portion to be saved for when you can no longer comfortably work, what the fuck are we doing shit for

people are punished for being poor in every aspect of life

For reference, the federal minimum wage would have you earning roughly on average $1,256.66 a month

It’s recommended your rent only be 30% of your total budget, so with an average monthly rent of $1,827 that would mean your average renter’s monthly income should ideally be $6,090

That would be roughly $35.13 hourly or $73,080 annually

However, the average renter’s household income is only $42,500 annually or $20.43 hourly (as of 2019 according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey)

This means either rent prices are too unsustainably high and price gouging or wages are too unsustainably low and predatory

Or both