> If the full time wage can't result in a decent living (housing, food, medical expenses, clothes, feed and clothe a kid or two, and put away a little on the side) then it clearly is too little.
I have seen this meme repeated a lot, e.g. any full time job should automatically provide for a LOT of shit that used to require 2 incomes, or a stay-at-home mom to take care of it.
Now the goalposts have moved to provide for food and housing and for "a kid or two".
Do you have any evidence that our societal productivity has advanced so far that we can simply pay this "living wage" to everyone working 2000 hours a year, regardless of their profession?
is your alternative that someone washing dishes is not entitled to have and support kids?
I would ask you - do you have evidence to show that lowering wages benefits anyone other than the employer?
Look at the Nordic countries. Paying everyone a minimum wage and creating a societal safety where education is free and everyone has access to the tools to better themselves results in staggeringly good outcomes.
While I agree with your sentiments, I must correct you in that Sweden doesn't have a minimum wage, never had! Our societal safety also isn't all that it was, but to be sure it's much stronger than the US. For the other nordic countries I can't tell, though I seem to remember that Denmark has a minimum wage and Norway doesn't. As for Finland I have no idea.
> a LOT of shit that used to require 2 incomes, or a stay-at-home mom to take care of it.
Those two scenarios are pretty different.
Let's say a stay-at-home mom makes "a kid or two" reasonable. If I look up living wage charts for my state, that would require tripling the minimum wage.
We're nowhere near that level. The "two income" level is a lot lower and we're not even close to that one either.
A single parent with one child would fit right in between those stay-at-home numbers too, so that's not a goalpost move. Single with two children takes enough money that it would require a goalpost move, but single with one child does not.
I have seen this meme repeated a lot, e.g. any full time job should automatically provide for a LOT of shit that used to require 2 incomes, or a stay-at-home mom to take care of it.
Now the goalposts have moved to provide for food and housing and for "a kid or two".
Do you have any evidence that our societal productivity has advanced so far that we can simply pay this "living wage" to everyone working 2000 hours a year, regardless of their profession?