[shkkmo]

You are correct that fixing housing policy is a major thing that we aren't doing to help people at the bottom. We absolutely need to put far more effort and political will into fixing this.

However, I don't think your math works out. There isn't any money in there for child care, healthcare deductibles, education, utilities, paying down debt or any of the other costs that tend to be much higher to people with less money and/or bad credit.

Edit: Your "500 a month for a decent sized appartment” seems inaccurate. Take a look at craigslist for St Louis or Omaha and you will struggle to find anything at that price point.

[b9a2cab5]

Raising wages without corresponding increase in productivity just leads to inflation, which disproportionately benefits asset holders. If everyone's wages go up, no one's wages go up, barring an increase in productivity. We are seeing that play out as we speak across the United States. CPI grossly underestimates real inflation, particularly in inelastic categories like housing, education, and healthcare. Massive improvements in technology have hidden the inflation of basic needs like food. A loaf of bread is still the same loaf of bread 20 years later so CPI doesn't adjust its price downwards even though in real terms that loaf costs much less to produce and ship in 2021 than 1980 due to technology. But the real price of land and the real cost of a skilled human's time (for housing, education and healthcare) haven't changed so we see massive inflation there, even though food prices seem like they're following CPI. In effect, the wage for unskilled workers in the 1980s was artificially propped up by the minimum wage, and now we're seeing the market reset to the true real (in an economic sense) value of their productivity as real world inflation outstrips CPI but minimum wage indexes to CPI. Meanwhile the nominal wages for skilled professionals have kept pace since their real value wasn't artificially propped up by minimum wage.

You can argue for a higher minimum wage now (say $25/h) but 10-20 years down the line you'll be back where you started. Housing, education, and healthcare will increase faster than CPI until the new equilibrium is reached and the minimum wage represents the true real value of the productivity of an unskilled job. The real solution is to automate all of these jobs away and fund free community college for STEM majors and trade schools so that you get real productivity gains rather than more monopoly money to play with.