Basically we're screwed either way with how the system is going. The only difference is which end game happens faster.
1) You don't increase min. wage but while inflation and of course corporate greed (we know during covid companies increased prices much more than their expenses increased because everyone was blaming covid for increases) keeps jacking prices up those folks just get more taxpayer handouts to pay for their food, gas, utils, etc. So you have people working min wage jobs but still getting taxpayer benefits to pay their bills. Plus we keep increasing the handouts and how easy they are to get/maintain so in some states, more people are just deciding to give up and live off the system.
2) You increase min. wage and get less folks working off those benefits, but forget that companies these days see employees as expenses to be minimized, not a valued resource. So they bring in automation (McD's just opened it's first automated fast food location) if they think it will save them $ to pass off to investors. So now they cut their staff, putting lots of people on unemployment and they are going to live on benefits anyway. That and of course we're raising whole generations of participation trophy kids who don't want to work, and have no coping mechanisms to deal with conflict, tough times, criticism, etc. that make horrible employees no matter what you pay them.
Handouts, benefits, whatever you want to call them, still really only benefit business owners. If you give poor people $, they still spend it on rent, food, gas, medical, electronics, student loans, credit card bills, hell even if they blow it at the bar the $$$ still ends up in the pockets of business owners. If you think it's bad now wait 10-20 years. The median retirement savings for 60+ year olds last year was under $90k. Of those retiring last year less than 30% had a pension, in another 10 years it will be less than 5%. We're going to have tons more retirees the next couple decades that have to live off the system.
Which is why the best option by far is to own your own business, hustle etc. and it's never too late to do it, but you have to do the work and make it successful. Most don't have the drive/determination to see it through since most fail multiple times before becoming successful. The entire tax code is written to reward business owners and assets instead of working wages. The rich use debt to accumulate assets, because that debt buys down their tax bills. Even if you have a really good job working for someone else, the taxes kill your take home income, especially if you are maxing out 401k. If you do have a good job, job hopping will increase your salary much faster every 2-3 years than staying at one company will. Not sure why but companies will pay more to poach employees than they ever do to reward good performers that stay loyal.
Young folks are also getting smarter, for decades people killed themselves at work with the promise of a great retirement, but now that pensions don't exist, that dream is dead for most. Kids getting out of college, or say in their first 10 years of professional work, are seeing first hand from their parents, who now likely don't have a pension, worked themselves to the bone for an employer, only to have now realized they wasted the best years of their lives working overtime, missing family stuff, not taking vacations, etc. Even if they have lots of $ in retirement they quickly realize that they don't have the energy, health, etc. to enjoy those things they did when they were younger and their kids are grown up with their own jobs/families and are too busy to spend time with them anyway. They have learned that you're much better off enjoying life more during your 30-50's than killing yourself till you are 65 hoping to do it all then.
When you look at inflation, wage stagnation, lack of retirement savings, student loans, inflation, housing prices, etc. there's almost nothing positive to look forward to in our economic outlook for the middle working class.
en.wikipedia.org
