comment: >
  
  This just makes too much sense. I have a friend that’s a landlord, their words exactly, “it’s not my problem that people can’t afford my rent…” This is the country we live in…
context: What do you expect? We've been relying on the good will of the bosses, and the integrity of the crooked politicians they lobby, to achieve better rights as workers. 
  American workers need to learn: If you want something good, you need to take it. Organize, fight dirty, be as vicious as your enemy. 
  We're battling people who see us as chattel, but there's only a few of them and a near-limitless number of us. Crush them. >
  
  Americans need to stop seeing Unions as a dirty word. 
  Thats the only way you get treated better. >
  
  One of the biggest coups of the 1980’s was the demonization of the unions. The people who lapped that poisonous rhetoric up ruined this nation >
  
  $15USD in 2012 would now be $19.45USD. >
  
  I was literally about to comment it should be $20 now. This is ridiculous. Longest stretch without a raise ever. >
  
  I remember in 2008 when I was working my first job and my wage raised with the minimum wage from $6.50 to $7.25… >
  
  Ooh, did your employer also make a big deal of it and pretend like they were doing you a favor by giving you the legally required raise? >
  
  Does a bear shit in the woods?  Does the Earth go around the sun?  Is Trump corrupt asf? >
  
  Does the pope shit in the communion wine? >
  
  And meanwhile ten years of inflation has made $15 comically inadequate. >
  
  Which is why targeting a number is kinda dumb. Most developed countries have their minimum wage tied to an economic indicator or two so that it automatically goes up over time. >
  
  The indicator was based on productivity growth. From its inception in 1938 to 1968, the minimum wage rose based on that indicator. If the same was true today, minimum wage would be around 24 dollars an hour or 48,000 dollars a year. >
  
  I feel like advances in technology have probably played a major role in the productivity increase. In 1978 it took a full department weeks to send out a few thousand pieces of mail. Now a single unskilled employee can send 10 million emails in under a second. Machines have also replaced much of the manual labor and made processes more efficient. >
  
  And?  In the past when asked to dig a hole no one would be paid less because they were given a shovel instead of using their hands, yet today we should be paid less because a backhoe is even more productive?
  Also, unskilled labor is a myth, there is literally no job in a where you show up day 1 and are just as good as the best in the field. >
  
  What's that got to do with the price of tea in China? He brought up worker productivity. Technology has led to a huge increase in productivity over the last 40 years. In many ways tech advantages have actually lightened our workload while making us significantly more productive. The employee sending out emails instead of mailing letters may be 100000x more productive, but that doesn't mean he's working 100000x harder. >
  
  That exact analogy still holds in the context of shovels and holes. People didn’t start getting paid less to dig a hole when shovels were invented… Technology that leads to productivity increases and wage decreases is a new and novel thing. Basically every other technology and productivity increase in history has increased wages and standard of living instead. We’re going backwards. >
  
  $15 isn't enough anymore though. Also, to be blunt, the lack of progress here is destabilizing our nation and setting us up for future pain both socially and economically. 
  Is it it any wonder why so much of the population, particularly Gen Z and the millennials, is becoming disillusioned and seeking alternate solutions other than the status quo? >
  
  Now $15 isn’t even a living wage anymore. >
  
  The irony of course is that if we had kept up with everything else we’d already be past $25/hr. Meanwhile no one in charge wants people to be able to afford to live. >
  
  You can’t argue for $25/hr minimum without arguing that all wages increase at the same rate. Unskilled labor at 25$/hr doesn’t feel right when you get payed that for skilled labor in many parts of the country. >
  
  duh >
  
  Meanwhile rent for a 1bd apartment is $2,000.00. Get that raise and still be strugglin. >
  
  I'd recommend moving from California. That is an absurd cost of rent. It isn't worth it. >
  
  The thing is people shouldn't be forced to move away from where they grew up just because its expensive.
  Honestly the best thing the government could do to lower rent costs would be to ban zoning laws or at least ban single-family zoning. This kind of zoning is keeping multi-family housing from being built in all but the most expensive of areas, which means any new housing is automatically adjusted to be high rated because of the cost to develop.
  After that, if the government went in a purposely built diverse income based housing (where some of the units are low income, medium income, high income, etc) themselves and rented it at or near cost to develop/maintain, we'd literally solve the housing problem within 20 years if they built voraciously.
  The point is to remove housing from being an investment to being a commoditiy. Housing should be something you rent and maybe splurge on if you want a nice house or apartment, but not something that takes all of your money away every month to pay for someone else's retirement.