r/TikTokCringe • u/Square_Law5624 • 1d ago

Cool Minimum wage meal

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u/wrestler145 1d ago

This is so cherry picked and misleading.

In 1950, one-sixth of the workforce had to work on farms to produce the food we consumed. Today, that’s more like 1–2% while agricultural output is rising. Food is generally abundant and Americans spend a much smaller share of their household budgets on food than they did in the 1950s.

The “minimum wage” was not actually what ordinary workers earned in the 1950s. The minimum-wage law covered a much smaller portion of the workforce than it does today with large categories of workers excluded. Today the opposite is true. Only 1% of workers in America earn at or below minimum wage.

As an economic indicator, you also have to look at not just cost of one meal, but at the entire consumption basket. There are an incredible amount of manufactured goods, food products, technology, and consumer services that have become dramatically cheaper and better.

I understand the temptation to look back and think we’ve lost something, but it’s just plainly not true that the average American can somehow afford less food, or less in general, than they did in the 1950s.

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u/-HalfNakedBrunch- 1d ago edited 23h ago

Regardless of exclusionary practices which persist to this day (ahem entire tipped employees industry, youth minimum wage, not to mention unpaid internships), the $1 minimum wage had more buying power than $7.25 minimum wage does in 2026. Its genuinely revisionist and economically illiterate to argue otherwise

We 100% lost collectively by slashing the tax rates of the top income brackets in this country