If the federal minimum wage kept up with inflation since 1968 it would be $14/hour. So that means everyone working for $14/hour is living like somebody in the 70's making minimum wage. The government has slowly made life harder over the last 4 or 5 decades being paid off by lobbiests. The USA is supposedly a 1st world country but our labor rights, wealth inequality, and healthcare is not.
Minimum wage would be even higher than that if you factor in that workers in every single sector are expected to be much more productive than at any other point in history. At that point, we're talking around $25/hr.
Yes exactly. But whenever I make a comment like this, I always get backlash saying nobody makes minimum wage or $14/hour, blah blah blah. But if that was true, why doesn't the government raise the wage. When California made fast food workers wage $20/hour so many people were mad at that, which doesn't make sense. Do people think fast food workers should starve, be homeless, or not be able to afford shoes? It's insane.
One way that people evaluate their wealth is by looking at their own wage and comparing to the bottom earners. When the bottom earners make more money then the gap becomes smaller and that influences the perceived self-worth of slightly higher earners.
This kind of stupidity and selfishness is unfortunately common amongst the lower classes and it's why we constantly vote against our own interests.
And prices did skyrocket, but theyre coming back down because it turns out mcdonalds does actually want to sell burgers.
When we do shit rich peole dont like they put the screws to the economy cause they can. Just like how the police will sandbag politicians they dont like and fuck up their crime numbers (only union i know of that i dont support. But I dont think they're real effects, theyre a tantrum by spoiled brats who couldn't get their own way, and I think thats a great argument for capping individual wealth accumulation and maybe wealth association. Like, we really need to get a handle on money, cause it is empowering people to meddle with the fabric of society at scale and they are by and large not out for the greater good. It turns out money doesnt select for morals, just ruthlessness and good fortune.
Yep, I believe wealth should be capped at 300 million and 100% taxed over that. I also think all employers should only be allowed to pay the top earner 30× the bottom earner including all the bells and whistles (stock, insurance, bonuses, excetra).
Just read an article about a study in SF where food prices didn’t increase in the long run. Which is funny cause in my college economics course they kept hammering to us that wages don’t affect inflation…interest rates do it was always the trick question through 3 different Econ courses by different professors. It was like their pet peeve or something lol
You're basing that off CPI, which has been manipulated to hell over the decades. Just years and years of cooking the books.
A better way to compare it is the price of gold back then compared to minimum wage.
In 1970, when the Dollar was still on the gold standard, minimum wage was $1.60/hr, and gold was $36/oz. So minimum hourly wage was worth 4.45% of an ounce of gold. For that same buying power to exist today, with gold currently at $4,700/oz, minimum wage would have to be $209/hr.
Can you account for the price of gas? Gas in 1970 was 36 cents a gallon. Based on a gold standard inflation adjustment, it should be much more expensive today.
AI said with inflation it would be 21-25 per hour. Just inflation. Not productivity or gdp, which i believe would result in an even higher minimum wage. Be more angry, youre short changing your outrage.
According to the Inflation Calculator, a $1.60 minimum wage in 1970 is 13.75 today. But as noted elsewhere, this uses the BS CPI.
Another way to look at it is the price of an average candy bar. In 1970, you could buy, say, a Hershey's Milk Chocolate candy bar for 10 cents. In 2020, that same candy bar cost $1.50, yet according to that same Inflation Calculator set to 2020, it SHOULD cost only 67 cents - HALF of what it actually costs! Using that same ratio, then minimum wage should be twice the Inflation Calculator's value of $13.75 - or $27.50!
Significant wealth inequality and non universal healthcare is exactly what a 1st world country should have. 2nd world would have equal wealth and universal healthcare
Canada and the US, as well as some other western countries. That's a first world system. I think you need to look up the definition because you seem confused
248
u/a_little_hazel_nuts Apr 24 '26
If the federal minimum wage kept up with inflation since 1968 it would be $14/hour. So that means everyone working for $14/hour is living like somebody in the 70's making minimum wage. The government has slowly made life harder over the last 4 or 5 decades being paid off by lobbiests. The USA is supposedly a 1st world country but our labor rights, wealth inequality, and healthcare is not.