Well apparently in the old days you could have a decent job and have still be able to buy a car and a house. Compared to modern times people need get two or three jobs to drink water. Also minimum wage is only up by a dollar in the last 100 years. People really just can't afford things. Apparently not even the U.S, with that 21 trill debt.

Be like China, become manufacturing magnates, demand maximum effort for a minimum wage. If they revolt, just CRACK THE GOOD OL'WHIP!

I say in america they should just kill the poor. It's that simple.

Get rid of government incentives that encourage poor people to have like 12 kids

Generally speaking, I think the government should avoid trying to set the wages for the market. Instead, they should be trying to improve the economy and lower taxes, that way the free market will increase wages on its own.

Delete all boomers from existence

"Get a purge going!"

- Cell

I got a better idea let's just make everything FREE!!!!!

Nailed it.

you could make cuts to other budgets and decrease taxes, or massively improve the economy so that everyone will be fine (unlikely).

best solution imo, would be to do something even more unlikely, and get creative with a new different system altogether.

TONIGHT WE PURGE

Ship the poor to a island

inb4 tax cuts

Just print more money, duh.

People should educate themselves and learn a skill so they can get better jobs by offering something to society. Someone with no skills or knowledge to offer society should be grateful for the opportunity to earn minimum wage.

Edgy....

As odd as it may seem/sound, this issue is actually an extension of the outdated and antiquated workers' rights and anti-discrimination laws in the US; questioning the minimum wage, as to how to help the poor, is like missing a whole freshman level course before going to a sophomore level course; before we can even begin with the issue of wages, we have to address the issues associated with getting and retaining employment in the United States (e.g. if you don't have a job and can't fairly obtain one, whatever the wages are is totally irrelevant to any conversation and I think any one with commonsense knows that; it has that built in stereotype that minorities and the poor are too lazy to go out and get a job, when, if you actually go look, the reality would show that the poor are desperate for a job and tend to do desperate things for a job or income; and, that's why the criminal justice system keeps growing; however, people don't want to put two and two together like that).

Congress has a very long way, and many steps to take, in order to catch up with how the courts have generally stripped and gutting the workers rights and anti-discrimination laws; and, the issue of discrimination based on looks, even though it's the most ancient and widely dispersed form of discrimination hasn't even been touched upon (e.g. it can overlap with race discrimination, but, it's a problem when you have minorities deciding which person of a minority group to hire; or, women deciding to hire what man, even though these groups are all supposedly protected); the wage and wealth gap seemingly is a hard issue, since the commonsense approach of addressing workers' rights and anti-discrimination is somehow always overlooked; simply because there are laws there clearly doesn't mean that they are close to adequate; address these problems and I think the solutions would be very quickly understood and addressed.

Basically, most of the money that exist is dispersed to the top 1% who are always trying to figure out ways to try getting even richer; this means that the laws are protecting businesses but are very antithetical to the workers and people who are poor trying to start a business (e.g. how will someone with a minimum wage job or no job ever be able to enter into real estate, for example, if the banks require them to come up with some type of down payment?; it'll likely never happen and is intended to never happen, unless, of course, you already have wealth); hence, why lending should be 100% and provided after some sort of easily accessible certification program; if someone abuses it, then, ban them; pretty simple; but, clearly, there's something else at play, if you're really trying.

That's one reason why I think the US could also do for making the laws a bit more socialist or communist, when it comes to economics; of course, no one is suggesting swinging nearly to the other end of the economic spectrum, just somewhat more than it is right now; perhaps a little more like Canada or Britain/UK, I think, where they could move a bit more over, also, while properly channeling the direction; or, basically, as God intended wealth to be dispersed, as evidenced through the Laws of Moses and Christianity.

Well, if they're not able to live, they won't be a problem for long.

Raising wages just raises living expenses.

The way to make it is to not have children before you reach at least 25, get an education (or trade skill), and boom you are good. People expecting to get living wages for non-skilled walk-in jobs think they deserve too much. Mc Donald's is not a career unless you franchise, walmart cashier is not a career etc...

Absolve all debt.

Pay only sales tax.

Keep all of your paycheck.

After all that, we should be good for the next 100 years.

Minimum wage jobs should not be a career. But keeping your whole paycheck would help alot of folks.

"Minimum wage has only gone up a $1 in the last 100 years"? BAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAA

Actually, no, this isn't the solutions taken along; as I mentioned, your comment implies that everybody who's unemployed is unemployed because they are lazy, as there is no such thing as a walk-in job, at least from my experience (e.g. well, actually, there kind of was, when I had to work somewhere like a day labor center such as Labor Ready, just before I was hired into my career; but, this required the staff at Labor Ready being fair and sending me out somewhere; but, this only works through about one or two days as opposed to long term; at another day labor center called Labor Finders, I was discriminated at the door, which lead me to Labor Ready; my typical experience is what I faced at Labor Finders, a small shop that no one has heard about except a small group here locally who's really in the loop, as compared to Labor Ready; I did have something of a cross experience up in Kent Washington, after my career was stolen away from me, which then lead me to the area that I'm currently at now; people just can't help discriminating against people based on something, usually, looks) (e.g. with this comment, you either just simply don't know what you're talking about, which I seriously doubt, unless one of two things are true, or, you just won't give up paddling the stereotype that anyone who's unemployed is that way because they're too lazy to get a job, as a white man in the US, where you should clearly know and understand better than anyone your own structures that are designed to keep certain people poor and that you're manipulating those strings to keep certain people poor and desperate; and, those one of two things: either you're too young to understand or you're wealthy and so lack the experience necessary to understand).

Rest assured, even McDonald's and the like, such as a position at a grocery store and Walmart, are not walk-in positions (e.g. say that you're someone who has to face the challenge of being discriminated against based on looks; possibly not as big a deal among whites, but a big deal in other places). I'm not trying to pick on you, I just see you as someone who may be willing to engage in a civil exchange of ideas and solutions about this issue.

Let's have endless immigration from South America, India and Africa....that'll help!!!

Exactly what I'm talking about; he leapfrogging over hiring and retention discrimination to discussing minimum wage and poverty; you have an older white man paddling the stereotype that anyone who's unemployed is that way because they're too lazy to pick up a job; he has decades of experience that should make him know better, yet he still prefers to paddle the stereotype; one reason is that mass media gives him that attention so the stereotype can be peddled decades more to come; with all do respect, he's not presenting a solution by being willfully disingenuous about the real underlying problems.

Make college affordable. We won't though, because we avoid anything that actually works in this country.

@dshipp17: I don’t buy your overused leftist propaganda.

Which part, as updating the workers'rights and Title VII to catch up with court decisions that have gutted them have pretty much never discussed anywhere? The the Fair Pay act is the latest since the start of the Obama administrative way back in 2009; actually, there was a much lesser known update to whistleblower protection for federal employees starting in 2012, I believe, but it wasn't very comprehensive, at all, and was actually allowed to expire just recently, at the end of 2017; actually, neither of these were really adjustments to affect court decisions. No one talks about hiring and retention and the laws that could affect it.

The most logical and rational progressive way is to import more unemployed migrants and further lower the current living standards.

Get people to stop making a career out of starter jobs. Minimum wage jobs are not designed to be a career job. Hence the word, "minimum." Learn a skill and be productive to society.