Say it with me now: Fuck the family income metric!

FUCK THE FAMILY INCOME METRIC!

how many millions of single people/perpetually single people are out there? We're defining the economic health of our population by a metric that demands a dual income. So yes, 2x the typical salary is enough for a person to get by on. 2 people have to share resources to make ends meet.

For someone like myself who is perpetually and indefinitely single, working full time in a psudo-managment position, it's beyond insulting that I'm "forced" to live in people's basements or garages if I want to keep the slightest glimmer of hope of retirement... A "legitimate" apartment would cost the entirety of my income not even the sadly "typical" 3/4ths.

(don't castrate me for the management thing lol. I'm not the coffee holding office whip cracker, I'm working directly along side my team in a factory doing most of the heavy lifting so they don't need to.)

You can afford a 2 bedroom apartment now though. You just need to sleep in your car because you live 300 miles from work.

the minimum wage should be enough to afford a house...like it was for boomers.

Or put in a way that the conservatives can understand: if a person works full time for a company, the tax payers should not have to subsidize that company by supplying the necessary benefits to bridge the pay gap for basic necessities.

(Unfortunately, their leaders would easily convince them how good an idea it is to give tax dollars back to the corporations, and how it is a social good to humiliate lesser people that don’t deserve full personhood, in order to inspire them to be more valuable resources for their employers)

Average in the US for a 2 bedroom is $1317 per statista.

Triple that for a monthly income = $3951

x12 for annual = $47,412

/2080 for hourly full time = $22.79/hr

A 1 bedroom (or 2br with a $200/mo UBI) at $1100ish brings the minimum to $19ish.

A 2 bedroom but working 60hrs/week or using 50% of income on rent instead of 33% is around $15/hr.

Just trying to play around with the numbers to see what a real political proposal might look like. Feels great to meme a declaration, people start disagreeing when you start putting numbers to it.

Genuine question:

Is minimum wage being rent for a 2br/1ba actually the goal? Why?

I assume the idea is to be able to support a family and the sad logic that it often comes out "cheaper" to have one parent work and one stay at home rather than try to afford daycare.

But rent is just a drop in the bucket when you are raising a kid. Which gets back into the mess of how you can afford to have a family on minimum wage.

If the idea is just cost of living then the answer is actually a one bedroom (which would also, theoretically, help with housing shortages). If the idea is to be able to have a family then it needs to be a whole lot higher than a two bedroom (unless you work in NY and commute from one of the last remaining cheap parts of Jersey, I guess?).

You didn't stutter but I'm not sure you understand cost of living differences.

Either raise the minimum wage or restrict rents to meet it.

A two bedroom for minimum wage?! Hmmm suppose that's only ridiculous if you think that little should not be allowed to live inside and ALSO eat for working at what should be a living wage

That's not how supply and demand works. If you raise minimum wage so that it can pay for a two bedroom apartment, then demand for two bedroom apartments will skyrocket pushing the price put of range once more. The only way to do this is to couple the wage increase with artificial availability by creating rent controlled, minimum wage housing.

I live in the "Greater Jackson Hole" metro area which includes two Teton counties. One in Wyoming and one in Idaho (Wydaho). Our area is full of billionaires as well as double and triple digit millionaires. You will never see a "conservative" area with more aggressive nature conservation efforts than here. Why? Because the area is paradise and the billionaires have bought all the land in order to keep it pristine (and get a nice tax break). Unfortunately, everyone tried to move here during and after lockdown and now prices are ludicrous. The thing is that the rich still need services and workers to keep that quality of life up. What was the fix? They built affordable housing for the local workforce. Some of these include store/shop spaces on the first floor for practically zero rent as long as your business is helpful to the community or raises the quality of life. So many artisinal bakeries, coffee shops, yoga/Pilate's studios, high end dog supplies and grooming, cultural artifact shops, etc. Seriously, the entire population of the area is roughly about 30k and I have access to more top tier coffee shops here than I did in the infamously hipster Austin, Texas.

If you ever want to know what systems will be effective, just look at what the mega-rich do for their own self-interest.

EDIT: During the early days of the lockdown, private jets were flying in with medical equipment (respirators) and supplies for the entire community. A billionaire couple donated some of the first COVID-19 blood test machines in the nation. If you tell me that in five years this area will have government subsidized living wages and free healthcare for all, I will believe you...as long as the program is tied to local service industry employment because the mega-rich won't do anything unless it benefits them somehow.

No certain I agree 2 bedroom for minimum, but definitely getting a single bedroom or studio near where they work makes a whole lot of sense.

I know you guys are talking about the US and some things work differently over there, but why should a minimum wage cover more than... the minimum? Want more, do more.

The cost of a 2 bedroom apartment always costs what someone working for minimum wage makes plus $100. Why? Because landlords don't want people making minimum wage living at their apartments - never mind the (perceived)increased maintenance and crime - people working minimum wage are people that don't have income security and more likely to miss payments or need to be evicted.

If you raise minimum wage, the price of rent just goes up. Now that isn't a argument against raising it more that an argument against renting and an argument for housing reform, but that is a whole different post.