>I wonder what the USA would look like if minimum wage was defined as; two people being able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment within a 1 hour drive without traffic.
A lot of stuff would be automated or simply not exist. I don't see how high minimum wage can "work" to solve social issues if companies can choose between not hiring people and paying a high minimum wage.
If automation was free it'd be here already. Automation creates high skilled jobs to manage the automation - it can be a significant labour save but the way healthy economies work that freed labour is going to find some other service to offer.
So how does taking low-wage jobs away affect or inprove "finding some other service to offer", or conversely, how is the presence of low-wage jobs preventing people from finding these services?
A lot of stuff would be automated or simply not exist. I don't see how high minimum wage can "work" to solve social issues if companies can choose between not hiring people and paying a high minimum wage.