The inability of people in this topic to discuss past a black/white scenario has prevented any fruitful development from taking place, but that's like every topic.
Apparently, there is no middle ground between paying people what they don't deserve and paying people a slave wage.
10/10 folks, keep the good work up!
So what's your idea of a middle ground?
Clearly it's just $12.75 minimum wage.
Not that anything is solved. In fact, $20 minimum wage wouldnt solve any issues.
What do you think would really happen if burger-flippers were mandated a $12.50, $15 or even $20 minimum wage? Stew on it a bit, but here's a hint: increases in minimum wage do not affect aggregate employment numbers in a statistically-relevant way, nor particularly affect the end cost to the consumer very much.
They would (and currently are) be(ing) replaced with robots who can actually get a fucking order right, reduce costs for the business owner, and increase their profit margins. Theoretically it would reduce or even stabilize prices as they're not throwing money away on labor.
Literally everybody wins.
They're being replaced regardless of their wages. Doctors, lawyers, and engineers are being replaced as well.
In a decade or two every retail, service, driving, and bullshit white collar job (e.g. secretaries, receptionists, middle managers, etc.) are going to be displaced by automation. The 45 million Americans you laughed at will grow to >100 million, there will not be enough jobs to go around to work, therefore by your logic they must "starve."
Our society can provide enough for everyone to eat and live but does not require everyone to work. Productivity per worker has increased dramatically yet inflation adjusted wages have not, they are stagnant. There is no mechanism in the free market that guarantees every human can live comfortably, there must be losers, if that is the case the system needs to be thrown out and replaced with a better one (or we will live in a society that breeds millions of criminals every year).
People will just need to pull up their bootstraps then.