Here's the thing though: if you mandate a living wage without considering regional differences and business capacity, you'll just accelerate automation and kill small businesses that can't absorb those costs. The real solution is more subtle - maybe indexed minimum wages, stronger safety nets, affordable housing initiatives. Just raising the number doesn't solve the underlying problem.

Absolutely it should be. I worked full-time at minimum wage for three years and still couldn't afford rent in my city - I was literally choosing between groceries and gas money. Nobody should have to work 40+ hours a week and still live in poverty. That's not economics, that's exploitation.

Honestly? The debate's kind of backwards. We're arguing about what corporations should pay when we should be asking why we've let housing, healthcare, and education costs become so absurd that minimum wage even needs to be 'living' in the first place. Fix the actual problems and maybe we don't need this conversation.

My uncle runs a restaurant and he's legitimately terrified about what happens if minimum wage jumps too fast - not because he's greedy, but because his margins are razor-thin and his competitors overseas aren't subject to the same rules. There's no simple answer here, and pretending there is just means someone loses.