Its more like:

“How much could a banana cost? Ten Dollars?”

They have no idea about the average person’s life, and probably don’t care either way

My grandmother died in a car accident in the early 70s. My mother still has her purse. In it, there is a receipt for her last rent payment (for a house, not an apartment) which was something ridiculously small, around $35. This was rural Tennessee.

I’ll flip this around a bit and make a less exaggerated version:

Half the problem is that many politicians were born in like 1960 and still think that necessary spending only consists of rent and groceries.

The society we’ve built since then requires much more. Without a smartphone you can barely be a functioning member of society sometimes. Lots of places you have to own a car and pay for gas to get anywhere. The list goes on.

And what about social needs? There is no neighborhood bar to go and chill without spending money. There are fewer and fewer places where you can go and exist for free anymore. Capitalism and especially neoliberalism has robbed us of third places.

These politicians (or their voters) may remember a time when they could exist somewhat comfortably with a low wage. That’s just become much harder, so if rent is like half of your income nowadays, that no longer means you have the other half just for leisure spending.

no it isn’t. the problem is they don’t give a shit. stop giving demons who demonstrate the demonic intents publicly the benefit of the doubt when there is no doubt. they hate you and want you to slave away for the benefit of their owners until you die of a preventable disease you couldn’t afford to get treated for.

I think wages are going to continue being a problem as long as the people who choose our pay are the same people who choose the price of goods and services. Even if raising minimum wage is frequently shown to not raise costs, business owners should not be in a position to hold us all hostage by making those threats in the first place.