Minimum wage should be a state decision. Fifteen an hour is very different in Alabama as compared to California. But I do believe the minimum wage should be adjusted for inflation using the CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers).

annnnd to sum it all up - they don't fucking care

There is several things going on at the same time that are hard to separate. A certain amount prosperity comes with a baby boom if the economy can absorb them, the boomers are retired, dying and in general becoming a burden. There is a moral panic that has everyone looking for Nazis that for the most part don't exist. Moral panics are highly disruptive. They open up opportunities for political corruption as we saw during prohibition. Which in turn have economic effects. But it isn't just one moral panic we have multiple at the same time. The student loan crisis and a pandemic have elements of moral panic and public corruption. Changes in energy production and distribution have weakened the petrol dollar which was the way the U.S. paid for military hegemony. Illegal immigration has reached a critical mass depressing not only current wages but the ability of the working class to climb into the middle class and expand consumption. China has become a real economic competitor depressing economic growth. Wall street and the Banking industry have returned to the level of unrestrained predatory practices that lead to the great depression. Reproduce rates are low among the demographics necessary to maintain comp!ex structures forcing us to import brain power from places like India. The moral panic has reduced work ethic to an all time low. Replacing it with a justice ethos that is unworkable. Morality in general is paradoxically negatively impacted by moral panics disrupting institutions at all levels. We are still suffering a hangover from the cold war. Tremendous amounts of borrowed money has been spent on foreign wars that weakened the economy and require massive foreign aid bribes to deal with the aftermath. The infrastructure has deteriorated while money has been pumped into non productive industry such as social media. AI is just now starting to replace white collar jobs, a trend that will accelerate. The medical industry is soaking up 17 percent of GPD and has little impact on productivity as it isn't even keeping up with poor lifestyle choices. Huge amounts of resource are diverted to frivolous lawsuits. Energy prices are artificially inflated by the switch to green.

I guess I will stop there for now. We have many challenges but little will.