Comment by PaulDavisThe1st

I am specifically arguing that full time minimum wage jobs should allow you to live independently in what would currently be considered "normal". Sure, the definition of "normal" can change over time, just as the ownership and use of portable mobile computing devices or gigantic flat panel displays or cars have changed.

I also started out with a roommate when I had my first computing job, which was with a massive multinational. I could not have afforded my own apartment in Cambridge (UK), though that was caused by post-grad student debt than the salary level. I went on to rent a house with someone else until I emigrated to the US.

The fact that there are actually multiple pathways through life doesn't mean that we can't, as a society, draw up our own guidelines for what working for 40hrs a week ought to make possible, even if some people choose to (a) not work 40hrs a week (b) live differently.

Total government revenue as a percentage of GDP has been remarkably flat since the end of WWII (actually distressing to my preferred narrative in which it has declined and should not have).