I’m not arguing whether an employer needs this or that, inflation effectively raise prices and, if wages aren’t raising at the same or higher rate, you’re effectively losing purchasing power. This is the bare basics of economics 101. I understand Americans haven’t had to deal with things like hyperinflation, which makes this issue stick out like a sore thumb, but steady small inflation over a number of years has the same effect. So yeah, inflation is one factor that goes directly to wages. It’s not the only factor, but certainly one.
What I came to find out is most people are not like you (or me). I have a 20-something nephew, raised like . He’s not a bad kid, but en led, uneducated. We housed him for a year, tried to help him every way possible, including finishing high school, which he didn’t. Taught him how to apply for jobs, showed him how hard I work for what I have, etc but it was just too late. After some time he went back and started getting burger flipping jobs for the minimum, living with his brother in this ty place, coz that money sure isn’t enough to live. His mom (lol trump ) never worked a day in her life, lived off the govt checks, and when he was 19 and couldn’t get a meal ticket out of him, kicked him out of the house. His dad divorced and left when he was a teen. This is also a kid that still doesn’t know what he wants in life or what he likes. Completely foreign to me, I had a job doing what I do today by the time I was 16. He tried to sign up for the Army and they didn’t take him (bad knee).
I could give him half a million and he’ll blow it three months. Loves money, doesn’t want to work for it. Gets fired all the time once he burns out and normally is an expletive filled tirade to his manager. I’m lost how you right that ship. At some point we decided with the wife we’re going to help him if something drastic happens, but he needs to figure out how life works.
Once upon a time I thought he was an outlier, and he’s possibly in the minority, but meeting people he worked with or friends of him, there’s actually a lot more of them that it looks (or at least that I thought there was out there).
Again, would be easy to just say this is all the kids’ fault. But I know for a fact its not and we’ll be around to try to help him out, but how many more are out there like him and what happens when they don’t have help. What you do? I really don’t have an answer for this, tbh