Pete C. wrote:

Minimum wage laws are nothing more than politicians buying votes. Any
minimum wage increase results in a year or so of phony bubble in the
apparent standard of living while the market forces via inflation
re-balance the economy so that the net result is exactly the same work
to standard of living balance as before. The numbers go up in both the
wage and then cost of living, but the ratio remains the same.

It sounds like what you are really pointing out, without realizing it,
is that our economy can only function by exploiting some fraction of
the workforce: ie, paying them less than the cost of living.

If that's true, we'll have a problem as soon as the various games we
play to deny it catch up with us.