Wow...even with $1.15 min wage, it was double the average rent. Now? the avg min wage doesn't even cover rent at all...
Discussion
Any form of "labor" is worth very little now. Initiative, risk taking and entrepreneurship are what the market rewards. You go with the times or perish. Only losers whine & blame someone else.
Too bad that labor is still involving the time, body, skill & energy from human beings... since it's being perceived to be worth so little, yet it requires, ahem... demands so much.
Yes simply "being human" doesn't get you very far these days. You have to be that special human.
Western societies last centuries were an exception in that you could do well enough but "just showing up" but it was an exceptional time and place and now it's just back to normal.
It's the normal and always has been for most human most everywhere, just visit any 3rd world country where you meet a lot "just being humans" barely scraping by. It's the default.