Again, that's what i mean by a living wage. If costs are low, then you should have disposable income. In this scenario, wages would be proportional to productivity, cost of living, etc, etc. I'm comparing this ideal to when boomers were born. In their youth, gas was 5c a gallon. If you made 7.25/hr, what would that be in today's inflated dollars? I don't know but there was less people in poverty back then because the dollar was worth more. That's my point. Take everything we pay for today, including rent, and deflate the costs by around 90%. Also, greatly reduce, if not, eliminate taxes, especially in California, NY, Illinois, & Michigan. In the boomer's youth, life was far more affordable & America prospered. I'd rather have that form of economy is all I'm saying. If you were making 48k a year, was paying 10c a gallon, $10 for $500 of today's groceries (example), the requirement for auto insurance was taken away & then we had a law that prohibits raising costs to account for all the extra money, we'd probably be taxed down to about $45k, living off 10k a year without struggling, and have 35k a year in disposable income which could be invested [money without work] and saved for emergencies. Why would we need UBI & universal healthcare if we could force prices to stay in 1930s range on what would be a 6 figure salary today? I think my downvoters forget that in this scenario, we could control the prices of goods & services to keep them fair. All we need to do is calculate what prices & wages when America was prosperous and mimic those same conditions within reason. It would also be by ignoring politicians and big businesses that we get our way. Low costs, high enough wages, and cheap housing that leaves so much money that you don't know what to do with it; that nobody can legally come after