How/When did the American people become convinced that Living Wage is a ''privilege''?

I don't know, but their main argument seems to be that these low-wage jobs are only meant for high school and college students, who supposedly don't need a living wage because they don't have many bills or responsibilities, and the jobs should be just for them to earn a little extra "spending money." And anyone who's already out of high school/college and still working those jobs is just a loser, and deserves to be making starvation wages because they're just too lazy or stupid to do anything else. Even though

  1. With the cost of college these days, high school kids need to be making more than 8-10 bucks an hour to be able to save up for any post-secondary schooling they're planning to do. Since many of them do have to pay for it themselves and don't get much if any help from their parents.

  2. College students are legally adults and not all of them are able to keep living with their parents rent-free. And again, not all of them have any help from their parents to pay for school. Once a kid is 18, their parents aren't legally obligated to financially support them or allow them to live at home, so some of these college "kids" do have a lot of responsibility, and have to pay for their own rent, food, and other basic necessities. On top of schooling.

  3. If these jobs were really only for high school and college students, then the businesses would only be open between about 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. Who would work there earlier while all the students are in school? Or late at night when they have to be sleeping to be able to get up for school the next day?

  4. It's a myth that fast food and other service industry jobs are the only ones that pay low wages. There are some jobs that require a degree or certification that still barely even pay a living wage.

/r/antiwork Thread