And for the record, there's plenty to blame. Globalization, automation, predatory capitalism, government policy. I don't know what anarchist fantasy land you're from, but in the real world we live by laws that aren't written by the individual.

I don't know how old you are or how long you've been around. The argument could be made it all went downhill when Nixon visited China, or when Reagan preached trickle down economics. But IMHO you can start with Nafta really . Nafta was the beginning of the end for the average person.

And why should someone who works full time as a taxi driver not be able to make a decent living? Its a valuable service, its an important service, its a useful service.

If you are a wage earner, it is basically the market that decides what you are going to earn. Markets are basically like living breathing things. They change, they evolve, they live and they die.

100 years ago somebody just like you said "Why should somebody who works full time as a blacksmith not be able to make a decent living, it is a valuable service, its an important service, it is a useful service". And what happened next is the cobbler and the haberdasher both looked at the blacksmith and nodded their heads in agreement. And all 3 died dirt poor. And it wasn't until 40 years later Bob Dylan said "the times they are a changing"

Some jobs pay quite a bit, others do not. Some start out well and then fade away. How about all of these oilmen in the Dakota's that were making great money for the last 10 years because of the fracking boom. Now a lot of those oil rigs are shutting down. Unforuntatley nobody owes anybody anything. A lot of it is luck of the draw and your ability to accept and roll with the times.